《Soul of the Warrior》
Prologue - Dreams in the Void
There was nothing. It wasn''t black. It wasn''t white. It wasn''t even blank. There was literally nothing.
Eons passed in instantaneous points of time. There was no flow of time. One moment of eternity was simply, suddenly another moment of eternity.
Then there was something. An attraction. A movement so subtle, that if there had not been absolute nothingness, it would have been impossible to perceive. The movement neither accelerated nor decelerated. The movement didn''t move in any direction. It just was.
There was something more. A whisper of an echo. A glimpse of awareness. Recollections just at the edge of perception. There was no straining to catch this glimpse. There was no thought or action. It was just there; passive.
Suddenly, a jarring crash of discordance shook all of existence. A tsunami of cataclysmic proportions shook the whisper of an echo into a ripple. Another whisper of an echo in an infinite nothingness had gently come into contact with the first. New recollections appeared at the edge of perception. This time they threatened to spill into focus, yet they still remained outside.
More crashes of dissonance turned the ripples into mighty waves, surging violently back and forth. The new motes of infinite nothingness, in turn, formed their own titanic waves. The waves swirled around each other from all directions and none simultaneously until they began to overlap. A vortex of twisted whirlpools formed as the motes overlapped with each other and became one.
A spark of true awareness came into being. A sense of self was formed. The recollections at the edge of awareness came into focus. At first there were simple concepts: I am me and I am not other. The concepts slowly got more complex until the first emotion was realized.
The Self was content. A feeling of rightness permeated the Self. Everything was as it should be. The vortex that had formed, while out of the ordinary, was nothing to be concerned with. In fact, it was that very vortex that had allowed the Self to realize itself.
Concepts and emotions slowly morphed into fuzzy images. Muted colors and shapes formed. The shapes consisted of a multitude of simple and complex patterns. Some shapes started to move around in strange, unpredictable ways. Over time these movements became more natural-looking: Of course, that shape would move that way, it''s only natural. This vague, unrealized thought did not surprise the Self and it continued to exist in contentment.
Slowly, after ages of blissfully observing these blurry shapes, new concepts emerged and beget even more concepts: People, family. A sudden realization caused the vortex to fluctuate as the blurry shapes became recognizable as people. The Self realized that he was experiencing memories of his family. A perspective of looking down at its own body, sitting atop another''s...
"What are those called?" The first articulated thought surprised the Self, almost causing it to become distracted. "Oh right! Shoulders! I''m sitting on that other person''s shoulders! That person is... is.... dad. That''s my father!"
A new emotion encompassed the Self as joy suffused its being. The perspective continued as it remembered riding (another new concept!) on its father''s shoulders. Different scenes played out of it interacting with its father. Some brought great joy and bliss, while others introduced yet more new emotions. It felt regret and anxiety at some of the scenes.
"I wish that that had never happened. I wish that I had behaved in a different way." More and more scenes played out for the Self to observe, solidifying its awareness. Scenes of its mother. Scenes of its brother. Scenes of... his life. Everything remained blurry like he was watching the memories through smoke. The people were faceless like mannequins.
With the further development of the Self into Himself, more and more memories flooded his awareness. But there was something... not quite right, anymore. Something was off. There was another father. And then another father. More families. Many more people were more indistinct than his first remembrance of his family.
"I only have 2 parents and a brother. Why do I remember all of these other people and families?" He was confused. He started looking around himself and realization dawned on him. "These are the memories of the others who collided with me and formed the vortex! But none of them have become aware like me. I have absorbed them."
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He wasn''t too concerned with the memories of the others, and with a flex of willpower, he regulated these thoughts to the periphery of his existence. He could still see them clearly, or as clear as any blurry image can be, but they were no longer taking up his focus.
New memories came and went. He found himself surrounded by many other people in a long room, everyone wearing green. Four other men, wearing the same green, but with wide-brimmed hats, covers, were running around, screaming and shouting at the other men. There were many scenes with these men, one after another. Sometimes they were doing physical exercises, sometimes they were just standing there getting screamed at, sometimes they were walking together in another shape, marching in formation. There were a lot of these scenes. Bootcamp has a profound effect on anyone.
More scenes, similar but with different men all wearing the same green, zoomed past his focus like a kaleidoscope. Until suddenly he was looking down at another man in green, bright lights were flickering in the distance, and lines of light flew overhead at impossibly quick speeds, some of which flew past very close. There were loud noises coming from the distance and snapping sounds all around, like something punching through paper at a high velocity. There was a new color on this man. The new man was being cradled in his arms, and there was red everywhere. Every moment more and more red appeared, unending. Another new concept: Blood. Death. He was filled with sorrow as the other man stopped moving. More scenes: Explosions, gunfire, blood, body parts strewn about. Combat. War.
He watched his memories of men performing acts of heroism and sacrifice. Complex and paradoxical emotions threatened to overwhelm him. Joy at being alive. Guilt at being alive. Sorrow and terror. He was just one of many, and slowly the memories showed him transitioning from being a follower to being a leader. More memories of lining up with other men in green and getting screamed at by a group of four others, though they didn''t wear the campaign covers in this new memory. When these memories finally ended, he was no longer standing as one of many in the group but was instead standing in front of the group, commanding.
Something tugged at his awareness, and there was discord again. He glanced about himself, but he couldn''t put his finger on what caused the sensation. He turned back to his memories, anticipation filling him. He had a sense that something profound was going to happen like he already knew what it was going to be before he knew what it was. And then she was there.
A young woman, in crystal clear focus. No blurry images obstructing his view. No blank faces attached to human shapes. A sweet, innocent smile. Sparkling, mischievous eyes. He didn''t even have to experience the memories with her. Everything came to him in a flash. The courtship filled with romance and love, the wedding ceremony with his brothers in arms and family in attendance. He looked down and into the gaze of his two children, one boy, and one girl. The ups and downs of marriage and raising a family. The car acci...NO! We''ll leave it here. He spent an eternity staring into her gaze, the family of four together forever in his memories.
"Wait... Something is there. I just experienced it. What was it?" He stopped all other thoughts, trying to recall something that was eluding him. It came to him, "Death. I''m dead. I''m reliving my life after death." One was supposed to be sad upon such a revelation, but there was no sadness in him. He looked at his wife and children expectantly, nothing but a smile on his face.
That feeling of discord rang through his being once again. Something was terribly wrong. He looked around once again. There were his memories, and the memories of that other self, but nothing else. What could be the cause of the disturbance?
Abject fear consumed him as he recognized what the problem was. One other set of memories. Just moments ago, there were over a dozen. He watched in horror as what appeared to be a curtain of mist encroached on his center. Everything it touched melted away into nothingness again. While the vast expanse once occupied by the others still existed, it was only him and his own memories now. The mist continued its inexorable tide towards the center of his being. Previous memories that he had just experienced disappearing and slipping away to be forgotten forever.
He looked at his wife and children with panic and unwillingness. This was his family! His memory! He was not going to lose them again! With an unknown power, he martialed his will and ripped his memory of his family from the swirling vortex. It was a jagged tear, and many of the memories of his time as a War Fighter remained tethered and went with him. He pulled his being into himself and encapsulated the memories he refused to lose within.
The curtain of mist finally reached the center of his being, and he felt it trying to tug at the last refuge of his mind, but he refused to compromise one single step, throwing every last bit of willpower he could muster into the task. Everything went dark again as he felt as if he was being sucked and pushed simultaneously into a tornado, and almost all of his being was wiped clean.
...
Almost all.
Chapter 1: Awakening
Chapter 1: Awakening
He had never been morefortable in his life. A warm embrace epassed his entire body as hezily stretched and shifted about. He was in that strange state between sleep and awake. He was vaguely aware of his environment and the fact that he was dreaming, but he wasn''t experiencing a lucid dream. He just let his thoughts wander.
He had slight recollections of existing as a mote of nothingness in an infinite void for an eternity, but despite his current situation being somewhat simr, things were vastly different. For one he could sense that he had an actual, flesh and blood body. He could somewhat wiggle his toes and fingers, and he was mildly aware of having a full body once again. This difference alone was magnitudes of levels of improvement over his previous situation. Being in a half-dream state, he wasn''t able to fully utilize his new form, and the peaceful environment soon drew him back to his inner mind.
His dreams consisted of a pretty woman and two children. He had no idea who they were, or why they would be in his dreams, but he got a vague sense of peace and happiness with them around. Every now and then, the dream would shift to startling scenes of iprehensible terror. He had no idea what was going on in those dreams, but he had the instinctual understanding of danger. In those moments, his body would tremble, and his limbs would il about. No matter how hard he tried, though, he was unable to rouse himself from his sleep, and he could only wait until the more peaceful scenery returned. Luckily these particr dreams were much less prominent.
He had no idea how long he remained in that state. He was perfectly content with remaining that way for as long as possible, despite the fear of the nightmares. But all things muste to an end. Suddenly his entire world shook around him. The vague state of half-asleep, half-awake was broken, and he became fully awake. He felt himself getting tossed and turned in his little habitat, and muffled, confusing sounds could be hearding from afar. No matter how he struggled, though, he was unable to open his eyes. There was something else there, just out of his ability to focus on that was another stark difference, but what it was eluded him.
The rough tossing and turning eventually turned into a rhythmic bouncing up and down, and despite the tempo of movement being much quicker than anything previously, the consistent motion threatened to lull him back into slumber. Something caught his eye. The difference that he couldn''t quite identify came into perfect rity, as even with his eyes closed, he could see something for the first time in so long.
At first he couldn''t quite make sense of what he was seeing. A mild blue light was blinking in the periphery of his mind''s eye vision. This simple little blue shing light was more sensation than his mind had experienced in what felt like millennia, and it briefly threatened to overwhelm him.
He was finally able, after a small struggle, to bear his full attention on to the blinking light, and it suddenly shifted, no longer blinking and filling his vision entirely. He couldn''t put into words what he was seeing and experiencing. Mainly because he couldn''t put anything into words right now. This would have been worrying if he was able to realize it should have been worrying.
The blue light transformed into a transparent box with words filling it. Despite not being able to think in words currently, and having never seen any of the characters or symbols making up the words, he could perfectly understand what it was saying as if it was written in an instinctual, universalnguage.
Akashic Record detected
Scanning...
Detected premature awareness. System Initializing...
Abnormalities detected. Scanning...
Combat initiated. Scanning temporarily halted.
Due to perfect dependence, involuntarily joined Party
Party Members: ss: Status:
(Leader) Unknown Unknown Unknown
Unknown Unknown Unknown
Due to being unable to participate, experience gained is set to 0.
Defeated opponent. Experience gained 0
Defeated opponent. Experience gained 0
....
Combat resolved. Experience gained 1000.
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 0/500
Error! No ss detected. Abnormalities detected. Scanning resumed...
He read through the messages that had obviously appeared during the event that woke him up. The blue box had stopped updating on thatst message, and as his attention shifted away from reading the messages, the blue box faded away and returned to being a little blue light in the periphery of his vision, though it no longer blinked.
He could perfectly understand what the words said, but that didn''t mean he knew what it meant. He had vivid dreams and vague memories, but he was mostly a nk te and all of the context for the memories was missing. He barely understood that there was a corrtion between the message "Combat initiated" and the terrifying dreams with the shing lights and vibrant colors of green and red.
He had every intention of contemting what he had just seen in his mind''s eye, but now that there was nothing taking up his attention, the rhythmic motions finally lulled him back to the state of half-dreaming.
He floated in the warmfort for an indeterminate amount of time. asionally he would be slightly roused due to the movements and muffled noises that would sometimes interrupt his dreams, but he was never able toe fully awake again. He was restingfortably, like he always did, when something started to bother him. Something had changed and it was drawing his awareness from the deep trance he was in. A blinking blue light finally invaded his focus and brought him once more into full wakefulness.
Scanningplete.
Order of operations: Resolve experience and Level gains.
No ss detected. Level forcibly remains at 0.
No precedent exists.
Seeking solution...
Bloodline detected. Experience siphoned to Bloodline.
New Ability Unlocked! Able to permanently siphon experience to enrich Bloodline. Experience cannot be siphoned enough to reduce Level.
Bloodline (Name: Unknown. Tier: Unknown): 1000/10,000,000 Exp
He didn''t understand the numbers involved, but from the context, he could grasp the disparity involved. This was an absolutely ludicrous amount of experience required to affect his Bloodline.
All Stats +3
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Dexterity: 3
Intelligence: 13
Magic: 18
rity: 11
Perception 9
Charisma: 3
Luck: 3
Experience and Level gains resolved.
Order of Operations: Abnormalities detected
Past Experience detected.
Premature awareness in effect. Skills are acquired. Skills are set to 0. Skill Levels will umte faster until muscle memory matches past experience
New Skills Unlocked! *English (0), *Reading {English} (0), Penmanship (0), *Mathematics {Arabic Numerals} (0), *Economics (0), Piano (0), Drawing (0), Map Making (0), Running (0), Swimming (0), Athleticism (0), Bnce (0), Acrobatics (0), Eavesdropping (1), Hiding (1), Sneaking (0), Stealth (1), *Rifles (0), Staves (0), *Bays (0), *Fencing (0), Pugilist (0), Evasion (0), Command (0), Inspire (0), *Tactics {Small Unit; Rifles} (0), *Strategy {Rifles; Combined Arms} (0), Dreams of the Past (10), Pain Resistance (0), Mental Fortitude (1)
The changes were subtle, but because of his unique situation, they were noticeable. As soon as thisst message finished, he gained a certain instinctual understanding of what each of the Skills represented. Not only that, the few Skills that actually had a number had an immediate effect. He could detect slightly more muffled soundsing from... somewhere, and he felt as if he integrated into his surrounding warmth more fluidly. Some of the memories from his vague dreams became more focused, and he was able to maintain his focus ever so slightly better. He would examine the memories some other time, as there were still more messages requiring his attention.
Past Experience resolved.
Abnormalities detected. Scanning...
Ipatible Skills detected. Modifying...
New Skills Unlocked! English (0) and Reading {English} (0) have be Linguistics (0), Mathematics {Arabic Numerals} (0) and Economics (0) have be Number Concepts (0), Rifles (0) has be Aim (0), Bays (0) has be Daggers (0), Fencing (0) has be Swords (0), Tactics {Small Unit; Rifles} (0) has be Tactics (0), Strategy {Rifles; Combined Arms} (0) has be Strategy (0).
Ipatible Skills resolved.
System Initialized.
Akashic Record (1) Skill level too low. Most functions disabled. Please reference Skill: Akashic Record (1) for more information.
With his new instincts activated, he became aware that he was able to interact with these blue boxes. He wasn''t sure what he was supposed to do, or how he was supposed to go about doing so. He kept his focus on the blue box, knowing from his previous experience that it would disappear and he would inevitably fall asleep before he could do or think about anything more.
With zero prompts, and no knowledge of what he was doing, he did the only thing he could. He zeroed his focus in on different parts of the box to try and discern anything useful. Nothing happened, though, except he became intimately familiar with what it looked like. He changed tactics and started focusing on individual words listed. He moved his focus methodically from top to bottom, and once he finally reached the bottom and his inner gaze focused on the word "System," something new finally happened.
The message box he was looking at folded up on itself and moved back to being a tiny dot in his periphery. If he didn''t go looking for it, he would never notice it without it signalling him by blinking. A new blue box popped up in his awareness.
System
Status
ss
Mana
The new box was simple, and of the new words presented, both "ss" and "Mana" were grayed out. Shifting his focus to these two words didn''t do anything, so he focused on "Status." Once again, something new popped up.
Status Name: ss: Age: Health: 40/40 Stamina: 70/70 Mana: 155 Level: 0 Experience 0/100 Physical Stats Mind Stats Strength (STR) 3 Intelligence (INT) 13 Vitality (VIT) 4 Magic (MAG) 18 Dexterity (DEX) 3 rity (CLA) 11 Charisma (CHA) 3 Perception (PER) 9 Luck (LUK) 3
Primary ss Skills: None None None None None Secondary ss Skills: None None None Tertiary ss Skills: None None
Skills Acrobatics (0), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (0), Bnce (0), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (0), Dreams of the Past (10), Eavesdropping (1), Evasion (0), Hiding (1), Inspire (0), Linguistics (0), Map Making (0), Mental Fortitude (1), Number Concepts (0), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (0), Piano (0), Pugilist (0), Running (0), Sneaking (0), Staves (0), Stealth (1), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)
This new box appeared to be a summary of all of the information he had previously seen while reading through the messages. It was all neatly packaged together in a convenient way, and if his guess was correct, could be essed at any time. He wasn''t quite ready to confirm his suspicions, though, because if he was wrong, then he would probably fall asleep before he could figure it out.
He continued with his methodical scan of this new Status page. He didn''t leave any nook or cranny from his direct, intent focus. As he scanned over thest word in his Skills section, the blue dot re-emerged on its own with a brand new message.
New Skill Unlocked! Observation (1)
He felt his ability to focus ever so slightly enhance, though there wasn''t much functionality towards this at the present moment. He instinctively understood that his current circumstances wouldn''tst forever, but he had no idea when that would be, or even how he knew that. He was confident this new skill, along with all of the others, would y a role at that time.
After he dismissed the message box back to its hiding spot, he contemted on thest message before opening his Status. His thoughts turned towards the Akashic Record, and he attempted to glean any more information from it. Nothing happened over a long period of time staring at the words. He needed to try something different. It took a mental struggle, but he eventually sent a force of will to the skill, almost like saying the word in his head, but without actually articting the word as that feat was still beyond him. Plus he didn''t know the actual words, he only had avable the instinctual, universalnguage, but it was beyond mortalprehension how to speak it.
Once he performed the mental equivalent of whispering, a new box appeared before him.
Skill: Akashic Record (1)
Tier: 6 (Unable to Level through traditional methods)
Provides more information directly through the System Interface, and asionally provides Helpful Hints
Details...
Helpful Hint: The presence of the Akashic Record and full awareness are the only reasons the System was able to be essed ahead of time. It is also why information on what the System was doing was being provided. Typically all System functions are performed without knowledge.
That was interesting. So he would have been jarred awake because of themotion no matter what, but if he didn''t have the Akashic Record, then nothing else would have happened, and he would have immediately gone back to sleep and remained that way. He used his willpower to focus on "Details."
Details The Akashic Record is formed from Ascended beings, and is made avable to those who have a connection with them. A higher Skill Level is required to ess more information. Due to being a generated Skill, unable to increase Level through traditional means.
He wasn''t entirely sure what that information meant, but he was pretty confident he wasn''t going to find out any time soon. He continued his previous observations of his Status window, but this time with the intention of delving deeper into each part that he could. It provided him with a long list of information to digest.
[Name: The name of the one using the System Interface. Set to as no name has been provided. A higher Skill Level is required.] [ss: The ss the one using the System Interface has acquired. Set to as no ss has been acquired. A higher Skill Level is required.] [Age: The age, based on the date of birth, of the one using the System Interface. Set to as there is no date of birth.]
That was interesting. He had yet to be born, which made a lot of things make more sense to him.
Health: Derivative of Vitality. A higher Skill Level is required. Stamina: Derivative of Strength and Vitality. A higher Skill Level is required. Mana: Derivative of Intelligence and Magic. A higher Skill Level is required. Level: The umtion of experience reaching certain thresholds. A higher Skill Level is required. Experience: A numerical value associated with energy. A higher Skill Level is required. Strength (STR): A numerical representation of how strong one is. A higher Skill Level is required. Vitality (VIT): A numerical representation of how healthy one is. A higher Skill Level is required. Dexterity (DEX): A numerical representation of how nimble, coordinated, and quick one is. A higher Skill Level is required. Charisma (CHA): A numerical representation of how good one appears ores across to others. A higher Skill Level is required. Intelligence (INT): A higher Skill Level is required.
Helpful Hint: INT does not necessarily represent how smart someone is, though it also doesn''t necessarily not not represent how smart someone is.
That hint wasn''t helpful at all.
Magic (MAG): A higher Skill Level is required.
Helpful Hint: Spooky action at a distance!
...
rity (CLA): A numerical representation ofputation speed. A higher Skill Level is required. Perception (PER): A numerical representation of how aware someone is. A higher Skill Level is required. Luck (LUK): You''re Lucky to have this. A higher Skill Level is required.
Helpful Hint: A low LUK Stat does not mean one is unlucky.
ss Skills: Active Skills provided by a ss that are otherwise unobtainable. A higher Skill Level is required.
He had as much of an understanding of the System as he was currently able to have without any outside instruction. One good thing about being so meticulous:
Skill Level Up! Observation (1 -> 2)
Helpful Hint: Providing a notification of a Skill Level Up is a function of the Akashic Record. One can turn this notification on and off at will.
Correction: Now he was as understanding as he was going to be able to get. He decided to not mess with the Akashic Record functionality at this time. His mind was over stressed from all of the new information he acquired, as well as the previous new bevy of Skills. He dismissed all of the blue boxes with a thought, and he let himself drift towards sleep once more. As he was drifting off, another new prompt momentarily caught his attention, and he felt his mind refresh just enough that he could read it before descending into blissful dreams.
Skill Level Up! Mental Fortitude (1 -> 2)
Something was tickling him. No, that wasn''t the right word for it. Something was making him itch. That wasn''t right either. There was something touching him, giving him a new sensation he had never personally experienced, nor dreamed about. He surfaced from his dream state, but there wasn''t anything anymore. It definitely wasn''t from the dream, the sensation had been too strange. Too alien.
He couldn''t grasp that feeling again, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe he needed to do something different again. What was the opposite of intensely searching for something? He tried to rx his mind as much as possible without falling asleep. It seemed like nothing was going to happen, as his awareness slowly started to fade, but then suddenly the sensation was back. He tried totch onto it, but it slipped through his proverbial fingers and disappeared again. He decided to be more patient next time.
Again, when his awareness started to transition into sleep, that feeling came back once again. Instead of trying to grasp ahold, mentally speaking, to the sensation, he remained rxed and simply switched his focus to the sensation. It was like a small animal, being startled at the slightest hint of movement, once again disappearing. Feeling a little frustrated, he had nothing to do but try again.
And again.
And again.
Slowly, he started getting more sensitive to the sensation, but just as he felt like he was going to make a breakthrough and discover what it was, the sensation stopped entirely. Muffled sounds could be heard once again. Apanying these sounds was the sensation of vibration. Putting two and two together, he figured that the apanying vibrations meant it was his mother talking. He could almost make out some sybles. After the conversation ended, he retracted his focus. He checked his notifications before once again drifting off.
Skill Level Up! Observation (2 -> 3) Skill Level Up! Eavesdropping (1 -> 2)
It wasn''t long before the sensation was back again. Almost no time had seemed to pass as far as he could tell. Instead of bing fully awake to wrestle with this sensation again, he instead kept his focus on himself and attempted to pay attention to the sensation indirectly from within himself. He observed how it moved in a pattern down his body. It was like waves of rings starting from the crown of his head and moving all the way down his body to the soles of his feet.
It feels like a rainbow sliding across my skin. And with that thought, a new notification popped up.
New Skill Unlocked! Sense Mana (1)
The notification brought him into wakefulness, and with the new Skill unlocked, he could maintain his awareness of the sensation. He could sense a very strong current of mana coursing all around him like it was travelling through pipes in aplex pattern. When the mana travelled through his domain inside the uterus, it was like one of the pipes had a leak, and a small, infinitesimal drop would drip down and ssh on top of his head. It didn''t do anything to him other than travel along the outer bounds of his body.
Since this mana was inside his mother, he wondered if he could ingest this small drop, too. He didn''t really know how he was going to achieve such a feat, but he decided on a course of action and decisively carried it out. When a mana drop rolled down his head, he inhaled it as it crossed his face. Inhale isn''t exactly the right word to use, but that''s basically what he did to the mana.
An explosion of energy rippled through him. He started shaking uncontrobly. It wasn''t painful or even ufortable. It was just incredibly more energy than he had ever had ess to, and he had nothing to do with it. He was more wide awake than he had ever been. Moreso even than any of his memories that were filled with adrenaline and caffeine. Granted he had a much smaller body, but still.
The intense feeling of uncontainable energy quickly fled as the mana drop seemed to melt into nothingness. As soon as it was gone, a notification popped up. Heh, got it in one this time.
[New Skill Unlocked! Mana Absorption (1)] [Exp +1] [Experience 1/100]
That was new. So far unlocking and levelling up skills didn''t provide any experience. The only experience he had obtained to date was from surviving abat situation he was entirely passive through.
So is Experience a manifestation of mana? But then where did the 1,000 Expe from during thebat?
More revtions lead to more questions. He decided to practice his Mana Absorption a few more times while he was still awake. The feeling of energy remained the same, but it became easier to handle it without his body going into mini convulsions, and when the energy was gone, he didn''te down from it, he remained at his baseline. Mental fatigue was still umting normally, however, and he eventually needed to go back to sleep.
Skill Level Up! Sense Mana (1 -> 2) Skill Level Up! Mana Absorption (1 -> 2) Skill Level Up! Mental Fortitude (2 ->3) Skill Level Up! Stealth (1 ->2) Exp +3 Experience 4/100
Thest thought that passed through his mind before dreams encroached was, Huh? Stealth? and then his awareness left him.
The cycle continued. He would sleep and dream of a past life, certain details bing more clear the more he dreamed. Sometimes he would thrash about as his dreams turned into nightmares of hellscapes filled with death and dismemberment. Many of them started out innocuous until death rained down from somewhere, often times without even being able to see who was attacking him. Then the mana woulde, and he would watch it and practice absorbing it all while listening for any sounds to pick up from the outside.
His Skills continued to increase in level, and with those increases he noticed subtle increases in their efficiency. The increases started to take longer and longer to acquire, but it was the only thing he had to do when he was awake, and it was entertaining enough in its own right. There was something about seeing a notification of a Skill levelling up after working at it that was just so satisfying. He could get addicted to the feeling.
He had absolutely no idea how long he was in his mother''s womb from when he first became aware. He didn''t know what stage of development he was at, but it felt like a significant portion of time had psed. It appeared that it was finally upon him for him to re-enter the world. There were many changes to his environment,tely. His mother seemed to be going through something, and her body was changing around him.
Gravity seemed to reverse as he found himself upside down. The pressure in the womb had significantly changed, and mana was coalescing above him, obviously under the control of his mother. He took one final look at his most recent messages while he had the chance, his heartbeat increasing as anticipation for the future filled him.
Skills Levelled Up! Sense Mana (2 -> 6)
Mana Absorption (2 -> 6)
Mental Fortitude (3 -> 4)
Stealth (2 -> 3)
Observation (3 -> 5)
Eavesdropping (2 -> 3)
Dreams of the Past (10 -> 11) Exp +16 Experience 20/100
He didn''t know how long he hung upside down, but suddenly the mana coalescing above him descended and wrapped him up in a tight cocoon. It provided protection from the great amount of pressure that descended upon him to force him towards a never before seen exit. As he passed through the birth canal, the mana that had enveloped him remained within his mother, peeling off like a glove. It set about to healing the damage in his mother caused by his passage.
Large hands grasped him and cradled his head and neck while assisting in pulling him forth. The new sensation of theck of warmth, the light, ambient air and wind, and the cacophony of noises overwhelmed his senses and his body reacted all on its own, doing the one thing that came natural to all babies. He started to wail.
Great, big screamspletely unexpected from such a tiny creature filled the room. He couldn''t even open his eyes, but he felt himself getting washed off and toweled dry, which was extremely ufortable to his sensitive skin. But he soon found himself surrounded by that familiar warmth, as arms cradled him in their embrace with "shushing" noisesing from above. He was finally able to regain a little bit of control, but gaining that control ended his tantrum, and when his tantrum was over, exhaustion set in. He got a quick glimpse at the woman who had carried him to term and birthed him, and then there was darkness. No dreams or nightmares invaded his mind, as he descended straight past half-awake, half-asleep and entered into true deep sleep for the first time.
He was alive.
Chapter 2: A Normal Family
Chapter 2: A Normal Family
Ameliynid back and rxed against the hastened together cushions. There wasn''t a lot of furnishing avable in the caravan for a woman going throughbor, so they had to cobble together whatever they could. She was almost Healed back to full strength and stamina after giving birth to her son, already. She and her husband had been filled with anxiety leading up to the delivery. It had been one of the strangest pregnancies she had ever heard of, but despite all of the signs pointing to aplicated birth, it was incredibly routine.
Not having ess to a midwife was originally a huge worry for the young couple, and they had been trying everything they could to speed up the caravan to make it to the next city, but she had gone intobor a day away from any civilization. Ironically thebor was most likely induced by the stress from worrying about not being able to make it to the next city in time.
It turned out that only having her husband to help her along was a blessing in disguise, as she could freely utilize the methods taught to her by her mother of using her mana as a conduit and lubrication, then double back to hasten the recovery process, and all the time training Pain Resistance helped a lot as well. This was amon method used by women of status who had excessive mana, but for various reasons, they had to hide that fact from those around them.
During the pregnancy, her Little One had constantly caused her trouble. Never mind the heartburn, the nausea, the mood swings, or the Braxton Hicks that every woman experiences to some varying degree. No, those symptoms were quite mild for her. Instead it had been the wild fluctuations of mana and excessive-energy-induced bouts of mania. A lot of the instances of her mana acting out urred while she was in the midst of exercising Mana Cirction and immediately after.
Mana Cirction was supposed to not only be safe for pregnancies, but was even supposedly able to help nourish the fetus. She had never heard of a situation like hers.
She looked down at the little bundle of joy that was sleeping soundly in her arms. He had screamed loud enough to wake the dead the whole time Refix was cleaning him up and swaddling him. The mixture of panic and pleading on his face was both endearing and hrious. If she hadn''t been so out of it from literally just giving birth, she would haveughed her head off at his predicament. He had acted like any tiny movement on his part would have shattered their child. He was likely right.
She looked up at her husband who was standing over them watching his newborn son sleep in his mother''s arms. He reached down and touched the top of her head in affection.
"Do you have everything you need? I need to inform the caravan master we''re good to go," he asked with a smile, never taking his eyes off his son.
"Yes, Ref, I''ll be fine. Go, go!" She shooed him away. He took onest nce as he exited the covered wagon they had appropriated for the asion. She could hear people asking questions and his voice answering that everything was fine. Being the only woman, not just the only pregnant woman, in the caravan afforded her the luxury of privacy at this time, as no man not rted was brave enough to venture into their of a birthing room.
Shortly after Ref left, the wagon started moving again, and the sounds of conversation moved away, back to the wagons and horses those people were travelling on. Ref came back in and managed to take their son into his arms without waking him, allowing her to wash the sweat, grime, and other fluids off of her. By this time, she was already back to full Health and Stamina. The wonders of mana.
After she was appropriately dressed again, she walked up to her husband, and she ced her hand on his shoulder as she leaned into him to look down at their boy together.
"Have you thought of any names, yet?" She asked. "I''m terrible ating up with names."
"I have," he replied. "I''ll let you know my thoughts soon. Don''t want to invite any unlucky karma by rushing things."
They stood inpanionable silence, just looking. Their son was... ugly. There was no other way to put it. His skin was dark, almost purple. He had no hair on his head, and his skin was all wrinkly. She didn''t care if she had just birthed a tiny mutant, though. That was her son, and she already loved him.
It had been a strange thing. Before giving birth, she intellectually understood that she was going to give birth to a new human, and he or she was going to be a new permanent part of their family, but she viewed it as kind of an abstract thing. Literally as soon as he was out, her mentality did aplete shift. That was her baby, and she loved him! There was no more abstract thoughts. She already couldn''t picture her life moving forward without him.
She eventually had to stop just looking. Her husband would be expected to take a shift guarding the convoy, as that was part of their agreement in getting a ride with them. She tidied up the space and disposed of the blood covered cloth, but she remained within the wagon. Nobody would be expecting a fully healed mother to pop out right after delivery, so she had to act the part and remain cooped up for the next couple of days. Maybe she would practice waddling. The thought made her giggle.
She took her son back from Ref, who then strapped back on his in sword in its in scabbard. Hopefully he wouldn''t have to use it again any time soon, but she was confident in his abilities if he had to.
They had been on the road for a long time, and now with the new addition in the family, it was time to finally settle down somewhere permanently. She was finally looking forward to this new phase of her life.
A familiar half-sleep, half awake state among a familiar warmth surrounded him. Despite things feeling simr, they were not the same. He was still incredibly tired all the time, but new sensations assaulted him all the time.
First there was the sound. Maybe it had been a mistake to actively level Eavesdropping, as he picked up more sounds from farther away, and they were ultimately just distracting. Then there was the light. No longer was he subsumed inplete darkness all the time. Often, even while asleep, there was still a sort of glow that permeated his inner vision during the daylight hours.
Finally there was the hunger. He never knew he could be so hungry. The first time the hunger hit him, it was like another void had opened itself up within him and it would never be filled. He cried out involuntarily. He felt himself get lifted up and soothing sounds were made towards him, but he ignored those as he sensed the source of his nourishment nearby. He opened his mouth and rooted around in front of himself until he came into contact with it, and hetched on instinctively and consumed the sweet nectar that represented life. He could hear the sounds of amused chuckling from above.
The hunger lead to yet another new sensation. He felt an incredible pressure building up inside him. He felt like he was going to pop if this pressure didn''t get released, and just as it reached a crescendo, his face scrunched up into a smile all on its own as a release valve was triggered and the pressure disappeared in sweet relief.
Now, though, he felt wet and gross on his bottom, and he couldn''t stand the way it felt. He squirmed about to try and alleviate the situation, but nothing worked. He cried out in exasperation, and that seemed to be the solution, as his mother quickly grasped the meaning, and she awkwardly removed the source of difort and changed him.
That was his life. He didn''t keep count of the times of feeding and changing, and he didn''t keep count of the days that passed by. He was peripherally aware of these things, but his purpose in life was to get some rest! Despite doing nothing for what seemed liked trillions of years, ording to the dreams, he could not seem to get enough sleep.
That was slowly changing, though. At first there was constant motion, as it seemed like his family was always going somewhere. He only ever got glimpses of an interior of what appeared to be a moving tent. Every now and then, he would catch a glimpse of a great, big, open environment, with the sky covering the world, and trees and fields interspersed along the route they were travelling on.
Eventually, the constant motion ceased, and the cloth canopy above was reced with a solid ceiling. He and his mother didn''t move from this ce for a long time, but he often awoke with his father not there, but he would always be back every night.
He was able to stay awake longer and longer over this period of time, and the state of half-asleep, half-awake hadpletely left him. He was now just awake or asleep.
In all this time, he still practiced his few skills he was able to: He would rx and focus on the sensations of mana caressing his skin, which had be much more subtle now that he was out of the womb. He would attempt to inhale motes of mana as they passed his face, but with the loss of the mana highway in the form of his mother''s meridians, it was a paltry thing that no longer yielded experience, though his skill did improve over time. He would fight against sleep each time he was awake to practice his Mental Fortitude. His instincts told him this wasn''t the most efficient method, but it was all he had at his disposal. He would strain to listen to every sounding from outside the walls of their little house or conversations his parents had when they thought he was asleep.
There was no overarching purpose or goal in training his skills. He just really liked the sense of aplishment it gave him each time a blue box appeared to tell him he had improved again. And his persistence was yielding results. Hisck of mobility was precluding him from practicing the vast majority of his skills, but that was slowly changing as well.
Skills Levelled Up!
Sense Mana (9 ->10)
Mana Absorption (7 ->8)
Mental Fortitude (4 ->5)
Observation (6 ->7)
Eavesdropping (3 ->5)
With a flick of his thoughts, he swiped the box away. He stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, as he thought about his most recent gains. He was in a little crib at the side of his parent''s bed. Itcked the warmth of his mother''s embrace, but it wasfortable enough, all things considered. He was getting intimately familiar with his little box, as well as the beams of the ceiling. Not being able to move his head around really limited the options of scenery.
There were so many more skills avable for him to practice, and if the Akashic Record could be believed, it wouldn''t be too hard at first. Getting over this hurdle of not being able to move was his first bottleneck.
He listened to his parents'' steady breathing in the bed next to him. It was currently the middle of the night. He was able to stay awake without getting fatigued much longer now, but his sleep schedule was all over the ce. He med Mental Fortitude, both the effect and the practice of it. His parents weren''t going to wake up any time soon.
He still didn''t have control over his limbs, but repeated attempts at moving them under his own cognizance was propelling him in the right direction. He sent a pulse of will down his leg, and it jerked forward, almost like a kick. He had the Pugilist Skill, granted at level 0, but that was anything but a coordinated kick. It was more a il. He paid attention to the feeling of it, and he caught of glimpse of what it should feel like to move it under control. Nothing but to keep at it.
His legs eventually got tired, so he did the same thing with his arms. He didn''t faux punch out in front of himself. More a jerk up and to the side than anything. His arm moved like a wet noodle, starting at the shoulder, bending at the elbow, and ending with his hands flicking out. He alternated between each arm, and then between the legs and arms in turn. If anyone was watching him, they would think he was just a weird baby, doing normal baby things, but in a weird way.
Eventually he got tired enough that he didn''t have the energy to continue his practice, but he could feel that he was making progress in mastering his own body. He was getting sleepy, too, so while concentrating on not letting himself fall asleep, he practiced his Sense Mana and Mana Absorption Skills. His Mana Absorption no longer gave him giddy energy, and he could barely tell that he was even absorbing any mana. If he didn''t get asional notifications that his Skill had levelled up, he would think he was just breathing intensely.
Without realizing it, like it normally happens, he fell asleep.
" my " he awoke to his mother peeking down at him, a ray of sunshine beaming from the window, and a smile on her face. She reached down and scooped him up, walking out of the bedroom into the main living area, holding him in the crook of her arm. He was getting bigger, and she would have to figure out a different way to carry him around soon. Not because she wasn''t strong enough. He had never seen her struggle to lift anything, but simply because it would be unwieldly.
He settled in as she carried him around while performing her chores. His father was already gone for the day, and she was fully dressed. Remnants of breakfast had already been put away. He noticed that she wasn''t particrly adept at cleaning things. He wasn''t sure if that was because she just wasn''t that good at it, or if it was because she refused to set him down while she did everything one-handed. Probably thetter.
The living area they found themselves in was fairly simple. A central seating area with a small table and a loom in the corner with bits and pieces of different cloths and fabrics tidied away. The entrance to the abode was set in the middle of the room, separating the living area with the small kitchte on the other side. There was a full-sized table set with 2 chairs, a counter-top area with some cupboards beneath, and a firece on the opposite wall to the living area. There was a total of four rooms attached to this central living area, presumably bedrooms, with his parent''s room being one of them. He didn''t understand why they needed so much room.
His mother kept up a litany of conversation as she alternated cooing at him and exining his small world and what she was doing in it. She eventually finished her chores, and sheid him down in a little basket by her side as she took her ce up at the loom. She worked the loom most of the day each day, and she kept the words flowing whenever he was awake.
He listened to his mother talk to him, and he started catching words that he recognized being repeated. "Your father..." was often repeated, and from context he was finally able to grasp the meaning. "Reivyn..." was another word that was repeated more than the rest of them, and he realized that it was his name.
He finally knew what his name was! He had memories of being a faceless, bodiless entity for forever, and he had been a floating baby,pletely unknown to the world, for months, but now he could move forward with a true identity.
He started wiggling around and trying to contort his facial muscles into a smile while he made "goo" noises while trying tough. His mother noticed his excitement and tickled him while repeating his name sparsed with other words, all with her own smile and happiness showing on her face.
When she turned back to the loom, he pulled up his Status to happily look it over, now that such a change had urred.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Age: 2/16 mo. Health: 50/50 Stamina: 80/80 Mana: 170 Physical Stats: Mental Stats: STR: 3 INT: 14 VIT: 5 MAG: 18 DEX: 3 CLA: 11 CHA: 3 PER: 9 LUK: 3
Skills: Acrobatics (0), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (0), Bnce (0), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (0), Dreams of the Past (11), Eavesdropping (5), Evasion (0), Hiding (1), Inspire (0), Linguistics (0), Mana Absorption (8), Map Making (0), Mental Fortitude (5), Numbers Concepts (0), Observation (7), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (0), Piano (0), Pugilist (0), Running (0), Sense Mana (10), Sneaking (0), Staves (0), Stealth (1), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)
He crawled about on all fours, trying to move as fast as he could to escape the monster. There was no escape, however. She was going to catch him. And when she did she was going to...
"Tickle, tickle, tickle!" his mother yfully caught him as he tried and failed to evade her grasping fingers. He squealed in delight, not only at the tickling sensation, but at an unexpected gain.
Skill Level Up! Evasion (0 ->1)
He had failed spectacrly to get away from his mother, but apparently the attempt counted.
It had been a little over four months since they had settled into their house. The word "home" had made it into his lexicon. In that time, he had gained the ability to make his limbs do what he wanted, and just recently he had seeded in finally mobilizing himself with the expert move known as crawling.
Reivyn''s mother eventually relented and let him catch his breath. Her little break was over, and she deposited him back into his spot next to the loom. His parents had cordoned off a section to allow him to crawl around that morning, removing the little box he had beenying in and simply putting the nkets that had lined it down on the ground so he had somewhere to rest when he got tired.
He sat there and watched his mother work for a time. He noticed that the air was steadily getting heavier. It felt like humidity, but without the humidity. The feeling coalesced around his mother, and he came to the realization that it was the ambient mana gathering towards his mother.
Suddenly, a bright sh popped in the loom, and Reivyn gasped as the gathered mana that hadn''t reached his mother seemed to burst forth. He instinctively inhaled, and he absorbed arger concentration of mana than usual.
His mother''s head whipped around at lightning speed, her gaze focused on her child. Her eyes narrowed and her brows drew down. She cocked her head and said something to him, but he didn''t quite understand her meaning, so he just looked up at her with innocent eyes. Her sight lingered on him for a moment before she gently shook her head and returned her attention to the loom.
There was something different about the piece she was working on. He couldn''t see what was different, but he could feel it.
Skills Levelled Up!
Mana Absorption (17 ->18)
Sense Mana (20 ->21)
After his mother looked away, he checked his notification and was pleasantly surprised. He had quickly reached Level 20 in Sense Mana, but it had stagnated recently. It didn''t feel like it was locked in ce at Level 20, just more like it needed a lot more work. Apparently the feat of noticing the mana shift in the fabric that his mother was working on had finally tipped him over to the next level.
He was sitting up watching his mother, and he surreptitiously made a fist in excitement. A thought entered his head, and he decisively carried it out. He threw his fists out in a one, two punch.
Skill Level Up! Pugilist (0 ->1)
When it rains it pours. Happiness nketed him, and while he was on a roll, he promptly threw out a couple more punches, these ones being ever so slightly more coordinated. But in his enthusiasm, he hadn''t paid attention to one thing... He promptly fell over onto his face.
The surprise shocked him, and he let out a startled yelp. His mother quickly abandoned her work and scooped him up tofort him. She made cooing noises at him, and when she noticed he was fine, she startedughing. Herughter was infectious, and the situation was pretty funny, so Reivyn started giggling along with his mother.
His father chose that time to walk through the door. He saw his wife and child happilyughing together, so after unbuckling his sword and cing it to the side, he joined them with a smile on his face.
"What are weughing at?" He asked.
"Your son took a tumble."
New Skill Unlocked! Haman (1)
Skill Level Up! Linguistics (0 ->1)
Reivyn was momentarily surprised, but then he started giggling even harder than before, causing his father to also give a little chuckle as he reached out and tickled his belly for a moment. This is the best day ever! Reivyn thought to himself.
The Skill Haman was obviously anguage skill, as though brief, he could understand what his parents said much more clearly than ever before. And the System just about outright told him with the levelling of his Linguistics Skill. He wasn''t aware of the context, but the name of thenguage sounded eerily simr to the word "human" from his dreams, despite the word for "human" in the Hamannguage sounding nothing like it. It was definitely something to contemte about, but preferably when he was older and better educated.
His mother set him down and he scurried off to explore things, with supervision, while his parents had their mini-reunion for the day. He finally saw an opportunity to level another Skill while his parents were slightly distracted. He got down all the way on his belly and shimmied himself under the couch in the central living space as quietly as he could. Once in position, he regted his breathing to be more shallow and waited.
"Where''s Reivyn?" His mother asked, a light lilt of worry in her voice.
"He was just right there. He couldn''t have gotten far," Refix replied to his wife. "See?" Reivyn heard his father''s nonchnt words while the couch above him was tilted aside. He looked up to see a look of reproach on his mother''s face, clearly not amused at his antics, while his father simplyughed and scooped him up before setting the couch back down.
Skill Level Up! Sneaking (0 ->1)
Reivyn had hoped to level his Hiding Skill,pletely forgetting about Sneaking, but he had failed at hiding at all from his father, apparently. Though, as a constion prize, he still got a skill level up.
Best day ever.
Another four months had passed, and Reivyn stood at the precipice of his biggest obstacle yet. He literally stood; a hand against the wall to maintain his bnce. A distance away from him, his father squatted down with his hands out.
"Come on, Reivyn. You can do it! Walk to Daddy," he said with a big grin on his face.
Reivyn scrunched up his face in concentration and ced one foot in front of the other, his hand still on the wall. With determination he let go of the wall and took an unsteady step towards his father. He ced his foot on the floor, the world threatening to tilt around him, but he managed to maintain his footing. He took another step forward, expectation filling him... and he promptly fell on his butt.
His dad chuckled as he stood up straight, wanting toe over and help his son reset himself. Reivyn ignored his father as he ced his hands on the ground, got his feet under him, and stood up without the assistance of the wall. He fell over, again, right away. Undeterred he stood up once more, and this time he kept his bnce.
Skill Level Up! Bnce (0 ->1)
The world was suddenly steady as he dismissed the notification with practiced ease. He looked at his father who had squatted back down with his arms outstretched. Heughed as he took a lumbering step towards his father. Then another one. Then another one. His pace increased with his confidence, until he was moving too fast to keep himself steady any longer, and he ended up crashing face first... into his father''s embrace.
He had done it! He had walked across the room all on his own!
Skill Level Up! Bnce (1 ->2)
Jubtion filled him as his father picked him up and twirled him around, both of them giggling like children. His father pulled him into a position where he was sitting upright on his bicep as he turned to his wife with that same goofy grin on his face. He was about to say something to Ameliyn, but with sudden inspiration, Reivyn beat him to it.
"Mommy, mommy! Did you see what I did?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, a huge gong sound shattered the tranquility. It rang in his head with an echo, and it was the loudest thing he had ever heard. It didn''t hurt his ears, though, as the sound hade from within his own head.
He shook his head, and then a notification box popped up in front of him. This one wasn''t transparent and demanded his immediate attention.
Helpful Hint: People who have the Akashic Record typically unlock their System after their first utterance of aplete sentence, as this is indicative of full awareness as deemed by the System. You''re wee in helping in your subterfuge.
Skill Level Up! Stealth (3 ->4)
There was that Stealth Skill again. He wasn''t even hiding. How did I level up Stealth?
A gentle cough brought him back to the present from his thoughts, and he dismissed the window in front of him. His father was standing there, holding him in stunned silence, and his mother was looking at him with a gentle smile on her face.
"Honey, did you just unlock your System?"
Chapter 3: Down with the System
Chapter 3: Down with the System
"System?" Reivyn asked. He looked at his mom with wondering eyes. He had learned thenguage, and even gained a few more levels in it since its acquisition, but he still couldn''t articte anythingplicated. He would just prompt his mother along the lines of any questions he had and expect her to answer them to the best of her ability.
"That''s right. Did a box pop up in front of you?"
"Mhm," he nodded in reply.
"That was the notification box (he didn''t understand the word at first, but context helped him figure it out) of the System. We have the Akashic Record, which is most likely what just notified you, so our System bes avable much earlier than most people. For everyone without the Akashic Record, the System bes avable at the age of 5 years old. Are you following along so far?"
"Yes, mommy!"
"Great," she replied with a smile and pinch of his cheek. "The System doesn''t have much function to children. The only things avable for now are looking at your Status and Skills. You should already have one or two skills, most likely Haman is one of them for you to be able to speak and listen at such a young age. Skills are acquired and improved even without the System, but you can''t look at them until it''s open. How many skills do you have, Honey?"
Reivyn quickly looked over his Skills on his Status page. He discounted all of the Skills that were Level 0, because he only had an instinctual understanding of what they were, but he didn''t actually have the Skills yet.
Skills: Acrobatics (0), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (0), Bnce (2), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (0), Dreams of the Past (11), Eavesdropping (7), Evasion (2), Haman (4), Hiding (2), Inspire (0), Linguistics (4), Mana Absorption (21), Map Making (0), Mental Fortitude (6), Numbers Concepts (0), Observation (9), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (0), Piano (0), Pugilist (6), Running (0), Sense Mana (23), Sneaking (3), Staves (0), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)
Reivyn started counting off his Skills with a level to them with his fingers. He quickly reached all of his fingers, and he didn''t know what to do. He looked down at his fingers, looked up at his box, looked down at his fingers, and then looked up at his mom for help. Ameliyn stood there in shock.
"Are you sure? Do you mean this many?" She held out one hand with all of her fingers syed out. Reivyn looked at her hand and shook his head. "So you have this many?" She held out her other hand. He looked at both of her hands and thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head again.
"No."
"Ok. You have ten fingers. Put your fingers back down, and how many more Skills do you have after that?" Reivyn seemed to understand what she was talking about, so he put his fingers down and resumed counting again. He held up one hand with all fingers syed out.
"This many."
"Ok. You have five fingers on one hand, so ten fingers plus five fingers is fifteen," she seemed a little lost as she said the ridiculous number out loud.
Skill Level Up! Numbers Concepts (0 ->1)
Reivyn saw the new notification, and he held up one more finger on his other hand. Ameliyn cocked her head at Reivyn.
"Did you count wrong?"
"No, I got a new one."
Ameliyn face-palmed. "I just... I don''t... What is happening?" She seemed to be suffering from a mild mental breakdown. Reivyn was obedient and let his mother work through her thoughts on her own in peace. His father holding him, a look of disbelief on his face, was relegated to a statue in the background. His mother finally appeared to gain control of her emotions.
"Sixteen. You have sixteen Skills! You''re not even a year old!"
"A lot?" Reivyn asked, confusion and worry on his face. Have I done something wrong?
"Yes, it''s a lot. For your age. In the grand scheme of things, it''s not much. You can expect to get a lot more Skills as you get older," she replied offhandedly. "Anyway, that''s not the point! Back on topic, what are the Skills, if you know how to say them."
"Umm... Akashic Record," Ameliyn nodded her head. Of course he had that Skill, they had just mentioned it. "Umm..." Reivyn held out his hands with the fingers syed again, and he shook them to get her to notice them.
"Counting?" Her brow was drawn down in confusion. Reivyn looked up and to the right in a cute manner as he thought about the word, and then he shook his head. "Numbers?"
"Yes!" He enthusiastically nodded his head. That wasn''t the full name of the Skill, but it was close enough.
"Hmmm... Numbers. Should be Numbers Concepts," she remarked with a questioning look. He nodded his head again. "Ok, continue, please."
"Umm... Listen from far away."
"Eavesdropping."
"Walk," Reivyn swayed his shoulders side to side as he said the word.
"Bnce?" He nodded in affirmation.
"Look."
"Observation," she supplied.
"Feel," Reivyn waved his arms towards himself, and then patted his body down to try and convey his message.
"Feel?"
"Uh huh. Everywhere. In the air," he waved his arms about in a circr motion, then brought them to himself and patted his body all over.
"Oh! Mana. Sense Mana," she eximed in surprise. Her eyebrows raised practically to the roof at this particr revtion. "Ok, that''s enough for now. We can always go over more Skillster, but for now we need to focus on this one"
Refix finally suffered too big of a shock, and this one actually, ironically brought him out of his fugue state of mind. He signalled towards the couch in the living area, and walked over to sit down across from Ameliyn, holding Reivyn sitting up in hisp.
"This is... I don''t know what to say," Refix gently shook his head as he sat there.
"I know what you mean," Ameliyn reached over and briefly touched his knee. "Ok. Regarding Sense Mana. It is very unlikely, unusual, that you would have that Skill. It is incredibly difficult to sense mana in the environment, especially when its concentration is as low as it is here. One typically needs a teacher and careful guidance for months to acquire this Skill." Reivyn got a look of panic on his face as he wondered again if he had done something wrong. Ameliyn noticed his expression and quicklyforted him. "No, no. This is a good thing! We won''t have to look for a teacher for you who specializes in helping people unlock this Skill. While I and your father both have this Skill, as well, we are not teachers and it would be hard for us to impart this Skill to you without the assistance of the Teaching Skill."
"Physical Skills are much easier for one to teach another, as most of the work is done with the body, and can easily be shown," Ref contributed. "Mind Skills are more abstract, and without an easily seen or experienced example, it''s much harder to exin, even for a master. We''ll be able to help you develop your physical Skills when you get older, and while we''ll be able to exin some of the mental Skills that we have, it will be based almost entirely on how well you understand and acquire those Skills. We can get you a tutor for the more mundane skills, but anything involving mana will require a teacher who has the Teaching Skill and the mana Skills they would impart. There is no school in our city that has such teachers, but they do exist." Ameliyn nodded along with his exnations.
"Since you have the Skill, I''m sure you''ve noticed that mana is all around us. It''s everywhere and in everything. Different concentrations of mana also vary and have different effects. Not only in the air around us, but in people and things. Animals withrge concentrations of mana are usually referred to as beasts, though domesticated animals are not. Mana is all around us, but do you know what it is?" She obviously didn''t expect Reivyn to know what it was. Most people, even experts in mana, wouldn''t tell you they knew exactly what it was. She was just prompting her son to think about it before she revealed the information she understood.
"Makes happy! Makes me go vrooooom," Reivyn wiggled his body to try and get his point across.
"Energy?" Ameliyn queried. When Reivyn excitedly nodded his head in agreement, she continued, "That''s right! Mana is a form of energy. Nobody knows exactly where ites from, or exactly what it is. There are theories, but those aren''t necessary right now. All you need to know, for now, is that mana is an inexhaustible source of energy in the world. Your mana levels inside you are based on your Stats, which you can find on your Status page. I''ll let you explore that on your own before I give you an exnation, but basically it''s determined by your INT plus MAG Stats, and then half of that. In addition to your personal mana stores, there are different ways to ess and utilize mana."
"Mmm. Eat! Breathe," Reivyn wafted his hand in front of his face. Ameliyn was once again taken aback.
"You can inhale mana?" She carefully asked.
"Mhm," Reivyn felt like his head would bobble off with all of the nodding he was doing. Ameliyn pped her hands together and smiled.
"You have the Mana Absorption Skill?" At his continued nodding, she smiled and continued, "That Skill is even more difficult to acquire. You''re just full of surprises," she chuckled. "Yes, Mana Absorption is a way of utilizing your non-personal mana stores. It has many different uses. It can replenish your depleted mana stores more quickly than passively recovering. You can get a boost of energy. You can convert it into Experience; more on thatter. But the real bread and butter of this Skill is to use it in conjunction with another Skill, Mana Cirction. You don''t happen to have that Skill, do you?" She asked with equal parts expectation that he might and conviction that he didn''t.
"No," he looked down and shook his head.
"That''s alright. I didn''t think you had even Sense Mana, much less a more advanced Skill like Mana Cirction; again, more on advanced Skillster. Anyway, where was I. Oh, yes, using Mana Absorption with Mana Cirction. Mana Cirction is taking your own mana and circting it throughout your body via your meridians. This itself has different uses that we can get intoter, but for this example it basically purifies your mana stores. Different methods of cirction have different degrees of efficiency, and Mana Absorption allows you to keep up the cirction for longer periods of time. There are many different levels of purification for mana, all the way from Muddy Gas to Clear Liquid. Higher forms of mana usage requires higher forms of purified mana, and it will take many years of constant Mana Cirction to achieve those levels, especially if your mana stores are veryrge. If one couldn''t absorb more mana while circting their stores, it would take a lifetime to achieve any level of meaningful progress."
This was a lot of information for Reivyn to take in, and now he had a goal of figuring out Mana Cirction. He remembered the Mana Highway, as he thought of it, from when he was still in the womb, and he realized that he had been observing his mother circting her mana along her meridians. If his mother didn''t have her own mana, and didn''t circte it, he never would have gained the Sense Mana and Mana Absorption Skills when he did.
"Wow, I got really sidetracked with this discussion on mana. I meant to be giving you a primer on the System," Ameliyn smacked herself in the forehead. "But this is important: While mana Skills aren''t as rare as you might think, and everyone has at least a little bit of mana, it is extremely unusual for someone your age to have these Skills. Don''t tell anyone else about it. Don''t even talk about it to anyone else. I know you spend all day with only your father and I, but that won''t always be the case. Skills, typically, are a private thing that you only share with your immediate family members, and then not always all of them. That being said, don''t feel like you need to hide anything from me or your father. We''ll be able to guide you and teach you the best if we know everything, and you can always trust us to have your best interests at heart."
Reivyn nodded with a solemn look on his face. The serious look was marred by the fact his father was bouncing him up and down on his knee.
"Ok, back to the System. There are several different pages to your System. You have the base page where you can ess the other pages, the Status page, the ss page, and the Mana page. You''ve already seen your Status page, so I''ll start there. Your Status page isn''t just for looking at the numerical representation of your status, or Stats. Once you unlock your ss at age ten, you''ll start acquiring experience. Your ss determines how you develop. Gaining Experience leads to increased Levels in your ss, and you will gain automatic Stat increases depending on the focus of your ss, and you''ll gain unassigned Stat points that you can manually ce based on the tier and rarity of your ss, which I''ll get to in a moment.
"The Mana page in your System details the methods of Mana Cirction you have learned, their level of mastery, and the purification level of your personal mana stores. We can go more in depth on this topic when its more relevant. I''ve already told you more than you really need to know at this time.
"The ss page is where you choose your ss. When it''s time to choose a ss, the different sses you have ess to, with a short description of what they are, what their focus is, and the stats allocation is, will be listed. Once you''ve selected your ss, all of the other ones will disappear, forever, but the ss you chose, because we have the Akashic Record, will have more details avable than before you selected it, and this can be essed at any time. The ss page also lists the next tier of sses you will have avable, as well as the ones you are close to unlocking. Which sses you have avable to select are based on many different things, such as life experience, skills, skill levels, stats, and previous sses. Stats will have a threshold for specific sses, while life experience is the real determining factor for the rarity of the ss.
"sses provide not just progression for you as you level and go through life, but they also have ess to ss Skills, or Active Skills. These are Skills that are not acquirable without having the ss associated with them. You can have three sses active, for ss Skills purposes, at a time: Five Skills from your Primary ss, three Skills from your Secondary ss, and two Skills from your Tertiary ss. They level up the normal way, and they level up faster than your other, regr Skills, also known as Passive Skills, but once you transition out of having that ss active or it changes from Primary to Secondary and loses an avable slot, that Skill is lost. The levels remain, though, and if you acquire another ss that has the same Active Skill, you will start off where you left off.
"Now about the tier and rarity of sses. Each ss is listed in a tier that is progressively more advanced. Tier 1 sses are avable for everyone to transition into upon reaching age ten. Pretty much nobody gets to choose their Tier 1 ss. For instance my Tier 1 ss is Viger. There are different Tier 1 sses, but you basically have to be born into them, and their differences are miniscule. The Tier 1 ss is more or less a baseline for everyone. Tier 1 sses are also unique in that, even if you don''t actively gain Experience, you will passively gain ten levels a year until you reach the max level of Tier 1 of Level 30.
"This might seem like a good thing on the surface, but for most people, it''s really not. Think about it. I said previously that life experience was the main determining factor for the rarity of their ss. How much life experience can a child of ten acquire in a three year period of time? It is a Sword of Damocles hanging over most people''s head.
"To round off the topic of Tiers, there''s no known determinate number of tiers, but the highest known tier is Tier 6. Different tiers of sses have different maximum levels, and to progress to the next tier, reaching the maximum level is required. Tier 1 has 30 levels. Tier 2 has 60 levels. Tier 3 has 90 levels, and Tier 4 has 120 levels and so on. So you can imagine how high a level a Tier 6 is.
"The different levels of rarity are pretty straightforward: You have Common, Umon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. There are rumors that there''s another level of rarity above Mythic, but even the Mythic level is unheard of, much less a higher rarity.
"Everyone''s tiers progress linearly, but not everyone has the same rarity. It goes without saying that a higher rarity ss is better than a lower rarity ss. Not only do they have ess to better, more potent ss Skills, but they also provide higher automatic Stat improvements per level and more unassigned Stat points per level. The number of unassigned Stat points is determined by the Tier plus the Rarity. So for Tier 1 Common, which is the first in rarity, that is one plus one equals two. A Tier 2 Umon ss, which is second in rarity, that is two plus two equals four. So, hypothetically, a Tier 3 Mythic ss would provide nine unassigned Stat points per level, because Mythic is the sixth rarity plus three from the Tier."
New Skill Unlocked! Mathematics (1)
Reivyn had been entranced by his mother''s careful exnation of the System, and the sudden notification brought him out of his trance-like state. He noticed that he was starting to get sleepy, but the continued bouncing on his father''s knee was helping to keep him awake. His mother noticed hispse in concentration and probably sensed that it was about time for a nap.
"Are you still with me, Honey?" His mother asked. At his confirmation, she continued, "Ok, we''re almost done with this basic exnation, so we''ll wrap things up here soon and you can goy down for a while.
"Ok, back on track. I will simplify your options for you a bit for when you''re older. Higher rarity is always better. A lower rarity ss with a powerful Active Skill will always be outstripped in the long run by the sheer difference in Stat growth given by a higher rarity. I don''t care how tempting a particr Active Skill looks. It is temporary. Stat growth is forever, and Stats determine your next tier ss, while your Active Skills will have zero effect.
"Now, gaining levels in your ss is not the only way to achieve Stat increases. Significant achievements, as deemed by the System, can grant you an increase in Stats. Where do these increasese from if not from your own hard work? The System directly esses the vast, infinite amounts of mana it has at its beck and call and infuses it into you. Another way, as I just said, is hard work. Training. You can do physically and mentally challenging activities to increase your Stats directly, but these have diminishing returns, and the Stats you gain from your levels count towards these diminishing returns. Almost everyone does at least some Stat training as a child and a low level Tier 1, but by the time you reach mid Tier 2, the gains no longer justify the effort required, and pretty soon after that, it bes literally impossible to train any Stat increases.
"Now if you''ve been paying attention and put two and two together, you would realize that many people can grow to an absurd level of Stats. While it is the case, it is somewhat normalized across the tiers, because everyone is like this. You will only encounter someone ridiculously more powerful in the same tier if they had consistent ess to higher rarity sses throughout their life.
"Your father is stronger than the average person, as he was lucky enough to acquire a Rare Tier 2 and a Rare Tier 3 ss. Yes, your father is already Tier 3," Ameliyn sounded almost exasperated at that revtion, rolling her eyes as she said it. Refix flexed the bicep of the arm not holding his son.
"Your Daddy is the greatest," Refix whispered into Reivyn''s ear while smirking at his mother.
"Yes, yes, Dear, you''re the best," Ameliyn responded lightheartedly. They had apparently had this kind of conversation many times before. "Your mother is only an Umon Tier 2, and I have a Lifestyle ss. Your father hasbat sses. Combat sses aren''t necessarily better than Lifestyle sses, depending on how you want to live your life, but in terms of survival, utility, and Stat growth, they are slightly superior to their equivalent rarity counterpoints.
"Now the final point to be covered by this discussion: Gaining Experience. There are two main methods of gaining Experience: Combat and Lifestyle. Defeating things with a level will directly grant experience, and bonus experience for resolvingbat will also be awarded. The amount of experience awarded will be determined by the System and is based on the difficulty and the person''s performance. Notice I said "defeating things," and not "killing things." Killing does grant more experience, but typically you only need to defeat your opponent for the System to award experience.
"Lifestyle Experience is gained by performing acts in sync with your ss. Forbat sses, they gain more bonusbat experience, because that is the lifestyle they have chosen. For crafters Lifestyle Experience is awarded from performing their craft. Lifestyle sses can gainbat experience at a discount tobat sses, and likewise Combat sses can gain Lifestyle Experience at a discount to Lifestyle sses.
"There are other, less direct ways of ruing experience. Achievements and Mana Absorption. If you perform an achievement significant enough, but with a lower threshold than one that would award Stat growth, as determined by the System, the System will grant Experience for it. For example if you explore the wilderness in a location new to you, or if you travel a long distance, especially if the journey was difficult. And we have already talked about Mana Absorption.
"This will conclude our discussion on the System for now," his mother ended her lesson. She gazed at her young child with love in her eyes. "I know that was a lot of information to take in, but we have the Akashic Record. Everything you learn on your own can be essed with the help of this Skill. I''ll tell you more about this Skillter, but suffice it to say, we have an advantage over most people, and it would be foolish to ignore such an advantage."
Her reminder on having an advantage had more meaning to Reivyn than she realized. With the discussion on the System they had just had, he realized that he didn''t only have an advantage with the Akashic Record, but he recalled the notification telling him that he would have increased Skill gains until he reached the equivalent level of mastery as in his memories. As his mother said, it would be foolish to ignore such an advantage. His mother had asked how much life experience a child could have. He didn''t know about other children, but he knew that the answer for him was a lot.
Reivyn''s head started to droop as sleepiness crept up on him. Thest thing he remembered before falling asleep was his mother reaching out to him to remove him from his father''s grasp.
Chapter 4: Step by Step
Chapter 4: Step by Step
It had been three months since his mother had first exined the System to him, and he had just surpassed one of the first milestones in his life. He had turned one year old. Or, in ordance to his new standard, 16 months. Nothing really noteworthy happened on his birthday. There was no celebration, and he wouldn''t have even noticed its passing if his age on his Status page hadn''t changed from 15/16 to 1.
He had had a few other discussions with his parents about the System. They had rified some things, and described some of the minutia in greater detail, but that first conversation had been everything he really needed to know at this stage in his life.
The one interesting thing was what his mother had revealed about the Akashic Record.
"The Akashic Record, like it says about itself, is formed when a powerful being Ascends to a higher realm. The System scans their Status page and sifts through their life experiences, and it records what it finds into what is known as the Akashic Record. The System grants ess to the Akashic Record to everyone born of that being''s lineage, but the level of ess diminishes the further removed one is from the source; however, everyone who has ess to the Skill gets the full ess of all of the information umted from all of the Ascended Beings.
"It has been thousands of years since thest recorded Ascension, and everyone in the world today, regardless of what lineage they are distantly rted to, only has a Skill Level of one. As far as anyone knows, that is."
"If it''s been thousands of years, and there have been multiple Ascensions, shouldn''t most people alive today have the Skill?" Refix asked. He knew that his son was way too young for such leaps in logic, so he helpfully supplied a question to his wife for his son''s benefit.
"What an excellent question," Ameliyn responded with a quick smile to her husband. "When I say there have been multiple Ascensions contributing to the Akashic Record, history has recorded less than ten. Several of them weren''t humans, and the type of beings that Ascended, for the most part, didn''t have any children. In order to rue the level of power necessary to Ascend, one must be entirely focused and driven on getting stronger to the detriment of everything else.
"People don''t advertise that they have the Akashic Record outside of their family, but if I had to guess, outside of royalty and nobility, which also isn''t a given, there are probably between thirty to fifty families on the continent that have the Skill."
Reivyn returned his focus to the present. He was currently trying to count all of the divots and grooves in the wood of the beams on the ceiling. Sometimes training a Skill, in this case Observation, was incredibly boring. The upside always made itself known, eventually, though, when he got that blue box telling him he had improved.
His task of wood viewing seemed to have tapped out any additional Skill gains, though, as his Skill had not levelled for a long time, despite his intense focus and new discoveries among the many grains on the beam. Maybe he needed to try a different tack.
He started mentally listing all of the different things he knew about the beam while he stared at it. This is a support beam for the ceiling. It is Cherry wood from a nearby grove, ording to small talk from my father. It has multiple patterns in the grain... He listed every little detail he could think of, even the number of nails used. When he started struggling toe up with anything new to list, after onest thoughtful addition, he finally received that long awaited notification.
New Skill Unlocked! Identify {Mundane} (1)
The notification was a pleasant surprise. He hadn''t expected to get an entirely new Skill out of his exercise. If my guess is correct, Observation is about noticing things, and Identify is about knowing things. That begs the question: Where does the knowledgee from if I haven''t studied the subject myself? More questions for my parents.
All in all, a fruitful endeavor.
Reivyn peeked around the armoire as he held his breath. He was currently in one of the different rooms attached to the living area. He had been told that this was going to be his room. He could hear his father moving about quietly in yet another attached room, one that was currently being used for storage. They didn''t have a whole lot of things to store at the moment, but his parents had purchased some things to put in there deliberately.
He could feel his heartbeat elerate ever so slightly as his father moved about the house. He was methodically searching for his son, and it would be all over if he found him.
It had been another four months of repetitive actions to slowly increase his Skills. One of the things he enjoyed was thinking up new ways to exercise his Skills, and he had found that ying hide and seek with his parents was a truly entertaining way to level up multiple skills.
First, he had to Sneak quietly in the house in order to get anywhere undetected. His parents had far higher Stats and Skill levels than he did, so they applied a handicap by blocking their ears as well as closing their eyes while they counted. Then he would need to Hide from the searching eyes of whichever parent was ying with him. This involved much more than just getting small and remaining still. He also had to regte his breathing and try to remain calm so his heartbeat wouldn''t elerate too much. He had found, to his dismay, that these two things were powerful identifiers to his location for people with a much higher Perception Stat. If he sessfully evaded detection, he would asionally receive a level up in Stealth, too.
I''ve finally figured out what Stealth is. Hiding is remaining in ce undetected, Sneaking is moving about undetected, and Stealth is aplishing a task undetected. Apparently sessfully evading detection counted as aplishing a task. The previous instances of him gaining Skill Level Ups now made perfect sense to him.
He contemted some of the new things he had learned about Skills when he asked his mother about Identify.
"Where do Skillse from, Mommy?" He had asked.
"What do you mean, Honey?" His mom asked back.
"What a Skill knows. How does a Skill know it?"
"Oh, I understand," Ameliyn replied. "Well, like I said about the Akashic Record, the System itself knows it. In regards to that particr Skill, it is very specific knowledge that is only from the understanding and life experience of the Ascended involved. All other Skills apply a boost from the System based on the amalgamation of everyone in the world who has, or who has had, a modicum of expertise in that Skill. The System examines, in real time, your personal level of expertise and the level of expertise everyone else has with the same Skill Level, and provides the appropriate boost. Learning new things from using the boost provided by the System counts towards increasing your level of personal expertise, thus you can gain Skill experience through using the System Skill. This might seem like a self perpetuating Skill Levelling function, but that''s not the case because there are diminishing returns on how the boost from the System counts towards your personal expertise. But you don''t have to worry about that for a long time. It''s typically around Skill Level 70 for low tier skills."
"Got you!" His father popped his head out on the other side of the armoire. He had lost focus on the game he was ying while he was thinking about what he had learned. He shrieked in delight while he reflexively jumped from being startled.
When he came down from his little hop, the rug under Reivyn''s foot slipped out from under him. He cartwheeled his arms about to try and utilize his Bnce Skill to remain standing, but he realized it was a futile effort, so he decisively abandoned that tactic. He tucked his head into his shoulder as he turned his iling fall into a roll, and he managed to use his momentum to propel himself back into a standing position.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he looked about with wild eyes. His father was half-way to him with his arm outstretched to grab him when he finally came to a stop.
Skill Level Up! Acrobatics (0 ->1)
"I think that''s enough ytime for now, Buddy," Refix said to him. He must have thought Reivyn was in a daze because of his close call just now. In reality Reivyn was thinking about his new skill and what he could be doing to exercise it.
"Sure, Daddy," he replied. He would need his energy for all the rolling around he was going to be doing from now on.
Another six months had gone by, and Reivyn was learning to incorporate his rolls, cartwheels, and jumps into his running around. As such another, different kind of upgrade had urred. Hide and Seek had been Levelled Up to Tag. With the increase in his physical stature and mobility, the outside world had opened up to him. Slightly.
Their house was situated in a cul-de-sac on the edge of the town they had settled down in. The ce they had decided to call home was too small to properly be called a city, but toorge to be a vige. His mother had told him that most of the poption considered themselves to be dwellers of a city, however, because their Tier 1 ss was Citizen and not Viger. There was no effective difference between the two, but it gave them a sense of superiority over the smallermunities that dotted thendscape surrounding them. The fact that this town, Haluville, was itself a smallermunity, one of many, surrounding an actual city didn''t get in the way of their thinking.
Their home had a decent sized backyard with a couple of trees that Reivyn would use to alter his momentum with centrifugal force while zipping around the backyard. He had quickly levelled up his Running Skill ying tag in the backyard with his parents.
Running (8)
"Come on, Mommy," he said as he attempted to pull his mother off the couch. He wanted to run around outside.
"No, Honey. Mommy''s not going to y with you right now," his mother remained seated on the couch, easily fending off his attempts to move her.
"You haven''t yed tag with me in forever," Reivyn dramatically eximed. He eyed his mother critically. Something had been bothering him recently. He couldn''t quite put his finger on it, and he hadn''t really paid too much attention to it, but now that it was potentially the source of interfering with him having fun while exercising his Skills, it was a problem.
He used his Observation Skill to see if he could glean any useful information, while Ameliyn cidly gazed back at him. There was no new information to discover with this method. There was definitely something off, he could feel it. His thought process did a mental flip, and he started using Sense Mana to gauge any changes in his mother.
Bingo! The mana in his mother was acting strangely. There appeared to be a void in her core where he had never noticed one before. He tapped his finger against his lips as he was lost in contemtion trying to figure out what it could mean. It looked like it was wrapped around something. Like a cocoon.
Realization dawned on him, and he pointed at his mother while he excitedly eximed, "You have a baby in your belly!"
Ameliyn''s eyes got huge, and she quickly leaned forward to cover his mouth with her hand while shushing him.
"What was that?" He heard his father''s voiceing from outside where he was doing maintenance on his gear. Sometimes he forgot that other people had Eavesdropping, too, along with a higher Perception Stat to fuel it. The door banged open as Refix strode into the house with purpose. "What is this I hear about a baby?'' He demanded.
Ameliyn threw her hands up in exasperation and gave Reivyn the stink eye. "I wasn''t sure yet, so I didn''t want to say anything. But I missed my most recent flow, and a lot of the other signs are there"
"This is fantastic news!" Refix eximed after a moment of shock. He had a wide grin threatening to split his face in two.
"Not so fast. Like I said, I''m not sure yet, and this isn''t the first time my body has thrown us for a loop," Ameliyn rebutted. "It''s fine to be happy, but I don''t want anyone to get their hopes up prematurely."
"Sure, sure," Refix replied. Her admonishment had obviously gone in one ear and out the other.
Ameliyn rolled her eyes at her husband and then looked sideways at Reivyn who had slinked off to the side. "Sometimes you''re too clever for your own good, Brat."
What?! My sibling isn''t even confirmed yet, and I''m already relegated to Brat?! He narrowed his eyes as he looked at his mother''s stomach. We''ll see how I tidy you up,ter.
Ameliyn reached out and gently cuffed the back of his head. "What are you thinking? I know that look." Reivyn chuckled sheepishly.
"Well, Buddy, it looks like you''ll have to find some other way to entertain yourself while I''m busy," Refix turned his attention to his son. Reivyn already had his brows screwed up trying to troubleshoot a solution when his mother brightened up.
"I have just the thing," she reached over to her loom and straightened back up with something in her hands. "Here."
She handed Reivyn a sheet of parchment and a charcoal stick.
Sweat dripped down his brow as he concentrated. His tongue was unknowingly stuck out as he concentrated on the parchment in front of him. At first, when his mother gave him the parchment and charcoal, he had just drawn simple pictures, mainly consisting of little representations of his family. That had quickly turned into his mother teaching him how to read and write.
Sure, it was very early for someone his age to be learning how to read and write, but he had always been more mature for his age and a fast learner. Plus his mother relegated her teachings so far to just practicing the alphabet and numbers. His Penmanship Skill had improved quite a bit over the past six months. Used to I would have said half a year, but six months doesn''t quite make it anymore.
Right now he wasn''t actually practicing his Penmanship. He had juste in frompleting a round of calisthenics, and he needed a short while to recharge his mental capacity. It was no longer all fun and games, as he had started to actively try to train his Stats with helpful hints from his father. Now it''s fun and work. He quite enjoyed the process of tempering his body, though as a young three year-old, there wasn''t a lot that his father let him do just yet. After all can''t let my advantage go to waste.
No, he was marshalling all of the levels he had gained in Drawing to work on his magnum opus. It had taken him nearly an hour of concentration, and a few failed starts, to get the proportions just right. As he finished thest line on his "masterpiece," a blue notification box popped up.
Skill Level Up! Map Making (0 ->1)
He had drawn a map of the area surrounding his house. The trouble hade from getting the scale consistent. He was intimately aware of the culdesac his house was on, the other properties, the road, and even the wooden palisade that was a bit of a distance off. He had spent several days measuring steps and practicing getting the scale right by starting small and slowly expanding out. The map he had just finished contained all of that, plus the interior of his house. It was quite detailed and definitely not something to expect from a three year old child.
Ameliyn leaned over his shoulder to check out his map and she made an exmation of surprise. "That''s very good, Honey," she said as she affectionately patted him on the shoulder. He looked over at his mother and her swelling belly. The local Healer had confirmed the pregnancy at the two-month mark, and she was now seven months along. Her tummy was considerablyrger than he had expected, but the monthly check-ups with the Healer showed that everything was fine.
"Now that your little pet project isplete, it''s time to work on your letters again," his mother was ruthless.
"Mommmmy," he whined. "I''ve been working on my letters for months now. Can''t I do something else?" He looked up at her with hope in his eyes.
Ameliyn gave him a t look. It was that look that all mothers had that spoke an entire sentence all on its own. It said: I know what you''re trying to do, and it''s not going to work on me, so get back to work. The glimmer of hope in his eyes dimmed. "You''re going to need a lot more than a mere few months before I''m satisfied with your Penmanship. But you''re right," his hope was rekindled and a smile crept across his face. "We''ll work on arithmetic," his smile vanished as hope died.
Yep, ruthless.
Reivyn could hear the sounds of controlled breathinging from one of the spare rooms. With their experience from the first birth, they didn''t want to ruin any of their good sheets with the blood involved during childbirth, so they had set up a separate, temporary little room for his mother''sbor.
"You''re doing fine, Darling," he heard the voice of his father. "Are you in pain? Do you need anything?"
"Of course I''m in pain," his mother snapped back. She continued in a calmer tone, apparently getting control of her emotions, "I have Pain Resistance, but it''s still ufortable. There''s an incredible pressure that has nothing to do with pain, and the only thing I need right now is for this baby to decide to get out of me!"
Reivyn could hear the impatience in his mother''s voice. She had been inbor for several hours now. He looked towards the room where his parents had set up shop and contemted whether or not it was wise to go see if they needed his help with anything. No, no. They''ve got this handled. No need for my involvement.
With nothing better to do, Reivyn pulled up his Status to peruse it.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Age: 3 Health: 100/100 Stamina: 170/170 Mana: 190 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 7 INT: 18 VIT: 10 MAG: 20 DEX: 7 CLA: 13 CHA: 3 PER: 10 LUK: 3
Skills: Acrobatics (7), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (2), Bnce (13), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (4), Dreams of the Past (11), Eavesdropping (11), Evasion (4), Haman (9), Hiding (10), Identify {Mundane} (3) Inspire (0), Linguistics (6), Mana Absorption (23), Map Making (1), Mathematics (3), Mental Fortitude (6), Numbers Concepts (3), Observation (15), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (4), Piano (0), Pugilist (9), Running (8), Sense Mana (25), Sneaking (5), Staves (0), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)
He looked over his Stats and Skills with satisfaction. There had been consistent, steady gains in both categories, which resulted in huge changes to his Status Page. He didn''t know what a typical three year-old''s Stats looked like, but he was confident they didn''t look like his. If they could even see it, that is. He chuckled to himself.
The sounds of groaninging from the other room brought him out of his contemtion. It appeared that his mother had finally begun the process of giving birth to his little brother or sister, as he could also hear a steady litany of words of encouragement from his dad.
He walked over to the other room and peeked his head inside. The bed was angled in a way that he didn''t have direct view of the goings on down there, but he could see his father in position to receive the new baby while simultaneously trying tofort his wife. He witnessed the strain on his mother''s face and the bulging of the veins in her neck as she pushed with all of her strength.
Suddenly, there was a startling cry, and his father straightened up. A new baby, still covered in after birth, was held in his hands. He had temporarily forgotten the presence of Ameliyn as he looked at the new addition to the family.
"It''s a girl!" He shouted out in glee. He busied himself with cleaning her up, but Reivyn noticed that something wasn''t quite right. His mother hadn''t rxed at all, yet.
"Refix," his mother called. His father didn''t seem to hear her. "Refix," she repeated, her voice now more demanding.
"Hmm?" He responded, still busying himself with his new daughter.
"REFIX!" His mother screeched. He finally looked up at her in surprise. "Get your ass back over here," she said through gritted teeth. She panted between sentences. "We''re not done. There''s another one."
Refix was rooted to the spot as he nkly looked at Ameliyn. He looked down at the baby girl he was cleaning up, then back up at Ameliyn, then back down again. Finally, he looked towards the door and spotted Reivyn.
"Reivyn,e over here," he motioned towards his son to enter the room. "Hurry, hurry. I need your help. Gently clean up your sister while I help your mother." He spoke incredibly quickly and rushed Reivyn to take over his duties. Reivyn ran over and took the cloth being used from his father.
"Hnnnnn... Hnnnnn... ," his mother continued pushing. She had started again before Refix was even fully in ce, not being able to hold on any longer. When a baby decides it''s time toe, it''s time toe now.
Reivyn adroitly tended to bathing his newborn sister. She didn''t look at all like he had expected. Doubts filled his mind as he cleaned her. Another set of wailing lungs shortly apanied the first one, and with a nce, Reivyn saw that his mother had finally rxed. Despite their concerns, there really wasn''t a whole lot of blood, as he could Sense the same phenomenon of mana being used like when he was born.
Refix joined him back in his spot with another cloth and pail of water. They were silent as they quickly got the two girls cleaned up. Just because they were silent, though, did not mean it was quiet in the room. The two newborns continued to exim their discontent with the world.
"Bring me my babies," his mother''s steady voice reached him. He let his father take over all of the work, afraid that he wouldn''t be able to carry the sister he had cleaned with his three year-old body despite the Stats on his Status page. His mother was recovering quickly, if a bit slower, like she had done with him. His father gently ced the two girls into the crook of either arm of Ameliyn. The two girls quickly quieted down as they fell asleep amidst the familiar warmth.
Reivyn fidgeted a bit as he watched the wholesome scene, but he finally could no longer repress his doubts.
"Why are they so ugly?" He asked. His parents shared a look before they burst into unifiedughter. He didn''t understand the joke.
"Pshh, what do you know," his father retorted. "That''s what all babies look like when they''re newly born." He was immensely confident in his knowledge of newborns, having experienced it once before.
"Hah! Says you," his mother countered. "With Reivyn''s purple and wrinkly skin, you thought I had given birth to a mutant." Refix jumped in startlement and quickly pressed his fingers to his wife''s mouth to silence her.
"Shh, shh. You need your rest, Dear," he attempted to salvage his dignity in front of his son. Ameliyn just rolled her eyes and then bit his finger. "Ouch!" He yelped. "Well, I was right, anyway. Look at him," Refix gestured towards Reivyn before sharing anotherugh with his wife.
Reivyn frowned at the words, but then he shrugged. Eh, he''s got a point.
Chapter 5: A Swing and a Miss
Chapter 5: A Swing and a Miss
The smell of blood and soot was suffocating. The sh of battle could be heard all around her as she huddled in her room. Refix, like a bulwark in his gleaming armor, stood as a bastion of safety in the doorway. Anything that got close was quickly dispatched, but he was already covered in blood, and his Stamina wouldn''tst forever.
The first powerful enemy emerged to pose an actual challenge to Refix, and his Stamina was dangerously depleted. The grotesque enemy, indistinct and out of focus from her vantage, finally copsed to the ground adding another body to the pile surrounding Refix. He nted his exquisite sword in the ground and leaned upon it, panting and trying to recover as much Stamina as he could.
It was a losing battle, and they knew they were just dying the inevitable.
A grizzled veteran wielding a bloody halberd and attired in fancy armor led a troop of younger soldiers in a sortie to provide relief to their position. The old veteran had a solemn look on his face, and the younger men he lead had eyes wild with fear. Themander''s presence and Skills staved off panic, but even with his calming aura, it was clear it was only a matter of time.
After all of the local enemies had been dispatched, the older man turned to Ref, "You have to get out of here. You can only make it with one. You''ll have to leave the rest behind." Refix wanted to argue. He ced his head in the palm of his free hand and shook his head back and forth, warring with what he knew to be the truth. Themander ced a hand on his shoulder with surprising gentleness, "We''ll try and get the others out, but you have to go. Now."
Ref looked back at Ameliyn with love and fear written on his face. He quickly made his decision and strode towards her with a grim look set to his face. He grabbed Ameliyn and ripped her away from the arms holding on to her for dear life and started dragging her out of the room.
"No, no, no, no," Ameliyn pleaded as she tried to remain with the outstretched arms trying to cling to her, but Refix was resolute in his decision, and they left everyone else behind as they fled into the night.
Despite thete hour, it was almost as bright as day. There was an orange tint to everything as the sky itself burned. The cries and pleadings of those left behind echoed in her mind.
Ameliyn sat up in bed with a yelp. Her heartbeat was out of control, and she was covered in sweat. A weight on her chest threatened to drive her racing mind into panic as she felt constricted, but she immediately calmed down after she looked down and realized it was just her daughters sleeping soundly attached to their mother.
Refix awoke next to her, and seeing the sweat and distress on her face, he quickly embraced her and hugged her head into his chest, mindful of the two babies.
"Shhhh, it''s ok. It was just a nightmare," he gently coaxed her. They eventually parted after she had calmed down enough. They sat there and looked at each other for a moment before Refix quietly said, "I''m sure some of them made it."
Ameliyn gave a weak smile in reply. They both knew it was unlikely.
"I can hope."
Life was beautiful and carefree for young Reivyn. With his father working his job, and his mother working hers while caring for two infants, he suddenly found himself with a lot more freedom to choose how he spent his time. He spent an entire year over-indulging in y time, and he neglected his practice in writing and mathematics.
I''m only a child, he justified to himself.
But then something that shouldn''t have been unexpected happened. The Dreams that he had vividly experienced while in the womb came back. They had an obvious nt in their meaning, as he dreamed about duty and responsibility. It was almost like his subconscious was trying to tell him something.
He tried to ignore it at first. He didn''tpletely disregard the message from himself, but despite the approving nod from his mother when he resumed his writing, the dreams changed in intensity. No longer did he dream about examples of duty and responsibility. He had nightmares of the consequences for ignoring it.
Blood and death were the rewards to the men in his dreams withckadaisical attitudes. Their ill-preparedness resulting in not being able to cope with different situations.
Reivyn looked at his Skills page.
Skills: Acrobatics (16), Aim (0), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (9), Bnce (20), Command (0), Daggers (0), Drawing (7), Dreams of the Past (12), Eavesdropping (13), Evasion (5), Haman (13), Hiding (11), Identify {Mundane} (6) Inspire (0), Linguistics (8), Mana Absorption (24), Map Making (1), Mathematics (4), Mental Fortitude (6), Numbers Concepts (4), Observation (17), Pain Resistance (0), Penmanship (5), Piano (0), Pugilist (17), Running (14), Sense Mana (28), Sneaking (9), Staves (0), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (0), Tactics (0)
He made great progress in his physical Skills, while his mentally focused Skills had virtually fallen by the wayside. Starting to work on those Skills again hadn''t been the right solution, though. He bowed his head as he thought about the problem, and if finally came to him.
Look at all of those zeros. I''ve had these Skills unlocked for years now, but over ten of them haven''t been used even once. I have an expert in several of these Skills right there, just waiting for me to utilize, and I haven''t said a word to him.
A new determination filled him.
That night at the dinner table, Reivyn picked at the food on his te. His mother was teasing his two sisters while only half-way focusing on her own meal, and his father was shovelling the food down his gullet with gusto.
"I have something to confess," he dered to the surprise of his parents. They looked at each other, mouths full of un-chewed food. His father resumed chewing as he looked back to Reivyn and pointed at him with his fork.
"Out with it, then," he said. Reivyn took a deep breath and kept his gaze on the table in front of him.
"I didn''t have only sixteen Skills when I first told you about them. In fact I didn''t unlock my System at that time. The System has been unlocked for me for as far back as I can remember, in this life," thatst line was tossed in there almost as an after thought. "I have several Skills unlocked, but their Level is at zero."
Reivyn looked up in time to see arge, leafy green fall out of his father''s mouth to plop onto his te. Refix had resumed eating as Reivyn started his revtion, but he quickly stopped eating as he stared at his son, mouth agape. The soft plinking sound of vegetable hitting ceramic woke him from his state of shock.
"What exactly are you saying, son?" He queried.
"I want to practice with weapons," Reivyn blurted out. "I have Swords, Daggers, and Staves unlocked but sitting at zero," he quickly supplied as he saw his father frown at the deration.
"You have Swords, Daggers, and Staves unlocked," Refix replied in a deadpan matter. Ameliyn sat to the side staring at her son. Her two daughters moring for her attention momentarily ignored. Reivyn nervously nced back and forth between his parents.
"Umm, yes? Among other things?" The statement came out more of a question.
"Among other things," his father again deadpanned. Refix slowly, deliberately set his fork down, never taking his eyes off of his son. "What exactly do you have unlocked?" Reivyn sighed as he resigned himself. He opened his Skills page and listed off the ones at zero.
"Aim, Command, Daggers, Inspire, Pain Resistance, Piano, Staves, Strategy, Swimming, Swords, and Tactics," he listed them off. Refix leaned forward with his eyes narrowed, and he ced his weight on his elbow on the table.
"You have Command and Inspire unlocked? Do you have any idea how hard... No, of course you don''t," Refix thunk-ed his head down on the table. "What have I been doing with my life... And the System just gave them to you!" He devolved into mumbling to himself. Reivyn was pretty sure he heard the word "mutant."
"Did I do something wrong," Reivyn asked in trepidation. His mother quickly reached out and held his hand.
"No, Honey. This is a good thing. It''s just... I don''t even have the words for it." His mother didn''t do a very good job offorting him for once. Refix suddenly sat up and threw his hands in the air.
"Just gave it to him!" He stood up, scooped up his te and utensil, and took his meal with him to finish outside. Ameliyn patted Reivyn''s hand.
"Don''t worry about him. Let him wallow in his self pity," she instructed her son. "He spent years unlocking those two Skills. It must have been a pretty strong blow when you told him you already have them unlocked."
"I didn''t do it on purpose," Reivyn tried to exin himself.
"I know, I know," Ameliyn responded. "It''s just weird. If I didn''t know you, and if those Skills weren''t at zero, I would think you had a noble''s education. Heck, even nobles don''t always have an easy time unlocking those two particr Skills. Now finish your dinner. Your father might seem like he''s upset, but I guarantee he''s already devising ns to help you achieve your goals."
Reivyn finished his meal in silence as his mother finally returned most of her attention back to his two sisters. They were surprisingly well behaved for babies being ignored by their mother, all things considered. While they were loud and making a minor nuisance, they never screamed or cried. They weren''t unusually mature like he had been, but more like thefort of each other kept them grounded.
He could still hear the sounds of his father puttering about outside when they left the dinner table, and he could only imagine what sort of training regime a vengeful father coulde up with.
"Stand up straight. Feet shoulder width apart. Maintain your bnce and stand on the balls of your feet with your knees slightly bent," Refix hadn''t wallowed in self pity for very long. Reivyn even had a sinking suspicion it had all been theatrics.
They were currently in the backyard on one of Refix''s days off. Refix was pacing back and forth with a wooden rod. He was holding it in one hand while absentmindedly smacking the other end into his other palm. The words "Rod of Love" had been carved into it.
Reivyn was holding a small, wooden sword with a bit of lead inside of it to provide the proper weight and bnce. It was designed for a child his size with his approximate Stats, and his father had just happened to have it.
He had showed up with an entire armload of wooden armaments, a puzzled look on his face and a confused deration of having no idea where they hade from or why they had them. He had just found them already in one of the storage rooms by happenstance.
Definitely theatrics.
Reivyn looked down at the wooden sword in his hand and then at the pile of weapons. He then looked up at his father.
"Dad, I don''t have most of these weapon Skills unlocked," he said. His father struck a pose with his finger pointing in the air.
"Yet!" He confidently eximed, a bright smile on his face. Reivyn was still nonplussed.
"Won''t I be spreading myself too thin like this?" He hadn''t learned only to be prepared from his dreams. He also had gained an understanding in biting off more than he could chew.
"Normally, I would say yes. But with you, I''m not so sure. I''ve had an idea ever since I was young, and I wanted to try it out with you. I would never rmend this with anyone else, but rest assured, I''m only going to have you train to Skill level 10 in each of the weapons you don''t already have unlocked," his father patiently exined. "Now focus. I''m going to demonstrate the basic moves, and you''re going to follow along. Once you get the basic gist of it down, I''ll correct you, and that''s how we''re going to train. Follow my example."
Refix simply used the rod he was carrying to demonstrate the movements, grip, and stance used for each weapon. He didn''t have the Skill unlocked for all of the weapons in the pile, but he had been abat ss through and through from day one, and he had enough experience in seeing others using the weapons to get his son started on the right path. Once the Skill was unlocked, the System itself would help him develop more properly. The goal wasn''t for him to master all of those weapons, but instead to have simple understanding.
The two of them worked all morning on just doing simple movements with each of the weapons. This wasn''t enough to unlock all of the weapons, and they hadn''t expected it to be. Though Reivyn did level up each of the ones he had unlocked and gained a couple that were tangential.
Skills Levelled Up!
Aim (0 ->1)
Daggers (0 ->1)
Staves (0 ->1)
Swords (0 ->1)
New Skills Unlocked!
Bows (1)
Katars (1)
Spears (1)
Reivyn worked up a sweat and saw his Stamina dip further than it ever had before. This was the first time he had had to pant for breath that he could remember since being born. They worked up quite an appetite, and after a quick, hearty lunch with some words of encouragement from the baby-tending Ameliyn, they kept at it into the afternoon.
"Now we''re moving on to the next phase. You have a basic understanding of the movements, grips, and stances. You will continue to perform the actions with each weapon in turn, and I will correct you," Refix resumed his position he had had at the start, smacking his hand with the rod.
Reivyn got into position with his sword, prepared to continue the movement to train his Skill.
WHACK!
Reivyn cried out in pain and dropped the wooden sword, rubbing the back of his hand. He looked up at his father to witness his expression change from stern to worried instantly. His father tossed the rod aside and quickly went to his side.
"I''m so sorry! Are you hurt? Did I hit you too hard?" His father was extremely remorseful and concerned, so much so that Reivyn couldn''t help bursting intoughter.
"Dad, I''m fine. I was just surprised. I didn''t expect it," now Reivyn was trying to console his father. His father tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"What did you think ''correct you'' meant? I''m even standing here with a rod typically used for correcting ws," Refix said.
"Umm... I thought verbal correction?" Reivyn stammered out. Refix paused for a moment and looked at his son.
"Sometimes I forget how young you are despite how small you are," his dad sighed to himself.
"I''m not small! I''m taller than the other kids my age," Reivyn defended himself. He was a healthy four and a half year old. That would have been nearly six in his dreams. He already came up to slightly above his father''s waist.
"You know what I mean," Refix rolled his eyes at his son. "Ok, no more dilly dallying! Back to work!"
And so he did. He spent the rest of the afternoon getting whacked around by his father. I mean, corrected in my Skill practice.
His suffering didn''t go without its reward.
Skills Levelled Up!
Aim (1 ->2)
Daggers (1 ->2)
Pain Resistance (0 ->3)
Swords (1 ->2)
New Skills Unlocked!
Axes (1)
Cestus (1)
ives (1)
Great Swords (1)
Hatchets (1)
Slings (1)
Reivyn huffed and puffed as he sprinted along the wooden palisade, a pack quarter-filled with rocks strapped to his back. Sweat was dripping down his face and stinging his eyes. The asional passerby would stare at him as he ran past. The other kids his age were still ying tag and hide and seek. He had graduated from that over a year and a half ago, now.
Temporarily graduated. He corrected himself. Those games are still fun, and dad says I should be close to what he hopes for, though he still hasn''t told me what.
Kailey and Riley, his two little sisters, were almost old enough to begin ying those games themselves, and Reivyn had made a couple of friends in the neighborhood. He didn''t only train all the time. He was still a kid. But he did take levelling his Skills and Stats very seriously.
His dad had insisted on him doing his calisthenics and Stat training before his Skill training, and it was always a gruelling experience.
"You need to be tired when you practice your Skills, and then you have to practice them perfectly. That way when you''re in a situation where your Stamina is running out, you''ll maintain your proper form automatically, because that''s what your body has ingrained into itself. Sure, the System can assist with the boost, and relying on the System while training slowly makes the knowledge of the Skill truly yours. There are little tips and tricks that most people don''t know about, and they wouldn''t tell you even if they did.
"The most important thing to know about the System Skill boost is that it only applies in perfect condition. As in the System assists you to perform properly as you would in an ideal condition. If you haven''t trained in adversity, your body will still be affected by the loss of Stamina. Your focus will be off, your stance will be wobbly, and your grip will be slippery from sweat. None of those things are ounted for by the System. Training in that situation will not only be better efficiency over all, anyway, but it will allow you to perform peak performance long after your opponents have lost the ability to put up a fight. Trust me, I know."
There was another hidden benefit: Skill training while tired after physical exercise continued to put strain on the muscles in various ways, and it continued to contribute towards Stat training. If one performed Skill training in peak condition, the movements were easy and not tiring for the most part, and people took breaks to practice their Skill longer to get more Skill gains at a time. This type of thinking was perfectly logical, but as deemed by an expert, his father, it was actually counterintuitive and was doubly hurtful in that it did noticeably increase Skill gain over training while tired, but it also actually diminished the amount of Stat training one could aplish in the same amount of time.
Knowing, and agreeing with, the perfectly reasonable exnation for training in this method didn''t make it any easier. Reivyn''s starting point was exhaustion. His Stats had increased enough that just running wouldn''t tire himself out enough to the point he needed for his Skill training, hence the pack filled with rocks.
Reivyn trudged into the backyard of his house, and without any breaks immediately dropped down to the ground to do pushups. He smoothly transitioned from pushups, to situps, to burpees, to pushups again in a cycle until his various muscles were burning and near the point of not being able to continue. He kept the pack on throughout the entire ordeal.
He finally unslung his pack for his weapons practice. His father told him that he would eventually need to practice while burdened with different things, but his Skill levels weren''t high enough yet for it to be necessary.
One of the other benefits about training with such high intensity was how short it was. He didn''t train until sundown or anything like that. He spent ten minutes on each weapon and then, whether he wanted to or not, he copsed into a heap on the ground. His body had slight tremors run through it as hey there panting. His Stamina showed that it was under 10.
While it was possible to go until hitting 0 in Stamina, it was dangerous. People usually only paid attention to their Health when it came to considering life or death, but aplete 0 in Stamina ran the risks of heart failure, even in a child. It was the biggest warning his father had given him when he started the high intensity training.
He eventually recovered enough Stamina to get back up. He had to wait until it was over half-way full before he could. The strange thing about Stamina, was that if it was depleted below a certain threshold around 20%, the level of energy one had per point of Stamina was less on the way back up to recovery than it was on the way down. This was another hidden aspect of the System that could be trained, and the only way to do it was to consistently push past that threshold over and over, over a period of time. Reivyn had already reduced it to around the 18-19% range.
He made his way to the bath house, a small room attached to the main building out back, and settled in for a cold bath. He could take the time to warm the water up, but he preferred it to be cold on hot summer days. Even if the water was a little warm, he would end up sweating immediately after getting out from his body being overly hot internally from the workout.
He leaned back and rxed in the water as he checked his Status.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Age: 6 Health: 140/140 Stamina: 260/260 Mana: 195/195 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 12 INT: 19 VIT: 14 MAG: 20 DEX: 13 CLA: 14 CHA: 3 PER: 12 LUK: 3
Skills: Acrobatics (16), Aim (10), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (16), Axes (10) Bnce (22), Bows (10) Cestus (10) Command (0), Daggers (13), Drawing (7), Dreams of the Past (12), Eavesdropping (14), Evasion (10), Fans (7), ives (10), Great Swords (10), Haman (20 MAX), Hatchets (10), Hiding (11), Identify {Mundane} (8) Inspire (0), Katars (11) Linguistics (8), Mana Absorption (26), Map Making (1), Mathematics (9), Mental Fortitude (13), Numbers Concepts (5), Observation (20), Pain Resistance (11), Penmanship (10), Piano (0), Pugilist (21), Running (22), Sense Mana (30), Slings (10), Sneaking (9), Spears (10) Staves (12), Stealth (4), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Swords (18), Tactics (0), Throwing (10), Whip (10)
There were some new additions to his Skills page over the past year and a half. Fans was by far the hardest Skill he had to train among all of the weapons Skills. His father insisted he practice it up to level 10, but it had taken him over a year just to unlock it to begin with. It must be a mental block of some sort, because he just couldn''t wrap his head around how it could be an effective weapon for the longest time. Apparently the dreams that had helped him so much so far also had negative consequences in coloring his vision sometimes. Once he got the hang of, the fan was a very interesting hidden weapon, and he would definitely train it up past 10.
Ameliyn smiled to herself as she watched her son make faces at his sisters from across the dinner table. Despite how he constantly trained his physical skills after that stunning revtion, he was still a goofy kid in his heart. He still loved to y, and he insisted that weapons Skills training, while exhausting, was immense fun for him. She shouldn''t have been surprised.
Kailey and Riley were already three years old, and they were quite a handful. Luckily Reivyn had taken it upon himself to pass down his legacy of ying hide and seek and tag. He even asionally let them win. His ying with the girls had the added benefit of allowing her some alone time with her man.
Reivyn had been incredibly easy to get to sleep on his own. They had just put a bed in his room and told him he was sleeping there from now on, and that was it. The twins weren''t so amodating. They still had to have mommy nearby or they would cry. As such she actually had to tuck Reivyn into bed before the younger girls.
"Goodnight, sweet prince," she whispered to her son. She affectionatelybed his hair and then gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"Night, mommy," he sleepily replied. He was out before she made it to the door.
Her husband was standing there, waiting for her, as she came out. He looked at her for a moment without saying anything until she closed the door.
"You really shouldn''t call him that," he said. He wasn''t stern or overbearing in the way he said it, but something about it still infuriated her. Her mouth made a thin line as she huffed.
"It''s a term of endearment. A lot of mothers call their sons that." He didn''t argue with her. He didn''t exin anything to her. He didn''t even get a look on his face. He just stood there with a sad smile. All of the anger in her over the little thing left as quickly as it came, and she hugged her husband, "You''re right."
Reivyn was truly asleep. He didn''t notice the little interlude between his parents.
Chapter 6: Adventure!
Chapter 6: Adventure!
Reivyn looked over the open fan at his father. His father stood across from him, wielding the rod he used for correction, as if it were a sword. His father moved slowly, but deliberately in a thrust towards his midsection. Reivyn snapped the fan closed, and used it to guide the trajectory of the the rod off mark while moving to the side to avoid the blow. He also moved slowly but deliberately.
They continued to exchange moves, one with the rod and one with the fan, until Reivyn noticed his father overextend in a thrust. It was obviously done intentionally. His father would make mistakes on purpose to simte someone with a lower Skill level, and to create opportunities for Reivyn to properly practice. It had taken a bit of time before Reivyn had trained enough to notice these mistakes, and it had taken even longer before he was confident enough to use them to his advantage. At this time, he seized the opportunity, and instead of simply dodging and disengaging, he slid his fan along the rod and rapped it against his father''s knuckles. In an exaggerated manner, Refix dropped the rod and shook his hand in faux pain.
Skill Levelled Up! Fans (10)
Reivyn threw his hands up in triumph and loudly eximed, "Finally! That took forever."
His father gave him an amused smile before replying, "Of course it took a long time. What you''re holding there isn''t a weapon. It''s just a traditional fan. A real war fan is reinforced and might even have des in it."
Reivyn looked down at the fan in his hand, and then he looked back up and gave his father a nk stare.
"What''s that look for?" Refix asked. "In your hands, it still works, doesn''t it? Here," he bent over and picked up a stick. It was neither too thin nor too thick, and it was about three feet in length. It was flexible and wobbled slightly as it was moved around. He handed the stick to his son. "This is a sword. Defend yourself."
Reivyn had doubt written all over his face, but he got into a stance anyway. They resumed their earlier slow but deliberate movements, and Reivyn struggled to use the stick efficiently, but as he was sure there was a lesson in this exercise somewhere, he didn''t just scoff and ck off. Eventually he got the knack for using it to parry the thrusts and shes directed at him from his father.
"It''s now a spear."
Reivyn adjusted his grip and held it in both of his hands, taking up the appropriate stance for spear wielding. It came much quicker to him, now that he had already gotten some practice with it, to effectively use the stick as a spear.
"It''s a javelin," Refix took several steps back to create room between them.
Reivyn did a mental flip as he physically flipped the stick into a javelin throw pose, and without hesitation threw it with precision at his father. The flexible nature of the stick caused it to wobble in the air, but it still flew true. His dad casually snatched it out of the air. He snapped it in half, and then he threw one half to Reivyn.
"Dagger."
They re-engaged their spar, and the stick was instantly a dagger in his hands.
"Throwing knife."
Reivyn leapt back and instantlyunched the stick in his hands at his father once again. The weight and bnce was all wrong to urately use the stick in any way, shape, or form of a throwing knife, but his mentality and the System automatically adjusted his grip, stance, and throwing form. The stick travelled through the air, tossing end over end, until it smacked right against Refix''s forehead. He could have dodged easily, but he allowed the blow tond.
GONG!
Achievement! You have learned a wide array of weapon Skills, and you have learned that many things can be used as a variety of said weapons. You have learned that it is not the weapon itself that is important, but instead it is you yourself that is the weapon. New Skill Unlocked! Skills Axes, Bows, Cestus, Daggers, Fans, ives, Great Swords, Hatchets, Katars, Pugilist, Slings, Spears, Staves, Swords, Throwing, and Whips havebined into the Tier 6 Skill: Weapons Master (11)
Reivyn was momentarily stunned by the loud gong sound that reverberated in his head. He read the new notification message and then looked up at his dad with wide eyes.
"Quickly, what happened?" His father said with excitement.
"It says I got an Achievement. All of my weapons Skillsbined into one," Reivyn read off the notification for his father.
Refix pumped his fist and shouted, "Yes! It was true."
Reivyn frowned as he remarked, "You mean you didn''t know?"
Refix nced at his son out of the corner of his eye. "Of course I didn''t know. I told you at the beginning that I had an idea, and that we would work on it for a time, but only to a point. There are myths and legends about extremely powerful Skills being born frombining Skills, and from ancient texts that I''ve inadvertently been able to nce through in the past, Weapons Master was one of the ones listed. It said it was possible tobine ten weapons Skills of level ten or higher into the Skill, but more weapons Skills and higher levels increased the likelihood. So I only had you work many Skills to level ten while you kept working at the ones you had previously unlocked. It is much faster to get several more Skills to ten than it is to get only ten Skills to, say, level twenty. And it worked!"
Reivyn pointed at the text on his notification. "It says it''s already level 11."
"Hmm, let me think for a second," Refix tapped his chin in thought. "If my guess is correct, you technically had a skill level of ten before you unlocked it because of all of the weapons Skills you had at level ten, but it was inactive and still locked. Then when you had your epiphany, it simultaneously unlocked and gained a level. So level 11 for this Skill is the same as level one for regr skills. This is a Tier 6 Skill, after all. Tier 6 is Mythic."
Reivyn raised his eyebrows in surprise. "So does this mean I only have to train one or two weapons Skills to increase the level of all of the ones that werebined?"
"It''s more than that," Refix smirked. "ording to the texts, it applies to all weapons. Even ones you haven''t seen before. This is the System we''re talking about. And notice thenguage of the Achievement: The weapon doesn''t matter, it is you that is the weapon. You have gained full control over your body, so you''ll instinctively know how to act with any sort of weapon, or no weapons at all, in your hands. Even mundane items that aren''t weapons can be utilized as such, but probably at a discounted Skill level. I don''t know. I don''t have the Skill."
"Well, now that I have the Skill, what do I do now?" Reivyn questioned. He had been working so hard for so long on so many different things, the happiness of sess made him lost on what to do.
"I guess... go y!"
"Reivyn! Let''s go on an adventure!"
Reivyn heard the shout of one of his friends from outside. He looked up at his breakfast at his mom, his eyebrows raised in question.
"Go ahead," Ameliyn said with a smile. "I''ll tidy up your te for you." His mom was very amodating when it came to ying with his friends. Probably because he had spent so much time focused on Skills and only marginally interacting with his peers until recently.
Reivyn stuffed his mouth with thest bit of bread from his te, and he took off running outside. His friend, Teilon, was standing there hopping from foot to foot with pent up energy. His other friends, Simmon and Will, were standing behind him. They each lived in the same neighborhood, so they had naturally gravitated towards each other as they had simr ages. Teilon was the oldest at eight, and Reivyn shared the same age with the other two at seven.
"C''mon, c''mon, it''s time for adventure!" Teilon yelled out as he took off running down the street, the other three boys quickly keeping up. They took off down the road towards the center of the town. The buildings around the outskirts of the town were various sized houses. Most people''s situation was a family unit. It was rare for people in thismunity to be single without children, and when the children moved out, unless they moved to a whole new city or chose a profession requiring travel, they typically lived next to their parents. Communities on the outskirts, like Reivyn''s family and his friends, were typically people who moved into the town from outside.
As they got closer to themercial district, the houses got closer and taller, and more and more pedestrians could be found walking about. Reivyn''s eye was captured by a toon of men in leather and chain armor carrying spears as they marched in formation down the main thoroughfare. Typically guard patrols were groups of three to five men in leather armor carrying batons with a dius-style short sword at their hip. This was something different, but before he could really think about it, they disappeared behind some buildings as the group of kids continued their dash to whatever mischief Teilon had stumbled upon.
They finally came to a halt on the far end of themercial district, ducking into an alleyway, dust from the hard packed dirt path settling about them as the kids crouched down and panted for breath. Haluville wasn''t quite prosperous enough to warrant stone paved roads, but that didn''t mean the roads they did have were in disrepair. They were perfectly serviceable, if muddy when the weather turned, roads.
Reivyn, Simmon, and Will stood bent over with their hands on their knees as they looked to Teilon who was squatting down with a stick he had produced from somewhere.
"Boys, we''re hunting for treasure today! I got tipped off by one of the older kids ''round Westend that there''s a group of houses in Northend, just over yonder, that is home to one of the most coveted of prizes," Teilon began selling his scheme, letting the suspense build for his grand reveal. "If everything goes ording to n, the four of us will be polishing off one of the famous delicacies of humble ''ole Haluville."
Teilon stopped talking and looked up at his three friends expectantly. Reivyn shook his head in exasperation. He''s even more theatric than dad. Simmon couldn''t hold it in, and he was the first to break by blurting, "Well, what is it?"
"Tut tut," Teilon admonished. "Guys, look around. What are we next to?" Reivyn looked around, but all he could see were the same looking buildings and storefronts popting the area. Then it hit him. The smell.
"The bakers," he replied.
Teilon gave him a thumbs up. "Bingo! You don''t think they spend their whole lives levelling up their cooking and baking skills and don''t have amazing food for themselves? I''m talking about pies! Blueberry pies, to be exact. That''s what Torhn said, anyway." Torhn must have been the older kid who "tipped him off," as he put it.
"Really, Teilon? Pies?" Simmon was nonplussed. He rolled his eyes and kicked an imaginary rock.
Teilon smacked his own head as he replied, "Think! Do either of your parents have high level, and I''m talking high level, cooking skills? I didn''t think so. And, ording to Torhn, the baker''s wives, or husbands I don''t know, bake pies every other couple of days, and they just leave them out. If a pie or two goes missing, I''m sure they''ll assume a bird got to it or something. C''mon man, live a little," Teilon was really trying to sell this idea.
Simmon cocked his head to the side and smirked, "You just want pie."
"And you don''t call that living?!" Teilon leaned back against the brick wall behind him and threw his hands up in shock.
Will shrugged his shoulders as he looked up, "I mean, I could go for some pie."
"That''s the spirit," Teilon apparently took Will''s tepid approval as the go ahead for the "grand adventure" he had nned. He leaned back forward and started drawing in the dirt with his stick. "Alright, there''s four of us, and, let''s face it, we''re kids, so one pie. Two people on either end as look outs, two people to snag the pie. One can watch for the baker''s family or run interference, if necessary, while I grab the pie," Teilon''s true motives were showing as he smacked his lips in anticipation. "Volunteers..."
"Not it!" Will and Simmon eximed in unison.
"I haven''t even exined what you''re volunteering for! Ahh, forget it, you two are look outs. Reivyn and I will get the pie."
The four boys quickly split up and headed towards Northend. Each section of town was referred to by its cardinal direction by the local inhabitants, and this group of four hailed from the Southern point of Eastend. Will went down a side street across the main way so as to be less conspicuous when they arrived at the baker''s house, and Reivyn and Teilon let Simmon get ahead of them before sauntering out themselves.
Teilon was rubbing his hands together in greed with a silly grin on his face. It was obvious that he had been looking forward to almost nothing but getting some blueberry pie ever since he''d heard about it. Reivyn walked alongside him with his hands sped together behind his head with his elbows out in a carefree manner.
"So, an adventure, huh?" Reivyn posed the question in a skeptical manner.
"That''s right," Teilon easily replied. "Let me tell you, Adventurers got to do all sorts of stuff. Sneakin'' around, pilferin'', eatin'' . I mean, fightin''. And you gotta eat to fight," Teilon dered authoritatively as he pointed at Reivyn. "My Daddy says you always gotta eat what you can when you can, cause sometimes you don''t know if you can."
Teilon''s words might have sounded like silly banter from an eight year-old, but there was a kernel of truth to what he said. Teilon''s father had apparently been a high level Adventurer, himself, and was enjoying the fruits of semi-retirement from a lucky break his Party had stumbled upon. Well, high level for this area, ording to father.
From what Refix had told him, higher level concentrations of mana bred higher levels of beasts and monsters along with higher tiers of treasures and resources. Haluville and the surrounding area wasn''t even considered Tier 1.
The two boys finally made it out of the more concentratedmercial district and headed off road into the grassy area that led behind themunity where several of the bakers congregated. It wasn''t so surprising that they would mostly gravitate to the same neighborhood, as these ones were apparently all family.
Simmon was leaning against a wall nearby. His head was on a swivel, and he looked exactly like a kid up to no good who was trying excessively hard to appear to not be up to no good. Despite his failed attempts at being nonchnt, nobody was paying attention to him anyway. They had their own things to be up to.
As the duo passed by Simmon, Teilon looked over at Reivyn and ced his finger against his lips to indicate silence. Teilon was making much more noise just walking around than anything Reivyn was doing, but he nodded his head with a serious expression anyway. If you didn''t take your fun seriously, then you wouldn''t have any fun.
As they approached their destination, Will taking up position in the distance, the sweet smell of freshly baked pie was carried to them on the breeze. Reivyn spotted a pie just sitting on a window sill, steam wafting from it denoting its freshness. He wasn''t lying. That pie is just sitting there, and nobody is paying attention at all. He could see a youngdy, presumably Mrs. Baker''s Wife, puttering about in the kitchen on the other side of the dwelling. Something seemed off about the scene, but he couldn''t put his finger on it, and his friend didn''t give him time to think about it.
Teilon''s eyes were fixated on the pie, and there was drool leaking out of his mouth as he abandoned any attempt at subtlety and walked straight for the pie. Reivyn rolled his eyes as he grabbed his friend by the shoulders and pulled him out of the line of sight of the window for their approach. He ducked down under the window so he could see the blind spot as Teilon reached up and gently appropriated the pie from its resting spot. He practically hugged it to himself as they first made their way to the side of the building where there was no window before beating a hasty retreat.
Once they were a decent distance from the house, they broke into a run down a back alley, Teilon cackling with glee. Simmon and WIll had already moved towards the meet up location after they saw their two friends were going to sessfully get away. As soon as he was sure nobody was going to pursue them, and they had gotten away clean, a notification popped up in Reivyn''s window, almost causing him to stumble with its contents.
New Skill Unlocked! Stealing (1)
That... didn''t look good. There was no point in worrying about it now. He already had the Skill.
The four were quickly reunited where they had started off, and Teilon pulled out a dull bread knife from somewhere and deftly cut the pie into four parts.
"One for you," the older boy handed a quarter piece to Will. "One for you," one went to Simmon. "One for you," Reivyn got his cut. "And one for me!" He happily squeeled. Reivyn nced at the four pieces. There was a noticeable deviation in the cuts, and Teilon had obviously given himself a bit more than the other three. Reivyn didn''t say anything. Other things were on his mind.
"Pleasure doing business with you, boys," Teilon eximed. "But that''s all on the agenda for now, and it might be best if we''re not seen together for a short while. We''ll catch up some other time," he gave them all a little two-finger salute and headed off towards his house. The other three boys looked at each other and shrugged in unison.
"Alright, see you, I guess," Will said, before he too turned and walked off.
"Later," Simmon called out.
Reivyn just nodded his head in acknowledgement. Despite his silence, he wasn''t upset with his friends or anything. They probably didn''t even contemte that what they had done was stealing, and from their reactions, it didn''t appear that any of them had gotten the Skill like he had.
Reivyn made his way home in silent contemtion. As he approached his house, he looked at the slice of pie in his hands. He still didn''t know what to think about it, and he wasn''t sure if he was going to eat it or not. It didn''t quite sit right with him.
He walked into his house. His mother was working on the loom, and his twin sisters were ying a game of cat''s cradle, probably put to it by their mother in a surreptitious way of getting them the Weaving Skill. It was probably going to work. He turned away from them and set the pie down on the counter. Next to the pie was a smattering of copper coins.
He looked at the coins for a moment beforeing to a decision. He swiped a small handful, and seeing that nothing was amiss, he walked right back outside.
Skill Levelled Up! Stealing (1 ->2)
Reivyn rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. Two wrongs don''t make a right. I''ll have to tell my parents about this. He really wasn''t looking forward to that conversation, but he wasn''t in the habit of keeping secrets from them. And he felt he had a duty to do the right thing.
He quickly found himself standing outside the door to the baker''s house, palms sweaty from nervousness. He clutched the copper coins in his hands and lifted the other to knock on the door. Before he could put flesh to wood, it swung open with Mrs Baker''s Wife standing there looking at him.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
Reivyn bowed down 90 degrees and held the coins out in his hands. "I''m very sorry. I took your pie. I don''t know how much it costs, but here."
He stood there like that for several seconds, but there was no sound or movement in front of him. He lifted his head as he slowly straightened up, and the woman was looking at him with a stunned expression on her face.
After a couple of moments of ufortable silence between them, a sly smile appeared on her face. "Come in,e in," she stood aside and waved him in.
With trepidation he walked into her house, looking all around for the sudden attack he knew wasing. She chuckled at his antics and waved him to the kitchen where she motioned for him to sit down.
Reivyn took a seat, his face a mask of confusion. He put the coins down on the table and said, "Here."
The woman motioned dismissively at the coins as she replied, "No, you keep that. I''m guessing from your behavior that nobody ever told you." It was more of a question than a statement as she looked at him expectantly. With a shake of his head she continued, "Those pies are for you."
Reivyn frowned at her answer. For me? Why would they be for me. More importantly, how would she know to put it there for me?
She chuckled again at the look on his face. "It''s not for you, for you. It''s for any child to take. Nobody remembers why, exactly, but it''s been tradition forever for a baker family to ce freshly baked pies on the window sill and then leave them unattended for youngsters like you to take. Those pies are specifically there to be pilfered. So you see, you don''t have to pay for it. I already knew you took it. Think about it."
She gave him a moment to scrutinize the situation. His thoughts turned to the Skill unlock notification, and he guessed he understood the overall purpose of it, but there was still something that was nagging at his mind that he couldn''t quite grasp.
"I opened the door before you knocked," She prompted. His eyes opened wide in realization. "I knew you kids were there long before you walked up to the window. You weren''t being nearly as sneaky as you thought you were. I mean, the pie was set in a window on the other side of the house, as far away from the kitchen as it could get," she chuckled. That finally lifted the woolpletely from his eyes and he understood what had initially bothered him.
"Oh, well, thank you for the pie, I guess?" He stood up and bowed to her again, this time a short bend forward in thanks instead of the 90 degrees of apology.
"Any time, dear," she easily replied. "Just make sure it''s not always you and your friends taking it. Gotta give the others their chance, you know." He nodded his head in agreement.
Reivyn walked into his house to witness his mother standing over the counter looking at the coins in confusion. He sheepishly walked up and ced the rest of the coins back where he had gotten them from. Ameliyn cocked her at her son.
"Want to tell me what you were doing with those coins?" She asked. She wasn''t asking in a confrontational manner, she didn''t care if her son wanted to take some coins to spend on something. She was just curious.
"I went to pay for some pie," Reivyn looked away as he answered. Ameliyn looked at the slice of pie on the counter.
"You already have the pie..." she trailed off.
Reivyn remained with his head down for a moment before speaking up. "I got a new skill today," He said. He looked up at his mother when he didn''t hear a response. She gestured for him to continue. "Stealing."
"STEALING!" She yelled. Refix chose that exact moment to walk through the door, because of course he did.
"Stealing? Who''s stealing?" His eyesnded on his son standing with his head bowed. "Alright, alright. Out with it.
Reivyn sighed and then exined the entire situation, start to finish. When he was done, his parents were again silent. He looked up at them, and got thest reaction he had ever expected.
Refix threw his head back and roared withughter.
Chapter 7: The Struggle is Real
Chapter 7: The Struggle is Real
CLACK!
CLACK ck CLACK!
Sounds of wooden one-handed swords smashing together could be heard reverberating across the backyard of a certain abode in Haluville. An older male was pressing a much younger male with a striking resemnce to him in a sh of wooden swords. A cheer squad consisting of an older female and two identical little girls was whooping and hollering off to the side.
Reivyn hadined about the noise distraction caused by the women in his life, but Refix had quickly pointed out thatbat was often a loud, distraction filled affair. Reivyn had stoppedining, out loud, but he was never really distracted in the first ce. He was simply embarrassed to have an audience. He was wise beyond his years to not allow that sentiment to escape his lips, lest his father use it as fuel to tease him mercilessly.
Sweat stung his eyes as it poured down his face, but after years of training, he had be immune to the feeling. Well, not entirely immune. It still sucks. The little thought caused a hup in his defense, and instead of a loud ck of wooden sword on wooden sword, a heavy thunk of wooden sword on flesh followed. Pain Resistance showed its worth, as Reivyn allowed the sensation to wash over him but not dictate his following actions.
Refix smirked at his son, likely enjoying some schadenfreude at his son''s situation. He was perfectly aware of what it was like to get your butt handed to you all while girls watched from the side and your body was sending nothing but signals to make it stop to your brain. He never even paused in his assault, much less considered giving Reivyn a reprieve.
Over the past year, ever since Reivyn had unlocked the Mythic Skill, which was quickly followed by a considerable slow down in Stat growth, Refix had changed the style of training from one of an exercise in form to one of actualbat practice. He had started slow, just above an appropriate Skill level to pose a not-too-difficult challenge to his son, but every time Reivyn had made improvements, either in his Skill level or his utilization of the Skill, he had kept pace, and Reivyn had not once stood a chance of "winning" against his father. A lesson in humility for his extremely talented son would go a long way in the real world.
Reivyn, despite an admirable job of recovering, was never able to get his stance fully corrected, and he was quickly routed by the more experienced swordsman. With a quick flurry of exchanges, Refix performed an envelopment, and Reivyn''s sword went spinning off into the distance. The older man didn''t add insult to injury by striking his vulnerable son, and he ended with his sword expertly controlled, pointed at Reivyn''s throat a hair''s breadth away.
"I think you''re ready to move on to the next stage," Refix said with a smile.
"I was trounced," Reivyn called back over his shoulder as he jogged to retrieve his discarded practice weapon.
"I was using an approximate Skill level of 26-28. That''s Journeyman level," his dad replied. He counted off on his fingers as he exined, "There''s basic, which is Skill level 1-25; Journeyman, which is 26-50; Expert, which is 51-75; Master, 76-100; and anything above 100... getsplicated to exin. You''re not likely to meet someone of that caliber anywhere around here, and if you make it there one day, you''ll already understand by then. You''re performing solidly in the low Journeyman Skill level, which, quite frankly, is astounding. What level did you say Weapons Master was at?"
"Twenty," Reivyn said. He quickly returned to his father''s side, and, recognizing that the training session had moved on to verbal instruction, he stowed away his and his father''s wooden swords. His mother ushered his two sisters inside alongside loudints that their entertainment was over.
"So it appears that Weapons Master doesn''t just allow you to perform equally with all weapons, but it also elerates your actual mastery if not the Skill leveling speed. If you acquire sses that focus on weapon Skills and have a decent growth bonus to them, it is very likely that you will, in fact, reach Skill level 100, and possibly beyond," his father pped him on the shoulder, a look of pride on his face. "Let''s go get cleaned up."
Reivyn nced at his father''s pristine appearance, shook his head, and then made his way to the bath house to cool off and wipe the sweat and grime from his body. He didn''t even break a sweat. We sparred for an hour...
Reivyn leaned back in the cold water, his arms out to the side and his head back against the tile. He allowed himself to rx every part of his mind and body as he entered into a state of Meditation.
He had been incredibly dumb, in his own opinion, in just how long it took him to figure out how to unlock the Skill. It turned out that the secret to getting the Skill was actually incredibly simple. He asked his mom for help.
"Meditation is both easy and hard to unlock," Ameliyn had patiently exined. "Most people assume you just have to rx your mind and body and clear your thoughts. While these steps are necessary, there is one crucial step that most people don''t pay attention to. Let me ask you, what happens when you absorb too much mana when using the Skill Absorb Mana?"
"A burst of energy," Reivyn didn''t have to think about this question at all. He was intimately aware of the results.
"And what do you think all of the mana intrinsic to yourself is doing inside of you?" she queried. Realization dawned on Reivyn. With a quick internal check, he noticed the mana in his core send out an almost imperceptible pulse of energy. It wasn''t enough to actively distract him, but it was definitely enough to interfere with the process of clearing his thoughts, even if only subconsciously.
"But then what''s the solution?" He inquired.
"The solution is to release the mana from your core, and either spread it evenly throughout your body so that it''s not concentrated, or, if you have too much mana, to expend it before working on unlocking the Skill. Once it''s unlocked, your mastery of it, and the boost from the System, will mitigate that necessity."
It had been a quick affair that night to unlock the Skill, and Reivyn had added another task to his daily training schedule. Luckily for him, Meditation not only fit perfectly in his time table after his sparring matches, but it allowed him to assimte the lessons learned at a quicker pace.
The cold water surrounding Reivyn started to steam as its temperature slowly increased. After cooling off for an appropriate period of time, Reivyn started cycling through the different elements of mana being Absorbed. He always started off with the Skill Fire Affinity, moved to Water Affinity to help disperse the heat into the bath, used Wind Affinity to whisk the heat off the surface, treating the bath like a giant heat sink, and then ended with grounding the heat with Earth Affinity. His mother hadn''t only taught him how to unlock the Meditation Skill.
"Mom, what''s that bright light and pop of mana I see sometimes when you''re weaving?" Reivyn had asked. His mother sat up straight with her eyebrows raised in surprise.
"So I hadn''t been imagining things, after all!" Ameliyn eximed. "That, my Dear, is Light Mana. It is an element. Different elements have different effects on objects in the world. Typically, if you imbue your mana into an object, it will hold on the surface before slowly dissipating away.
"Your mother is a Light Weaver, and, due to a peculiarity of the System, if one imbues their elemental mana into a craft throughout the process of making it, even if all of the materials involved are themselves finished products, thepleted item will permanently hold that mana. Imbuing mana into craftsmanship like this isn''t the same as Enchanting, but it still has a small role to y. When I imbue Light Mana, it acts as a sort of subconscious illusion making the ones who look at it have a higher likelihood of a favorable impression towards it."
"Can you teach me?" Reivyn pleaded with a hopeful look on his face.
"I could teach you..." Ameliyn said while thoughtfully tapping her chin. She quickly shook her head, though. "But you can''t learn it."
"What?! Why?" Reivyn almost whined. This was the first time he had ever been told he couldn''t learn something.
"Two reasons," his mother held up two fingers. "You don''t meet the prerequisite mana affinity Skills: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth, and you don''t meet the prerequisite of acquiring those mana affinity Skills, which is Mana Sight. Or do you?" She narrowed her eyes at her son. He quickly shook his head. "Ok, yeah, I didn''t think you had that one yet. I can teach you that, though," she said offhandedly. He quickly nodded his head enthusiastically.
"Yes, please."
"Ok,e here," she directed him to sit in front of the firece. "Close your eyes, open your Sense Mana, and enter into Meditation. Feel the mana around you. Notice the warmth of the fire. Fire mana spits out of the heart of the me to dance on the air like tiny sparks. They travel about, here and there, without purpose. See in your mind''s eye the little red motes dancing before you.
"A breezees through, and wind mana detaches from the breeze to scatter the me motes, and the red of the fire mixes with the green of the wind to carry it ever further from the ze.
"As the wind mana transports the fire mana further and further way, the temperature in the air gets cooler as it is filled with moisture, and little drops of blue manazily float about and suck the energy out of the embers. The water mana gets heavier from the burden of the excess energy, and they slowly fall until they atste into contact with the brown mountains of earth mana.
"Open your eyes," Ameliyn whispered.
Reivyn opened his eyes to a new world. It was far from the intricate tale of dancing mana that his mother spoke of. Different, muted colors crashed together and created a strange tableau of interwoven energy. The scene quickly faded from his vision. It had been simr to looking at a bright source of light and then quickly looking away. He shook his head and looked up at his mother.
"I couldn''t tell anything from that. It was just a huge, fleeting jumble of confusing colors," heined. She yfully swatted him on the back of his head.
"Of course, not," she replied. "That was your first time. I''m surprised you saw anything at all, honestly. Continue."
Ameliyn spent the next hour or so patiently concocting various tales of improbable activities being performed by the various motes of mana. She weaved her words as intricately as one of her pieces on the loom. Reivyn felt incredibly gratified that his mother would go to such lengths to assist him when she clearly had so many other things to be doing.
New Skill Unlocked! Mana Sight (1)
After approximately an hour and a half of alternating between listening to strange tales of odd behavior and quickly opening his eyes to see for himself, Reivyn was finally awarded with the notification. He smiled up at his mother.
"Thanks, mom! I just got it," he happily said. Ameliyn was momentarily surprised before she guffawed and chuckled awkwardly.
"More and more, I see what your father meant," she said. "I spent two weeks - two weeks! - unlocking that Skill, and the System practically gave it to you." She threw her hands up dramatically in mock imitation of her husband. "Just gave it to you!"
Reivyn smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. His mother rolled her eyes at him and shooed him away with her hands.
"Go on, get. I don''t want to look at you, right now," she huffed as she stalked back to her loom. Reivyn knew she was just ying around, so he didn''t take it to heart, but he wasn''t quite finished. He still had another question for his mom.
"But what now?" He called out to her.
"You Level it to around 15 or 20. Then youe back to me," she smiled as she replied, letting him know, as only a mother could, that everything was fine, and that she loved him and was proud of him, all in one quick look.
Reivyn towelled himself dry as he exited the pool of water. He had worked diligently at yet another Skill for over a year until he had finally been able to make heads or tails of the mana around him. His mother had then instructed him on how to unlock his affinities. The key had been to identify each individual element, and then absorb that one element exclusively through Mana Absorption until he unlocked the Skill. That had been pretty simple, but he had had onest point that had bothered him.
"But why is affinity a Skill?" He had put the question to Ameliyn.
"It''s only half-way a Skill," was the reply from his mother. "It''s a littleplicated, but basically you have the Skill you can train, and you have your inherent affinity for each element. No matter how hard you train, and no matter how much time you invest, your Skill Level in these affinities are capped at a different level for each individual. It depends on your talent how far and how fast you can take the Skills."
All four of the basic affinities had levelled up at the same speed for Reivyn. It wasn''t slow, but the Skills didn''t level up as fast as many of his other Skills did. He had no idea what any of that meant for his talents. He shook his head as he made his way out of the bath to more practice in his literary Skills. He wouldn''t worry about it too much.
The wind whipped through his hair as Reivyn and his three friends ran along the rooftops in themercial district. It was a rare event, these days, that all four of them could be together. With Teilon turning nine, and the other three right behind him at eight, the other three boys had started the proverbial sprint towards ss Unlock, and they had finally gotten serious about trying to train up some of their Stats before it got harder.
Reivyn had been amused at the thought that he and his friends had approached life in exactly opposite ways. While he had spent his early to mid childhood frantically training his Skills and Stats, his friends had focused on almost exclusively gallivanting and horsing around. He was sure they had gotten some Skill Levels and Stats, what with the amount of effort they had put into ying, but they had been living a carefree life. Now that he had reached the point of diminishing returns on training Stats, he was now the one enjoying a life of leisure as his friends had to buckle down.
He came back to the present as they scrambled to traverse the differing heights of the buildings and leapt across chasms made of alleyways in turn. It didn''t do him any good to get lost in thought while a couple of stories off the ground.
One day, several months ago, Teilon had been daydreaming as the troupe had meandered around town with his head in the clouds. He had suddenlye to a halt, Will almost walking into him, and he had a thoughtful look on his face.
"I wonder what it would be like to fly above the town, like a bird, without having to take all of these twisting back roads to get anywhere," he suddenly opined. Reivyn nced at him before using his Acrobatics skill to jump from wall to wall in the narrow alleyway and shimmy himself up to a lower rooftop.
"I don''t know about flying, but this is probably the next best thing," He called out to his friends. When he didn''t get a response, he leaned over the ledge to find the three other boys staring at him in ck-jawed silence.
"H-H-How did you do that?" Teilon stammered, pointing up at Reivyn like he had just spotted something he couldn''t believe.
"It was easy," Reivyn said with a slight frown on his face. "Just use your Acrobatics Skill."
"What do you mean, just use your Acrobatics Skill?'' Teilon rolled his eyes so hard his whole head twirled around his neck. Will and Simmon looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement.
"You don''t have Acrobatics?" Reivyn asked, incredulous. "What have you been doing with your life?"
"Hanging out with you!" Teilon shrugged while gesturing towards Reivyn, as if to say obviously.
"Well it''s an easy solution. Just unlock the Acrobatics Skill and practice it by jumping up these walls," Reivyn retorted.
Teilon looked at his friend as if he had grown a second head. "Just unlock the Acrobatics Skill, he says," he mumbled. "What the f-. You know what. I can''t even with you, right now."
Reivyn easily scrambled back down to ground level. He approached his friends as he said, "C''mon. It''ll be easy. I''ll help you."
The next hour had been spent with Reivyn assisting the other boys in performing various high-level movement techniques such as the tuck-and-roll, the cartwheel, and the popr fall-on-your-face-while-trying-to-flip. A breakthrough had been made when Reivyn had had Teilon step into his hands with one foot and then getunched into a backflip. It wasn''t pretty at first, but the other boys could finally start to feel something different, and with a little extra effort, they all eventually unlocked the Skill.
"That was pretty fun, actually," Teilon said with an almost confused look on his face. "And pretty fast, too." Reivyn just stood to the side with an expression of I told you so on his face.
"Fastest Skill I ever unlocked," Simmon piped up.
"Yeah," Will agreed.
The four boys looked at each other and grinned before theyunched themselves to the rooftops. It turned out that, while not a Skill itself, the activity of parkour worked wonders for quickly levelling up Acrobatics and Bnce.
The rooftop had served as their personal highway ever since. A good thing, too, with all of the new peopleing and going from Haluville.
The boys took a break to gaze down at the Town Center. Where once it was a bevy of people walking from point A to point B and asionally haggling in some personal bartering outside of the storefronts, a small marketce of tents, stands, carts, and nkets had formed. The foot traffic had recently shot through the roof, and luckily, so had the boys.
"Bad business that," Teilon said with an uncharacteristic serious expression on his face.
"What''s bad about it?" Reivyn asked. Will and Simmon looked also looked towards Teilon, waiting on his exnation.
"Not that," Teilon gestured down towards the impromptu market. "That''s fine. That''s whatever. No, those are all Adventurers. Hadn''t you noticed?" He scrutinized the other boys'' faces. Teilon could be surprisingly insightful at times.
"Yeah, Torhn and his crew say there''s some work in the city," Simmon ventured.
Teilon gently cuffed his friend on the back of the head. "This is the city," he said while pointing down to emphasize his point.
"You know what I mean," Simmon retorted with an eye roll.
"Yeah, I do, but Torhn is likely to smack you across the mouth instead of the back of the head if he hears you implying otherwise. You know how the locals are," Teilon had ced his hand on Simmon''s shoulder as he gently chastised him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Simmon said, scratching his head in slight embarrassment for thepse in speech.
"Anyway," Teilon continued, "My daddy says it''s government work. You all know how they feel about Adventurers." The three other boys nodded in unison.
Several months ago, emboldened by their sess at repeated pilfering of pies over time, Teilon had gotten daring and started trying to unlock Pickpocket. He wasn''t a thief, so all he would do is reach in, grab something, usually coins or lint, and then let go. There were a couple of close calls, but he had sessfully gained the Skill. He had convinced the others to join him in his antics, and while still reluctant to have anything to do with those types of Skills, Reivyn had agreed.
His mother had not been too happy with the pie episode. She had lectured him on thinking before acting for a good hour, but she had still been at least a little proud of him for deciding to do the right thing in the end. Refix had had apletely different take on the event.
"Tell me, is a Skill evil?" Refix asked his son as they were sitting at the dining table.
"I don''t see how it could be," Reivyn had replied after some careful thought.
"That''s right. No Skill is inherently evil. It''s what you do with the Skill that matters," Refix poked his finger into Reivyn''s chest to get his point across. "Now, tell me, who is the best at spotting a thief?"
"The Guards?" Reivyn ventured a guess. From the context of the conversation, he was pretty sure it was a trick question, but he honestly didn''t know a better answer. Refix just chuckled as he shook his head.
"No, another thief is the best at spotting a thief," Refix answered. "If you level your Skill properly, it can be used for good, so don''t ever look down on a Skill."
That lesson had heavily influenced Reivyn''s decision to follow through with his best buds. Things had gone extremely well from there. The quartet had levelled their Skill and kept a clean conscience by not ever actually stealing anything.
Everything had gone wrong, though, when Teilon had gotten a little too bold for his britches. The damn fool had tried to pickpocket a City Guard of all people. Sure he had targeted a rookie, but his teammates weren''t rookies.
An armored hand had mped down on the offending arm as Teilon had his hand in the rookie''s pocket. "What the hell do you think you''re doing, you little runt." Teilon got spun right into the face of a great big bear of a man with a full beard and mean eyes.
"I wasn''t doin'' nothin''! I swear! I was just practicing, is all," Teilon blurted out as fast as he could. Reivyn, Simmon, and Will had run up upon noticing the trouble, but the other guards stood in their way, separating them from their friend. They were in a small side alley, and none of the other pedestrians even spared a nce their way.
Big Bear spat in disgust right at Teilon''s feet. "Damn Adventurers and damn Adventurers'' kids. Ain''t got a lick of sense," He said. He shoved Teilon into the wall, hard, and he crumbled to the ground. "Keep your filthy paws to yourself." The mannded a few kicks to Teilon''s midsection with the intention to cause pain. If he had wanted to actually hurt Teilon, it would have been an easy thing with his Stats and ss.
Reivyn frowned at the disy of petty power. "What? Got somethin'' to say, Adventurer''s kid?" The Guard in front of him provoked.
"My parents aren''t Adventurers," Reivyn replied, the frown never leaving his face. He had had no idea these kinds of sentiments existed in the small town.
"High levelbat sses in from out of town. Either a deserter or an Adventurer," the Guard spat at Reivyn''s feet. "Basically the same thing, in my book."
The Guards shoved all of the kids, Reivyn included, to the ground as they finished disying their authority and sauntered off. Later, his parents had consoled him and convinced him to not let a few bad examples ruin his impression of the town. Most of the Guards were decent folk who showed his dad, who had been working as a Bodyguard Captain for a rich merchant in town, respect.
"Yeah, they''re right A-holes," Will said as he spat on the rooftop.
Reivyn reached over and gently cuffed him without thinking. "Don''t be spitting like them. It''s disgusting," he admonished. Will ducked his head with a sheepish look on his face.
"Yeah, well. Ain''t got nothin'' to do with us," Teilon dered after a moment. "C''mon, let''s go."
The four friends ran off in search of some more "adventure."
Chapter 8: Classical Accident
Chapter 8: ssical ident
"Are you sure you''ll be alright?" Refix asked his wife. They were having a family conversation at the dinner table.
"Yes, yes. I''ll be fine. We''ll all be fine," Ameliyn reassured her husband.
"I know. It''s just that I worry," Refix sped Ameliyn''s hand in his own. "This will be the first time in years that we''re separated, and I''ll be gone for several months."
"It''s fine. Reivyn''s mature enough to look after the girls if I need him to," she looked towards her son. He had his fingers in his mouth, pulling his lips wide while sticking his tongue out at his sister, making them giggle. He heard his name and froze with his mouth wide open and eyes wide. He calmly removed his fingers and ced his hands neatly on top of each other on the table in front of himself.
"What was that? Yes, I''m responsible," Reivyn said as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. It was true. It wasn''t out of the ordinary for him to tease his sisters and make themugh.
Ameliyn rolled her eyes at his antics. "On second thought," she continued, "We''re good on money, and I could just take a break from Weaving for a bit."
Reivyn gasped. He ced his hand on his chest and twisted a bit in his seat to pose in mock outrage. "Hey! I am offended," he said with a slight shake to his head.
"I''m sure you are," his mother replied. "We''ll be fine. Go with a clear conscience." Refix nodded his head, and the family resumed their usually carefree banter as they finished their dinner.
"Stay behind for a moment, Reivyn," Refix called to his son as he was putting his te away. He looked towards his mom who just smiled and nodded as she ushered the two twins away. He sat back down across from his dad.
"Mr. Einrin sprung this trip on me kind of suddenly, and I have to go with him. Which means I''ll be gone during most of the time right before your ss unlocks. Usually this is one of thest lessons on the System and sses that we give, but I''m going to go ahead and go over it now, as I won''t be here."
That had gotten Reivyn''s full attention. He was always eager to learn more about the System and how this world worked. He sat straight, his attention fully on his father. Refix nodded and continued.
"I know that we mentioned Mana Cirction a long time ago, but we never went over any specifics with you," he said. "Mana Cirction is more than just a Skill. It is somewhat simr to Mana Affinities, but it isn''t determined by your natural aptitude and talent. Instead, Mana Cirction is determined by your ss. Have you ever wondered where the Stat increases and unassigned Stat Pointse from from levelling up your ss?"
Now that the question was posed to him, Reivyn realized he had always just taken it as a given. Your level increases, and much like a Skill increase, you get slightly better. It seems there was more to it, and his father was going to shed some light on the matter.
"Mana Cirction is the act of circting your mana through your meridians, and while your meridians exist inside you from day one, they are a simple, straightforward thing. When you acquire a ss, the System refines the meridians in your body. An increase in Tier expands and solidifies the meridians, and the Rarity of the ss determines theplexity. The type of ss, Lifestyle or Combat, and the Stats they improve upon levelling up also determine where the meridians are refined.
"A Combat ss can expect to have wider and moreplicated meridians around his major muscle groups. Craftsmen typically have finer meridians around their extremities for a focus on Dexterity. The wider array of Stat increases equate to more locations withplicated meridian patterns.
"The System will directly imprint a method of Mana Cirction appropriate for your ss. That does not mean it is the most efficient method. 99% of all sses in Tiers 1 through 3 are known,mon sses, and bymon, I''m not referring to the Rarity of the ss. Billions of people have unlocked sses in the Realm for tens of thousands of years, and most of those people only ever reach Tier 3 in their lifetime.
"Extensive research has been done over the generations, and there are many, many variations of the different ss Mana Cirction methods. There are also certain family lineages that have hereditary meridian pathways and unique Mana Cirction methods to incorporate into their pathways. Due to a quirk in the System, even the hereditary meridian lines aren''t unlocked until the first ss is acquired at the age of 10. Nobody knows why, but that''s just how it is.
"Now pay attention, because our family has one of these unique pathways that you''ll need to incorporate into whatever ss Mana Cirction method you get. I''ll draw a diagram for you to use as reference, but it''ll be much easier to grasp and remember if I instruct you directly, first."
Refix spent the next hour or so patiently teaching Reivyn about the unique meridian pathway to their family lineage as well as the method of incorporation into a ss method. Reivyn didn''t have any refined meridians, so he was unable to practice the actual Skill, but he was still able to make a mental map and follow along with his mind''s eye.
"Alright, Buddy," Refix concluded his lesson. "Barring any unexpected surprise, I should be back before your 10th birthday, but it''s always better to be prepared, just in case."
The next morning, the whole family lined up to give a hug and kiss to the patriarch of the household as he departed for work. Despite knowing Refix would be leaving on a multi-months-long trip, it felt like any other normal morning.
"Gather ''round, children, as this elder imparts the wisdom of his years upon you," Teilon said. He was standing with his palms together as if in prayer, his eyes were closed, and he was attempting to exhibit the serenity of an elder teaching theter generation. The gang of four, with the addition of Reivyn''s sisters, were hanging out in Reivyn''s backyard.
Kailey poked Reivyn in the side. "He''s talking about you," she said to him with a serious expression.
"Yeah, you''re a child," Riley contributed. The two then broke down into giggles. They held hands and started skipping around while chanting. "Chi ~ ild, chi ~ ild," over and over again. Reivyn just snorted at their antics.
How am I the brother of those two, and not Teilon. I never realized how alike their personalities were until they were in the same space together.
Teilon had turned 10 several months ago, unlocking his Tier 1 ss, and he was constantly ying the part of the wise elder. I swear he''s going to unlock Actor for his Tier 2 ss, Reivyn thought to himself.
"This esteemed self recently gained a couple levels to his Citizen ss, finally breaching 20 Stats in Vitality, and, in his most magnanimous way, has deigned to impart to you what it feels like to have faster Stat growth than you are ustomed to," Teilon opined. Will and Simmon snickered at the words. The previous week, Teilon had been in a hurry and not paying enough attention, and he had walked face-first into the side of a building.
Reivyn surreptitiously nced at his Status Page.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Age: 9 Health: 220/220 Stamina: 420/420 Mana: 260/260 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 20 INT: 24 VIT: 22 MAG: 28 DEX: 19 CLA: 21 CHA: 3 PER: 17 LUK: 3
Skills:
Acrobatics (26), Aim (17), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (31), Bnce (34), Command (0), Drawing (16), Dreams of the Past (13), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (22), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Identify {Mundane} (18) Inspire (3), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Sight (14), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), Mental Fortitude (20), Numbers Concepts (8), Observation (27), Pain Resistance (23), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Pickpocket (6), Running (30), Sense Mana (42), Sneaking (19), Stealing (9), Stealth (14), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Tactics (1), Weapons Master (22) Affinities: Air (11), Earth (11), Fire (11), Water (11)
"You mock this one, but he is generous and forgiving, so he shall ignore this slight upon his honor," he said. Will and Simmon had been practicing their Wrestling Skills, a good way to train Strength and Dexterity in addition to training the Skill and being a fun pastime all on its own. With the momentary distraction fromughing at Teilon''s soliloquy, Teilon spotted his opportunity and tackled the two of them to the ground.
The previous match devolved into a tangled mass of iling limbs. It wasn''t helped by the twins abandoning their chanting to instead being cheering for one or another boy to pin his opposition. They had no loyalty, and they freely switched between who they cheered for based entirely on their whims.
Reivyn chuckled as he watched from the side. Ahh, this is the life.
Reivyn was sitting on the sofa, a book in his hand and his position rxed. Ameliyn was working on her loom, and the two girls were practicing with needle and thread by her side. Other than the repetitive sounds of the loom, it was quiet and peaceful in the house.
Reivyn turned the page in his book. It was apendium of short stories about various people with different sses. It was a primer on the differentmon sses one could expect to unlock upon reaching adulthood and getting the Tier 2 ss. Tier 1 ss was regarded as going through puberty. The book coupled introducing different sses with simple moral lessons with the characters getting into all kinds of mundane and improbable situations. It was a children''s book, for the most part, but it was still quite entertaining.
DONG!
The sounds of the loom ceased as Ameliyn tilted her head up at the sound of the bell ringing loud and clear in the central square. If it was an emergency, it would have rang continuosly, so there was no frantic movements apanying the sound.
DONG!
Ameliyn looked at her children as she got up from her seat. One bell toll could mean many things, but was typically just a notification that something noteworthy had happened. A second toll meant that there was a gathering at the Town Square, a misnomer considering it was circr. Reivyn put his index finger on his page as held his book down.
"Do you want us to go with you?" Reivyn asked his mother.
"That won''t be..."
DONG!
"...necessary. Never mind," she quickly corrected herself. "Gather up, kids. Let''s go." The family quickly stowed their things away and apanied their mother out the door. They were greeted by their neighbors walking out onto the streets in the direction of the Town Square, and they easily paired up with their friends and acquaintances.
Two bell tolls signified a meeting in the Town Square. Three tolls meant it was mandatory.
"What do you think it is," Teilon came bounding over. He was quickly joined by Will and Simmon. The mothers of the three, being friends with each other on ount of their children, also grouped up together and spoke together as all of the families made their way.
"We''ll find out when we get there," Reivyn replied to his friend.
More and more people spilled into the streets, and as the buildings got denser, so did the crowd. I never realized how many people actually live here. It is almost a small city. Reivyn thought as he scanned the heavily packed crowd.
It was immediately noticeable as to who had called the mandatory meeting. There was an open space cleared in the center next to the well. A man in armor sat upon horseback, apany of the spear-wielding soldiers standing at attention behind him.
Teilon''s mouth made a thin line as he surveyed the scene before him. "How many guesses that this is rted to those Adventurers?" He asked. The mothers of the boys had gone silent, and Teilon''s mother, especially, had be fidgety with a frown on her face.
Reivyn and his group could guess the meaning behind the visit from the soldiers, and they whispered to each other as they waited for more and more residents to trickle into the square. The man on horesback waited patiently, neither moving nor looking around.
Finally, once it appeared no more residents were going to arrive, an adjutant approached the man on horseback and said something up to him. Themander scanned the crowd all around him.
"There will be silence," he said. He neither shouted nor raised his voice, yet it projected clearly to everyone in attendance. Is that a Skill, or just his presence? Reivyn thought.
"I am Knight-Captain Reifold," the man dered. "I am here under the directive of Count Ilpur of Magron. A Levy Decree has been issued."
The crowd erupted into chatter upon the utterance of this news. Knight-Captain Reifold went silent as he gave the crowd a moment to process the information.
When the people didn''t stop talking, and instead actually started picking up in volume, a soldier stepped forwards and bellowed, "SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTHS!"
Reifold cocked his head and stared at the soldier in annoyance. The man sheepishly ducked his head with a quick, "Sorry, milord." It had had the intended affect, though, as the crowd instantly went silent again.
Reifold returned his attention to the popce. "All Tier 1''s with a Vitality over 20 shall report to me."
"Crap," Teilon eximed, the blood draining from his face. His mother''s knees went weak, and she almost fainted on the spot. Teilon had just attained his ss, and he was being enjoined to the Levy.
Reivyn pped his friend on the shoulder, "Stay strong, Brother." He said. Teilon gave him a grateful smile and nod.
He quickly put a brave face on the situation as he dered, "Don''t worry, mom. I''ll be sure to write and send back any riches I acquire once I be a Hero." None of the other kids joked or snickered at his attempt at humor. This was a solemn event, and they realized they may not see their friend again after today.
Teilon''s mom grabbed him into a tight hug. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, disengaged, and then made his way to report. Reivyn watched him go, and he looked around at simr scenes happening all over the square. Many of the families had at least one, sometimes two, children who fit the criteria. Reivyn was curious about the stiptions, but he withheld his questions for now.
The crowd remained silent as the teenagers lined up in front of the troop of soldiers and man on horseback. There were several hundred of them.
Reifold again scanned the crowd, and when his gaze crossed Reivyn''s path, he paused. He leaned down to his adjutant and said something to him, his vision never leaving Reivyn''s direction. He didn''t know if it was a misconception or not, but he could feel the man''s gaze bore into him. The adjutant nodded, and then he signalled for a couple of men to make their way into the crowd.
They''reing for me. Reivyn was convinced of it. He watched in trepidation as his fears were inevitably realized. The two soldiers appeared before Reivyn and his friends and family. One grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him forward.
"Come on, you," the soldier said. These men were different from the Town Guard. There was absolutely no resisting him with Reivyn''s currentck of ss and low Stats. The soldiers didn''t appear to hold Reivyn''s attempt at "dodging" the Levy to heart. It was just routine for them, and they probably saw such scenes often and assumed this was the same thing.
Reivyn''s mother started forward, "No!" She eximed. "You can''t take him." The other soldier impeded her path.
"Ma''am, yes we can," he replied to her.
"You don''t understand. He doesn''t have his ss yet," she desperately pleaded.
The soldier shook his head, "Doesn''t matter. The Knight-Captain identified him as under Tier 2 with a Vitality above 20. He''sing."
Reivyn sensed the mana in his mother''s body begin to coalesce. He absolutely could not allow her to do something she couldn''t recover from. She still had to take care of Kailey and Riley and tell his dad what had happened.
"Mom," he called out to her, interrupting the mana circting in her system. "It''s alright. I''ll be fine." He was resigned. They couldn''t afford any kind of criminal charge, and he truly believed he would be fine. In fact he would be able to keep an eye out for his friend and vice versa.
Ameliyn shook her head in denial with tears in her eyes, but she no longer summoned her mana or attempted to interfere.
Reivyn could feel the eyes of the other townsfolk on him as he was marched to the man on horseback.
"Non-ssed. Thought it didn''t apply to him," the soldier gripping his arm reported as he deposited him into the crowd of other children.
Knight-Captain Reifold looked at Reivyn with a stoic expression. "Understandable," he surmised. "You will be forgiven for this infraction." His voice didn''t carry to the entire crowd as he addressed Reivyn. Relief flooded Reivyn as a tension he didn''t realize he had from the expectation of being punished left him. He quickly found his way to stand next to Teilon, who was looking at him in incredulity.
"Guess I''ming with," Reivyn whispered to him. Teilon just squeezed his shoulder in support.
Reifold signalled to his adjutant. The man motioned some more soldiers forward who started passing a token out to all of the kids in the crowd. Reifold nced back to the rest of the people.
"Disperse," He was apparently a man of few words. "They will be given an hour to say their goodbyes and retrieve any effects." The crowd slowly began to trickle out of the square. Many wanted to watch the fun while the parents of those being levied were loathe to leave their children even for a second earlier than necessary, but the crowd did slowly dwindle.
"This token is your identification," Reifold continued to the young men and women. "Just hold it to your core for three seconds, and the token itself will do all the work of imprinting to you. It has a tracking function within certain range. As you heard, you have an hour before you need to report back and be ready to move out. Anyone not back within exactly 1 hour will be tried as a deserter. The punishment for desertion in times of war is death. Think carefully about your actions."
The soldiers were efficient, and Reivyn quickly received his token. It looked like a rectangr piece of copper with the emblem of House Ildur on its back and nothing on its face. He followed the instructions, and he ced the token against his core. It shed briefly with a pale blue light.
You have been conscripted!
ss forcefully set to Peasant Levy
Error! Abnormalities detected. Scanning...
No Tier 1 ss unlocked. Precedent exists. ss System unlocked early.
ss forcefully set to Peasant Levy
Error! Abnormalities detected. Scanning...
Bloodline does not allow the designation of "Peasant." Precedent exists. ss forcefully set to Conscript.
Error! Abnormality detected. Scanning...
Life experience of a Combat ss exists. No precedent exists. Searching for solutions...
Solution found.
Select a ss. You have 60 seconds to choose before Conscript is permanently set.
sses
Citizen
Conscript
Militiaman
Mercenary
Bowman
Mage
Healer
Fighter
Air Mage
Earth Mage
Fire Mage
Water Mage
A series of notifications appeared before his eyes. He was momentarily stunned, but upon reading thest line of notifications, his attention quickly centered on the ss Page opened before him. Most of the sses avable were grayed out. With no prompts as to how to select a ss, he simply scanned the list and willed his determination into the bottom ss: Fighter. His mother''s words echoed in his mind.
"A higher rarity ss is always superior."
Instantly he could feel mana fill him. His internal structure was manipted, and information flooded into his brain. He intrinsically understood his ss and the Skills associated with it. It was not an unpleasant experience, though it was sudden and unexpected.
Fighter Tier 1 (2) Epic (Rare) Advancement: 6 Unassigned Stats/Lvl (Pseudo Tier 2, Epic) STR: +2 INT: +1/3 VIT: +3 MAG: +0 DEX: +2 CLA: +0 CHA: +0 PER: +1 LUK: +0
ss Skills: Devastating Strike (1): Deal 101% Damage Cleave (1): Reset stance at an elerated rate Charge (1): Sprint towards the target at 111% absolute maximum speed Avable: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0), Quick-Draw (0)
His entire perspective shifted. A never-before attained permutation of Observation and Sense Manabined with Bnce, Evasion, and Sneaking to allow him to be aware of his surroundings more perfectly. He nimbly avoided the jostling of those around him as others headed off after attaining their tokens. It was like he was a rock in the rapids.
New Skill Unlocked! Spatial Awareness (1)
With a shift in his mentality, he was able to subconsciously actuate his Skills in a new, more efficient manner leading to the formation of an entirely different Skill. While this one used abination of his Skills, it was not aplete fusing of them. He was instinctively aware that this new Skill was a Tier below his Mythic Skill. That still meant it was a Legendary Skill.
Not even ten years old and already have one Legendary and technically two Mythic Skills. Not bad, he mused.
After what felt like an eternity of changes being wrought upon him by the System, he came back to the present. He located Teilon, and, with a nod to each other. they quickly made their way towards their waiting family and friends just outside of the Town Square.
There was a lot of crying and hugging in Reivyn''s household. He stood there enveloped by his mother, who refused to let go, with his sisters squeezing in on either side of him. The only thingcking was his father smirking at him off to the side.
Ameliyn finally released her hold. She ced her hands on either side of his face and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. She no longer needed to bend down to aplish the feat.
"I love you," She told her son. "The most important thing is toe home alive. I don''t care about whatever it is the Count of Magron has decided to issue a Levy for. I only care about your well being."
"I know, mom," he replied. "I know. I''ll definitely return. You know how hard I''ve trained my Skills and Stats. I would venture there isn''t a more well prepared person for this to happen to than me, but now I have to go." He bent down and nted a kiss on top of either of his sisters'' heads before peeling their arms off of him. They were reluctant to let go.
He didn''t have to prepare any gear. He didn''t have any, anyway, not expecting to need any for several more years yet toe. He had spotted a cart holding what suspiciously looked like packs and weapons off to the side of the square being watched over by a contingent of soldiers. He paused in the doorway for onest wave to his family before he stepped out.
It was time for the first true leg of his journey through life.
Chapter 9: Rabble Rabble
Chapter 9: Rabble Rabble
"Left, right, left, right..."
The uninspired marching cadence washed over him as Reivyn trudged along, lost in a sea of youths. Despite how incredibly easy it was to simply match the foot fall to the call of left and right, only about half of the conscripts were consistently managing it. He would face-palm if he could.
How are they not able to do it. It takes effort to get this wrong.
The group of teenagers had spent all morning "marching" back and forth. When the Knight-Captain had said everyone had an hour to say goodbye and to be ready to move out as soon as exactly one hour had passed, he had assumed they were going to set off to Magron immediately. That had not been the case. They had moved a couple of miles out of town and then set up camp. There had been two exnations given: The rookies needed to acquire the March Skill, and they were waiting for the contingents that had gone to the surrounding smaller viges to pick up more levies.
The farthest local vige was three days walking distance. Factor in a day of rest for that group, they would likely acquire the March Skill on the way, and they had four days to practice. At the rate they were going, Reivyn didn''t have any confidence everyone would get the Skill in that time.
The group walked around, back and forth, until it was a little after noon. At that time, the one overseeing the marching called them to a halt and dispersed them for lunch, or "chow" as he put it.
Reivyn quickly found Teilon amongst the group, and the two friends walked together towards the area designated as the "chow hall." It was just a table with the food being served on it next to a tent. Everyone was expected to simply find a spot to plop down on the ground to eat.
Other than the group of fresh conscripts, the camp was surprisingly orderly. The soldiers had chopped some trees down, expanding a small clearing they had walked to, and built a small pallisade with a ditch. Upon a question from one of the newbies, it was standard procedure every time they set up camp, and it wasn''t unheard of for soldiers and levies to gain the Skills Woodworking and Construction {Labor}.
With dreams filled with ambushes and night raids, this practice made perfect sense to Reivyn.
The armored troops that hade to fetch them were clearly professionals, and ones who took their job seriously; however, there were only so many resources a Count could sink into his military before he risked bankrupting himself. Thus the need to bolster their numbers with levies when the situation called for it. Whatever the situation that called for it in this instance had not beenmunicated to them, and Reivyn wasn''t sure if it ever would. A noble didn''t have to exin himself to the rabble.
The chow was a hard biscuit, some gruel, and a single piece of jerky, The bread was so dense, Reivyn felt his Weapons Master Skill kick in when he gripped it. Reivyn nced around and saw most of the youngsters cing the wheat brick to the side, disdaining to break their teeth trying to consume the food. A quick nce to the professional showed the proper way to eat it was to water down the gruel and soak it up with the bread.
Those guys are gonna regret it, Reivyn thought to himself as he quickly copied the soldiers. He poked Teilon in the side and gestured at his tray. Teilon gave a thumbs up and followed suit. The bread, water, gruel mix, while individually was not much to write home about, wasn''t too bad when all mixed together.
It made sense when he thought about it. The officers would want to provide as many calories as quickly as possible for the troops, and they would have a riot on their hands if the field rations, when not in abat situation, were consistently, actually crap. Coupled with Skill levels, even if the cooks weren''t ssed to actually focus on cooking, a consistent practice would eventually lead to subpar ingredients tasting at least average. And there was nothing to say that the underlying ingredients were subpar. It was just that the recipe was atrocious.
The meal was quickly consumed, and the same soldier who had led them in Marching returned with six others following after him. He confirmed that everyone had finished eating and signalled for them to follow him and the other soldiers. The recruits quickly deposited their trays back on the table, and they made their way over to one of the wagons where the man in charge was waiting for them.
"You will address me as Sergeant Mok, or just Sergeant," Sergeant Mok addressed the crowd. "First we will distribute the gear. Step forward, take the form handed to you, ce your token on the seal in the top right corner, hand the form back, and receive your gear. The token will automatically fill the form in for you. You will receive one pack and one spear, and the pack will contain everything you will need except armor. As Peasant Levies, you will only receive a gambeson and a leather helmet upon reaching the barracks in Magron."
The soldiers were, like with everything else they had done up until now, quick and efficient. Two of them handed out forms, two of them handed out packs, two of them handed out spears, and the sergeant and one other ushered the young men and women to move faster, faster, faster.
After everyone had their gear, they were directed to assemble just outside the pallisade. The group loosely formed a semi-circle and sat down cross-legged.
"We will now have a brief period of ssroom instruction followed by weapons practice," Sergeant Mok dered. "And when I say weapons, I mean Spear. That''s all you''ll need to know for the foreseeable future."
Reivyn looked down at the spear he had been issued. It was slightly superior to a sturdy, pointed stick. It was seven feet long, and it was made entirely of wood. There was no metal reinforcement or tip. This was clearly a more dangerous training weapon and not a weapon of war. Many of the recruits came from backgrounds with parents who had Lifestyle sses, and not knowing the difference, there was some excitement on their faces. They chattered with their friends and neighbors about the prospect of learning Skills from a Combat ss, even if that ss was only Peasant Levy.
"Quiet," Sergeant Mok intoned. "I''m sure many of you are wondering why we conscripted you and not the Tier 2 sses who are already full adults. The answer to that is simple. The vast majority of you are more than half-way through your Tier 1 ss, and thus almost considered a full adult yourself. I can spot a few that are an exception to this, but your Stats shouldpensate for the difference, as we specifically only recruited those who had a Vitality of 20 or higher. This is typically an indication of training, or, in some rare instances, one of extreme talent.
"The second reason is the fact that you all are only Tier 1. Peasant Levy is a Tier 2 Common ss. I''m sure that most of you have noticed by now in your Status Page that you have not been prematurely upgraded to Tier 2, but that Peasant Levy has instead reced your Citizen Tier 1 ss, and that it is listed as Umon. This is because it is a Tier 2 ss, and in the instance that one is forcibly awarded a ss a Tier above them, the System considers it to be one Rarity Level higher.
"As far as anyone is aware, conscription is the only known method of forcibly awarding a Tier 2 ss ahead of time.
"If we had conscripted Tier 2''s, their original ss would have been over-written, and once their term is up, they would have to visit a Priest to remove the ss and start over at level 1. We only do such a thing in an emergency.
"Your new, Umon ss retroactively awards the unassigned Stat points, and this is another reason we only conscript Tier 1''s. It allows for a slightly stronger Tier 2, once it is achieved, and it is a form ofpensation. You will receive pay, as you are not ves, but if you can receive an award at no cost to the noble in charge, why not? It''s good management."
All of the questions that had been floating around in Reivyn''s head had been answered with the exnation. Considering the System shenanigans that had resulted in him receiving an Epic rarity ss at Tier 1, Reivyn could imagine that he would be significantly stronger than even he had anticipated.
"Now we will go over some rules and regtions," Sergeant Mok continued. He quickly exined some of rules that now applied to them. Most of them centered around the concept of if you were supposed to be somewhere at a certain time, you had better be there before that time. Many of the rules were familiar to him from his dreams, like properly greeting superiors and instant obedience to orders.
"Now, who here has the Spears Skill?" Sergeant Mok quickly finished going over the rules and moved on to the weapons training.
Reivyn, Teilon, and about forty other teens raised their hands. The number of people who had the Skill didn''t surprise Reivyn. There were close to 400 recruits, and it was reasonable that about 10% of them would be Combat ss focused in their training. Most of the ones who trained towards a Combat ss had ns on entering either the City Guard or the military, and a small few had aspirations to be an Adventurer.
"Right, you lot with Corporal Pale," Sergeant Mok directed. "The rest of you break up into groups of approximately 60. Each of us will take a group and instruct you in the Spears Skill."
Reivyn, Teilon, and the other forty or so quickly followed one of the soldiers who waved them over. Reivyn was slightly surprised to see Torhn among the group. He knew that he was a couple of years older, and he had to have been very close to Level 30, the cutoff between Tier 1 and 2. He didn''t know if this was a blessing or a curse for the other young man.
"Alright, what''s your Skill at?" The man pointed to one of the recruits and asked.
"Nine," came the reply.
"Off to my right," he pointed to his right. "Assume the stance and practice your forms until I sort through everyone. Next."
"Seven," A girl replied. With the System assisting in everyone''s development without discrimination, the recruit makeup was pretty close to 50/50. Nobody was surprised by this, because with the System sex discrimination wasn''t even a concept for most of civilized society. Even in the most ancient of texts, it had always been that way.
Corporal Pale motioned to his right. "Next."
"Eleven," a boy answered. Corporal Pale gave him a small nod in acknowledgement. Typically reaching a Skill of 10 in a weapons Skill signalled at least a small modicum ofpetence. He motioned for him to move over to his left.
The group quickly separated into two groups with only six of the youngsters having a Skill Level of ten or higher. Teilon was not among that group, as though he was Combat ss focused in his upbringing, the Spear was not his fort¨¦.
Reivyn was thest one to give his answer, but before he could, the corporal turned to the group on his left.
"Alright, you six pair off andmence sparring," He said. He then addressed the other group. "You lot line up and continue practicing your forms. I will provide correction in a moment." He then turned to Reivyn, who, with his smaller than average stature, rtive to the older kids at least, stood out. "Ok, little guy, what''s your Skill at?"
Reivyn didn''t take offence or be indignant or anything at the casual remark. It was simply true. He quickly considered the remark his father had given about the Weapons Master Skill providing a higher mastery level than the typical Skill, so he felt it was alright to embellish the number to his actual level ofpetency.
"26," he replied. The corporal''s eyebrows shot to the roof of his forehead. They threatened to sprout wings and fly away, but he quickly mastered his expression. He cocked his head and assumed a look of yeah, right.
"Prove it," he said.
Reivyn shrugged and got into his stance, gripping the spear appropriately. The other kids stopped their practice to watch him square off against the older man.
Reivyn waited patiently for the corporal, who hadn''t nned on actually using a spear at this time because he was in charge of the group that already had the Skill, to retrieve a weapon. As the corporal approached his sparring position, Reivyn noticed a particr glint in his eye and the beginnings of a smirk. He could guess what the man was nning to do, but he wasn''t going to let him.
As soon as the man was an appropriate distance away, before he could even bring his weapon up into the proper stance, Reivyn darted forward and attacked. Heunched a lightning-quick jab at the man''s waist. His opponent quickly took a step back and swung his spear in a hurried parry. Reivyn redirected his attack from a straight jab downward, and as the older man struggled topensate with his defense, he smoothly transitioned into looping his spear around his opponent''s and thrust it towards his face.
Any sign of arrogance or condescension had quickly fallen off of the corporal''s face, and he quickly jerked his head back. The motion caused him to raise his spear up horizontally in front of him to maintain his bnce. Sweat trickled down the side of his face as the spear tip stopped within an inch of his face.
Reivyn was extended as far as he safely could, so he had to retract his spear to reset his momentum. Years of training against a superior opponent in his father had ingrained in him to never let up on any kind of advantage. While the man was off bnce, Reivyn lunged forward and shoulder-checked him, further knocking him off his center as Reivyn perfectly maintained his.
He performed a textbook Spear thrust at the man''s midsection as he stumbled. Desperately the man attempted a maneuver that had worked countless times in the past, and he mmed his spear sideways into Reivyn''s with exaggerated strength so that he could borrow the momentum to spin around to simultaneously regain his bnce and try to regain the initiative.
Reivyn mentally shook his head. Spinning moves might look fancy and work on an unskilled opponent, but it''s just a shy way to get yourself killed against someone who knows what they''re doing. Reivyn simply used the same concept, and he borrowed the momentum from the hasty parry to loop his spear back around without even recovering his stance. He near-instantaneously moved his spear point to within an inch of the corporal''s expected eye location after his littlebat twirl, as his father would call it.
When Corporal Pale turned back towards Reivyn, he instantly froze as his vision was greeted by the spear point, steady as a rock, waiting for him right in front of his face. His back broke out in cold sweat, and he wasn''t even able to bring his spear to bear in any kind of way. He was soundly defeated.
Reivyn remained in his stance with his spear point not wavering an inch. He waited for the other man to slowly lower his spear and then step back before he recovered his stance. The corporal scratched the back of his head.
"Well, I guess you proved it," he gave out a weak chuckle. It wasn''t that Reivyn was considerably more skilled than him, it was because he had looked down on his opponent and hadn''t taken him seriously at all. He had assumed he had been lied to, and he was nning on embarrassing the offender while teaching him a lesson. The facts spoke for themselves, though.
"What other weapons Skills do you have?" The corporal asked.
"What other weapons Skills do you want to know about?" Reivyn retorted.
"Swords."
"26."
"Daggers."
"26."
"Bows."
"26."
"Pugilist."
"26."
The corporal''s face slowly went from conversational, as he tried to gauge what he was working with, to shock, and then existential crisis. He quickly nced at his Skills page. Spears was his highest weapons Skill at 26, also. The others were anywhere in a range from 18 to 24.
He crossed his arms as he considered the predicament in front of him. He shrugged with one arm brought up in front of himself, "Wellll..." he dragged the word out. "I guess I''ll give you a rod, and you can help me correct the others practicing their forms?" It was more of a question than a statement, but Reivyn knew it wasn''t directed at him. "Yeah, that''s what we''ll do. Hold on."
The man returned his training spear to where he had acquired it from, and he quickly returned with two rods. They were exactly the same proportion as the rod his father used during their training. He felt a bit strange as he epted the rod. This would be the first time he had ever used the implement himself.
The other teenagers resumed their practice. They cast furtive nces Reivyn''s way, the boys with respect and some of the girls with interest. They whispered to themselves while performing their moves. None of themined about having a boy younger than them correcting them on their forms. They had all witnessed the exchange clearly for themselves.
The practice went on for about an hour. Most of the recruits only had a smattering of mastery with the weapon, and Reivyn found himself quite busy correcting and offering advice to the others. They all epted with crity, and from the whisperedments, he could tell that a significant portion of those he had personally helped had already seen some Skill growth.
"What are you doing?" A voice cut through his concentration as he helped another conscript. His body locked in the traditional position of Attention from his dreams, and he barked out a response without thinking about it.
"Correcting and instructing, sir!" He didn''t know if this was the proper way to behave in this situation, but his body had moved on instinct. The familiar military atmosphere brought out this trained response.
"I can exin, sir," the corporal came running over. Upon ncing over, Reivyn noticed it was the Adjutant that hade to inspect the goings on. The man was a Knight-Lieutenant, which meant he was amissioned officer. Corporal Pale gestured for Reivyn and the others to continue, and he walked off a short distance from the group. Reivyn''s Eavesdropping Skill subconsciously activated, and he was able to hear the conversation.
"Sir, he has a Spears Skill of 26, the same as mine. I didn''t believe him at first, but I personally tested him out, and he was telling the truth. If he''s to be believed, which, considering his performance, I''m inclined to, he has all of the weapons Skills I do, and they''re all higher. Frankly, sir, I have nothing to teach him, and instead of him standing around doing nothing, I figured the best use of his time was to help me correct and instruct those with a Skill below 10," Corporal Pale stood at attention and quickly summarized the events.
"Hmmm," the Adjutant frowned. "Noted. Carry on." He briskly walked away, and Corporal Pale returned to his task.
The Spear training continued for a couple more hours. It was followed by another hour of attempted Marching and then dinner. After dinner the cohort assembled once again to learn how to set up their tents. Their packs contained water-proof treated canvas and some short rods that could bebined to turn into tent poles. They were designed in such a way, two sets could bebined together to form a tentrge enough to hold four people sleeping side by side, head to foot.
They weren''t assigned any particr ce, so Reivyn easily paired up with Teilon. While they both were casual acquaintances with several others, they were each other''s only real friends. They conversed a bit about their day before going to sleep, ending the busy day.
They could look forward to more of the same as they awaited the other groups from the surrounding viges to arrive.
Knight-Captain Reifold sat at his desk reading andposing reports. As themanding officer of the entire operation, he instructed those directly below him on what to aplish, and then he supervised from a distance. The men were well trained, and they did not need his micromanaging. The recruits never saw him during the day, but he did interact a little with the rank and file of the professional troops under him when necessary.
So far nothing unexpected had happened, and that was how he liked it. Expected meant safe, and safe meant everyone went home after. As themanding officer, after mission aplishment, making sure his men lived was his highest priority. Some officers didn''t care so much about the casualty rate of themoners theymanded, but that was a good way to win a battle but lose a campaign, in his expert opinion.
As he rifled through the papers, he heard his tent p open as a man walked in. He didn''t have to look up to know it was the Adjutant. The guards standing post outside would only allow one man in unannounced. Only one man dared to do so.
He finished reading the current page in front of him before looking up to address his number two. "Knight-Lieutenant," the simple statement hung in the air. Those brief words said, I know you have something to say to me, and it better be important. Can''t you see that I''m busy.
"Sir, have you checked the System report on the conscription yet?" The Adjutant asked.
"I have not. Why? Is there something unexpected?" He asked. He narrowed his eyes at the other man as he continued, "You know how I feel about... unexpected."
The Adjutant''s hair stood on end as he felt prickles all over his suddenly cold skin. "Uh, yes sir, it is unexpected. But I think it could be the good kind," he hastily added.
"Hmph," was the response from the Knight-Captain. He quickly opened his System Page and mentally selected the Command tab. As holder of a leadership ss directly under the authority of a System recognized noble, he had ess directly from the System itself to assist him. He flipped to the page concerning the conscription.
Unit Management: Recruitment
383 Individuals have been forcefully Conscripted
Peasant Levy 382
Fighter 1
Knight-Captain Reifold felt a small twitch in his eyebrows as an expression threatened to make an appearance on his face for the first time in years. He looked up at the man standing before him.
"Have you investigated this?" He queried.
"I noticed something unusual. One of the recruits was assisting an NCO in instruction instead of training with a spear. I don''t know the specifics. I just know that he apparently has several weapons Skills at the Journeyman mastery," the Adjutant exined.
"Who is it? Is it that big, stocky fellow?" He was momentarily silent while he thought, maintaining his bearing. "Torhn, I believe his name is."
"It''s the boy, sir," the Adjutant didn''t have to exin any further.
The Knight-Captain sat in contemtion for a moment, his hands sped on the desk in front of him.
"Separate him from the conscripts. ce him with the Regrs. We''ll formally adjust his token when we reach The City. Dismissed," he returned to perusing his documents as the Adjutant turned to exit. He briefly paused, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"If I may, sir, what does the System report say?" He asked.
Knight-Captain Reifold considered the question for a few seconds.
"It says he has an Epic rarity Fighter ss."
Chapter 10: Regular Guy
Chapter 10: Regr Guy
Reivyn was startled awake to the sound of a horn. He was momentarily confused at the unfamiliar surroundings. The fog of sleep impeded his ability to think about his situation as he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. After a moment, the scenery triggered his memories of the previous day.
He could see dawn peeking up over the horizon through the opening in the end of the tent he had constructed with Teilon. His friend and the others were experiencing the same situation, as they stirred awake and were slowly looking around. Reivyn reached over and poked his buddy, helping to bring him to the present.
"Wakey, wakey," he said. Teilon''s eyes widened in remembrance, and the two of them, followed shortly by the other two sharing the tent with them, scrambled to get dressed in the provided clothes located in their packs. While the provided clothing did match, it would be a stretch to refer to it as a uniform. They were just simple brown linens. Reivyn noted the conspicuous absence of boots, and everyone continued to wear their own personal footwear.
Upon exiting the tent, they were greeted with several soldiers, who were already fully attired and apparently had been for some time, directing everyone to quickly get to the chow hall.
"Mmm, chow," Reivyn muttered subconsciously.
Teilon gave him the side-eye as he remarked, "You''re acting weird, man."
Reivyn momentarily froze as he realized what he had said. The affect his dreams were having on him had be more pronounced ever since entering the camp. Salivating over chow, regardless of the taste, was a sentiment from many of his dreams.
"Haha, just hungry," he brushed it off. The two quickly got their fare, the same as the previous meals: a brick of bread, gruel, and a single piece of jerky.
"Woo-hoo, another day of ''marching,'' as we wait for the slow of wit to learn how to walk," Teilon quipped in a deadpan manner. He pointed to the piece of jerky in his hand and looked at Reivyn as he spoke around a bite of the meat. "Guarantee that bunch doesn''t get the Skill until halfway to Magron. Did you see some of them that forgot how to walk? Instead of alternating their natural arm swing with their stride, they''re moving the same arm and leg forwards and backwards at the same time. It''s the most awkward thing I''ve ever seen. We''re just walking."
"People are thinking about it too much," Reivyn replied. "I''m sure once they''ve adapted to the situation and rxed a bit, they''ll get it." He shovelled the tasty mix of breaded brick and gruel into his mouth while conversing.
"If you say so. I''m not so sure," Teilon sighed. "Iment for our chances of making it home alive with these guys as our allies. Speaking of," Teilon waved to a passing soldier to get his attention. "Hey, Sarge'', what''s the chances of making it home?"
The passing soldier frowned at Teilon''s question. "I''m not a ''sarge,'' as you put it. I''m a Lance Corporal, and you should get used to addressing us as our proper rank. Incorrectly calling us by a higher rank doesn''t tter anyone. And as to your question, that''s something the actual trainers at the barracks could tell you," he only paused momentarily to give a brief response before he quickly continued on his way.
Teilon nkly looked in the direction of the departing soldier before turning back to Reivyn and rolling his eyes. "I didn''t even know Lance Corporal was a rank, much less how to tell the difference," heined.
"These guys aren''t like us. They''re professionals and do this for a living," Reivyn responded.
"Yeah, yeah. Give me a break, though. I''ve been doing this for a day," Teilon didn''t let it get to him and maintained a lighthearted attitude.
The two went silent as they quickly finished their food. They deposited their trays and made their way to the assembly location just outside of the palisade. They weren''t the first to arrive, but they were still earlier than most. As they walked to their position, Sergeant Mok spotted them and he motioned towards Reivyn.
"Reivyn, front and center," he called out.
Reivyn shared a nce with Teilon, and then he made his way to report to the sergeant. He quickly brought himself to attention in front of the older man.
"Return your practice spear to the cart and report to Corporal Decker. He can be found leading the morning physical training inside the palisade," after delivering the simple instruction, Sergeant Mok turned his attention back towards the arriving recruits, clearly dismissing Reivyn.
Reivyn was a little confused, but he still carried out the order given to him, remembering the rule of instant obedience to orders. After depositing his wooden spear back into the cart that was still parked in it''s same position, he made his way back towards the palisade. He stopped by Teilon briefly to exin.
"I''m not entirely sure what''s going on, but I''m not with you guys for now," Reivyn said. Some of the other teenagers looked over at the two, having noticed the situation.
Teilon pped him on the shoulder, "Alright, man, just be safe." He nced over at the others assembled. He gave Reivyn a meaningful look, "Pray for me."
Reivyn chuckled as he jogged back into the palisade. It was obvious what Sergeant Mok had told him to find, as he spotted the majority of the soldiers in a loose formation doing basic warm-up and stretching calisthenics. A man was standing on a simple raised tform directing the exercises and performing along with them. He instantly spotted Reivyn approaching the men, and obviously anticipating his arrival, he simply pointed to the back of the formation.
Reivyn understood what he was supposed to do, and he lined up to participate in the exercises. The warm-ups and stretches being done were simr to the same ones his father had had him do. Not all of them were exactly the same, and there were a couple different ones, but with the example of the man leading, he was able to easily integrate. The soldiers weren''t in their armor, and, instead, they dressed like Reivyn in simple linens to facilitate ease of movement.
"Line up!" The man, presumably Corporal Decker, called out to the men. The men ended their exercise and made their way to form up in a 4-person column formation. The man closest to Reivyn grabbed him by the arm and motioned for him to follow him. Reivyn gave him a nod and a smile in gratitude.
Corporal Decker made his way to the front of the column, and with a shout of "Let''s go," over his shoulder, he took off jogging, followed by the column of men behind him. The soldiers consisted of, at minimum, mid-Tier 2 Umon Combat sses, so while Reivyn wasn''t too far behind in his physical Stats to some of them from his years of intense training, he still had the lowest physical Stats in the group. The pace the corporal set wasn''t anything crazy, but it was definitely above what would be considered a jog for Reivyn.
The troops circled the palisade four times, and sweat was beginning to dampen his linens by the time they came to a halt. This wasn''t the end, though, as the men paired off to continue with the exercises. The man who had helped him earlier again motioned for him to pair up with him.
"I heard you have a Pugilist Skill of 26. That''s about the same as mine, so stick with me," the man said.
Reivyn could grasp what the continued exercise entailed with the context, and his suspicions were quickly confirmed with a shout from Corporal Decker.
"Grappling," hemanded.
Reivyn squared off against his helper, and they began to wrestle. This wasn''t apetition, and they weren''t trying to necessarily best each other. It was abination of physical exercise and technical practice. The troops wrestled in pairs for about ten minutes before receiving another call.
"Strikes," the bellow came from the tform. Reivyn and the man, along with all of the other pairs, separated and assumed boxing stances. They bobbed and weaved while they pulled their punches to not risk causing any idental damage. They still struck each other, as they were also practicing the Pain Resistance Skill. The exercise was familiar to Reivyn as he had performed in the same manner countless times with his father. Another ten minutes passed with Reivyn finally starting to pant for breath.
"Free form," the shout signalled another change. Reivyn wondered how much longer this was going to go on, but with the experience of training while tired, he maintained his proper form. The other man was slightly more Skilled in hand-to-handbat, but he wasn''t so much above him that he couldn''t put up a proper fight. They performed strikes, kicks, and grapple maneuvers, each seizing opportunities in turn with Reivyn performing slightly below his training partner.
"Alright, that''s it," Corporal Decker yelled. Everyone separated, most people also panting for breath like Reivyn, and the man across from him gave him an appraising look and a nod of respect.
"The name''s Brace, Lance Corporal Brace," he finally introduced to himself. He extended his hand, and the two grasped forearms in greeting.
"Reivyn. Just Reivyn," Reivyn replied. The man chuckled.
"Not anymore. Now it''s Private Reivyn. C''mon, I''ll take you to Corporal Decker. We''re in the same squad," he exined as he led him to the corporal in question. After hearing the words, the doubt he had had about whether he was just training or actually joining the professional soldiers was more than halfway to being answered. He was still confused about the reasons. It can''t just be my Skill Level.
Corporal Decker was surrounded by ten other men, all standing around waiting on him respectfully. Reivyn surmised that this was the squad he was being assigned to. Upon walking up to the waiting men, Corporal Decker spotted them, and he gave a nod to Brace before addressing everyone.
"It''s 7am right now. You have forty minutes to clean up, get armored, and meet back up here. We''ll go over everyone''s tasks for the day at that time. Reivyn, you''re new, and in order to not waste everyone else''s time, you have twenty minutes to get back here. You don''t have any armor yet, so it''s not much of an imposition. Any questions," he looked at each of his men. This was a rather routine urrence, so asking if anyone had any questions at this time appeared to be symbolic. "Ok. Go," hemanded.
"Don''t worry about breaking down your tent or getting your pack. Just leave it there. No point in relocating at this point. I''ll meet back up with you at the assembly point, just don''t bete. Cutting your time down by twenty minutes means the corporal cut his own time, too, so keep that in mind," Brace gave him some quick instruction before heading off to take care of his own hygiene.
Reivyn quickly grabbed a change of clothes, the exact same linens he was currently wearing, a towel, and some soap, and he made his way to the washroom. Washroom was putting a pretty face to it, as it was simply an area cordoned off with canvas. There was arge, open cistern of cold water with a bucket one could scoop the water out to dump over themselves.
Reivyn quickly cleaned himself by dumping some cold water to wash off the sweat and grime, scrubbed himself with his soap, and then rinsed off with another bucket of cold water. It was a far cry from being able to lean back and rx in an actual bath, taking as much time to rx as he wanted. The cold water didn''t bother him too much, as he had preferred to use cold water to cool off after exercising for years, and the sudden shock to the system did wonders to clear his mind.
After depositing his gear back at his tent and storing his soiled clothing in the provided webbed bag, Reivyn made his way back to the assembly point without dy. He had been given twenty minutes to get everything done and get back. He didn''t have to wait in line for anyone, and he guessed he only used about fifteen minutes, but Corporal Decker, decked out in proper armor and looking freshly washed, still managed to beat him back, as he was standing there waiting for him.
How in the world did he manage that? Can he use mana Skills? Reivyn was slightly incredulous, but he managed to take in stride as he jogged up and reported to his new Squad Leader.
"Private Reivyn, the proper way to report is toe in front of me, assume parade rest, and say, ''Reporting, as ordered, corporal,''" Corporal Decker instructed.
Reivyn, knowing the proper stance indicated from watching the other soldiers, assumed a stance of shoulder-width apart, his hands sped behind his back, and said, "Private Reivyn reporting, as ordered, corporal." Corporal Decker gave a slight nod of approval.
"I''m sure you''re wondering why you, and you alone, were moved over here and are not staying with the other levies," the man started. "It''s quite simple, really. They''re all Peasant Levies. Every one of them. That''s no ce for a Fighter ss."
Reivyn''s eyebrows attempted to join his hairline at this casual revtion. After being surprised, he frowned in contemtion of how his ss had been leaked. He hadn''t told anyone.
"Don''t look so surprised," Corporal Decker said with a chuckle. "The System itself informed the Knight-Captain as soon you were conscripted. The System isn''t just some magical interface to assist in personal growth. Nobody knows its origins, or what its actual purpose is, but there are many functions avable to the right sort of people. Nobles and their officers, for example.
"As someone with an actual Combat ss, and not a conscription ss, your enlistment will be with the Regrs. You would have found out the specifics, anyway, once we reached Magron, so there''s no harm in disclosing some of that information now. The conscription willst for three years, or until the objective is realized, whichever is shorter. All of the conscripts who have the ability to Level Up to a proper Tier 2 or 3 Combat ss will have the option to transfer to the Regr Unit. Quite frankly 90% of theme from Lifestyle backgrounds and don''t have the necessary foundations for that to be possible, so their next Tier ss will also be the equivalent of a Peasant Levy.
"You," he jabbed his finger, lightly, into Reivyn''s chest, "don''t have the option. You already have a solid Combat ss, and we''ll not waste you with the rabble." Reivyn, despite trying not to, got a small frown on his face at hearing his friend, Teilon, being referred to as "rabble." He didn''t really care about all of the others, but he knew his friend''s worth. "You think it''s unfair I referred to them as rabble? Well, let them prove otherwise, then. I''m under no obligation to give anyone, especially young teenagers I don''t know anything about, the benefit of the doubt." Reivyn couldn''t argue with that.
"Brace seems to have already taken you under his wing, so you''ll be with him after we dismiss for duty.
"Now, to answer another question you likely have, why are you with me and not someone else, is for two reasons. Number one I had an open slot in the squad. It really doesn''t matter in this situation, but there it is. Number two, and more importantly, we have the same ss. My ss wasn''t acquired ahead of Tier, so it''s still only Rare and not Epic like yours, but the only difference there is the unassigned Stats gained on levelling. I can give you advice on which ss Skills to use, how to effectively use them, how to efficiently gain experience outside ofbat, and the proper Mana Cirction technique for your specific build.
"Speaking of, what weapons Skills do you have, what are their levels, and which are your primary Skills?"
Reivyn was taken aback momentarily at the brazen demand for some of his most private information. His parents had educated him not to disclose things on his Status page casually. He also was in a dilemma on what to say about his Weapons Master Skill.
Noticing his hesitation, Corporal Decker continued, "One''s ss and weapons Skills, specifically, are not secrets in a military unit. Not only do yourmanders need to know urate information to provide proper training and how to use you, but your mates also need an understanding of what you''re capable of in life and death situations. This isn''t a game."
Knowing the seriousness of the situation, Reivyn was still reluctant to reveal too much, so he made a decision. "No disrespect, Corporal, but I feel that I need to speak to someone higher up on this particr issue."
Reivyn braced for the fallout from what the other man could possibly take as an insult to his character, but after waiting several breath''s time, nothing happened. Corporal Decker stared at him for a brief moment before nodding his head.
"Very well. You have that right," came the simple reply. "Follow me. We don''t have much time left, so we gotta be quick." The squad leader turned and ran off towards the center of the encampment. He wasn''t lying when he said they needed to be quick, as he set a much faster pace in order to get to his destination as soon as possible. Reivyn had to go nearly all out to keep up.
They came to a halt in front of arger, higher quality tent. There was only one other tent that was of better quality, and coupled with the soldier standing guard over the entrance, Reivyn guessed this was the Adjutant''s quarters.
Corporal Decker addressed the man guarding the tent, "Corporal Decker reporting to the Knight-Lieutenant in regards to Private Reivyn," he simply stated.
"Wait one," came the equally simple reply. The man ducked his head into the tent for a quick exchange with its upant before straightening up. "Enter."
The Squad Leader ducked into the tent. Reivyn didn''t really know what to do with himself in this situation, so he just stood off to the side. The other soldier, while not acting like aplete statue, seemed to ignore him as he stoically stood his post. Corporal Decker quickly returned from the confines of the temporary domicile/office.
"Ok, you go in and report. I''m going back to the assembly point. You tell him what you need to tell him, and he''ll tell me what he needs to tell me," he exined. He then thrust his finger into Reivyn''s face. "Now I told you this was your right, but if the situation isn''t as warranted as you think it is, and you waste everyone''s time... There will be consequences. Understood?"
"Yes, corporal," Reivyn replied. With that Corporal Decker nodded and quickly strode off back where they hade. Reivyn took a deep breath and ducked into the tent. The furnishings were Spartan with a simple folding desk and chair set, an oilmp, and a neatly rolled bedroll next to a chest in the corner. The Adjutant sat at the folding desk writing something.
"Private Reivyn reporting, as ordered, to the Knight-Lieutenant," Reivyn quickly assumed attention in front of the desk and gave his address. He was told to stand at parade rest when instructed earlier, but the man before him this time was amissioned officer. That meant this man had some real authority.
The man quickly finished his writing and ced his writing utensil neatly to the side before looking up and nodding at Reivyn. "You learn quick. Now, Corporal Decker tells me you have some issues with revealing information about your Status. Information that is routinely shared between everyone in a military unit. Exin to me why you should be treated any differently." The man did not couch his words.
Reivyn had already thought about the situation on the run over here, and he decided to simply go for broke. "Sir, I have the Weapons Master Skill," he stated.
The Adjutant stared at him for a moment, and then his eyes went wide with realization. He leaned forward in his chair, his elbows on the desk with his fingers steepled in front of his face as he appraised Reivyn. He pointed his steepled fingers at the young teen, "You have a Mythic Skill?"
"Yes, sir," was his reply.
The man brought his hands to his face, opened them and then rested his forehead on his palms as he sat in quiet thought. He abruptly sat up straight, acting as if he had always just sat there calmly, and said, "You were right to bring this to me and not disclose it. Corporal Decker, and the others, can be trusted, but this is a different thing entirely. Rest assured this will be handled appropriately. Dismissed," and with that he turned back to his papers.
Reivyn didn''t know what he had expected, but from the sounds of it, he had done the right thing. He quickly exited the tent and ran back to the assembly point. Unseen by Reivyn, immediately after he departed, the Adjutant also left his tent, but he headed towards the Knight-Captain''s tent once more.
Despite the very brief encounter inside the tent, Corporal Decker was already done issuing the daily duties to his squad, and he stood there with Brace waiting for Reivyn''s return. Reivyn made to report in again, but Decker waved him off.
"You don''t need to report in so soon, again. If we were so caught up on reporting in, we''d never get any actual work done," he said with a slight chuckle. "Brace will take you to the supply cart and get you some temporary gear. It won''t fit properly, but it''ll have to do until we get to Magron. Do you have the March Skill, yet?"
"No, corporal," Reivyn answered.
"Alright, after getting your gear, Brace will March around with you until you get the Skill, and hopefully you can get it to ten before we depart for the city," Decker said. "Don''t wear the boots except for when practicing to get the Marching Skill. I don''t care how active you were before now, but your feet aren''t going to be used to all of the walking we''re going to be doing, so you need to build up some tolerance. A Marching Skill of ten will greatly help with that on the way to the city, and you''ll be expected to be in full gear and kit during the trek up there. Any questions" He gave the symbolic question. Neither Reivyn nor Brace had anything to say. "Dismissed."
Brace, now also properly kitted out in his standard armor, quickly led Reivyn to a cart parked near the inside wall of the palisade. On the way, Reivyn posed some questions to the older man.
"What sort of duties do we typically have?"
"In an encampment like this, in a friendly area, it''s basically an in-barracks situation. There are all kinds of little, small things that need to get taken care of for the camp to run smoothly. Chow is a good example. The higher ups pass down the responsibilities needed to be ounted for, the sergeants divvy them up to the squads, and the squads rotate the men around to the different tasks. Someone needs to cook the food, and we don''t have a dedicated chef. That doesn''t mean there aren''t men with higher Skill levels than others, and the NCO''s typically find a way to matchpetency to tasks when possible.
"Patrol is another duty. Even though we''re in friendly territory, one must always be vignt. Never know what could be out there. Just because it''s a friendly, civilized area doesn''t mean all manner of things couldn''t pop up. Mainly it would be some savage beasts prowling around, not knowing any better than to stay far away. Patrol duty is done by the full squad, though.
"Here we are," Brace interrupted himself. He had presented a form to one of the soldiers manning the supply area upon reaching the carts, and they had conversed as they waited for the gear to be brought forth.
"Standard issue splint mail cuirass, helmet, greaves, boots, shield, spear, and sidearm," the man listed out as each piece was deposited on a table for inspection. The cuirass, like all the others worn by the soldiers, was a long-sleeve leather top with varying sized tes of metal rivetted to it. There were smaller tes with slightly more space around the midsection, and the shoulders curved down to protect the upper arm while leaving the elbow area clear with bracers for the lower arm. Upon putting it on, despite it being slightly too big, he was surprised to find his range of motion wasn''t really affected too adversely.
Reivyn put the armor on, Brace showing him where to attach sps and buckles when needed. The sidearm was a standard 30-inch sword, and the shield was carried strapped to the back while wielding the spear. They cinched it down as tight as they could to prevent anything from sliding around, and, all in all, it appeared to work just fine. He went ahead and donned the boots, as they would immediately begin practicing for him to acquire the March Skill.
"Do you have any armor Skills, or a shield Skill for that matter?" Brace asked him.
Reivyn shook his head negative. "No armor Skills, and I''m sure I could use the shield as a weapon, but not as a shield, as it were," He replied.
Brace lifted an eyebrow at the response. "Okaaay," he said. "We''ll be sure to get some sparring done while you''re wearing the armor to unlock the Skill. Really helps with moving around and knowing where and when you can take a hit. For now, though, we work on March. I''ll walk next to you and call cadence, and you match my steps and pace. Due to a quirk in the System, it is impossible to unlock the March Skill by yourself, even if I call cadence and you match the proper steps. You gotta actually march in formation, and for whatever reason, the System recognizes two people in step as in formation."
The two men lined up to begin the Skill acquisition. Before they started, though, Reivyn had onest question.
"Why are we in such a hurry? It seems like we''re rushing to get these Skills. I know we''re about to march to Magron, but it doesn''t seem that dire? What about the training at the barracks?"
"Training at the barracks?" Brace threw his head back andughed. "Kid, we''re here to pick up conscripts. There won''t be any training at the barracks. Those guys are gonna get as many levels in the March and Spears Skills as they can get along the way, but after a day or two of rest in the city, they''re moving out. And us with them. Now let''s focus on the task at hand."
Reivyn didn''t have time to really digest the words from the older man or contemte their implications. He quickly got consumed with the practice.
Chapter 11: Advancing
Chapter 11: Advancing
The sun bore down on him as Reivyn trudged along. The heat of the early summer was causing him to sweat, even if the physical exertion wasn''t too demanding. The trees to the sides of the road could be seen swaying with the wind, and a cool breeze was a weefort.
Or, at least, it would have been if he wasn''t surrounded by other men, marching in formation blocking all avenues for the wind to reach him. It would have been if he wasn''t attired in full kit and gear, helmet blocking any stray wind that managed to weave through the ranks to whisk sweat from his brow. As it was, the wind was nothing but taunting.
Reivyn had spent two of the expected five days on the journey towards Magron, "The City," as it was referred to. He had acquired the Skill March shortly after training in it on the second day, and now was putting it to good use in formation with the regrs. The beat of drums regted the steps of the march, with the loud, deep strikes signalling when to ce the left foot.
It turned out that Teilon was quite prophetic, and a small minority of the conscripts had, in fact, only just obtained the Skill. There was a difference between structured training and actual, long hours of sustained activity with a purpose. The only ones who suffered from theirck of unlocking the Skill in a timely manner were themselves, as nobody was going to wait on them. Suffering itself, it would seem, was quite the motivation.
The Marching Skill didn''t make the troops walk any faster. The main difference that Reivyn noticed as his Skill levelled up was less aches and pains in his back, legs, and feet.
The outfit had waited, and trained, five days for the surrounding conscripts to all arrive, and then they had spent one more day of rest before setting out. Thebined levies extracted from the surrounding viges were actually slightly less than enlisted from Haluville alone. Reivyn easily unlocked the necessary Armor and Shield Skills in the interim with Brace''s tutge. Being able to use the shield and parts of the armor as active weapons had elerated the growth in those Skills, and even now, after two days of near continuous Marching, those two Skills were higher than his March Skill.
Skills: Acrobatics (26), Aim (17), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (31), Bnce (34), Command (0), Drawing (16), Dreams of the Past (13), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (22), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Identify {Mundane} (18) Inspire (3), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Sight (14), Map Making (6), March (9), Mathematics (14), Medium Armor (13), Mental Fortitude (20), Numbers Concepts (8), Observation (27), Pain Resistance (23), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Pickpocket (6), Running (30), Sense Mana (42), Shields (15), Sneaking (19) Spatial Awareness (1), Stealing (9), Stealth (14), Strategy (0), Swimming (0), Tactics (1), Weapons Master (22)
He nced at his Skills tab, effortlessly multitasking by focusing on a blue box while maintaining his steps and positioning with the assistance of the Skill.
I wonder if it''s possible to single out certain Skills? Decker did say there was great utility in the interface of the System.
Corporal Decker had called him out to continue their one on one discussion after the evening training session that first day.
"The Adjutant has exined to me that you are versatile, and that I should expect an equal level of mastery in a wide variety of weaponry. So, with that in mind, what are your Physical Stat distributions?" Decker asked.
"24 Strength, 24 Dexterity, and 26 Vitality," replied Reivyn.
The older man''s eyebrows raised a bit at the revtion, having only known that he had a Vitality score of at least 20. After a couple seconds of thought, he remarked, "Good. You''re not an idiot. As someone versatile, it is more beneficial to maintain a bnce between Strength and Dexterity. Dumping more points into Vitality, when necessary to maintain that bnce, is never a bad thing.
"It''s not always beneficial for a Fighter to maintain a bnce, as it isrgely dependent on the Skills focus one has. The Fighter ss is designated as a Rare Tier 2 ss, despite its fairly mundane name, because of its wide range of possibilities without losing any power for any of them. I, myself, focus more on the heavy weapons, but there are a couple others who focus on the more dexterous weapons.
"Now, you might be asking yourself, ''but corporal, we all have spears and swords with shields.'' That is true, but it only applies to formation fighting. There are instances, such as individual squad patrol, where we can use our own personalized weapons. One of the things about you being versatile is that I, and our squad mates, can expect the same level ofpetency in both forms of action.
"The three different types of focus also have their own, unique Mana Cirction pathways. As a heavy focus, my pathways center around the meridians located in therger muscle groups, dexterity focus centers around the meridians located in the smaller muscle groups and joints, and versatile Fighters... Well, after generations of extensive research, it has been found that, actually, the System provided Mana Cirction pathways are the most efficient. There won''t always be secret methods that are superior to what the System provides.
"I''m sure you''re aware that everyone has mana, and exercising your Mana Cirction is important, so don''t ck off and make sure you do it at least once every day feasible. Even those with a zero Magic Stat have some internal mana, and before you ask, no, you don''t have to disclose whether you have it or not.
"The System is vast and unfathomable, and there are many different things it is capable of. I, and almost everyone else in the unit, use it to maintain the time. Have you ever wondered how our unit is so punctual without any apparent instruments of time keeping? Well, there you go.
"So, any questions for me at this time," the corporal gave the symbolic gesture.
"Actually, yes." Reivyn quickly interjected before the man could leave. The corporal, not put out, gestured for him to continue, and he simply asked, "Can you teach me the time thing?"
Decker gave a small chuckle, "It''s no secret. You just have to know the exact time, and urately count out a minute in your head. That''s it. Here, I''ll help you."
Reivyn''s thoughts came back to the present as he spotted the inconspicuous time stamp in the corner of his vision next to the blue notification dot. It had been easy to acquire, and he had quickly reciprocated by teaching his friend Teilon and the other two tent mates.
Reivyn mentally fiddled with his Status as they continued moving ever forward on the road. Suddenly, a new box popped up in his vision.
Recent Skills:
March (9)
Medium Armor (13)
Shields (15)
There it is. That''ll be more convenient in the future.
The troops came to a crisp halt as one of the Scouts approached the Knight-Captain from his excursion. The levies performed more of a meandering, gradual stop more than anything resembling a halt. Not only were they not as Skilled as their professional counterparts, but, quite frankly, they didn''t care nearly as much, either.
Themander waspetent and had several men on horseback to keep vigil all around the formation. The Knight-Captain gave an order to the Scout that Reivyn couldn''t hear, and as the man moved towards the opposite direction he hade from, themanding officer pulled out his token. Reivyn couldn''t get a good look at it, but it was definitely a different material, and did something with his mana that Reivyn could just barely perceive.
"Contact, right," the Knight-Captain''s calm voice spread over the entirety of the unit, professionals and levies alike. "Scouts report a small goblin tribe heading our direction. Sergeant Mok, take a toon to reinforce the levies. Knight-Lieutenant Brand, you havemand."
This was actually the first time Reivyn had heard the Adjutant''s name. The calmness with which the Knight-Captainmanded and the others obeyed helped to quell the rising butterflies in his stomach. This was the first time he was ever going to be in a true, life or death situation, and no matter how he had trained and had confidence in himself, he was still nervous.
"Align Right," came themand from the Knight-Lieutenant. The unit dispatched to retrieve the levies was apany made up of three toons. With one toon sent back to the recruits, the two remaining toons faced the right and came together to form one long line. Reivyn found himself in the third rank after the shift.
"Just watch and learn as much as you can," Brace leaned over slightly and whispered to him. "This ain''t gonna be nothin'', you''ll see."
"Front Rank, Javelins," at themand, the front rank retrieved their shields from their backs and shifted their stances a bit to allow them to bring them to bear more easily. They flipped their spears upside down to be held in the opposite grip so they could throw them onmand. The spears weren''t technically designed to be used as javelins, but with the Throwing Skill and the System, it was a simple matter to adapt, and it was apparently amon usage of the weapon.
"Second Rank, Ready Spears," a thirdmand came down, and the second rank assumed a ready stance with their spears.
"We''ll rotate forward if either the first or second rank need it," Brace continued his whispered instructions. He slightly shook his head, "Probably won''t need it."
"Fourth Rank, Assemble Reserve," at thestmand, the two squads broke off from standing in ranks and assembled behind the troops, centered on their original toon. They would be able to react to changes on the battlefield as needed.
"Now the fun part," Brace nced over with a small smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Waiting."
The soldiers stood at the ready, eyes scanning the tree line approximately thirty or so feet in front of them. Other than the sounds of nature all around them, there was total silence as the men waited.
And waited.
And waited.
A swirl of differing emotions threatened to consume Reivyn as he stood in his ce. Anticipation and butterflies tickling his stomach threatened to make him puke. Fear and confidence warred against each other for supremacy. Boredom and doubt threatened to distract him. He found it difficult to stand still and not bounce on his toes or fidget in other ways. He could hear his own elerated heart beat in his ears due to the total silence.
Huh, the birds stopped chirping.
No sooner had the thought popped into his head when, suddenly, a tide of green children came pouring out of the treeline, screaming like banshees. That was the only way Reivyn could describe the spectacle. At first nce, it looked like tiny, green human kids ran at him with clubs and makeshift stone hatchets. Upon closer look, he could make out the pointed ears and noses, as well as the wild, feral eyes.
"First Rank, Throw," the Knight-Lieutenantmanded. The troops in the first rank smoothly hefted their spears and let fly. The goblins were attired in nothing but loincloths, and the spears easily prated the first row of the unarmored assants. It looked like a scythe had reaped wheat as goblins tumbled to the ground, never to rise again.
"First Rank, Swords," anothermand was issued. The first rank calmly unsheathed their swords and formed a shield-wall, swords held at the ready. The goblins never slowed down as they mmed into the waiting shields.
The men didn''t try to standpletely firm, and allowed the goblins to push them slightly back to absorb some of the impact. Reivyn copied Brace, and the third and second rows supported the shield-bearers by helping them absorb the momentum, and then they assisted to shove back against the goblins who were dazed from the collision.
Reivyn watched as the first rank took the opportunity to bring their swords to bear, dispatching the closest goblins and quickly resuming the shield-wall. Now that the initial charge was over, the shields were no longer held solidly up against each other, but instead a small gap was left open. The second rank stood slightly off to the side of the first rank, and they used the small gap to jab their spears out at targets. Any goblin that thought it was smart and targeted the gap quickly found itself skewered in the neck or face.
There were probably several hundred goblins, and they advanced without regard to their safety. A cacophony of unintelligible grunts and screams coupled with the sounds of weapons and shields shing shattered the formerly tranquil silence. They were in a frenzy, but despite their manic behavior and disced courage, they were utterly ineffective. The professional soldiers calmly and steadily annihted the foes in front of them.
Reivyn watched in fascination. He didn''t need to learn how to perform the maneuvers. He needed to learn themands and develop trust between himself and his allies.
He stole a quick nce over to the back. The officers were calm andposed. Knight-Lieutenant Brand was meticulously focused on the formation that he wasmanding. Knight-Captain Reifold sat on horseback watching the forest, his hands folded on the pommel of his saddle. asionally he would nonchntly tug on his gloves, looking entirely unconcerned.
The midst of a pitched battle was no ce to be distracted, so Reivyn only nced towards the officers for a brief second before resuming his vigil on the ranks before him.
If nothing unexpected happens, this''ll be over quickly, he thought to himself.
Suddenly, a deafening roar reverberated over the battlefield. A giant, hulking behemoth of a monster came trundling out of the treeline. It gripped an entire tree branch in its meaty fist as a club and stood at least ten feet tall. It scanned the conflict arrayed before it before bellowing once more andunching itself at the formation, tree branch held aloft. It cared nothing for the goblins in its way as they were tossed about and smashed t in turn. It was surprisingly fast for its bulk, and it wouldn''t take longer than a second or two to reach the first rank.
Reivyn felt his belly flip flop at the appearance of the monster. He felt a sweat drop on the side of his face as he chastised himself for his errant thought. None of the troops in formation reacted, however, and they continued to perform their duties as if it didn''t exist. They had supreme confidence in their allies andmanders.
A sh of light, reminiscent of Reivyn''s dreams, passed overhead of the men and through the beast. It took one more step before literally falling apart. The beam of light had neatly bisected the creature before it could even enter the fray.
Reivyn stole another nce in the direction the light hade from. Everything was exactly the same, but now Knight-Captain Reifold sat upon his horse with one hand holding his drawn sword. He had obviously just used a devastating ss Skill to solve the threat. His gaze never wavered from scanning the treeline, and if one didn''t know better, they would assume he was just casually sitting there, having done nothing at all.
Reivyn had a new understanding of the man.
The loss of their ace had finally shaken the small goblin horde. Their frenzied attacks became tepid as it was clear they were finally faltering.
"Advance," Knight-Lieutenant Brand seized the opportunity to issue a newmand. The first and second ranks never stopped blocking, shing, and stabbing as they slowly started stepping forward into the waiting creatures. Reivyn quickly kept up in his position, and the advancing soldiers finally broke the morale of the tiny monsters.
Only about a hundred or so goblins were able to disengage and flee towards the treeline. At this opportune time, the Scouts came bursting out of the forest on their horses and trampled into the fleeing goblins. The little fiends hesitated at the sudden nking maneuver, and it sealed their doom as they were trapped in a pincer attack.
"Mop up by squad," the Knight-Lieutenantmanded.
Brace tapped Reivyn on the shoulder to get his attention and jerked his head towards the rest of the squad. "C''mon," he said.
Reivyn joined his squad in quickly descending on the remaining few stragglers. The men from the third rank mainly focused on confirming downed goblins were actually dead, and a quick stab with their spear would make it so when any were found alive.
"Reivyn," Corporal Decker called out to him. He looked up and saw his Squad Leader crooking his finger at him, and as he got closer, the man pointed down at the goblinying at his feet. It was still alive. "Kill it."
Reivyn looked down at the still breathing goblin then back up at all of the other squad members who had gathered round. The butterflies were back, and he felt extremely nervous. He had never killed anything before. He had never intended or wanted to kill anything before. His weapons had only ever been used in practice.
He knew that there was no getting out of this experience, and the longer he took, the more respect he would lose. Before anything could happen, he took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and thrust his spear as hard and fast as he could towards the downed creature. He tried to convince himself that he was aiming to stab his spear into the ground behind it, and not to use it to extinguish a life.
The vision of bright red life''s blood squirting up into the air seared itself into his mind, forever. The sound of the metal tip tearing through flesh was distinct, and the feel of boring through skin, sinew, and bone clearly travelled up the spear into his hands. He kept his eyes wide open, not to relish in the victory of killing an enemy, but so that he would never forget what taking a life was like.
As soon as the light went out of its eyes, a surge of energy swam through his veins. It felt like a cloud gave him a tender massage from the inside out, and all of the stress and anxiety that had built up evaporated with its passing.
He jerked his head up, wild-eyed, at Corporal Decker. "What was that?" He asked.
"That," Decker responded, "was your first taste of Euphoria. It is the way the System protects the minds of people who fight and kill monsters. How do you think so many people can take upbat sses and not bing gibbering lunatics from a lifetime of fighting and killing?
"This is an important lesson that everyone has to learn. Even the Adventurer''s Guild''s initial test is designed to introduce this to its newest members. Now here''s the important part: This only applies to monsters. This does not apply to animals or their higher levelled cousins ssified as beasts, and it certainly doesn''t apply to other people. In fact, if the System deems it, killing an innocent person would cause an equal, opposite reaction.
"It''s the main reason murder rates are so low, though there are psychopaths and people with Skills and/or sses that mitigate it. Not sure why the System would have such a punishment in ce to only help some prevent it, but what do we know about the System?" He shrugged.
"Alright, everyone, back to work," he ordered. The squad continued its duty of exterminating the pests. It was standard procedure that everyone, even the city folk, understood that if given the opportunity, a goblin tribe needed to be in to the veryst one. They had a remarkable tendency to bounce back from devastating losses quickly, unfathomably even if only one survived.
Reivyn no longer hesitated, and he personally slew two more goblins before they were recalled.
Upon returning to the road to resume the formation, Reivyn noticed that the levies hadn''t sustained any dead among them. The goblins had foolishly focused their attack on the armored professionals, and apparently Sergeant Mok was well versed in leading conscripts. There were some injured, but the goblins, even if they had focused on the levies, were never really much of a threat, and the thing that Reivyn could only guess was an ogre, was quickly dispatched before it was ever a factor.
There wasn''t much to the after action. The officers conducted a head count, and then reformed the marching formation to continue the trek. As they resumed their march, Reivyn pulled up the notification that was blinking in the corner of his vision.
Combat Initiated.
Member of a Military Formation 2nd Squad Decker (Leader) Status: Healthy Rizler Status: Healthy Dromin Status: Healthy Tobin Status: Healthy Kyle Status: Healthy Yorbo Status: Healthy Steil Status: Healthy Cliff Status: Healthy Marik Status: Healthy Kran Status: Healthy Sile Status: Healthy Brace Status: Healthy
Enemy Defeated x611
Final Blow!
Exp +10
Final Blow!
Exp +10
Final Blow!
Exp +10
Combat Resolved
Calcting...
Minor Contribution
Exp +10
Experience: 60/100
Reivyn snorted at the results. He got as much experience for finishing off each goblin as he did for the entirety of thebat. He guessed that the minor assistance with absorbing the momentum and pushing back against the horde in the beginning of the battle was his "minor contribution."
He would need to take a more active role inbat in the future if he expected to get any amount of meaningfulbat experience. It was probably squad patrols, with vastly reduced numbers of people involved, that saw the most individual gains inbat experience.
Not much opportunity for that for a while, considering we''re not going to be stopping over in Magron for any length of time.
Even while stationed in the barracks, the soldiers still had to form up their squads and go patrolling in the surrounding countryside. It wouldn''t be good to let a couple of these goblin tribesbine and descend on the city unannounced.
As he marched along, he suddenly got a chill down his spine as all of his hair stood on end.
What kind ofbat situation could have possibly awarded me a thousand experience while I was still a baby in the womb?
The thought was disturbing.
Chapter 12: Hazy Assimilation
Chapter 12: Hazy Assimtion
The troops finally made it to the city without further incident after the short battle against the goblins. Reivyn was able to see the tops of the walls looming in the distance over the heads of those marching in front of him long before they were anywhere close to arriving at the destination. They simply dwarfed the basic defenses afforded by the wooden pallisade of Haluville, easily standing 50 feet tall.
Fortifications that were taken seriously all had to ount for the possibility of high level assants in any siege, but high level masons made the work and quality considerably higher. A seat of power such as Magron definitely had at least a few decently high level craftsman of the various Lifestyle sses.
Ramshackle huts, tents, and lean-to''s marred the vision, as there were more people seeking to live in the city than there was space avable, and the poorest people were obviously the first ones squeezed out.
Reivyn spotted men in simr garb as the soldiers standing guard in front of the portcullis, and more men could be spotted patrolling the tops of the walls as they passed in and out of view from the crions.
Haluville liked to im they were between a town and a city, but there were obviously gradations of city. This was a proper city.
The foot traffic entering and exiting the city stood to the side as the soldiers marched through the city, having been waved away by the guards long before they had arrived. As the civilians watched the soldiers parade through, Reivyn, keeping his head straight, in turn watched them. There was an overall level of quality to the clothing and demeanor of the citizens of Magron that subtly spoke of a higher standard of living.
The formation made an immediate right turn after passing through the sally port. They didn''t enter the city proper, but stayed on the outskirts next to the inner walls. The barracks was located in such a spot that they could quickly muster, but not so close to the main thoroughfare as to be a nuisance.
Reivyn mentally chuckled to himself as he realized the barracks was located in the rtive exact same position as his home in Haluville: the south east corner near the fortifications.
The barracks wasn''t just a living quarters for the soldiers. It was a military encampment all on its own. It was roughly styled after a castle fortification, though with much smaller walls. There was a stone headquarters located down the center line with arge parade/drill field taking up the center. There was everything expected to find in a location that housed and trained professional soldiers, and the actual barracks were just a small portion.
The soldiers and levies came to a halt on the parade deck. Even with nearly a thousand troops, the space wasn''tpletely filled. A delegation of people in uniform, but not armor, came out to greet the officers, and they disappeared into the headquarters building while the sergeants delegated the corporals with getting their squads settled. Sergeant Mok met up with some more unarmored men and women to start processing the documents filled out when the conscription took ce.
"Reivyn," Corporal Decker beckoned him over. The drill field had devolved into controlled chaos as the administrative personnel took charge of the conscripts and broke them up into multiple groups handling various tasks simultaneously. As Reivyn approached his squad leader, the man told him, "In a moment we''ll go to the headquarters building to get your documents and token sorted out. Until then, stick with me."
Reivyn followed Corporal Decker and the rest of the squad to the barracks where they were housed. After supervising his men to ensure they were properly maintaining and stowing their gear, Decker dismissed his squad for the day. After ending a long march, the men had some down time allotted to them. They couldn''t leave the enclosure of thepound as a whole, but they could freely go about their own business.
His own duties as the supervisor seen to, Decker motioned for Reivyn to follow him and quickly strode towards the headquarters building. He was moving at a fast clip, his mind seemingly preupied, because the sooner he finally got done with Reivyn, the sooner he could enjoy his own rxation time.
Reivyn kept his head on a swivel as he took in all the sights avable to him. There was nothing much to the actual buildings and grounds themselves, but it was a sight to see the efficiency of the people who called the ce home. In the short amount of time they had been inside of the barracks where their squad was housed, the administrative soldiers had already bivouacked the levies.
The conscripts had been segmented into smaller units and given some chow. A quarter of the drill field had been sectioned off for them, and they were taking the time to enjoy a meal and get some rest as an unfortunate few had been volun-told to participate in a work detail setting up their temporary lodging. The soldiers weren''t going to make them just stay out in the open, but there was definitely not room for them in the permanent structures.
The path that the duo took towards their destination led them past a group of men training in various methods. They all stopped to watch as Reivyn passed, and he could see many different expressions on their faces: surprise, amusement, deadpan, and scorn. He could almost feel the few unfriendly gazes eyeing him up and down.
The foyer of the headquarters building was spotlessly clean, and more elegant than Reivyn would have expected. There were some curved stairwells leading to an open balcony lined by a balustrade on the second floor that in turn led down the hallways on either side. Their destination was on the first floor, down the hallway on the right.
"We don''t ever use those stairs," Decker said to him over his shoulder. "If we ever have business on the second floor, we use the stairs at the ends of the halls. Only the officers and messengers with emergency messages use the central stairs."
Reivyn nodded his head at this information. He seemed to have a very specific dream about being lost in a maze of a building, looking for some way to get upstairs because of some nonsensical rulebelling the only obvious way as off limits. Stupid, arbitrary rules seemed to permeate even the most efficient organizations.
Decker appropriated Reivyn''s token from him as they arrived at their destination, which was just a small room towards the end of the hall with some more administrative people. He approached a man, presented the form that Reivyn had filled out along with his token, and exined the situation to him.
There was no hassle or runaround. There was no, go here and get this signed by this person, then go across to another building, then hop on one leg shenanigans. It was quick and easy, and Reivyn was soon the holder of a brand new, shinier token. He was no expert on metals or alloys, but he was pretty sure the conscription token had been tin, and this new one was made of bronze. He held it to his core to attune it, and then he was officially a Regr.
Decker led him back out of the headquarters building, and pped him on the shoulder and said, "Well, I know you''ve been with us for a while now, but, wee aboard. Your bunk is the one next to Brace''s, like we showed you. I got some things to do, I trust you can find your way back on your own?" He asked. At Reivyn''s nod, he gave a small smile and said, "good man."
Corporal Decker hurried off in another direction, leaving Reivyn to walk back across the drill field on his own. Nothing had changed in the short time they had been inside, and the environment was saturated with a military atmosphere.
"Well looky what we ''ave here, boys," a mean sounding voice interrupted Reivyn''s sight-seeing of thepound. He had been lost in the simrities between his current situation and many of the dreams he remembered, and he hadn''t been paying attention to where he was going. He looked up and saw the group of men that had been training nearby when he had followed Corporal Decker to the headquarters. He recognized the tone of voice of the man who had spoken, and he sighed to himself.
"Looks like we got some fresh meat," the man walking towards him called over his shoulder to his training mates. The other men chuckled gleefully at the expected good y they were about to witness. The man turned to face Reivyn, eyed him up and down with a smirk on his face, and said, "Does your mommy know you''re here?"
Reivyn looked at the man, then looked at the others who were also approaching, and he simply turned and walked away. A hand snatched out and grabbed him by the shoulder, holding him in ce. His eyes followed the hand up the arm to the frowning face of the one who had approached him. He thought he had had enough time to keep the distance enough between them, but he had moved a lot faster than he had expected when he tried to get away.
"I''m talking to you, boy." The man spit to the side, a familiar gesture that only served to cause Reivyn irritation. "Seems to me like you got no respect for your elders," he reached his left hand out without looking, and another person handed him a training spear. "I''m a magnanimous person, so I''ll take it upon myself to teach you a few pointers." The man let go of his shoulder and stepped back an appropriate distance for sparring with a spear.
Before he had realized it, Reivyn had been surrounded by the group of older soldiers. A spear came flying at him, horizontally so as not to actually hurt him, but it was fast enough that he had to scramble to catch it before it smashed into his face. He looked at the man standing before him and all around at the others. All that met his eyes were mocking gazes of schadenfreude.
The man lunged forward with a proper spear thrust, and the one exchange caused Reivyn''s stomach to drop. The man had a higher level, higher Stats, and clearly a higher Skill level. There was no way to disengage from the confrontation in such a situation, and he could only hope to put in a good showing.
He expertly parried the thrust and assumed a proper stance. The man was slightly surprised at first, but he quickly focused wholeheartedly on the fight. He had no intention of going easy on the new guy.
Sweat began to trickle down Reivyn''s face as he fended off lightning-quick jabs, feints, loops, and sweeps from the more experiencedbatant. The blunted tip of the practice spear would whistle past his head as he quickly jerked out of the way, but he never lost his bnce or overextended.
A glint shed in the man''s eye, and the spear in his hands thrust straight towards Reivyn''s eye. This wasn''t a simple sparring jab any longer. It was a killing move, and he had been instructed over and over to never actually perform such a maneuver during a sparring session, because idents invariably happened. The utter gall of the man tounch such a strike momentarily stunned Reivyn, and with a sinking feeling he realized he had fallen for a trap.
The man quickly spun his spear out of the fatal strike, and solidly drove the butt of the pole into his unprotected midsection. Reivyn doubled over in pain, his mouth open and saliva spitting out as the wind was knocked from him. He sucked in a deep breath easily, but it was like the pressure was off bnce between his lungs and the outside air and he could barely force the air back out.
He went to a knee, dropping the practice spear to hold his stomach and attempt to gasp much needed oxygen into his lungs. He could vaguely sense feet shuffling around him, and then the man spoke to him.
"Tsk, tsk. Spears Skill needs work," he mockingly said. "On your feet. Let''s check out your Swords Skill." Reivyn finally mastered his breathing after a short moment of panic, and a man thrust a training sword upon him.
He assumed a proper fighting stance with his sword at guard, calling upon his years of intense training while exhausted and his Mental Fortitude Skill.
The other man engaged in quick thrusts, shes, feints, and parries once again. There were hardly any wasted movements, and his strikesnded heavily upon Reivyn''s training weapon, threatening to knock it off course repeatedly. He utilized his footwork to the best of his ability and danced around the encirclement of cheering and jeering men. He vaguely got the sense of a foot sticking slightly out in his path from his Spatial Awareness Skill. He hadn''t had much opportunity to level it, so it was still very low and only provided him the barest hint of a sensation.
He made to step over the protruding foot as the other man relentlessly pressed him, but the foot followed his path up and tripped him anyway. He knew it was obviously intentional, but the other man had been watching and capitalized on his loss of bnce. The man ruthlessly drove his sword horizontally into Reivyn''s side, overwhelming his Pain Resistance Skill, and causing his upper body to involuntarily form a "C" shape as he gasped in pain.
The man shook his head as he evaluated Reivyn''s performance, "Swords Skill... not very good." He tossed his training weapon to the side and assumed an unarmed stance. "People don''t always have ess to weapons, so maybe you have some training in hand to hand, hmm?" The man was clearly insulting him as there was no way he couldn''t recognize that Reivyn was performing at the Journeyman mastery.
Reivyn red at the man as he tossed his sword away and also assumed a fighting stance once more. His opponent didn''t wait for him to recover as he descended upon him in a flurry of fists, knees, elbows, and feet. He was clearly a very skilled fighter in all three forms ofbat he had chosen. He was able to utilize most of his body as a weapon in some form or fashion.
The man suddenly ducked down and attempted a leg sweep, but Reivyn deftly avoided it. The man sprang back up into action without missing a beat from the failed maneuver. He threw out a feint with his left hand, and his right hand came swinging over in an exaggerated haymaker. Such an obvious attack was easily countered by Reivyn''s block, but the man suddenly dropped his elbow down and flipped his hand forward. His fingers syed open, and handful of dirt flew right into Reivyn''s face and eyes, blinding him.
Reivyn pulled back into a more defensive stance as he utilized everyst scrap of his willpower to make Spatial Awareness function at a higher level. He took a few body shots, but he was able to sessfully fend off the man''s barrage of fists and feet.
The man finally backed off as he couldn''t get a good hit in, and Reivyn heard him say in a petnt voice, "Fine! It seems you do have a little bit of skill in at least one thing." The man sounded like he was personally offended that he couldn''t cause more justified pain to Reivyn.
Reivyn rxed his stance and tried to wipe some of the dirt and grit out of his eye when a pair of arms suddenly snaked around him from behind, locking him ce.
He could hear the sneer as the man he had been fighting approached him again and said, "A little skill in hand to hand. Hardly an aplishment for a military fighting unit. You appear to have been coddled all your life, so in final instruction, let me help you unlock the Pain Resistance Skill."
Reivyn didn''t have time, or any way, to prepare before a heavy blownded in his rib cage quickly followed by another on the other side, causing him to grunt unintentionally. The man began to whale on Reivyn in an unhinged manner. Reivyn lost focus of everything going on around him as his Pain Resistance Skill crumbled and he was consumed by the agony.
The beating onlysted for a few moments, but it felt like an eternity to Reivyn. Once the blows stopped, the arms holding him in ce let go, and he copsed to the ground on his knees. His vision was swimming with spots floating around obscuring what he could see. Tears and snot fell down his face as he felt a fist grip his hair and hold his head up. A p came in from the side that he couldn''t see.
"This is what happens to little pissants who don''t show the proper respect," a voice filled with vitriol whispered into his ear. The fist holding his head up threw it forward, causing his bnce to go with it and he sprawled on the ground, panting. "Stay down, boy." Reivyn heard a few chuckles from those watching, but they sounded more nervous than anything now.
Reivyn was out of it. He had never been in such a state before, and his thoughts weren''t forming anything coherent. He just instinctively knew that he didn''t likeying down in the dirt. So he, ever so slowly, stood up.
The man who had initiated the altercation didn''t like that.
Brace threw out a card onto the small table he and a few other squad mates were using to y their game.
"Who do you think''s gonna try to ''initiate'' Reivyn, first?" He asked.
Tobin sat to his left holding his cards in one hand while he moved the other one back and forth in indecision on which to y. "I don''t know, but they''re probably in for a surprise, whoever it is."
The men chuckled at the statement. While it wasn''t unusual for some new recruits to show up with a Skill or two at the Journeyman mastery, Reivyn was a special case. They had each witnessed him perform at the same Skill level in multiple weapons. Most of the regr troops had their weapons Skills around the Level 20 range, with the more seasoned veterans having surpassed the threshold of Level 25.
The squad expected to hear a story of a young soldier who had never had the opportunity to lord it over anyone before bite off more than he could chew, and they were happilyughing and joking as they yed their card game.
The door to their quarters mmed open, and someone could be heard rushing in. Yorbo came running up with wild eyes. "It''s bad, guys. Ren got ahold of Reivyn."
Theughter immediately came to a dead stop. They all looked at each other, each thinking the same thing. They quickly scrambled to make sure they were all properly dressed as they ran out of their quarters.
Brace turned his head to Yorbo and asked, "Where''s Corporal Decker?" He didn''t stop rushing towards the drill field as he posed the question.
Yorbo threw his hands up and eximed, "We were gone for two weeks! Where do you think he is? He''s with his girl."
Brace gave him the side-eye and said, "Well, go get him!"
If Ren was the one to spot Reivyn without anyone there to back him up, then there was no way it was going to be a happy ending.
Ren was a spoiled rich kid with connections in the capital. He used his family connections to skirt the rules. This normally wouldn''t fly, but Ren also had real Skill. The two factorsbined meant he got away with acting like aplete dirt bag all the time. He would take anything that didn''t go exactly his way as a personal insult.
The worst thing, though, was that he was a corporal. His men would follow along with his antics, because if they didn''t, they would be the target of his ire.
Brace and the squad quickly arrived on the scene to witness a disgruntled Ren punching a crawling Reivyn in the face.
"Why won''t you stay down!?" He screamed. He hadpletely lost his mind.
Reivyn was unresponsive. He was clearly disoriented, and he wasn''t even capable of defending himself. Brace stood in horror as he saw the blood and tears streaking his face. His left eye was already turning a dark purple.
Brace ran forward and interjected himself between Ren and Reivyn, the other squad members surrounding the two casting menacing gazes at the ones who had failed to put a stop to this fiasco. "Corporal Ren! Stop!" Brace yelled out with his hands held out in front of him.
Ren shoved his finger into Brace''s face, "Stay out of this Lance Corporal."
"No, you''ve gone too far," Brace retorted. "Look at him! You''re killing him!"
Ren glowered at Brace, ready to go into a diatribe, when a shout came from the distance.
"What in the hells?!" Corporal Decker came sprinting up. He had clearly been interrupted, as he was attired only in his pants, boots, and sidearm. The only reason he had thest was because it was still buckled to his pants when he hastily got dressed.
Corporal Decker took in the scene before him and shot a piercing gaze at Ren. Without thinking about the consequences, Decker drew his weapon and attacked Ren. This wasn''t a training weapon. He was aiming to seriously hurt his opponent.
Ren jumped back in shock, "What are you doing? You''re gonna attack a real man over this guy?" He eximed in disbelief with a gesture towards Reivyn who had managed to attain his feet, albeit unsteadily.
"You''re damn right!" Corporal Decker attacked again.
Brace put his hands on either side of his head. Things had gottenpletely out of control. He had no idea what to do. He kept ncing between his squad leader and corporal Ren, blinking his eyes rapidly in panic.
Suddenly, between one eye blink and another, Knight-Captain Reifold had materialized out of thin air. He was holding Corporal Decker''s swordpletely still, pinched between forefinger and thumb.
Everything went eerily still and quiet. Not even the breeze dared make a sound. Knight-Captain Reifold calmly looked at Ren, then he turned his head and calmly looked at Corporal Decker. Finally, his gazended on Reivyn who was at risk of copsing at any moment.
"What," he began as his gaze returned to Corporal Ren, "is happening here?" He casually let go of the sword, and Decker allowed the tip to fall to the ground.
Ren visibly swallowed, but he couldn''t think of anything to say.
Knight-Captain Reifold nced around at everyone present before saying, "This is a serious breach of military discipline. I understand that some rough-housing takes ce between the old and the new. It is perfectly fine, even appropriate, to do so. Everyone goes through it. You went through it. Even I went through it," he paused for a moment before continuing. "However... Exin to me what is appropriate about beating a nine year old - who, if not for the unusual circumstances of conscription, would still be legally a child... What is appropriate about beating him to within 5 percent of his Health?"
Everyone''s eyes went wide, and Ren''s face drainedpletely of blood. Brace looked at Reivyn in disbelief. People were at risk of goingatose at 5 percent health, yet the youth continued to stand.
It wasmon knowledge that one risked their hearts stopping if they bottomed out on Stamina, and it was equallymon knowledge that one usually passed out unconscious around the 10 percent Health mark. It was a myth that people could stay in a fight all the way to 1 percent health, as the body would have sustained so much damage by that point that it would shut down.
While everyone was still stunned at the revtion, Knight-Captain Reifold addressed Decker, "Corporal Decker. You were negligent in your duty. You allowed your personal reasons to cloud your judgment, and you failed to protect one of your own. You thenpounded this mistake by attacking a fellow NCO with a deadly weapon. Fiveshes of the Punishment Rod should wake you up."
Brace sucked in a cold breath. The punishment rod was a magic item thatpletely bypassed the Pain Resistance Skill. The only saving grace of such a punishment was that it didn''t cause any actual damage.
"As for Corporal Decker''s Squad, Imend you for rushing to the aid of your fellow squad member, even confronting an NCO to do so; however, he''s new. At least one of you should have already been there to have his back," Knight-Captain Reifold continued. "Corporal Ren''s Squad, youck the backbone to stand up to your superior when he is clearly in the wrong. You are relegated to exclusivelytrine duty from now on. Maybe you can gain the Mental Fortitude Skill while there."
"Corporal Ren," he finally addressed the culprit. "You. Are. An. Embarrassment." He enunciated each word individually. Everyone waspletely shocked at the statement. Knight-Captain Reifold was renowned for being hard but fair. He was strict in discipline, but never, not once ever, had anyone ever heard him insult somebody. "You are reduced to the rank of Private."
Ren''s eyes threatened to bug out, and before he could catch himself he uttered, "Sir, you can''t..." he nearly choked on his words.
"I can''t, what?" The Commanding Officer asked.
Ren mustered his courage, set his gaze, grit his teeth, and said, "My father will hear of this."
Knight-Captain Reifold nodded his head. "I see. Well, if I ever hear the words ''my father'' from you, directed at me, again... I''ll cut your tongue out," he said with apletely straight face. "There is nobody, in this kingdom or the next, who can intimidate me. Especially not you, a man under mymand, and especially not your father. Do you understand?"
Ren swallowed once again. He had no more blood to drain from his face, and hisplexion was ghostly white. "Yes, sir," he managed to stammer out.
"Dismissed," Knight-Captain Reifold ordered. Everyone acted like they had grown another set of legs as they disappeared from the scene as fast as they had ever escaped a situation before.
Everyone, except Brace. He wasn''t going to forget the lesson his Commanding Officer had just given their Squad about not looking out for Reivyn.
The Knight-Captain nodded in approval, "I''ll carry him to the infirmary, personally. You follow along."
"Yes, sir," Brace replied.
Chapter 13: Sunny Day
Chapter 13: Sunny Day
"C''mon, sir, it''s gonna be great. We''re going to have barbecue, beer, women, the game, we have a swimming pool, there''s gonna be women there."
Marc sat at his desk attired in his utilities. There was a constant stream of paperwork and e-mails to be addressed while in garrison. He would prefer to be out in the field with his men, but he understood not every waking moment could be spent training. Currently his XO, First Lieutenant Jackson, was talking his ear off about the ns he and the other Lieutenants had made for the ball game over the weekend. He had spent all week trying to convince him to attend.
"Alright! If it''ll get you to shut up for a minute, I''ll go," Marc finally relented. He looked up at his officer, "Happy?"
"Immensely, sir, immensely," the other man had a wide grin on his face. "Now we got all the bases covered. Don''t worry about bringing anything. We got the food, we got the entertainment, we got the beer."
"I said I was going! Stop trying to convince me already," Marc rolled his eyes. "And I know what you and the other Lieutenants call beer. I''ll bring my own, thanks."
"Sure, sure, sir," Jackson continued as if he hadn''t been interrupted. "Now the final point, and this is crucial, sir, is that the proper uniform of the day is civilian attire. I''m sure that if you press it out properly, that even you could manage that." He had a mirthful smile on his face as he teased hismanding officer.
Marc gave him a deadpan look. Jackson replied by mouthing the word "civilian" again. Marc pointed his finger menacingly at his subordinate, "Get out of here before I hop over this desk and kick you in the ass!"
"Right away, sir, right away," Jackson turned and strode to the exit of the office. As he passed through the entryway and was about to close the door, he opened up the door just enough to stick his head back in to say, "Did I mention some of my wife''s single friends were going to be there?"
"Get out!" Marc yelled as he yfully threw his pen at the man. Jackson deftly ducked below the flying pen, and Marc could hear himughing on his way down the hall even after he had closed the door behind him. Marc returned his focus to the paperwork on his desk as he absentmindedly swatted his hand at some annoyance.
"Well, there he is," Jackson answered the door. He eyed Marc up and down, taking in his khaki shorts with a neatly tucked in cored, polo shirt. He shook his head and tsked, "Just couldn''t help yourself, could you, sir? Well, B for effort."
Marc reached over and cuffed the man on the shoulder as he chuckled. "I look great, and you know it," he retorted.
"Well,e on in, sir. I see you did, in fact, bring your own beer. I am offended," Jackson dered with his hand held over his heart.
He led Marc into his house and showed him where he could store his six-pack. He grabbed one and followed Jackson into the backyard where there were already a lot of people socializing. The other Lieutenants, with their wives, spotted his entrance and gave him a greeting as he made his way over to where they had congregated in conversation. Jackson or his wife had set up some strange blue banner nearby, but he didn''t pay it any attention.
Marc wasn''t typically one for social interactions. He wasn''t shy or not confident in himself or anything like that, he was just perfectly content with being alone. As he was the only bachelor, his Lieutenants didn''t see it that way. They were constantly inviting him over to one''s house or another, trying to set him up with a "nice girl." He had never found anyone that really caught his eye, however, and he figured today would be just like any other day: enjoyable, but otherwise not noteworthy.
He was wrong.
The moment she stepped through the sliding ss doors from the house, he was spellbound. She was dressed in a modest, yellow sundress with flower patterns. Long auburn hair framed her face that had a constant sweet, yet mischievous smile gracing it. He couldn''t take his eyes off of her. The Lieutenants shared a look between each other.
A cough brought Marc back to himself, and one of his Lieutenants said, "What do you think, sir?"
The conversation had obviously been continuing around him without his participation, and he was slightly embarrassed to realize that even though he had been staring, this new girl had actually joined their circle and had been there for some time, and he just hadn''t noticed that fact at all.
"I''m sorry, what was that?" He turned to the grinning group.
"What I was saying," one of the Lieutenants began.
Marc cut him off. "What I think," he looked at the girl. "What I think, is that I never knew why they were called sundresses, but I finally figured it out. The radiance is blinding."
"Whoa!" the group eximed in surprise. Jackson had been in the middle of taking a drink from his bottle, and he choked on the beer and sprayed it out in a ssic spit-take. Marc heard someone else say, "What happened to the Captain, and who is this?"
He only had eyes for the girl, and he noted with mirth that she blushed a lovely shade when embarrassed from apliment.
And that was all it took.
Many different scenes shed through Reivyn''s mind, the first couple of dreams more crystal clear than they ever had been before. He was Marc, but there was always a nagging whisper in the back of his mind telling him this wasn''t so anymore. He struggled to maintain a semnce of his identity.
It finally came to a head when a final dream came into crystal clear focus.
Marc was sitting on the couch watching the news. There were many hints of a happy family strewn about the room. Photos of Marc and Ashleigh, the girl he had met, together on the wall. Baby pictures of a boy and a girl. A clear cupboard filled with toys for toddlers.
He was expecting his wife toe in through the door with their two children in tow, but he wasn''t paying too much attention to how much time had actually passed as he was engrossed in the current events.
A knock at the door brought his attention away from the pundits. He got up to answer the door, slightly confused, because he wasn''t expecting anyone else to be dropping by.
A police officer stood on the porch, his squad car parked in front of the driveway. He had a somber expression on his face, and when Marc opened the door, he said something that Marc couldn''t hear.
His vision was consumed by the giant blue box, inexplicably floating in the air with text on it. As soon as he focused on it, he was able to clearly remember seeing it in all of his other memories, but his subconscious had ignored itpletely until now.
Helpful Hint!
You''re Dreaming.
WAKE UP!
Reivyn shot up in a bed. His heart pounded as adrenaline coursed through his system, and all of the range of emotions he had experienced in his sleep mmed into him all at once. He shut his eyes tight as a single, solitary tear rolled down his cheek.
"Whoa, whoa, there," Brace called out to him from the side. "Stay calm. Stay calm. I''m here," he reached out and gripped his shoulder infort.
Reivyn shook off thest vestiges of the dreams as he reasserted himself. I am Reivyn. He finally managed to open his eyes and look around the unfamiliar environment. He was in a room very simr to the open bunk barracks, but it was a smaller room, and there were no other people in it. He looked over at Brace and gave him a nod to indicate that he was ok.
"Do you know where you are?" Brace asked. Reivyn shook his head, and Brace continued, "You''re in the infirmary. What''s thest thing you remember?"
Reivyn paused for a moment to sift through his memories. He opened his mouth to say his house in Virginia, but he choked on the words as he mped his mouth shut. That''s not right. He shook his head and was finally able to remember some things that seemed far away ago, now.
"Thest thing... I got my new token, and I was heading out of the headquarters behind Corporal Decker," he answered.
"Anything else?" Brace prompted.
Reivyn scratched his head and then shook it. "I have this weird feeling that things kept going after that, but my memories just sort of fade to ck from there."
Brace nodded his head, "Yeah, that''s understandable. You got caught up in a hazing incident. Everyone goes through it, and it''s usually not a problem. The older troops humble the new recruits and test out their abilities to make sure they can trust their back to them.
"That''s not what happened to you. You got osted by a real piece of work. A guy by the name of Ren, and he has an ego a mile wide. I can guess that he was expecting to put you in your ce quickly, but with your Skills, you managed to put up a fight. If things don''t go exactly how he expects them to, he tends to take it as a personal insult.
"He beat the hell out you, man," Brace exined to him. "Things got really bad there for a moment, and I thought Corporal Decker was going to stab him. He sure tried to. Knight-Captain Reifold intervened at that point. He resolved the situation and brought you here, personally. That was an hour ago."
Reivyn nced down at his body, and then he opened his Status. He looked up at Brace with a confused look on his face. "I''m at full Health. It couldn''t have been that bad?" It was more of a question than a statement.
Brace guffawed. "Of course you''re at full Health. You had a Tier 3 Physician take care of you. He had you at full Health in ten minutes. You just took so long to wake up because your mind needed to catch up.
"Alright, take your time to get situated, and when you''re ready, we''ll head back to the barracks," Brace said.
"I mean, I''m good to go now, but I have a notification from the System that really wants me to look at it, so I''ll just take a quick look and then we can go," Reivyn said. The little blue light in the corner of his vision was making itself known more than was usual, so he brought it up.
Skills Levelled Up!
Weapons Master (26 ->27)
Evasion (22 ->23)
Spatial Awareness (1 ->6)
Pain Resistance (23 ->25)
Mental Fortitude (20 ->25)
New Skills Unlocked!
Blind Fighting (1 ->2)
Iron Will (1)
Vitality +1
Combat Initiated.
You have been defeated by your opponent.
+0 Exp
Combat Resolved
+50 Exp
Level Up! Fighter Level 2!
10/200 Experience
Reivyn sat there in stunned silence for a minute. He finally looked up at Brace and said, "I gotbat experience. I''ve never gottenbat experience from sparring before."
"Hmph! That''s because it wasn''t a spar, and even the System itself recognizes that. Typically, you only getbat experience if one of the parties involved has actual killing intent. That Ren''s a right bastard," Brace made as if to spit, but he looked around at the clean infirmary, thought better of it, and swallowed.
Reivyn took that information in, and then he allocated his unassigned Stat points evenly between Strength and Dexterity. He nced at his Status page.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 2 Age: 9 Health: 300/300 Stamina: 590/590 Mana: 260/260 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 29 INT: 24 VIT: 30 MAG: 28 DEX: 29 CLA: 21 CHA: 3 PER: 19 LUK: 3 Experience: 10/200
"Alright, well, I''m ready when you are," Reivyn said as he swung his legs over the bed and stood up. Brace sprang up and acted like he was going to have to catch him, but there were no problems, and he finally rxed.
The two left the infirmary, which was located to the side of the drill field next to the headquarters building, and crossed the open area towards the barracks. There were still many people out and about attending to their duties, training, or rxing in their own way, and the bivouacked area had been reced with rows ofrge tents. The levis were currently being issued their gambesons and any other gear they would need.
"So how strong is Ren, exactly?" Reivyn asked as they walked along.
"He was a Corporal before the Knight-Captain stripped him of his rank, if that tells you anything. Typically a Journeyman level inbat Skills is the minimum requirement before one is considered for promotion, unless there are mitigating factors. Like Corporal Pale from before. He has the Teaching Skill, so he was promoted to facilitate training others.
"Anyway, Ren was one of the top Corporals. Comes from a good background and had lots of training before he joined. I''m not 100% on the specifics, you would have to ask one of his old squad mates, but I want to say his weakest, mainbat Skill is around Level 30, and he''s a Knight, a Tier 2 Rare ss, around level 20 or so." Brace looked at Reivyn from the corner of his eye, "you never stood a chance in a real fight, and that''s where he took it.
"Forparison, Corporal Decker''s highest, mainbat Skill is Swords at Level 28, and he''s a Level 16 Fighter."
Reivyn considered that information as they made their way into the barracks. The squad all looked up at him and greeted him as they entered. They swarmed around him, asking if he was alright and seeing if he needed anything, and he felt genuine concern from his squad mates.
He spent the next ten minutes fending them off, letting them know that, yes, he was fine now. No, he didn''t need anything. The other squad members resumed their card game as Reivyn took out the armor he had previously ced aside near an empty bunk before heading to the admin. He needed to return it to supply to rece with an actual form fitting set of gear in the morning, so he needed to clean it and make sure it was properly maintained.
"Yeah, so Corporal Decker was punished with fiveshes from the Punishment Rod. It wasn''t a public flogging, so he went straight to the Discipline Yard right after the altercation. He''s probably getting forted'' by his girl with tender love and care right about now," Brace was talking about the punishments everyone had received.
Reivyn frowned at that information, and he felt a little guilty that he was part of the reason his corporal had been punished. He logically knew it wasn''t his fault and that there had been nothing he could have done about it, but he couldn''t help how he felt. Brace saw the look on his face and squeezed his shoulder.
"Don''t feel bad, Reivyn. He knew he shouldn''t have ran off like that, so it''s all on him. He''s not going to me you. Heck, one of us should have gone with you guys just in case, and we were chastised for it as well. We got off easy because of how we reacted when we heard the news.
"Hah, and Ren''s teammates have been relegated to professional crap shovelers for the foreseeable future. They want to act like slimy, spineless cowards, then they can join their kind in the pits.
"Now, you might think that Ren got off easy by just getting demoted, but for anyone in the know, we understand it''s more than that. His uncle is some big shot in the capital who''s attached himself to one of the Dukes somehow. I don''t know a whole lot of the specifics, but as far as I''m concerned, he''s just some fatyabout with a silver tongue and too much money," he paused to look over at Reivyn. "He''s probably not actually a fatyabout, but that''s how I think of him in my mind, because screw those guys."
His statements were met with sounds of approval from all around. Ren and his family were obviously not popr, but the topic about him was, and everyone seemed to be in agreement on how he was a scumbag.
"Now Ren, apparently, is the best talent they''ve had in the Combat sses for as far back as they can remember. I know because he constantly brags about it. They were apparently grooming him to get some achievements in the military out here where there was lesspetition in the capital, get him ranked up to sergeant, which, honestly, could have happened in a year or so despite his personality, and then transfer him back with amission as a Lieutenant. They were going to use both political and military exploits to finally try and weasel a conferment of nobility.
"Now he has to start over. Not only does he have to start over, but instead of smooth sailing ahead, he has to ovee the ck mark on his record this is going to leave. Knight-Captain Reifold isn''t one to meddle in politics, usually, but rumor has it that he''s been unhappy with the way Ren has been using his backing to skirt the rules and pressure others, so he took this opportunity to not only hurt him and his family, but to also send a message. ''You''re not nobles yet, and I can stop you any time I want.''
"Just as an aside, Knight-Captain Reifold isn''t technically a noble, but he is a Landed Knight, and a Landed Knight currently serving as amander is afforded the rank and privileges somewhere between a Baron and a Count."
Reivyn was listening as he worked. He was so engrossed in the conversation that he didn''t even realize he was done with his gear, and he had just been spinning it around over and over looking for something to do with it. Brace finally waved him over to the little table of cards.
"Come over here, I''ll show you how to y," Brace said. Reivyn smiled as he joined the others.
---
Knight-Captain Reifold sat at his desk going over paperwork. There was always a constant stream of paperwork and messages to be addressed while in garrison. He had just received the details on where he would be leading the troops and levis.
It was giving him a headache.
The mission didn''t appear, on the surface, to be tooplicated: Move to mountain range, clear out any threats, build road into said mountain range. But there were definitely more factors involved than the simple orders he had received.
First of all, there was an Orc encampment, ording to the Adventurers who had been hired in the past couple of years to scout the area, at the base of the mountains. They had upied an old, abandoned prospecting town, and to date they had behaved themselves, but everyone knew Orc encampments always eventually meant Orc raids. He had no idea how it had been over-looked for so long as to allow an actual camp to be built within the County.
Then, on top of it being an Orc encampment, they had a goblin ve army, because of course they did.
This was the "threat" so casually mentioned in the missive from the Count. Luckily, the numbers were on his side.
Lastly, the mountain range was on the border of the County, and it had never been properly defined in ordance with the neighboring County. And the reason it had never been properly defined was because of the propensity of some seriously high levelled ferocious beasts to take a stroll through said mountains. It was an ambiguous situation, and anything they did in the mountain range beyond the old prospector town could potentially be disputed by the neighboring Count.
In Knight-Captain Reifold''s experience, anything that could happen, would happen, so he had that to take into consideration.
He had no doubts that he could aplish the mission assigned to him, and it didn''t look like a particrly difficult one. It just had the potential to be an annoying one, and he was sure it definitely was going to be.
He sighed, his face still ever a stoic mask, and continued with his preliminary ns. He would hold a meeting with the officers the following day, and then the relevant information would be passed down through the chain ofmand to the rank and file.
Chapter 14: Promising Prospects
Chapter 14: Promising Prospects
The countryside slowly, but steadily passed by as the soldiers and conscripts marched down the road. Reivyn was much morefortable in his new, form fitting armor, as even though they had cinched the slightly too big set before, such a stopgap measure was never perfect, and he had to constantly adjust the straps and move in a marginally unnatural gait to prevent chafing.
Thendscape outside of Magron was beautifully attired in the multicolored splendor of growing crops. The golden glint reflected off of wheat was the most prevalent, but other crops, and even some neat rows of orchards, could be found interspersed. Thend immediately surrounding the city was ultimately owned by the Count himself, but he had no time or inclination to oversee the production. borate systems were in ce to allow multiple people to skim benefits with the end result of low-levelled Tier 2 farmhands employed doing the majority of the manualbor under supervision of the higher levelled, more experienced farmers.
With Skills, sses, and mana being factors in crop growth, seasons consisted of multiple nting and harvesting sessions, resulting in an abundance of produce. One would think this would saturate the market, but that was not so. It allowed for a varied diet for a healthy poption, and certain foodstuffs, like the hard roll the military used, were designed in such a way as to cram as many nutrients into a small form as possible.
Large barges and smaller boats travelled up and down a wide river that the city had been built next to. The trade and transportation it allowed was one of the reasons Magron was such a prosperous city, but the river did not go in the direction of the destination of the troops, otherwise they would have just caught a ride on some transport boats.
The military unit snaked along the road for a considerable length. There was more to the regr battalion than Reivyn had originally realised. There were threepanies in total, onepany of cavalry and two of infantry. Only onepany of infantry, thepany Reivyn was attached to, and two toons of cavalry, obviously apanied by the levies, were deployed. The other infantrypany remained in the city, and they were responsible for maintaining patrols outside of the city, and the toon of cavalry that stayed behind was only technically part of the battalion, as they were the Count''s personal bodyguards.
The makeup of thepanies consisted of two medium infantry toons that could seamlessly switch between being spearmen and swordsmen, as Reivyn had personally experienced, and one toon of skirmishers which consisted of archers and scouts. The cavalrypany was one toon of light, medium, and heavy each, with the heavy cavalry being the noble bodyguard unit.
The light cavalry unit had split off to perform scouting missions, even this close to the city, and the toon of skirmishers lead the formation. The 1st toon of infantry was next, Knight-Captain Reifold and his staff were directly behind them, and the 2nd toon, where Reivyn''s squad was located, followed behind. The levies brought up the rear, being led by Sergeant Mok, and the Company Commander had the honor of leading the entire procession in the front.
As the day wore on, the formation passed through little farmingmunities that littered the countryside between slightlyrger hamlets. There wasn''t a proper town for several day''s walk from Magron in any direction, but the people working the farms needed a ce to live nearby where they tended to their farms, which led to the establishment of suchmunities and hamlets. It would be entirely too impractical for them to live in the city proper and have to make the journey to and from the farnds everyday.
This feature led to the phenomenon that the closest farms to the city were the choicest locations to work, and thus the highest levelled farmers oversaw the fields right outside the city walls. It created a noticeable change in quality of the crops as one moved further and further away. That wasn''t to say that the quality of the crops ever got low, but Reivyn definitely noticed ack of splendor the farther they marched along the road.
New Skill Unlocked!
Woodworking (1)
Reivyn had finally had to participate in the building of the temporary palisade, and with some guidance in how to effectively select and chop a tree and then build it into a defensive fortification, he had acquired the Skill.
They had been on the road for six days, and they had passed the only township two days prior. Only a smattering of smaller viges could be found out this far, and the countryside was no longer endless fields of neatly tended crops. Instead there were forests and empty fields interspersed with the farnds, woodcutting lodges, and hunter camps dotting the wilderness. Every now and then, a group of people who were clearly Adventurers, could be spotted doing some sort of adventuring activity or another, usually walking somewhere.
The duties assigned to each individual squad was varied enough that Reivyn had been busy each time they stopped, but he had only just now participated in the building of the encampment. It was actually the levies who were the most carefree. Now properly outfitted in their gambesons and helmets, they no longer looked like a peasant uprising, but as they were irregrs and not actually trained for the life of being a soldier, they had the least duties. They were basically only expected to do some manualbor and to show up forbat when needed.
As they finished erecting the wooden palisade, Corporal Decker approached the squad members, "toon Sergeant has called everyone to gather up. He''s probably going to fill us in on what we''re doing out here." They were soldiers, and so they went where they were ordered when they were ordered. As of yet, nobody had actually told the troops where they were going or what they were doing.
Reivyn could at least guess where they were headed. He looked up in the fading light and spotted a mountain rangeing into view. It was an arm that stabbed down into the ins, branching off from a muchrger cluster, and way off into the horizon so far that he couldn''t tell if it was mist or clouds ying tricks on him. It appeared that there were some truly, terrifyingly huge mountain peaks. If they weren''t an optical illusion, then the scale of this mountain range was mind boggling. It would obviously span multiple countries if that was the case, but even then, this was just a small corner of the continent they resided on.
The squad tidied up their tools and headed towards the assembly location. Reivyn noticed other instances of troops forming up and getting information passed down to them. Everyone was going to understand what their mission was, even the levies. The 2nd Squad met up with the rest of the toon and took a seat in front of their waiting toon sergeant, a man Reivyn had never interacted with before but had seen issuing orders and instruction to the corporals.
"Everyone''s here, so I''ll begin," he said. He had a portable writing board with a map of the local area on it, centered on a small town located at the foot of the mountain range they were approaching. "Our first destination is here, an old prospecting town. It doesn''t have a proper name, and it''s been abandoned for decades. Most of the original buildings don''t exist anymore, and only the foundations remain.
"This old town has recently been revitalized, however, as an Orc encampment has taken up ownership. As everyone knows, Orcs always, always turn into roving bands that raid viges and small towns. This encampment is a future threat to the surrounding people that must be eliminated.
"Preliminary scouting reports indicate about a hundred Orcs with about 300 goblin ves. They have been in ce for well over a year, so we can expect them to be fully outfitted with crude iron weaponry. Goblins are typically not a threat to a military unit, but we have the Orcs to deal with, so the levies will be handling the goblins. We expect a casualty rate of about 10-20%, with a 5% mortality rate among the levies. We all know they have poor moralepared to professional troops, so we''ll have to be ready to pick up the ck if something unexpected happens and they rout for whatever reason. This is not a likely scenario, but it is a possible one.
"There are no indications of an Orc Shaman, so long-range magic bombardment is not expected. They have one Orc Chief, which is equivalent to mid-Tier 3. We''re not responsible for specifically engaging the Orc Chief, but if he appears in our area of operations, listen and obey themands and you''ll defeat him. The rest of the Orcs are about the same strength level as us, equivalent to a low-to-mid-Tier 2, but they''re unruly berserkers, so they can''t bring to bear the same amount ofbined force as we can.
"Orcs aren''t known to sit behind fortifications, so the n for tomorrow is pretty simple. We''ll march all the way to the destination and form up just outside of line of sight, immediately. The skirmishers will go forward andunch a ranged assault on their position. Either they or their goblin ve army will pursue, and depending on which, or both, will determine who will first engage, but we''ll be adaptable to the situation. The medium cavalry will hit them from the nk after we''ve engaged, and the light cavalry will pick off any ranged units and stragglers, funneling them towards our formation. Themanders know what they''re doing, so always follow orders instantly. Any questions?"
Reivyn looked around and saw that nobody had any questions, but he was curious about something, so he raised his hand. "Sergeant, I''m just curious about two things. One, why go into so much detail for us, and two, why do we have so many people, almost double the 400 enemies?"
The sergeant looked curiously at the speaker for a second before recognition dawned on his face, "That''s simple. The first point is towards the Commander''s Intent. If anything goes wrong, and themanders can''t give orders, the men in the field need to know what the end goal is to be able to make the proper decisions in such a situation. As for having double the enemy, the only reason it''s going to work is because of how weak the goblins are. In a normal assault, the number is supposed to be three to one. So we''re technically short by 400 troops, and we''re evenly matched in numbers of regrs versus the Orcs. We''re leaning on our superior military discipline to make up for the numbers."
They broke up into their respective squads after that. The men spent most of the time in only mild silence as they maintained their gear, making sure everything was in tip top shape for theing action. Reivyn noticed that the levies were behaving in much the same way, though there was a much more solemn atmosphere in their part of the camp. Things had very quickly be all too real for them.
Reivyn was located in the second row of troops for this engagement. He stood, spear held rxedly, behind the man from 1st Squad who would bear the brunt of theing assault. They stood loosely at rest, the formation located about a quarter of a mile in the treelinepletely out of sight of the encampment. No point in ordering the men to stand at attention and drain their energy, and they had taken a break to recover as much as they could from the march an hour before arriving in position.
The Orcs had cleared some of the trees around the prospecting town to create an open space between the forest and their camp. There had been somement on this, because it wasn''t typical Orc behaviour and indicated a smarter than average leader. They had shown that they didn''t fully grasp the concept of having a space cleared, though, as they didn''t capitalize on any of the advantages that it could provide. It was like they had been instructed on what to do but not why.
Reivyn wasn''t nearly as nervous this time around as he had been before his first real battle. He could still feel his heart beating in his chest in anticipation, but the nervous butterflies in his stomach were absent. Some of his confidence came from the rxed nature of the older soldiers, and the fact that their formation was exactly the same as from the goblin attack down to the positioning of Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand.
There was one significant difference, though. The two officers wore gleaming te mail. It wasn''t what one would think of as "full-te," as that was entirely too impractical. Where Reivyn''s and the other''s armor were segmented tes of metal riveted to a leather undershirt, the officer''s armor was solid bands of metal over chain.
Brace saw him eyeing themander out of the corner of his eye and bent over to whisper, "The Knight-Captain is a Level 70 Epic Tier 3 Pdin. If he didn''t have to worry about unexpected situations, he could probably wipe them out all on his own. Also, if he did that, he would cripple us, and we would never get a chance to Level our Skills and sses properly."
Reivyn''s eyebrows rose in surprise. He had known the Knight-Captain was powerful, but he hadn''t realized he was only 20 levels away from reaching Tier 4. At his incredulous look, Brace smirked and said with a chuckle, "Yeah, he''s famous."
The troops stood and waited, idly chatting in muted whispers. Suddenly, a bright sh shot up to the sky over the canopy in the distance.
"Signal," Knight-Captain Reifold calmly intoned.
"Attention," Knight-Lieutenant Brandmanded. All of the troops stopped resting and stood ready. Reivyn suddenly had sweaty palms, and he continuously had to adjust his grip.
Knight-Captain Reifold, upon seeing everyone at the ready, lifted his sword high above his head, and a bright glow radiated out from it. It expanded over all of the troops and then covered them like a nket, settling into the men. Reivyn felt all of the travel fatigue melt away from him like it had never been there.
Divine Blessing!
Stamina consumption halved.
STR +20%
VIT +20%
DEX +20%
Duration: 1 Hour
Helpful Hint!
Divine Blessings have no bacsh after the effects expire.
"Advance," Knight-Lieutenant Brand ordered. Reivyn only had time for a cursory nce at the notification, but that was enough to leave him speechless. No wonder nobody else is ever nervous when he''s inmand, he thought to himself.
With the fatigue washed away and a new pep in their step, the formation quickly moved through the trees out into the open. Reivyn got his first look at the Orc berserkers as they chased after the skirmishers who were hightailing it towards the oing medium infantry. The goblin army was haphazardly trailing behind them, stretching out into an unorganized mess.
The skirmishers ran through the line of infantry that had given them enough space to pass through the ranks, and they reformed behind them as the spearmen closed ranks again.
"Javelins," the familiar order came, and the front rank responded in good military order. "Throw. Swords. Skirmishers, column right. Sergeant Mok, send the Levies with them." The Adjutant sent out rapid firemands in multiple directions.
The front row threw their spears and assumed a pose with shields up and swords at the ready in a smooth motion. The makeshift javelins impaled themselves into the oing Orcs, further disrupting their already loose line charging towards the men. Only a few of them went down, and most of the Orcs simply snapped the spears off and roared their displeasure as they didn''t even slow down.
The Orcs didn''t show any fear at being tricked into rushing headlong into an ambush, and they simply used the scent of their own blood and the aggression inherent in their species to work themselves up into a bloodlust.
Thest thing Reivyn saw of the overall battlefield were the skirmishers getting into position on the right nk to target the goblins and draw them towards the levies that were quickly rushing to get into position behind the ranged unit.
The force of the charge from the Orcs was magnitudes more powerful than the one experienced with the goblins a week prior. The third row of soldiers, instead of giving assistance in absorbing the blow because they were avable to, had to assist in order to prevent Reivyn and some of the other, lower levelled regrs from being sent flying.
The Orc before the man in the first row where Reivyn was located had nted its feet and was swinging a giant, double-ded axe in wild, powerful swings at the man who could only brace with his shield. He didn''t have an opportunity after each exchange to retaliate with a sword blow. All up and down the line, the Orcs fought in a much morepetent manner, some dodging and weaving the sword shes and spear thrusts, others attacking wildly in a frenzy, never allowing an opportunity for the shield bearer to recover. In some other ces, the men already had need of switching out to allow a wounded soldier to get to the back and apply first aid.
Pretty much any wound that wasn''t instantly fatal was recoverable with a skilled Healer, and first aid techniques could stop the bleeding and facilitate early self recovery to kick in to keep a man in the fight. The trick was to be able to easily and swiftly switch outbatants that received a decently powerful hit so that the wounds couldn''t umte and slowly drain them away. This was another factor of military discipline that the Orcscked.
The Orc in front of Reivyn''s location continued to batter the shield of the man holding him at bay, trying to disce it so he could reach the soft flesh behind it. Itnded a particrly heavy blow that knocked the man off bnce, and sensing victory at hand, it allowed its bloodlust to control it as it stretched its neck out and bellowed its rage at the teetering man, spit and phlegm flying out of its mouth.
Reivyn seized the opportunity, and even as the man was careening into him, he ever so slightly adjusted his stance to shift his right shoulder forward as his left absorbed the man''s momentum, and he expertly thrust his spear right through the mouth of the screaming Orc, the spear tip passing through anding out the back of his neck and then quickly retracted so as not to get stuck. The Orc froze, not quite dead, yet, but stunned, and Reivyn pushed the shield-bearer with his left shoulder to help steady him, and the man capitalized on the momentum to finally sh his sword forward, disembowelling the Orc.
There was no time for anything like a quick thanks or even an acknowledgement as another Orc immediately took the first''s ce. This one was dual-wielding tomahawks, and it descended on the defender with gusto. Its attacks weren''t nearly as powerful, but they were relentless, and they served to quickly drain the man''s Stamina.
Reivyn stood behind the man, searching for an opportunity to strike. If he tried to attack when there wasn''t enough space, he would risk nicking his ally. He observed the Orc''s movements and picked up on a pattern, and when the Orc was, for a fraction of a second, standing in a pose with both of his arms wide apart as one was on the backswing and the other wasunching forward, Reivyn thrust his spear straight towards its eyes. The Orc immediately adjusted his attacking arm to block the blowing from the spear, but this allowed the swordsman to stab forward, underhanded into the beast''s gut. Reivyn again took the pause in the Orc''s movements caused by the gut wound to stab his spear into its throat, ending its life.
Before the Orc fell, the man in front of Reivyn turned his head, and between panted breaths said, "Quick switch!" He was only about 40% down on his Stamina from the sustained blows he had received from assants, but one could recover faster if they didn''t allow their Stamina to fall too far to begin with, and so they were trained to switch ces before reaching 50% if at all possible.
Reivyn dropped his spear, unslung his shield, and drew his sword as he and the man in the first rank maneuvered around each other. The other man deftly scooped up the fallen spear and took his ce in the third rank to recover as the man who had been in the third rank reced Reivyn''s spot in the second. The fourth ranks were again assembled behind them as a reserve unit.
Another Orc came screaming into their position, this one armed with a giant, spiked club. It wildly attacked Reivyn, lifting its club straight up and bringing it straight down in a frenzy of uplicated but fierce blows. Reivyn wasn''t quite as Skilled in Shields as the man before him, so he wasn''t as adept at absorbing and redirecting the energy transferred into the shield. His Stats weren''t quite as high as the other man, either, who was a genuine Tier 2 Combat ss. Luckily, this third Orc was simpleminded and didn''t attempt to knock the shield away at all, but just smashed straight into it like a brute.
This was the first time Reivyn had ever been on the receiving end of such an attack, and his adrenaline was pumping furiously through his body. His vision was tunneled to what was going on right in front of him, the sounds of the battle all around were muted and he only heard the continuous bashing noises from the clubing into contact with the shield, and he could clearly see and hear the snarl on the face of the Orc in front of him. His world was reduced to his shield and the Orc in front of him.
Suddenly, on the backswing of the club, a spear rocketed out over Reivyn''s right shoulder and stabbed into the chest of the Orc. Learning the lesson from when he was the one wielding a spear, he quickly stabbed his sword forward into the soft belly of the Orc, and he twisted it sideways to spill intestines and other organs onto the ground. Blood sshed up onto his armor and face.
During the short reprieve afforded him while this Orc fell and another took its ce, another sound finally made it through to his senses. A loud thundering of hooves entered his ears, and it was like a dam had broke as all of the previous sounds that had been automatically tuned out came crashing into focus once again. He noticed out of the corner of his eye the toon of medium horsemen crash into the nk of the Orcs, and they cut through the Orc horde like a knife through butter, trampling all in front of their path. They continued on and circled around to resume another charge from the rear of the Orcs.
The Orcs were either fearless or stupid, as they paid absolutely no mind to the threat of the horsemen expertly nking them. A huge roar sounded out, deafening Reivyn as it covered the entire battlefield, and a great, hulking specimen of an Orc made itself known. He had a headdress adorning his head, and he carried a weapon that looked much like a cleaver in his right hand and a short kite shield made of bones and leather in his left.
A bright light-beam pierced through the crowd of Orcs between the chief and Knight-Captain Reifold as heunched an attack at the leader. The Orc Chief managed to divert the attack with his shield, but it had served its purpose in throwing the normal Orcs into disarray, allowing Knight-Captain Reifold to charge through their numbers unhindered as he engaged the chief.
The horse wasn''t a high level beast, and it could not withstand the attacks of two Tier 3batants shing together. Knight-Captain Reifold knew this, so heunched himself from the saddle and confronted the bigger opponent on foot. He shed, stabbed, parried, and shield-bashed the towering figure in a whirlwind assault, never letting up on the offensive. The giant Orc never had a chance as he was simply too outssed by the Pdin.
After an exchange thatsted about thirty seconds, the Orc Chief''s corpseid at the feet of Knight-Captain Reifold, who calmly turned and resumed his ce on his mount.
Reivyn hadn''t been watching the fight, even though he could vaguely sense that it had been going on, as he was still preupied acting as the first line in the formation. His Stamina was beginning to reach the 60% mark, and he was preparing to switch out with the man behind him when he noticed a change in the Orc''s eyes. The red suffusing the sclera of the beast''s eyes faded, and a look of fear finally reced the one of ferocity. All up and down the line, the frenzied assault of the Orcs suffered a stutter, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand was quick to notice.
"Advance!" Hemanded in a loud, powerful voice.
The men on the frontline bashed their shields forward as one and started marching forward while maintaining their fighting stance. Reivyn, despite never having done such a maneuver, was able to utilize his Weapons Master Skill to easily aplish the task as well. Many Orcs fell across the line, and they finally broke and turned to run...
Straight into the oing Levies, lead by Sergeant Mok and a few other NCO''s, who trapped them in a pincer move. The calvary also continued to charge in and out of the sides of the horde, and being thoroughly surrounded and having given up on the fight, they were quickly dispatched to thest one. Normally, there wouldn''t be such a neat annihtion, but the apparently induced bloodlust had harmed the Orcs far more than helped them, having robbed them of their rationality and ability to flee when they still had a chance. The light cavalry could be seen running the fleeing remnants of the goblins down in the distance.
The men spontaneously raised their weapons into the air and cheered, Reivyn among them. He had performed a much more significant role in this battle, and he was eager to check his notifications.
But before that, they had to clean the battlefield, mop up the surviving beasts, and tend to the wounded. A quick nce around showed several regrs with serious injuries, and in the back, he could see some bodiesying on the ground.
The victory hadn''te without its price.
Chapter 15: We Dont Need Roads
Chapter 15: We Don''t Need Roads
Exp + 30
Exp +30
Exp +30
Exp +30
Exp +20
Exp +20
Exp +20 (190)
Combat Resolved. Calcting...
Exp +350
Level Up! Fighter Lvl 3
Level Up! Fighter Lvl 4
Experience 40/400
Skills Levelled Up!
Bnce (34 ->35)
Marching (9 ->12)
Medium Armor (13 ->15)
Observation (27 ->28)
Shields (15 ->18)
Spatial Awareness (6 ->7)
Tactics (1 ->5)
Weapons Master (23 ->25)
New Skill Unlocked!
Battlefield Awareness (1)
Brace wasn''t lying when he said they would be crippled if the Knight-Captain took care of everything by himself, Reivyn thought. This was the most explosive Skill growth he had ever seen. He had gained his rtively high Skill levels through constant, steady practice, and in one intense life and death battle, he had gained several levels in several different Skills all at once. He didn''t know how the System calcted it, but it would appear it took his umtion that hadn''t caused a level increase into ount as well, because why else would Marching level up from the quarter mile march to the battlefield.
Reivyn had mentally manipted his notification screen to stop telling him whenbat was initiated when he initiated it, and he got rid of the list of squad members. He didn''t have time to look through it duringbat and it was useless information to him out ofbat when he could just look over and see that they were "healthy" as the System deemed, though he didn''t know what that was based off of, because Cliff had his arm in a sling, but he was still deemed "healthy" by the System. Maybe it just meansbat ready?
The battle had been very fierce for Reivyn, so he hadn''t noticed it in the midst ofbat, but once the mop up had been taken care of and the adrenaline had finally stopped pumping, he took note of the fact that he hadn''t felt much of the Euphoria duringbat. He had turned to Brace to ask him about it.
"There''s a couple of reasons for it," Brace replied. "First and foremost, that goblin had been the first time you ever experienced it, and it was after the battle, so of course it would have been particrly noticeable at that time. Another reason is that for some reason, and I don''t know why, I''m not a schr, Orcs are only considered to be like half-monster or something ording to the System. It might have to do with their level of sophistication and civilization, but who knows?" He ended the answer with a shrug.
Reivyn and Brace carried a dead Orc between them towards the mass grave that had been dug by the levies. Half the levies had dug a giant ditch while the other half grabbed the goblins they had fought and simrly tossed them in. Reivyn spotted Teilon leaning on a shovel in conversation with a few other levies waiting to fill the ditch back in, and Reivyn walked up to him and pped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, you made it!" Reivyn teased his best friend. They had had minimal interaction during the journey from the initial camp outside Haluville all the way here. That isn''t to say they hadn''t spoken at all, they had just been too busy with their own things, and it really hadn''t been that long all things considered.
"Yeah, killed me six gobbies, too!" Teilon thumped his chest as he bragged. Considering the goblin to levy ratio, that was actually pretty impressive, and Reivyn smiled and nodded his head, acknowledging his friend''s feat. "And now that the excitement is over, we get to be ditch diggers. Yay!" Teilon pumped his fist in excitement as if ditch digging had been his ultimate goal in life.
Reivyn gave him a t look. He took in his friend''s clean appearance, and then he looked down at his blood coated armor. He looked up at Teilon with his head still down, a smirk on his face. He rubbed his chest with his hand where some of the blood was still wet. He had gloves on, no way would he do something like that with his bare hands.
"I know you were excited about being ''a real soldier,'' so here, let me help you with that," Reivyn reached out and smeared some blood on his friend''s gambeson, leaving a small streak of red across the armor. He stepped back and tilted his head as he admired his handiwork. "Now you look the part."
Teilon stared at Reivyn ck jawed before shaking his head and eximing, "Hey! I was gonna wear this to the dance tonight! We got all the girls over in our levy camp. You have fun hanging out with all the dudes over in the regrs." He leaned forward and elbowed Reivyn in the side while wiggling his eyebrows up and down. "Reivyn, there''s this girl, Kimberly. She is so fine. I''m talking," Teilon wiggled his hands in an ambiguous manner. He leaned back and lifted his chin up in an expression of practiced nonchnce. "Yeah... she''s into me." The other levies finally cracked and guffawed at the statement. Teilon gave them a fierce re.
Reivyn looked over at Brace in the lull in conversation. He stood there with a puzzled look on his face, and then Reivyn heard a mumbled, "Dance...?"
Reivyn rolled his eyes and smacked Brace on the shoulder with the back of his hand. "Don''t listen to his nonsense." Reivyn turned his attention back to Teilon to find him in a heated debate with the other levies.
"I''m telling you, it''s the truth," Teilon defended his earlier statement.
One of the levies smirked and shared a look with another. "Easy way to find out," he said. Teilon looked at him questioningly. The man pointed over Teilon''s shoulder and said, "She''s right there. Hey! Kimberly!" The man put cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted as Teilon tried to grab his arms and shush him.
Reivyn turned his head to look in the direction the man was pointing. Two girls were walking side by side not too far away, and one of them looked over at the shout. Well, she''s got a cute face... but she looks exactly like everyone else wearing a gambeson, Reivyn tilted one eyebrow as he nced at Teilon sideways. Teilon had been trying to wave the other man off, but as soon as the girl, presumably Kimberly, turned her head, he put his hands down and looked off to the side like he hadn''t been doing anything.
The man gave a sly smile to Teilon as he noticed Kimberly''s attention on their group and continued, "My boy, Teilon, here says he wants to ask you to the dance."
Kimberly was silent for a few seconds, and then she yelled back, "Who''s Teilon?"
Teilon hung his head down and tried to make himself small, but the other man pped him on the shoulder and said, "This here''s Teilon." Teilon gave him a fierce re, but it only made the man chuckle more.
Kimberly again paused for a few seconds before she shrugged and then responded, "Tell him I said yes." She and her friend turned and quickly left, back to their task.
Teilon threw his arms up in delight and then pointed at the man who was now standing in stunned silence. "Hah! In your face!" He cheered.
"Alright, alright, Teilon, we gotta get going," Reivyn waved goodbye to his friend as he and Brace made their way back to the line of dead Orcs.
After a few steps in silence, Reivyn looked over at Brace who still had a confused look on his face. "Dance...?" He mumbled to himself again. He shook his head and then looked over at Reivyn. "Well, the only dancing we''re going to be doing is with a pick and shovel. Word in the Lance Corporal Underground is that we have to build a road into them there mountains," he nodded his head towards the mountain range.
Reivyn raised his eyebrow and asked, "How do you know that?"
Brace looked almost offended at the question. "What do you mean, ''how do I know?'' It''s the Lance Corporal Underground," he said. He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "We know the Knight-Captain''s orders before he does." He looked around as if to make sure nobody had heard him, and then he continued, "And if you stick around long enough to get promoted, you''ll know too."
Reivyn shook his head as they continued their task of burying the corpses.
New Skill Unlocked!
Mining (1)
Reivyn received the notification among the swings of his pickaxe. Brace had been right. The sergeant had assembled the toon again after the battle, and they had been informed that after a night''s rest, they would immediately begin the next task assigned to their unit: building a road into the mountains.
Apparently, ording to some rumors circting about by the Lance Corporals, some Adventurers had stumbled across a newly formed dungeon a few miles into the mountain range. Dungeons that were located in or near a County''s borders were considered strategic resources. The Count could send his own people in to plunder resources, and he could tax Adventurers for the benefit of ess.
The rumor of a dungeon, one in a low level mana zone making it appropriate for Tiers 2 and 3, made Reivyn keenly aware of the fact that he was only temporarily conscripted, and the fact that he hadn''t really decided what he wanted to do with his life now that he was going to be faced with legal adult status earlier than anticipated. Reivyn had spotted Teilon with an excited look on his face at chow, and the two shared a knowing look.
Reivyn continued to m his pickaxe into the stone located on the selected route for the road, noticing a considerable improvement to not only his movements, stance, and Stamina consumption, but also the effect of the strike. He paused for a second as a thought struck him. He looked up and waved at Brace to get his attention.
"Hey, I''ve been so busy and distracted that I''vepletely forgot to ask something important," he said. Brace looked at him expectantly. "How do you use a ss Skill?"
Brace was silent for a moment, and then he threw his head back andughed. Heughed, andughed, andughed, ending up doubled over, holding his stomach. He finally straightened up and wiped a tear from his eye.
"You mean to tell me, that this whole time, in spars and two, two battles, you''ve only been relying on your passive Skills? No wonder you got thrashed by Ren." Reivyn scratched his head sheepishly. "It''s no big secret or anything," Brace continued. "You just have to invoke it. Mentally summoning the will to perform the Skill will initiate it, and the System will pretty much take over for a moment and have you perform the action. For newbies like you, it helps to shout it out to get the feeling of invocation right, but it''s not necessary, and there are some people who never practice and have to use the shouting method as a crutch forever. There''s more than one person who will suck in a deep breath, gather their will, point to the sky, and heroically shout... ''Big Step!''"
Brace chuckled at his own joke, but he wasn''t lying. Reivyn had heard exactly that on one asion while still in garrison, but he hadn''t put much thought into it at the time.
Reivyn looked at the pickaxe in his hand then down at the stone ground. He adjusted his grip and stance, took a breath, steadied himself, and then whispered, "Devastating Strike," as he lifted the tool above his head. He felt himself involuntarily shift his body ever so slightly into the appropriate stance and bring the pickaxe down in a swift strike at his intended target.
Clunk.
It had been... surprisinglyckluster.
Skill Levelled Up!
Devastating Strike (1 ->2)
Reivyn was taken aback at the sudden notification. That was easy, he thought. He nced at his Stamina in his Status page, and he noticed it had gone down a whole 10% from that one move. He pondered about it for a moment, and then he came to the decision to intersperse his ss Skills while working on the road as often as he could. No use in having Skills he never used. He opened the Skills page and checked the details of the Skill.
Devastating Strike (2): Deal 102% Damage.
That exined the "Clunk" earlier. It had been one whole percent more powerful. He chuckled ruefully to himself as he continued his work with renewed vigour.
"Brace, Reivyn," Corporal Decker called to the two men as they trudged along working to build the foundations of a real road. They paused in their task and looked up at the Squad Leader. Reivyn wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his forearm, leaving a streak of dust on his face. "You two have guard duty tonight around 3am. The sun''s about to go down, so the two of you go ahead and stop now to get some chow and clean up. Get some rest so you''re good to goter."
"Yes, Corporal," the two men answered. They packed up their gear and made their way down the mountain, back to the prospecting town where they had set up the encampment among the remaining foundations.
Each shift was broken down into two hours, and to facilitate maintained vignce, the sentry duties would be rotated between standing sentry for one hour and walking patrol for one hour. The unit had already been hard at workying the foundations for the road for a week, and this was the first time that Reivyn would have to perform this duty.
He and Brace grabbed a quick bite to eat, washed up, and went straight to sleep. Brace made it clear that while it was eptable to rx and socialize for a short while, it was smarter to get as much sleep as they could.
Reivyn was startled awake by someone shaking his shoulders, and he was momentarily confused as to where he was. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as it slowly came back to him what he was supposed to be doing. He and Brace quickly got dressed in full gear and reported to the front of the palisade to perform the sentry change.
There were eight other men assuming guard duty along with Brace and Reivyn. They were all experienced veterans to this task, so they exined the pros and cons to choosing which duty to perform first.
"If you take standing Sentry first, you''ll have to fight your body''s natural inclination to be bored and go back to sleep, even while standing, and with a sleepy brain, you might hallucinate some things in the darkness," one man offered. "These hallucinations aren''t anything like detailed monsters or people. It won''t look like anything obvious. It''ll be vague shes of movement that you''re not quite sure if it''s really there or not. Something I frequently experience is it seems like bats or some other winged creature fly past my head, and I just catch a glimpse of it."
"Yeah, and always stand with the light source at your back," another said. "You don''t want to mess up your night vision. If you have to look at the light for whatever reason, close your dominant eye first." Reivyn nodded at the advice.
"Another downside to taking sentry first, is that when it''s your turn to change shifts with the next batch of men, you''ll have just finished walking around, getting your blood flowing. It might wake you up and make it harder to fall back asleep," Brace added to the conversation. "Conversely, if you take patrol duty first, you''ll wake up for sentry duty, and be ready to go back to sleep after, but you''ll be sluggish and slower to respond to any actual threats, and you''re much more likely to run into anything that is trying to infiltrate the camp than the sentries standing in the light."
Reivyn thought about it for just a brief moment before he decided, "Well, I''m going to have to eventually do both, so might as well just pick one and do it. So I''ll start with Sentry duty first." The other men nodded and they broke up into their two-man units.
The men hadn''t lied to Reivyn. He was bored. There was no talking. Noughing or joking. They stood still and kept their eyes on the surroundings. Reivyn had a slight advantage over the other men, though. This was his first time doing something like this, and as such, the anticipation of a new experience had woken him up, so he didn''t experience having to fight off sleep.
The seconds seemed to stretch forever, and Reivyn experienced, for the first time, the folly of having a perfect time piece in the assistance of the System. He could practically see the seconds tick by, and they seemed to move slower and slower the more he concentrated on it. This had to have been the most bored he had ever been in his entire life.
It was inappropriate to distract himself with looking at his Status while standing guard, so he had to just deal with it, but the hour eventually expired, and two other men came to switch out duties with him and Brace.
The two squad mates shouldered their spears and began their patrol along the outside of the palisade walls. There were light sources set up on each corner and at the entrance, and remembering the advice, Reivyn kept his line of sight pointed outwards, into the open fields. There was some cloud cover moving across the sky, and the brightness of the moon alternated between being dim and shining down on the grasnds. The trees in the distance took on an ominous look in the dark, shifting between visible and indistinct.
Even though there was just as much going on during the patrol, the fact that they were moving around and able to view a changing scenery as they passed from one side of the encampment to another meant that boredom never set in. It was amazing how much difference just moving around a little in a simple walk made versus standing still.
The clouds once more covered the moon and stars in the sky as the duo passed through the darkest point between the two corners of the palisade on the opposite side of the entrance. A small movement appeared in Reivyn''s senses from his Spatial Awareness Skill. It was incredibly subtle, and if there hadn''t been nothing at all for so long, he wouldn''t have noticed it.
It appeared as just a point following him in his mind, and it slowly crept ever closer to him. When it reached the point of passing over his right shoulder, it exploded in eleration and moved in front and down across his face, never bing visible to his eyes. Reivyn, trusting his instincts, allowed his body to react without thought, and he jerked his left arm up in a guard stance just inside the point between it and his body. A fraction of a secondter, a low metallic sound echoed out as a pressure assaulted his arm.
He was finally able to see what had triggered his Spatial Awareness. A dagger in a fist was attempting to slice his throat, and it had been blocked by his vambrace.
The assant suddenly wrapped his arms around Reivyn in a bear hug once the person realized their stealth assassination attempt had been thwarted. Reivyn, utilizing every ounce of his Weapons Master Skill, forcefully squatted down while throwing his shoulders up and elbows out to break the hold. From this position, he dropped his spear, as it would be too unwieldy to swing around when already in such close quarters, and he drew his sword as he spun around while yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Enemy attack!" He yelled. It had only taken a split second for him to react from the bear hug to the spinning sword draw, but his sword nged against a swift stab from a short sword. The attacker was extremely fast, and in that moment, he had switched his weapon from a dagger to a short sword andunched an attack, hoping to impale Reivyn in the back.
The man was dressed in all ck with just his eyes visible, and he had timed the assault at the perfect moment. The clouds obscured the moonlight, and they were at the farthest ce from any artificial source of light.
Reivyn fought for his life as swift shes and stabs immediately pushed him on the back foot. The short sword glinted from the far away light, but then it would snake around and attack from a different direction. The man was obviously doing it on purpose, as he used the shadows and light to his utmost advantage.
Sweat quickly poured down Reivyn''s face, his heart pounding. The man''s weapon was elusive and started getting close and closer to dealing some real damage to Reivyn as he fell further and further behind in his blocks. His vision was interfering with the information his Spatial Awareness was sending him, and he wasn''t used to receiving such contradictory sensory input.
Reivyn suffered a few shallow gashes on his unprotected arms and in the gaps between his metal tes on his stomach and legs. Blood flow started umting, and he knew that if he didn''t do something different, he would die here.
The only thing he could think of was to stop the sensory overload, so he shut his eyes tight and allowed his Blind Fight Skill to mesh with his Spatial Awareness as best he could. The effects were noticeable, but they weren''t enough. He was already too far behind in his reactions, and he was still getting further thrown off rhythm.
A spear came hurtling through the space of their duel, and it pierced right into the shadowed assant. tion quickly turned into rm as the man''s body simply faded away. The spear had hit nothing. Finally, with a moment to catch his breath, Reivyn unslung his shield and put his back to the wall. He kept his head on a swivel as he scanned the surroundings for the man. Brace dropped his spear and assumed the same position to his right, covering him from that angle.
Now that the short, intense conflict was over, Reivyn realized it had only been a three second long exchange. In those three seconds, he had exchanged what felt like a hundred blows, and he had been so panicked that he hadpletely forgotten about Brace apanying him a short distance away. They hadn''t been walking exactly side by side, but had allowed some room between them to better utilize the length of their spears if needed.
Brace had reacted immediately to the sounds of swords shing and Reivyn''s yell, but it had felt like an eternity to Reivyn.
They stood in ce, shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield, panting as they looked all around. Adrenaline turned into confusion as no other attacks ever materialised. Anywhere. It slowly became clear that this wasn''t a diversion for another force attempting to infiltrate the camp. Reivyn and Brace seemed to havee to the same conclusion at the same time as they shared a look.
The other patrollers finally came running up as Reivyn could hear activity of men being woken and quickly readying themselves for a battle that wasn''t likely toe.
The first patrollers arrived on the scene, and Reivyn and Brace finally rxed and lowered their guard. Reivyn''s hair stood on end as his body was consumed by a chill running down his spine as his mind screamed of danger. He once again movedpletely on instinct, and he ducked his head and raised his shield as fast as he could possibly move.
CLANG!
An arrow smashed into the shield so hard it knocked him off bnce into the wall. Men started yelling and pointing, and Reivyn could hear some horses galloping out into the night to find the invader.
New Skill Unlocked!
Danger Sense (1)
Knight-Captain Reifold was suddenly beside Reivyn, and his body was finally able to rx as he had supreme confidence in hismander''s abilities.
"What happened here?" Themanding officer asked.
Reivyn nced at Brace, who motioned for him to go ahead, and he answered, "Sir, Lance Corporal Brace and I were on patrol. Everything was routine and nothing was out of the ordinary. As soon as we reached this center section of wall in the darkness and the cloud covered the moonlight, someone suddenly appeared behind me, got into position without either of us noticing, and attempted to cut my throat."
Reivyn swallowed as he relived the harrowing experience from telling it. Knight-Captain Reifold didn''t hurry him, but he just stood there, patiently waiting.
"Umm..due to a Skill, I was able to react out of instinct and managed to block the dagger. I yelled that an enemy was attacking, and engaged the man. He waspletely shrouded in the dark and was skilled in misdirection by using the glint of his de and the quickness of his movements. I wouldn''t havested five seconds if Lance Corporal Brace hadn''t reacted in time, but when he thrust his spear through the man, he just vanished like he had never been there.
"We assumed a defensive stance and waited for reinforcements, and after they arrived, one final attack came my way," Reivyn gestured toward the arrow on the ground.
Knight-Captain Reifold stood in quiet contemtion for a moment before simply saying, "I see."
He located his Adjutant arriving and beckoned him over. "Conduct change over of the guard, but triple it for the rest of the night," he ordered. He then leaned in and whispered, "Have Private Reivyn move to a different tent without alerting anyone."
The men all got their orders. The guards were switched out at the routine time, but in strength, and a detail of the light cavalry went searching the ins.
The attacker was never found. There were no footprints, scent, or any evidence that he had existed other than the cuts and blood on Reivyn and the arrow on the ground.
Chapter 16: Whistle While You Work
Chapter 16: Whistle While You Work
Reivyn woke up to his skin itching something fierce. He had attempted to mimic his mother''s use of mana to heal herself that he had witnessed both during his birth and that of his twin sisters, but there was some element of the operation that he wascking. He didn''t know if it was a Skill that he needed to unlock, or if he didn''t have the requisite affinity.
He still worked on improving his affinities asionally if he had the free time, but it had recently taken a backseat to his other training endeavors. He had witnessed his mother using Light mana, and she had told him the basics of how to unlock higher tier affinities, but he wasn''t there, yet.
His wounds hadn''t been too serious, and his own natural healing ability had long since gotten him back to full Health. He wasn''t sure of the mechanics behind it, but despite having full Health, it didn''t mean his wounds hadpletely disappeared and been reced with new skin. His wounds had only scabbed over, and that was causing the intense itching sensations.
He groaned as he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He contemted on the fight he had suddenly been thrust into the night prior. He had spoken with Brace and Corporal Decker briefly before going back to sleep.
"That guy was obviously after you," Brace had said. "I''ve never heard of any Skill that could let someone fade out of reality like that, so he was likely in possession of a powerful magical item. I know what you''re thinking, and I doubt it''s Ren''s family. It definitely wasn''t Ren, because not only does he have a solid alibi, I saw him with his squad myself, but he also doesn''t have the Skill level that man disyed. Theoretically, his family has the ability to hire such an assassin, but it seems unlikely. They''re not that influential, yet, but it''s not outside the realm of possibility. My gut tells me there''s something else involved."
Reivyn had to agree with Brace''s analysis. Ren was the only enemy that he had ever made, but it didn''t seem to him that the level of enmity warranted hiring an assassin to kill him. Granted he was looking at it from his own point of view.
"Regardless," Corporal Decker interjected, "We''ll have to make sure you''re always paired up with someone. Standard procedure has always been to have you in a team with Brace, so there''s no reason to change that, but when ites time for any fire watch duties, we''ll make sure you''re either teamed up in a group of three, or relegated to internal patrols, or both." Decker added thatst point as if it had just urred to him. It wasn''t a bad idea. If he was only assigned to internal patrol, it wouldn''t be too much of an imposition to simply double up the teams.
Reivyn got up and got dressed. As they were currently doing physicalbor ofying the foundation for a road, they didn''t wear the armor, and they had only been carrying their sidearms with them to work. Reivyn decided to take his shield with him and leave it strapped to his back. With his recent level gains, his Strength of 39 meant he didn''t feel any strain from carrying the added weight.
Reivyn checked the notification that he had ignored until now.
Combat Initiated.
Enemy has escapedbat.
Neither victory nor defeat.
+0 Exp
Combat Resolved. Calcting...
+45 Exp
Experience: 85/400
That was interesting. So far he had gotten experience for winning a fight, getting defeated, and for simply surviving without determining victory or defeat. He had no idea how the Experience was calcted, but anything was better than nothing.
He stepped out of the tent that he had randomly switched owners with, and made his way through the din of others getting up and preparing for the day. He met up with Brace, who nodded in greeting, and they made their way to the chow area. He spotted a familiar figure eating sullenly by himself, and the duo joined him.
"I got attacked by an assassinst night and suffered numerous cuts, but how is it that you look worse than me?" Reivyn asked Teilon. His friend had a bruise on his face and a vacant look in his eyes.
"I don''t wanna talk about it," he mumbled around a mouthful of food.
Even though Teilon was sitting alone, the other levies that he was paired up with were sitting nearby, and Reivyn could hear themughing at Teilon''s response. He looked between his friend and the others.
"What''s going on?" He asked the other men. He was concerned for his friend and wanted to make sure he was fine, but if it was something he could use to tease his friend, that would be even better.
"Turns out that Kimberly girl interpreted his invitation to ''dance'' as an invitation to spar," came the reply. "She beat the hell out of him, hahaha."
"Yeah, yeah. I let her win," Teilon grumbled.
"Uh huh. More like you had no idea what to do. The best part was, as he scampered off like a beaten dog with his tail between his legs, she called out ''same time tomorrow.''"
Teilon nced at Reivyn with wide eyes. "I don''t know if it''s worth it," he said. Reivyn just smiled and pped him on the shoulder before tucking into his breakfast. They still had a lot of work to do. There were several miles left to go, uphill, to the dungeon that had been found. Then they would have to build the actual road afterying the foundation.
Skill Levelled Up!
Mining (9 ->10)
Reivyn and Brace quickly worked on digging out the foundation for the road. Their pace had noticeably quickened at each of the levels Reivyn gained in his Mining Skill. The group of soldiers weren''t all together working forward as a unit, but had been broken up into a long line snaking up the mountain to work on sections concurrently. The NCO''s spent their time moving from section to section that their men were working on to ensure a uniform depth and width.
The levies had been tasked with procuring and cutting the stones to be used in the paving. A masonry expert had arrived with his team, and they had a Skill that allowed the levies to perform an urate enough square cut, and then the masonry team was free to only have to make small adjustments to make them uniform, to which the levies would then ce the stones into their final resting spot.
Reivyn looked back as he stretched his back and noted the progress that had been made on the road. They had been working for a week and were nearly done. The final length of the road from the prospector town up to the dungeon had ended up being close to four miles. Not very far rtive to the size of the mountain range, but still a decent distance.
After a moment''s rest, Reivyn''s Stamina was topped up enough to continue with his work. He had been working on getting quieter and quieter on his activation of his ss Skill Devastating Strike, and he had finally gotten it down to simply mouthing the words without any sound. He hadn''t quite grasped being able to invoke the Skillpletely in his mind, but it was right around the corner with continued exercise.
He mouthed the activation and performed a powerful overhead strike into the rocky ground, and he watched with satisfaction as there was a considerablyrger effect than the first few days he had used the Skill.
Skill Levelled Up!
Devastating Strike (22 ->23)
He didn''t know why levelling his ss Skill was different, but it levelled up considerably faster than any of the other regr Skills that he had. This left him optimistic about levelling his other ss Skills that he hadn''t had the right opportunity to level up once this mission was done and he could go back to determining his own schedule.
Reivyn buckled down to perform his manualbor. He subconsciously whistled, without any specific tune, as he and Brace progressed on their section of road. It wouldn''t be long before they were done.
Reivyn stood in formation inplete silence. A procession was passing through the camp as all of the soldiers and levies stood in solemnity. The fallen troops had been ced in magically sealed body bags that prevented dposition. It was standard procedure, at least for this county, to return the deceasedbatants to their family members.
The officers stood in the front of the formation and saluted the passing wagon. The visiting masons had given the perfect pretext to return the fallen ahead of time, as, along with their own security escort, a caravan was made with some of the cavalry acting as honor guard.
The atmosphere was heavy as the officers held their salute until the passing deceased hadpletely left the pallisade. Knight-Captain Reifold turned to face the men and women after to address them.
"Dismissed," he said. There was no fancy speech or rousing demagoguery. The men had already been given the orders earlier that they were going to dismantle their current encampment and move up to the dungeon entrance where another pallisade had already been constructed. The men simply turned and got to work.
The men worked in silence, and the thoughts of mortality were prominent within Reivyn''s mind. He had the dreams of a past life, and he knew intellectually that that other life had ended. He didn''t have any remembrance of the passing, though. The recent attack, luckily with no duplicate instances, made him aware of the possibility that this life coulde to an end, too.
He had been confident in his own training, but the "spar" with Ren and the attempted assassination had disabused him of his prowess rtive to the wider world. He had only everpared himself with his contemporaries, and his father, but that doesn''t count. Getting conscripted gave him the revtion that he wouldn''t bepeting against his peers in age, but instead his peers in Skill or Level.
He had been confident in his Epic ss and Stats, but knowing that hismanding officer was an Epic ss, a Tier 3 one at that. Witnessing thatmander basically toying with another equivalent Tier 3 made him remember that he was only a Tier 1, and a fresh Tier 1 who hadn''t had time to grow, yet.
He was a weak youngster who had been thrust upon arger stage ahead of his time. Getting a head start in his ss and Levels didn''t mean he was going to be ahead of everyone else. It meant that until he had time to establish himself firmly, he was actually behind those he was interacting with.
Determination filled him as he worked. Determination to get stronger. He had heard many other young men, and he had done it himself, too, boast about bing a powerful, high Level ss. They had dered to their friends that they were going to do great things and be great people. Reivyn wasn''t determined to get stronger so that he could do great things and be a great person.
He was filled with determination to get stronger so that he wouldn''t get himself killed.
Reivyn watched as a group of unfamiliar men decked out in exotic armor came walking through the gate to the pallisade. The new location was quite picturesque as it afforded a stunning view in both directions. Down the direction they hade from, the vast ins and forests could be seen spreading out for miles and miles. In the other direction, snow-capped peaks and hints of valleys could be spotted in the endless-seeming mountain range that they could barely be considered to be upon.
It was a group of six men that walked through the gate. Their armor varied as much between themselves as it did with the military unit upying the encampment, which was just a typical pallisade and ditch, just with the dungeon in the center. There were two men who were obviously swordsmen: one had a sword and a more flexible type of armor while the other carried arge kite shield and was attired for standing his ground. Two men were in leathers: one with a bow and short sword, and one who was practically shrouded in a dark cloak covering everything contained within, only offering asionally glimpses of the leather and daggers strapped to his body. One man was wearing loose robes and carrying a staff and satchel, and thest man was also wearing light leathers, but he only had a dagger and a giant backpack strapped to his back.
They all came to a halt and assessed the situation all around them, never letting their gaze linger on one spot for too long. Even in their rxed stances, Reivyn could recognize from his Weapons Master Skill coiled strength ready to explode at a moment''s notice in their bodies. These men had seen battle, and they practically screamed "danger" in Reivyn''s mind.
Shortly after they entered the pallisade, Knight-Lieutenant Brand came and greeted them. They exchanged a few words before the Adjutant invited them further inside. Reivyn elbowed Brace and nodded at the men.
Brace looked at the passing men for a moment, observing them carefully, before turning back to Reivyn.
"Adventurers. I''m sure they''ve gotten wind of the newly discovered dungeon and havee to check things out. They look pretty experienced and well funded, which means sessful most of the time. We''d have to see them in action to gauge their actualbat ability and Levels," Brace exined. "Unless, of course, you had an appraisal Skill geared towards people or were in charge of them in a way that the System provided that information, like with our officers.
"They have the standard Adventurer Party make-up: Shield-bearer, two closebat, one rangedbat, one mage or healer, and a porter," Brace turned and thrust his finger into Reivyn''s chest. "If, after you get out, you decide to be an adventurer yourself, don''t join any teams that deviate from this pattern unless you absolutely know their abilities. If you get a bunch trying to recruit you and they''re all dressed in te with shields and swords, then you know they''re idiots. Stay clear." Brace gave him a severe look to get his point across.
Reivyn nodded his head, "Sure thing."
They hadpleted the mission of eliminating the Orc Camp, building the road to the dungeon, and establishing a base. Thest leg of their journey was to send out constant patrols to kill off any ferocious beasts in the area, and then to keep doing it until the lower level beasts were deterred from the area and retreated further into the mountain range.
A group of City Guard style militia were being recruited and trained in the city, and they would eventually be moved out here to take over the duties of guarding the area. The route would enjoy more patrols from the regr military, and civilians. Adventurers and Lifestyle sses both, would eventually be drawn to the dungeon and most likely turn the area into another settlement. The resources avable within the dungeon, as well as the surrounding mountain range, would ultimately determine howrge and prosperous the settlement became.
Reivyn and Teilon had already talked about making ns toe back here after attaining Tier 2 to establish or join an adventurer team. With his added Stats and the taste of explosive growth from the battle, Reivyn was contemting whether or not he shoulde sooner. With his Rare Fighter ss upgraded to Epic in Tier 1, he was well situated to take advantage of the opportunity.
The military base needed most of the personnel to remain in the encampment to act as garrison in case of any unexpected events, so only one or two squads would go on patrol duty in the local area at a time. While in garrison at the camp, the days were spent mostly how they had been while camped outside of Haluville waiting for the other levies to converge.
In the mornings, they conducted physical exercise, led by an NCO on a rotating basis. Afterwards, they would train with practice weapons, working on their weapons, armor, and shield Skills respectively. Without the threat of death apanying life or death situations, Reivyn''s explosive growth in his Skills lessened to a more normal rate, but from the context of chatter from the other soldiers, he suspected it was still elevatedpared to them. Especially the Skills he had been born with at Level 0.
Finally, after weeks of practicing to acquire the Skill properly, Reivyn made a breakthrough with his Mana Cirction.
As he did every night he had the time avable, which was every night he didn''t have any fire watch duties, Reivyn sat in his tent in a rxed manner, his legs folded underneath him. He centered his mind and delved his awareness into himself and located the ball of energy floating in his core. He grabbed a strand of the energy and separated it from the nucleus. He visualized the route the System had shoved into his head when he gained his ss and the one his father had taught him, and he guided the energy along the meridian lines.
It was a weird experience, because before unlocking the Skill, he could only vaguely grasp the feeling of the energy he grasped, but not the meridians they followed along. That wasn''t to say he was moving it around blindly and hoping that it followed the correct path. He simply couldn''t move the energy anywhere but along the meridians. It was like walking down a pitch ck hallway.
It was difficult to master the feeling of performing the action without the Skill assisting him, as well. He had to maintain a bnce between calm meditation and focused willpower. If he went too far in either direction, the mana ball would slip from his grasp, disperse into his body in an unconcentrated gas, and return to the nucleus.
Topound the matter, it left a prickling sensation along the path his mana followed. It felt like when one of his limbs would fall asleep from lying on it in an awkward position, but it felt like what it would feel like if that sensation came from inside his body radiating outward. It was incredibly strange, and it was incredibly distracting. He had spent three days of fumbling just to make the first full inner revolution.
In the beginning, there were multiple points along the path that warped the little ball of energy he was manipting, and it caused it to flow through at an extremely slow pace. It was like the neck of a gourd, and it restricted the amount of energy that could flow through it.
When his mana encountered one of these points, he would "polish" it by rotating the mana along the walls like a whirlpool. This act would slowly expand the walls to allow for more mana to pass at once. He would only be able to maintain a few swirls of his mana before he felt a straining from the meridian. As he couldn''t actually feel the meridian lines themselves, the best description he could give it was like a tiny, pulsing bruise that he could only somewhat pinpoint.
It was a long and arduous process of polishing his meridians, so he had long since quit trying to keep track of the progress, and he just mindlessly performed the task.
Finally, on this particr night, he was unable to find any constrictions, and before he knew it, while searching for points to polish, his mana ball had unknowingly circted throughout his entire body and returned to the nucleus of mana in his core. He was abruptly brought out of his trance by a notification.
New Skill Unlocked!
Mana Cirction (1)
He jumped up and eximed in excitement, forgetting that he wasn''t alone in his tent.
"Quiet down," Brace called out as he threw a pillow at Reivyn''s head. Reivyn ducked andughed with a silly grin on his face.
"Alright, alright," he cated his squad mate. "I just finally unlocked the Mana Cirction Skill after several weeks, and I got excited."
"What?" Brace asked in confusion. "Just now? I would have thought you got the Skill a couple weeks ago with your diligence. As far as I know, Decker only took a week and a half."
Reivyn shrugged his shoulders, and Brace, not being one to pry, dropped in and rolled back over to go to sleep after Reivyn tossed him his pillow back. Reivyn wasn''t going to tell him, or anyone besides his family for that matter, that he had an additional pathway attached to his ss meridian pathway, and it was not only longer, but much moreplicated and filled with several times more bottleneck points.
With tion Reivyn resumed his seat to continue working on his Mana Cirction for a bit longer before going to sleep. He was still addicted to the feeling of getting Skill gains and improving himself.
Chapter 17: Home on the Range
Chapter 17: Home on the Range
Monthly Experience
Calcting...
Relevant Skills Training: +300 Exp
Physical Exercise: +115 Exp
Sparring: +115 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +40 Exp
Life Experience: +600 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 1,170
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 355/600
Reivyn woke up to a new notification. He had known that people gained experience in their sses over time, but he hadn''t known exactly what form that took ce in. Now he learned that the System did monthly calctions based on their activities and life experiences.
He noticed that Life Experience was more than double all of his other sources of experiencebined. He surmised he had gotten such arge boost due to all of the new things he had donebined with travelling and fighting for his life. He couldn''t always expect to get such arge boost to his monthly experience calctions.
Reivyn looked over his Status page, contemting on what Stats to use his unassigned points on. He had just been increasing his Strength and Dexterity in equal measure, but he looked at his Intelligence and Magic Stats and remembered that they were his highest Stats that he was born with. He would gain points in his physical Stats automatically per level gain no matter what, so he made a snap decision to go ahead and ce some points in his mental Stats.
It was important to focus on his physical Stats at this point in time of his life because of his circumstances, but he didn''t want his advantages topletely fall by the wayside. With that mentality, he resolved to ce a few points in his mental Stats every few levels going forward in the future.
Reivyn donned his armor and grabbed his weapons as he headed out of the tent with Brace. He was excited for the day, because it was the first time he was going on patrol in the mountainous wilderness with his squad.
Most of the other squads, including the ones from the cavalry unit, had already done a tour in the field, and each one of them had had to engage one or two ferocious beasts at least. The area surrounding their little mini fort was still not "off limits" to the local wildlife.
Reivyn and Brace met up with the rest of the squad members after grabbing a quick breakfast. Corporal Decker performed a head count and reported to their sergeant that they were good to go, and they set off into the sparse brush.
Corporal Decker had already exined the mission parameters the night before, and he didn''t want any dy when it was time to begin the excursion. The men lined up in 2 columns, roughly ten feet apart with a point-man leading the way.
Reivyn kept his eyes open, surveying thend around him as they moved out. Even though they were still in the immediate area of the palisade, it was a good habit to get into to always be alert.
The terrain was fairly rocky and open, but there were smatterings of tall grass, boulders, and some isted clumps of trees that blocked the line of sight and provided concealment for anything lurking around. This close to the base camp, they didn''t need to inspect each area thoroughly as to walk up to each individual one, but once they gained some distance that was exactly what they would be doing. The purpose of the outing was to drive off and deter any beasts, and with no final destination or timetable, there was no rush to not do so.
Reivyn walked along with the others up the gentle slope. He looked out over the ins expanding outward before him to his left. It was a vast sea of green, and the sun reflected off of a distant river that fed into ake like a polished mirror. The blue sky with scattered clouds contrasting with the green below made for an idyllic scene.
The ridge that they were travelling along was extremely wide, and even though it was a spur of a muchrger massif looming in the distance, Reivyn could see its own spurs darting off to the ins below on either side. On the right side of the ridge, the main line was a straight cliff into a forested valley, and the offshoot spurs were extremely steep. It would be a nightmare to navigate without proper gear and nning.
Reivyn could imagine that in a couple of years, after the outpost had be a proper city, this would be one of the most coveted areas to live in. It was simply stunning.
The morning passed without incident, and the squad settled down for some lunch. They had yet to encounter anything that would be ssified as a ferocious beast, though they had run some local predators off, mainly mountain foxes and other small fry.
"So normally a ridge would be considerably less wide than one attached to such arge mountain range as this one," Brace leaned over to engage Reivyn in conversation. The squad wasn''t operating in total silence, as they weren''t performing any stealthy maneuvers or trying to remain undetected from an enemy.
"This ridge is very wide with a gentle slope, and it actually has more concealment from any watchers below in the center," Brace continued. "On a smaller ridge, it would be more narrow and almoste to a point at the top. In such a situation, anyone walking along the top would stand out like a sore thumb to anyone looking from the bottom, as there would be nothing but sky behind them. We call that "skylining," and we would typically move downslope a ways so as to avoid any prying eyes."
"That makes sense," replied Reivyn. "What about for anyone above you? Wouldn''t they be able to see you no matter what?"
"Yeah, that changes things," answered Brace. "When confronting an enemy with a superior terrain position, cover and speed are much more important. Someone above is gonna spot you, but the key is to keep as many obstacles between you and them to prevent any archers or, in the case of a true professional army, mages from having line of sight and to close the distance as fast as possible."
Reivyn cocked his head to the side a little in confusion. "A ''true'' professional army? I thought this was a professional army, though."
"While it''s true that we''re professional soldiers, we are not a professional army. We''re structured simrly, and if the Kingdom ever issues a conscription, a portion of our unit gets sent up the chain just like any non-professional levy.
"Technically, we''re part of the Lord''s retainers. Most people join our outfit not just for the superior training and resources, but also because of the superiornd that can be granted after a sessful stint of service, which is typically around a decade, but it can be longer depending on the circumstances.
"The biggest difference between the professional army and the various retainers is ess to the Kingdom controlled dungeons. They have the ability to send the men into various difficulty level dungeons to gainbat experience and levels. Knight-Captain Reifold served as a junior officer, but he''s not the best person to gauge the effectiveness of the practice, because apparently he was quite exceptional even then."
"Why would he leave such an opportunity toe be a member of a lord''s retainers?" Reivyn was puzzled.
"I don''t know the details, but rumors are that, with anything involving nobles and benefits, there are some politics involved," Brace concluded.
Reivyn nodded his head and finished eating his lunch. They still had a few minutes of break, so he got up to go off a bit of a distance to relieve himself. As he finished up, he felt a thud against his shin along with the ting of something hard striking metal.
He looked down at his leg to investigate what had caused the sensation, and he saw a three-foot snake coiled up, ready to strike again. After careful observation, he realized it wasn''t poisonous, it was just aggressive. A smirk crossed his face as he got an idea.
Reivyn turned to look over his shoulder and called out to Brace, "Heads up!" He scooped the snake up with the butt of his spear andunched it at the sitting man. He was only trying to y a prank on his friend, so he was careful to aim in such a way that it wouldn''t actuallynd anywhere close to him or be a danger.
"Ahhh! Sonuva-gah," Brace toppled over at being startled to find a snake, fangs bared, flying through the air towards him. He gave out an eloquent rebuttal to the shenanigans his youngerpatriot got up to, and the other squad members paused in their conversation to see what was going on. Upon realizing the situation, they justughed and continued with what they were doing.
"Real funny," Brace said as he got up, patting the dust off of himself. He took his spear, and copying Reivyn earlier, scooped up the snake and sent it on its way.
Despite what some people assumed of military men, they weren''t bloodthirsty murderers. They didn''t just indiscriminately kill everything they encountered.
The rest of the break was spent tidying up and checking gear. Soon the squad was mobile again.
-ROAR!-
Reivyn darted in at the nk of arge, ck bear as it took a swipe at the man in front of it with his shield up. The man took the hit and allowed the force to drive him back as another man took his spot. Reivyn jumped back as another man with a shield covered for him as the bear turned its attention towards the attacker.
The men had stumbled upon the bear some minutes earlier. It wasn''t a ferocious beast, but bears were still deadly animals. They took turns rotating in defenders and attackers and harassed the bear. They weren''t attempting to kill it, as it could actually prove beneficial towards keeping other animals and weak monsters in check.
They had their orders, though, and its home was within the radius that they were tasked with clearing out. Thebatants harassed it for several long minutes until it finally must have realized it wasn''t getting anywhere, and it turned and fled further up the mountain.
Reivyn lowered his spear and panted to catch his breath. Even though they took turns rotating out and not much Stamina was spent overall, it had still been a physically demanding activity. He took out his water skin and took a swig. He wiped the sweat off of his brow, popped his neck, and rolled his shoulders to rx his muscles.
As he was performing his little stretches, a glint off to the side near the cliff edge caught his eye. He frowned as he looked over and couldn''t quite make out what had caught his attention. It was around a couple hundred yards to the side and further up the slope, so he was surprised he had seen anything at all. He elbowed Brace to his side and nodded in that direction.
"I think I saw something over there. No idea what," he told the man. Brace looked over in the direction and then walked up to Corporal Decker. He bent his head together with the corporal, and then Decker signalled the men to form up.
"Might be something unusual over by the cliff, so we''re going to walk over there and check it out as we continue on our way," the squad leadermanded.
The men did a quick double check of their gear, and then they resumed their patrol formation. As they walked along the path leading to the location, a group of unfamiliar people suddenly came hurrying out of the brush right next to their intended investigatory destination. They were attired like Adventurers, though not like any of the several groups that had arrived at the palisade that Reivyn had seen.
The group of Adventurers spotted the squad and came to an abrupt halt. They turned towards each other and gesticted for a bit before a flurry of activity ended with them producing what looked like copse-able kites out of their packs. They then did something very puzzling: They took a running head start andunched themselves off the cliff side. The contraptions were actually gliders, and Reivyn and the other squad members watched as they floated down into the forested valley below.
"I''ve got a bad feeling," Corporal Decker had a frown on his face as he muttered to himself. Louder, he continued, "Let''s hurry and see what''s up there."
The men broke into a jog and headed for the spot the strangers had jumped off the cliff. They clearly hadn''t originally been nning on taking that route of descent, but the arrival of the squad had prompted them to abandon their ns for expediency. It was very suspicious.
Upon arriving at the edge, the men finally saw what had at first grasped Reivyn''s attention. A line of spikes were driven into the ground and ropes attached to the spikes led down into the valley.
"Cut these ropes," Corporal Decker pointed and ordered.
"What are these for?" One of the men asked as the squad drew their utility des to sever the ropes. There had to be at least thirty, minimum.
"Don''t know, don''t care," responded the corporal.
Reivyn ran to one of the ropes and bent down to grab it in his off hand. He steadied the thick rope as he sawed through it, his Weapons Master Skill activating and speeding up the process. When he finished cutting the rope, he nced down as he put his hand down to help push himself up into a standing position, and he paused.
Some of the loose gravel was shifting about, and as he bent down for a closer look at the puzzling phenomenon, he noticedrger andrger pebbles also start to bounce and dance around.
"Corporal!" He shouted as he quickly stood up. Corporal Decker held up a hand to acknowledge he had heard him but to wait. He was staring up at the brush line spotted with clumps of trees. The terrain formed a fairly solid break to line of sight.
A crashing sound came from the brush followed shortly after by the sounds of arge animal grunting and whoofing. Suddenly, the ck bear that they had run off moments before came charging out of the brush down the slope. It looked at the men as it ran by at an astonishing speed, but otherwise itpletely ignored them.
"Everyone, stop what you''re doing," Corporal Decker waved his arm in an up and down motion to get his men to stop and be silent. Reivyn watched his expression as he looked at the running bear, the dancing pebbles on the ground, and then finally up at the brush line. Reivyn witnessed the bloodpletely drain from his face as he turned and yelled at the men.
"RUN!"
The men immediately stowed their utility des and took off running at full tilt back down the slope. They had only managed to cut about half of the ropes. As soon as they entered a dead sprint, a giant shadow fell over the fleeing men as a huge flock of birds shot up into the sky, previously having been concealed by the brush line and other obstacles. With their shadow came the screeches of innumerable birds chirping and cawing at one another.
A cacophony of sound barraged Reivyn''s ears as he put the entire fiber of his being into running down the slope. A quick nce behind him showed a simr scene on the ground. A horde of wildlife, ferocious beasts, and low-tiered monsters came surging out of the brush in an endless tide.
Reivyn''s eyes opened wide in panic, and he felt Mental Fortitude assert itself as he faced forward once again. He tucked his head down and silently chanted, run, run, run, run... over and over again to himself.
While the squad had managed to travel a considerable distance during the day, they had snaked and meandered up the slope in order to investigate all of the little hidey-holes something could be lurking within. The absolute distance walked was a lot, but the rtive distance away from the palisade wasn''t too far, all things considered. It could be seen as a tiny square off in the distance still.
"Emergency signal!" Corporal Decker yelled between breaths. He didn''t specify who should send one, so three of the squad members fired off a magically enhanced signal re in the direction of the palisade. Because of the slope and distance they had traveled, instead of firing the signal re straight into the air, they aimed more in front of themselves so as to allow the projectile to expend its eleration moving towards the encampment.
Three res shot out almost simultaneously nearly parallel to ground level. Mere momentster,rge globes of extremely bright, orange fire exploded into being, hopefully alerting the base below.
Reivyn felt nearly weightless as the men hurtled down the slope of the mountain. He felt like if he ran any faster, he would simply run out into the open air in front of him instead of down the ridge. If he didn''t have decently leveled Bnce and Running Skills, he wouldn''t have been able to handle such a pace without ending up tripping and rolling the rest of the way.
We can make it, Reivyn thought to himself. His lungs were on fire and his legs were growing weary, but he had hopes as he could see their destination getting closer and closer while they maintained a lead on the beast tide.
But Reivyn had forgotten one thing: he shouldn''t give voice to these thoughts in his head.
A swarm of birds came plunging down on the men, careening into the fleeing squad as they made their escape. Reivyn felt rock hard beaks and sharp ws crash into his head and upper back, causing him to stumble and barely catch himself. He and the others unstrapped their shields and ran with them held aloft to fend off as many of the avian assants as they could.
The birds were extremely nimble, however, and many of them simply swooped down under the protection of the shield to scratch and peck at faces and upper bodies as they flew by. Reivyn knew that if this continued, the harassment would lead to a catastrophic loss in speed resulting in them being submerged in the horde.
Working off of instincts he didn''t know he had, Reivyn spun his internal mana through his body faster than he ever had before and pulled it in the palm of his right hand. He discarded his spear as a hindrance andshed his hand out as fire mana synthesized into a long, thin strand that he wielded like a whip.
He struck out at the birds flying in above him andssoed it out over hispanion''s heads. Reivyn''s mana dropped precipitously as the maneuver burned through 10 points per second. He could only maintain the assault for a total of 30 seconds.
The fire whip didn''t make physical contact so much as it simply passed through the birds. The flying beasts that were passed through with the whip caught on fire, causing them to lose their ability to fly as their feathers burned up. The other birds enroute to perform their dive-bomb attacks quickly abandoned the thought of continuing to harass the men, and Reivyn quickly released the technique.
He had used up just over one hundred mana and was down to two-thirds of his total pool.
There was no time for thanks or any kind of examination on what had just happened, and all of the men kept their heads down as they continued their sprint, their shields now pumping back and forth along with their arms.
Sweat poured down Reivyn''s head and face as his entire body was drenched from the exertion. The sweat stung as it fell into his eyes, and he could taste the salt as itnded on his tongue as he gulped down his breaths. He looked towards the base, and they were finally close enough that he could see a flurry of activity as the men still there were doing something on this side of the wall.
Despite the hup with the birds harassing them, he still maintained hope that they would somehow make it to safety, but one form of disaster never strikes alone.
Reivyn heard a muffled curse followed by the sounds of armor striking the ground from behind him. He turned and saw Corporal Decker rolling down the slope. Like a responsible leader, he had been bringing up the rear, keeping an eye on his men, but he had apparently been too focused on the others and had failed to spot a rock that caused him to roll his ankle and trip.
Reivyn had no conscious thought as his body moved on its own. He activated his ss Skill Charge in the direction of the Corporal and his momentum was immediately altered towards a full on sprint in the opposite direction.
The Active Skills afforded by the sses were peculiar. With some experimentation, he had found that he could activate the Skill in any direction from any situation. He could even enter a full charge while jumping in the air. The System worked in mysterious ways.
As Reivyn made his way towards his downed corporal, he spotted a duo ofrge wolves that were obviously on the cusp of being ssifed as beasts elerate away from the front line of the horde. They had spotted prey and had seized the opportunity to pounce. Reivyn flung his shield away as he simultaneously entered a ready battle stance above his fallenrade, grasped the sheathe of his sword in his off hand, and drew the sword in a lightning quick arc.
He felt resistance as his de passed through the first wolf,pletely decapitating it, but the weapon had lost enough momentum that it simply bashed the other wolf off trajectory with a deep cut on its neck. Deep, but not enough to be fatal. The surviving wolf managed to rake its ws across Reivyn''s unprotected midsection, tearing cloth, leather, and skin in a spray of blood.
Reivyn didn''t have time to care about the wolf or acknowledge the burning sensation in his side as he scooped up the Corporal, sword still in hand, and started running back down the slope. He could practically feel the breath of the many beasts that were now hot on his heels. His recent Stat gains and adrenaline coursing through his system allowed him to shoulder the other man with only minimal added effort.
"Put me down and escape on your own!" Corporal Decker tried to convince Reivyn to save himself.
"No," was the simple reply.
Blood was pouring down his side, his Stamina, and now Health, were draining at unprecedented speeds as his vision was obscured by the sweat continuously pouring down his face. Any minute now he would be caught by a trailing tide of death.
His vision began to swim and he could only focus on putting one foot in front of the other.
A strange sound entered his ears that he couldn''t focus on enough to think about, and it was followed by louder shrieks from the many creatures chasing after him. The weight of Corporal Decker on his shoulders suddenly disappeared, and his vision tilted to the side as he felt himself falling sideways.
No, that''s not right, Reivyn thought. I''m not falling, I''m flying.
He waspletely spent and could hardly focus on what was happening to him, but he suddenly felt his weight return to him as he was securely ced onto something moving and jumping about.
"Don''t worry, I got you," a voice calmly told him as his vision started going dark around the edges.
He had been picked up by a member of the cavalry.
They had made it.
Chapter 18: Cooped Up
Chapter 18: Cooped Up
Reivyn sat up in an unfamiliar tent. People were rushing about tending to a steady stream of wounded people brought into the tent in various levels of distress. Some were being supported by theirrades as they limped in under their own strength, and some were being carried in on gurneys or slung over shoulders. He quickly realized that he was in the field infirmary.
Reivyn jumped up and, vaguely remembering a w sh to his midsection, quickly checked himself over. His clothes and leathers were still tattered over his stomach, but there was no wound. He had managed to hang on to his sword, and someone had sheathed it for him. He checked his Health and Stamina and saw that he was fully healed and at about 90% Stamina.
All of the medical personnel were busy doing much more important work than exining things to him, so he joined a line of others who had been healed in exiting therge tent. As he stepped through the tent p, he nced back into the depths. He could see several bodies covered in sheetsid out on the ground.
Sounds of beasts roaring, men screaming, and the shes of conflict washed over him as he emerged from the medical tent. Large birds of prey, some from the same species that had hounded him and his squad previously butbined with several new flocks, were flying overhead. They weren''t circling the battlefield, but were instead involved in arger migration that continued on past the palisade. They were just taking the passing chance to swoop down and assault the men below. They were aggressive, ferocious beasts that had been granted an opportunity, so they took it.
He and the others returning to the front lines ran with their heads ducked. Reivyn noticed the other men raising their shields to cover themselves, and he remembered that he had discarded his shield hundreds of yards up the slope. There was gear strewn about on the ground littering thepound: shields, spears, helmets, he even saw a single, solitary boot. He snatched up a nicked shield and spear from the ground as he ran. Gear adrift is a gift, he justified.
The men ran to the northern wall of thepound where a gap had been cut to allow men to pass in and out. Upon emerging he witnessed what had been the result of activity he couldn''t make out during his mad dash down the mountain.
The logs from the original palisade in the prospector town, which had been previously transported up to the new palisade but left discarded at the time, had been ced into a makeshift, inverted "v" wall. The men had reinforced it and were standing behind the wall using the gaps to thrust their spears through into the beast horde on the other side.
An NCO was waving peopleing in towards the wall. "1st toon on the Left. 2nd toon on the Right. Find your squadter, man the wall!" He repeated the orders over and over.
Reivyn ran towards a small gap in the men lining the wall on the right. He noticed that Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand were at the very tip of the inverted "v," and they were working together to bear the brunt of the tide and redirect the horde''s momentum to the sides. The base was like a rock in the rapids, and the beasts were the water.
"Don''t try to kill them. Poke your spear through to make them retreat from the wall and keep the pressure off. Deterrence is key," a seasoned veteran said to Reivyn while never missing a beat performing the actions himself.
Reivyn joined the long line of troops at the wall. The NCO''s were simultaneously directing the troops and defending them from the birds overhead. He didn''t know if someone had mentioned his stunt with the fire mana whip, but the NCO''s had procured chains from somewhere, and they were swinging them around over the top of the heads of men.
There were still gaps in the defenses from the flying threat, and Reivyn noticed that most of the injuries were sustained from arge bird making it past the chains to rake at the unprotected necks of the men. Some of the birds just barrelled into the men beak first, not caring whether they did any damage or not. Despite an increased level of Intelligence in many animals, especially those on the cusp of being, or were already, ferocious beasts, they were still beasts.
Thrust. Retract. Quick check of the skies. Thrust. Retract. Raise shield to block. Thrust. Retract...
Thebat was actually pretty rote once Reivyn got into the rhythm of it. Every now and then, a small monster, like a wild goblin or orc, would jump up on top of the log wall and swipe down at the men with crude weaponry. Sometimes they got lucky and bashed a head enough to knock a man down or got a lucky stab in before the defenders could pull their spears back from the gaps in the wall to handle the new threat. These instances made up the other minority of injuries sustained.
There was one thing that puzzled Reivyn, though. The levies. As he performed his duty of keeping the pressure off of the wall, he nced back and saw them just standing in the center of the new fortification. Upon running in, he had assumed they would act as a reserve unit and take the ce of any tired or wounded regrs, but that was not the case. They just stood there, not doing anything other then defending against the attacks of the birds. With a muchrger concentration of men able to focus on the aerial adversaries, though, they didn''t suffer any damage.
He put the thought out of his mind and focused on his task. Themanders hadn''t made stupid decisions yet, so he was confident they were on standby for a reason.
"Archers! Archers! Anyone with a ranged Combat Skill of 15 or higher," an NCO ran up and down the line calling out. "Report to the watch towers to reinforce the Skirmishers. Anyone with a ranged Combat Skill of 15 or higher..." the man''s voice was drowned out by the sounds of battle as he ran past.
Reivyn pulled his spear back and tapped the man to his side on the shoulder. He gestured back towards the palisade proper, "I''ve got a ranged Combat Skill. I''m heading out. Good luck." The man acknowledged him with a nod.
Reivyn propped his spear up against the wall in case anyone on the line would need it, and he made his way back towards the opening in the wall of the palisade. He nced up at the watchtowers and noticed the considerably more concentrated assault by the flying beasts. He gulped and berated himself as he ran, Why did I volunteer?! I''m already moving, so it''s toote now. Life lesson learned: Never volunteer for anything!
As he ran towards the watchtower that was located on the same side as his toon, he felt a weird, subtle pulling towards the opposite tower. He decided to trust his gut and go towards the other tower. He hadn''t been instructed to go to any specific location, so he just decided on his own.
Reivyn stopped a man, blood running down his face along with several other wounds on his body obviously caused by w and beak strikes, who was making his way towards the medical tent. He was holding a bow and had an empty quiver on him, so Reivyn knew he was one of the Skirmishers. He stopped the man and held his hand out.
"Bow! I''m going up the tower," he informed the man. The man tossed him his bow without a second thought and continued on his way. There were more important things to him at the moment than keeping a bow with no arrows that he could always receter. Reivyn slung it over his shoulder as he climbed thedder up the tower.
When he reached the top he found an unexpected surprise. The first Adventurer group he had seene through the gates of the palisade were up there. The rogue and archer were using bows to attack targets down on the ground, the two frontline meleebatants were fully armored with the visors of their helmets down as they defended the others from the birds, and the mage was sitting in a corner, presumably recovering spent mana. The porter was nowhere to be seen, but several full quivers and stacks of arrows that wouldn''t fit were neatly piled to the side of the rangedbatants.
"Hey, kid!" Therger, burly armored man said. He had a kite shield in one hand and arge sword that would probably require Reivyn to use both of his hands to properly use in the other. "You''re Lucky. You stick with us, and you don''t gotta worry about anything. We got you." He was in high spirits despite the intense situation and was quite jovial.
"What about the guy I just passed covered in blood?" Reivyn asked wryly as he assumed a position at the edge of the tower. There had originally been a roof overhead, but it had been shredded into splinters and offered no protection.
The big man paused for half a second at the rebuttal. "Learning experience! Learning experience. Won''t happen again. Trust us."
Reivyn shrugged his shoulders as he nocked an arrow. He was going to have to, whether he wanted to or not.
"Don''t worry about most of the beasts down there," the rogue called out to him as he continued to fire his bow. "Pick outrger beasts that seem to move with purpose or intelligence, if you can tell, and the monsters. Those are the only things down there that will actively attack."
Reivyn took the advice to heart as he searched through the beasts. It wasn''t hard to spot the targets he was looking for, as most of them were either already close to or actively converging on the walls below.
Pull. Loose. Pull. Loose...
The battle continued. Same concept, different action. Reivyn''s proficiency with a bow was just as high as his ability with a spear, and it was augmented by the Aim Skill, so he more or less hit the targets he was aiming for. The beasts and monsters weren''t actively trying to dodge his attacks, and their movements were mostly predictable in the situation.
Suddenly, arge fireball streaking through the sky caught Reivyn''s attention. It sailed from the back of the horde towards the point of the wall where the officers were still fighting. A light blue screen appeared before it and caused it to explode on impact. The fire sshed down into the beasts and monsters below, well outside the range of the troops. Many of the beasts caught on fire and went berserk, smashing into other beasts erratically and spreading more fire.
The magical attack had actually helped alleviate a lot of the pressure on the officers. Reivyn looked into the distance where the magic attack had originated from, and he spotted what he had been hoping to see for a long time: the end of the beast tide was in sight.
What followed at the heels of the beast tide was a unified tribe of goblins. They were bigger than any of the ones he had seen thus far. They were outfitted in wooden armor and riding mountain goats. If the situation wasn''t so serious, it might have appearedical. Several of the goblins were carrying gnarled staves and had borate headdresses worn on their heads. The fireball attack hade from one of them.
"Hobgoblins," Reivyn heard the archer mention. "The other wild goblins are probably members of this tribe. Focus your attacks exclusively on them. This is thest hurdle."
The flocks passed by and the beasts dispersed as the endless ocean finally came to an end. There was a gap between thest of the animals and the hobgoblin tribe, and thetter lined up on their goat mounts. They numbered probably close to 200, and as they lined up, the hobgoblin with the most borate headdress raised his arms and staff aloft. The Sun was finally approaching the horizon to the west, and it caused long, creepy shadows to extend out from the hobgoblins.
Reivyn activated his Mana Sight Skill, and even though the distance was pretty far, he was still able to seerge amounts of mana being sucked into the area around the apparent Shaman where it mixed with its own mana being expelled in a controlled manner.
Huh, so a proper magic caster doesn''t just utilize their own mana, but can subordinate environmental mana as well, Reivyn thought to himself.
As the Shaman coalesced his attack, Knight-Captain Reifold held out his hand. The Adjutant ced a spear in the waiting appendage, and Knight-Captain Reifold immediately took up a javelin throwing stance andunched the spear through the air. The hobgoblin Shaman was about 50 yards away, too far, Reivyn assumed, for the Pdin to use the same de light move he had used on the ogre a couple weeks ago.
The spear sailed straight and true, and it pierced right through the throat of the Shaman, killing it instantly. The other hobgoblins went wild with rage and immediately charged the fortification, rage consuming any coherent thought such a monster possessed.
"Go," the archer eximed as the hobgoblins entered into effective range. Reivyn and the other two men raised their bows to fire arrows into thest resistance. The three other men on top of the watchtower joined them along the edge to watch thest of the battle.
It was anticlimactic.
The hobgoblins were consumed with rage and didn''t make sound decisions. Any of them that made it on top of the log walls to get to men defending on the other side were immediately killed, and most of them were pushed back before they could even mount the wall. The continued barrage of arrows also devastated their ranks.
Fear finally overrode rage, and the hobgoblin shamans that remained regained control of the tribe and directed them to bypass the thorny encampment. At least a quarter of their number had been quickly wiped out.
The men broke out into cheers as the hobgoblins disappeared, Reivyn among them. It had been an extremely stressful day. The archer, along with several others from the skirmishers, that had previously left to get his wounds tended to returned to the top of the tower, and Reivyn passed the bow back to him with a thanks.
A long, low horn sounded in the distance causing the celebrations toe to an immediate halt. Reivyn looked into the distance and saw a long line of men emerge from the brush in the distance. They continued to march forth, most of them attired simrly to the levies down below with helmets, gambesons, and spears.
Once the formation of neers was fully out in the open, Reivyn sucked in a cold breath as he realized there were hundreds of them. There was possibly close to a thousand armed men with obviously hostile intentions.
An image of ropes staked into the ground atop a cliff face briefly entered Reivyn''s mind as he quickly made his way down thedder. He needed to return to his squad.
"Hey, we''lle with. Can''t get contribution points up here," Reivyn heard the big, armored Adventurer call out to him.
He had no time to think about the intentions of the other men as he hit the bottom of thedder and sprinted back out into the new fortification. He frowned as he saw the men dismantling the makeshift walls and setting the logs to the side. He quickly spotted his squad and made his way to Corporal Decker.
"What''s going on? Why are we getting rid of the defenses?" Reivyn immediately voiced his question upon arriving at the scene.
"Oh, it''s not a big deal," Corporal Decker replied. "By the way, where you been?" He didn''t have an usatory tone in his voice. Reivyn pointed behind him, and Corporal Decker nodded his head as he followed his finger towards the watchtower. "Right, makes sense. Anyway, about these new guys. Like I said, not a big deal.
"Those guys are flying the pennant of Count Heliar from the county on the other side of this mountain. Basically, it''s politics. The lines of the counties are vague in the mountain, and he''s probably trying to enforce a im on the new dungeon. The adventurers who discovered it probably sold the information to both sides to double their profit.
"In a situation like this, we don''t fight to the death. Both of the counts are part of the same duchy, and the Duke would be furious if they had their people murdering each other. We''ll fight until our health gets to 50% and then voluntarily retreat from the conflict. If anyone dies, unless its from a fatal attack that shouldn''t have been made, then its considered on the idiot who refused to leave the field when he should have.
"Also, Knight-Captain Reifold is a genius. After I reported the situation we had stumbled upon, he ordered the levies to stand by and not participate in holding off the beast tide. They''re probably more fresh than the opponents that had to march all the way here.
"If we lose, we''ll just pack up and go home. It would suck for us to do all of the work only for someone else to get the benefits, but hey, that''s life. As to the beast tide that was obviously incited by them to wear us down beforehand, we don''t have any solid proof, so Knight-Captain Reifold can only inform Count Ilpir and have him handle it."
Reivyn looked around and saw a rxed atmosphere all around him. The levies had taken up position in formation outside of where the beast tide had suffered the most casualties so it wouldn''t be an obstacle under foot, and they were ready to square off against the enemy levies under Sergeant Mok''s supervision.
"C''mon, we need to form up," Corporal Decker said. The men all grabbed their gear, did a once over, and then headed towards their position in the formation. Reivyn noticed the adventurer''s from the watchtower following them.
"What are you guys doing?" He asked them.
"Depends on what happens," replied the big man. Self appointed or not, he appeared to be the spokesman for the group. "Sometimes a battle isn''t enough to convince either side. They could appoint champions to fight it out, and that''s where we would be able to step in."
Reivyn nodded at the man''s words and assumed his position in the building formation. As the men trickled in from various locations and distances away, Reivyn''s hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He could feel a gaze on him, and he turned to find the grinning face of Ren lined up in formation behind him.
The man reached up and ced a hand on Reivyn''s shoulder, leaving it resting there. "Hey, we can be considered to have fought side-by-side in life and death, now. I don''t want anything else to jeopardize my career, and as a unit we should be able to trust each other. So... water under the bridge?"
Reivyn looked into the other man''s eyes for a moment. His vision didn''t waver, and he appeared sincere on the surface. Reivyn thought about what he had heard about Ren''s family and their situation. He wasn''t well versed in politics and spotting lies or anything, but it made sense to Reivyn that Ren would have such an attitude.
"Sure," Reivyn replied. "You leave me alone, and I''ll leave you alone."
Ren chuckled as he patted Reivyn''s shoulder before dropping his hand. "It''s more than that. Yeah, I won''t mess with you, but on the battlefield, I''ll do my duty and have your back."
Reivyn turned back around after the brief exchange. He was perfectly happy to settle any kind of enmity the two of them might have. They would never be friends, but he could trust Ren to keep his word about doing his duty on the battlefield. It would definitely be career suicide to get up to mischief in such a situation.
Reivyn was in his usual spot in the second row of the formation, and everyone was able to get a breather as they watched the levies duke it out. He had no idea how the winner or loser was determined, but considering what he had been told, that didn''t really matter to him right now.
Corporal Decker had been right about the levies, though. The opponents, while having about a hundred more men, were gging. Thebatants didn''t have much in the way of armor, so people fell out of the formation quickly as they basically engaged in arge-scale, group sparring match. Reivyn spotted Teilon limping away from the battle and a weight he hadn''t known had been on his shoulders lifted.
The levy battle was over pretty quickly. They were able to engage a lot of people all at once, so it wasn''t really much of a surprise to Reivyn. The final tally was the levy under Count Ilpir had twenty people still standing in formation when thest of the attackers gave up.
"Attention," Knight-Lieutenant Brand called out. All of the men assumed a brisk, military stance.
"Forward," the formation marched forward and engaged with the enemy regrs.
Thebat tactics used were exactly the same as when engaging the orcs, minus the javelin throw, and Reivyn found himself thrusting his spear from behind the shieldman in the front row at another simrly armored man.
The fourth row membersprising the reserve unit wouldn''t take part in the beginning, nor would they act as a typical reserve unit in this instance. They would take the ce of men who fell out of the formation when their health dropped below half.
Further behind the reserve unit, the adventurers waited. They remained grouped up with their own teams, but they freely milled about,ughing and joking with each other. The team that had been with Reivyn was no exception as they stood around talking to others directly behind Reivyn''s position.
Even though the unit tactics were the same, the fighting was very different. The opponents used the same tactics, and they were much more controlled and methodical. The frontline men exchanged sword swings and shield blocks while the second rowbatants not only searched for an opening to drain the Health and Stamina of the rival shieldman, but Reivyn also found himself engaged in a sort of mock duel with the other rival spearman as they also attempted to interfere with each other''s spear thrusts from behind.
It became a game of seeing who wouldst longer with their Stamina, and the chess moves were more in line with switching out at the most efficient times to regte the resources best. While the levy battle had been a quick affair, this portion of thepetition was long and drawn out.
Reivyn didn''t keep count of how many times he switched between each position in the formation, and the recovery provided by being in the third rank was not nearly enough to maintain the battle indefinitely.
Reivyn found himself fighting on the front lines, and despite all the training he had done while exhausted, there would always be ws when Stamina dropped beyond a certain threshold. The men all up and down the line on both sides were finally starting to see their Health start to gradually dwindle. Reivyn was no exception.
The opposing man switched out with his counterpart, and Reivyn decided to capitalize on the very brief window of respite to do the same. He tilted his head to the side and called out behind him like he had done many times already.
"Switch."
Reivyn waited for the movements that would indicate Ren was taking his ce on the front line. He waited for a second, but the usual instant response from the man was absent. He looked back over his shoulder, and a chill went down his spine as he saw Ren smirking at him.
Reivyn whipped his head around to the front. The man who had taken the spot on the front line came into his view. He wore the same armor as everyone else, but there was a ck veil concealing the bottom half of his face, and the familiar eyes of the assassin locked with his own.
A wind blew across Reivyn. A shadow came over his vision as the assassin thrust forward with lightning speed, and Reivyn felt the warmth of hot blood as it sshed across his body.
Chapter 19: Turn and Meet
Chapter 19: Turn and Meet
Reivyn looked down at the de that was pressing into his stomach. It didn''t prate, as the momentum of the thrust had been interrupted by another man appearing and grabbing the de, holding it steadily in ce. The neer had casually shed the assassin''s throat as he appeared like the wind. It wasn''t immediately fatal, and with his high vitality, if the assassin could escape and reach a medic in time, he could live.
The veiled man activated the same action, be it Skill or magic item, that he had used to fade out of existence on their first encounter, and Reivyn felt frustration that he would have to continue to be on the lookout for random attacks, but he was hopeless to stop the man from escaping.
But just because Reivyn was hopeless, that didn''t mean everyone was. The neer casually reached out his hand and grasped the assassin by the shoulder. The escape technique was instantly shattered, and the man stumbled to one knee as he grasped his throat instinctively to try and stem the flow of blood. He looked up at the man who held him in ce with wild, panicked eyes.
Reivyn turned his attention to his savior and finally got a good look at him. It was the sword wielding Adventurer whom he had just fought side by side with an hour or so ago. The man had his helmet''s visor down as he nonchntly stood over the assassin watching him die. The dying man reached out for anything to hold in a desperate bid to grasp anything to retain his hold on life, but the Adventurer just swatted his attempts to the side with his free hand.
Thebat had stopped in the immediate vicinity of the incident, and the stillness slowly spread all around to epass the entire field. Everyone who could see was staring at the man lying in a growing pool of blood, and they whispered back what they were witnessing to those whose view was obstructed.
The Adventurer suddenly lifted his hand and reached over Reivyn''s shoulder. There was a sort of inevitability to the man''s movement. He moved neither slow nor fast, but Reivyn felt a sense that whatever his target was would not be able to flee his grasp no matter how hard they struggled. The man attained his goal, and Ren was unceromoniously dragged out into the forefront.
Ren was using both of his hands to grasp the forearm of the Adventurer as he tried with all of his might to resist being pulled forward, all to no avail.
"What do you - Ahhhh!" A sh of light passed through the space with no apparent movement from the Adventurer, and Ren''s left hand flew into the air as it was severed. Ren released the man''s forearm to grasp at his amputated wrist and screamed in pain and disbelief. The swordsman casually caught the hand that was tumbling through the air, and then he bent down and rummaged through the assassin''s body.
Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand appeared on the scene, and they were apanied by their apparent counterparts from the other army. They quickly assessed the situation, and the other armymander''s face grew beat red with fury at the sight of a in soldier. He drew his sword and levelled it at the Adventurer who was rummaging through the corpse.
"Halt, immediately, and surrender yourself for arrest," the man screamed with rage. "Knight-Captain Reifold, what is the meaning of this?" The man''s sword never waivered as he slightly shifted his attention towards Reivyn''smanding officer.
Knight-Captain Reifold was about to open his mouth, but he stopped and frowned instead. The Adventurer hadpletely ignored the threat from the other officer, and he continued to search through the dead man''s pockets as if there was nothing else going on in the world around him.
The enemymander returned his focus to the killer when he noticed the look on Knight-Captain Reifold''s face, and his anger finally got the best of him. Without any superfluous movements, the military officer thrust his sword forward towards the Adventurer''s neck, but the man simply shifted his weight slightly and tilted his head just enough to let the sword pass harmlessly by. He found what he was looking for and stood up to face the officers who had appeared to confront him.
The man who had attacked stood frozen in ce, his sword still outstretched, with a look of confusion and fear clearly visible on his face. Knight-Captain Reifold simply frowned as the two Adjutants simultaneously drew their swords and took up a ready stance. The man casually nced at them through his visor before tossing Ren''s hand and the object he had retrieved from the assassin to Knight-Captain Reifold.
Reifold caught the objects in his hand. The thing from the assassin turned out to be a monocle of some sort. He could feel faint strums of mana from it, indicating it was some kind of magic object.
"Look through it here," the Adventurer said as he gestured towards Ren''s severed hand. He then gestured at Reivyn''s left shoulder, "And here."
Knight-Captain Reifold brought the the monocle up to his eye as he infused some of his mana into it. The palm of the severed hand lit up with a conspicuous light when viewed through the lens. When he shifted his focus to the youngster''s shoulder, it also lit up with a bright hand print.
He cut off the connection with the magic item and ced it into his pocket. He turned to the Adjutant and said, "Private Ren has colluded with the enemy to target one of our own. See to it that he receives the minimum necessary medical treatment for his hand, and then ce him in irons. He will be held in the stockade until we return to Magron where he will face Court Martial."
Knight-Lieutenant Brand looked down at the still blubbering Ren. He had finally stopped screaming, but he was curled up in a ball on the ground, cradling his broken wrist. The Adjutant realized he still had his sword in hand, so he sheathed it and then brought his hands together and tapped his fingers together in a nervous gesture as he looked at his superior.
"What is it?" Knight-Captain Reifold asked with narrowed eyes.
"Umm, sir, we haven''t built a stockade..." The man trailed off as Knight-Captain Reifold just stared at him. "Ahh, right sir." He lifted his hand and signalled off into the distance. "Sergeant Mok, take a detail of levies and build a stockade. You," he pointed at the squad leader of the third squad of second toon, "he''s your man. You take him into custody."
"Yes, sir," the man replied to the order.
Reivyn was confused as to what had exactly happened. He realized that there was something tying everything together, but he didn''t know what it could be. He looked around. The Adventurer was standing there also surveying the situation around himself constantly. The enemy officers had bent down to remove the veil covering the lower half of the assassin''s face. He abruptly stood back up, his mouth set into a thin line.
"Well, Jaron," Knight-Captain Reifold prodded. "Do you know this man?"
"I do," Jaron, the other militarymander, answered. Everyone stood in silence for a moment, but he didn''t continue.
"Are you going to tell me who it is?" Reifold asked again with a stern tone.
"No, I am not."
Knight-Captain Reifold stared at the man, his face an inscrutable mask. Nobody could tell what he was thinking.
"Very well." Was all he said. He turned to the waiting men and made a twirling motion with his fingers as he said, "Return to the palisade."
The toon Sergeants quickly took charge of their men and had them exit the area back towards the fortifications in an orderly manner. The Adventurers sauntered back, and as the man who had involved himself with Reivyn turned to also join hisrades, the enemymander once again shouted out.
"Stop right there!" He pointed at the Adventurer who had made it about ten feet or so away. "While this man hasmitted a crime, it is not your ce as an outsider to interfere and mete out punishment. You''ll have toe with me to answer for your crimes."
The Adventurer halted his steps and turned to face the enemy officer who was standing there pointing his finger, his face a scarlet red from anger. Reivyn could practically see the steaming out of his ears. Reivyn rolled his eyes, that man clearly cannot control his temper.
The Adventurer gave the man pointing at him an appraising look, and then he took a step forward... and he was suddenly right next to the man, his arm thrown over his shoulder like they were drinking buddies going out to the bar. He bent his head down and whispered something into his ear that Reivyn''s Eavesdropping Skill couldn''t pick up.
The officer remained in his pose, now pointing into thin air, as the blood drained from his face. The Adventurer reached across with his free arm and gently patted the man on the face in a mocking gesture before extricating his arm from around his shoulder and resuming his walk.
Jaron refused to give up, though, and he raised his voice once more towards Knight-Captain Reifold. "What about the im? The battle was inconclusive. We need to appoint Champions and settle this."
The swordsman casually raised his hand and pointed into the air as he continued walking away without looking back. "My team has petitioned to be Champions for Count Ilpir."
Commander Jaron clenched his fists in front of himself with his head down. Reivyn could see him visibly shaking. The man suddenly threw his head back and yelled into the air.
"Dammit!" He spun around and ordered his Adjutant to get the men retreating down the slope. He called out one final time to Knight-Captain Reifold as he moved away. "Even though I couldn''t seed in pressing the im, I will report to the Count about your unfair use of these high level Adventurers as Champions. He''ll have to give up some benefits."
Knight-Captain Reifold came to a halt at the man''s words. He turned and ced his left hand on the pommel of his sword.
"Fair?" He said. "Fair?!" This was the first time Reivyn had ever heard him raise his voice. Even when addressing an entire crowd, it wasn''t necessary for him to speak louder. "After the several stunts you pulled today, I will make sure that the Duke is informed. I might not have concrete evidence of your underhanded tactics, but you had better make sure your backside is wiped clean, because I''ming for you."
Jaron''s eyes had gone wide at the tone from Reifold, and he yelped and gave a little hop as he scurried away at his final words.
Reivyn was walking along with his squad mates when the sword wielding Adventurer showed up next to him. He pped Reivyn on the shoulder.
"You got talent, kid. Maybe one day we can team up proper," and then he was gone. He didn''t appear to hurry, but each of his steps was equivalent to ten of Reivyn''s, and he quickly rejoined his team.
Reivyn watched as the big, burly man threw his hands in the air and loudly eximed, "You scared ''em off! I was going to be a Champion. A Champion. Now what am I gonna do for fun?"
The swordsman eyed him askance, "You call bullying these weaklings fun?"
The bigger man looked between his otherrades who were studiously ignoring the exchange before looking back to the other man and said, "Yes?"
Reivyn shook his head and returned his focus back to his own squad. That man was surrounded by two armies, confronted by two Tier 3''s, one of whom I know is a high level Tier 3, and he acted as if they were all air, he thought. What level is he?
It had been a long and arduous day. The Stamina consumption, despite getting topped up in the medical tent, had umted a lot of fatigue in Reivyn''s body. All of the other squad members had been right there with him throughout the day, so they weren''t any better.
The group of tired men dragged themselves to the chow area for a quick dinner before being dismissed for the evening. They had been exempt from any fire watch duties for the night so they could get some proper rest after their harrowing day.
It had, after all, started much earlier for them than the rest of the troops.
Reivyn copsed onto his sleeping bag as soon as he managed to get his body in its general vicinity. He looked through his notifications onest time.
Enemies Defeated x13
Exp +375
Combat Resolved. Calcting...
Exp +160
Level Up!
Experience 290/700
Simted Combat Initiated
Mock Battle (Experience x0.25)
Victory or Defeat Undetermined.
Calcting...
Exp +124
X0.25 = Exp +31
Experience 321/700
Skills Levelled Up!
Aim (17 ->19)
Athleticism (32 ->33)
Bnce (35 ->36)
Battlefield Awareness (1 ->3)
Evasion (25 ->26)
Inspire (4 ->5)
Iron Will (1 ->2)
Medium Armor (19 ->20)
Observation (29 ->30)
Pain Resistance (26 ->27)
Running (32 ->35)
Spatial Awareness (7 ->9)
Strategy (0 ->1)
Tactics (1 ->2)
New Skill Unlocked!
Mana Maniption (0 ->3)
Reivyn smiled from the progress as he drifted off into oblivion.
Chapter 20: Aide and Attendance
Chapter 20: Aide and Attendance
Reivyn stood in formation once again. The men had been told during morning chow that there was an all-hands formation where Knight-Captain Reifold would be addressing everyone. As was the case with every military formation called in the history of ever, the men were formed up early and had to wait past the appointed time for the officer to show up.
Evidence of the struggle from the previous day could be spotted everywhere. The strewn about gear and bird bodies had long since been picked up, but there were shredded canvas and splintered wood all around.
After waiting around at the position of attention for no apparent reason for about ten minutes, Knight-Captain Reifold, followed by Knight-Lieutenant Brand, walked onto the open space in front of the men. The only people not in attendance were the cavalry units who had been sent out to disperse the beast tide after it had passed by so it wouldn''t converge on any viges in force further away. The levies were milling about, not in any sort of military bearing, but they were silent.
Knight-Captain Reifold surveyed the men before him as he came to a halt, centered on thepany. He looked at them for a couple of seconds before turning to his Adjutant. He said in an exasperated voice, "Put them At Ease."
Knight-Lieutenant Brand adopted a sheepish look for a second before he stepped forward and ordered, "At Ease."
Reivyn and the other men adopted a loose imitation of the Parade Rest stance, their feet shoulder width apart and arms folded in the small of their backs. Parade Rest was a serious position requiring military precision and sharp angles. Standing At Ease, they just had to kind of look like it.
"First and foremost, I am extremely proud of all of you," Knight-Captain Reifold began. "Everyone performed their duties well. Orders were executed swiftly and withoutint. Most importantly, everyone acted withmon sense.
"Sadly, we lost some more good men to the beast tide. They were our friends andpatriots. They were our brothers. We will honor them like they deserve when we return to Magron.
"And that brings me to the main purpose of this assembly. The beast tide and attempt at pressing a im has a silver lining to it. We will be able to return much faster now. All of the beasts that we would have had to send out many patrols to root out were swept up in the tide and flushed down the mountain. Mission Complete.
"The other Count pressing his im was also something that was inevitable, and we would have had to remain here until it came. So, also, Mission Complete.
"As such the only duty we have remaining is to simply upy the area and wait for the new, specialized Militia toe and take over. Standard military procedures shall remain in ce, but the patrols and other duties will be much more in line with In Garrison, and because we can rx those duties, we will now allow squads to take turns exploring the Dungeon.
"The levies are also allowed to form their own Parties, but it is rmended for those not aiming for a Combat Tier 2 ss, or who have already Tiered up and chosen a Lifestyle ss, to not participate. Dungeon Running isn''t a game. You don''t have to explore it if you don''t want to, and if I find out any Party coerced someone into going in order to make up the numbers, there will be consequences."
Knight-Captain Reifold let the words hang in the air as he scanned the crowd to let everyone know how serious he was.
"Conversely, that does not apply to the regrs. Running the Dungeon at least once a week will now be part of your obligatory duties.
"This Dungeon, upon recon, is an infinitely instanced Dungeon. For those who don''t know, that means as long as you are either solo or in a System established Party, you will be in your own sub-space, and the Dungeon can handle an infinite amount of them. The bottleneck for exploring the Dungeon isn''t waiting for your turn, but it is instead the obligations of performing military duties.
"The final piece of news I have to pass on is that nobody was expected to have to deal with a beast tide. It was an artificial instigation, and, even though the levies didn''t fight, everyone was ced in much more danger than was estimated when this mission was nned.
"I will be petitioning the Count for everyone to receive abat bonus. None of you have to worry about whether or not he''ll decide to honor that decision, because I will be paying you all upfront from my own, personal coffers. I will simply hand the Count a receipt, and we''ll see if he refuses to pay me." Everyone gave a low chuckle at the mental image of the Count being ced in such a predicament.
"A notice board has been put up detailing which squads have which avability to the Dungeon, and the levies focused on Combat sses can ce their name in the same registry as the Adventurers for preferred ess," Knight-Captain Reifold finished. He looked at the Adjutant, gave him a nod, and then walked off.
"Attention," Knight-Lieutenant Brandmanded as soon as themander was out of sight. "Dismissed."
Reivyn fell out of the formation with the rest of his squad, and they converged on Corporal Decker. Once everyone was gathered around, the squad leader addressed them.
"I''ve already looked at the notice board, and it''s set up as simple as possible," he said. "It goes down the list for each toon in order, so first squads are going today, second squads tomorrow, and so on. So everybody just needs to treat today as any other day." The men nodded their heads in acknowledgement and turned to go about their duties, but Corporal Decker called out once more. "Except for you, Reivyn. You are to report to Knight-Lieutenant Brand."
Reivyn frowned and tilted his head. "Do you know why, Corporal?"
"No idea. Just that you gotta go," replied Decker. "So get goin''," he made a shooing motion towards Reivyn. Reivyn turned and looked at Brace, his eyebrows raised in question.
"I guess... I''ll see you in a bit," Reivyn said.
"Sure, sure," Brace pped him on the shoulder in a familiar gesture. "I''ll give you a primer on dungeons when we get a chance."
Reivyn waved to the others and made his way to the section of tents reserved for the officers. The level of activity dropped precipitously as he crossed the invisible threshold. There were a couple of soldiers hurrying along, probably delivering reports or messages, and some standing sentry outside of the quarters/field offices of the officers.
Reivyn walked up to the Adjutant''s tent, briefly recalling thest time he had had to do so with Corporal Decker. He had gone out on a limb to trust a semi-noble officer with his secret, and as far as he could tell, his secret had been maintained and handled with care. There were no rumors about his Mythic Skill circting that he, or anyone he knew, had heard of.
"Private Reivyn reporting to the Adjutant," he said to the sentries as he approached. The sentries, clearly expecting him, did not seek permission for him to enter, and they simply waved him through. He walked in, centered himself on the desk that Knight-Lieutenant Brand was seated behind, and assumed the position of attention.
"Private Reivyn, reporting as ordered, sir," He said.
Knight-Lieutenant Brand finished writing what he was working on, and then gestured to his side with his pen.
"Sit," hemanded.
Reivyn nced over and saw a smaller desk perpendicr to the officer''s with a chair facing inward. There was a pen, a stamp, and a sheaf of papers set on it. He didn''t question the order he received, out loud, and took a seat as he had beenmanded. He sat there, quietly, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Reivyn was starting to think that he had beenpletely forgotten as the officer went about his own duties. Eventually, though, the older man stopped and set his pen down on the table. He turned to look Reivyn up and down.
"Do you have the Penmanship Skill?" He abruptly asked.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn replied. He sat in silence for a moment as he and the officer just looked at each other. Knight-Lieutenant Brand finally wiped imaginary sweat from his brow.
"Ok, it is at this point that you would tell me the Skill Level. You don''t have to wait for me to prompt you," he said with a chuckle.
"Yes, sir. It is at 21," Reivyn informed him. He tried to maintain a neutral face, but he still had a slight frown, not understanding why the officer would ask him if he had such a basic Skill.
"That''s... pretty high, actually. From the look on your face, I take it you don''t know that most people who can read and write don''t actually have the Penmanship Skill. Being able to write legibly is the bare minimum to unlocking the Skill. It is a Skill, after all, and doing the bare minimum hardly expresses mastery," Brand patiently educated the youngster.
Reivyn had a moment of epiphany. He had always assumed that practicing writing was standard for all children, but this revtion told him differently. The real question is: If I had never unlocked the Skill, would my mother have made me work on it so hard? It was a question without an answer.
"What about Arithmetic?" Brand continued to question.
"No, sir, but I do have Mathematics at 14, and I have Number Concepts at 8," Reivyn answered the asked and implied questions.
"Mathematics, you say? That''s unexpected. Arithmetic is a subset of Mathematics, and it is by far moremon. Hmm," Knight-Lieutenant Brand rubbed his chin in thought. "I''ve never actually heard of Number Concepts. But I''m no schr, so whatever. Sounds like math theory. You won''t need it here. Do you have any other Skills that might be put to use in an administrative role?" Reivyn nced through his Skills page at the question.
"I think... I have Linguistics at 10 and Strategy at 1?" He asked more than answered.
"Strategy? How did you unlock Strategy?" Brand leaned back in his chair and looked at Reivyn with a puzzled expression.
"I think I got it from observing the defensive measures implemented yesterday, sir," Reivyn said.
"Huh. That''s... interesting. Typically one would have to devise a n and sessfully implement it to unlock the Skill," Brand mused. "Well...ok. Not much use for those two Skills in your role... Wait, do you even know why you''re here?"
"No, sir. I was simply told to report to you." Reivyn replied. Knight-Lieutenant Brand rested his forehead in the palm of his hand as he sighed.
"You know, you enlisted take the whole ''instant obedience to orders'' thing a little too far, sometimes. I told the toon Sergeant why I was having you report to me. I''m sure the conversation between him and your squad leader went something like, ''Send Reivyn to the Adjutant,'' ''Yes, sergeant.''" Knight-Lieutenant Brand chuckled. "We have this whole thing about Commander''s Intent, where we specifically exin the mission and why we''re making certain decisions so that everyone knows what''s going on, and yet, paradoxically, information about orders is routinely withheld for who knows why.
"You''ve been assigned to be my Aide," Brand answered. "Normally, for someone of my rank, a Lieutenant or officer candidate would fill that position; however, our unit is not very big, and we don''t have that many officers or candidates to waste on such a role. Plus, I don''t actually need one, and my position doesn''t usually have one. Normally themanding officer would have an Aide, but, for various reasons, we deemed it, ugh, inappropriate to have you assigned to the Knight-Captain." The man paused at this point and looked at Reivyn as if he was expecting a question.
"Then... why me?" Reivyn supplied the question.
"Aha," Knight-Lieutenant Brand gestured with his finger. "We''ve been puzzled about what to do with you. It is extremely irregr for someone your age to fit the requirements for conscription, but, we have orders with specific parameters. After Knight-Captain Reifold discovered you, he would have technically been derelict in his duty if he didn''t bring you, and the System would have made note of it.
"So we have a nine year old, who mysteriously has a legitimate Combat ss from forced conscription, but he fits the minimum requirements for Health and Stamina and his body has already started developing through puberty because of Stat growth. What do we do with him?
"We initially wanted to assign you as an Aide right away, but there were some problems with that. You didn''t understand how the unit worked, you didn''t understand how to be a soldier, and you didn''t understand the environment. So we assigned you to an, ugh, empathetic squad.
"And, trust me, someone had an eye on you in each battle. We''re not heartless monsters. If we had had any inkling that such a beast tide could have possibly been incited yesterday, you would have never gone out on that patrol, and you would have been assigned a logistical role during the battle. For that, and the situation with Ren, I, we, apologize." The man bowed his head in contrition.
"And so now that you have learned those things, and the fact that your opportunities for gaining Experience doing normal soldier things, yes, we did take that into ount, have drastically reduced with the local fauna getting swept away, you''re here. Before you ask, you will still go with your squad into the dungeon if you want to. Your time as an ''official'' regr is over. You will remain as my Aide until the levies are discharged."
Reivyn sat there and processed the information that had been revealed to him. It would have been nice to have known all of this before he had been thrown to the wolves, so to speak. Upon careful examination, though, Reivyn realized the officers hadn''t had much free time, nor responsibility, to devote so much attention to him.
Other than the beast tide and Ren, which nobody could have predicted and Knight-Lieutenant Brand apologized for, all of the encounters had been in fairly tight control. Well, Ren betraying me inbat could have been predicted, but it was a hectic situation. The officers probably didn''t know that Ren had finagled his way into the position directly behind me.
"Ok. But, umm, sir, I have no idea what I''m supposed to do as an Aide," Reivyn finally said.
"Hahaha," Knight-Lieutenant Brandughed at the admission. "Trust me, I know. Luckily, like I said, I don''t need an Aide. You''re basically going to be a glorified messenger. If a reportes in, you take it. You determine if I need to attend to it, personally, or if I don''t, you use that stamp with my seal. If an order needs to go out, you take it. You will speak with my voice, hence the position usually taken by an officer or candidate, and everyone knows it. Which means you also have to watch what you say when you''re not in the dungeon with your squad. Understand?"
"Yes, sir, "Reivyn replied.
"Good. Don''t hesitate to ask if you''re not sure about something. I know perfectly well this is above your pay grade, but, hey, you can''t learn to swim if you don''t get in the water."
Reivyn nodded and was about to get to work, but he noticed he didn''t actually have anything to do yet. Knight-Lieutenant Brand noticed him looking around, and he chuckled as he passed over a book.
"Here. When you don''t have anything to do, you can read this," Brand said. "It''s meant for a Lieutenant, and it will answer a lot of your questions and more."
Reivyn epted the tome and opened it to the Table of Contents. It was fairly thick, and there were a lot of entries and sub-entries listed. He spotted sections on formations and what their appropriate use was, sections on small unit tactics, sections on conduct, and a section on what was expected of Aides. He flipped to that particr section first.
Reivyn read through the long list of things that a normal Aide would be required to know and the duties they would have to perform. The gist of it was: know what your superior wants before he wants it, and do it before he knows it needs to be done. That... didn''t seem like something he could do. He was relieved that he wasn''t expected to perform as an actual Aide.
"Oh, sir, I have Map Making at 6," he suddenly said after he read an entry on how he might be required to read maps.
"Excellent. That''s not exactly the same thing as being able to read a map, which isn''t a System recognized Skill, but it should definitely help you grasp the ability to do so much quicker. I''m probably not going to need you to do so, but it''s great that you can."
Reivyn sat at the desk for the rest of the day with a short break for chow. He wasn''t on the same schedule as anyone from his squad, so he ate alone. He mainly read through the book that had been given to him, but he would asionally ept a report that was brought to the Adjutant''s tent.
There was a wide range of subjects contained within the reports, but it was mostly details of patrols from the infantry, the results from cavalry units, or requisitions for supplies. Reivyn stamped the reports containing "nothing unusual" or simrnguage and set them aside, but he passed along any reports that had actual details in them, such as the ones from the cavalry units dispersing the beast tide remnants.
There was a section in the book that contained typical numbers regarding supplies and requisitions, and Reivyn would use it as a reference to cross-examine the reports. If nothing was out of the ordinary, he would stamp such reports and set it in a pile to be passed back down. If he didn''t understand something or couldn''t find a ready reference, he would query the Knight-Lieutenant.
The Knight-Lieutenant would take the report, answer it appropriately, and then patiently exin it to Reivyn. He didn''t have to do that, but Reivyn wasing to know that the Adjutant, when not on official duty, was actually extremely approachable.
One particr requisition was notable in how unusual it was. Someone was requesting to section off somend to start nting crops. Reivyn didn''t even know if they had any seeds avable to nt. It was probably some of the levies who were going to focus on being farmers when they were discharged, so it actually made some sense, but he brought it to the attention of the Adjutant just in case.
"Sir, there''s a requisition fornd to nt crops..." Reivyn started.
"Are they asking for an official appointment or to do it on their own time," Brand interrupted, his head down as he continued to write his own reports. Reivyn nced back down at the form.
"It doesn''t say, sir," he answered.
"Ok, make a note at the bottom: ''Free Time Only - Permission Granted,'' and stamp it." Came the answer.
"Yes, sir."
The day, surprisingly, went by pretty fast for Reivyn. He absorbed a lot of knowledge expected of a young leader, and he was very grateful for the attention the Knight-Lieutenant had shown him.
The Sun started to get close to the horizon, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand stowed away all of his writing utensils and papers. He looked at Reivyn and gave him a nod.
"You did well for your first day. This is basically what you can expect on a day-to-day basis. If you want, I can throw you some of the other duties of an Aide as you perform up to standard. We''ll take it as we go, but for now, it''s about time for chow with your squad, so you''re dismissed," Brand ordered.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn replied as he stood to attention. He then quickly left the tent and made his way to the chow area.
When he got to his destination, he saw his squad mates sitting together,ughing and joking as they ate. He grabbed a tray of food and joined them, sitting next to Brace as he typically did.
"There he is," Brace said, gesturing with the hard roll in his hand. "We started to worry about you when you never came back. That is until Corporal Decker went and asked the toon Sergeant. The guy knew the whole time and never told anyone!" He threw his hands up in exasperation.
Reivynughed as he recalled what the Knight-Lieutenant had said about the situation.
"So you''re some big shot Aide now, huh? We gotta call you ''sir'' or something now?" Brace teased as he elbowed Reivyn.
"Nah. In his own words, I''m a ''glorified messenger,''" Reivyn replied with a smile. "But, hey, I learned something your Lance Corporal Underground probably doesn''t even know," Reivyn leaned in conspiratorially. He paused for effect, and just when Brace started to re at him and squirm, he spoke up, "Knight-Lieutenant Brand is very easy going. Once he starts talking, he never shuts up." He said with augh. Brace gave him a t look.
"The Adjutant. Is easy going. Mr. ''only ever shouts orders'' is easy going?" Brace lifted an eyebrow in disbelief. Reivyn nodded his head and gesticted with his own hard roll.
"Yeah. He sat me down, exined to me why I was put where I was, told me they wouldn''t have had me go on patrol if they had known a beast tide was likely, and basically went on and on exining things to me," Reivyn confirmed. Brace sat there in silence for a moment.
"Huh. Who would have known. The Adjutant is a chatterbox," he snorted. "Maybe he''s lonely. What enlisted man is going to strike up a conversation with him? The only other person he really has to talk to is the Knight-Captain, and that''s probably like talking to a wall." The two men shared a good naturedugh.
"But hey!" Brace eximed. "We got more important things to talk about, right now." It was his turn to pause for effect, but, as he knew what he was about to say, he was clearly more excited than Reivyn and couldn''t hold it in for long. "Dungeons!"
"Speaking of dungeons," Marik, who was sitting across from them, spoke up.
"Gah! You''re gonna interrupt me at the most crucial moment?!" Brace yelled in indignation.
"Ahh, shuddup. You can tell him all about dungeons in a minute," Marik replied. "Anyway," he paused to make sure Brace would let him speak, "we went snooping in the register for preferred ess to find out who those Adventurers were who helped you yesterday." He took a bite to eat and swallowed it. He''s stalling on purpose. Drama queens, all of them. "Turns out they never signed up for preferential ess to begin with. Nobody knows who they were or what they were doing here. On top of that, they left right after the battle yesterday," Marik gave Reivyn a t look. "At dusk."
Reivyn raised his eyebrows and looked at Brace. The other man nodded his head in confirmation.
Questions on top of questions, Reivyn sighed.
Chapter 21: Down into...
Chapter 21: Down into...
Reivyn''s heart pounded in his chest as his squad approached the Dungeon in the center of thepound. The entrance to the Dungeon was a cave set into a butte. Reivyn had only nced at it in passing before a small barricade had gone up around the entrance, and he had seen that it wasn''t dark inside the cave. It looked like it passed through a tunnel that didn''t exist on the outside before opening back into the countryside.
The sentries at the front of the barricade checked Corporal Decker''s token and cross-referenced it with a list before waving the squad forward. The men followed the Squad Leader into the cave in two columns. Corporal Decker had created an official System-sanctioned Party for the excursion, and they were each equipped with their standard issue spear and shield. Each individual had a more personalized sidearm, though, as this was an independent squad activity. Reivyn didn''t have any personal weapons, so he, like a few others, simply used the sword as usual.
The cave was brightly lit from both directions, with shadows just beginning to form a dark pool in the center of the cave before it was banished by more sunlight from the opposite end. It was dry and dusty, and roots could be seen hanging from the ceiling. It looked just like any normal cave that extended for about a hundred paces. The only thing that made it unsettling was the knowledge that there obviously wasn''t enough room to hold the passageway when looking at it from outside.
Reivyn didn''t know what he expected, but there were no boxes, dings, or notifications of any kind to signal that the squad had entered a Dungeon, but he did feel the sort of dry humidity that one would feel when the mana density increased in a region. It felt like the air was heavier, and it almost felt like it should make the environment feel moist with a raised temperature, but there was none of the usual side effects of increased humidity.
"So like I was saying," Brace spoke into the silence, breaking everyone from a semi-trance. They weren''t relegated to silence, yet, but nobody had been speaking because of the expectation of travelling into the unknown. "None of us have actually been in a Dungeon before, so we don''t have any experience to educate you with. We do, however, have the knowledge that the Knight-Captain has passed down in his instructions.
"I won''t go into the how''s or why''s of dungeons, because, quite frankly, Knight-Captain Reifold never went over any of that. The basics of a dungeon are that they take on the characteristics of the localndscape, flora, and fauna. Typically, mundane animals have a lesser presence, and beasts and monsters are the norm.
"We can expect goblins, orcs, dire wolves, bears, and iron-wings, the name of the birds that mostly harassed us the other day. We would know for sure, but themander instructed everyone to explore on their own their first time without outside information for ''training purposes,''" Brace said, making air quotes with his fingers. "We do know that it''s not dangerous, though, because nobody from the first squads yesterday came back injured."
Reivyn nodded along even though Brace had already told him all of this, almost verbatim, the night before. He supposed it was a mechanism the other man used to stave off nervousness, so he just acted like it was the first time he was hearing anything.
"Marik," Corporal Decker called from the front. "Scout ahead. Standard procedures." Marik propped his spear up against the cave wall at the entrance to the Dungeon proper. It would only get in his way during scouting activities, but taking it into the Dungeon would mean it was avable if a situation required its retrieval. He was equipped with short bow and short sword. He wasn''t acting specifically as a rangedbatant, but the weaponry would give him a little leeway in how to handle any situations.
"Cliff, you have point," Decker continued. Cliff moved to the front of the formation. He was equipped with a heftier shield and thicker leather armor under the tes in order to act as the first impact for any enemies they encountered.
As they stepped out into the open once again, Reivyn noticed that it looked like they had turned around and exited from where they entered. It was like they had travelled into a mirrored dimension. The only difference was that the distance was obscured by a hazy shimmer, and everything beyond was indistinct.
"That''s the boundary of the Dungeon," Brace said with a nod towards the shimmering barrier. "Doesn''t look like much, but it''s impervious to any damage and cannot be passed through no matter what you try to do."
Reivyn looked into the distance and gauged that the shimmer was about a hundred yards or so down the ridge. It followed the contours of the ridge line as it moved up the giant spur. He spun around as his eyes followed it, and he was confused to see that the shimmer cut across the path leading up only about another two hundred yards or so.
"There doesn''t appear to be a whole lot of space avable," Reivyn pointed out. Brace, and the other squad members, followed the direction Reivyn indicated with a nod. Corporal Decker frowned as he noticed it as well.
"We''ll wait for Marik toe back with a preliminary report," he stated. "In the meantime, let''s head down and see if there''s anything hiding behind any of the rocks and trees while we wait."
The men marched down the hill in the same loose formation they had adopted when on patrol. The skies were clear, and the environment was identical to outside of the Dungeon with the exception of no palisade orpany of soldiers upying the space. A quick peek back into the cave showed a smooth transition and line of sight all the way back to the barricade. Reivyn couldn''t wrap his head around how it worked, so he didn''t even try.
The squad quickly reached the barrier. Each man had to walk up to it and inspect it personally just to see for themselves what it was all about. Reivyn walked up and put his hand against it. There was an obvious force preventing him from pushing any further, but it was smooth and frictionless. There was no feeling of a wall or anything, just an intangible force that pushed back against his hand. He had some fun for a moment sliding his hand around like it was a against a wall of ice.
Nothing was clearly visible on the other side, and the men quickly satisfied their curiosity. Corporal Decker had them move along its edge to circle around and head back up the hill.
They made it all the way back to the cave entrance without seeing so much as a feather. There was nothing here on the bottom half of the slope, so they pressed on. They walked for just a moment before Marik appeared out from a clump of trees.
"There''s nothing above ground, but I did see another cave a little ways further up set into a protrusion," Marik reported to Corporal Decker. "There was remnants of a camp fire, but I didn''t see any creatures at the entrance. I scouted further ahead, above ground, but the cave is really the only thing here."
Corporal Decker nodded his head as he digested the information. He stood there and contemted a bit, forming a n in his mind.
"Alright," Decker said. "First, go retrieve your spear. Keep your shortbow on you just in case there happens to be a big underground cavern or something where it could be used, but it looks like it''s going to be mainly close quarters for anything we encounter."
They had only walked up a couple dozen yards away from the entrance, so Marik quickly obeyed orders and was back in formation with his spear. They continued on up the slope before appearing at the protrusion that Marik had indicated. The cave was dark, but it had an ethereal glow about it that provided enough light to see about thirty feet deep. After that it was a ck maw swallowing the light.
"The tunnel is wide enough for two people to fight shoulder to shoulder with some space left over, so we''ll maintain the double column. Close the ranks a bit, but keep enough distance to be able to wield your spears. We''ll go with Cliff and Steil in the front. Reivyn, you and Brace take the middle spot. I know you''ve seen somebat already, but until we get some recon on what we''re facing, you''re not taking a vulnerable position." He pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "Don''t worry. Once we know what we''re up against, we''ll do standard rotations, so you''ll get to participate."
The men filed into the tunnel. This was a fundamentally different experience than travelling into the Dungeon, as with no exit to the outside, there was no additional sunlight to chase the shadows away. The ethereal glow that suffused the area moved with them, though, and they were able to maintain a visibility of a static thirty feet.
"Dungeon shenanigans," Brace whispered to Reivyn as they made their way deeper into the mountain cave. The temperature cooled as they moved further in, but Reivyn noticed a very subtle increase in the mana density in the air. If he wasn''t straining all of his senses to pick up every little detail he could, he would have never noticed this small detail.
"Corporal," he called forward in a loud whisper. Decker looked back over his shoulder at Reivyn. "The mana density is ticking up ever so slightly," Reivyn continued. Corporal Decker nodded his head. He didn''t have to pass the word along, as everyone could hear what he said in the quiet.
The ground they traversed began to descend, and there was a noticeable curve to the right as they walked. If Reivyn guessed correctly, this cave should spiral downwards ever deeper underneath them.
Cliff held up a closed fist in the silent signal to halt movement as he detected something in the distance. It took a moment for Reivyn to pick it up, but a low murmur of high pitched sounds could be heard getting louder, and the noise echoed off of the walls slightly. There were no more roots protruding from the nts on the surface to act as a noise muffler.
Cliff and Steil raised their shields in their off-hands with their spears held forward at the ready as everyone took a ready stance. The slowly increasing murmurs suddenly came to aplete, silent stop, and then it was quickly followed by the loud screeching of a familiar tone that was clearly elerating towards them at a fast pace.
"Goblins iing," Corporal Decker intoned. The men mentally rxed a bit even though they maintained their bodies in the ready state. A group of five goblins soon appeared within the visibility of the front men, and they rushed headlong into the waiting squad with no regard for their own safety at all.
Cliff and Steil allowed the goblins to crash into their shields, and using the same familiar maneuver, they shoved them back off bnce with the assistance of the men behind them. They quickly stabbed forth with their spears, and two of the five enemies were already taken out ofmission as they bled out on the ground.
The goblins shrieked in indignation and charged once more, living up to their reputation of "not being a threat." The two front ranks of the squad used hardly any effort to dispatch the remaining three, and they all continued on their winding path deeper into the ground.
In only a few minutes of walking, the squad came to their first crossroad in the tunnel. The mainline clearly continued forward in a continuous, slow curve, but they had arrived at a T-section breaking off in the opposite direction of the curving slope.
Corporal Decker called the men to a halt and assessed the situation. The tunnel leading off into the distance was long enough that they couldn''t see beyond the visible glow.
"Kran, Sile," he said, "the two of you remain here at the intersection. We''re going to go see what''s down this offshoot real quick. If it leads to more runoff tunnels, we''ll peek our heads down to assess the situation, but we''lle on back. We don''t want to split up too much in such a situation as we''re in right now, but if it''s a straight shot, we''ll go to the end unless it just takes forever."
The two men singled out took up post in the intersection as the rest of the squad moved down the new tunnel. The downward slope had ceased, and they just walked down a straight line. After walking for about twenty feet, the ethereal glow revealed that the branch opened up into arge cavern.
A single goblin was sitting at the entrance to the open space, its head lolling on its chest in slumber. It was clearly a derelict sentry, and figuring that nothing ever happened, it had taken the opportunity to bezy.
As the men silently approached, however, Reivyn noticed its nose twitch and its brow furrow. It suddenly lifted its head and gazed at the approaching squad with confusion in its eyes. It suddenly jumped up and started screeching in its high-pitched, annoying tone, and it was followed by a loud cacophony of simr noises. Reivyn estimated that there had to be at least twenty other voices joining the sentry''s rm, but it was hard to tell with the echo.
"Maintain speed," Decker ordered. "No reason to rush out into the open when the confines of the tunnel benefit us. Let theme like they always do, and we''ll operate with standard switch procedures if your Stamina begins to fall."
The men inched forward with slow, steady steps, but it wasn''t long before a small horde of goblins came screaming into the tunnel. They were smaller than adult humans, so they could fit more across in the tunnel, but that was if they had any sense. Instead they managed to stumble and trip over each other, only managing three abreast in the front, as they dashed in a disorganized mess towards the men.
The battle was what Reivyn expected. He didn''t get a clear count of the enemies, but it was slightly more than his initial guess of twenty. Even so, with the goblins doing as much harm to their assault in their feral madness as the squad members did in their attacks, Cliff and Steil didn''t even have to switch out with the men behind them.
After a short, five minute conflict, the goblins ally dying on the ground. The stench of their spilled blood and emptied bowels filled the air, and with no escape for the fetid stink to disperse into the atmosphere, it caused several men to gag before they mustered their willpower... by pinching their noses closed.
"Alright, let''s go see if there''s anything else in this room other than stinking goblin corpses," Corporal Decker ordered the squad. They moved into the room, and with the ever present glow of the Dungeon, they quickly realized this was only a sleeping quarters with nothing else to it. A quick scan indicated that there were no minerals or ores in the walls, and there were definitely no umted treasures on the ground.
"Every now and then, supposedly, you cane across a chest that contains some sort of valuables in a Dungeon," Brace leaned over to say to Reivyn. "Nobody knows what, where, or why - well, I shouldn''t say nobody, but nobody we know - nobody knows why they''re there. I say it''s just more Dungeon shenanigans, and that seems like a perfectly reasonable excuse to me."
The men quickly filed their way back down the tunnel, eager to get away from the horrendous smell. It wasn''t just the blood and feces from the in goblins, but it was the umted fetid air over a long period of time from their unwashed bodies.
"Alright, here''s what we''ll do," Corporal Decker said as they rejoined two bored-looking soldiers at the main pathway. "Kran and Sile will take point now, with everyone moving back one spot. Anymore branches, and the back two men will take up sentry, and we''ll repeat the action and rotation to let everyone participate."
The squad obeyed the new orders as they reintegrated the two men who had stayed behind and continued on their downward journey.
The squad continued its advance deeper into the bowels of the mountain spur, asionallying across simr branches every hundred yards or so. Reivyn didn''t keep count of the number of branches they explored with only more dead goblins to show for it, but it was enough times that he took point with Brace more than once.
Finally, something different appeared. As Reivyn was marching alongside Brace in the third row, a clinking sound could be hearding from deeper down. As they approached, more sounds of goblins screeching and some deeper, guttural voices mixed together.
"Sounds like orcs," Decker said. "I''m going to guess the next branch has some orc overseers watching some goblin miners. The sounds indicate tools, so expect some metal pickaxes at the very least in the next skirmish. The goblins still shouldn''t be a threat with them, but if you''re negligent, they could pop you a good one."
The squad made it to the next branch, and, leaving two sentries as always, they made their way down the side tunnel. As they approached the opening, instead of a distracted or sleeping goblin, an orc sentry spotted them right away and gave a loud bellow. The sounds of picks chipping at the wall ceased, and it was reced by the telltale sound of frenzied goblins with the roars of some orc overseers mixed in.
The men performed in the exact same manner as previously, but instead of a dibobted mess of goblin bodies and limbs charging at them, they heard the sound of a whip cracking, and a rtively orderly line of goblins advanced on their position. It was rtively orderly in the sense that they didn''t entangle each other, but they were still stupid goblins who mindlessly charged the men.
As Corporal Decker had warned, these goblins were equipped with metal picks, and they were being driven forward by a duo of orcs with whips. There were four orcs in total, the two overseers, the sentry at the front of the open room, who had allowed the goblins to bypass him, and one other presumed sentry from the opposite side of the room. They were each equipped withrge swords that looked like giant meat cleavers.
The orcs tried to direct the goblins in some semnce of a coordinated attack, but, Reivyn noted with some amusement, they gave up with exasperated looks on their faces. Even monsters can roll their eyes at just how dumb these goblins are, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
Before all of the goblins could be mowed down, the orc overseers had a brilliant idea and decided to engage the front two men with their whips. Corporal Decker put a stop to that.
"Second row, Javelin," hemanded. The front two men squatted down slightly, and the two in the second row quickly adjusted their grip on the spears and hurled them at the orc overseers in one smooth motion. The orcs never saw iting, and a spear skewered each of them, center mass. They weren''t quite dead, but they were out of the fight.
The two orc sentries lost all reason at the sudden change in circumstances. Their eyes went bloodshot, and with a roar, they charged into the fray with their cleaver swords raised high. The two orcs trampled their way over any goblin in their path in their frenzied dash. The two squad members in the front, however, maintained their calm, and they simply leaned back into the men behind them, shields up and spears out, and let the orcs charge right onto the waiting spears.
Reivyn and Brace passed their spears to the two men in front of them who had operated the javelin throw, and the two second row soldiers quickly stabbed the two orcs that were trying to drive their bodies forward on the impaled weapons. After the final two orcs stopped moving, they decisively abandoned their spears and drew their sidearms. There were only a few remaining goblins at this point, and they were quickly exterminated.
After retrieving all of their gear, the men made their way into the room to discover what the goblins had been mining. There was a vein of metal clearly visible on the wall, and a pile of crude ore was strewn about in multiple heaps. Reivyn was no expert on raw ores, but he definitely spotted some silver and what he thought could be iron.
"This resource is going to be a huge boon for the county," Corporal Decker eximed. The men gave him a sideways, incredulous look. "And us," he continued. "Obviously, as the ones who collect it we''ll get a reward. This mine will pay for itself and then some."
As an infinitely instanced Dungeon, there should theoretically be an infinite amount of these resources. Reivyn understood, vaguely, from remnants of some of his dreams that such a situation could wreck an economy, but upon closer introspection, he realized that there were many such Dungeons within the Kingdom, and nobody had ever mentioned anything about it. He wouldn''t find any answers on the subject from the squad he was with. Maybe the Knight-Lieutenant could shed some light for me, he thought.
"No point in trying to take all of this," Corporal Decker said. "We just don''t have the capability to do so on this delve. Grab some of the silver, though, and we''ll turn it in to themander. Should be worth a small bonus."
The men smiled as they sifted through the rubble to pick out gleaming bits of silver. They stuffed anything worthwhile into their knapsack to carry out when they were done.
"It''s about time for chow," Decker remarked. "This ce stinks, though, so let''s head back to the intersection, and we''ll take a short break and eat."
The squad continued its exploration after the short break, and the curving path continued unabated. The next intersection they reached didn''t have the familiar sounds of goblin screeching or clinking of mining, though, and it returned to being silent. They made their way down the side tunnel, but instead of opening up at the end into a big, open room, there was a tiny room with six cots.
This room was also guarded by an orc sentry, and all six cots contained sleeping orcs as well. It seemed they had made it beyond the area where the goblins lived, and now they would have to actually exert some effort for each branching tunnel.
The orc sentry immediately spotted the approaching squad and bellowed for his sleeping mates to wake. They quickly sprung up due to the sudden shout, and upon spotting the human intruders, they grabbed their cleavers, which appeared to be the standard weapon of these particr orcs, and charged.
They were much more coordinated in theirbat tactics, but that was onlypared to their goblin counterparts. They were still fundamentally individualistic, so they weren''t able to leverage any advantage from any kind of teamwork. Being closer to the size of the humans, they also could only fit in the tunnel two at a time.
Four men working together, switching out when their Stamina dropped a couple dozen points, and superior gear quickly whittled the orcs down in front of them.
Looks like we''ll be able to mop this ce up in short order and head on back to the surface, Reivyn thought. He froze as soon as the thought entered his head. Why did I think that?! Something always goes wrong when I think that, he mentally kicked himself.
"Guys, there''s probably a big surprise waiting for us at the end of this path," Reivyn suddenly said. The others gave him a puzzled look as they searched through the possessions of the deceased orcs.
"Why do you say that?" Corporal Decker asked.
"Because I gotcent just now, and something always goes wrong when I getcent," Reivyn answered. Corporal Decker gave him a thoughtful look as he rubbed his chin in thought.
"Ok," he said. "You heard him. Keep your heads up and your wits about, men." The others acknowledged the order.
"You''re just going to take my word for it? Just like that?" Reivyn asked with a raised eyebrow. Decker chuckled.
"You learn to trust your gut," he answered. "You got a gut feeling, so I''m going to trust it. What would be the point of dismissing it out of hand, anyway?" He spread his arms out, palms up.
Reivyn nodded his head. They were supposed to be keeping alert anyway, but the timely reminder had probably pulled some of the others back from beingcent as well.
"Onward," Corporal Decker eximed with a dramatic flourish. A couple of the men snickered at his theatrics.
The rest of the delve continued in the same vein. They would travel a distance on the main path, moving deeper and deeper, and then they would branch off to engage inbat with orcs. There were no patrols after that very first encounter with the goblins, but there were always orcs in the rooms, and there were always sentries watching over their sleepingrades.
They continued their Dungeon Dive for several hours, the System time keeping Reivyn abreast of the psed duration. He didn''t know how long the other squads had spent in their exploration, but it seemed to be drawing close to the same amount of time soon, and they still had their long trek back up to the surface.
The squad eventually reached a new environment, though, shortly after Reivyn had noted the time. The main pathway came to an end, and, ording to the Dungeon''s glow, it opened up into a simr open space as all the branching tunnels had.
There was no sentry at the end of the pathway into the cavern, and Corporal Decker reminded everyone to remain on alert. There were no sounds or movements as they reached the threshold, and there was nothing to do but to move forward.
"Staggered Crescent formation," Corporal Decker said. The men moved into a formation resembling a half circle with two rows like they usually used forbat. Reivyn found himself in the front row, second from the right, and Brace was supporting him from behind. They marched foward with a little bit of space between them, but they had their shields up and spears out at the ready.
-ROAR-
A loud roar shattered the silence, and a giant figure came trundling into the visible range of the glow. An ogre, hunched over from being too tall to stand up straight with the ceiling not being very high, was walking towards the squad.
Reivyn noticed that it had chains attached to manacles on its wrists, and it was dragging clearly unwilling orcs along in its wake. The two orcs had their heels set in the ground, and they were trying with all of their might to stop the ogre from moving. They werepletely ineffectual.
The ogre leaned forwards and roared at the men again, causing Reivyn''s ears to ring from the loud sound. It flicked its right wrist around, looping the chain attached to the manacle around its arm, and then it whipped the chain forward towards the squad.
"Brace for impact!" Decker yelled and all of the men huddled together to support each other. Reivyn watched with a macabre humor as the orc that had been trying to restrain the ogre got whipped along with the chain, its eyes wide with surprise and fear. If it wasn''t such a deadly serious situation, it would have made for a hrious sight.
The orc smashed into the huddled squad with tremendous centrifugal force. It died on impact as it was impaled by more than one spear sticking out of the hasty reinforcement, but it had the intended effect for the ogre. The formation was obliterated as men went flying away from the impact, and Reivyn was no exception.
He tumbled through the air, and in order to not injure himself, he was forced to let go of his spear. He continued to roll once he made contact with the ground again. He heard footsteps running towards him, and rm bells went off in his head as he realized none of the men should have been on their feet fast enough to reach him.
He looked up as his momentum wasing to a halt, but upon seeing a descending cleaver sword, he forcefully elerated his roll to move out of the way. The sword smashed into the ground, barely missing him, and Reivyn performed one more roll to gain some distance beforeing to a knee. He instinctively raised his shield above his head, and another blow mmed into the protective cover immediately after.
He didn''t have time to gain a proper stance, so, shield still raised, he reached across his body and yanked his sword out of the sheath, letting it extend into a wide sh like he had previously done when confronting the wolves closing in on Corporal Decker. He felt the sword meet some resistance, and he powered through to hear a yelp of surprise and pain.
With the slight gain of initiative, heunched himself forward and up, and he mmed his shield into the surprised face of the orc. It had clearly underestimated him, seeing that he was the smallest member of the squad and was in a perilous situation, and that miscalction had cost it its life. All of the orcs in the dungeon were slightly weaker than the individual squad members, and considering his superior Skill levels, Reivyn was also slightly stronger.
The orc lost its bnce, and with previous experience, Reivyn managed to snake his sword out, under the sight and guard of his opponent, and stab it in the gut. The wound caused the orc to fall to its knees, and as it looked up in disbelief, Reivyn had already begun the downward thrust that stabbed straight into its neck, killing it.
The sounds of heatedbat could be heard all around, and with a quick nce at the situation in the open room, he noticed that while some men were limping with injuries, nobody was down. He quickly spotted the ogre, fully prepared to witness it barrelling down on another squad member, but it was in a berserk state and had actually turned on its handlers.
The other orc holding one of the chains had apparently been smashed under its foot, as it was long dead along with itspatriot, and the ogre was busyying into the dozen or so orcs that had lined up behind it. They had no doubt anticipated the ogre allowing them to move in to a downed enemy, but they hadn''t taken into ount its literally crazy nature. They put up a valiant defense, but they were clearly losing.
Reivyn realized that once the ogre finished off the group of orcs, it would have unfettered ess to run amok among the disorganized squad. Without the advantage of the formation and teamwork, he could see them suffering devastating losses.
It wasn''t in his nature to stand back and allow things to happen to him. He was decisive and proactive. He quickly located his spear after slinging his shield onto his back, and, reaching down to snag the spear, he sprinted towards the wide open back of the ogre. He held his sword in his dominant hand, and he held his spear in his left hand as he closed in on his target.
He didn''t know much about ogres or their weaknesses, but he quickly spotted a target for him to attack. He had no time to contemte what he was doing, and he let the adrenaline focus his mind on only the task at hand. No distracting thoughts were allowed.
He wound up his arm holding the spear as he madly ran, and, at thest second, he activated Charge. Using the momentum of his powerful burst of speed, he zeroed the tip of his spear right on target... right through the pping loincloth worn around the ogre''s waist.
"I seem to recall something about "A Thousand Years of Pain," a fleeting thought crossed his mind as he struck true. The ogre immediately tensed up and smashed his head into the ceiling above as it bellowed in absolute outrage, shock, and pain.
The involuntary movement of jerking upward, mming its head into the wall, coupled with the spear sticking out of its... sensitive area, stunned the ogre momentarily, and Reivyn grabbed the only chance he would be presented with. Maintaining his momentum, he leaped in front of the ogre from the side to the astonishment of the few orcs still standing, mouths agape, and shed his sword up, activating Devastating Strike as he did so.
His sword cut half way through the ogre''s neck, nearly decapitating it, and a torrent of blood came gushing out. Only a small amountnded on Reivyn as he finally came to a stop in front of three orcs with incredulous looks on their faces. Without missing a beat, he performed a perfect-form lunge thrust into the closest orc, and then he regained his shield as he recovered and assumed a ready stance.
The other two orcs regained their focus, and, after sharing a look, they turned around and fled further into the room away from the crazy human that had materialized out of nowhere to single-handedly y the great beast that had been tormenting them. Reivyn stood in ce, panting, as he watched the two orcs flee. A loud bang sounded behind him as the ogre''s body finally crashed into the ground, the spear sticking straight up like a monument to his aplishment.
He turned back towards the sound of fighting, and he charged the back of the closest orc. Thebatants had been too preupied with their own individual fights, some squad members fending off two orcs at once, and, while obviously noticing Reivyn''s deed, nobody could afford to be distracted. This left his chosen target to be fully focused on the man in front of him, and it never knew of the danger approaching from behind until it saw the sword de piercing through its chest.
It was a quick, snowballing effect after that. Reivyn and the man he had freed from his engagement were able to assist others in simr fashion, and within no time, all of the orcsy dead on the ground.
Several squad members were cradling broken arms or leaning onpatriots for injured legs. Many had cuts and bruises with only a few havinge out of the ordealpletely unscathed.
"Two more ran off that way," Reivyn quickly informed Corporal Decker as he pointed off into the distance. Corporal Decker quickly rallied the couple of uninjured men, and they took off towards the escaped orcs.
They came upon them beating on a giant, steel door with no obvious mechanism for opening. Upon hearing the men approach, the orcs turned. When theyid eyes on Reivyn, they yelped, threw down their weapons, and attempted to flee once again, but the squad members lunged forward and pierced them with their spears.
The Dungeon had been cleared.
The ground shook, and a bright sh of light temporarily blinded the men. When they opened their eyes again, the steel door had simply vanished. They stood there and gaped for a moment before Corporal Decker cleared his throat.
"Looks like the Dungeon continues," he said. "It''s gettingte, though, so... no, we''re not going in there." He said with a chuckle.
The men gathered back up together, and Corporal Decker made sure everyone got bandaged up and their wounds tended to. With the way the System worked, one could get back to full health, but still have a broken bone. It would heal at an elerated rate depending on one''s Vitality if full Health was maintained, but getting to full Health wasn''t a miracle cure for injuries.
"Ahem," Corporal Decker got the attention of his squad. "From the context of the disappearing door at the end of the room, and the overall difficulty of this fight, I''m going to go ahead and assume this was the ''first floor'' Boss Room," he said with air quotes. The men looked at each other with raised eyebrows and excitement showing on their faces.
"Now, before you get excited," he continued. "This is a resource Dungeon." He let the words sink in, only continuing as thest man regained hisposure. "As you know from the Knight-Captain, resource Dungeons have about a 1% chance of having a chest in the boss room. There isn''t one here." Several of the men let out disappointed sighs.
"Not all''s lost, though," he said once again. "Remember the silver. We''ll get a good bonus. We also cleared the boss, so we should get a good amount of Experience upon exiting the Dungeon." The squad members perked up again at that reminder.
"I just have one question," he said. His gazended on Reivyn, a slight tilt to his lips. "Was that a Skill you used? What''s ''A Thousand Years of Pain?''"
"Did I say that out loud?" Reivyn scratched his head in embarrassment. At the nods from all the men, he half turned and gestured towards the dead ogre.
The men looked over to where he was indicating, and upon seeing the monument standing proud, they burst intoughter.
Chapter 22: A Ring of Fire
Chapter 22: A Ring of Fire
The Sun was setting in the horizon, casting thendscape in shades of orange, as Reivyn and his squad mates finally exited the dungeon and returned to the palisade. The daylight in the dungeon had never shifted, and the incongruence was disorienting for a moment before he got his bearings.
The men made a sorry sight as they came limping through the barricade supporting each other. Bandages and dried blood adorned almost the entire squad. The sentries standing post at the Dungeon entrance looked at the returning squad with wide eyes.
"I''ll escort you men to the infirmary, but I need to go report the situation to Knight-Lieutenant Brand," Corporal Decker informed his squad. Knight-Captain Reifold was really the one who ultimately needed the information, but one did not simply go up to themander without going through the chain ofmand. As it was, Corporal Decker would need to go through his toon Sergeant to get to the Adjutant, and they would most likely all end up in front of the Knight-Captain anyway.
Brace was one of the men that had suffered a small leg fracture, and now it was Reivyn''s turn to support the other man as he gave him a shoulder to lean on. The entire squad, even the few members who werepletely unharmed due to providing assistance, hobbled their way to the infirmary. Many of the soldiers and levies stopped what they were doing to watch the procession. Their squad, so far, was the only group to return with any kind of injuries.
"What happened to you lot," a man with the same rank markings as Corporal Decker approached and asked. He spoke as if talking to the whole squad, but he was actually addressing Corporal Decker. The man was the first squad Squad Leader. Corporal Lam, I believe, Reivyn identified.
"Oh, you know how it is. These guys are too clumsy for their own good, and they just couldn''t help themselves," Decker replied. "Always causing me worry. Can''t go on a rxing stroll without at least a couple of them stubbing their toes."
"Seriously? A bunch of goblins and orcs did this to you?" Corporal Lam raised an incredulous eyebrow. Decker frowned at the other man.
"No, it was the ogre," he answered.
"Ogre?!" The other NCO eximed in shock. "What ogre? Did you guys go all the way to the bottom?"
"Yeah, didn''t you?" Decker asked back. Lam shook his head.
"We were pretty cautious, and we stopped after the second room holding orcs," he said. "We decided to call it a day there so we could grab some more silver and have the strength to haul it back."
Corporal Lam had joined the men in their trek to the infirmary for the conversation, and they finally arrived at their destination. Corporal Decker supervised his squad going in to get the necessary medical attention that field first dressing couldn''t handle. He waved the other man off.
"I''ll tell you more about itter. I gotta make sure my men are taken care of and then report to the Adjutant," Decker told the man. "I''ll give you all the juicy details after."
"Sure thing," Lam pped Decker on the shoulder and bid him farewell.
"Alright, men. Get patched up then grab some chow. Nobody has duty tonight, so I''ll see everyone bright and early in the morning," Corporal Decker instructed the squad.
Reivyn helped Brace make it to an empty bed where he could get attended to by the Healers. After sitting down, he waved Reivyn away.
"Alright, alright," he said. "They''ll get me patched up good as new in no time. Go on ahead. There''s nothing to worry about anymore." Reivyn pped him on the shoulder in the soldier''smon gesture.
"Ok, Brace," he said. "I''ll probably be asleep by the time you get done, so I''ll see you in the morning." Reivyn waved to the other men and bid them farewell as he exited the infirmary.
Reivyn dragged his tired body to the chow hall. He grabbed a quick bite to eat in the mostly empty eating area, and then made his way to his tent as dusk settled in. He crawled into his sleeping bag and then brought up his notifications.
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +155
Boss Defeated: Exp +200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Anomaly Detected. Calcting...
Determined Boss Solo Killed: Bonus Exp +300
Helpful Hint: System determined you engaged the Boss without the assistance of your Party. The otherbatants were determined to be friendly to the Boss, thus System determined it was a Solo kill
Calcting...
First Floor determined notpleted Solo. No Achievement awarded.
Achievement! Defeated a Tier 3 enemy solo while still in Tier 1!
Physical Stats +1
Level Up!
Experience 776/800
Reivyn smiled as he saw the notifications. This was the first time in a long while that he had received an exnation from the Akashik Record. Getting credit for killing the boss as solo also led to the System inadvertently letting him know there were achievements involved with clearing floorspletely alone.
Based on the number of goblins and orcs he would need to fight and defeat all by himself in order to get solo credit for the rest of the dungeon, he had no hope of doing such a thing any time soon. It was something to consider for the future, but he would need to be equivalent to mid-Tier 3 at least to be able to handle that entire floor plus the boss room all on his own.
Knight-Captain Reifold could do it without breaking a sweat, but I wonder if he would get any benefit based on his level? I don''t know enough about how this all works, he thought.
He distributed his unassigned Stat points, bringing his rity up to par with his other Mind Stats before putting a few points in his Physicals. He closed his eyes and let sleep im him shortly after.
Reivyn reported to the Knight-Lieutenant to continue acting as an aide once more after eating breakfast with his squad. The stiptions about talking about the Dungeon to other squads didn''t apply to the levies, so Reivyn found some time to tell Teilon about what could be found in the lower parts. Teilon understood his and hispatriot''s abilities, and he vowed to turn around as soon as they heard the clinking sounds of mining. The levies might have a few among their number who had advanced to Tier 2 already, but they were still ill-equipped to fight anything actually dangerous.
Reivyn continued to read the book, gleaning tidbits here and there regarding the information required of a junior officer, but he kept getting distracted. The Knight-Lieutenant, while absorbed in his own work, would asionally nce at Reivyn and snicker. Reivyn eventually closed the book, set it aside, and looked at the Adjutant. The older man looked over at Reivyn when he noticed the youngster staring at him.
"Heh, looks like the apprentice will be the master sooner rather thanter," he said with augh. "Oh, master, ept this humble one as your disciple. Teach me your ways, and reveal the secrets of the fabled ''Thousand Years of Pain'' technique, hahaha." The man couldn''t hold hisughter in any longer and finally broke down. He wiped a tear from his eye, and Reivyn rolled his eyes at his antics.
"Seriously, though," the man continued after he had calmed himself down. "How did you ever think to attack an ogre in such a way?"
"Well..." Reivyn drew the word out as he considered his state of mind at the time. "I saw that the ogre was going to kill the orcs that had put it in chains, and while it was iling around dealing with them, its loincloth was bouncing around. I just happened to notice it, and it jumped out at me like it was a clear target. I didn''t have time to think of anything else, and I just grabbed the opportunity," he finished with a shrug. The Knight-Lieutenant listened to him as he rubbed his chin.
"It''s a good thing you did. Ogres have very thick skin. It isn''t quite to the point of natural armor, but it does offer plenty of resistance to piercing and shing damage. In a standup fight against an ogre, the best bet, for your current power level, is to use a blunt weapon to smash its knees and immobilize it. Once it''s unable to move around, attacking from behind or from a distance is the next step. Slings are superior to arrows, as it can rattle its tiny brain around in its skull while arrows have a tendency to bounce off and cause bruising unless you have the Aim Skill at a decent level to pinpoint the weak points such as eyes, mouth, throat, and, if needed for whatever reason, ears."
"Hmm, I have Aim at level 19," Reivyn spoke up. Knight-Lieutenant Brand raised his eyebrows in surprise for a second before returning his face to a neutral expression.
"Of course you do," he wryly said. "19,bined with your journeyman level mastery of ranged weapons, might be enough. If you''re close enough. Ogres are Tier 3 equivalent. As such they will have a good reflex speed and dodge ability. Just because you immobilize their legs doesn''t mean they can''t twist their bodies around.
"By the way, from the report Decker gave, the ogre you encountered in the Dungeon sounded like it was low Tier 3. Most likely under level 10. That''s typical for a Tier 1 Dungeon," Brand exined. Reivyn nodded his head in understanding.
The two went back to their tasks after the short interlude. Knight-Lieutenant Brand was busy with his own reports and nning, and Reivyn tried to get back into reading the book. The talk of the Dungeon had distracted him, however, and he was having a hard time concentrating on the words on the page. There was something nagging him once the subject of the Dungeon had been brought up, but he couldn''t quite ce it.
He tapped the desk with his pen as he went over the events of the previous day. They had started off with chow like normal, then went through the tunnel in the butte to enter the Dungeon. Brace had repeated the information he knew about the dungeons on the trek, and then they had scouted the above-ground portion which had been a perfect mirror of the outside world.
Wait... A perfect mirror? Reivyn set his pen down and looked up to the Adjutant.
"Sir, there''s been something nagging at the back of my mind for a while now," Reivyn broached the topic. Knight-Lieutenant Brand motioned for him to continue as he kept working. "When we entered the Dungeon, it was like a perfect mirror to the outside, minus the base."
"Mhmm," Brand acknowledged. "Dungeons have the same environment and details as the local area they''re found in."
"But, sir," Reivyn said with a bit of apprehension. "There was a giant underground cave system right under our feet in the Dungeon."
Knight-Lieutenant Brand froze with his pen mid stroke. He maintained that stance for a moment before looking up at Reivyn with his eyes wide.
"Wepletely overlooked this point!" He eximed. "Let''s go," he abruptly stood and headed out of the tent causing Reivyn to scramble to keep up. The two men quickly headed to Knight-Captain Reifold''s tent. One of the sentries standing post outside themander''s tent moved to inform Knight-Captain Reifold, but Brand waved him off.
"Emergency," he simply stated. The man stopped his movements and went back to standing at attention.
Reivyn followed the Adjutant into the tent. It was sparsely furnished. Moreso even than Knight-Lieutenant Brand''s tent, if that was possible. The Knight-Captain, knowing his Adjutant wouldn''t barge in without being announced unless it was for a good reason, immediately stopped what he was doing and ced his full attention on his XO.
"We''ve overlooked something, sir," the Knight-Lieutenant stated without preamble. "Reivyn brought to my attention that there is very likely to be a replica of the underground caves here in the real world."
The Knight-Captain shot to his feet. Reivyn noticed a small twitch in the man''s eye as his face tried and failed to form a grimace. That''s the most expression I''ve ever seen on his face, Reivyn idly mused.
"Take me to the entrance of the tunnels," Reifoldmanded. He quickly came from behind his desk, and Reivyn realized he had been talking to him. He turned and headed for the tent ps, but he lost his footing and nearly copsed.
The ground wasn''t where it was supposed to be. Reivyn crouched low to get his center of gravity as close to the ground as he could as the earth itself started swaying side to side. An extremely loud, sustained roar the likes of which he had never heard drowned out all other sounds, and he was vaguely aware of the other two men swaying about to maintain their bnce.
The noise and motion had appeared out of nowhere. There was no buildup or crescendo. One moment everything was peaceful, and the next the ground was trying to shake them off. It sounded like thend itself was screaming.
An intense vibration apanied the rapid side-to-side motion of the mountain, and the earth tore asunder. It was like it had turned into a giant, gaping maw. The crack had appeared in the center of the tent, separating Reivyn from the other two men and tearing the canvas to pieces as the stakes were violently yanked apart.
The swaying of thend and the appearance of the crack caused the ground beneath Reivyn''s feet to copse, and he felt himself falling into the chasm. He desperately dug his hands into the dirt slowing, and eventually stopping his descent. He could hear and feel his heartbeat pounding in his head as adrenaline pumped through his system. The motion finally stopped, and Reivyn gave out a sigh of relief that he hadn''tpletely fallen into the hole.
He held on tight to the side of the wall and lowered his head as he panted. He wasn''t out of the woods yet, but he still felt the relief of surviving a disaster as he was confident in his ability to climb back up to safety without issue. A shadow fell across him as he rested there.
Reivyn looked up at what had caused the shadow, and his eyes opened wide in horror and despair. A giant arm, covered in brown and glowing red scales with individual fingersrger even than his entire body, reached up from the depths and grasped at thend above. Another arm followed a distance away, and, as they bent, a giant head followed.
It was a scene out of a nightmare, and Reivyn felt his grip holding him aloft go ck as just looking at this creature filled him with abject terror. Its entire body was made uppletely of the same brown and glowing red scales. A fire zed in the deep pits it had for eyes set in its skull.
Reivyn was incapable of moving his body, but his eyes refused to leave the creature as it appeared as if from the abyss. It raised its head and gave a loud, screeching roar that had a visible shockwave to go along with it. Blood began to seep from his ears, and Reivyn could feel that the roar alone had shaved off some of his Health.
His grip loosened, but the rest of his body began to seize, so much so that he couldn''t even operate his lungs to draw in a breath. There was nothing in Reivyn''s world but fear.
A gentle pulse originating from his heart spread throughout his body, and where it passed, his body returned to normal. It moved through him in an instant, and if he hadn''t been so consumed by fear, he would have noticed what had returned his bodily functions to him.
He had no time to think or consider the monstrosity as he desperately wed his way up to the safety of solid ground. A vice like grip suddenly mped down around his ankle sending searing pain shooting up through his leg. He screamed in pain, and he instinctively began kicking as hard as he could at whatever had grabbed him. He knew it wasn''t one of the officers. They had been on the opposite side of the crack in the earth.
The grip loosened, and Reivyn was able to yank his leg up as he moved faster than he ever had in his life. He scrambled up the wall faster than he would have if he had been running.
He attained the top, and he spun around onto his back as he crawled away from the hole while keeping an eye on it. The giant monster''s attention had been grabbed by something on the other side that was sending out astounding waves of mana. If Reivyn had been able to think rationally, he would have realized it must have been the Knight-Captain.
Reivyn watched with wide eyes as he continued to scramble back from the edge of the precipice as a gloved hand, this time, to the somewhat relief of Reivyn, normal sized. It moved unnaturally with sudden jerks and fits, and a bodypletely obscured by a ck robe appeared from below. It stood with a sudden motion and its head turned in small, quick jolts to focus its attention on Reivyn.
The humanoid thing waspletely attired in a ck robe, and there were zero parts of its body exposed. There was only shadow underneath a hood, but there was no denying that its gaze had locked onto Reivyn. His heart palpitated as it felt like icy fingers were digging into his very soul.
It took a stuttering step towards Reivyn and suddenly had a sword in its hand. Reivyn hadn''t even seen it move its arm to draw the weapon from wherever it had been. It was dented and rusty, covered in chips, and it looked like it would fall apart from a gentle breeze, but a sense of danger screamed through his mind at the sight of it.
Reivyn finally scrambled to his feet. It was customary to always carry a sidearm, and, due to the incident with the assassin, Reivyn had gotten used to always lugging his shield around with him as well. He was lucky that the assassination attempt had instilled the habit into him.
He assumed a ready stance with his sword and shield. He had the sinking suspicion that if he turned his back to this thing to try and escape, he would get stabbed in the back before he could take more than a few steps. He had no choice but to engage.
He watched the thing lurch towards him, and he noticed that it always had a short pause after any movement. He timed his attack for exactly such a moment, and he stepped forward and performed an overhead chop, taking care not to overextend. His sword came down hard, and then it bounced back with equal force. There was no loud ng as if he had struck some sort of armor under the hood, and there was no vibration to indicate he had hit anything hard. The sword strike had just been repulsed by some invisible force.
Reivyn''s eyes opened wide in rm, and he raised his shield on instinct. A tremendous force crashed into his shield, knocking it back into his face and throwing him several feet in the air tond rolling end over end. His head swam and his vision was blurry as he came to a stop. His Health had a significant chunk carved out of it even though he had technically seeded in blocking the strike. It hade so fast that he hadn''t seen any movement.
He staggered back to his feet and regained his bnce. The creature had resumed its slow, jerking gait towards him again. Reivyn took huge, gulping breaths as he tried to think of a solution. He felt something off in his offshield-hand, and he looked down at his shield. As he looked down at it, it suddenly cracked in half and fell apart. It had not been able to absorb all of the impact damage from the strike.
Reivyn looked back up at the horrifying entity. It took another step towards him, and it was suddenly right in front of him with no warning. Startled, Reivyn tripped over his own feet and fell down as he tried to back away. He felt the wind of a sh that he couldn''t see pass mere fractions of an inch above his head. He had been extremely lucky, but he couldn''t count on it for a repeat performance.
He once more scrambled to his feet and backed away. What to do? What to do? Panic was beginning to set in. He waspletely not a match for his opponent. He knew that his sword wouldn''t be able to do anything to it, but it felt unnatural to toss aside his only semnce of security, so he kept it in his hand.
With no other options, Reivyn allowed his instincts to take over his actions, and, his body remembering a maneuver he had performed several days ago, a fire whip coalesced in the grip of his off hand. He whipped it out in an attempt to bind his foe, and not meeting the same resistance as his sword strike, it neatly wrapped around his enemy.
Reivyn saw the ck robes smoke and char around where it made contact with his mana construct, so he pumped more mana through the whip like a conduit. The robe caught on fire, and Reivyn felt a moment of tion as he appeared to have stumbled upon a solution. tion quickly turned into dismay, however, as the robespletely burst into fire and turned into ash, revealing the grotesquerie it had been hiding.
A skeleton appeared before him. Bits and pieces of rotting flesh were still attached to it in ces, and wisps of silvery hair adorned the top of its skull. The same abyssal mes from the giant monster''s eyes were present in the empty sockets, and its jaw moved up and down in a rapid motion as if it wasughing at him.
A chill ran down Reivyn''s spine as all of the hair on his body stood on end. He lost his concentration, and as the fire whip dissipated, the skeleton took another jerking step towards him. Something that Knight-Lieutenant Brand had said to him entered his mind.
"Your best bet is to use a blunt weapon to smash its knees and immobilize it."
Reivyn didn''t have a blunt weapon, but he did have earth mana. If he could make a whip out of fire, why couldn''t he make a hammer out of earth? Reivyn kept backing up as he focused his willpower to summon earth attuned mana into his hand.
He imagined a sizeable warhammer, and the mana slowly gathered and started forming the shaft as he maintained his distance and eye contact. He was worried that if he looked away again, it would perform the same move and instantly appear beside him once more.
A huge roar sounded out from the giant monster once more, and Reivyn''s body locked up as the shockwave passed through him, once more shaving off some of his Health. He didn''t dare look, but he knew he was below 50% Health just from the three attacks he had suffered obliquely. He lost his concentration, and the shaft that had been slowly forming dissipated, and he couldn''t help but flick his vision towards his hand involuntarily.
rm bells went off in his mind as he sensed the impending danger. The creature had taken his momentarypse in keeping his eyes on it to once more appear right in front of him. Reivyn had been standing with his knees slightly bent, and having just been stunned for a moment, there was no way he could properly utilize the force in his limbs to dodge the inevitable strikeing his way.
He made the only move he could think of, and he allowed his body to copse to the floor, and once again he felt the wind of a sword sh pass over his head. He had no time to think as he surrendered himself to his mana and formed the most appropriate weapon of earth for the situation. It quickly appeared in his hand, and leveraging everyst bit of power he could from his awkard position, he mmed his open hand into the joint of the skeleton''s knee.
A brick conjured out of mana mmed into the joint,pletely obliterating it. The damage was so devastating, that the lower portion of its leg separated and flew off into the distance. The skeleton copsed on the ground next to Reivyn, having lost its ability to maintain its bnce. Reivyn quickly backed away from the downed creature.
Reivyn attained his feet once more, and he watched in fascinated horror as the skeleton tilted its head back in an unnerving manner and started to crawl towards him, pulling itself forwards with its arms. Using the same timing as before, Reivyn leaped forward and brought his makeshift bludgeon device down on the shoulder of its sword wielding arm.
Reivyn heaved a huge sigh of relief as the shoulder crunched and the arm fell to the ground. Capitalizing on the situation of the skeleton losing its ability to attack him with its weapon, Reivyn repeatedly bashed its skull with his brick. Cracks formed on the skull, and he could sense a disgusting mana begin to seep through the wounds. He had no idea what element it was, but it was revolting.
In a move of inspiration, he formed a side of the brick into a sharp de, and he drove it through one of the cracks. The orb of mana situated in its head that was the source of the nauseating mana leaking through popped like a bubble, and the skeletal body froze. Reivyn stepped back, wiping sweat from his brow, as he watched the bones disintegrate before his eyes.
Reivyn nearly copsed in relief, but the sounds ofbat reminded him that he wasn''t safe yet.
He was surprised that nobody hade to his aid during the fight. While it hadn''t been a prolonged struggle, it wasn''t short either, and there had been two sentries right outside the tent. He looked around, and everywhere he could see, the soldiers and leviesy copsed on the ground.
They weren''t dead, as he could see them struggle to breathe, but they didn''t have the protection that he had had from whatever had caused his body to seize in terror earlier. The only people that weren''t copsed on the ground were him, Knight-Captain Reifold, who was engaged inbat with the giant monster that remained in the hole with its upper body towering above, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand.
The Adjutant stood valiantly by the Knight-Captain''s side as he defended him from the encroachment of more of the abominations that Reivyn had struggled against. He was holding his own fending off three of them at once, but Reivyn''s stomach dropped as he witnessed dozens more begin to crawl out of the giant chasm.
Brand was out fighting the three still-robed skeletons, but he was having the same problem Reivyn had had. His weapon wasn''t doing any damage. Reivyn couldn''t reach him if he wanted to because of the hole, but it would have been foolish for him to join in that fight anyway. The only thing he could do was call out the weakness he had discovered.
"Knight-Lieutenant!" He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. "There''s an orb of mana in their skulls. You have to use mana to pierce through it, and that''ll kill them!"
"I can''t use mana like that!" Brand called back. Reivyn stood there in indecision as he tried to think of a solution. It would be suicidal to run over there. He had barely survived one, and the Adjutant was fighting three with dozens more converging on the two men.
Suddenly, a bright light expanded out from Knight-Captain Reifold. He had pushed the giant monster back for a moment, and using the opportunity, he leaped back and raised his sword into the air. Golden light swirled around before dozens of sharp, goldennces struck out and pierced through the skulls of all of the undead. He had apparently heard the shouts while fighting the huge creature.
Another, muchrgernce of light shot up into the sky. This move had apparently drained all of themander''s energy, as he copsed to a knee, panting, after he executed it. The giant beast sensed the weakness in its opponent, but before it could act on it, a giant sword of light prated from the clouds and cleaved into its skull.
Onest mournful shriek escaped from the monstrosity as it burst into golden mes that quickly devoured it.
The three men that had stood to face the horror finally copsed in exhaustion. Silence suffused thend, but they had survived.
Chapter 23: Cult of Personality
Chapter 23: Cult of Personality
Enemy Defeated.
Exp +380
Combat Resolved. Calcting...
Exp +1520
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 596/1000
New ss Skill Slot Unlocked!
Achievement! Stare into the Abyss and retain your rationality
Mental Stats +1
Achievement! Participate in a battle 3 Tiers above yours and survive
Luck +2
New Skills Unlocked!
Mana Conjuration (1)
Mana Weapon (1)
Skills Levelled Up!
Bnce (36 ->37)
Battlefield Awareness (4 ->5)
Evasion (26 ->27)
Iron Will (2 ->8)
Mana Sight (14 ->16)
Mental Fortitude (25 ->28)
Observation (30 ->33)
Pain Resistance (27 ->28)
Sense Mana (42 ->45)
Shields (22 ->24)
Spatial Awareness (9 ->11)
Tactics (5 ->11)
Weapons Master (27 ->30)
Select a ss Skill:
Avable ss Skills:
Intimidate (0): Cause fear and hesitation into equal strength opponents. Chance to stun weaker enemies.
Power Swing (0): Transfer momentum into the impact area causing knock-back
Quick-Draw (0): elerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon
Reivyn reviewed his notifications while recovering in the infirmary. The damage he had received from thebat had been strange. No wounds, other than the minor scrapes from the shield hitting him in the face, had actually been found on his body, so there was nothing for the Healers to directly mend. Instead it was as if his essence had been damaged directly. The only thing they could do was elerate his natural healing, and while it didn''t reduce his Stamina, having his body work over time still left him feeling drained, so he had remained in the infirmary under the rmendation of the Healers.
He looked over the choices for ss Skills avable to him, and he considered each one based on his current fighting style and capabilities.
Intimidate mighte in handy at ater date, but it probably won''t help me much with my current strength against anything other than goblins. Reivyn dismissed the Skill.
Power Swing could have helped a bit in myst fight against the skeleton, and I can think of many situations where it would be better to force the enemy back rather than stepping back myself. It''s worth further consideration. Reivyn tabled it for now. He didn''t want to choose a Skill before checking out each one andparing them.
Quick-Draw would improve the speed of a maneuver I have already used on more than one asion to save my life and others. It has the restriction of only applying to a sheathed weapon, but I always have a sidearm on hand. Thest option was also a strong contender.
There were pros and cons associated with each Skill, and Reivyn could think of uses for each one. It finally came down to the fact that he had already used a technique simr to Quick-Draw in emergency situations, so he ultimately decided to select it.
He pulled up his Status to look at his growth so far.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 10 Age: 9 Health: 600/600 Stamina: 1200/1200 Mana: 310/310 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 60 INT: 32 VIT: 60 MAG: 31 DEX: 60 CLA: 31 CHA: 4 PER: 28 LUK: 5 Experience: 596/1000
Skills:
Acrobatics (26), Aim (19), Akashic Record (1), Athleticism (33), Bnce (36), Battlefield Awareness (5), Blind Fighting (6), Command (0), Drawing (16), Dreams of the Past (13), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (27), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Identify {Mundane} (19) Inspire (4), Iron Will (8), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Cirction (7), Mana Conjuration (1), Mana Sight (16), Mana Weapon (1), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), Marching (13), Meditation (14), Medium Armor (20), Mental Fortitude (28), Numbers Concepts (8), Observation (33), Pain Resistance (26), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Pickpocket (6), Running (35), Sense Mana (42), Shields (24), Sneaking (19), Spatial Awareness (11), Stealing (9), Stealth (14), Strategy (1), Swimming (0), Tactics (11), Weapons Master (30)
Affinities:
Air (15), Earth (15), Fire (15), Water (15)
ss Skills:
Devastating Strike (36): Deal 136% Damage
Cleave (27): Reset stance at an elerated rate of 137%
Charge (29): Sprint towards the target at 139% absolute maximum speed
Quick-Draw (1): elerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon by 11%
Avable: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0)
Hmmm... There''s got to be a better way to view my Skills. Having them all in a huge block like this makes it hard to parse. Let''s see... Reivyn mentally fiddled with his Status page for a bit. He knew that the System was fairly dynamic, so he concentrated on what he wanted. After several minutes of contemtion, he finally managed to organize it in a way that he liked.
Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (19), Athleticism (32), Bnce (36), Drawing (16), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), Marching (13), Medium Armor (19), Mining (10), Observation (33), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Running (32), Shields (24), Sneaking (19), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (1)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (27), Identify {Mundane} (19), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (38), Mana Cirction (7), Meditation (14), Numbers Concepts (8), Pain Resistance (28), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (45), Stealth (14), Strategy (1), Tactics (11)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (5), Blind Fighting (6), Command (0), Danger Sense (1), Inspire (5), Mana Conjuration (1), Mana Maniption (3), Mana Sight (16), Mental Fortitude (28)]
Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (13), Iron Will (8), Mana Weapon (1), Spatial Awareness (11)
Tier 5: Spatial Awareness (11)
Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (30)
Reivyn was satisfied with the results of his tinkering. He closed his Status page andy back on the cot to rx. He drifted off to sleep without noticing.
Reivyn was gently shaken awake. He sat up and rubbed the sleep in his eyes before looking up at who had woken him from his nap. Knight-Lieutenant Brand stood staring down at him with a severe look on his face.
"Sleeping on the job, I see," he said with disapproval. Reivyn''s mouth opened in astonishment as he looked up at the older man. He stammered toe up with something to say, but the Knight-Lieutenant suddenly broke into a smile andughed. "I''m obviously joking with you. Are you good to get up?"
Reivyn closed his mouth, stretched, and then stood up. He checked his Health, it had climbed to 73% while he napped, and gauged his energy. He was still tired from the overwork his body was doing, but it was manageable if he just had to walk somewhere.
"As long as I don''t have to fight any scary monsters," Reivyn replied. The Adjutant''s smile fell from his face as he assumed a grim expression.
"There shouldn''t be any more surprises. The Knight-Captain and I descended to the depths with some ropes, and we didn''t find any more monsters. Knight-Captain Reifold also had some men locate the tunnels and begin exploring. The entrance had caved in and grown over, which is why nobody could spot it before. It just looked like any other hill dotting the ridge.
"Come, the Knight-Captain invited you to be debriefed by him," The Knight-Lieutenant said. Reivyn followed him out of the medical tent. It was onlyte afternoon, and Reivyn could see that the camp had returned to almost normal after the incident.
A wall was being constructed around the hole that had appeared in the middle of the camp, but everyone had resumed their normal day-to-day routines. There were still some lingering effects, though, as Reivyn could see multiple people suddenly stop what they were doing and stare off into space for a moment before suddenly shaking and resuming their task.
The two quickly arrived at the new tent set up for themander. The interior was exactly like it had been before with nothing missing. If anything had tumbled down the chasm, it had been retrieved when the two officers descended earlier. Two additional seats had been set in front of Knight-Captain Reifold''s desk, and he indicated them as the two men entered his tent.
"Have a seat," Reifold said. He set his pen down and leaned back in his chair a bit. "Reivyn, I asked you to join us because, as someone who managed to stand and fight, you deserve to know." Reivyn and the Adjutant each took a seat before the Knight-Captain began.
"First off I take full responsibility. I''m the expert here when ites to dungeons, and I allowed my duties as the militarymander to distract me from pondering on the ramifications of what was found in the dungeon. Second, and this has already been posted on the notice board, nobody is to go beyond the first floor of the dungeon without an experienced mana user. I''ve noticed you use mana to great effect, but you''re not skilled enough yet, and, frankly, not high enough level yet, to go further into the dungeon. I can''t control the adventurers, but it''s their death warrant if they choose to ignore the warnings.
"That being said, let me exin why," he continued. "I''m not entirely sure what that demon was, but it was a demon. You should have gotten some sort of notification or achievement regarding the Abyss. That''s a clear indication. While I might not know exactly what that was, the undead minions that crawled up with it were monsters called Revenants. They are high level undead, at least for this region, and the only reason all of us weren''t massacred, myself included, was because we''re in a Tier 1 mana density region." Reifold let that statement sink in for a moment. Even Knight-Lieutenant Brand was surprised at that revtion.
"Revenants require a higher concentration and purity of mana to be able to utilize their own magic. As undead they can''t purify it themselves like we can through sustained Mana Cirction. Theck of avable mana is what caused them to move in such jerky motions. If we were in a Tier 3 region, you would have never even seen theming. They''re still inherently immune to all mundane weaponry, which is why you had to defeat one with your mana attacks. On top of that, the mana density inside the Dungeon is higher, so while not enough to unlock their full capabilities, they will be significantly more dangerous in the Dungeon."
As the man spoke, he took out a piece of paper he had prepared beforehand and slid it across the table to the Knight-Lieutenant. The Adjutant picked it up, and upon reading its contents, he nodded his head as if he had expected the information contained within. He handed it to Reivyn, and he quickly scanned it as he listened, his eyebrows raising in surprise.
Do not ask about the coincidence of the timing out loud. Someone, or something, may be listening, it read. Underneath the main message, it instructed Reivyn to take it with him and burn it during his mana practiceter. He followed the instructions and, folding it up, ced it in an interior pocket.
"The demon was even more powerful than the Revenants," Knight-Captain Reifold kept talking without break. "We were lucky my ss and ss Skills directly countered it.
"As to why these things were down there, my guess is the Revenants were cultists while alive, and they summoned a demon they couldn''t control and got themselves killed. Those Revenants were ancient, though, and we might never know why they had remained underground for so long. Not everything is always tied up in a neat package for our understanding. That''s just life.
"On a final note," the man turned to Reivyn, "I''ll be sure that you get the recognition that you deserve. Some people are even calling you a hero." Reivyn was taken aback.
"I didn''t do anything particrly heroic, though, sir," Reivyn quickly denied. "I could barely hold on against one Revenant. You and the Adjutant fought off the demon and several Revenants at the same time." Reifold held up his fist and started ticking off on his fingers.
"While being chased by a beast tide right on your heels, you turned around and charged towards the horde to pick up your fallen Squad Leader and carry him to safety. Then, instead of taking it easy in the infirmary, even though nobody would have begrudged you staying there, you joined the fight, and you volunteered to reinforce one of the most exposed positions in a watchtower. Then, you single-handedly killed an ogre in the dungeon, saving at least a couple of your squad mate''s lives. Finally, you stayed on your feet and fought a mid-Tier 3 Revenant while everyone else had been debilitated with fear." Themander looked Reivyn in the eye with four fingers raised. He lifted his thumb and said, "You did all of this while having attained your Tier 1 ss just barely over a month ago." He lowered his hand back to the desk.
"People talk. The troops aren''t oblivious to what''s been going on with you. You''re practically their mascot at this point." Reivyn was stunned at the revtion. He had been so caught up in his own world that he hadn''t noticed the attention ced on him from the other soldiers. It made sense that they would keep track of him, considering the unusual circumstances around his entry into the regrs.
"Sure, each individual act could simply be described as bravery in the face of danger, but repeated instances, all taken together, are the actions of someone heroic. Usually, in a military unit, we strive to keep people humble and restrain their ego. It leads to better unit cohesion and teamwork. Taking your circumstances into ount, though, I feel it''s appropriate to make sure you don''t sell yourself short." The man pped his hands together and stood. Reivyn and Brand followed suit, and Reifold kept talking as he walked around the desk to escort the men out.
"I would offer you instruction on how to properly utilize your mana, Reivyn, but my mana is fundamentally different from yours," he said as he held out a hand to guide the two men out. "And judging on your ability to conjure mana weapons, I can only assume you have the necessary mana Skills that I could instruct you on, but mana Skills aren''t my expertise, and I wouldn''t be able to add much to what you already know. What you need help with is turning your mana into useable magic, and that, I can''t help you with." The Knight-Captain escorted them through the tent ps, and before Reivyn even realized it, the meeting was over and he was standing outside with the Adjutant.
"He''s not one for chitchat," Brand said with a sideways look towards Reivyn. "The day is almost over, so go ahead and take the rest of the day to yourself. I''ll see you in the morning." With that the Adjutant strode off towards his own tent, leaving Reivyn behind.
Reivyn looked at the time in his System interface and saw that it was about time for evening chow, so he simply made his way over to the chow hall. He pondered on the things the Knight-Captain had said and the things he should work on based on his new knowledge. He would need to devote a significantlyrger portion of time on bringing his mana Skills up. It''s a good thing I had already decided to not let my Mental Stats fall too far behind, he thought.
Reivyn sat in his tent in a rxed, cross-legged fashion. He had justpleted a couple of rotations of Mana Cirction. It was subtle, but he could faintly tell that the mana was travelling through his pathways in a smoother manner. It was like it had less friction against the walls of his meridian pathways.
He opened his eyes after the exercise and looked down at his hand that he held aloft with the palm up. He concentrated on the mana within himself, and, using his willpower, he summoned it in pure form to his hand. A little bluish, clear orb of mana appeared floating over his palm. It glowed faintly in the dim lighting.
He bore his willpower down further and morphed the orb into various shapes. He started by elongating portions, turning the orb into a polyhedron. It wriggled about and flowed like a liquid as he constantly shifted the shape at his whim. Mana Maniption had increased his ability to move his mana around and do things with it outside of circting it inside his meridians, but after unlocking the Mana Conjuration Skill, his ability to turn his mana into an object had increased by another level. The two Skills were clearly operating with synergy.
He moved on from simply stretching and deforming the orb and tried to make more definite shapes. He extended it into a rectangr prism. The general shape of the mana was fine, but he was unable to keep the edges and corners sharp. They kept degrading into a curve, and when he shifted his attention to fix it, another spot would deform. He was unable to keep a perfect shape with his current Skill Level, but that was the purpose of the exercise.
He continued to maintain the shape and try to adjust it to the perfect form he had in his head. Another problem he encountered was the irregr mana density throughout the construct. Trying to focus on perfect shape and uniform density, though, was currently an impossible task. He switched back and forth between focusing on one task at a time.
He worked on the rectangr shape for a time before moving on to attempting new designs. He shifted to a pyramid, a cylinder, and a cube. He didn''t shift back and forth at a fast speed. Instead he continued his practice of forming the overall shape and then concentrating on perfecting it for a while before moving on. Rapid shifting in forming patterns would be something to work on at ater date once he was satisfied with his current training regime.
Sweat trickled down his brow, and his Mana slowly ticked downwards as he maintained his focus. He lost track of time as he fully concentrated on the task at hand, and when his Mana finally reached a point that he could feel a bit of strain, around 30%, he finally stopped. He was surprised to see that it had gottenpletely dark outside while he was practicing.
He checked the time and saw that he had been at it for close to an hour. His Mana hadsted longer than he had thought it would. It must be because, on top of having the Skills unlocked, I''m not actually doing anything with the mana, and the loss justes from what''s dissipating into the air, he mused.
He pulled up his notifications that had umted while he was working.
Skills Levelled Up!
Tier2:
Mana Cirction (7 ->8)
Meditation (14 ->15)
Tier3:
Mana Conjuration (1 ->3)
Mana Sight (16 ->17)
The System had adapted his notifications for Skills levelling up to match his new interface format without him specifically doing so himself. Interestingly enough, he noticed, looking at his mana conjuration while working on his Skill also caused his Mana Sight to level up. Doing one exercise had the potential to raise several of his Skills concurrently. Once I get Mana Conjuration to Level 10, I''ll start focusing more on Mana Weapon and allow the other Skill to level up naturally.
Reivyn was hopeful for the future. He had a clear n for not letting his Mental Stats and mana Skills fall behind his Physical ones, and with his new position as a faux-Aide, he would have the time to work on that n. He would make sure to continue to practice his martial Skills, but they could take a backseat for a short time as they waited for the permanent guards to arrive and take over.
The feeling of tion at having survived a disaster washed over him as hey down to go to sleep. His body rxed and he slowly drifted off. Luckily, this time, the tion wasn''t paired with the conflicting feelings of survivor''s guilt.
Chapter 24: Smooth Transition
Chapter 24: Smooth Transition
Reivyn concentrated his willpower as he controlled his mana. It was getting easier to quickly and urately form the desired shapes he conjured with his mana. He was staring at an arrow held in his left hand while he mimicked its shape and bnce to the best of his ability with water-attuned mana in his right. Having a medium to focus on had greatly enhanced his ability to maintain a consistent shape and uniformity in mana density.
He had originally thought far too simply about training his Mana Weapon Skill. He had had to stop and actually sit down to think about what he wanted to aplish, what his tools avable were, and then how to utilize those tools to do the task.
The problem had arisen when he tried to practice some strikes on a dummy with a sword conjured from fire mana. The fire sword had simply passed right through the dummy, only leaving some small smoldering marks on the surface. He had stood in surprise with his mouth wide open until a fleeting memory surfaced in his mind. He recalled that the first time he had ever made a whip out of fire mana, the weapon had passed through the birds in the sky while setting them on fire. It hadn''t actually been striking them.
That led him to the most recent incident where he had wrapped a fire whip around the Revenant. It had clearly been corporeal and made contact with the target. It wasn''t just a matter of intent, either. He had been operating purely on instinct in both cases. He felt he should know how to do what he wanted, and, while he clearly understood it subconsciously, he just couldn''t quite make that final step.
This led to apromise in his exercise. He had been, so far, either operating with pure mana or one basic element, and his usage of the elements could only be described as crude, at best. He would simply gather anytent elements contained in his own mana reserves and attract ambient elements and force them into his construct.
If I can use one element to infuse into the construct, why can''t I use two? An idea had popped into his head.
This simple question had led to several days of experimentation that led to his making arrows out of water. He gathered his own mana and used the same crude method to attune it to water, but then he gathered the fire element into his palm, not letting it escape, and used it as a catalyst to absorb the heat out of the water arrow. The result led to a shiny, crystalline arrow made out of pure ice.
Affinity Unlocked! Ice Affinity (1) Reivyn wasn''t too surprised by the notification. He had had conjectures on other mana affinities for a while now, and he had assumed that using them inbination with each other was probably the most likely way to unlock more affinities. If he had been able to reach Level 15 in his affinities while still at home, he was sure his mother, who had been the one to lead him onto the path in the first ce, would have been able to properly guide him. As it was, he could only fumble about with his own ideas.
This new way of utilizing his affinities, however, came with a cost. He frowned as he looked at his Mana expenditure. Creating a simple construct out of pure mana would cost roughly 1 Mana Point per second. Once it was created, it could be maintained for a significantly less cost of his mana, as he wasn''t actively infusing more into it at that point, but was instead simply holding it in ce against the slow dissipation that urred. Infusing a single affinity added 1 additional Mana Point to the expenditure.
When Reivyn had used a second affinity to create the ice arrow, though, it wasn''t an addition of simply 1 more Mana Point. It had added double the Mana Points as the total of using one affinity for a total of 6 Mana Points per second. With his current mana pool, he would be able to create approximately 5 ice arrows, as it took him close to 10 seconds of concentration toplete the conjuration. That would only be if he made them and let them disperse, though. If he wanted to actually use them, he could prepare 3 arrows ahead of time.
That would work down in the dungeon where they could prepare before each fight, but it wouldn''t be tenable in a situation where ambushes were a possibility. Making arrows during practice made sense, as theplexities involved would allow him to practice the Skill. He would be better suited to making stones of earth mana to use as ammunition for a sling in practice.
However... that was creating the ice element out of using two elements together. What happens if I just use the newly unlocked affinity directly? With that thought, he immediately put n into action.
First, he dispelled his maintenance of his already formed arrow. It didn''t immediately disperse in a cloud of mana like the other constructs had, but instead he watched in fascination as it slowly disintegrated in front of him. Bits and pieces would ke off to float away, and then those pieces would disperse into the environment.
Is it because it''s a higher Tier mana affinity? Or is it because it''s a solid shape? The crystalline structure? There''s so much I don''t know about this.
He threw his questions aside and remade another arrow. The new way of conjuring the mana saw him use 1 Mana Point per second based on the pure mana, but only 2 Mana Points per second for using the ice affinity directly. The downside was that his ice affinity was still only at Level 1, and it took about twice as long to form the arrow.
So roughly the same amount of mana cost per arrow at half the speed. But that''s because I''m at Level 1. If I bring my affinity up to par, it will be half the cost at the same speed. He had gained another aspect to train in.
Reivyn put the matter of the technicalities aside. He took his shiny, newly formed arrow, knocked it in his bow, took aim, and let it fly towards the target dummy. He held his breath for the fraction of a second it took to reach the target in anticipation.
It shattered on impact.
Reivyn let out an exasperated groan as he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. I''m still missing something.
Reivyn was afforded a lot more free time to work on his mana Skills, and he took advantage of it by practicing in the mornings as well as the evenings. He still maintained his position as Aide to Knight-Lieutenant Brand, though, as he was learning a lot of valuable information, both from the book and from asking any questions that popped into his head.
"Why don''t I get training from the Healers?" He had asked on one such asion.
"A couple of reasons," The Adjutant answered. "First, they''re not really using magic. Yes, they''re using mana to assist in their work and perform things they wouldn''t be able to do without it, but it''s not technically magic. Secondly, they spent, at minimum, two years of their time as Tier 1''s studying the human body and basic medicine. Youck the foundations for the things they could teach you.
"Knight-Captain Reifold, on the other hand, is perfectly capable of healing through magical means. But, again, the way his mana works is of apletely different nature. You could theoretically learn the usage, but you would have to spend a couple of years working as a Squire at a church to gain the recognition required to unlock the method. Magron doesn''t even have a church that has the capabilities to train Squires."
While Magron was a magnificent city ording to Reivyn, it was still just in its infancy rtive to the true seats of power located in the central regions of the kingdom. Magron was a County Capital in a county located on the fringe of the nation. The kingdom wasn''t symmetrical with the capital located in the center. The truly prosperous cities were instead close to the border on theplete opposite end of the country where it abutted up against a higher Tier region.
"If he was an adventurer in a high level team in a higher Tier region, he would absolutely be an auxiliary Healer. As it is, it''s a waste of his time andpletely unnecessary for him to assume that kind of role out here. Maybe in an emergency where the Healers we have are incapable of handling the numbers or severity of wounds he could make use of his magical healing, but, as you''ve seen multiple times already, it makes far more sense for him to deal with any kind of threat capable of doing that to the men directly himself."
Acting as the Aide to the Adjutant had another, unexpected benefit. Reivyn had been perusing the reports and determining whether to stamp them or pass them along when his boss had given him a new task.
"Hmm... we''ve been too preupied with letting the men get experience in the Dungeon." Brand said. "Reivyn, go to the cavalry unit and pass on my order to have them perform a three-day extended sweep into the ins and forests to make sure any remnants of the beast tide aren''t forming back up again. Can''t let them terrorize the locals, now can we?"
"Yes, sir," Reivyn stood up and hurried out of the tent to aplish the task. This was the first time he been tasked with doing anything other than screening reports and educating himself.
He made his way to one of the edges of the pallisade where the cavalry unit resided. They had arge space afforded to them for the sake of having to take care of their mounts, and there was a definite break line in theyout of the camp so the infantry wouldn''t have to deal with the sounds and smells anymore than was necessary. The cavalry might have the upside of slightly more prestige and having versatility, but it came with the corresponding downsides as well.
The camp was alive and performing routine military duties like any other day as Reivyn made his way to themand tent. He spotted men grooming their horses, maintaining their gear, practicing with weapons, and some were performing riding maneuvers as well. Wouldn''t be a bad idea to acquire the Skills required to ride a horse. I''ve heard that it''s not just Riding, but there''s also Horsemanship, Reivyn thought to himself as he watched the activity around him. That begs the question: Are there other forms of mounts? It was a question that would have to be answered another time.
Reivyn approached the tent to the sergeant inmand of the cavalry. The Company Commander was present and performing his duties in the encampment, but he was the only officer besides the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant. Most of the duties ofmand that a junior officer would perform were actually handled by the most senior sergeant of each toon.
"I have orders from the Adjutant," Reivyn instructed the sentry standing guard. While the cavalry sergeant wasn''t rated to have two men guard his tent that a legitimatemissioned officer would, he was still performing the duties of one. The sentry was more a means to prevent him from being interrupted by anyone who fancied dropping in than any kind of guard.
The man ducked his head into the tent to inform the sergeant before straightening up and waving Reivyn in. Reivyn nodded his thanks to the man and entered. The tent wasn''t nearly as bare-bones as the senior officers''s tents were. As an experienced NCO, he knew what he could and couldn''t bring along with him, and he had some possessions to provide a more cozy living environment, as well as some things to entertain himself during downtime. The man was reclining on his cot, reading a book as Reivyn went inside.
"Sergeant, upon the orders of the Adjutant, you are to perform a three-day extended sweep of the ins and forests below," Reivyn said without preamble. The sergeant marked his ce in the book before sitting up. He looked Reivyn up and down. He clearly knew that Reivyn was acting as an Aide to the Knight-Lieutenant, and, as a more mature man, he didn''t posture or try and assert his seniority over his junior.
"Alright. Did he give any specifics?" The man asked.
"No, sergeant," Reivyn answered. "Standard procedures. You pick the men, you pick the route, you make the n. The intent is to make sure none of the beasts from the beast tide congregate together again to pose a threat. Nothingplicated," Reivyn knew from the book he had been given by the Adjutant that the Aide had to anticipate the orders of his boss. This might be a test of the older man, or he was just used to doing things in this manner. Either way, Reivyn knew the purpose of the orders.
"Ok. Orders received," the sergeant said. Reivyn gave the man a friendly smile and a wave as he exited the tent. Once he stepped back out into the sunlight, he was greeted with a notification.
Skill Levelled Up! Command (0 ->1) Reivyn was surprised that he had gained a level in this particr Skill. Based on what Knight-Lieutenant Brand said about Strategy, it must simply be because I gave an order that was acknowledged. Come to think of it, this is the first time I''ve ever given amand to someone.
Satisfied with his own exnation, Reivyn returned to his duties as an Aide.
Reivyn wasn''t satisfied with only unlocking one additional affinity. He had done the thought experiments andid the groundwork. He sat on his cot and focused his mind. There was no need to do anything fancy, shape-wise, as he was simply testing outbinations he could think of.
He formed the mana ball with practiced ease. He already had abination he wanted to try out, so he got right into it without hesitation. He infused the ball with the earth element and watched as it took on the characteristics of a small stone. Once he had aplished that task, he set about adding the fire element to it.
He had considered how he wanted to go about doing it. He wasn''t sure if the method used inbining the elements had any tangible benefit, but there was no harm in trying. He chose to start from the inside out. He added the fire element to the interior and slowly suffused the entire pebble with it. Nothing seemed to happen for a while, so he increased the intensity of the fire mana.
Eventually, as he watched the stone, cracks started to appear on it. Bright, glowing orange light radiated out from the interior, and the color slowly spread to epass the entire mass. It wasn''t just red, however, as dark, dark splotches of ck also apanied it. It reminded him of the demon that had appeard from the depths. It started to wriggle about and move like a thick liquid instead of a solid object after his mana had been drained considerably.
New Affinity Unlocked! Magma (1) He released the mana upon getting the notification, and then he had to immediately fumble about to regain control of the construct. Like with the ice arrow earlier, it didn''t immediately dissipate. It had lost its cohesion and started to fall to the floor, and a small speck had dripped down to the ground, causing a hiss as it started to burn the surroundings.
Whew, I can''t be careless with these things, he thought to himself as he regained control. He stopped feeding it mana to maintain it, but he kept his connection to it so that it would float harmlessly in the air while it slowly disappeared.
Hmm, it can''t just bebinations of mana that unlock new affinities. Let me try something.
He conjured an arrow made of ice in his left hand and then simultaneously created a long stick made of earth mana. He used his Mana Sight to look closely at the structure of the mana that made up the ice arrow, and using it as a medium for concentration, he started to manipte the mana making up the earth stick to match the crystalline structure.
Sweat beaded his brow as he conducted theplicated operation. The mana didn''t fight his control, but it would still tend to move out of the careful structure he was creating. He had to constantly move back to shore up the weaknesses, but as more and more of the earth mana took on the aspect of the ice arrow, it began to work with him. After reaching just past half-way topletion, it became exponentially easier to arrange the structure properly. As he approached the final touch, the earthen stick began to change to a lighter color, and when he finally aplished his task, he held a silvery metal rod in his hand.
New Affinity Unlocked! Metal (1) Reivyn released his hold on the mana objects and copsed back onto his cot. He gulped down some air to help him recover. He hadn''t spent any Stamina in the exercise, but the drop in Mana and the mental fatiguebind to give him the phantom feeling of physical exhaustion. He checked his Mana Points after he had calmed down.
Just enough for onest experiment tonight, he thought. I wonder what happens if Ibine all four of the basic elements?
He once more made the pure mana orb. He wasn''t sure ifbining all four of them together one at a time was possible, so he bore down on his willpower and gathered four separate strands of attuned mana simultaneously. He positioned them equally across the globe, and then shoved them all towards the center all at once. For a brief second, they shed with each other in the center before swirling around each other andbining with a silent pop.
A bright sh blinded Reivyn as he had been staring wide-eyed at the orb. He closed his eyes tight as he lost control of the mana, and when he was able to open his eyes again, a dark shadow remained in his vision in the form of the mana ball.
New Affinity Unlocked! Light (1) He threw his hands into the air in triumph. He had been sessful.
Another week of training and working as an Aide passed. Reivyn continued to hone his mana Skills each day. He didn''t ignore his martial Skills, though, and he set up a rotation where he would do about an 80/20 focus. He could slowly feel himself improving in both his mastery of the Skills and in his affinities.
With the passing of another week, another opportunity to delve the Dungeon appeared. Apparently there was some sort of mechanism where the Dungeon would reset for each individual or Party each week. It didn''t ur on any set day for everyone, but instead it was tuned specifically to the people involved and would maintain the progress of the dive for a week before starting over.
The second exploration of the Dungeon went much smoother, and not just for Reivyn''s squad. With the information gathered, all of the squads pressed on and defeated the boss room. They handled the upper floors by sending teams of four down each path while the rest of the squad continued on, and they would break into three groups that leapfrogged their way down.
With proper preparation, the boss room wasn''t all that difficult to handle, either. It turned out that the ogre turning on his handlers was the rule, not the exception. It seemed like a scripted event. Nobody continued on beyond the boss room, though, as nobody wanted to potentially run into the powerful Revenants or any other possible demons.
Reivyn was seated at his customary desk going through reports. Normally the canvas of the tent was thick enough to block out any ambient noise from the outside, but the peace and quiet was abruptly interrupted by some loud soundsing from outside. The noise didn''t have the hallmarks of an emergency such as a sense of urgency or panic associated with the iing noises, but it was loud and sustained.
"Ask one of the sentries what that racket is," Knight-Lieutenant Brand finally said. Reivyn stood up and poked his head out of the tent ps. He could see a flurry of activity in the distance as he queried one of the men standing post outside.
"The Adjutant wants to know what all this noise is about," he said. The man turned towards Reivyn, and with a smile on his face gave him the answer that he had been anticipating for a while now. Reivyn quickly returned to the Adjutant to let him know the news.
"Sir, the permanent garrison has arrived," Reivyn said with undisguised jubtion.
"Well, it looks like we''ll be able to go home soon," Brand said with a smile.
Chapter 25: Looking Forward
Chapter 25: Looking Forward
The trees lining the road offered shade in the mid-summer heat as the troops made their return trip to Magron. Reivyn marvelled at the sights and sounds all around him, his head constantly twisting and turning about. He was surprised that the change in perspective from riding a horsepared to walking on his own two feet was so pronounced. Not only was he able to easily peer over everyone''s heads to gaze into the depths of the woods at will, but even if he had been as free to look around while walking, he wouldn''t have seen anything except the heads of the other men surrounding him in formation.
The change ofmand when the permanent garrison troops arrived had happened without a hitch. He had followed Knight-Lieutenant Brand out to greet the newmander, carrying a stack of reports that had been prepared ahead of time. The Knight-Lieutenant had cordially greeted the other man, and even though he was only the XO meeting a new Commanding Officer, Reivyn had seen surprise and a little ttery on the other man''s face.
The manmanding the new guards was technically at the equivalent rank as the Company Commander under the Adjutant, and Reivyn suspected there was something to do with non-military standing involving the designation of "Knight" in Brand''s title. Reivyn didn''t understand all of the nuances involved, but from the way the men acted, it was more than appropriate for Knight-Lieutenant Brand to handle the matter in Knight-Captain Reifold''s stead.
Reivyn had stood behind and to the side of the Adjutant as the two men walked and talked. Upon observation, the new guards weren''t quite as crisp in their military bearing as the troops making up the Lord''s Retinue, but that wasn''t their job. They were more peacekeepers and security than soldiers. Despite that, the NCO''s leading them were capable and didn''t require the micromanagement of theirmander, allowing him to simultaneously handle the formalities as his men assumed their roles.
Reivyn''s presence hadn''t gone unnoticed by the man. A perplexed expression had crossed his face when he noticed Reivyn''s age and slightly smaller stature.
"I haven''t heard of any young, promising officer candidates, Knight-Lieutenant," the man said with a nod towards Reivyn. It was a fair assumption made by the man.
Brand nced at Reivyn and then chuckled. "He''s not an officer candidate, Captain Aren," the Adjutant said. "Technically, he''s a conscript." He waved his hands about and shook his head. "It''splicated. It''s all in the reports if you want to find out for yourselfter. Anyway, this is Reivyn, The Little Hero." Reivyn momentarily froze upon hearing those words. He knew from the debriefing the other day that some people had started calling him a hero, but for the Knight-Lieutenant to say so in his official capacity could only have been a deliberate, calcted move.
Captain Aren''s interest in Reivyn had obviously dimmed when Brand had said that instead of being a promising officer candidate he was actually a conscript, but his eyes had lit up with even more interest upon hearing the title of "Little Hero" being assigned to him. He looked Reivyn up and down, and then, with a smile, he pped the youngster on the shoulder.
"If Knight-Lieutenant Brand refers to you as such, then you obviously have a bright future ahead of you, kid," The man said.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn said. It wasn''t an invitation into the conversation, so he kept his response a short acknowledgement of the praise.
The two officers continued their conversation along the way to the Adjutant''s tent, and as they ducked inside to continue the meeting, Reivyn noticed out of the corner of his eye that it wasn''t just the new militia unit that had arrived. He paused for a second to get a better look, and he spotted a long caravan of civilians with all kinds of different building materials along with personal possessions stacked in carts.
Getting in on the ground floor of a brand new settlement that had the potential to be a prosperous city in the near future was a huge opportunity for a lot of people. Most of the first arrivals were young men and women who had recentlypleted an apprenticeship or were journeymen without having an established footing of their own. There were bound to berger organizations branching out to the new location eventually, but they weren''t going to participate in building it themselves.
"What are you thinking about?" Reivyn was brought out of his contemtion by the voice of the Knight-Lieutenant.
"I was just thinking that a small shift in perspectivepletely changes the scenery," Reivyn answered. Knight-Lieutenant Brand smiled at the response.
"Indeed it does," he said. "It is all about perspective. It''s interesting that you''ve had this bit of insight all on your own. The best example I''ve ever heard was an exnation given by my father.
"He''s a baron attached to Count Ilpir, and he was working his men towards a specific goal. There were many moving parts, and he didn''t have the time, nor inclination, to exin every little detail to everyone involved. Because the men didn''t understand the whole situation, some grumblings of discontent appeared over some apparent contradictions in orders.
"My father had gathered the men and given them a little speech. I''m paraphrasing, of course, but the gist of it went like this: He held up a chair to the men, and he showed them the bottom of it as he said, ''When you look at this chair from this angle, all you see are these four legs and the bottom of the seat. Without context of the whole picture, you have no idea what it is, or what its purpose could be.'' He turned the chair right-side up and then said, ''I''m looking at it from this angle. I look at it, and I think, ''This is clearly a chair.'' He set the chair down and finished, ''Each order that I''m giving out can be likened to an individual leg of the chair. Trust me that the work you''re doing is important, and it''sying the foundation for the project as a whole.''"
Knight-Lieutenant Brand looked at Reivyn expectantly. Reivyn had been listening to every word, and it had resonated with his small insight from the view overlooking the heads of the marching men.
"What was the project?" He asked.
Knight-Lieutenant Brand coughed into his hand in slight embarrassment. "I have no idea. I can''t remember," he said. "But that''s not the point! Don''t focus on the wrong part of the story," he gently reprimanded.
"Anyway, are you finally getting used to riding?" The older man asked. Reivyn tilted his head down and gave him a t look through hisshes.
"I am now, no thanks to you," he responded. Knight-Lieutenant Brand justughed and pped him on the shoulder before returning to his position slightly ahead of Reivyn.
When it was time to finally leave the encampment, Reivyn had been fully prepared to assume his position in the formation and march with his squad again. While he had been going over the final checks of his gear with his squad mates, the Knight-Lieutenant had shown up with a horse.
"No Aide of mine is going to march on his own two feet. You have an image to uphold. You''ll be riding next to me," he had dered. "Here, we''ll put your gear into the saddlebags instead of the rucksack."
They quickly transferred the gear over, and the spear was ced into a special holster behind the saddle. Knight-Lieutenant Brand pointed out the gear and gave some simple instruction on how to mount the horse and sit in the saddle, but he didn''t go into borate detail. He helped Reivyn ascend the mount for the first time. Reivyn was only slightly shorter than the average height of the men, but the stirrups had been adjusted to fit his size properly ahead of time.
"Alright, are you good?" The older man asked. Reivyn sat in the saddle, loosely holding the reins as he looked down at the man before nodding. He turned to his squad mates to offer his farewell.
"Yaaahhh!" A loud shout interrupted him, and the horse bolted as the Knight-Lieutenant smacked its nk with the t of his de. Reivyn grabbed the reins in a death grip and his entire body tightened at the unexpected movement. The horse galloped through the camp and quickly made it to the road. Reivyn held on for dear life as he was bounced around like a sack of potatoes.
"AAaaahhh!" His loud shout echoed out over the open air.
Luckily, the horse was well trained, and, absent anymands from the clueless rider, it simply followed the road leading down the ridge. Reivyn''s heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, but he eventually started to calm down as he noticed the horse not acting crazy. His body loosened up, and he began to absorb the impacts caused by the galloping by utilizing his Bnce Skill.
The horse started to slow down on its own after not receiving any instructions for a while, and Reivyn was able to experiment with how to control the horse through the reins and body movements like he had witnessed the cavalry do. He got the horse toe down all the way to a walk, and as he was getting it to turn around to head back to the pallisade, a loudughter entered his ears. He looked up to find the Adjutant just behind him on his own horse.
"Well, how did you like your first ride?" The man said with a grin. Reivyn looked at him with wide eyes.
"Can you not do that again? That was terrifying!" Reivynined.
"Check your notifications," the man said, his grin never leaving his face. Reivyn did just that. With a mental tug, his notification popped up in front of him.
New Skill Unlocked!
Riding (1)
Now that he had calmed down and read the notification, he noticed a subtle increase to his ability to properly sit in the saddle and unconsciously guide the horse. If it hadn''t been pointed out to him, he wouldn''t have noticed it any time soon, as he was stilling down from the short bout of excitement.
"That''s how I got the Skill," Brand said. "That''s why I didn''t hesitate to use the same tactic. It would take you all day and a sore butt to get the Skill from gentle walking. You can thank meter when you''ve calmed down." The man smirked at him.
Knight-Lieutenant Brand had then given Reivyn proper instruction on how to ride the horse and control it in various ways. He went through the proper usage of the reins and how and when to shift his bnce properly to guide his mount. Brand supervised his practice for about an hour before the troops finally came marching out, and they fell into their proper ce in the formation.
"You''ll get the Horsemanship Skill after you''ve learned how to properly take care of your beast, not just ride it," Knight-Lieutenant Brand informed him.
True to his word, Reivyn had gained the relevant Skill after properly looking after the horse that evening under the tutge of the Adjutant. They had taken some time out each day to ride ahead and practice some riding maneuvers each day, and Reivyn''s Skill Level steadily climbed. Along with the increase in his Skill, he was able to divert his attention more and more, which had led to him constantly observing his surroundings after a few days.
He still hadn''t thanked the man.
The city of Magron looked the same as the first time Reivyn had seen its walls looming in the distance. That wasn''t to say he had gotten used to it. It still looked amazing to him, and he wondered what it would be like to live in the city.
The troops made their way back to the garrison after entering the city, and Knight-Captain Reifold had all of the men stand in formation for a moment as he addressed them.
"I''m extremely proud of everyone. I only have a couple of points to make before you''re all dismissed. I''m sure everyone has better things to do than listen to me speak," he said.
"First, a moment of silence to honor our dead brothers," he bent his head down along with all of the troops. The bodies that had been preserved had not followed them to the garrison, but they had instead gone off immediately to their own destination so as to be returned to their families as soon as possible. After a respectable length of time, Knight-Captain Reifold raised his head to continue his address.
"Second, I sent ahead to prepare the promisedbat bonus, and they will be disbursed through your chain ofmand tomorrow." While the men were excited about getting bonus pay, they maintained their military bearing and didn''t celebrate while in formation.
"Lastly, the conscription has formallye to an end, and it will technicallye to an end when you return to your homes. The levies will keep their tokens. Sergeant Mok will be in charge of overseeing your return, and before you do, he''ll modify your tokens to no longer function as your military identification. They will, however, be your proof of preferred Dungeon ess, so anyone who chooses a Combat ss and returns to delve the Dungeon should make sure not to lose them."
Knight-Captain Reifold nodded to the Adjutant and then strode off.
"Dismissed!" Knight-Lieutenant Brandmanded. He turned towards Reivyn, who had remained by his side at the front of the formation, as the men broke off under their NCO''s. "Come with me."
Reivyn followed him to his office on the second floor of the headquarters building. To his surprise, they walked up the central stairway in the central foyer that Corporal Decker had told him to never use. Makes sense. If even the Second in Command can''t use the stairs, then what''s the point of having them?
Reivyn took a seat in front of the desk at the Adjutant''s gesture. The older man sat at his desk and rxed back into his chair.
"Well, that''s it. You''re officially done," he started. "A couple final points.
"One, you don''t have to worry about the court martial of Ren. You don''t need to be there for it, so you don''t need to stick around any longer than necessary to see it through. We''ll handle everything on our end.
"Two, there will be a banquet at the Lord''s manor tomorrow evening. Knight-Captain Reifold has extended an invitation for you to attend. You''re going to be attending as a guest of the Knight-Captain, not of the Count, so you don''t have to worry about performing any sort of duties or anything like that. The banquet is to wee and congratte the Knight-Captain on a sessful mission, though you will most likely meet the Count in private afterward. Knight-Captain Reifold did say he would make sure you got recognition for your actions, so that makes sense to me.
"We''ll have a proper uniform tailored for you to wear tomorrow, so be sure to head to the quartermaster after this," Brand handed him a piece of paper. A nce showed that it was the order for the uniform, and Reivyn ced it in his pocket.
"Other than picking up your uniform and showing up on time for the banquet, we''ll meet in front of the headquarters at 5pm tomorrow, you have the rest of today and tomorrow free to do what you want. It was a pleasure having you work as my Aide, short though it was," the man said as he reached across to shake Reivyn''s hand. Reivyn stood up and gave a slight bow to the older man.
"Thank you, sir, for everything you did for me," Reivyn said. The Knight-Lieutenant tilted his head to the side as he raised an eyebrow at Reivyn. He rolled his eyes and added, begrudgingly, "And for helping me unlock the Riding Skill."
"You''re wee," Brand said as he got up from behind the desk. He led Reivyn to the door and said, "Alright, I''ll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn responded as he left to go get his measurements made at the quartermaster. In only a few more days, he would finally be heading back home, and that thought was far more exciting to him than attending a banquet with the upper echelons of the county.
Chapter 26: Table Manors
Chapter 26: Table Manors
Reivyn looked at the silver and copper coins in his hand. He had just received his pay for the conscription and the bonuses. On top of getting abat pay bonus, his squad also received two additions to their pay from the requisition of the silver ore on their two Dungeon delves. He looked up at Corporal Decker who had just passed out the coins to the squad.
"Corporal, this is too much," he said. The men received their pay monthly, and it was about a silver''s worth of coppers for the rank of Lance Corporal. Reivyn was a private, so he should have less, but even if he ounted for an additionalbat bonus from fighting the Revenant, the numbers didn''t make sense.
"No, it''s right," Corporal Decker said. He pulled out a piece of paper and showed it to Reivyn. "See here? Pay scale is Aide to the Adjutant, which is equivalent to a sergeant."
"But I was only assigned as the Aide for just over a week," Reivyn protested. He wasn''t adverse to receiving more pay, but he felt ufortable taking more than he thought he deserved.
"Hand me your token," Corporal Decker extended his hand. Reivyn pulled the token out of his pocket and ced it in the NCO''s hand. The man took out his own token and held them together, and then he appeared to be reading something in front of his face that Reivyn couldn''t see. He was obviously looking at a System Notification of some kind.
"ording to the date on your token, you''ve been assigned as the Aide to the Knight-Lieutenant since the day you were transferred from the levies to the regrs," he said after a moment. He handed the token back to Reivyn. "So, the pay is correct. It looks like the officers nned on taking care of you from day one."
Reivyn pocketed the token along with the coins. Any reservations he had had were alleviated. Knight-Lieutenant Brand did tell me that they had wanted to assign me as an Aide in the very beginning. It made perfect sense to him after getting the rification.
"Alright, I have some things to take care of, so I''ll see you allter," Reivyn bid the squad farewell with a wave.
Brace got up from his customary spot ying cards and followed him out of the barracks as everyone else waved in response.
"So what do you got nned?" He asked.
"Oh, I have to attend the banquet tonight, so I need to go find a barber and get my hair under control," Reivyn answered. A bit over a month without a proper haircut had caused his hair to get a bit unruly. Despite proper hygiene and care, his hair had natural waves to it, and letting it get past a certain length caused it to stick out in weird ways no matter how he tried tob it into ce.
"Sure, sure. I''ve got nothing going on today. Do you need a guide through the city?" Brace volunteered.
"Yeah, I''d like that," Reivyn said.
"Alright, let me square it away with the Corporal real quick." Brace went back into the barracks briefly before returning and waving Reivyn on.
The two men traversed the open square to where the levies were still quartered. They were given a few days to rest before they had to march back towards their homes under the supervision of Sergeant Mok. Teilon was standing waiting for him at the edge of the tents. He was conversing with a familiar figure as the two approached.
"Hah! What are you wearing?" Reivyn teased. Teilon was wearing the clothes he had been conscripted in, and he had apparently experienced a considerable growth spurt as they no longer properly fit him. He had several inches of skin showing between the bottom of his trousers and his footwear.
"Laugh it up, shorty. This just means I''m turning into a real man," Teilon retorted. The figure next to him snorted. Teilon gasped and put on a face of mock hurt as he turned towards the person waiting with him. "You, too?"
"Me, especially," the girl said. She turned towards Reivyn and offered her hand in a dainty grip. "Hi, we haven''t ever been properly introduced. I''m Kimberly," she said. Reivyn was slightly surprised at the girlish handshake she offered considering the state he had seen her leave Teilon in after their "dance" sessions.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I''m Reivyn," he replied. "This here is Brace"
"Hello," Brace said. The two shared a handshake as well.
"Kimberly insisted oning along once she heard of the main purpose of our trek into the city proper," Teilon exined. "She said, and I quote, ''I need to be there to make sure you don''t mess up your shaggy mane any further.''"
"Yeah, obviously," she said with a roll of her eyes. "You''re a, ahem, ''man,'' as you say, and everyone knows that men can''t be trusted with these things."
It was Teilon''s turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just remember," he said seriously, "you just agreed that I''m a man." He smirked as she yfully swatted at him.
"Ok. We''ve got coins in our pocket, so we can take the opportunity to get some new clothes while we''re at it," Reivyn said.
"Alright, enough talking. Let''s goooo!" Teilon pointed forward dramatically.
The streets were bustling as the four people made their way along. The road was properly paved throughout the entirety of the city, and the buildings were taller and morepact together than the ones found in Haluville. They could still see some suburbs in the distance with individual houses, but from what they could see, the empty spaces and yards around them were also much smaller so as to fit in more buildings.
Brace led them to themercial district in the center of the city, and they had a grand time perusing all of the storefronts. The wares on disy were more varied and generally of a higher quality than the ones they were used to.
They all spent some of their hard-earned coins on getting some new clothes that properly fit and taming their hair. Reivyn felt much morefortable being able to finally feel the breeze on the back and sides of his head once his hair was cut short. There was no "standard" hairstyle, but he had been advised to keep his hair short when wearing a helmet. He nned on doing some adventuring with Teilon in the future, so it was a good idea, he figured, to get into the habit of keeping his hair short.
Kimberly seemed to be fascinated with the way the short stubble felt, as she constantly ran her hand against the grain on the back of Teilon''s head. He didn''t seem to mind in the least. In fact, he positively beamed at the ministration. Reivyn had to admit that it did feel pretty nice when he did so to his own hair.
The four walked into the storefront attached to a cksmith shop. Any craftsman that had the ability to take up arge area in the centralmercial district had to have the necessary abilities to keep their spot amongst thepetition. The wares avable on disy were high quality, and the four of them inspected the weapons and armor with great detail.
They were more window shopping than nning on making any purchases. They still had some time before they would set out to do any actual adventuring, but it was prudent to price the market and get a gauge of the quality of the gear they would need in the future. The weapons and armor they would equip themselves with would potentially save their lives one day.
Teilon was inspecting a pair of daggers almost long enough to be considered shortswords while Kimberly tested the bnce of a staff she had found. Reivyn was getting the professional opinion of Brace on a longsword when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He left the sword with the other man while he went exploring the new discovery.
A rectangr, box-looking object found its way into Reivyn''s grasp. It lookedpletely out of ce amongst the steel surrounding it, but Reivyn was drawn to it. He flicked his wrist and the object opened into a fan. This was a proper war fan as it was reinforced with metal. He couldn''t ce the main material of the fan itself, but it didn''t appear to be simple cloth.
"Hey, Brace. What color are the uniforms, again?" Reiyvn called out.
"Dark blue with red trim. Why?" The man asked back. Reivyn held up the fan for Brace''s inspection. It was dark blue with red patterns. "Oh yeah, just like that."
"What are the chances I''d find something like this in the exact colors of the uniform?" Reivyn asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Pretty high, actually," Brace said. "These are the colors of Count Ilpir. It makes perfect sense to me."
"You have a good eye there, Young Master," an attendant said as he walked up. "That''s a tessen. It was manufactured as the journeyman piece of one of the apprentices under the tutge of our master cksmith. While it''s not as high quality as one thates from the owner, it''s much cheaper as a result. Is the Young Master interested in such a piece?"
Reivyn considered the words the attendant spoke along with examining the fan, tessen, he reminded himself, in his hand. The craftsmanship was perfectly passable. There weren''t any obvious ws, the design was impable, and it was lightweight yet sturdy.
"How much?" He asked as he looked back up at the attendant.
"Two silvers," the attendant replied.
Reivyn pulled the coins out of his pocket. After getting a haircut and purchasing several sets of travel clothes, he had just over five silvers left from the initial six. He contemted whether or not he should go ahead and splurge on the fan. Two silvers wasn''t necessarily expensive, but it wasn''t cheap, either. The longsword that he had left in Brace''s care was priced at 120 coppers, or 1 silver 20 coppers.
"I''ll take it," he finally answered. He wouldn''t need to spend all of his money on gear right now, but it was unlikely he woulde across another tessen such as this anywhere else. This was the only one he had seen in the several shops they had gone through.
"Excellent choice, Young Master," the attendant said. He was clearly an experienced salesman. Where other attendants in other stores had ignored the four of them, assuming by their in clothes that they didn''t have any money, this one was able to spot a potential spending customer, and, more importantly, he was able to smoothly convince him of the product.
Reivyn handed over the two silvers he owed. There was no need to go to the counter for anything formal. It was an option, but it was mainly used either for people who were purchasing several things or for someone who didn''t have an attendante to them.
Brace looked back and forth between the battle fan and the longsword in his hand.
"You bought a folding fan?" He asked incredulously. "Over a longsword. A cheaper longsword?"
"A battle fan. I purchased a battle fan," Reivyn corrected him. "And don''t look down on this thing. I can take it somewhere that a sword or dagger would be confiscated, and it''s perfectly capable of both attacking and defending. Trust me. I''ve spent years training with an actual folding fan, and this thing is way better."
"Ok~ay, if you say so," Brace said. He didn''t sound particrly convinced.
"Dance, boy!" The sound of Kimberly shouting from somewhere startled the two who had been focused on the fan. Reivyn looked up to see Kimberly thrusting and sweeping the staff she had previously been inspecting at a harried Teilon. They were in an open space that was designed to allow people to gauge the weight and feel of any weapon they considered buying.
"Dance for your money!" Kimberly was grinning. At first nce, it seemed like Teilon was barely holding his own as he hopped about and twisted his body to avoid the attacks from the girl. Upon closer Observation, however, Reivyn noticed ack of panic in his eyes or sweat on his brow. Maybe he really did let her win.
"Haaa, alright," Kimberly huffed as she lowered the staff to rest on the ground. Teilon rxed and pretended to wipe sweat from his brow. He started to swagger over towards Kimberly, but a glint entered her eye as she suddenly shifted the staff and tripped him.
Hmmm... Maybe not.
"Haha, I win," Kimberly shouted as she threw her hands into the air. She had to quickly stop and catch her staff, though, as her movement had caused her to nearly drop it.
"So, what was that all about?" Reivyn asked as the two rejoined him and Brace.
"He wanted to buy those daggers, but he only had enough money for one. He was only short a couple of coppers, but when he turned his puppy dog eyes on me, I told him nothing in life is free, and if he wanted any of my money, he would have to dance for me." Kimberly had a smug smile on her face.
Reivyn cocked an eyebrow at the statement. It didn''t appear that she had acted out of malice. She seemed to genuinely enjoy using the staff, and the trip at the end was probably because of Teilon''s arrogant attitude.
Reivyn flicked his wrist and fanned himself with his new purchase as he spoke. "Well, I have everything I wanted to get, but I still need to get my uniform from the quartermaster and take a bath. It''s about time for us to head back." He continued to fan himself as if it was the most natural thing in the world and he did it all the time.
The other three gave him the side-eye at his antics, but they all nodded and made their way back towards the barracks.
Reivyn examined himself with a mirror in the Knight-Lieutenant''s office. The crisp lines of the uniform plus his tidy haircut caused a resonance with the dreams he had had all his life. It wasn''t a one-for-one match to what he remembered, but there were enough simrities to evoke a sense to belonging. It felt nice, was the only way he could describe it.
The uniform was as Brace had described it. Dark blue for the most part, with red trim. There was a thin red line on the epaulettes, which were themselves nothing fancy. He turned towards the Adjutant and saw a two thick, silver line on his. He assumed it was the rank, but as a private, he shouldn''t have any markings at all.
"Sir, what''s the thin red line on my shoulders?" He asked.
"That''s the rank signifying an officer candidate," Brand answered. "Despite how I''ve thrown the term about, it''s not an actual rank within the chain ofmand. It''s just a designation. In your case, we''re flubbing it a little based on your ''official'' position as my Aide to give you a bit of face at the banquet. I wouldn''t worry about it."
"Here," the older man handed Reivyn a sheathed longsword. The scabbard was a shiny ck that matched the waist belt of the uniform, and it was embossed in silver at the tip and hilt.
Reivyn frowned as he received the weapon. "Are we allowed to carry a weapon in the presence of the Count?"
"You''re representing the Lord''s Retinue, and technically as an officer, as others will see it. It''s perfectly appropriate for you to carry a sidearm."
Reivyn strapped the sidearm to his belt, and then the two men made their way out to the front of the headquarters where they would meet up with the other officers to travel to the lord''s manor as a group. As he was wont to do, Knight-Captain Reifold was thest to arrive.
His uniform was slightly different than everyone else''s. Instead of a ck waist belt, he had a wide red sash. There were decorative chains and medallions hanging across his chest, and a red capepleted the ensemble. It was a much more mboyant version of the military garb.
"That''s the mess dress," Knight-Lieutenant Brand leaned over and whispered in Reivyn''s ear. "It''s expensive." His wide-eyed look told Reivyn that what he meant was "it''s expensive even for me."
"Everyone''s here?" Knight-Captain Reifold looked around to make sure. "Excellent. We''ll ride our mounts to give the citizens a little show to increase their spirit."
The horses had been meticulously groomed, and they had been outfitted with clean, ceremonial saddles. They were clearly not used very often as it felt a bit stiff to Reivyn as he alighted his horse.
The city looked different in the evening as the orange glow from the setting sun sshed its color over everything. Streetmps were already in the process of being lit. There were both mundane and magicalmps for different parts of the city. The main thoroughfare had bright, bluemps powered by mana, and the alleys and back roads had more traditional orangemps that used fire.
Reivyn felt slightly ufortable as the citizens gazed and pointed at the passing soldiers. He wasn''t used to being the center of attention so openly, and he could feel the curious stares directed at him. Luckily the ride to the manor was short and straightforward.
The Lord''s manor that the group of officers arrived at wasn''t the austere seat of government controlling the city. While that building did have living quarters in it, there was no rule that stipted the Count had to actually live there. Instead he preferred to treat the building as his ce of work, and he lived in a mansion close by.
The mansion was walled off with a well maintained brick wall with an borate iron gate at the entrance. The grounds of the manor were well maintained with tasteful paths, gazebos, and ponds, but they weren''t so ostentatious as to take up an exorbitant amount of space. To Reivyn''s untrained eye, it appeared to be the perfect bnce between wealth and utility, allowing for other people to upy residences in the area.
Servants waited to take the horses to the stables for the troupe. They were attired in ck with embellishments in the count''s colors, and they moved with utmost professionalism and efficiency. Nobody demanded an invitation or anything upon their arrival. The uniform was invitation enough, and the servants were intimately familiar with the Knight-Captain.
The officers apanied the Knight-Captain to pay their respects to Count Ilpir, and by this they simply gave a military salute while the Knight-Captain did all of the talking. The count acknowledged their greeting and dismissed them with a smile as he retained the Knight-Captain. Knight-Lieutenant Brand indicated Reivyn to stick with him, and they walked around the crowd giving simple greetings to the socialites attending.
"The key to these functions is to appear to be sociable, but always moving from one ce to another. You don''t want to get bogged down by someone, as that''s a good way to get surrounded by sycophants," Knight-Lieutenant Brand said with a gleam of mischief in his eye. He gave Reivyn a wink, and in his moment of distraction, he nearly walked right into a person who had stepped right into their path. Reivyn heard him curse under his breath and then whisper, "Exactly like this."
"Knight-Lieutenant," the woman greeted. She was dressed in simr attire to the uniforms Reivyn and the other officers wore, but hers had the colors inverted among a few other small differences.
"Captain," Brand replied tersely. He obviously knew who the woman was.
She appeared to be in her early 20''s, and she bore a striking resemnce to someone that Reivyn couldn''t quite ce his finger on. It was just out of reach of his mental grasp. She was a beautiful young woman, and her uniform didn''t do anything to detract from her harm. In fact, Reivyn would argue that it entuated it perfectly.
"I''m here to represent the Duke''s and my father''s stance," the woman said. "I''m sure you know to what I''m referring?"
"Yes," Knight-Lieutenant Brand answered simply. This was the least amount of speaking that Reivyn had seen him do when he had the opportunity.
"Yes, well, our stance is that he gets what he deserves, and there will be no interference or objection on our end." She looked at Reivyn. "So you''re ''The Little Hero'' that caused my brother to finally fall from grace." Despite her words, the smile she directed at Reivyn was genuine.
"I''m sorry, miss...?" Reivyn asked.
"Oh, where are my manners? I''m Lin. Captain Lin of the Duke''s Retinue. Ren is my twin brother." She extended her hand towards Reivyn and chuckled when he subconsciously reciprocated with a dazed look.
"Now don''t give me that. I just said our stance was that we weren''t going to interfere. You can expect no problems from us in the future."
Reivyn frowned as he regained hisposure. "Are your elders not upset that I, through no fault of my own, mind you, had a hand in ending Ren''s career?"
Lin burst outughing. "Hardly. Let me guess, he''s been spouting some nonsense about being the best hope for our family in generations, and that he was sent out here to gain military achievements to get amission in the Army? Does that sound about right?" Reivyn nodded. "Hah! He wasn''t sent out here to gain military achievements. He was banished out here to temper his character because he''s a brat. The stunts he pulled were not sanctioned by the family."
Reivyn was suddenly enlightened. The story had never quite made sense to him. It was the opposite path that Knight-Captain Reifold had taken, after all.
"I mean, look at me. We''re twins, and I''m already a Captain in the Duke''s Retinue. He was a corporal for a count, no offense," she directed thatst statement towards the Knight-Lieutenant.
"None taken," he curtly replied. He wasn''t as guarded as he had been at first, but he wasn''t about to open up and be best friends with the younger officer from one statement on her part.
"I can see that you ''have ces to be,'' as it were," Lin said. "I won''t keep you. It was a pleasure to meet you, Reivyn." With that, she walked off.
"Whew, I need a drink," Knight-Lieutenant Brand said. He nced at Reivyn from the corner of his eye. "You''re too young. You can watch me have a drink." Reivyn rolled his eyes at the older man who had apparently returned to normal.
They found their seats, and, true to his word, the Knight-Lieutenant snagged a ss of wine from a passing waiter. They refrained from any more mingling and remained in their seats until the banquet began. The count gave a little speech to congratte the Knight-Captain, but Reivyn was too preupied with his thoughts to really care too much.
The banquet was a simple three-course meal, consisting of an appetizer, a main entr¨¦e, and a dessert. The food was honestly the most delicious Reivyn had ever tasted. Outside of my mother''s cooking, of course. A mother''s home-cooked meal couldn''t be equaled.
Reivyn wasn''t used to wearing the military uniform, and after a while he found it stifling. He unsnapped the tessen he had hooked to his belt and used it to cool himself off. He heard a snicker from the side and turned to find the Adjutant holding back augh.
"Oh, is it too hot for you, Young Master?" The older man teased. Reivyn turned his head and lifted his chin in mock disapproval. He locked eyes with Lin sitting across the room however, and his movements froze as she grinned at him. He could guess what her thoughts were. He snapped the fan closed with a sigh and reattached it to his waist belt.
The banquet continued without any further incidents, and as the guests made small talk on their way out of the manor, Knight-Captain Reifold came up to Reivyn and the Adjutant.
"Come with me," he said. "The count wishes to see you." Knight-Lieutenant Brand gave Reivyn a smile and a wink.
Reivyn followed the Knight-Captain out of the banquet hall to a more personal living space. It was well furnished, but it wasn''t decorated to impress like the public areas of the manor were. The count was sitting in a chair by a firece. He had short ck hair and a pointed goatee on his chin, and his clothes were expensive without looking expensive. All in all, he struck a quite dignified appearance.
Knight-Captain Reifold led Reivyn over to the man, and Reivyn performed another military salute as he greeted the seated noble. The count stood up and approached Reivyn, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks as his body jerked forward a few times and he had to visibly gain control of himself. Reivyn saw sweat bead his brow as he had a perplexed look on his face.
He suddenly turned away from the two men, waved his hand, and said, "Alright, I''ve seen the boy. Give him his reward and you''re dismissed." He quickly strode off without looking back.
Knight-Captain Reifold frowned at the departing man''s back before turning towards Reivyn.
"I''m not sure what that was about. He''s usually quite amiable in a private setting," he exined. "Anyway, the reward he has bestowed upon you is a simple, high quality mana sword."
The Knight-Captain reached down to a box that had been waiting on a table. He lifted the cover and removed a sword from within. It looked like a standard issue sword, but Reivyn could feel something different about it. He could sense that it was allowing the ambient mana to flow freely through it instead of acting like an obstacle like other objects typically did.
"This isn''t anything extraordinary, and it''s not a magical weapon," Knight-Captain Reifold introduced the sword to Reivyn. "The only difference is that the core is made out of a small amount of mythril, which allows it to act as a conduit for mana. You''ll be able to more effectively imbue this weapon with your mana."
He handed the sword to Reivyn to inspect, and he was immensely pleased to find that it had been bnced to fit him personally. He ced the sword back in its box and tucked it under his arm.
"I extend my heartfelt thanks to the count," Reivyn said.
Knight-Captain Reifold nodded. He stuck his hand into his inner coat and withdrew an envelope. It was sealed with the Knight-Captain Reifold''s mark, and he ced it into Reivyn''s hand.
"This is my reward to you," he said. "It''s a letter of rmendation."
Reivyn frowned and asked in confusion, "A letter of rmendation to what?"
"Anything you want. If you apply to anywhere in the kingdom, give them that letter and you''ll be epted."
Reivyn''s eyebrows rose in surprise. This was a true treasure. It represented opportunity.
He said the entire kingdom. Maybe I underestimated just how famous he actually is.
Chapter 27: Ambition
Chapter 27: Ambition
The march back to Haluville was uneventful. Reivyn was back on his own two feet, and he marched alongside Teilon with the rest of the levies. Sergeant Mok led a small detail consisting of a few corporals, the drummers, and a supply wagon. The levies kept their gambesons and spears, Reivyn included. He had traded his gear out for convenience''s sake. They marched in a proper formation, as everyone having the March Skill meant it was a smooth transit.
Sergeant Mok had exined to them why they were still marching and acting in a military manner despite being officially terminated as levies.
"There are goblins in the woods," he exined simply. "We''re doing it for your benefit. On top of that, proper Marching gets you where you want to be faster than simply walking in a group."
Nobody hadined, and being an irregr unit, they didn''t hold much sway to proper military bearing other than keeping in step with each other. As such, Reivyn found himself often conversing with Teilon, Kimberly, and a few others that Teilon had been teamed up with. They refrained from the more physical teasing and horsing around while they were marching, but the camaraderie was high.
The levies stopped in the same spot they had initially camped out in while waiting for the surrounding recruits to arrive, and there they turned in their gear as the ones from the surrounding viges split off and continued on under the supervision of a corporal.
The regr troops could have left them to their own devices all the way back in Magron, but they were determined to take their responsibilities seriously. They were the ones who had dragged them away from their families, so they were the ones who were going to make sure they made it back to their families.
Reivyn, as well as his friends, were immensely impressed with the professionalism with which the whole ordeal had been handled. It hadn''t been nearly as much of an imposition as they had feared when they were first rounded up, and they had all, Reivyn especially, learned valuable lessons. The returning levies were excited that their ss of Peasant Levy still remained, so their Stat Points would continue to see a significant head start aspared to the other young teenagers who still had the Viger Tier 1 ss.
As an Epic rarity Fighter, Reivyn had far outpaced anyone else in his cohort. His Strength and Dexterity Stats had even overtaken many of the regr Tier 2 soldiers in the Lord''s Retinue. Granted that was because they put most of their points into Vitality which was still far ahead of his, and they had to shore up their mental Stats more than Reivyn had to.
The soldiers with a Rare ss or a higher level like the senior Lance Corporals and NCO''s still had superior Stats to him, but most of the soldiers only had an Umon ss and were around the level 8 to 14 range. Now that they had a Dungeon avable to them, Reivyn expected their experience gains to see a significant boost as some sort of schedule was devised to see them taking advantage of the resource.
Reivyn saw arge crowd of people waiting at the gates of Haluville as he, Teilon, and the others finally traversed thest little bit to arrive in the town proper. There were no expectant families suddenly receiving a shock that their child didn''t return home. Not many of the levies had lost their lives in the excursion, and the few who had had already been transported home to allow their families to mourn andy them to rest.
Each of the returning teens spotted their families and immediately abandoned their friends to reunite with the loved ones they had been separated from. Reivyn located his mother standing with his two sisters, and he sprinted forward to be enveloped in a tight group hug. His mother didn''t sob or exim out loud, but he could feel the warm wetness of tears flowing down her face. His mother was fairly tall, so despite growing at a prodigious rate, he was still slightly shorter than she was.
"I''m home, mom," he consoled her. "I''m home."
"...And then a big, hulking beast came crashing out of the woods. Rawr," Reivyn held up his hands like they were beast ws and tookrge, exaggerated steps towards his sisters. They squealed in delight and danced back away from him. "I thought to myself, ''No way am I going to let some stupid monster endanger my friends!'' And so with a mighty heave, I hurled my spear at it and defeated it in one blow!"
"Nu uh! You did not," Kailey said as she stuck her tongue out. Reivyn ced his hand on his heart in mock indignation.
"Of course I did," he retorted. "Who do you think your brother is? I''m the Hero of this story. My training with dad didn''t go unrewarded, and I was given a mighty ss and imbued with the strength of 10 men!" He kneeled down and curled his biceps in front of his sisters. They looped their hands around his arms, and he stood up and casually lifted them up and down while they giggled.
"Alright, girls, leave your brother alone for a bit," Ameliyn said patiently.
"Aw, but we don''t wanna," Rileyined from her position hanging from her brother''s arm. Reivyn set his sisters down, and Ameliyn shooed them out of the house to the backyard.
"What really happened?" Ameliyn looked over at Reivyn with a bit of anxiety. Her son was standing in front of her, unharmed, but she was still worried about what he could have gone through.
"Knight-Captain Reifold casually swung his sword from his horse in the middle of the formation and split the ogre in half," he shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. "I didn''t even fight in that first battle. I just stood there and watched."
"Knight-Captain Reifold was that man who singled you out and took you away when he could have just turned a blind eye?" His mother clearly held a lot of resentment towards the man.
"Actually, he wasn''t so bad," Reivyn said. "He and the Adjutant took good care of me. There were some hups and a bit of danger, but they kept a special eye out for me and even assigned me to be the Aide of the Adjutant, Knight-Lieutenant Brand, after I got some experience with the regr troops."
"Wait, wait, wait... What?" Ameliyn waved her hands about in front of her as she asked in confusion. "Weren''t you just conscripted as a basic levy? What do you mean ''experience with the regr troops'' and ''Aide to the Adjutant?''"
"Oh yeah, you don''t know. I didn''t have time to go into it before leaving, but the System prevented me from being conscripted as the ss Peasant Levy. It said that my bloodline prevented the designation ''Peasant.'' I''m an Epic Fighter ss. What''s that all about?" He narrowed his eyes at his mother in suspicion.
Ameliyn sighed as a look of sorrow briefly shed across her face. "You have the blood of the Imperial Line of Vynndin running through you. It will probably take a couple of generations before the System no longer officially recognizes it," she casually dropped a huge piece of news to Reivyn.
Reivyn froze as his mind practically exploded. Never in a million years would he have expected to hear something like that. He had assumed not being able to be designated as a peasant had something to do with his Mythic Skill or something.
"Woah! You can''t say something like that and just leave it," Reivyn said. "Wh-wh-wh- I don''t even know where to begin. If we''re from some imperial bloodline, what are we doing all the way out here in basically the frontier? Are we hiding from assassins? I ran into an assassin! Did he know who I was? Is there some sort of secret cabal to retake the throne?" Reivyn rattled off several questions in quick session. His mind was racing and making connections that hadn''t previously been there.
"Shh, calm down," Ameliyn soothed Reivyn while rubbing his shoulder and upper arm. "It''s a long story, and I''ll be happy to tell it to you when your father is here, but for now I''ll just give you the basics. Your father and I grew up in the Vynndin Empire, which is located in a Tier 4 Region, but it doesn''t exist anymore. It''s gone. There''s no secret cabal to retake the throne. We''re not hiding from - wait! What?! Assassin? What did you say?! Exin, now!" There was a fire in her eyes as she red at her son. He shrunk beneath the might of the fury contained within that look.
"Well," Reivyn said with his head lowered. "I had a conflict with one of the soldiers who turned out to be a real piece of work. He took everything that happened to him because of his own actions as somehow my fault, even though I literally didn''t do anything. When we were at the base camp for the new Dungeon - that was the reason for the conscription, to secure a new Dungeon in the mountains at the edge of the county - some shadowy figure attacked me while I was on patrol. We thought he was part of an attack on the camp, but he was alone and clearly after me, specifically.
"Later when the troops from the neighboring county came to press their im because of the ambiguous county lines, he showed up again in the ranks of the other side. It turned out he had been working with the crazy loon who had med me for his problems, and they manufactured a situation where I would be exhausted and unable to escape when the assassin attacked a second time. Luckily one of the adventurers I had gained a passing acquaintance with spotted the danger and saved me.
"Mom, that guy was strong. He appeared in the middle of pitchedbat from nearly a hundred yards away in an instant, and he had several mid-level Tier 3''s terrified of his presence. All the while, he treated them like air as he casually uncovered the evidence of the collusion." Reivyn clenched his fist in excitement. Ameliyn looked at her son''s obvious idolization with a smile on her face.
"Well, I''ll have to thank him personally one day," Ameliyn said. "Is he the man you''ve set your sights on as a goal?"
Reivyn shook his head. "I know almost nothing about him. He only spoke one sentence to me, and I never witnessed exactly how strong he was. If I''m going to set someone as a goal to work towards, it would be someone like Knight-Captain Reifold. A man of strength and upright character."
Ameliyn crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Oh, a man of upright character you say? Do you have any ns of being a child snatcher in the future, then?"
Reivyn rolled his eyes at his mother. "Mom, it wasn''t like that. And I told you they took special care of me."
"He will forever be the man who took my baby away from me," she harrumphed.
"Oh, I got something for you," Reivyn changed the subject. He grabbed his pack and rummaged through it. He had grabbed a couple of things that he thought his mom and sisters might find interesting when he was shopping the other day in Magron. He pulled the items out as he searched for the present he had gotten for his mother.
He pulled out two identical Warrior-Princess dolls that he got for his sisters. They were little plush figures of a woman attired in a dress and tiara, but they were holding swords. There weren''t anything exquisitely crafted, but they had enough detail to see the facial features and they were well made. One was wearing a blue dress and the other a red one, and they each had a letter sewn onto them. He figured they were designed to represent the initials of any little girl who got one, but he couldn''t find one with a "K."
He set the two dolls aside and finally pulled out the object for his mother he had been searching for. He pulled it out, and, keeping it cupped in his hand, he brought it over to his mother. She watched him with interest as he ced his hands in hers.
"I didn''t have enough money to get a nice chain to go with it, but this caught my eye from one of the booths in the market square. I don''t think the peddler knew what it was, and he had it on disy as just a pretty stone." Reivyn removed his hand, and a small medallion made of a clear, ss-like stone attached to a copper ne was left in his mother''s hand.
"Oh, it''s very pretty," Ameliyn inspected the bauble with interest.
"Look at it with Mana Sight," Reivyn said.
"Oh, wow. This is a Light Mana attuned Mana Stone. These are very rare to find out in a low Tier region like this," Ameliyn said with some delight. "How did you manage to find one?"
"I was practicing my Identify {Mundane} Skill while walking through the market, and this thing caught my interest when nothing happened when I used the Skill on it. So I activated Mana Sight, and I saw the swirling Light mana - which I unlocked the affinity, too, by the way - inside, and I immediately thought of you," Reivyn exined.
"I''m more impressed that you unlocked the Light Affinity," Ameliyn said. "Most people can''t figure out the trick to merge the four basic elements without a guide"
"There''s a trick to it?" Reivyn asked. "I got it on my first try." Ameliyn froze in her inspection of the Mana Stone.
"I forgot that I didn''t give birth to a human baby, but instead a little monster," Ameliyn sighed. "I swear you were given to me as some sort of test."
Reivynughed as he scooped up the dolls for his sisters. "I''m going to give Kailey and Riley their presents," he yelled over his shoulder as he made his escape. He made his way over to his sisters who wereughing and ying in their own little world with his hands concealed behind his back.
"Hey, I got a present for each of you," He called out to them. They stopped what they were doing and ran up to him with glee.
"Yay! Presents," they said in unison. Reivyn chuckled as he pulled the dolls out from behind him and presented them to his sisters. He handed the one with an "R" on it to Kailey, and he handed the one with an "L" on it to Riley.
"Look here, it has the letter of your first name''s sewn on it so you know which one is which," he pointed out. The girls frowned and looked up at Reivyn with indignation.
"Riley''s name starts with an ''R'' not an ''L,''" Kaileyined.
"Yeah, and Kailey''s name starts with a ''K'' not an ''R,''" Riley said. "You did it wrong."
"You did it wrong," Kailey echoed.
"Kailey? Riley? What are you talking about? I picked out the letters to your names," he pointed at Riley. "Left." He pointed at Kailey. "Right. Those are your names: Left and Right." Reivyn had a look of confusion on his face.
"My name''s not Left!" Riley yelled with a stamp of her foot.
"I''m not Right!" Kailey mimicked her sister.
"Yup, you''re wrong," Reivyn teased as he bent down really fast and snaked his arms out to tickle his sisters. They squealed and took off running, forgetting about their indignation at being named Left and Right.
"Now, like what you did to gain the Light Affinity, focus on all four elements, but, instead of merging them together inside your pure mana, concentrate on all of the tiny, miniscule motes and suck everyst one of them out. Don''t stop at just removing them from the orb, but keep pulling them further and further away."
Reivyn was seated cross-legged on the ground in the living room with Ameliyn seated just behind him. She was guiding him on the steps required to unlock more of the advanced affinities. They were currently working on how to unlock the Darkness Affinity.
Reivyn would have definitely hit a wall with this one. He might have eventually figured it out on his own, but it would have taken a long time. He had thought that his mana orb was already as pure as it could get, but with the guidance of his mother, he discovered that extremely tiny motes of the elements floated about within his conjuration. The next stumbling block would have been that he wouldn''t have known that he would have to extract them further away from the orb than just removing them.
He concentrated on the task at hand. The elements didn''t resist or elude him, but as he swept them up in one spot of the orb, others would make their way in on the other side. It wasn''t a one to one addition to what he was removing, though, and he eventually cleared all of the elements out of his mana. He felt a subtle shift in the mana, and he opened his eyes.
New Affinity Unlocked!
Darkness (1)
A ck, shimmering ball floated in his palm. It was hard to describe exactly what it looked like, but the edges weren''t distinct. It was like a shadow given substance, but it leaked back into incorporeality the further it got away from the center. He let it disperse as he turned to face his mother.
"I don''t understand. Shouldn''t removing all of the ''impurities'' from the mana orb just make extremely pure mana?" Reivyn questioned with a frown. Ameliyn chuckled at the question.
"Logically, that would make sense. But," she emphasized with a raised finger, "we''re dealing with mana. Mana operates under different rules than the mundane world. All of those ''impurities,'' as you called them, are actually part of pure mana. You can think of them like the mortar that holds bricks together. Removing them doesn''t make the structure crumble, though, like it would in real life. It just changes the nature of the mana.
"Mana, for the most part, isn''t inherently good or evil. Light mana isn''t good, and darkness mana isn''t evil. Light is just all of the basic elementsbined together, and darkness is just their absolute absence. That being said, there are some forms of mana that are good and evil aligned. They operate under different rules than basic mana, and they delve into faith and divinity."
"I''m pretty sure I''ve seen them," Reivyn mused. "Knight-Captain Reifold is a Pdin, and I saw him using some powerful mana Skills. Knight-Lieutenant Brand told me his mana operated under fundamentally different rules. And there was a revolting mana from the Revenant I fought. It made me want to gag just sensing it."
"Stop!" Ameliyn shouted. She lifted her head up and covered her face with her hands. "Just stop." She paused for a moment topose herself. "A Revenant?! You encountered a Revenant all the way out here?" She stared at Reivyn who gave her a sheepish smile. "When your father gets home, you are going to sit down and tell us everything that happened. Not in little pieces. From start to finish. You will leave nothing out. Do you understand?"
Reivyn nodded his head vigorously. Of course his mother would know what a Revenant was. After the revtion of her and Refix having grown up in a Tier 4 Region, Reivyn suspected their knowledge base was vastly superior to that of even the most educated citizenry of the kingdom they resided in.
"Of course," Reivyn agreed. "Though after mentioning the assassin and the Revenant, there''s not much more to say. There was just the giant demon, the beast tide, the orc and goblin army, and the enved ogre in the boss room of the Dungeon." Reivyn recalled each of the incidents in a nonchnt manner.
"Aaahhh, you''re going to give me a heart attack!" Ameliyn shouted. "Giant DEMON! Beast tide! Orc army and ogres? And you went into a Dungeon?! You''re Tier ONE, Reivyn. Even the lowest Tier Dungeons aren''t safe until you''re securely in Tier 2, and then a boss room has at least a half-tier higher difficulty level." She pulled at her hair in exasperation. "You just wait until your father gets home." There was a definite threat in her voice.
"I think..." Reivyn said as he stood up. "I think I''ve learned enough for now. I''m going to go consolidate my affinities and Skills." He made a quick retreat to his room.
"Yeah, you do that!" Ameliyn called out after him. "Not much more to say," Reivyn heard her muttering as he closed the door to his room. His mother was scary when she was mad.
He sat on his bed and entered a state of meditation. Until his father got home, he had decided to work exclusively on his mana Skills. He felt it was prudent to put unlocking more mana affinities on hold until his mother calmed down.
"Mom, is there a way to get a Tier 3 ss while in Tier 2? From what I heard from the others, conscription was the only way they knew to get a Tier 2 ss in Tier 1," Reivyn asked.
"Of course there is," Ameliyn answered. "Let''s think about it. What caused you to have a Tier 2 ss in Tier 1?"
"The conscription," Reivyn answered.
"Not quite. Think about it deeper. What did the conscription do?"
"It caused the System to force me into a ss..." Reivyn said with dawning realization. "So the System has to force a ss. If that''s all it takes, howe it''s not moremon?"
"Peasant Levy has very low requirements to unlock as a ss. I assume it only requires a Vitality Stat of 20, which is one of the reasons that was the stiption. Higher Tiers have more stringent requirements, so even if there was a situation where the System could force a ss onto someone, if you don''t meet the requirements, it''s not an option for the System to choose for you.
"Why do you ask? Do you want to try and trick the System into forcing you into a higher Tier ss again?"
"Yeah, I''ve been thinking about it," Reivyn nodded. "From what I''ve been told, Tier 1 and 2 sses are limited to Rare, and if I just go along with life passively, my Tier 2 ss will naturally be restricted to another Tier 2 ss. I already have an Epic rarity Combat ss, and if I Tier up, I can either keep the same ss, but downgraded to Rare, or I can switch focuses, but it would still be Rare. Any way I think of it, it seems like a downgrade instead of an upgrade."
"Hmmm, that makes sense," Ameliyn said. "Peasant Levy is just an Umon ss, so the upgrade isn''t so pronounced, though it is there. Having a Rare ss upgraded to Epic definitely opens up opportunities. What kind of focus were you thinking of for your next ss?"
"I think I should choose something to take advantage of my Mental Stats and Mana Skills. I''ve always had more talent in those aspects, and I want to be well rounded."
"That''s a good idea. I imagine you want to have a Rare Tier 3 ss. The Stat requirements for those are typically around 200, but Stat requirements aren''t the only ones. There are Skills, both the ones you have unlocked and their Level, and the System also takes your life experience into ount. Getting Achievements can both unlock more ss possibilities and lower the requirements. What are your Mental Stats right now?"
"Around 31 for all three," Reivyn answered. "I''m level 11, and I get 6 unassigned Stat Points per level up. So I have 19 more levels at 6 Stat Points, which means I have another 114 Stat Points to freely assign. That''s not enough to get a Stat to 200..." Reivyn tapped his chin in contemtion. "I also have one Achievement that gave me plus one to all of my Mental Stats."
"Oh, nice," Ameliyn said. "It''smon knowledge in higher Tier Regions that Achievements that award a specific set of Stats lower the requirements by one point per Stat increase. There are four Mental Stats, so that Achievement lowers the requirements by 4 points. Too bad you don''t have an Achievement that granted points in Luck. Those achievements lower the requirements by 5 per Luck Stat given."
"Umm, actually," Reivyn said, "I did get an Achievement that gave me two points in Luck."
Ameliyn looked at her son with some surprise. "Ok, then. That means you only need around 186 points in your Mental Stats to meet the requirements of a Rare Tier 3 ss, but I think you''re thinking about this the wrong way. You don''t have to race to get your Stats at the required amount before you reach Tier 2 if you''re aiming to force a ss. Don''t you remember that all of the other vigers had their Tier 1 sses overwritten and they got all of their additional Stat Points retroactively? I think the fact that you got a ss ahead of time has been affecting your thought process."
"Oh yeah, you''re right," Reivyn smacked his head. "Ipletely forgot about that. In that case, I can take a Rare Tier 2 ss for several levels before trying to get it changed. Why don''t more people do this?"
"Well, it''s notmon knowledge in lower Tier Regions, as evidenced by your friends only knowing about conscription. Though that doesn''t mean the higher ups don''t know about it. The real bottleneck for allowing someone to force a higher Tier ss, though, is the life experience. Most people will never encounter situations that the System will count as a higher Tier fulfillment. You would have to live your life and do things that the higher Tier would typically do, and not just one or two things. The fights that you''ve described sound like a good start, but you would probably need to consistently explore the 2nd floor of the Dungeon beyond the boss room for the System to count it."
"Hmmm... I think I can manage that if I can get into the right group," Reivyn said. He recalled the adventurer that had saved him and his team. He wouldn''t need to find them specifically, but the fact they were around meant there might be others that were powerful enough. He would just need to figure out how to get into such a team.
"Ok, we know it''s possible, and I have a clear path on gaining the appropriate life experience, most likely. Now I just need to figure out a way to force a ss."
"You can apply for an academy in the capital. I know they exist, and such academies typically grant a ss. If you meet the life experience requirements and graduate from the academy, the System is likely to give you the ss ahead of the typical trigger, which is reaching max level and experience in Tier 2. Gaining admission into such an academy, though, would very likely interfere with your ns to go to the Dungeon. You would have to jump through some hoops to get in."
Reivyn thought about the sealed envelope containing the letter of rmendation from Knight-Captain Reifold. "I don''t think I have to worry about that. Ok, I think I have a clear path ahead of me." Reivyn smiled.
The front door opened, and the two looked up to see a tired Refix enter the house.
"Hey," he immediately walked over to Ameliyn to give her a hug and kiss in greeting. "So what did I miss while I was gone?" He stood there with his arm around his wife and smile on his face.
Reivyn and Ameliyn looked at each other before Reivyn answered. "Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary happened." Ameliyn snorted and rolled her eyes as Reivynughed.
Refix looked between the two of them, confusion written on his face. "Ok, what am I missing?"
Ameliyn gave Reivyn a severe look. "Your son went on an adventure," she said. "And now that you''re back, he''s going to tell us exactly what those adventures were."
Reivyn felt sweat trickle down the side of his face. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 28: Family History
Chapter 28: Family History
"...And now I''m home," Reivyn finished exining his tale of adventure. The mana sword and envelope containing the letter of rmendation were sitting on the small table in the living room. Refix had inspected the sword and said it was of passable workmanship.
Ameliyn wasn''t lying when she said he would tell them everything, as she often interrupted him to get rifying information.
It was an interesting experience to be interrogated by his parents, because each one focused onpletely different aspects of his story. Ameliyn would often make him stop and expand on his rtionship with his squad mates and others, and she would focus her questions on how they treated him and his state of mind.
Refix was much more analytical. When Reivyn was exining the hazing situation that had gone wrong, he asked questions about the techniques Ren used and what Reivyn had done to try and counter them.
When Reivyn got to the part of the story about engaging the Orc Tribe at the foot of the mountain range, Ameliyn asked him about the environment and how he fit in with troops. Refix asked about the techniques used inbat and his impression of the bloodlust-filled Orcs.
Together, focusing on different aspects, they made Reivyn think about his experiences in new ways, and even he had some revtions of certain aspects he hadn''t considered before. They truly went over every fine detail.
His mother almost had a conniption fit when he got to the fight with the Demon and Revenants.
"How in the world could nobody Sense what was going on beneath the ground?" She asked. "And how is it that they attacked right when you had pointed out the possibility to them?"
"Knight-Captain Reifold surreptitiously informed me and the Adjutant that there might be someone or something monitoring them. He said we might never know exactly what was going on. It seems to me that there''s a secret underground that somebody doesn''t want exposed, but what that could be, I have no idea."
"Well, I''m second guessing your ns to return there and delve that Dungeon again," Ameliyn said as she crossed her arms. Refix ced a hand on her shoulder tofort her.
"It''s not as dire as it might seem, honey," he consoled. "From what he''s said about what happened afterward, the two officers went down into the depths and didn''t find any more hostile surprises." He turned his attention back to Reivyn as he continued. "That being said, it''s always prudent to be prepared and to pay attention to your surroundings. You never want to get so caught up in your goals that you forget to keep track of what''s happening around you.
"I support your idea of going back to the Dungeon to gain Experience and life experience to work towards your goal, but you have to make me a promise. You have to promise me that you will pay attention to what''s going on outside of the Dungeon as well as what could possibly be below the first floor.
"Dungeons are strange existences, and they often take a reflection of the outside world and twist it in strange ways. For instance you mentioned it appeared the Ogre in the boss room turned on the orcs that had it chained up as a consistent theme instead of a freak urrence that saved your squad by happenstance.
"The things reflected in the lower floors might be carbon copies of what you could have found in the outside world if the entrance hadn''t been caved in and a team had gone exploring, or it might be something that''s only simr. You might go beyond the boss room to find that the second floor is filled with lower-level undead or weak demons, or there might even be more floors beyond the second. We don''t know.
"So you need to be cautious whenever you enter a new area of the Dungeon, but you also have to always keep in the back of your head, ''what is the significance of this as it rtes to the real world?'' If anything out of the ordinary happens, anything that doesn''t seem quite right, you must promise me that you will abandon your goals at that Dungeon and return to either Magron or Haluville."
This was the most serious that Reivyn had ever seen his father be. Refix was usually a happy-go-lucky kind of guy in his everyday interactions. That wasn''t to say that he couldn''t be strict or an effective disciplinarian. He was just typically jovial. Seeing such a stern expression with such a topic made Reivyn realize just how serious his father was about the situation.
"Of course, I promise," Reivyn said. "That being said, exactly how attached are we to our home here in Haluville?"
"What do you mean?" Ameliyn asked.
"Well, you told me that you''re from a Tier 4 Region, and so Haluville isn''t our hometown," Reivyn said. "Well, I guess it''s technically mine, but that''s beside the point. I was just thinking - and dad mentioned it just now - why don''t we move to Magron? The standard of living there is greater, it''s closer to the Dungeon, it''s safer. Other than dad''s work, I can''t really see a reason we have to stay here."
Ameliyn and Refix shared a look before returning their attention back to their son.
"That''s not a bad idea," Ameliyn said. "We only settled down in this city, in the beginning, because you had just been born. While it''s a nice, quiet ce, we don''t particrly have any attachments here. What do you think?" She directed thatst question to Refix.
"Actually, the man I work for isn''t based primarily out of Haluville. My immediate superior, sure, but he''s just the branch manager. My actual boss lives in Magron," Refix chuckled. "I''ve mentioned Mr. Einrin a few times, and he''s actually the big boss from Magron. He''s been quite generous with his contract for me and has allowed me to stay here in Haluville despite wanting me to work for him directly.
"The only reason we''ve remained here, originally, was because of you kids being so young, and then we just got ustomed to our living and working arrangements and never brought it up again because it didn''t seem to be a priority.
"Now that you want to go out and delve the Dungeon, and the girls are older, it makes perfect sense to move. I''ll have to bring it up to the local branch manager and pass the message up the chain, but we should be able to move within the year."
"Hmmm, that should be enough time to work something out with Teilon," Reivyn mused. "He''s been really enamored with that new girlfriend of his recently, so she''ll be a factor in it as well, but I think I''ll choose moving to Magron over staying here even if Teilon or his girl doesn''t want to move. It''s not like we can''t team up at the Dungeon anyway if they don''t move with us.
"Now, it''s time for the two of you to exin some things."
"Whatever do you mean?" Ameliyn asked with an innocent expression.
"Don''t think I forgot about you saying you would exin growing up in a Tier 4 Region when dad got home," it was Reivyn''s turn to level a stern gaze at his mother. It didn''t seem to have the same effect, as she just smiled his attempt off.
"Of course, dear," Ameliyn said. "Where should I start?" She tapped her chin in contemtion.
"Well, you can start with dad being an Imperial Prince or something," Reivyn said.
"Imperial Prince? Me?" Refix looked confused. "I think you''re making some assumptions there, Buddy." Reivyn looked at his parents in confusion. His mother had already told him he had the blood of an imperial family line running through his veins, so he had assumed his parents were part of the direct line.
"Your father isn''t an imperial prince, dear," Ameliyn said with a smug smile. "I''m an imperial princess. I''m the firstborn daughter of the Emperor of the Vynndin Empire.
"The Vynndin Empire was located in a Tier 4 Region, and it spanned a huge territory. It had countless other kingdoms under its control all the way from Tier 3 to Tier 1 Regions," Ameliyn continued with a hint of pride in her voice. "That being said, nobody around here is likely to have ever heard of it. The continent we live on is vast. It is muchrger than you could possibly imagine.
"Your father and I, to this day, aren''t entirely sure on exactly what happened. Oh, we know what happened, just not how nor all of the intricacies involved. We strongly suspect there were traitors involved, but the empire copsed due to one, singr event: A Dungeon Break.
"As a Tier 4 Region, we had ess to innumerable Dungeons; from low Tier 1 all the way to high Tier 4, like the Region level implies. The capital of the empire was located in a region that had several Tier 4 Dungeons located in close proximity. The reason we believe a traitor was involved, is because all of the Tier 4 Dungeons experienced a break at the same time.
"We werepletely caught off guard and unprepared. A Dungeon Break isn''t when the inhabitants of a Dungeone storming out of the Dungeon on their own, though that is a very small possibility from time to time. A Dungeon Break is when there''s a fundamental breakdown of the realities within the Dungeon, and many, many individual instancesbine together.
"One of the reasons we only suspect a traitor was involved, though, is because nobody knows of any way to artificially induce such an event. It''s never been heard of before, at least that we''re aware of."
Reivyn was entranced by the information his mother was revealing, and he noticed her demeanor had slowly changed from one of happiness and pride, to one of loss and sadness. She took a moment to gather herself from the memories of what must have been a terrifying event. Reivyn could only imagine what it would have been like for countless high Tier monsters and beasts to suddenlye pouring out of the Dungeons that were most likely viewed as the lifeblood of the capital.
"I was a bodyguard for your mother," Refix picked up the story. "It''s moreplicated than a simple bodyguard position implies. I am one of the nobility, and the position was designed to introduce potential suitors among other things. It wasn''t a master-servant rtionship. Anyway, we can get into the more intricate details of court life some other time, but when the Dungeons broke, other imperial guards sacrificed themselves to give us a chance to escape.
"One of the biggest regrets of my life is that I could only save your mother. She wasn''t an only child.
"Your mother and I spent the next several years traveling to the different vassal states seeking to rally support from those who had sworn fealty to the imperial family." Refix looked at his son with a grim expression. "We learned a lot of hard lessons in those early years. I had sworn an oath, and I took it seriously - still do, in fact. I assumed others had the same honor as I did, but after being strung along over and over, and people attempting to use your mother for their own political benefit with no consideration for their own oaths, we decided to leave it all behind.
"The homnd of the empire was in ruins, and the kingdoms that had been held together by the might of the empire had descended into squabbling children fighting over the remnants. They saw the downfall of the imperial family not as a sorrowful event that they needed to avenge and support thest living member, but as an opportunity for them to supnt.
"Through the trials and tribtions we experienced, our rtionship eventually blossomed into what it is today. We spent years traveling between kingdoms, and we used several teleportation circles to gain further distance from the strife and anyone who would know of your mother''s background. We eventually made it out to here, and you know everything else."
The three of them sat in silence as each thought about the story that had just been shared. Ameliyn hadn''t shared specifics about her family and the life she had lived as a princess, but from the look on her face, which was slowly returning to normal as sheposed herself, he reckoned it was still hard for her to broach such topics out loud. He couldn''t imagine what it would be like if he had to leave his family behind and not know what happened to them but with the knowledge that they had most likely perished.
"One of the reasons our family was able to establish a powerful empire was our bloodline," Ameliyn continued after wiping at her eyes and resuming a smiling face. "I know your father exined the Mana Cirction pathways to you before he left on his trip, and that is integral to unlocking the benefits provided by it. Your bloodline should activate when you turn 10, the time you would normally get your Tier 1 ss, and slowly over time it will unlock with diligent practice of your Mana Cirction."
"Oh, my bloodline is already activated," Reivyn said. Ameliyn''s eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Oh? That would make your unusual Stat growth before reaching Tier 1 make more sense," she said. "One of the benefits to our bloodline, aside from the initial boost of 1 Stat point in Physical and Mental Stats, is elerated growth in the early years. It alsoes with - what is it?" Ameliyn frowned as she saw Reivyn fidgeting in his seat.
"I didn''t get a bonus of 1 point to Physical and Mental Stats," Reivyn said. "I got a bonus of 3 points to all Stats, Charisma and Luck included."
Ameliyn was taken aback once more. She looked over at her husband to see if he had any answers.
"Don''t look at me," Refix said ruefully. "My family elders mentioned we used to have a bloodline, as well, but it''s been generations since anyone had unlocked it."
"Hmmm," Ameliyn thought for a moment. "Well, you''ve always been stronger than all of your peers, so you may be infinitely close to having unlocked your family bloodline. Maybe they interacted with each other for Reivyn." She shrugged her shoulder helplessly. "Yeah, that''s what we''ll go with." She returned her attention to Reivyn. "Did you notice any differences with your meridians aspared to what your father told you?"
"A little, yeah," Reivyn nodded. "The main pathways were the same, but there were several side branches and many more intricate smaller paths. I just assumed it was personalized for myself, and that everyone had slight deviations."
"Is there anything else you can think of?"
Reivyn thought for a moment before remembering one final point. "It''sbelled as ''Unknown Bloodline'' by the System."
"Well, that settles it, then," Ameliyn said. "Your bloodline is slightly different. There could be many reasons for it, and it''s not unheard of, but none of that is really important. The main thing is that bloodlines all work in a simr way, so our experience will still help you.
"Anyway, to bring all of this back around to the original point, I can agree to you going back to the Dungeon with the stiptions put in ce by your father, but you also need to put some serious focus on your Mana Cirction to reap the benefits of your bloodline. There are thresholds that will provide additional benefits as you unlock them." Ameliyn gave Reivyn a very serious look.
"Your father and I are also going to step up your Skills training. I won''t feelfortable sending you into such a dangerous ce unless I am absolutely sure that your Skills can make up for your low Stats at this point in your life. Being slightly more Skilled than your cohorts in the military unit isn''t going to cut it."
Reivyn felt sweat trickle down the side of his face as Refix leveled a grin at him.
-CRACK-
The loud sound of the wooden weapons shing resounded throughout the backyard. Reivyn once again lost his stance as the force of the blow knocked him back.
"Keep your stance," Refix calmly instructed as he continued his assault.
The way his father sparred with him had changed on a fundamental level. Gone were the bouts where he would slowly push Reivyn and end with a moderate strike at an exposed location so as to simultaneously train Pain Resistance. Gone was the matching of Skill levels.
Refix came at him in a furious tempest of shing and stabbing attacks. He wouldn''t press Reivyn until he created an opening and then back off for him to gain his footing and focus any longer. Instead he would press his son as hard and fast as he could, and when Reivyn lost his bnce, instead of capitalizing on the moment tond a strike, he would only lessen the pressure.
The sparring matches had turned into one long slog of Reivyn constantly fending off a superior foe until he was near exhaustion.
Reivyn felt the wind blow past him as Refix dashed in to close quarters and jostled his body to interrupt him regaining his stance before he leaped back to stab forth with a lunge all in one smooth motion. Reivyn had known that his father was a skilledbatant, but, noticing that even with the increased, sustained tempo his father still wasn''t sweating or out of breath, he finally realized that he was considerably more skilled than he had even imagined.
Refix continued to keep Reivyn on the back foot as they danced up and down the backyard. Refix came at him in unexpected ways, and he incorporated many new maneuvers that Reivyn was slowly beginning to identify. As soon as Reivyn would learn to cope with one set of maneuvers, though, his father would switch it up once more. He apparently had an endless number of ways tounch an assault.
The duo continued their bout until Reivyn could no longer keep up. Refix lowered his practice weapon and gave Reivyn an appraising look. There was a hint of pride in his face.
"What''s your Skill Level for Weapons Master now?" He asked.
Reivyn brought up his Skills page and located the Skill in question. "It''s at 37."
They had been working at their increased intensity for a couple of weeks, and the tough sparring matches had not gone without their benefit. He had spent several years working on several different weapon Skills to initially unlock the Mythic Skill, and then he had spent considerable time expanding on the foundations. He had seen explosive growth in life or death fights during his time with the Lord''s Retinue, but, considering the increased difficulty of raising the Skill as the level grew higher, his father was somehow able to pinpoint exactly what Reivyn needed to continue his progress at a zing speed.
"Your mastery level of weapons is reaching close to the Master designation," Refix said with a nod. "I think it''s safe to say that reaching Level 50 in your Skill is the minimum that your mother will ept in sending you back to the Dungeon."
"Are you kidding me?" Reivynined. "I feel like I''m just iling around. I can hardly put up any kind of resistance in front of you, and you say that that is almost the Master level?"
Refix threw his head back andughed. "You can''tpare yourself to me. I have years of training, and many levels on you. But think about it for a minute. I''vee at you with many different styles, and you''ve slowly gained enough understanding and skill to ward them off, rtively speaking, with just the one style you know. Being able to utilize yourbat style to deal with anythinging your way is vastly superior to learning many different styles."
"Then why do you use so many?" Reivyn asked as he wiped himself down with a towel.
"Well, I haven''t finished yet," Refix said with a roll of his eyes. "We''re still building your foundation. Sure, your Skill level and Mastery level are close to Master, but that''s just an artificial designation that people have given. True masters are above Skill Level 100, and before you ask, no, I''m not above level 100 in any of mybat Skills.
"That being said, I''m still in the prime of my life and growing just like you. These training sessions don''t just benefit you. Despite my abilities being much higher than yours, having to control myself in our sparring matches has actually greatly benefited me.
"Now, back on topic, reaching the Master designation will mean that you''ve reached the limit of polishing your foundations. Once we''ve reached that point, it will be time for you to branch out into other styles of swordsmanship, and, because of your Skill, you''ll also need to learn other styles for your corresponding weapons to further progress the Skill. I can continue to help you with several of them, but if you ever n on bing a true Master with a Skill Level above 100, you''ll have to seek out further guidance from others in those weapons.
"Not much is known about the Weapons Master Skill, other than what I''ve already shared with you, but I''m pretty sure there has to be more to it than a simple consolidation and increased Mastery level aspared to what your numbers indicate. This is a journey that we''ll have to slowly discover, and I''ll be there with you as long as you need me.
"Now, go get cleaned up. You know your mother will throw a fit if you try and go into the house covered in sweat like you are," Refix smiled as he dismissed his son.
While Refix had devised a way to increase the intensity of his training even further than Reivyn had thought possible, his mother had devised ways to strain his mental capacity and eke out just as much benefit for his mana Skills.
Despite the physical and mental exhaustion that had be almost a part of his existencetely, Reivyn was still in high spirits and excited about the future.
Chapter 29: On the Horizon
Chapter 29: On the Horizon
"Ok, now Teilon, step forward and feint, don''t actually attack," Refix instructed. "Good. Show that you''re there in that position. In a head-on engagement, it''s unlikely for you to gopletely unnoticed by the enemy. So you need to nt a seed in their mind that you are in a certain spot."
Refix was standing in front of the three youths: Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly. Kimberly had her staff held in a ready position, Teilon was wielding the dual daggers he had purchased, and Reivyn was standing to the back and slightly off to the side. They were only going through the motions, moving slowly but deliberately, as Refix instructed them on some small-unit tactics when they were employing their preferred weapons instead of everyone having a spear and shield.
"Now, Kimberly, you keep the focus of the opponent on yourself, and any time their gaze wanders to try and surveil the battlefield, that''s an opportunity to reach past their guard and give him a good pop. It''s not necessarily your goal to do damage; you want to keep their focus on you." Refix indicated for her to strike at his face, and he simted having to fend it off.
"The next step, is to lure the enemy into the trap. So, Kimberly, after you''ve sessfully enraged the enemy by giving a good thwack in the face, back off slowly while keeping the engagement.
"Teilon, take this opportunity to lunge in and perform another feint, but when you back up, keep the exact same backward trajectory. Don''t adjust your position. With the opponent''s focus on Kimberly, and you performing multiple feints in its perceived same location, it will subconsciously ce your positioning in the same rtive space. As Kimberly draws it forward, move back to your same spot, and keep your movements small, smooth, and to a minimum.
"You might think that you need to get into position as quickly as possible in order to Hide, but that''s not the case. Fast, quick movements draw attention. Perform the feint, and yes, you need to quickly recover your stance from the fake-out, but once you''ve done so, slowly and deliberately take your steps back. Then stand perfectly still. There''s no reason to try and move around and find a ''good hiding spot.'' Just stand there. Trust me.
"Now, this is the trap you''ve set up," he continued to walk forward while pretending to engage Kimberly, and he walked right past Teilon. "Just let it walk past. Unless it has the Skill Battlefield Awareness unlocked, it will continue to think Teilon is in the same rtive position to itself. Now Teilon, once it''s passed you, simplye in behind and attack its vitals with a free hand."
Refix stepped past Teilon and indicated where he should go with a sweeping arm motion to his back. Teilon followed themand and walked right up to Refix''s back and performed the mock back-stab.
"Good, good," Refix praised. He brought everyone back into their original position before continuing. "Now, if the enemy does have Battlefield Awareness unlocked, which, in monsters is highly unlikely, that''s where your Hide, Sneak, and Stealth Skillse into y. The System does all the calctions for you, and it is moreplex than anyone could ever deduce - and there are always random chance and mitigating factors - but you can think of it like this: Slow steps back initiate your Sneak Skill, standing perfectly still initiates your Hide Skill, and letting it walk past initiates your Stealth Skill.
"If you interrupt any of those steps, say you leap back instead of walk back slowly, you''ll interrupt the synergy of your Skills. You can still seed, but they won''t be working together to give you the maximum benefit. What''s more likely to work? Their one Skill Battlefield Awareness versus your three Skills, or one versus one?" He gave each of them a pointed look as the trio nodded with looks of contemtion on their faces.
"That was an example for engaging a superior foe. If youe across a single enemy that is weaker than you, unless you want to practice, which I rmend you do a lot of in the beginning, there''s no reason to go through so much trouble. Don''t waste your time. Simply have Kimberly bash it in the head to stun it, and Teilon can swoop in and stabby, stab, stab." Refix performed a little demonstration of the "stabby, stab, stab" technique as he spoke. The three students chuckled at the antics.
"Last person, Reivyn, as the only one here with a ranged Skill currently, will be performing that role. After considering everything, he''ll be using the Sling. It''s capable out in the open and in confined spaces like the Dungeon.
"Your task is one of Strategy. You can direct the other two, or more if you get more members in the future, from your vantage overlooking the whole situation, and your tactics are simr to Kimberly''s. If there are multiple strong enemies, your task is to strategically keep their focus off of Teilon, but you also have to strike a bnce between keeping them focused on Kimberly, but not overwhelm her.
"Once you guys get the basics down to where you can perform it without thinking about it too much, and you can adapt to changing variables, working as three against multiple strong enemies is where most of your practice will lie. Combat is fluid and ever changing. You add more enemies, you add more variables. I''ll hire out some of the guards under me toe and help outter.
"For now, we''ll go with practicing the basics while slowly increasing the pace until we''re moving at full speed. Reivyn, it might seem like you don''t have anything to do, but you can take this time to practice Observing the battlefield and pointing out anything they might miss being in the heat ofbat."
The three youngsters got into their positions and went through the different steps that Refix hadid out for them before with Refix acting as the antagonist. He would slowly ramp up the speed and engage Kimberly while making sure to keep his Skill level suppressed so as not to overwhelm the poor girl.
Every now and then Refix would throw in some random variable, such as not following Kimberly right away or turning to attack Teilon when he performed his feint. While it wasn''t absolutely necessary for Reivyn to direct the two in these simple situations, he still practiced his role of pointing the variables out and shouting out a solution.
At one point, Refix chose to disengage Kimberly halfway through the maneuver and lunged at Teilon, but Reivyn had been waiting for him to pull such a ploy, and a stone, which was tossed and notunched from the sling, went sailing past Refix''s face just when he started. Reivyn smirked at the wide-eyed look his father directed at him, and when he moved towards Reivyn, Kimberly smoothly interjected and regained the initiative. The tactic was pulled off without a hitch.
"Excellent work, everyone," Refix said as he stood over a copsed Kimberly and Teilon. They were panting for breath from the exertion of practicing their tactics. At the end, Refix hadn''t given them any time to recover between practices, and they were moving at full capacity of their Skill Levels. Refix gave them a nod and casually strolled away with a chuckle.
"Your dad is a monster," Kimberly said between breaths. Reivyn stood over his friends with a smirk on his face.
"Get used to it, haha," Reivyn said with a bit of schadenfreude. His two friends were too busy recovering toe up with any sort of retort.
"Reivyn!" He looked up to the sound of his father calling his name. A packnded next to him with an audible -clunk-. Whatever was in it was heavy. "Don''t think I didn''t notice you standing there perfectly fine while your friends did all the work," Refix said with a tug at his lips. He twirled his fingers in the air. "Run."
"A, man," Reivyn hung his head for a moment before reaching down to put the pack on.
As he turned to begin his exercise, he heard Teilon speak up. "You get what you deserve."
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +200
Boss Defeated: Exp +200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Level up!
Experience 496/1100
Monthly Experience
Calcting...
Relevant Skills Training: +600 Exp
Physical Exercise: +65 Exp
Sparring: +200 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +100 Exp
Life Experience: +3200 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 4,165
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 1061/1400
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1
Aim (22)
Athleticism (35)
Bnce (40)
Marching (15)
Medium Armor (22)
Mining (12)
Observation (36)
Running (37)
Shields (28)
Woodworking (11)
Tier 2
Evasion (30)
Identify {Mundane} (24)
Mana Absorb (41)
Mana Cirction (17)
Meditation (21)
Pain Resistance (30)
Sense Mana (49)
Strategy (3)
Tactics (14)
Tier 3
Battlefield Awareness (9)
Blind Fighting (7)
Command (4)
Danger Sense (4)
Inspire (6)
Mana Conjuration (11)
Mana Maniption (11)
Mana Sight (22)
Mental Fortitude (30)
Tier 4
Mana Weapon (6)
Spatial Awareness (13)
Tier 6
Weapons Master (40)
Affinities:
Tier 1
Air (22)
Earth (22)
Fire (22)
Water (22)
Tier 2
Ice (6)
Magma (6)
Metal (6)
sma (6)
Wood (6)
Tier 3
Darkness (8)
Light (8)
Reivyn reviewed the progress that he had made in the past month and a half as hey in bed. He had already seen the notifications when they first popped up, but he had checked it several times to see if he could figure out how to maximize his experience gain. Without further education on how the System worked, he could only glean so much from the information given.
The Akashic Record Skill was no help, either, as its "helpful hint" only said the same thing for each entry: "A higher Skill level is required."
He had gotten a huge boost to his experience from the "Life Experience," but there was no way he was going to try and manufacture a confrontation with a giant demon and Revenants again, even if he could. The only thing he could do to ensure a boost to his experience was to explore deeper into the Dungeon.
He pulled up his Status Page.
Status: Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 14 Age: 9 Health: 740/740 Stamina: 1440/1440 Mana: 410/410 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 70 INT: 41 VIT: 74 MAG: 41 DEX: 70 CLA: 31 CHA: 4 PER: 32 LUK: 5 Experience: 1061/1400
Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (22), Athleticism (35), Bnce (40), Drawing (16), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (24), Horsemanship (6), Map Making (6), Mathematics (14), Marching (15), Medium Armor (22), Mining (12), Observation (36), Penmanship (21), Piano (0), Riding (11), Running (37), Shields (28), Sneaking (19), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (11)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Eavesdropping (20), Evasion (30), Identify {Mundane} (24), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (41), Mana Cirction (17), Meditation (21), Numbers Concepts (8), Pain Resistance (30), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (49), Stealth (14), Strategy (3), Tactics (14)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (9), Blind Fighting (7), Command (4), Danger Sense (4), Inspire (6), Mana Conjuration (11), Mana Maniption (11), Mana Sight (22), Mental Fortitude (30)
Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (13), Iron Will (8), Mana Weapon (6), Spatial Awareness (13)
Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (40)
Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (22), Earth (22), Fire (22), Water (22)
Tier 2:
Ice (6), Magma (6), Metal (6), sma (6), Wood (6)
Tier 3:
Darkness (8), Light (8)
ss Skills:
Devastating Strike (43): Deal 143% Damage
Cleave (46): Reset stance at an elerated rate of 156%
Charge (49): Sprint towards the target at 159% absolute maximum speed
Quick-Draw (33): elerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon by 33%
Avable: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0)
It was always satisfying to look at his full Status andpare it to what it was when he had first begun his journey at life. There was something that had been bothering him a little for a while now, though. It wasn''t anything serious or bad, but he was confused about the rate of progression of his ss Skills. He also never got any notifications about them increasing in Level.
He got up from his bed, and after preparing for the day, he walked out into the living room where his mother was already working on her loom. His sisters were behaving themselves, eating breakfast at the kitchen table. The mornings were the times when they were least active, but there shift from little angels to little demons would be swift and sudden when they had had enough time to ramp up their engines.
I wonder what kind of Skills they have unlocked? I know mother has them doing the same sorts of basic training in Penmanship and Mathematics and the like, and I''ve seen them do some physical training with dad, but nothing like I did when I was their age. Then again, I did ask for it.
He put them out of his mind so as to not get sidetracked from his question. His father had already departed for work, but his mother was just as knowledgeable about these things as his dad, so he walked up to his mother.
"Mom, what''s up with these ss Skills?" He began without preamble.
"Well, good morning to you, too," Ameliyn said with a smile.
"Ah, sorry. Good morning, mom," Reivyn said as he gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek.
"That''s better," she said. "Now what''s this you want to know about ss Skills?"
"My ss Skills are progressing at a ridiculous speed. I don''t get any notifications about them at all, but every time I pull up my Status, they seem to have grown by leaps and bounds. It''s way faster than my other Skills. Is this just a function of ss Skills?"
"No, dear. ss Skills don''t inherently grow at a faster pace than regr Skills. There''s a couple of reasons why they''re growing so fast, as far as I know. One, they''re low level ss Skills. Tier 1 sses don''t have any ss Skills associated with them, so Tier 2 ss Skills are entry level Skills. Even then, it isn''t as exaggerated as you''re describing it.
"So that leads to the other reason: Talent. When someone selects a ss that they''re inherently talented in, the ss Skills will level up at a faster pace. Combined with the entry level nature of the ss Skills that you have, it would ount for how fast they''re going up. You have the Weapons Master Mythic Skill, a powerful bloodline, and a strong drive for improvement. Your Fighter ss is a good fit for you.
"If someone foolishly chose their ss, they would have a very hard time levelling up their ss Skills, but that honestly doesn''t happen very often. It usuallyes when someone has a goal for a higher Tier ss they want to work towards, but they need to have a specific ss and focus to get to it, and they''re not suitable for that prerequisite ss.
"It''s fine for people in Tier 2 to sacrifice their talents to take an inefficient ss, if they''re driven and hard working. It is a terrible idea, unless one has ess to the proper resources and guidance, to choose a poor fit for Tier 3 or higher. Does that help?"
"It does, thank you, mom," Reivyn said.
"You''re wee, sweetie."
Reivyn grabbed a quick bite to eat before taking off to find Teilon and Kimberly. Considering my Mental Stats being much higher than my Physical Stats initially, I wonder how quickly ss Skills will increase in level if I choose a mana focused ss?
Reivyn walked down the road towards Teilon''s house. They both lived in the same little neighborhood, but there were still several houses between them. Reivyn nodded and smiled to Will and Simmon as they walked past. They gave their own perfunctory greeting as they were busy with their own things.
Teilon wasing out of his house as Reivyn approached. He ran up with his usual exuberance.
"Morning, Reivyn," he waved as he joined his friend. "Let''s go get Kimberly and get started. I think I would like to practice my Sneaking and Hiding Skills out in the woods, and Kimberly can practice her Observation Skills while trying to spot me. You can switch back and forth with whatever you want to focus on."
"Sure, that sounds like a n," Reivyn responded. "Hey, I just walked past Will and Simmon. When was thest time we hung out with them?"
Teilon looked up as he thought about the question. "It had to have been before the conscription. We just really haven''t had the time to y around with them. Any days that we have off, they''re doing their own bit of training that their parents have set up for them, and vice versa."
"Yeah, I just feel kinda bad. If we hadn''t gone off with the levies, we''d still be hanging out and figuring out a way to form a group with all four of us. As it is now, our little adventure has set us apart on our trajectories."
"Well, just because we''re not going to go adventuring together in the short term doesn''t mean we''re not still friends," Teilon said. "We''ll just have to make an effort to set aside some time, but they''ll have to do the same."
"Yeah, I suppose," Reivyn sighed. It was strange that Reivyn hadn''t really even thought about his other friends all that much since he had been home. Sure he had been stepping up his training regime and incorporating new training methods with Teilon and Kimberly involved, but it had always seemed natural to have Will and Simmon in his group before. Now it felt more natural to just be with Teilon and Kimberly.
I guess that''s life, he mused. People grow apart, and new connections are made. We can still be friends and hang out, but things won''t go back to how they were before. We have our own life paths ahead of us.
Chapter 30: Movers and Shakers
Chapter 30: Movers and Shakers
Reivyn walked along the side of the cart carrying their family possessions as they traveled along the road to Magron. His father was driving the cart with his mother and sisters sitting next to him. Reivyn was used to walking much further distances than his younger siblings, so he spent the bulk of the time on foot.
It had been six months since Reivyn had returned home from his time being conscripted, and he had finally turned 10 years old two months after arriving back in Haluville. His parents kept the relentless pace of his training up during those two months, and he saw a lot of growth in hisbat and mana Skills.
They didn''t do anything special for his birthday, even though it was the 10-year milestone, and the only difference Reivyn noticed was that his Bloodline was finally listed on his Status Page. It was still shown as "Unknown Bloodline," and it retained the experience values indicating he could still put his experience points into it to further unlock it.
His father needed to go to Magron for a bit to square away the details in moving his position to therger city and find living amodations, and so they had all decided to let Reivyn take it easy at that point. Reivyn had been going hard for several months, and his parents feared he might burn himself out, though Reivyn hadn''t shown any signs of it. He didn''t protest the decision, though, because he understood his parents were looking out for him and he trusted their judgment.
He had only gained a total of 800 experience from the training and sparring he did over the course of the past six months. He had gotten zero experience boosts to his life experience, because he was doing the same things he had always done his whole life.
He wasn''t too concerned about the slow down in experience, though, as he would be heading off to the Dungeon once he reached Master level in his Weapons Master Skill, which was just two more points away. Thatst point to reach 50 would take some considerable time and effort, though.
Reivyn ced his hands behind his head, his fingers interlocked, as he casually strolled along the roadside. He kept an eye on the treeline on either side, as he knew there were asionally goblins or higher level predators, but he wasn''t too concerned with his father around. The goblin horde that had attacked the levy convoy was apparently an anomaly, and the Count had dispatched a toon to sweep the surrounds to thin out any such umtion of the pests, so the roads were exceptionally safe at the moment.
"Reivyn," he looked up to his mother who had called out to him. "The girls are getting antsy again, soe take a break."
He walked over to the cart and helped his mother and sisters get down. His sisters ran to the side of the road and began picking flowers as his mother followed along with a smile on her face. Reivyn hopped up into the cart to take their ce next to his father.
"Want a go at driving?" Refix asked him while extending the reins over. The cart was rented and had a pair of horses pulling it along.
"Sure," Reivyn said as he took control of the cart.
"There''s really not a lot to do right now, but you can practice slowing them down and guiding them a bit." Refix said from his position next to him. "Here, let me help you."
Refix spent the next hour or so exining to Reivyn exactly what he needed to do with the reins to get the proper response out of the horses. He practiced with them for a while, asionallying to a full stop so he could get them moving from a stand still. There wasn''t a ton of room for maneuvering them along the road, but he did get them to meander a bit under his guidance. After the hour of stuttering movements, Reivyn finally got the notification for the Skill unlocking, and he instantly felt more in control of the horses.
Skill Unlocked!
Driving (1)
"I got the Skill," Reivyn informed his father. Refix just shook his head and chuckled.
"While it''s an easy Skill to get, an hour of just stopping and going is still impressive for unlocking it."
-ROAR-
Reivyn looked up in startlement at the sudden roar of arge animal. He spotted his sisters being held close by his mother as arge bear came out of the tree line. Reivyn moved tounch himself at the intruding animal, but a hand fell on his shoulder, firmly holding him in ce.
"Don''t worry," Refix said with a twinkle in his eye. "Do you think I would let them wander about if I didn''t have confidence in your mother keeping them all safe?"
Reivyn sat at the front of the cart as he watched the spectacle unfold in front of him. The bear came out of the woods, and after initially zeroing in on his mother and sisters, it came to a stop with confusion in its eyes. It hesitantly sniffed the area as if it was trying to locate its target. A blinding light suddenly materialized in front of its face, and it recoiled back while rubbing one of its paws over its face.
The ck bear shook its head and looked in the direction it had first spotted its prey, and Reivyn watch on in fascination as a duplicate copy of his mother and sisters materialized and took off running into the woods. The bear roared once again and took off chasing the duplicates into the woods while his mother remained motionless with Kailey and Riley huddled into her embrace.
After a few minutes, Reivyn could no longer hear the loud sounds the bear was making, and Refix took the reins back from him.
"Go switch out with your mother so she can get the girls up into the cart, and I''ll get us moving on down the road," Refixmanded.
Reivyn looked back and forth between his father and mother. "What just happened?" He asked. "I get that there was a distraction conjured by mom, but why didn''t the bear see them?"
Refix raised an eyebrow at his son. "Your mother''s a Light Weaver."
"I know that," Reivyn said impatiently. "Isn''t it just a rare Lifestyle ss?"
"Who said?" Refix smirked at the surprise on Reivyn''s face. "Your mother can weave illusions out of light mana, and she can also use it to bend it around herself to make herself invisible. That bear could still smell them, though, so she blinded it momentarily before making the illusion of her and the girls running off so that the bear would chase what it saw and not investigate what it smelled. Alright, go," Refix once again said with a wave of his hand.
Reivyn dropped down from the cart and his mother was already arriving with Kailey and Riley held in each of her arms. Their eyes were wide with fear, but they still clutched the multitude of flowers they had picked in their hands. Reivyn helped his mother up into the cart, and his sisters sat firmly between both of their parents.
"Go grab a training spear out of the cart," Refix called to his son. "Your sling can scare most things off, but you''ll need something else to keep that bear at arms length long enough for me toe deal with it. It shouldn''t be a problem. Your mother''s illusion should lead it quite a distance away before it dissipates, but better safe than sorry."
Reivyn did as he was told, and he continued walking alongside the cart with the sturdy training weapon. He wouldn''t be able to kill a bear with it, unless he could get a very lucky strike at a vital like the eyes, but it made him feel more secure as he resumed scanning the treeline. He walked in silent contemtion at the new revtion about his mother.
The family walked through the gates of Magron without anyplications among the throng of other citizens going about their business. There was no entrance fee to enter the city, and the guards didn''t closely inspect everyoneing and going.
The City Guards were more to keep the peace and make sure the people didn''t clog up the gateway. They only inspected obvious merchant caravans, but those weren''t that frequent on this side of the city that lead further towards the frontier.
"The barracks I stayed in were over there," Reivyn pointed down the road alongside the inner wall that lead to the military base. His mother and sisters followed the direction his finger was indicating, and they could just barely make out the walls of thepound in the distance mostly obscured by other buildings in the way.
The cart continued on its way alongside the main thoroughfare, the militarypound quickly disappearing from sight. Reivyn reached up and adjusted the flower crown on his head as he returned his focus back to the road in front of him.
His sisters had made theurel crown from the many flowers they had plucked along the roadside, and they had insisted that Reivyn had to wear it at all times.
"This isn''t just an emblem of your status as the Flower Knight," Kailey said.
"It''s a protective charm," Riley piped up.
"It will let the forest inhabitants know that you''re a friend, and they won''t attack you," Kailey gingerly ced the amulet they had carefully crafted upon his head. Reivyn looked at the other members of his family with amusement. They all had flowers on their heads, and even his father nodded seriously when he was told of its special properties by his sisters.
Reivyn''s eyes widened, though, when he casually threw an Identify {Mundane} at the crowns.
New Skill Unlocked!
Identify {Magical} (1)
Calcting...
Merged Identify {Mundane} (26) with Identify {Magical} (1)
New Skill Unlocked!
Identify {All} (14)
Laurel Crown of the Flower Knight Reduces presence towards predators and reduces wariness of forest animals
His eyes nearly popped out of his head, and Reivyn determined to take the girls more seriously. It seemed his parents had already noticed the unusuality of the items the two girls had created, and his father nodding seriously at them made more sense than just an indulgent father.
The family turned down a side road that lead away from themercial district of the city. Reivyn nced down the road to the area he and his friends had gone shopping with a thoughtful look.
Not that I would ever do such a thing, but I wonder how much one of these crowns would sell for? He mused. Obviously not much to anyone who couldn''t properly assess it. He chuckled to himself as he recalled finding the light mana stone from a vendor who had no idea what it was.
"Hey, mom," Reivyn called out as a thought crossed his mind."
"Hmm, yes?" Ameliyn said as she looked down at him.
"Since mana is so abundant, and magic is a thing, why aren''t there more magical nts and materials? Why don''t I see more magical things and treasures?"
"Reivyn," his mother replied with a look of amusement. "Think about where you are."
"We''re in Magron..." Reivyn said. He wasn''t quite following what his mother was getting at.
"And where is Magron?" His mother continued with a patient tone as if she was teaching a ss.
"In the Magron County under Count Ilpir..." he gauged his mother''s reaction as he spoke. She nodded and motioned for him to continue. "In a Tier 1 Kingdom," he smacked himself in the head as the words left his mouth. "The mana density isn''t high enough."
"Exactly," Ameliyn said. "There are pockets out there with higher densities where one is likely to discover a magical nt or ores, but they''re sparse. They are far moremon as you move up in Tiers, and it increases exponentially. A Tier 2 region will have roughly double the mana density as a Tier 1 region. That doesn''t mean they have double the magical materials as a Tier 1."
"Ahh? It''s still so rare?" Reivyn asked.
"No, dear, it''s four times more prevalent to find magical materials. You have to consider the time scale involved as well. Tier 2 regions are steeped in at least twice as much mana as a Tier 1 region over a long period of time," Ameliyn patiently exined. "A Tier 3 region has about twice as much mana density as a Tier 2, and four times again as much natural treasures. That means where your father and I are from, there were 64 times more natural treasures than this region. When you consider Dungeons have a higher density even than the region they''re found in, and the number of Dungeons located near the capital city, it''s not hard to imagine how such a ce could dominate countless other regions below it."
Reivyn was bbergasted at the implications of living in such a region.
"So what kind of treasures are we talking about?" Reivyn asked with excitement.
"Well, not only are there nts and animals that are inherently magical in and of themselves that can only grow in such mana dense regions, even the more mundane species can have semi-magical properties. For instance regr trees located near a volcanic region could absorb the ambient fire mana in the environment and gain specific properties. It''s not always the same, either. Some are resistant to fire and heat, some burn longer, and some burn hotter.
"There are many more varied sses that exist to take advantage of such living environments that simply can''t be found in lower Tier regions. Alchemist, for instance, is a very popr Lifestyle ss found in Tier 2 Regions and above. The higher the Tier region, the higher the number and overall Level of Alchemists."
That answered a question that had been in the back of Reivyn''s mind. With such means as mana-enhanced healing and even magical healing, howe there didn''t exist an upation that created magical products that one could buy and take with them? It turned out that they simply didn''t exist in Tier 1 regions, not that they didn''t exist at all.
"You said that the Dungeon was a Resource Dungeon," Ameliyn continued. "It''s far more likely that you''ll be able to find mana-aligned ores in the lower floors than finding chests provided by the System with magical items already in them. That''s not to say you won''t find any, but the probability is quite low."
"What good would it do to find higher Tier ores in a Tier 1 region if there isn''t anyone with a ss to take advantage of them?" Reivyn asked with furrowed brows.
"Oh, a high enough Level cksmith will be able to handle mana-aligned ores just fine. They won''t be able to craft truly magical weapons and armor from them, but anything made out of those ores will be superior than just regr steel. It''s still an upgrade."
Reivyn continued to walk in silence as his imagination ran wild with day dreams of him returning from the Dungeon with a full load of magical ores. He would have to figure out what kinds of mana-alignment could be found in the Dungeon.
What if the ores in the lower floor are infused with that revolting mana that came from the Revenant, he thought with a frown. In that case, I''d rather pass.
The family continued their journey through the city of Magron. The foot traffic on the side road was nothingpared to what was on the main thoroughfare, but, even getting so far away from the central regions of the city, there were more pedestrians walking about than could be found anywhere in Haluville.
"We''re here," Refix proimed as the cart came to a halt in front of a small house.
Small is rtive, Reivyn thought as he looked at their new home. It was smallpared to a lot of the other buildings that they had passed to get to their location, but it was still slightly bigger than their house in Haluville. Instead of arge, open space for a backyard, though, there was a walled courtyard with plenty of space for sparring matches.
"Alright, I''ll give a short tour to everyone before we get our stuff," Refix said as he hopped down and headed for the front door.
Reivyn stood and appraised himself in the mirror at the cksmith store he had previously purchased his fan from. Refix was standing to the side looking him up and down as well. He had helped pick out all of the gear that Reivyn was currently attired in, and he double checked to make sure everything was fitting properly.
"I think it''s good, dad," Reivyn said with a roll to his eyes. He was standing in a full set of leather-ted armor. It wasn''t quite the same as the armor he had worn when in the military unit, but it was simr. The main difference was that it was designed for more agile movements aspared to what would be needed when fighting in arge formation.
"You''ll thank meter when you don''t suffer from any chafing," Refix chuckled. "Alright, all of this plus the arming sword and speares out to about 7 silvers. I know you want to be independent when you strike out on your own and pay for your own things, but that''s not allowed. As a father, it is my privilege to provide you with your first set of equipment, and you won''t be taking that away from me."
Refix worded it in such a way that it was a favor to Refix for him to buy the equipment Reivyn would be using for his first independent venture. Reivyn rolled his eyes as he epted the proposition from his father. He would still need to purchase other things like rations, clothes, and other necessities anyway.
"An excellent choice, Young Master," the voice of the attendant reached his ears. It was the same person asst time. Different from when Reivyn hade before, several other attendants had started to approach the father-son duo to assist them, but this attendant had recognized Reivyn and had swooped in to take charge once again. Reivyn was very pleased with the performance of this shop, which is why he had brought his father back to this one to get his armor.
"Yes, we''ll be taking this set," Refix said as he pulled out the coins from a pouch he kept in his inner breast pocket. "No, no. Keep it on," he motioned to Reivyn who had started taking it off. "You''ll need to wear it in, and we''re going to go to the Adventurer''s Guild after this. Need to look the part."
Reivyn nodded as Refix paid the attendant. The man encouraged the pair to return for all of their adventuring needs, as he had heard thement about going to the guild, as he walked them out of the shop with a smile on his face.
Reivyn didn''t notice any significant change in attention he garnered from the surrounding pedestrians as they made their way towards the Adventurer''s Guild. He could spot others attired in various types of armor like he had seen from the adventurers at the Dungeon outpost, so he guessed it wasn''t much of a strange sight to be seen walking around as such.
The Adventurer''s Guild was arge, ornate building that was situated near the same square as the City Hall, the "official" bastion of the Count. It covered a veryrge area, and it was three stories tall. Large columns decorated the entryway above the steps leading up, and there were manyrge windows that served more as decoration than any real function.
"Why is it so..." Reivyn couldn''t quite find the word he was looking for.
"Ostentatious?" Refix supplied with a nce at Reivyn out of the corner of his eye. He continued when Reivyn nodded his head, "This is the headquarters for the entire county. Not only are there smaller branches in some of the outlying towns and viges, but there''s also smaller branches in this city located closer to the gates. But if you want to register as a sanctioned Adventurer, you have to do so at a county-level Headquarters like this, at the minimum.
"This is an administrative building, and it isn''t actually designed to cater to the needs of the individual adventurers on a day to day basis. You won''t find any notice boards or missions or anything inside. For those things, you''ll have to go to one of the smaller branches."
The two made their way up the stairs and into the foyer. There were ornate decorations and statues dotting the mostly empty halls, and the duo''s footsteps echoed through the building. The main area was lit by arge chandelier hanging from the ceiling that stretched all the way to the roof of the tall building. The duo marched up to a front desk manned by a female receptionist.
The youngdy looked up at the pair with a smile as they approached.
"What can I help you two gentleman with today?" She asked with a sweet voice. She couldn''t be much older than Reivyn, and it made sense to him that such an upation would be held by someone with a Tier 1 ss.
"My son wishes to register as a sanctioned Adventurer," Refix answered.
"Oh, certainly!" She obviously had a bubbly personality based on the attitude that she greeted the two strangers with, Reivyn surmised. "Can you use mana or..." She trailed off as she looked at Reivyn uncertainly. It was understandable that she would have such a reaction once she actually got a good look at Reivyn. Despite his body that belonged to someone who was a fit teenager, his face still gave away his young age.
"I''m sorry, but only those with a Tier 2 ss can register," she said with an apologetic smile.
"I''m aware," Reivyn said with a wink. He didn''t usually act in such a manner, but there was something about her personality that made him act a bit cheeky. "I have the Tier 2 ss Fighter, and, yes, I can use mana."
"Oh! Great," she returned to her exuberant personality. "All you have to do is infuse your mana into this token, and then hold it to this form." She handed both items to Reivyn as she mentioned them. "The token will scan your Status, and if you hold it to the seal in the top-left corner there, it will fill in the form automatically."
Reivyn did as he was instructed. It was very simr to the token he received from the military, but it was designed to need an actual infusion of mana instead of passively being able to do so when held to his core. He didn''t know if that was an upgrade or a downgrade.
"Excellent," the girl said as she epted the form from Reivyn. It listed his name, ss, and basic Physical and Mental Stats. There wererge empty portions avable to record any deeds or missions that he aplished in the future, but as he was just starting out, they were left nk. "You keep the token. It will record your aplishments, and you can use it to update your Master Record when you apply for a promotion in the future."
She put the form away into a drawer and then sped her hands in front of her as she looked at the two expectantly. "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Reivyn was momentarily taken aback.
"Is that it?" He asked.
"Of course! We''re not much of a formal organization when ites to the adventurers themselves. Well, at least not at the lower ranks. We don''t need to conduct any tests or anything like that. Your Status proves you have a Tier 2 ss, and there isn''t any need to provepetency just to join the Guild," she exined. She was quite talkative once she got going.
"I noticed that there was arge space for aplishments on the form. Would this be able to apply to it?" Reivyn held out his old military token that he had been left with to verify he had privileged ess to the Dungeon. Since the adventurer token kept records of deeds, this probably did as well.
"No harm in trying!" The youngdy quickly retrieved the form once more and put the military token to the seal. Her eyes widened in shock, and her hand flew up to her mouth as words appeared on the page.
"Veteran of the Lord''s Retinue with the rank of Aide to the Adjutant! Participated in the subjugation of a Tier 4 demon!" She squealed when those words appeared. "This, this...Wow!" She was at a loss for words. Reivyn chuckled. The sound of hisughter caused the youngdy to look up, and with a visible struggle topose herself, she continued. "With these deeds, you won''t have to do anything to get promoted for the next several ranks. You just need time in grade."
"Time in grade?" Reivyn was confused.
"Of course. You need to spend an appropriate amount of time in each rank before you''re qualified for promotion. The first two promotions only require six months each, and then the next one requires a year. In two years'' time, you''ll be able to directly be promoted three times, as long as you apply in a timely manner, that is. Like I said, you have to spend the time in grade. If you dilly dally and fail to apply for promotion for a long time, you''ll still have the aplishments necessary for the promotion, but you''ll have to wait the required time again."
"Got it."
"Is there anything else you need help with?" Reivyn shook his head. "Well then, let me be the first to wee you to the Adventurer''s Guild!"
Chapter 31: Leavetaking
Chapter 31: Leavetaking
Motes of color danced in the air around Reivyn as he sat in a Meditative trance. The specks of mana slowly coalesced around his body as they formed a whirlpool of mana being absorbed into the top of his head. He could feel the energy coursing through his body fluctuate at a constant up and down pace as he maintained his pace of absorbing the mana around him. His Skill Level in Meditation kept him centered and calm.
With his eyes closed, he could still sense the different elements of mana ever since his Sense Mana Skill had reached Level 50. It wasn''t pinpoint urate, as he couldn''t sense individual specks of the mana, but he could make a sort of mental sight map where he could see where the different elements congregated in higher concentrated pockets.
I wonder if I can exert different levels of force on specific locations to further separate the elements? Reivyn thought with a frown of concentration.
He exerted his will on his Mana Absorption Skill. The mana sped up in its spinning, and while he had it elerated he tried to bear his will down on a different location to try and slow it down.
Nothing happened.
He rxed his concentration on maintaining the elerated spinning and tried again. The Skill refused to change. As he put more concentration into slowing down one portion, he slipped up on keeping it elerated, and when he focused back on elerating, the slowing vanished. His Skill was apparently all or nothing, so he allowed the Skill to return to its bnced state of absorption.
Maybe there''s something else I can try? What about building a fence out of my own mana?
With that new thought, Reivyn brought a strand of pure mana out. He located a region in the swirling mana where a clump of fire mana was concentrated, and he directed his mana to slice through the region between it and the other specks of mana.
As he concentrated on moving his pure mana into ce, his concentration on Mana Absorption slipped and the swirling mass of mana threatened to dissipate. With sweat on his brow, Reivyn refocused his concentration to keep the Mana Absorption spinning. His grasp on his pure mana, though, began to waver as he did so.
I''m able to manipte my own mana independently of the swirling mass of ambient mana, so that''s already a step ahead of what I was trying before. I think I''m on the right track, so I just need to practice switching my focus back and forth in quick session. I can apply some force like I''m spinning a top to the Mana Absorption, and then while keeping an eye on it but not bearing my will on it directly, I can switch my focus to the mana thread.
Reivyn put thought to action, and he spent the next hour or so practicing the exercise he hade up with. He made some headway on being able to manipte his mana while simultaneously absorbing the ambient mana, but it was like threading a moving needle.
He had to begin by leading the spinning mana with his own pure mana at a slower speed. Once the pure mana thread got closer and closer to the demarcation of the elements he was focusing on, he had to match the speed of the rotation while attempting to stab the mana thread through the border while anchoring its speed to match the mana whirlpool.
It was incredibly mentally taxing.
Eventually, the mental exhaustion of maintaining swapping concentration got to him. He let the Mana Absorption Skill dissipate, and he pulled his pure mana back into himself. It was time for him to take a break for the day.
He sighed as he stood up from his bed to head into the living room. The new house they had moved into had a differentyout than their past house, and instead of walking out of his room directly into the living room, he had to traverse a hallway. His parents had the master bedroom that took up most of the space on the opposite side of the hallway to where he and his sisters had their own rooms, his sisters sharing one.
He made his way into the open space of the living room. Instead of the door being ced in the center between the living room and kitchen area, the door to the front was ced in the living room with the door to the back off to the side on the kitchen side with the hallway being ced in the center between the two.
Reivyn stepped out into the living room to see his mother at work on her loom as she usually was. He could hear theughter of his sistersing from the backyard as he plopped down on a couch in a rxed posture.
"How was your Meditation?" Ameliyn asked without stopping her motions working the loom.
"It was alright. I tried to do something new, and it was really hard."
"Oh? What was this new thing you tried?"
Reivyn sat up and exined to his mother his thoughts on separating the ambient mana and the solutions he had attempted. Instead of offering tips on how to more effectively split his concentration or thread his mana into the proper ce, his mother tilted her head back andughed.
"Reivyn," she said after a moment to calm down. "I''m right here. You can juste to me to get advice. What led you to wanting to separate the ambient mana?"
"I thought that if I could separate the mana into their own elements, I could practice my affinity at the same time," Reivyn said.
"Well, you''re not wrong," Ameliyn said. Reivyn clenched his fist and nodded with a smile. I knew it! "However, your approach was wrong. Let me ask you this: What did you do to unlock the Ice Affinity?"
"I used my fire mana to suck all the heat out of the mana I was working with."
"Exactly. You took a strand of pure mana, attuned it to fire, and then used it like a ma to attract all the other fire mana."
Realization dawned on Reivyn and he smacked himself in the head. "So instead of trying to manually separate every little pocket of elements, I need to attract them all to the same spot. I should have realized that considering all the motes of mana that weren''t concentrated together. I didn''t even think about what I was going to do about those."
"Don''t beat yourself up over it," Ameliyn said with a chuckle. "Everybody has to explore and make mistakes when they try to figure things out on their own. That''s just how the world works. If you just knew how to aplish what you wanted every time, then what would be the point of teachers and master-apprentice rtionships?
"Anyway, what you want to do for what you''re working towards, is create many mana threads and shoot them out into the whirlpool like spokes to a wheel. In the beginning, it doesn''t matter too much if you match the speed of your mana to the speed of your Mana Absorption, just get them out there and moving approximately the same speed.
"Next, alternate infusing each strand with a different element and focus it on absorbing it like ambient mana. The real trick to this exercise is to not absorb the ambient mana into your own mana strands but to just anchor it to the strands.
"Once you have all the ambient mana anchored to your mana spokes, you can slowly move the spokes until they all upy a different quadrant. The mana spokes with all the ambient mana anchored to them will amplify the maic pull, and all the other, new ambient mana brought in through Mana Absorption will automatically filter themselves to the proper quadrant."
Reivyn shook his head at how needlesslyplicated he had made things. He had already learned how to do what she was describing, and yet he hadn''t thought of it at all.
I''ve always considered myself to be pretty smart, and my Skill advancement seems to back that up; however, a real genius wouldn''t have made such a silly mistake as topletely ignore a technique he or she had already used. I still have to work harder.
-Knock Knock-
Reivyn made to get up from his perch on the couch to answer the door, but his sisters leaped up and beat him to it.
"Too slow," Kailey (Riley) said as they ran to the door. They opened it and looked up at the person standing in front of them. Reivyn heard a familiar voicee from the other side of the door.
"Hi, I hear you house itinerant adventurers. We''re here to mooch."
Kailey stood there for a moment with her hand still on the door. She just looked up at the person at the door for a couple of seconds, and then she casually shut it in his face. The two girls ran back to their spots where they had been ying on the living room floor.
-Knock Knock-
The twins once again leaped up to race to the door with the exact same level of excitement as before. Kailey opened the door, took one look at the person, and before they could even open their mouth, she shut the door in their face.
"Who''s at the door, Kailey?" Reivyn said with exasperation.
"A chatan," Kailey said.
"A chatan," Riley mimed.
"He''s up to no good," Kailey said.
"He''s up to no good," Riley repeated.
Reivyn rolled his eyes as he got up. He shooed the two girls out of the way as he moved to answer the door. He opened the door to be greeted by a smiling Teilon. Kimberly was standing behind him with a bored expression on her face.
Teilon''s smile grew wider, and he opened his arms for a hug, and, as he opened his mouth to greet his friend, Reivyn mmed the door in his face. A muffled, "Hey!" came from the other side.
"Yup, a chatan," Reivyn said with a wink towards his sisters. They devolved into a giggling fit at their brother''s joke.
Reivyn opened the door once more and beckoned the two toe in. Teilon stepped across and gave him a big, bear hug. Kimberly simply gave a polite smile with a nod as she entered the house.
The two of them hadrge packs containing their gear, and Reivyn could see that they had already purchased their armor and other necessities besides food. Kimberly marched up to the two girls ying on the floor and addressed them with hands on her hips.
"I''m a chatan, am I?" She raised an eyebrow at the two. Kailey and Riley scrambled up and hugged a leg each as they continued to giggle.
"Big Sis Kim! We didn''t mean you," Kailey said.
"Yeah, we''ll protect you from the bad man," Riley said.
Kimberly looked down at the two girls with a stern expression on her face. Kailey and Riley simply grinned back up at her. Kimberly couldn''t maintain her mock expression for long, and she smiled as she bent down and gave the two girls a hug.
"I see you already have your gear." Reivyn said to Teilon as they watched the girls begin to y. "Have you already registered at the Adventurer''s Guild?"
"Yup, we took care of all that first thing," Teilon nodded. The two took a seat on the couch. Teilon leaned in and whispered to Reivyn, "Man, I tell you what. That receptionist was pretty cute -"
"What was that?" Kimberly nced up with a sharp look at Teilon.
"I was saying that the receptionist couldn''t hold a candle to my cute girlfriend," Teilon said. Sweat popped out on his brow as Kimberly narrowed her eyes at him.
"Uh huh," she returned to ying with the twins.
Reivyn and Teilon caught up on the things each other had been up to in the several months since Reivyn''s family had moved to Magron. Now that they were here, and apparently well prepared, they could finally move on to the Dungeon in the uing days. They still had to travel through the forests and ins, but there was much less wilderness heading towards the mountain range as there was a lot of farnd and farmingmunities along the route.
The thought of having to travel through some wilderness reminded Reivyn of the flower crowns his sisters had made.
"Hey, Kailey, Riley, do you think you can make some flower crowns for Teilon and Kimberly and induct them into the Flower Knights?" Teilon gave him a skeptical look, and Reivyn replied with a gesture that said trust me. Teilon shrugged and went along with it as he looked to the twins.
"No way!" Kailey said.
"No way!" Riley repeated.
"Big Sis Kim can be the Lady of the Flowers," Kailey said.
"But Teilon will be the Flower Thief," Riley concluded.
Teilon rolled his eyes in exasperation as the twins giggled. Kimberly looked between the twins and the two boys sitting on the couch with confusion.
"Here, let me show you," Reivyn said as he got up. He went back to his room and grabbed theurel flower crown that was still in pristine condition. None of the flowers had wilted, and they looked like they had just been freshly picked. They were still plump and supple with moisture.
He returned to the living room and handed it to Teilon.
"They made this several months ago," Reivyn said. Teilon epted it and inspected it. He looked back up at Reivyn with confusion evident on his face.
"It looks like it was picked this morning," Kimberly said as she came over. She looked up at Reivyn in surprise, "You said they picked these flowers months ago?"
"That''s right," Reivyn said with a nod. He leaned in to whisper to the two, "I have an appraisal Skill, and when I Inspected this, I gained the ability to Inspect magical items. This flower crown is called The Laurel Crown of the Flower Knight, and it reduces your presence to predators and makes other forest creatures less wary of you."
Kimberly gasped and Teilon widened his eyes at the revtion.
"Hey! No secrets," Kailey said.
"No secrets," Riley repeated.
"We were just praising your craftsmanship," Reivyn said.
"Yeah, it''s beautiful," Kimberly said. Kailey and Riley beamed at thepliment. "I definitely want one."
"Sure thing, Big Sis," Kailey said.
"I guess we can make one for the bad guy, too," Riley said.
"Why am I the bad guy?" Teilonined.
"Dunno," Kailey said.
"We just needed one," Riley said.
"So you''re it," the two girls giggled at the pained expression on Teilon''s face.
"Fine. I guess I can be the Flower Thief," Teilon conceded.
"Haha, yay!" Kailey (Riley) jumped up and down while holding hands.
The front door opened and Ameliyn and Refix came in from the errands they had been running. They greeted the two new additions to the house and began working on dinner. Ameliyn easily agreed to letting the two teenagers stay in their house. Teilon would sleep on the floor in Reivyn''s room, and Kimberly would get the guest room on the opposite side of the living room to the hallway.
"I have one final gift for the three of you," Refix said. He got up and went to the master bedroom for a minute. When he returned, he was carrying threerge packs. Reivyn frowned at the sight of the new packs that were muchrger than the ones they already had. Refix brought them into the living room and set them down.
"Dad, we already have most of our provisions. The only thing we have left to get are our rations, and we''re not going to get those until we''re on the way out," Reivyn said.
"Uh huh. These aren''t provisions," Refix said with a smirk. "Come see."
The three of them got up and went to the packs. Reivyn lifted the top p to inspect what was inside.
It was filled with rocks.
"These are for training," Refix said, a twinkle in his eye. "You didn''t think you were just going to stroll to the Dungeon, did you? Hahahaha."
Reivyn rolled his eyes with a sigh. He was resigned to his fate.
Sweat dripped down into his eyes as Reivyn struggled to ce one foot in front of the other. He was attired in his armor, aurel crown of flowers adorned his head with his helmet strapped to his pack. The effort of walking along the road under the immense weight of the additional pack his father had saddled them all with waspounded by the struggle of maintaining the same steps as the other two.
"You have to March in step," Refix had said as they were giving their farewells. "If you don''t activate your March Skill, then this training is useless. One final point, don''t take too many breaks. You need to press through the difort." He hadn''t borated any further than that.
The trio must have made a strange sight to any of the passersby. They were all attired in simr armor, weapons sheathed or stored for travel, and they all had crowns made out of flowers atop their heads instead of their helmets. They trundled down the road, huffing and puffing, but maintained the same step and pace with each other.
"What is the point!" Teilonined for the thousandth time.
"Save your breath," Reivyn gasped out.
Kimberly didn''t add her thoughts to the brief conversation. She continued to walk with her head down, ignoring the two boys.
His father had expertly assigned the weight distribution of each pack to provide the same level of effort necessary for the three of them. It had been pretty easy at first, but as the day wore on, and the distance traveled increased, it became harder and harder.
Reivyn was questioning his father''s wisdom, his choices, and life in general when he finally received a notification and the effort required to walk under the weight noticeably reduced.
New Skill Unlocked!
Forced March (1)
"Guys," Reivyn called out to get their attention. "I figured out what the point is." He was acutely aware that he had a much easier time speaking than he had moments before. He didn''t know if the other two would notice, though, while they were in their own world of suffering.
"What is it?" Teilon asked.
"I got a Skill," Reivyn said. "Forced March. It makes it a lot easier. Just keep at it, and you''ll get it soon."
The other two continued their trek with renewed determination. With a clear goal in mind, and one that apparently wasn''t too far off, they were able to push through their pain.
The trio continued their journey to the confused amusement of the asional traveler. After another thirty minutes of walking, Kimberly gave a small shout of triumph.
"I got it!" she eximed. Teilon just nced at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. Reivyn could almost see the despair in his gaze.
After another ten minutes, Teilon finally copsed to the ground. Hey their gasping for breath. Reivyn and Kimberly came to a stop as they turned toward their friend.
"C''mon, Teilon," Reivyn encouraged. "Just a little further. The more you take a break, the harder it will be to unlock the Skill."
"Nah," Teilon waved him off. "I copsed when I got the notification. I already got the Skill. Let''s just take a rest here."
"Alright," Reivyn said. "But let''s get out of the middle of the road. It looks like someone ising."
The three of them looked up into the distance back from where they hade. There was a plume of dust in the distance, and it was slowly getting closer as they watched.
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea," Teilon said. Reivyn and Kimberly assisted Teilon in getting up. Even without being utterly exhausted, it would have been a chore to get up under the weight of the packs he carried on his back.
The three of them stepped a few yards off the road out of the way. They took the opportunity to get a quick bite from their rations and quench their thirst as they took a rest.
As they sat on the roadside, a long troop of cavalry slowly came into view. The sun glinted off of their shiny armor, and there was a standard bearer proudly holding a banner with arge sunburst pattern on a white background.
The three youngsters looked at each other as the cavalry came into view.
"I wonder what all this is about?" Teilon queried.
"Probably something to do with the Dungeon," Reivyn said. "Either way, it''s not something that concerns us."
The other two nodded as they continued to recover their Stamina. Reivyn had a strong suspicion that these people were dispatched to investigate the instance of the demon and Revenants, but those things were no longer part of his responsibility.
They were just your average rookie Adventurer''s now. Well, maybe not average.
Chapter 32: Arrival
Chapter 32: Arrival
Reivyn and his two adventuring mates leisurely rested along the side of the road as they watched the horsemene closer and closer. The cavalry unit was exquisitely precise in their horsemanship. Each individual horse was in step with the others at a trot in perfectly dressed columns, a feat that surely took a lot of practice and a fairly high level of Ride and Horsemanship.
Aside from the bannerman out front acting as the Guide, there were several other horsemen not in formation overseeing it. Reivyn turned his head and scanned the countryside and sparse woods in the area, but he didn''t spot any scouts.
They are either supremely confident in themselves or their leaders are too arrogant. If there''s anything I''ve learned so far, it''s that one shouldn''t getcent.
Reivyn shook his head at his thoughts. Just because they were in a low Tier region that was popted by small bands of goblins and weak beasts, that didn''t mean there couldn''t be surprises. Reivyn knew for a fact that there were still roving ferocious beasts from the mountain range lurking about, but he didn''t know how far they had managed to travel away from the mountains at this point. The mounted men might be high level, but their horses weren''t, and ferocious beasts were just as likely to make a meal out of a horse as they were out of a man.
"Who do you suppose they are?" Reivyn said between bites of his ration.
"Probably the military branch of some church," Teilon replied. He leaned back against his pack and rxed his body as much as possible. He was thest one to have unlocked the Forced March Skill, so he was the most exhausted of the trio.
"They have the Sunburst Standard, so they must be from the Church of Mierna," Kimberly supplied.
Reivyn inspected the standard carried by the Guide out front. He had recognized that it was a sunburst emblem when he had first spotted it, but upon closer inspection he was able to see that it was the official symbol of the Church of Mierna like Kimberly said. As the horsemen drew closer, Reivyn could see that their shiny, silvery armor was also decorated with gold-ted trim and patterns.
"The Goddess of Light, huh?" Reivyn mused. "That settles it then, they''re obviously on their way to investigate the demon incident." His twopanions nodded in agreement.
One of the horsemen not in formation cantered up to the trio. He had a frown on his face as he inspected the three youngsters from top to bottom.
"Make way!" Hemanded. Reivyn looked at his two friends. He observed the distance between them and the road before looking back at the man. Even if they didn''t move, they were sufficiently far enough away from the road that they wouldn''t be in the way of even the supervising horsemen who weren''t part of the formation.
"We did make way," Reivyn began.
"Insolence!" The man shouted. "You dare talk back? I didn''t ask for excuses, I told you to make way!"
Reivyn gave the man a t look through hisshes. "And? I''m not one of your subordinates. You can go around."
The man''s eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the response, and he was momentarily stunned. He ced his hand on the hilt of his sword as his expression turned furious.
"You dare to disrespect Mierna, the Goddess of Light?" There was a dangerous tone to his voice.
"No, no, no," Reivyn said with a shake of his head. "I don''t dare to disrespect the Goddess of Light... I dare to disrespect you." Reivyn pointed at the man to emphasize his point.
Reivyn wasn''t worried that the zealot would make good on his implied threat and actually attack the three of them. He was clear on thew. While the church was granted the authority to have an independent military, they had to abide by thews of the kingdom, not the other way around. The three of them were just sitting on the side of the road, and they each had proof of prior military service and identities of sanctioned Adventurers.
"Josn!" A loud shout came their way as the man started to bare the steel of his weapon. Reivyn rolled his eyes at the theatrics. The man was clearly trying to bully them for some reason.
"Sir!" Josn replied as he shoved his sword back into ce and turned his head to address the older man who trotted up to the small group. The other men of the cavalry drew abreast of the resting youngsters and continued along the road with their eyes remaining straight ahead, and, as Reivyn had determined, they were nowhere near close enough to impede the soldiers.
"We have somewhere to be, Josn," the older man said. "Are you going to slow us down to interrogate some random kids sitting on the side of the road?"
Josn stiffened in his saddle. "I suspect them to be Heretics, sir." Reivyn looked at hispanions and guffawed.
"On what basis?" The man''s stern gaze inspected the three teens. His eyes lingered on the flower crowns adorning their heads, and he assumed a thoughtful look.
"Three ''kids,''" Josn used air quotes on the word, "dressed in armor and wearing druidic artifacts on their heads, plus the proximity of demonic activity, is very suspicious."
Reivyn gave his twopanions a look, and the three of them retrieved their two tokens and disyed them to the two men. Josn urged his horse forward and leaned down as if to take possession of Reivyn''s tokens, but Reivyn smoothly deposited them back into his inner breast pocket with a smirk.
"I understand your zeal, young Josn, and it guides you well," the older man said. He gestured with his head for Josn to apany him as he turned his horse aside. "But we don''t have time to waste, and they have shown that they''re members of the Adventurer''s Guild. Having magical items isn''t a crime."
The two men made their way back to the side of the formation, Josn shooting the three teens onest hostile look.
"Geeze, thatmander needs to put a tighter leash on his dog," Teilonined. He was obviously loud enough for the two departing men to hear as Reivyn saw Josn stiffen in his saddle for a moment. The older man didn''t pause in his departure, though, so Josn was forced to keep up with him.
Reivyn looked over at his smirking friend. "You think he was just some zealot who was overreaching his authority?"
Teilon tilted his head as he looked at Reivyn. "What else?"
"Nine times out of ten, the older guy told him toe investigate us. He might not have told him to be a jerk about it, but he knows what kind of person his subordinate is. They were just putting on a show to try and trip us up and give ourselves into their authority. When we didn''tsh out and just calmly identified ourselves as Adventurers, that''s when themander backed down."
"Why did you antagonize him, though?'' Kimberly asked with a frown.
"If I had tried to outright deny any disrespect at all, he could have kept up the connection to his deity and used that as a bludgeon, but admitting I was being disrespectful towards him, specifically, I broke his narrative."
Kimberly tapped her chin and looked up with a thoughtful expression. "That makes sense. If we let him keep up the thread that we were disrespecting Mierna or the church directly, he might have been able to detain us, and who knows what could have happened then?"
"Well," Teilon began with a smile towards Reivyn, "Who knew you had it in you. You''re always so silent in these kinds of situations."
"What do you mean, ''I''m always so silent in these kinds of situations?''" Reivyn asked in confusion.
Teilon unstrapped himself from hisrge pack and got up to begin stretching as he said, "Well, you know, we heard about your run in with Ren and that Assassin, but you never really said anything about it." Reivyn and Kimberly joined their friend in stretching their muscles. Thest of the church cavalry passed by as they were doing their exercise. Probably two hundred or so men, Reivyn mused to himself before turning back to his friend.
"What would you have had me do? Throw a tantrum?" Reivyn rolled his eyes. "That first incident with Ren, I was basically unconscious when everything went down afterward, and he was already punished. Was I supposed to round up my squad mates and go beat him up with numbers? Was I supposed to yell and shout and make a fool of myself?
"And the assassin was killed by that adventurer, and he cut Ren''s hand off. Ren was thrown in the stockade and received a court martial when we got back to Magron. I didn''t need to make a fuss over any of these instances, and if I had, I would have only reinforced in everyone''s mind that I was what I appear to be: a child. I think I acted appropriately for the situations."
"When you put it like that, it makes sense," Teilon said with a nod. "There were a few people who were saying you were just rolling over and taking it."
"Pfft, what else was there to do? The situations had already been resolved beyond anything I was capable of doing. Those people are just idiots who can''t see beyond what''s right in front of their eyes."
"Alright, alright, calm down," Teilon said with a chuckle. "I never doubted you, I just didn''t know you were so quick-witted, was all." Reivyn yfully shoved his friend.
The three of them bantered back and forth while ying around during their stretching. Once they were done and good and limber again, they each, in unison, stopped and looked at their packs. Teilon threw his head back and let out a loud groan.
"This is going to suck," heined. "How did I let you and your dad convince me this would be a good idea?"
"Because we didn''t give you a choice," Reivyn said with a smirk. "C''mon, let''s get this over with."
Reivyn reached down and gripped his pack on either side. It was on its back and upside down toward him. He squatted down and heaved it up and over his head, shooting his arms through the straps as he did so. The pack settled on him sitting right-side up. He attached the hip straps to focus the weight onto his lower body versus bearing all of it on his shoulders.
This was the proper method Refix had shown them to don a heavy pack. If they had tried to put the pack on from the ground, they wouldn''t be able to stand up without much greater effort, and the pack was much too unwieldy to try and swing it around to the back like a normal, lighter-weight pack.
Teilon and Kimberly soon followed, and the trio once more set out on their journey.
Reivyn andpany spent several days longer on their trip to the mountains than they had when Marching with the military. The Forced March Skill greatly helped them reduce the time, but it was a gradual thing. It was still incredibly taxing to walk with the overweight packs in the beginning.
The Skill didn''t reduce the weight or make them stronger, but it did reduce the strain they felt and the Stamina consumption. The strain was still there, however, and it still umted to a point that the three would nearly copse each time they stopped. It was getting longer and longer between that point, though, as the Skill increased in Level.
They kept the Laurel Crowns on their heads, and they proved invaluable. During one of their breaks, a mountain lion came waltzing out of the tree line, but it simply gave them a nce before flopping down in a sunbeam like an oversized house cat. It was umon to see a mountain lion prowling about down in the ins and forest, but Reivyn figured it was probably caught up in the beast tide and hadn''t gone back to its home because of the increased human activity in the area.
After a brief moment of panic, the trio kept quiet as they regained their strength. It wouldn''t have been a fatal encounter if the mountain lion had decided to attack the teenagers, but they were so tired from their Forced March training, it would have left at least a few nasty injuries before it could be driven off.
Reivyn watched therge, predatory cat with contemtion.
With the effect of these crowns, it might be possible to gain the trust of a mountain lion like that. It looks and acts just like a big, aggressive cat. Surely there''s a Skill for Taming. He shook his head. Maybe one day I can experiment, but we don''t really have time to be diverting towards such a thing at the moment.
The three of them didn''t have any more run-ins with predators, man or beast, but the traffic flowing in the same direction as they were picked up as they made progress. The other people traveling the road were mostly other adventurers by this point, most on foot but some on horseback. There were varying levels of quality to the gear they were sporting, and Reivyn''s group sometimes exchanged greetings with some of the younger teams.
They would need to either bolster their own ranks or join another team once they arrived at their destination, as at their current Levels, it wasn''t a smart idea to challenge the Dungeon with just the three of them. Sure, they could go in and garner some level of sess, but it would be nearly impossible for them to clear the first floor, and it would be incredibly dangerous.
Reivyn also kept his goal of exploring further into the depths of the Dungeon in the back of his mind. He had been contemting how he could go about doing such a thing. He didn''t want to abandon his friends to go off on his own and leave them to fend for themselves, but he also didn''t want to drag them into a situation they clearly weren''t prepared for.
Best case scenario is to, at one point, join a higher level party with all three of us, one that intends to go deeper. We can strike a deal where they let us handle the first floor for the most part, and then I could go with them to the next floor while Teilon and Kimberly retreat back to the surface. Maybe we can make a deal where Kimberly and Teilon could go in and mine the silver and other ores throughout the remainder of the week and apportion some of it to their team. I would have to do my own part orpensate them somehow, though, as that would be unfair to them.
The three young adventurers finally staggered their way up to the walls of the palisade surrounding the base.
Skill Leveled Up!
Forced March (13)
The settlement had already gone through a tremendous change since they had left. The palisade had been extended several times further out than the initial one constructed to epass the military, and several stone and wooden structures had already been constructed.
The paved road had been expanded and leveled out significantly to increase the quality, and new roads had been built throughout the area expanding out in the generalyout of what the new town would eventually look like. It hadn''t been all that long since they had left, so not a ton of buildings had gone up, but it was definitely a far cry from when it was just rows of tents.
Teilon moved off to the side of the road after passing through the gate and dropped his pack onto the ground with a loud thump. He bent over to catch his breath after the several miles long hike up the mountain ridge. Reivyn and Kimberly joined him in taking a break. They had progressed enough in their Skill that they weren''t at the point of copse, but walking up an incline, even one that wasn''t very steep, with a heavy load still exhausted the three of them.
Reivyn had high enough Stats that he recovered very quickly, and while his twopanions were still resting, he surveyed the area around himself. The streets weren''t abandoned, but there wasn''t nearly as much foot traffic as could be found in a properly established town. Most of the people out here were adventurers, and their upation, obviously, was to adventure in the Dungeon, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to Reivyn that he wouldn''t see throngs of them lining the streets.
Some of the actual buildings that had been erected already also included taverns and inns. The people getting in at the beginning were smart enough to realize that such a town would house many transient adventurers for a long time before more established families moved in to be actual citizens of the settlement, upgrading it to a town or city.
Reivyn''s eyes scanned outward, and he could see a team of engineers and masonsying the foundations for a wall much further out than even the expanded palisade. They hadn''t noticed them on their trek up the road because they had had their heads down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. There were a few people who gave them sidelong nces, but as independent adventurers themselves, they knew that others like them sometimes went to strange lengths to temper themselves or train their Skills.
There weren''t just the new taverns and inns located near the central region of the settlement, but there were also some shopfronts already constructed and areas with obvious construction set aside for expansion and allocation ofmercial buildings. Small houses were also on the outskirts forming a design that mimicked the other towns and cities from the county that Reivyn had seen:mercial districts in the center surrounded by residential interspersed with other, smaller shops. There was also a stone building near the Dungeon that was obviously the new seat of government for the budding camp.
Reivyn had briefly met the newmander of the guards for the area, but he was pretty sure that man wasn''t going to be in charge of the civil affairs. Considering the presence of the civil engineers and masons he had spotted, it made sense that a team of civil officials would have made their way here to take charge of those matters. Until it was a properly recognized town, though, any civil official wouldn''t have a title like mayor, and they would have to share or derive any of their authority from the guardmander.
The Commander didn''te off to me as someone who was interested in bing the mayor or whatever it would be for this ce, Reivyn thought. Granted, I only met him briefly and don''t know much more besides the first impression I had of him, but he didn''t seem like an administrator.
"C''mon," Reivyn said as he saw Teilon and Kimberly catch their breath enough to also stand up and begin observing their surroundings. "Let''s go find some lodging first and ditch these ridiculous packs. Then we can get reacquainted with the surroundings."
"Sounds like a n," Teilon replied. "Just.. ugh... give me a second longer." Teilon looked at his pack with obvious reluctance. Reivyn pped him on the shoulder with a chuckle.
"The sooner we find a ce to stay, the sooner we can say goodbye to these packs." The three of them psyched themselves up briefly, and then, donning their packs once more, continued on into the heart of the camp.
Reivyn had initially nned on going to the government building to see if there was anything in there to lead the three of them in the right direction as there were no obvious signs other than the ones disyed on the outside of the taverns and inns. It might have seemed like a good enough idea to simply get a room at an inn, but they were probably constantly full, and Refix had given him a little extra money in order to pay for more secluded amodations.
As he entered the main square, though, Reivyn spotted another, smaller stone building kind of off to the side that he couldn''t see from when they first entered the camp. There was a signboard hung above the door that read "Adventurer''s Guild," so Reivyn steered hispanions towards it. The Adventurer''s Guild wasn''t just a ce where people could find missions and quests, it also served as a hub to provide assistance or guidance to any of its members in the area.
The three of them dropped their packs outside the entrance to the branch building. They weren''t worried that someone woulde by and steal their packs, as they only dropped the heavy ones filled with rocks. Sure, the packs themselves were valuable, but anyone who attempted to empty them of their contents would require the time to do so, and Reivyn was confident they could react in time to stop them.
This branch of the Adventurer''s Guild was incredibly bare, and it didn''t have anything other than a couple of receptionist desks and a notice board. Reivyn had expected any branch of the Adventurer''s Guild to have other amodations attached to it, like a bar or something, but after some careful thought, he realized that it might in the future, but this building was extremely new, and there were already taverns outside that people could go to, so there was no need to provide such a service as a priority.
The three walked up to a desk with a young man sitting behind it. He was flipping through a book, as there were hardly any people inside the establishment at the moment. That wasn''t to say that it was empty, there just weren''t enough people lined up to cause Reivyn and his friends to have to wait.
The young man ced his book aside, marking the page, as Reivyn walked up to the desk.
"How can I help you?" He asked with a smile. Even though the man had been sent out to man the desks of such a bare branch in a hardly established area, he maintained a professional attitude. He might actually be happy to get in on the ground floor in a ce that will obviously one day be important, I don''t know.
"We just got here, and we need a ce to stay," Reivyn said. "We want something more exclusive than just a room at an inn."
"Certainly, we provide private courtyards. You''re lucky that you got here rtively early, as there are only so many spots we were allowed to purchase. As we''re just getting settled in, though, we only have one form of courtyard avable for everyone. They''re little four-bedroom houses with a small kitchte and living space. Will that be eptable?"
Reivyn looked to his twopanions, and receiving a nod from them both, he turned back to the young man. "That would be perfect. What''s the price?"
"Since these aren''t anything special, they''re not too expensive, but, at the same time, there aren''t too many of them. It will be 3 silvers per month."
Reivyn pulled out the coin purse his father had given him and pulled 12 silver coins out. His father had given him 50 silvers, enough to pay for an entire year, but Reivyn had no idea how long they would actually be staying here on this stint, and an entire year seemed like a long time for someone who had only spent 10 years alive so far. He also didn''t want to squander the money his father had given him, and he wanted to return as much of it as possible.
"We''ll go ahead and pay for four months," Reivyn said as he handed the coins over.
"Sure thing, just give me your adventurer tokens," he held his hand out for all three of them to hand their tokens over. Once he had them, he took out four different forms. He ced one token each on one of the forms, and for thest one, he ced all three tokens. Once done, he gave the tokens back while putting the coins away. He handed a copy of the forms over to Reivyn. "These are the contracts stipting that you are the ones staying in the courtyard. Here," he produced a key from somewhere. This is the key. The courtyard you have is number 7. Just head out, turn left, and it''s the fourth one on the left side of the road."
"Thanks, you''ve been a big help," Reivyn said as he took the key. "Is there a copy for them?" He indicated hispanions with a tilt of his head.
"I''m afraid not. That''s the only key at the moment. While you could get copies made yourselves, you''ll need to do so through the guild branch, and there will be an associated fee."
"It''s fine," Kimberly interjected. She looked at Teilon and Reivyn in turn, "It''s not likely that we''ll be in a situation where we''ll be separated and unable to get in." Reivyn nodded at her words.
"You''re right. Something to consider for the future if such a situation seems likely, though." Reivyn waved at the young man and took the papers and key, "Thanks again."
"No problem. Have a nice day."
The three regained their packs and made their way to the courtyard that was indicated. The guild building had been to the right of the square as they entered from the main road, so turning left had them heading back towards the outskirts on the other side of the camp.
Having said that it was the fourth building on the left made it seem like the courtyard was just right there near the central area, but that wasn''t the case. There was arge open space where a building would obviously be built some time in the future, but there was nothing there yet.
The three of them spent several minutes walking to where they could see the courtyards in the distance. Each of the houses were built exactly the same. They were small, square buildings with a chest-height wall built around them. There was space inside the walls for a short yard and training space, and there was enough room to drive a single cart in between each wall.
They made their way to the fourth building, the one with a prominent "7" disyed at the gate of the wall - the even numbered buildings were on the right side of the road - and Reivyn used his key to gain ess to the building. There was a wooden gate that could be closed at the wall, but as it stood empty, it had been open.
"Ahh, our new home," Reivyn said as he walked into the little living quarters. There were two small rooms off on either side of the central area, and the living space and kitchte were also fairly small. All in all, the building was about a quarter the size of his parents'' house in Magron.
"It''s a little cramped," Teilon said with a skeptical look. The building came furnished with one couch, and there was one bed and a chest of drawers in each room.
"More room, and, more importantly, more privacy, than a room at an inn," Kimberly remarked as she also followed them inside, closing the door behind them. "Don''t think that I don''t know what you''ve been thinking all the way here," she said with a knowing smirk towards Teilon. "Remember what my parents said to you before we left Haluville."
"Whaaaat? I''ve been nothing but a perfect gentleman this whole time. Back me up, here, Reivyn."
"Hmmm? Oh, keep your hands to yourself," Reivyn said. Teilon looked at Reivyn in shock with his mouth agape.
"Why does everyone assume I''m the bad guy?" Teilon said with mock hurt.
"Because you are," Kimberly said. She quickly left the two and headed to the room in the back left that she had imed for herself. "I don''t know why you''re just standing there in the doorway. You were the oneining the whole time about getting rid of these packs."
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Teilon said. He dashed to the room next to the one Kimberly went into with a nce at Reivyn.
Reivyn just chuckled at their antics as he moved to the back right room to deposit his things.
Home, sweet home, he thought.
Chapter 33: Dungeon Town
Chapter 33: Dungeon Town
Reivyn sat in meditation on his bed practicing his Mana Absorption Skill. He had found through constant practice that practicing Mana Cirction at night and Mana Absorption in the morning was the best fit for him. It was possible to practice both at the same time, but, even though the effect of increased energy one gained from absorbing mana didn''t linger after it was processed, it energized his mind and made it harder to fall asleep quickly in the evening. Conversely it worked wonders to wake him up in the morning.
The rate of absorption had increased noticeably over the past several days, and Reivyn wondered if he was on the verge of reaching the Expert threshold. It wouldn''t be the first time that his Skill Level raised substantially all at once after a period of umtion.
Reivyn could sense the different elements of mana more clearly with his eyes closed now that he had incorporated the method of sectioning off the mana into quadrants that his mother had told him about. He wasn''t actually seeing the mana, but he could faintly feel the different characteristics contained within the elements.
His brow creased as he contemted the topic. He was able to see mana in solid objects, barely, when he activated his Mana Sight, yet he couldn''t see even a hint of the mana circting around him when his eyes were closed. That doesn''t make any sense, he thought. When I look at my sword, I can see into the structure beyond just the surface, and that''s a solid metal. My eyelids are thin flesh.
He focused his mind on the characteristics present in the mana, and he mentally superimposed what the mana motes would look like in his vision. He had to focus on keeping the mental image aligned with the rotating mana quadrants, but after several moments of maintaining the alignment, something clicked and the mental image focused into rity and remained in ce all on its own.
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 2
Sense Mana (50 ->51)
Tier 3
Mana Sight (24 ->26)
Reivyn nodded his head in satisfaction. He turned his head around the room, and he was able to see the mana in the environment through his closed eyes. The Laurel Crown ced on top of his chest of drawers stood out as a little shining beacon. It must have been a mental block of some sort. I can see this being distracting when trying to sleep, so can I turn it off? With a mental flip, the Mana Sight turned off right away. It wasn''t difficult at all. He turned it back on and ended his meditation session.
Reivyn got up from his bed and looked around his small room. He still wasn''t able to seepletely through solid surfaces like the walls, but he was able to more easily see further into the surfaces. More porous objects didn''t hinder his vision like they had previously, though, and he was able to see the mana in the bed underneath the nkets and sheets lying on top.
I might be able to cultivate the ability to see manapletely unimpeded if I raise the Levels of my Skills high enough. It''s not true sight through solid objects, but it could definitely be useful.
His ability to Sense Mana through solid objects, though, had improved. Before his session, his Sense Mana would expand out from him and he could feel the mana within the box of his room. Now he could sense a bit of the mana that was in the living space as well aspletely outside of the house on the other side of the room, but it was currently only by a foot or so.
Reivyn went into themunal living area and made himself some breakfast. As he ate at the table, he sensed agitation in the movements of the manaing from Teilon''s room a second before the door opened and the boy himself walked through. He rummaged through the kitchte they had put their rations away in - filling it with proper ingredients for real meals would be one of the errands they would have to run soon - and prepared a breakfast for himself and Kimberly.
The noise of the breakfast preparations brought Kimberly out of her room, and, like before, Reivyn was able to sense right before she opened the door. I need to really practice these Skills. It could really reduce the possibility of ambush while delving the Dungeon in the future.
The three teenagers greeted each other, but otherwise they ate in silence. Teilon and Kimberly didn''t have Mana Skills, so they didn''t have the benefit of using Mana Absorption in the morning to assist themselves in waking up. Reivyn smirked at the sluggishness with which they moved.
"What are you smirking at?" Teilon wielded his jerky like a pointer as he jabbed it in Reivyn''s direction.
"Nothing," Reivyn chuckled. "I figured we could look at the notice board in the guild branch to see if there are any teams recruiting. We can go and check them out and apply to join any we think would be a good fit, and if there aren''t any we can post our own notice.
"I can do that on my own, and you and Kimberly can go out and see if there are any ces already set up that sell provisions for making real meals."
Teilon grunted in acknowledgment as he continued eating. Kimberly remained silent, but she would have spoken up if she disagreed.
"Here, you hold on to the key. It''s more important that you guys be able to get in with the supplies when you need to," Reivyn passed the key to the small house over to Teilon.
He quickly finished his breakfast and headed out the door to go search for a Party.
The noticeboard was filled with scraps of paper. Reivyn stood with several other people and perused the contents written on the notes pinned to the board. There were several established Parties seeking to bolster their ranks to delve the Dungeon, but most of them were only looking for one person, sometimes two.
Reivyn had spotted a couple of notices where a small group like theirs was seeking tobine, and he had made copies to go investigate exactly what their group was like. He would have to judge whether or not they would be a good fit for each other.
The notices included cursory information about the current party members like Level, ss, and what they were focused on such as defending, melee, ranged, etc. There were very few groups that already had someone who was considered a Caster ss or could manipte mana in a sufficient way to use it inbat. That didn''t mean that there weren''t a lot of Parties that had such individuals, it was more likely that they were full and weren''t seeking to bolster their ranks.
Seeking a Caster ss was the number one focus of the majority of notices that were only seeking one adventurer. The second floor has probably been at least scouted by this point by some of the morepetent Adventurer Parties, Reivyn thought.
Reivyn spotted several notices where a Party was selling information on the first floor, but there weren''t any on the second floor or beyond, if it existed. Makes sense that information on the second floor is more valuable being hoarded by those exploring there in the early stages. I bet that once more groups start treading down there more consistently, the front runners will start to sell information on the deeper levels.
Reivyn jotted down a couple more copies. He had found a total of six other groups consisting of two or three members seeking tobine with another small Party. They included instructions on where to find the groups in the local taverns or inns as they waited for their chance to delve.
The notices Reivyn had copied were ones belonging to groups that had simr power levels and experience as his group, from what he could gather on what was listed, but none of the notices included things like personality or background on the members. Weeding out who they could fluidly mesh with was the next step on Reivyn''s to-do list.
He nced over at another portion of the board, one with far less notices pinned to it, and was surprised to see that there were already missions pinned by some of the locals for Adventurer''s to procure certain supplies for them. There were several notices for ores that could be found on the first floor of the Dungeon, including one from the local garrison.
Knowing that the Count was acquiring the silver ore found from the Dungeon, most of the notices pinned from the locals were for a premium on the other ores that could be separated from the silver and used in crafting gear that could be sold back to the adventurers. There were even missions for Adventurers to go further up the mountain in search of monster parts and other resources that could be found in the mountain range.
Reivyn wasn''t interested in exploring further into the mountain range to procure herbs or special types of lumber at the moment, but it wasn''t outside the realm of possibility to do such a thing in the future, so he kept that in the back of his mind.
Donating the silver ore to the garrison could the Party either contribution points that could be redeemed for various things, like purchasing parcels ofnd, or they could just receive a mary remuneration. The contribution points weren''t limited to the local area, though. They could be redeemed anywhere in the County.
Reivyn exited the branch building. He swiped at his brow, expecting sweat to be forming, but his hand came back dry. Man, it''s really starting to get humid.
He made his way over to the closest tavern at the corner of the square leading to the front of the settlement. Reivyn could see three different taverns along the road, with thergest one being the one he headed to first. Not all of the taverns were attached to an inn, but this one was. It already stood three stories, and it was thergest building so far constructed.
They must have some backing elsewhere and really rushed to be the first and biggest. Just because most of the peopleing out to the little Dungeon Town in the very beginning were individuals seeking their fortune didn''t mean at least some of therger establishments weren''t already spreading their ws. There were different strategies employed: wait and purchase already built establishments or build it themselves.
Reivyn pushed his way through the entrance to the building, and the loud sounds from within immediately assaulted his senses. It wasn''t an out of control, drunk crowd that popted the floor of the tavern, but most of the tables were filled with people eating breakfast and conversing. Nobody was being excessively loud, but there was a big difference between the quiet, sparsely popted roads and a full tavern of people.
Reivyn pulled out the copies of the notices he had written down and scanned the crowd to search for the groups matching the descriptions on the paper. Three of the six notices he had pulled were located in this tavern, and they had said that they would be waiting inside for any interested Parties.
There wasn''t a continuous stream of servers threading through the tables to provide drinks like one could expect to find in the evening, but the staff was still attentive and the customers didn''t have to wait long for any of their needs to be seen to. Reivyn had only scanned the crowd once over when a female server approached him.
"Hi there, are you looking for an open table?" She asked Reivyn with a smile on her face. She was dressed identically to the other servers that Reivyn had seen, further solidifying in his mind that this was the branch of arger organization.
"Actually, I''m looking to meet up with some of the Parties that left notices in the guild branch," Reivyn said. He showed the server the pieces of paper in his hand.
"Oh, several of them have notified us of their intentions. Let me see if I can help you out real quick," the girl bent down to read the notices. "Ahh yes, two of these groups are on the floor, there and there," she pointed to the tables in question, and Reivyn followed her direction and quickly spotted the groups. "Thisst one is in a private room on the second floor, room three."
"Thank you," Reivyn said with a nod and a smile. The server girl gave him a return smile as he poked the papers back into his pocket.
Reivyn made his way through the crowd toward the first group. It was a Party consisting of three young men, and they wereughing uproariously about whatever tale was being told. The notice they had left indicated that they had one person who was focused on maintaining the enemy''s attention while the other two were ranged attackers.
The three men stoppedughing, but with smiles still on their faces, as Reivyn approached their table.
"What can I do for you?" One of the men said. He was therger of the three, and based on his armor choice and the shield propped up nearby, Reivyn surmised that he was the leader of the group, Cal.
"I saw your notice in the branch about wanting tobine Parties," Reivyn said while disying the note. "My name''s Reivyn, and my friends and I just arrived yesterday and we''re looking to join another Party. There''s three of us."
"Sure, sure, have a seat," Cal said with a smile. Reivyn sat down next to him. The other two gave him a once over and then returned their attention to watching the crowd. Reivyn followed the gaze of one of them and noticed that he wasn''t watching the crowd per se, but he was instead trying to surreptitiously ogle the serving girls.
"I''m Cal. What ss do you have and what''s your current Party makeup?" Cal asked. Reivyn returned his attention to the other young man seated next to him. The three of them were probably in theirte teens, and the notice had indicated that they were close to Level 20 Tier 2.
"I''m a Fighter, and my twopanions are Peasant Levies," Cal frowned in thought at the revtion. "Despite being technically in Tier 1, we all have Tier 2 sses, and we havebat experience. The three of us were actually present here during the excursion that formed the base." Reivyn produced his preferred ess token to show to the other young man.
"Hmmm..." Cal rubbed his chin while he thought about it. "You say you havebat experience, and you have proof right there, and I believe you, but what kind of experience do you have as an Adventurer?"
"I''ve personally cleared the first floor of the Dungeon while I was conscripted," Cal gave an appreciative nod at that revtion. "My two friends haven''t cleared the boss room of the first floor, but they''ve delved most of the way into it, and we''re all familiar with the first floor. Kimberly is focused on keeping the opponents focused on her, Teilon is proficient in slipping in behind and devastating from behind, and I''m currently focused on ranged attack, but I''m just as proficient performing any of the roles required of me."
Cal gave him a contemtive look while he tapped the table with his finger, lost in thought. Reivyn didn''t press him and just waited for him to work through the information he had been told, so he went back to watching the other two members.
One of the Party members had a dagger out and was twirling it with the tip stuck in the top of the table. He seemed to be lost in his own little world as he hunched in on himself and his activity. He''s probably not much of an outgoing person.
The first person Reivyn had observed, though, was in the middle of trying to coax one of the serving girls to get closer to him. He wasn''t acting out of hand or anything, but he was clearly a flirt. Might be some tension between him, Teilon, and Kimberly, Reivyn thought.
"Well, I''ll have to talk about it more with mypanions here," Cal indicated the other two, drawing Reivyn''s attention back to him. "I''m definitely intrigued by what you could bring to the table, and your first-hand knowledge of the Dungeon would be a big help, but," he paused and held his finger up for emphasis. "The fact that you''re all still technically in Tier 1 is a pretty big mark against you."
"I understand," Reivyn said as he nodded.
"I''m not saying we''re not interested, mind you," Cal continued. "But right now, we''re just interested. The Dungeon resets each week, so I think we''ll wait a couple of days to see if there''s anyone else that better fits with us, but if nobody shows, and, honestly, that''s likely, we''d be happy to do a run with you."
"I''ll have to talk to mypanions, too," Reivyn said, "but that doesn''t sound like a bad option. We''ll see where things go, and I''ll let you know if we reach an agreement with another group so you''re not waiting for us and expecting to team up if we''re not avable."
"I appreciate that," Cal said as he stuck his hand out. Reivyn reached out and sped hands with him as he stood up.
Reivyn turned his sight to the other group that the server had pointed out to him. The next group consisted of six people, and they were all sitting inplete silence, staring at the table in front of them.
Hmm.. they seem a little... dour, Reivyn mused to himself. Teilon was very much an upbeat person, and so was Kimberly to a lesser extent. This group gave Reivyn the feeling that they wouldn''t be a good match just from his first impression of them.
I can alwayse back again, I don''t have to meet up with them right away. Who knows, I might find a Party before I even need to consider them. Also, six seems a little strange to be looking to group up with. Their notice didn''t mention six people.
Reivyn''s gut feeling was that they weren''t the best option. It might even be a better idea to wait the couple of days on the chance that Cal and his group wouldn''t meet up with another Party.
Reivyn decisively turned towards the stairs and made his way up to the second floor. The tavern had a couple of rooms to stay in at the end of the second floor hall, but most of the rooms on the second floor were private dining rooms with the third floor being the main floor for people to sleep in.
Reivyn walked up to the room on the left with a big "3" carved on it and knocked. He could hear some muffled conversation from withine to an end.
"Come in," a muffled, feminine voice reached his ears.
Reivyn opened the door and stepped inside. There wasn''t much to the room except for a couple of simple decorations and a dining table in the center. There were three people seated at the table with the remnants of breakfast still on it: two young women and one young man, the inverse of his Party makeup.
"Hello, my name''s Reivyn and I''m here about the notice you left at the guild branch aboutbining Parties," Reivyn introduced himself.
The three people looked at each other before looking back at Reivyn. They looked him up and down briefly, noticing his gear and young age, but one of the youngdies nodded and indicated to an open chair.
"Have a seat," she said. Reivyn nodded and took his seat facing her. "My name is Melissa, Mel for short. What can you tell me about your group?"
Reivyn considered the girl in front of him before he responded. The notice had listed only that they ranged from Level 15-30 Tier 2, but it hadn''t said what their sses or focuses were. There was a distinctck of gear or weapons present, so Reivyn wasn''t able to guess their Party makeup, but he did get a faint sense of a higher concentration of mana being present in the two girls.
Likely to be Caster sses, or able to use mana, at least. Reivyn thought. It made sense to him that they wouldn''t directly advertise that on their notice. They would immediately be swamped with countless invitations to either join their group or possibly break it up.
"My friends and I just arrived yesterday, but we''ve been here before," Reivyn began. "We were part of the levies conscripted toe and press the Count''s im and establish this base, and I''ve personally cleared the first floor of the Dungeon, twice. I''m a Fighter, and my twopanions are Peasant Levies." Reivyn paused to gauge the response from the other party at that revtion, but Melissa kept a neutral expression. "Kimberly is the vanguard and is adept at maintaining enemy focus while luring them into a trap, and Teilon is adept at sneaking into that trap and attacking from behind. I''m currently focused on range, but I''m proficient at any role."
Reivyn looked at the other two seated in the room. The young man had an air of nonchnce, and he didn''t seem to really care about what was being said, but Reivyn picked up on the enthusiasm the other young girl disyed on her face. Probably at the mention of Kimberly''s name. I can see that she would be happier to group up with another Party not consisting entirely of men.
Upon closer examination of the others, Reivyn noticed that the two girls looked very simr to each other. They had the same auburn hair and green eyes, and their facial features, while not identical, clearly showed that they were sisters. Reivyn would ce Melissa around the age of 16, and the other girl seemed a bit younger. The young man apanying them didn''t look like he was a family rtion as he had dark brown hair and eyes, and he did not have simr facial features.
They didn''t say which one was Level 30 and which one was Level 15, but if I had to guess, the younger girl is the lowest level. It''s still pretty impressive that someone who''s 14 or 15 years old is already around Level 15 in Tier 2. Most of Reivyn''s squad mates in the Lord''s Retinue had been around 19 or 20 years old, and their levels were closer to 10 in Tier 2, aside from the NCO''s, of course.
"Judging by your aura," Reivyn continued, "I''m also willing to inform you that I have the Sense Mana and Mana Maniption Skills. I can use my mana offensively, though limitedly, inbat."
Melissa shared a look with her sister.
"Well, I see that our - " Melissa began.
"You''re hired!" The younger girl shouted out. Melissa rolled her eyes and gave her sister a withering look before turning back to Reivyn who was staring at the young woman in surprise.
"Don''t mind her," Melissa said. "As I was saying," she gave a stern look toward her sister who shrunk down in her seat with a sheepish look on her face, "it seems that you were able to sense our mana. Yes, my sister and I are Caster sses. I''m an Ice Mage, and Larissa, my sister, is a Fire Mage. They''re both Rare sses. Erik," Melissa nodded toward the young man, "is also a Fighter, but his role is vanguard."
"I see," Reivyn said with a nod. "I''m going to be upfront. My goal, personally, is to delve deeper into the second floor eventually, and I know that having a Caster ss in the Party is most likely a requirement. I''ll have to talk to mypanions, but I don''t think they''ll turn down an invitation to group up with you, so it''s all on you at this point."
"Yes, I think it would be best if we met up with yourpanions before we make any finalized deals, but my sister says she wants to join up with you, so we''ll reach a preliminary agreement then," Melissa said. Her way of speaking was veryposed, and Reivyn could tell that she had some formal education.
"Alright then," Reivyn said as he stood up. He shook Melissa''s hand. "My friends are procuring supplies at the moment, but I can bring them around this afternoon if that works for you."
"That works," Melissa replied. "We''ll be waiting for your return, and if all goes well, we could possibly be in the Dungeon tomorrow."
Reivyn smiled and waved his farewell to the two girls. Erik was still apparently not concerned, but Reivyn could feel the other man''s attention on him the entire time he had been in the room. He could hear the muffled conversation start back up once he closed the door.
Alright, that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, Reivyn thought. He had a smile on his face as he made his way back down the stairs. He wouldn''t tell Cal immediately that he had reached an agreement with another Party. It would be more prudent to wait until they officially merged.
If all goes to n, we could "officially" begin our Adventures tomorrow.
Chapter 34: Might and Magic
Chapter 34: Might and Magic
Reivyn and Teilon walked alongside each other as they emerged from the tunnel leading into the partitioned off sub-space of the Dungeon. Erik walked in front of them by himself, not really interacting with anyone, but he kept his head on a swivel as soon as they stepped out into the open. Kimberly walked with Melissa and Larissa behind the two boys.
Larissa hadtched onto the new girl almost immediately. Despite being at least a year older than Kimberly, Larissa acted a bit juvenile aspared to Kimberly. She''s probably been sheltered her whole life and used to acting in the role of the younger, precocious sister, Reivyn observed.
Reivyn wouldn''t say he could guess exactly what kind of situation the girls grew up in or what their background was, but he could surmise it was at least from a wealthy family. Kimberly, on the other hand, had grown up as a run of the millmoner, so she was a bit more world-weary.
"Hold up for a moment, Erik," Reivyn called out to the leading young man. Erik was attired in ted mail over chainmail, a step up above what themon soldiers wore and reminiscent of what the officers wore. He was armed with a kite shield that covered his torso from his shoulders to just below his groin and an arming sword.
Erik didn''t carry any long-reach weapons like a spear. In contrast Reivyn carried a spear, a sword, a shield, and a sling with an ammunition pouch. He also had his tessen squared away in his interior breast pocket. Teilon, likewise, was also armed with more than just his daggers, as he was also armed with a spear that he was walking with casually draped over his shoulders. Until they made it further down into the Dungeon and fought the more organized orcs, it made sense for Teilon to use the spear against the hordes of goblins they would find.
Erik came to a stop, but he kept scanning his surroundings. On the surface it appeared that he was ignoring Reivyn and hispanions, but Reivyn had learned better after interacting with the new group for a while. Erik seemed to be some sort of bodyguard, and he was always watching the surroundings while listening to everything that was going on around him. He didn''t interact with the other Party members, at least while Reivyn and the others were involved, but he always responded to any words directed at him.
"I''ll repeat what we''re likely to find in the Dungeon one more time before we go any further," Reivyn said as the three girls joined him and Teilon. "I''ve been in the Dungeon twice, and Teilon and Kimberly went into the Dungeon twice together, so that makes four separate instances. In every single case, we found the exact same thing: One goblin patrol near the surface, several branching hallways ending in open rooms of sleeping goblins with sentries, one mining room with goblins and orc overseers, and then the living quarters of the orcs followed by the boss room."
Melissa nodded her head with a serious expression on her face, and Larissa bounced back and forth on the balls of her feet in excitement.
"The method we used in our squad was to break up into groups of four to tackle the goblin rooms and leap frog our way down so as to progress as fast as possible, but we had 13 people in our squad. We only have six with us. I''m confident we could handle the goblin rooms if we separated into two groups of three, but for this run I think we should stick together the first couple of rooms so that we can see what the others are capable of."
"I agree," Melissa said. "We''ll watch how you guys handle the first room, and then we''ll show you what we can do with the second room. We can discuss further after that."
"Sounds like a n to me," Reivyn said.
The two groups had defaulted into having Melissa and Reivyn speak for them, and so far it had worked out well. Teilon and Kimberly were perfectly aware of Reivyn''s fighting prowess and his experience in the Dungeon, and they weren''t interested in jockeying for perceived power as the group leader, and Melissa was apparently used to being the one in charge of her group, and herpanions just naturally followed her.
"Alright," Reivyn concluded. "There''s nothing to find topside in the Dungeon, no monsters and no resources, so let''s just head into the cave. It''s up the slope a little ways."
Erik once more proceeded as the vanguard. Even though Reivyn had said there was nothing to find above ground, Erik never let his guard down. Reivyn nodded at the sight.
The group made their way into the cave and proceeded along the tunnels. Melissa and Larissa marveled at the the hazy illumination that followed them, having not seen something like it before.
Erik maintained his spot in the lead with Reivyn and Teilon right behind. It wasn''t necessary for Kimberly to assume her role as a vanguard just yet, so she continued to walk alongside the other girls. Teilon also acted responsibly and quit walking with his staff thrown across his shoulders, holding it in a more ready position.
The goblin patrol was quickly encountered, and Erik charged right into their midst and disyed an incrediblepetency with his sword and shield. He was just as able to bash his opponents using the shield as a weapon as he was at using it to deftly deflect any stray attacks that reached him. Reivyn and Teilon simply watched as Erik massacred the goblins in short order. They weren''t stunned into inaction, they just weren''t needed.
"Oh, oh, oh," Larissa eximed. "I wanna see!" Larissa had been too far back to actually watch the destruction that Erik had wrought on the little green pests. She was too short to see over or through the others who were standing in her way.
She quickly ran up to the group of dead goblins and bent down to inspect them.
"E, are these goblins?" She poked at one with her finger. It squished against the pressure, and blood seeped out of the wounds covering it. Larissa jumped up in shock and iled her hands around before rubbing them on her pants. "Gross, gross!"
"Larissa!" Melissa gave a low shout. She leveled a stern gaze at her sister as Larissa returned to her side, her head ducked and a sheepish grin on her face. "Compose yourself."
"A, you''re no fun," Larissa said as she grabbed her older sister''s hand. She swung it back and forth like a petnt child. Reivyn smiled at the antics as he was reminded of his own sisters.
"It''s fine," Reivyn said. "They are disgusting little creatures. But there''s way more of them where that came from. C''mon, let''s continue."
The group made their way to the first branching corridor in no time. Kimberly took her position in the front with Teilon slightly behind and to the side of her. He wasn''t equipped with a shield, so while he was going to act as a front meleebatant, he was going to mainly assist with Kimberly holding the brunt of the attention. Reivyn had his sling and ammunition in hand to help direct the flow of battle, but he was ready to step in at any time with either sword or spear if necessary.
While the squad that Reivyn had served in had mainly been focused on using the spear by itself and a sword and shieldbination, there was nothing preventing one from using their shield with their spear, and Kimberly had specially been training for such a situation. Her Levels in Peasant Levy had provided her with a higher Strength Stat than she would have been able to achieve as a Viger, so she had no problem with the weight and bnce of using the spear one-handed with a shield.
The trio led the way down the corridor. Reivyn temporarily took point so he could eliminate the sentry that would inevitably be sleeping at the entrance to the open room. Like he expected, the sentry was dozing in his usual spot, and as its nose was twitching at the intruding scent of the adventurers, struggling to wake up, Reivyn smashed its skull with a smooth stone from his sling.
Reivyn hooked his sling to his belt and drew his sword as Teilon attached his spear to his back and drew his daggers.
"Alright, our smell wakes them up pretty quickly, but Teilon and I will dash in to kill a few before returning to our spots at the hall entrance in order to thin the horde out a bit."
Melissa and her twopanions watched as Reivyn and Teilon activated their Sneak skills and dashed in silently to wreak havoc on several of the sleeping goblins before they were alerted to their presence. The duo killed three goblins each before one finally woke from the sounds and smells and released a piercing shriek. Reivyn and Teilon quickly dashed back to the hallway and took up their ces.
Kimberly expertly maintained the defense of the choke point, Teilon assisting in killing the goblins and keeping any from moving around Kimberly''s side to reach into the corridor. Reivyn pelted the goblins with his sling, keeping them from overwhelming Kimberly on the other side. Their synergy was in full form.
Reivyn felt he wasn''t actually needed too much, as Teilon and Kimberly pretty much had a handle on the situation all on their own. If they weren''t in such a favorable position with the walls of the corridor funneling the goblins together, he would have been required to put forth more effort, maybe even joining in at melee range. As it was, he decided he could experiment a little.
Reivyn grabbed a stone from his pouch and focused his intent on it. He infused the stone with his Earth Mana, and sent it hurtling into the goblin horde. Itpletely obliterated one of the goblin heads it smashed into, and it continued on to brain another that was behind the first. Reivyn nodded his head at the increased might of the projectile. It had only taken him about 20 mana points to perform the action.
Next, Reivyn wrapped a stone in Air Mana, and he sent that one flying soon after. This time the stone wasn''t given a more solid mass to smash through obstacles, but instead it sailed through the air at an incredible speed. It pierced right through four goblins in session and continued even after until it hit the far wall, disintegrating into smithereens at the impact.
Reivyn widened his eyes at the sight. He hadn''t expected it to contain so much lethality. I wonder what would happen if I do both? Infuse the inner part of the stone with Earth Mana and wrap the whole thing in Air Mana?
Reivyn put thought to action, and after draining 60 mana points, because using two different affinities wasn''t a simple one-plus-one equation, the stone shot through the goblin horde. Not only did it pierce through the goblins it encountered, the weight behind it actually created a small vacuum in its wake, and several of the nearby goblins were pulled off bnce.
Ok. It''s a bit expensive, so it''s not a viable option for ordinary encounters, but that move could definitely cause some serious harm to the ogre in the boss room. Reivyn was pleased with the results of his experimentation.
The battle quickly ended after that, and Kimberly and Teilon were only slightly winded from the exertion. The goblins weren''t much of a threat in this environment, and it took just a bit of effort and Stamina to wipe them out. The three quickly cleaned off the blood from their weapons and armor and turned to the three waitingpanions.
"Impressive," Melissamented. "Why would you put yourselves into a dangerous situation, though, at the beginning like that?"
"Yeah, it wasn''t necessary," Reivyn agreed. "We just wanted to disy our full capabilities to you. We wouldn''t normally do such a thing, but we figured showing you our Sneak Skills in action would give you a better understanding of what we can do with it. And we were never really in any danger performing such a maneuver." Reivyn shrugged.
"I see," Melissa said. "In that case, yeah, it makes sense. You said that this is the standard setup for several more rooms along the tunnels?" Reivyn nodded his head at the question. "Ok, we''ll take the next one and show you what we can do."
"Alright, let''s go," Reivyn said. "There''s not any loot to be found in any of these top rooms, so there''s no need to waste time looking. We can find some ores to harvestter in the mine."
The Party of six continued making their way down the tunnels, and Melissa and Larissa took up position directly behind Erik. Teilon took the opportunity to walk next to Kimberly and make some small talk before they reached the next corridor leading to the sleeping goblins. They didn''t need to maintain silence throughout their entire journey, but there was no reason to risk waking one of the sleeping sentries if they didn''t have to.
Erik walked down the corridor with his shield up and sword at the ready. Knowing what to expect ahead of them, Melissa held her hand out and a visible manifestation of mana swirled into a small projectile made out of ice. As soon as the next sleeping goblin sentry came into view, Melissa flicked her hand forward, and the ice shard pierced into its neck at a speed no slower than a released arrow.
Erik took up position at the choke point, and the two girls stepped up to channel their mana. Reivyn activated his Mana Sight to see if he could gain a glimpse into exactly what they were doing.
Complicated threads of ice and fire mana pulled together, respectively, made some intricate patterns at a zing speed. Reivyn widened his eyes at the disy. There''s no way I could Manipte Mana that quickly or precisely just with my passive Skills. They must be using their ss Skills assisted by the System to do such a thing. At mid Tier 2 Levels, I don''t believe their Skill Levels are so far above mine that they could do that freestyle.
Melissa threw both of her hands out in the direction of the goblins, and the mana she had umted shot out and spread over the surface of the floor, covering the entirety of the sleeping goblins. Reivyn''s group watched as the goblins didn''t just twitch their noses at the scents assaulting them, but their entire bodies started to shiver at the sudden cold.
Walls of ice extended up from the ground surrounding the perimeter of where the ice covered the floors, creating a smaller walled-in area inside the room. Larissa, beside her, had built up a raging inferno hovering between her hands, and as soon as the walls went up, she released it into the center of the goblins.
The ball of fire exploded, sending mes and a shockwave expanding out, but the walls of ice contained the force of the explosion, amplifying it as it bounced back into the center to devastate the goblins within several times over. The ice walls had been built in such a way that they were brittle, and the shock wave caused them to shatter and pelt the goblins further with shrapnel.
Complete silence met the group of six Party members. Not a single goblin had even woken up before they were killed by thebined might of the two Casters.
Larissa jumped up and pumped her fist into the air as she yelled, "Yeah! That''s how it''s done." She turned to the group with a wide grin on her face.
Melissa was much less exuberant, but she also sported a smile on her face as she turned to face Reivyn. Teilon and Kimberly stood staring, their mouths agape.
Reivyn scratched the back of his head as he took in the carnage.
"Yeah, that was way more impressive than what we did," Reivyn coughed.
"Don''t worry about it," Melissa replied. "My sister and I have been training together for a long time, and we have the Skills necessary to perform such a feat, though we can''t do it indefinitely."
"Speaking of, how much mana did that cost you?" Reivyn asked. "If you don''t mind me asking."
"It''s no problem. The Ice Bolt I initially cast cost me two Mana Points, but the spell I cast into the room was actually two spells Ibined into one that I refer to as the Ice Tomb. It''s the spell Slick Groundbined with Mana Walls, and at the area covered it cost 30 Mana Points each, so 60 mana."
"Oh, oh, oh, I used a custom spell, too!" Larissa said in excitement. "I also have Fire Bolt, and it''s basically the same thing as Mel''s, but I used Inferno st, which is abination of Inferno and Fire st. The spell cost is based on how much mana I umte as opposed to the area that Mel covers, but I also used 60 Mana Points."
Larissa struck up a pose to show how pleased she was with herself. Reivyn had to admit that witnessing those spells used together was an eye opener. He had seen Knight-Captain Reifold use some powerful spells before, but he was a high Tier 3, and these two girls were only one third of the way through Tier 2, yet they were able to do so much damage in such a short amount of time.
Reivyn didn''t know how much mana they had, but as Rare Caster sses with a focus on the Mental Stats, they were bound to have significantly higher mana pools than he had at the moment.
"There''s one thing I don''t understand," Reivyn voiced his doubts. "Why did your spells cost so few Mana Points? If I was capable of doing the same thing, I wouldn''t even have enough mana to do so, much less only expend 60 Mana Points."
Melissa chuckled at the question.
"Yeah, if I tried to do that with just Mana Maniption and no ss designed for it, no way would I be able to do so. Those were ss Skills, though, and the System handles the heavy lifting for us. We just guide, direct, and fuel the System''s actions, basically. That means that the mana usage is considerably less. It''s possible to perform the same spells without the help of the System, and it''s even possible for it to cost the same amount of mana. It would require an extremely high Mana Maniption Skill, as well as a very high elemental affinity, though."
"Hmmm... yes, I can see that," Reivyn said while rubbing his chin in contemtion. "I guess I''ll have to just stick to my little tricks while training up my affinities and Skills."
"Oh? Are you going to try and unlock a Spellde ss or something simr?" Melissa asked. The group didn''t have anything to clean up or search, so they spoke as they walked down the corridor.
Reivyn and Melissa walked together, Erik was out front, and Larissa was bouncing around Teilon and Kimberly, pestering the couple with, "Did you see? Did you see? I was awesome," over and over. Kimberly was amused by her antics and yed along with the other girl with a twinkle in her eyes. Teilon walked along with a sullen expression, as this was his valuable "alone time" with Kimberly, but he didn''t voice any discontent. He was also incredibly impressed by the disy of raw power.
"I''m not too sure, yet, but I know that I want my next ss to be focused on mana and my Mental Stats. My Mental Stats were actually my highest inherent Stats, but due to circumstances outside of my control, I was forced into the Fighter ss at Tier 1. I''ll tell you the whole story some other time when we''re out of the Dungeon.
"I''m notining, mind you. I spent a lot of time training in weapons and on my Physical Stats, so much so that I hit the wall of diminishing returns a long time ago, but I don''t want my other talents to go to waste."
Melissa''s eyebrows raised and she gave an appreciative murmur at the revtion.
"Well, I can tell you that Mage is the Umon Tier 2 ss focused on mana, but they don''t get any powerful spells at all. They basically only get the basic Magic Bolt spells of the basic affinities and an elerated growth in their mana Skills. An elementally focused Mage, like my sister and I, is of the Rare variant. We give up the easy usage of the other elements in favor of one, but the tradeoff is well worth it.
"We get ess to powerful spells assisted by the System as you have seen, but we also get an increased control of Mana Maniption in our chosen element, which lets us experiment with freestyle usage. I could cast the same spells freestyle at only about three times the cost, though that''s because I''ve studied the spell structures extensively. Starting off, or if someone didn''t investigate their spells, the increased ability wouldn''t be enough to offset the cost."
"So does that mean that you''re going to be focused on an ice-attributed Caster ss going forward?" Reivyn''s interest was piqued.
"Not at all," Melissa chuckled. She reached out and touched Reivyn''s shoulder as she replied. The gesture was friendly andpletely natural. "Selecting an elementally focused ss doesn''t exclude their other elements in the future, but it does elerate the growth of that affinity while I have the ss.
"My sister and Ie from a family that has high affinity in both ice and fire elements, and we train together not just to increase the synergy of our spells, but because we can observe each other''s spells and Mana Maniption in tandem. We''re working towards an Epic Tier 3 ss of duality between ice and fire. Several of our family members have gone through the same route going way back in our lineage, so we have an urate road map to achieve our goals."
"That''s fascinating," Reivyn said. "My dad has a Martial Combat ss and my mother has a Caster Combat ss. My sisters have shown some promise with mana, as well, but they''re still only six years old, almost seven. They''re twins, by the way."
Reivyn didn''t feel anypunction in revealing this information as he wasn''t going into any specifics, and he wasn''t likely to team up with Melissa and Larissa for years toe. They would most likely never meet his family, and the other person''s charisma made Reivyn feelfortable around his new Party members.
"So, you sound like youe from a fairly prominent background," Reivyn remarked while looking at Melissa out of the corner of his eyes.
Melissa smiled at the obvious leading statement. "I''ll tell you some other time when we''re out of the Dungeon."
"Right. Well, since we''re still in the Dungeon, let''s decide what to do next," Reivyn replied. "I say we break up our groups andbine them so we all get a chance at working together. Next room we can have Kimberly, Teilon, and Larissa handle the goblins. Then you, Erik, and I can take the room after."
"That sounds like a good idea," Melissa agreed. "I think we should take a couple of rooms like that so we can have a chance to practice together, then we can switch it up again. We also need to have Kimberly and Erik fight side by side at some point, as well."
"Agreed," Reivyn said.
He looked forward to working with this new group. If everything worked out well, he might not have to search for a higher level Party to explore the next floor of the Dungeon. With the power that Melissa and Larissa showed earlier, it should be feasible to put up a fight with what they could potentially find in the depths, as long as it wasn''t anything ridiculous. Even then Reivyn was confident they would be able to work together to escape in such a situation.
Reivyn smiled as the pieces to his goal of gaining sufficient Life Experience were falling into ce.
Chapter 35: Magical Mashup
Chapter 35: Magical Mashup
The stink of unwashed goblins, blood, and excrement filled Reivyn''s nose. He had long gotten used to it, so he wasn''t in any danger of getting nauseous, but the same couldn''t be said for Larissa.
Reivyn had to step up next to Kimberly to assume a melee role once they split their groups up. He had already conducted a few rounds ofbat with Melissa. Everyone had gotten a gauge of how to work well with each other with the exception of Kimberly and Erik both acting as the vanguard together. This would be the final, necessary step in order to tackle the boss room.
Reivyn could hear Larissa huffing and puffing in displeasure behind him as they fought off the goblin horde. He snuck a quick nce behind him to see how well she was doing. She was holding her shirt cor up above her nose in an attempt at anything to stem the strong smells from assaulting her. By the sounds she was making and the frown on her face, Reivyn could tell it wasn''t working.
Reivyn continued the almost mindless ughter of the goblin horde. With his abilities and theirck of any, he didn''t have to maintain too much focus on the task at hand in order to perform properly.
He mused on the abilities of the two Casters they had found themselves teamed up with. While they weren''t as powerful without pairing up, the two girls were stillpetent spell casters, and where Melissacked in lethality, she made up for in utility.
When he had been paired up with her, she had expertly used her Slick and Ice Wall spells to trip up, cut off, and direct the goblin horde''s movements. Barriers of ice had sprung up to separate the enemy into smaller units, and the icy ground caused them to il about without being able to even build up any momentum in charging them. While Reivyn and Kimberly were able to easily dispatch the units funnelled to them, Melissa had continued to attack individual goblins with her Ice Bolt spell.
Larissa, on the other hand, was pure destruction. While she couldn''t reproduce the rebounding force and shrapnel effect of theirbined might, her custom Inferno st spell was still plenty lethal. She would umte the spell in her hands as they made their way to the open room, and then she would release it into the center of the sleeping goblins. It didn''t kill everything, but it did put down over half of them.
Her expenditure in mana in that opening attack was much more than what Melissa would do, though, so she spent the rest of the battles trying to prevent the stink from reaching her.
Reivyn and Kimberly quickly killed the remnants of the room and ended thebat. Larissa didn''t even wait to be told as she immediately sprinted several yards away until she could breathe rtively fresher air. Reivyn watched in amusement as she gulped huge breaths to recover.
"You''ll get used to it," Reivyn said with a smile.
Larissa gave him a sideways re.
"I don''t want to get used to it! Bleh," she spit. "Why did we have toe all the way out here just to fight some stinking goblins?" Her enthusiasm at encountering the little green critters had quickly waned after a couple of hours in the cave system.
"Yeah, why did youe all the way out here to ''fight some stinking goblins?''" Reivyn asked as they walked down the corridor.
"School credits," Larissa replied. She looked over at Reivyn when there was no response, and the look on his face was one of expecting more of an answer. "We''re students of the Magic Academy in the Capital. We can get school credits through ''adventuring'' and delving dungeons. We came all the way out here because we can get bonus points."
"Bonus points?"
"Yeah. We can get more points from gaining more Life Experience, and not only does delving a newly established Dungeon grant more LE, but the entire trip out here goes into the calction. Considering the long trip out here adds more points and isn''t just a huge waste of time in itself, my sister proposed toe delve this Dungeon."
"I see," Reivyn said. He would have to pick their brainster about the Magic Academy. It also wouldn''t hurt to gain some friends beforehand. Having acquaintances in the Academy and Capital would really make things a lot easier on him in the future.
Now wasn''t the time to go into the details of the Academy, though, as they were still in the midst of their delve. Reivyn didn''t want to distract Larissa, or her other twopanions, from focusing on the task at hand.
"There''s something I want to try in the next room," Reivyn said to Larissa. "There''s something I''ve been thinking about for a little while now ever since your sister exined how the System operated the ss Skill Spells, but your sister''s affinity isn''t quite appropriate for what I want to try out."
"Oh, oh, oh, what do you want to do?" The prospect of doing something different with her mana got Larissa excited again.
"It''s nothing much on your part," Reivyn said. Larissa sighed as she calmed down from the cold damper Reivyn had put on the topic. "Your sister said that one of the reasons your ss Spells cost so much less is because the System does the heavy lifting while you guide and fuel it." Larissa nodded at his statement. "Following that line of thinking, I thought that there might be a way for us tobine our mana, and I can guide and fuel your spell.
"Basically, I''m going to coat my sword in pure mana, and I want you to try and ignite the mana with your Inferno Spell and see if I can keep it going independently of you."
"Hmmm..." Larissa tapped her chin in thought. "I think that could work. Everyone in the Magic Academy is a Caster ss, so there''s really no option for them to experiment like this, but I''m sure you''re not the first one to think of such a thing. Even if we can''t get it to work, I''m sure your idea is feasible."
"Yeah, I didn''t think I was breaking any new ground here. I''m just trying to learn as many things as I can on my own."
"Alright, let''s do it!" Larissa pumped her fist.
Reivyn chuckled at the other''s actions. It felt like she was the youngest person on the team, and Reivyn had to constantly remind himself that he was, in fact, the youngest person in the group. Larissa was even older than Kimberly and Teilon. She just has that kind of a personality.
Larissa quickly made her way to Kimberly''s side, and the two girls conversed with their heads together as Reivyn led them further into the Dungeon.
Reivyn had decided to conduct his experiment with his sword instead of the spear for a couple of reasons. First, it was a mana sword and would conduct his mana a lot easier than any of his other weapons, and, second, his spear was made of wood and he was afraid it would catch on fire.
There was only one more room for them before they reached the mining room, and since they were going to join back up once more with the other three at that point, this was thest goblin room they had for Reivyn to attempt his idea.
They quickly made their way to their next destination, and after Reivyn silently dispatched the sentry with his sling, they all stopped short in order to try and ignite his mana.
Reivyn concentrated as he sent his mana into the sword. It was indeed very simple for him to conduct his mana through the mythril core of the sword, but the mana was inside the sword. That wouldn''t work for the idea he had, so he concentrated again and expanded the mana to coat the edges of the weapon.
Once he had it, it didn''t take too much mana to maintain. Since he wasn''t using any elemental mana and he was conducting it through a mana sword, it only cost him two Mana Points per second to hold.
"Alright, I''m ready," Reivyn said.
Larissa frowned at the sword as she activated her Mana Sight and directed her base Inferno Spell into the mana coating the sword. It caught fire and spread to surround the entire sword, and Reivyn could feel the drain on his mana tick up a point as he began fueling the fire.
"Sess!" Reivyn eximed. Larissa pped her hands in glee. He hadn''t expected it to be so simple and easy, but his joy was quickly cut off as he encountered a different problem.
"Hot, hot, hot!" Reivyn eximed. The heat from the Inferno Spell was no joke, even with the small amount being fueled on his sword. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Reivyn threw up a screen of mana infused with the water element. It acted as a heat sink between him and the fire, and he was immediately spared from the heat.
"Whew, that was close," Reivyn said. If he hadn''t acted to throw up the thin barrier, he would have had to give up on the mana fueling the Inferno Spell. A blinking light caught his attention, and he quickly pulled up his notifications.
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 3
Mana Maniption (18 ->20)
Tier 4
Mana Weapon (9 ->11)
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3
Mana Shield (1)
Interesting. That mana screen counts as its own unique Skill, and the new technique seems tobine easily with my Mana Weapon Skill. That''s probably why we seeded so easily. Reivyn could feel that his ability to maintain the thin Mana Shield got easier once the Skill unlocked.
"Alright, let me try out the might of thisbination," Reivyn said.
He stepped up to the choke point and whistled. There was no reason to wait for the goblins to slowly wake up on their own. That would just deplete more of his mana. Reivyn indicated to Kimberly to wait behind him for now.
Reivyn stood with his shield raised and his sword at the ready. He locked the position of the Mana Shield to rotate around his body but always be between him and the ming sword. Kimberly and Larissa stayed further away, just at the edge of the heat radiating from the weapon.
The goblins quickly woke up at the intrusion. They shrieked as they massed together and charged toward Reivyn.
Before they even reached halfway to him, Reivyn shed out with his sword while simultaneously infusing a huge burst of mana into it. With his willpower, he directed the new mana to extend from the tip of his de, and a huge scythe of fiery death reaped through the goblin horde. All of the goblins hit with the fiery de were cut in half. The two halves of their bodies were instantly cauterized.
Reivyn released his hold on the mana with surprise. He had instantly in the entire room full of goblins, but it hade with a price. Fueling the Inferno Spell out to such a reach, plus what was already being used to maintain it, had sucked almost 80% of Reivyn''s Mana Points out of him in that brief moment. A splitting headache immediately assaulted him, and he cupped his head in his hands with a groan.
"Wow..." Kimberly was left speechless.
"That was awesome!" Larissa bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. She looked over to Reivyn to congratte him on his sessful use of thebination, but she saw him crouching down in pain. "Oh! That must have cost a lot of mana," she quickly ran over and ced her hands on either side of his head.
Reivyn''s head was pounding, and he was barely aware of his surroundings as he tried to focus on recovering from the sudden expenditure of almost all of his mana. Suddenly, he felt a gentle pressure on either side of his temples followed by a warm trickle of mana that immediately caused his headache to recede a considerable amount. It was still there, but it wasn''t all epassing any longer.
Reivyn took in a deep breath as he straightened up. The headache began to increase in intensity right away, though, and he winced at the difort.
"No, no, no," Larissa admonished him. "You''re suffering from a bacsh of using too much of your mana too fast. As students in the Magic Academy, my sister and I have a lot of experience with such a thing. Crouch back down and let me continue infusing mana.
"While I can''t replenish your Mana Points directly, the presence of my mana coursing into your system will alleviate the headache until you regain enough for it to go away on its own."
Reivyn grunted in acknowledgement and quickly squatted back down. Larissa put her hands back on his head and continued to help him get through the bacsh. From the sounds of what Larissa said, it would take several minutes for him to recover, so Reivyn pulled up his notifications once again.
Achievement!
Unlock a ss Skill of a different ss!
Through the maniptions of your own mana, you were able to figure out and execute a ss Skill from a different ss as your own!
ss Skill Unlocked!
me de (10)
Due to the circumstances of unlocking the ss Skill, it is avable to you in any Martial or Caster ss, and its base level and growth rate are enhanced.
Reivyn was shocked at the contents of the notification. He didn''t know it was possible to acquire other ss Skills.
Since it''s possible to acquire other ss''s ss Skills, it should be possible to unlock my current ss Skills as permanent, too. But since I already have the System assisting me in doing them, and I don''t know how it performs the Skills, how do I go about doing that? Reivyn refocused his mind on the notification as there was more.
Achievement!
Unlock a ss Skill of a higher Tier ss!
Error. Calcting...
Tier 2 ss in Tier 1
Precedent Exists
Unlocked a ss Skill two Tiers higher than current Tier!
All Stats +3
Nice! This will reduce my Stat requirements even further. Reivyn was ecstatic at the notification. One of the main goals he had set for himself was to not only gain the Mental Stats required to unlock a good Tier 3 ss, but he also needed to umte Achievements and Life Experience. He hadn''t even been trying to aplish any kind of special feat with his actions, so this was an unexpected boon.
"Ahem," a cough brought Reivyn out of his thoughts. "What''s going on here?"
Reivyn opened his eyes and turned his head to see Melissa standing with her arms folded, ring at him. He came back to himself and realized that his head was currently being cradled in Larissa''s embrace. When did she hug my head to her? I thought she just had her hands alongside my temples. He had been too focused on his notifications and hadn''t noticed the change.
Larissa removed her hands and jumped away from Reivyn. "It''s not what it looks like!" She waved her hands out in front of her as Melissa tapped her foot on the ground with an eyebrow raised. "Heshed his back, and his points were low mana, and, and..." Larissa was so flustered that she waspletely incoherent.
Melissa couldn''t hold her stern expression any longer and startedughing at her sister''s failed attempts at exining the situation.
"It''s ok," she said while still chuckling. "I could tell what you were doing from the very beginning. It''s not the first time I''ve seen someone treat a bacsh from mana expenditure. We felt a huge surge of mana being used over here, so we came to investigate. I put two and two together."
Larissa stomped her foot and thrust her fists down by her side.
"Hmph! You made me feel self conscious about helping someone." Larissa turned her head to the side and lifted her chin. "I''m not talking to you."
Luckily the increase in his Mental Stats hade with an increase in his Mana Points, so Reivyn''s headache reduced to a slight throb on its own, and he no longer needed Larissa''s assistance in staving off the pain.
Melissa walked up to Reivyn and put her hand on his forehead while she surveyed the carnage in the room. She infused a trickle of her mana through Reivyn''s head as she gave a low whistle at the sight of the bisected goblins.
"Whatever it was you did was sure effective," she said.
"Well, I don''t mind telling you," Reivyn said. Melissa looked at him with expectation. "I coated my sword - you''ll notice it''s a mana sword if you take a look - in pure mana and had your sister ignite it with her Inferno Spell. It worked and I took over fueling the magic. It wasn''t too difficult to maintain at only about 3 Mana Points a second.
"I had to quickly improvise a Mana Shield made of water element to protect myself from the heat, though," he continued with an embarrassed smile. "What really cost a lot of mana was when I decided to see if I could extend the me de out past my sword. It drained 80% of my mana in an instant, but you can see for yourself how well it worked."
"Yes, that makes sense. Fusing our mana together will be one of the ways Larissa and I will unlock our Epic ss," Melissa replied.
"I didn''t know that," Larissa said as she looked over at her sister. "I only knew we had to train together a lot to learn from one another."
"Well, you just haven''t reached that point in your education, yet," Melissa said to her sister with a smile.
"Oh right," Larissa said as she resumed facing the other way with her head tilted up. "I forgot. I''m not talking to you."
Melissa rolled her eyes at her sister''s antics.
"Ok, I should be able to recover my mana well enough on the way to the boss room," Reivyn said as he began walking down the hall. They resumed their earlier "formation" with Erik in front, Reivyn walking next to Melissa, and Kimberly and Teilon were inundated by the exuberance from Larissa.
"The next room will be the mine. It will be mostly goblins, but there will be several orc overseers, as well. Following that will be the living quarters of the orcs. With all of us together, I don''t see there being any problems. We''ve all gotten a good look at what everyone is capable of, and the following rooms will be good for Kimberly and Erik to practice their coordination, which will be necessary for the boss room."
"You n on clearing the boss room?" Melissa asked with some surprise.
"Sure, ourbat strength is definitely higher than the requirement to defeat it," Reivyn nodded his head.
"Didn''t you have 13 people in your squad when you cleared it?"
"Yeah, but we didn''t have magic," Reivyn smiled. "Speaking of, I think I''vee up with a good n for the boss. This is what we''ll do..."
Reivyn and his party stood at the entrance to the boss room, performing one final check on all of their gear and making sure they were full on mana. They had gone over the steps they were going to take to defeat the monsters guarding the second floor, and Reivyn was content that everyone knew what their role was.
The Party had made quick work of the preceding rooms. The mining room had been incredibly simple. The goblins were dealt with using a less powerfulbination of Ice Tomb and Inferno st, and then the orcs had been singled out into one-on-onebat with the use of ice walls erected by Melissa.
None of the orcs, in the mine or any of the living quarters, had been able to put up any kind of sufficient defense against their onught, and Kimberly and Erik had learned how to divide up the vanguard position between the two of them in short order.
"Alright," Reivyn said as he looked over the Party. "Everyone knows what to do. This shouldn''t be hard, and even if things don''t go ording to n, it still shouldn''t be hard with the amount of fire power and teamwork we''ve developed." The rest of the Party members nodded. "Let''s go."
There were no inspiring speeches or attempts to improve morale. It wasn''t needed. Everyone was in high spirits and confident in their abilities.
Erik and Kimberly led the group forward. They traveled in a double column with Reivyn and Teilon behind the two vanguards, and the two sisters brought up the rear. They were already umting their spells between their hands.
A furious roar shook the ceiling, dust falling on the heads of the Party, and a bowed over ogre, too tall for the head space avable, came charging forth from the darkness, the two orcs holding the chains to its wrists being dragged behind it. It was exactly the same as the other two times Reivyn had been here, and his confidence in the n soared.
The four people in front of the two sisters abruptly spread apart, allowing a clear line of sight for Melissa. She threw her hands forward, and the ground was covered in ice for a long swathe in front of the ogre, finally popping up in a short wall directly in its path. Its foot mmed into the ice wall, but instead of being built with shrapnel in mind, Melissa had reinforced this one.
The ogre tripped andnded face first on the icy ground in front of it. Its momentum from the charge carried it sliding towards the Party, the two orcs being slung around like sacks.
Erik and Kimberly stepped forward with their shields raised to engage the two helpless orcs, and Reivyn and Teilonunched their spears in the javelin style at the downed ogre. The spears pierced into the shoulders of the ogre, immobilizing its arms, and it gave a loud, angry shout at the sudden burst of pain.
Teilon took off running in front of Reivyn, and he leaped onto the back of the still sliding ogre, driving his daggers into the small of its back where the kidneys would be located. Reivyn wasn''t standing still, either, and he dashed forward and stabbed into the back of its neck, severing its spinal cord.
The ogre''s body stiffened as all of its muscled locked at once before it rxed into death.
Erik and Kimberly, likewise, easily dispatched the orcs that had been dragged along with the ogre. Reivyn looked up, deeper into the room, as he knew it wasn''t over yet.
While they were finishing off the ogre, the two Caster sisters hadn''t been idle. Melissa had already formed a " /" shape with her ice walls to funnel in the remaining orcs that had been waiting just outside the range of the ambient Dungeon lighting, and Reivyn could see the final adversaries already charging towards their doom.
The two sisters had created another Ice Tomb setup, and Reivyn watched as Larissa threw her Inferno st into the midst of the screaming orcs. The st devastated the monsters, but they weren''t nearly as weak as their goblin counterparts. Only the orcs in the center that took a direct st to the face died immediately, but they were all knocked down.
"Let''s get in there and finish them off!" Reivyn yelled.
The four meleebatants charged at the struggling orcs. Most of them were dazed and only rolled around on the floor, bleeding, but several that were on the very outskirts of the st area were attempting to stand up. These were the orcs that were targeted first, and none of them managed to put up a fight.
The boss room was cleared within a minute of the group entering it.
"Hah! Too easy," Reivyn said with a grin. He high-fived Teilon, and the three girls shared a joyous hug. Erik maintained his vigil as he stared at everything else around them.
"So," Melissa said as she stepped away from the other two girls and faced Reivyn. "Want to take a peek at the second floor?"
Chapter 36: The Dark Damp
Chapter 36: The Dark Damp
Reivyn looked through the doorway that had opened up after they defeated the boss room. There was a clear demarcation as the color of the floors and walls were a dark, dark gray as opposed to the earthy browns of the cave system on the first floor. The walls and floor were made of brick and were clearly man-made.
The ambient lighting was dimmer and only extended to twenty feet into the distance. A warm wind blew into Reivyn''s face as he stood at the precipice. The air was thick and harder to breathe. A fetid stink wafted from the depths.
Reivyn looked behind him to Melissa, and she nodded at his unasked question. Reivyn had taken up position with sword and shield next to Erik, and the two of them would lead the way with the two girls following behind. Teilon and Kimberly had opted out of exploring further.
"Alright, we''re likely to find monsters that are immune to mundane attacks down here. Those monsters will be high Tier 3, but with the lowered mana density, they''ll be weakened," Reivyn said.
"How do you know that? As far as I can tell, there''s no information found anywhere about the lower floor, yet," Melissa asked.
"I was part of the unit that built the camp initially," Reivyn said. Melissa nodded at his words; they had already been over that. "What I didn''t tell you was that there was a demon attack from the depths. A giant demon tore through the ground, and several Revenants crawled out of the hole it made."
Larissa gasped and put her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with astonishment. Erik actually nced over and took an appraising look at Reivyn at the words.
"Most of the soldiers were debilitated and unable to fight back at all, but themander, Knight-Captain Reifold, is a high level Pdin. He fought and defeated the giant demon while the Adjutant, Knight-Lieutenant Brand, defended him from the Revenants. I have a skill that allowed me to resist the mental fear induced, and I was able to fight off a Revenant, too."
"Wow, that''s impressive. You said that they were weakened due to theck of mana density? I can''t see any other way you could survive from a Level 50 Tier 3," Melissa queried.
"Yeah, it moved really jerky and slow. If I took my eyes off of it, though, it would quickly close the gap and attack. I got knocked back and tumbled for several yards just from one attack that I blocked with my shield. If they weren''t in that weird, jerky state when I was watching them, I wouldn''t have stood a chance. The attacks with my sword just bounced off it, and I got lucky that I could use mana as a weapon.
"I made a brick of earth mana, as that was all I had time to concentrate on, and it smashed through its legs pretty easily. Once it was crippled and unable to move very well, I drove a mana de into its skull where its core of mana was animating it.
"What took me several desperate minutes to aplish against one of them, Knight-Captain Reifold cast one spell and destroyed over a dozen at once."
"Ok, so focus spells on the skull. Got it," Melissa said. "If they''re in that weakened, jerky state that you mentioned down here, it shouldn''t be a problem for the four of us to take on one or two at a time. If we encounter more than that at once, we should re-evaluate and possibly retreat. No reason to take any chances. We''re just taking a peek, after all."
"Sounds good to me," Reivyn said.
"I hope they don''t stink," Larissa muttered. Melissa nudged her with her elbow. "What? I can tell it''s going to be a chore already," Larissa said indignantly.
"Smells won''t kill you," Melissa rolled her eyes.
"That you know of!" Larissa refuted. "What if it causes me to gag, and then I choke, and then I''ll die! Smells can absolutely kill you!" Larissa stuck her tongue out at her sister.
"I''ll be sure to let mom and dad know that you sumbed to the stench when I get home. We''ll hold a proper memorial for you with incense and everything tomemorate your courage in the face of odor."
"Now who''s being ridiculous?" Larissa poked her sister in the side.
The banter between the sisters helped Reivyn calm his nerves at the prospect of heading into the dangerous area of the Dungeon. He nodded to Erik, and the two of them stepped over the threshold to the second floor, shields up and swords at the ready.
The air was damp with moisture, and Reivyn could see water dripping from cracks between the bricks. The walls were slick with condensation in many ces, and scraggly moss could be seen growing in patches.
The hall stretched on in a straight path, no longer angling downward like the previous cave tunnels. There were no monsters or anything for the first several yards, but Reivyn and Erik never let their guards down. The chit chat between the siblings had ceased as soon as they had begun their scouting excursion.
Reivyn walked along for a couple of minutes before he spotted the first thing that stood out as unusual. A skeletony on the ground at the edge of their ambient light. Rotting leather armor and rusted mail encased the bones, and a broken sword was clutched in its hand. A round shield was resting on top of the pile of bones.
Reivyn activated his Mana Sight, and he let out a breath he hadn''t known he''d been holding when he saw that there was no mana core in its skull ready to animate it.
"Not a Revenant," Reivyn whispered to hispanions. They nodded as the group continued on. A cursory look at the skeleton showed that there was nothing to be gained from looting it.
It looks like the remains of an ancient adventurer exploring the caves. If he died down here, though, that means there''s something that can kill. This isn''t a maze, so he obviously didn''t get lost and starve to death.
The Party stepped past the lone skeleton and continued their way down the hall. It was eerily quiet. The sounds of the dripping water echoed off the walls, and Reivyn could hear the breathing of his group.
Soon the quiet was broken by the sound of something shuffling ahead of them. Reivyn adjusted his grip on his sword and shield, his sweaty palms causing his hands to slip a bit.
A skeleton came walking down the hall at the edge of their vision. It didn''t have any armor on at all, but it carried a cleaver simr to the ones the orcs used. Reivyn frowned at the sight of the moving bones. It didn''t appear to be a Revenant as he couldn''t sense the powerful emanations from its core.
He activated his Mana Sight, and, with the gains he had previously made that allowed him to see slightly beyond solid surfaces, he could make out the tiny marble of ck mana in its skull. It wasn''t nearly asrge as the one he had seen from the Revenant, and it didn''t give off nearly as noxious of a feeling.
"That''s not a Revenant," Reivyn whispered. The skeleton had already seen the group and made a beeline to them, but it was still walking in a rambling shuffle.
At the words spoken by Reivyn, Erik dashed forward andshed out with his sword. Erik was unable to use mana Skills, but he was very adept with his swordsmanship. The skeleton moved very slowly as it attempted to parry the attack, but it just wasn''t able to move quick enough. Erik''s sword seamlessly sliced through its spinal cord at the neck, and the skeleton copsed in a heap.
Reivyn observed the skull of the skeleton, and despite there not being any indication of where it was looking, he could feel its gaze as it was angled up towards him where it sat on its body. It wasn''t dead yet.
"The mana core in its skull is still intact," Reivyn directed toward Erik. The other man nodded, and with a quick thrust, he jabbed his sword into the top of the skull, destroying the core. The mana dissipated into the air as Reivyn watched, and he finally nodded. "It''s dead. Well... you know what I mean."
"It''s unalive?" Larissa ventured. "No, that still doesn''t make sense. It''s dead-dead?" She looked off to the side with her finger against her lips as she considered the options.
"Let''s just go with dead," Melissa said with a roll of her eyes. "We all know what we mean when we say that."
"You''re no fun," Larissa harrumphed.
Reivyn joined Erik again and the group continued walking down the hall. Reivyn heard the tell-tale sounds of wandering skeletons again just a few short yards further down the hall.
A group of seven skeletons came into view this time. They were again devoid of the strength found in the Revenants, and they all had a motley assortment of weaponry. They mostly carried variations of a sword or other ded weapons.
Erik didn''t charge forward this time, as it was inappropriate to break up the two-man shield wall they had to protect the unarmored girls behind them. They slowly advanced towards the iing undead, and when they were in range, Erik and Reivyn stabbed forth with their swords simultaneously, jabbing them up through the mouths of the respective skeletons they had targeted.
They recovered their stance and blocked the iing attacks from the other skeletons. A barrage of fire and ice bolts flew over the two vanguards and demolished the skulls of the remaining five skeletons.
"This is too easy," Larissa said.
"Don''t say that!" Reivyn gave her a sharp look.
"What?" Larissa replied with a confused look. "Didn''t you say that earlier in the boss room?"
"I said that after we defeated the room," Reivyn said with a shake of his head. "Every time I''ve said, or even thought, ''this is too easy,'' or something like it, something goes wrong. Don''t getcent."
"Ok~ay," Larissa rolled her eyes.
"He''s right," Melissa admonished her sister. "He''s already told us that we''re likely to encounter stronger enemies down here, and this is just the first batch."
"Ok, ok, I get it, sheesh," Larissa said with a pout.
"It''s not that big of a deal," Reivyn said in constion. "I just don''t want you to get in the bad habit of underestimating a situation just because things are easy at the beginning."
"A valuable lesson," Melissa said.
The group reformed and continued on their way. There were several more patrols of skeletons ranging from four to eight in each group, but with theirbined efforts, and the fact that the skeletons quickly died from one elemental bolt spell, they didn''t have any problems in their progress.
After about a hundred yards or so they finally came to their first break in the long corridor. A simple iron door was inset into a depression on either side of the hall. Reivyn looked at each of the Party members in turn before facing the door on the right.
"I''ll open it," Reivyn said to Erik. "You stand guard for whatever might be on the other side, and then we''ll assess the situation and go in." Erik nodded his head. "Ok, on three. One, two, three!"
Reivyn yanked the door open and stepped back with the movement to give clear ess to Erik. The two girls had their hands up, ready to channel their spells. Reivyn quickly let go of the door and resumed a ready stance as well.
Nothing attacked them or came through the door, so the group of four tentatively walked through the threshold.
Reivyn looked around and saw that they had entered a fairly small square room. Bonesy scattered all over the ground in various levels of dposition. Arge cauldron was located in the center of the room with what looked like faded markings of intricate patterns carved into the surface of the ground underneath it.
A hooded skeleton sat at a chair on the other side of the cauldron, facing the entrance. It''s head was cocked to the side, and it was missing an arm. The hooded robe was tattered and torn, and it frayed at the edges.
"Hold up!" Reivyn shouted in a low voice as Erik made his way towards the seated skeleton. "That''s definitely a Revenant."
It was as if the words were a magic spell, and a loud wail filled the room as the Revenant''s head snapped upright. Its jaw moved up and down like it wasughing at them as two burning orbs materialized in the eye sockets of its skull.
Erik dashed forward and struck out with lightning speed before the Revenant could stand up, but like Reivyn had warned, his attack was rebounded and Erik was thrown slightly off bnce. He was lucky that he was well trained and kept his shield up, as the Revenant threw its one remaining arm out and smashed it into the shield.
Erik was thrown into the air and crashed into the wall on the other side of the room. The force of the blow caused him to remain suspended in the air, pressed against the wall, for a moment before he slid down. He was slightly disoriented, and he shook his head to clear his thoughts.
Reivyn kept his eyes on the Revenant, knowing that they had a propensity for sudden, quick movements if they weren''t watched. Reivyn imbued his sword with pure mana. There was no reason to waste extra mana on adding an element, as that wasn''t necessary to bypass the immunity the Revenant''s had.
The Revenant stood up from its seated position and looked back and forth between each of the Party members, briefly considering Reivyn a bit longer than it had Erik, before its attention zeroed in on the girls with the swirling mana umting in their hands.
Reivyn positioned himself between the girls and the Revenant on the other side of the cauldron. The Revenant''s jaw continued to move up and down as it reached forward and threw the cauldron out of the way. A glint caught Reivyn''s eye as it sailed through the air, but now wasn''t the time to investigate. He could hear the sounds of the girls entering the room fully behind him.
The Revenant took jerky steps towards Reivyn, but it moved considerably faster than the one he had previously fought on the surface. The Revenant quickly reached Reivyn, and before it could strike out to him, Reivyn instinctively activated his Mana Shield Skill and ced it over the top of his shield.
The force of the blow from the Revenant knocked Reivyn back a few steps, but it wasn''t nearly as powerful as the attack that hadnded on Erik.
It works! Reivyn thought. The power it exerts has something to do with its immunity to mundane weapons. When it came into contact with the mana on the shield, the force was greatly reduced.
Reivyn''s spirits soared at the revtion. The attack had still been very powerful, but it was no longer a one-hit-kill situation.
A barrage of fire and ice bolts swarmed the Revenant, striking it all over its body. The robe caught fire in some ces, but the ice bolts quickly put the fires out before it could immte the entire garb like had previously happened with Reivyn.
Reivyn took a sturdy step forward and shed out with his mana encased sword. The blow didn''t rebound like it had with Erik, but it didn''t prate through the defenses of the Revenant and only slightly staggered it. The Revenantshed out with its skeletal arm again, and Reivyn was once more knocked back towards the girls.
"Use blunt force on its joints!" Reivyn shouted.
Fire wasn''t the best at creating such an attack, so Larissa continued to try and burn the Revenant as best she could, switching from pelting it with Fire Bolts to surrounding its skull with her Inferno Spell.
Melissa concentrated and manipted her Ice Bolt into a solid brick shape, having remembered Reivyn''s mention of using an earth aligned mana brick before, and hurtled it into the knee joint of the Revenant that was inexorably gaining ground on them.
The knee shattered, and the Revenant copsed to the side with a loud wail filling the room. Reivyn saw his chance and dashed forward. Larissa''s Inferno Spell, while not destroying the Revenant or its skull, had damaged it, and Reivyn could see where it was weakened with his Mana Sight.
He stabbed his sword through the weakened spot on the skull, and after some slight resistance, his de slid into the breach and destroyed the mana core inside. The putrid mana escaped into the atmosphere, and Reivyn had to hold his breath to fight against the nausea it induced.
Reivyn heaved a sigh of relief as he looked up with his sword still stuck in the skull of the now deceased Revenant. His eyes widened as he saw another Revenante through the open door from the opposite room in the hallway, and it was reaching out towards Melissa.
"Watch out!" Reivyn shouted as he activated Charge. He mmed his mana encased shield into the new Revenant, for once knocking one of them off of their feet and mming it into the wall.
Melissa hopped back in surprise at the sudden movement, and Larissa screamed as she pulled her arms up and twisted her body to the side.
"Focus!" Reivyn reminded them. He brought his sword down on the Revenant''s skull as it tried to stand up, knocking it back down.
"Floating Tomb!" Melissa shouted to her sister as she channeled her mana. Larissa finally regained herposure and nodded. She umted mana as Reivyn dodged the errant swipe from the downed Revenant and kept it down on the ground with the asional bash to the top of its head.
Larissa formed her Inferno st Spell, and she directed it to float next to the skull of the Revenant, but she didn''t release it. She maintained it floating there, sweat beading her brow as she held the spell so far away from herself.
Melissa shortly released her spell, and a small orb of reinforced ice made from manipting the Ice Wall Spell formed around the skull and Inferno st Spell, sealing it in. Reivyn felt the vibrations of the Inferno st Spell going off inside of the mini Ice Tomb, and the Revenant''s body went ck.
Melissa released her hold on the spell, and once it dissipated, Reivyn saw apletely headless body. The improvised Ice Tomb plus Inferno st Spellbination hadpletely obliterated the Revenant''s skull into dust. The mana core was likewise eradicated, and it didn''t even have wisps escape into the air.
Reivyn swiped at the sweat from his brow as he searched for any other threats, assuming a ready stance. There were no other monsters in the room, and with a quick peek out into the hall, Reivyn saw that there was nothing nearby as well.
He finally let his guard down and returned to the sisters standing in the room investigating the dead Revenants. Erik had recovered from his stunned state earlier, but knowing he couldn''t do anything in the fight, he had simply stood to the side. He had been ready to dash in and block any attacks from the Revenant in ce of the girls, but until that situation arrived, his best use was to just stand at the ready out of the way.
"Yeah, those guys were definitely empowered by the higher concentration of mana in the Dungeon," Reivyn said. "Luckily, it''s still not enough to give them their full power."
"Uh huh," Melissa absentmindedly replied. She bent down and traced the bones and robe, but she straightened up soon after, having not found anything out of the ordinary from a regr skeleton. "It must be the mana that forms their cores. While they''re susceptible to mana attacks, their bones are reinforced on top of their immunity to mundane attacks. It looks like sustained attacks can weaken that reinforcement, though."
"We need to be smarter with our next encounters," Reivyn nodded his head. "I think the best strategy would be to lure them out of the rooms into the hallway. Erik and I could do that while you and Larissa build up your spells. Form the brick-shaped Ice Bolts and destroy their joints as they follow us into the hall. Larissa can then roast their heads a bit, and I can stab through their cores."
Melissa looked up as she brushed her hair behind her ear. Reivyn could still see traces of nervousness in her face, and beads of sweat were still formed on her forehead.
"That sounds like a good n for now," she agreed. "Erik, you don''t need to actually engage the Revenants. Just pop in and back out when it stands up to follow you."
Erik grunted in acknowledgement.
"I saw something glint as the cauldron was thrown out of the way. I''m going to go check it out," Reivyn said.
He walked over to the over-turned cauldron, and with a quick search he saw what had drawn his attention. He bent down and picked up a small crystal, barelyrger than the joint of his pinky finger.
He held it between his forefinger and thumb as he activated his Identify Skill.
Damaged Experience Crystal Experience: 1,000
Reivyn''s eyebrows shot up as he looked up at hispanions.
"It''s a Damaged Experience Crystal," he said. Larissa gasped and Melissa and Erik shared a look. "My Identify Skill says it holds 1,000 Experience."
"That''s a valuablemodity," Melissa said. "They can be found in the Capital and other prominent cities bordering on the Tier 2 Region. They can also be found in Tier 2 Regions, and Alchemists can make them from magical ingredients."
She walked over and looked at the crystal in Reivyn''s grip. She looked up at Reivyn with her hand half way extended.
"May I?" She asked. Reivyn ced the crystal in her hand with no hesitation. Melissa smiled at the show of trust.
"Yeah, I can see cracks in the structure," Melissa said after getting a closer look. "The most Experience I''ve ever seen in an undamaged Experience Crystal, though, is only 200. This must be a very high-grade crystal." Melissa ced it back in Reivyn''s hand. She gestured towards the scattered bones filling the room. "With your mention of demons and the presence of the demonic mana animating the Revenants, it would appear they were alchemists extracting the Experience from living people."
"Let''s go check the other room," Larissa said with excitement as Reivyn put the crystal away. Even though Melissa said the crystal had likely been formed from living people, Reivyn had nopunctions against appropriating it for himself. Those people were long dead, and it would just be a waste to throw the Experience away.
Larissa ran out of the room before anyone could stop her, but she came back shortly after with a huge grin on her face. She held up another Damaged Experience Crystal, and with a quick Inspect, Reivyn saw that it also contained 1,000 Experience.
"Since this is amodity that can be found in the Capital, does that mean these things are what you and your sister used to Level Up?" Reivyn asked.
"That''s right," Melissa confirmed with a nod. "But, like I said, they''re expensivemodities. One of the reasons we''re out here delving the Dungeon is to gain School Credits. School Credits can be traded for weaker Experience Crystals. Our family only provides so many to the juniors at a time, so we have to find ways to get our own."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said while rubbing his chin in thought. "Considering this is a Resource Dungeon, it looks like valuable ores are the resources on the first floor, and Experience is the resource reward for being able to defeat these Revenants on the second floor.
"I say we continue on a bit further and see if there are any more isted rooms like this and employ ourbat n. We can get as many of these Experience Crystals as we can from the weaker encounters before we head back out.
"We have a lot of time to delve the Dungeon, and if we can consistently find Experience Crystals in the upper part of the second floor, I think it would be prudent to build up our levels before tackling anything harder."
"That sounds like a good idea to me," Melissa said. She looked at her other twopanions. Erik gave one curt nod, but Larissa bobbed her head so enthusiastically her hair almost got tangled.
"Alright," Melissa said as she turned back to Reivyn. "You and Erik lead the way."
Chapter 37: Hollow Escapade
Chapter 37: Hollow Escapade
Reivyn dashed forward and stabbed his sword through the skull of the foremost Revenant. The hallway was clogged with a shambling horde of eight Revenants, six more lying on the ground behind the surging mass, never to rise again. Various weapons and pieces of rotten equipment were strewn along the ground in the wake of the undead.
The standing Revenants struggled to move forward as their jerking motion didn''t allow them to maintain their bnce very well on the Slick ground. asionally a short wall of ice would spring up and cause one or two to stumble and create another obstacle they had to bypass.
Sweat poured down Melissa''s brow as she maintained her focus on casting the crowd control spells. Worry furrowed her brow as her mana reserves dipped dangerously low. They had moved in such a way that she was able to maintain her mana pool at a sufficient level for every encounter, but this time they had miscalcted.
The second floor of the Dungeon had been straightforward up until this point. There was one other pair of rooms a little further down the first hall they had walked along, and the interior of both contained what they expected to find: a small room with one Revenant sitting in repose in front of a cauldron. Sadly, these cauldrons had been empty of any prize. Reivyn was disappointed, but he realized he couldn''t expect to find the remnants of the abominable alchemic rituals in every room.
Reivyn had led the group further into the dungeon, Erik relegating himself to being thest stand between danger and the two girls. Just a little ways after the second pair of rooms the Party had encountered a stairway spiraling down further into the depths. Reivyn could feel the increased mana density wafting up into his face from the opening leading down.
The group had traversed the spiral staircase, Reivyn leading from the front. A hallway could be seen branching off to the side, a rotten door barely hanging by the hinges partially blocking the view. The stairs continued further down, but Reivyn didn''t want to leave anything behind them. It would be a disaster if something snuck up on them while they were battling a pair of Revenants.
Reivyn led his group into the hall, the door copsing into splinters as he attempted to open it silently. They froze in ce, listening for anything that could have reacted to the noise. After a few moments of nothing appearing, Reivyn nced at the other three with an embarrassed smile before continuing into the hall.
"Cast an Ice Wall here at the entrance to keep anything that might being up the stairs from ambushing us," Reivyn said. "Can you lock it in ce so you don''t have to concentrate on it?"
"I can anchor it to the ambient mana, but without a proper fuel source, it''ll dissipate in about ten minutes or so," Melissa replied.
"Ok, that should be long enough. We can alwayse back and set another one if we really need to."
The group continued into the new floor, and it turned out their worry about wandering patrols was unfounded. The hallway was simr to the branching rooms containing the orc living quarters on the first floor, but this one ended in a cul-de-sac with three rooms about fifteen yards from the stairway, one on each side other than the hall. The doors were in various states of disrepair, but nothing like the rotten one they had encountered in the stairs. These were much more sturdy. Probably for privacy of the people living here at the time, Reivyn thought.
Reivyn silently walked up to the door on the left. He paused as he turned back to the other three, and he indicated for them to keep their eyes on the other two rooms. He turned back and slowly opened the door. Luckily, this one didn''t copse at the first touch, though it did give off an annoying squeak as the hinges were rusty with neglect.
Reivyn didn''t open the door all the way, and he peered in through the crack. He could see a bed on either side of the room with skeletal remains lying in them, two chests at the foot of the beds. This was the first time he had encountered any kind of chest or container. It was obviously not a System reward, but they were part of the original environment.
Reivyn stood in ce and observed the skeletons, which he had positively identified as Revenants, for a moment. When they didn''t react to his presence, he slowly closed the door once more. He stepped back and signaled for Erik to check the room on the right.
Erik performed the same actions, and he quickly nodded his head while holding up two fingers. Reivyn nodded and approached the final door in the center. His eyes lit up when he saw that thest room wasn''t a residence like the other two, but it was instead another alchemy room like they had seen above. His excitement was dampened a little when he saw that the cauldron in this room was guarded by three Revenants.
He closed the door and the Party retreated down the hall a ways.
"So, a total of seven Revenants. Any suggestions?" Reivyn looked toward Melissa.
"I can do the same thing I did at the stairway. Cast Ice Wall and cover up two of the rooms while we tackle the first one. If the Revenants in the other rooms are alerted, the Ice Walls will give us time and warning. They''ll have to destroy them in order to get to us, and that should give us ample opportunity to either handle the first pair or to escape to the stairs if we need to."
"That sounds like a good idea," Reivyn agreed. "Don''t dissipate your Ice Wall at the stairs yet, just in case. You can always get rid of it in case we need to run."
"Alright," Melissa replied. She followed it up by casting the Ice Wall spells, one after another, in front of the middle and right doors. The group stood and waited for a moment to make sure that act in itself didn''t activate the Revenants resting inside.
In a moment of inspiration, Reivyn reached down and picked up a piece of rubble. He silently opened the door, tossed it at the Revenant lying on the bed on the right side of the room, and closed the door once more. The wail that always apanied the activation of the Revenants was greatly reduced by the barrier of the door preventing the sound from traveling. Reivyn saw Erik nodding his head in approval out of the corner of his eye.
Once the wail subsided, Reivyn opened the door once more, and he had to immediately bring his mana-covered shield up to block the blow from the Revenant that had already made it to the threshold. Every action has its consequences. We gained some respite from the sound of them activating, but that caused nobody to have eyes on them, and they were able to make it to the door at a much faster speed, Reivyn realized in a sh.
He let the force of the blow knock him back into the little cul-de-sac, and Melissa took the opportunity to cast Slick and Ice Wall to control their movements. The four members of the Party walked backwards down the hallway as Larissa engaged her Inferno Spell to weaken the skull of the first Revenant, and Reivyn was able to end its existence after a short moment of controlled retreating.
All of their preparation paid off, and the group was able to clear out the three rooms without any worry or surprises. The Revenants were dangerous, but as long as they controlled the initiative and worked using the ns they hade up with to deal with small groups of them, they weren''t much harder than the other monsters they had encountered in the Dungeon. They just presented different obstacles to ovee for those armed with the ability to use mana Skills or Spells.
"Alright, let''s see what''s in these chests!" Reivyn said with a gleam in his eyes.
"Oh, oh, oh, I''ll take the right room," Larissa eximed as she jumped up and down. She took off running once more without a care. Reivyn just shook his head as he headed to the left room, and Melissa and Erik went to inspect the alchemy room.
The boarding room was bare of any decorations. Though there might have been some however long ago it was that these things were alive, Reivyn spected. The beds were rotting and wouldn''t provide any sort offort to the living, and the chests had holes eating through the wood as they tried to withstand the ravages of time.
Reivyn flipped over the lid of the first chest at the foot of the right bed. It was filled with crumbling scraps of cloth and not much more. Reivyn frowned as he inspected the contents of the container. I knew it was for personal effects, but only ruined clothes?
He bent down and tossed all the scraps out onto the floor. He knocked on the bottom of the chest to see if there was a hiddenpartment, and his hand went right through the feeble wood. Well, that was easy, he thought as he brute forced the bottom to give way.
Underneath the top portion containing the clothes was a hidden bottom filled with sparkling, bluish sand. Reivyn sifted through the sand, and he was able to find three Damaged Experience Crystals. He inspected them and found they were exactly the same as the ones they had found previously, containing 1,000 Experience each.
Reivyn walked over to the other chest, and with the experience from the first one, he quickly exposed the bottompartment containing simr blue sand. The second chest contained two whole crystals.
This bluish sand must be the remnants of other crystals that disintegrated over the years, he thought. I wonder if this is of any value? He threw an Inspect at the sand.
Experience Essence
Well, that tells me a whole lot, Reivyn thought with a wry smile. It was obviously something useful, or the System would have Identified it as something more mundane. I don''t really have anything to hold this stuff in. Reivyn shook his head as he walked back out of the room. There was nothing else to inspect. The covers and pillows that would normally adorn a bed and provide a hiding ce had long since disintegrated into dust.
Larissa was standing in the small area between the rooms with a sullen look on her face, kicking at the rubble while grumbling incoherently under her breath.
"Didn''t find anything?" Reivyn asked. Larissa peeked up at him through her hair as she kept kicking at loose pebbles.
"No! Just rotten clothes," She said petntly.
"Did you not check the bottompartment?" Reivyn asked with a frown.
"Bottompartment?" She looked up in surprise, a twinkle once more in her eye. She dashed back into the other room, and Reivyn heard the sounds of the chests being obliterated before a triumphant shout came forth.
"Aha!" Larissa said as she came out of the room holding her hand aloft. "There were three Experience Crystals in there."
"What about the sand? Do you guys have anything to carry it in?" Reivyn asked.
"The sand? Why would you care about the sand?" She tilted her head to the side as she shot him a questioning look.
"It''s Experience Essence. I don''t know what it''s used for, but it might be valuable."
"I wouldn''t know," Larissa said. "Maybe Melissa does. Either way, I don''t think we have anything to carry it in."
"Another time then."
The two looked up at Melissa and Eriking out of the alchemy room. Melissa shook her head to indicate they hadn''t found anything.
"It''s alright," Reivyn said with a smile. "Your sister found three Crystals in her room, and I found five in this other one." Melissa''s face brightened into a smile at the news. "Also, the chests were full of blue sand that the System says is Experience Essence. Know anything about it?"
Melissa tapped her chin as she thought about it. "I think I''ve heard something about it somewhere before, but I can''t think of it at the moment. We''ll collect some the next time wee down here."
"Alright," Reivyn said. "C''mon, let''s continue."
The Party went back to the stairway, and they encountered another three simr living arrangements with the same situation as the first one. The only difference was that in thest one, there were four Revenants in the alchemy room. The tactics they had devised in the first corridor continued to work, and they reaped the benefits.
Not all of the chests contained whole crystals, but their overall haul was still nothing short of amazing to Reivyn. They managed to find another twelve crystals. They had a total of 22 Damaged Experience Crystals, 22,000 Experience waiting to be assimted to whoever used them.
They had agreed to split the crystals evenly between the groups. Reivyn was the only one from his group that continued on to the lower floor, so he questioned whether or not it was appropriate for him to receive an equal share.
"Even though you''re the only one down here, it''s only you, me, and my sister participating. Erik is just kinda here right now because of the nature of the monsters, and while we''re down here exploring this floor, yourpanions are up top mining and organizing the ores. With those things in mind, it''s not a stretch to appoint half of the Experience Crystals to your group."
Melissa made some good points that put Reivyn''s mind at ease. He didn''t want to feel like he was getting more than he had earned, and her exnation helped appease that thought.
The staircase ended with a new hall moving off perpendicr to the original direction of the first hallway, if Reivyn''s sense of direction was urate. The group moved down the hall at a sedate pace, ready for any monsters that might be patrolling the depths. With the increase in the mana density and what they had seen so far, Reivyn was fairly certain that any patrolling skeletons found from this point on would be Revenants.
A break in the wall about chest height on the left side came into view as they moved further along. It was a long opening that continued along the wall for ten yards, and it was about three feet high. Reivyn nced through the opening as they approached it, and he quickly yanked himself back out of view at the sight that greeted him.
He had only nced for a fraction of a second, but the scene was burned into his mind. The opening was some sort of observation window that showed a giant quarry. Hundreds of Revenants popted the enormous room, and before he could make out anything else in particr, Reivyn had ducked out of sight.
"What is it?" Melissa whispered as she sidled up next to Reivyn.
"Hundreds of Revenants," Reivyn answered back with a nod of his head toward the opening. Melissa frowned as she looked up at it from her squatting posture.
"Look at the opening with your Mana Sight," she said after a moment of inspection. Her frown had gone away.
Reivyn followed her instructions and activated the Skill. A solid wall of bluish light greeted him. It was so thick andpact that he couldn''t see through it at all with his Mana Sight activated. He reached out his hand to touch it, and it was a solid barrier.
"It''s like the barrier that separates the Dungeon from the real world on the outside," he said in surprise. He deactivated his Skill and stood at the opening to get a better view at the scene below.
"That must be the third floor. We have to beat the boss room on the second floor to gain ess," Melissa surmised. "Once we beat the boss room, this barrier should go away, even all the way up here."
Reivyn nodded absentmindedly. He watched as the Revenants below appeared to be quarrying a giant cavern. He could make out a new type of monster roaming about acting like supervisors. The new entities were ethereal. They glowed a faint blue, and they floated about instead of walking on the ground.
He frowned as he continued to watch, though, as something about the scene seemed odd to him. He couldn''t quite ce it at first, but then it suddenly came to him.
They''re not actually doing any mining, he realized. They look like they''re locked into the actions that they performed before they died. What in the world could they have been doing down here?
"It seems safe enough to travel down the corridor," Melissa said.
"Are you not curious about what they were doing down here?" Reivyn asked.
"Of course I am," Melissa replied. "But we''re not likely to find out any answers here, are we?" She chuckled.
"I suppose you''re right," Reivyn said with a smile. "Alright, then. Let''s continue." They resumed their pace down the hall, but before they got too far, Reivyn turned back to Melissa. "What are those floating, blue things down there?"
Melissa took a quick peek at what Reivyn was referring to. "Those are Spectres," she answered. "They''re the same Tier and Level as Revenants, but they''repletely incorporeal. If you don''t use mana to coat your shield or armor, their blows will go right through it and damage your vitality directly."
Reivyn nodded as they continued walking. He remembered experiencing that type of damage when the demon had attacked the base.
Either a simr demon will be the final boss of this Dungeon, or this is a reality where they didn''t actually sessfully summon a demon, he mused. Those thoughts were forter, though, and Reivyn refocused his attention on what was in front of him.
"We''ve been down here for a couple of hours, now," Reivyn said. "We should think about going back up soon."
"Yeah, that''s a good idea. We don''t want your friends to worry," Melissa said. "We''ll go just a little bit further. The hall curves up ahead, so let''s just go see what''s around the bend, then we''ll call it quits."
"Sounds like a n," Reivyn said.
They hadn''t encountered anything in the new corridor up to this point, but Reivyn never let his guard down. He had learned his lesson about gettingcent in dangerous situations, and he wasn''t about to forget it.
Despite having his guard up, though, there were always unexpected surprises. The group turned the corner to thest ce they were going to explore, and they were immediately beset with a torrent of wails as they came face to face with a patrol of fourteen Revenants.
"Retreat!" Reivyn yelled without taking his eyes off of the Revenants in the hall. They were almost within striking range as soon as they had encountered them, and Reivyn noticed that their jerking motions were considerably faster than any of the previous ones they had fought.
"Melissa! Crowd Control," Reivyn yelled as one of the front Revenants mmed a spear into his shield, knocking him back a few paces. "Larissa, use Inferno. Attach it to the ceiling and torch several at a time. We need to thin them out!"
Ice quickly covered the ground and continued to follow Reivyn as he made quick steps back. Short,pact walls sprung up all over to impede the movement of the Revenants, and they had a hard time maneuvering around them with the hallway being filled with the mass of skeletal bodies attempting to get at the living. The ones that tried to go over the short walls lost their bnce and fell down when they stepped back down on the Slick ground. They weren''t smart enough to learn from their mistakes, either, and it happened over and over again.
Blistering fire above soon apanied the freezing cold below. The two sisters worked in tandem to keep the temperature differences from diminishing their spells. The increased effort added considerable strain to the two sisters, and their mana dropped swiftly.
Reivyn knew they didn''t have much time with them expending so much mana, so he immediately began apanying his retreat with quick lunges forward to down a Revenant. Each lunge forward to kill one of the foes coincided with a m into his raised shield from a retaliatory blow. Reivyn had to use everything he had with his Bnce Skill to stop himself from joining the Revenants on the floor due to the Slick Spell.
The Revenants knew no fatigue or fear, and they followed the group as they made their way back down the hallway with therge opening. The encounter eventually became bearable after several minutes of desperate fighting as more and more Revenants were put down for their final rest. Reivyn slowed down the tempo he used to killed the Revenants, and he only moved forward to kill one after Melissa managed to trip one or the other in the lead.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of heart-pounding action, thest Revenant fell. Reivyn leaned against the wall as he gasped for breath. His Stamina had almost reached 40% by the time thebat had ended. They had been in the Dungeon for many hours, and his Stamina depleted faster and recovered slower in a reflection of his tired state.
He looked back to see Larissaid out on the floor, her forearm covering her eyes as she groaned. Erik helped Melissa sit down and then stood over the pair to keep watch.
"That was too much," Larissained.
"Yeah, that was entirely too close," Melissa agreed.
"Well, you did say you wanted to only explore onest corridor before we go back up," Reivyn said with a chuckle.
"How can you be in a good mood?" Larissa moved her arm slightly to peek at him.
"Because we survived," Reivyn said simply. "Do either of you need help with a headache? You guys used a lot of mana."
"No, we''re good," Melissa denied with a shake of her head. "Even though we used a lot of mana, we did it in a controlled manner. While we''re a bit light-headed, we''re not going to get a headache like you did from using most of your mana all at once."
"Good to know," Reivyn nodded his head. The group fell into silence as they each focused on recovering. Reivyn pulled out a piece of dried meat to eat while they rested.
"Alright, it seems the floor bes incredibly more difficult from this point going forward," Reivyn said after several minutes. "I say we don''t go any further until we''ve raised our Levels a bit."
"I agree," Melissa said as she and her sister regained their feet. "We''ll needrger mana pools to be able to fight groups thatrge on a consistent basis. An increase in your Strength will also allow you to hit them harder, requiring less mana from Larissa to cook their skulls to weaken them."
"I like the sound of that," Larissa said. Erik grunted in agreement when Reivyn looked at him for his opinion.
"Alright then," Reivyn said as he began walking back towards the first floor. "Let''s go meet up with Teilon and Kimberly. 22 Experience Crystals is a good haul in my book."
"Just a friendly reminder, don''t use too many of those at once if you or your friends choose to," Melissa said. "Your friends have Tier 2 sses, so you and they can use them, but if you gain too many Levels too fast, your Skills and Life Experience can''t keep up. You guys should be good, what with you being conscripts and all that you''ve done that a normal Tier 1 wouldn''t, but it''s always good to get in the habit of moderation.
"Our family only provides us a small boost once we reach Tier 2, and the school requires us to go out and get School Credits to purchase any from them. The Academy has been doing this for a long time, and they''ve carefully bnced the rate of earning Credits with the rate of gaining Life Experience for good sses.
"We''re probably not going to use any of these, ourselves. They can be sold for a lot of money in the Capital, and our families will also give us good benefits if we turn them in."
"Thanks for the reminder," Reivyn said with a nod.
Teilon and Kimberly don''t really need a lot of Life Experience to get a more powerful ss, as they''re going to transition into a regr Tier 2 ss, but I''ll definitely have to drag them down here in the future before they Tier up again. With us able to basically mine Experience, we should be able to move through Tier 2 pretty quickly.
Chapter 38: The Dungerums
Chapter 38: The Dungerums
Reivyn took a deep breath of the fresh air as soon as they stepped out of the caverns into the bright sunlight. Due to how the Dungeons worked, it was perpetually sunlight in the open air area of the Dungeon, and the marked difference of the sunlight and cool breeze helped to wash away the gloom that was practically sticking to Reivyn and his Party.
Larissa ran ahead and spun around with her arms out as she basked in the open air. She twirled around a couple of times before dropping down to lie on her back. Kimberly and Teilon smiled at the whimsical attitude disyed by the girl. Melissa and Erik simply ignored her, apparently used to her behavior after living with her for years.
"Ahhh, it feels good to be out," Reivyn said. "I''m dog tired, so let''s go our separate ways and regroup to talk about the Dungeon and our ns for tomorrow."
"While I would normally say it''s better to talk things over when it''s fresh in our minds," Melissa began, "there really isn''t anything we need to specifically consider about the Dungeon. We have our methods figured out, and the first floor and first part of the second floor pose no real threat to us as long as we stick to those tactics. So, I agree. Let''s go get some rest and we can meet up at the same private room in the tavern as before."
"What''s there to n?" Teilon said. He had resumed walking with his arms resting on his spear draped across his back. "We''ve already distributed the loot, and we know what we''re doing in the Dungeon for the foreseeable future."
"There''s always something to n," Kimberly poked him in the side.
"I''m with Teilon," Larissa spoke up. "Come. Join me on the ground as we gaze up into the big blue above us and let all of our troubles melt away."
"What troubles do you have?" Reivyn asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It was a figure of speech," Larissa retorted.
"Sure, sure. Anyway," Reivyn turned his attention to Teilon, "to answer your question, we need to n a training schedule around our Dungeon Delves."
"You and training!" Teilon rolled his eyes. "I thought it was hard working enough when I got my Vitality to above 20 only a couple of months after unlocking my ss, but you were sitting on over 20 before you even turned 10! And you want to do more training!"
"I like training," Reivyn replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "What else are we going to do? The town isn''t really even built, yet. Do you want to go build the town so you have something else to do?"
"That''s not a bad idea," Teilon mused. "Maybe I''ll get a part-time gig at construction. Can''t let this Woodworking Skill go to waste, now can I? You''re the one that''s always saying to work on all of our Skills."
"So your idea of shirking is to get a job?" Reivyn tilted his head as he looked at his friend.
"Well, when you put it that way..." Teilon trailed off as he looked away.
Melissa held her hand over her mouth as she giggled at their banter. Kimberly folded her arms as she waited for the two to finish their back and forth, knowing the likely oue already.
"We''re not going to be doing nothing but training," Reivyn said. He nudged his friend with his elbow as he exined, "But we need to coordinate when we''re going to be busy, and I''m sure there''s a lot we could learn from Mel and Lisa... And Erik." Reivyn added thatst one as an aside.
"Lisa, huh? Since when did we get so close?" Larissa said.
"Since just now," Reivyn easily shot back.
"Everyone calls Melissa Lisa, but she insists on Mel. This is going to be confusing." Larissa ced her hand over her eyes.
"Anyway, I n on learning a few things about the Academy, if they''re willing." Reivyn shot a look at Melissa. She nodded her head in approval. "I got that letter of rmendation from Knight-Captain Reifold, so I''m pretty sure I can get into the Academy when we''re done here. Don''t you want to go to the Capital?"
"Hmmm..." Teilon moved his spear down to his side so he could lean on it as he considered. "That doesn''t sound half bad, actually."
"Good. With the Dungeon here just giving away Experience, we should be able to fly through Tier 2," Reivyn continued. "But if you want a decent Tier 3 ss, you can''t let your Skillsg behind. On another note, once you guys get to Tier 2, you''ll have to join us down on the second floor, too. You won''t have to do anything dangerous, but you will need toe down and participate in order to get some good Life Experience."
"Sounds like you''ve thought about my future more than I have," Teilon snickered.
"Can you me me?" Reivyn said with a serious expression. "We both know I''ve gotten lucky enough to have some strange things happen to give me a big leg up, and if we don''t think about the future, I''ll leave you behind." Reivyn put his hand on Teilon''s shoulder. "You''re my best friend, and unlike Will and Simmon, you have the opportunity to keep up with me."
"Yeah, I know," Teilon conceded. "But what will Kimberly and I be doing at the Capital while you''re attending the Academy?"
"Ahem," Melissa cleared her throat to get their attention. Once the two boys looked over at her, she opened her mouth, "There''s also a Knight Academy. Don''t let the name fool you. It''s designed for non-mana sses, not just Knights, and it''s semi-attached to the Magic Academy. If you guys are able to reach Tier 3 at an early age, with a good ss, and you have the money, you should be fine to get in."
"There you go," Reivyn said as he put his hand back down. "So in order for all of that to happen, we have to n now, and those ns include training."
"And here we go, all the way back to the original point," Teilon said with a smile. "Alright, alright. You''ve convinced me."
"I think I''ll just go back to my home in Haluville," Kimberly said with a thoughtful look. "That''s more my speed." Teilon just stared at her ck jawed. After a moment of letting that statement fill the air, Kimberly burst outughing. "Obviously I was joking. The Capital sounds fine to me."
"Don''t scare me like that," Teilon ced his hand over his heart.
"Oh, oh, oh! I can show you the best ces to shop once we get there!" Larissa came skipping up to them. She dragged Kimberly away from the two boys, and she, Melissa, and Kimberly all walked along with their heads together.
"Oooh, what kind of dresses can I find..." Reivyn heard snippets of their conversation. Kimberly was a front-linebatant, but she was still a girl and apparently wanted to do girly things from time to time.
"You''re drooling," Reivyn said with a straight face as he looked at Teilon. "Thinking of Kimberly in a dress?"
"Am not," Teilon wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Drooling, that is." He inspected his hand as he brought it away. It came back dry. "See?!"
"Haha, c''mon. Let''s go," Reivyn said.
The sun was just beginning to set on the horizon as the six teenagers exited the actual Dungeon. Reivyn and his group had already experienced the phenomenon, but Melissa and her group were surprised at the change.
"Wow, that''s neat," Larissa said. "We''ve been in there all day, but you would hardly know it if you didn''te back out like this." Melissa nodded her head.
"Alright," Melissa said. "We''ll be-"
"Hold up," a voice interrupted her as she was giving her farewell for the evening. "Mandatory inspection for anyone leaving the Dungeon."
Reivyn looked over and saw a squad of Knights from the church they had encountered on the road. He frowned as they walked up and barred their path.
"Is that really necessary?" Reivyn was prepared to pull out his identity tokens to avoid the hassle, but he spotted one of the local guards with the unit. He directed his attention towards the guard, and he received a nod in response.
"Yes," the man confirmed. "Due to the nature of the Dungeon and the events that transpired previously, the Count is working with the Church of Light to ensure no demonic presences. It''s pretty routine, actually. Nothing to be worried about."
"Alright, if you say so," Reivyn replied.
"Empty your bags, and then each of you present yourself for inspection," the first Knightmanded. Reivyn raised an eyebrow at the man as the group followed the instructions. They dumped the content of their bags containing the ore for the church soldiers to sift through, and then they stood in a line to the side as one of the members in a robe walked up.
The new man ced his hand on Teilon''s head and stood there for a moment with his eyes closed. After a few seconds, Reivyn saw a yellow light quickly epass his friend. It moved from the man''s hand on his head down to his feet before heading back up again. A look of surprise surfaced on Teilon''s face when it was over.
The robed man carried out his duties quickly and silently. When it was Reivyn''s turn, he noticed that a feeling of fatigue he hadn''t even noticed deep from within him get expelled. He nodded his head with a new sense of appreciation for the inspection.
"Don''t think that we''re just randomly hassling you guys," the first man spoke up. "Look over there." He pointed across the open space in front of the Dungeon.
Reivyn and his friends followed the direction the man was pointing. On the other side of the square was a group of fellow Adventurers, but they were moving about at an exaggeratedly slow pace. The looks on their faces were reminiscent of the group Reivyn had decided not to approach the first day he was scouting out Parties to join.
"That Party has been delving the Dungeon for weeks before we got here," the Knight exined. "While they''re not tainted with demonic influence, there''s something about this Dungeon that seeps into your bones, and if it''s not gotten rid of, you''ll eventually turn out like them."
Now that it was pointed out to him, Reivyn was able to see other groups, people who were older and looked more experienced, also moving about listlessly. He frowned as he considered the implications.
"My friends and I have actually been in there three times, now," Reivyn said. "We were with the conscription that settled the ce. Are there going to be any lingering effects from that?"
"Shouldn''t be," the man replied. "You say you were with the conscription? So you left for several months after going in there twice?" Reivyn nodded his head. "Then it shouldn''t have had a chance to umte to a dangerous level. Once you guys left, it should have dissipated on its own without the chance to build up any further."
Reivyn nodded his head. He hadn''t felt anything like what he was witnessing in the other Parties.
"Are those guys going to be fine?" He asked.
"Should be," the church Knight was actually pretty friendly and informative once Reivyn and his Party had eded to their inspection. "We''ve been working with them every few days to dispel the lingering aura. It''s working, but it will just take some more time and effort for those that started going into the Dungeon before we got here."
"That''s good to know," Reivyn said.
"Alright, you all are good to go," the armored man gave Reivyn a nod as he gathered up his men and moved to the side to await more Adventurers returning from their excursions. The robed man wiped sweat from his brow as he staggered along beside them.
If it takes that much out of him just to handle six people, it makes sense that they would need to only work with the other Parties every couple of days, Reivyn thought. Then again, I don''t know how many people he''s treated before us.
Reivyn and his friends quickly put the ores back into their sacks. He felt a brief pang of guilt over not letting the church followers inspect their bags containing the Experience Crystals after the Knights had turned out to actually be pretty decent fellows, but he quickly brushed it aside. The System should handle the Experience conversion, and we don''t want to expose the existence of the Crystals. Never know what other people will do when faced with such wealth.
"Well, now that that''s over," Melissa said after they had tidied up their belongings. "We''ll meet up tomorrow. Does lunch sound good to you?"
"Perfect," Reivyn replied after ncing at his twopanions. "We''ll see you then." Reivyn waved to the other three as they separated.
"By~e," Larissa called out. She took a couple of steps walking backward as she enthusiastically waved to her new friends. Melissa ced a hand on her arm to keep her from falling over.
"Whew, I''m tired," Reivyn said as they walked back towards their little house.
"You''re tired?" Teilon teased. "Kimberly and I were the ones that had to do all of the mining while you were off gallivanting with two cuties."
"Who are two cuties?''" Kimberly said with mock outrage.
"I mean... gallivanting off with... Erik? Were there two other people down on the second floor with you? I can''t remember," Teilon said, his eyes wide. Reivyn snorted at his friend.
"Well, when you put it that way..." Reivyn copied his friend from earlier. He and Teilon burst intoughter as Kimberly rolled her eyes.
"Ok, so the day after the Dungeon dive will be a rest day," Reivyn said, "and the day before as well."
Melissa nodded her head as she took a sip of her tea. Teilon was shoveling food into his gullet with gusto like he had never eaten before, and Larissa and Kimberly had their heads together as they whispered about whatever topic struck their fancy. They would asionally stop talking to giggle, but they ignored the rest of the room for the most part.
Reivyn was much more polite in his table manners than his counterpart, only taking bites when Melissa or someone else was speaking. Melissa and her group had impable manners, but the three girls didn''t have nearly asrge of an appetite as their malepanions.
Erik ate in silence, and Reivyn almost forgot he was even there.
"So Dungeon, rest, one day to ourselves, one day of training together as a full team, two days to ourselves, and then thest rest day before the next Dungeon run," Melissaid out the schedule they hade up with. "That works for us."
Reivyn finished his meal as he leaned back with a sigh. "So that means today is a rest day. You''ve been here longer than we have, ever since the ce started to be a proper town; is there anything to do around here?"
"Not really, no," Melissa said as she set her cup down. "We''ve basically been hanging out in the tavern for the most part, inspecting Parties that show up looking to team up like you guys did. Now that we''re no longer looking for more members, we don''t have any reason to stay cooped up."
"Hmmm, that''s true," Reivyn said. "Well, want to go look around?"
"Just the two of us?" Melissa asked with a tilt of her head.
"Doesn''t have to be," Reivyn shrugged. "I''m sure Erik wouldn''t want you going out alone." A grunt from across the table greeted Reivyn''s words. "It''s up to you."
"Alright," Melissa said. "You, me, and Erik. Let''s go for a walk." She apanied her words with action as she immediately got up from her seat and headed for the door.
"What, right now?" Reivyn said as he scrambled to follow. Erik calmly ced his utensil down and also got up from the table. "Teilon, you''re - I can''t believe I''m saying this - in charge of looking out for the girls while we''re gone," Reivyn called over his shoulder.
"I''ll be sure to keep him safe," Kimberly called out.
"Hey," Teilon''s indignant remark reached Reivyn''s ears as they stepped out into the hallway. The trio quickly made their way down the stairs. The babble of voices and sounds ofughter briefly followed Reivyn as they exited the tavern out into the open street. Melissa came to a halt after taking a couple of steps to get out of the way and turned to face him.
"I guess we can just walk around and see what there is," Melissa said. She brushed her hair behind her ear as she waited for Reivyn''s response.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Reivyn said. He interlocked his fingers behind his head as the two started walking down the road. Erik followed them silently from behind.
"Soooo... what''s life in the Capital like?" Reivyn said to break the silence.
"It''s fine," Melissa replied. "Coming from a well-established family affords certain freedoms and opportunities, while at the same time restricting others." She turned her head to nce at Erik briefly. "For instance I can''t go anywhere by myself. I don''t really mind that stiption, as I know it keeps me safe. There are also ces in the Capital I can''t go, but I don''t really have an interest in going to those ces anyway."
"Oh? Like what?" Reivyn asked.
"The Arena is one," Melissa replied. "Generally, fights aren''t to the death at the Arena, but idents happen. Also, despite being abat ss and going on Dungeon dives, I''m sure my parents wouldn''t want me being a spectator of any gruesome scenes that might arise. Fighting and killing monsters is one thing, but fighting and potentially killing other humans is another, entirely.
"But people seem to be drawn to it, and it isn''t always like that. Sometimes there are monster fights as well. Adventurers can ept missions to capture monsters alive to supply to the Arena, and the school even allows the students to participate in such endeavors from time to time."
"Ok, that doesn''t sound so bad, actually," Reivyn said.
"It''s really not, but my parents are quite protective and don''t want me to go witness such a bloody spectacle. It sounds hypocritical, I know, but it has more to do with my age than anything."
"I can understand it, actually. What other sorts of ces can''t you go?"
"Gambling dens, brothels, ces like that. Unsavory ces for children, mostly," Melissa nced at Reivyn out of the corner of her eye. "Do you really want me to expound on the ces I can''t go?"
"You''re the one who brought it up," Reivyn replied with a chuckle.
"Haha, yeah, you''re right," Melissa said. "Anyway, there are a lot of grand ces, too. The Magic Academy is probably the most spectacr. It''s not just a ce for teaching young students, like me and my sister. It''s also a ce of true academics and magical marvels. There''s also the theater and museum, and other ces of high society.
"Many of the established families and nobles will also host events for each other. There''s a web of rtionships between the families in the Capital, but I have a lot of friends I can introduce you in the future, if you do end up going to the Capital."
"Yeah, more friends are always good," Reivyn said.
"Just by being my friend and running in my circles will automatically give some others a negative opinion of you, though. I''ll be sure to warn you when the timees."
"Speaking of," Reivyn said as a thought entered his head, "do you know of a family that has a son named Ren and a daughter named Lin? I don''t know their surname or anything about them, really, but I know they''re cozying up to the Duke of this Duchy."
"Oh, yeah, I know who you''re talking about. Our family doesn''t really have any positive or negative rtions of anyone from this region. There aren''t any benefits or resources for us topete for as we don''t have a base or any industries out here. Why? Are you interested in that Lin girl?" Melissa leaned forward as she asked in a teasing voice.
"Hardly," Reivyn scoffed. "I had a run-in with Ren. I didn''t bow to his will, and he took it personally. Tried to have me killed and everything."
"Really? You''ve led an exciting life," Melissa said with a chuckle. "I''ll let my family know to steer clear of theirs."
"Well, the verdict is still out on that," Reivyn replied. "Lin found me and exined that his actions had nothing to do with them, and she expressed that they wanted to let bygones be bygones."
"If they raised one wolf, they raised another," Melissa said with a serious tone. "I''d stay away from them in the future if you can help it, regardless of what she told you."
"Yeah, I didn''t have any ns entangling myself with them. I just wanted to know if you knew anything about them so I could get a better gauge of the sincerity in her words."
"Sorry I couldn''t be of more help."
"It''s fine," Reivyn waved her off.
Reivyn and Melissa had been caught up in their conversation, and before they realized it, they had reached the edge of the small base. Reivyn looked around and noticed there wasn''t anything out there, so he turned back around, and the two headed back towards the center of the growing town.
Now that he was paying attention, Reivyn could see the constant activity surrounding them. People continued to build more houses, storefronts, and workshops. He could tell that a lot of time and effort was being invested into the town, and with the knowledge of what the Dungeon contained, he could foresee this bing a center of power one day.
As long as the Church of Light is willing to set up a local ministry, Reivyn thought. The consequences of ruing the negative aura from the Dungeon could be disastrous, and people aren''t likely to stay away in the face of the opportunity.
Reivyn and Melissa continued walking around through the streets, thoughts and conversation focused on the future.
Chapter 39: A Day in the Life
Chapter 39: A Day in the Life
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +400
Boss Defeated: Exp +400
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calcting...
Second Floor: Iplete
Combat Experience: Exp +7,000
Total Experience: 8,300
Level Up! Lvl 17
Level Up! Lvl 18
Level Up! Lvl 19
Level Up! Lvl 20
Experience 1761/2000
Woah! 7,000 Experience for fighting the monsters on the second floor! And that''s divided between the members, Reivyn was shocked at the incredible jump in Experience. It was more Experience than even his share from the Experience Crystals his group had retained.
The one Dungeon delve had boosted him a whole four levels. He had passively gained a level from the monthly Experience calctions he had received from the training he and his friends did before they left civilization, so he was now two-thirds of the way through the first Tier.
Reivyn continued to look through his notifications as he sat on his bed.
Select a ss Skill:
Avable ss Skills:
Intimidate (0): Cause fear and hesitation into equal strength opponents. Chance to stun weaker enemies.
Power Swing (0): Transfer momentum into the impact area causing knock-back
me de (10): Coat your de in a raging Inferno. Able to extend the length of the me de with additional mana
Reivyn didn''t even have to decide on his new ss Skill as the new me de Skill he had unlocked was simply too amazing to pass up. Depending on how powerful and mana intensive the Skill is, I might be able to tackle the first floor and the first couple of rooms of the second floor solo. He selected the Skill without hesitation.
Ok, now let''s pull up the Skill Level Ups notification.
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1
Athleticism (41 ->42)
Bnce (42 ->43)
Medium Armor (28 ->30)
Shields (37 ->40)
Sneaking (21 ->22)
Tier 2
Evasion (33 ->34)
Pain Resistance (34 ->35)
Strategy (7 ->11)
Tactics (18 ->20)
Tier 3
Battlefield Awareness (10 ->11)
Command (7 ->8)
Danger Sense (4 ->6)
Inspire (6 ->10)
Mana Conjuration (18 ->21)
Mana Maniption (20 ->23)
Mana Shield (1 ->11)
Mana Sight (26 ->27)
Tier 4
Mana Weapon (11 ->14)
Spatial Awareness (15 ->17)
Tier 6
Weapons Master (48 ->51)
Exploring a region filled with and fighting Tier 3 Monsters, even if they''re weaker, really gives a lot of Skill experience, too, Reivyn mused. Considering I had already surpassed the actual mastery level of Expert with my Weapons Master Skill, I didn''t have a bottleneck at 50. Fighting against a horde of Revenants on the second floor gave me more Skill Levels than any manner of intense training I could get with my dad or friends. Having to make up the Stats difference with the Skill ys a significant role, too. Once I gain more Levels and Stats, the Skill growth should normalize.
Reivyn pulled up his full Status.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 20 Age: 10 Health: 950/950 Stamina: 1800/1800 Mana: 660/660 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 85 INT: 67 VIT: 95 MAG: 65 DEX: 85 CLA: 34 CHA: 7 PER: 41 LUK: 8 Bloodline: Unknown 1000/10,000,000 Experience: 1761/2000
Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (25), Athleticism (42), Bnce (43), Drawing (19), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (26), Horsemanship (6), Map Making (11), Mathematics (17), Marching (15), Medium Armor (30), Mining (12), Observation (38), Penmanship (24), Piano (0), Ride (11), Running (40), Shields (40), Sneaking (22), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (11)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Eavesdropping (23), Evasion (34), Forced March (13), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (46), Mana Cirction (23), Meditation (24), Numbers Concepts (9), Pain Resistance (35), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (51), Stealth (16), Strategy (11), Tactics (20)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (11), Blind Fighting (8), Command (8), Danger Sense (6), Identify {All} (14), Inspire (10), Mana Conjuration (21), Mana Maniption (23), Mana Shield (11), Mana Sight (27), Mental Fortitude (31)
Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (14), Iron Will (8), Mana Weapon (14), Spatial Awareness (17)
Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (51)
Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (30), Earth (30), Fire (30), Water (30)
Tier 2:
Ice (16), Magma (16), Metal (16), sma (16), Wood (16)
Tier 3:
Darkness (20), Light (20)
ss Skills: Devastating Strike (76): Deal 177% Damage
Cleave (62): Reset stance at an elerated rate of 172%
Charge (63): Sprint towards the target at 173% absolute maximum speed
Quick-Draw (55): elerate the draw speed of a sheathed weapon by 55%
me de (10): Coat your de in a raging Inferno. Able to extend the length of the me de with additional mana
Avable: Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0)
Reivyn nodded in satisfaction as he got up. He walked into the shared living space, and Teilon was already busy cooking breakfast. While the food they prepared for themselves wasn''t nearly as good as the fare provided by the professional cooks at the tavern, it was still a step up from eating rations for every meal.
Teilon is probably working on his Cooking Skill; he''s always the first to jump at preparing the meals.
"What''s your Skill up to now?" Reivyn asked as he took a seat at the table. Kimberly was already waiting and gave him a nod in greeting.
"What Skill?" Teilon called out over his shoulder.
"Your Cooking Skill. What else?" Reivyn said.
"I don''t have the Cooking Skill," Teilon replied.
"Then why are you always the one cooking?"
"''Cause I''m hungry!" Reivyn rolled his eyes at the response. "Though I probably will unlock the Skill soon."
"Alright then Hungry-Man, pay attention to what you''re doing and stop talking to me. You need to focus if you''re ever going to unlock the Skill."
"You''re the one talking to me!"
"You don''t have to answer back!"
Kimberly shook her head, already used to the interaction. Reivyn tapped the tabletop as he waited the final few minutes for his friend to finish. Teilon brought over a tter with scrambled eggs and bacon, and the three friends helped themselves to fill the tes that had already been waiting.
Reivyn eyed the bacon with appreciation. They didn''t have any way to store raw meats, so Teilon or Kimberly must have gone out in the morning to procure it before Reivyn got up.
"See, if you hadn''t been talking to me, and instead had been focusing on your task, this would almost be edible," Reivyn said after taking a bite.
"I don''t see you putting your fork down," Teilon retorted.
"Yeah, it''s actually pretty good. Thank you."
"No problem," Teilon nodded at the appreciation.
They quickly scarfed down their breakfast, and Reivyn took up the dishes and washed them. It was only right for him to take the task upon himself as his friends had done all of the preparation.
"Alright, time for some real Skill training," Reivyn said as he toweled off his hands. Kimberly had dried the tes and utensils and put them away as Reivyn handed them to her after cleaning.
Teilon groaned as he got up from the table to get his gear.
"Do we have to? Can''t we take a break?" He dragged his feet as he entered his room.
"We went over this already," Reivyn replied with a gleeful grin. "Plus we had a break yesterday."
"You know what I mean!" Teilon called from his room. "One day isn''t a break. We should take a couple of weeks off. We''d still go into the Dungeon, of course - speaking of, we need to go turn in the ores for cashter today - but a couple weeks of taking it easy otherwise would be nice." Despite hisining, Teilon still dutifully kitted himself out and rejoined Reivyn and Kimberly.
"Stopining," Kimberly said while tapping her foot with her arms crossed. "Don''t you want to dance with me?"
"Yeah, but not that kind of dancing!"
"Well, if you do my kind of dancing, I''ll do your kind of dancing,ter," Kimberly supplied.
"What are you two standing around waiting for?" Teilon said as he headed out the door. "We have training to do."
Reivyn and Kimberly shared a look before following Teilon out to the space they had avable for sparring.
Reivyn sucked in a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his brow. He lowered his sword and leaned against the wall as he struggled to catch his breath. He gripped the cor to his shirt and armor and pulled them away from his body to let the trapped heat escape. There wasn''t as much as he thought there would be.
"Aren''t you guys hot?" Reivyn called to his two friends who were continuing to spar with their spears. "This humidity is killing me."
"What''s this?" Teilon said as he disengaged his sparring. "Is Reivyn cking off?" Reivyn gave him a level look.
"You know perfectly well I''m not cking off," Reivyn pulled his tessen out and fanned himself with it. "It''s just really hot and humid. I feel like I''m swimming in the air."
"I don''t really notice any difference," Teilon shrugged. "I mean, yeah, it''s hot, but it''s not any different than it was before."
Kimberly walked up with a concerned look on her face and ced her hand on Reivyn''s forehead. She frowned as she contemted for a moment.
"You''re not running a fever or anything," she said. "Maybe you really do need to take a break. Your Martial Skills are perfectly eptable for the Dungeon at this point, but you need to use your Mana Skills down on the second floor. Maybe you should just focus your efforts on that. Didn''t you get a new ss Skill? I would work on that if I were you."
"Yeah, what she said," Teilon said as he slung his spear over his shoulders.
"What you say makes a lot of sense," Reivyn said. "My new ss Skill is me de, though. Not sure if working on that is going to help with the heat." Reivyn chuckled.
"Then you''ll just have to doubly focus on your Mana Shield that you used in the Dungeon to protect yourself from the heat."
"Speaking of," Reivyn said as a thought came to him, "I want to try something with that. Melissa said she could anchor her Spell to the ambient mana, and I want to see if I can do the same thing with your weapons and armor. There might be a way for you - and Erik, I suppose - to actually participate in the second floor."
"Woah, now," Teilon said as he held his hand up. "I want nothing to do with that nonsense. I''m perfectly happy working in the mines." Kimberly nodded her head in agreement.
"Well, yeah, we already decided to wait until you guys reach Tier 2, but you''ll have to go down there with me at some point," Reivyn reasoned. "I''ll be a lot more secure if I''m able to give you guys some protection, and you''re sure to gain a lot more Life Experience if you''re able to actually meaningfully participate."
"Ok, well, what do you need us to do?" Teilon asked.
"Let me see if I can imbue your spear from all the way over here, first. You don''t have to do anything, just stand there." Teilon nodded and the three friends went intofortable silence as Reivyn focused on projecting his mana towards the spear as Teilon and Kimberly patiently watched.
Reivyn pulled his mana forth like he normally would and looked at it pooled in his hand. I''ve never actually tried extending it away from my body, before. He wasn''t entirely sure how to go about the task, so he would just have to try different things until it either worked or didn''t. I should have asked Melissa how she anchored her Spell when I had the chance. I didn''t really think about it at the time.
For his first attempt, Reivyn simply attempted to float his spinning ball of mana toward Teilon, who was standing about six feet away. The ball moved at a slow pace, and it wobbled about a bit as he didn''t have perfect control over its movement. It was akin to moving a ball through a tunnel of ice, but the slipping urred from all sides simultaneously, yet he could move it in any direction. It felt incredibly strange.
The ball of mana slowly dissipated as it lost the mana Reivyn had used to fuel it to the environment.
Hmmm... I could either pump a lot more mana in and see if that works, or I can tether it to myself to keep fueling it. I''ll go with the tether first, as that''s likely to cost less mana.
He repeated his exercise, but this time he kept the ball attached to himself with a thin string of mana that he used to maintain the bnce of output with dissipation. The amount of mana required to keep the ball from growing smaller gotrger andrger the further away it reached, as even the mana he was using to supply it was slowly dissipating.
The ball of mana reached about five feet away, and the tether suddenly snapped. Reivyn shook his head as he let his control of the ball go.
Reivyn didn''t know if it was because the tether was too thin, or if he just wasn''t Skilled enough to move it further. He tried again, but this time he doubled the thickness of the tether.
It snapped at about the same distance away.
Ok, so it''s based on my Skill, and not the tether. Good to know.
"Well? Have you done anything yet?"
Teilon''s voice brought Reivyn back to his senses, and he sheepishly looked at his friends.
"I''m holding you guys up," Reivyn said. "I can experiment with this on my own while you guys practice. I''ll let you know once I figure something out."
"Alright, sounds good to me," Teilon said as he looked at Kimberly. "Shall we?"
"Yeah, let''s get back to it."
Reivyn ced his sword a couple of feet away from himself on the ground as his friends moved back to their position to continue their sparring session.
Reivyn sat cross-legged as he stared at the sword. He leaned forward and rested his chin in his left hand. He resumed his practice as he stretched his right hand out and channeled his mana to his sword. With it only ced only a couple of feet away, and his hand extended out, it wasn''t too far for him to extend his mana this time.
He made contact with the sword, and he felt his mana''s dissipation slow down a bit as it was no longer just floating in the air. He was able to infuse his mana through the tether and epass the entire weapon.
Now I need to figure out how to anchor it.
He used his Mana Sight to watch the motes of ambient mana surrounding the sword. His brow furrowed as he attempted to send out a small tendril from the mana and attach it to one of the free floating sparks.
The environment had a lot of mana constantly present, and there were many motes that were even in contact with the sword itself. Reivyn didn''t choose to try and use any of the mana directly touching the de, though, as he wanted to actually see what exactly he was doing.
The tendril came in contact with a mote, and Reivyn willed it to meld together with it. A cascading chain of events happened when he easily aplished the task. The mote directly touching the mana stopped moving about as soon as they connected, and it created a sort of suction that drew more mana motes immediately near it to join the connection. This in turn caused the ethereal mana to provide a constant, small source of fuel.
The maic effect was very small, though, and only a few other motes joined their brethren. Reivyn could tell that it wouldn''t be enough to maintain the mana surrounding the sword for very long. He did the same thing in several other spots all around, this time choosing motes that were directly in contact with his own mana as he no longer needed to see it.
Once a sufficient number of anchors formed for him to tell, it wouldst about ten minutes or so. Adding further points no longer provided any benefit. He retracted his tendril from the sword, and he could see that his mana kept its shape without him providing any more mana to it.
"Sess!" Reivyn yelled out as he threw his hands in the air in triumph. He was only able to do it to something a couple of feet away from him, so it wouldn''t be viable in the midst ofbat, but it would be invaluable for his friends on the second floor if he charged their gear up beforebat. He might even be able to convince Melissa or Larissa to share in the mana cost and do the same thing for Erik.
I can''t use Mana Shield from a distance, but simply infusing their shield and armor should be good enough to ensure survivability.
Reivyn grabbed his sword and stood up. The mana anchors were attached to the mana around the sword, and the points connecting to the ambient mana moved freely. He was pleased to see that moving it about didn''t effect the process of drawing in more mana.
"Alright, I figured it out," Reivyn called over to his friends. "It''ll be easier to do it when I''m touching your gear, so we''ll have to do it beforebat, and there''s a time limit, but it should work."
"Sounds good," Teilon replied. The momentary distraction caused Kimberly to press her spear through his defenses andnd a hit on his side. They were using staves with rounded tips that they had bought from one of the storefronts, and,bined with their armor, they moved freely in their sparring sessions.
"Ack!" Teilon called out in an exaggerated manner. "Look at you distracting me again! How am I ever going to Level up my Skills if you won''t let me focus?"
"You didn''t have to answer me," Reivyn shrugged. "Heck, maybe you''ll get a focus-based Skill with all of my distractions. I''m helping you."
"Yeah, some help," Teilon said as he stretched. Kimberly smirked at him. He shook his head and resumed his sparring with her.
Now to work on my new ss Skill: me de.
Reivyn resumed his practice.
Chapter 40: Coming to the Light
Chapter 40: Coming to the Light
"Show me again, if you don''t mind," Reivyn said.
The two groups had gotten together to conduct some training together to polish their teamwork. Reivyn and the two girls had already developed a rapport with each other on the second floor, but Teilon and Kimberly could use more work, especially once they joined the rest deeper in the Dungeon.
Larissa activated her Fire Bolt Spell. It was incredibly cheap, and it was the most simple Spell she had ess to. Melissa was standing off to the side waiting for her turn, and the other three non-casters were practicing together with their mana infused gear. They needed to figure out the timing so they wouldn''t suddenly be stuck with their mundane gear no longer protecting them from the Revenants.
With the amount of focus they''re putting to keeping track of their gear, they may even unlock the Mana Sense Skill. From what I know, one doesn''t need to be able to use mana to be able to sense it. It''s just much harder for them.
The way they had determined to time the mana infusion was to set a timer, and they staggered when the gear was infused for each person. They would then spar while trying to pick out all of the small details that the mana infusion added, like the change in weapon speed as it cut through the air or the sound it made. They were having a hard time of it for now, but Reivyn was optimistic they would get it down eventually.
Reivyn had set to himself the task of observing the simple Bolt Spell from Larissa and Melissa in turn. If he was able to figure out a moreplicated Spell like me de that used Inferno, then he was confident he could replicate that feat with something easier. Sure there had been a little cheating involved with the way they had gone about unlocking that Spell, but Reivyn was determined to learn as much spell craft as possible while he had the chance.
The mana that Larissa used for the Spell wasn''t directly under her control, so she wasn''t able to slow it down for Reivyn every time she activated it as a ss Skill. She and her sister would free-hand the Spell asionally, since it was the cheapest and simplest Spell, but even with muchrger mana Pools than Reivyn, doing it consistently over and over again wasn''t viable.
Reivyn focused his Mana Sight on the mana that formed in Larissa''s hand as it built up. The activation time for the Bolt Spell was very short, though, so Reivyn only had a fraction of a second to parse what was happening.
The mana didn''t form in a spiral like the way Reivyn pulled his own mana out to manipte it manually. It instead formed a shell of the projectile before it braided itself inside and created intricate patterns in the form of pirs supporting the shell.
Those braided patterns are probably what give it the necessary properties, and forming as pirs supporting the shell probably gives it the reinforcement to have an impact.
He could tell that his forming of the arrows and daggers and other weapons he created with his Mana Weapon Skill were rudimentary at best. He would need to learn theplicated braids if he was ever to give any real power to his mana arsenal.
After a fraction of a second, the Fire Boltunched itself at the target. The group had left the confines of the budding town so as to practice their Spells without identally setting a fire or injuring a bystander. The Spell mmed into a boulder a short distance away, chipping off some fragments and leaving a scorch mark on the surface.
Larissa wasn''t umting any more mana than was necessary, so the damage caused by the Spell was pretty superficial against something like a boulder. Melissa''s Ice Bolt Spells did even less damage. It still caused fragments to shatter, but it only left an icy imprint of where the impact was afterward. Larissa''s heat had started to actually melt portions of the rock after repeated use.
Reivyn closed his eyes and reyed the scene in his mind''s eye. Hebined it with all of the other examples he had been given. While he was lost in thought, he held his hand out and Manipted his own mana to try and recreate the braids that he had witnessed.
Reivyn was able to pinpoint three separate types of braids from Larissa''s Spell, and Melissa''s Spells also contained three. The two Spells shared two of the braids, but the third for each was unique to itself. Reivyn wasn''t able to figure out what each of the braids did, yet, and he asked the two girls not to tell him until he had a chance to try and figure it out for himself.
I''m sure the secrets will be more readily apparent once I''m able to actually form the braids properly in a timely manner.
The problem that Reivyn was running into wasn''t that he wasn''t able to copy the pattern of the braids, but that it took him so long to create them that the mana started to dissipate on the first parts and affected the entire structure. He needed to be able to form the braid almost instantly in order to seed.
A higher Affinity means easier control of the elements, higher Mana Maniption means more precise movements of the threads, and a higher mana pool can be used to brute force through it. That''s probably the root cause of why it''s so hard to free-hand these Spells. Being able to use the System to cast the Spells not only automates all of the intricate maneuvers, but it also allows one to have a blueprint much more essible for research.
"How long did it take you guys to figure out how to free-hand these easier Spells?" Reivyn asked, his eyes still closed and his mana still moving.
"Ummm..." Larissa tapped her chin as she thought about the question. "I think it took me three months to get all of it right, but that was only with one braid each in the Spell. The System puts several of each type when it handles it for us, and that took me almost a year to be able to do."
"My results were about the same, give or take a few days," Melissa said. "You''re actually getting a lot further along on your first day than either of us did. I''m pretty impressed."
"Yeah, it''s not fair that a Martial Brute is able to pick it up so easily."
"Well, to be frank, I already told you that my Mental Stats were actually my highest inherent Stats. The Conscription forced me into a Martial ss," Reivyn exined. "I''m not sure if I would have taken a Caster ss at Tier 2 or not, but my mother has been training me on my mana Skills for several years now. I had always wondered why she only ever really focused on sensing the different elements and improving my affinities. Now with howplicated even the simplest Spell is, I finally get it."
"Yeah, in order to unlock the lower Tier Caster sses, you don''t have to be able to cast Spells, you just have to have the necessary affinities," Melissa supplied. "For rarer, higher Tier sses, though, you would need to be able to do a lot of these things on your own. The System is only ever a base built upon your own foundations, and if you ck off in your own research and practice in the early stages, you''ll forever be relegated to Umon, which is the lowest rarity of Caster sses.
"That also means you''ll never reach beyond Tier 4."
"Why is that? Because you''ll not be powerful enough to move further up the Levels?" Reivyn asked.
"No, you''ll literally never be able to advance," Melissa shook her head. "In order to reach Tier 4, you have to have an Umon Tier 3 ss. That''s simple enough for Caster sses, as, like I said, that''s the minimum rarity for us; however, in order to get to Tier 5, you have to have a Rare Tier 4 ss, and so on and so forth beyond that.
"Tier 8 is the highest Tier, and in order to reach it, you have to have a Mythic Tier 7 ss to advance. If you skimp out on your foundations in your foundational sses, it bes magnitudes harder to unlock higher rarity sses. The System doesn''t recognize a Tier 4 Umon ss figuring out the mana braids as equivalent Life Experience as a Tier 2 Umon ss doing the same.
"You can imagine why there''s a dearth of higher Levels, especially in a Tier 1 Region like this. It''s not justck of Experience and resources, it''s ack of opportunities on a fundamental level."
Reivyn frowned at the new information. He was sure his parents would have eventually told him whenever it became relevant to do so. He already had an Epic ss at Tier 1, after all, and he was working towards gaming the System to get an Epic Tier 2 ss, as well. They probably weren''t too worried about him needing the information so soon.
"That leads me to two questions," Reivyn said as he temporarily halted his practice to focus on the conversation. "One, if there are Magic and Knight Academies in the Capital, where are all the graduates? And two, why don''t more people of means attempt to force a higher Tier ss at a lower Tier like our situation?" He gestured towards himself and his two friends to indicate who he was talking about.
"Oh, oh, oh, I know the answer to the first question!" Larissa jumped up and down until Melissa gestured for her to go ahead. "The top graduates get sent to the higher Tier 2 Region. Our Kingdom isn''tpletely independent. There''s a higher authority in a more mana-dense Region, and the top talents move on. From what I know, there''s a simr situation in the Tier 2 Region, as well. The rest of the graduates are attached to the noble or established families." Melissa nodded her head at the exnation.
"To answer your second question," Melissa said, "conscription is the only way that we know of to force a Tier 2 ss on a Tier 1 person. The more established families aren''t willing to have their children lose their autonomy like that, and the nobles are barred from doing so altogether. I suppose someone of a noble background living in another country, for whatever reason, might be subject to it, but we''ll probably never know, as that situation is very unlikely to ur."
Reivyn managed to keep a straight face as Melissa answered his question.
"As for the Academy being an avenue to force a Tier 3 ss at Tier 2, it is well known that that is a possibility, but there are two problems with that. First, without the more established families allowing for their offspring to have a Tier 2 initial ss, it is much harder for them to rue enough power to be able to get the necessary Life Experience at Tier 2 to be able to force the Tier 3, and people from a non-established family have an even harder time with fewer resources and opportunities.
"Secondly, one cannot gain too many Levels in Tier 2, or it locks into ce. Tier 1 sses are the same for everyone, and they aren''t anything special, other than nobles. But Tier 2 sses integrate with your soul once you reach Level 10, so much so that it cannot be reced. That means my sister and I are already unqualified.
"Think of it like building a house. Like I said, the earlier sses are foundational. If you only have a few bricksid, you can adjust the blueprint at any time, but once you start getting the walls and supports put in ce, it will be impossible to meaningfully change anything.
"Also, as far as anyone knows, Tier 1 and 2 are the only times one can force a higher Tier. The higher Tier sses reward Life Experience, Stats, and Achievements with higher rarity options. It''s theoretically possible to receive a Divine rarity ss at Tier 3, but I''m confident enough to say that in all of history, it has never happened.
"Everything involving the Divine Tier, whether it be Skills or sses, involves a higher ne, and they operate on different rules. Mythical ss is the highest Tier anyone can get on their own, and I''ve never heard of a Tier 3 Mythical ss. There''s probably some Legendary Tier 3 sses out in the higher Regions - they have the same basic rules as everything else, there''s 8 of them - but not anywhere we''re likely to see in our lifetime."
"Hmmm... that''s a lot to think about," Reivyn said.
"You have a good chance of forcing a Tier 3 ss in Tier 2, but running this Dungeon is a double-edged sword. It gives you the necessary Life Experience, and I''m sure you can get some amazing Achievements, but you also have to worry about getting too much Experience and Leveling up too quickly at the same time."
Good thing I''m able to siphon experience off into my Bloodline, Reivyn thought. With the amount of Experience required to upgrade it, I thought I wouldn''t be doing so anytime soon, but it looks like that might be an integral part in my n, now.
"Sure, that''s a problem to figure out when the timees, though," Reivyn replied. He wasn''t going to expose all of his secrets, no matter how friendly he was with his new team.
"Alright, let''s get back to work," Reivyn said as he indicated for Melissa to cast her Spell. "I''m sure I''ll have enough to work on the braids on my own after a few more examples. I can feel it."
"Sure," Melissa said with a smile.
"Sir, we have another group of Adventurers that ignored our advice and continued to delve the Dungeon," Josn reported to the Sword-Bishop. "They managed to make it out alive, but that leaves another three groups that haven''te back for an extended period of time. I went ahead and ordered a Squire to tell the local Adventurer''s Guild Branch to mark them as ''presumed deceased.''"
Sword-Bishop Nix sighed as he rubbed his temples. He mumbled something to himself, and Josn could faintly hear something about "idiots."
"Show me," the Sword-Bishop got up from behind his desk.
Josn led him out of hismand tent and escorted him to the infirmary they had set up.
Josn was a Sword-Priest of the Church of Light. His family was one of the more established ones from the Capital, and they had gained their first footing in society through an ancestor who had risen through the ranks of the church, so they had a long history with the faith. Many of the noble families would send off their younger offspring to serve in the military or one of the churches so as not to interfere with session, but his family was slightly different. They sent their first born to the church.
There was no stiption against getting married or having children, so serving in the church didn''t interfere with the first born''s duty to take over the family in the future. Josn was an only child, so he doubly didn''t have to worry about the matter of seeding as the head of his house, but as a particrly pious family, they generally had strong bonds and didn''t have situations where there was internal strife.
He had practically been raised in the church, his father being fairly high ranked among the Sword-Priests, as they called their military arm. While Sword-Priest was a rank, it was also the term used to refer to them as a whole.
Josn had recently been promoted, and his first assignment saw him traveling all the way out to the frontier where some demon-infested Dungeon had spawned. The stink of the local mana permeated everything. As a righteous scion of the Church of Light, all of their members were particrly sensitive to demonic influences.
The church wasn''t an official, state-mandated organization, but they were afforded many liberties. As such the Sword-Priests had set up a separate encampment outside of the palisade. They didn''t want any rumors of fraternization, and neither did the officials overseeing the new settlement.
Josn and Sword-Bishop Nix quickly made their way to therge infirmary tent. Real buildings had beenmissioned to be built nearby from the locals, as the situation involving the Dungeon was likely to require a permanent presence.
Josn had no idea how long he would be required to stay out in the boonies, but he didn''t mind too much.
It was his duty to search out and destroy Heresy.
The two men ducked into the tent, and the demonic mana that was ever present intensified immediately. It was oozing off of the bodies of many Adventurers that wereid up on the cots set out. Priests moved about seeking to dispelling the demonic toxins, but they weren''t specialized in medicine or healing. The local guards had to provide any Healers, and they had their own duties to see to, so they weren''t on hand at all times.
As the pair navigated toward the new additions, one of the Adventurers waiting for treatment leaned over and vomited ck blood into a bucket by his side. Sword-Bishop Nix didn''t even spare him a nce, but Josn instinctively shied away a bit.
Ugh, disgusting. Even after they had already fallen victim to the symptoms associated with the demonic mana, these Adventurers were just too greedy and couldn''t stay out of the Dungeon. These groups were among the first that arrived, and they''re the worst off.
Josn showed his superior to the furthest, newest upants of the tent. If Reivyn had been present, he would have recognized them as the dour group that he had avoided in the tavern.
"These men had already been treated once, and they were warned that they should stay out of the Dungeon for several weeks so they could recover, but they simply chose to put up a notice to recruit some more people to make up for their diminished state and kept going. Luckily, the people they teamed up with were conscientious enough to drag them out of the Dungeon and not just leave them to their fate."
Sword-Bishop Nix inspected the new people in his care before turning to one of the Priests.
"These men were lucky they had already received a treatment before they went down thisst time. They should survive. See to it that they get the proper care," he ordered. The Priest in question gave a salute and marked it down.
"I think we should just put them to the sword and call it done," Josn said as the two stepped out of the tent.
"Sword-Priest Josn, while it is in our purview to stamp out Heresy wherever it is found, it should always be the option," the Sword-Bishop rebuked. "These men didn''t willingly submit themselves to Heresy, so we should do all in our power to cure them."
"You misunderstand me, Sir," Josn replied. "I said we should put them to the sword as a mercy. While they have a slim chance of survival, it''s not looking good for the first few groups. We could end their suffering."
"Hmmm, yes, I see," Sword-Bishop Nix said. "However, they are all children in the Light, and suffering is a way of life. Nobody can escape suffering, and as such, we shouldn''t resort to the Sword of Mercy unless we have to. Everyone should get a chance, and we''ll make sure they get it until the veryst moment. If we start ending suffering out of mercy, we run the risk of choosing to do so more easily in the future. And then what? We''ll be the very darkness we stand against."
"I understand, Sir," Josn replied.
He wasn''t fully convinced, but he wasn''t the one ultimately in charge or responsible. He would follow his orders, even if he didn''t fully agree with them.
My faith is strong enough that I wouldn''t fall to the darkness and be a butcher, he thought to himself. He looked around at the other Sword-Priests attending to their duties. Though I suppose the Sword-Bishop has a point. We can''t only be concerned with ourselves. As the officers, we need to be mindful of those in our charge as well.
"Stand up straight, Squire," Josn corrected a man on duty. "Don''t let yourself be slovenly. We must avoid even the appearance of it."
"Yes, sir," the man saluted and straightened his posture.
Josn kept a critical eye out for all of the Sword-Priests as he made his way back to his tent.
It is especially important to make sure we don''t let anything effect our mindset so close to the infestation. This Dungeon is an insidious beast, just waiting to clutch the unsuspecting in its ws.
Chapter 41: Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix
Chapter 41: Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix
Ameliyn sat on the couch to hand knit some smaller, more delicate projects. She didn''t always do all of her work on the loom, but the things she produced to sell were usuallyrger things she created quickly. For the more personal items she made, she liked to do it by hand. It felt more intimate to know that something her daughters wore was made with her hands directly.
She wasn''t currently making a more intimate piece of clothing, though. Instead, her eyes were focused beyond what her hands were doing, and she manipted her mana in intricate braids and patterns over and over again.
Her mastery of braiding mana had astounded her tutors, and it was what had enabled her to unlock the Weaver designation instead of simply Mage when she became a Light Weaver. She had found that practicing her needlework, that her mother had insisted she learn as a child - "any nobledy needs to know certain, delicate skills," she would say - directly tranted to her ability to perceive and manipte mana threads into braids.
She had made it a habit to continue practicing both as theypounded each other''s growth. It was the main reason she had taken up the persona as a talented weaver to provide some extra ie for her family.
Once Reivyn gets back from his adventure in the Dungeons, he should have just unlocked his Caster ss, or be about to, and I can move on to the next stage of his training. If he hadn''t been so insistent on practicing his Martial Skills so much, we would have had more time for this.
She looked over at her daughters, Kailey and Riley, affectionately as they wove baskets made out of grass. The odd flower bud was interspersed with the grassces. Ameliyn thought back to the flower crowns they had made on the road to Magron. That little act of theirs had woken her and Refix up to the fact that they needed to seriously start guiding their development.
The girls hadn''t realized exactly what they were doing, and they weren''t intentionally Manipting Mana, but they probably had unlocked the Skill. She didn''t know as they weren''t quite as forting about it as Reivyn had been. They sought each other''s counsel more than anything, but they didn''t intentionally hide things, either.
They had begun to subconsciously infuse their intent into their little creations more and more. It didn''t always manifest as aplete magical item, but it wasn''t infrequent. They could really benefit from buckling down on some official training in their mana Skills and Mental Stats.
The only problem was that they had an utterck of any motivation to do any serious training,pletely opposite of their brother. Ameliyn had had to trick them into practicing. She had instructed them that each time they wanted to go out and pick flowers, and other things to make their little crafts, they had to first weave a grass basket to carry it in. And they had to make a new one every time.
The two girls hadn''t understood why it was necessary to make a new basket every single time, and they had expressed as much. Ameliyn smiled at the memory of their conversation.
"But mo~m, there''s a perfectly good one right here!" Kailey hadined. She grabbed Ameliyn''s arm and swung it about.
"We don''t need a new one," Riley added on, swinging Ameliyn''s other arm.
"Well, take those ones that you''ve already made apart," Ameliyn advised. "Be careful not to tear the grass while you do so. Once you dismantle it, build it again, but this time, do something different. Try and incorporate some different colors into shapes and patterns. Give it a unique look. You can sport new fashion every time you go out of the house."
The two girls looked at their already made baskets in thought. Ameliyn could see the gears whirling in their minds as they imagined the different things they could do. After all, making new, cute things was the entire point of them going out to collect more flowers.
"Alright, mommy," Kailey and Riley said in unison.
That had been several weeks ago, and the two girls had quickly be experts in designing new and interesting looks for their grass baskets.
"Mommy, mommy, look!" Kailey came running over, followed immediately behind by a beaming Riley. "We made somethingpletely new!"
"It''spletely new!" Riley added.
"Oh? Show mommy what you''ve made," Ameliyn faced her daughters as she assumed a look of rapt attention. Kailey held up her basket for Ameliyn to inspect. She had somehow managed to incorporate all of the tiny, miniscule color distortions and blemishes in the grass into the outline of a woman in a flowing dress with braided hair over her shoulder. "This is magnificent!" Ameliyn eximed. She meant it.
"Look at mine! Look at mine!" Riley thrust her basket forward. She had simrly used the imperfections to craft a little masterpiece. Her basket sported the outline of a man in armor, a sword''s hilt peeking over his shoulder.
"It''s Princess Amily, like in your stories!" Kailey said while pointing to the woman. "She has a braid like yours." Kailey reached over and gave her mother''s braid a tug. Ameliyn was able to see that her daughter had somehow incorporated the pattern on the braid into her work in borate detail.
"Mine is Knight Fenrix, Amily''s trusty bodyguard!" Riley nearly shouted in her excitement. "See, he has the dragon-head pommel on his sword." Sure enough a little depiction of a dragon''s head was on the hilt sticking out from the man''s shoulder.
Ameliyn could feel an unusually strong mana fluctuationing from the two baskets, so she threw an Inspect at them.
[Princess Amily''s Basket]
[It holds the hope of her people]
[Knight Fenrix''s Basket]
[It holds the weight of his responsibility]
Emotions threatened to overwhelm her as she epted the baskets from her daughters and held them. A single tear fell from her eye, but she quickly mastered herself.
"Why are you crying, mommy?" Kailey leaned forward and peered up at her mother.
"Why are you crying?" Riley put her head right next to her sister''s.
"It''s nothing," Ameliyn said as she wiped the tear away. "I''m just so happy at what you two have been able to do." She put a bright smile on her face. She was happy, and not just at the amazing things the two girls had crafted.
The words described in the notification about the two magical baskets weren''t empty. She felt a tangible weight that she hadn''t noticed was there lift from her shoulders as she had epted the baskets. She felt more fresh and clear-headed than she had in years.
"These baskets mark an important milestone for you girls, so we won''t be taking these ones apart," Ameliyn said as she got up. She took the baskets and ced them on the mantelpiece to be disyed. "You can make new ones to use for your flower gathering, but mommy''s going to be selfish and keep these for herself."
"Ok~ay, mommy," Kailey said. "But..."
"...You have to tell us another story," Riley finished the sentence. "It''s payment for services rendered."
"It''s payment."
Ameliyn chuckled at her two daughters as she resumed her seat on the couch. The girls took up space half sitting on the couch and half sitting in herp on either side of her. "Now, where were we?" Ameliyn asked, looking back and forth between Kailey and Riley.
"Amily and Fenrix had just embarked on their quest to find the Holy Amulet to wake her sleeping siblings," Kailey chimed in, bouncing up and down in her seat.
"To wake her sleeping siblings," Riley echoed.
"Right, right," Ameliyn said. It was a good thing she had already mastered her emotions. She felt her heart strings tug at the mention of "Amily''s" siblings. She took a deep breath and began her edited version of events. "Princess Amily bravely rode forth on her steed, the handsome Fenrix in his gleaming armor dutifully escorting her..."
"You''re a bastard! A gremlin! An oaf!" Ameliyn stomped her foot as she shouted at the man who had kidnapped her away from her family. He had snatched her from the arms of her younger brother and sister and dragged her all the way out into the wilderness without even a nce back.
"I''m not an oaf," Refix said defensively. He sat in front of their campfire and stared into the mes with a distant look. His armor was nicked and scarred, covered in scorch marks and scratches adorning every part of it. Soot marred the features of his face, and exhaustion was the only emotion he was able to disy.
The borate red cape thatpleted the ensemble of an Imperial Bodyguard was tattered and torn, and he had stripped it off to give to Ameliyn to use as a nket. She had scoffed at the gesture and threw it back in his face. He had simply shrugged and used it as a pillow.
The two had narrowly escaped from the Imperial Capital and had fled for well over a full day before they had to stop to get some rest or risk copsing. The incursion had started at dusk the previous day, and they had traveled through the night and all day.
Ameliyn was just a young Tier 2 who had just unlocked her ss, but Refix was already an established Tier 3. Not only was it his duty to protect and serve the Imperial Family, but he had years of experience fighting in Dungeons and against monsters in the wilderness to prepare for andpete for the honor of his position.
Refix had maintained a high alert state of mind for over 24 hours and had rushed as far as he possibly could on his Stamina reserves. He had constantly been on the lookout for threats, often times having to fight off weaker monsters that had been drawn to themotion in order to scavenge, and any time Ameliyn needed to rest, he had simply picked her up and kept going.
Ameliyn had been numb and mostly unresponsive for a long time. She had never encountered anything close to the strife they were faced with. Eventually, though, she had snapped out of her fugue. Unfortunately, she wasn''t able or mature enough to handle the cascade of emotions that flowed within her, so she had reacted in the only way that offered an outlet for her.
She hadshed out at the one person who was protecting her, and she was indignant at the treatment she was getting in their need for a speedy escape. She dragged her feet andined about every little thing, escting as she was unable to get a rise out of the target of her ire.
"I demand that you take me back to the Capital this instant," Ameliyn lifted her chin and attempted an imperious tone. "You will mobilize any forces you can find andunch a sortie to rescue my siblings at once."
"Yes, Princess, as soon as I''m able," Refix replied. He got up from his spot and tidied up their camp. He paused for a moment, looking at the tattered cape in his hands, before he carefully stored it away in a pack he had been given by another soldier before they fled. He kicked dirt over the fire and made sure it waspletely out before he grabbed Ameliyn''s wrist and led her out of their little enve.
The pack that had been thrust into his hands in haste had been carefully prepared ahead of time for such an eventuality, and it was inspected and maintained regrly. The Imperial Family didn''t personally direct the action, but the Imperial Guard was professional, and they nned for everything.
The kit had included rations, money, some easily transportable resources, and several portable runic arrays. Refix had used such an array to hide themselves from any roaming monsters or beasts so they could both get some sleep without the need for a watch. They didn''t have an unlimited amount of them, though, so he would need to be selective when he chose to use one. The first time they had stopped to rest was definitely one of the times it was a necessity.
Refix walked back out into the open of the small hills they had found themselves in, Ameliyn in tow. He didn''t drag her or force her to move faster, but he was insistent with his movements. He found the road they had been following and turned down it again, away from the Capital.
"Unhand me!" Ameliyn shouted. She verbally asserted her displeasure, but her feet kept walking. "You''re going the wrong way! I told you to escort me back to the Capital."
"Yes, Princess, as soon as I''m able," Refix replied as he continued walking without missing a beat.
The sky was still orange from the mes that still raged in the Capital, and it dyed the surroundings an unnatural color. Smoke was billowing on the horizon, marking the location of the tragedy.
"You''re able right now," Ameliyn said.
"You ordered me tounch a sortie with any forces I''m able to find," Refix patiently pointed out. "I''m going to go find those forces. They''re most likely located in the vassal states in this direction. We''ll have to find some form of transportation soon, though, because it will be a long journey on foot."
Refix released his hold on Ameliyn''s wrist when he noticed she continued to follow. She folded her arms across her chest and pouted as she stepped up to walk alongside her bodyguard.
"You''re not my exclusive guard," Ameliyn tried a different tack. "You''re a bodyguard to the Imperial Family. Family. You have more people to protect than just me."
"Yes, Princess, I understand," Refix said. "I''m also not the only Imperial Bodyguard. I have several brothers in arms who can take on that duty as we make our escape."
Ameliynpsed into silence as she trudged along, thinking about the possibility of other bodyguards rescuing her siblings. She had to believe it was possible or she wouldn''t be able to take any more steps forward. She knew deep down that they were making the right decision, but it hurt.
The two continued walking along the well-maintained road in silence. There were no other people on the road around them, traveling in either direction, so they walked alone.
I''m alone. Tears silently rolled down her face as she continued her beleaguered journey with her annoying bodyguard.
"...and Amily and Fenrix saw that the men were loyal, and so they recruited them to their cause. Amily embarked on her journey in style with all of her needs taken care of, and Sir Fenrix kept a protective watch over her at all times.
"We''ll pick up from here next time," Ameliyn said.
"A," the two girlsined in unison.
"But we want to hear more about the magicalnd that they traveled through," Kailey said.
"And about the beasts that they tamed along the way," Riley added.
"And about the bravepanions that joined them."
"And, and..."
"And another time," Ameliyn said. "I''ve paid for your baskets with what I''ve told you so far. It''s time for you to make new ones and go get your flowers."
"Ok~ay," Kailey (Riley) said.
The pair got up from the couch and ran into the backyard to pluck more strands of grass and simple flower buds for their next projects. Ameliyn smiled as she watched them run off.
The front door opened and closed, and Ameliyn looked up to see Refix join her.
"Look at what your daughters have made," she said with a nod toward the mantelpiece. Refix walked over and stood in stunned silence as he Observed the two baskets.
"These are amazing," he said as he reached out to pick them up. His eyes widened as he looked up at Ameliyn. "Wow! I feel... I feel... I can''t quite put my finger on it, but I feel better."
"Like a weight you didn''t know you were carrying has been lifted?"
"Yeah, but more than that," he carefully ced the baskets back in their spots. "We''ll have to keep these treasures safe."
"Agreed," Ameliyn said as she walked up and hugged her husband from behind. "My loyal bodyguard, I order you to keep these treasures safe, and to protect and guide the two treasures ying outside, as well."
Refix turned in her embrace and whispered, "Yes, Princess, as soon as I''m able." He leaned down to give his wife a kiss.
Chapter 42: Classist
Chapter 42: ssist
Monthly Experience
Calcting...
Relevant Skills Training: +800 Exp
Physical Exercise: +0 Exp
Sparring: +0 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +20 Exp
Life Experience: +2000 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 2,820
Level Up! Lvl 28
Another two weeks had gone by since the first time the team had delved the Dungeon, and Reivyn had seen a tremendous increase in Experience just from the two runs. It turned out that the final hallway where they encountered the patrol of 14 Revenants was the final step before the boss room. The second floor of the Dungeon was considerably shorter than the first, yet magnitudes more dangerous.
He was concerned that he would outpace his two friends far too much if he continued getting an additional 8,000 Experience a week more, so he was able to convince them to move on to the next floor much sooner than he had expected. Teilon and Kimberly had gone with them and participated in thebat on the second floor, but due to the restrictions of them requiring their gear to be infused with mana, they only participated on the upper floors and stayed in the stairwell for the final patrol.
Reivyn saw a decrease of 2,000 Experience due to his friends joining them on the third run, and Melissa and Larissa saw a simr decrease. From a conversation with Teilon and Kimberly afterward, he learned that they had earned 4,500 Experience from the trip.
With the added participation of Erik, Teilon, and Kimberly, they each received around 4,500 experience, which amounts to 13,500 Experience - Erik didn''t get any Experience the first trip besides from the normal skeletons. The two girls and Ibined lost 2,000 each, which is 6,000 Experience. We somehow managed to gain an additional 7,500 experience spread between all of us. I have no idea what the calctions are, but other than for seeking Achievements, grouping up provides the most Experience. Sure, the total Experience gained would be far greater if everyone went in solo, but not everyone is able to clear the Dungeon''s first floor, much less the Revenants, by themselves.
He was still at such a low level that he gained multiple Levels for each trip, but Melissa told him that would drop off a bit as he advanced into Tier 2.
"It''s not a dramatic increase in Experience required to Level Up at Tier 2, but it ramps up quickly. For instance, Tier 1 sses require the current Level times 100, all the way up to 2,900 Experience to reach the maximum Level of 30; however, to initiate the ss Change, you have to max the Experience in the maximum level out, so the full 3,000 Experience.
"Tier 2 sses require an additional 200 times the Level, in addition to the amount required to reach max level in Tier 1. Level 1 is always a freebie in each Tier, and it''s brought about by the changes the System makes to your meridians and the left over Experience from maxing out the previous Level. Tier 2 Level 2 requires 3,200 Experience, and to reach the max Level to go to Tier 3, which is Level 60 as opposed to 30, you would need 15,000 Experience at max Level.
"I was Level 22 on our first Dungeon dive, and that meant I required 7,400 Experience to Level Up. I''ve Leveled Up once for each Dungeon dive, but that will soon slow down as well. I''m notining, mind you; it''s still really fast.
"This Dungeon is ridiculous for Caster sses and anyone able to team up with Caster sses, so I imagine almost everyone at the two Academies will make a trip out here once we return with the information on it. The System doesn''t care that the Revenants are restricted due to theck of mana density. We still get the full experience for killing them. We''re basically getting the Experience reward for an entire Tier higher Dungeon."
Reivyn pulled up his Status page.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 28 Age: 10 Health: 1190/1190 Stamina: 2200/2200 Mana: 915/915 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 101 INT: 91 VIT: 119 MAG: 92 DEX: 101 CLA: 34 CHA: 7 PER: 49 LUK: 8 Bloodline: Unknown 1000/10,000,000 Experience: 381/2800
Reivyn was concerned that, due to the nature of the System awarding Experience all at once when exiting the Dungeon or during the Monthly Experience Calction, he would identally reach maximum Experience and identally initiate the Tier 2 ss Change before he was ready.
I don''t know if the ss Change, once initiated, is irreversible or not. What if the System demands that I choose a new ss and doesn''t let me activate the Experience Siphon? That would be terrible news. I''ll go ahead and activate it to see how it works.
Reivyn mentally flipped the switch, and he felt a pull in his core as a whirlpool of experience formed in his heart.
Makes sense that the center of the Bloodline would be in the heart, Reivyn thought. He continued to examine the ability.
Experience was an intangible form of energy, so he wasn''t able to see it like he could mana, despite all of his attempts at activating his Skill. It was a subtle thing, barely at the edges of his awareness, but he could feel the Experience that had permeated his body get sucked into his heart. He kept the ability active even after all of the remnant energy had been devoured, and he was happy to see that he was able to simply leave it on without even having to think about it. With nothing to absorb, the ability was inert, but he could tell that it was ready to gobble up any new Experience.
Bloodline: Unknown 1,381/10,000,000
Experience: 0/2800
Alright. Simple enough. I''ll just reach Level 30, and then keep the siphoning ability active at all times until I''m ready to Tier up.
Reivyn deactivated his ability, and the waiting maw in his heart went dormant. It didn''t cause any feelings of difort, no hunger or anything one might think about as an insatiable pull of energy, so he wasn''t concerned about leaving it on at all times. If he didn''t focus on it directly, it wouldn''t cause any noticeable changes in his every-day life at all.
With thefort of knowing he could dy his Tier up indefinitely at will, Reivyn turned his attention to another new addition.
Ever since he had been forced into the Fighter ss, the ss tab on his System Page had simply contained the general information about his ss, and nothing else; however, upon reaching Level 25, that had changed.
Now his ss Page was filled to the brim with possible sses he could acquire upon reaching Tier 2. Several of them were grayed out, so he had sought Melissa once again for her counsel.
"Once someone reaches thest few Levels before reaching the next Tier, the ss Page will disy the sses that you have already unlocked, as well as the sses you''re close to unlocking.
"sses that you almost meet the requirements to will be grayed out. The System doesn''t provide the information about what needs to be done to fully unlock the ss, though. You will have to examine the ss, and, based on the context, figure out what it is that you''recking.
"It could be anything: Stats, Skill Levels, Life Experience, or even something more intangible like reputation or affiliation with a group. You won''t be able to unlock the Priest ss without being a member of a church, for instance. That includes the Pdin ss that Sir Reifold holds."
Reivyn ruminated on the information as he pulled the ss Page up.
Tier 2 sses Avable: Common: Hunter
Laborer
Mason
Miner
Story Teller
Woodsman Umon: Bowman
Horseman
Hunter *Wood
Laborer *Earth
Mason *Earth
Mage
Mercenary
Militiaman
Miner *Earth
Miner *Metal
Orator
Scout
Woodsman *Wood Rare: [Archer]
[Builder *Earth/Wood]
[Cavalryman]
[Dreamer]
[Fighter]
[Mage *Air]
[Mage *Darkness]
[Mage *Earth]
[Mage *Fire]
[Mage *Ice]
[Mage *Light]
[Mage *Magma]
[Mage *Metal]
[Mage *Water]
[Mage *Wood]
[Rogue]
[Politician]
[Tracker *Earth/Wood] Tier 3*: Umon*: Expert Hunter
Expert Laborer
Expert Mason
Expert Miner
Expert Story Teller
Expert Woodsman
Fortune Teller Rare*: Cataphract
Expert Hunter *Wood
Expert Laborer *Earth
Expert Mason *Earth
Expert Miner *Earth
Expert Miner *Metal
Expert Woodsman *Wood
Marksman
Statesman
Recon
Soldier
Soldier of Fortune
Wizard Epic*: Assassin
Chevalier
Magic Swordsman*
Shade
Sharpshooter
Veteran
Wizard *Air/Earth/Fire/Water Legendary*: Champion
Juggernaut
Reivyn had a lot of options avable to him.
I doubt anyone else has the sheer number of sses avable to them upon Tiering up. Most of these can be ignored, though. No way I would ever choose a Common rarity ss, especially after the reminder from Melissa about having to have rarer sses to even be able to continue Leveling Up.
Reivynpletely ignored the entire swathe of Common sses and most of the Umon ones. He wasn''t ever going to choose such a ss, but several of them caught his attention in the Umon rarity.
Let''s start with Hunter *Wood. That makes me think it has something to do with the Wood Element Affinity.
Reivyn focused on the ss and received a pop-up notification window containing the information about the ss.
Hunter *Wood You are an expert at finding and killing game. You''ve delved into the intricacies of leather working, but skinning your prey is as far as your knowledge in the field goes. You have the ability to tap into the Mana that surrounds and subsumes all of Nature, bending it to your will. In addition to the normal Skill set a Hunter is equipped with, the Wood Aligned Hunter will be able to manipte mana and use some rudimentary spells.
It''s like I thought. Being able to use mana Skills inherently increases the rarity of a Lifestyle ss. Come to think of it, based on how the sses are named, I would have realized something was up with mother''s ss once I had ess to this information. If it were a Lifestyle ss, it would have been Weaver *Light, instead of Light Weaver.
Thinking about it critically, the simple difference in the names has an entirely different connotation. A Weaver *Light would be a mundane Weaver with the ability to manipte the Light Element, but a Light Weaver is one who literally weaves the Light.
With his curiosity sated, Reivyn moved on from the lesser Rarity sses. He was determined to get a Rare Tier 3 ss eventually, but there were several Tier 2 sses in the Rare section that piqued his interest.
Dreamer You have had an intangible connection to the ethereal realm of Dreams ever since you were young. Most dreams are what they appear on the surface, subconscious thoughts that you experience in your sleep. You, however, are able to delve beneath the surface. The Dreamer is able to experience a lucid dream at will. With practice the dreams one experiences will have a more significant connection to reality. Entering someone else''s dreams are still out of reach for the Dreamer.
That one''s interesting, and if I didn''t already have a clear path ahead of me and didn''t care about the possible consequences, I might have chosen such a ss to explore simply to see where it goes in the future.
Tracker *Earth/Wood You have the ability to sniff out and track any sort of target, be it beast or man, across any kind of terrain. Nobody on the run is safe with you on their tail, as you are not only Skilled in the ability to track and investigate, but you can use the Mana of Nature and the very Earth to assist you in your tasks. The Wood and Earth Aligned Tracker is skilled not only in recognizing tracks, trails, and scents, they''re also able to conduct investigations and use mana Skills. Some simple Spells are at their disposal.
This ss sounds like it''s abination of Hunter, Woodsman, Militiaman, and a bit of Casting. From the description, there actually appears to be a lot of utility for such a ss, and I can see that anyone who goes down this route would have a lot of opportunities. It specifically says they''re able to track not just beasts in the wilderness, but men and monsters, too. A Skilled Tracker could be employed by a city as an investigator or by the Army as apetent alternative to a Scout.
Reivyn already knew about the Fighter ss and the intricacies involved with the lower Tier Mage sses. He also wasn''t too interested in the other Combat sses avable in the Tier 2 range, so he moved his focus down the list to the sses in Tier 3 that he already had ess to or was close to unlocking. He could extrapte the information in the other sses just from their names, and focusing on them specifically wasn''t necessary.
Fortune Teller You are able to barely see the threads of fate connecting one to the web of reality. You aren''t able to predict the future, but you can see whether one is fated with a certain action or rtionship. With higher Skill, more threads and higher rity can be gleaned. The Fortune Teller is able to rmend whether a course of action is advisable or not. It isn''t always 100% urate, but with time and Skill, the Fortune Teller can not only urately guide someone to a desired oue, they can also maniptemon events.
Another interesting ss. Sure, it sounds kind of weak: Common Tier - it only shows as Umon because it''s Tier 3 in Tier 2 - not 100% urate and manipte events, but if anyonepetent and/or lucky enough to encounter the right kind of opportunities goes down this path, I can see some powerful iterations at higher Tiers. Imagine someone able to manipte extraordinary events. Or control someone''s fate. I can see some interesting synergisticbinations arising out of someone who takes Dreamer/Fortune Teller as the ss build.
Then again, that would only be possible for someone who unlocks this in Tier 2. Having it listed as a Common ss is probably a way for the System to prevent such a person from arising, locking them out of Tier 4.
The Umon (Rare*) rarity was filled with Expert designated Lifestyle sses. Reivyn assumed one would need to literally have Expert Level Skills to even qualify for the sses.
The only reason I can see them as close to being unlocked is probably because of my Expert Mastery in Weapons Master and my high level Affinities. I would need to abandon my Adventuring and buckle down on working on the associated Skills to unlock any of those, and I have no intentions of doing anything of the sort.
Statesman You have inspired those around you with your words and deeds, and you have a Charisma that draws others to you. Embark on the path of the Statesman and control the lives of others through words instead of action. The Statesman can bend others to their will. It is not a nefarious mind control, but a Skilled Statesman can better argue their points and influence others to see things his way. As a champion for a cause one truly believes in, the Statesman can change the course of a nation.
Hmmm, I''m not really one for political machinations. I''m not so blind as to be led by the nose by others, but this simply isn''t anything I''m interested in. Someone in a position of power, though, who bes Skilled with such a ss could truly be a force to be reckoned with, not through the force of their own arms, but from the arms of many. I can only imagine the reason this was offered to me is because of my Inspire Skill and Charisma Stat. Both of those are explicitly stated in the description.
There wasn''t really anything else of interest in the entire range of sses that he was interested in, except for one, and it was only because it sounded simr to, but different from, the other Combat sses.
Soldier of Fortune You are a professional Soldier, but you hold allegiance to no one. Some think the professional mercenary is beholden to money, but that isn''t quite right, either. You hold allegiance to yourself. You go where the wind blows you, and fight the fights you choose. The Soldier of Fortune is more focused on individualbat as opposed to joining the ranks of his fellow brothers in arms. That isn''t to say the Soldier of Fortune can''t perform in an organized group, but they are more individualistic and independent. These characteristics serve them well in the life of Adventuring or selling theirbat services to those who can afford it.
This ss sounds like the perfect transition for anyone discharging from the military service but wants to continue in thebat field. The specific mention of Adventuring probably makes this a popr choice, actually. I would probably need to get more Life Experience fighting as a soldier to unlock this ss, but I have no desire to do so at this point in my life.
Reivyn continued to peruse the options avable to him further down the list.
Assassin You have spent time slinking in the shadows, but not to steal. You are as deadly with a de or bow as any otherpetent fighter, but the darkness is your friend. Not only can you conceal yourself in the dark, but it doesn''t hinder your ability to bring swift death to your foes. The Assassin can meld with the shadows and move about undetected where themon Rogue would be easily spotted. They can infiltrate hardened fortifications, and their targets aren''t safe anywhere. The Assassin can operate in the pitch ck of midnight just as well as the full sun of noon.
It would appear the Skill Blind Fighting is the lynchpin for this ss; as it says they aren''t hindered by the dark. I would need to focus on increasing the Skill Level in order to have a chance at unlocking this ss. While I''m not interested in being a literal Assassin, I can see how the ss itself could provide some powerful boosts tobat and utility.
Chevalier You''re able to fight mounted on a steed just as well as on foot. You can wield a wide variety of weapons and armor, but you aren''t the vassal of a lord ordy. The Chevalier is most well known for their heavily armoredbat abilities. They are able to operate with heavy te just as well as their counterparts in more light-weight armor, and they have the Skill to utilize a wide array of weapons: Lances, Spears, Swords, and Ranged Weapons.
This sounds like an unaffiliated Knight. Going off of the words in the ss description and from what Melissa told me, one would need to swear allegiance to a lord ordy, and receive the proper recognition, to actually unlock the Knight ss. Considering Chevalier is an unattached equivalent, I''m sure there are some benefits to swearing to someone else to gain the Knight ss, but I don''t know what those might be.
Magic Swordsman* You have an aptitude for Martial Combat as well as Casting. You have spent long hours honing your ability with a weapon, but you never cked off on training your mana Skills and affinities. The Magic Swordsman is renowned for their versatility, and only the most talented of individuals are able tobine the Martial with the Magical. The Magic Swordsman chooses an Elemental Affinity to specialize in, and they are able to apply their Magic directly to their weapons, and at higher Skills, their armor. While the Magic Swordsman is unable to cast Spells in the traditional Sense, they are incredibly deadly at close range. *Synergy detected with Weapons Master Skill. ss can utilize Weapons Master instead of Swords.
This sounds right up my alley. The description paints a picture of someone doing what I''m currently doing, but with far more Skill and utility. That being said, the point of my next ss isn''t to keep doing what I''m doing now, but to fully utilize my talents and open up further possibilities in the future. I''ll keep my eye on this ss, and it''s definitely in the running for what I''ll choose - plus it''s already unlocked - but I''ll keep umting experience and Achievements and see if I can''t get something more in line with my goals.
Shade You''re a deadly assassin with the element of darkness at your fingertips. You''re able to use the mana that shrouds the world to hide your presence and confuse your targets. The Shade is far more deadly than the mundane Assassin. Shades are able to utilize the Darkness Elemental Mana, and several superior Spells are at their disposal.
Not much different than the Assassin ss, but with this one, I would be able to properly bring my mana Skills to bear. If I had an inclination towards choosing the Assassin ss, then this one trumps that.
Sharpshooter Take aim with any ranged weapon, and strike your target from nearly any distance. You can extend the effective range of weapons beyond what others could possibly conceive. You are a terror on the battlefield. The Sharpshooter has deadly uracy, even beyond what would normally be possible. They can strike at targets before others can even see theming.
This ss would definitely require a much higher Aim Skill Level. Sure, my Weapons Master Skill can lift some of the load, but that Skill more affects my ability to use the weapon itself, and not necessarily the uracy. It ys a role, for sure, but Aim is the true determining factor for ranged uracy.
Veteran You have survived many battlefields, and many different life or death situations. You have the uncanny ability to perceive danger, and your presence is a solid rock for anyone else in your Party. The Veteran is able to soothe the nerves of others with their Aura alone. They instinctively know when danger ising, and they know how to defeat it.
Veteran sounds like a great ss, actually. Even though the description is kind of bare-bones, the implications are amazing. This ss would be able to fully use the Sense Danger Skill, and it looks like ites with an Aura Skill that relies on Inspire. This is much more than just a typical strong Combat ss, and it is closer to a leadership role that''s also able to get down and dirty in the thick of it. This is the kind of ss that I think of when I think of the epitome of a soldier. Then again, despite how much I''m drawn to this ss, it''s not for me.
Wizard *Air/Earth/Fire/Water You''re able to expertly wield the four basic Elements. You can use simple Spells andplex designs of magic equally with ease across the spectrum of all the basic elements, and you''re able to somewhat use others, as well. The Full-Basic-Elements-Aligned Wizard is a powerful Caster. Their Spells are no longer restricted to one Element, but they can shape each of their Spells to their desired Element, and the weaker versions can also be used with moreplicated Elemental Tiers. Simple Bolt Spells no longer take up a ss Skill slot, and they have several powerful Spells avable to them.
It looks like one needs to, at minimum, master the ability to free-hand cast each of the basic four Elemental Bolt Spells. I have a decent grasp on Fire and Ice - which probably counts towards Water, but I should work on that in my own time as well, just to be safe - but I''ll need to figure out the mana weaves intrinsic to the other elements.
Maybe I can post a notice in the Adventurer''s Guild Branch to pay for some tutoring from others who have the other Elemental Bolt Spells to learn from. Yeah, that sounds like a n, and something I should do anyway. This is definitely the frontrunner for my next ss right now, and I should focus on trying to unlock it.
Reivyn wasn''t done looking at the other sses just because he found a strong candidate. He still had two more sses, and they were of a higher rarity. Reivyn was surprised to see that he was somewhat close to unlocking Epic (Legendary*) rarity Tier 3 sses.
Champion You are a bastion of light on thebat field. None can stand before you, and those that follow in your wake are bolstered by your very presence. The Champion is a master of their preferred method ofbat. They can wield mana Skills in an expert disy of synergy between Martial and Magical, and they lead from the front. They are able to sway the entire battlefield with their Aura, and none will break and run when a Champion leads the charge.
There''s a lot of subtext in those lines: able to use the Light Element, high Battlefield Awareness Skill, Master ofbat, Expert mana Skills, high Inspire Skill. If I was interested in the Magic Swordsman and Veteran sses before, this ss puts both of those to shame. And the requirements listed between the lines are insane, at least for someone in Tier 2. I''m sure it would be a lot easier for someone to acquire Master Level in a Martial Skill plus Expert Level in mana Skills with an additional 60 Levels avable for them to train in. I''m actually 100% confident I could easily unlock this ss in the future. In fact, as of right now, this is the ss that I want once I legitimately reach Tier 3.
Reivyn was truly impressed with the short description of this ss. He would likely find other sses just as interesting and powerful in the future, but this one was a good one to choose as a goal for now. With his thoughts in order on what he would work towards one day, Reivyn read thest ss in his list.
Juggernaut You are a whirlwind of unstoppable death on the battlefield. You are a berserker that canunch a devastating assault just as easily as you can act as a level-headed bulwark to protect yourpanions. The Juggernaut is a steel tornado. They are able to freely wield any weapon or armor, and they can assume the role of absolute destroyer or absolute defender. Woe be to any who get in the way of the Juggernaut.
This sounds like the less magical version of Champion, but with just as much Skill and utility, just in a different way. I mean, it wouldn''t also be listed as an Epic ss if it was noticeably weaker. If I thought the Veteran was the epitome of a soldier before, then that would only apply to the basic troops now. This is the epitome of a soldier: able to attack and defend in equal measure, and able to bolster morale and intimidate their foes.
Reivyn concluded his perusal of the various sses that he had ess to. He had gone through all of the ones that had any chance of being selected, and not only had he found a ss to work towards unlocking in Tier 2, but he also had an even further goal to work toward once again.
He was quickly approaching the day when he would be able to reach Tier 2, and he needed to get more Achievements under his belt if he wanted to get the best ss possible.
This week we''re going to tackle the boss room of the second floor. I''m sure there''s an amazing Achievement, for all of us, for sessfully doing so. Next week: Solo Dungeon Delve.
Chapter 43: High Muckamuck
Chapter 43: High Muckamuck
Reivyn did some simple stretches and calisthenics in the hallway leading up to the boss room. The entire Party was there, and the n was for the threepanions who couldn''t use mana to rush in and do as much damage as they could in six or seven minutes, then retreat to the hallway or entrance, depending on the situation. The boss room on the first floor didn''t close off once they entered it, and Reivyn didn''t see a door or mechanism to do so at the end of this hallway either.
Granted, the System could step in and make an imprable wall, though I doubt it. The Dungeon seems to have recurring scripts, but I haven''t seen any evidence of direct punishment or interference from the System other than the requirement to clear a floor to move on to the new one.
If there was some System trickery involved, they might be in trouble, but Reivyn was confident they could handle it.
He was warming up to keep his blood flowing, as they had taken a break in thest stretch of the second floor after wiping out the patrol. They had had Kimberly, Erik, and Teilon participate this time, as their Stats had increased a lot more aspared to when they first arrived over three weeks ago. The majority of the Experience Crystals from Reivyn''s group had gone to helping them keep up in Level, and they were sitting at Level 25.
Reivyn noticed that they had required a bit of additional attention from the priests when they went through the mandatory inspection, so he guessed there might be some issue with the Experience Crystals.
We''ll take them to the church and let everyone else know about it, especially the three local authorities - the church, the garrison, and the local guild branch - before we put them into cirction. They can probably remove any lingering taint.
Kimberly and Teilon had gained a lot of confidence from their first trip into the second floor with how well the mana infusions worked out. That confidence didn''t lead to cockiness, though, as they still understood the dangers and remembered many of the same lessons Reivyn did. It led topetence and calmness when faced with therge group of Revenants.
Reivyn was happy to see his friends step up to the task, and the fact that they performed so well was one of the reasons they had decided to include the other three in the boss room. Erik was already extremelypetent, he just needed the mana assistance. It was never a question whether he was going to join them in the boss room or not.
"Alright, is everyone ready?" The others had also been warming up after their short rest.
"Yup, I''m as good as I''ll ever be," Teilon spoke up. Kimberly nodded her head alongside him.
"We''re both good to go," Melissa said for her and her sister. Erik grunted as he assumed his position in the front of the group.
"Ok, we''ll top up the mana infusion for all three of you at the same time when we get to the entrance, and we''ll use the first minute or so to assess the situation on the other side," Reivyn exined. They had obviously already talked about what they were going to do, but Reivyn had a habit of always repeating everything before initial action.
You never know what you might forget in the heat of the moment, and if it''s fresh in your mind, you''re more likely to subconsciously think of it, Reivyn said to himself.
"Erik and Kimberly will be in front, followed by me and Teilon, and Melissa and Larissa will bring up the rear. We''ll try and get some shock value out of you three," Reivyn indicated towards the three who couldn''t use mana, "but safety is paramount. Judging by the hobbled Tier 3 on the first floor, we can expect either a hobbled Tier 4, or an unrestrained Tier 3 in there. Before your mana gives out, you need to be in a safe spot, and Melissa or Larissa will top up your infusions if the opportunity arises."
"Sure thing, boss," Teilon replied. He wasn''t trying to be flippant, but he was getting his mindset in order for the likely grueling challenge that faced them.
The group made their way to the entrance. The room was too big for Reivyn to see the details of what they would face before they entered the room, but the structure was at least simr to the rest of the man-made facade of the Dungeon.
Based on the dimensions he could see looking to the sides, the room wasn''t nearly as big as the first floor boss room. Reivyn could see support columns ced at regr intervals, so it was arger, more grand room than any they had entered so far. There were two columns on either side of the center of the room, and Reivyn spected that there were more further in, out of sight of the ambient lighting.
"Let''s top up and get to it," Reivyn said as he reached out to infuse the weapons and gear for Teilon. Melissa took care of Erik, and Larissa had insisted on taking care of her "new best friend," Kimberly.
"Go, go, go," Reivyn said.
The group cautiously, but quickly entered the room. There were no triggers blocking the room off, System or mechanical, and Reivyn released a mental sigh.
As soon as they approached the first row of columns, a faint chanting entered Reivyn''s ears. He couldn''t make out what the words were, but they were in a low, deep tone. It was somewhat disconcerting, as the Revenants and other undead they had encountered so far had been incapable of speech, or any other kind of verbal sound for that matter.
The chanting seemed toe from every direction at once, and Reivyn suspected it was a magical effect associated with the boss room, and not some Revenants or other undead actually chanting.
They quickly traversed past the first row of columns, and their quarry finally came into view.
Arge, circr pit filled with bubbling, red froth was located in what appeared to be the very center of the room. A group of six Revenants stood around it, three equally spaced on either side. Their hands were raised and their jaws moved like they were the ones doing the chanting, but no sounds came forth from them.
The chanting noise is probably a holdover from when they were still alive, much like the miners we could see down on the third floor are locked into the actions they held while still alive. They appear to be using therge pit as a cauldron for alchemy like the ones in the upper rooms, but this one is much more grandiose. It also has fresh ingredients, unlike the remnants of all of the other cauldrons, these thoughts entered Reivyn''s head in a sh.
There was one final entity visible in the room: A Spectre floated on the other side of the pit. Its head was thrown back and its arms were out to the side. It didn''t have a lower half to its body. It was just a bluish, incorporeal torso. Its head had the appearance of a middle-aged man with long hair, but the features on its face were fuzzy and indistinct.
The undead didn''t react to their presence at all, and the group hesitated for a moment in order to gauge the rest of the room.
Suddenly, another Revenant appeared off from the right, dragging a goblin along with it. The goblin walked along like nothing was out of the ordinary until it got close enough to spot the bubbling mass in the pit. It started to struggle, and it grew more frantic with each step closer to its destination. It started to hiss and shriek at the Revenant pulling it along, grabbing at the bony fingers and trying to pry them off, but there was no helping it. It waspletely incapable of putting up any kind of meaningful resistance, and it was slowly dragged before the floating Spectre.
The Revenant brought it forth before the Spectre, standing off to the side in order to continue holding it in ce. The Spectre lowered its head and looked at the goblin briefly, then it shed its arm across at lightning speed, and the goblin''s throat erupted in blood. The Revenant quickly turned the goblin around and held it out so that the life-blood escaping from the goblin joined the rest of the alchemic concoction in the pit.
Reivyn watched in horrified fascination as not only the blood geysered out of the little creature, much more than should have been possible, but also as the body of the goblin itself melted from the feet up and joined the bubbling mix. By the time it was over, there was nothing remaining of the goblin.
The Spectre finally looked up from its task and focused on Reivyn''s Party. Reivyn recognized awareness in the eyes of the monster, and a raspy chuckle entered his ears. The sound of theughter seemed to originate from multiple ces in the room. One second it came directly from the Spectre, then it sounded as if it came from off in the distance. It even sounded like it came from Teilon standing next to him at one point.
The Spectre gestured towards the group, and the Revenants, as one, lowered their arms and turned to engage the Party.
Reivyn was heartened to see that the Revenants didn''t move any quicker than the ones they had encountered in the hallway.
Several more Revenants appeared to materialize out of nowhere on the edges of the ambient lighting on either side of the ritual. Reivyn counted eight on his left and seven on his right.
The one who brought the goblin must have been in the group on the right. I don''t know howrge the room is, but seeing as how we weren''t able to see any of those Revenants before they entered the light, it could be massive. They likely closed the distance in an instant.
"Erik, you and Larissa smash the ones in the center! Kimberly, Teilon, you engage the ones on the left. Melissa, crowd control the ones on the left. I''ll get the ones on the right," Reivyn quickly issuedmands, and all of the Party members leapt into action.
As they were maneuvering to engage the designated enemies, Reivyn noticed out of the corner of his eye the Spectre float backward, and it seemed to melt out of existence.
It might have gone invisible or something, Reivyn thought. "That Spectre is still around, so don''t get tunnel vision!"
Reivyn ignited his me de Spell as he ran to intercept the group of Revenants that had appeared on the right. He had given himself and Erik groups of seven each, but he had opted to have Larissa assist Erik instead of himself. He was able to fight and defeat the Revenants all on his own, and while Erik could do the same, he was dependent on the mana infusion, so he had a time limit.
Reivyn had instructed his two friends to engage the group of eight Revenants with Melissa more to hold them apart from grouping up with the rest of the bunch. He knew Teilon and Kimberly could kill some with their weapons, and he was sure they were going to defeat some of them, but that wasn''t their main goal.
Reivyn''s me de shed out as he Charged the outlier of the group that had set their focus on him. The fire extended out much like he had done when he first unlocked the Skill, but instead of dumping nearly his entire mana pool into fueling the Spell, he was able to keep under better control. He only extended the de a few feet beyond the metal tip.
Mana is what does the damage to these Revenants, and we''ve discovered through multiple engagements that the undead in general are more susceptible to fire, so I don''t need to actually hit it with my sword.
The de of fire passed through the neck of the first Revenant, and it threw its head back in a wordless shriek as it caught fire. The fire was magical in nature, and it quickly consumed the bones of the Revenant.
Reivyn quick-stepped back to keep his tactical positioning against the rest of the group, and the one he had set aze managed to take two tottering steps towards him before it crumbled.
As long as I have enough mana to fuel this Spell, and I don''t get overwhelmed by numbers, these Revenants are no more dangerous to me than that goblin they sacrificed earlier, Reivyn thought. Well, as long as they''re restricted by theck of mana in the environment. From the looks of it, the third floor might have enough density for the Revenants down there to unlock their full potential.
Reivyn had learned his lessons well, so even though he was confident against the Revenants, he kept scanning the room for other threats as he maintained his focus on the task at hand. He wasn''t able topletely monitor the situation in the rest of the room, but he could hear them perfectly well, and from the sounds that reached him, he knew the fight was going well so far.
Reivyn quickly dispatched each of the Revenants by dashing in on one that was slightly on the edge of the group, shing it with his magic, and then hopping back to keep up his guard. He paced his use of Stamina and Mana so that he wouldn''t just burn through it as fast as possible in case there was more to the room than initially met the eye.
Loud banging sounds came from the two sides of the wall nking the entrance, and Reivyn nced down when something rolling by on the floor grabbed his attention. A small piece of rubble had been thrown across the room, and the small distraction had allowed the Revenants to close the gap andunch an attack towards him. He blocked the strikes he could with his shield, and Evaded a couple of others before regaining his positioning.
"Ahhhhhh!" A panicked scream from Larissa entered his ears, but he couldn''t turn his head away and risk leaving thest couple of Revenants out of sight, or they would materialize next to him and deliver devastating blows.
He made a decision, and instead of continuing to conserve his Stamina and Mana, he increased the output of his me de and charged in to thest three Revenants standing from his group.
He shed the one in the middle. He raised his shield to block the hard attacking from his left. He now had enough Strength to not getpletely knocked back anymore, and ducked under the blowing from his right. He sidestepped the one he had set on fire and quickly maneuvered through the trio of undead. He backhanded his sword across the spine of the Revenant on his right and came back up facing thest one, but this time they were positioned so that he could see back to the other groups and what they were dealing with.
A set of doors they hadn''t noticed because they had been bricked up apanied the entrance to the room. There had been six Revenants in each of the rooms, and they had destroyed the barriers preventing them from entering the boss room in order to engage the party in a surprise pincer attack. Luckily, the sealing of the rooms required them to smash through in a loud manner, otherwise, if they had been able to remain silent, they might have suffered some serious casualties.
I should have known it wouldn''t have been so simple. We got lucky with the design of the room. No idea why they would have sealed those twelve people away like that, but that''s not important.
Melissa and Larissa had abandoned their position in the center of the room hanging back near the entrance. They dashed over to Erik, andbined with Larissa''s firepower and Erik''s skilled swordsmanship, the group of seven Revenants were destroyed as Reivyn finally got into position to be able to see what was going on. Erik immediately charged forth to engage the new threat with Larissa providing fire support again, but this time the girls were positioned closer to the center of the room.
Reivyn ended the un-life of thest Revenant and sprinted across the room to help Teilon and Kimberly. He watched Erik engage the new group of twelve Revenants all on his own, and Reivyn was happy to see that he did it in an incredibly smart way.
Instead of just charging forth and getting himself surrounded, he Charged one group, attacked wildly for a second, and then he Charged to the end of the other group. He lined them all up and began dragging them along behind him around the center of the room. He managed to position himself so that he wasn''t directly between them and the girls he was protecting, which would have limited his room and maneuverability.
Combat was often incredibly fast and intense, and only a couple of minutes had gone by since the Party entered the room. Reivyn wasn''t concerned that they would run out mana infusion while they were spread apart so much.
Like he had thought they were capable of, Teilon and Kimberly had managed to y three of their eight Revenants. Reivyn Charged the outermost Revenant on the left side and made quick work of it. He circled around behind the other four and gave them a taste of their own tactics.
He had to pick his footing carefully, though, as remnants of Melissa''s Slick and Ice Wall Spells still popted the area. She had moved on from assisting the duo, however, and was adding her magic to her sister''s to prevent the horde that Erik had picked up from overwhelming him.
Raspyughter cackled out once more as it seemed to echo from several different ces in session, and Reivyn''s hair stood on end as his Danger Sense went on overdrive.
"Watch out!" Reivyn screamed as he cut through another Revenant. There were still three left, and Teilon and Kimberly had them well in hand, but a mutation suddenly urred.
The Spectre that had disappeared at the start of the fight materialized again. It was already moving at a fast pace as it reemerged right next to Reivyn, and he watched as its entire body zipped between the mana infused gear that Teilon was wearing and entered his body.
Teilon froze for a moment before he started thrashing wildly about. His spear knocked into Kimberly''s helmet, and she staggered at the unexpected blow. Reivyn could envision the worst happening, so he threw all caution to the wind and activated his Charge Skill with Kimberly as the target. He moved through thest two Revenants and ced his body between them and her, and he suffered a blow on his back that threw him into the off-bnce girl.
Searing pain threatened to cause him to ckout as his vision darkened, and the two tumbled along the ground. The only thing that probably saved them was Melissa looked up at Reivyn''s shout, and she managed to keep an eye on the Revenants, so they weren''t able to use their supernatural movements when they were unseen.
"AHHHHHHH!!!" Teilon screamed in pain as his body continued to thrash around, and the Revenants now ignored him. His spear managed to knock into the skull of one of the Revenants as they walked past him to get to Reivyn and Kimberly, and Reivyn managed to use the short stumble to regain his feet and properly engage them.
"Fall back to Melissa and Larissa," Reivyn instructed Kimberly. She groggily nodded and stumbled toward the other two girls. Reivyn exerted even more mana from his dwindling supply, and shed both remaining Revenants with one swing now that he was positioned in a way where he wouldn''t have to worry about hitting his two friends.
He backed up and looked at Teilon, and while he continued to scream in agony, his body stopped thrashing about and locked in ce. He floated up into the air, and he started to jerk back and forth, like he was a puppet being controlled by strings.
Teilon suddenly shot off towards one of the columns, and Reivyn''s stomach dropped as he anticipated witnessing his best friend get smashed into a pulp.
Teilon''s body, however, didn''t get smashed. He fazed right through the solid stone support, and whatever energy the Spectre had used to hurtle him through the air had seemed to run out as his body slumped down. He still wasn''t out of the woods, yet, though, so Reivyn Charged over.
What do I do in this situation? I can''t sh his body, and that probably wouldn''t hurt the Spectre anyway. I can''t use me de, as that would also kill Teilon. I need to force the Spectre out. Think. Think.
Reivyn crouched down and held his friend down in ce with his superior Strength. Even though his body had been possessed by the Spectre, it didn''t seem to add any additional Stats or anything. Teilon''s body lurched up and down as the undead controlling his body tried to pry it out of Reivyn''s grasp.
The only thing that would hurt the Spectre is mana, and the only mana that won''t hurt Teilon is pure mana.
With that thought, Reivyn infused pure mana into both of his hands, and he pumped copious amounts into his friend. Teilon''s mouth opened as wide as it could go and an otherworldly shriek escaped his lips. The sound of the Spectre screaming in agony quickly shifted about in its strange way, and it suddenly came rushing out of Teilon''s body.
Teilon wentpletely limp, but Reivyn could see that he was still conscious, if unable to move.
"Are you ok?" Reivyn asked as he knelt by his friend, cradling him.
"Ow," Teilon said. His body rxed and he weakly lifted his hand to shoo Reivyn away. "I''ll make it. Go get that bastard."
Reivyn nodded his head as he gently lowered his friend toy fully on the ground. He turned and sprinted towards the center of the room. Luckily, Erik and Larissa had been efficient in their work, and thestrge group of Revenants had been whittled down to only a couple left.
Reivyn scanned the room as he ran, but he was unable to spot the Spectre. He looked to the three girls, and he could see them surrounded in mana as they flung spells at the Revenants. He looked down at himself and activated Mana Sight. He was also covered in mana simply from the internalwork fueling his spells.
The Spectre is likely unable to possess a Caster without damaging itself. Teilon still has my mana in his body, and therge amounts of mana Melissa and Larissa are throwing about is also covering Kimberly. That leaves...
He looked over in time to see the Spectre materialize behind Erik. With his Mana Sight activated, he could see the holes of mana in the ces where Erik didn''t have armor covering himself.
"It''s going to take Erik!" Reivyn shouted as he activated Charge. With past experience, he knew that the Spectre wouldn''t gain full control of Erik right away, and the Revenants would ignore him while he was possessed. There were only four left, though, and he didn''t want to leave them to chase after the girls while he dealt with the possessed Erik.
He dashed in and shed through the two front Revenants that had sidestepped Erik to start working their way towards the girls in the center of the room. His sword moved in a quick crisscross as he sliced through them, and one of Larissa''s empowered Inferno spells consumed the other two.
The Spectre seemed to have learned from its previous possession of Teilon, and Erik only thrashed about for a short moment before his body was lifted into the air.
If the Spectre learned from itsst possession, it''s unlikely to hurl Erik at a column or the wall. What''s its target?
Reivyn looked around. The room was still the same as it was before. He didn''t see any additional enemiese in, and he was sure the Spectre would want to stay away from the girls. They had circled around the pit as Erik had dragged the group of Revenants around so they could stay within a decent range for uracy, and now they were watching Erik with rm.
"The Spectre can be forced out with pure mana," Reivyn called over. "I''ll pump my mana into Eirk. Melissa, throw up some Ice Walls all around to box it in and prevent it from moving about. Then we can bombard it with magic to destroy it." The girls nodded while keeping their wide eyes on Erik.
The Spectre didn''t throw Erik at an obstacle this time. Instead, after gaining full control of his body, Reivyn watched the Spectre lower Erik to the ground.
Reivyn was cautious about what the Spectre might have in mind, so he quickly made his way over in order to get his hands on Erik to force it out of him. Erik suddenly lifted his head and looked at Reivyn, a wide, manic grin on its face.
Reivyn''s stomach dropped once more as he realized the positioning he and everyone else was in. Erik''s head turned to face the girls, Reivyn just a few feet off to the side. He instinctively knew he wouldn''t be able to make it to Erik before the Spectre did what it had nned, and based on intuition and his Danger Sense, Reivyn Charged at the girls.
Reivyn arrived a fraction of a second ahead of Erik''s charge, and he shoved the three girls out of the way with his body. Indignant squawks entered his ears as Erik''s shield mmed into him, and he went sailing through the air.
Reivyn had time for one final thought as he saw where he was heading.
Oh, no...
His body plopped down into the bubbling pit with a ssh.
Chapter 44: Desperation
Chapter 44: Desperation
Melissa watched the young man they had entangled themselves with out of the corner of her eye as he did calisthenics in the hallway. He always moved with purpose, and he never let himself sit still or let any time go to waste.
He was an enigma.
He''s far more hardworking and inquisitive than any of the other young men and women in the Academies. They''ve been raised with resources, opportunities, and tutors their whole lives, and that breeds a certain expectation out of life. They mostly do the bare minimum to gain their graduation certificates, and that''s it.
That''s obviously not true of every student, but that''s the current trend of the majority. Even the ones who go above and beyond pale inparison to the drive he disys.
From what Reivyn had said, and the stories he and his friends shared, she had gleaned quite a lot of information from them. Reivyn and Teilon came from Adventurer backgrounds, so it made sense that they were so enthusiastic about working on their Combat sses. She wasn''t sure of the background of Kimberly, but she was also present during the excursion that set up the base to this Dungeon.
He''s only spoken a little bit about the incidents that happened, but I had Erik do some digging, and there''s a lot more to it than he makes it seem. He participated in a Tier 4 Battle while in Tier 1. I''m sure he got an amazing Achievement for that. The System doesn''t discriminate when it calctes participation and rewards. Him defeating a Tier 3 Revenant on his own wouldbel him a mainbatant of the battle even if he never even got close to the giant demon themander fought.
Reivyn moved with an air of calmness andpetency that belied his young age. If Melissa didn''t look into his face all the time, she would never believe he was only ten years old. He had obviously spent long hours working on his Physical Stats in order to gain such a physique at such a young age.
He probably doesn''t know, and hasn''t noticed, but only Stats gained through effort affect the physical body. The Stat points gained through System Achievements or Leveling work differently. They workpletely internally through the meridians of the body, and while they have some function on the density of the muscles, it''s more like they act as a multiplier and increase the efficiency of the body rather than directly enhancing it. There are many examples of old and decrepit Combat sses with immense Strength, yet withered bodies.
She watched as heughed and joked with his best friend before they moved to the boss dungeon. She was sure, from his personality and other context clues, that Teilon was adamant about not setting foot on the second floor at all, at least until he was firmly in Tier 2. And yet, just after an additional week of leaving them behind, here he was with Kimberly.
He has natural Charisma to him, and he''s obviously unlocked the Stat. He probably already had some before he even got the Achievement for the Tier 4 Battle - which obviously gave him a full Stat boost, I mean it was a battle that spanned three Tiers for him. It''s probably quite high, and I''ve noticed the affects of the Inspire Skill whenever he''s led a battle, which is most of the time.
He''s a natural leader, and he doesn''t even seem to realize it. Not only do his two friends easily follow him, but he''s even quietly inserted himself as the leader of the group as a whole. We started off sharing that responsibility, and I know that he hasn''t tried to edge me out intentionally, but he''s just naturally taken on the role ofmander. Oh he still asks for opinions, but he makes the final decision, and he issues themands.
I don''t resent him for it at all, Melissa was a little surprised at the realization. She had been groomed her whole life to be in a position of authority, and she was quite good at being the leader of her three-man group, but she found herself relying on Reivyn''s steady demeanor more and morepletely unconsciously.
Reivyn''s background was a little suspect. He had mentioned that his father was a Combat ss and that his Mother was a Caster ss, and while it wasn''t out of the ordinary for one of humble beginnings to be able to use mana and garner decent sses and Skills, it was highly improbable for one to do so without a proper Teacher.
Reivyn had never mentioned that his parents were actually Adventurers, and the circumstances behind him not being a Peasant Levy were very suspicious.
I threw out thatment about a noble family living in another country to test him, but he didn''t reveal anything when I mentioned it. Either he''s not, or he has a Skill that affects his mentality. It''s not actually important, in the grand scheme of things, but if I want to recruit him to our family, it''s better to know everything about him.
And I obviously need to rope him into the family. His two friends, too, but to a lesser extent. The entire point of the higher Tier regions poaching the talented graduates from the lower regions is to infuse talent into their society, and there''s no harm in emting their behavior. If we can get him to join us, I can see our family moving up to bigger and better things.
Melissa looked at her sister, and the wheels turned.
"Go, go, go," Reivyn said. Melissa and Larissa drew up the rear as their group walked into the boss room. They all kept their heads on a swivel as they searched for any enemies about tounch an ambush on them.
After walking several steps deeper into the room, the unholy setup of the pit being tended to by the undead came into view. The very sight of the Spectre induced fear into Melissa, and she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Larissa literally shaking, clutching her staff to her chest with her arms instinctively held in a way to make herself as small as possible.
Her gaze was unable to tear away from the scene before them, and she also noticed simr reactions from everyone else. Everyone but Reivyn. He was still able to look around the room without seeming to be affected by the aura given off by the Spectre.
The macabre seen of the ritual ying yed out, and tingles shot down her spine as the Spectreughed at their party. She had serious thoughts of retreating once the rest of the Revenants made themselves known.
This is far more dangerous than I was expecting. I don''t know much about Spectres, but if its debilitating fear is any indication, I don''t think we can handle the boss room right now. I need to tell Reivyn we should leave ande backter.
She had the will to open her mouth and advise retreat, but she wasn''t able to move. Then Reivyn opened his mouth.
"Erik, you and Larissa smash the ones in the center! Kimberly, Teilon, you engage the ones on the left. Melissa, crowd control the ones on the left. I''ll get the ones on the right," Reivyn''s calm voice issued forth.
The aura of fear that was gripping the Party dissipated with hismands, and Melissa noticed that even Larissa rxed and assumed a "business as usual" stance. Melissa marveled for a second at the young man''s ability to instill confidence and boost morale just from some simple tactical instructions. He even had the forethought to remind everyone to be wary of the Spectre that had disappeared.
Melissa attended to her duties of disrupting the Revenants that Kimberly and Teilon held back. Now that she was in the thick of battle, all of her other worries disappeared as she focused on the task at hand. She asionally kept an eye on Reivyn to see how he fared by himself.
He is an absolute beast. He''s doing just as much damage to his group of Revenants as thebined efforts of Erik and Larissa.
An explosion sounded out behind them, and then a bony hand grasped for Larissa and managed to make contact with her.
"Aahhhhhh!" Larissa screamed as she leapt a foot in the air.
Melissa quickly turned her head and noticed the impending ambush from a group of Revenants that had been sealed away before the battle. She threw down an Ice Wall plus Slickbination, and then she grabbed Larissa by the elbow and ran with her toward the center of the room as Erik finished off thest of his group utilizing the lingering effects of Larissa''s Inferno Spell.
Erik quickly recognized the danger and expertly intercepted the new opponents. Melissa noticed Reivyn had repositioned himself so as to be able to observe the entire room.
As soon as he realized he needed to be able to surveil the entire room, he immediately positioned himself to do so. No hesitation. Melissa nodded as Reivyn disyed the characteristics of a battlemander.
The fight continued on in a controlled manner, and Melissa was hopeful they would be able to clear the boss room without any hups.
Then the Spectre reappeared and possessed Teilon. The shout from Reivyn had drawn her attention, which enabled her to keep her eye on the remaining Revenants as Reivyn was knocked down while protecting his friend. She watched the terrifying scene of Teilon getting jerked around like a toy.
Reivyn managed to solve the situation in short order, but he quickly informed them that the Spectre was targeting Eric next. Melissa and her sister redoubled their efforts to destroy thest remaining Revenants just as Erik was possessed.
"The Spectre can be forced out with pure mana," Reivyn called over. "I''ll pump my mana into Erik. Melissa, throw up some Ice Walls all around to box it in and prevent it from moving about. Then we can bombard it with magic to destroy it." Melissa nodded at the n, and she noticed Larissa release some pent-up tension at the instructions.
Quickly identifying the situation and resolving the problems, Melissa heaved a sigh of relief. All of the Revenantsy destroyed, and only the Spectre remained. Reivyn had already calmed them down andid out a n of action to end the threat.
Things didn''t go as nned.
The Spectre controlled Erik to charge at the girls, but Reivyn managed to notice at thest second and managed to insert himself as a shield between them.
"Wark!" An undignified sound escaped Larissa''s mouth as Reivyn crashed into the three girls, knocking them out of the way. She was horrified as she watched him sail into the magical soup that was bubbling and frothing in the pit.
"No!" She took an involuntary step forward, her hand extended. Kimberly kept her head on, though, and she tackled Erik to the ground as the Spectre tried to reassert control over him after he had stumbled from the impact.
"Get him!" Kimberly shouted.
Melissa didn''t have time to worry about Reivyn for the moment, and shetched her hands on either side of Erik''s head and pumped pure mana into him.
"Larissa, get your Spell ready!" She shouted without looking up.
"I''m ready!" Larissa replied.
Melissa was a bit more Skilled with her Mana Maniption than Reivyn was, and after watching how he dealt with the possessed Teilon, she had some ideas of her own. Instead of just pumping the pure mana into herpanion, she created a loop, and as the Spectre came screaming out of Erik''s body, she tightened it like a noose andssoed the Spectre in ce.
The Spectre shot up into the air and tried to get away, but it was tethered to Melissa through her mana rope, and it screamed in agony as it circled about above her head. The visage of the Spectre changed from a fuzzy image of a long-haired middle aged man, to a skull with its mouth open in a gruesome grimace, the hair standing straight up in a frightening disy.
"Now!" Melissa cried.
A ball of condensed fire shot up into the open mouth, and a huge explosion sent a shock wave out, rattling the bones of the Party members and causing dust to shower down from the ceiling. Larissa wasn''t satisfied with just releasing her Inferno st Spell, though, and she followed it up by pumping even more fire into the maelstrom of red fire and blue Spectre mixed together.
Larissa nearly emptied the rest of her mana into the Spells, and she copsed to her knees as she finally finished. The only thing that remained was some dust and ectosm falling to the floor with a plop. Melissa and Kimberly looked at each other as they panted, and Erik rolled over as he groaned in pain.
A red light shot out in a ring with the pit as the epicenter, and Melissa returned her attention to where her new friend had disappeared into the alchemical concoction.
"Reivyn," she whispered. The liquid bubbled and frothed, and Reivyn''s body suddenly shot to the top.
"AAAAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" He screamed in torment as his body convulsed and thrashed about.
Melissa ran up to the pit and tried to reach in to grab him, but an energy barrier,posed of red hexagonal lines, materialized and prevented her from getting closer. The three girls watched on as their leader suffered from unspeakable torture, his voice ripping through them and carrying an ethereal quality that conveyed a fraction of the pain he was in.
Melissa helplessly watched as the bubbling brew seemed toe alive as it climbed up his body that was bobbing on the surface and drilled into him. It entered his body through all of his orifices, and even seemed to absorb through his pores. Itpletely covered his body until all that Melissa could see was a red humanoid form.
The liquid drained at a visible rate, and after several minutes that felt like an eternity, Reivyn was revealed at the bottom of the pit. Not a single drop of the liquid remained.
Reivyn continued to thrash about wildly and moan in pain. His convulsions weren''t ending, and Melissa could tell that he was still suffering even as his mind broke and entered into aatose state to protect itself.
"The church!" Melissa yelled as the energy field disappeared. She jumped down and lifted the shaking teen up to Kimberly who reached down to help pull him up. Erik slowly struggled to stand up, and he took Reivyn from Kimberly and threw him over his shoulder as Melissa climbed back out of the pit. "We need to get him to a priest to purge any corruption out of him!"
Larissa groaned as she held her head with one hand. She took a few steps before she had to stop and dry heave from the migraine that apanied her expending all of her mana so fast in the final burst that killed the Spectre.
"I''m fine," Larissa said to the inquisitive look Melissa shot her. "We have to go. I can make it."
The four of them ran towards the front of the boss room, ignoring the possibility of loot or any other reward that might be present, where Teilon was slowly getting up.
Kimberly rushed up and helped him to his feet, and half carried him on her shoulder as she helped him walk towards the exit of the Dungeon.
They started off hobbling at a fairly slow rate, and Melissa was practically dancing on the balls of her feet as she knew they needed to get to one of the priests as soon as possible. They slowly picked up speed, though, as everyone recovered on the way. They went from a staggering limp to almost a full-on sprint as they made a mad dash for the exit.
After an eternity of running through the tunnels, they finally came into the light of the wide-open space of the mountain ridge, but they were still in the Dungeon, so they didn''t hesitate to continue running.
They burst forth from the Dungeon and made a beeline for the waiting church members. Erik gently ced Reivyn, who was still gued with tremors, at the feet of the robed priest who quickly finished inspecting another Adventurer and turned his attention to Reivyn immediately, temporarily halting his inspection of the rest of the other group. Melissa saw the leader of that group step forward and open his mouth to say something, but a re from her shut his mouth, and he quietly ducked his head and waited his turn.
"I''m sorry," the priest said after straightening up from inspecting Reivyn. There was no change in his status. "There''s nothing I can do for him."
"The taint is too strong?" Melissa''s face fell and she felt the beginnings of tears form in her eyes.
We got here as fast as we could! They must be able to help him.
"No, that''s not it," the priest rified. Hope rekindled in Melissa. "There''s no taint present in him. None at all, actually. What he''s suffering from is something different. You''ll either have to take him to a Healer, or he''ll have to fight through it on his own."
Erik picked Reivyn back up with a nod from Melissa.
"Thank you," she said as their group turned to head to the healers. "We''ll be back for proper inspection. I promise, but we need to go."
Melissa was vaguely aware of a crowd forming as more people came from within the Dungeon and the surroundings as they rushed off to the infirmary.
It''s good that he''s not suffering from any corruption. He has to pull through. He has to. She was slightly surprised at how attached she had grown to Reivyn and his friends in the few weeks they had been together, but with everything else associated with him, it had juste naturally.
Josn walked out of the Dungeon, followed by his group of fellow Sword-Priests and the two Priests that apanied them. He was covered in dry sweat from the exertions of fighting the Revenants on the second floor. While most of the Sword-Priests were unable to use mana Skills, their weapons and gear were Blessed with Divine mana, and so they were uniquely qualified to fight the denizens deeper in the Dungeon.
Ugh, it''ll take three days of bathing to get the stink of the Dungeon off of myself, Josn thought to himself. He examined his men with a critical eye as they moved in search of the inspection team on duty. Even with the blessings of the goddess herself, these men aren''t quite ready to go much further into the second floor. If it wasn''t such a great opportunity for them to increase their Skills and gain Levels, I would never set foot in there myself.
Despite the church being antithetical to the creatures and nature of the Dungeon, that didn''t mean they wouldpletely ignore a resource avable to them. They regrly sent teams into the Dungeon to gain Skill Levels and Experience. The Life Experience of fighting the creatures of the dark was also a huge benefit for ones such as them.
Several teams had traveled quite far into the second floor, but Josn viewed it as his duty to apany some of the weaker members so that he could oversee their development. The Sword-Bishop had led a team that cleared the second floor, but even he had shied away from exploring any deeper for the time being.
The Experience Crystals found on the second floor were a huge discovery, and Josn could barely understand the decision of the Adventurers to ignore the warnings in the face of such wealth. This wealth wasn''t in money, but in strength, so Josn could grudgingly concede the point.
It still doesn''t justify literally throwing their lives away. What good does the opportunity do a dead man?
The church was well positioned to supervise the extraction of the Experience Crystals. Josn could see the church gaining untold wealth and increased power from charging a simple percentage fee - Just one crystal per group - for removing the taint from the Crystals so they could be safely used.
They weren''t like the Adventurers, though. They kept a careful watch on the level of corruption that seeped into them, and regrly dispelled it even while delving the depths. They even insisted on having a third party cleanse everyone once again once they left.
You never know if the corruption could affect the Spell of the priests who go in there and let some of it slip by, so better to have another round of cleansing to be 100% sure.
Josn noticed amotion as they drew closer to the inspection team. He saw a group of Adventurers take off running in the direction of the infirmary.
Hmmm, some of those Adventurers look familiar... Where have I seen them? He couldn''t quite ce why they looked familiar, but it wasn''t that important, so he put it out of his mind as he approached the inspection team as the priest finished his inspection of the group he was currently attending to.
"What''s the situation, Priest?" Josn asked. The robed man looked up at his voice, and, noticing who it was, he snapped to attention and offered a salute. Josn returned the salute with perfect precision and awaited the man''s response.
"A group of Adventurer''s came sprinting out of the Dungeon carrying a man in aa. Even in his unconscious state, he was wracked with convulsions, so I, and apparently the Adventurers, assumed he had fallen to the taint." The man shook his head as he spoke. "There was no taint in him, though." He looked at Josn dead in the eye. "None. And they just came out of the Dungeon."
"Really?" Josn said as he looked in the direction the group had run off to. "Interesting."
Chapter 45: Agony
Chapter 45: Agony
Reivyn''s body submerged in the liquid and he slowly sank to the bottom. He didn''t know what to expect out of entering the alchemical concoction, but based on what happened to the goblin, he wasn''t thinking it would be anything good.
Except for not being able to breathe, it''s not much different than water. It''s not actually boiling - I suspect the bubbling is magical in nature - and it''s cold to the touch.
He kept his eyes firmly shut, as he didn''t want to risk permanent damage from the unknown substance, but the first few moments of falling into the pit weren''t unpleasant. He swished his arms and kicked his feet in an attempt to swim to the edge, but his arms just waved through the liquid without propelling him in any direction at all.
Ok, so that''s out. I''ll just have to wait until my body reaches the bottom, which should be soon, and I can walk over to the edge. I hope my friends aren''t freaking out too much. They should be able to handle the Spectre without me.
Reivyn crossed his arms as he simply bided his time as his body sank. Quickly, the presence of the bottom of the pit - Must be about eight feet or so - reached his perception through Spatial Awareness.
Alright, I''ll just walk over and climb out, and in the future, we''ll make sure there''s more room between the pit and our members. This is actually just more annoying than anything else.
Reivyn''s foot came into contact with the bottom of the pit, and even visible to his closed eyes,plicated lines of runes lit up as soon as his foot touched down. A red pulse originated from the center of the cauldron and shot out in a ring, and the liquid suddenly became extremely viscous. His body was immediately locked into ce, and apprehension filled Reivyn.
Ok, this doesn''t look good, but so far not much has happened. I''ll either have to force my way through the thick substance, or wait for it to return to its original state. Due to my high Vitality, I can hold my breath for several minutes before I enter a dangerous situation, but there''s still a time limit.
Reivyn attempted to move his body through the liquid, but the harder or faster he tried to move, the more it resisted him. If he moved at an extremely slow pace, he was able to move, but it was so slow that he wasn''t sure he would be able to traverse the distance to the edge of the pit and climb out in time.
He utilized his mana to try and force it away from him with a Mana Shield.
That was a mistake.
Reivyn could sense through his control of the mana that the liquid had formed countless, extremely tiny spikes, and it hadtched on to his mana. In his panic, he tried to retract the mana, and while he didn''t have any problems in doing so, the liquid followed.
Searing pain assaulted Reivyn across his entire body, as he had foolishly tried to draw his Mana Shield into his entire body all at once. The liquid now had a bridge connecting his mana circuits to the outside, and, as if it had sensed a tasty morsel of food, it drilled into his body.
Every second was followed by an increasing level of pain. There was no end to the level of pain that was being induced, and every second the intensity increased at a steady rate. Reivyn tried to open his mouth to scream involuntarily, but the nature of the liquid had changed once more, and he couldn''t control the muscles in his body at all.
The liquid seemed toe alive with glee, and he felt it lift him up to the top of the cauldron. As soon as his head broke the surface and his face was no longer in contact with the liquid, his mouth opened and let out a primal scream all on its own. The pain continued to increase.
It was almost like the liquid had a mind of its own, and it didn''t want him to drown to death before it could aplish its task, but it quickly crawled up his body and covered him once more. He was vaguely aware of his body thrashing about uncontrobly from the pain.
Reivyn''s consciousness was consumed by the all-epassing pain, and his awareness was starting to fray at the edges, but a worrisome notification finally popped up and grabbed thest vestiges of his consciousness.
Helpful Hint:
You are being invaded by a foreign System!
The Akashic Record, something that hadn''t made an appearance since the time he had been knocked out by Ren, finally showed itself again. The tone of the message almost seemed like it was taking joy in Reivyn''s predicament. Reivyn wasn''t able to form any coherent thoughts beyond that simple idea fluttering at the edges of awareness.
He knew he was definitely in trouble, as that message hinted at a much more insidious situation.
Reivyn buckled down all of his willpower, utilizing Mental Fortitude and Iron Will in overdrive, and focused his attention on the notifications that had popped up that he wasn''t previously able to perceive through the pain.
Detected Tier 1 Entity
Forcing ss Change
ss Changing to {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel
Error...
Tier 2 ss Detected
A foreign System has invaded you!
Foreign System attempting forceful ss change
Tier 2 ss is locked to your soul
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Level Up! Lvl 29
Reivyn''s heart sank as he caught up to the notifications at this point. They were stilling at breakneck speed. The ever increasing intensity of pain was beginning to sap his willpower once again, and he was barely able to understand what was happening to him, but he instinctively knew it was bad.
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Level Up! Lvl 30
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Exp +700
Level 30(max) Achieved
Exp +300
Error. Maximum Level
Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
Initiating forceful ss Change
ss changing to {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel
Warning!
Sumbing to a foreign System is PERMANENT
Aside from Divine Intervention, you will be FOREVER locked out of your original System
Helpful Hint!
Turning into a demon doesn''t rob you of your free-will, and you can continue progressing using the foreign System
Who cares if I don''t be mindless! I don''t want to be a demon! Reivyn''s consciousness was fading fast, and he desperately used thest of his will to deny the ss change.
Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
{Heretic} Abyssal Vessel The Abyssal Vessel is one who prepares his body for epting the transformation into a demon. The stronger your base body, the stronger the demon you can be. Open a connection in your soul and stare into the Abyss. Let. It. In.
Decline ept
Reivyn mentally mashed the grayed-out Decline button over and over, but nothing was happening. His awareness was fading, and he didn''t know what to do.
Exp +1,000
Error. Maximum Level
OPEN A CONNECTION IN YOUR SOUL AND STARE INTO THE ABYSS. LET. IT. IN.
Decline ept
ACCEPT YOUR FATE
I will never ept my fate! Reivyn screamed in his mind.
You have epted the foreign System
Once your ss changepletes, you will be forever locked out of the System
You have epted the ss change to {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel
Initiating ss Change
What?! No I didn''t! Cancel! Cancel! Nothing happened. Reivyn could feel the energy building in order to alter his meridians and flood his mana circuits with energy. Reivyn''s consciousness was quickly dimming, and the notification windows appeared to get smaller and smaller in his vision until it was almost consumed by the darkness.
Is there nothing I can do? Am I destined to not achieve my goals and instead be transformed into an abomination? Wait... My goals! My Bloodline! ACTIVATE!
With thest shred of his willpower, Reivyn activated his Experience Siphon ability. He noticed a change in the notification windows that were still popping up in the distance. No longer did he see the foreign window, but his regr, blue window had returned, but the Experience gains continued to tick up.
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
The nature of the pain changed, and it was no longer continuing to ramp up. Instead, it lessened an equal amount with each new pulse. It would eventually go away following the new trend, but Reivyn had expended too much mental energy.
Some new windows popped up, but with the relief of surviving the cmity, Reivyn finally fell to darkness before he could see what it was.
Reivyn stood on an illuminated tform surrounded by infinite darkness on all sides. Reivyn looked around, but he couldn''t see the source of the light. It extended about thirty feet in a perfect circle around him. Beyond that was nothing.
He didn''t gradually be aware of his surroundings. He waspletely devoid of any conscious thought one moment, and then the next, he was fully aware and found himself in this strange ce.
Does this have something to do with the boss room? Is it some kind of gimmick where we''re all separated and have to fight our own battles? Reivyn had no recollection of how he could have gotten here, and hisst memory was of right before he and his Party entered the boss room on the second floor of the Dungeon.
To Reivyn''s perception, he had taken a step forward through the threshold, his memory went dark for a second, and then he was in this room.
He looked around, but he couldn''t see anything besides the floor. It was a white marble brick, and every rectangle was perfectly uniform and smooth with perfectly straight lines in the mortar holding it together.
Reivyn looked left and right, and, shrugging his shoulders, he began walking.
The floor and illumination never changed, and if he wasn''t able to see himself take the steps forward on the ground, he would swear that he wasn''t moving at all. There was no wind, there was no sound, there was nothing but his small circle of light that followed him like the ambient lighting of the Dungeon.
Reivyn picked up pace, and he slowly transformed from a sedate walk, to a slow jog, all the way up to a full sprint. He didn''t notice any loss of Stamina, but he was unable to pull up his Status page to check. There was no wind on his face despite his all-out sprint, and he still had no perception of any movement. He ran at full speed for several minutes, never growing tired, until he finally came to a stop.
He didn''t have to breathe heavily or anything. He was able to transition from walking to full speed to aplete stop, and he didn''t feel anything.
The fact that I don''t have ess to my Status page is extremely worrisome. This obviously isn''t some gimmick for the boss room. Where am I, and what happened to mypanions?
Reivyn decided to simply wait, and so he sat down and attempted to Meditate.
Nothing happened.
Reivyn frowned as he stood back up. He attempted to activate another Skill. He tried to summon his mana.
Nothing happened.
Reivyn''s concern began to turn into panic. He activated all of his Skills, but it was the same thing with all of them.
Reivyn forced himself to stop and think. He expected his heart to be pounding in his chest due to his increasing panic, but there was nothing. He reached up and ced his fingers on his pulse on his neck.
There was no pulse.
Ok, ok, ok.... Ok... Ok... Calm down... Reivyn''s body was stillpletely normal, and he didn''t show any signs of the panic his mind was experiencing. He didn''t hyperventte, he didn''t sweat, and he didn''t have a pounding heart or infusions of adrenaline.
Am I dead? The thought crossed his mind involuntarily. No, I don''t believe it! I''m going to assume I''m not dead. So then what''s happening?
Reivyn crossed his arms and tapped his foot as he tried to work out what was going on.
No ess to the Status page. No ess to Skills. Probably no ess to the System. I''m not in my "body," so this must all be in my head. But even then, I would have ess to Skills and the System. Am I in some powerful illusion?
Reivyn couldn''t figure out what was going on, but absolutely nothing was happening or changing. He had no idea how long he had been here considering the break in his consciousness, and he had no idea how long he would have to wait.
If I can''t activate the Skill Meditation, then I''ll just have to settle for the old fashioned version.
Reivyn sat down and crossed his legs. He didn''t have any bodily functions to master to help him enter into a meditative state, so he simply closed his eyes and resigned himself to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
He had no idea how long he waited, but it felt like weeks at least.
Finally, something changed.
A breeze rustled his hair, and due to thepleteck of any external stimtion, Reivyn immediately noticed it. He opened his eyes and sprang to his feet. There was no difort associated with sitting in the lotus position for extended periods of time. There was no locked muscles, and no tingling sensation from pinched nerves. He easily assumed a standing position.
Way off into the infinite distance, high up in the sky, Reivyn saw something new for the first time. He couldn''t perceive the distance, but he instinctively knew that it was so far away that he would never be able to reach it, even with ten lifetimes.
Two short lines of color formed next to each other, spread far apart. Reivyn watched as they slowly grew thicker, as the line of color extended upward. It was a deep crimson.
The lines slowly, steadily increased in size, and Reivyn was able to notice that the shape wasn''t blocky, but it was instead forming an oval. Even though the appearing colors radiated intense light, it didn''t reach Reivyn, and it didn''t add to any illumination.
Are these red suns? What are these things?
The ovals continued to reveal themselves, and after reaching a certain point, a hollow spot appeared in the center.
Rings? What''s the meaning of these red rings?
The two hollow circles finally came intoplete view, and as Reivyn watched, therge ck space in the center contracted instantaneously to pinpricks, and then they swiveled until the orbs were focused on Reivyn.
Those are eyes! Abject terror filled Reivyn as the impossiblyrge being brought its focus to bear on him. His non-body finally had a reaction, and even though he didn''t have any regr bodily functions, he still felt the cold tingles down his spine as his hair stood on end.
"Hmmm, one of yours, it looks like," an impossible sound echoed out from the distance. Reivyn could clearly hear the words, but he couldn''t make any sense of what they were saying, and he couldn''t ce any of the characteristics. It didn''t sound like anything. More like it was the words were just in his head.
"Seems so," another voice startled Reivyn, and he spun around to face the opposite direction. There was another pair of impossiblyrge, impossibly far away eyes hovering in the sky, also focused on him. This pair of eyes was a light, sky blue, however. Reivyn didn''t have any feelings of terror or apprehension from these eyes, and he felt an instinctive kinship from them.
"Let''s see what dragged him here," the first voice said.
Suddenly, two figures were standing right in front of Reivyn, shoulder to shoulder. He startled backward half a step before he realized nothing else was happening, and he looked at each in turn to see if he could gain any clues.
The one on his right waspletely shrouded in darkness, and he couldn''t see anything other than red eyes and the outline of his body. The body appeared to be made of smoke, as he could somewhat see the illuminated ground behind him.
The one on his left was the exact opposite. He appeared to be made of white clouds, and the blue eyes were the only other distinguishing characteristic.
The white entity - Blue, I''ll refer to him - ced its hand on Reivyn''s head. There was no movement. It was standing therepletely still one moment, and then it had its hand on Reivyn''s head with its eyes closed. It gained what it was searching for, and quickly resumed its position a couple of steps away again.
The two were suddenly facing each other, and Reivyn listened in as they conversed.
"It would seem that remnants of your followers continue to try and influence my realm, all these yearster," Blue said.
"Really?" The ck entity with red eyes - Red, I''ll call him - replied. "It''s been - what? - a couple million years since we walked that ne?"
"At least. I guess they never moved on from our old grudge, huh, old friend?" Blue smiled. Reivyn couldn''t see the smile, but he could perceive that it was there.
"Guess so. We''re brothers, now, but our offspring obviously don''t know about our change in rtionship." Red chuckled.
"His body is falling apart from the warring energies. He has an interesting ability, and a powerful connection to my Bloodline. He''s siphoning all of the Experience into increasing his Bloodline, something I''ve never seen before. Must be System shenanigans. But all of the impurities from the energy are scarring his body. He won''t be able to live much longer, and I would hate to see something happen to someone with such a strong Bloodline. Do you mind doing something for him?"
"Sure thing, Vynn," Red extended his hand much like Blue had done, but instead of simply closing his eyes and sensing something, Reivyn could feel the tainted energy that had umted in his body get sucked out.
It wasn''t a gradual thing, either. Red instantaneously removed all of the corruption. The smoky being smiled at Reivyn, much like he had perceived from Blue, and patted his shoulder.
"I''ll put a barrier up in your mana circuits. It''ll automatically filter out any corruption youe into contact with in the future."
A ball of red and ck energy formed in Red''s hands, and it quickly shot into Reivyn''s body. He was expecting excruciating pain from the sudden turn of events, but instead he got a warm, fuzzy feeling. It was like a nket covered all of his meridians.
"Thanks, old friend," Blue said. He turned his attention back to Reivyn. "Work hard, young one. Maybe we''ll meet each other on the Higher ne one day."
He touched Reivyn''s head once more.
"Sleep," a word Reivyn was finally able to put meaning to came from Blue, but before he could contemte further, darkness once more consumed him.
"He''s dying," the Healer said. Melissa stopped her pacing and turned towards the man that had been leaning over Reivyn.
"There must be something you can do?"
"Afraid not," the man sighed. "His body is chock full of warring energies, and they''re slowly corroding his internal organs and meridians. If I inject any other kind of energy, instead of doing what I want it to, it will simply join the battle and elerate the damage." The man wiped sweat from his brow. "It''s all up to him now, but it doesn''t look good. I would make your peace." The Healer moved on to attend to others needing his attention.
Melissa turned to face the rest of the group that were sitting or squatting nearby. Teilon had a dazed look on his face from the information they had just received, and Kimberly squeezed his hand to try and offer what littlefort she could.
Larissa looked back and forth between Teilon and Kimberly, Melissa, and Reivyn lying on the cot.
"He''s not going to make it?" She asked with a quivering lip.
"It''s Reivyn," Melissa said. "He''ll make it." She didn''t believe her own words.
She walked over and sat down next to her sister. Erik was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and one leg up behind him, ced on the wall, behind Larissa, and even he had a frown on his face. Melissa put her arm over her sister''s shoulders and leaned her head down to ce it against Larissa''s.
"There''s a slim chance. All we can do is wait."
He''s in this predicament because of us. If we hadn''t just stood there like idiots, he wouldn''t have had to insert himself between us and the Spectre.
Melissa had never been in a situation where one of her friends orpanions had died, much less right in front of her and due to saving her. Her feelings were extremelyplicated. She felt sorrow over the ordeal that Reivyn was going through, and rage at herself for being ipetent. She felt guilt that it was him and not her that had been knocked into the pit, and she felt frustration that she had found such a powerful talent to recruit into her family, but the opportunity very likely had disappeared.
"Hack! Urk! Cough!" Reivyn''s body locked up and he began to cough profusely. His head shook around, and if the muscles in his body hadn''t locked up, he would have probably continued convulsing.
Suddenly, he spewed some ck, sticky substance out of his mouth. His body rxed, and he wentpletely still with a sigh. There was no movement.
Melissa and the others all stared wide-eyed at the sudden change. Melissa held her breath as she feared that she had just witnessed her new friend pass away.
After a short eternity, Reivyn''s chest rose and Melissa let out the breath she had been holding. Relief flooded her, and tears trickled down her face. She turned to her sister, who likewise had tears, and smiled.
"See," she said through the smile, a slight hup interrupting her. "I told you he''d make it."
Chapter 46: Return
Chapter 46: Return
Reivyn leisurely stretched as he slowly opened his eyes. He smacked his lips as he gradually came awake. He felt like he had just had the best sleep of his life. His vision came into focus, and he was momentarily confused at waking up in a different location.
Where am I? Reivyn sat up and looked around. He was ced on a bed in an unfamiliar,rge room consisting of rows of beds. Some of the others had upants, but most were empty. Hispanions were sitting or slouching off to the side in various states of sleep or rest.
Erik was crouched down with his sword ready to be drawn as he fought off sleep in order to maintain his vigil over the two sisters. Erik looked up from the movement on the bed, and noticing Reivyn awake, he gave him a simple nod.
Reivyn nodded back and then mouthed the words, "go to sleep." Erik nodded his head. He was already asleep before he even finished the movement. Poor guy must have been tired, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
This looks like an infirmary, Reivyn returned to trying to figure out where they were. Erik wasn''t the type to be very forting with information, which is why Reivyn had nopunction in just telling him to go to sleep instead of picking his brain.
Does this mean we failed the boss room? Reivyn grasped his head in his hands as he tried to remember. Why can''t I remember anything? What happened?
A brief scene of him standing in an infinite darkness quickly flitted through his mind, but he was unable to grasp anything else about the memory.
Thest thing I remember is taking the first step across the threshold to the boss room. After that... After that, I''m here.
It was obviously the middle of the night, from what he could see from a window further down the long dormitory, so he didn''t want to wake hispanions to figure things out just yet. He had other things to investigate that could grant him the information he wanted.
I''ll check my notifications, they''ve been blinking quite incessantly in the corner. If that doesn''t jog my memory, I can wait until morning to ask my friends.
Reivyn brought up his notifications.
Exp +1,000
Exp +1,000
Error...
ss Change, {Heretic} Abyssal Vessel, halted. Level 30(max) not achieved.
System transfer interrupted. ess to Abyssal System revoked.
Error...
System detected entity without ess to any System.
No Precedent exists.
Seeking solution...
Petitioning closest relevant Ascended for intervention.
Entering Soul Space...
Resolution achieved.
ess to Veridical System restored.
New Affinities Unlocked!
Tier 5
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)
What in the...? What''s all this? The notifications didn''t jog his memories right away, but they contained some very rming information. He still had several more to look through, so he continued to pull them up in the order they had appeared.
Achievement!
Come into contact with a foreign Realm.
ess to Tier 5 Affinities Unlocked
Achievement!
Meet an Ascended in person.
Error. Met an Ascended in the Soul Space. System deems "in person" does not apply.
Achievement!
Infuse your meridians with energy from The Abyssal Realm on a fundamental level.
Abyssal Realm is no longer considered {Heretical} by the System for you.
Abyss Affinity Unlocked!
Note: Other Realms are still considered {Heretical}
[Achievement!
[Infuse your meridians with energy from The Veridical Realm on a fundamental level.
[Veridical Affinity Unlocked!
Other Realms? How many other Realms are there? Reivyn absently thought as he scrolled through his notifications.
[Achievement!]
[Save yourself from impossible odds. You sessfully defended yourself from the corruption of a foreign System.]
[Luck +5]
[Increased Veridical Affinity]
[Exp +1,000]
[Exp +1,000]
...
[Exp +1,000]
[Bloodline Milestone: Physical and Mental Stats +3. Charisma and Luck +1.]
[Exp +1,000]
...
[Bloodline Milestone: Physical and Mental Stats +3. Charisma and Luck +1.]
...
[Bloodline: Unknown 2,518,381/10,000,000]
[Experience: 0/3,000]
What?! There are 25 messages about Bloodline Milestones being achieved. Reivyn did some quick mental math. That means that for every 100,000 Experience dumped into my Bloodline, that will get me three to all my Physical and Mental Stats and one to Charisma and Luck. I just gained 500 Stat points from siphoning Experience!
Reivyn was stunned at the revtion. He had always thought that he would get a bonus upon reaching the full ten million Experience, but he hadn''t considered the possibility of there being additional milestones.
Reaching the full ten million would mean 100 milestones, total. That''s 2,000 Stat Points for fully unlocking my Bloodline. Just how powerful is my Bloodline? There must be more to what mother said about her Bloodline. I don''t believe for an instant that she only got one Stat boost to Physical and Mental stats. Her wording was also very suspicious. She said "initial" Stat boost.
Also, two million five hundred thousand Experience?! That''s a ridiculous amount! That amount of Experience could get me to Tier four. That would be a terrible idea, though, because I would lose out on the time needed to increase my Skills and gain Life Experience for a good Tier 4 ss.
I definitely have to ask Teilon and the others what happened to figure out why my Experience shot up so much. Maybe I can replicate it to fill out my Bloodline all the way.
There was onest notification for Reivyn to look at.
[Exiting Dungeon]
[Calcting...]
[First Floor: Complete]
[Combat Experience: Exp +400]
[Boss Defeated: Exp +400]
[First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500]
[Calcting...]
[Second Floor: Complete]
[Combat Experience: Exp +6,000]
[Boss Defeated: Exp +1,000]
[Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000]
[Total Experience: 13,300]
Ok, so it looks like we did, in fact, defeat the boss room.
Reivyn pulled up his Status to see the results.
[Status]
[Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 30 Age: 10]
[Health: 2,000/2,000 Stamina: 3,800/3,800 Mana: 1,670/1,670]
[Physical Stats Mental Stats]
[STR: 180 INT: 167]
[VIT: 200 MAG: 167]
[DEX: 180 CLA: 109]
[CHA: 32 PER: 126]
[LUK: 38]
[Bloodline: Unknown 2,531,681/10,000,000]
[Experience: 0/3,000]
With my new achievement giving five Luck, and the reduction to Stat requirements that brings, I definitely meet the requirements for a Rare Tier 3 Caster ss already. Now I need to ensure I have my Skills, Affinities, and Life Experience up to snuff. I''m pretty sure I got the Life Experience covered, actually, Reivyn chuckled.
Reivyn was too wired to go back to sleep, but he didn''t want to disturb his friends'' rest, so he sat up in the lotus position and entered Meditation.
Might as well start working on those Skills and Affinities now.
---
"Reivyn!" Reivyn opened his eyes as he heard Melissa call out his name. He looked up and saw her leap to her feet from her position of sleeping next to her Sister. Her sudden movement startled Larissa awake, and Teilon and Kimberly also woke up from the yell.
"We were so worried that you weren''t going to make it," Melissa said as she quickly reached Reivyn''s side. "How do you feel? The Priest said there was no corruption in you, but the Healer said you had warring energies and were unlikely to survive." Reivyn could see the faint traces of worry still etched on Melissa''s face.
"I feel great, actually," Reivyn said matter of factly. "My memory is hazy, though. I don''t remember anything after taking that first step into the boss room. What happened? Did I get my butt handed to me or something?"
"Heh, nah, man," Teilon spoke up with a chuckle. "If anything, I was the one that got my butt handed to me. You were fine, and we seeded in clearing the boss room." Teilon gestured toward Melissa. "She saw more than I did, so let her exin it."
"Yeah, aside from the very end, we all handled the boss room pretty well. Here''s what happened..." Melissa recounted the fight from her perspective, Kimberly or Teilon asionally interjecting a detail that she had missed.
"So you''re saying I basically became an ingredient for a Mega-Experience Crystal?" Reivynughed.
"This is noughing matter," Melissa gently rebuked, a stern expression on her face.
"What are you worried about?" Reivyn asked with a lopsided smile. "I''m fine, aren''t I?"
"You almost weren''t."
"Well..." Reivyn didn''t have a reply to that. "I mean, I actually managed to get some amazing benefits out of this whole ordeal, so I''m not too turned off about it."
"If you heard the way you were screaming, you wouldn''t be saying that," Melissa frowned.
"Hmmm... You''re probably right," Reivyn conceded. "I guess I''m lucky I don''t remember it, and I don''t have any lingering pain or negative effects. I feel amazing," Reivyn threw his arms out and smiled brightly. "Let''s get out of here."
Reivyn swung his legs over the side and made to stand up, but instead of standing up smoothly, heunched himself across the space between the beds and tumbled over the adjacent cot. He fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. He let out an embarrassed cough. He focused his attention on his muscles as he extremely carefully stood back up.
"What the hell was that?" Teilon fell overughing. Even Kimberly didn''t rebuke him, instead hiding a chuckle behind her hand.
"Amazing benefits, hmmm?" Melissa said with a raised eyebrow. "Seems like it made you stupid, or something, to me." She couldn''t hold the look on her face and also cracked a smile.
Larissa smiled as she poked Erik awake. Erik sat up, fully alert in an instant, and after looking around briefly, he grunted before taking up his usual position standing in the back. The group made their way out of the infirmary, Reivyn walking in what felt like an exaggeratedly slow manner, yet he had no trouble keeping up with his friends.
I''m going to have to work on getting used to my new Stats, he thought. I pretty much made a fool of myself back there.
"Melissa," Reivyn called out as they exited the infirmary, "how many Tiers of affinities are there?"
"There are four Tiers of Affinities, but there is spection from some of the academics that there might be more. Why?" Melissa said. She brushed her hair behind her ear as she faced Reivyn.
"Well, I guess I can confirm that there are five, then," Reivyn said sheepishly. "Have you ever heard of the Veridical Affinity?"
"Veridical? Truth?" Melissa shook her head. "No, is that what your fifth Tier Affinity is called?"
"Yeah," Reivyn said. "I got an Achievement that the reward was opening up the fifth Tier of Affinities, and Veridical was the name of the Affinity I unlocked."
No reason to bring up the Abyssal Affinity. If that got out, it would bring more trouble than it was worth, Reivyn thought.
"Hmmm... I can only specte based on the name, but it sounds like it''s ''The True Element,'' or something," Melissa tapped her chin in thought. "That''s interesting. Maybe you can help me and Larissa unlock the Affinity somehow."
"Oh sure," Reivyn replied. "I just have to figure out how to safely manufacture a simr scenario first, so no idea when that will be."
"I''m not in a hurry. Aside from the spection, I''ve never heard of anyone actually having a fifth Tier Affinity. We''re all young. With the precedent of you getting the Affinity, I''m sure we can figure out how to do it."
Hmmm... from what she told me earlier, absorbing the medicinal soup is what created the interaction with the other Realm. We''ll have to see if absorbing some in small doses will have an effect.
"Why are we heading back towards the Dungeon?" Reivyn asked as he noticed the direction they were heading.
"Oh, we skipped the inspection for all of us because of the emergency situation. We promised the priest we woulde back as soon as we were able," Melissa said.
"Yeah, I don''t know about you, but I don''t want any of that gunk in my system," Teilon added. "And they offer free purification with the inspections, so no reason not to do it."
"We originally thought you had sumbed to too much corruption, but the priest said there was zero corruption in you," Melissa nced at him out of the corner of her eye with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, one of the ''amazing benefits,''" Reivyn said. "I got another achievement that said it won''t affect me anymore."
I''m pretty sure I actually do have some of the "corruption" inside of me, Reivyn thought while doing an internal inspection. It''s just no longer in conflict with me. It''s interesting that the priest inspecting me wouldn''t be able to tell. It must have something to do with how our System interacts with it, rather than its inherent characteristics.
The group approached the inspection team that was on standby, and after a short exnation, they received the purification.
"Ahhh, refreshing," Teilon said with a stretch of his arms above his head. "Well, this was fun and all, and I know we just woke up, but I''m going to go back to the house and rx. I''m not up for any training or sparring today," Teilon eyed Reivyn with suspicion, clearly waiting for him to propose such a thing.
Reivyn chuckled, "Yeah, yeah. I actually have a lot of things to think about, plus I need get used to a few things." Reivyn cleared his throat. "You and Kimberly also have enough experience and Skills that I''m not worried about training right now.
"I''lle over to the tavern tomorrow to talk more about the Affinities and such," Reivyn turned and addressed Melissa and her twopanions as the group of six split in two distinct groups.
"Sure," Melissa nodded her head.
"I''m d you''re OK," Larissa said with a smile. She gave a little wave, and Erik added his customary grunt and nod.
"Thanks," Reivyn said. "I''ll see you tomorrow." The two groups bade their farewells and headed towards their separate amodations.
"Alright, I guess you and Kimberly do whatever you want for the next few days," Reivyn said as they made their way back to the house. "I pretty much need some time to work out some things on my own, anyway."
"I''m guessing you got a major boost to your Stats?" Teilon queried. Reivyn simply nodded his head. "I know you said you don''t remember anything, and I believe you, but it was bad. If you ever need to talk, I''m here to listen." Teilon gripped Reivyn''s shoulder as he put on a serious expression.
"I appreciate that," Reivyn said. "The things I need to work through and think about aren''t like that, at the moment, but I''ll remember it."
"Good," Teilon put his hand back down and the trio made their way to their temporary home.
---
Ok, let''s see about this new Affinity.
Reivyn was sitting in his customary cross-legged position on his bed. He extended his hand and willed a ball of mana into his hand. He took a deep breath, and then drew upon the new Veridical Element and infused it into his mana orb.
Reivyn frowned as he couldn''t perceive any change in the mana. It still looked like just pure mana. He didn''t Sense anything different about it, either.
Maybe something will show up with Mana Sight?
Reivyn activated his Skill and looked at the mana swirling in his palm. There was still no discernible difference.
It just looks like pure mana. I can tell that I infused the element, but it doesn''t seem to have any effect. The notification did say something about this being the Veridical Realm, so maybe it is pure mana? Is it the basic building block of the world? That would make sense, but it begs the question: How am I supposed to increase my Affinity Level?
Reivyn pondered the problem, but he didn''t even know the first step to move in the right direction.
Maybe mom will know something? I can ask her when I get home.
Reivyn ended his session with experimenting with the new element prematurely. There was no way he was going to try and manipte the Abyssal Element out in the open.
I had already nned on attempting a solo run next week, and I don''t see any reason to change ns now. Especially with my increase in Stats. I can try it out in the Dungeon.
Reivyn resumed his Affinity and mana Skill training. He had the Stats for a good Tier 3 ss now, he had the means to ess the Academy where he could initiate the ss Change, but he wanted to be 100% sure he met all of the requirements.
Even if I wasn''t nning on getting an early Tier 3 ss, I would still work on these Skills, anyway, so nothing''s really changed. I''ve just removed one worry.
---
Reivyn swung his sword in the basic forms over and over again, sweat dripping down his face. He had spent the past several weeks focusing on being able to assist his friends in traversing the second floor of the Dungeon and not so much on physical training or sparring, so he had almost forgotten how hot and humid it was.
I swear it''s getting worse every day, but Teilon and Kimberly never say anything about it. I''ve seen Melissa and Larissa fan themselves asionally, and some of the bystanders walking around, so I know it''s not just me. I really need to adapt myself to my new physical condition, though, so I just have to train through it.
Reivyn grit his teeth as he continued his practice through the difort. He performed his sword forms for several minutes before he switched to his spear. The body movements associated with the spearwork were sufficiently different that he was able to work several other muscle groups and continued to gain mastery over his body.
This isn''t going to be over in a day, though, so I get to look forward to several days of this torture.
Reivyn finished up with the spear, and then he pulled out his tessen.
The good thing about the tessen is that I can intersperse training with fanning myself to cool off, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
The tessen was a unique form ofbat, and there wasn''t nearly as much body movement associated with it as with the other forms ofbat, so Reivyn included unarmed styles into his routine while wielding the battle fan.
After several sessions of working with all of his current weaponry several different times, Reivyn was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
I''m not actually that tired, he thought. It''s just so hard to breathe in this humidity. Reivyn took a long drag from his water skin as he rested, and he dumped some of it over his head to help with the heat.
Alright, just a little bit more, and then I can call it a day for now. Agility exercises here in the courtyard, and then a pack run around the town.
Reivyn psyched himself up before he got to work running back and forth in the yard, working on changing directions as fast as possible and controlling his momentum properly.
Whew, this is going to suck.
Reivyn ran through the streets back towards the house after he finished his endurance session along the perimeter of the palisade. He watched the other people in town as they went about their business. He noticed a lot of people also struggling with the heat, but not everyone.
I guess we''re just more sensitive to the temperature? Reivyn thought to himself as he witnessed a group of Adventurers mostly ignoring the heat. The group he spotted had several people moving about in their full armor and kit, and they didn''t show any visible signs of difort, yet a couple of their members were clearly effected as they didn''t wear a single piece of armor, opting for loose, flowing clothes.
Well, whatever. I guess we''re just the unlucky ones, Reivyn put the thoughts to the back of his mind as he slowed to a walk before reaching the house.
He washed himself off with water from a rain barrel and changed into some clean clothes he had prepared beforehand before heading inside. Teilon and Kimberly wereughing and joking as he walked in.
"How was the run?" Teilon said as he spotted Reivyn entering the house.
"Hot," Reivyn replied as he plopped down on an open seat. He leaned back and rxed with a sigh.
"Well, Kimberly and I have some good news," Teilon said. Reivyn lifted his head and gave his friend his full attention. "When we came out of the Dungeon, after checking the Experience we got, we noticed we were only a couple thousand Experience away from maxing out at Level 30, so we decided to use a couple Experience Crystals.
"You''re looking at two brand-new Tier 2''s," Teilon lifted his chin with pride, a smile on his face.
"Congrattions!" Reivyn said. "What ss did you pick? Let me guess, let me guess," Reivyn held his hand out to forestall his friend. "Kimberly chose Fighter, and you chose..." Reivyn snapped his fingers. "Rogue."
"Ha ha," Teilon gave an un-amusedugh. "I know I was all about stealing those pies, but that was a long time ago! I''m a proper Adventurer, now!" Teilon ced his hand over his breast in mock indignation.
"Well, you''re right that I chose Fighter," Kimberly supplied. "It made the most sense."
"I can give you some pointers and show you the Mana Cirction pathwayster," Reivyn said with a smile and a nod.
"Thanks, I appreciate that," Kimberly smiled back.
"Ok, ok, enough about other people, and more about me," Teilon said. Kimberly and Reivyn rolled their eyes in unison. "I didn''t pick Rogue, though it did have some interesting benefits for my style ofbat. No I got something new avable after thisst Dungeon delve.
"I picked a ss called Spook," Teilon said. Reivyn couldn''t hold it in and burst outughing. "Hey now! I know the name doesn''t really do it justice, but it''s a Rare Tier 2 ss, and it has a lot of utility for my way of fighting."
"Oh? Like what?" Reivyn leaned forward in his seat, an expectant expression on his face.
"It focuses on lessening my presence, and it gives me bonuses and ss Skills that increase my speed and Dexterity while moving in the shadows or unseen, either one. I don''t necessarily have to be in the shadows, and I don''t have to bepletely invisible to others, it''s like an upgraded version of what a Rogue gets. There''s a lot fewer limitations."
"Ok, that actually does sound like it would benefit your style," Reivyn nodded in seriousness. "We''ll have to get you some training time with Erik and the girls soon, so you and they can adapt to the changes."
Teilon threw his head back and groaned. "Why do you have to ruin the good mood with the dreaded ''training'' word?" Teilonined. "I also noticed you didn''t include yourself in that statement." Teilon looked at Reivyn through the side of his eye.
"Yeah, I n on doing a solo run next week," Reivyn casually said.
"A what?" Teilon sat straight up.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Kimberly asked with a concerned look on her face.
"Yeah, what''s the issue?" Reivyn looked back and forth between his two friends.
Teilon and Kimberly shared a look before Teilon said, "I mean, you just went through that whole ordeal, and now you want to go back in without any backup?"
"Trust me, I''m fine," Reivyn said. He shook his head. He really was fine. "I''m not saying I''m going to go down and challenge the second floor boss on my own."
"That''s a relief," Teilon said. He wiped away imaginary sweat from his forehead.
"Yeah, it''ll depend on how well I can handle the Revenants on my own," Reivyn added.
Teilon looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Just promise me you won''t take any chances," he looked at Reivyn with a sober expression. Kimberly nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I''m not going to throw my life away," Reivyn said. "I got a pseudo-Achievement way back for killing the ogre by myself, but not clearing the whole first floor solo, so I know an Achievement for it exists. I know what I''m getting into, and I know I can at least handle that, so I want to go get it. I''ll just explore the second floor a bit afterward, and I''ll only move on to the boss room if I can handle the Revenants with ease."
From what they told me about the boss room, I didn''t seem to have any problems, and my Stats have improved significantly. The entire reason I''m suffering through the heat is to get limated to my new Stats as fast as possible.
"Alright, man, if you''re sure," Teilon said.
"It''ll be fine," Reivyn reassured. "Now, let''s do something fun for once."
"More training?" Teilon rolled his eyes.
"Nope," Reivyn said. He pulled a small box out of his breast pocket. "Cards."
Chapter 47: Lucky Draw
Chapter 47: Lucky Draw
Teilon ced his cards on the table and lifted his arms in triumph.
"Hah! Finally beat you," he eximed.
"Yeah, yeah, you only had to team up with Kimberly to do it," Reivyn smirked.
"Since when did you get so lucky?" Teilon asked as he scooped up the cards.
"I don''t know what you''re talking about," Reivyn shrugged. "I''m obviously just the superior card yer."
Teilon rolled his eyes as he started shuffling the deck. He suddenly frowned, though, and paused his maniptions.
"Huh, I just got an Achievement," Teilon said absentmindedly.
"Really?" Reivyn focused on his friend. He got a tingle in the back of his mind, so he activated Mana Sight on instinct.
There was a strange distortion with the ambient mana. He couldn''t quite describe what the difference was, but it appeared that the mana around Teilon was more excited. It felt, more than looked like, they were vibrating around him, and he could faintly discern an outline of a box in front of Teilon. He felt a simr distortion from a few feet away, and he looked over and saw the same phenomenon in front of Kimberly.
Is this the manifestation of the Veridical Affinity? Reivyn contemted. He was brought out of his thoughts by Kimberly speaking up.
"I got one, too," Kimberly said. "It says, ''Using strategy and a little luck, win a friendly match against impossible odds. Charisma and Luck plus one."
Teilon and Kimberly shared a nce before looking back at Reivyn.
"No idea what I''m talking about, huh?'' Teilon used. "You were obviously up to something. You a card shark or something?"
"Nah, I''m just a little Lucky, is all," Reivyn kept it deliberately vague. He wasn''t opposed to sharing his Luck Stat with his friends, but he found it more fun to watch Teilon squirm in the dark.
I''ll tell him someday, but before then, there are several other games of chance I can mess with him with. I need to get some dice. Reivyn smiled to himself, and his two friends narrowed their eyes in suspicion.
"He obviously already has the Luck Stat unlocked," Kimberly pointed out. "He''s just messing with us."
"Aww, you''re no fun," Reivyn said with some exasperation. "It''s only a little higher than yours, and now that you''ve unlocked the Stat, it should even out."
"You sure about that?" Teilon asked while continuing to shuffle.
"Yeah, it''ll be fi~ne," Reivyn assured his friend.
It didn''t even out.
Reivyn watched as the man formed a Bolt made of the Earth Element and sent it hurtling at the target. Reivyn continued to observe the different mana braids that made up the Earth Bolt and attempted to add them to his repertoire.
Reivyn had ced a notice on the board in the Adventurer''s Guild Branch that he was seeking to observe the basic Spells, and after meeting up with several people who were interested in the Tavern, he had set up a training schedule. He used his portion of remuneration from the ores they still gathered to pay the Spell Casters for their time. He had continued to go to the same location he first went to with his Party outside of the town.
All of the Adventurer''s were in the same boat with the time they had avable to delve the Dungeon, so they were also looking for things to alleviate their boredom and find something to do. Some chose to search for other resources for the locals building the town that posted on the notice board, some did training like Reivyn and his team, and some spent their hard-earned coin in the taverns.
Due to these reasons, the arrangements that Reivyn entered into with these other Spell Casters weren''t expensive. The Spell Casters didn''t ask questions about why Reivyn wanted to watch them cast their basic Spells. Most of them had done, or were doing, the same thing in one way or another. Most people weren''t like Reivyn, though, and it was rare for many people to be equally talented in the base affinities, much less have decent talent in the higher Tier affinities.
"So you''re trying to figure out the structure of the basic bolt spells, huh? Which elements are you working on?" The man, Lorin, asked.
"Yeah, I''m teamed up with a couple of Casters who told me about the System rewarding you for figuring out how to cast the Spells free-hand, so I''ve been studying the braids to build my foundation. So far I''m able to cast Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Water Bolt, and Air Bolt. Earth is thest one I need to learn for the four basic elements, and the only reason I know Ice already is because of one of the Casters in my Party," Reivyn answered.
After interacting with Melissa, Larissa, and several other Casters who had answered his notice, Reivyn had learned that it wasn''t nearly as much of a stigma to discuss affinities among Casters as he had first thought. Talking about Skills was one thing, but the affinities were universal. The only thing people kept private was their exact Level, but they still freely revealed that they were within a certain range.
Reivyn wasn''t sure if they werepletely honest with the numbers they provided, though, as he certainly wasn''t. The numbers he heard from the other Casters made him realize just how much further along in his affinity training he waspared to someone else in the same age range.
Lorin gave a low whistle before replying, "That''s pretty impressive for someone your age. I was sixteen before I had the braids for the four basic elements down, and you''re - what? - thirteen?" Reivyn gave a nomittal shrug. "And you already have your Tier 2 affinity, as well. What kind of a Tier 3 ss are you working toward?"
"I kind of got forced into a Martial ss - it''s a long story - so I don''t have as many opportunities to work on my Caster Skills other than just training, and most of what I''ve learned to date have to do with meleebat, with some ranged. I would like to eventuallybine the two methods, but I feel a pure Caster ss for Tier 3 wouldy a better foundation for the future," Reivyn let the misunderstanding that he was Tier 2 training for his Tier 3 ss stand. There was no reason to go into details with every person he interacted with. Likewise there was no reason to disabuse the man of the notion that he only had one Tier 2 affinity unlocked.
"That''s true," Lorin said. He continued to form the Earth Bolt Spell and release it as they conversed. "You have to keep in mind, though, that you''ll be in Tier 3 for a long time. Much longer than you''re in Tier 2. Having ess to three of your ss Skills from your Tier 2 ss as it bes your Secondary will help.
"Active Adventurers like us, especially ones who run Dungeons, move through the earlier Tiers at a much faster pace than Lifestyle sses and the military, so it''s not like you''ll be stuck in Tier 3 for decades or anything like that. Just make sure you bnce your Experience diet with your Skills training.
"It''s notmon out here, but there are tales of talented individuals who grew overconfident and advanced too quickly. They almost always get stuck with terrible sses in Tier 4, and the really unlucky ones get an Umon ss and end their progression prematurely," Lorin eyed Reivyn for a second as he let his remarks sink in. "Most people don''t have to worry about such things, though, and the ones who do don''t stay in this Region. If you see any high level person in this Region who isn''t in his or her twilight years, they''re likely a talent who hit an insurmountable road block."
Reivyn''s parents came to mind as he thought to himself, That''s not always the case. My parents have obviously not reached the end of their progression. I''ll have to ask them why they chose to settle in such a low density Region when I get home. I know they were traveling to get somewhere where nobody would know of their lineage and try to use them politically, but they could have still chosen a Tier 2, or even Tier 3, Region.
"Thanks for the reminder," Reivyn said as he concentrated on the next bolt. "I almost have the braid down, by the way. Just another ten minutes or so will probably do it."
"Sure thing."
They continued practicing until Reivyn felt a sort of mental click as he effortlessly braided the Earth Bolt. He wasn''t supplying the full Spell, and he wasn''t releasing it either, so the drain on his mana wasn''t too bad over the course of the session. He had a considerablyrger mana pool now, though. The amount of mana it took him to seed in braiding each of the elements had been more than his original entire mana pool each time. If he had tried to learn all of the braids before his Stat increase, it would have taken him a lot longer.
"Thanks for taking the time to show me the Spell," Reivyn said as he handed over a small coin pouch.
"It was my pleasure," Lorin said as he epted the money. "It can get a bit boring while waiting for the Reset, and there are too many others scouring the countryside for the locals. People have to go farther and farther to find anything worthwhile. I would bet someone in authority will step in soon and regte it so that things don''t get out of hand."
The two continued their idle conversation as they walked back to the town.
"Well, see ya ''round," Lorin said with a small wave as he and Reivyn separated.
"See you."
All of the preparations are done. All that''s left for me to aplish out here is the solo dive. Reivyn was filled with excitement as he thought about his next excursion that was fast approaching.
"You got a letter," Reivyn heard Teilon call to him as he walked through the door. He grabbed a towel that he had taken to leaving near the door and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He ran it along the inside of the cor of his shirt, too. Teilon frowned as he witnessed his friend''s actions.
"Do you think it has something to do with the corrupt mana or something?" Teilon asked.
"You know, that''s what I thought at first, too, but I''m not so sure," Reivyn said as he epted the sealed envelope from Teilon. He took a seat on the couch and opened the letter as he spoke. "I''ve kept an eye out on all of the people walking around and the church guys, but it''s not consistent who suffers from the heat. Hardly any of the church guys seem to be affected, and the Priests always have their robes on. As for the Adventurers, sure a lot of the Casters have a simr experience, but not all of them, and there are plenty of non-Casters who suffer from the heat, too.
"I really don''t know what''s going on, but it hasn''t really been a problem, yet." Reivyn held the letter in his hand while he spoke to Teilon. He didn''t want to be rude and start reading the letter while in the middle of a conversation.
"Alright, if you say so," Teilon said. He gestured for Reivyn to go ahead and read the letter, and he walked off to his room. Kimberly was apparently out running an errand or spending time with Larissa; Reivyn wasn''t sure.
He opened the folded paper and read the letter that he saw had been sent by his mother.
My Dearest Reivyn,
I hope all is well with you in the Dungeon Town. From your previous letter, it sounds like you''ve met some wonderful new friends to team up with. You''ll have to tell me all about Melissa and Larissa when you get home. And I suppose Erik sounds fine, too, but a mother cares more about some things more than others, if you get my drift.
Reivyn rolled his eyes at the words on the page. Geez, mom, I''m only 10 years old. Sure I''ve gone through puberty and all that, but isn''t it a bit early? He snorted in amusement.
This leads to the main purpose of the letter: We''ve decided to move to the Capital.
We already knew you were nning on going to the Academy located in the Capital when you got done with the Dungeon, and while we hadn''t said anything, we were obviously going to go with you. You''re still a kid, after all. - So she does know I''m still a kid - And with the development of your sisters'' ability to craft magical items butck of drive, we can''t in good conscience leave them to their own devices any longer.
There is a supplementary school for younger children who haven''t reached Tier 2, yet, including those younger than 10, and we''re going to enroll your sisters there. Depending on how long you have to spend in the Academy, you might end up being their senior one day. How exciting!
We will have already left by the time this letter reaches you, so when you send your next letter, mail it to the Adventurer''s Guild in the Capital, and your father will go and check each day. We''ll be sure to send you the address of our new home once we get there.
You don''t have to worry about your father''s employment, either. He received a very nice rmendation from Mr. Einrin who has some connections in the Capital. We''ve also been pretty frugal with our money over the years, so we''ll be perfectly fine.
Your sisters are grumbling a bit, but luckily we hadn''t really been here long enough for them to grow attached to any new friends, and they''ll get to see Teilon and Kimberly again when you guys move to the Capital as well, if your indication that they''re interested in attending the Knight Academy holds true and theye with you, that is.
I know this letter is short and to the point, but I promise to regale you with the tales of our travels and what the Capital is like in our next correspondence.
Stay safe.
With Love,
Mother
P.S. We hadn''t thought it would be an issue, yet, as we thought we would definitely meet up before you officially reached Tier 2 (I mean, none of us expected the Experience gain in the second floor to be so much higher than the first floor!), orcking that, we would at least be able to help you through the mail, but since we''ll be on the road, I need to tell you onest important detail (if your new friends haven''t mentioned it already): Slow down on Leveling once you reach close to the Tier 2 threshold. I know I advised you that you could force a ss even after epting your Tier 2 ss, but you can''t go past Level 10! With the increased Experience requirements and the less exciting nature of living in a city and going to a school, it should be fine as long as you don''t gain too many Levels in Tier 2.
Again, much love.
Reivyn lowered the letter as he thought about the contents.
I knew my sisters had an unusual talent - the flower crowns are proof of that - but it seems like it''s even more so than I had thought. This works out pretty well, actually. Nothing has changed in the grand scheme of things from the sounds of it. They''re just securing some training and education for Kailey and Riley a bit earlier than originally nned. They don''t know about my Experience Siphoning Ability, so I don''t have anything to worry about on that front.
Reivyn put the letter back in the envelope and carried it with him to his room. He ced it on his chest of drawers next to his other couple of letters he had received, and he picked up the letter he had started writing that contained a brief summary about his Stat gains. He didn''t go into the grisly details, though, but he was confident his parents would squeeze it out of him one day anyway.
Hmmm... No reason to rush and finish this letter now. It''s already toote. I''ll just add to it after the solo delve and send it out next week. They''ll be busy with the move for the next week or so, and even though it has a lot further to travel now, the mail couriers cover ground a lot faster than people moving all of their belongings.
Reivyn sat down on his bed and pulled up his Skills page before deciding on which mana Skills and affinities to work on. He hadn''t been paying as much attention to his Skill ups as he used to. I still get a sense of satisfaction from the aplishment of the Skills increasing, but working on the mana braids and knowing I''m progressing along that front is much more exciting. I can feel the anticipation building as I know the System is going to give me a big notification soon about all the work I''m putting in on them. That being said, might as well take the time to see what I got as I make a n for what to work on.
[Skills Leveled Up!]
[Tier 1:]
[Athleticism (44 ->45)]
[Bnce (44 - >45)]
[Medium Armor (34 ->35)]
[Mining (15 ->18)]
[Observation (40 ->41)]
[Shields (45 ->47)]
[Tier 2:]
[Evasion (36 ->37)]
[Mana Absorption (47 ->49)]
[Pain Resistance (36 ->42)]
[Strategy (13 ->15)]
[Tactics (23 ->24)]
[Tier 3:]
[Battlefield Awareness (12 ->14)]
[Command (8 ->11)]
[Danger Sense (9 ->11)]
[Inspire (10 ->13)]
[Mana Conjuration (25 ->28)]
[Mana Maniption (26 ->30)]
[Mana Shield (18 ->20)]
[Mana Sight (30 ->31)]
[Mental Fortitude (31 ->38)]
[Tier 4:]
[Dreams of the Past (14 ->15)]
[Iron Will (8 ->13)]
[Mana Weapon (22 ->24)]
[Spatial Awareness (19 ->20)]
[Tier 6:]
[Weapons Master (57 ->59)]
Reivyn''s eyebrows shot up as he examined his Skill gains.
Wow, I guess it really was a terrible situation. I haven''t seen gains like that in Pain Resistance since my encounter with Ren, and that was at a much lower Skill Level.
And I guess the little trip to the Soul Space counted towards my Dreams of the Past Skill? I don''t remember any other dreams.
It looks like my Weapons Master Skill did actually reach a small bottleneck, it just came at an unexpected Level. Does this mean I''m about to reach the Master level at 60? We''ll see.
There are several other Skills stuck at 24 and 49, too. Not all of those made the list, and they''ve been sitting there for a little while. I''m not too concerned with it, though. If they haven''t made any progress by the time I make it to the Capital, I might think about especially focusing on them for a bit.
It looks like my Mana Absorption has reached the 49 bottleneck, and Mana Cirction and Mana Weapon have been at 24 for several weeks. I''ll keep working on Mana Cirction in the evenings, because it has an actual function, but it looks like my focus in the short term should be on the Tier 3 mana Skills.
Melissa had exined that the purification of his mana through Mana Maniption was necessary for the System to activate moreplicated ss Spells. His mother would probably have told him before long, but she wasn''t in the habit of dumping everything in hisp all at once.
Well, not anymore, anyway.
Melissa had told him that he could find what his level of Mana Purification was under his Mana tab in the System page. He hadn''t really considered it before, so he hadn''t paid it any attention. He was still dealing with the basics of the basics when it came to Spells, so his Level of Mana Purification wouldn''te into y for some time.
No idea if it''s necessary for ss unlocking, but if it is, it''s probably not relevant below the higher Tier 3 rarities and higher Tiers. Still, something to keep working on so as to not identally lock myself out of a good ss without knowing why.
He quickly brought the tab up to take a quick peek at it.
[Mana]
[Gas {Cloudy}]
Reivyn had no idea what that meant, and Melissa had said she couldn''t handle any more attacks to her talent, so she had declined to hear him out on what his level was or exin further. She said he could ask his mother or wait until he enrolled in the Academy. Reivyn had just chuckled and shrugged it off. He knew she would exin it if it was really important to him right now, so he didn''t take it to heart.
Reivyn closed his tab and assumed his Meditation.
Time to get to work.
"Yes, I have everything I need," Reivyn said with a roll of his eyes. His friends continued to pester him about every little thing he would need for his solo excursion, Teilon especially. "I even brought some ss jars to keep the Experience Essence in in case I do end up going to the second floor." I''m definitely going to the second floor.
"Alright, man. You know we''re just worried," Teilon said with a grin.
"I know, and I appreciate it," Reivyn said. The group headed to the front of the Dungeon, but this time Reivyn wasn''t a member of the Party. "Ok, well, there''s no reason to dy any further, so I''ll see you guys eitherter today, or maybe even early tomorrow."
"Be safe," Melissa said as she waved. All of the party members gave their own version of a farewell: Teilon gave him a bear hug, Kimberly simply smiled and waved, Larissa jumped up and down while wishing him luck, and Erik grunted.
Reivyn separated from the group and headed into the Dungeon ahead of them. Even though they were in separate Parties, if they went in at the exact same time, it was possible to still enter the same instance. It was unlikely, but there was precedent for such a thing happening before. As such, they made it customary - everywhere, not just at this Dungeon - to wait one minute between people entering the Dungeon.
Reivyn quickly made his way to the cave, and he immediately noticed a difference from his Stats.
I haven''t even entered the cave yet, and I can already hear the faint traces of that first goblin patrol.
He hadn''t really noticed a change from his Perception Stat until this point. Probably because of all of the background noise. I''m used to subconsciously filtering it out, and it looks like my increased Mental Stats assisted in keeping up with the increased Perception. Now that I''m alone and all of that noise has faded away, I can now tell the difference.
Luckily Perception wasn''t just an overall increase in the senses, but more along the lines of what he was able to grasp from it. His senses were improved on a fundamental level, but it wasn''t to such an extent that he was practically deaf or blind from being overpowered by them. It seems that I got a decent improvement to my senses, but I''m also operating at a much higher efficiency.
Reivyn was ready to enter the caves in high spirits, but first, he pulled out some parchment and ink sticks.
Now that I''m alone and can take pretty much as much time as I want, I''m going to map out the entire Dungeon that we''ve explored so far.
With a flourish of his pen, Reivyn began his solo delve.
Chapter 48: Too Easy
Chapter 48: Too Easy
The small w mmed into Reivyn''s shield, not moving a single inch. He hardly even felt the blow from the weak goblin, and only the sound of the collision was noteworthy. The attack was followed up with a sweep of Reivyn''s sword, shing through multiple goblins that had encroached upon him with ease.
Reivyn was angled slightly with his back and side against the left-hand wall of the corridor that led into the goblin''s berth. He had steadily made his way down the Dungeon, and he had tried several different approaches to tackling these rooms by himself.
His first attempt had been a disaster. It was a hrious disaster, in retrospect, but it had left Reivyn winded and annoyed.
He had charged into the first room with his sling, and he attempted to run circles around the slower goblins while picking them off from range. They were never anywhere close to catching up to him, but the constant twisting about in order to utilize his weapon had been a huge hassle he hadn''t considered before employing the strategy. Even though he knew it was suboptimal, Reivyn had persisted in clearing the room out in that manner.
Even though I can use pretty much anything, including my own body, as a weapon, that doesn''t trante universally. I''m still right-handed, and I don''t have enough coordination with my left hand to effectively use the sling as a weapon in this situation. If I had turned to the right and ran around the room with my throwing arm on the outside, allowing me to sling across my body, that would have been one thing, but I chose to run left without giving it too much consideration.
Since his first snap-decision was a failure, but not a particrly dangerous one, Reivyn was determined to fail all the way.
Some of the best lessons are learned through adversity and messing things up.
Reivyn had attempted the same method again, but he ran to the right to use his dominant arm, and things worked out considerably better. It was stillpletely unnecessary, in his opinion, to waste so much time and resources evading the weak creatures, but he got some good practice out of it.
The following rooms Reivyn used to consider various issues with his Skills andbat. He mainly focused on trying to figure out the mechanism the System employed to use his Stamina to empower his body with the ss Skills.
Mana is a tangible force that I can sense and control. Stamina works in a simr fashion with how it can be used as fuel to power the body, so there must be some way to manipte it directly. The only problem is, so far it has beenpletely intangible and invisible until it is actually used.
Reivyn knew from the System itself that it was possible to learn ss Skills permanently, and he was approaching the Level 100 threshold for his Devastating Strike, and his other ss Skills weren''t too terribly far behind.
He always used his ss Skills inbat whenever he had spare Stamina or in an emergency, but he kept a tight rein on the usage so as not to ever dip to a dangerous Stamina pool.
He would be able to keep three of his Secondary ss Skills when he achieved Tier 2, but one of those was definitely me de. His currentbat style smoothly incorporated his ss Skills in such a way that it was almost second nature, and he would have to choose two out of the other three to keep.
Charge is definitely staying. It has much more utility than my other ss Skills and can be used for much more than just closing with the enemy. That leaves Quick-Draw, Cleave, and Devastating Strike.
Cleave might seem like a useless ability on the surface, but it greatly removes any openings I might leave behind if I need to overextend in certain situations. Without the Skill, I would be much more conservative in mybat style, and it allows me to move about and strike much more freely than I otherwise would be able to.
Devastating Strike, especially whenbined with me de, really lets me decimate the Revenants on the second floor, and I imagine it will y a role against the Ogre in the first floor boss room.
Quick-Draw, while immensely practical from a starting position of a fight or when trying to surprise an enemy, is probably the weakest of the three remaining skills.
So far, unless I see a noticeable improvement from reaching Level 100 in Devastating Strike, I''m leaning towards Cleave as it allows the most free-formbat of any of my Skills.
Reivyn didn''t know if he would be able to switch out his Secondary Skills once he made his selection, and if they disappeared from his list, it would be a great loss if he had the opportunity to unlock the Skill permanently but didn''t grasp it.
Reivyn focused on the way his muscles contracted and moved as he bashed a goblin skull while simultaneously keeping the others at bay with his deadly de. He alternated between focusing intently on the Skills verse just his own body.
All I need is to grasp the string that connects them together, and if I build up my understanding of the differences between them, it should make it easier. I feel like I''m on the right track with this method, but I still have a lot of work to do on it.
Reivyn finished up the room and continued further into the Dungeon without even taking a nce at the room he had just cleared. There was never anything of value to be found in the goblin or orc living quarters, and even if his Luck yed a role and he found something, it was likely to be less valuable than anything he could find deeper in the Dungeon.
Next room is the mining room. I''ll clear the room out of monsters and then do some mining before taking a break. I''ll just leave the ores here for now and grab them on the way out.
I can grab a bite to eat while I review the maps I''ve drawn so far, and I can start making a master copy that''s muchrger and contains the smaller maps I''ve made. The trick will be to keep the scales equal.
My leisurely experiments with the goblins are over. I should be able to continue against the orcs, but I''ll keep it safe and not consider it until I get a better grasp of my new capabilities against them solo.
The orcs, with Reivyn''s newfound Stat growth, proved to be easier to handle than the goblins had been before his explosive strength gain. While moving out ofbat, everything appeared normal as it always had, but once he really focused on thebat with his first encounter with the orcs, he noticed that an increase in the range of his perception wasn''t the only benefit.
They''re moving almost in slow motion. I don''t know if the increase in my Mental Stats ys a role in how I''m able to interpret my Perception, or if it''s all on the one Stat, but I feel like I could dance around at will. I do know that if I didn''t get an increase in my Physical Stats, I wouldn''t be able to take nearly as much advantage of the new situation.
He hadn''t noticed it previously when fighting only the goblins as he had been almost fully focused on trying to figure out how Stamina worked in conjunction with Skills, and he had been far too busy and annoyed while acting as a rangedbatant, but even if he didn''t fully concentrate on the battle, he was still moving and reacting much faster.
Reivyn managed to further his understanding of Stamina by a hair while he made his way down to the boss room where he took another quick break.
Ok, Reivyn thought as he loosened up his body, move hard and fast, and take the ogre out as quickly as possible. I''ll run in, Charge as soon as I spot the ogre, and use me de plus Devastating Strike to kill it.
Reivyn pulled out his sword and shield, jumped up and down a few times to get the blood and adrenaline flowing, and then ran into the boss room at top speed.
Reivyn had never entered the boss room at such speeds before, so he was surprised to find that the ogre''s initial positioning was much closer to the rest of the orcs than he had originally thought. He didn''t see any reason to change strategies, however, so he activated Charge as soon as he spotted the ogre lugging the two orcs with chains.
Reivyn''s speed immediately doubled, and he crossed the distance in the blink of an eye. None of the monsters were able to react at all to the sudden change, and Reivyn effortlessly pumped his me de Skill full of mana to extend the de while activating Devastating Strike to initiate the swing.
A reddish-orange blur swept through the room, nearly at ceiling height, and before he took in the effect of his maneuver, Reivyn leaped while Charging to carry his momentum, and he spun rapidly while sailing through the air, maintaining his me de extended out as he turned it into a mini-tornado of fiery death.
He went through arge chunk of Mana - a quick nce showed it had cost 170 points from his Mana Pool - but it had tremendous effect.
As Reivyn came to a stop in the guard position, shield up and sword ready to strike, silence filled the room. He looked around left and right to quickly identify any threats that might be approaching, but the group of orcs and one ogre just stood there in stunned silence with their eyes bulging.
After a short couple of seconds, all of the monsters in the room copsed to the floor. He had in every enemy in an instant.
This first floor boss room really isn''t much of an obstacle at all, anymore. I would have been more surprised if I had had to struggle. Even though the ogre is a Tier 3, it is severely restricted with the low ceiling, and if it''s never allowed to gain any momentum, it''s just a big damage sponge. Looks like my damage has gotten a little high, he chuckled to himself.
Reivyn deactivated his me de, and after walking to where he couldn''t see the corpses any longer, he sat down for another quick bite to eat.
While I''m not tired at all, and I have a lot more mana now than the first time I traversed the second floor, I would still feel better at full mana before I head down there. I''ll finalize the maps to the first floor while I''m at it.
Reivyn bent forward over the maps he had syed out before him, making corrections and alterations with his pen, a piece of jerky sticking out of his mouth as he absentmindedly chewed.
I''m making much faster progress than I had imagined, Reivyn thought as he approached the first rooms containing the Revenants. The skeleton patrols had hardly even been a blip, putting up no more resistance than the goblins had. I might be able to make it out of here even before Teilon and his groupplete their excursion.
Reivyn looked at the door leading to the first alchemy room and considered the ways he could tackle the fights with multiple Revenants that he would soon face.
I can''t count on any form of crowd control or movement obstacles like I could when paired up with Melissa. I''ll have to use the same method I did with the ogre: Move fast and hard to kill the first Revenant, and once I have the initiative, I can direct the flow ofbat and assess the situation.
With his mind made up, Reivyn took a deep breath before opening the door. He knew the Revenants wouldn''t activate right away from just the door opening, so he stepped inside the room before assuming a stance to Charge the undead sitting on the other side of the dpidated cauldron.
No time like the present. Reivyn initiated his Charge before the Revenant had even begun to activate, and brought his sword, covered in mes, down on its skull.
He cleaved right through the bones, and even the chair it was sitting on, until his sword struck the ground beneath. The two halves of the Tier 3 skeleton fell apart, and Reivyn was momentarily surprised with how easy it had been. He stood there in the position with his body leaning forward and sword tip prating the top of the floor for a second as he collected himself.
Still one more to worry about, now that I''ve started the fight.
Reivyn quickly exited the room and assumed a ready position with his back towards the way he hade. He had cleared the first room so fast that the other Revenant didn''t have time to fully activate and sneak up on him.
Reivyn watched as the Revenant from the opposite room came shambling out into the hall, immediately spotting Reivyn and moving towards him. He stood with his shield raised and waited for the Revenant to make the first move, nning on assessing the strength of the blow.
The Revenant quickly reached him and threw out a powerful punch.
I can actually see it!
Reivyn watched the punche towards him, appearing no faster than a strike from one of the orcs would have been before his Stats increased. An idea quickly formed in Reivyn''s mind, and he deactivated the mes coating his sword. He still sheathed his weapon in mana, though, as it would bepletely useless otherwise.
Reivyn''s idea had been to work on his swordsmanship with the superior foe, now that he was able to keep up, and he spent several minutes treating his opponent like a sparring partner, except he would actuallynd the blows properly. The mana infusion did its job, and after approximately six minutes, the Revenant''s body could no longer hold up to the damage it had sustained, and it copsed in a heap.
Not bad. I might be able to reach Level 60 with Weapons Master against these opponents. The rooms attached to the stairwell might be troublesome, as I''ll have to fight six at once, basically - if I don''t take one or two out immediately, which I should definitely do - and how well I do against those rooms will determine if I continue on to thest patrol before the boss room or not.
Reivyn quickly searched the cauldrons for their prize, but the first two came up empty. Meh, still a lot of chances for Crystalster on.
Reivyn continued his one-man extermination of the undead.
Reivyn sat cross legged, his pen held between two fingers with the other end between his teeth as he went over his maps. The corpses of the six Revenantsy strewn about throughout the rooms and corridors.
The end rooms had proven to be easier than he had anticipated.
Reivyn had rushed into the first room on the left, and he had quickly dispatched the two Revenants in repose before quickly dashing back to the corridor. With his eyes able to take in the two rooms remaining at the same time, he didn''t have to worry about the sudden movements of his enemies.
He kept his me de active for the beginning of the fight, as he didn''t want to take any unnecessary chances improving his Skills without backup. If he wasn''t delving solo, he might take the opportunity to continue treating the Revenants like sparring partners in such a situation to push himself; but without anyone to intervene in case things went horribly wrong, Reivyn wasn''t willing to risk it.
The first Revenant had stumbled out of the central room in his weird, jerky gait, and Reivyn had lunged forward while increasing the output of his mana to quickly pierce a hole in its skull and take it out of the fight immediately. With only three Revenants to contend with, he had adopted his traditional method of blocking and counter attacking as he backed down the hallway.
With his me de and improved Stats, the Revenants didn''t pose any threat, and he killed the remaining three in less than a minute.
I might be too strong for the first two floors, now, Reivyn thought. That still doesn''t mean I''m willing to check out the third floor, if that scene through the viewing port is any indication of what can be found down there. I would really like to fight one of these guys at their full strength, but not if it''s apanied by another hundred or so.
Reivyn quickly drew up a map of the floor. As he practiced his Skill, it got easier and easier to maintain the proper scale without having to intensely concentrate or make several revisions. He removed the tip of the pen from his mouth and tapped his closed lips with it as he considered the parchment.
These look good to me, he took a quick nce at his Status page, and my Stamina and mana are around 95%. No reason to stick around, so I''ll keep going. How long have I been down here, now? Reivyn pulled up his internal System clock and checked the time. Six hours-ish? Yeah, I''m zing through this ce. I''ll definitely beat the others to the surface, especially if I decide not to tackle the boss room.
He still hadn''t made a determination on whether or not he would attempt to defeat the floor boss or not. He was holding off on making the decision until and unless he fought the fourteen Revenants that patrolled the halls beforehand.
At this moment, though, it looks like I should give it a go. He got up and made his way to the next floor.
Reivyn danced back to avoid the strike from the Revenant on his right before leaping forward, shield raised to catch the blow from the Revenant on his left, and bashed the first one into the floor with his overpowering strength.
He had slowly decreased how many Revenants he killed before engaging all of them as he descended the stairwell until he fought the entire group all at once against the floor that had seven Revenants. He had proved that he was up to the task, so he had decided to tackle the final patrol.
He left his pack at the foot of the stairs. It was filled with Cracked Experience Crystals and bottles containing Experience Essence. His trip hadnded him a decent haul with 20 Crystals and 6 full jars.
Reivyn had Charged the final patrol without hesitation and beganying waste to them before slowing down and controlling the flow of battle while slowly backing away. It wasn''tpletely necessary any longer, but it kept his footing clear of any obstacles as the bones, after the Revenants died, no longer had anything holding them together. They sometimes maintained the momentum from the copsing undead and rolled about to cause a tripping hazard.
Reivyn kept his focus on thebat, expertly dodging and weaving, and blocking and parrying in turn, to demolish thest encounter before the boss room. The Revenants were unable to make full use of their superior numbers in the cramped hallway, so Reivyn whittled them down until they were all dead.
He wiped the sweat from his brow as his body rxed once thest enemy fell. Whew, I''m nowhere close to reaching dangerous levels of Stamina or Mana, but I still worked up quite a sweat there. From what Melissa and them told me of the boss room, it''s mostly just more of the same.
I should Charge through the first group and make sure my line of sight is always towards the center of the room, with the entrance in the background because of the hidden enemies, and then I can lead them around in a circle and slowly wear them down just like out here. The only danger will be that they can fan out and surround me, so I''ll have to continuously adjust my positioning to prevent that from being effective.
The Spectre won''t be able to possess me as long as I keep mana flowing through my body at all times, so if it gets drawn out too long, or I miscalcte and use too much Mana, that will be the deciding factor on if I retreat or not.
Reivyn plopped down a short distance away from the carnage of bones and rested up. He had a n, and he had the capabilities, so he was going to challenge the boss room. Should be a pretty good achievement for soloing the first two floorspletely.
Reivyn quickly topped his Stamina and Mana up to 100% - No way I go into the boss room with even one percentage point missing - and made his way to the threshold. He looked at the open doorway for a moment. All of this still looks familiar to me. My memories give out at this point, though, and everything beyond this point will be new.
Reivyn only contemted for a moment before he decisively crossed the threshold into the room. Theyout was easily recognizable to the descriptions that Melissa had given, and Reivyn confidently marched towards the center of the room.
A frown crossed his face as the scene in the center of the room entered his vision, though. It wasn''t like what they had described at all.
Instead of arge pit filled with a bubbling, frothing red alchemical mixture, there was instead a slightly raised dais with arger, more intricately carvedrge cauldron on it. He couldn''t see any lighting from within, nor any other indication it was filled with liquid.
The monsters surrounding the cauldron were also a far cry from what had been described. Instead of one Spectre in the center with several Revenants chanting beside him, there were three Spectres floating in attendance.
The three ghosts immediately noticed Reivyn approaching, and with an otherworldly shriek, their countenance changed from fuzzy middle-aged men to frightening skulls as they unceremoniously charged towards Reivyn.
Hmph, you guys are overestimating yourselves.
Reivyn exploded with mana as they quickly drew close, and as they reared back in hesitation, Reivyn shed out with his me de. It passed through all three at once. They screamed in agony, and they bolted away back to the center of the room.
Their screams continued, even after they quit moving, and Reivyn sensed the ambient mana get drawn towards the three. While this was happening, Reivyn didn''t forget about the possibility of other enemies lurking about, so he kept his head on a swivel. After failing to see any additional monsters appear, he once more fully turned back towards the three Spectres and made his way over to them.
He only took a couple of steps, though, before he came to a stop. The ambient mana reached a crescendo, and the three Spectres coalesced together into one, muchrger Spectre. The apparition viewed Reivyn with pure hate, but when Reivyn was anticipating another attack, it backed away and faded into nothingness.
It might think it has a chance to possess me now that it''s grown stronger, so I need to keep my Mana pumping through me and stay alert to the surroundings.
Reivyn stood in ce, ready to receive a surprise attack, as he scanned the room. A dull thumping sound from way off in the distance the Spectre had moved to reached his ears.
Reivyn looked into the darkness, trying to peer into what had caused the noise, but he was unable to discern anything. Another thumping sound soon came after the first, and Reivyn saw dust fall from the ceiling a short distance away out of the corner of his eye.
Reivyn lowered his center of gravity, raised his shield, and held his sword in the ready stance. Another dull thumping echoed through the empty room.
Suddenly, the thumping sounds no longer came interspersed several seconds apart, but they came at a tremendous speed, getting louder at the same time. Reivyn''s Danger Sense screamed at him to move, and he Charged to the side with one of the pirs as the target.
Immediately after, a huge shape came hurtling out of the darkness and mmed into one of the other pirs. The entire room shook so violently, that Reivyn was thrown from his feet despite his high Bnce Skill. He rolled over and stood up ready to fight, and he got his first glimpse at the new enemy.
A hulking, giant figure slowly straightened up from where it had crashed into a pir. The pir was no longer straight, and it had a veryrge, very noticeable dent that made it look like a bent elbow.
The figure finally stood all the way up, and Reivyn''s stomach dropped. It was easily half as big again as the ogre in the first floor boss room, but the ceiling in this room was much higher. It wasn''t constrained at all.
It was fully armored in heavy te, and Reivyn noticed that there was no head adorning its shoulders as it turned to face Reivyn. Its head, which was also fully armored, was held in the crook of its left arm, and it stared at Reivyn with the same hate as therge Spectre.
A spike-covered ball, twice the size of Reivyn''s head, thumped to the ground, and Reivyn saw that it was connected to a pole grasped in the monster''s right hand with a thick chain. The pole would have been a quarterstaff in Reivyn''s hands, but it was simply a handle to the giant.
It raised its right arm, and the spiked ball began twirling in a circle as the monster took a step towards Reivyn.
How the hell am I supposed to fight this thing?!
His Danger Sense once more screamed at him, and he dove to the side in a roll as he felt, more than saw, the shadow of the spiked ball sail past him.
The reach of his weapon is incredible!
Reivyn sprang to his feet and started to rush towards the giant as its weapon had beenunched and presented an opportunity, but he quickly skidded to a halt and once more dove for the ground. The giant easily retracted the weapon almost instantly, and itunched another sweep towards Reivyn.
Reivyn knew he wasn''t out of the woods yet, and he once more leaped to his feet, but this time he didn''t advance on the enemy. He turned around and ran further into the room to try and get some distance.
I need time to think about a countermeasure.
Reivyn heard the stato thumpinging at a rapid pace, so he once again activated Charge towards another column. The room once more shook him off of his feet as the giant crashed into another pir.
Hmm, the pirs. Reivyn examined the pir he had rushed to as he regained his feet. He quickly came up with a n, and he waited for the giant to once more turn and face him.
The giant turned and swirled its weapon again, and Reivyn''s heart beat in his chest so loud he was surprised the giant couldn''t hear it. He watched the enemy as it took two slow steps towards him.
Now!
Reivyn threw himself on the floor and rolled out of the way as the giantunched another straight attack. Reivyn leapt to his feet, but instead of advancing on the hulking monster, he backpedaled several steps as he watched the giant yank the spike ball back. With a flick of its wrist, it sent it hurtling towards Reivyn once more in arge, sweeping motion.
Reivyn Charged toward another close-by pir, and he watched in satisfaction as the chain came into contact with the pir he had just been near and wrapped around several times.
Hah! Take that you big, dumb undead. Reivyn had no idea what this thing was actually called.
The giant saw that its chain weapon was taken out ofmission, so it immediately dropped the pole and reached behind its shoulder. Reivyn noticed the huge sword strapped to its back for the first time as it pulled the new weapon out of the sheath. The sword de itself was longer than Reivyn was tall, and it was about half as wide as he was.
The giant lowered its shoulder and sprinted at Reivyn, covering ground much faster than Reivyn had anticipated. He had assumed it was utilizing a Charge Skill earlier and wouldn''t be nearly as fast when it didn''t use it, but it still moved at an incredible speed.
I don''t have time to dodge this attack!
Reivyn pumped Mana into his Mana Shield Skill and braced for impact. The giant came into range and shed with its huge sword at lightning quick speed. The force of the blow picked Reivyn up off the ground and threw him several yards back. He coughed out a mouthful of blood as he sailed through the air, and his vision went blurry for a brief moment.
That one sh, that I sessfully blocked with my shield and Mana Shield, took off a quarter of my total health! A quick nce at his Status revealed that he was down to 1497/2000 Health from that one attack.
I can only take one more of those to be safe, Reivyn thought as he stood back up once more.
The giant bent its knees andunched itself at Reivyn with its Charge Skill. Reivyn quickly identified a nearby pir and used his own Charge to dodge the attack.
The giant is only disoriented for about 3 seconds after mming into an obstacle, and I spend most of that time getting back on my feet, Reivyn thought faster than he ever had before as he searched for a way to win. The only way to fight this is if I can take advantage of that small window.
How do I avoid being thrown off my feet? Easy, don''t be on my feet, Reivyn leapt into the air as he still hurtled across the room towards his target. The room shook as the giant made contact with its column, and Reivyn didn''t get thrown down.
Hah. Now the hard part. I haven''t done something like this in a long time. He pulled everyst bit of his Acrobatics Skill out of himself as he turned his Charge into a flip. Hended sideways on the column and absorbed the shock with his legs, briefly appearing to stand horizontally on the pir.
The only way to take advantage of the situation is to use another Charge, but it''s nearly impossible to do right afterpleting a previous one. I have to force it! Reivyn summoned all of the experience he had gained into the insights of how his muscles and Stamina interacted from the first floor, and with a mental snap, he managed to bend his Stamina to his will as he manually activated the Charge Skill with the giant as the target.
He once moreunched across the room. The time difference in reaching his first target and activating a second Charge Skill was so quick that it looked like he had simply bounced off of the pir with an equal velocity.
He pumped his me de, which had slowly been draining his Mana this whole time as he never deactivated it, full of mana and swung it forward with all of his might. The de made contact with the back of the helmet on the head in the undead giant''s arm.
The head got knocked out of the crook it had been sitting in as the giant stood back up to its full height, and it started to bounce further away. The giant immediately dropped its sword once it noticed it had lost contact with its own head, and it chased after it like someone would chase a chicken, its arms outstretched as it chased the unpredictable moving object.
If the situation wasn''t so dangerous, and if every second didn''t count, Reivyn might haveughed at the unexpectedical scene.
I need to keep it away from its head!
Reivyn activated his Mana Weapon Skill in a simr manner to how his enemy had used the spiked ball and chain, using the de of his mana sword as the "hilt," and because of his Weapons Master Skill, he was able to expertly create and use a chain of fire. His fire whip had upgraded: The new strike heunched was actually closer to an Inferno Chain.
The chain sailed through the air and wrapped around the ankle of the giant as it ran about with its arms outstretched trying to catch its head, and with all of his might, Reivyn grasped the hilt of his sword in both hands and tugged, tripping the giant.
Reivyn''s usage of Charge back-to-back had caused tremendous stress on his body: his muscles, bones, joints, and ligaments all ached. He wasn''t able tounch another Charge right away, so he had to run the old-fashioned way to the head which had stopped bouncing but continued to roll. The first few steps he took were unsteady, but he quickly built up speed and passed the giant. Therge undead wasn''t smart enough to get back up and continue running, and it was instead crawling on the ground to try and get to the head.
Reivyn easily reached the helmeted head first, and as it rolled to where the open-face was up, he stabbed his sword through the center of its skull. The head''s mouth opened up as it released the agonized wail of the empowered Spectre, and as it tried to flee the confines of the head through the open mouth, Reivyn manipted the me coating his sword to wrap around and contain the Spectre.
It screamed for several long moments, unable to flee the fiery hell it found itself in, and it eventually disintegrated into ectosm.
The Spectre, and the giant it had possessed, was dead.
Reivyn waspletely spent, both physically and mentally, so he simply copsed as he panted to regain his breath.
Damn. I wascent.
Chapter 49: Solo Run Get!
Chapter 49: Solo Run Get!
Reivyn groaned as he rolled over and slowly stood up. His entire body ached. He felt as if his insides had shifted from the blow he took from the giant, and his entire lower body was going to be sore for several days from the stress of activating Charge in such quick session.
Speaking of... Reivyn pulled up his notification window.
Achievement!
Manually activate one of your ss Skills.
Charge is permanently avable to you regardless of ss.
It was a Skill from my own ss, so there are no additional benefits gained from manually learning the Skill. It''ll also still be avable to me as long as I have Fighter listed as my Secondary or Tertiary ss. The real benefit to this would be if I have a Skill in another ss that I really want, but it''s locked out to me to freely choose, but I want Charge instead of whatever other Skills that ss has to offer.
I''ve also learned how to do it without assistance from the System. I wasn''t really in a position to tell the difference in Stamina cost, but I could feel a substantial amount of energy drain aspared to the other times I''ve used the Skill.
Reivyn attained his feet and looked down at the armored head. It was easily three times the size of his own, and the face was forever locked into the twisted visage of hatred and agony. It had bits of rotten flesh peeling off of it in various ces, and the skin looked like it was thrown over the skull instead of being an actual part of the head. Overall, it was pretty disgusting.
Reivyn bent down and inspected the giant helmet. There was no way it would be practical for Reivyn to loot it for equipment, but it might be made of a material that could be repurposed. Reivyn reached out and knocked it with his fist. It, and the head it contained, crumbled into dust.
Well there goes that idea. Is it because it''s a Dungeon monster and its gear isn''t actually lootable? I''ve never tried to take any of the gear from any of the other monsters before. Or is it because it no longer has the spark of un-life, or whatever it is, fueling it, so it turned into scrap metal?
Reivyn didn''t know the answers, but either way, he wasn''t going to be lugging the huge te armor out of the Dungeon.
Reivyn nced down at the ectosm that the Spectre had turned into.
It looks like glowing snot. I am not touching that. I''m not even going to try and figure out a way to store it without touching it. I don''t care what benefits it could bring, someone else can get this stuff.
Reivyn shivered with disgust. He turned and walked back to the corpse of the headless giant. It was still stretched out in the position of crawling towards the head that had been knocked out of its arm.
Why did it turn so stupid there at the end? Are the head and body not in coordination with each other if separated? Was the Spectre only actually possessing the head? Either way, lucky me it happened that way.
Reivyn shook his head as he kicked the body. He wasn''t entirely sure of the mechanics of looting corpses in the Dungeon, but there might be something of worth remaining after the body and gear disintegrated.
Reivyn leaned back and shielded his face by pulling the cor of his shirt up over his mouth and nose as the huge body kicked up a cloud as it turned into dust. Reivyn had no interest in having kes of dead giant in his mouth or nose. Once it settled, Reivyn scraped his foot through the pile to see if there was anything left.
His hunch bore fruit as he felt his foote into contact with something solid. He bent down and sifted through the dust with his hand until he spotted something shiny, and he carefully wiped it off as he picked it up to inspect it.
The object was a normal sized, golden medallion and chain with the symbol for the Church of Light inscribed on it, though it was scratched out.
Corrupted Symbol of Light
This is the mark of a Champion of Mierna, though this one has had its Light dimmed.
Helpful Hint: This is Dungeon Loot. It has no bearing on the real world, so even if you returned it to the Church of Light, it would hold no real significance to them. It wasn''t owned by a person from the real world.
I noticed that the System didn''t say anything about it not being a real magical item, just that the church wouldn''t be looking for the knowledge of the fate of the person who once carried it. I bet if I could get the Light undimmed, or whatever, it would no longer be "Corrupted" and would have some magical properties.
Reivyn pocketed the medallion.
I don''t know if there''s a stigma with using one of their symbols without their permission or anything, though, and they''ve turned out to be pretty decent folk, all things considered. I''ll take it to them and ask about it. It''s no big loss if they have a problem with it.
As to the presence of this medallion down in this Dungeon, my guess would be that with whatever reality this Dungeon is pulled out of, that giant was some crusader. He got his head removed by the cultists down here for his efforts.
Reivyn looked around therge boss room. The integrity of the room was still sound despite all of the damage the giant had done to the columns - probably more decorative than supportive - but there was still a lot of rubble strewn about from the chaotic fight. Reivyn''s visionnded on the raised tform with the bigger, more intricate cauldron on it, so he made his way over to it first.
I know there are other hidden rooms attached to the boss room, but I''ll check that out after I verify what''s in the pot. Might be an undamaged Experience Crystal.
He reached the cauldron and peered down inside of it. Instead of a shiny crystal or bubbling brew, there were instead some dried out nts sitting in the bottom of the cauldron.
So it''s reagents? That''s the reward for the boss room? Reivyn frowned as he looked at the different nts, but he froze as he spotted what looked like a blood red root. It appeared to be a ginseng, but all thoughts of trying to figure out what it was fled his brain as soon as he saw it.
A ravening hunger assaulted him, but it came from his heart, and not his stomach. Without even thinking about it, his body moved all on its own, and he snatched it up and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed a couple of times, and it seemed to dissolve into pure energy as it reached his throat.
What the hell am I doing?! Reivyn came out of his fugue state and nearly panicked as he mentally inspected himself. He couldn''t sense anything amiss, but he did feel a burning course through his veins. It wasn''t ufortable, though, and it actually made him feel quite energetic.
The hunger came from my heart, which is the core of my bloodline, so let''s see what''s up with that first. He pulled up his Bloodline from his Status page.
Bloodline: Unknown 2,781,681/10,000,000
Wow, that little root gave me 250,000 Experience worth towards my Bloodline! So upgrading the Bloodline isn''t an exclusive ability that I have, just the fact that I can drain Experience directly into it. It seems that root was a keyponent in an alchemy recipe for something to increase one''s Bloodline.
My guess is that spike in hunger and uncontroble urge came about because I have my siphon running in the background. I previously got Stat gains for every 100,000 Experience I dumped into my Bloodline. Does that still apply from using a natural treasure? He pulled up his full Status.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Fighter Lvl 30 Age: 10 Health: 1,497/2,000 Stamina: 2,234/3,800 Mana: 318/1,670 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 186 INT: 179 VIT: 206 MAG: 179 DEX: 186 CLA: 115 CHA: 34 PER: 132 LUK: 40 Bloodline: Unknown 2,781,681/10,000,000 Experience: 0/3,000
Reivyn noticed his Health, Stamina, and Mana first.
Wow, this is the most I''ve ever suffered from a single fight before. Sure, Ren did more percentage damage to me, but that one attack from the boss did more than the entire ordeal with Ren. I''ve already recovered a lot of my Stamina after resting, and it''s still just over 50%. My mana expenditure was also getting into dangerous territory.
Reivyn moved his sight down to take in his Stats.
Yup, I gained six to all my regr Stats and two in Charisma and Luck. So natural treasures are another source of upgrading my Bloodline, and that includes all aspects associated with it. I bet that was another thing my parents would have told me once we got to the Capital or before I headed off toward a higher Tier Region. Mother did say that natural treasures were extremely rare in Tier 1 Regions.
Then that begs the question: where did this onee from? These guys probably migrated to this mountain range, and they''re not actually natives. Unless this Region was once a higher Tier many, many years ago. Doesn''t really matter, though.
Reivyn carefully extracted the remaining reagents. He didn''t know if it was a quirk of the Dungeon, System, or whatever, but they weren''t aged at all, and they were all perfectly capable of still being used. He had no idea what any of them did, though. He threw an Inspect at one of the nts as he put them away.
Sparkle Grass
Useful for Alchemy Helpful Hint: A higher Alchemy Skill is required to know more.
Helpful Hint indeed.
Done with his task, Reivyn pped his hands together as he turned and faced the direction Melissa had said the sealed rooms were located. He walked up to the wall on the right side of the entrance, and he quickly spotted the location where there was obviously a room bricked up. The color and shape of the bricks were slightly different than the rest of the bricks that made up the room.
I can see why they didn''t notice it before. Unless one looks right at it, it''s easy to miss, but if you do look right at it, and not just over it, it''s pretty easy to see.
Reivyn didn''t have any tools or weapons designed for the job of smashing through a brick wall, but that didn''t stop him. He formed a sledgehammer with an earth element head. With his knowledge of the mana braids and increased Skill, it was a much sturdier object than he had previously been able to make, though it did cost a substantiallyrger amount of mana.
He locked his mana into ce to continue feeding into his improvised tool, and he mmed it into the brick wall. There wasn''t any support in ce for the seal, and it was hollow behind it, so he easily dismantled the brick wall sealing the room. Maintaining the earth sledgehammer cost a lot less than forming a new one, so Reivyn didn''t dissipate it as he entered the room.
Reivyn sighed in disappointment as he looked around. It was just a bare room with nothing in it.
I don''t know if this served an actual purpose or if it''s just System shenanigans for the boss fight. Whatever it originally was, it appears to just be a staging ground for an ambush now.
Reivyn exited the room and walked over to the other one. He was greeted by the exact same scene as the first one.
If there are hidden rooms here, there might be hidden rooms elsewhere. I''ll check the perimeter of the rest of the room.
Reivyn carried his sledgehammer on his shoulder as he turned away from the central entrance and inspected the wall as he walked around the room. He didn''t find any additional sealed rooms, but he did see an empty room that was identical to the other two.
This is probably where the Revenants dragged the goblin from. No idea about more sacrifices, though. It must have been some sort of event triggered by the System.
Reivyn continued his inspection, but he didn''t find any more rooms. He reached the far end of the room, and he finally spotted an anomaly.
There was a staircase that led down further into the depths, obviously the entrance to the third floor, and sitting next to it was a chest. This chest waspletely different than any of the others he had seen in the Dungeon. It was in pristine condition, and it appeared to have a faint halo of golden light emitting from it.
This must be one of the chests mentioned being a reward for defeating a boss room. Everyone said that the chances of seeing one of these were less than 1% in a resource Dungeon. The reagents in the cauldron are obviously the "resources" for this room. The Experience Crystals and Essence are the resources for the rest of the floor.
This is the actual reward for defeating the boss.
Reivyn rubbed his hands together before he lifted the lid of the chest. The halo winked out - must be there to catch the attention of whoever clears the room - and Reivyn inspected the contents of the chest. Down in the bottom of the chest, several pieces of armory in a neat pile.
Reivyn reached in and drew them out one at a time: A cuirass, pauldrons, vambraces, and gauntlets. They were made of a shiny, silver metal, and they had golden filigree in intricate patterns decorating it. The cuirass included the underlying leather that would cover the entire upper body and arms as one whole piece.
A full set of upper body armor. Does that mean there''s a chance to find a matching set for the lower body or head? Let''s Inspect it and find out exactly what it is.
Cuirass: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
STR +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Misery is the opposite of Euphoria, so basically bad guys can''t wear this armor. It doesn''t say one has to be a member of a church, just if a bad guy gets forgiven, then he can also wear it. This is probably in line with the backstory, or whatever, of the giant undead guy.
Not sure what "minor protection against Evil" is exactly, but I''m sure it has something to do with the cultists and/or undead of the Dungeon.
Pauldrons: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
STR +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Vambraces: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
DEX +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Gauntlets: Defender of Light
A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
DEX +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Those Stat increases may seem small on the face of it, but they add up. The four pieces of armor together grant 20 Vitality by themselves. That''s several Levels'' worth, and that''s an increase in 200 Health and 200 Stamina. I''ll need to work on my Heavy Armor Skill from scratch to get the full benefits of switching to this armor, but that shouldn''t be a problem. I should go ahead and put this armor on now.
Reivyn quickly took his battered and scarred medium armor off of his upper body. Almost all of the scarring came from repairing rips and tears in the underlying leather suffered through training, and the few dents in the metal were from the same source. Reivyn asionally let his armor take blows from the goblins and weaker skeletons, but he mostly avoided hits to his body and intercepted attacks with his shield and weapon.
Looking at the repairs I''ve made on my own armor, one can tell I''m not Skilled at all in such things. I should take the time to learn, especially if I move to Heavy Armor. I also imagine these pieces would require mana work if they sustain substantial damage. More things for me to learn.
He put the new armor on, and, despite the small numberspared to his overall Stats, Reivyn immediately felt a bit more energetic. He twisted his body to gain a feel for how he could move in it.
Despite what I thought about Heavy Armor, it doesn''t really hinder my movements any more than Medium Armor, and I don''t even have the Skill yet to help me properly maneuver in it. It''s probably full-te that would cause any significant restrictions, and I can''t really see myself ever needing that.
Reivyn adjusted himself and resumed walking around the boss room, looking for anything else he might have missed.
It looks like this is it. I''m actually quite satisfied with the results. I wasn''t expecting to get a System chest at all, so this is a nice surprise on top of everything else.
Well, Reivyn looked around before facing the entrance, no way I''m going to the third floor, so it''s time to head back to the surface. I''ll just pick my pack up from where I left it, grab some ores from the mine that I set aside previously, and then I''ll be on my way.
Reivyn double checked to make sure he had everything. He still carried his other armor with him as it still had some value to it. Once he was sure he wasn''t forgetting anything, he began his journey to the surface.
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +1200
Boss Defeated: Exp +1200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calcting...
Second Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +15,000
Boss Defeated: Exp +30,000
Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000
Total Experience: 52,900
Those numbers are absolutely disgusting. Fifty-two thousand total Experience for soloing the Dungeon. Thirty thousand from the second floor boss alone. That seems like a lot. That 52,900 also puts me over another Bloodline milestone.
There were more notifications to go through, so he kept mentally scrolling.
Achievement!
First Floor Completed Solo.
+1 to Physical and Mental Stats
Achievement!
Second Floor Completed Solo.
+5 to Physical and Mental Stats
Achievement!
Second Floor Hard Mode Boss Defeated.
Auxiliary Achievement: Completed Solo.
+3 to Physical and Mental Stats
+7 to Physical and Mental Stats
Achievement!
Defeat a Tier 4 Enemy while in Tier 1
+10 to All Stats
That giant undead boss was Tier 4? Considering everything was restricted on the first two floors, which made the boss both incredibly powerful but stupid at the same time, that makes sense to me.
These Stat gains are starting to eat into the requirements for my Tier 4 ss in the future. Pretty sure I''ve solidly eclipsed any Stat requirements for Tier 3. What do my Stats look like, now? Reivyn pulled just his Stats up from his Status page.
STR: 215 (+6) INT: 208 VIT: 235 (+20) MAG: 208 DEX: 215 (+6) CLA: 144 CHA: 45 PER: 161 LUK: 51
Even if all of those Achievements didn''t lower the Stat requirements for a Rare Tier 3 ss, I would still be eligible. As it is, I''m probably close to having the required Stats for an Epic Tier 3 ss, especially if it''s one that requires 200 in multiple Stats versus just one Stat.
Reivyn nodded his head as he brought his attention back to the present. He had stepped off to the side to allow traffic in or out of the Dungeon to flow unimpeded, and now it was time for him to depart. He searched the crowd of people milling about near the entrance and spotted the church''s inspection team before heading over.
"I just came out of the Dungeon and need to be inspected," Reivyn volunteered. The man in charge of the priests nodded his head and motioned for Reivyn to step aside.
"Alright, empty your belongings and wait for the priest to check you over. It''ll only be a minute, and we''ll have you on your way." Reivyn followed the instructions. He had never noticed any of the priests confiscating anything ever taken from the Dungeon, so he didn''t quite understand why they always wanted to check the packs.
"What are you guys looking for anyway?" He finally decided to just voice the doubt.
"Cursed items. Almost everything thates out of the Dungeon is actually fine, but some of the things found on the lower floors could be dangerous if they circted into society unchecked. For instance there are Experience Crystals that can be found on the second floor. They contain a small bit of the corruption in them. While it''s fine for you Adventurers to use them in small doses here, it could be quite problematic if someone sold arge amount in the capital and someone got corrupted without realizing it. If you guys use them here, it''ll get caught and cleansed by the routine inspection," the man was quite forting with information.
"Oh, so what do you do about the Crystals you find here during the inspection?" Reivyn asked.
"We offer to cleanse it for a fee."
"A fee?"
"Ten percent. One Crystal generously donated to the church for every ten crystals cleansed," the man replied. He gave Reivyn a nce out of the corner of his eye as he continued, "we don''t confiscate any if you have four or less, but we keep records of individuals and their Parties, so I would advise against trying to game the system by only bringing us four at a time. If you have any, that is."
"I actually do," Reivyn said. He fished out his pouch with the crystals. He and his friends had nned on selling a majority of their share of crystals, and if it only cost one out of every ten to make them legitimate, that wasn''t too bad, in his opinion.
The man''s eyebrows raised in appreciation. "I see. Since you''re here alone, does that mean your Party is still inside?"
"Technically, yeah," Reivyn said. "I''m not grouped up with them this time, though. I went in solo."
"Impressive," the man nodded. "Not many people are willing to explore the lower floor by themselves, and most of the ones who do are a lot older than you."
"I''m just lucky that I can use mana Skills and I have a mother with a Caster ss who could teach me," Reivyn downyed his achievement.
"Still, you''re a lot stronger than most of the people around here. That''ll change once news of what can be found in the Dungeon spreads and higher Level teams make their way over, though."
"Oh, I also found this on one of the monsters," Reivyn fished out the medallion he had swiped from the giant''s remains. "I didn''t know if it was appropriate to keep it because of the nature of the item or not, nor if you guys could fix it."
The man took the medallion and stared at it for several long seconds. When he looked back up at Reivyn, his eyes were wide in astonishment.
"You cleared the second floor?" The man nearly stuttered.
"Oh, so you know where it''s from. I''m guessing you''ve seen it before, then?"
"Oh, sure. The Sword-Bishop has taken a team to clear the second floor a couple of times now. It''s not too hard for him to defeat three Spectres and that bumbling oaf of a Duhan."
"''Bumbling oaf?''" Reivyn questioned with a tilt of his head.
"Yeah, you fought him. Kill the three Spectres and then this big guy stumbles over and tries to whack you with his too-big sword," the man chuckled. "Pretty easy encounter for a boss fight on the second floor, honestly."
"Yeah," Reivyn said with a cough. "Almost too easy."
Looks like I wasn''t supposed to let the Spectresbine and then possess the - what did he call it? - Duhan. I''m guessing there are varying levels of difficulty and reward based on how many Spectres possess it, and I let all three do so. No wonder it was Tier 4 and really, ridiculously strong.
"As to your question, sure, you can keep it. Fixing it up and recharging it wille at a cost, though. You''ll have to speak to the Sword-Priest, Josn, to work out what that will be. You''re the first person to bring us one from outside of our ranks seeking to get it fixed."
"Alright, thanks," Reivyn said as he took it back. He also handed over two of the twenty crystals he had acquired to pay for cleansing them as the priest checked him.
The man got a surprised look on his face for a moment before saying, "You''re good to go. No corruption." Reivyn had already known that that was going to be the case, but he had to keep up appearances.
"Excuse me, but would you happen to be the Adventurer, Reivyn?" Another sword-priest walked up with an entourage. Reivyn frowned as he appraised them.
I don''t think I''ve ever told any of them my name before, and why would they be looking for me? No reason to lie and possibly get on their bad side, though, so I''ll see what they want.
"That''s right," Reivyn nodded. "What can I do for you?"
"If you would, Sword-Priest Josn has ordered us to escort you to him," the man took a step back and gestured towards the center of the other men who had followed him. "Grab your gear, and then pleasee with us."
Reivyn shared a look with the other sword-priest he had been happily chatting with. The man gave a shrug, and so Reivyn grabbed his stuff and allowed himself to be "escorted" towards the church grounds.
What in the world is going on now?
Chapter 50: Brave, Brave Sir Reivyn
Chapter 50: Brave, Brave Sir Reivyn
Reivyn walked with the sword-priests as they marched towards the churchpound. He noticed that his body subconsciously matched the steps of the church members, but he just shrugged and kept doing it. Because he had changed his upper armor, he almost matched the others, and to those who didn''t know, it almost looked like he was themander of the troop. This resulted in hardly anyone taking any notice of him in the procession.
These guys are still being pretty polite, despite the way they just came and ordered me to follow them. Still, no reason to sour the rtionship we''ve formed just from that. Maybe this guy just doesn''t have any tact.
Reivyn wasn''t too concerned about why someone in authority would be asking for him. He was pretty sure nobody connected his name to the youths that had mouthed off to the organization on the road several weeks ago, and even then he hadn''t ever done anything wrong.
I haven''t even practiced my Pickpocket and Stealing Skills on my friends since forever ago, much less caused any problems for others.
Despite how there was still a lot of empty room within the confines of the town because of the nning ahead, it still wasn''t that big. The group quickly made their way to a small encampment outside of the palisade. Reivyn took in the military order and orderly lines of tents and felt right at home. He eyed a group of masonsying the foundations for some ratherrge buildings.
Looks like they''re going to be here for the long haul. 10% of Experience Crystals for cleansing them on top of what they can umte from their own delves, I can see why. Even if they didn''t feelpelled to provide services for keeping the taint - well, Abyssal Mana - in check, they would still most likely set up a permanent presence here.
I would bet that they''ve already sent missives to the Capital to petition for any uncleansed crystals to be designated contraband outside of the Dungeon Town. This ce is probably a better resource for the Church of Light than even for the Count. I bet there will be a lot of political maneuvering for the Count, and the Duke he''s under, to get a piece of that pie.
None of that had anything to do with Reivyn, though, so he turned his attention to observing the men, and the few women, going about their business.
There''s a higher percentage of women making up the robed priests than the sword-priests, but I do spot a few here and there. It was the same situation with the Lord''s Retinue. I guess most of the women around these parts just gravitate towards the less violent professions when given the choice.
Reivyn caught a glimpse through the p of one of thergest tents, and he saw rows of people lying on cots. They were being tended to by several priests, but the quick look Reivyn saw showed him a scene of desated bodies barely hanging on.
"What''s going on in there? I thought you guys didn''t have your own Healers," Reivyn said with a nod toward the tent. The man in charge followed the direction before turning back and addressing Reivyn.
"Those are the Adventurers that delved the Dungeon for several months before we arrived on the scene. We''re not technically "Healing" them. The taint has umted so much that it''s breaking their bodies down. We have a Healere out and do what they can to give them a fighting chance, and we''re slowly purging the corruption from their bodies," the man shook his head. "Already several of the first Parties have sumbed, but despite how dire it looks for those in the infirmary now, most of them should pull through, as they''re not quite as bad off as those that were worst affected."
"Huh, I was with the military that settled the im, and we ran the Dungeon several times before we left. Good thing we didn''t stick around," Reivyn said.
"Oh yeah, you were part of the local retinue? The way the taint works is that it slowly dissipates unless it reaches a tipping point. You would need to go in like eight or so times without letting it dissipate or receive any cleansing for it to be a problem," the man continued. "The worst ones in there right now had been in there like 10 or so times before getting any cleansing.
"Alright, we''ve arrived. I''ll announce your presence," they continued walking as they conversed, and the camp wasn''t that big. The man ducked his head through the tent p and reported to whoever was inside. Reivyn wasn''t actively engaging his Eavesdropping Skill, so he didn''t pick up any of the words.
He just smiled and nodded to the two sword-priests standing at attention outside of the tent. They obviously didn''t respond, but Reivyn wasn''t put out because he understood they were on duty.
"Alright, go on in," the man said after turning back to Reivyn. Reivyn nodded and headed inside the tent, and the men that had escorted him simply left to attend to their duties.
Reivyn walked in and spotted a familiar-looking man sitting behind a desk with paperwork strewn about in an orderly manner. Sure brings back memories, he mused. Reivyn narrowed his eyes as he slowly remembered why this man seemed familiar.
It''s that overzealous officer from the road. Surely he didn''t connect my name here with what happened on the road. Nobody else should know about it, so it''s not like he could have investigated.
The man looked up and nodded to Reivyn before gesturing towards a seat across from him.
"Thank you foring, have a seat," the man said. Reivyn was slightly confused at the cordial nature. "Thank you foring?"
"Well, I wouldn''t really say I had much of a choice," Reivyn said as he sat down. The man tilted his head with a puzzled expression on his face before understanding washed over his features.
"I must apologize. I told my men to ask you toe. They can sometimes forget that others aren''t under ourmand," the man exined. Reivyn nodded his head at the exnation.
"I was with the Lord''s Retinue, so I''ve seen simr situations before. No big deal." Reivyn shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, introductions are in order. I am Sword-Priest Josn, and I already know that you''re the Adventurer Reivyn. I now also know that you have a veteran background, so I can add that to the file. You must be wondering why I requested your presence," it was more a statement than a question.
"Honestly? I figured someone in your outfit was trying to mess with me over the encounter on the road or something," Reivyn casually said. Josn frowned at the statement as he tried to think about what Reivyn could be referring to. Reivyn watched as recognition slowly dawned on his face.
"Oh, you were one of the Adventurers I spoke to on the road several weeks ago. It looks like another apology is in order. I hope you know that was nothing personal. We don''t only root out Heretics, but also criminals. When we see something unusual - and you have to admit, three young Adventurers with magical flower crowns on their heads is unusual - then we investigate. Sometimes we use methods to put the people we speak to off-bnce, and those with a guilty conscience often crack under just a little pressure and admit to wrongdoing."
"Water under the bridge," Reivyn said. "We didn''t suffer any hardship or anything from the encounter, so apologies aren''t needed." Reivyn was actually a bit surprised at how polite the man was being. Now I have absolutely no idea what I''m doing here.
"The real reason I asked you toe is that it came to my attention that you had a situation where you didn''t have any of the taint when you exited the Dungeon. I had some men on standby observing, and once the priest determined that you didn''t have any taint for a second time, they stepped forward."
"Oh, I see. So you were waiting for confirmation?"
"Just so," Josn nodded his head.
"Is that a problem or something? Do you suspect I''m using some sort of artifact associated with your church?" Reivyn was still confused.
Josn steepled his fingers and stared at Reivyn for a couple of seconds. It wasn''t long enough to make him ufortable, but Reivyn was about to fidget under the intense scrutiny when Josn finally opened his mouth.
"Have you ever considered joining the Church?" Reivyn was taken aback. That came out of nowhere.
"Wait. Let me get this straight," Reivyn ced his hand on his forehead as he looked down in thought. "You''re trying to recruit me?"
"Exactly," Josn said. "We understand that there are other faiths out there, and there could be any number of reasons for your apparent immunity to the taint, not just faith in Mierna, the Goddess of Light. But none of that matters. Your resistance to the corruption uniquely qualifies you to be a powerful member of the Church.
"The Church can offer a lot of resources and opportunities, and I can foresee you going far in the future. The Church is Realm-wide, not just in this Kingdom. You can gain easy ess to higher Regions with the contributions you could quickly acquire."
Reivyn rubbed his chin as he considered the man before him.
"What do you get out of it?" Reivyn finally asked.
Josn sat back in his chair as he considered the question.
"I won''t lie to you. I will get some merit from sessfully "finding" and recruiting you, and the further you go, the further I would be able to go as well," Josn gave Reivyn a level look. "That being the case, it is not my motivation. I am a True Believer, and it would be of great benefit in the fight against Heresy and evil if someone with your capabilities joined us."
Join the church? Knight-Captain Reifold was apparently a squire in a church, probably this one now that I think about it, and he got a pretty decent ss out of it, so it wouldn''t necessarily hamper my goals. Reivyn shook his head. I don''t know enough about the opportunities, but if it''s Realm-wide, then there obviously must be some powerful sses unique to the organization.
But I''m not interested in fettering myself to the church. Not at all.
Reivyn chose his words very carefully as he replied, "I''m not against being associated with the church. I''ve seen what you guys have been up to out here, and I must say, especially after clearing the air between us, that I have a positive impression," Josn had a hopeful smile on his face as he listened to the words. "But I don''t really have any interest in being a full-fledged member. I have other things and other people to consider."
"Well, don''t make any decisions, yet," Josn said, undeterred. "There are many ways to contribute to the church without being an official member. It would be best for the church - and me, personally - if you were to be a full member, but you can also choose to be a ''Friend of the Church.'' I''m sure we will have many opportunities to convince you of the right path in the future."
"I''m not opposed to establishing a rtionship," Reivyn said.
"Excellent," Josn reached into a drawer and drew out a bronze token. "Here, take this. This is the mark of a ''Friend of the Church.'' It''s not quite like your Adventurer token, as it doesn''t record any information or deeds other than simply being attuned to you, but it will identify you as someone who has a good rtionship with us.
"With this, you can do missions and assignments for the Church wherever we have a presence, and you can use your contribution points to get many things. A full member has ess to a lot more than a simple associate, but you can get some resources, training, and knowledge in return for your efforts."
Reivyn reached out and took the token. It was a simple bronze medal with the symbol for the Church of Light on it, very simr to the medallion he had gotten in the Dungeon.
"Does that mean there are missions I canplete here? You did say, ''anywhere you have a presence.''" Reivyn asked as he attuned the token to himself and put it away.
"Sure, we have missions. The variety isn''t so great, at the moment, as most things are covered, and you might not be able to do the main mission: cleansing any taint you find. But there are other things, like information about the Dungeon."
"I do have some information about the Dungeon, actually," Reivyn said. "What do you know about the second floor boss room?"
"It''s three Spectres and a weakened Duhan," Josn replied quickly. "I''ve never been that far, myself, as I go with some of the lower Level sword-priests in order to oversee their progression, but that''s what everyone who has been there has said. Why? Is there something else to it?"
"Mhmm," Reivyn nodded. "The first time my Party made it down there, the boss fight wasn''t three Spectres and a Duhan. It was one Spectre plus a horde of Revenants. They were doing some sort of fell ritualistic sacrifice of goblins, and there was a giant pit filled with bubbling liquid.
"Do you know of the events that happened here during the im Campaign?" Reivyn suddenly shifted directions.
"I know about the Revenants and the Demon, yes," Josn replied.
"I came into contact with that liquid, which is what put me in that situation where my Party members rushed me to the surface to see if I was being ovee by the taint, and from the notifications I received after waking up, I''m pretty confident that was the source of the Demon. It would appear that someone had snuck down there, and they were either forced by someone else or willingly chose to turn themself into that Demon."
Josn pulled out a parchment and recorded the information Reivyn supplied. "So what you''re saying is, this liquid has the ability to turn someone into a Demon? How did you survive?" Josn paused as he looked at Reivyn.
"Had something to do with my immunity," Reivyn shrugged. He wasn''t going to go into more detail than that.
"Fair enough, everyone has secrets. We''re not so close-minded as to need to know everything about you, especially if the end result is what it is," Josn replied with a smile. He continued to write on the parchment. "Ok, so there''s a chance - we don''t know what, yet - that the encounter in the second floor boss room will be a ritual with demonic alchemy. Special note: do note into contact with the liquid.
"We''ll probably inform everyone to see about - very carefully - acquiring a sample if anyone else gets that encounter," Josn said after he finished recording, setting his pen down. "Anything else?"
"Yes, actually," Reivyn said. Josn was slightly surprised as he picked his writing utensil back up and prepared to write again. "There''s a hard mode associated with the second floor boss."
"Really?" Josn said with some excitement.
"Yeah, I didn''t know you were supposed to kill the three Spectres right away, and I sort of let thembine into one. Then it possessed the Duhan, and it was much stronger and deadlier to fight aspared to what some of your men described. I guess that there are varying levels of difficulty, with the relevant increase in rewards, with how many Spectres you leave alive tobine and possess the Duhan. Three would obviously be the hardest version."
Josn wrote all of the words down, clearly excited to be able to share this information with his associates.
"I''ll be sure to let the Sword-Bishop know right away. He''s a fairly high Level Tier 3, probably close to Knight-Captain Reifold, your previousmander. He is a lot older, though, so it''s to be expected.
"I would say that this information is probably enough to be considered pretty valuable. We won''t spread it to outsiders, so you can probably get double merit if you take this to the Adventurer''s Branch," Josn winked at Reivyn.
Reivyn was slightly surprised at the friendly action. Didn''t expect someone like him to wink at me. It appears he''s pretty simr to Knight-Lieutenant Brand in some ways: strict on his subordinates and outsiders, but amiable to those he sees as equal, or close to equal, in rank.
"That''s not a bad idea. I hadn''t really considered it before you mentioned knowledge as being considered Contribution."
"Happy to help," Josn said. "Ok, once again, is there anything else?"
Reivyn looked up and to the side as he thought about his experiences with the Dungeon. "I don''t think so. At least not off the top of my head."
"Alright, well, let me escort you out of the camp," Josn stood up and held his hand out, gesturing for Reivyn to precede him in stepping out of the tent.
The two men exited the tent and made their way towards the exit of the camp. They made small talk as they walked. The topic of conversation was mostly about the military-esque style of the camp and Reivyn''s experience in the Lord''s Retinue. Reivyn paused for a moment as they walked close to the infirmary.
"Do you mind if I peek inside?" Reivyn asked. "There was a group of Adventurer''s that helped me out during the im battle with the other count''s forces. They didn''t stick around to delve the Dungeon after, but they might havee backter, and I want to see if they''re in there."
"Sure, I couldn''t deny a show of loyalty in good conscience," Josn replied as he led him to the infirmary.
Reivyn entered with Josn on his heels, but he didn''t recognize any of the Adventurers that wereid up near the entrance of the tent. I never saw their faces as they had their visors down or hoods up, but I would definitely recognize their build, especially the big armored guy. They would most likely be together, too. Reivyn made his way to the back, but he never saw anyone familiar.
"It doesn''t look like they''re here," Reivyn said. The two men turned and made their way out of the temporary infirmary.
Suddenly, as they walked past some groaning Adventurers, Reivyn felt a sh of heat and a small spike in humidity. He instinctively activated his Mana Sight as he turned to face where the sensation came from. He stood in confused silence for a while as he saw what was happening.
He could see motes of dark red mana float off of the bodies of the corrupted Adventurers. They floated up and away, and then they reacted to the ambient mana. The two different forms of mana coalesced together before they fused with a -pop- and that fusion caused a small release of heat as the mana density infinitesimally ticked up.
So it is the mana! The heat ising from the two forms of manabining, and the feeling of humidity ising from the mana density increasing from the interaction.
"Is something the matter?" Josn brought Reivyn out of his contemtions.
"I just noticed something," Reivyn replied. "Have any of your Casters, or those sensitive to mana,ined about the heat and humidity?"
"Yes, a few have. Even the Sword-Bishop hasmented on it. We don''t know the exact reason for it, though."
"I think I just figured it out," Reivyn said. Josn gave him his full attention. "I noticed a spike in the heat and humidity as we walked by these guys, and I activated Mana Sight. The corruptioning off of them is fusing with the local, ambient mana, and that fusion is causing the heat while also assimting and increasing the mana density."
"That makes sense," Josn said with a contemtive look. "If the corrupt mana is assimting, though, it should be fine? I''ll pass the word up to the Sword-Bishop," Josn pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "Look at you, already adding more contribution. Keep it up and the Sword-Bishop might take you more seriously than he does me." Josn chuckled.
"Hmm... I don''t know about that," Reivyn said. "If anything out of the ordinary happens, anything that doesn''t seem quite right, you must promise me that you will abandon your goals at that Dungeon and return to either Magron or Haluville," the words of his father echoed in his mind. "I think I''m going to get my Party and head back to Magron. We''ve pretty much aplished everything we wanted to, anyway."
Reivyn turned to face Josn and gave him a level look. "I would rmend you guys consider moving further away, too. Not just you, but everyone. There have already been a lot of weird, dangerous things happening around this Dungeon, so it wouldn''t hurt to be cautious."
Josn nodded his head as he replied, "Well, it''s not up to me, but I''ll be sure to pass your warning on to the Sword-Bishop and the Militia Captain."
"That''s good," Reivyn said. They stepped back out into the waningte afternoon sun, and Reivyn squinted with his Mana Sight in the direction of the Dungeon. With intense concentration, he could just barely make out what looked simr to a plume of smoke rising into the air before dissipating. It was a constant stream of Abyssal Mana fusing and assimting with the ambient mana.
Yeah, I think it''s time to go, Reivyn thought as he headed back to the town proper.
Chapter 51: He Bravely Turned His Tail and Fled
Chapter 51: He Bravely Turned His Tail and Fled
Reivyn stood near the entrance to the Dungeon as he watched every Party that came out, looking to see if they were hispanions. He fidgeted back and forth on his feet, eager to get moving.
I don''t know the exact extent of the changes the ambient mana has gone through, but this Dungeon was discovered months before the Count sent his men to conscript us. And who knows how long it existed before then?
I knew that the mana density could feel like an increase in humidity, but I had been so focused on it being paired with the heat, that I let myself think my way out of the right answer, Reivyn silently berated himself. I know everything seems fine on the surface, and there''s no impending doom or anything, but ever since I noticed what was going on, I have a bad feeling in my gut.
Standing here waiting isn''t doing any good. It''s not like they''re going to run off or anything. I should go ahead and make a trip to the Adventurer''s Guild Branch to see about supplying the information on the Dungeon.
With his mind made up, Reivyn walked over to the Guild building. It was located nearby, so it didn''t take any time to get there. Everything in the small town was still running exactly the same as it always had, and only Reivyn had a sense of impatience.
There had been a steady stream of additional Adventurers and Lifestyle ss holders over the several weeks Reivyn and his friends had been here, so the level of activity in the guild branch was considerably higher than when they had arrived.
Reivyn weaved his way through the crowd of people milling about, talking to each other or looking at the notice board, and got in line to wait for one of the receptionists. This was the first time he had to actually wait for his turn, as he hadn''t had to interact with a member of the guild officially since they had rented their small house. Putting up a notice for private tutoring didn''t require one to go through the official channels, and it had its own sub-space on the board.
Reivyn tapped his foot as he waited. The line wasn''t actually moving that slowly, but with his impatience, every second felt like a minute.
"Oh, hey, Reivyn," a voice brought Reivyn out of his brooding, and he looked up to see Lorin approaching him. "Fancy meeting you here, what''re you up to?" Lorin walked up with a smile and joined Reivyn. He hade from the front of the line, so Reivyn surmised he had actually already finished his business and wasn''t trying to cut the line.
Reivyn nodded his head to his acquaintance and motioned for him to lean close.
"I got information on the second floor boss room, so I''m seeing about selling it or something, but," Reivyn held his finger up, pointedly, "my Party and I are going to leave as soon as possible. I would suggest you do the same." Reivyn kept his voice low so as not to cause a panic, but he was also going to express the same sentiments to the receptionist, and hopefully, the Guild Branch would take his warning seriously and handle it in an appropriate manner.
"If you''re leaving soon and think there''s a problem, why take the time to sell information on the Dungeon?" Lorin asked with a puzzled expression.
"Well, a couple of reasons," Reivyn said with a shrug. "I don''t know that anything bad is going to happen; I just have a feeling. And the information I sell here will get recorded on my badge and submitted to the headquarters, so I might as well take care of it sooner thanter while I wait for my Party who''s still in the Dungeon on their own dive."
"Ok, what exactly do you think the problem is, though?" Lorin continued to question.
"I don''t know. I figured out what''s causing the heat and humidity feeling for most of us that can use mana Skills and Spells: The demonic mana is leaking out of the Dungeon, and when it mixes with the ambient mana, it causes some heat and increases the mana density. And the sum is greater than the whole. When one demonic mote mixes with one ambient mote, it creates four total mote''s worth of mana."
"That doesn''t seem like such a bad thing, honestly," Lorin had a skeptical look on his face. "That would exin why we all have seen an increase in our Mana Maniption Skills without a drastic increase in Skill Level. Shouldn''t a higher density be a good thing? I mean, if this keeps going unabated, maybe it will spread over the entire Region one day, and this won''t be a Tier 1 Region any longer."
Reivyn nodded his head. "I agree it is a good thing, but I made a promise to my dad. I promised that if anything unusual happened, I would leave and reassess. I don''t know that anything bad is going to happen, but this is definitely unusual, and I''m just spreading the word so that people can keep it in the back of their minds. It would be irresponsible of me to run away but say, ''nah, everything is fine.''"
"Hmm... now that you mention it, it is very unusual," Lorin rubbed his chin. "I personally haven''t been to any other Dungeons, but I''ve met others who have, and I have some knowledge of them. They don''t typically passively increase the mana density around them. I''ll tell my own Party about it, but they''ll probably want to wait and see before making a decision."
The line kept moving as they had their quiet conversation, and it was quickly Reivyn''s turn.
"Alright, well good luck to you guys. Just keep it in mind," Reivyn bid farewell.
"Sure, sure," Lorin pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "Good luck to you, too. I''ll see you around one day. Maybe at another Dungeon. Who knows?"
Lorin walked off as Reivyn stepped up to the desk. "I have information on the second floor boss room I would like to sell. How do I go about doing that?"
"Certainly," the youngdy behind the desk responded. "You can use a private room to write the details down. You can choose to sell it in a couple of ways: You can have your own packet that we will sell for you, and you''ll get all of the proceeds - minus a small fee, of course - but that runs the risk of nobody paying attention to it if you don''t have a reputation among the other Adventurers.
"Or, you can let us handle it for you. One of the managers will review the contents and determine whether or not it''s relevant enough to include in the regr packet of information we sell, or if it''s valuable enough to have a VIP portion included. This method cuts out the need for a reputation for others to get the information, but the amount of money you get will be a lot less per packet as it will be bundled with the information provided by other Adventurers. It also helps build your reputation, if you include your name or Party name on it, if it is valuable information and a lot of people benefit from it."
"That makes a lot of sense," Reivyn said.
He thought about it for a moment as he took the paperwork to a back room. We''re not hurting on funds from our trip out here. We''ve pretty much broken even just from the ores, and we have a lot of Experience Crystals we can sell for a lot more in the Capital. Building a foundation as a reputable Adventuring team makes the most long-term sense. Teilon and Kimberly will go with whatever I choose.
Aftering to a decision, Reivyn wrote down the information he had previously told Josn. He put his name down as the Party Leader and filled in the names. I should include Melissa, Larissa, and Erik. They were vital in helping us get this information. But it asks for a Party Name. We never came up with one. What would be a good Party Name? Reivyn twirled the pen in his fingers as he thought about it.
I''ll just go with The Ravens for now, Reivyn chuckled to himself. He rang the bell to notify the attendant he was ready, and after waiting a few minutes, a middle-aged man came into the room.
"Ahh, Adventurer Reivyn, I presume," the man smiled as he shook Reivyn''s hand. "You understand that I''ll have to read the contents of the information you wish to sell, yes?"
"Mhm," Reivyn nodded. "I''ve also decided to have the guild handle how to distribute it."
"I see," the man said as he turned his attention to the paper. He read through the contents, and his eyebrows raised in appreciation. He read it a couple of times to ensure that he fully understood and hadn''t missed anything.
"Well, this is definitely new information," the man said as he looked at Reivyn. Reivyn could see new respect in his eyes. "While we already have the information on what the second boss room entails, and we even had one group also encounter the ritual that you exined, this is the first time anyone has said anything about a Hard Mode. The other group to meet The Ritual also didn''t sessfully provide a sample or learn anything about the alchemic substance.
"I think the appropriate way to handle this is to include the warning about the cauldron and the existence of a Hard Mode with the regr packet, and provide the information on how to activate the Hard Mode and the information on the more powerful Duhan in a VIP packet. Does this sound reasonable to you?"
Reivyn was momentarily surprised. I didn''t think I would get any input on the matter from what the receptionist said.
Reivyn nodded his head. "That sounds fine to me."
"Excellent! That''s what we''ll do, then," the man folded the paper up and stuck it in an inner breast pocket. "As to the method of receiving payment, we put the funds that go to you in an ount that you, or anyone in your Party that you as the Party Leader designate, can ess with your Guild Badge at any time, at any Guild Branch. You''ll need your Party members toe with you to ''officially'' be recognized as Party Members, though."
"Sure thing," Reivyn said.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" The manager asked.
"One final point," Reivyn said. "I don''t know if it''s anything serious, but I''ve figured out the cause of the heat and feeling of humidity..." Reivyn exined the situation once again.
"I see," the man frowned at the information. "I''ll send it up the chain to the Guild Branch Master, but he''ll ultimately decide what to do with this knowledge. Thank you for considering spreading the news, though. Is there anything else?"
Reivyn shook his head. "That''s it."
"Well, then, have a nice day, Adventurer Reivyn." The man gave a short bow and exited the room. Reivyn followed him out and headed towards the exit.
Now back to waiting for the others.
Reivyn didn''t have to wait too much longer, as the rest of his friends came out of the Dungeon around the same time they usually did: near dusk. It had beente afternoon when Reivyn had left the churchpound, so it only felt like an eternity due to his impatience.
"...bet he cleared the second floor boss," Teilon''s voice, mid-sentence, reached his ears before he spotted the group walking out of the Dungeon. Reivyn held back from running up to them, and he let them make their way to an inspection team before walking up.
"There he is, already out and waiting for us," Teilon said as he stood and had a priest cleanse any corrupt mana that hadtched onto him. "How long have you been waiting for us?"
Reivyn looked at his System clock for a second before answering, "A little over an hour, total." Teilon shared a look with Kimberly and the others.
"Yeah, he definitely cleared the second boss," Teilon said with a smirk. "Did you get the three spectres and Big Boy this time?" Reivyn nodded to the question.
"Did you have any problems?" Kimberly asked with concern.
"Nah, business as usual," Reivyn replied nonchntly. "Hey!" Reivyn turned as he felt his shield get lifted off of his back where he had it secured, and he found Melissa inspecting it in her hands. She looked up at Reivyn with a level gaze before turning it around to show everyone else the giant rent that was now adorning the shield from top to bottom.
"That was already there," Reivyn said with a straight face. Melissa snorted as she handed it to Erik. Erik took the shield in his hands, and after applying some pressure on either side, it snapped in half. "I should get my money back for such faulty equipment," Reivyn frowned.
"Uh-huh. ''Business as usual,'' you say," Melissa raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, the wound was on the shield, not me," Reivyn defended himself. "Anyway, I have something important to say once the inspection is over."
"Alright, go ahead and deflect," Melissa said as she resumed her position in line, waiting for cleansing.
"I already did, you saw," Reivyn smirked. Melissa rolled her eyes. They waited for the all-clear, also taking the opportunity to cleanse their Experience Crystals for the fee after hearing the exnation from the sword-priest.
The group gathered their belongings and walked away from the congested area before Reivyn pulled everyone up short.
"Ok, we''re leaving," Reivyn just threw it out there. Larissa tilted her head at the statement.
"Didn''t you have something important to say first?" She asked.
"That was the important thing," Reivyn said. "I''m saying we''re leaving the Dungeon Town. Right now. You three shoulde with us."
Teilon looked at the setting sun and then back at Reivyn. "The sun''s going down."
"Uh-huh, I see that. Let''s go," Reivyn said.
"You want to go right now?" Larissa narrowed her eyes. Melissa nudged her with her elbow.
"Let''s hear him out," she said. Reivyn took a deep breath and then exined what he had found regarding the mana and his promise to his dad.
"And so I think we should leave and re-evaluate the situation," Reivyn concluded. "If nothing happens, you took a little break. If something does happen, though, you''re safe."
"I agree, we should leave now," Erik said.
"Well, hold on a minute..." Larissa began.
"Silence!" Reivyn waved his hands about as he looked at Erik with wide eyes. "Erik has spoken. It''s time to go." Melissa rolled her eyes once again, but she didn''t argue.
"We''ll get our things and load up the saddlebags on our horses," Melissa said.
"You have horses?" Teilon asked.
"Yup!" Larissa nodded her head enthusiastically. "You guys don''t? Did you walk all the way here?"
"Hardly," Teilon said dramatically. "We Force Marched under immense strain all the way here." He gave an usatory look toward Reivyn as Larissa giggled behind her hand.
"You got a valuable Skill out of it," Reivyn pointed out. "Plus, you don''t know how to ride a horse." Larissa stopped giggling as she looked at Reivyn with an open mouth.
"Wait, you were serious? You guys not only walked all the way here, but you even made it harder on yourselves, on purpose?"
Teilon shrugged. "That''s life. Wee to the Party."
"We''ll dump the rocks out of those packs, but we shouldn''t leave them here. Those are valuable pieces of equipment." Larissa gave Melissa an incredulous look as she mouthed, "Rocks?!"
"I noticed nobody said anything about your or Kimberly not knowing how to ride a horse," Melissa brought them back to the main topic.
"I have the Skill, Kimberly does not," Reivyn answered.
"Ok, instead of trying to buy new horses, we''ll double up," Melissa said. "You and Teilon on one, Larissa and Kimberly on one, and I''ll take thest one with Erik."
"Alright, let''s make it happen," Reivyn said. "We''ll go get our gear, turn in the key to the house, and meet up with you outside the stables to the tavern."
Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly separated from the other three, and they quickly made their way to the house. They emptied the house of all of their belongings and threw the perishables away as they tidied the ce up. No reason to leave a mess behind us.
Reivyn ran the key back to the Adventurer''s Guild Branch while Teilon and Kimberly went ahead and met up with the others. Reivyn wasn''t expecting it, but he still got a small refund back for not spending the entire time they had rented the house out for.
"Alright, is everything in order?" Reivyn said as he finally reached the stables. The other members of his Party were already mounted. Melissa nodded down at him from her seat atop her steed. Erik looked a bit ufortable in his position behind her.
Larissa had an excited expression on her face as she turned in her seat and conversed with Kimberly, and Teilon tried to hide it, but he appeared to be a bit nervous. Reivyn smirked as he remembered how the Knight-Lieutenant had initially taught him the Riding Skill.
"You''re lucky this time," Reivyn said as he walked up to the horse they would be sharing as a mount. "Remember what the Adjutant did with me? You get to skip that."
"Yeah, not sure I could handle that," Teilon said as Reivyn assumed his position on the horse. He looked around at everyone, and seeing that they were ready, he turned the horse to start down the main road to the exit. Since they were leaving at such ate time, the road was practically deserted.
Reivyn grinned as he suddenly drew his sword. He smacked the t of the de on the horse''s thigh and yelled, "Yah!" The horse took off at a gallop.
"You son of a... Aaahhhhh!" Teilon screamed as he held on for dear life. Reivyn could hear theughter of the girlsing from behind as they sped out of the town.
"Looks like it''s just going to be an extended break, after all," Reivyn said from his position behind Teilon on the back of the horse. He had given up his position in charge of directing the horse to let Teilon work on his Skill, and Larissa had done a simr thing with Kimberly.
The Party had traveled for several hours into the night on the evening they left before Reivyn felt they were far enough away to stop and camp. Now that the Party had expanded, they were able to break up the watch better so everyone could get some decent sleep out in the open.
They moved a lot quicker since they were on horseback and not over-encumbered with the heavy load of rocks, but the trip was still most of a week''s time. They weren''t in a hurry to get anywhere, as the main purpose had simply been to get away from the Dungeon Town and not to Magron, so they had decided it was appropriate to let Teilon and Kimberly work on their Skill.
"We don''t mind," Melissa replied. "It''s kind of nice, actually."
"My parents have already moved to the Capital to enroll my sisters in the supplemental school attached to the Academy," Reivyn said, "so we''ll have to get a ce to stay for a few days. I can introduce you to my friends from the Lord''s Retinue while we''re there, and you, Larissa, and Erik can decide to stick with us on our way to the Capital or go back to the Dungeon Town at that time."
"Oh, you''ve mentioned your sisters showing promise in mana Skills before, do you think they''re talented enough to get into the Magic Academy?" Melissa asked.
Reivyn rummaged through the saddlebags and pulled out the Flower Crown his sisters had made for him. He handed it over to Melissa, and she eximed in surprise after Inspecting it.
"My sisters made that for me on the road from Haluville to Magron. They made a couple for Teilon and Kimberly, too."
"And you said they''re only six years old, almost seven? Yeah, I would say they''re definitely talented enough to get into the Magic Academy. I wouldn''t be surprised if they get rmended to move to the Tier 2 Region''s Academy before they reach the age of ten. I don''t know of any other students who were capable of making something like this before they entered the Academy, much less at the age of six!"
"Yup, apparently my parents decided to move ahead of time because they show apleteck of interest in studying or training," Reivyn said with a chuckle.
"Well, you can''t expect your sisters to be exactly like you," Melissa stuck her tongue out.
The group rode in silence for several minutes, but Reivyn suddenly held his hand up and gestured for Teilon to stop the horse. The others also pulled their horses to a stop and looked at him with questioning gazes.
"Do any of you hear that?" Reivyn said. He thought he had heard a faint rumbling sound.
"I don''t hear anything," Teilon said. Melissa and the others each shook their head. Reivyn looked at Erik who had his eyes narrowed.
The faint rumbling increased, and Erik nodded his head in confirmation. Reivyn frowned as he looked back down the road in the direction they hade from. The trees obscured most of what could be seen, so he didn''t see anything out of the ordinary right away.
The faint rumbling sound suddenly turned into a tremendous roar, drowning out all other sounds, and the horses went crazy. The earth began to shake, and it quickly escted until it was heaving violently.
Reivyn was tossed into the air from the back of his horse, and he was slightly disoriented at first as he tumbled through the air. He quickly oriented himself, though, and heunched outssos made of pure mana to each of the members to keep them from getting flung too far apart. Melissa picked up on the mana Skill being used, and she cast some Ice Walls to protect everyone from the trees that were being uprooted and tossed about.
The party hunkered down in their little bunker made of ice and waited for the earthquake to pass. The walls asionally shook as it was hit by a falling tree, but the shelter held. Larissa supplied a small spark to light up the interior, and Reivyn saw fear on everyone''s faces.
The loud roaring sound eventually faded out, and the earth quit shaking. Melissa removed the Ice Walls, and Reivyn stood up to survey the damage. One of the horses had moved too far away to be included in the protection from Melissa, and Reivyn spotted it crushed beneath a tree, dead.
shes of devastated countryside flitted through Reivyn''s mind as the surroundings evoked some of the memories from his dreams. It looked like someone had bombarded the entire forest with powerful spells. Most of the trees still stood, but they were almost all damaged, and a good portion of them was down and splinteredpletely.
Reivyn looked over at Melissa, and she shook her head. He frowned as he looked back down the road in the direction they hade, but this time, he saw something different.
A giant, blood-red pir of light shot up into the sky from the direction of the Dungeon Town. Even this far away, Reivyn could feel the rolling tide of mana as the density continued to climb.
"Looks like it''s not going to be an extended break, after all," Reivyn said as he turned back to his Party. They looked back at him in confusion. "I guess you guys can''t see it, but there''s a giant pir of light that I''m guessing is from the corrupt mana in the Dungeon shooting up to the sky. I had a very big increase in my Perception Skill recently, so that''s probably why I can just barely make it out.
"We need to get to Magron, but now we''re down to two horses. We''ll load up the saddlebags on the other two, and Erik and I will have to run. Teilon can switch out with him when he gets tired, but we can''t take our time any longer."
"Won''t you get tired, too," Melissa asked.
"It wasn''t just my Perception that got a big boost. I should be fine. Let''s get going; we don''t have any time to waste."
"What''s the hurry? It looks like the damage is already done," Teilon asked, but he got to work digging the saddlebags out from under the tree pinning the dead horse to the ground.
"My mother mentioned something like this to me once, and I think that''s what''s going on here," Reivyn said with a serious expression. "I think this is a Dungeon Break."
Melissa, Larissa, and even Erik''s faces all turned pale. Teilon and Kimberly looked at each other in confusion.
"What''s a Dungeon Break?" Kimberly asked.
"The monsters in the Dungeon break free," Melissa said. She gulped at the implication. "This is an infinitely instanced Dungeon, so no telling how many instances are involved. And the mana density is quickly rising." She looked at everyone in turn. "Those Revenants, and other powerful undead, won''t have their strength restricted for much longer."
"Yeah, I would say that''s a good reason to hurry," Teilon said as he finally managed to get the saddlebags. "I''ll feel a lot safer with the walls of Magron between us and them."
"Yeah, so let''s get going," Reivyn helped load up the other two horses, and then the group continued their retreat to Magron.
We still have a couple of days to go to make it to Magron. I hope there''s enough time to make it and warn them of the impending danger. I don''t know how far out this earthquake reached, or if they know what''s about toe.
Chapter 52: The Calm Before
Chapter 52: The Calm Before
Reivyn ran along beside Erik and the others on their horses. He matched steps with Erik, and he, after several minutes of running, felt his Forced March Skill kick in. It reduced a lot of Stamina consumption. He kept his armor on, as he was still wary of any stragglers from all those months ago from the beast tide, but he removed his helmet, and so did Erik.
Judging by his outward Stamina consumption, Erik either has the Forced March Skill or something simr to reduce his burden while running long distances. He should be able to keep it up for several hours.
Now that they had put a lot of distance between them and the Dungeon, the heat and feeling of humidity were no longer a problem. The Party continued running along the road, asionally having to avoid downed trees. The devastation continued on for as far as Reivyn could see. They spent a couple of hours just traveling in silence, and eventually, the damage to the surrounding trees began to thin out.
"...lp," Reivyn waved for everyone to stop running for a second as a noise reached him. After they stopped moving and got quiet, Reivyn tilted his head in the direction he thought he heard ite from.
"Help," Reivyn clearly heard the sound this time, and he perked up.
"Someone is calling for help," he informed hispanions as they looked at him. "It''s a little ways further along the road, but it sounds like it''sing from off in the trees a bit."
"We can''t leave someone that needs our assistance," Melissa said.
"Yeah, let''s go check it out," Teilon concurred. Everyone nodded their heads at the n.
The Party resumed running, and once they reached the approximate location adjacent to where they heard the calls for helping from, they halted their horses and headed off in that direction.
"We''reing to help!" Reivyn cupped his hands and yelled back. The others had been able to hear the cries for help for some time, and it sounded like it wasing from a young boy.
"Ok!" They heard the reply.
The trees weren''t particrly thick, and most of them were still standing, but they still couldn''t see whoever was calling from the road. After heading in that direction for a few minutes, though, they finally happened upon the scene. A young boy, around seven or eight, was standing next to a clump of fallen trees that had an older man trapped beneath it. The trees hadn''t crushed the man, but it was clear that he wasn''t able to get out on his own.
"Oh, thank you, thank you," the boy said, nearly in tears. "I was about to have to go run to the vige and look for help, but I was afraid I wouldn''t be able to find my way back. My dad can''t yell loud enough from his position for it to carry far enough to hear."
"It''s ok," Melissa hugged the boy to her,forting him. "Everything will be fine, now."
"Those trees are a bit too big for all of us to move," Reivyn said as he looked at Teilon and Erik. Erik bent down and picked up a woodcutter''s axe. "That''ll help. Here, I have a Skill with axes that''s pretty close to my Sword Skill, let me." Erik showed no surprise on his face upon hearing that statement, and he simply handed the axe over.
"You''ll want to cut the side that''s not load-bearing first," Reivyn hearde from under the main tree. It had fallen over in a tangle of other trees, and it was kind of at an angle. "It''s not pressing down on me, so you don''t have to worry about the vibrations affecting me."
"Alright," Reivyn said as he approached the side that was elevated. He turned to face Teilon, "I''ll cut through the trees here, and if we still can''t lift the trunk over, you and Erik will have to hold the load while I cut it off of the rest, too. We might get Melissa to use an Ice Wall to help hold the load."
"Sure thing," Teilon said. Erik nodded.
Reivyn assumed a stance to chop thergest trunk. There were several trees that came down in a pile to make a perfect cage, and the non-load-bearing side was up almost at chest height.
Reivyn took a deep breath and activated Devastating Strike as he took a mighty swing. The axe sliced right through the first trunk and embedded itself in another underneath it. He yanked the axe head out of the wood and took another swing, severing all of the remaining trees.
"Alright, let''s try it out," Reivyn tossed the axe down and grabbed ahold of the mess with Teilon and Erik. They threw their weight into it, and they managed to lift it up a bit.
"I think I can get out if you can hold it there," the trapped man called out. Reivyn looked at his friends, and they nodded back.
"Ok, we can hold it," Reivyn answered. The weight of the trees was just within their range to hold, and Reivyn could feel his face turning red as his veins bulged. The man quickly scrambled out, and Melissa and Larissa ran up to drag him the rest of the way.
Once the man was all the way out, Reivyn and the other two let the trees back down and quickly stepped out of the way. Teilon bent over and heaved air, and even Erik was out of breath for a moment.
The boy ran up and hugged his father as he stood up. He didn''t look like he was injured, though.
"Thank you for helping," the man enthusiastically said. "I''ve never seen anything like this before."
"I don''t think it''s over, either," Reivyn said. "There was an issue with the Dungeon several day''s journey to the mountains. We think it might be a break. You need to get your family, and the rest of the locals, and get to Magron. If you have any horses, riding or work, doesn''t matter, I suggest you load them up."
"You think it''s that serious?" The man said with a somber expression.
"Definitely. And it''s always better to be safe than sorry," Reivyn said. "Do you need any help getting to the road?"
"No, I''m not hurt," the man said as he picked his axe up. "Thanks again."
"No problem."
"It''s what we should have done," Melissa supplied.
"Alright, let''s get back on the road. I know we warned him to get his family and others moving toward Magron, but we should go ahead and spread the word along the way, too."
The Party made their way back to the road and continued their journey. The vige the woodcutter and his son were from wasn''t too far away from where they encountered them, and after about fifteen minutes of quick travel, they came to the vige.
There were several buildings that had copsed, and Reivyn could hear people crying as others worked on clearing some debris. There were a couple of white sheets over what were obviously bodies off to the side of the vige square. The scene sobered the party further.
"We should take some time to help out," Melissa said with a somber tone.
"Yeah," Reivyn agreed. The others dismounted and they began helping the vigers clear out some rubble. Melissa helped with some support Castings of Ice Wall to help with the weight, and Larissa helped tend to any survivors, giving drinks of water to the vigers moving rubble.
The Party spent about an hour helping to clear things out, and one other deceased body was recovered, but several others were safely rescued. Reivyn located the vige headman and motioned him over as he got a drink of water to te his thirst.
"I know this is terrible timing, but the cause of this disaster isn''t over with. You need to pack up everyone, and I mean everyone, and move them along to Magron. It''s not safe out here."
"I see," the older gentleman looked at Reivyn and the others as he contemted. "We have several horses, but not enough for everyone. We have just enough for the children. Can you take them with you ahead of the rest of us? If there''s anyone we want to get to safety, it would be them."
Reivyn looked at hispanions, and he saw approval on their faces. It might slow us down a little bit, but that''s a small price to pay to save some kids, he thought.
"Ok. Tell the parents to pack some things and get them loaded up. We''ll take them with us and settle them in the local barracks. It''s off to the right after entering the city, so you can find the kids there once you arrive in Magron," Reivyn said.
"Thank you, thank you," the headman said as he sped Reivyn''s hands. He thanked each of them individually before moving off to see to it.
"Thank you," Melissa said to Reivyn.
"There''s nothing to thank," Reivyn replied. "I would want the same thing for my sisters if they were in the same situation."
The Party rested for about twenty minutes before several horses, some leaden with three children, met them at the road to Magron.
"Alright, it''s time to go. Don''t worry. You''ll be reunited with your parents soon," Reivyn said. Melissa moved her horse over so that she could better supervise the children that had joined them.
"You don''t have a horse," a little girl pointed out.
"I don''t need a horse. I''m as strong as one all on my own. I''m gonna run," Reivyn flexed his bicep. Several of the children snickered. "Ok, let''s go."
Reivyn and his party met two other viges with some damage to them, and they picked up an increasing number of children to tag along. The other two viges didn''t have nearly as much damage as the first one, and nobody lost their life, so they were able to organize their evacuations much quicker. They still opted to send their children ahead, though, when they saw the train of kids attached to Reivyn''s group. They had a total of eleven other horses, carrying 21 kids under 10.
The viges they encountered after the third one didn''t see any damage, and the earthquake didn''t cause any devastation to the surroundings. The forest opened up to the ins, though, shortly after, so it would have been a moot point, anyway, as thends opened up to muchrger farming operations.
The viges at this point, also, didn''t choose to send their kids ahead, and if Reivyn hadn''t promised to take them all the way to the barracks, he would have been tempted to leave them with the other vigers in order to get word to the city quicker.
It''ll only be a couple of hours difference at this point, and I did say I would get them settled at the barracks. I''m sure it will be a lot easier to get them space if I''m the one there talking to Knight-Lieutenant Brand about it.
"We''re almost there," Reivyn said to the entourage. "A couple more hours." They had passed thest real vige some time ago, and the countryside was now dotted with smallermunities that just tended to the lord''s fields. They still spread the word to get to the city for anyone that was still out and about, though.
The children were putting up a brave front, even though Reivyn could tell they were a bit nervous being away from their parents. Melissa, Larissa, and Kimberly were really good about seeing to their needs and making sure they werefortable on the journey, and they helped get them to sleep on the one night they had to spend out in the open.
Reivyn had been concerned they might run into trouble from local wildlife or beasts, but they hadn''t seen any sign of such a thing after thest vige in the forest.
The kids all perked up at the reminder that they were almost there. Teilon spent a lot of time joking with the kids when he wasn''t taking his turn running to let Erik get some rest. Reivyn had been right that he would be fine running, though he did sweat a lot and have to drink a lot more water, but it wasn''t enough to impede their progress. Making sure none of the kids fell off of a horse took up more time than anything.
I bet several of them get the Skill. I wonder if that is likely to affect their future development? Reivyn idly wondered.
Thest leg to the city was uneventful, and there was no indication that anyone was worried about a Dungeon Break or anything like that. Either word hasn''t gotten here, which means nobody in the Dungeon Town was able to get a notice out by carrier bird, or the leaders haven''t spread word yet in an effort to keep people from panicking.
The local guards were a little confused at the procession that appeared to enter the city, but they didn''t make anything difficult and waved the group through.
"I''m going to take the kids to the barracks and inform the Knight-Lieutenant about what''s going on. Do you have a way to secure a meeting with the Count?" Reivyn turned toward Melissa.
"Yes, our name should get us in to see him. We can go tell him about it while you handle the kids and garrison. We''ll meet up with you at the barracks when we''re done, or send word if anything changes."
"Alright," Reivyn said with a nod. "We''ll see you then."
Melissa, Larissa, and Erik took their horses and made their way into the city proper while Reivyn and his crew escorted the children to their destination.
"Why would they meet us back at the barracks? I''m sure they can get some nice amodations at the Lord''s Manor," Teilon said.
"They probably want to introduce themselves to the ones in charge of the city defense," Kimberly pointed out with an eye roll. "Being Caster sses, I''m sure they want to help defend the city if or when the monsters show up."
"That''s a good point," Teilon said.
Reivyn led his little parade to the barracks. The locals asionally threw them some questioning nces, but the city seemed to be moving about like normal. They eventually made it to the gates of the militarypound, and Reivyn greeted the guards. It hadn''t been that long since he had been with the troops, so they recognized him easily.
"I need to speak to the Knight-Lieutenant," Reivyn said. "You guys just hang out out here until I get the all-clear," Reivyn said to Teilon and Kimberly.
"Sure thing, Reivyn," one of the guards responded. There wasn''t really any need to keep them out, so the guards let Teilon and Kimberly lead the kids inside thepound to wait while Reivyn headed to the headquarters building.
Reivyn stepped in, and seeing that there wasn''t anything going on, he skipped walking to the end of the hall and walked right up the forbidden stairs. Just act like I''m supposed to use them, and anyone who objects might still associate me with the Aide to the Adjutant, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
He made his way to the Knight-Lieutenant''s office and knocked on the door. After a brief pause, he heard, "Enter,"e from within.
"Ahh, Reivyn!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand eximed as he spotted his once-Aide enter his office. He got up from behind his desk and came over to shake his hand. "Looks like you''ve been doing well for yourself," he said as he inspected the new armor Reivyn was wearing.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn said with a smile. "Got it as a drop from the second floor boss in the Dungeon."
"Already delving further in? Make sure you''re always careful and don''t getcent," Brand said as he took his seat again. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He indicated for Reivyn to take a seat.
"I think there was a Dungeon Break," Reivyn got right into the main issue. Brand''s smile instantly evaporated as he nodded for Reivyn to continue. "I noticed a steady increase in the mana density around the Dungeon, after I pulled my head out of my backside, and got out ahead of the explosion. But there was a giant earthquake that did a lot of damage. I know of at least three people - vigers - who died because of it, on top of all the damage.
"There was a giant beam of light shooting up to the sky that we could see from about three days away, and there was a significant uptick in the mana density even that far out. I suspect we''ll have a monster tide to put the beast tide to shame, and I would bet the Revenants that show up won''t be restricted by the mana density."
Reivynid it out on the table. Knight-Lieutenant Brand rubbed his chin as he thought about the issue.
"We didn''t get word from the Dungeon Town, so it''s either a total loss or they were unable to send an emergency message out. We need to go inform the Knight-Captain," Brand stood up and motioned for Reivyn to follow him.
"Mypanions went ahead to the Count''s manor to inform him. They have some sort of background from the Capital, so he should know soon as well. We also picked up a bunch of children the vigers wanted to send ahead as we spread word to evacuate on the way here. We brought them to the barracks because I didn''t know what else to do with them," Reivyn said as they hurried down the hall.
"That''s good. Good thinking," Brand said as he waved to a soldier walking along the hall. "Go to the gate and see about getting a bunch of viger kids squared away," he gave a quickmand. The soldier saluted and hurried to do as instructed.
Knight-Captain Reifold''s door was open, so Knight-Lieutenant Brand simply knocked on the door on his way in. The two walked in, Reivyn subconsciously assuming his position a half-step behind the Adjutant.
"Sir, news from the Dungeon," Brand said. "Reivyn here reports that there was likely a Dungeon Break. He didn''t see the incident up close, but he saw what matches the description some ways off. The local areas suffered damage, vigers have been evacuated, and Reivyn brought a bunch of children with him to berth here. Word has been dispatched to the Count."
Knight-Captain Reifold set his pen down as soon as he witnessed Knight-Lieutenant Brand enter his office, and he gave a nod to Reivyn''s presence like it wasn''t anything out of the ordinary.
"Good, mobilize the scouts. Alert the city guard. Issue a stand-down order and make sure all of the troops are prepared for battle. Send word to the local church and Adventurer''s Guild. We''ll need all the Casters we can get. I know the Lord has a personal unit, but that won''t be enough for a Dungeon Break from this Dungeon."
"Yes, sir," Brand said with a salute.
"Sir," Reivyn stepped forward. "Mypanions are Casters, and I can use mana to fight the Revenants and Spectres," the Adjutant''s eyebrows went up at the mention of the new monster. "I would like to volunteer for the city defense."
"epted," Knight-Captain Reifold replied after a moment of contemtion. "Go with Knight-Lieutenant Brand and assume your previous role as Aide. I know you can fight, and even though you''ll be an Aide, you''ll still get your chance."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," Reivyn said.
"No - thank you."
Reivyn followed Brand out of the office as he prepared to get to work.
"I don''t really need anything from you right now, so go to your friends. If you want to help out just stick around, and I''ll have someone find you when I do need you," Knight-Lieutenant Brand said, pping Reivyn on the shoulder.
"Yes, sir. I''ll see you then."
Reivyn exited the headquarters and saw that some soldiers were escorting the vige kids to an open barracks. The meeting with the officers had been quick and to the point, so not much time had passed. Reivyn walked up to Teilon and Kimberly who were waving goodbye to the kids.
"Melissa and her group are going to meet with us here, so we''ll stay here and wait for them for now," Reivyn said as he walked up. "I went ahead and volunteered us for the city defense. No pressure though, I know you guys can''t fight the Revenants without assistance from someone who can use mana."
"Yeah, don''t worry about it. I kind of expected you to from the beginning, and it''s something Kimberly and I agreed to while you were gone," Teilon said with a shrug. "We might not be able to be on the front lines against the more dangerous enemies, but we can definitely find something to do."
"Yes, there''s no way I could live with myself if I abandoned everyone to their fate. Especially after bringing those kids all the way here," Kimberly added.
"Good," Reivyn said with a wide smile.
The trio took up a position to wait near the entrance, and it wasn''t long before they spotted Melissa, Larissa, and Erik making their way on foot toward the barracks. Reivyn stepped out and waved them over.
"How did it go?" Reivyn called out as they approached.
"The Count took our warnings seriously and started getting things moving. We told him you went to inform the Knight-Captain, so he focused on getting his Casters and any others organized. What about you?"
"Same. We got the kids put up in the barracks, and we volunteered to help with the defense," Reivyn noticed that that statement got a nod of approval from Erik.
"We knew you would, and we''re going to volunteer with the Casters, as well," Melissa said with a smile. "Wait here for a moment while we go inform the officers about our presence and what we can do. They''ll be better able to organize things if they know what we''re capable of.
"The Count gave us a ce to stay, you guys included, so we can wait for further word while taking advantage of the small luxury that will afford. We''re going to be happy we did in a couple of days if we''re right about everything."
"Are you kidding? Of course, we''re going to live it up with style," Teilon said. Kimberly rolled her eyes and Reivyn just shook his head.
"Alright," he said. "The Adjutant said there was nothing in particr for us to do, yet, so that sounds like a fine n. We''ll head over with you guys once you''re done here."
Chapter 53: The Storm
Chapter 53: The Storm
Reivyn stood upon the ramparts and stared off into the distance. Thest group of vigers, the first ones Reivyn and his Party had encountered, were finally making their way into the city below. The atmosphere was charged. Almost literally. Reivyn could feel the increased mana density as it spread all the way to Magron.
The other aspect was the palpable anxiety he could feel from the other people lining the ramparts, waiting. The Lord''s Retinue, the City Guard, the Count''s personal Mage Corps, and volunteer Adventurers all waited for the impending crisis. The local church branch was manned by mundane believers, though, so they didn''t have any Casters avable to assist in warding off the undead.
The Scouts reported that many of the goblins had simply bolted in all directions, but the orcs had corralled several thousand of them to act as shields in human-wave tactics as they scoured the countryside for ces to pige. Nobody is really too concerned with that, though, Reivyn ruminated. The real concern is that the Scouts were unable to make their way past the horde, so we have no idea as to the numbers or activities of the undead forces that are sure to follow.
Reivyn nced towards the location of the barracks. He couldn''t actually see it through the rampart or the people milling about, but he recalled the scene of several viger children reuniting with their parents.
Luckily they all made it ahead of the monsters; however, we have yet to make it through the ordeal. Reivyn''s face was grim despite the temporarily happy incident.
Reivyn and his Party had rxed within the Count''s Manor, all of their needs seen to by the maids and butlers, as they waited for the time they would be needed to fight. It wasn''t hard to gauge the timing, either. The steady climb of the mana had been an obvious sign.
The three girls also managed to convince the maids to use their connections to keep them abreast of the goings-on of the children we escorted, Reivyn chuckled to himself. I didn''t realize they had grown so attached so quickly. The news also contained information about what was happening in the barracks. Put that together with the mana increasing, and it gave a clear sign of when we would be needed.
They had encountered a messenger departing to the lord''s manor to fetch them as they arrived at the barracks. Reivyn had assumed his position as a de facto Aide. More in the line of being able to utilize my Party''s experience and abilities more than any actual responsibilities, he thought.
The Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant weren''t ying any games. Anything that wasn''t necessarily super important, they would allow Reivyn to assist them, like giving and receiving messages to the administrative soldiers, but they kept a tight reign on everything involving the deployment of thebat troops.
He stood a little ways off from the Knight-Lieutenant. They hadn''t had anything to do for quite a while now, other than wait like everyone else, but he had found something he could trust Teilon and Kimberly with. When he had been running messages back and forth, Teilon had said that his new Tier 2 ss was perfectly suited for such a thing during the uing conflict, so they would be acting as runners.
Reivyn surveyed the troops arranged upon the battlements. The Lord''s Retinue was first in line, and the more experienced City Guardsmen were behind them. The less experienced guards were still keeping order within the city. The city gates in the other three directions other than the one leading toward the Dungeon were still open, and they would be until the enemies were spotted. The Count had ordered that anyone leaving was responsible for themselves, but he wouldn''t keep anyone here against their wills, other than his military personnel, of course.
There had been a mass exodus upon news of the potential Dungeon Break, and it had increased further upon confirmation from the Scouts. It had slowed to a trickle, since, though, and only those going it alone could be seen still asionally leaving. Anyone with family wasn''t willing to brave the dangers of being outside the walls thiste anymore.
Behind the experienced City Guardsman, dispersed evenly across the wall, were the members of the Mage Corps. They consisted of fifty low Tier 3 and high Tier 2 Mages, several having graduated from the Magic Academy not too long ago. Adventurers stood interspersed between the units, located wherever their specialty was focused. There aren''t that many additional Casters from the Adventurers, Reivyn thought with a frown. Maybe just over a hundred or so. There are several hundred archers and meleebatants, each, in contrast to that. I guess it makes sense; the number is a little over 10%.
From the reports of the thousands upon thousands of goblins, I can assume there''s probably around a thousand or so Orcs, and depending on how many undead are on the third floor, or even lower, there will probably be several thousand Revenants, at least. The goblins won''t be a problem, especially with these reinforced walls, but I sure hope this is enough to fend off the undead.
Things weren''t looking optimistic. One of the first things Reivyn had done after getting settled in the lord''s manor was to send a letter to his parents in the Capital. Thankfully they left ages ago with my sisters. That was one thing Reivyn was happy about. The other members of his Party had done the same for their families, even Erik.
Reivyn turned back to watching the countryside. Everything seemed peaceful on the surface. Reivyn watched as the wind blew the crops. There were multiple, visible lines that could be seen to show just where it was. The sky was blue and dotted with pleasant-looking clouds. A flock of birds took off from their position foraging for bugs and other things to eat among the tall nts.
"Standby!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand suddenly called. Reivyn was pulled out of his contemtion. Of course. Those birds didn''t decide to all fly away for no reason. Something spooked them.
Everyone got quiet on the wall as it became obvious that something was moving beneath, through the fields as the crops no longer shifted ording to just the wind.
"Conserve your Mana! Only Cast as many spells as you can quickly recover from. We don''t know how much time we''ll have after the goblins and orcs make their assault," Brand continued his instruction to the Casters. Everyone knew what they were about to face, but the Adjutant didn''t want someone to get caught up in the moment and burn through their Mana Pool before the real threat even arrived.
Hmm... I actually have a lot of Mana, now. I wonder... Reivyn reached down and picked up the bow he had acquired. He knocked an arrow, and then he activated his Mana Sight and concentrated on it. Is there a way to optimize this?
Reivyn used his Mana Maniption to quickly cover the arrow. Next, he pulled it away from the arrow, but he maintained the shape and form. He added the necessary braids to the structure to give it some actual power. Ok, that did actually cost a lot less mana, and it was quicker than trying to build one of my own from scratch. Now, what do I do...?
Reivyn concentrated on the entire structure of the mana arrow he had created, and he pushed more mana into it. Once it had reached a certain threshold, he once again split it, and one mana arrow suddenly became two. Ok, about the same mana expenditure total, let''s try one more thing. He concentrated as he pumped several times more mana into the first mana arrow, and he split them into a veritable bundle of mana arrows.
That''s way too much mana. Do I need the whole structure? Reivyn gathered up the mana consisting of all the arrows he had made, and he converted them all into the arrow heads with just a bit of the shaft remaining. That''s more like it. Lot''s more impact from this setup. The mana arrows still catch some of the drag from the wind, though, so can I ovep these while keeping them separate?
He put thought to action and pulled them all together, once more, but he kept thempletely distinct from one another. Hmmm, it doesn''t exactly work. They still want tobine into one, dense arrowhead. Maybe I''m overthinking things again, let''s try one more thing.
Reivyn ced his dense mana arrowhead ovepping with the real arrow, and he ced some anchors within it. He ced as many anchors as he wanted arrowheads, and he designed them to deteriorate with a small pop after only a few seconds.
While he had been experimenting with his Mana Maniption, the goblins had finallye into view, and as soon as they spotted the wall unimpeded, their loud screeching could be heard as they broke into a frenzied run.
The other archers had already begun releasing their arrows into theing horde, and the city defenses had some scorpions scattered atop the wall thatunched huge javelin projectiles into the horde, skewering many goblins all at once as well as causing mayhem from the force of the impact. The Casters asionally lobbed spells that exploded to cause area-wide damage, but it was few and far between as they conserved their mana.
Melissa and Larissa were nearby, and they alsounched an asional attack at the horde of goblins below. Melissa would create a sphere of ice, Larissa would fill it with her Inferno st Spell, and then Melissa wouldunch thebination spell to devastating effect. They had gotten a lot more adept atbining their spells after the experience they had gained from the Dungeon delves.
Erik simply stood to the side, silently watching everything around. He never dropped his guard, not even against the other defenders. Teilon and Kimberly apanied him in their silent watch. They didn''t have much to do yet, as they had never worked on their ranged Skills. That''s an oversight that needs to be addressed, Reivyn thought.
Reivyn lifted his bow and loosed his experimental arrow without even taking proper aim. There were so many goblins, it wasn''t really necessary. He watched with bated breath as the arrow sailed through the air. Once it was close to the target he had randomly fired at, he watched with Mana Sight as his mana arrow exploded and showered mana shrapnel in all directions. Including up and away from the goblins below.
Ok, while it kind of worked, as many of the pieces of mana still struck and killed a lot of goblins, that was basically a failure. I should just make a ball of mana with a directional st to focus it downward.
Reivyn once more summoned his mana, but this time he made a ball with the braids necessary to give it power apanied by one anchor that would pop in the direction the arrow was facing located at the back of the mana ball. He loosed the arrow and watched once more. This time it was much more sessful, and it cost considerably less mana.
Yeah, I was definitely overthinking things. I''m sure there is a ss Skill out there that has a simr effect with actual arrows and such, but I would need to see it and study it to make it right. As it is, against these weaker enemies, a few more of these attacks should be fine. I don''t want to burn through my mana too fast, either.
Reivyn loosed several arrows without any mana as he was thinking, and once he hade to a decision, he asionally took the time to form a mana attack to apany his arrows.
The goblins were stupid and didn''t have any sort of n to try and breach the walls, so they simply smashed against the obstruction and tried to climb it with their ws. They didn''t have much luck. They began to trample the front rows beneath them, though, and a ramp made of dead goblins began to form.
Several spots along the walls had soldiers step forward withrge cauldrons filled with tar. They tipped the cauldrons down on the goblins below before moving the empty cauldrons back to get refilled for use againter. Another soldier came up once the tar was safely taken away and tossed a torch down below.
Reivyn could feel the heat as the copious amounts of tar caught fire, and the frenzied shrieking for blood quickly became wails of agony as huge swathes of the goblins caught fire. The ramp of dead goblins also made sure that the fire didn''t diminish, and the rest of the goblins were momentarily prevented from approaching the walls.
The goblins are dumb, but they''re not dumb enough to run into the fire. They''re just standing around, now, passively epting the rain of arrows killing them. I bet that once the fires go away, they try the exact same thing and get torched all over again, Reivyn shook his head.
The goblins didn''t have any way to breach the walls, and the portcullis was manned by some of the City Guard with long spears, so it was also a death trap for any goblins dumb enough to run up to the gates. The arrows and asional spell still continued, they still had to kill the pests, but it had lessened as many others came to the same conclusion as Reivyn.
He looked off into the distance once again, and he finally spotted the mass of orcs.
These guys are much smarter and more capable than the goblins. They actually took the time to make crudedders and battering rams. They even brought the ogres from the first floor boss room with them.
The orcs came marching forward in a much more organized manner. There were about a hundred or so of the ogres, and they were much more mobile now that they weren''t confined to such a low ceiling. They stopped and watched the goblins expend the resources of the defenders for a while before they began moving forward once more.
"Focus on the ogres with ranged attacks and spells first!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand''s voice carried to all of the troops. "Burn some of thedders with the tar once they''ve climbed high enough, but let a couple of thedders stand. We want to preserve as much of the tar as we can, so we''ll have to engage some of them in melee. I''ll direct the positions to do so in an orderly manner."
Reivyn once more lifted his bow and started firing at the ogres with the others. There were several hundred rangedbatants atop the ramparts, and only a hundred of the ogres, so they were quickly peppered with arrows and looked like porcupines. They weren''t able tost very long under the barrage, and the ogres were quickly taken out of the equation.
The orcs pushed the goblins aside as they charged the walls, and thedders came up. The defenders waited until a line of orcs made their way three-quarters of the way up the wall before they doused most of thedders with tar. The orcs covered in the thick substance screamed in defiance as torches sailed down and put an end to their attempts at breaching the walls.
The battering ram rang loud and clear over the screams, snarls, and other sounds ofbat, but it, too, was quickly set ame. The orcs that had attempted to knock the gates down quickly fled the raging inferno. They joined theirpatriots at thedders that hadn''t been destroyed. Many of the goblins saw a way to get at the humans on top of the wall, so they tried to get on thedders, as well, but the orcs simply batted them aside as they entered a state of blood lust.
The soldiers let the orcs get on top of the wall under the careful nning of the Adjutant, and they were able to corral the orcs into another killing field. They were in almost as quickly as they attained the top of the wall, and it was only a matter of time before the blood lust wore off and the remainder chose to flee. The cavalry was standing by to chase them down and finish them off.
Reivyn replenished his arrows as he waited for the inevitable end of the first round ofbat, and nothing out of the ordinary urred. The orcs continued to climb to their deaths before thest vestiges came out of their frenzy and tried to run, but the cavalry took care of the remaining remnants.
Once the orcs stopped attempting to climb thedders, the goblins took their turn, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand ordered thedders to finally be torched. The goblins continued to try and scrabble up the walls to only be burned alive over and over again until they werepletely killed off.
"Kind of anti-climactic, actually," Teilon said from beside Reivyn.
"Well, we knew this was only a small taste from the very beginning," Reivyn replied.
"Yeah, I know, but still," Teilon shrugged.
The troops quickly set about making sure the ammunition and tar were all restocked, and the mages entered Meditation to use Mana Absorption to speed up their recovery. Reivyn took a cue from them and also sat down to get his mana back. Not only was his capacity increased with his rise in Stats, but the level of recovery had seen a sharp rise, as well.
Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, it''s time to wait for the real show.
Reivyn came out of his Meditation as he felt a nudge from Teilon. He looked up at his friend with a questioning gaze.
"Something is happening," Teilon said, almost in a whisper. Reivyn could see the nervousness in his friends as Kimberly was also fidgeting an unusual amount.
Reivyn stood up and looked to the distance once more. The sky overhead was still blue with clouds moving about, but the entire scenery seemed to have a subtle shift. He watched as a visible shadow,ing from no known obstruction from the sun, began to creep towards the city. It was like a wall of darkness.
Movement caught Reivyn''s eye, and he turned his focus towards it. After several breaths of waiting, he finally made out what had caught his attention.
A group of people came stumbling into view, obviously perking up at the sight of the walls and gaining a second wind as they rushed toward safety. Reivyn saw that many of them were kitted out in gear, but many of them were just in normal clothes.
"Looks like the Dungeon Town wasn''t a total loss. Those people are obviously Adventurers and the locals from the town," Reivyn said to Teilon.
"Oh yeah? I couldn''t quite make them out, yet," Teilon responded.
"Scouts!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand''s shout reached the cavalry below. "Sally forth and pick those people up. There appears to be several hundred of them, so be quick!"
The light cavalry soon stormed out of the gates and made their way to people obviously fleeing for their lives. Reivyn watched as many were picked up and rushed back to the city. They were dropped off inside the safety of the walls, and he noticed that almost every single one of them simply copsed where they had been deposited, most of them immediately falling asleep right then and there.
They''ve probably been running the entire time without much rest. Their Stats should have aided them, but they were trapped between getting too far ahead anding under the notice of the orcs and goblins, orgging too far behind and getting caught by what''sing.
More and more people arrived, and it soon became clear that arge majority of the Dungeon Town had actually been able to escape the cmity. The reason for their survival soon became apparent as the darkness continued to grow.
A line of soldiers came running into view several minutes after thest of the stragglers. They were attired in the armor and tabards of the Church of Light, but their gear was bloody and torn. Several of the stronger Adventurers, Martial and Casters alike, ran with them. They suddenly stopped and formed a line, and another group of soldiers, about the same number and makeup, came running after them.
Secondster the cause for everyone''s concern came into view. Arge line of Revenants came marching hot on the heels of the fleeing church members.
Reivyn''s stomach dropped as he witnessed the scene. Not only do they appear to be moving unimpeded by the mana density, but there also appears to be someonemanding them. No way they would march in an orderly fashion without someone, or something, interfering. Reivyn gulped as he shared a nce with Teilon and Kimberly.
"We''ll be fine," Reivyn said to try and reassure his friends.
"Yeah," Teilon nodded. He didn''t look like he was convinced. "It''s just a bunch of Revenants. No problem."
Reivyn turned back to witness the church soldiers. The ones closest to the Revenant line ran past the first group which intercepted the advancing undead. Their gear cut through the protections inherent to the Revenants, and the Casters fired quick bolts to cause as much damage in as short amount of time possible. They exclusively used their most basic spells in order to conserve their mana properly.
The second line of church soldiers and Adventurers came to a stop about fifty yards back and turned to face the iing enemies as the others broke off their engagement with a push from their Skills and turned to leap-frog their retreat. Reivyn watched as several of the members were hit with attacks despite their best efforts. Two of them went down and were quickly subsumed by the marching line of undead, but thest one managed to hold on and continue to flee.
"Dammit, they''re too close to the Revenants," Knight-Lieutenant Brand''s voice entered Reivyn''s ears and he turned to face the man as he muttered to himself. "I can''t get the Scouts close enough to pick them up without abandoning half of them."
"Sir," Reivyn called out to get his attention. "Give me and my Casterpanions some horses," someone clearing their throat interrupted Reivyn, "and their bodyguard. We can ride out, hit the line hard with some magic, and the Scouts can follow behind us to pick them up."
"Make it happen," Knight-Lieutenant Brand didn''t hesitate to agree.
Reivyn turned and jerked his head towards the bottom of the wall at Melissa and her twopanions. "We''ll be right back," Reivyn said to Teilon as they hurried down.
They ran to where the cavalry was on standby, and after a quick exnation, Reivyn and the other three galloped out of the city towards the retreating defenders and line of Revenants. The air turned cold as soon as they entered the encroaching shadows, and Reivyn felt an involuntary shiver.
"Melissa, take the left. Larissa, take the right," Reivyn shouted at hispanions over the whistling wind. "I''ll go around to the center. Hit them hard and fast!"
They split up, the Scouts following shortly behind them, and they moved to engage the undead. Reivyn followed Larissa, and they quickly passed the line of defenders ready to intercept for their allies. Larissaunched several Inferno sts at the line, and Reivyn quickly maneuvered his horse around the line of retreating people in the wake of the explosion.
He saw, and sensed, Melissa also pelting the line of Revenants as he turned to gallop across the line. He pumped mana into his me de Skill andunched massive attacks at the line as he galloped past, creating an opportunity for the Scouts to sweep in and pick up those retreating. Reivyn heaved a sigh of relief as the n went off without a hitch.
Suddenly, a stray Revenant came leaping out of the line, and Reivyn''s Danger Sense warned him in time to ward off the attack with a parry. The force of the blow almost unseated him, but he managed to hang on with abination of his Ride and Bnce Skills. Reivyn urged his horse to continue galloping, and he broke away from the Revenant that had tried to keep him from getting away.
He nced back as he galloped away, and he frowned at what he saw. The Revenant that had attacked him was attired in the same uniform as the church soldiers, but its gear had lost its divine empowerment. Its clothes were covered in blood, and gaping wounds. Oozing ck blood littered its body all over. The creature still had most of its skin and hair, and Reivyn recognized it.
That''s the Sword-Bishop! Reivyn realized as he turned back to putting all of his efforts into escaping back to the city. That can''t be good.
The cavalry, along with Reivyn and his Party members, made it back to the city quickly, and the survivors joined the others in copsing to the ground in exhaustion. There were no robe-wearing priests among them, but Reivyn did spot many of the acquaintances he had made in his time in the Dungeon Town.
He saw Lorin among the Adventurers that had been assisting in holding the Revenants back for the others to flee. He saw the sword-priest that had given them the exnation on the Experience Crystals, and he even saw Cal had copsed next to his friends in the group that had passed out.
There were many other familiar faces, but Reivyn didn''t have time to examine them. He dismounted and walked over to Josn, who had assumedmand of the sword-priests after the Sword-Bishop had obviously fallen.
He was standing over the man Reivyn had seen take an attack to the back earlier, and the man was clutching at Josn and pleading for something. Even from this distance, Reivyn could see the man''s body twitch uncontrobly, and ck veins were spreading across his body from the wound on his back.
Josn lowered his head momentarily, and Reivyn''s eyes widened in horror as he watched Josn look back up and then run the man through with his sword, ending his life. A smile was thest expression on the man''s face.
"What the hell?!" Reivyn yelled as he ran up to Josn. Josn looked up with expressionless eyes.
"He was beyond saving," Josn said. "You don''t know what happens to them. You haven''t seen it." His voice was devoid of any emotion.
"But we''re in the city now! We might have been able to find help. You just killed him without even trying!"
"Don''t be so quick to judge!" Josn yelled back. "That wasn''t his first wound, and we lost all of our Priests early on! Do you think I wanted to kill him?! He asked me to! And it was my responsibility! He was about to turn. What more would you have had me do?" Josn sounded defeated.
Reivyn paused for a moment as he considered the words. What else could he have done? The local church doesn''t have Caster Priests, they''re mundane believers. Reivyn shook his head.
"I don''t know, Josn. I don''t know," he said. Reivyn pped his hand on the man''s shoulder in silentfort.
"Report!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand came marching up to the group, quickly recognizing the man in charge of the retreat. Josn noticed the man''s air of authority and stood straighter.
"Yes, sir" he began. "There was a group of ck-robed men who suddenly appeared, and before anyone noticed what they were up to or could react, they initiated the Dungeon Break. We managed to fight off the first horde of goblins and orcs that appeared through several rips in reality, and they quickly ran off to hunt for easier prey.
"Due to Reivyn''s timely information about the Hard Mode of the second floor boss," Josn gestured toward Reivyn, "we knew to quickly destroy any of the Spectres and Duhans that suddenly showed up. Most of our Priests sacrificed themselves to ensure almost all of them were taken out before they could empower the Duhans.
"A few slipped through, but those are the least of our worries." Josn''s energy quickly depleted as he came to this point, and Knight-Lieutenant Brand was about to urge him on further, but the people noticed the ground begin to tremor. "That''s what we need to worry about." Josn continued. "The demons."
"Back to the ramparts!" Brand yelled out. He turned to Josn onest time. "You and yours get some rest. Not only do you need it, you deserve it. If you feel you can fight, you''ll get your chance after you take a break. We''ll handle it from here."
Chapter 54: Its Darkest Before
Chapter 54: It''s Darkest Before
Reivyn looked out at the fields coveredpletely in moving skeletal abominations. In the distance, he counted fifteen Duhans calmly walking with their heads tucked under their arms, and behind them, he counted five of the giant demons. They were truly monstrous, standing what appeared to be 40 to 50 feet tall. It was difficult to gauge their exact size because of how far away they were, but they towered over everything else. Revenants filled the entire space, and then some, around therger creatures.
I don''t see any Spectres at all. Based on how the Duhans are moving fluidly, they are obviously possessed, but there has to be a limit to how many Spectres canbine and possess one entity. I don''t know if three is the maximum or not. Maybe there weren''t as many Spectres on the third floor as I imagined. I did only see the one in the room with the hundreds of mining Revenants.
The undead army didn''t pause to evaluate the situation in front of them, nor did they charge recklessly ahead. They simply marched, as if reaching their destination was inevitable, so why alter their speed?
"Load the canisters!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand''s voice echoed over the battlements. The soldiers loaded enclosed cauldrons, built to fly through the air better in an elongated shape, into the scorpions. They were filled with tar, and the Mages imbued the entire thing with pure mana as they were set.
"Launch!" The order came and the scorpions fired their payload into the distance, having a much further range than simple bows or crossbows. The canisters sailed through the air before crashing into the ground amongst the Revenants, breaking apart and discharging the mana-imbued tar that had filled them acrossrge swathes of the ground.
"Fire Spell, ready!" The Adjutant called forth all Mages with an affinity for fire, Larissa also stepped forward and began preparing a Fire Bolt Spell. The fancy, more expensive Fire st or Inferno Spells weren''t necessary, so she opted for the cheaper spell. It would cost a lot of mana to empower it enough tounch the Spell far enough to hit the tar, so cutting mana costs somewhere else was more important.
"Cast!" Knight-Lieutenant Brand ordered.
Differentmands are necessary to give so each individual acting out themands know when and what to do properly. Launch is themand for the scorpions, Loose is themand for the archers, and Cast is themand for the Casters, Reivyn noted.
The Spells were empowered across the line and fired into the distance. The myriad of Fire Bolt Spells made contact with the tar, and magically imbued fire erupted among the Revenants.
All of the Revenants caught in the initial st were destroyed outright in the explosion, leaving even hardly any dust in its wake. The rest of the Revenants continued to march forward through the fire, the ones in the center mostly falling apart before making it through, but the ones on the edges were just severely damaged.
Every little bit will help.
"Adjust the range! Shift right two degrees!" Moremands for the scorpions came forth. The crew manning the siege weapons had one person rotate a gear to lower the elevation, and another person simultaneously rotated a different gear that moved the horizontal ne slightly to the right without having to adjust the base.
"Load the canisters! Launch!"
The troops were acting out their orders that continued toe in an orderly fashion followed by Mages taking turnsunching Fire Bolts spells and rotating out to conserve mana. The battlefield quickly became a scorching inferno as more and more canisters wereunched and subsequently fired.
The pure mana that is imbued fully into the canisters includes the tar within and seems to be affected by the properties of the tar. I can see that the fires are burning longer and hotter than one would expect, and all of the fire is magical in nature due to the mana infusing the tar and being lit by a spell, Reivyn nodded his head at the tactic.
Since the mana being imbued into the canisters affects the tar inside, I wonder... Reivyn reached down and pulled a couple of arrows out and tried to imbue them both as one entity while he held them both in his hand. It didn''t take, and he had to do each one individually. He then set the arrows aside and touched the quiver directly, pumping his mana into it.
Imbuing the quiver filled with arrows itself took considerably more mana than doing so to an arrow, but once he pulled an arrow out, he smiled.
It works. The cost, while more than an arrow, is actually less overall when considering just how many arrows get imbued all at once like this. Every arrow that he pulled out was imbued with magic. Reivyn emptied the quiver of all of the arrows and reced them with fresh ones. He frowned as they didn''t acquire the effect even though the quiver was technically still imbued.
Reivyn pumped his mana into the quiver once again, but this time it required a lot less mana. The next arrow he pulled out was sessfully imbued.
So it doesn''t affect the arrows after the fact, but the mana sink of the quiver itself is removed, and it moves the mana more efficiently through itself to imbue the next set.
Reivyn looked up and down the line, and he saw that the archers weren''t doing anything even though the Revenants were entering their range. They had been told to wait and fire at the demons and Duhans because they weren''t inherently immune to mundane attacks, they were just a bit resistant to them.
"Sir!" Reivyn shouted to the Knight-Lieutenant to get his attention. "Imbuing the quivers works the same way as the canisters. If we imbue them, the archers can damage the Revenants, too! Each new batch of arrows has to be imbued after being ced in the quiver."
"None-Fire Casters, imbue the quivers of the archers near you!" The Adjutant didn''t hesitate and issued a new order to take advantage of the discovery. I''m certain I''m not the first person to discover this, but this ce has probably never had to consider such an issue before, and the Magic Academy graduates probably don''t have sses on siege warfare.
"Archers, ready!" Once the quivers along the line were imbued, Brand had therge portion of troops that didn''t have anything to do currently engage in the battle. The other operations continued as he added the troops to the mix.
"Loose!" Arrows rained down on the Revenants. Most of the arrows passed through empty space between the bones, or hit arm or leg bones and did some minor damage to the health of the Revenants. Some arrows, though, pierced into skulls directly and snuffed out the orb that powered the skeletons.
Arrows aren''t the greatest choice, but there''s not much more we can do in this situation. At least it has some effect.
Reivyn added his own arrows to the mix. He quickly ran through the arrows that he had imbued from his quiver, and he moved on to a new one to rece it. The administrative soldiers were busy refilling quivers. Teilon and Kimberly had taken it upon themselves to fulfill the role, as well, so he didn''t have to worry about running out of arrows.
Reivyn moved to imbue the new batch of arrows, but he hesitated for a second as a thought struck him. He looked back and forth between his bow and his arrows. So many other things have worked in ways that they''re not specifically designed for, I wonder...
Reivyn activated his me de Skill with his bow as the target. He knocked an arrow, and he was pleased to see that it took on the characteristics of the me de Spell without any additional input from himself, and he fired it into the mass of Revenants.
Calcting...
me de Skill has been altered to me Weapon
Reivyn casually inspected the System Notification that popped up. I got tunnel vision on the fact that I was using a sword for the most part in the Dungeon, and I ignored that my Skill affects every weapon equally. Reivyn clenched his fist, and he activated the Skill once again with his hand as the target. His fist erupted in fire, and the mes and heat didn''t bother him at all. I am the weapon. Heh, nice.
Reivyn''s little experiment only took a couple of seconds, and he got back tounching his ming arrows into the advancing Revenants. Reivyn noted that the damage done to them was more than just piercing damage, as the fires spread and continued to burn from where the arrows pierced into bones. As the Revenants got closer and closer, Reivyn also activated his Aim Skill, and he exclusively aimed to hit Revenants in the skull.
The undead army continued its advance, and despite therge amount of damage the defenders had managed to inflict on their foes, the numbers were just too great, and the field still appeared to be filled with a never-ending tide of Revenants from the wall to the edge of the fields. And the Revenants were stilling.
There are way more than we had even feared possible. This is going to be ugly, Reivyn frowned. There must be even more Revenants on the third floor than I thought, or there might even be a fourth floor that we didn''t know about.
A huge surge of mana distracted Reivyn for a moment, and he looked over to see Knight-Captain Reifold, who had been silent and waiting up until this point, surrounded in a halo of golden light. The mana created a whirlpool around him as he sucked in more and more mana from the environment as well as fueling it from within himself, and the light from the halo became almost blinding.
The mana came to a tipping point as the Spell Knight-Captain Reifold was Casting filled to the brim, and after a brief moment, a huge ball of light shot out over the battlefield.
Reivyn watched as the huge ball, the size of a small house, rushed into the center of the field where it exploded. The light turned into countless swords made of golden light, and they smashed down into the horde of undead. Reifold had aimed for a position that included a Duhan, and even thatrger boss monster wasn''t able to hold up for more than a couple of seconds like it, and hundreds of Revenants surrounding it were torn to shreds.
Knight-Captain Reifold watched the massacre his Divine Spell wrought upon the undead, and after seeing the devastation, and the fact that most of the Spell was overkill, he nodded to himself and started gathering mana once more.
I wonder how many times he can cast that Spell? From the nonchnt look on his face, he probably has enough to Cast it many times. That will be a huge help. Reivyn mentally heaved a sigh of relief.
Knight-Captain Reifold once more gathered mana to empower his Spell, but he cut it off much shorter than filling it all the way to the bursting point likest time before he released it at another location with a Duhan. The golden orb was considerably smaller, only the size of a room inside a small house instead of the entire house, and it once more exploded over the undead. It created the same amount of devastation, but there was much less overkill this time.
Knight-Lieutenant Brand continued to issue orders, the soldiers continued to follow them, Reivynunched his ming arrows, and the battle continued as the Pdin released another strike. The Revenants reached the bottom of the wall, and Reivyn was dismayed to see that they were able to dig their finger bones directly into the stone to carry themselves up the wall.
More soldiers got involved, and the cauldrons full of tar reappeared. They were imbued with mana just like the canisters, and the tar was dumped on the climbing Revenants to be lit with magical fire shortly after.
Knight-Captain Reifold began gathering mana for a fourth Spell Cast, and Reivyn''s Danger Sense exploded. A streak of shadowunched itself from the rear of the undead horde and quickly reached the Knight-Captain, and he was forced to cancel his Spell as he instantly unsheathed his sword to block the attack.
Reivyn watched as the streak revealed itself to be a robed figure with a pitch-ck sword. He stood momentarily locked in ce as the Knight-Captain sessfully parried the sneak attack. Reivyn noted that he couldn''t glean any details from the man, as along with the ck robes covering his figure, it seemed that shadows oozed off of him and obscured everything else about him. The cowl of his hood seemed to lead into the abyss.
"Can''t have you interrupting our little y-time, can we," a raspy voice emerged from the hood as his momentum finally gave out and he backed away into a guard position.
The figure engaged Reifold in meleebat with lightning-quick strikes that Reivyn could barely make out even with his enhanced Perception. The Knight-Captain continued to parry and riposte, but after a short moment, Reivyn felt fear truly begin to creep up his spine for the first time since the battle began.
Knight-Captain Reifold is outmatched.
Another figure appeared to materialize out of the shadows next to Knight-Lieutenant Brand, and he was forced to cut off shouting hismands as he, too, pulled his sword to defend from a sneak attack. The two men weren''t far from each other, and a bubble formed around them as they engaged in a fight for their lives and the soldiers backed away from the clearly higher Tierbat.
Reivyn looked further down the line on both sides and saw several more figures materialize and assault the officers that could take charge of the defense. They''re disrupting the chain ofmand!
He noted that a lot of the soldiers weren''t paying attention to the overall situation, and they were just following themands issued to them by the Adjutant. They paused in their work, though, once themands stoppeding. Reivyn leaned over the edge of the wall and saw that the Revenants were more than halfway up and gaining.
Reivyn looked back over and saw that there were still many cauldrons set up and ready to go, but there wouldn''t be enough time to use them all if they kept moving at the previous pace, and definitely not at the current pace of beingpletely stalled out.
He sucked in a lungful of air and yelled out in a powerful voice, as no other officers had taken charge in thest few seconds. I am technically the Adjutant''s Aide, he thought before he issued his first, true militarymand.
"Soldiers, release all of the waiting cauldrons!" His voice bellowed out, and he was pleased to see that the soldiers didn''t hesitate to follow themand. "Fire Mages, standby! All other Mages, begin imbuing weapons and shields! Weapons and Shields! Prepare for breach!"
The Mages hopped to imbuing as many of the weapons and shields of the soldiers and Adventurers around them. The meleebatants that weren''t busy with the cauldrons mmed weapons into shields and jumped up and down to pump themselves up.
"Archers, Loose at will! Empty your quivers down the side of the wall! Fire Mages, Cast!"
Reivyn''s previous toon, the second toon, was the younger troops with lower levels, so they were in the second row with the Adventurers of a bit lower level. The first toon contained the veterans and higher Tier 2 individuals, and other, more experienced Adventurers were interspersed with them. There were a couple of Adventurers who were already in the low Tier 3''s, but they were few and far between.
The Mages finished imbuing the weapons and shields, and Reivyn noticed the time on his System Clock so he would remember when to issue the next order to top the mana up. There wasn''t enough time or mana to spare to imbue the full kit of gear, so the defenders would have to make due.
"Mages, focus fire above and over the front lines! We can''t risk coteral damage on the troops! Conserve your mana so you can keep the gear topped up on mana!"
Reivyn had assumedmand of the situation, and all of themands that he could think of to keep the soldiers moving were quickly issued. He emptied his quiver and abandoned his bow to pull his sword and shield to wait for the Revenants to finally breach. He took a nce at the situation with the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant.
The shadowy figure engaging the Pdin mainly used melee attacks, but he interspersed his strikes with sts of shadowy mana. Reivyn watched as the man leaped back, extending his off hand, and thin bolts speared out from each of his extended fingers. Each one zipped forward at tremendous speed, aiming for a different vital point on Reifold''s body. Reifold used his mana imbued sword to parry several of the bolts, and he used his offhand to Cast a bluish mana shield Spell to block the others.
He quickly retaliated with a swing of his sword that contained a version of his previous Spell, and golden, Divine Manashed out at the shadowy figure. The manughed as he dodged the attack and rushed back in at a different angle to engage in more meleebat again.
The robed-man assaulting the Knight-Lieutenant seemed to phase in and out of existence as his body blended with the increasing darkness as the shadows grew denser as time went on. The Adjutant was unable to use mana Skills, so he was unable to affect his opponent when he used the Skill, and he was much more passive in defending against the opponent than his superior officer was. He had to constantly spin about as the enemy shifted all around with his random attacks.
Reivyn couldn''t make out how thebat situations were going with the other officers, but he could tell that they were at least holding their own for now.
Reivyn turned his focus back to the edge of the wall, as the first skeletal hand reached up into view, quickly followed by the rest of the Revenant.
"Breach!" Reivyn yelled the warning to the soldiers atop the ramparts. "Just like usual. First rank use sword and shield. Second rank, spears. Focus your piercing strikes on the skulls, and use sweeping strikes to push the Revenants off the walls so they don''t overwhelm us!"
Reivyn issued themand and then stepped forward himself, to take a position in the front. He lit his sword with his Fire Weapon Spell, and beganying about, killing the Revenants before they could get settled atop the walls.
All along the lines, the troops engaged in meleebat as the archers continued to release arrows into the horde below. The Magesunched their spells in an attempt to thin out the massive numbers still behind the Revenants finally entering meleebat.
The Revenants were the most powerful foes any of the soldiers had ever faced, and they constantly had to maintain their bnce and stances with the assistance of the men behind them as the blows from the Revenants were much more powerful than they were used to. Luckily, panic had not ensued and the troops fought like any other battle.
It wasn''t long, though, before the first casualty appeared. A soldier near Reivyn had his shield caught by one of the skeletal enemies, and it used its immense strength tounch the man off the top of the wall into the waiting army below. Reivyn listened to the man scream as he plummeted to his death, the abrupt halt in his voice indicating he had met his fate.
Simr situations urred up and down the line as soldiers and Adventurers were overpowered and killed by the increasing number of Revenants ascending the wall. The troops knew that there was no retreat from this situation, so they continued to fill the gaps left by the deceased, and the battle continued.
With the interference from those shadowy figures, we don''t have enough men. This is a losing battle.
Reivyn looked at his friends who had joined thebat with their own imbued weapons and shields. Melissa and Larissa continued tounch their spells as they kept an eye on their mana to keep the weapons able to ward off the Revenants, and Erik was a bulwark in front of them against the tide of undead.
Reivyn gritted his teeth and quashed any feelings of guilt towards his friends that began to creep up. He had a job to do, and it was not the time toment their actions or circumstances.
Arge ball covered in spikes suddenly appeared, crashing down on a group of soldiers to Reivyn''s right, decimating their ranks. Men called out in pain as they wereunched aside, but many more were silent as their heads were crushed, dying instantly. The Duhans had reached the walls, and their spiked chain weapons were easily long enough to engage the defenders before they climbed all the way to the top.
Reivyn looked into the distance and noted that the giant demons would be able to strike at the defenders soon as well, and the fact that he could now see the end of the horde did nothing to diminish the despair that began to fill him.
We have to figure out a way to get the Knight-Captain away from that shadow-cloaked guy. But how?! He''s obviously a bit higher level than the Knight-Captain, and he''s high Tier 3!
Reivyn wracked his brain for a solution, but he couldn''t think of anything other than the dumbest method: simply barging in and hoping he could distract the man long enough to let the Commanderunch some more Spells.
I''m going to regret this! Reivyn thought as he shouted to Melissa and Larissa, "Assist me with the shadow guy!"
Reivyn waited a moment for the right opportunity. The man performed his leap back tounch the shadow Spells, and Reivyn activated his Charge Skill with his ming Weapon imbued sword out at the man''s back.
The man reacted almost instantly as Reivyn closed the distance in mere fractions of a second, but Reivyn was ecstatic to see that it hadn''t been fast enough. Reivyn''s sword bit into the man''s side as he twisted his body about to avoid a strike on his vitals, and Reivyn could hear a snarl of ragee from the dark cowl. Reivyn sensed the manaing from the sisters, and he leaped back as the man began to swing toward him with his sword.
Reivyn threw up a Mana Shield in front of him and empowered it with extra mana as the mobile Ice Tomb Spell detonated in the man''s face, preventing him from exacting his revenge. Knight-Captain Reifold didn''t miss the opportunity either, and he stabbed the man in the back with his Divine empowered sword.
The man screamed in rage and pain, and he threw his arms and head back as a huge shadow exploded out of him. The shadow picked Reivyn up and tossed him away, towards the edge of the wall, and even the Knight-Captain was knocked back. Reivyn crashed into the backs of the men defending against the encroaching Revenants, and his momentum was stalled out, preventing him from beingunched into the crowd of undead below.
"I''m not ying with you anymore!" A loud, otherworldly voice exploded out of the shadowy figure as he leveled his gaze on the Knight-Captain who was getting back to his feet.
"Then maybe you''ll y with me!" Another voice answered him as a towering, hulking man covered from head to toe in heavy te armor appeared out of nowhere. He backhanded the man with his shield, and the shadowy figure went cartwheeling off of the wall, disappearing from sight in the distance as he faded into the growing darkness.
"Oh, maybe not," the man said as he lifted his hand up to scratch his head. His armored fingers met his helmet, though, and he pulled his hand back in front of his face to look at it in apparent confusion. "He was a lot weaker than he looked."
"Looks like we made it in time," Reivyn heard another man say. He looked over and saw a familiar group: The heavily armored giant man, the lesser armored swordsman, and the rogue and Mage apanied by a smaller, slimmer person also covered from head to toe in a shimmering robe. They were all decked out with their heads and faces covered with their protective gear, but Reivyn recognized them, aside from the slightly smaller addition, instantly.
It''s that group of Adventurers from the Dungeon Town Expedition! He thought. I remember they were really strong. We might have a fighting chance, after all.
Chapter 55: The Dawn
Chapter 55: The Dawn
The battle didn''t stop because of the entrance of the high-Level Adventurers. Reivyn wasn''t one to goggle, and the situation was certainly in hand, so he quickly made his way back to his original position to defend against the Revenants with Melissa and Larissa in tow.
Now that the Revenants were on top of the wall and engaging properly, Reivyn was finally able to see just how powerful the Revenants were without the restriction of the mana density.
Gone were the jerky motions. Gone was theck of coordination caused by not being able to attack their exact target. The blows came in hard and fast, and Reivyn returned the strikes just as quickly. Most of the soldiers and Adventurers to his left and right were unable to fight off the Revenants single-handedly, and they had to use the tactic of stalling them out as much as possible while waiting for the spearman behind them to pierce their skulls or knock them back with a sweeping attack that put them off bnce.
Reivyn was able to match the Revenant''s speed and strength, and his working mind was superior in dealing with changing situations. I can hold this position indefinitely, as long as my Mana pool can keep up. A quick nce at his Status showed that he was still around 1,100. Good. My situation here should help to Inspire the morale of those around me, too.
Only a brief moment had passed, and while Reivyn had almost all of his focus concentrated on the enemies in front of him, he was still able to keep abreast of most of what was urring nearby due to his Battlefield Awareness Skill. The new Adventurers had apparently finished assessing the situation after rushing to stop the shadowy figure from holding the Knight-Captain down, and they were beginning to get to serious work.
The Rogue turned and looked at the one engaging the Knight-Lieutenant, and Reivyn heard him chuckle. "You want to y with the shadows in front of an expert? I''ll y with you."
The Rogue faded into the darkness, and almost like teleportation, he instantly appeared beside the shadowy figure as he phased back into corporeality. He had to turn away from the Adjutant to parry the attack from the Rogue''s dagger. He yelped in surprise when he suffered a sh to his chest despite sessfully blocking the strike.
The Rogueughed again as his body sunk into the man''s shadow that he still cast despite the increasing darkness, and the robed figure turned to run away, his movement Skill temporarily unable to be activated so soon after use.
"Haha, run! Run! I know you like running," the Rogue''s upper body came back up from the shadow, being carried along without any effort on his part. He casually shed the running figure in the back.
"Gah!" The man stumbled, and after a short pause, he dispelled the Skill or Magic Item that caused the shadows surrounding him to continuously spread in an attempt to remove the Rogue from his position.
"That won''t help you, haha."
A giant ball of light formed in the sky, brighter than the midday sun. It dispelled most of the darkness, but it had the side effect of actually deepening everyone''s individual shadows.
"It''s not fair, is it? Here, I''ll give you a head start," the Rogue jumped out of the man''s shadow and returned to his group. He crossed his arms as he tapped his foot. The shadowy figure wasted no time in running for the edge of the wall to retreat into the horde of undead.
The other Adventurers weren''t standing idle, though. The Mage raised his staff, and despite not being able to see it with his eyes, Reivyn could sense the powerful mana as tethers shot out and attached to all of the shadow-robed foes engaging the officers, and then they were all violently pulled to the Mage, including the one that had tried to flee from the Rogue.
The Rogue looked down at the man who had fallen to the ground from the powerful yanking force. "Oh, did I say I would give you a head start? Whoops." He shed down with his dagger and nearly decapitated his enemy, ending his life.
A shadowy apparition rose from the man''s body and melted in the ring light of the artificial sun.
"We''re not here to y," the Swordsman said. He casually swung his sword, and a de aura shed through all of the other robed men at once, nearly cutting them all in half. "The longer we take, the more people will die." Simr apparitions rose from their corpses, as well, and disintegrated shortly after.
"Right, boss. Sorry, boss." The Rogue bobbed his head.
A spiked ball from a Duhan came flying up over the edge, and the towering metal Adventurer raised his shield as Reivyn felt a force expand out from him. The spiked ball jerked from its trajectory and mmed ineffectually into the man''s shield and bounced off.
"Can''t have any of that," he said as he Charged to the edge of the wall. He released a mighty shout, and a bluish aura expanded out from him to epass nearly half of the entire wall. Ethereal shields sprung up in front of all of the troops within range of the aura, and the Revenant''s attacks were all sucked into attacking the shields whether they wanted to or not. The blows didn''t so much as cause a ripple as the man single-handedly reduced more than half of the line''s pressure.
While the man covered in heavy armor took up his defensive position, the Swordsman threw his off-hand into the air, and hundreds of ethereal weapons appeared as if he had tossed them out of a bag. Most of them were swords, but they also contained axes, spears, daggers, and many other forms of ded weapons. They floated down to begin circling around him. He turned to the Adjutant.
"Order the line to retreat to the middle or rear of the wall. I''ll handle the breach." Knight-Lieutenant Brand nodded his head.
"Soldiers! Retreat ten paces!" The soldiers and Adventurers manning the line began to methodically back away. In the center where the defensive Adventurer had taken up residence, the Revenants were unable to follow, but along the edges. More and more came up as space was made.
The Swordsman dashed to the end of the line in an instant, and his weapons became a maelstrom of destruction as they swirled around him at blinding speed. He didn''t even have to swing his own weapon. He just ran up and down the line at a blistering speed a couple of times, and he reaped all of the Revenants on the line.
The Mage followed behind him, the Rogue standing to his side to prevent any more shadowy figures from appearing and sneak attacking him, and a wall of fire epassed the entire line. Reivyn could feel the heat from his position after backing away with the soldiers, and he watched as the air itself turned into sma and dripped like molten metal.
The wall of mes descended along the face of the city wall, and it scoured it clean of any Revenants and Duhans that had been climbing.
"The mana density is still a bit low," Reivyn hearde from the more diminutive Mage. The new addition reached into a pouch on their back and pulled out a handful of crystals that were way toorge to fit in such a small space. The Mage threw them into the air where they shattered. Reivyn felt a tremendous, sudden increase in the mana density, several times higher than it had even been when filled with the mana the enemies had inundated the battlefield with.
"Ahh, that''s better." The Mage extended their arms to the side, and they began to levitate in ce. Hundreds of balls of light flew out of them and spread across the battlefield in the sky. Beams of golden light began to shoot out of the balls as they traversed the sky, raining destruction upon the undead below. Reivyn felt the increased mana density begin to coalesce around the individual as they prepared a massive spell.
As the situation was brought well in hand by the new Adventurers, the five giant demons finally arrived at the wall. Reivyn noticed that they were actually a bit taller than he had expected. The walls were 50 feet tall, and the demons stood head and shoulder above even that.
"Haha, yeah! That''s what I''m talking about!" The hulking man in armor eximed. He reached into a pouch behind him, and he withdrew a giant hammer, the head half the size of his own body. "BRING IT!" The loud shout contained a ripple of power, and all five demons forcibly had their attention pulled to the man.
The first demon raised its hand and brought it crashing down on top of the armored Adventurer. The man easily withstood the strike with his shield, and then he swung his hammer forward. It crashed into the air like it hit a solid wall, and the demon''s body, which was still about 20 feet away, seemed to take a blow out of nowhere. Its head snapped back from the force of the blow, and it stumbled a bit.
"Hahahaha, yeah! Get some!" The armored man cackled maniacally as he engaged the five demons by himself. The other Adventurers gathered back together near where the new member was floating in the air. The taller Mage asionally shot beams of super-heated sma at the giant demons.
Reivyn stood in awe as he watched the spectacle.
I knew they were strong, but holy cow! It''s been less than five minutes, and the battle is pretty much over.
The defenders all up and down the line rxed as they witnessed the raw power of the Adventuring team. Many copsed to the ground as the sudden relief and feelings of survival overwhelmed the adrenaline that had just been pumping through their veins.
The Mana finished umting with the smaller Mage, and Reivyn turned his attention back to witness the Spell unfold.
Clouds made of golden light came streaking in from all directions towards the center of the battlefield where thousands of Revenants still moved mindlessly towards the city. The clouds quickly covered the entire sky, but instead of bringing doom and gloom like thunder clouds normally would, these brought a sense of peace and tranquility as they shined even more light.
The clouds formed a funnel cloud in the center of the field, and Reivyn watched as a giant, golden tornado formed. The balls of light that were still sting their beams were sucked into the tornado, and the tornado shot thousands of beams down onto the undead in all directions. The tornado began to move, and all of the undead were picked up and sucked into the spinning, golden death.
The Revenants began disintegrating before they even reached the main body of the tornado, and many more were sted into smithereens by the beams of light. Reivyn and the others on the wall didn''t feel the wind or pull from the tornado, but it sucked up all of the undead while leaving the fields, nts, and structures intact.
The giant demons began to be sucked towards the maelstrom, and one of them quickly grabbed hold of the top of the city wall, digging its fingers into the stone. The hulking Adventurerughed as he brought his hammer down on the fingers, and the demon was unable to hold on and got lifted into the air to be dragged to its demise.
Despite the huge spectacle, the battlefield wentpletely silent. The tornado lifted off the ground and returned to the calm clouds, and they, too, slowly dissipated to reveal that it was still mid-day.
Not a single trace of the undead army remained.
The artificial sun was gone, but the sky was still blue, and natural, fluffy clouds still floated through the sky,pletely unconcerned with the happenings on the ground. I had almost forgotten that it wasn''t nighttime, Reivyn thought absentmindedly.
The sudden tranquility was broken by the mangled body of the first shadowy-cloaked figure falling from the sky tond on the ramparts near the Adventurers. The man wasn''t dead, and he struggled to sit up and look at the Adventurers who had so casually destroyed his ns.
The man coughed and hacked before he managed to find his voice as he addressed them.
"Who are you? There shouldn''t be anyone of your caliber in these parts!" He couldn''t ept reality.
"It doesn''t matter," the Swordsman replied calmly as he stood over the broken body of the man. His sword was still in his hand, but the ethereal weapons he had summoned had long since been dispersed.
"Hahahaha. That bastard might have lied to me, but h...ack," the Swordsman stabbed him through the throat as he tried to start a tirade. The diminutive Mage pped him on the shoulder with the back of their hand.
"Hey! He might have had something important to say," she admonished.
"Nah," the Swordsman shrugged. "We probably know more than he does, anyway. I would rather not listen to him."
"Whatever," the smaller Mage turned their head away in a huff.
"Hahahaha. Better watch yourself. Don''t get on her bad side, or you know what..." The giant adventurer came bounding over with glee.
"Oh? I know what, exactly?" The Swordsman turned to him. The big man froze in ce as he looked back and forth between hispanions.
"You know... Stuff... And things," he stammered out.
"Uh-huh. How revealing."
"Hmph!" The little Mage crossed her arms as she turnedpletely away from the duo.
"May I know how to address the sirs, and ma''am, that havee to our aid?" Themander of the Mage Corps approached the Adventurers, Knight-Captain Reifold a half-step behind and to the side of him. The Mage Corps Commander gave a deep bow to the apparent leader of the team. Reivyn''s eyebrows raised in surprise at the scene.
"Just your everyday Adventurers, looking for excitement," The Swordsman replied nonchntly. He sheathed his weapon as he nodded at the pair of men.
"Well, I''m Count Ilpir, the Lord of Magron. I would be honored if you heroes would join me for a victory feast at my humble home," The Count said.
Ahh, that makes sense. I had thought the man would wait in safety for news on the oue of the battle, but he was here, fighting, the whole time. Reivyn''s respect for the man increased significantly.
"Won''t be necessary, and we aren''t Heroes," the Swordsman replied.
"Yeah, this guy, here, had the chance to advance to the Hero ss, but circumstances dictated otherwise," therge man pped a hand on the Swordsman''s shoulder. The Swordsman turned his head and red at him, and the heavily armored man slowly raised his hand off of his shoulder. "I mean... yeah, no Heroes here."
The Swordsman turned and walked off, and the other Adventurers hurried to follow. The Count took several steps towards the retreating Party.
"There must be something I can do to show my appreciation," he tried one more time.
"Nah, we got people to be and ces to kill," the Rogue waved his hand without turning back. The group made their way to the stairs, and they left, just like that.
"Damn," the Count muttered under his breath.
"Some things aren''t meant to be, My Lord," Captain-Reifold said from his position.
"Yeah," the Count sighed, "I know. It would have been a great boon to building a rtionship with such powerful individuals, though."
"There might be other opportunities in the future, the Dungeon is still there," Knight-Captain Reifold pointed out. "And there are other young, promising heroes to praise for their courage." Reifold looked toward Reivyn and his friends.
Teilon, Kimberly, Melissa, Larissa, and Erik had all gathered around Reivyn once the danger of the Revenants on the wall had been dealt with, and they had stood just as stupefied as they watched the end of the battle unfold. Even Erik had lost hisposure and put his guard down to witness the scene.
Reivyn had witnessed many scenes of bravery during the ordeal, and he was sure the Knight-Captain wasn''t just talking about him. He and his friends were just the closest and most prominent group.
The Count looked back at the Commander of his Retinue, and then he followed his gaze toward Reivyn and his Party. His body gave a small jerk as his eyesnded on Reivyn, but he visibly mastered himself before he walked over. He smiled at the group, and he even nodded to Melissa and Larissa.
"Yes, we''ll still hold a victory feast, and you all will definitely be in attendance. Things could have been much worse, Young Reivyn, if you hadn''t stepped forward to issuemands at that critical juncture."
There''s something strange about the way he addressed me like that... Well, whatever. It''s not important.
"The enemies must have seen through my disguise because I was likewise entangled. You have my sincere thanks." The Count looked all around and lifted his head before continuing.
"That goes for all of you," he shouted. "Each and every one of you stood up to a hopeless situation, and though many brave men and women fell to never get back up again, you faced your fears and showed what true courage means.
"Aside from the few who stood out and get rmended by their superiors to join me in the victory feast, I will personally see to it that you, and the families of the fallen, are justly rewarded and taken care of."
The defenders cheered at the words. They weren''t cheering for the reward, or for the praise from the Count.
They were cheering for life.
Mourning would be done for the friends that hadid their lives down, but right now, it was a triumph of life over death, in more ways than one.
The Count nodded onest time toward Reivyn and his Party, and he and the Knight-Captain departed the battlements. Knight-Lieutenant Brand walked up shortly after.
"We still have some cleaning up to do, and then a lot of after-action reports must be made. You and your friends have done enough, so I''ll see you at the banquet," The Knight-Lieutenant said. "Good job on taking charge. Those were the right orders to issue for the asion. I think you might still have some friends from the Dungeon Town down below, so I''ll let you go."
"Thank you, sir," Reivyn said. The Knight-Lieutenant pped him on the shoulder before turning around tomand the clean-up. Reivyn turned and faced his friends.
"Well, let''s head on down. There were a couple of acquaintances below, so let''s go check up on them."
"Yeah, and after, I''m going to go back to our rooms, take a bath, and then copse on the bed," Teilon said with a stretch. "I''m exhausted. Both mentally and physically. One of those Revenants really hit my shield hard at just the right angle. I''m going to be bruised all on my left side."
"Maybe it''ll improve yourplexion," Reivyn said as he threw his arm over Teilon''s shoulders. He swung him side to side as he ribbed him.
"I don''t have the energy toe up with a proper quip back," Teilon said as he looked at Reivyn out of the side of his eyes.
"What else is different?" Kimberly chimed in with a lopsided grin. Teilon gasped and ced his hand on his breast in mock outrage.
"You, too?" He ced the back of his wrist on his forehead as he tilted his head back. "Traitors and scoundrels, the lot of you."
"Hahaha, ok, ok," Reivyn said as he straightened up. "We''ll get our chance to rx and recover, soon. Let''s go check up on a few people."
"We''re going to go make sure the vigers and the kids are ok," Melissa said. Larissa nodded her head, and Kimberly walked over to join them. Reivyn shared a nce with Teilon. He nodded his head to the girls and Erik, and Teilon walked over and joined them as well.
"I''ll see you guys back at the Lord''s Manor," Reivyn said with a wave.
"Sure. See you, then," Melissa said as they followed him down the steps. Reivyn felt a little awkward having said their farewells but ending up still walking in the same direction. They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Reivyn gave another sheepish wave as they finally parted.
He walked toward where those from the Dungeon Town were still resting. Even more of them had sumbed to the lure of sleep, and the local City Guard that hadn''t been on the wall had brought nkets and pillows for them to use right there on the street. They stood watch over them so that nobody would decide that now was the perfect opportunity for a little pickpocketing.
Reivyn searched the faces of the men and womenid about. He saw that Cal and his friends, the original two he had met in the tavern as well as the other three he had eventually teamed up with, were still syed out where he had seen them fall asleep. Lorin was sitting with his back leaning against one of his Party members, his head down and chin on his chest, also asleep.
Reivyn didn''t see Josn anywhere, at first, and so he walked around with his head turning back and forth as he searched. He finally spotted him sitting on some steps, alone. His head was down, and Reivyn thought he might have also fallen asleep, but he saw him move and knew he was still awake. Reivyn walked over and sat down next to him inpanionable silence.
"Did I do the right thing?" Josn eventually said after noticing it was Reivyn. He stared down at his hands, holding them palm up on his knees. "I told the Sword-Bishop, once, that we should put the stricken Adventurers to the sword. As a mercy. I thought I was strong enough to handle such a decision and not be a monster, but now I know better." He looked up at Reivyn, and there were tears in his eyes.
"I''m not strong enough. Not to make that decision. Not to not be a monster," he looked at the top of the walls, his sight beyond, "and not to protect my men." He clenched his fists as he looked back down.
"You know what you are strong enough for?" Reivyn said after a moment, cing his hand on his shoulder. Josn looked up at him with a curious look on his face. "You''re strong enough to admit it. You recognize your weakness. The real question is: are you strong enough to do something about it?"
Josn sat in silence as he looked back down once again. He sat like that, in contemtion, for several moments before he looked back up, the defeat that had been building on his face gone.
"You''re right. I''m not strong enough now, but that doesn''t mean I can''t be strong enough eventually," he said. "The Sword-Bishop single-handedly killed three of those giant demons and five Duhans before he was taken down. I can''t disappoint my mentor by giving up. He sacrificed his life to make sure we had a chance at survival, and he didn''t have to. He was strong enough to make it out of there all on his own."
"He was also strong enough to make the decision not to," Reivyn said gently.
"Yes. I must be strong like him," Josn stood up, a look of determination on his face.
"What are you going to do now?" Reivyn asked from his seat.
"I''m going to lead my men back to the Dungeon Town," Josn said as he looked at Reivyn. "We still need a presence there, and that''s my duty.
"We will run that Dungeon until we''re as strong as that group of Adventurers that defeated the horde in a few minutes by themselves."
"Isn''t the Dungeon Town destroyed?" Reivyn cocked his head.
"No," Josn replied. "It''s mostly still standing. Despite being the origination of the devastation, it didn''t really affect the town that much. Only a couple of buildings were destroyed by the demons and Duhans moving about, and as far as I could tell, the mana escaping from the Dungeon stopped once those guys opened the rifts to release the monsters." Reivyn''s eyebrows went up in surprise.
"That''s good, I guess," Reivyn said.
"Yeah," Josn hit his fist into his other open palm. "I''ll send a request for reinforcements, and obviously a list of those to be honored, and we''ll get right back up and running." He turned to look at Reivyn once more. "Thank you."
"Don''t mention it," Reivyn said with a wave of his hand. "You had it in you the whole time, you just needed someone to point it out to you." Reivyn stood up and sped hands with Josn. "I''m going to go get cleaned up and get some rest. The Count is holding a victory feast,ter, and I''m sure you''ll be one of the ones he wants present the most.
"What you did, leading your men and the survivors of the town to escape all the way here, was extraordinary," Reivyn pped him on the shoulder onest time. "You''re already a lot stronger than you realize."
Josn nodded with a smile before he turned and walked back to where the rest of the sword-priests were resting. Reivyn watched him go for a moment before he, too, turned and made his way to the Lord''s Manor.
As strong as that Adventuring Team that was able to end the battle in a few minutes by themselves, Reivyn thought as he walked. I''ll be that strong, one day. I don''t want my parents or sisters to ever have to worry about whether or not they''ll be able to make it out of a situation.
The streets were eerily quiet as the sun finally began to set on the horizon. Reivyn walked to the Lord''s Manor to get some much-needed rest.
Chapter 56: After Action
Chapter 56: After Action
Reivyn leaned back and rxed in the hot water. Teilon and his other friends hadn''t returned to the manor right away, so Reivyn went ahead and took the opportunity to get cleaned up and rx his muscles.
As soon as he had entered the waters, despite the heat, his body trembled uncontrobly for a while.
Despite all of the dangerous situations I''ve found myself in before, this was the first time I truly felt like there was no hope of survival. If those Adventurers hadn''t appeared, the city would have been lost.
Reivyn put his hand over his eyes, and silent tears leaked out of them. He wasn''t crying because of the fear he had experienced. The fear had only been a small portion of what he had felt. When it had finally dawned on him that they were going to lose the battle, he hadn''t felt much fear. He had felt sadness and regret for his friends. He had felt sadness for the fallen defenders.
He had felt sadness for his family learning of the news and not being able to do anything about it. His mind forced him to imagine the helplessness and despair his mother and father would feel and the confusion andter sadness his sisters would experience. They''re still pretty young, so they might not fully understand, yet.
He had suppressed those feelings in the moment in order to perform his job, but now they threatened to overwhelm him. He let the emotions run their course, and he didn''t fight back the tears and let them slowly drip off of his face to join their watery brethren in the bath.
The time for tears is after the job is done. Reivyn vaguely remembered a simr quote from his dreams, and he felt he truly understood it, now.
After several minutes of just sitting there, letting the emotions course through him, Reivyn was finally able to ovee them and return to his normal self. He washed up as the water turned lukewarm and returned to the room that he shared with Teilon and Erik.
His friends weren''t back yet, and they would have to do their own rxation once they arrived, so he donned somefortable clothes andid back on his bed, his hands interlocked behind his head.
Not much else to do right now, so might as well pull my notifications up, he thought.
[Combat Initiated.]
[Enemies Defeated]
[Exp +25]
[Exp +25]
[...]
[Exp +25 x 312]
Wow, I killed 314 goblins. I killed more than most, but a lot of other people should also have gotten a significant increase in Experience from this battle. He continued to look through the battle report Notification.
[Enemies Defeated]
[Exp +60]
[Exp +60]
[...]
[Exp +60 x 38]
I killed a lot less of the orcs, but that''s still going to be a decent chunk of Experience, too, for a lot of people. I didn''t attack any of the ogres, so I didn''t get any contribution from killing any of them.
[Enemies Defeated]
[Exp +380]
[Exp +380]
[...]
[Exp +380 x41]
43 Revenants were killed from thebination of the arrows Iunched, and then the ones I fought on the wall. I didn''t keep track in the moment, but that number seems right.
[Enemy Defeated]
[Calcting Contribution...]
[15% Experience Rewarded]
[Exp +159]
Reivyn looked at thest line in confusion before he figured out where thest bit of Experience hade from. That''s from that shadow-cloaked guy. I stabbed him in the side, so I got some credit for his defeat. 159 Experience is only 15% of the total! That means he was worth more than 1,000 Experience all by himself. I know the Revenants are Tier 3 Level 50, and they give 380 Experience for killing them. That means this guy was firmly in Tier 4.
Reivyn let that fact sink in for a moment. He wasn''t lying when he said he was ying with us. If he hadn''t wanted to fool around, this could have gone so much worse. But if he and his group were so powerful, why go through so much trouble in orchestrating the Dungeon Break? There has to be more to it than that. Reivyn couldn''t wrap his head around the motivations of the shadowy group, but then another thought struck him.
They were like children in front of the Adventurers... Does that mean they were Max Tier 4? Or maybe they were even Tier 5... He clenched his fist as he thought about it. One day I''ll be Tier 5. I''ll be as powerful, or even more powerful, than them.
Reivyn had never lusted after power for power''s sake before. He had always been training, working, and nning to get into the most powerful ss and work on his Achievements because it seemed like the right thing to do. He hadn''t been worried about people bullying his family or any other such reason. Why hobble myself with an inferior ss when I can get a better one? This is my life, after all. But now he had a real reason to aim for the top.
Reivyn turned his attention back to the notifications.
[Combat Resolved.]
[Calcting...]
[Large Scale Siege Battle:]
[Exp +24,160]
[Calcting...]
[Determined Partial Leadership Role]
[Bonus Experience for Leadership Role <>
[Exp +784]
Oh, looks like themanders of battles get a bonus for the Experience. That makes even more sense that they don''t just go in and do everything themselves. They don''t need to in order to continue to progress as well as let their men gain Experience.
[Achievement!]
[Survive a Hopeless Siege Battle]
[Luck +1]
Wow, a lot of people just unlocked the Luck Stat if they didn''t have it already.
[Achievement!]
[Command a Sessful Siege Battle]
[Charisma +1]
[Bonus Leveling to Battlefield Awareness, Command, Inspire, and Strategy Applied]
[Achievement!]
[Command a Sessful ''Hopeless'' Siege Battle]
[Luck and Charisma +3]
[Bonus Leveling to Battlefield Awareness, Command, Inspire, and Strategy Applied]
[Achievement!]
[Inspire More Than 100 People at the Same Time]
[Charisma +1]
[Bonus Leveling to Inspire Applied]
[Achievement!]
[Inspire More than 300 People at the Same Time]
[Charisma +3]
[Bonus Leveling to Inspire Applied]
[Achievement!]
[Participate in a Battle Between Realms]
[All Stats +1]
[Achievement!]
[Sessfully Sneak Attack an Entity 3 Tiers Above You, Ending in Their Defeat]
[All Stats +10]
[Bonus Leveling to Hiding, Sneaking, Stealth, and Backstab Skills Applied]
[Achievement!]
[Bring Someone of a Higher Tier Back from the Depths of Despair with Your Words Alone]
[Charisma +3]
[Bonus Leveling to Inspire Applied]
That is a lot of Achievements. I didn''t think I did that much in the battle. Looks like even taking over temporarymand worth less than 1% still grants the Command Achievements, though. I bet there are some stiptions applied to the Achievement: like if amander simply gives themand away to let someone else get the Achievement it might not work. It''s probably only when someone steps up and takesmand in a dire situation that it truly applies.
Reivyn didn''t know for sure, but based on the fact that Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand usually went out of their way to allow their men to develop, there was no way they wouldn''t game the System to let more of their troops get such an Achievement and Bonus Experience if it was that easy.
There were still more Notifications to peruse through.
[Skills Leveled Up!]
[Tier 1]
[Aim (25 ->27)]
[Bnce (45 ->46)]
[Horsemanship (6 ->8)]
[Ride (11 ->12)]
[Shields (47 ->48)]
[Sneaking (25 ->27)]
[Tier 2]
[Evasion (37 ->39)]
[Sense Mana (54 ->55)]
[Stealth (18 ->23)]
[Strategy (15 ->19)]
[Tier 3]
[Battlefield Awareness (14 ->18)]
[Command (11 ->20)]
[Danger Sense (13 ->15)]
[Inspire (13 ->24)]
[Mana Conjuration (28 ->30)]
[Mana Maniption (30 ->32)]
[Mana Sight (31 ->33)]
[Mental Fortitude (38 ->40)]
[Tier 4]
[Iron Will (13 ->15)]
[Mana Weapon (24 ->27)]
[Spatial Awareness (20 ->21)]
[Tier 6]
[Weapons Master (59 ->61)]
Weapons Master finally breached the Level 60 hurdle. The previous solo delve of the Dungeon hadn''t quite done it, but it looks like using it so much in an intense situation, plus against a high Tier 4 Leveled enemy, it not only broke the barrier but even advanced an additional Level.
[New Skills Unlocked!]
[Tier 1]
[Heavy Armor (0 ->7)]
[Tier 2]
[Backstab (0 ->9)]
[Tier 3]
[Commanding Shout (0 ->4)]
[Tier 5]
[Heroic Bearing (0 ->3)]
Backstab went from 0 to 9 in one go from sessfully sneak attacking that shadow guy. I guess that''s to be expected, but what''s with this Heroic Bearing? Reivyn thought about all of his actions and the Achievements he had received from the battle and pep talk with Josn after. It has to be abination of all of it together: I gave steadymands to the defenders, rushed in to attack a high Tier 4 bad guy, didn''t back down - I actually didn''t have time to cower in fear, so that might have actually bent things in my favor - and then I had a conversation with Josn where I Inspired him out of his depression - though I don''t know how much credit I can really take for that. He probably would havee out of it on his own given time.
Reivyn was very satisfied with the results. He had gained a lot of Skill Levels in some of the harder ones to Level, namely the leadership ones, and his Mana Skills also saw a bit of a boost. He gained his first Legendary Skill, and his Weapons Master finally pushed through a significant barrier.
I guess I might be considered a Master now? The numbers are off for me, and the Skill Levels are personal while the designations are more for outward appearances. I might not quite be there yet, but even if I''m not, it''s only a matter of time now that I''ve broken through my bottleneck.
I wonder if I''ve seen any additions to my avable sses?
"Whew! That feels nice," Teilon eximed as he walked into the room. Reivyn set aside his investigation of his System for now. He had aplished his goal of reviewing the Battle Report and Skill gains, and there would be plenty of time to look at his ss Pageter.
Teilon walked to his bed and flopped down on it, Erik following behind also having washed off and rxed after the battle.
"The victory feast is going to be tomorrow for lunch," Teilon said, his forearm over his eyes. "The Count said it was too soon to do it tonight, even though the battle was over before evening. Everyone would want some time to wind down. I know I do."
"Yeah, you should also check your Battle Report Notifications," Reivyn said. "Several Achievements, and a good boost of Experience." Reivyn sat up and looked at his friend. "Speaking of Experience, you and Kimberly missed out on a chunk because you''ve never trained with a bow or other ranged weapons before. We''re going to fix that, soon."
"Ugghhh, I just said I needed to wind down from the huge battle that threatened to kill everyone in the city, and you''re already talking about training!" Teilonined. "I guess I shouldn''t expect anything less from you by now."
"Suck it up," Reivyn chuckled. "Training with a ranged weapon should be a lot easier than your sparring sessions. Sure, you''ll still have to exert your muscles in a new way, but you and Kimberly are Tier 2, now. Your Strength and Stamina should help you quite a lot."
Teilon didn''t check his Notifications right away, and he stayed in his position lying down with his arm thrown over his face. Reivyn reclined once more and began to pull up his ss Page again.
"I thought we were going to die," Teilon spoke up after a moment of silence. "I thought for sure the Revenants would overwhelm us, and tomorrow the city would be filled with new recruits for their undead army. Even Knight-Captain Reifold was no match for the invaders." Reivyn put aside his ss Page once more and sat up again.
"I thought we were going to die, too," Reivyn said with a nod. Teilon lifted his head up and peeked at him from behind his arm.
"Really? I never would have guessed. You were so steady the whole time." Reivyn shook his head at the words.
"No, there was a point in the battle that I was filled with regret for dragging you and the others along with me," Reivyn admitted. "I thought, ''I should have sent them ahead to the Capital first. There was time for them to escape the situation, and it wasn''t their responsibility.''"
"Don''t speak like that," Teilon said firmly. "You speak as if it was somehow your responsibility not only for the city but for us as well.
"I will admit that you''re the Party Leader, and the Party is your responsibility in most situations. This wasn''t one of them. Staying to defend the city was no more your job than it was ours, and we knew that from the beginning."
"You''re right, of course," Reivyn said.
"Damn straight, I''m right," Teilon leaned back on his pillow again. "I would make the same decision, again. So would Kimberly, and I''m sure Melissa and Larissa would, as well."
"Yeah, I know," Reivyn said with a sigh. "I just felt bad about it. When the cloaked guys showed up and took out our chance of thinning out the undead army, I knew the battle was lost. At that time, I didn''t feel fear for myself. I felt sadness and regret for everyone else."
"I know what you mean," Teilon said. "But I couldn''t live with myself if I had chosen to run away."
The two young menpsed into a moment of silence. After a brief moment, a voice cut through the silence.
"I didn''t think we were going to die," Erik said. Reivyn and Teilon both sat up and shared a look of surprise at the words. Erik had apparently been looking at his Notifications, and Reivyn had assumed he hadn''t been paying attention to the conversation. Erik finished looking off into space and faced the two friends.
"I knew we were going to die," he continued. Reivyn''s eyebrows went up in surprise. "I had resigned myself toy my life down at thest moment to try and secure an escape for the two youngdies. It''s my duty to shield them from danger." He looked at Reivyn and Teilon in turn.
"It''s not your duty toy your lives down for anyone, but you stood and fought anyway. I''m proud to call you two mypanions. Kimberly, as well." Erik said his piece and then turned around to go to sleep. Reivyn and Teilon shared another look.
"Well..." Reivyn said after a moment of silence. "Just so you know, we feel the same way about you and Melissa and Larissa," Erik grunted in response. Reivyn chuckled as he leaned back once more.
"I think Erik has the right idea," Reivyn said. "I was going to look at my ss Page to see if anything new popped up, but I can barely stay awake any longer." I''ll just do it first thing in the morning.
"Uh-huh," Teilon said with a dismissive wave of his hand, his other arm still over his eyes. "Teilon''s already asleep." He lowered his arms and also turned to go to sleep. Reivyn heard his breathing be steady after only a few short seconds.
Reivyn chuckled and also closed his eyes to get some much-needed sleep. The exhaustion, both mentally and physically, had finally caught up with him, and he was asleep almost as fast as his two roommates.
[Tier 2 sses Avable:]
[Rare:]
[Air Magus]
[Archer]
[Builder *Earth/Wood]
[Cavalryman]
[Darkness Magus]
[Dreamer]
[Earth Magus]
[Fighter]
[Fire Magus]
[Ice Magus]
[Light Magus]
[Magma Magus]
[Metal Magus]
[sma Magus]
[Rogue]
[Politician]
[Siege Engineer]
[Tracker *Earth/Wood]
[Water Magus]
[Wood Magus]
Reivyn pulled up his Tier 2 sses avable for selection. He directly ignored the Common and Umon rarities, and the only additional option for Tier 2 was the Rare ss Siege Engineer. Reivyn did notice several other important changes, though.
Must be because of my participation in the Siege Warfare. It wasn''t exactly what a siege would be, but I guess the System deems it close enough. The point of my Tier 2 ss, though, is to focus on a Caster ss, and now it looks like my Tier 2 Caster ss options have evolved. The generic "Mage" designation is nowhere to be seen.
Another thing seems weird that I hadn''t really paid attention to before, Reivyn thought as a ss stuck out to him. Why is Politician not alphabetically listed? Is there some sort of hint in cing it after Rogue? Eh, it doesn''t matter. I''m definitely not going to choose that as an option.
I had been wondering what I would choose, temporarily, as my Affinity, but I hadn''t narrowed it down until now.
The most powerful Mage of the Adventuring group used some sort of Affinity I don''t have. It looked like it was Divine, but my Mana Sense Skill gave me the feeling it wasn''t. It definitely wasn''t Light. I have no idea what Affinity it was, but it was extremely powerful.
It didn''t cause any damage to anything aside from the undead, but I think that was more the impable control of the Mage rather than the inherent characteristics of the Affinity.
My instincts tell me it has something to do with the Light Affinity. Maybe it''s some sort of upgrade further down the line. I''m nearly 100% certain I want to take the Light Affinity as my Caster ss before I graduate from the Academy. If the description of Champion wasn''t already enough to hint at the importance of it, then this definitely clinches the deal.
Let''s check it out real quick and see what the difference between Mage *Light and Light Magus is. Reivyn focused his attention on the ss.
[Light Magus]
[You have done extensive research into many forms of the different Mana Affinities, and you have gained the ability to form the proper weaves of most of them. But you have gone even a step further than this, and you have gleaned some of the underlying truths behind the very nature of reality itself.]
[The Magus is one who can proficiently wield mana of all types, and the Light Magus has a specific tendency toward the Light Affinity, receiving bonuses to all magical constructs built from the Affinity.]
Reivyn''s eyebrows rose in surprise.
I didn''t realize a versatile Affinity-based Caster ss was a thing in Tier 2. Melissa and Larissa had hinted that the more powerful sses that could utilize more Affinities were exclusive to the higher Tiers.
It looks like this was brought about not only by my practice with the weaves, but also the Veridical Affinity is finally showing a tangible effect.
Reivyn was more than certain, now. He wouldn''t have to give up the ability to cast spells using the other Affinities while he waited for his Tier 3 ss, and he would still get the benefits of specializing in one form of Mana.
I think I''ll keep this one a secret from Melissa and Larissa, Reivyn chuckled. I don''t necessarily need to actually keep it secret, but Melissa had shown some signs of exasperation at my ability to figure Mana Skills and weaves out quickly. She and her sister are my friends. I don''t want to build some distance between us for something so stupid as talent.
Reivyn nodded his head, but then he stopped himself as another thought struck him.
Then again they''re likely to find out when I enroll in the Academy. I''m sure they''ll require me to reveal my ss and prove I''m a Caster in order to be eligible for the Magic Academy and not get sent to the Knight Academy...
Reivyn tapped his chin in thought.
I think... that would be worse than telling them right away. There''s still time. I''ll ask my parents for their opinion on the matter.
Decision made, Reivyn continued to look to see if anything had changed for his Tier 3 sses that he could see. He once more ignored the Rarities that he wasn''t considering.
[Epic*:]
[Arcanist]
[Assassin] - Gray
[Chevalier] - Gray
[Elemental Swordsman*]
[Mystic] - Gray
[Shade] - Gray
[Sharpshooter] - Gray
[Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water]
[Veteran]
[Legendary*:]
[Arcane Elementalist] - Gray
[Champion] - Gray
[Death Knight]
[Juggernaut] - Gray
[Warlord]
It''s mostly the same, but there are some significant changes. Let''s see: Arcanist, Elemental Swordsman, Mystic, and Sorcerer are all changes to the forced Epic Rarity. The Elemental Swordsman is probably just the version of the Magic Swordsman that can use more elements, and the Sorcerer reced the Wizard. I''ll check them out briefly to see what the differences are.
Arcane Elementalist, Death Knight - that doesn''t look good - and Warlord are the changes to the forced Legendary sses. Death Knight and Warlord are actually not grayed out, either. Not sure how I feel about that.
Reivyn decided to check out the differences in the sses with the slight changes in their names first.
[Elemental Swordsman*]
[You have an aptitude for Martial Combat as well as Casting. You have spent long hours honing your ability with a weapon, but you never cked off on training your mana Skills and affinities.]
[The Elemental Swordsman is renowned for their versatility, and only the most talented of individuals are able tobine the Martial with the Magical. The Elemental Swordsman has ess to all of the Elemental Affinities. They are able to apply their Magic directly to their weapons, and, at higher Skills, their armor. While the Elemental Swordsman is unable to cast Spells in the traditional sense, they are incredibly deadly at close range.]
[*Synergy detected with Weapons Master Skill. ss can utilize Weapons Master instead of Swords.]
Almost word for word the same, just with the difference that I thought.
[Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water]
[You''re able to expertly wield the four basic Elements. You can use simple Spells andplex designs of magic equally with ease across the spectrum of all of the basic Elements, and you''re proficient in the other Elements, as well.]
[The Full-Basic-Elements-Aligned Sorcerer is a powerful Caster. Their Spells are no longer restricted to one Element, but they can shape each of their Spells to their desired Element, and the weaker versions can also be used with moreplicated Elemental Tiers. Simple Bolt Spells no longer take up a ss Skill slot, and they have several powerful Spells avable to them.]
The Sorcerer is proficient at all of the other elements, instead of just being able to use them slightly. Otherwise, it''s also the same.
Let''s check out some of these new options.
[Arcanist]
[You have delved deep into the study of Magic on a fundamental level. You have knowledge of all of the Elements, and they bend to your will.]
[The Arcanist is a force to be reckoned with. They make no distinction between the Elements, yet they wield them just as expertly as one who specializes. Simple Bolt Spells no longer take up a ss Skill slot, and they have several powerful Spells, of all Elements, avable to them.]
It''s basically a vastly superior version of the Sorceror. This one is probably close to being unlocked because of my research into the various mana weaves. It doesn''t have the same wording associated with it as the Magus does, though, so it''s probably not influenced by my Veridical Affinity.
[Mystic]
[Not only are you an expert with the more traditional Magics, but you have also delved into the otherworldly. You can see beyond the veil.]
[The Mystic is a powerful Caster, though not quite as much of an expert as one specialized in pure Magic. They can see truths of the various Realms, and they make for fantastic advisors.]
This ss is probably because of my interaction with the Abyss Realm. The veil probably refers to the separation of the Realms. It doesn''t specifically state the Abyss, though, so it can probably see more than just the one Realm.
[Arcane Elementalist]
[The nature of mana is no mystery to you. You have mastered the four basic Elements, and you can be considered an expert in many others. No Magic Spell is out of your reach.]
[The Arcane Elementalist can easily Cast powerful Spells of any nature, though the four basic Elements are particrly empowered. They can learn new Spells with a flip of their hand, and the different Affinities flock to them of their own volition. Only the most talented of Mages could ever hope to be one.]
Upgraded version of the Arcanist. So far, it looks like this is the ss that I need to work toward while in the Academy. The requirements are steep, though: Master level in the four basic Elements and Expert level in at least several others looks like the bare minimum. Well, I know I have a couple of years at least to work toward it, and I don''t have to worry about the Stat requirements, so this should definitely be doable.
Reivyn nodded his head at the new goal he set for himself.
[Death Knight]
[You are the master of death. Not only do you decide when one falls to their eternal slumber, but even the ones who already have are not out of your reach. Youmand the legions of dead, and they answer.]
[The Death Knight is one part Knight, one part Necromancer. They are feared on the battlefield for their mastery of the Martial and Magical, and even monarchs quake in fear at their very name for the armies they can Raise. Descend into the Abyss.]
[Helpful Hint: This ss is not considered Heretical for you.]
That''s not ominous at all. What''s even worse is that the System apparently deems I''m qualified now for the ss. No.
This begs the question: If this ss is avable to me, why is there no Necromancer ss in a lower Rarity? It''s not that important, just a weird thing I noticed.
[Warlord]
[Warfare is your calling. The battlefield is your home. You are able to lead armies to defeat vastly superior forces with your exceptional Martial Skills, and your men will fight to their veryst breath for you.]
[The Warlord is more than a warrior. He is a ruler of the battlefield. Kings and queens must bow before the might of the Warlord with an army at his back.]
It looks like the Warlord is more than meets the eye. Someone with high personalbat prowess as well as Battlefield Awareness with the ability to lead and Command. The subtext of the kings and queens implies this ss is avable to me because of my background.
Reivyn finished reading the newest addition. His opinions, besides his goal for Tier 3, hadn''t changed. There was absolutely no chance of him taking the Death Knight ss, and Champion seemed like the only one avable to take advantage of hisplete talents in Martial and Magical abilities.
That might change, though, as I have a long time before I step into Tier 3, truly.
Reivyn got up out of bed and started to get dressed for the day. Teilon was still asleep, but Erik''s bed was empty and neatly made.
"Get up, Teilon," Reivyn called to his friend. Teilon groaned and barely stirred. "Hey, the victory feast is in a couple of hours."
"Yeah, that''s in a couple of hours," Teilon shot back without opening his eyes. "That means I have an hour and 45 minutes more to sleep."
"Oh, really?" Reivyn nudged his friend. "Don''t you know what''s going to be at the feast?" Teilon grunted a half-question. "Music." Reivyn let the word stand and waited until his friend motioned for him to get to the point. "Haven''t you always wanted a chance to dance..."
"I have to get ready!" Teilon leaped out of his bed, instantly wide awake.
Chapter 57: Dance, Dance Revolution
Chapter 57: Dance, Dance Revolution
Reivyn adjusted his suit for what seemed like the millionth time. He and Teilon had begun to get dressed for the victory feast when Erik hade back holding two suits tailored to Reivyn and Teilon. Erik had tossed the suits onto their beds, nodded toward them, and then left without saying a word. Reivyn and Teilon shared a look before Reivyn walked out of the room and found Melissa waiting in the hallway.
"What''s with the suits?" Reivyn asked.
"I had the Count''s tailor make them for you," Melissa replied with a smile.
"Ok, but I don''t recall getting any measurements taken?" Reivyn narrowed his eyes. Melissa chuckled.
"The Count''s tailor is fairly high Level for this area. He only needed to see you, and I made sure he did before the battle, in order for him to get your proper measurements. I knew a feast of some sort was likely if we seeded in holding the undead army off, and I was right. You and Teilon don''t have anything remotely appropriate for attending a feast held by a Count, so I took it upon myself to have them made for you."
"Umm, thanks?" Reivyn said while scratching the back of his head. "How much did it cost?"
"Nothing," Melissa replied. "The tailor was happy to waive the fee. He couldn''t make a suit for free for everyone, but since you were loosely attached as the Aide, technically," Melissa used air quotes, "he did it more as a favor for the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant. And since Teilon is with you, he went ahead and did the same for him."
"Ok, I''ll have to thank himter," Reivyn said. "If you see him, pass on my thanks just in case I don''t run into him." Melissa nodded, and Reivyn went back into his room to get dressed. Teilon switched into the new clothes as well once Reivyn exined the situation to him.
The new clothes weren''t ufortable, not by a long shot. Reivyn, and Teilon for that matter, just weren''t used to wearing such nice clothes. The design was simr to the uniform he had worn thest time he had attended a banquet hosted by the Count, but it was a lot less utilitarian looking. It resembled a civilian imitation of the uniform, but the material was definitely a tier above.
Reivyn pulled out his tessen in order to stop himself from messing with the suit. Teilon eyed him from the side.
"You should teach me how to use one of those, too," he said. "That way I''ll have an excuse to mess with something when I''m nervous, like you." Teilon wasn''t subconsciously adjusting his suit, but he was rubbing his hands together.
"What are you so nervous about?" Reivyn asked. "I''m not adjusting the coat over and over because I''m nervous; I just feel weird."
"Promise not tough?" Teilon said as he came to a stop, looking Reivyn directly in the eye.
"Nope," Reivyn answered. Teilon sighed.
"I''ve never actually danced before," he said. Reivyn stared at him for a second before chuckling. "Hey, now!"
"Teilon, you don''t have to worry about that," Reivyn pped his friend on the shoulder. "Kimberly left home with us to go to the Dungeon as a member of our Party, and she stood and fought with us on the wall in the face of impossible odds. She''s not going to care if you have two left feet."
"I know," Teilon said. "I know that. I still don''t want to trip all over myself in front of her."
"You''ll be fine," Reivyn said with a grin. He started walking down the hall once more to head to the banquet hall. Teilon quickly caught back up with him.
"And who said anything about two left feet? I just don''t know the steps," Teilon protested. Reivyn just snickered at his friend.
They walked into the banquet hall, and it was packed with people already. Most of the people in attendance were the higher level Adventurers who had volunteered to stay and fight and some of the officers and leaders from the Lord''s Retinue. Reivyn spotted the Knight-Captain and Knight-Lieutenant talking in a group with the Count. Brand looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
"The trick is to always be moving and appear to be mingling," Reivyn leaned over and whispered to Teilon. "That''s what Knight-Lieutenant Brand taught mest time. You don''t want to get cornered by someone and have to stand in one ce for too long. That will give other people the opportunity to swoop in and take up your time when you want to get to where you''re going: the table."
As Reivyn was walking forward through the throngs of people, leaning over to whisper to Teilon the rules he had learned the previous time, a shadow appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path. He came to an abrupt stop so as not to walk into the person, and he looked up to see a familiar face.
"Ahh, it''s the Little Hero, again," Lin said. She was dressed in her formal uniform likest time, an additional medal adorning her chest that hadn''t been there before. "I should have expected to see you here, though it looks like you''re not with the military unit, this time."
"Yeah, not exactly," Reivyn said. He heard Teilon return the snicker he had given him before entering the hall.
"You''re quite the expert at avoiding people trying to hold you up, huh?" Teilon whispered back. Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"Shut it, you," he said to Teilon. He turned his attention back to Lin. "I thought you were with the Duke''s troops? What are you doing out here this time?"
"The Duke sent us to reinforce the city," Lin answered. "We arrivedtest night after pretty much everyone else was already asleep. Here," She sidled up next to Reivyn, intruding on his personal space. She ced a hand on his shoulder as she turned to face the same way, and leaning into him, she pointed at several other people in the Duke''s uniform.
Reivyn started to subconsciously shy away from her. Wait, why should I back away? She''s invading my personal space. He stood up straight, keeping his body in contact with hers. She nced at him for a second and chuckled.
"If you look at those men," she continued, "you might recognize them." Reivyn squinted his eyes, not to get a better look, but in concentration as he tried to ce their faces. He finally realized why some of them looked familiar to him.
"They were with the Adventurers," Reivyn said. Lin smiled as she backed away and resumed her original position.
"Exactly," she said. "We knew we couldn''t get the whole force here in time, so we selected some of our fastest riders and had theme ahead of the rest of the soldiers. We decided to have them dress like Adventurers so as not to highlight the fact that the Duke''s troops didn''t make it on time. Better to appear to have note at all, than to try and make it but fail.
"Now that it''s over, we can reveal that we had people there the whole time, and it gives us better optics."
"I see," Reivyn said. He had to agree that it made sense. The Count himself had done something simr. I guess every action needs to be made with how it will look to everyone else. Politics.
Reivyn wasn''t necessarily averse to politics and the machinations involved, he just wasn''t well informed or experienced. Looking at it in hindsight, he could see the benefits of acting in such a manner, but he would have never considered doing it himself if he was the one making the decision. He just didn''t think that way. I might learn from Melissa and the instructors at the Magic Academy. It seems like the ce where such considerations will be needed.
"And who''s this distracted fellow with our Little Hero?" Lin turned her attention to Teilon who had been scanning the crowd. Teilon''s head snapped back over and took the older girl in, head to toe before a wide grin crossed his face.
"I''m Teilon, the Little Hero''s best friend," he gave a small bow while he took her hand and ced a kiss on the back of it. Lin hid her mouth behind her other hand as she chuckled.
"Ahem," a cough interrupted the show. Teilon''s eyes widened and his body froze in the position of leaning forward. He slowly straightened up and turned to slowlye face to face with Kimberly.
"Ahh, Kimberly, I was just searching the crowd for you," Teilon said as he reached out and took her hand. Kimberly let him, but she rolled her eyes at the same time.
"I''m sure you were," she responded.
"He has impable manners, and he''s quite charming, actually," Lin said to Kimberly. She turned her gaze to Reivyn. "You could learn a thing or two from your friend."
Reivyn felt an arm snake around him and a bodye to stand next to him. His eyebrows went up in surprise as he turned his head and saw that it was Melissa. Larissa and Erik were standing a few feet behind her, Larissa with a smirk on her face.
"I''m sure I could help him with that, too," Melissa said as she and Lin stared at each other. "This must be Miss Lin, Ren''s sister, that you''ve told me about," Melissa said with a small smile.
"Ugh... yes," Reivyn said as he looked back and forth between the two girls. They were of a simr age and level of beauty. Melissa was a bit more bright in appearance, with her hair having a distinct auburn red color, while Lin was a bit darker, with her hair being straight ck. Lin was slightly taller, but not enough for her to look down on the other girl.
"And who is this youngdy? She seems to have me at a disadvantage," Lin said, her eyes never leaving Melissa''s. "I''ve been busy with my duties as a Captain in the Duke''s Retinue, I haven''t had time to keep up with all of the scions from the Capital." Lin correctly guessed Melissa''s origins by the quality and design of her clothes.
"Umm," Reivyn started . . .
"I''m Melissa Bluefayre," Melissa said with her chin lifted, clear pride in her voice. "My sister, Larissa, and I happened to join Reivyn''s Party when we were on a Dungeon Delve Mission from the Magic Academy. My sister and I were a bit bored with the same old, easy Dungeons nearer to the Capital."
"Ooohhh, a Party Member," Lin said with emphasis. Lin stepped forward on Reivyn''s other side, and looping her arm through Reivyn''s in the same way Melissa did, she leaned forward to continue addressing Melissa. "Here, let me escort you to your table."
"Umm," Reivyn said as he got dragged along by the two girls holding onto his arms on either side. He turned his head briefly and saw Teilon bent overughing. What is happening?
Reiyvn was "escorted" to his table, but he wasn''t allowed to sit. Lin and Melissa continued to hold onto his arms as they stood a bit in front of him, facing each other.
"Thank you for showing us the way, but I''m sure you must be tired after the March here from the Duke''s domain. It would be rude of us to keep you from going to your own table and resting," Melissa said.
"Oh, it''s fine," Lin denied with a shake of her head. "This is my table. I asked the Count to personally arranged for me to sit here, next to our Little Hero." Lin had a bright smile on her face. Melissa frowned for a second, but the music started up at the opportune time, and she perked up at the sound.
"Well, you take your time getting some rest at the table," Melissa pulled Reivyn away from Lin as she looked up at him. "Let''s go dance. Your friends are already out on the floor. We can join them."
Lin narrowed her eyes as she let Reivyn escape from her grasp, but her face quickly returned to normal with a smile. "Ok. I''ll just get the next one." She sat down at the table as Melissa grabbed Reivyn''s hand and dragged him out to where Teilon and Kimberly were standing. Several others were also getting ready to start dancing as well.
"A wolf, indeed," Reivyn heard Melissa mutter under her breath.
"Umm, Melissa," Reivyn said. Melissa turned her head toward him as they came to a stop in the open space for dancing. "I''ve never danced before." Melissa chuckled at him.
"This will be the first song and dance, and it''s an ice breaker," Melissa said. "Just watch some of the others, and then do what they do. Everyone will start off with a partner who they will dance the most with, but everyone will be moving about and dancing with each other. Like I said, an ice breaker."
Reivyn nodded his head, and he and Teilon observed as the musicians finally stopped warming up and began the actual music for the dance. They watched for a moment to see what the other people were doing as they lined up and began moving about.
It wasn''t aplicated dance and was more along the lines of moving about in sync with the rhythm of the music. Melissa''s description was fairly apt, and Reivyn and his friends quickly joined. They started off in a line of all the men on one side with the women on the other. They moved in time together, locked arms with their partner, twirled about and then separated into lines again, but when they separated, they shifted about so their next partner would be different.
The dance continued on for a bit, and the way the lines were designed, Reivyn would match up with a different girl each time, but he would always return to his original partner, Melissa, more often than anyone else.
He let himself rx and move about to the music, and he ended up having a st doing so. He received a Notification a few minutes in, but he ignored it as he just let loose for a short while.
Once the music was done, he pulled up his Notification as Melissa took his hand once more to lead him back to the table.
New Skills Unlocked!
Dancing (1)
Rhythm (1)
Interesting. I bet Rhythm goes with Dancing and ying a musical instrument, both.
As Reivyn and Melissa approached their table, Lin came up and grabbed Reivyn''s other hand, again.
"You were right," Lin said to Melissa. "I needed that short rest. I''m sure you need a bit of a breather, too, after that exciting first dance." She turned her gaze to Reivyn. "I''m sure you still have a lot of energy, though. Not like us girls from the Capital. A big, strong, young man like you. Come on, I''ll show you the next one."
Lin pulled him away from Melissa, and Reivyn spied her narrow eyes as she watched them head back to the dance floor. Teilon and Kimberly were still out there, and Larissa was apparently exining the next dance to them.
"This one isn''t an ice breaker," Lin said as she turned and faced Reivyn. "Here, give me your hands." She took Reivyn''s hands and ced one on her shoulder, and one on her hip. She stepped in real close as she reciprocated.
"There''s nothing too fancy," she continued to exin. "For more advanced dancers, they can do something more in line with their Skill, but it''s mostly the same. You just need to move your feet to the beat, and we''ll move about in small circles."
The next musical piece began, and Lin started them off, leading. After Reivyn got into the movements, though, she let him take over leading them. He didn''t really know what to do, exactly, so he just moved them about in small circles as she had said.
Melissa hadn''t gone back to her seat, and she was standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching them with her arms folded. Once they drew a little nearer to her, Reivyn saw Lin''s slight smile get a littlerger.
"Oops," Lin said as her feet tangled together. She leaned forward and ced her weight almost fully on Reivyn. He was forced to embrace herpletely. After assisting her in getting her feet back, she maintained closer contact. "I''m so clumsy. I think I should dance a little closer so as to avoid that happening again," she looked up at him with a twinkle in her eye. "You don''t mind, do you?"
"Umm," Reivyn had nothing to answer that with. He just kept a straight face and continued the dance.
It wasn''t long before the music was over, but Lin didn''t make her way back to the table as Melissa had done before.
"We still have energy, so let''s do the next one," Lin said. She wasn''t even asking anymore.
"Ummm," Reivyn was quite eloquent tonight.
"Oh, you poor thing," Melissa showed up as the musicians were about to start the next round. "I saw that terrible fall you almost had. Luckily Reivyn was your partner and he kept you from getting hurt. You really must take more rest, though. We wouldn''t want anything bad to happen."
Melissa spoke with the utmost concern for Lin''s well-being while simultaneously snagging Reivyn back away from her. Lin gave her a t look, but she didn''t make a scene. She smiled again after a moment and fanned herself with her hand.
"You''re right," she said. "It''s awfully hot in here. Reivyn, could I borrow your tessen?" She looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. Reivyn raised an eyebrow, but he still pulled his fan out and handed it to her. He could see Melissa gritting her teeth out of the corner of his eye. Lin took the fan, opened it, and began fanning her face as she turned to head back to the table. "Thank you, so much, my dear Hero." She winked as she walked away.
"Let''s step this next one up, a little," Melissa said as she stepped up to Reivyn. She ced one of his hands on her hip and held the other in her hand as she put her other one on his shoulder. "I noticed you moved a little smoother, so I''m guessing you got the Skill unlocked?" Reivyn nodded his head. "Ok, then we''ll spice it up a little. Watch some of the others as we move about and see what they do."
"Ok," Reivyn said as the music began.
They moved about in a simr manner, but they weren''t quite as close as he and Lin had been. He used his Battlefield Awareness Skill, once again utilizing a Skill in a novel situation, to observe the other dancers. The men spun the women about with their hands they were holding together, and sometimes they would dip them.
"See?" Melissa asked as they moved to the music. Reivyn nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Spin me."
Reivyn released his hand on her waist and spun her about. Melissaughed in delight as she twirled. "Dip me," she said as she came back into his embrace. Reivyn copied the other men so as to maintain his center of gravity properly, and dipped Melissa. They continued dancing to the music, asionally spinning and dipping, and Reivyn saw Teilon also manage to perform the same feats with Kimberly.
The music finally ended, and Melissa dragged him off the dance floor once more. Lin was waiting again, but Melissa was prepared.
"Oh, we really must take a break, this time," Melissa said as she patted her face. "Reivyn was just telling me he needed a breather." I did?
"Yes, I can see that," Lin said as she nced at Reivyn. She pulled the fan back out and fanned herself again, looking at Melissa over the top of it. Melissa dragged Reivyn to his seat, and Lin plopped herself down in the seat opposite Melissa on Reivyn''s other side.
"This little fan reallyes in handy," Lin said with a sigh.
Melissa rolled her eyes as she reached for a ss of water on the table. "Would you like some ice-cold water to try and cool off?" She asked with a smile to Reivyn.
"Ummm," Reivyn responded with extraordinary wit.
Melissa fumbled with the ss, and the water spilled onto the table and into Reivyn''sp. The water was extremely cold, and Reivyn jerked back at the sudden feeling of freezing water soaking through his pants.
"Oh, how terribly clumsy of me," Melissa said.
"Let me help," Lin was quick to grab a napkin and started to pat Reivyn''s thigh.
"That won''t be necessary," Melissa said. She ced her hand on Reivyn''s other thigh, and with a gentle movement,pletely appropriately, but definitely riding the line, she used her mana to draw the water and moisture out of Reivyn''s clothes. The water balled up above her hand, and she deposited it in an empty ss. "All done."
I''m pretty sure Melissa didn''t have to touch me to do that... Reivyn sat in stunned silence. Melissa and Lin red daggers at each other. Reivyn looked across the dance floor to where Teilon and Kimberly were still at it. Teilon looked over and gave him a big grin,ughing at his situation.
This is going to be a long night.
Chapter 58: The Party
Chapter 58: The Party
The dancers eventually left the dance floor after the musicians yed several morepositions. Reivyn heaved a sigh of relief once they stopped ying, and Teilon finally came to the table with Kimberly, a smirk on his face. Their faces were flushed from the exertion of moving, and Teilon was in high spirits. Kimberly seemed to be quite pleased, herself.
Reivyn tuned out the subtle digs and disys of one-upmanship from the two girls. Other than touching me when Melissa spilled the water, nothing they have done has been anything exaggerated. They seem to be staking a im more than anything, most likely for their families. Melissa has never disyed any kind of interest in me before, and I hardly know Lin at all.
The girls practically ignored Reivyn as they continued their verbal spars, but the Count mounting the little stage where the musicians had been put a temporary stop to it.
"First, I want to thank you all foring. Everyone here yed an integral role in defending the city from the Dungeon Break army that osted us," The Count surveyed the entire venue. His gaze paused on Lin for a moment before he continued. "Also, the esteemed guests of the Duke''s Army. I thank you for sending several teams of your finest troops ahead of the main force to assist us. Please convey my utmost gratitude to the Duke when you return.
"I won''t bore everyone with long speeches, and I won''t be patting myself on the back, either. I have thrown this victory feast simply to personally convey my gratitude to everyone who braved death in the face of impossible odds. I won''t extend the banquet beyond dancing and the meal, but I have prepared rewards for everyone.
"In a moment, I will instruct the chef and waiters to deliver the food, and I''ll go around and personally hand out the rewards while you eat. I think everyone here can agree that it makes much more sense than to have a long, drawn-out ceremony that will quickly get old as we end up saying the same things over and over again.
"Without further ado, let the food be served."
The count looked to the side of the banquet and lifted his hand to gesture for those waiting in the wings toe in. The doors opened, and many waiters and servants came in withrge, covered trays. They walked about the room, setting them down on each of the tables, and the Count motioned for everyone to begin eating without preamble.
The Count stepped down and joined Knight-Captain Reifold and his Mage-Liaison as he started walking to each table, conversing with the people seated there. Reivyn watched as he moved about, talking and joking with people, and he had multiple servants to hold things like scrolls and other awards that he passed to the people. An advisor was on standby to give him the names of anyone, but from what Reivyn could see, the Count hadn''t needed it, yet, as he seemed to know everyone''s name.
"He''s quite shrewd," Melissa said, forgetting about her littlepetition with Lin for the moment. "He must have some sort of social Skill that allows him to remember names, faces, or both. It''s not umon for nobles and other people dealing with social interactions." Melissa nced at Lin then at Reivyn. "I can help you get such a Skill and work on it in our free time at the Academy. It should help you a lot in integrating. We have a couple of years together to work on it."
"That''s not a bad idea, Reivyn," Lin interjected with a smile. "I can lead you out to where my men are camped and get you a big boost to the Skill Level by having you interact with the Duke''s soldiers." She turned to look at Melissa, "you wouldn''t want Reivyn to hobble himself by not allowing him to meet more people, would you?"
"That''s an excellent idea," Melissa replied. "I''ve always wanted to see the inner workings of one of the Retinues of the Kingdom''s top nobles. I''m sure you run a tight ship, and nothing will be out of ce."
"Quite," Lin snapped the tessen open and peered at Melissa over the top of it with narrowed eyes.
Reivyn rubbed his temples with his hands. I need to put a stop to this.
"Ladies," Reivyn said, putting his hands down and looking at each of them in turn with a meaningful look. "Let''s keep things civil."
"Of course," Melissa said, cing her hand on his forearm. "Miss Lin and I have been nothing but."
"Yeah, Reivyn," Lin replied, reaching over to adjust his cor with her free hand. "Melissa and I are getting along just fine. What are you worried about?" Reivyn rolled his eyes as he sighed.
"I''m not worried about anything," he said. "I just want to enjoy the banquet. We have time for all of those other things,ter. I would be happy to visit the camp and see how things are run out there, and I would obviously wee learning new Skills. But let''s enjoy the food for now."
"Certainly," Melissa said with a sweet smile.
The waiters arrived at their table and ced the covered trays down, removing the ornate covers after getting everything settled to reveal what was underneath. There were many selections of food avable, and it wasn''t served in the same way as the previous banquet he had attended. The first banquet had been served courses in turn, but this time, everything was ced on the table all at once for everyone to pick and choose at will.
There were several different whole fowls, cuts of steak, and cuts ofmb. That only consisted of the meats made avable. There were several other side dishes of a variety of fruits and vegetables, sds, and desserts.
Conversation temporarily ceased as everyone heaped servings onto their tes and tucked in with gusto. The food was clearly expertly made, and nobody was going to give up the chance of tasting such exquisite dishes while still hot and fresh.
The Count continued to make his rounds, and he eventually arrived at Reivyn''s table. Reivyn watched him out of the corner of his eye, and he noticed that his strange behavior whenever he encountered Reivyn had apparently been gotten under control, as he only paused for a second instead of abruptly stuttering his whole body.
"Young Reivyn, Teilon, Kimberly. Miss Melissa and Larissa Bluefayre, and their trusted subordinate Erik. Captain Lin," The Count looked at each person as he greeted them all by name. "I humbly offer my thanks for each of your contributions to the defense of the city.
"Young Reivyn, you did an excellent job of stepping forward and issuingmands to the troops when we were sneak attacked. Teilon and Kimberly, your efforts in assisting the administrative soldiers in keeping the quivers stocked didn''t go unnoticed, and I''m proud to have citizens willing to face the Revenants despite not being able to use Mana Skills on your own.
"Miss Melissa and Larissa, I am grateful for such esteemed guests to lend their magical expertise from the Magic Academy. I will be sure to send a letter to your family head to express my gratitude. Erik, you continued to show your stalwart character as you never hesitated to stay by the side of those you are entrusted to protect.
"Miss Lin, I greatly appreciate you recognizing that you wouldn''t be able to make it in time, and you made the decision to send some of your stronger troops ahead to mix with the Adventurers. I''ve drafted a letter of thanks to the Duke, and I''ll send it along with you when you depart."
Knight-Captain Reifold nodded to each of the individuals at the table as the Count addressed them and pointed out their contributions as he had personally witnessed them. The Count motioned for one of the servants carrying scrolls to step forward and hand him some.
"These are just a paltry official deration of my thanks. They can be used as Letters of Rmendation in certain situations, and you can take them to the Adventurer''s Guild to have them recorded on your file. They contain all of the individual deeds you aplished in the battle. Reivyn, after consulting with Sword-Priest Josn, yours also contains the details of your warning at the Dungeon Town."
The Count personally handed over each scroll, and Reivyn and his friends offered their thanks. I already have a lot of aplishments listed, but more couldn''t hurt. We can take care of getting everyone officially in the Party at the same time that we record these, as well.
"Thank you, sir," Reivyn said as he took the scroll. The Count smiled to everyone, waved, and then moved on to the next table, followed by his subordinates. Reivyn and his friends continued to eat the delicious food once they had departed far enough away that it wouldn''t be rude.
Yeah, we''ll finish lunch here - Teilon and Kimberly might want to do some more dancing before we leave - and then head to the Adventurer''s Guild to record the aplishments. We''ll handle the Party issue while we''re there, and then we can head out to the Duke''s camp for a stroll. Speaking of, I''ll have to get that social Skill when we''re done eating.
Reivyn picked up the pace he was eating. Years of proper manners at the table instilled by his mother, though, ensured that he didn''t appear to be a mannerless barbarian. Reivyn nced at Teilon out of the corner of his eye to see him with sauce smeared all over his face, and Kimberly was attempting to notugh as she picked at her food in a much more dainty manner.
Reivyn sampled each of the dishes, and there wasn''t a single thing on the table that he didn''t enjoy, but by the time he had tried everything, he began to get full. He politely wiped his mouth, got a drink of water to wash everything down, and then cleared his throat as he looked at Melissa. She obviously had a smaller stomach, as she was already done and patiently waiting.
"Let''s go get that social Skill," Reivyn said. Melissa smiled as she nodded. She stood up and led him away from the table by hand. Lin watched them go while continuing to fan herself with the borrowed tessen.
"Basically, we''re just going to meet a lot of people in quick session," Melissa said. "We''ll walk up, introduce ourselves, make some small talk, and then leave quickly to the next group of people. Your job is to look each person in the eye, repeat their name back to them as you study their face, and say it to yourself in your head a couple of times as well.
"Once we''ve met everybody, we''ll stand to the side, and you''ll point out each person, discreetly, and try to recall their name. We''ll do this over and over until you unlock the Skill."
"Sounds like a great time," Reivyn said.
Skill Leveled Up!
Memorization {Social} (1 ->7)
Reivyn looked at the Notification as they walked as a group out of the Lord''s Manor. He had unlocked the Skill rather quickly, long before he had actually met everyone they had intended to, and the rest of the interactions had simply assisted in rapidly increasing the Skill Level. Reivyn didn''t tell Melissa right away, though, and he went through with the entire n.
Teilon and Kimberly had gotten the chance to do a bit more dancing while he was working on his Skill, and Lin had joined them at one point. She and Melissa had retracted their ws, however, and they had simply moved about the room, talking and interacting with all of the others in attendance.
Reivyn had been surprised at the number of people who recognized him. It seems like a lot of people was paying more attention than I gave them credit for during the battle. I guess they just froze up and didn''t know exactly what to do without themandsing down. It had only been a split second before I stepped in, after all.
He spent some extra time conversing with Josn and the other sword-priests who had apanied him. The other man appeared to be back in high spirits again, and he was perfectly precise with his military poise and discipline.
Lorin and Cal had ended up sitting at the same table. They and their Parties had received an invite after word of them stepping up to assist the sword-priests in the retreat had beenmunicated to the Count from Josn.
The more Reivyn learned about the Sword-Priest, the more he felt he was right in starting a friendship with him. He''s strict on his men and military discipline, but he recognizes merit where it''s warranted and takes care of his people. He might have seemed a bit inexperienced, not understanding how to bnce how hard he was before, but it looks like everyone has grown to respect him, and he''s morefortable with receiving it rather than demanding it.
He had bid farewell to the acquaintances he had made in the Dungeon Town. Who knows, we might meet each other in the Capital or at some other Dungeon in the future.
"Ok, it''s time to get you guys on the Party, officially," Reivyn said as they exited onto the main thoroughfare. Lin tagged along with them. "I temporarily listed our Party as The Ravens, as I didn''t really have any other ideas at the time. Does anyone else have any suggestions?"
"Oh, oh, oh, I have one!" Larissa said, hopping up and down. Reivyn nodded at her to give her suggestion. "The Frostfire Mages and Their Trusted Lackeys!" She pumped her arm up in excitement. Melissa smacked her with the back of her hand, and Teilon bent overughing. "What? What did I say?" Larissa tilted her head, confusion on her face.
"Yeah, no," Melissa said. "We''re not going to refer to our other Party Members as "Lackeys."
"Other Party Members?" Larissa asked. "I was referring to me and Reivyn. You''re a Lackey, too," Larissa teased her sister.
"Haha, looks like you''re a fellow Lackey, Melissa," Teilon said after he recovered fromughing.
"I don''t see anyone else offering any suggestions," Larissa said, crossing her arms. Reivyn could see a slight twinkle in her eye and knew that she wasn''t serious about the whole Lackey thing. I think.
"What about the Flower Knights?" Kimberly said. "We have those Flower Crowns that we wore on our way to the Dungeon Town that your sisters made for us, and I''m sure they could make more for the others." Melissa had a contemtive look on her face at the name, and Larissa didn''t seem to mind either.
"Yeah, I don''t think so," Teilon said. "I don''t think anyone would take us seriously with ''Flower'' in our name. I know I wouldn''t."
"Our reputation could speak louder, with time," Reivyn pointed out.
"Yeah, with time," Teilon nodded. "But our name will be the first impression, and then we''ll have to work double-time to fix it. Also, I bet a lot of others would think we''re a group of all girls."
"Fair point," Reivyn agreed.
"You''re also not Knights," Lin supplied. "You can be a bit loose with naming conventions for Adventuring Party names, but some nobles or their knights might take exception to using the term."
"That makes sense," Kimberly said.
"What could we use that conveys the same intention, but sounds fierce, instead?" Teilon scratched his head in thought. The others were silent for a moment as they thought about the situation.
"Thorn," a voice intruded on everyone''s thoughts. Reivyn turned to the source of the word, and Erik was walking along as if he hadn''t just spoken up.
"Hmm, yeah, that could work. So we use ''Thorn'' instead of ''Flower,'' but what do we use instead of ''Knight?''"
"Oh, oh, oh, let''sbine the two!" Larissa said in excitement. "The Frostfire Thorns!" Melissa tapped her lips in thought, and Reivyn looked between each of the Party Members.
"I don''t have a problem with it," he said. "In fact, it might just grow on me. Itbines the ''Frostfire'' nature of Melissa and Larissa, and it conveys a fierce connotation along the ''Flower'' theme that Kimberly mentioned."
"Yeah, I like it," Teilon said. Kimberly and Melissa nodded their heads in approval. Erik kept silent on the matter. He would probably be fine with Flower Knights.
"I guess it''s settled then," Reivyn said. "From now on, our Party will officially be known as ''The Frostfire Thorns.''"
I have to admit, I like it better than "The Ravens," Reivyn thought to himself. Itbines concepts from both of our initial groups, and it doesn''t sound too feminine.
"Is Miss Melissa Bluefayre the rose on top of the thorned stem?" Lin joked, ncing at Melissa''s dark red hair. Melissa lifted her chin and threw her shoulders back as she walked.
"Maybe I am," she said. The others chuckled as they made their way to the Adventurer''s Guild.
The process of getting their aplishments recorded was a simple, quick affair. The scrolls the Count had given them were designed to be used in such a manner for ease of use. I would bet that most things issued by the nobles will have a simr function. There was a spot to hold their tokens to - the two Magic Academy students had Student Tokens instead of Adventurer ones, but they were still recognized by the Guild - and then the receptionist had them hold their tokens to a copy of their record on file to record it for the entire Guild.
The whole ordeal had only taken a couple of minutes to get aplished. Reivyn then pulled the record of their Party which had been generated when he supplied the information on the Dungeon, and they got their official name put in ce.
"It''s still early, so let''s go ahead and head out to my camp," Lin said as they left the building. "I can introduce you to the other officers and leaders in my Company. You can Level your Skill some more, and get some more connections with some of the lesser scions sent to military duty for the Duke. Someone of your caliber, about to attend the Magic Academy, can definitely benefit from making some more connections."
"I can''t disagree with that," Melissa said. "I won''t be able to vouch for each of their families, but while they''re in service to the Duke, their family politics should take a backseat to their duty."
"Just so," Lin said. "It was a special circumstance, and not just involving my own family, that I was dispatched to clear things upst time."
"Alright, sounds like a n," Reivyn said.
"Do you guys n on going back to the Dungeon? There''s still some time before the next semester begins," Lin queried. Reivyn looked at Teilon and Kimberly, both of whom just shrugged.
"I''ve aplished what I wanted to at this time," Reivyn said. He looked over at Melissa and Larissa. "What about you two?"
"We did what we wanted to aplish, too," Melissa said. "It makes more sense for us to get back to the Academy sooner so that we can get credit for all of the information instead of some other students who might show up and run the Dungeon themselves. Technically, the information has already been supplied to the Adventurer''s Guild, but students can get bonus School Credits for being pioneers and being the first to officially inform the Academy."
"Well, then," Reivyn said, "I guess we''re in agreement that we can go ahead and move on to the Capital at any time."
"Excellent," Lin said. "Then may I offer that you head in that direction with us? We won''t be escorting you ''officially,'' but we''ll be moving in the same direction - the Duke''s domain is located just outside of the Capital - and you can travel the road in peace without having to worry about the asional goblin attack." Reivyn once more looked to his Party members for their opinion, and they once more simply shrugged.
"Alright, then," Reivyn said. "We''ll take you up on the offer; however, there is onest thing I need from you." He gave Lin a pointed look, and she tilted her head in confusion. "Can I have my tessen back, now?"
Lin chuckled as she extracted the war fan from where she had ced it in her inner breast pocket and handed it back to Reivyn.
Chapter 59: Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix, (2)
Chapter 59: Interlude: Princess Amily and Brave Sir Fenrix, (2)
Ameliyn adjusted her tunic as she stepped out of the back of the supply wagon attached to the caravan they had been traveling with. She did a once over of her person and seeing that she was fresh and presentable, she made her way back to where her personal wagon was located.
She smiled as she saw her two daughters showing their newest creations off to the temporary nanny they had entrusted the two girls to. The youngdy had a strained smile on her face as Kailey and Riley took turns talking her ears off, parading various pieces of art.
The twins hadn''t had a chance to restock their grass and flowers needed for their usual creations, so Ameliyn had pointed them in the direction of someone who could paint, and she had bought several beast skins with some washable colors for them to practice. The n had been to introduce them to expanding their designs with more intricate color patterns, and then eventually lead that into weaving.
Those weren''t the pieces of art the girls were showing the nanny, though.
Ameliyn''s eye twitched as she saw Kailey pull out a small knife from who knows where, twirl it between her fingers, and then attack a block of wood with it. Many shavings and small statues were strewn about the front bench of the wagon, and the man driving it seemed to be deliberately ignoring the goings-on.
That''s... not exactly what I had in mind, Ameliyn thought. When did they get those knives, and why are they so Skilled with them? Reivyn was much older and more mature before we ever let him deal with actual des and not just wooden training versions.
"What do you have there, sweety?" Ameliyn called out to Kailey as a shape was quickly forming from the block of wood. It had only been several seconds, and Ameliyn could already tell that it was going to be a small statue of a man holding a sword over his head. That''s definitely going to be Fenrix, but I''m almost certain Refix and Reivyn are the inspiration.
"Mommy!" Kailey and Riley called out at the same time, abandoning their work to look up at their mother.
"You said you would be gone for only a couple of hours! It''s been a whole day!" Kailey said with a pout.
"Yeah, mommy," Riley said, "you owe us for your deception!"
"Deception?!" Ameliyn was taken aback by the word usage. "Honey, mommy didn''t deceive you. Things happened, and it took a little longer than anticipated to run our errand."
"Doesn''t matter," Kailey said, crossing her arms.
"You owe us," Riley said.
The nanny gave Ameliyn a sheepish grin. "They''ve actually been quite the little angels, Miss Ameliyn. They started off having a great time applying the paint to the beast skins, but somewhere along the way, they saw someone whittling. And then the knives came out. I tried to stop them, but they gave a convincing argument and they''ve been very careful with them, so... Well, you see," she gestured toward all the shavings and statues.
Ameliyn listened to the exnation, and then she did a careful Observation of her daughters. She''s right. Not a single nick or cut can be found. I''ll have some words to say to Refixter, though.
"Thank you, Salya," Ameliyn said. "I appreciate you watching them while we were out."
"Certainly, Pr.. ahem, Miss Ameliyn," Salya bobbed her head in a tiny curtsey as she stood up to go back to her wagon. Ameliyn passed her a small pouch of coins that she forced into the girl''s hands.
"You deserve to be paid for your services, Salya," Ameliyn said with a smile. The girl was a few years older than Reivyn and already a low Tier 2 ss. She was a young adult, and, as such, she needed to receive the appropriate remuneration.
"Yes, thank you," Salya said before dashing away. Ameliyn chuckled at her actions and shook her head. She looked back to her two daughters who were still staring at her, waiting for her response to their demand of "being owed something."
"What would you two like from mommy?" Ameliyn said as she climbed up and took a seat between them. They dropped their angry facade and began bouncing up and down in their seats, practically climbing into Ameliyn''sp from either side.
"Princess Amily!" Riley said.
"Brave Sir Fenrix!" Kailey added.
"Ok, ok," Ameliyn said as she held her palms out and patted at the air to calm them down. "I''m happy to continue the tale of their adventure. Now, where were we?"
"Princess Amily had just arrived at the pce of one of her vassals!" Kailey answered.
"And Brave Sir Fenrix was trying to muster their generals," Riley added.
"Of course, of course," Ameliyn said with a smile. The little caravan they were part of began moving once more along the road from where it had been parked. "Let me see... Princess Amily stood in the apartments that had been given to her, and she marveled at the luxury..."
"This is totally uneptable!" Ameliyn said, her arms crossed and a frown on her face. "They give me the rooms of a visiting dignitary and not one of the spare rooms for their Royal Family! This is an outrage!"
Refix looked around the spacious amodations. Objectively, the room was perfectly fine. Better than fine, even. There''s just the little detail that it is subjectively not fine at all. I know they have rooms set aside for people of the same status or higher, but it seems like they want to y games.
"Yes, Princess," Refix said as Ameliyn took a seat at one of the chairs. "The room is up to standard, but I can''t help but agree that they''re making a subtle statement with the choice of rooms.
"I know that, Guard," Ameliyn said with a raised eyebrow. "I just said that!" Refix surreptitiously rolled his eyes.
"I was just agreeing with you, Princess," he replied.
"Well, I don''t need your agreement, Guard. I need you to go out there and fix the problem."
"Yes, Princess. Right away," Refix mentally sighed at the order. They''re obviously going to dodge the issue, and there''s certainly nothing I can do about it right now, but I can''t not obey the order.
Refix walked over to the door and opened it, but he took a step back as someone was at the door already. The First Prince, Gallen, was standing with his arm raised, fist about to knock on the door.
A look of surprise was quickly squashed on his face as he unceremoniously strode through the door into the apartments. Refix took a slight shift to block his path, and a look of annoyance shed on Gallen''s face as he came up short.
"To what do we owe the honor, Lord Gallen?" Refix asked. He used the title of Lord for the First Prince to indicate that he was merely a lord in therger empire, despite what his title in the local kingdom was.
"We''ve prepared a feast in honor of your arrival, Your Highness," Gallen leaned over and addressed Ameliyn directly,pletely ignoring the presence of Refix. Refix narrowed his eyes as he stared at the other teenager. He''s only looking at the surface and sees that I''m Ameliyn''s bodyguard. He hasn''t taken the time to learn the truth: I''m actually a superior noble to his entire family, much less he himself. Refix once more sighed in his mind.
Ameliyn isn''t helping things, either, with her constantly referring to me as Guard. Probably getting back at me for always addressing her as Princess, but not following all of her orders. It''s for her own good!
"Stand aside, Guard," Ameliyn''s voice reached his ears. "Let the young man through," Refix smirked as he stepped aside. Even though she''s still annoyed with me, she didn''t miss the chance to get a little dig back at the First Prince, referring to him simply as "young man."
Gallen stood up straight, adjusted his coat with a tug from both hands, and then strode toward where Ameliyn was seated with his head held high. He approached her and gave a low bow, grabbing her proffered hand and cing a kiss on his own thumb instead of directly on the back of her hand. It was the standard procedure for greeting ady of higher standing. If he had met ady of lower standing, he would have kissed her hand directly.
Tiny, subtle things to indicate stance and rank. At least he hasn''t lost his mindpletely and tried to show a disy of dominance.
Gallen straightened up and gave Ameliyn what he likely thought was a charming smile, though Refix saw it as sleazy.
"We couldn''t possibly host the Imperial Princess and not throw her a weing feast," Gallen said. "I''m sure all of the other princesses and theirdies are dying to get to know you better. It''s been years since you toured the kingdomsst with your family, and I''m sure there are several acquaintances and new people you would like to meet with."
"Yes, I''m sure," Ameliyn said with a slight nod. "When is this feast supposed to be held? Why didn''t you simply send a servant to inform us?" Ameliyn cocked her head. Gallen ced a hand on his chest and looked scandalized.
"It would be highly improper to send a mere servant to inform Your Highness of such an event," Gallen said with apparent shock. "I simply had to bring the news personally."
"Hmm... would it really be improper to send a servant to - ahem - these apartments?" Ameliyn said, looking all around the room to emphasize her point. Gallen took a nce around at the room, a look of confusion on his face. Understanding seemed toe to him suddenly, and he bowed once more.
"I''m terribly sorry for theck of manners we have shown with assigning this room to you, Your Highness," Gallen said before straightening his back. "Our spare rooms in the Royal Wing are under renovations at the moment, and it would not be right to subject one such as yourself to such an inconvenience. We felt it would be more appropriate to afford you peace and quiet away from all of the noise and crowd. I will personally see to it that they pick up the pace, and we''ll relocate you to a more appropriate setting as soon as possible."
He''s over-exaggerating his facial expressions. He needs more practice.
"See that you do," Ameliyn said with a lift of her chin. "You still haven''t answered my first question."
"Yes, yes," Gallen said. "It''s right now. We figured it would be better to throw the feast immediately so you could quickly return to your rooms and rest."
Another subtle dig, Reivyn thought. They''re trying to make it appear that she isn''t punctual under the guise of letting her rest earlier, but they could have let her rest now and given her time to prepare properly.
"Well, then, we must be off immediately," Ameliyn said as she stood up. She headed to the door with a brisk stride, also appearing to have picked up on the situation, and Gallen rushed to follow at her side. Ameliyn headed toward Refix to give him her arm as an escort, but Gallen spoke up before she could get to him.
"Allow me to escort you, Your Highness," Gallen said. "It''s only right that one of the Royal Family brings you to the banquet, personally."
Ameliyn froze as she looked back and forth between Gallen and Refix. She made her decision and offered her arm to Gallen.
"Quite right," Ameliyn said as she allowed Gallen to set a more sedate pace as they walked out of the apartments. "Guard, you walk behind us."
Looks like she''s still more annoyed at me than them, Refix thought with a silent chuckle. This will mean that in order to get at me, she has to give up any chance of showing up with better timing. Gallen is obviously deliberately walking slower than he needs to.
The three walked through the empty halls. There weren''t many people on this side of the pce at the time. Visiting dignitaries would typically bring their own cohort of servants to take care of them, and so the local staff only did maintenance of the wing without fully staffing it.
Gallen held his arm out in a perfectly gentlemanly manner, and he asionally brought his other hand up to pat Ameliyn''s hand as he spoke to her about different things they passed by in the halls. There were many little courtyards interspersed along the way containing gardens, and he pointed out and talked about the different decorations along the hallway as well. As this wing of the pce was for foreign diplomats, there were many decorations to disy the might of the local Royal Family, but there were also many disys to show their cordiality and diplomatic aplishments to the visitors.
They eventually made their way to the more central locale of the pce, and they headed toward the banquet hall. Many more servants and guards could be seen moving about taking care of running the pce, but there were no other young lords ordies still outside of the banquet hall, as they had all apparently already arrived by this time.
I''m sure they notified literally everyone else before sending Gallen to pick the Princess up.
They stepped into the banquet hall, and the noise and chatter immediately came over Refix. He had trained long and hard for many years, and his Perception Skill was high enough that it didn''t interfere with his ability to pick things out, though. He followed behind as Gallen led Ameliyn to the head table where a seat was left open for her with the Royal Family. They made their way around the room under the watchful gaze of all those in attendance.
The King stood up with a heartyugh as Ameliyn approached. "There she is, finally able to make it to the banquet held in her honor," he said loudly, but with argeugh and smile to make it seem like he was making light of the situation he deliberately brought focus on. "Have a seat, my dear, have a seat." He gave a bow while he addressed her.
Refix gave the man an appraising look with narrowed eyes. He''s much better at this than his son.
Ameliyn walked up to the offered seat to the King''s right, and she paused for a moment to look over her shoulder at Refix. "Guard, I''m perfectly safe here. You go sit with the other guards," she dismissed him.
Refix mentally sighed once more. She obviously knows that my standing is second only to hers, but she still sends me off to sit with the riff-raff. Oh well, I''ve suffered worse while training.
"At once, Princess," Refix said with a small bow before turning on his heels to head to a side table. It had several men in uniforms simr to his own official garb, but it was a tad less ornate. Refix hadn''t worn his uniform, though, as it was quite dirty. He spied that several of the men were older, grizzled veterans, and his hopes came up at seeing them.
Looks like it''s not the riff-raff, after all. I can see that these are the generals of the King''s armies. Maybe he''s notpletely unwilling to offer us military aid, he thought. We''ll just have to evaluate the price.
"...and the Kingvished praises on the beautiful Princess of the Empire while Brave Sir Fenrix regaled the generals with tales of his prowess. They burned with excitement to join the pair in their quest," Ameliyn said. "We''ll go ahead and end the story here for next time."
"A, I want to hear about the banquet, though," Kailey whined.
"Yeah, tell us about how the generals pledged their loyalty after being impressed by Brave Sir Fenrix," Riley said.
"Next time, next time," Ameliyn said. "I need to keep some things for the story next time I tell it, and I see your fathering over. I have something I need to discuss with him."
"Ok~ay," Kailey (Riley) said. They scooted over to let Ameliyn get up, and she climbed into the back of the wagon after motioning to Refix with her head. Refix came in through the back after Ameliyn waited for just a short moment.
"What in the world have you been teaching our daughters?" Ameliyn ambushed her husband with the unexpected question. "I know you trained Reivyn in all sorts of weapons, and I was fine with that because you used wooden training versions. Why do Kailey and Riley have real knives?"
Refix reeled for a moment at the sudden burst of usatory questions before he grew a sheepish grin. "Well... I have managed to teach them a thing or two with knives and daggers over the years while working with Reivyn, enough that they gained the Skills, and I mi~ght have given them some small tools to defend themselves before we left on our errand when you weren''t looking."
"Small tools to defend themselves?" Ameliyn raised an eyebrow. "I saw Kailey twirl that sharp knife through her fingers like she had done it a hundred times before. They somehow got it into their head to work on whittling instead of the careful nning we made to get them into weaving." Ameliyn bent down where several of the little statues had been discarded inside of the wagon and grabbed one. "Here, they''ve been practicing making figures of Princess Amily and Sir Fenrix. This one looks quite a lot like you." She handed it over to Refix after inspecting it for a moment.
Refix took the little statue and stared at it for a moment before looking back up at his wife. "This is an ogre," he said with a t voice.
"Oh, is it?" Ameliyn said with a shrug. "I hadn''t noticed." Refix rolled his eyes as he tossed the little ogre aside.
"Alright, alright," he coaxed her, bringing her into a hug. She resisted for a moment, but only for a moment. "I should have told you I was giving them some real weapons, but I never thought they would actually use them. Much less for whittling and twirling through their fingers."
"I know," Ameliyn said. "You did it out of the same sense of wanting to protect them that I have for not wanting them to have them. Anyway, as long as they''re working on their Skills diligently, we can still help with their development. Maybe we can consult with some of the educators about trying to use what they have instead of weaving to build their mana Skills in the future.
"You know that my formal education came to an abrupt halt, and, while I did learn a lot, I''m not quite sure how to trante whittling into Spell Casting."
"That''s just because you haven''t considered it before," Refix said, kissing the top of her head while still holding her in his embrace. "I''m sure it will work wonders toward their visualization abilities."
"Hmm, that''s a good point," Ameliyn said. Theypsed into afortable silence for a minute. "What''s Reivyn up to, now?"
"Heh heh, he''s lucky in love, that one," Refix said with a wide grin. Ameliyn pulled back and narrowed her eyes at him. "He''s got two scions of some of the well-off families from the Capital fighting over him. They haven''t taken things too far, but they are using all of their charms to try and dazzle him into choosing sides. He''s currently still with both of them, traveling with the Duke''s men toward the Capital."
"Hmph, we''ll see," Ameliyn said. "Being the daughter of a wealthy family in a podunk little kingdom and attending one of their Academies doesn''t mean they''re good enough for my son." Some of that haughty, noble attitude that she had reined in over the years crept back up at the prospect of some harlots trying to steal her boy.
"Hah! I''m sure Reivyn can keep a clear distinction between personal and professional rtionships."
"He better, if he knows what''s good for him," Ameliyn said as she leaned into Refix once again. "Not just anyone can be worthy of the Vynn Bloodline."
Update: Cover Art Added
Update: Cover Art Added
Just a quick update to let everyone who follows me know that I''ve finally added the Cover Art. I put the artist, where you can find his work, and how you can contact him in the Synopsis, but I''ll go ahead an include it here, as well.
Cover Art by: Jay Graphixx ([emailprotected]). His work can be found on under JayGraphixx (surprise, lol).
"Chapters" have to be at least 500 characters long in order to be posted, so I need to think of something else to say. There''s really not a lot, lol.
To anyone wondering about thest name "Aluran," it''s from my wife''s pen name. She doesn''t have any published work, at the moment, but she does write. Her genre would be a bit more YA than what I''m writing.
Chapter 60: Tier 2, Too
Chapter 60: Tier 2, Too
Monthly Experience
Calcting...
Relevant Skills Training: +400 Exp
Physical Exercise: +0 Exp
Sparring: +0 Exp
Knowledge and Understanding: +240 Exp
Life Experience: +4000 Exp
Total Monthly Exp: 4,640
Experience 3,000/3,000
Initiating ss Change to Tier 2
Select New ss
Note: Primary ss: Fighter shall be Secondary ss
Reivyn had decided to turn his Experience Siphon ability off after he had decided on the initial Caster ss for entering the Magic Academy. The ss one directly affects the speed of leveling up the relevant Skills, and the Monthly Experience Calction also bases the Experience awarded on the ss, as well. So far I''ve been doing a lot of physical fighting, so I''ve been getting decent Experience rewards for those Skills.
I''m entering a new phase in my life, though, where I''ll be focusing much more heavily on mana Skills, and I needed to have a Caster ss to get epted to the Magic Academy, too. It was time to finally breach Tier 2 for real.
Reivyn didn''t need to think about his ss selection. Unlikest time when he only had 60 seconds to make a decision, Reivyn had been able to see andpare his avable sses for well over a month. He chose his interim ss immediately.
Light Magus Tier 2 Rare Advancement: 5 Unassigned Stats/Lvl (Tier 2, Rare) STR: +1/3 INT: +2 VIT: +3 MAG: +3 DEX: +1/3 CLA: +1/3 CHA: +0 PER: +1 LUK: +0
ss Skills: Basic Elemental Spells (1): Bolt 2(4)MP, sh 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), st 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity
Lattice (1): Bonus to Mana Maniption +21%
True Light (1): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells
Avable: Intermediate Light Spells (0), True Illusion (0), True Mana (0)
Reivyn felt his meridians shift about inside of him. It wasn''t the feeling of the literal, physical pathways changing, but it was more a metaphysical feeling, and he could feel the changed routes as he circted his Mana through the pathways. The new meridian paths didn''tpletely change the ones that had been built from his Fighter ss, but they instead built upon the foundationsid. It had been something he had been anticipating.
"Typically, a Tier 1 ss doesn''t even have meridians other than what is inherently present in all people," Knight-Lieutenant Brand said. Reivyn had visited him in his office onest time before departing with Lin''s Company and his Party. The Knight-Lieutenant had had some final tidbits of knowledge and advice for Reivyn. "One of the things that aren''t mentioned about the Peasant Levy ss and the Conscription mechanic is the meridian foundation. You can expect to have marginal increases in your Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity that wouldn''t normally be there when you ss up soon."
"Is that why people with Bloodlines have superior Stats?" Reivyn hadn''t meant to ask the question out loud.
"That''s exactly why. Someone born with a strong enough Bloodline will have their ss meridians built on the foundations of their Bloodline meridians. Do you have a Bloodline?" Knight-Lieutenant Brand asked conversationally. Reivyn knew that he could trust the older man, as he hadn''t leaked a single thing about his Mythic Skill, other than to the Knight-Captain who had also kept the secret, so Reivyn wasn''t too concerned with his blunder. He still chose to hedge his bets, though.
"I don''t have an activated Bloodline or anything," Reivyn said nonchntly. Brand gave him a knowing look but didn''t press the issue.
"One of the reasons I''m here in a position of authority is that my family actually has a weak Bloodline. I say it''s ''weak,'' but it''s more than 99% of what everyone else has, and it has served my family well over the years," the man supplied. "But enough about that. Is there anything else I can do to help you along before you move on to bigger and better things?" Reivyn had already indicated this was their final meeting before he headed to the Capital to join the Magic Academy.
"There is, actually," Reivyn said. "A wise man once taught me the ropes of handling a horse, but I find myself, and mypanions, without a mount. I figured I could get a better deal in purchasing one from you, or you could steer me in the right direction." Knight-Lieutenant Brand considered Reivyn for a moment over his sped hands under his chin.
"I''ll tell you what," he said, "give me two of those Experience Crystals, and I''ll use my authority to sell you three horses - you need three, right? You, Teilon, and Kimberly," he ticked off his fingers as he named Reivyn''s friends.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn said with a nod. "My otherpanions already have their own horses."
"Very well, three it is," Brand pulled out a form to make the bill of sale to be given to the quartermasterter.
"I feel like I''m taking advantage of you, here," Reivyn said. "I know horses aren''t cheap, and these Experience Crystals won''t be too scarce around these parts, soon."
"Mhmm, but they''re scarce now," Knight-Lieutenant Brand said. He continued to fill out the form while he exined. "While it''s true that we''ll be sending the men to delve the Dungeon, and, as it''s a Resource Dungeon, the crystals can be considered the resource on the second floor so most of the ones recovered will be the property of the outfit as opposed to those doing the delving, but we haven''t started yet. The supply and demand of these resources are still skewed in your favor at the moment, so it''s a perfectly reasonable price. This also includes all of the base equipment and some feed."
"Thank you, sir," Reivyn said as he epted the filled-out form.
"You''re wee. And enough with this ''sir'' business," Brand said. "I''m not your superior any longer. We can be considered friends, now."
"Ok... Brand," Reivyn winced as he said the man''s name without any titles. Brandughed at his expression.
"You''ll get used to it," he said. They chatted for a few more minutes before Reivyn took his leave.
Reivyn bent down and patted the neck of the horse he was riding. I don''t think I''ll ever get used to it, he thought with a chuckle. I know I''m considered an adult now, especially since I''ve officially entered Tier 2, but he still seems like someone on my parent''s social level. I feel like I need to add at least a ''Mr.'' to his name.
Reivyn sat up straight and continued to look at his full Status after the ss change.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Light Magus Lvl 1 Age:10 Fighter Health: 2,490/2,490 (+200) Stamina: 4,750/4,750 (+260) Mana: 2,240/2,240 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 226 (+6) INT: 224 VIT: 249 (+20) MAG: 224 DEX: 226 (+6) CLA: 155 CHA: 67 PER: 173 LUK: 66 Bloodline: Unknown 2,886,274/10,000,000 Experience: 1,640/3,200
Skills: Tier 1:
Aim (27), Athleticism (45), Bnce (46), Drawing (19), Drive (7), Haman (20 MAX), Heavy Armor (7), Hiding (28), Horsemanship (8), Map Making (18), Mathematics (17), Marching (15), Medium Armor (35), Memorization {Social} (7), Mining (18), Observation (41), Penmanship (24), Piano (0), Ride (12), Running (41), Shields (48), Sneaking (27), Stealing (9), Swimming (0), Woodworking (11) Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26), Backstab (9), Eavesdropping (24), Evasion (39), Forced March (13), Linguistics (10), Mana Absorption (49), Mana Cirction (24), Meditation (24), Numbers Concepts (9), Pain Resistance (42), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (55), Stealth (23), Strategy (19), Tactics (24) Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (18), Blind Fighting (8), Command (20), Commanding Shout (4), Danger Sense (15), Identify {All} (15), Inspire (14), Mana Conjuration (30), Mana Maniption (32), Mana Shield (20), Mana Sight (33), Mental Fortitude (40) Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (15), Iron Will (15), Mana Weapon (27), Spatial Awareness (21) Tier 5:
Heroic Bearing (3) Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (61)
Affinities: Tier 1:
Air (36), Earth (36), Fire (36), Water (36) Tier 2:
Ice (20), Magma (20), Metal (20), sma (20), Wood (20) Tier 3:
Darkness (27), Light (27) Tier 5:
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)
ss Skills: Basic Elemental Spells (1): Bolt 2(4)MP, sh 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), st 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity
Lattice (1): Bonus to Mana Maniption +21%
True Light (1): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells
Cleave (96): Reset stance at an elerated rate of 207%
Charge (97): Sprint towards the target at 208% absolute maximum speed
me Weapon (62): Coat your weapon in a raging Inferno. Able to extend the length of the me Weapon with additional mana
Avable: Devastating Strike (99), Intermediate Light Spells (0), Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0), True Illusion (0), True Mana (0), Quick-Draw (81)
I definitely don''t have the Stats of someone just entering Tier 2. Even taking into ount people like Teilon and Kimberly who also got a head start on their Stats from the Peasant Levy ss.
I have way more Stats than even someone entering Tier 3 would typically have if they had zero Achievements or other bonuses to their Stats.
Take the Fighter ss, for instance. A Level 60 Fighter would have around 140 to 150 Strength, depending on their base attribute when they attained the ss. My Strength Stat is over 70 points higher than the upper band. Reivyn shook his head. Thinking like this is what gets me in trouble all the time. I can''t assume I''m the only person with a lot of Achievements under my belt. Other people already have unlocked Bloodlines giving them steady Stat growth per Level, and people aren''t static.
I shouldn''t sell myself short, by any means, but I need to assume that anyone I meet has also had their own particr Life Experiences that would make them more than just what the ss would entail.
Despite reminding himself to never getcent and make assumptions about others, Reivyn was still immensely pleased with his progress. He had only technically gained 16 Levels since he had made the decision to go to the Dungeon, but he had seen close to 150 Stat gains in almost all of his normal Stats, and he had gained a tremendous amount in his Charisma and Luck. He knew that most people never even unlocked those Stats, but he didn''t have a baseline topare himself to see just how high those Stats really were.
I''ll have to ask my parents to finally reveal their full stats for me, once and for all, and I''ll be able to see where I stack up. Those Adventurers were awfully suspicious...
He had been too preupied each time he had encountered the Adventurers to really focus on them and try to figure them out at the moment, but after being able to think about it clearly after the fact, there were a lot of things that didn''t make sense.
Like the not-Light Element that the new female Adventurer used. My mother ims to be a Light Weaver and only in Tier 2... but she also imed to be a Viger when in Tier 1, and I know that that was a lie. What else have they kept from me in order to ''protect'' me? I think I''m mentally prepared and mature enough for the full story.
Reivyn looked around the countryside as he came out of his contemtion. They had traveled with Lin''s Company to the city where the Duke called home, Malgen, and had parted ways there. The city of Malgen was a true eye-opener for Reivyn, as it was several timesrger than Magron. The walls were half again as high, and the level of foot traffic within the city was downright inconvenient.
Lin had tried to get the Party to apany her to her private house she had outside of the base to spend the evening, but Reivyn had politely declined as it wasn''t thatte in the evening. He had begun to miss his family, and he could tell that Melissa had zero interest in staying in Lin''s presence any longer than she absolutely had to.
The two girls had cooled their little rivalry, though Reivyn could still pick out subtle jabs every now and then. It gets pretty annoying when it''s nothing but verbal sparring, but the asional power y is actually a little ttering. Reivyn had to admit that it wasn''t all bad having two girls fight over him, even if he knew it was not in a romantic way.
The countryside between Malgen and the Capital - I still don''t know the name of the city, it might even just be The Capital - was dotted with far moremunities, so much so that they appeared to be little viges spaced just a stone''s throw away - Or even one, big, extended city.
The road was lined with trees, and it afforded a quite pleasant, shaded ride towards the Capital.
"The trees aren''t there just for shade," Melissa had said. "They''re also a wind-break for the farms. There was much more forest naturally breaking things up near Magron, so you didn''t see it the same way it is here, and there are more individually owned plots ofnd here. If you''ll pay attention and look out into the fields, you can see that they''re basically squared off with a line of trees creating neat little boxes. Well, ''little'' is a rtive term."
Reivyn had done as Melissa had said and seen exactly what she was talking about. The scene caused a sh from one of his dreams to cross his mind for a split second. It appeared that he was looking down on a huge, open area with clearly defined squares of crops below. Reivyn instinctively knew that he wasn''t looking at a map in the dream, as he could see the fuzzy horizon way off in the distance, but he had no idea where or how someone could get such a vantage.
The closest thing I can think of that makes any kind of sense is falling off of a giant bird, for some reason. Reivyn shook his head. It wasn''t that important.
Reivyn''s homesickness for his family only grew stronger the closer they got to the Capital, and he was itching to get his horse to move at a faster pace. He held himself back, though, as he wasn''t sure Teilon or Kimberly had Leveled up their Skills enough to handle a mad dash. He knew they had gotten several more Skill Levels in the week they had been on the road, but he also knew that he gained Skill Levels unusually quickly.
My own experiences aren''t the best baseline to judge how fast someone gains Skill Levels.
"How much further do you think we have?" Reivyn asked Melissa for the thousandth time. Melissa rolled her eyes as she looked around their surroundings to gauge exactly where they were.
"About a day and a half," she answered. "About thirty minutes less than thest time you asked me."
"Sorry, I''m just excited," Reivyn said with a sheepish grin. "Not just about the Academy, but about my family, also. You''ll finally get to meet them, too. You''ll have to if you want a Flower Crown for yourself. I doubt Kailey and Riley will make you one without meeting you."
"Oh, oh, oh, I can''t wait!" Larissa cheered from beside her sister. "Your sisters sound adorable. Let''s see: you have the Laurel Crown of the Flower Knight, Kimberly has The Lady''s Flower Crown, and Teilon has The Plucked Flowers - obviously in reference to him being a thief as your sisters said. I wonder what my flower crown will be called." Larissa looked to the side in contemtion, and her gazended on Erik. "For that matter, what will Erik''s be called? The Silent Thorn?" She giggled at her little joke.
"Hey, that doesn''t sound half bad," Teilon said. "But knowing the twins, they''lle up with something all on their own. He''ll probably get somethingpletely out of left field, like The Rose Bush, haha." Erik simply grunted. Teilon frowned as he turned to Reivyn. "Does that guy ever smile?"
"I don''t think so," Reivyn said with a quick nce. "I dunno, I''ve gotten used to him like this. I think it would be weird if I looked over and saw a smile on his face."
"True," Teilon nodded his head.
The Partypsed intopanionable silence, asionally broken by a bit of banter between one or two of them. The trip had been very pleasant, and after reaching Malgen, there were no longer any dangers of any kind of random attack, be it from beasts or monsters.
Come to think of it, the only time I''ve ever encountered anything besides a few predators on the prowl was the one time the goblins showed up to attack the conscription team. I wonder why that is? Maybe they were just thinned out enough that it hasn''t been a problem recently.
Reivyn put the thoughts out of his mind. He was already beyond that portion of his life, and he was about to begin a whole new phase. Sure, he would most likely end up out there again for one reason or another, like running the Dungeon while being an official student, but his family was now in the Capital, and so even though he had yet to actually set foot there himself, it was now his home.
Reivyn looked over at Teilon and Kimberly. Not just my immediate family is there, but the brother and sister I''ve made are going to be there with me, too. Reivyn still had the asional regret over leaving Will and Simmon behind like they had, but they were likely still less than Level 10 in their Tier 1 sses. It was the right thing to do, even if it hurt sometimes.
It''s time to stop thinking about the past. I have a whole future ahead of me, and things are looking good.
Chapter 61: Mama Bear
Chapter 61: Mama Bear
Reivyn stepped through the door to the modest house. Modest rtive to all of the wealthier homes I saw on the way here. It''s still a nicer ce than the previous two homes my parents had. The first thing he saw when he entered the building, aside from the familiar furnishings, was his mother at her loom and his two sisters doing... something on the ground in the center of the room.
His three family members looked up in surprise at the sound of the door opening, and after an initial moment of shock, all three of them jumped up.
"Brother!" Kailey (Riley) yelled as they sprinted towards him. They mmed into him, giving him a big hug around his waist from either side.
"Reivyn!" Ameliyn likewise called out in excitement, but her approach was much more controlled. She walked around the seats in the way, not in a hurry, but also not too slow, and came around to also give him a hug around his shoulders. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek as well. She stepped back and gave him a once over from top to bottom before nodding her head.
"I see that you already Tiered up," she said. "And from the mana emanations, it would appear you chose a Caster ss as you had nned." Reivyn was taken aback for a moment, and he cocked his head in puzzlement.
"You can tell just from looking at me?" He asked. Ameliyn just gave a small smile.
"I''m your mother," she simply replied. Ameliyn pped her hands together, a bright smile on her face. "This is cause for celebration! We''ve all missed you, terribly, and yourst letter didn''t have a whole lot of good things to say in it - other than that you were fine, of course. I''ll make you your favorite meal!"
"Thanks, mom," Reivyn said with a smile. "It is a little early, still, so maybe wait until dad is closer to getting home? Also, you''ll need to make extras. Teilon, Kimberly, and the rest of my Party have been invited over. I hope that''s not too much of an inconvenience."
"Nonsense," Ameliyn swatted at Reivyn yfully. "Your friends are always wee in our house. Where are Teilon and Kimberly? They stayed with us before you guys headed to the Dungeonst time, so I figured they woulde here again. We have a guest room - and couch - set up for them and everything."
"We stopped by the Adventurer''s Guild, first," Reivyn exined as he walked to a couch. His sisters didn''t let go, so he had to carry them straight-legged all the way with him. "We sold some of the resources we picked up from the Dungeon, and they decided to get a couple of boarding rooms at one of the nicer branches temporarily. They n on applying for the Knight Academy while I apply for the Magic Academy, so they''ll move into the dorms over there when the new semester begins in a couple of months."
"That makes sense," Ameliyn said as she took a seat across from her children. "I''ll be sure to make some extra for them and the other - three? - three friends. What were their names again? Melissa, Larissa, and Erik? Is that right?"
"Mhm," Reivyn nodded. "I''m sure you''ll like them just fine. I''ve already told you pretty much all about them in the letters I wrote, but I did learn that theirst name was Bluefayre after I sent thest letter. I would have included it, but I had already sealed the envelope and figured it could wait until I got here. Do you know anything about that family, here in the capital?"
"I''ve heard some things in passing, and from your father''s work," Ameliyn acknowledged. "They''re apparently a branch family of a fairly powerful noble family in the Tier 2 Region''s Kingdom that this one is a vassal to. Not sure of the details of why they''re out here, but I can probably make some guesses." Reivyn stared at his mother for a moment. Ameliyn stared back at him before she gave a small start.
"Oh, you wanted to know what those guesses are? Of course, well, the most likely reason is that their branch has been relegated to this kingdom to find talent. That includes their own children if they do well enough in the Magic Academy. From what you''ve sent in your letter, I''m sure Melissa or Larissa, or both, might get moved up to the main residence after they finish their stint in the Academy whether they graduate at the top of their ss or not."
"Oh, so you know about that, as well?" Reivyn asked.
"Reivyn... Of course, I know about it," Ameliyn gave him a meaningful look and rolled her eyes. "Your father and I already know that this region can''t keep you - your sisters, either, if they could ever learn to focus on studying and training their gifts - and we''ve been prepared for a long time to move along with you."
Reivyn raised an eyebrow at his mom. He looked down at the twin girls still clinging to him and back at his mother a couple of times. Ameliyn finally got the hint and reached out to pat their heads.
"Girls, go outside and y. Your brother has new friendsing over, and they might want to see your amazing craftsmanship! It would definitely be a pity if you didn''t have enough materials to show off in front of them."
"You''re right!" Riley popped her head up and eximed. "C''mon, Kailey, let''s go get some crafting materials."
"Alright," Kailey said as she got up. "We can always force Reivyn to give us more hugster." Force? Reivyn gave his sisters a strange look as they fled out the back door.
"Ok, so what did you want to talk about without them listening in?" Ameliyn asked as she settled back down in her seat.
"A lot of things, actually," Reivyn began. "But we can start with why you guys settled in a Tier 1 Region in the first ce."
"Oh, this conversation," Ameliyn said. She got up and went into the kitchen. "I''ll get us something to drink. It might take a while. I can tell you the reason we chose Haluville specifically, though, while I''m up." Ameliyn grabbed a couple of cups and used her Mana Maniption to conjure some pure water with ice for them both. "We stopped in Haluville because you were born on the road, and that was the first decent-sized town we came across soon after." Ameliyn handed Reivyn the cup of ice water and sat back down.
Reivyn looked at the cup of water skeptically. "Is it safe to drink mana water?"
"Oh, I didn''t make the water out of the Water Element, silly," Ameliyn said. "There''s a lot of little tricks that I can teach you before you head off to the Magic Academy, now that you''re ready to actually cast Spells instead of just working on your Affinities all the time. Obviously, you''ll be doing more of that, too, but you understand.
"Anyway, I just drew out the ambient moisture from the atmosphere with the Water Element to fill the cup. I didn''t fill the cup directly with the Water Element. It would dissipate on its own that way.
"Same with the ice. I just added the step of pulling the heat out of a select grouping of the moisture, much like what you did to unlock the Ice Affinity."
"That seems awfully convenient," Reivyn said before he took arge gulp of the water. Ahh, that''s quite refreshing. I wish I had thought of this when I was suffering that heat at the Dungeon Town. Reivyn mentally kicked himself.
"Yup, it is," Ameliyn smiled as she sipped her water.
"Ok, so, Tier 1 Region. Go," Reivyn said as he looked at his mother.
"Well, we weren''t just randomly fleeing from the higher Tier Regions..." Ameliyn said.
"And you say that this one person will be enough to bring our entire Branch back to Eldiar?" Terrin, Melissa''s first uncle, asked in disbelief. "Forgive me if I don''t fully trust your judgment. You''re a promising student at the Magic Academy, and we all have high hopes for you to be epted back to the main family. But that''s all: promising and hopeful."
"I understand your skepticism, Uncle, but I assure you, I have not over-exaggerated the matter," Melissa said.
She stood in the main sitting room of her family in front of her parents and the other decision-makers of the family. Her grandfather sat in the main seat, next to his wife, but they were letting their own children handle the inquiry. Melissa had been rushed to meet with the Elders as soon as she, her sister, and Erik had stepped through the gates of their home.
Word of the Dungeon Break had obviously reached The Capital a long time ago, and despite her own letter - the one after the battle sent a few days after the one telling her parents how much she loved them and regretted not being able to see them again - her family was filled with relief at their safe return.
Yes, they gathered for official business and to interrogate me about the Dungeon and the Battle, but there was genuine concern in their eyes and mannerisms. Melissa was gratified that her family wasn''t like many of the other notable families in The Capital - or the main family, for that matter - that were only concerned with benefits.
"Of course, you would over-exaggerate the matter," Terrin replied with an eye roll. "Who wouldn''t want to be the one to fulfill the duty that lets us all go back to the higher Tier Region?"
"Hush, Terrin," Sarissa, Melissa''s mother, gently reprimanded her brother-inw. "Let the girl exin herself before you make a judgment." She turned her attention back to her daughter. "Go on, dear." Melissa shot a quick smile at her mom.
"Yes, mother," Melissa said. "Well, as you all know from the letters I''ve sent, Reivyn is a verypetent Fighter ss Martial Combatant with powerful Mana Skills. What I didn''t dare to put into those letters, though, is he was able to easily pick up different Affinity Weaves - at a pace considerably faster than me or Larissa did - and Erik said he''s also close to, if not already beyond, the Master designation in Swords." Many of the Elders nodded their heads with contemtive looks on their faces.
"Yes, I can see how that would constitute a talent worth investing in, maybe even sending to Eldiar to apany you and your sister, but our whole family?" Gerrin, her father, said.
"What if I told you it wasn''t just Swords? He''s also shown the same Skill Level for Spears and Bows, and he''s close to Expert Level with Shields," Melissa could see the interest rising in the Elders'' eyes as they took in the information. "Don''t forget, that''s on top of his Mana Skills, which aren''t relegated to just his ability to pick up on the Affinity Weaves. He''s also the one who noticed the abnormality with the Dungeon''s Mana before anyone else. He warned the Church and the Adventurer''s Guild, and he got us out of there well ahead of the Break.
"Additionally, he managed to interpret a ss Skill, me de, bybining his own Mana Weapon Skill with Larissa''s Inferno Spell." Melissa looked at the faces of all of the Elders, and she could see that they were almost there.
If there''s a way for me to convince them without revealing all of your secrets, then this is the final push. I consider you my friend, so I''ll give it a go, but my family will alwayse first.
"There''s onest thing that I didn''t mention about his ss." Melissa let the suspense build for a moment.
"Fighter is his Tier One ss. He was conscripted by Count Ilpir, and his ss wasn''t changed to Peasant Levy, but he was instead able to choose from a list, and he chose the Rare Fighter, which became an Epic Tier 1 ss. He just Tiered up to his official Tier 2 ss, and he told me it was called Light Magus. His ambition for going to the Academy is to graduate before getting past Level 10, and forcing the Tier 3 transition."
"Magus?" Melissa heard her grandfather mutter. He looked like he wasn''t paying too close attention, but he had definitely heard and considered every word carefully.
"That will be all for now, Melissa," Sarissa said with a smile. "We have much to discuss. We''ll let you know, if anything, what your role is going to be moving forward. In the meantime, didn''t you say you had been invited to his family''s home for dinner tonight?" Melissa nodded. "Good. Go and get a gauge on his ''Adventurer'' parents, as you said."
"Yes, mother," Melissa said. She gave a short curtsey. "If I may be excused?" Her father nodded, and Melissa strode out of the room.
It looks like they might have been satisfied with thatst bit about his ss and goals. I''m d I didn''t have to reveal his Veridical Affinity. I would have if push came to shove, but I think our rtionship would change forever if he ever learned of it. Melissa was happy that she was able to conceal probably thergest secret Reivyn had - Even if he doesn''t realize it - and still aplish her goals of getting the Elders to take him seriously.
Now it''s time to go meet Reivyn''s family. Larissa is excited to meet his sisters, but I''m anticipating meeting the two people who raised him.
Melissa stood back a bit as Teilon knocked on the door to the modest house. Melissa appraised it with a critical eye. It''s definitely squarely in middle ss, but upon careful Observation, there isn''t a single thing out of ce. It looks like someone takes meticulous care of every tiny detail. If one doesn''t look closely enough, it would be easy to miss. Melissa nodded to herself.
A neat and tidy home was a good sign. She had seen the homes of other promising students'' families, but many of them had only taken cursory care of their dwellings.
The group of five - Erik was an official Party Member, so he had obviously been invited as well - didn''t have to wait long before the door opened to two young girls. They are adorable, Melissa thought when she first saw the twins. They were in homemade clothes, and if one wasn''t well versed in the intricacies of fashion, one would hardly notice that the subtle quality ced the garments well in the upper echelons.
The color scheme of the two girls'' clothes wasn''t identical, unlike their actual appearances, but they were tastefully done in a way toplement each other.
"Flower Thief! Big Sis! So happy to see you!" One of the girls called out.
"So happy to see you," the other said immediately after. Melissa''s mouth tugged into a small smile. It looks like they haven''t spent a whole lot of time apart from each other. I''ve seen many close siblings like them with extremely simr personalities, but I''m sure they''ll develop their own unique spins on it once they start the supplementary school.
"Kailey, Riley!" Kimberly rushed forward and bent down to hug the girls around their necks. "These are our friends that we made in the Dungeon Town," Kimberly squatted down and pointed to the other three people. "That''s Melissa, Larissa her sister, and Erik, the silent, strong-type. Our little Flower Court has expanded, and they just loved the crowns you made for all of us."
"Oh, oh, oh, I really, really want one," Larissa said as she bounded over. Melissa gave an internal sigh. She always acts like that when I''m around. I''ve heard from some of the servants that she''s almost apletely different person in private. Oh well, whatever makes her happy.
"I''m Melissa, it''s a pleasure to meet you," Melissa stepped forward and squatted down to be on eye level. The two girls giggled at the older pair of sisters.
"Oh, how rude of me," Larissa said, abruptlying up short with her hand on her chest. "I''m Larissa, the pretty one." The girls giggled again.
"Don''t leave our guests at the door, girls, bring them in," a woman''s voice came from within the home.
"Yes, mom," the two girls said in unison.
"So, which one is Kailey, and which one is Riley?" Melissa asked as they made their way inside.
"I''m Kailey," the first girl spoke up.
"And I''m Riley," the second answered. Melissa looked between the two of them, and other than the difference in clothes, she couldn''t tell either one apart. Yet. Reivyn isn''t the only one who''s worked on Social Skills. The System will let me differentiate the two unless they''re actively trying to disguise themselves.
Melissa walked in and spotted Reivyn sitting on the couch. She frowned as he hadn''t seemed to notice his friends arriving, which was unusual for him. He was sitting slightly forward with his elbows on his knees, and he appeared to be in deep thought. An older gentleman was leisurely sitting across from him. Well, older as in older than Reivyn. This man looks like he couldn''t be a day older than 20. I thought Reivyn only had the two sisters, he never said anything about an older brother.
"Hello," the man waved at the five new people in the house.
"Mr. Refix," Teilon said as he took a seat next to Reivyn. Reivyn finally noticed the intrusion as Teilon sat next to him, and he started before he stood up to greet everyone.
Melissa cocked an eyebrow. Mr. Refix? That''s his father? He looks so young. If that''s his father, what does his mother look like?
The temperature in the room seemed to drop below freezing in an instant, and all sound and movement stopped. Melissa felt trapped in her body as time itself seemed to freeze as she was locked in the position of turning about in ce to look for the origination of the voice she had heard from the doorway.
Melissa''s eyes continued to move in the direction her body had been moving, and they came to rest on another pair of eyes staring back at her.
The entire world fell away, and there was only the pair of eyes. They looked deep into her soul. They saw through her entire being, judging her.
Despite everything seeming toe to aplete standstill, Melissa could feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest. Her blood moved through her veins at the forceful pulsations, and it felt like a river of ice traveling through her body. Her vision turned almostpletely ck, and only the bright spots staring into her could be seen. There was no sound or movement. There was nothing.
Nothing but the gaze of immense power boring into her.
I have to get away from here! Her mind screamed at her. I can''t handle it! I''m going to die. I''m going to die. I''m going to die... Melissa''s mind jumbled into aplete mess.
"Hey, what are you standing in a daze for?" Larissa snapped her fingers in Melissa''s face, dragging her out of the stunned state she had been in. Her heart still pounded, and her vision was still hazy around the edges. If Larissa had been a second slower, I''m afraid I might have fainted.
She looked up only to see the back of the woman who could only be Reivyn''s mom as she busied herself with the final preparations of the meal she had prepared for her guests. Melissa nced over at Refix. Reivyn''s father nced back out of the corner of his eyes, and he smirked at her. His body unfolded from the position he had been sitting in and readjusted.
Melissa''s eyes widened at the movement. That wasn''t just a simple adjusting of position. The way his body moved... He hasplete and utter control of his entire being. These definitely aren''t simple "Adventurers."
"Are youing? Seriously, what''s with you?" Larissa called over from the dining table. Everyone had already made their way over, and Reivyn''s mother - Ameliyn, I think he said her name is - was cing the dinner on the table.
Melissa looked around and saw that she was the only person not at the table. She looked over where Refix had just been sitting, but he had also vacated his spot and was standing at the head of the table.
"I''m sorry, I don''t know what came over me," Melissa managed to stammer out, her breathing in ragged.
She walked over on unsteady steps to the table where a seat had obviously been left for her, an empty te sitting on the table in front of it. She had been ced next to Kailey, and Larissa was across the table next to Riley. Their seats coincidentally were ced next to the foot of the table.
Ameliyn walked over to the final seat, the one at the foot between Melissa and Larissa, and she gestured to the delicious-looking food on the table. She directed a smile toward Melissa. "Come, taste my handiwork."
The smile she gave Melissa seemed to pound a message directly into her mind. It said: Who do you think you are, Little Girl?
Melissa gulped as she looked back and forth between the food, the other people at the table, and Reivyn''s mother. She found that she suddenly didn''t have much of an appetite.
What have I gotten myself into?
Chapter 62: True Power
Chapter 62: True Power
Reivyn sat in Meditation as he circted the different Affinities he had unlocked to finally begin improving them again. It had taken him a long time to enter the state of Meditation, much longer than normal. He had a lot on his mind after his talk with his mother and the strange dinner they had had afterward with his friends.
The information that his mother had given him about the circumstances behind them settling in a Tier 1 Region made him realize there was a lot more going on in the world behind the scenes that he wasn''t aware of.
"Well, we weren''t just randomly fleeing from the higher Tier Regions. We had spent a couple of years traveling between the different Vassal States to find anyone still loyal enough to mount a rescue on our territory.
"Most of the time had been wasted in the first, closest Tier 3 Kingdom that we fled to after the destruction of our capital: Geledrud." Ameliyn paused for a moment in her story and shuddered.
"They used soft tactics, at first, to alienate me from the other nobles. The biggest, worst thing they tried to do was alienate me from your father. At first, because of the resentment I had for the way we had escaped, I let my emotions cloud my judgment.
"They almost seeded in their endeavor, but luckily for me, your father was the epitome of a knight in shining armor. He never once doubted me or gave me any reason, beyond the rumors that snake First Prince Gallen and his subordinates fed me, to doubt him in turn. He worked diligently in the background to build awork of loyalists.
"I have always deeply regretted the suffering I caused him on top of everything piled on top of him from the outside influence. Once I came to my senses, my adoration for his conduct is probably what led to me eventually falling in love with him." Ameliyn sighed wistfully at the recollection. She came to herself again with a start. "Oh, but that''s another story for another time.
"After we left the Court of Geledrud, we went to the other surrounding Tier 3 Kingdom that nominally swore fealty to our Vynn Bloodline. We met more of the same everywhere we went.
"The other Kingdoms had taken the time to form their own alliances, and by the time we visited the third Tier 3 Kingdom, they had fallen into open Civil War across the Empire. The Tier 3 Kingdoms leveraged their own Tier 2 Vassals as the main battlefronts, and vice versa all the way down to their Tier 1 subordinates.
"We had been almostpletely ignored by that point as they squabbled among themselves. We were going to try one more time to see if we could establish a foothold, but First Prince Gallen had apparently never given up on his ambitions of making me his wife and using that rtionship to secure the Vynnish Throne for himself. He ambushed us and tried to use force." Ameliyn leveled a gaze at Reivyn. "Your father didn''t appreciate that very much. Not at all.
"I''ve seen your father in a rage before, but all of those other times paled inparison. Let''s just say that Prince Gallen wishes your father had killed him.
"Refix had always been pretty unassuming around the other nobility, and the lesson we learned from that was to always hide our strength in case it was needed. Nobody expected your father, including me, to be nearly as powerful as he was.
"We escaped from the ambush and headed to the nearest teleportation point - they''remon in Tier 3 and above Kingdoms, how else do you expect empires to form and be able to move across such vast distances. We loaded it up with the remainder of our Mana Crystals, much more power than was necessary, and we rigged it to send us to a random location.
"Well, random location isn''t quite right. We chose a direction to be sent. You see, over the years of trying to build a base of loyalists, the ones we did manage to recruit didn''t stay idle. That''s where we learned about the possibility of outside interference and maybe a traitor. We learned that the ones involved in the Dungeon Breaks of the capital had certain ties to ancient cults, and we sent our subordinates out across the vastnds to find traces of them."
"The Dungeon in the mountains?" Reivyn said with realization. Ameliyn nodded her head.
"Exactly. We didn''t know about the Dungeon for a long time, after all, it was only recently ''found by Adventurers,'' but we knew about the cavern system. Your father, along with his ''employer'' - one of the loyalists - went in there long before you and the Count''s men went andid im to it. They cleared out the remnants of the Revenants and cultist remains, which is one of the reasons I was surprised to hear about the battle you guys had with the demon.
"Your story of that battle is what actually tipped us off to the fact that there were active cultists in the area. We were looking for a suitable excuse to move the family to the Capital while still giving you room to grow and do your own thing, which is how we found out about the supplementary school attached to the Academies. Even if Kailey and Riley weren''t nearly as talented as they are, we still would have manufactured a way to get them into the school."
"But that means you sent me off to the Dungeon when you knew about the dangers," Reivyn pointed out. "I mean, nothing ended up happening, but that seems a little irresponsible on your part, don''t you think."
"Reivyn," Ameliyn said with a small smile, "you were never in any danger. Well, outside of your own delves, that is. Let me tell you, the man we had in charge of your security almost broke into the infirmary and kidnapped you when you were brought out of the Dungeon unconscious. Luckily, the team healer was able to assess you from a distance and let him know that you were going to be fine."
"How many subordinates do you guys have?" Reivyn tilted his head. Ameliyn just gave a coy smile. "Are the Adventurers that saved the day at Magron your subordinates?"
"Partly," Ameliyn nodded. "I''m sure you''ve realized it by now, but the leaders of that Party were your father and me. It was actually a huge coincidence that your father was there for the beast tide the first time you ran into him. Remember, he had gone off on a ''business trip?'' We had learned that the Count was going to mount an expedition to the Dungeon, but we didn''t realize he was going to conscript you.
"The fact that I knew you were going to run across each other - and a message to your father guaranteed that - was the main reason I didn''t throw a fuss and have you exempted. It would be child''s y to put the right kind of pressure on the Count of Magron."
Reivyn sat in silence as he moved the Affinities throughout his body. That part of the conversation had finally put to rest his suspicions about his parents not doing more to keep him safe at home.
I always knew there was something strange about the circumstances of my mother, an Imperial Princess, allowing her firstborn son to be conscripted without much of a fight. I had been so caught up in my own little world, though, that I just subconsciously epted it.
Reivyn finally knew why his parents had settled in the Tier 1 Region: Partly because he and his sisters had been born, and partly because they were chasing after the mastermind of their own empire''s demise.
All of that gives me a lot to think about, but that''s not the real reason I''ve been so out of sorts after the conversation.
The real reason he had been so distracted, from noticing his friends'' arrival and his struggles in entering Meditation, hade soon after.
"Then howe I didn''t recognize your voices? You guys spoke plenty while I was right there, but you didn''t sound anything like you do now," Reivyn said. Not seeing their faces was one thing, but hearingpletely different voices and ents had been the real reason he had been hesitant in dering the Adventurers were his parents a long time ago.
"Haha, just listen to me," Ameliyn said with augh, her voice matching that of the petite Caster he had seen conjure the magical tornado. "Your father and I have had years to practice our deception Skills, and modting one''s voice isn''t so hard. Your father and I have also traveled to many different ces and heard even more dialects and ents to mimic. It''s really not that surprising if you think about it."
"Yeah, it does make sense," Reivyn nodded. "Speaking of, what was the element you used to conjure that Spell to wipe out the Revenant army? It looked like Light, but my gut tells me it wasn''t."
"Your gut is right," Ameliyn said, a look of pride on her face. "It''s a half-step Tier 5 Affinity - which is a fancy way of saying a more powerful Tier 4 Affinity - and it''s called the Celestial Affinity.
"Divine mana isn''t necessarily Light or Holy, or anything like that. Divine mana is literally just mana empowered through a contractual rtionship with an Ascended being. Mierna, the Goddess of Light, is actually just an Ascended being, and she was one who lived in the same time and was an acquaintance of the same Ascended who we get our Akashic Record Skill from.
"Vynndin, as we call him - we actually don''t have records of his true name - was the Ascended we''re descended from, and it was one of his more powerful grandchildren that founded the Vynndin Empire.
"Don''t expect a lot of answers from me on the subject, we had to flee the empire before I finished my education on the matter.
"Anyway, back on topic of the Affinity. The Celestial Affinity is one that is powerful in its own right - it''s abination of Light, Fire, and Lightning, among some other things - and it''s particrly powerful against undead and other demonic forms of mana.
"It doesn''t get bonuses against all other Realm mana, like the Verdant Realm isn''t particrly demonic, though it is technically Heretical. And the Abyss isn''t the only demonic Realm, either."
"So then you know about the Veridical Affinity?" Reivyn asked. "I happened to unlock the Veridical Affinity after that time I was pulled out of the Dungeon you mentioned."
"Really?!" Ameliyn showed genuine surprise on her face at the revtion. "Typically, one unlocks the Veridical Affinity after years and years of studying and refining pretty much all of the Affinities. The one Arch Magus of the Empire that had it unlocked had transcended Level 100 in several of the basic Affinities, and he was at minimum an Expert in all of the others before he unlocked the Veridical Affinity."
Ameliyn gently patted Reivyn on the shoulder and gave him a consoling smile. "Don''t worry about your Veridical Affinity for now. In order to train it further, you''ll need to get your other Affinities as high as that Arch Magus, so outside of extraordinary circumstances, it''s going to sit at Level 1 for a long, long time."
"Ok, I hadn''t really noticed anything when I tried to use it before, though I can see a faint shimmer when other people interact with the System," Reivyn nodded his head. "And that leads to another question I have: You''re not a Light Weaver, are you?"
"I was a Light Weaver... when I was Tier 2," Ameliyn said. "Remember, your father and I have been in the habit of hiding our strength for so long that we don''t even think about it anymore. We''ve even developed fake Status Pages for anyone that has a sufficiently powerful enough Analyze-type Skill. Here, let me show you."
Your mother has requested to share her Status Page with you.
Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.
ept Deny
Reivyn was momentarily surprised at the pop-up Notification. I didn''t know it was possible to share information like this. I suppose they had always nned on sharing this with me - well, us, Kailey and Riley included - when the time was right. I don''t see any reason to Deny the request.
Reivyn mentally selected to ept the sharing of the Status.
Status Name: Ameliyn ss: Weaver *Light (T2) Lvl 40 Age: 33 Viger (T1) Health: 1,660 Stamina: 2,080 Mana: 530 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 42 INT: 78 VIT: 166 MAG: 28 DEX: 44 CLA: 24 CHA: 0 PER: 81 LUK: 0
"That''s what everyone who uses an Analyze Skill that isn''t at the Master Level will see," Ameliyn said.
"Yeah, you look like you have the Stats of anymon Lifestyle ssmoner with a slight Affinity to your ss," Reivyn said, dismissing the Page. "What''s your actual Status look like?"
Ameliyn smiled as she mentally did something that Reivyn couldn''t perceive. After a moment, he received another pop-up Notification.
Your mother has requested to share her Status Page with you.
Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.
ept Deny
He once again chose to ept.
Status Name: Ameliyn ss: Forgotten Celestial Sovereign (T4) Lvl 40 Age: 33 Celestial Elementalist (T3) Light Weaver (T2) Health: 16,000 Stamina: 25,000 Mana: 23,755 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 900 INT: 2,281 VIT: 1,600 MAG: 2,470 DEX: 900 CLA: 900 CHA: 249 PER: 900 LUK: 76
What...? Reivyn stared at the Status Page in front of him. All coherent thoughtpletely fled from his mind. He could hardly process the numbers he was seeing.
This... She... I mean... Ameliyn sat back and let Reivyn work through the implications of seeing her true Status Page. Reivyn looked up at his mother and stammered out some nonsense, incapable of speech momentarily.
"Yeah, there''s a good reason we keep our strength hidden," Ameliyn gently said. "There are some people in the Capital who might be close to my power level, but they will be few and far between. Knight-Captain Reifold is famous throughout the Kingdom, and he''s only a high-Level Tier 3 Pdin. The Sword-Bishop that went to the Dungeon Town was also a rtively well-known, powerful individual.
"Theck of higher Tier Dungeons, along with the minuscule amount of mana density in the Region, is one of the main contributing factors to the power gap between people living in the different Regions.
"The Dungeons that you''ll have to go through as part of your curriculum in the Magic Academy will not give you even a fraction of the Experience you can gain in the Revenant Dungeon. From what I understand of it, even the first floor of the new Dungeon is superior in Experience and resources than any of the other Dungeons that can be found anywhere else in the Kingdom."
Reivyn heard the words, and they registered and caused him some slight surprise, but he was still wrestling with the Status Page he had just been shown. After several minutes of silence, Reivyn finally regained his wits and looked at his mother.
"If you''re so strong as a young scion of the Empire, then just how powerful were the Dungeon Break and the mastermind behind it?" He quietly asked.
"So, something to know about Regions and the denizens that can be found in them," Ameliyn said, seemingly not answering the question right away, "a Tier 1 Region, like this one, the cannon fodder monster level is going to be Tier 1, like the goblins that roam about. You with me so far?" Reivyn nodded and indicated for her to continue.
"A Tier 2 Region, the cannon fodder level of monster will be a weak Tier 2," Ameliyn gave Reivyn a look. Reivyn extrapted the information.
"So a Tier 4 Region''s weakest monster is basically a weak Tier 4?" Ameliyn nodded her head.
"Yes, and Dungeons typically follow the pattern as well. There were more Tier 4 monstersing out of each of the Dungeons in the Capital than there were Revenants from the Dungeon Break army we fought. There were also many Tier 5 and some Tier 6 boss monsters in the horde.
"We had people powerful enough to fight monsters of that Level, but not with how sudden it was and how many there were. It was a nightmare. Those Dungeons weren''t demonic in nature, but the monsters and beasts from inside of them were no less dangerous."
So imagine the Dungeon Town if there were four Dungeons, and each Dungeon Break had more monsters than the Revenant Dungeon released. All happening at once on a muchrger scale.
"What do you know about the mastermind?" Reivyn asked quietly after a moment.
"Not a lot," Ameliyn said. "All we know is he, or she, has a connection with the cults somehow, and they have the ability to affect the Dungeons from the outside. It is an unprecedented ability, and we''ve never heard of anyone else ever having that ability before."
"Hey, hey, hey," Refix called out as he entered the house in the middle of the discussion. He quickly spotted Reivyn sitting on the couch, and he got a giant grin on his face as he walked over to give his son a hug. He stopped with a frown on his face when Reivyn continued to sit and stare in contemtion.
"What''s going on with him?" Refix turned to Ameliyn.
"I just revealed my Status Page and the truth about why we''re in this Region," Ameliyn said.
"Ahhh, ok. Then his expression makes perfect sense," Refix said with a chuckle. "He''s always been so strong for his age and Tier, and I''m sure seeing something so outside of his range of expectations came as a shock."
"I think he still can''t get over it," Ameliyn agreed with her own chuckle.
"Well, let''s help him out a bit more, then, shall we?"
Reivyn was aware of his father''s arrival, but he was still so preupied with the new information he had been learning. He was brought out of his thoughts by another pop-up Notification.
Your father has requested to share his Status Page with you.
Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.
ept Deny
Reivyn nced at Refix out of the corner of his eye. His father just grinned back at him.
"You, too? Can''t even give me time toe to grips with it?" Reivyn sighed.
"Nope. It''s like a bandage. Rip it off all at once," Refix said.
Reivyn rolled his eyes. Ok, mom said nobody expected dad to be as powerful as he was, so let''s see just how strong he really is. Reivyn mentally selected ept and a new Status Page popped up once again.
Status Name: Refix ss: Embodiment of Righteousness (T5) Lvl 21 Age: 36 Heart of the Sword (T4) demaster of Vynn (T3)
Health: 44,160 Stamina: 101,080 Mana: 13,500 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 5,692 INT: 1,400 VIT: 4,416 MAG: 1,300 DEX: 5,670 CLA: 1,000 CHA: 175 PER: 1,800 LUK: 121
"Legendary!" Reivyn cried out in shock. He spluttered after shouting out the word, once more bbergasted. "And Tier 5! I just noticed that. How is that even possible?!" Reivyn couldn''t fathom how his parents had gained so many levels.
"You guys have been in this Region for longer than I''ve been alive, and I''m 10 years old! How did you guys get so strong?" He was finally able to give voice to the doubts in his mind. Refix answered him withughter before exining.
"We got a rare treasure from a Dungeon drop a long time ago in a much higher Tier Region. It allows us to remotely enter the Dungeon from anywhere in the same Realm once a month." Refix reached into a pouch on his waist and pulled forth a weathered-looking ankh. It didn''t look like anything special at first nce, and Reivyn''s Inspect Skill wasn''t high enough Level to get any information out of it from the System.
"It''s technically a key to bypass several floors of the Dungeon, but your mother and I paid a high price to a powerful Space-Affinity Caster to modify it. It now leads to the entrance of the Dungeon instead of deeper inside, but it can be used anywhere.
"It takes a month to recharge, and luckily the Dungeon itself has drops that can be used to charge it. If it had to charge simply from the ambient mana, it would take nearly a year to fully recharge in this Tier 1 Region."
"Ok, I guess that makes sense," Reivyn said. He looked up at his father with a hopeful look on his face. "Does that mean I''ll get the chance to delve that Dungeon, too?"
"Yup," Refix said as he put the ankh back away. "That was always the n, but you''re not ready, yet. This is a Tier 4 Dungeon. The Revenant Dungeon is Tier 3, and you''re probably not capable of getting to and clearing the bottom floor yet. Once you can clear it, while being a main member of the Party, not just tagging along, I can give you a slot in the Party that delves this Dungeon.
"If you went now, not only would you be in more danger than I''mfortable with, but you also wouldn''t be able to contribute enough for it to be beneficial. So with that in mind, what you need to do is keep up your training and do well in the Academy, alright?" Reivyn nodded his head.
And that leads to my current situation of continuing training my Affinities once again. If my hunch is correct, I''ll need more than just to graduate to force the Tier 3 ss transition, so I still can''t ck off.
Reivyn continued his diligent practice. He had made the goal to be as strong, or stronger, than the Adventuring team that had stepped in to save Magron, and now he had a glimpse of just how powerful he would need to be.
I think I can do it. As far as I know, both mother and father had regr Tier 1 and 2 sses, and yet they both have more than one Epic ss, and dad even has a Legendary Tier 5 ss. I''ll have to ask them the specifics of what their sses are all about some time, but for now, I need to work.
Chapter 63: Meticulous Weaponry
Chapter 63: Meticulous Weaponry
Reivyn lowered his mana sword as he gulped for air. He wiped the sweat off of his brow as he reached for his water skin to take a drink.
It''s not nearly as hot as it was at the Dungeon Town, but I''m sweating more under my parents'' tutge than I ever did sparring over there. And I''m not even sparring.
Reivyn drank almost the entirety of the sk, and his mother simply did something with her mana to fill it back up again with pure, icy water. Reivyn had thought that his father pushed him hard before and that his mother was actually much milder in her teachings, but he was rudely awakened to the truth when theybined their efforts.
It might have been a mistake to show them my full Status Page and Skills after they had shown me theirs, Reivyn thought, not for the first time.
He had wanted advice on the direction he should take his training, and he would be lying if he didn''t want to get back at his parents'' unfathomable disy of their Status Pages.
Reivyn had taken the opportunity to bring up the subject at the breakfast table after his sisters had bounded off to do whatever it was that they did.
"I want to make sure I''m fully prepared for the Academy, so I would like some advice," Reivyn opened. "How do I show you guys my Status Page as you showed me?"
Ameliyn and Refix shared a look before Ameliyn turned back to Reivyn. "You simply open your Status Page," she waited until Reivyn nodded. "Then you will a connection between your Status Page and us. It helps to visualize a mana tether attaching us to your Status, but it''s not actually a real mana tether. You just have to focus on connecting. If there''s a connection between us, like us being your parents - and you could probably do it with your Party Members after you''ve been together for a sufficient amount of time - the System willtch onto that connection and transfer the Status Page over for us to see it."
Reivyn nodded his head and followed the instructions. Visualizing the mana tether helped, but he also found it hard to not actually extend his mana. After a minute of concentration, he got it, and he received a notification of sess.
Requested to share your Status Page with your Mother.
Requested to share your Status Page with your Father.
Your Mother has epted.
Your Father has epted.
Reivyn waited in silence for his parents to view his Status and Skills.
And waited.
And waited.
Reivyn began to fidget as there was no movement from his parents after a long time. It can''t take this long to read through my Status Page. Did I do it wrong and send the wrong information over?
"I''m out," Refix said as he unceremoniously stood from the breakfast table. "This is just ridiculous. I can''t handle it." He strode out of the room and went to the backyard, the door mming shut behind him.
"Umm, what?" Reivyn prompted after his mother continued to stare off into space.
"Hmm?" Ameliyn looked up, startled by the question from Reivyn. She nced at the back door and then back at Reivyn. "Well, you know your father. He had to work extremely hard for all of his sess and Levels, and what you just showed us is simply unbelievable."
"What''s so unbelievable about it? My Stats are in the low 200''s for the most part," Reivyn said defensively. "Dad''s Strength Stat alone was over five thousand. And he''s going to act so surprised at my Stats?" Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"Reivyn... how old are you?" Ameliyn gently asked.
"Almost 11, now. Just a couple of months away, and I should be 11 before I have to go to the Academy."
"Uh-huh," Ameliyn said. "And what Tier are you right now?"
"I''m actually Tier 1, but I''m technically Tier 2," Reivyn said with a frown. "You know all of this."
"Yes, I do," Ameliyn said with a nod. She frowned and shook her head after, though. "But it seems like you keep forgetting it.
"Your father is Tier five. Of course, his Stats are going to be really high. You''re only still Tier 1. Do you know what my Stats looked like at Tier 1?" Reivyn shook his head. "At Level 30, Tier 1, even with my Bloodline granting me increased Stats every level, my highest Stat was Vitality... And it was 200."
"Ok~ay," Reivyn said with narrowed eyes.
"My Vitality was twice as high as my second highest Stat at the time," Ameliyn said. "My Magic was my second highest Stat, and it was only 100. I had a total of 817 Stats. I had a higher growth rate than your father did because my Tier 1 ss was the Rare Imperial Princess verse your father''s Rare Vynn Noble, and my Bloodline is more powerful than his.
"You have a total of 1,610 Stats in Tier 1," Ameliyn said. Reivyn''s face took on a look ofprehension. "You have almost double the total Stats that I did. I don''t know what your father''s stats were at Tier 1, as I never saw them and haven''t asked, but it''s safe to say that he had quite a bit less than even I did.
"And that''s not to say anything about your Skill Levels!" Ameliyn sat back in surprise, finally fullying out of her stunned state. "I thought I was talented to get the Weaver ss instead of the Mage ss because my Mana Maniption was at Level 40. That was my highest Skill by a lot.
"You have ten Skills over Level 40, and your Mythic Skill is actually your highest at Level 61! I knew you trained a lot, but I was expecting to see most of your Skills at less than half of what they are, even for how hard you worked."
"Yeah, I''ve noticed that my Skill Levels generally Level up at a much faster pace than everyone else," Reivyn scratched the back of his head with a sheepish expression. "And that''s not even counting the several Skills that I know I get a bonus to Leveling."
"And that''s another thing," Ameliyn said with exasperation. "I''ve only heard of a few people with some specific Achievements being granted a bonus to their Skill Leveling, but from what I remember, you''ve had several bonuses since the day you first essed the System."
"Yeah, I''ve always had these weird dreams where I''m performing those Skills, or something simr, and that seems to be where ites from. I''m not sure how the System recognized it, but I do recall getting a notification of having Combat Life Experience as one of the reasons I was able to choose Fighter instead of Conscript when I was conscripted," Reivyn said nonchntly.
Ameliyn cocked her head at her son and narrowed her eyes. "You''ve never told us anything about any kind of weird dreams before... That bears further conversation, but let''s keep on topic for now. Seeing as how you''ve made it 11 years without anything bad happening because of the dreams, it can wait untilter."
"I''ve never told you about the dreams before?" Reivyn said with surprise. "I could have sworn I did."
"You''ve told us a lot of crazy things over the years, but this I would have remembered," Ameliyn shook her head. "Anyway, on to the topic of directing your training:
"You obviously need to continue increasing your Affinities - that''s something you''ll have to do for the rest of your life until you reach your talent threshold, at which point they won''t move without outside influence, like a natural treasure, no matter how often you train them - but they''re definitely passable for the Academy.
"Passable, as in good enough for graduation," Ameliyn reiterated. "I''m assuming you want to do more than just graduate, though?" Reivyn nodded his head in the affirmative. "Then you''ll need your base elements at least at 51, above the Expert Mastery, and each Tier above that needs to be about 8 to 12 points lower than the Tier above, respectively.
"Though it is weird that your Light and Darkness Affinities are actually considerably higher than your Tier 2 Affinities, almost closing in on your base elements," Ameliyn said, tapping her chin in thought. "I''ve never heard of that situation, either. Another thing I''ve never heard of is all of your Affinities advancing in lockstep. It''s very strange that they''re all the same within the Tiers.
"Well, not important right now. We''re still focused on your training regime. I''ll give you the necessary steps to unlock the rest of Tier 2 and 3 Affinities, and after they''ve caught up to your other ones - or at least made decent strides - I''ll tell you how to get some of the Tier 4 Affinities. I don''t have them all myself, so I can''t guide you on all of them. You may not be able to unlock all of them either, but the fact that you already have Veridical means you most likely can.
"Aside from that, there''s one point that I have an issue with," Ameliyn gave Reivyn a t look. "What''s the deal with me Weapon?" Reivyn looked at his mother in confusion.
"I worked with Larissa and extrapted the ss Skill all on my own," Reivyn said defensively. "I''m quite proud of that Achievement, and it''s helped me out a lot against the Revenants and other undead creatures. It was even originally just me de, but Ibined it with my Weapons Master Skill to turn it into me Weapon."
"Yes, yes, I''m sure," Ameliyn waved him off. "My issue is: Why is it still me Weapon?" Ameliyn cocked her head as she stared at her son. "You even said so yourself, just now, that you modified it from me de into me Weapon." Reivyn wasn''t quite grasping the point. Ameliyn rolled her eyes. "You did all of that work to unlock all of those affinities, and you mentioned in your letters that you''ve grasped almost all of their weaves, so why is it me Weapon and not Elemental Weapon?"
"Ohhh," Reivyn realized what his mother was getting at finally. He shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "I just really haven''t had the time to work on the other elements, yet."
"Uh-huh," Ameliyn said skeptically. "More like you didn''t think about it.
"Well, that''s what we''re going to work on first. Upgrading it to Elemental Weapon will also pay off dividends to your mana control Skills. Using the elements won''t directly increase your affinity with them, but you might gain insight into them to help with your Mana Circtionter, too."
And that''s where Reivyn found himself drenched in sweat, working with his mana sword and going through the paces of his sword practice.
It''s not enough to just activate the different elements instead of Fire, Reivyn thought ruefully. Oh no, dad also had to turn it into a full-blown workout. And now that he''s seen my Stats, he knows exactly how hard to push me.
Reivyn nced down at the weights on his body and sighed. I don''t remember ever having to wear anything like this when training before.
"Dad, why am I wearing a full-body weight suit, again?" Reivyn asked. "Aren''t I already past the point of diminishing returns?"
"Of course," Refix nodded. "Plus, a weight suit would do more harm than good in that regard."
"Then why am I wearing one?" Reivyn asked, puzzled.
"It''s not about training your Stats," Refix replied. "Did you forget that the best way to train was to train when you''re already tired? Its seems like your carefree life as an Adventurer has caused you to forget a few things," Refix chuckled. "Plus, once you get really exhausted, this is a good way to train your Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills. This is the fastest way to get you to that point while simultaneously training your Skills other than Running or Athleticism.
"Now, enough talk! Get back to work," Refix pped his hands together. Ameliyn watched from the side, amused. Reivyn could tell that she was doing something next to arge tub, but he wasn''t quite sure. She was somehow obscuring his Sense Mana and Mana Sight Skills to keep him in suspense.
Reivyn quickly got back into his sword form. He was using the mana sword for a couple of reasons: One, it conducted mana, obviously; and two, it didn''t matter which weapon he used to train with.
He had already unlocked the Basic Elements Weapon after only about 20 minutes of dedicated work - I can see why mom wasn''t convinced that I hadn''t had time - but it required a lot more work to upgrade it further into the Elemental Weapon Skill.
"You just have to have a basic proficiency in most of your Tier 2 Affinities and one of the Tier 3 Affinities to change the Skill," Ameliyn had exined. "Once you do, you won''t magically be able to use all elements at will, though. You''ll still only be able to use the ones you''ve actually unlocked, but the System will step in and help give a you crutch until your Skill and Affinity Levels increase enough."
Reivyn hadn''t learned all of the weaves to all of his Tier 2 and 3 Affinities, but he had several of them down, so he worked on those first. His mother had promised to help him learn the other weaves, and she said she had some exercises for him to do to continue practicing them.
Reivyn waspletely drenched in sweat and utterly exhausted when he finally received the notification, several hourster, that he had reached his goal.
Calcting...
Basic Elements Weapon Skill has been altered to Elemental Weapon
Reivyn sighed in relief as he let his sword tip rest on the ground. He groaned as he stretched his neck, moving his head in a circle, as the sweat rolled down his face.
"I take it you finally seeded?" Ameliyn asked with a smile. She had finished whatever it was she had been doing a long time ago, and she had remained off to the side offering pointers on how to more expertly wield his elements on his sword. Reivyn nodded his head before getting a drink.
"You''ve worked up quite the sweat," Refix said in approval. "Your mother prepared something for you to help take care of that, though." Refix grinned at his son as he approached him. "Now I need you to take a deep breath and hold it. Got it?" Reivyn did as instructed without thinking about it and nodded to his father. "Good."
Refix picked Reivyn up one-handed like he was a toy, and before Reivyn could react in his tired state, he thrust him into therge tub that Ameliyn was standing next to. Reivyn''s eyes opened wide as he saw it waspletely filled with water.
Reivyn was dunked into the water, and he was held in ce by his father. Normally, he would be able to hold his breath for a very long time considering his Stats and Stamina, but he was out of breath and exhausted. His Stamina was already very low, so Reivyn could feel the strain on his lungs after only about a minute of being held down.
He began to thrash about, and his father pulled him back up. Reivyn took a deep breath, just in time to be dunked back into the water.
What are you doing?! Why are you doing it?! Reivyn screamed in his mind. He didn''t understand what his dad was doing to him. Is this revenge for upstaging his Tier 1 Stats? It''spletely unreasonable!
Refix pulled Reivyn back up out of the water again and saw that Reivyn was staring at him with narrowed eyes. Refix let out argeugh.
"I''m not punishing you, if that''s what you''re thinking," Refix said. "I noticed your Swimming Skill was still at 0 after all of these years. Focus on holding your breath, and unlock the Breath Control Skill. It''ll help when I teach you to swimter." Refix dunked him back into the water after the brief exnation.
Ok, that makes sense, Reivyn thought. But dunking me twice before exining anything was definitely revenge!
Reivyn once more sat in Meditation, working on circting his mana to work on his Affinities. He was too mentally tired to try and unlock any of the other Affinities, but he could still go through the motions with the ones he had already unlocked.
Ok, so we''ve set the schedule for the next couple of weeks. We all agreed that I didn''t need to focus too heavily on my Weapons Master Skill at the moment. Dad said it wasn''t quite at the Master Level, yet, but it was very close.
Talking about the Weapons Master Skill had reminded Reivyn of his dad''s disy with the ethereal weapons on the Magron City Walls.
"Dad, you''re Tier 4 ss was Heart of the Sword, right?" Refix nodded at the question. "Then howe you had that huge arsenal of conjured weapons that you used to surround yourself during the battle?"
"Well, let me exin about the sses a little bit, first," Refix said. "Tiers 1 through 3 all have fairly generic sses for everyone. Sure there''s different levels of Rarity, but all of the sses you get in those Tiers are generally going to be the same.
"Once you reach Tier 4, however, your sses be personalized to you. The reason my Tier 4 ss is Heart of the Sword isn''t because I renounced all other weapons, but in spite of it." Reivyn cocked an eyebrow at the answer.
"I''ve trained in all the same weapons that you have, but my heart has always belonged to the Sword. I''ve always been better at it than any of the other weapons despite my Skill."
"You have the Weapons Master Skill, too?" Reivyn asked. "I thought you said you didn''t know if it would work when you trained me with all of those weapons years ago. You just hoped it would."
"I don''t have Weapons Master," Refix denied, shaking his head. "Here, let me show you."
Your father has requested to share his truncated Skill Page with you.
Familial Bond verified, sharing of intimate details authorized.
ept Deny
Reivyn epted the notification.
Skills:
...
Tier 5:
Weapons Prodigy (101)
Reivyn looked at the notification window with a nk stare for several moments. He just couldn''t resist... Reivyn sighed.
"Weapons Prodigy Level 101..." Reivyn said as he looked up at his father. "One hundred. And one." Reivyn gave him a deadpan look. Refix smiled as he lifted his chin with pride.
"Actually, I have you to thank for that," Refix said after a moment.
"Me? What did I do?" Reivyn said, pointing at himself.
"I told you that training you had benefited me greatly," Refix answered. "I had stagnated at Level 100 for a long time, and after working with you and witnessing everything you did, I was finally able to gain some insights in order to break through the bottleneck and reach Transcendent Mastery.
"You once asked me if I had any Skills over Level 100, and I had told you that I didn''t," Reivyn nodded at the memory. "Well, what I left out was that I had a Skill at Level 100 when you asked. It broke through the bottleneck shortly after that, but I never said anything until now.
"But enough about that," Refix waved his hand. "If you look at the Skill, you will have already noticed that it''s Weapons Prodigy instead of Weapons Master. It''s also a Legendary Skill as opposed to your Mythic Skill.
"The biggest difference between the Skills, though, is that my Skill only applies to actual weapons, and not just anything I can conceptualize as a weapon. I gained the Skill through the same method you did, but I did it after getting my first ss. Because I already had my first ss unlocked, I got the Legendary version of the Mythic Skill.
"So, all of that to exin about the weapons I conjured in the battle," Refix said. "That''s a personalized Skill that I created with my Weapons Prodigy Skill as the foundation. As I said, Tier 4 and up sses are personalized, and you''ll have a degree of freedom with your ss Skills.
"In order for me to make that Skill, I had to individually swing those weapons about as if I was in actualbat. If you ever see me use it again, you can pay close attention to the trajectory of the weapons and see that they''re not actually just spinning around me. They''re being used properly. It took me hours upon hours upon hours to ingrain those movements into my muscle memory before I was able to make the Skill."
"Those were conjured out of mana, though," Reivyn pointed out. "I didn''t know you could use mana Skills."
"I was born with just a smidgen of talent for mana Skills, so I''ve always technically been able to, but I was always more focused on the Martial sses," Refix exined. "That being said, everyone who reaches Tier 4 will automatically gain the ability to use mana Skills. It''s based on the inherent nature of the meridians the Tier 4 sses grant."
"I see," Reivyn said. "So I''ll be able to make a simr Skill as yours when I reach Tier 4? Can I practice it earlier and learn it before Tier 4, like how I unlocked me de?"
"Sure, you could do those things," Refix nodded. He shook his head immediately after. "But why would you? I just told you that my Weapons Prodigy Skill only works on real weapons. With your Weapons Master Skill, you are the weapon. Think about that. Don''t let examples of what others have done before you limit your imagination. It''s good to use other things as inspiration, but never believe that any Skill you see from someone else is the epitome of what that Skill could be in the hands of a true master."
Reivyn''s conversation with his father had been pretty eye-opening, and he could already foresee endless possibilities. He wasn''t just talented in Martial Skills, though. He was equally, if not more so, talented in Mana Skills.
And that leads to my schedule: Dedicated work on unlocking one specific Affinity and their weaves each day in the mornings with mom. Meditation and mana control Skills after lunch. And then finally, some ''light'' physical exercise with dad before washing up for bed. He seems pretty determined to have me finally level up my Swimming Skill, too.
Mom also mentioned that it would be beneficial for me to work on my Piano Skill considering thepany I''m likely to find myself in at the Academy. All nobles, and other scions of well-to-do families, have multiple Skills in the arts, not just their dedicated professions.
I have a busy schedule ahead of me, Reivyn thought. But I''ve always liked training. He smiled as he worked on his Mana Cirction.
Chapter 64: Eternal Training
Chapter 64: Eternal Training
Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (44), Earth (44), Fire (44), Water (44)
Tier 2:
Ice (25), Lightning (9), Magma (25), Metal (25), Mist (9), Mud (9), sma (25), Wood (25)
Tier 3:
Darkness (39), Durability (4), Gravity (4), Kic (4), Light (39), Piercing (4), Sharpness (4)
Tier 4:
Eternity (1)
Tier 5:
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)
Reivyn looked at his Affinities tab after unlocking his first Tier 4 Affinity. He had beenpletely surprised by the sudden notification that he had unlocked a Tier 4 Affinity, because he hadn''t particrly been trying to unlock one.
I didn''t even know that Eternal was one of the Affinities I could unlock. Mom did say she didn''t know all of them, but that''s one that wasn''t included in the list she gave me. Reivyn thought back to the conversation he had had about the Affinities with his mother.
"You''ve obviously unlocked all of the basic Elements, and you''ve unlocked most of the Tier 2 Elements, as well. There are actually not that many Tier 1 and Tier 2 Affinities.
"A good rule of thumb is to think of Tier 1 Affinities as the very basic building blocks of mana and the world around us on a conceptualized basis. People have long known that the physical makeup of reality doesn''t match the elements of mana, but mana isn''t a physical thing. It makes sense that mana and physics don''t match up exactly.
"Tier 2 Affinities arebinations of the basic building blocks or other permutations. For instance, sma is basically super-heated air - Fire and Air - with a touch of Lightning conductivity. It''s interesting that you unlocked sma before Lightning, but it''s not actually necessary despite what you might learn in the Academy.
"Tier 3 Affinities are more along the lines of concepts or attributes than elements. For instance, you could infuse the Tier 2 Metal Affinity into your sword and make it have the properties of a stronger metal, or you could infuse Sharpness and create a considerably more condensed and efficient edge directly. Sharpness, and other concepts, won''t work on everything, though. You wouldn''t get much utility out of a Sharpness-infused ball.
"That being said, if you pair the right Tier 3 Affinity with the right situation, it could be up to magnitudes of order more powerful than a Tier 2 element.
"Light and Darkness, while technically would seem to belong in Tier 2, aren''t just the base attributes of light and darkness. They include the higher concepts with them, which is why they are Tier 3."
"Higher concepts like what?" Reivyn asked.
"Well, like some people associate Light with good or holy, and Darkness with evil or unholy. Those descriptions aren''t inherently true of the Affinities, but the concepts do exist and are recognized by the System. Hence, Tier 3." Reivyn nodded his head at the exnation.
"Tier 4 Affinities," Ameliyn continued, "are higher concepts that touch on truths of the universe. Space and Time are the two most famous Tier 4 Affinities, even though they are the rarest ones. A Caster with a high Level in both Space and Time would be one of the most powerful forces in the world, almost regardless of their Tier or Level, depending on the situation. Granted, I''ve never heard of a Caster talented in both Space and Time, and the ones who are talented in one of them are one in a billion."
Reivyn was taken aback at how rare the talent for those Affinities was. "So there''s - what? - seven or eight people talented in Space or Time? And you guys happened to find one to modify that Dungeon Key?" Ameliyn shook her head as she chuckled.
"You underestimate just how vast the world is," Ameliyn said. "There were over five billion people spread across the Vyndinn Empire alone, and we were just one of thousands of Tier 4 Empires in this Realm. Nobody knows exactly how big the Realm is, but it''s spected that it''s infinitelyrge.
"Take the empires I just mentioned as an example. Tier 4 Empires are the peak of civilization. There are no Tier 5 or higher Empires, but we know that there are countless Tier 5 Regions, all the way up to Tier 8."
"Tier 4 is the highest power an Empire has achieved? Why?" Reivyn asked with a frown. With the power he had witnessed his parents and their Party wield, it didn''t make sense that Tier 4 was as high as it went.
"Think about it," Ameliyn said. "There just aren''t enough strong people avable to tame a Tier 5 Region, much less a higher one.
"Remember what I said about the denizens of each Tier Region?" Reivyn nodded his head. "The weakest monsters and beasts in a Tier 5 Region are going to be almost as strong as your father, and there are countless of them.
"Sure, there are Adventuring Parties and other government-sanctioned organizations that go on expeditions into the Tier 5 and 6 Regions to extract resources and wealth from them, but there''s just not enough people to make basing an empire there a viable option.
"Even if all of the most powerful people in all of the thousands of Tier 4 Empires renounced their power and banded together to form a new force - which would never happen - they still wouldn''t be able to form a working Empire. At best, they could form one city. But then what? All of the newly born citizens would start off below Tier 1 as children, and then they would have to spend years of training before they could even leave the confines of the city.
"It makes much more sense to consolidate in a Tier 4 Region and use individual teams to plunder the higher Tier Regions.
"There are ancient texts that allude to even more ancient civilizations that went up to Tier 6, but those are myths and legends by this point. If it was true, then nobody knows how or why they disappeared, and if it''s untrue, then it''s just a fairy tale.
"Anyway, we got very sidetracked from our original conversation," Ameliyn chuckled. "I couldn''t give you any hard numbers - nobody could - but there are at least tens of thousands of Casters out there that are talented in Space or Time. There very well might be one or two talented in both, but, as I said, I''ve never heard of it."
Reivyn rubbed his chin as he considered the words of his mother. It might be the System itself limiting its willingness to help those that are talented in both. I recall that the Fortune Teller ss had serious implications for anybody who could take that path to Tier 4 or higher, but it was a Common ss, which excluded anyone from being able to advance to Tier 4 with that ss. This might be the same principle.
"The Tier 4 Affinities I have unlocked are Astral Wind, Celestial - which you know about already - and Sovereignty.
"Astral Wind holds the concepts of the Heavens and their limits. Celestial is in tandem with Astral Wind, and it holds the concepts of the Heavens and their purifying fires. Sovereignty is the concept of absolute control. Control of yourself, control of others, and control of your own Domain.
"Domains are another subject, and they''re not exactly rted to mana. It''s a Tier 4 and above thing, so you have time before you need to know about it.
"Those are just the three Tier 4 Affinities I have unlocked and have a talent for. I know of several others, like Space and Time that I mentioned previously. There''s also Causality, Entropy, and Judgment.
"Sadly, my own education on Tier 4 Affinities was brought short by the cmity, and I only got a bit of knowledge on these. The ones that I have unlocked are basically inherent to our Bloodline, and the other ones that I''m slightly familiar with are along the same lines associated with control over the environment and others - things that a ruler would be interested in."
"I can sort of understand Causality being associated with ruling, and definitely Judgment, but why Entropy?" Reivyn asked.
"Remember what your dad said about thieves and those best at defending against a thief?" Ameliyn asked back. Reivyn thought back to the incident with the pies several years ago and nodded his head. "It''s the same concept. If a ruler wants a stable empire, the best way to ward off the slow decay of time is to be intimately familiar with it.
"Those Affinities were ones I would have been taught over time, but the ones I do have are ones thate naturally to me," Ameliyn gave Reivyn a meaningful look. "That means you most likely have talent in those Affinities as well. It is associated with our Bloodline."
"The final Tier of Affinities, getting back on track to our discussion once more, is Tier 5." Ameliyn said. "Your father and I saw that you have two Tier 5 Affinities: Abyss as well as Veridical. Care to exin?"
"I have no idea, honestly," Reivyn said. "I got a notification that I got an Achievement unlocking them after I woke up from being unconscious from that one delve. I don''t have any memory of the boss fight or what happened in the boss room, though my friends did tell me about what happened." Ameliyn gestured for Reivyn to continue.
"I got knocked into a pit in the ground full of blood sacrifice and other alchemical substances, and when I woke up, I had a quarter of my Bloodline unlocked as well as several Achievements. I have vague memories of a weird space and giant eyes, of all things, but I''m not entirely sure how I got the Affinity. I do know that my Bloodline Siphon is what helped the alchemical soup unlock a portion of my Bloodline."
"Bloodline Siphon?" Ameliyn asked with a frown. "What''s that?"
"Oh, I can siphon Experience directly into my Bloodline to unlock it. I need ten million total Experience, and the alchemical bath gave me two and half million Experience."
"You know, I would be more surprised, at this point, if you didn''t have such a strange ability," Ameliyn sighed. "How in the world did you develop the ability to siphon Experience away from increasing your ss Level into increasing your Bloodline?"
"I don''t know, I''ve just always had the option to do so," Reivyn said with a shrug. "That''s the main reason I''ve never been concerned with Leveling up too fast."
"Yeah, that would do it," Ameliyn chuckled. "Well, I''ll have to talk to your father about this whole Bloodline Siphon thing. We might be able to help out with that, we''ll see.
"Anyway, about your Abyss affinity. Your father and I know the truth of the matter, but it wouldn''t be a good thing for others to learn that you have such a thing, especially in such a backwater like a Tier 1 Region. Even Tier 2 Regions probably don''t have schrs on the level to recognize it for what it really is."
"And what is it really?" Reivyn asked.
"It''s literally just your affinity with the mana of that Realm. Nothing else to it, really. The reasons behind it aren''t that important, but that won''t matter to ignorant people or zealots. Your father and I will also teach you our deception Skills, including the one to obscure your Status Page, before you go to the Academy."
"Thank you," Reivyn said. "I think that would be for the best." Ameliyn snorted.
"It''s not like we would withhold the knowledge from you if you asked."
Reivyn nced at his Affinities once more with a frown. I know that my Bloodline is slightly different than my mother''s - and my father''s, for that matter - but it is still based off of theirs. Why in the world did I unlock Eternity?
Reivyn couldn''t figure it out. Well, there''s one way to find out. I can always ask.
Reivyn got up from his bed where he had been sitting in Meditation and headed to the living room where his mother was watching his sisters. He walked up to the couch and took a seat nearby.
"I unlocked my first Tier 4 Affinity," Reivyn said without preamble.
"Really? Congrattions!" Ameliyn said with a radiant smile. "Which one did you unlock? Celestial? Astral Wind?"
"Eternity," Reivyn replied. Ameliyn frowned at the answer.
"Eternity? How did you unlock that Affinity?"
"I have no idea," Reivyn said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "I came to you to find out if you could help me figure it out."
"Were you working on a specific Affinity to unlock?" Ameliyn asked.
"No, I was just running my Mana Cirction while Meditating," Reivyn said. "I had already worked on my other, new Affinities and their weaves, and I was taking a break from concentrating on them when I suddenly got the notification."
"Always something weird going on with you," Ameliyn chuckled. "So I noticed that your Meditation Skill was at Level 24 when you showed us your Status Page. Is it still at that Level?" Reivyn nced at his page and gave a nod. "Well, in that case, your wandering thoughts are probably what provoked you to subconsciously make the connections somehow. A Level 24 in Meditation means you aren''t skilled enough to be clear of any thought. Do you happen to recall any of the thoughts that crossed your mind?"
Reivyn closed one eye while looking up with the other as he thought about the question.
"Recently, I''ve had thoughts of the different Tiers flitting across my mind, and I have been mentally preparing myself to begin working on the ones you''ve shown me. Other than that, I always have stray thoughts associated with my dreams..." Reivyn snapped his fingers as he thought of something. "One of the things associated with my dreams is the thought that I had existed in a vast in of nothingness for, well, an eternity."
"That might be it," Ameliyn said. "Your subconscious wasbining your thoughts on working on Tier 4 Affinities with your thoughts on eternity from your dreams. We know, from what you''ve said about the bonuses and the Skills you revealed to have when you were very young, that the dreams have a tangible interaction with the System. It''s very likely the System helped you out once again."
"Hmm, I can see how that makes sense," Reivyn said. "Then what do you know about the Eternity Affinity? Does this mean I''m one of the one in a billion that''s talented in Time?" Reivyn''s eyes lit up with expectation.
"Woah, now," Ameliyn said, holding her hands up. "Let''s not get ahead of ourselves. If you unlocked Time, then I would say you''re talented in Time. You unlocked an aspect associated with Time. Eternity is on one end of the spectrum,sting an infinite amount of time. But the Time Affinity would also hold theplete other end of the spectrum, infinitesimal amounts of time, and everything in between." Reivyn''s face fell with disappointment.
"That doesn''t mean you''re not talented in Time," Ameliyn consoled. "I would say unlocking Eternity is a positive indication, though. You''ll just have to keep working and exploring as you grow older."
"Thanks, mom," Reivyn said. He got up, leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek, and went back to his room.
Yeah, it was just a surprising turn of events, Reivyn thought to himself. I''m pretty much done with working on my Affinities for the day, so I''ll go back to working on Mana Cirction and the other control Skills. I''ll see what Eternity is all about tomorrow.
Reivyn watched with Mana Sight as the orb of circting mana in his hand seemed to slow to a crawl. Reivyn frowned at the disy in his palm, though, because "slow to a crawl" wasn''t exactly urate.
This is the strangest thing I''ve ever seen, Reivyn thought. It appears to be moving continuously at a slow, steady speed while at the same time it''s at aplete stand-still. But it''s alsopleting its rotations instantly at the same time. That sounds like nonsense, and if I wasn''t looking at it and Sensing it myself, I wouldn''t believe it was possible - or that it made any kind of sense, whatsoever.
I have no idea what to do with this Affinity. The name Eternity lends a certain hint at what its purpose and function are, but I think it''s a bit early for me to be messing with this Affinity in any practical way. Maybe I could trap someone in a sort of time limbo for a period of time? That actually sounds like it would be insanely powerful.
It also seems like it could be a more powerful version of Durability: this mana, and what it''s affecting, cannot be changed, altered, or damaged. It is Eternal.
Reivyn nodded his head at the direction his thoughts were moving in. I''ll still need to work out all the things I can do with it and practice being able to actually do them. Figuring out the weaves to this Affinity is going to be incredibly difficult without any ss Skills or other examples to imitate.
Oh wait, Reivyn smacked himself in the head. I keep forgetting that I advanced to Light Magus already and that I''m not a Tier 1 Fighter anymore. I seem to have a ss Skill for this very situation. Reivyn pulled up his ss Skills and looked them over again. He had already experimented briefly with this particr Skill.
ss Skills:
Basic Elemental Spells (1): Bolt 2(4)MP, sh 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), st 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity
Lattice (4): Bonus to Mana Maniption +24%
True Light (1): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells
How could I forget about Lattice? From the description, it just gives a bonus to Mana Maniption, but that''s not all it does. I discovered it had a different function when I tried it out the other day. The name should have tipped me off.
Reivyn initiated the Skill while maintaining his infusion of Eternity Mana in his hand. He focused on his intent for what he wanted to aplish: a zone frozen in time for eternity.
Barely at the edge of his perception, he could see an ovey of a weave. It was incredibly vague and fuzzy, and it dissipated after a fraction of a second, but it was there.
The Lattice Skill builds a literaltticework of the weave. Attice is a form of a weave, just built from different materials.
My Skill is much too low to get any meaningful insights from it for such a high Tier Affinity, but this is definitely a ss Skill I need to focus on. I''m already pretty good at picking up the weaves I encounter. If I can generate the examples I need myself, this will be infinitely beneficial to me.
Reivyn dispelled the Skill. The description didn''t include a cost, but neither did his other Skills that used Stamina. He could feel a drain on his mental energy, if not his actual mana pool while using the Skill. It was very slight, considering his Mind Stats, but it was there.
I''ll practice my other, lower Tier Affinity weaves with this Skill to build it up. My gut tells me that the Tier affects the difficulty the Skill has with extrapting the necessary weaves.
It seems like the nature of having to experiment with various weaves is the nexus of the Magus ss.
Reivyn wasn''t ready to work on his ss Skill at the moment - I have a schedule to keep - so he didn''t immediately begin working on the lower Tier weaves. He ended his investigation of the Eternity Mana and began working on building up his Affinity Level with it. Increased Affinity Level should also have a tangible effect on the Lattice Skill.
"Keep kicking your feet!" Refix called from the shore of the river. Refix had found a ce rtively nearby that was shallow for a good portion avable to teach Reivyn how to swim. The first lesson to unlock the Skill wasn''t what Reivyn would call swimming, though.
Refix had Reivyn move slightly beyond where he couldfortably touch down on the river bed, and he had him tread water.
"The purpose of treading water is to conserve energy while keeping your head above water. That''s not why we''re doing it, though. We''re getting your body used to the movements associated with swimming and familiarizing yourself with your buoyancy. It''s just as much an exercise in confidence as it is in swimming."
"Sounds good," Reivyn acknowledged.
Reivyn had felt awkward at first. It felt like his movements didn''t properly keep him afloat and he had to expend way too much effort for such a simple thing. He had practically iled about for several minutes before he felt a noticeable change in not only his movements but the effects the movements had as well.
I must have finally Leveled Swimming up to 1, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
"Keep at it for a while longer," Refix called out. "We''ll advance to moving about in just a moment. Pay attention to how your feet move the water and how your body naturally floats."
Reivyn focused his attention on how his feet and legs interacted with the water as he kept himself afloat. His arms were more of a stabilizing factor than a flotation one, though it did serve some small benefit.
"Ok, now to do some real swimming," Refix called out. "Tilt your body forward, put your arms under your center of gravity, and kick your feet. Paddle with your handsing up in front of your chest."
Reivyn followed the instructions and got into the proper positioning. His arms naturally took on the role his feet had previously had in helping keep him above water while also working in tandem with his feet to propel himself forward. Reivyn frowned as he felt something was off about the whole situation.
I don''t have any specific memories of dreams about swimming, but my gut is telling me that what I''m doing right now is foolish and incredibly inefficient.
"Are you sure this is right?" Reivyn called out as he bobbed forward.
"Haha, you''re swimming, aren''t you?" Reivyn couldn''t argue with that logic. He was, in fact, swimming. "This is just paddling, though. It''s not a real form that has any kind of efficiency or power. I''m just putting you through your paces right now. We''ll move on to real techniques soon."
Of course, Reivyn thought. Technique was the thing that I instinctively knew was missing from this. I mean, dad''s not wrong: I am swimming. It''s just without any kind of technique.
Reivyn''s Swimming Skill was one of the ones he had unlocked from the very moment he was born, so it fully utilized the bonus the System told him he would get until he reached a certain Level. It didn''t take long for his Skill Levels to climb while practicing, though it wasn''t anything outrageous.
Reivyn practiced his swimming for several hours, his high Stamina enabling him to go for far longer than he would have been able to as a child without a ss. He followed his father''s instructions, and he quickly learned several different methods that were much more practical, and less foolish-looking, than the initial paddling he had done.
"Did you have fun?" Refix asked as Reivyn toweled dry.
"Yes, actually," Reivyn said. "I think this is the first time you''ve trained me in a Skill that you didn''t require me topletely exhaust myself first." Refix grinned at him.
"Don''t worry," he said, pping Reivyn on the shoulder. "We''ll get your Breath Control Skill up to a satisfactory level, and then I''ll teach you how to fight in the water. There''s plenty of opportunities to be tired in the water."
Reivyn rolled his eyes as he got dry. Is this how Teilon feels about me when I talk about training all the time? Reivyn shook his head. At least I train normally with them.
Chapter 65: Unwanted Attention
Chapter 65: Unwanted Attention
"You don''t have to worry about anyone trying to snatch you up against your will," Refix said. "Trust me, there''s nobody around with a big enough fist to throw their weight around our family. That being said, it''s good practice to always keep your cards close to your chest, and there''s no reason to take the risk of identally making an enemy out of any of the churches."
"Yeah, one of the Sword-Priests, a decent guy by the name Josn, tried to recruit me, actually," Reivyn revealed. "We had a run-in where he tried to use the angle of heresy because of the flower crowns Kailey and Riley made to interrogate us on the road to the Dungeon Town. We met upter due to the Abyss Affinity making me immune to the corruption, and he turned out to be alright.
"He gave me a badge that represents that I''m a Friend of the Church."
"That''s not bad at all. The churches all have connections with Ascended beings, so they have ess to knowledge of all sorts. Magical weaves and how to unlock some pretty potent Skills are definitely things you can get if you keep up that rtionship. All the more reason to hide your Status from them."
"Yes," Reivyn agreed. "What do I need to do?"
"Ok, pull up your Status Page," Refix instructed. Reivyn nodded his head for his father to continue. "Now, while leaving it open, open up another Status Page. It''s kind of tricky to get the System to - "
"Got it," Reivyn said. Refix looked at him with a t look for a moment.
"I forgot, you have the Veridical Affinity already," Refix shook his head. "The only thing I really know about that Affinity, other than it being the true building block of mana for the Realm, is that the System uses it.
"Ok, so this should be very easy for you then. You saw that I only sent over the one Skill to you when you asked about my Weapons Prodigy, and I know that you''ve looked at your Status Page with only your Stats and not your Skills and vice versa. This is the same concept, kind of.
"The next step is to focus on your second page and will it to be just a representation of your Status Page. Not your Status Page itself. Does that make sense?"
"Kind of like a reflection?" Reivyn asked.
"Exactly. Well, not exactly. You don''t want the words to be flipped like in a mirror, that would definitely give the jig up," Refix chuckled.
Reivyn concentrated on the second Status page that he had pulled up next to the first one, and with a mental tug, he made it into a picture of the other Status page. The page seemed to lose its connection with his inner being, but it remained tethered to the other Status page. He couldn''t see it with Mana Sight or anything, but he could tell that his Veridical Affinity was giving him that sense.
Since my Veridical Affinity is helping me to sense that it''s connected to another page and not my being, will it also help me spot other people who have done this trick? Questions forter, Reivyn mused.
"Ok, now that it''s not representing who you are but instead representing the Status page, all you have to do is will it to change the numbers and what is avable to be shown. That''s it. If you can get this far with manipting your Status Page, then changing numbers around is actually the easy part."
"What''s stopping me from showing that I have like 1 in all of my Stats. Or 1,000 for that matter?" Reivyn asked.
"Nothing," Refix replied. "But who would believe that? In order to sell the lie, it needs to be believable. One of the reasons your mother''s and my Status page are believable as they are is because we''re in a Tier 1 Region. If we were in a Tier 3 or 4 Region, it would make more sense to let more of our true abilities show on our Status pages because everyone else would be stronger than the average person here is."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said. "But, especially since you said I don''t have to worry about anyone trying to snatch me away against my will, I don''t particrly want to hide who I am or what I''m capable of. The main purpose of going to the Academy is to force the ss transition, and I''m betting that I''ll need to graduate at the top of my ss in order to get that function to activate from the System.
"If I''m going to stand out anyway, might as well stand out as exactly who I am. I''ll just hide my Tier 5 and above Skills and Affinities."
"Hey, that sounds good to me," Refix said. "There''s no reason you can''t shine bright wherever you go. You''re a Vynn." Refix winked at his son.
"Ok, so let me just concentrate here..." Reivyn skipped over all of his Stats and moved his focus down to his Skills and Affinities. He simply cut off the page when it reached that low. On second thought, there''s one other Skill I should probably get rid of, just in case. He also erased the Dreams of the Past Skill from the list. I don''t think this one would cause me any problems, but why chance it?
"Ok, what''s the next step?" Reivyn looked at his dad.
"Ok, now what you do, is you simply ovey your fake Status Page with your real one. Youbine them in a way that it''s like pages in a book. ce the fake one on top, and make the real one ''Page 2.''" Reivyn did as instructed. With the help of his Veridical Affinity and the practice he just got manipting his Status, it was done in an instant. He nodded for Refix to continue.
"Thest step is to will your second page - the Real Status - to be locked, and only you have the key. Simple. Easy." Reivyn locked the second page and got a notification for his efforts.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Status Lock (1)
Tier 4:
Status Maniption (1)
"Status Maniption?" Reivyn said out loud. He looked up at his dad. "You said this was how to get the Status Lock Skill, but you never mentioned Status Maniption." Refix frowned.
"I don''t have Status Maniption," he answered. "It''s probably because you have the Veridical Affinity. Hey, more Skills is a good thing, so just slowly explore it when you have the chance."
"Alright, but it says that my Status Lock Skill is only at Level 1. That''s not going to prevent too many people from being able to see through it," Reivyn pointed out.
"Have no fear! Your mother and I already considered this. Here," Refix pulled out a little amulet and handed it to Reivyn. Reivyn inspected it and noticed that the cord was actually tightly braided with some sort of vine. He threw an Inspect at it.
Flower Knight''s Amulet
Shields the wearer from Inspection.
"Your mother enchanted the amulet with her illusion abilities. It will hold off anyone below mid-Expert in any kind of Analyze Skill. She got your sisters to make the cord. It was more of an idea to see if she could make a coborative magic item with them than for any real function, but it seems to have worked," Refix said.
"Ok, but if anyone sees this amulet, then they''ll know that I have a fake Status page by Inspecting the amulet," Reivyn pointed out.
"Ahh, that''s the beauty of it, though," Refix retorted. "The effect of the amulet applies to itself when it''s active. Put it on and inspect it again."
Reivyn put the amulet on and tucked it into his shirt while pulsing some mana into it to activate it. He looked at the cord and threw another Inspect at it.
An Amulet
"Huh, that''s neat," Reivyn said. "Well, I guess with this I''m good to go, now."
"Yup," Refix nodded. "And any of the tools the Academy uses to Analyze will also be subjected to the restriction ced on the Amulet. The people at the Academy know that they have some people with sensitive information and backing, so they likely restrict their tools to just below the Expert Level. I''m not 100% sure, but that seems to be the standard practice.
"Alright, now that we''re done with that, time to work on your Breath Control Skill some more," Refix pped his hands together. "We''ll make sure you''re able to defend yourselfnd, air, or sea."
The words jolted Reivyn momentarily. He nced at his father and said, "I think ''air,nd, and sea'' has a better ring to it."
"Hmmm, I guess it does," Refix chuckled. "But you can''t fly yet, so it''s a moot point."
"Yet?" Reivyn cocked his head. Refix winked again.
"C''mon, c''mon, c''mon," Teilon said as he dragged Reivyn out of his house. "We''ve been in The Capital for almost two months now, and we''ve done only a little exploring. Melissa said there''s some ''to-do'' going on today, so we''re gonna go visit a restaurant, do some shopping, and take a peek at what''s got her all excited."
Reivyn let Teilon drag him out. If he really didn''t want to go, Teilon didn''t have nearly enough Strength to force him to move. Kimberly was there as well, and she was just as excited as Teilon was to go out and about.
"We''ll meet up with Melissa and the rest over at this fancy ce near the main street," Teilon continued, letting go of Reivyn once he noticed they were firmly outside and walking in the right direction.
"Apparently, it''s better than anything we had even at the Count''s table," Kimberly spoke up. "And since we have all of that money from the Experience Crystals we sold to the Adventurer''s Guild a while back burning a hole in our pockets, we decided it would be a good idea to experience it before the semester starts in a couple of weeks."
"Yeah, we don''t know how busy we''ll be once the semester begins," Teilon said. "I mean, we haven''t seen Melissa or Larissa in a long time. It seems they have a short break between the end of the semester they were just in and the admissions for the next."
"Has she or Larissa exined anything about the admissions process to either of you?" Reivyn asked as they strolled through the streets. The pedestrian traffic began picking up immediately after only getting a little ways away from the residential district Reivyn''s parents had settled in.
"Yeah, a little," Kimberly said. "We''ve already submitted our copies of the Count''s letter as a rmendation, and we were told that we were already epted. We just have to show up on Admissions day to run through some Martial Combat so they can get a gauge of where we stack up against the others in our ss."
"Kimberly won''t tell you, but she''s pretty nervous," Teilon said with a conspiratorial look at Reivyn, holding his hand against his mouth like he was trying to hide his obviously not whispered words from Kimberly. Kimberly just rolled her eyes. "I mean, we''re just in the beginning stages of Tier 2, and because of our Peasant Levy Tier 1 ss, we''re going to be the youngest applicants there."
"We''re both a little nervous," Kimberly admitted. Teilon shrugged and nodded his head in agreement. "We don''t know anything about the other talented people applying for the Knight Academy."
"You guys will be fine," Reivyn said. "Despite Teilon''s constantints about training, you guys never cked off, and you have tons of real-worldbat experience. I doubt there are going to be many people in your ss that stood and faced an invasion of thousands of Tier 3 Revenants and Tier 4 demons."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Teilon said, trailing off. "Anyway, it doesn''t matter all that much how we do in the Admissions tests. We''re already epted as students."
"Yeah, there might be a few nobles who are a bit higher level than you, but their Tier 1 sses are also only going to be Umon, just like yours. And Tier 2 is restricted to Rare sses, and you both have those, as well. I''ll make a bet with you that, with your Skills and experience, you''re going to be two of the better applicants in your ss."
"We''ll see," Kimberly said as she craned her neck to see above the crowd. "We''re almost to the street the restaurant is on. It should be just ahead," Kimberly pointed to a side street branching off of the main road. "A few more minutes of walking and we should be able to spot Melissa or Larissa waiting for us."
The trio continued to banter as they made their way through the throng of people. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, Reivyn spotted Melissa standing at the foot of a wide staircase leading up to an extravagantly decorated building. All of the buildings along the main road, and the ones on the side roads closest to it, were expensive-looking, but this one stood out even among the others.
It doesn''t stand out because of howvish it is, Reivyn noted as he took it in. It stands out because the quality is obvious while also being much more subtle aspared to its neighbors. All of the buildings seem to be doing their best to attract attention, but the owner of this restaurant has done so by focusing on the opposite. It actually stands out more because of it.
Reivyn and his friends walked up to Melissa. He hadn''t noticed right away because of all of the other people walking around and waiting in front of the restaurant, but Melissa wasn''t apanied by just Larissa and Erik. There were three other young girls around Melissa and Larissa''s age standing and talking with them.
Reivyn took the opportunity of his high Perception Stat to observe them from afar. The other three girls were wearing clothes of just as fine a quality as Melissa and her sister, but two of them were obviously not quite as pretty as Melissa.
Oh, they''re still pretty, Reivyn thought to himself. But they seem tock a certain something whenpared to Melissa and her other friend. I can''t quite ce my finger on it. It might be something intangible, like poise or something. If I had to bet, I would say they have a lower Charisma Stat. Yeah, that makes sense.
Reivyn hadn''t interacted with too many people - other than my parents, now that I think about it - who had Charisma unlocked. It made sense that the scions of wealthy and noble families would have the Stat unlocked.
In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense that Melissa and Larissa would appeal to me so much more than any of the other Adventurers in the Dungeon Town. My own Charisma Stat probably had the same effect on them, as well.
Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly finally got close enough to be seen by Larissa, and she jumped up and down in excitement as the three friends approached.
"Oh, oh, oh, here they are," Larissa shouted, waving at the three. Reivyn just shook his head slightly and smiled.
The other girls stopped their conversation and turned to take Reivyn and his friends in as they approached. Reivyn could practically feel the eyeballs on him as the three new girls looked him up and down from top to bottom. He waved as he approached and was about to greet Melissa, but one of the girls spoke up before him.
"Melissa, you never said your new friend was so cute." She gave a sly smile and wink to Reivyn as she spoke to Melissa.
Many thoughts shed through Reivyn''s mind as he processed the words, and he decided to just go with it. He struck a pose, sticking one leg forward with one hand on his hip. He lifted his chin as he faced the girl who had spoken up.
"I don''t know what Melissa has told you about me, but surely whoever had done whatever exploits she regaled you with couldn''t possibly be any less dashing than this," Reivyn moved his free hand from his head to his waist like he was disying goods to a customer. The three girls froze, eyes wide, and the one who had initially spoken up burst intoughter.
"He''s funny, too," she said. Melissa red daggers at him for a moment before stepping in close to him.
"I know I said I would introduce you to other people of simr standing to me," she whispered, "but could you please try not to seduce them. Reign in the flirting a little. You just met them." Reivyn pulled his head back in surprise as he looked at Melissa.
"Flirting?" he asked, pointing to himself. "I thought I was just being a narcissist. You know, trying to fit into the group," he winked as he replied to Melissa. She rolled her eyes and then stuck her tongue out at him.
"Hahaha, I like this guy," the girl said, stepping forward with her hand held out, palm down. "My name is Alisia." Reivyn looked at the hand and recalled the lessons on etiquette his mother had given him. He gently grabbed her hand and bent down to ce a kiss on her knuckles, most of it centered on his own thumb.
"A kiss directly on the back of the hand is to show that you''re standing is higher than the person you''re greeting," his mother had told him. "A kiss on the back of your thumb, and only your thumb, is a sign of being subordinate. To disy that you''re an equal, you would kiss the knuckles and your own thumb, both, and to be polite you would mainly focus on your thumb. If you want to show that you''re interested in ady of equal standing, you graze your thumb and focus on the knuckles.
"There are a lot of little subtleties to it, but because of who you are, you should greet everyone you meet as an equal. You''re technically higher in status than everyone here, but our empire is gone, so we''re adrift. Never show subservience, though, not even to the local royal family. If there''s any fallout from your actions, don''t worry about it. Your father and I will settle it for you."
"The pleasure''s all mine, Miss Alisia," Reivyn responded,ing back to the present. He stood up straight and smiled at the girl who grew a slight blush on her cheeks at his actions. Reivyn nced over and saw that all of the other girls were staring at him, even Melissa and Larissa, with open mouths.
Uh oh, Reivyn thought. Are the rules different here? Did I just put my foot in my mouth? Before he had time to get nervous, though, Melissa came out of her stunned state and introduced the other two girls. She walked over and ced her hands on their shoulders as she introduced them.
"This lovelydy is Miss Erin Greene." Erin gave a shy smile before looking down at her feet. Melissa moved over to the other girl. "And this friend of mine is Miss Haylen Cayn. These three youngdies are my best friends."
"Nice to meet you," Haylen said with a small smile. She did not extend her hand as Alisia had.
What does it mean?! Reivyn was freaking out just a little bit. His mother had mentioned that her empire was considerably further away, and he knew that his parents hadn''t interacted much with the upper echelons in this particr Region. Well, the damage is done, either way. Let''s just keep going with it.
"And this is Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly," Melissa continued with the introductions, indicating each of them in turn to the new girls. Teilon was on good behavior, so he just smiled and waved when he was introduced, and Kimberly stepped forward and gave a friendly handshake herself to each of the new girls.
"C''mon," Alisia said, stepping forward. She looped her arm in with Reivyn''s as she turned them to the stairs. "You''ll sit next to me," she said, looking up at Reivyn. Reivyn noticed Melissa frowning at the development, and he felt a headacheing on.
Please don''t let this be a repeat of the Count''s Victory Feast. I definitely don''t want to be a reason for a schism in their friendship, either.
Reivyn didn''t have to worry about the situation as he had feared. The meal had been rather pleasant, and Alisia had backed off from making any other kinds of overtures after they had been seated at their table. Melissa also didn''t seem to be interested in fighting with her friend over him.
Either she doesn''t want topete with her friend for whatever reason, or she''s backed off a little after the meal at our house, Reivyn thought as they sat around and continued to talk about various things. Mom did tell me that she let a little of her power leak through when she met Melissa. I don''t know how she took that, but everything seems to be normal on the surface.
"So what''s the issue with this supposed ''event'' that Melissa mentioned," Teilon finally asked. Reivyn could sense that his anticipation had been building the entire meal as nobody had brought it up. They had spoken about their time in the conscripts, the Dungeon Town, and the city defense while the other girls had given them some stories about their time in the Academy.
"Oh, right!" Alisia perked up. "Supposedly, one of the Princes of Eldiar ising to the Magic Academy this semester." She seemed to be very enthusiastic about the notion. She nced at Reivyn and gave him a small half-smile. "Rumors are that he''s quite handsome. I bet he might be just a little less dashing than you are."
"Impossible!" Reivyn eximed. "I mean, you can see me, can''t you?" He held his arms out to the side in a manner to invite inspection. Alisia and the other girls giggled at his disy. Melissa just shook her head with a smile. Yeah, she''s definitely backed down from her previous strategy, Reivyn noted.
"Ok, but what does that mean?" Teilon spoke up. The girls all looked at him in confusion. Teilon raised his hands in question. "What''s Eldiar? It''s my first time hearing of it."
"O~h," Alisia said in realization. "I guess it makes sense that you haven''t heard of it. You guys are new to The Capital, after all. Eldiar is the Tier 2 Kingdom that this one is sworn to. The prince that''sing is one of the first cousins to the royal family, ahem," Alisia coughed into her hand. "Even so, his rank is above everyone else''s here, so it''s a ''big deal.''" She said thatst part with air quotes.
"Huh, but why would hee down to this Academy? I thought the goal of most of the students attending was to go up to theirs," Teilon said.
"Well, it''s partly an inspection - of the Academies themselves, the teachers, and the students - and partly because of the new Dungeon you guys already explored," Alisia answered. "This new Dungeon is apparently Tier 3 from the second floor down, and the Dungeons in their kingdom are obviously Tier 2 Dungeons. It would take a lot more time and effort to send him up to the Tier 3 Region they''re sworn to than it would be toe down to one of their vassal kingdoms."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said. "That second floor boss room, on hard-mode, gives a lot of Experience. Do we know if he''s bringing an entire entourage to help him run the Dungeon?"
"There will definitely be guards," Melissa said. "But he''s probably going to recruit a Party from the Magic and Knight Academies. That''s one of the reasons we chose this restaurant today. His supposed route is going to lead him down this road, and we might have the chance to show our faces. If he sees us, he might be more likely to remember us when the timees for him to finally make a Party to go to the Dungeon."
"We just came from there," Reivyn pointed out. "I''m not necessarily opposed to going back and running it again, but the semester is just about to start, and it''s not exactly around the corner."
"Don''t worry," Melissa replied. "He''ll probably choose to go towards the end of his visit, and he might use faster transportation. You''ll have plenty of time to experience the Academy properly if he chooses to add you to the Party."
"Shh, shh," Alisia said, holding her hands out and moving them up and down to silence the people at the table. "Do you hear that?"
Reivyn cocked his head and utilized his Perception Stat. He could hear the faint sounds of the crowd growing in the distance now that he paid attention.
"Speak of the devil..." Alisia said. "Let''s get to the window and get a look."
They had reserved a table on the edge of the room for the very reason that Alisia just brought up, so the girls simply got up out of their seats and turned around to look through the window. Reivyn wasn''t that interested in looking at this prince fellow, but he shrugged and joined them in looking out.
They were on the second floor of the restaurant, and even the first floor was raised up above the level of the road, so they had quite the vantage to look down. The ss was crystal clear, and the windows were quiterge, so they had a good view of the street.
They stood and watched as a procession finally came into view, the pedestrians being herded off of the street to the sides. The crowd gathered to witness the scene as it grew and grew, and Reivyn finally spotted a young man around their age on a white horse, surrounded by the rest of his guards and other attendants.
He wore splendid, shining garments, and he had a small, unassuming crown on his head.
He held his hand up and said something to one of the closer guards, and the procession came to a momentary halt. The prince looked up at the window Reivyn and the other girls were at before smiling and resuming his trek through the streets.
"Ahhh, he looked at me!" Haylen called out, fanning herself. The other girls were almost as excited as she was, but Reivyn saw that Alisia and Melissa rolled their eyes at their friend''s outburst.
Reivyn frowned, though.
He wasn''t looking at Haylen or the other girls, he thought. He was looking at me.
Chapter 66: Foot, Meet Mouth
Chapter 66: Foot, Meet Mouth
"So what exactly was it that I did back there?" Reivyn whispered to Melissa. The other girls were still gushing over the appearance of the visiting prince, so Reivyn took the opportunity to question Melissa about the apparent faux pas he hadmitted.
"I take it you have some etiquette training?" Melissa raised an eyebrow at the question. Reivyn simply nodded his head. "Well, I don''t know from which Region you received tutoring, but here, when greeting a nobledy, you''re supposed to just hover over the hand, not actually kiss anything."
"But I saw Teilon kiss the back of Lin''s hand at the party?" Reivyn pointed out.
"Yes, but Lin isn''t a nobledy. She''s just affluent," Melissa exined. "If it had been Erin or Haylen, it would have been fine, but Alisia is actually the daughter of a noble."
"So then, what did my actions tell everyone?" Reivyn felt a headacheing on.
"Nothing," Melissa said, matter of factly. Reivyn was slightly taken aback. Melissa rolled her eyes. "We all know that this is your first time in The Capital, and you had no idea who Alisia is. Nobody introduced her as a noble. We were only momentarily surprised because we all know and forgot for a second that you didn''t.
"Her actions of ying along and then treating you normally afterward was her way of letting you know -ter, when you figured it out - that she wasn''t insulted, but that she''s not necessarily for or against anything in the future. Apletely neutral stance."
"Ok, so what would it have meant? What do you mean she''s not ''necessarily for or against anything in the future?''" Reivyn pressed.
"As I said, the proper greeting is to hover over the hand. Any kind of physical contact between her hand and your lips indicates that you''re interested in pursuing a rtionship with her. It''s actually quite astonishing the lengths she went to indicate a neutral stance. I''ve never seen her be so magnanimous to anyone else, before."
"I mean, it''s obviously because of my wit and charm," Reivyn said, lifting his chin. Melissa smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand lightly.
"More like because you didn''t know any better," She responded. "What were you taught about greeting ady? What did you think your gesture meant?" Melissa asked, curiosity written all over her face.
"I was taught that kissing the hand directly meant I wasing from a superior position, kissing the hand and thumb meant we were equals, and kissing the thumb, alone, was that I was of lower standing," Reivyn shrugged. Melissa tapped her lips in thought.
"I guess it makes sense that you would greet her as an equal, considering you didn''t know who she was," Melissa said. "That''s an interesting set of rules. Where does ite from?"
"I don''t know," Reivyn replied with a shrug. "It''s just what I was taught."
"By your mother?" Melissa pressed.
"Sure," Reivyn said.
"You don''t know where your parents are from?"
"That''s not what I said," Reivyn winked and turned away, indicating he was done with the line of questioning.
The meal had long since been over. It was after lunch, but still a bit early to be considered a proper dinner, but they had decided to treat it that way, anyway. They had ns to explore some of themercial districts after the meal, after all, so they didn''t want it to be too Oh boy, talk about putting your foot in your mouth, Reivyn sighed to himself.
Reivyn flopped back on his bed, exhausted.
That was more tiring than the river fighting dad had me training in, Reivyn thought. There''s just something about shopping that saps the energy right out of me. It''s almost metaphysical, but it really does have a tangible effect.
With the agreement of Teilon, Kimberly had dragged the pair around from one store to the other, trying on outfit after outfit. She stayed away from the more fancy dress shops, but there were still a lot of options avable to a young girl with money in The Capital.
I didn''t realize it was even possible to have that many different variations of clothes and shoes. I know Kimberly said she wanted to have decent gear for the Knight Academy, but if she''s not careful, she won''t have any money to spend on anything else but simple, everyday wear.
Reivyn and Teilon had been roped into carrying the bags she umted over time. She was quite thrifty, at first, and only bought one or two things from each store. The problem is that we went to so many stores.
Reivyn banished the thoughts from his head. Despite feeling like his muscles had turned into jelly while shopping with the pair, he had also managed to buy a couple of appropriate outfits for the Magic Academy that had been exined to him.
The outfits he had bought were fairly loose-fitting robes, but not in the sense one would get from a mage or wizard. I have to admit, these pieces of clothing looked pretty good on me, Reivyn chuckled. They came with an assortment of belts and other essories to break up the monotony. They''re quite borate, actually.
Reivyn was used to wearing a tunic and pants, but the robes were only slightly different. It wasn''t like wearing a dress or anything like that. He still had pants that went with them, underneath. They were just loose, flowing garments. Lots of opportunities to conceal things.
Melissa said that it was more an indication of status as a Caster ss than any kind of function. The schools don''t have uniforms, and people aren''t required to wear robes or such. That being said, Melissa mentioned that it was practically tradition for everyone to wear robes, and those that didn''t in the Magic Academy were looked down upon as either poor or boorish.
When in Rome... Reivyn froze for a second in his contemtion. Wait, what? Where did that thoughte from? What''s Rome? He shook his head. Oh well, at least I thought it instead of saying it out loud in front of someone. Must have been from the dreams.
Reivyn had briefly recounted his experience of the evening to his mother. She didn''t seem to be amused or angry, but Refix hadughed his head off at the predicament. Ameliyn might not have felt either way for Reivyn''s actions, but she certainly cast a meaningful gaze at her husband''s reaction.
"What?" Refix said between chuckles. "I told you he''s ''lucky in love.''"
"Yes, but even if she''s of noble birth, this is a Tier 1 Kingdom. I''m not going to let some little girl put her ws in my boy and stunt his growth by holding him down in this backwater."
Whoa, where did thate from? Reivyn looked at his mother with wide eyes. I''ve never heard her speak like that before. I guess she has some strong opinions on who''s worthy of being her daughter-inw.
"It''s alright to make friends and acquaintances," Ameliyn turned her attention back to Reivyn. "And this was a good learning experience for you. I didn''t think that the etiquette would be different. Though, I guess I should have looked more into it before sending you out with the advice I gave you.
"You''re a Vynn, and you have a powerful Bloodline. It''s not just that these people are ''unworthy'' of being paired with you. You''ll also eventually outgrow them. I know that your father has gained a lot of Levels on me, but that''s not because of my stunted potential, so it won''t be forever. The girls you''ll meet out here won''t be able to keep up with you in the future.
"Not only will that eventually breed resentment in either you or them, but your lifespan is likely to be decades, or even centuries, longer than theirs with your considerably higher Stats due to your Bloodline and opportunities.
"Plus, you''re still very young. I know you''re way more mature than your years can ount for - speaking of which, we still need to have that discussion about your dreams - and that you''re physically developed into a young adult at this point; however, you still have a long time before you should even think about forming any kind of rtionship, even one just for fun."
"Yes, mother, I understand," Reivyn said. "You should know that I''m fully focused on meeting my full potential. I don''t have time to be distracted from my goals. I know that my unique position means that I have a lot more time to reach those goals without having to worry about identally Leveling up too much, but then I would just be wasting my time.
"There''s a whole world out there to explore. Not to mention the mastermind of the cult behind our empire''s demise. If I get bogged down for years and years trying to force a Tier 3 ss, sure my endpoint will be the same, but everyone else would have left me in the dust due to sheer Levels, Stats, and Skills."
Ameliyn smiled brightly at Reivyn''s words. I guess she''s happy that I''m not going to fall for someone so soon and stop being her "little boy," Reivyn chuckled to himself.
"I''m d to hear you refer to it as ''our'' empire," Ameliyn said, breaking Reivyn''s expectations. "That means a lot to your mother." She patted his hand as she smiled at him.
"Oh... well, yeah," Reivyn said. "It''s only natural to think that way."
"See, darling," Refix said. "He''s got his head on straight. Let him have some fun once in a while. It''s not going to be the end of the world." Ameliyn raised her eyebrows as she fixed a look at Refix.
"I do not want you encouraging him!" Ameliyn said. "It''s one thing to look the other way, but don''t put thoughts in his head." Ameliyn rolled her eyes.
"Ok, ok," Refix said, cating Ameliyn. "You know what I meant, though." He turned back to Reivyn. "I know you don''t want to ''wallow'' for years in Tier 2, as you said, but life isn''t all about training and striving to be as powerful as you can be. Make sure you take some time for yourself every now and then."
"This,ing from the man who drives me relentlessly during our training sessions," Reivyn chuckled.
"Hey, you asked me to do that," Refix defended himself. "I''ve never once made you do something you didn''t already want to do."
"Eh, fair point," Reivyn conceded. "Anyway, I recognize that the girls I''ve met and be acquainted with are pretty and Charismatic, but I haven''t noticed anything special about any of them. I just don''t feel that way about anyone." Reivyn''s mind drifted to the scenes of a family of four from his dreams.
I seem to recall the person from my dreams who never felt any way about anyone until he met his wife. I wonder if my dreams are affecting me in the same way, or if we''re just simr like that by coincidence. Either way, it doesn''t really matter all that much. I have so much on my te, and I haven''t the slightest interest in deviating.
"Speaking of the future," Ameliyn said. "There''s onest thing I want you to work on other than continuing your magical practice." Ameliyn reached into her pocket and withdrew what was held within. She handed a pen over to Reivyn. He looked down at it before looking back up in suspicion.
"You want me to continue practicing my Penmanship?" Reivyn asked.
"Not exactly," Ameliyn said. "I want you to write down all of your experiences and insights you''ve had thus far. Kind of like a training journal," Ameliyn held up a finger. "But! I want you to do so with your left hand. It''s about time you learned the Ambidextrous Skill. I''m quite surprised you haven''t already mentioned it with all of thebat training with different weapons you''ve done over the years."
Reivyn nodded his head as he put the pen in his pocket. Yeah, I didment over the one time I did a solo delve in the Dungeon and ended up not paying attention to the direction I ran in the first goblin room. Just so much has happened that I let it slip from my mind.
"Alright, mom," Reivyn said. "And thanks for reminding me. This is something I had wanted to work on for a while now. I just kept letting it get pushed aside with all of the other training I''ve been doing."
Reivyn leaned back on his pillow as he finished recalling the conversation he had had with his parents.
Only a couple more weeks left before Admissions, he thought. My Skills and Affinity training are going along better than I had hoped. I''m just going to take the night off, tonight. There''s just something about that shopping that drained all of my will to do anything but rest.
I''ll start practicing writing with my left hand tomorrow, and then, soon, it will be time to go to school.
Chapter 67: Admision of Luck
Chapter 67: Admision of Luck
Reivyn walked along the main thoroughfare with his family. Teilon and Kimberly had joined them as well, as the Magic and Knight Academies were next to each other in the central region of the city. He was dressed in one of his new robes, white with blue trim, and the admissions token hung from the belt at his waist. Like Teilon and Kimberly with the Knight Academy, Reivyn had already gone to the administrative building of the Magic Academy to submit his two letters of rmendation and received the token already.
Contrary to Reivyn''s clothing, Teilon and Kimberly were dressed in their usual style, though of higher quality after having spent some money over the past couple of months in The Capital, and they carried their gear stowed away in therge packs they still had from when they trained their Forced March Skill on the way to the Dungeon Town.
This robe is veryfortable, actually. Maybe the origin of Casters wearing robes was more because it was easy andfortable instead of any kind of visual cue. Meleebatants need armor to protect themselves, and the flowing nature of robes would actually cause more material to be in the way and cause more problems. If armor is worn under the robes, then thefortable nature of the robes is a moot point, anyway.
Speaking of armor, there''s a question I''ve had for a while now...
"Dad, what''s the point of Health Points if a stab to the heart kills you?" Reivyn asked.
His entire family had chosen to join him on the trek to admissions to see him off. He would be required to stay in the dormitory for the first month. It wasn''t unusual for the family members toe along with them, and it was doubly so for Reivyn''s family. Kailey and Riley were also going to be enrolled in the supplementary school as well.
The supplementary school didn''t have the stiption of requiring the students to live in the dorms for a set time, but they still needed to be escorted by their parents or a guardian. Reivyn could see many such scenes of families walking along, and even the asional situation like his family where there was a student in the Academy and the supplementary school.
"Well, a stab to the heart doesn''t necessarily kill you immediately," Refix answered. "A stab to the heart deals 10,000 damage, and then 1,000 damage per second until healed. So your mother and I would both survive a stab to our hearts, but if we don''t have someone there to elerate the healing, it would still eventually be fatal. Quicker for your mother, than for me.
"Someone with really high Vitality would also have really high natural recovery, but 1,000 damage per second is still a lot. I would live for 34 seconds after receiving a stab to the heart, and that''s not enough time for the wound to heal. I would need about two minutes for it to heal sufficient enough to stave off the damage per second."
"Oh, I never knew that," Reivyn said. "What about decapitation?" Teilon and Kimberly looked over as they listened in on the conversation as well.
"Decapitation deals 100,000 damage, and 10,000 damage per second afterward," Refix replied. "It''s possible for someone with over 100,000 health, and a powerful enough healer nearby, to survive decapitation and have their head healed back to their body. If one''s body is destroyed, however, only a Divine Skill that can regrow an entire body would save them.
"It''s possible for a healer to keep a severed head of a powerful individual alive indefinitely, but that would be more a form of extreme torture than an act of saving. I know I wouldn''t want to be a head on someone''s shelf until my natural lifespan expired, and anyone with 100,000 health has a very long lifespan."
"Huh, that''s a good point," Reivyn said. "There''s no way to build a body back other than a Divine Skill? What about attaching the head to a different body, or an artificial one?"
"Yeah, it''s theoretically possible," Refix said. "Though the meridians would be from the other person''s body, or, in the case of the artificial body, either non-existent orpletely in the hands of whoever built the body. That would bring about a whole slew of problems, though. I don''t know what the System would do in such a situation.
"I suppose someone strong enough could research meridians enough to build their own body with the meridians they conceive to try and make themself an even more powerful body, but the gains most likely wouldn''t equal the risks involved.
"If a portion of the person''s body is recovered, a healer strong enough to save a severed head would be able to grow the body back, but a body would also require additional materials other than just the magic of the healer involved. Someone that strong would also require materials that matched the Tier of their ss, so Tier 6 or higher, most likely.
"Why the questions about getting stabbed in the heart or getting your head cut off, all of a sudden?" Refix quirked an eyebrow at his son.
"Oh, I was just thinking that these robes were veryfortable," Reivyn replied. "And then that led me to thinking about why Casters wear them and Martial sses don''t, and it eventually led my train of thought to armor and Health Points."
"That''s quite the leap in thought," Refix chuckled. Reivyn shrugged as they walked along.
The family and friends continued their journey through the city with the asional banter. The pedestrian traffic was always heavy in therge city, especially in the central region where all of the official business took ce and the more expensive and higher quality goods could be found, but it was especially so on this day. Reivyn hadn''t realized just how many people would being to enroll in the new semester.
I guess it makes sense, Reivyn thought. The Academies do ept students from the entire kingdom. I imagine there are also some of the people from the smaller towns of the Tier 2 Region whoe here, as well. If they can''t qualify or secure a seat in the higher Tier Academy, it makes sense toe to this one instead of giving uppletely.
They eventually made their way to the front gate of the Knight Academy. Reivyn and his family stopped for a moment to bid farewell to Teilon and Kimberly.
"We''ll be seeing each other again, soon," Reivyn said as he gave his best friend a shoulder hug. "I know that you''ll do fine in the testing and secure a good position in your ss."
"Yeah, I know we''ll do well," Teilon said, returning the gesture. "Still can''t beat the jitters, though."
"You''ll do great," Reivyn said with a smile.
Teilon took in a deep breath, looked to Kimberly, who nodded her head, and the two waved goodbye as they joined the throng of other individuals joining the Knight Academy. Reivyn could see several other people with admission tokens tied to their waists, but the majority didn''t have one.
Most of the studentse from different cities within the kingdom and don''t show up ahead of time with any kind of letter of rmendation to secure their spot. A lot do, obviously, but the admissions process is called "admissions" for a reason.
Reivyn nodded his head to his parents and they continued on their way to the Magic Academy. The two Academies took up quite arge acreage in the city because of all of the buildings and training spaces, so even though they were literally right next to each other, it was still a bit of a walk between the front gates of the two. Refix and Ameliyn would take Kailey and Riley to their school after they saw Reivyn off.
Reivyn kept an eye out on all of the other teenagers dressed in robes and noticed the same trend with admissions tokens as those who went to the Knight Academy. Most of the people in robes walking the street with their families didn''t have tokens already, but a decent amount did.
I would say it was about 10% for the Knight Academy, and maybe a bit more, 20%, for the Magic Academy, Reivyn noted.
"You know, thinking of admissions, there''s apparently a prince from Eldiar attending the semester at the Magic Academy this time," Reivyn said. Ameliyn and Refix looked over at their son as he spoke, "One of the reasons Melissa dragged us to the particr restaurant we went to the other day was to catch a nce at his arrival. One of her friends is the daughter of a noble, so she apparently had some inside information.
"Anyway, something weird happened when he finally showed up."
"Oh, what happened?" Ameliyn asked.
"We were on the second floor of the restaurant, and we had a clear line of sight of the street below, but when he rode by with his entourage, he stopped his procession for a moment and looked up at the restaurant. I know for a fact that he looked directly at me and smiled."
"That is strange," Ameliyn said with a frown. "Did anything else happen?"
"Nope," Reivyn said. "He smiled for just a moment, and then they resumed their journey. That''s it."
"Huh," Ameliyn said. She and Refix shared a look, both with perplexed looks on their faces. "Well, the only thing I could think of is that somehow you gained the attention of the Duke over Count Ilpir, and that, in turn, somehow made its way up the chain?"
"It''s usible," Refix said. "But even then, he wouldn''t know what he looks like or that he was there. The only thing I can think of is that he sensed something from Reivyn, but that he didn''t particrly know who Reivyn was."
"Yeah, that was my thought," Reivyn said. "I didn''t get any sense from him, though, so I wasn''t sure."
"Well, we''ll have some of our people investigate this prince and his family," Ameliyn said. "Until then, though, until we know any more information, just act normally."
"Ok," Reivyn nodded his head. "I just thought you two should know. I don''t think anything''s going toe of it. Melissa mentioned he might form a Party to go explore the Dungeon in the mountains at the end of the semester, and hopefully, we''ll know more by that time. I doubt he''ll enlist the help of students in their first semester, but I do have experience running the Dungeon, and it''s not a secret."
"I wouldn''t worry too much about it right now," Ameliyn said. "Just focus on your own studies and do what you need to do. Even if the worstes about and it turns out this prince has some sort of nefarious interest in you - which I highly doubt - there''s nothing he could do to you with your father and me around."
"Thanks, mom," Reivyn said with a smile.
The family made it to the front gates, and like in front of the Knight Academy, there were countless scenes of families bidding farewell to the new students. Reivyn gave his family members a hug each.
"I know you''ve already unlocked the Ambidexterity Skill, but keep practicing doing as many things as possible with your off-hand," Ameliyn gave one final piece of advice.
"Don''t let anyone stand on your head," Refix said. Reivyn gave him a confused look. "It means don''t let anyone bully you. Don''t worry about anyone''s background. If someone wants to throw their weight around with you, they have to have that weight themselves. Don''t worry about any threats they might make, they''re all empty."
"Sure thing, Dad," Reivyn said. He bent down and picked his sisters up for a hug, too.
"Behave yourselves in school," Reivyn said. "Don''t look at it as work. Try and find what''s fun about it, and make a game of it. I''m sure you''ll do great."
"Uh-huh," Kailey said. "I''m not so sure about this school thing, but mom said it would be fun."
"Yeah," Riley said, "as long as it''s fun."
Reivyn shook his head as he set his sisters back down. He turned to his parents and gave a final wave goodbye.
"I''ll see you in about a month."
"Yes, yes," Ameliyn said. "We love you, son. Make us proud."
"Will do," Reivyn said. He turned and joined the other teenagers entering the Magic Academy.
The Academy was surrounded by a wall all around the perimeter. It wasn''t anything like a city wall built for defense, but Reivyn suspected there was more to it than just looks. The road was paved straight to a magnificent building about a hundred yards inside thepound, and it was lined by trees and flowers to provide shade and a pleasant aesthetic. The main building reminded him of the Adventurer''s Guild in Magron with its ostentation, but it was much more spectacr. It was a shining white with arge, golden dome in the center. Pirs adorned the front entrance above the grand stairs leading to the door.
The building itself wasn''t his destination, though. Reivyn saw that there were two lines leading to tables set out in front of the building. He quickly spied that the muchrger line was popted by students without an admission token, so Reivyn veered toward the shorter line. As he walked, he saw that the ones in front were led away by an older student to a side building.
Reivyn looked around as he walked to his position, and he could see pathways leading to gardens and fountains in the front space. There were several other buildings that could be seen in the distance, as well, and Reivyn spected that they were the dorms and ssrooms.
The practical training grounds are probably out of sight behind the administrative building.
Reivyn had already been to the administrative building once. At first, he had thought that it was strange that such arge, grand building was set aside for purely administrative reasons, but he had learned that some of the more advanced sses were also taught to the older students in one of the wings.
It kills two birds with one stone, Reivyn mused. They get to set up their prestige while at the same time not wasting any space.
Reivyn finally arrived at the end of the line and assumed his spot. He noted that his estimate on the number of students with an admission token verse those without had been pretty urate, as the other line was about five times as long as the one he stood in.
The student in front of him turned and gave him a friendly smile, holding his hand out in greeting. Reivyn took the proffered hand and shook it.
"Tom," the student said.
"Reivyn," Reivyn replied.
"You''re a new face," Tom said. "I''m from The Capital, and I thought I knew who most of the new students who already had an admission token were. Are you from one of the duchies?"
"No, I''m from Magron," Reivyn replied with a smile. "I had a letter of rmendation from the Count and from Knight-Captain Reifold, which is how I got the admissions token."
"Oh, I''ve heard about the goings-on in Magron," Tom nodded. "Usually, cities that far out don''t make much news that people in The Capital are interested in, but a Dungeon Break with an army of undead attacking a city is definitely not something that happens every day." Tom chuckled. "So were you involved with all of that hoo? Is that how you got the letters?"
"Yup," Reivyn said. "I and my friends volunteered to defend the city. We were with the conscription thatid im to the Dungeon, and then we became Adventurers afterward and delved it several times before the Break. We got lucky and got out of there ahead of time, but we decided to stay and fight. It was pretty crazy, and if we hadn''t had help, we wouldn''t have made it."
"Yeah, I heard about those crazy high-level Adventurers showing up to save the day," Tom said with a twinkle in his eye. "Is it true that one of them summoned angels to descend in a cloud of light to turn the very heavens against the undead horde?" Reivynughed out loud at the question.
"It wasn''t exactly like that, but I tell you, it wasn''t far off," Reivyn said. Tom gestured for Reivyn to go on with excitement clearly written on his face. "The Mage who destroyed the undead army pretty much did turn the heavens on them. I''ve since learned that the Spell she used was of the Tier 4 Celestial Affinity. She summoned a giant tornado made of light, and it merged with another one of her Spells that shot out beams of light to disintegrate the horde.
"It was the single most awe-inspiring thing I''ve ever witnessed."
"Yeah, sounds like it," Tom said. "Man, I wish I could have been there to see such a thing," he shook his head before giving Reivyn a rueful look. "Don''t get me wrong, you''re much braver than I am. I don''t think I would have stuck around without knowing someone so powerful would show up. But still, what a thing to see."
"Yeah, it definitely gave me motivation to get stronger."
"I''ll say. So you''ve run the Dungeon?" Reivyn nodded. "I''ve heard that a couple of the Magic Academy students were there, and they got a lot of school credit for being the first ones in the Academy to explore it."
"Oh, are you talking about Melissa and Larissa Bluefayre?" Reivyn asked. Some of the other students in line, ahead of Reivyn and Tom as well as some of the new ones that had trickled in during their conversation, listened in.
"You know who they are?" Tom asked, puzzled. "I know they''re pretty famous for their exploits in the Dungeon - as well as their looks and background - but I wouldn''t have thought a neer would have heard of them so quickly." It was Reivyn''s turn to give Tom a puzzled look.
"Really? They also stayed behind in Magron to fight against the Dungeon Break. Of course, I should know who they are." Tom and the other listeners were taken aback at that news.
"I didn''t know that," Tom said. "The only thing everyone knew was that they had been to the new Dungeon that had had the Break. It''s notmon knowledge that they also fought against it. My appreciation for them has gone up even more, now." Tom had a wistful look on his face.
"So they''re pretty famous, huh? Do you want to meet them?" Reivyn asked. Reivyn had gotten a pretty good impression of the other young man through their dialogue. He didn''t know if Tom had the Charisma Stat unlocked and had that working in his favor or not, but his manners and speech were friendly and inviting even if that was the case.
Tom rolled his eyes at the question. The other listeners chuckled at the absurd question and returned to paying attention to their own things, leaving Reivyn and Tom talking alone once more.
"Of course, I would want to meet them, who wouldn''t," he shook his head. "But they''re from a pretty prominent family, and the circles they run in are kind of exclusive. How could we possibly meet them?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I and they were in the same Party for the Dungeon runs, and we fought together in Magron," Reivyn revealed.
"Get out of here," Tom said with a friendly shove against Reivyn''s shoulder. "You jest." Reivyn just stared at him for a moment as Tom chuckled. Eventually, Tom noticed the look Reivyn was giving him, and his smile wiped off his face. "You''re serious?" Reivyn nodded.
"Yup."
"Wow, and here I thought I was the one who was going to try and rope you into my little group after hearing about your background," Tom said, shaking his head. "I just got my Luck Stat up to 8. I didn''t realize it would have such an effect as to put me in line right in front of someone like you," Tomughed.
Maybe he does have the Charisma Stat unlocked. I know Melissa and Larissa do, but I''m not sure if they have the Luck Stat unlocked. He probably mentioned it in order to impress me further. He doesn''t seem like he was gloating.
"Hey, I have no problem making new friends," Reivyn said. "I got some other friends at the Knight Academy, as well - my other Party Members who aren''t Casters - and we can all get together sometime after the initial phase of the new semester."
"Umm, let me think about it," Tom tapped his chin for a moment. "I''ve thought about it. Yeah, that would be great. Say, do you have a roommate already chosen?"
"Roommate?" Reivyn asked.
"Yeah, first semester students have to live in a shared living quarters. We''ll each have a space with four rooms attached to a general living room. My friends and I only have three spots taken up, and we were originally going to just let fate decide who our newest roommate was, but they let people choose if they have friends they want to stay with."
Just like the little houses to rent in the Dungeon Town. Is it a coincidence, or is it standard practice, I wonder?
"Hmmm, that sounds fine to me," Reivyn said. "Better to go along with someone I get along with than chance getting stuck with three strangers I might not." Reivyn nodded his head. "If there''s three of you, where are the other 2?"
"Oh, they already went ahead," Tom said. "They''re probably in the Affinities Test right now."
"Affinities Test?"
"Yeah, you don''t know about the tests?" Tom asked. "They didn''t tell you when you got your admissions token?" Reivyn shrugged.
"I didn''t ask," Reivyn admitted. "I knew there was some form of test, but it''s for the first semester students. How hard could it be?"
"Yeah, there''s some truth to that," Tom said. "And since you already have the admissions token, you don''t even have to worry about failing. But it''s not as easy as you think," Tom said with a serious expression. "You have to have three of the four basic affinities at Level 11 to pass, and you need at least one Tier 2 Affinity at around Level 15 if you hope to get into the Elite ss."
Reivyn eyed his Affinities Tab surreptitiously at the information. My Tier 1 Affinities are four times higher than the minimum to pass, and my Tier 2 Affinities are mostly ten points higher than required to get into the Elite ss... I wonder what Tom would think if he knew?
"Well, I''m pretty confident I can get into the Elite ss, then," Reivyn said. Tom gave him a look of appreciation. "What about you?"
"Yeah, I have my Metal Affinity at 16, so I''m also confident I can get into the Elite ss. My other two friends as well," Tom pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "This works out great, then. We''ll all be roommates and be in the same ss."
"So how does the Affinity Test work?" Reivyn asked.
"Since you say you''re confident in making it to the Elite ss, I''ll let you experience it for yourself," Tom winked. "There''s an inspection orb at the front desk that verifies you have a Caster ss, and then you go off to one of the side buildings for the Affinities Test."
Reivyn looked up and noticed that there were only a few people left before it was their turn. He saw that there was a crystal ball on each desk that the new students ced their hands on when they arrived. The people manning the desk would get some sort of information from it and write it down on a form before handing it to another, older student who escorted them away.
"It doesn''t look like anyone doesn''t have a Caster ss," Reivyn said.
"Yeah, it''smon knowledge one has to be a Caster in order to attend the Magic Academy," Tom chuckled. "It''s more a formality and way to get the proper information for one''s record. Oh, looks like it''s my turn. I''ll meet up with you on the other side of the Affinities Test."
"Sure," Reivyn said. He watched Tom get his information taken down before being escorted away.
Interesting, Reivyn thought as he stepped forward. What are the chances that I happened to get in line behind someone so open and friendly with two friends and one avable spot left in their room arrangements? Reivyn nced at his 66 Luck Stat. It seems it was more my Luck Stat in y than his.
Chapter 68: New Beginning
Chapter 68: New Beginning
Reivyn stepped forward to the table. There were sheaves of forms stacked neatly in several different piles, waiting to be used, and the mostly clear crystal ball that was the inspection magic tool sitting in the center. There was a young man seated behind the table. He was too old to be a student, so Reivyn assumed he was an administrative worker.
He might be a teacher, or teacher''s assistant of some type, but he seems a bit young for that. Also, it wouldn''t make as much sense for one of the esteemed teachers to be given such a duty.
"Name?" The man asked, holding out his hand. Reivyn had seen others hand the admissions token over for the man to inspect, so he did the same.
"Reivyn," he answered as the man verified the authenticity of the token, setting it aside once it was confirmed. The admissions tokens weren''t the actual student identification. It was just a means to indicate they were already epted. Now that it had served its purpose, the school would reim it.
"ce your hand on the ball," the man said. His tone was almost bored.
I can''t imagine why. Saying the same thing over and over again for hours, Reivyn internally chuckled.
He ced his hand on the ball, and the young man stared off into space for a moment, looking at the information the ball was feeding him.
One moment became several long seconds, much longer than he had taken for any of the other students before Reivyn. Reivyn frowned slightly, and he leaned forward and waved to the man to get his attention.
"Excuse me," Reivyn said. The man startled out of his stunned state and looked at Reivyn with wide eyes. "Is there a problem?"
"Umm, no," the man stammered. "No problem. Give me one second while I write the relevant information down on your student record."
The man hastily wielded his pen and scribbled some information down. Reivyn wasn''t used to reading things upside down, but he could make out that his student record included his name, Level, ss, and his Stats. The form didn''t have a spot for Skills, but there was one for Affinities below the information gleaned from the orb.
The man called one of the older students that were assisting over and handed the page to her. He had ced it in a man envelope to protect Reivyn''s privacy from the other students who weren''t staff.
"Please follow me," the youngdy said. There were about six different older students leading the new admissions from the first table to the Affinities Test, just enough to constantly have one avable when needed. The building where the Affinities test was being held wasn''t too far away, and Reivyn didn''t see any kind of line or anything he would have to wait in when they approached the building.
"Just inside here," the girl held her hand out, palm up, to the door. Reivyn walked through, the girl following behind him. There was a small reception area in the front of this building. An obvious staff member, he was the oldest person Reivyn had seen so far at close to middle age, was standing in the center of the room.
The girl handed the man envelope to the older man. The man took a nce at the sheet, and his head snapped up in astonishment as he looked at Reivyn. After a moment of surprise, the man put the sheet back in the envelope and handed it back to the girl.
"Room three," he instructed. The girl received the envelope hesitantly, clearly curious as to why two staff members had had such a reaction. Even though she was curious, she knew it was inappropriate to spy on another student''s record, so she simply nodded her head as she indicated for Reivyn to follow her down the hall again.
"Inside the room, there will be another crystal ball," she said as they arrived at a room with a clear number three next to the door. "Your task is to simply infuse the ball with each of your Affinities, and the information will be recorded for another staff member on the other side. Once you''re done, you will go through the door on the other side and someone else will take you to the dorm supervisor to get your room key."
"That''s it?" Reivyn asked, surprised. Tom made it seem like it was going to be something more mysterious than another simple inspection tool. He''s probablyughing to himself right now.
"That''s it," the girl smiled. She opened the door and led Reivyn into the room. "The inspection tool out front is designed to get the bare information about your ss and Stats, and it''s at the Expert Level. The Affinities Orb is solely used to gauge Affinities, and it''s at the Grandmaster Level. You can''t fake this one."
Makes sense. Mom did mention that there are people who want to keep certain things private, but the basis of the school is built around Affinities - probably because that''s one of the main factors for Caster ss avability and an indication of one''s mastery of a Spell type - so it would make sense to be strict on those.
The room was obviously used for something else other than an Affinities Test at other times, as it was muchrger than was necessary for the function. Probably a ssroom or something. The girl walked to the other side and exited the door on the far side. Must be handing off my record to the staff member. That exins why we didn''t run into the other students leading the admissions around. They go through and around.
Once the door was closed, Reivyn walked up to the ball and ced his hand on the crystal ball. He didn''t hesitate and he infused his Affinities into the ball. Once he injected his first Affinity, he noticed that he wasn''t able to control the intensity of it. The Affinities Orb seemed to wrestle control from him, and he automatically infused it to the maximum of his ability.
He wasn''t too surprised by this, as they had made it pretty clear that they wanted urate information on everyone''s Affinities. What''s the point of isting the information to get the true numbers if you''re going to allow someone to flub the test and deliberately hold back?
It took several minutes for Reivyn to cycle through all of his Affinities. He contemted whether or not to infuse his Tier 4 Eternal Affinity or not, but he ultimately decided to do so. I want to get the maximum benefits out of the Academy, and mom and dad have both repeatedly stressed not to worry about showing off. He still kept his Veridical and Abyss Affinities to himself, though.
Reivyn had arge mana pool. The Affinities Orb only drained 1 Mana Point per Affinity Level multiplied by the Tier, so he ended up spending 853 Mana. Whew, I feel a bit drained after that. I spent close to 40% of my mana on the Affinities Test. Reivyn shook his head and mustered up his energy as he walked to the exit. I wonder what would happen if someone didn''t have enough Mana to cycle through all of their Affinities?
He walked through the door and ended up in another, smaller room, but this time there was something different.
The student tasked with assisting in guiding the admissions around was standing off to the side, and there were several much older men and women looking at some sort of disy. They were dressed in robes like everyone else, but they had a sense of dignity about the way they carried themselves.
These aren''t just your average staff members, Reivyn thought.
They were in quiet conversation as they pointed out different things, and even with his Eavesdropping Skill, Reivyn wasn''t able to make out any of the words they were saying.
They must be masking their voices somehow to keep their conversation private. They''re obviously talking about my Status and Affinities, so I''m gratified to see that they''re taking proper precautions against others snooping, Reivyn thought. He wasn''t too concerned about others knowing about his information - that was the entire reason he didn''t alter anything other than his Skills - but it was nice to see others taking it seriously. It instilled confidence in the staff.
As Reivyn stepped through the door, one of the older Mages looked up at Reivyn and broke off from the others still in conversation. He snagged the man envelope, already containing the recorded information, from the regr staff member and walked up to Reivyn with a smile.
"Reivyn, I presume?" the man asked in a friendly manner.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn nodded his head.
"I''m Headmaster Wilsin," the Headmaster said, holding his hand out and guiding Reivyn by the shoulder as he led him to the exit. He turned his head to the side to address the student, "Just stay here, Derrik, you won''t be needed to guide this new student."
Derrik nodded his head, his eyes as wide as they could possibly go as he took in the scene before him. Apparently, nobody else has brought the bigwigs down to look at a new student''s Status and Affinities before, Reivyn thought wryly.
Reivyn felt a bubble of mana epass the two of them as the Headmaster led him out of the other side of the room once again. They entered a hallway that led to the outside on either end, and the older man steered him in the direction that would lead to the exit closest to the administrative building.
"I must say, young man, that your Status and Affinities have caused quite an uproar," Wilsin chuckled. "There''s obviously a story behind this. I will say, though, that you basically meet the minimum requirements, in Affinities, for basic graduation upon admission."
Reivyn wasn''t actually that surprised at the statement. I figured it would be something like that after Tom revealed the conditions for eptance into the Academy.
"That being said, this isn''t the first time someone has entered the Academy meeting those requirements," the Headmaster continued as they stepped back out into the sunlight. The bubble of mana that Reivyn sensed protected their speech from extending to others. Based on the other people walking about not sparing us a second nce, I assume it also has some sort of function to either conceal who we are or make others subconsciously ignore us, too.
"There''s more to graduating than just the Affinities. You''ll have to disy your mastery of Mana Skills and weaves, and there will be a general knowledge test to ensure you actually absorb the education." The Headmaster led them toward the end of the administrative building where Reivyn could see a line of students waiting to get their room assignments from an office just inside the end of the building. He spotted Tom waiting with two other boys off to the side.
Headmaster Wilsin stopped short of the crowd and turned to face Reivyn.
"Your Status startled a few of us older dogs out of hibernation," the man chuckled. "I decided to bring you along in ce of the student to assure you that there are still many things the Academy can teach you. Magic, and life, for that matter, aren''t just numbers on a Status screen. Having a high starting point tells me that you''re a hard worker, especially considering your age, and I want you to know that our staff will work just as hard.
"You''ll have to tell me the story behind your phenomenal Stats and Affinities one day," the man held his hands up to cate Reivyn before he could make any kind of prevarication or objection. "I''m not going to ask you to reveal any secrets, mind you. But someone your age doesn''t get Stats and Affinities like that from something so simple as a Bloodline. Especially not one who shows up with a rmendation letter from the Knight-Captain.
"And your ss, Light Magus, has a story behind it as well. I''ve heard stories and legends of people with the Magus designation to their ss, but you''re the first I''ve met. You''ve made the right decision to attend the Magic Academy. We can provide you with the necessary instruction and opportunities to ensure a bright future for you, whether it''s to ept an Appointment or to further your study by moving up to a higher Region.
"Keep working hard, and enjoy your time here," the man shook Reivyn''s hand. "Wee to the Magic Academy."
The bubble formed around the two didn''t dissipate, but it contracted until it only covered the Headmaster. Reivyn immediately lost interest in the vague man who strode away.
Reivyn startled back abruptly. Huh, that''s pretty powerful. If I wasn''t just walking with the man and knew what was going on, I would have never noticed him at all. Reivyn shook his head and chuckled to himself. Despite saying he was interested in hearing my story someday, I never even got a word in edgewise. Let''s just hope he doesn''t give a speech to all the new studentster.
It seemed a little unnecessary for the Headmaster himself to guide me here, but I guess he just really wanted to stress the points he was making.
As soon as Reivyn was out of the protection from the bubble, several other students made note of his presence, including Tom and his friends. Tom perked up and waved Reivyn over to join them as they got in line. Makes more sense for me to go to them than for them toe to me, Reivyn thought as he walked over.
Tom smiled brightly at Reivyn as he joined them.
"Guys, this is that Reivyn fellow I''ve been telling you about," the two others nodded their heads. "Reivyn, this is Patrick - we call him Trick - and this is Vane." The two boys nodded their heads and shook Reivyn''s hand in turn.
Reivyn took in the appearance of the three boys. Their robes were of high quality, and they obviously weren''t from poor families. The others weren''t nearly as fit as Reivyn was after his years of physical exercise, but he could tell that they hadn''t skimped on their Stats training when they were pre-ss.
So first impressions are they have the means and the will. As long as Trick and Vane are as friendly and easygoing as Tom is, then this could work out great.
"Nice to meet you," Reivyn said as they made their greetings.
"Likewise," Vane said.
"So," Trick said, a twinkle in his eye, "I hear you can introduce us to Melissa and Larissa Bluefayre?" He wiggled his eyebrows. Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at the other teenager.
"May~be..." Reivyn said as he looked at his new acquaintance. "I''m not a matchmaker, though, so if all you want to do is drool over them, we''ll consider it as finished."
"Woah, calm down, bud," Trick said, throwing his arm around Reivyn''s shoulder. "I''m just ying. There''s no way I would act inappropriately toward either of them. Melissa would be sure to burn my face off, or Larissa would freeze me in ce." Reivyn nced at Tom from the side of his eyes.
"I thought you said they were famous?" Reivyn teased. "Your boy here has them backward. Melissa is the Ice Mage and Larissa is Fire - well, more like a raging inferno, but you get the point." Trick pulled his arm off of Reivyn''s shoulders and the three boys shared a quick look between themselves.
"Right, right," Trick said with a smile. "How could I get them mixed up like that?"
"I guess it doesn''t matter all that much, really," Tom said. "They''re both working together to advance to the Dual Fire-Ice Tier 3 ss that their family is known for."
"Oh, so they are famous," Reivyn said. "If you guys know that much, then they obviously have a reputation more than just from their exploits in the Dungeon."
"Well, that depends on who you ask," Vane spoke up. "They''ve always been pretty well known for how pretty they are, but their adventure to the new Dungeon is what really made a name for themselves. People are attracted to attractive things, obviously, but they''re impressed bypetence more."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Reivyn said. "What do you guys know about their friend group: Alisia, Erin, and Haylen?" The three boys shared another look between themselves, and Reivyn could sense that they rxed in some sort of way. I wonder what that''s all about?
"Alisia is even more famous than Melissa and Larissa," Tom said. "I mean, she''s the daughter of a Duke, how could she not be? Erin and Haylen are less so. They''re from prominent families, so other kids from affluent houses know who they are. Their families aren''t quite as influential as the Bluefayres, though, and they''re not quite as good-looking."
Reivyn was slightly surprised at the mention of Alisia being the daughter of a Duke. Melissa just mentioned that she was from a noble family. Being the daughter of a Duke is a pretty big deal.
"Yeah, they''re not on the List, though they''re probably pretty close, honestly," Trick said. "I would say that they haven''t been able to get their Charisma as high as the other three girls, and their natural beauty is a step down as well. That''s not to say they''re not pretty, but you know how things are."
"I guess?" Reivyn said. "But what''s this List that you mentioned?"
"Oh, the List of Angels," Trick said enthusiastically. "Alisia is higher than Melissa and Larissa at the third spot - probably because of her status more so than her looks. Melissa is sixth, and Larissa is ninth. The List of Angels is the top 10 beauties who attend the school, and it gets updated each semester. The Knight Academy has a simr List, and there''s also an equivalent one for the males."
"Yeah, but the girls don''t share it as readily as the boys talk about the List of Angels," Vane said. "We have to kind of guess who the guys are on that List from who the girls pay attention to and whisper about. They like to keep their secrets, and it bes a sort of a game for the boys to ferret out who the girls consider being on the List each semester."
"You guys sure take these Lists seriously," Reivynughed. "You''re pretty well informed for new students." Reivyn pointed out, more a question than a statement.
"Of course," Tom said. "We have friends who are already students here. You''ll see, in time. There are only so many circles, and they extend throughout The Capital. The people from out of town, depending on which cities theye from, are either already marginally part of one circle or another, or they''ll soon be roped into one. Those that aren''t, are also defacto part of a circle: the outsiders."
"So is politics involved in everything around here?" Reivyn asked with a frown. The three other boys looked at each other and burst outughing.
"Of course," Trick said. "Families have interests, after all. The rtionships of the older generation are going to affect the younger, and sometimes vice versa. It''s fairly muted in the Academy, but there are still obvious cliques and factions. You can''t escape politics when most of the popce is involved in it in their everyday lives."
"Don''t let it scare you, though," Vane said. "Even though there are conflicts of interest and fights for benefits, the families are harmonious for the most part. I''ve heard that fights for benefits in Eldiar and other, higher Tier kingdoms, can be deadly. We don''t have to worry about that here. Nobody has died over these conflicts for centuries."
"The Royal family is pretty popr, actually," Trick said. "Some kingdoms you get different overall factions like the Royals versus the Nobles versus the Commoners, or some such arrangement. But here, the Royal family is popr among the nobles andmoners alike, and after years of steady, even-handed rule, the nobles have adopted a pretty good form of governance where the nobles actually take their responsibilities to their subjects seriously."
"Yeah, I''ve seen it first hand," Reivyn said. "Count Ilpir fought on the walls next to all his men during the Dungeon Break, and he bent over backward to see that all of the families of those that died were taken care of."
"Exactly," Vane said. "You''ll have to tell us about your adventures in the Dungeon and the fight in Magron,ter. Tom already told us what you said about the Adventurer calling forth a tornado. It''s a shame the rumor of descending angels wasn''t true, but it still sounds amazing."
"Yeah," Trick said. "We''re pretty lucky to be in the kingdom we are." He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "I''ve heard that the main antagonistic faction to the Tier 3 Kingdom, Pernius, that Eldiar is sworn to, is a kingdom that brands their subjects with the Tier they''re from. If anyone from a lower Tier goes to a higher Tier, they''re treated like second-ss citizens, and they can never advance above the mark on their forehead their entire lives."
"I''ve heard that, too," Tom said. "But why are you whispering?" He frowned at his friend. Trick shrugged.
"Eh, makes it sound more interesting that way. Like it''s a secret," Tom rolled his eyes at his friend.
"Yeah, that sounds pretty terrible," Reivyn said.
I''m d my parents didn''t end up in a ce like that while chasing the mastermind behind the Dungeon Break in our empire. I''m sure it would have gone over real well when some official in a Tier 1 kingdom tried to force a brand on my parents, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
The four boys finally arrived at the office where the room assignments were handled. The room had a window next to the door, and there was another older student taking down the information and handing out keys.
"Next," the young man called out. Tom stepped forward, the other three just behind him together in a group.
"Tom, Vane, Patrick, and Reivyn, requesting to share a living space," Tom said. The student behind the window flipped through some records and cross-referenced the names with the information he had.
"All four of you are part of the Elite ss, so there''s no conflict on the level of amodation," the student nodded. Reivyn was slightly surprised. They already have that information here? The student records were written down on paper. Maybe the inspection orbs had a simr function to what the Adventurer Guild uses, and they made magical records at the same time. That makes sense, actually.
"Ok, you''ll be in suite 17 of the Novice Hall," the man handed out four keys and student tokens, which Tom took and distributed to the group. "Don''t lose your key or token. If you misce either of them, you''ll have to pay a fee to get a new copy." The four boys nodded their heads in unison. The student behind the window craned his neck to look around them and yelled, "Next."
The four boys quickly walked out of the administrative building and headed in the direction they saw other students walking. Both the males and females walked in the same direction, but Reivyn saw that the girls separated from the boys up ahead. The two sexes were clearly housed in different locations.
"That''s it?" Reivyn asked as they walked. "We don''t need to get bedding or anything else?"
"Nope," Tom replied. "The rooms are fully furnished. As new students, we have to take care of our own washing and everything, but the older students in the more advanced Elite sses get maids to do that for them. We haven''t earned that level of service, yet."
"And the Novice Hall?" Reivyn questioned.
"All new students, regardless of ability, or whether or not they''re in the Elite ss, are called Novices," Vane exined. "The girls'' dormitory is also called the Novice Hall, but everyone knows which one is being talked about when referring to one based on the person involved, so there''s hardly any confusion. The second years are called Apprentices, and the third years are called Journeymen."
"What about Masters?" Reivyn asked.
"The teachers are the Masters," Trick answered. "There are only three years of students at the Academy, and it would be hardly appropriate to refer to a student as a Master. Graduates are just referred to as Graduates, and staff members are referred to by their job title."
"Does one have to spend the entire three years in order to graduate, or can one do so early?" Reivyn continued his line of questioning.
"Depends on what you want to do," Tom said. "There are a few options: one can be selected to advance to the Tier 2 Academy, and they would technically be considered a graduate, one can ept some form of appointment early, and they would also technically be considered a graduate or one can spend the full three years here and take the graduation test."
Hmm... that doesn''t really answer my question on how to force a Tier 3 ss transition. I guess I''ll have to wait and ask one of the teachers.
"Alright, let''s go look at our room and decide who gets which spot," Trick said.
"They''re all going to be the same," Vane pointed out.
"Yeah, but some rooms have a better atmosphere," Trick retorted. Vane rolled his eyes.
"Eh, I''m fine with whatever," Reivyn said.
The four boys entered the Novice Hall. Reivyn looked around, but the halls were pretty bare outside of the living spaces.
This is my new home for the next month, at least, Reivyn thought. So far, this new group of friends seems to have been the right choice. Reivyn was optimistic about this new phase of his life.
Chapter 69: Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Chapter 69: Keep Your Hands to Yourself
"Man, there''s nothing so crazy like any of that happening here in The Capital," Tom shook his head. "The asional news of someone outmaneuvering someone else for benefits is about as exciting as it gets around here. We have toe up with Lists and spections in order to keep ourselves entertained."
Reivyn had just finished telling the stories of his experiences in Magron and the Dungeon Town. He quirked an eyebrow at the statement from Tom.
"You guys live in The Capital, and you''re bored?" Reivyn asked.
"Oh, don''t get me wrong," Tom exined. "There''s plenty to do, and we have fun, but it''s not exciting like having to fight for your life or exploring new Dungeons. After a while, it gets a bit monotonous. Don''t tell me that you have as much fun preparing for a Dungeon delve as you do the Dungeon delve itself."
"I don''t know," Reivyn shrugged, "I liked training. And how doesing up with Lists about girls equal the excitement of fighting for your life in a Dungeon?"
"Ahh, you''re still young," Vane leaned over and pped Reivyn on the shoulder, amiserating look on his face.
"Do you like training, or do you like the feeling of getting stronger?" Trick asked, pointing his fork at Reivyn.
The four boys had chosen their living arrangements and then set out to explore the campus a little bit. The three natives of The Capital already knew a bit about the geography of the Magic Academy, and they took the opportunity actually to see what their older friends had described.
They also managed to locate where their ssrooms would be and the auditorium for the first assembly the next day. In the words of the other three teenagers, it was better to find your ssrooms before the first day of ss, because "bad things" would happen if you werete.
They ended their little excursion at the cafeteria, and they asked Reivyn to tell them of his adventures while they ate.
"Hmm, that''s a good point, actually," Reivyn said with a thoughtful look on his face. "I''ve never really thought about it. If I had to say, I would say the Dungeon delve is definitely more fun, but I still like training. It might just be habit at this point, as I''ve been doing it for a long time."
"Well, at least we know which one of us is going to make sure we all graduate with a good Ranking," Trick said with augh.
"Speaking of, how are ss Rankings determined? It can''t just be based on one''s Skill and Affinity Levels," Reivyn asked.
"Oh, there are several factors that determine one''s Ranking," Tom said. "Your Skill and Affinity Levels definitely y a role, but it''s not the be-all end-all. In fact, it''s only a small portion. 20% of your Ranking is based on your overall numbers, and 20% is based on how much your numbers improve from the time of admission to the time of graduation - also, at intervals like during the semester - 20% is based on your written test scores, 20% is based on your Life Experience while enrolled, and 20% is based on the practical tests."
"What are the practical tests? Just application of your Spells?" Reivyn asked.
"Kind of," Vane said. "The Magic Academy - and the Knight Academy, for that matter, they share it - has a unique magic item that creates a small world, almost like a mini Dungeon. They can create illusions ording to the desire of the one controlling the magic item, and students have to solve different types of situations with the relevant Skills."
"Yeah, I hear you get points for ingenuity as well as mastery of your Spells and Skills," Trick said. "It''s easy to brute force a set difficulty if you have really high numbers, but that doesn''t really show the teachers how well you understand your own abilities. It just shows them that you''re strong."
"Remember, it''s a good rule of thumb to never just bash through something head-on, but to consider the point of the exercise and the goals stipted. You can get a good score by just destroying everything in your way, but you can''t get the maximum score that way."
"Hmm, that actually sounds like a pretty good method," Reivyn said, rubbing his chin. "Does that mean that students with more variability to their Affinities are inherently at an advantage in those tests?"
"Not necessarily," Trick said. "If it''s open-ended with multiple goals - which is usually reserved for the third-year students - it would be; however, most of the scenarios they''ll put us in are based on one or two Affinities."
"So do they tailor the tests to the individuals?"
"No, they run multiple exercises over a period of time," Vane answered. "You only have toplete a set number of them, and you can choose which Affinities you want to participate in. There will be some variation within each Affinity so that people don''t cheat, but it''ll be a simr theme."
"Onest main point," Tom spoke up. "The Tier of the Affinity you choose needs to correspond to your year, or you''ll be required to run multiple tests to make up for it. Only about 10% of third years actually participate in the Tier 3 Affinity tests each year, and not all of them pass. You can do three tests of a lower Affinity, but only of one each, to make up for a higher Tier. Most students in their third year end up running two Tier 2 tests and three Tier 1 tests."
"Can an underssman challenge the higher Tier tests?" Reivyn''s interest was piqued. My Light and Darkness Affinities are almost as high as my Tier 1 Affinities. That will definitely give me a huge advantage.
"Sure," Trick said. "You also get bonus points for doing so. A lot of first-years actually challenge the Tier 2 Affinities right away."
"There''s no downside to taking more tests," Vane added. "If you fail a test, it doesn''t get held against you, and only your highest scores to meet the requirements are counted. But, as Tom said, you can only take one test per Affinity. Not many people fail the tests - other than the third years attempting the Tier 3 Affinities - but it does happen asionally."
"Ok, and what about the fact that casting spells costs so much mana for non-System, ss Spells?" Reivyn asked. "It seems like that''s the biggest drawback, here. Everyone has their own ss and elemental specialty, except for the Umon-grade Mage ss."
"That''s what makes the magic item ''unique,''" Tom said. "It''s not an actual mini Dungeon or anything like that. The illusions aren''t just the environment or creature inside the small world, it also simtes the Spells you cast."
"You don''t use your ss Spells while in there," Trick said. "In fact, your System-guided Spells won''t have any effect on the small world. We don''t know how or why it works like that, but that''s the way it is. You''re not really casting Spells, so the intense mana cost is moot. You''re not spending any extra mana other than what''s required to form the pure mana shell. The magic item supplies the power for everything else."
"It has something to do with the intentions of those who create the scenarios, I believe," Tom said. "The Knight Academy uses the same magic item, and for them, it affects their ss Skills that use Stamina. They have to show an understanding of the form of their Skills, and the magic item that powers them. We have to show an understanding of the weaves in the same way."
"One of our friends said it felt pretty incredible to be able to use all of the affinities avable to them that they had trained the weaves in," Vane said. "It''s almost like it''s a preview of theter sses that have much more versatility in their Spell selections. He said that you just form the shell with your own pure mana, and then you''ll get the feeling of a separate source that you can use to make the weaves and power the Spell."
Hmm... that wouldn''t really be a problem for me for the more basic Spells, as my ss grants me ess to several versions. But if the scenarios aren''t always aboutbat, but other situations requiring critical thinking and imagination, then I can see how even I would benefit from such a setup.
"That''s good to know," Reivyn said. "Thanks for the information."
"No problem," Tom said. "It''smon knowledge, and the teachers would have exined it at the right time, anyway." Tom stood up once Trick, thest one still eating, finally finished. "Let''s get out of here. It''s gettingte and we''ve already found the auditorium for tomorrow. Don''t want to be up toote and sleep in."
"I heard that a student who waste to the very first assemblyst year had to go to the Knight Academy and participate in physical training for a month, because," Trick held up his hands for quotes, "''apparently, magic wasn''t important enough to the student, so he should broaden his horizons to see if he really even wanted to be a Caster ss.'' And that was on top of his responsibilities here at the Magic Academy."
"That doesn''t sound so bad," Reivyn said. "I thought you said ''bad things?''"
"Not so bad for you," Vane said. "You just finished telling us about your exploits with a Martial ss and how much you like training. It''s a punishment, not something you''re supposed to enjoy, so they would probably make you do somethingpletely different."
"You''d be forbidden from training at all," Tom teased.
"That, and maybe have to do some mundane chore that doesn''t improve any of your Skills. Like watching paint dry or something," Trick said. He eyed Reivyn sideways as they walked. "Without using Mana Sight, or some other kind of Skill. Remember: no training."
"That does sound awful," Reivyn said with a chuckle. "I can handle having to do boring tasks, but wasting time is against my nature."
"Oh yeah, what Skill are you training right now?" Tom asked.
"I''m building rapport with my ssmates," Reivyn said, hand on his chest. "Life isn''t all Skills and numbers, I''ve recently been told. Building rtionships and connections is a worthwhile use of my time."
"I''m d we can fit in your schedule," Trick said wryly. "Thank you for granting us your valuable time." Reivyn yfully shoved Trick as the four boysughed.
"There will be no fraternization between the sexes on campus," the teacher on the stage announced, for about the fifth time in the half-hour-long assembly. "No males in the female dorms, and no females in the male dorms. Period."
"How many times is he going to reiterate the point?" Trick whispered. "I thought this was supposed to be an important lecture on what they expect of us during our time in the Academy."
"It is," Vane replied, quietly. "They expect us to make magic, not babies." He snickered at his own joke.
Reivyn nodded his head. "I have to agree. They''re beating a dead horse at this point."
"We get it," Tom said. "Make babies off campus." The four boys had to cover their mouths to stop themselves fromughing out loud.
"Shh, shh," Reivyn said, chuckling. "Do you want to go do physical exercise at the Knight Academy?" The other three teenagers sat up straight and focused their attention on the teacher, the very image of attentive students. Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"Alright, on to the main point," The teacher said.
"That wasn''t the main point?" Trick asked in a whisper again, an eyebrow raised. "Could have fooled me."
"You are all Novices of the Magic Academy, and as such, you will all be required to take the same sses: Basic Mana Theory, Basic Element Weaving, History of Magic, Introduction to Philosophy, Political Science, and one elective."
"Philosophy and political science?" Reivyn asked, confused.
"Yeah, the graduates get sent out into the real world once they graduate, and many of them get employed by the kingdom in some way or another," Tom answered. "It''s in part to make sure their students know what they''re getting into and understand the why''s of it, but it''s also in part for the Academy''s reputation. It wouldn''t look good if all of the graduates were bumbling idiots who didn''t have any tact."
"That makes sense," Reivyn nodded.
"The introductory courses only talk about things relevant to our Kingdom, and a little bit from Eldiar, the immediate Tier 2 superior Region," Vane said. "The more advanced courses go into the political situations of the entire Tier 3 Kingdom we technically fall under, and the philosophy instruction is much more in-depth with a heavy focus on mana and magic."
"There are just over 2,000 new Novice students of the Academy, broken up into 20 sses," The teacher continued. Reivyn looked around therge auditorium at all of the students in attendance. The location for the first assembly for the Novices was located in some sort of amphitheater, and it could easily hold several thousand people.
I hadn''t really paid attention to the overall numbers, and all of the empty seats that stand out kind of make one ignore just how many people there actually are, Reivyn thought. Now that I''m looking closer, it does appear that there are about that many new students. I didn''t realize there would be so many students per semester. Just how big is the Kingdom, considering those that can use mana Skills are only about 10% or so of people, from what I''ve seen?
"The sses aren''t a simple 100 students in each ss," the teacher wasn''t finished. "There are progressively more students in the lower numbered sses. Higher numbered sses have more opportunities to interact with the teachers on an individual basis, so raising your rank if you''re in the lower sses is a paramount goal. Your initial ranking is based on your Affinities Levels upon admissions.
"Now that you''re enrolled, the full ranking scale will take into effect. Don''t despair that your Affinity Levels are low upon entry. Those that improve quickly will be able to rece those that entered the Academy with higher Skill Levels but cked off in their training. Likewise, if you don''t take the non-magical sses seriously and do poorly on the written tests, your ranking could be adversely affected.
"There''s also the issue of resources. No quotas of resources are given to students in any of the sses, but if you work hard on attaining School Credits, you can make up for some of your shorings. Experience Crystals are the most well-known resource avable to exchange, but there are other treasures as well. For example, there are natural treasures imported from Eldiar that can help you increase your Affinity Levels directly, or there are even ones that provide insights on mana weaves."
Looks like one of my ss Skills has an effect on one of these natural treasures. At its current Level, though, it''s probably far inferior. The good thing about ss Skills is that they can be raised.
"Basically, don''t getcent if you''re in a higher ss, and don''t give up if you''re in a lower one. Everything is based on your personal merit and hard work. Talent only really factors into your starting position, much like life in general. The sses are re-calcted at the end of every month, and the changes are implemented on the first.
"Everyone should know what ss they already belong to based on your student tokens. When I dismiss you in a moment, you will each find your designated guide, one of the older students, and they''ll give you the itinerary for your ss schedules."
The teacher paused for a moment to look over all of the students in attendance. After a few seconds, the teacher nodded his head.
"I''m pleased to see that most of you are being attentive. You''re the future of our Kingdom. These formative years in your Tier 2 ss are important for the rest of your lives, so all of you should work hard to make the best use of your time. It''s even more important than the preparations you made Pre-ss and while in Tier 1.
"Growing and improving is a lifelong endeavor, and there''s no time like the present to set a good standard for yourselves.
"Good luck, and wee to the Magic Academy. Dismissed," the teacher concluded before striding off of the stage.
All of the students began talking with one another as they stood up and began exiting the auditorium.
"That''s it for today?" Reivyn asked as he followed his roommates to the stairs that would lead them down and to the exit.
"Yup," Tom said. "Admissions are purposely set at the end of the week before the start of the new month exactly for this reason. We get our schedules and have the opportunity to limate to the new environment. Not all of the students are familiar with the Academy, after all. On Monday, we''ll get down to business."
"Which means we have the whole weekend to do whatever we want," Trick said. "I know the teacher said no ''fraternization'' with the opposite sex, but that really only means pursuing a romantic rtionship. Even then, they only pay lip service to it and enforce it on Academy grounds. They can''t be expected to supervise all of the students all of the time when they''re not even here."
"There have been incidents in the past, though, and you''ll still run the risk of expulsion if something really does happen off-campus like Tom joked," Vane said. "Most of the students here are from affluent families, and they - us included," he pointed at himself and the other two teenagers that had formed the initial trio, "have to take into ount our elders'' ns and concerns."
"It''s no secret that students have ''disappeared'' from the Academy and social life after messing around with the wrong people," Tom said. "There was one such instance several years ago where two students whose families were at odds with each other ended up getting together on ident."
"How do you ''get together on ident?''" Reivyn asked, puzzled.
"Well, the getting together part wasn''t an ident," Trick snickered. "The ''ident'' was that they each didn''t know that the other person was from a rival family. They got all doe-eyed for each other and didn''t bother to investigate the others'' backgrounds too closely. It''s notmon, but it obviously does happen, or this wouldn''t be a story. Anyway, once their families found out that there was going to be a new, unnned addition to their dynasties, they were whisked away and nobody has seen them since."
"I have inside sources that say their families allowed them to remain together, but they had to renounce their heritage and move away," Vane said.
"Well, I guess if they really love each other..." Reivyn said.
"Yeah, it will probably work out for them in the long run, as long as they can stick to it," Tom said. "Though, it did cause quite some embarrassment for the families involved. They''ll also have a hard time with it in the beginning. They weren''t able to graduate from the Academy, and they were cut off from the financial support of their families. Their only avenue is for one of them to find employment or be an Adventurer while the other stays at home to raise the child. I don''t envy that lifestyle."
"It could work," Reivyn shrugged. Sounds a lot like my own parents. Though, their situation was a bit moreplicated than simply falling in love with the wrong person.
"Oh, I didn''t say it couldn''t work, just that I''m not interested in that myself," Tom replied.
"Then what are your goals?" Reivyn asked.
"The same as anyone else in the Elite ss," Tom said. "Get promoted to the Tier 2 Academy, or, failing that, get an appointment to a powerful noble. Either one of those will help my family out and widen my horizons for the future. Getting bumped up to Eldiar, though, is the obvious first choice."
"Everyone always talks about getting moved up to the Tier 2 Kingdom''s Academy, but how does that work, exactly?"
"Well, there''s a quota at the end of each year for each level of student," Vane answered. "There are more quotas for the younger students, actually, because it''s easier to disy raw talent and work ethic at an earlier age, but people still have two chances to move up if they don''t make it as a Novice."
"How many quotas are there?" Reivyn continued to ask.
"Ten," Trick said.
"Ten? For two thousand students?" Reivyn was surprised.
"Yup," Trick said. "You have to know, though, that there are ten Tier 1 kingdoms attached to Eldiar, and each one has an Academy of about the same size as ours. The second-year students have five quotas, and the third years have three. That means that each year, the ten Academies together send up with almost 200 students who go to the Academy in Eldiar, and they don''t have significantly more native students at their Academy than we do."
"Isn''t a Tier 2 Kingdom muchrger than a Tier 1 Kingdom?" Reivyn asked. I always assumed higher Tier Regions wererger, and thus, more popted.
"Not necessarily," Tom said. "Higher Tier Regions cane in any size, but they''re typically equivalent. Eldiar has the same approximate poption size as our Kingdom, and normal travel, beyondmerce, is regted. It''s possible to just move up to the higher Tier Region, but they only let so many do so per year."
"Why is it so restrictive?" Reivyn asked. "Wouldn''t they want to recruit talents and hard workers?"
"That''s exactly why these systems are put into ce," Tom said. "Think about it. Most people from a lower Tier Region are restricted in their opportunities for growth and good sses. Most people simply don''t have the talent or luck to get a powerful ss, be it Caster, Martial, or Lifestyle. If one doesn''t have the qualifications topete with people who''ve had an inherent advantage since birth, there''s a high likelihood of failure. Then you''ll just have more homeless people or more economic refugees fleeing back to the lower Tier Regions again."
"There are almost as many people moving from Eldiar to the Tier 1 Kingdoms as there are people trying to move up each year," Vane said. "It''s fairly bnced, all things considered."
"I understand," Reivyn said. It''s simr to when Teilon, Kimberly, and I left Will and Simmon behind. They didn''t have the qualifications to keep up with us, and if we had dragged them along anyway, they wouldn''t have seeded.
"Speaking of Eldiar, I hear there''s some prince or othere down to inspect the Magic Academy," Reivyn said. "Anyone knows anything about that?"
"I''ve heard of it, too," Tom said. "He''s likely a third year, though. I doubt we''ll even see him, or, if we do, it''ll be from a distance." Tom nced at Reivyn. "If there''s any Novice that''s likely to interact with him, it would be you, if he learns of your Experience in the Dungeon that he''s likely to go check out. But chances are, he''ll just pick Melissa and some other third years if he forms a Party. There''s not even a guarantee he will form a Party consisting of students from our Academy."
"Yeah, I wouldn''t worry too much about having anything to do with him," Trick said. "Though," he leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "he''s likely going to take one of the top spots on the girls'' List. That''s one spot we won''t have to guess about."
"There you go again, with your talk of the Lists," Vane said. He pushed Trick away from him. "Get back, bro. You don''t need to whisper in our ears so much." Trick just chuckled.
"Enough about that stuff," Tom said. "We''re supposed to live in the dorms for the first month, but that doesn''t mean we have to stay on campus for the whole month. Let''s go get our schedules, and then we can go meet up with our other friends and find something fun to do."
Chapter 70: Throw a Rope
Chapter 70: Throw a Rope
"Step forward and demonstrate the weaves that you''ve learned so far," the teacher, Master Feld, said. "You''re all in the Elite ss, so I imagine that all of you have been able to master the weaves to the basic Spells your ss provides at the very least. Most of you have most likely gained some proficiency in other elements as well. I need to have an understanding of your standards so as to appropriately guide the ss moving forward."
Master Feld was a middle-aged man dressed in a dark robe. He had long graying hair with a medium-length beard, and his appearance matched his serious demeanor well. He looks exactly like how I imagined a professional Magic Academy teacher would look, Reivyn thought.
The man had swept into the ss and immediately opened by testing the students on their mastery levels of the weaves.
It''s not a way to put the students down and show them how little they know, but it instead appears that this man has no tolerance for wasting time.
Basic Magic Weaving was the first ss that the Elite students attended once the first week of instruction began, and they would attend the ss three days a week. Reivyn had asked his roommates about the schedule as soon as they had received it.
"Every ss can''t attend the same lessons at the same time, obviously, as there are only so many teachers that specialize in teaching each ss," Tom answered. "Weaving is one of the fundamental ways that Casters are able to advance their personal magical capabilities, so the Elite ss will focus on this one more than the other sses as one of our benefits.
"The other sses are all important for various reasons, but we''ll be spending the majority of our active efforts on learning and mastering various weaves. So we''ll get the ss three times a week. Practice will be immediately followed by the lecture. Weaves will be followed by Mana Theory, and that will also be attended three times a week. The more non-magical sses: history, philosophy, and politics aren''t as important to us, so we''ll be attending those three sses on the off-days of the week."
"The top 10 sses have a simr schedule, with the Elite ss having ess to the better teachers and more instruction time allotted to us," Vane said. "The lower 10 sses have their schedules flipped, though they still only take the non-magical sses two times a week, and they have free practice on thest day of the week."
"The smart, ambitious students will take thatst day to actually practice," Trick added. "It''s basically a constion prize to the students to give those with determination to advance in their Ranking an opportunity. It''s not as good as getting on-hand instruction from the teachers, but it is an opportunity."
Reivyn lined up with the other students and watched the first in line perform their weaves as he pondered the schedule. Most of the students in front of Reivyn were only able to create one permutation of the weaves from their ss Spells, but a couple knew another element to add to their mastery.
Lorin told me he was 16 years old by the time he mastered all four basic elemental weaves, Reivyn thought, stroking his chin. Most of the other students are 13 with a few being close to 14 years old, and they''ve only been in their Tier 2 sses for a short time. If they followed the same path as I did, focusing on the Affinities and fundamental mana control Skills before experimenting with weaves, then their level of progress makes sense, even for Elite Students.
I have no idea how talented Lorin was when he was learning, but it took him three years to learn the four basic Elements. Melissa told me it took her and Larissa about a year to master - not learn - the weaves for their ss Spells, but they never said when they mastered those weaves. And Melissa''s ss is based on a Tier 2 Affinity.
The ssroom the Elite ss had their ss in was one of the smaller rooms for teaching, and there wasn''t really a space set aside for casting Spells inside. Reivyn had wondered about the situation, but he noted that the teacher had set up some sort of magical barrier and target for the students to use for their Bolt Spells - Everyone is using the basic Bolt Spell, Reivyn chuckled - and there was no harm to the ssroom or any of the people present.
The Elite ss was pretty small with only 30 students, and everyone was able to move through their weaves pretty quickly, so it was Reivyn''s turn before he even had a chance to banter with his roommates.
Reivyn stepped up to the small, raised tform in the front of the ss, the teacher standing just to the side maintaining the barrier. He faced the target and summoned the shell of the Bolt Spell like everyone else. This is only to show that we''ve learned a weave and gained some proficiency in its use. I didn''t see anyone else use more than two weaves, one each consisting of the Spell, so I''ll just do the same.
Reivyn infused the Fire Affinity into his mana and expertly wove the braids inside of the mana shell before releasing the Spell. The mana cost was still more than using his ss Skill to cast the Spell, but because of only using the bare minimum requirements, the power and cost were greatly reduced. Reivyn noted that he had plenty of mana to go through all of the weaves he had learned. After all, I haven''t learned any Tier 3 or 4 weaves, and not all of the Tier 2 Affinities.
The teacher nodded his head as Reivyn quickly cast the Fire Bolt Spell by hand and continued to watch with interest as Reivyn didn''t move aside. Reivyn gathered his mana again and quickly sent out the Air Bolt. He quickly followed it up by casting the Earth and Water Bolts as well.
All quiet chatter from the other students stopped as Reivyn managed to perform all four basic Elemental Bolt Spells. The teacher nodded his head in appreciation.
"Excellent!" He eximed. "A newly admitted Novice, and you''ve already learned the four basic Elemental weaves. Learn just a few..."
The man''s words cut off mid-sentence as Reivyn once more gathered his Mana and constructed the Ice Bolt. Reivyn wasn''t especially paying attention to his surroundings and was entirely focused on his task. Despite his one-track mind in performing the task, extensive experience and his Battlefield Awareness Skill enabled him to fully focus on his task and still understand what was going on around him.
Seems like I''m making a big ssh on the first day, Reivyn chuckled internally. He continued his disy of weaving as he sent out the Bolt Spells for the Tier 2 Affinities he had learned from his training with his mother after arriving at the Capital. I didn''t spend all of my time unlocking Affinities and working on the control Skills. I practiced a couple of the Tier 2 weaves, as well, whenever I had the chance.
"All four basic Elements, plus Ice, Metal, and sma from the Tier 2 Affinities," the teacher said, still looking at the smoking target. "What''s your name, Novice?" He focused his attention back on Reivyn.
"Reivyn, Sir," Reivyn answered.
"Good. Come see me after ss."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn nodded and returned to his seat. All of the other students watched him wordlessly as he made his way back. Only Tom had gone ahead of him, and his other two roommates had been standing behind him in line. Reivyn hadn''t revealed his abilities to his new friends yet, so they were just as stunned as everyone else.
Vane stood rooted to his spot standing just below the small tform, his mouth open as he stared at Reivyn. A cough from the teacher brought him, and everyone else, out of his stunned state and he mounted the tform to demonstrate his weaves.
"I know you said you were confident in making it to the Elite ss when we first met, but man did I underestimate just how confident you meant," Tom leaned in and whispered. "Have you actually mastered any of the weaves, or have you spent all of your time learning the various elements?"
"I wouldn''t say I''ve mastered any of the weaves," Reivyn said, rubbing the back of his head. "I''m probably pretty close to mastering Fire, as I''ve used that Element more than any of the others, but I spent my time diversifying. Why?"
"Oh, thank Mierna," Tom said with a sigh, hand on his chest. "If you had actually mastered all of those weaves instead of just learning so many already, I would have to question life. I''ve heard of people - very, very rarely - having learned all four Elemental weaves before enrolling in the Academy before, but none of the ones that had had also learned any of the Tier 2 weaves. You''ve learned seven weaves before entering the Academy."
"I told you," Reivyn shrugged, "I like to train. That doesn''t include just my Martial Skills, either."
"I can see that," Tom chuckled.
"What was that?!" Trick hissed as he and Vane resumed their seats. They leaned forward and fixed Reivyn with their stares.
"The boy likes to train," Tom answered. "He told us that already."
"Yeah, but isn''t this a bit excessive?" Vane asked. Reivyn shrugged once more.
"My mother''s a Weaver, and she has a Light Element focus in her ss. Maybe weaves juste to me easier because of her?"
"A Weaver with a Tier 3 Elemental specialization?" Tom raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I can see how that would make sense."
"Man, you''re going to have to take us to your house so your mother can give us some tips," Trick said with a chuckle. "With insights from her, we should all have a good chance of advancing to the Tier 2 Academy. Who''s gonna stop us?"
"Yeah, you''ve definitely painted a target on your back," Tom said.
"A target on my back?" Reivyn asked skeptically.
"Not in the sense that people are going to want to take you down, or anything like that," Tom exined with a cating gesture. "You''ve just demonstrated that you''re likely going to be top of the ss, and since this is the Elite ss, everyone is going to be using you as their motivation."
"Expect a bunch of people asking for tips and tricks in the future," Trick said. "If any of the pretty girls ask you for help, you gotta say yes, and don''t forget to bring your best buds along with you."
"Some of the more confident students, the ones with better sses, might ask to duel you in the school arena, too," Vane said, elbowing Trick lightly in the ribs. "They can challenge you to a normal, magical duel where you basically pit your sses against each other, or they can challenge you to a free-for-all, which is designed to test your weaving abilities against each other directly."
"Oh, there''s such a thing?" Reivyn asked, his interest piqued. I''ve never been able to participate in a proper magical sparring session before, for fear of injuries. If the school has a way to make it possible, this could be an interesting experience.
"Yup, the school has a double-shield system to protect the students from harm," Tom exined. "You''ll wear two sets of magical items that provide a shield. The inner shield is extremely brittle, but it can block most of the power someone in Tier 2 or 3 could muster. The goal is to whittle down the outer shield to reach the inner one and shatter it. Once it''s broken, that indicates victory and loss."
"What about someone''s personal Mana Shield Skills?" Reivyn asked.
"Oh yeah, anything can be used in the normal challenge, but if you''re in a weaving challenge, you have to be able to construct the shield by free-hand. No System Skills allowed."
"Got it, thanks," Reivyn said. Their little conversation ended just as thest student performed her weaves on the tform for the instructor.
"Good," Master Feld said, resuming his position at the podium in the center of the dais. "I''m d my expectations weren''t off, and all of you from the Elite ss has learned at least your own Elemental weaves, and several of you have gone beyond that." Several of the students shot a nce at Reivyn. The teacher nodded his head.
"I know what all of you are thinking. Novice Reivyn is a bit ahead of the pack, but his ability to form so many weaves is not an exception. The entire point of this ss is to teach all of you to be able to do the same, and with my help, all of you will be able to perform all of the Tier 1 and 2 weaves by the end of the first year.
"Now that I have a basic understanding of where all of you stand, we can begin the lesson immediately. I''ll only be focusing on one Affinity per week each month. There are four basic Affinities, and there are four weeks in a month. At the end of the month, we''ll cycle back to the first Affinity. That doesn''t mean you can''t work on whichever Affinity you want, though, you''re free to pursue your own path to learning.
"Today, we''ll be starting with Fire. Most of the students in here have a ss for the Fire element, which is not umon. Even though all the basic Affinities are equal, Fire Mages make up the majority of Elementally focused mages in society atrge. That topic will be discussed in Magic History. Just know that it''s not favoritism that I choose to teach the Fire Element first. It''s pure numbers."
Reivyn paid attention to the lecture as the teacher demonstrated the braids associated with the Fire Bolt Spell and described their natures. Reivyn had already learned the basic information from his own experiments and practice with Larissa, but this was an older teacher who specialized in Teaching weaves. He was confident that there were still things he could learn to help him fully master the weaves.
I don''t know if it''s his own personal mastery of the topic, or if it''s his Teaching Skill, Reivyn thought as he listened to the lecture, but I can feel my understanding of the weaves improving at a marginal rate just from his verbal instruction.
The teacher continued the lesson, going into further depth than Larissa ever had, for another half an hour before he ended the lesson.
"There''s a training ground behind the ssroom for everyone to get practical experience," Master Feld said, indicating a door off to the side in the front of the ssroom. "It''s fine for me to make a barrier and target for individual disys, but everyone''s going to be practicing at once, so we''ll change venue.
"Reivyn, you stay behind for a moment."
Reivyn was expecting to stay back after ss, but he had thought the teacher meant after the practice. He nodded to his three roommates and remained in his seat as everyone else filed through the door in the front of the ss.
"Come up here," Master Feld beckoned. Reivyn stood up and approached the podium where the teacher had remained.
"The first semester of the ss is to teach all of the students the basic weaves for the basic Affinities. The second semester is focused on the Tier 2 Affinities." Master Feld said once Reivyn had arrived in front of him. "You have two options avable to you: You can remain in this ss, piddling along during the first semester and seeking out your own knowledge on the remaining Tier 2 Affinities. Or, you can move up to the second-year Weave ss.
"I will still be your teacher, so I''ll know your situation. I won''t let you ck off, though. You''ll have to learn the Tier 2 weaves while also learning the second-year curriculum. If you don''t have good results by the end of the first month, I''ll kick you back down to this ss and not let you move up early again.
"You don''t have to decide right this moment, but the sooner you decide, the better. Right now you''ll only miss out on today''s instruction, which I can summarize for you. The longer you wait, though, the harder it might be to catch up."
"I don''t have to think about it, Master Feld," Reivyn replied. "I like to push myself, so I want to move up to the second-year ss."
"Decisive," Master Feld said with the first smile Reivyn saw on the man. "Ok, I''ll give you the summary of the second-year lesson."
Master Feld held out his hand and created the most basic weave out of pure mana. He simply made two threads and looped them around each other.
"You understand the basic concept of the mana weave. None of them are as simple as this example, here, but this will work for the demonstration.
"What is this?" Master Feld watched as Reivyn contemted the question he posed.
This likely isn''t a trick question, Reivyn frowned. This is the simplest weave possible, but what is it? Since we''re dealing with a mixture of the literal and metaphorical, I''ll go with the most obvious answer I can think of.
"It''s a string," Reivyn answered. Master Feld smiled once more.
"Yes, it''s a simple string," he nodded. "So then, let me ask you this: What are strings used for? Keep it simple."
Reivyn once more entered into contemtion. Strings are used for a lot of different things. They can make rugs and tapestries, clothes, ropes... Ropes! It''s the same structure as a string, just more string woven together. That''s probably the correct answer.
"Based on the usage of the mana weaves for Spellcraft, I would say you could use more strings to create a Mana rope."
Master Feld produced two more threads, turned them into another simple weave, and then he wove the two weaves together to create a thicker rope.
"Just so," Master Feld said. "The main instruction of the second year is turning the mana weaves into mana ropes. You can mix and match weaves, and that, as well aspressing them to better fit inside your Spells, is the main focus of the first semester in the second year. When we go to the practice area here in a moment, you can practice this technique. As I am able to during supervising the practice sessions, I will also impart the weaves of the rest of the Tier 2 Affinities.
"Your thought process was on the right track with converting string into rope, but there''s another aspect that is intrinsic to both strings and ropes that you didn''t consider. Think about it, and see if you can figure it out before I bring it up in ss. Now, to the practice yard."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn said.
He walked through the back door, turned down a short hallway, and exited into a wide-open space between a couple of buildings. Reivyn looked around the practice area as he approached where his ss was located.
It looks like we''re the first ss to get out of the lecture, Reivyn thought. That makes sense, as we have the least amount of students, and sses 11 through 20 aren''t going to be using the practice yard today. At least not during ss hours.
Reivyn looked further down the range. It extended beyond where the ssroom buildings ended and continued on behind the administrative building. It looks justrge enough to contain year 1 and 2 students on a rotating schedule. I imagine the third-year students have a different practice area.
"So, what did the teacher want?" Tom asked as Reivyn joined them on an open target they had reserved for him.
The range between where the students were lined up and the target wasn''t veryrge, only about 20 yards, but the lines were clearly defined. There was a wide line for the students to stand behind to practice their Spell casting. Reivyn looked over to a raised tform and read therge sign on it.
No Spell Casting Without Supervision
Do NOT cross the Spell Line During Exercise
A scene of a huge, open space with berms, lines, towers, and targets shed through Reivyn''s mind as he took it all in.
Safety first, Reivyn thought. Wouldn''t want any stray Spells flying towards a target while someone is inspecting a target. The Spells are likely to be weak, especially for the Novice students working on their non-Skill Spells, but why take the chance.
None of the students had vited the rules listed on the sign, and everyone was waiting for the teacher to arrive and take his position on the short tower.
"He offered to let me move directly up to the second-year ss for Mana weaves," Reivyn said.
"Well?" Trick asked. "Don''t leave us in suspension. Did you ept?"
"Yup," Reivyn said. "And then he showed me the summary of the second-year lecture. He told me to go ahead and work on it right now, and he''ll help me with the other Tier 2 Affinities as he''s able."
"Hmm, it''s not unheard of for students to skip a Novice ss, or test out of it," Tom said. "But I''ve never heard of it happening for Basic Mana Weaving. The same rules will probably still apply, though. Your performance in the second-year ss represents your Ranking scores for this ss. You won''t get any bonus points or anything, though."
"That''s fine," Reivyn said. "I''d rather have to work harder and not get any bonus points towards the Rankings than twiddle my thumbs the entire semester, anyway."
"That''s true," Vane said. "I''d make the same choice, actually."
"Yeah," Trick said, "and if you''re going to help people - as in, us - with weaves, then you can also give us a leg up on the second-year techniques."
"Don''t you have older friends who could do that?" Reivyn asked.
"Yeah," Tom said, "but they told us not to worry about it until we get the first year down. With you around, you can use your judgment to decide on when to teach us instead of having us wait until next year."
"No problem," Reivyn said with a smile. "I''m happy to help. I''ve found that helping others also helps to increase my own mastery and Skill Levels. I mean, you have to approach the same problem from a different perspective. That''s something to keep in mind if you guys ever hit a wall with your practice."
"That''s not a bad idea," Vane said. Tom and Trick nodded as well.
"Alright, it''s time to begin your practice," Master Feld said as he assumed his position above everyone else. "There will be no Spell Casting if I''m not up here, and you will wait for my order. Once everyone has had time to practice for a bit, I''lle down and offer some one-on-one pointers to everyone who wants it.
"Let''s begin."
Chapter 71: Charismatic Instruction
Chapter 71: Charismatic Instruction
"Those in power have a responsibility to those they have power over," the teacher, Master Salrah, said. "People with personal power get it through their own work and effort, but those with political power get it from the ones who put them there.
"If one wants to remain in power, politically, it is necessary to take care of the needs of the popce. The royal family wasn''t created from scratch as the royal family. They lead their people in a benevolent manner, and they helped to bring prosperity to the kingdom.
"Many rulers of nations would dispute this notion. They im they have ''Divine Right'' and are appointed by the various gods, or fate itself, to power. One of the reasons our royal family, and the nobility, are so beloved is because they recognize the truth. They lead by example, and they let the people strive for better lives.
"As scions of the affluent families attached to the nobility and future Mages of the kingdom, you don''t have as many responsibilities, but you do have some. Those duties, and how to go about selecting the best methods to aplish them, are the things we are going to learn this year."
It sounds like propaganda towards their way of running the kingdom, Reivyn thought. That''s not to say I don''t approve of the system of governance. I do, especially after witnessing Count Ilpir''s actions and learning more about them. But it looks like this ss is more a primer for how to work for the political system than it is a neutral instruction on politics.
"Do they teach the different political structures of the different Kingdoms, or is it just guidance on how to be sessful in ours?" Reivyn whispered to Tom.
"They teach those lessons in the second and third-year sses," Tom whispered back. "But they always present it in a way where we need to consider things from our own perspective. Thus, this is the ''basics'' of political theory."
Hmm, I want to learn more about the other kingdoms and the higher Tier Regions, but it seems like I''d have to wait until at least next year to get those lessons. Tom said it was possible to test out of sses early, so maybe I should seek some tutoring on the subject from Melissa. I can get some more from my parents as well. I don''t n on sticking around this Region my whole life, so it doesn''t make sense for me to get fully steeped in the workings of this kingdom.
Reivyn made up his mind to attempt to test out of the ss. He was confident his parents would have certain insights that could give him an advantage. Though, he would need to find out exactly how the tests worked. He still needed to pay attention in ss, despite his decision, so he focused his attention on the teacher in front of the ss.
The ssroom was identical to the other ones he had been to so far. Master Salrah, though, was not simr to the other instructors. She didn''t appear to be specialized in teaching magic at all, and she didn''t wear the traditional robes of the Caster sses. She was attired in a red dress that entuated her looks, and she was a looker. She appeared to be much younger, in her early 20s than the other magical instructors.
She was one of the prettier women Reivyn had seen on campus. I imagine, considering her specialty is politics, that she has a high Charisma and Skills focused on getting along with others and persuasion. I wonder if there are Tier 3 or 4 Affinities associated with the Charisma Stat and Skills? There must be if Sovereign is one of them.
Reivyn watched and listened. Master Salrah''s voice was soothing, and her every gesture drew him and the other students in to pay attention to the lesson. Reivyn''s vision slowly blurred everything else out, and his Battlefield Awareness Skill let him know that the situation was the same for all of the other students. There was zero chatter among the students, as everyone listened to the teacher.
Reivyn''s Mental Fortitude Skill kicked in, and his vision returned to normal. He sat up in surprise and looked all around. None of the other students waivered in their attention fully focused on the teacher, and Reivyn noticed Master Salrah look up at him with a sh of surprise in her eyes. She simply gave a small smile, drawing the other students further into their focused state, and continued her lesson.
This woman is dangerous, Reivyn thought, sweat beading his forehead. It''s good to pay attention in ss, but I prefer to have a clear mind.
"I think this is my favorite ss," Trick said once Master Salrah ended the lesson and left the room. All of the students watched her go, and the spell over them didn''t end until she waspletely out of sight.
"I had heard that her sses were unusually captivating, but that was something else," Tom said.
"Oh, you guys knew about it ahead of time?" Reivyn asked as they filed out of the room.
"Sure," Vane answered. "Our friends told us that she has a way to make you fully focus on her and nothing else. Most of the Elite Students knew about it."
"Aren''t you worried about getting brainwashed or something?" Reivyn was confused. They willingly let themselves get spellbound like that? The three friends looked at each other andughed.
"That would never happen," Tom replied. "Don''t think that there''s anything that happens on campus that the Headmaster doesn''t know about. Something like that was attempted in the distant past, and that teacher didn''t have a good ending."
"The Headmaster is supposedly a super scary guy," Vane said. "I hear he''s a Tier 4, and even the royal family has to show him respect."
Reivyn thought about the man he had met during Admissions. He wasn''t scary at all. He was very amiable. Maybe Vane just means his power has the possibility of being scary. I doubt he could pose any kind of threat to my parents unless he was close to Tier 5, though. And I highly doubt that''s the case.
"Our friends told us to just enjoy the ride," Tom said. "She uses her abilities in the ssroom setting to better impart the knowledge to us."
"It also has the added benefit of exercising any willpower Skills one might have," Vane said. "Most students won''t try to resist her charm until they feel they have a good grasp on the subject matter, though."
"I think I''ll just enjoy the view," Trick said, a distant look in his eyes.
"That''s all you ever care about," Reivyn said, yfully shoving Trick''s shoulder. The four boysughed as they exited the building.
They had a little bit of time until their next ss, so Reivyn decided to go ahead and head to Master Salrah''s office and broach the topic of testing out. He waved to his friends and headed over to the Administrative building.
Reivyn asked one of the third-year students acting as an assistant of some sort, and he quickly found his way to the beautiful teacher''s office on the first floor. He knocked on the open door and waited for a response from the teacher.
"Come in," her voice carried to Reivyn.
He entered the office and walked up to the desk she was seated behind. There were bookshelves with various books filling the shelves, and they looked like they had all been read more than once. The office and desk were neat and tidy, and Master Salrah nodded her head and indicated for Reivyn to take a seat.
"What can I help you with, Novice Reivyn?" She asked. Reivyn wasn''t surprised that someone with her specialty knew exactly who he was after the first lesson.
"Hello, Master Salrah, I wanted to inquire about testing out of the first-year basic ss," Reivyn said without preamble.
"Oh, ambitious, are we?" Salrah quirked an eyebrow. Reivyn found himself zeroing his attention down on her facial expressions. He shook his head and mustered his willpower to stay focused on the conversation. "It''s good to be ambitious, but ambition has to be tempered by one''s foundations. This ss is very important forying the foundations for yourter sses on the topic. Are you sure you want to skip it?"
"That''s a very good point," Reivyn said. "One must make sure they''re not cutting corners." Reivyn''s Mental Fortitude kicked in once again, and he cleared his thoughts as he narrowed his eyes at the woman. "But I feel like I should take the opportunity to..."
"And if you skip my ss, then we wouldn''t be able to spend any quality time together," Salrah sighed as she leaned back in her chair, a look of self-pity on her face. Reivyn''s breath caught and he opened his mouth to say he didn''t want that, but his Iron Will activated and shook him out of the fugue. He coughed into his hand as he gathered his thoughts.
"Wait," Reivyn said. "Aren''t you still the teacher of the second-year ss?"
Master Salrah crossed one arm under her breasts and rested her other elbow on her wrist as she tapped her chin. She contemted Reivyn for a moment before sheughed. Herugh was just as mesmerizing as her voice.
"Forgive me for the little test," she said. All of the mentalpulsions his willpower Skills were fighting off fell away. "I just have to make sure someone is truly set on testing out of the ss, first. I didn''t mean anything malicious by it. You can take the test to skip the course at any time during the first three weeks. After that, you''re stuck with it. Just let me know when you want to do so, and I''ll arrange the test for you."
"Thank you," Reivyn said with a smile and a nod.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Master Salrah asked.
"No, ma''am," Reivyn shook his head. "That was all. Thank you."
"You''re wee," Master Salrah said with a small smile. "Then I''ll see you in ss until you''ve made a decision."
Reivyn stood up from the seat, cold sweat running down his back, and quickly left the room. He could hear the light tinkling of herugh follow him out into the hallway.
Very dangerous, Reivyn thought as he made his way to join his friends again for the next ss.
"Umm, are you Reivyn?" A timid voice asked as Reivyn ate lunch with his friends. He looked up and behind him to see a young girl standing next to the table, hands sped and head down. Reivyn looked at the girl. She was pretty, like most of the female students, but she wasn''t a beauty like Melissa or her sister and friends.
Come to think of it, I haven''t seen any girls I wouldn''t consider pretty since arriving at the Academy. Does that make her average? Reivyn chuckled to himself.
"Yup, that''s me," Reivyn said, setting his fork down on the te. His other friends continued to eat, but they watched the goings-on out of the corner of their eyes. "What can I do for you?"
"Umm, if, ugh, you want," the girl stammered, "do you think, umm, maybe, can I, umm." She took a deep breath and then rushed thest words out as fast as possible. "Can I get some tutoring on weaves from you?" She seemed to dete a little after getting her question out.
"Sure," Reivyn said. The girl perked up and peeked at Reivyn. "But first, what''s your name?"
"Umm, my name?" She fidgeted as she spoke. "My name is Carri."
"Well, Carri, it''s nice to meet you. I would be happy to help you with some of your weaves. What time were you thinking?"
"Umm, maybe tonight? At around 7, after dinner?" Carri asked.
"Sounds good," Reivyn nodded. "In fact, tell any of your friends, too. I''m willing to help anyone that asks." Reivyn smiled.
"Oh, ok," Carri said, her shoulders slumping just a little. "I, I, I''ll be there. Bye." She turned and fled to another table consisting of simr-aged girls.
"I don''t think any of them are in the Elite ss," Reivyn said as he watched her join her friends again. All of the girls leaned in and began whispering with Carri. "Seems like the rumor mill spread the news fast." Reivyn chuckled to himself as he resumed eating.
"What was that shameful disy?" Trick said, staring at Reivyn.
"Huh?" Reivyn asked, confused.
"Bro, she obviously wanted personal instruction from you, and you told her to invite all of her friends," Trick shook his head as he took a bite.
"I know that," Reivyn said. "I''m not interested, though, and it''s better to make my stance clear from the very beginning."
"Well, you''re no fun," Trick said. "I guess we can strike another spot off on the girls'' List," he added after a moment.
Reivyn looked around the room and noticed that a lot of tables with girls sitting at them were sending looks their way. Looks like I''ve sent an open invitation, Reivyn thought wryly.
"It looks like we''ll need more room than the personal practice rooms can hold," Trick said.
"What do you mean, we?" Reivyn asked, amused.
"All of us, obviously," Tom said, swinging his fork around the table. "You did say you would help us out as well."
"And there''s no way you could handle all of those girls on your own," Trick said. "You need reinforcements."
"Hah, of course, that''s what you''re worried about," Vane snickered. "We actually n on practicing our weaves."
"Hey, I''m going to practice my weaves, too," Trick said, a look of mock-hurt on his face. "I just n on broadening my connections and working on my Charisma Skills while I''m at it."
"Sure, sure," Tom said. "We all know what you''re really interested in. Speaking of practice area, we might need to seek permission to use the practice yard. We''ll have to get supervision from a third-year student or teacher, though."
"Hmm, maybe I can ask Melissa," Reivyn said. "We can kill two birds with one stone that way. You guys can meet her, and she can help us supervise." The three other boys looked at each other and nodded.
"Sounds like a n," Tom said. "We''ll have to set up some sort of notice to let others know."
"Leave that to me," Trick said as he got up from the table with his tray of food. "I''ll spread the word along the way." Trick returned his tray, and then Reivyn watched as he went from table to table with girls sitting at them to strike up conversations.
"Well, at least he''s not shy," Reivyn chuckled as he finished his meal.
"Yeah, he might act like a horn dog all the time, but he''s actually fairly popr with the girls," Vane said. "And he does have some actual scruples. I think he just likes the chase."
"You guys talking about Trick," a new voice said as someone ced their tray on the table and sat down.
"Oh, hey Seamus," Tom said. Reivyn and Vane nodded their heads to the neer. Seamus was one of the senior friends that Tom andpany had introduced Reivyn to over the weekend. He was a second-year student, and the source of a lot of the information the three friends had on the Academy.
"I heard that he already has an arranged marriage from his family," Seamus said. "I think he''s just trying to get it out of his system. You know how he is. He''s a loyal fellow, so he won''t have the chance to flirt or chase girls for long, and he wouldn''t even if he did have the chance once he''s officially engaged."
"Now that you mention it," Vane said, a thoughtful look on his face, "he didn''t always act like a skirt chaser. That makes a lot of sense, actually."
"Who''s the girl he''s arranged to marry? Anyone we know?" Tom asked.
"I don''t know. I''ve only heard some small talk from my elders about it, but none of the specifics. He''ll tell us when it''s a done deal," Seamus replied as he ate. "So, Reivyn, I hear that you''re going to be hosting a tutoring lesson tonight?"
"What? That just happened," Reivyn said. "And yeah, a girl named Carri came up and asked if I could help her. I told her to tell her friends I would help anyone who wanted it, and it seems to have spread already."
"News travels quick," Seamusughed. "How are you going to help so many people all at once?"
"I''m going to have to use the practice yard. I have a third-year friend who might be willing to supervise, and barring that, I can always ask a teacher."
"So Melissa really is one of your friends?" Seamus asked.
"Yup," Tom had told all of his second-year friends that Reivyn was supposedly friends with Melissa and her circle when they had met over the weekend. Some of them had been skeptical of the truth. They''ll find out tonight whether I was telling the truth or not. If Melissa agrees, that is.
"Alright, well have fun," Seamus said with a smile. "You might have to beat them off with a stick at this rate."
"So how many people are going to be there?" Melissa asked as she walked next to Reivyn towards the practice yard. Larissa, Erin, and Haylen followed in tow, but Alisia was nowhere to be seen.
"I don''t know, actually," Reivyn said. "Only the one person asked, but I told her to tell all of her friends, and it seemed like a lot of people were interested," Reivyn said.
"They''re going to be disappointed when they see you arrive with us," Larissa said. The three girls giggled to each other as they whispered to one another. Melissa rolled her eyes.
"It''s better for them this way," she said under her breath.
"What was that?" Reivyn asked. He had heard what she said, but he didn''t understand what she meant by it.
"Oh, nothing," Melissa replied with a wave of her hand. "It''s just better to focus on studies right now. That''s all."
"Ok," Reivyn said.
The group of five rounded the corner and the practice yard came into view. Reivyn saw his roommates standing with another 20 or so teenagers. Not all of them were girls, but there were only five other boys besides his roommates. Trick was in the midst of talking to a couple of girls when Reivyn came into view.
The group of students perked up and interrupted Trick as they spotted Reivyn and the others. Reivyn saw Carri standing in the front, and he could see a look of disappointment sh across her face as she saw Melissa and the others with Reivyn.
"Tom! I haven''t seen you for a while," Melissa said as she stepped forward. "How have you and your parents been? Vane, Trick." She nodded to Reivyn''s three roommates.
"Wait, you guys already know each other?" Reivyn asked. Reivyn''s roommates shared a look before bursting outughing.
"Of course, they didn''t tell you?" Melissa asked, cocking her head.
"Nope," Reivyn shook his head. "They made it sound like they wanted to use me to meet you and your sister." Larissa and the other two girls also greeted Tom and the other two boys.
"We''ve known each other for ages," Larissa exined.
"All of our families are close to each other," Erin said. "We practically grew up together."
"I see," Reivyn said.
"Yeah, but it is true that the Bluefayre''s lead the group," Tom said with a smile. "Well, that''s not entirely true," he amended. "We''re all attached to Alisia''s family in some way or another. It''s just that the Bluefayre''s also have a connection to Eldiar, which puts them more or less equal to Alisia''s family in some ways."
"Enough about that," Melissa said. "Reivyn has students to tutor." Melissa climbed up the short tform for the supervisors, followed by her sister and friends, and she addressed the other students briefly. "Don''t mind us. We''re just here to follow the rules of the Academy."
Reivyn stepped forward to the group of students. He idly noticed that several of the girls gave Trick more looks than they had before. I wonder if it''s because they''ve learned that he has some sort of connection with Melissa, or if it''s because Melissa is so pretty and he''s paying attention to them instead of her? Reivyn shook the thoughts out of his head.
"Alright," Reivyn addressed the other students. "You all know who I am. You wouldn''t be here if you didn''t, obviously. I''ll get to know all of you as we work together to learn and practice the weaves, but for now, show me what you got just like you did for your teachers."
Reivyn sat in Meditation in his room, going over the weaves he had been assisting the others with.
Teaching others really is a good way to further my understanding of the weaves, he thought as he created and banished the Tier 1 weaves over and over again. Not only did I have to think of ways to help them improve themselves, but I also got to see a bunch of different ways that everyone forms their own weaves.
I''ll be able to master the Tier 1 weaves in no time like this. Too bad there isn''t anyone else working on Tier 2 weaves in the group. Maybe I can ask Larissa if there''s some sort of simr study group among the second years. It''s still early - the first week - but so far I''ve only seen individuals or small pairs of people working together. Nothing like arge group of 20-plus people.
Reivyn quit forming the weaves over and over again and switched to braiding the weaves together into a rope. He decided to work on the act itself rather than any specific weaves, so he formed a simple two-thread weave of pure Mana like Master Feld had done, to begin with.
He formed the first weave and very quicklybined it with another one. He maintained the mana in his budding rope and set it to the side as he formed two more weaves to make another rope. The exercise became slightly harder as he had to keep his concentration on maintaining the first rope as he built the second one.
He finally managed to build the second rope, and he pulled the first one over tobine the two even further. The final product was considerably thicker than any other weave he had ever worked with, despite how simple it was, and it contained exponentially more mana than a simple Tier 1 weave would normally hold.
Hmm, this is bing a pretty thick cable, Reivyn thought as he examined his work. I can see wherepression woulde into y. If I go any further in thickening the rope, not only would it take even more concentration and precision, but it would be much harder to use it. It could grow to such a size as to not be able to fit inside of a Spell, and it could also get too thick to easily weave together with another braid.
The other limiting factor is the time involved. At my current mastery and Skill Levels, it would be impossible to effectively use such a method for real Spell Casting. Reivyn nced at his Mana and saw that it was ticking down at 8 Mana per second. It''s also considerably more expensive. A typical Tier 1 basic weave costs 1 Mana per second to maintain, but this simple rope takes 8. I can definitely see how this would be useful for empowering Spells, though.
Reivyn dismissed his hold over the Mana and started again from scratch. The only thing to it is repetition. Master Feld is going to be teaching us how to do this andpress the Mana. I just gotta keep at it, like usual.
Reivyn spent about an hour practicing the rope, and he saw marginal increases in his speed and efficiency. All that was needed was time.
Chapter 72: Model Student
Chapter 72: Model Student
"Pull a string of mana out, and make it about a foot long," Master Feld said. "You can do it any length you want, but for the purpose of the exercise, we''re only going to do a foot."
It was the second week of sses, and Master Feld was introducing the concept ofpressing mana to the students of the second-year ss. Reivyn had attended the ss for the remaining two times the first week, and Master Feld had simply demonstrated each of the weaves for the various Elements and showed the increased strength versus the simple strings.
Reivyn hadn''t had time to pick up all of the new weaves for Tier 2 Affinities, but with the simple demonstration and his Lattice Skill, he was already able to start practicing them. Master Feld had instructed the second-year students to practice on their main affinities first, and he had given pointers to everyone on how to increase the speed and efficiency of making the ropes.
"You can practice weaving the ropes for the Affinities you already know, and next week, after I introducepression, I''ll help you with the Tier 2 Affinity weaves."
Reivyn was looking forward to continuing his progress, but manapression was also something he would need to learn soon, so he paid attention to the lecture and followed along with his own mana string.
"Compression isn''t anything amazing orplicated," Master Feld continued. "The main determining Skill for Compression is Mana Maniption, but Conjuration can also be a supplementary help. All you have to do is muster your will, and force the mana together. This is the simplest form of manapression."
Master Feld materialized a Mana rope instantly next to the mana string, and Reivyn watched as the rope shrunk until it was the same size as the string.
"Once you''re able topress your ropes to match the same size as your strings quickly, you''ll be ready for the next step: removing the empty space between the mana motes to allow for furtherpression. Simply squeezing the mana together leaves the little pockets of empty space in ce, and so it can only take you so far.
"For now, practice on the strings. They will have less resistance to yourpression efforts. Once you have enough confidence, you can move on to the ropes."
All of the students concentrated on their own Mana strings as Master Feld gave his lesson. Reivyn took control of the motes in a portion of the string. He tried topress them together, but when one portion moved in, another portion of the string further away bulged out instead.
I understand why we''re only using a foot of string, Reivyn thought as he rearranged his efforts. We have topress the string from all sides at once, or it''ll simply slip out of our grasp, like a squishy toy. Master Feld must have left that out on purpose for all of us to experience it firsthand.
Reivyn was aware that all of the other second-year students experienced the same thing he had just seen with his own string. He concentrated further and tookplete control over the entire thing and pressed his will in on all sides at once. There was a bit of resistance to the forceful movement, but it wasn''t anything he couldn''t brush past with a little effort. He increased the pressure, and his Mana string shrunk to about two-thirds of its original size.
Reivyn pressed even harder, but the mana remained in ce, unwilling to shrink any further. Hmm, I''m not able topress it any further than this. If this was a Mana rope, I wouldn''t be able to meet the minimum requirement of the same size as the string, much less in a quick speed.
A student raised their hand and Master Feld nodded for them to ask their question.
"Master Feld, howe I can''t get it topress any further? I feel that my Mana Maniption Skill and willpower are strong enough to go further, but it isn''t working. It seems like it''s something that can''t be fixed with just more practice."
"Excellent question," Master Feld replied. "The issue is speed. When you create the string of mana, the motes consisting of the string are basically just floating in an approximate position, and they''re fluid and easy to move. Once you beginpressing the Mana, though, it begins to solidify in ce. That doesn''t mean you can''t still manipte the string freely, because the motes be rigid to their internal structure.
"Practice is still the key, but you have to work towards getting faster. You only have a limited amount of time topress the mana before it will be impossible, and then you would have to dismiss the Mana and start over if you fail to achieve the result you want."
"Thank you, Master Feld," the student said.
"Any more questions?" Master Feld looked around the room. "If not, we''ll simply work onpressing the different weaves of the Basic Elements for the rest of the ss period. This is just to introduce the concept to you, though, and we''ll return to the Affinity ropes next ss period. You''re free to pursue any form of practice you choose, but the second semester is dedicated towardpression."
Life at the Academy during the first month was hectic and peaceful in equal measure. Reivyn found that he would have sporadic periods of time where he was super busy, and sometimes he could rx a bit as the teachers allowed for consolidating their lessons. Reivyn found that even the non-magical sses had snippets of information useful for increasing his proficiency as a Caster, as they were all focused with Casters in mind.
The History of Magic ss was more of a primer on all of the different permutations of Caster ss that were avable in Tier 2 and Tier 3. He had already seen almost all of the ones in Tier 2 from his own ss Page, but there were several Caster sses and specialties that he hadn''t seen in the list that the ss went over.
There is actually a long list of Lifestyle sses that are technically considered Caster sses. There are sses like Mana Gardener, Stone Shaper, or Mana Speaker. The Mana Gardener focuses on cultivating nts with their magical abilities, and it''s apparently a highly sought-after profession in the higher Tier Regions as they can greatlypliment Alchemists.
Stone Shapers are artists for the most part, but they can also be useful for mining natural resources. The architecture and decorations that can be found in The Capital have a hand from such people, though it''s not found much of anywhere else in the Tier 1 kingdom. Such professions are more widespread in the higher Regions where Mana is more abundant. They''re also integral for resource hunting parties going into the wilderness, as they''re much more efficient at finding and retrieving rare metals.
The Mana Speaker can also be utilitarian or artistic in execution. Many bards and singers actually have the Tier 2 ss Mana Speaker as their foundation. They''re also useful to armies and leaders because they can choose the path of long-distancemunication.
I''ve already determined my own path, but it''s good to know what else is out there.
The Basic Mana Theory ss was instruction on the different Mana Skills. Reivyn once more found that his Skill Levels were considerably further along than the rest of the Novices, but that was only in terms of raw numbers. The teachers had a lot of different methods to better utilize the Skills for better efficiency, and Reivyn soaked the knowledge up like a sponge.
My higher Levels just represent my ability to enforce my will and raw power. It''s also helping me master the tips and tricks more easily. I''m sure mom would have eventually taught me these lessons as well, but we just didn''t have enough time to go more in-depth like this, what with the fundamentals and Martial Skills we were focused on and everything that''s happened in life.
Reivyn''s roommates didn''t have as high of numbers as he did, but he found that they had mostly already gained some proficiency in the techniques before attending the Academy. Reivyn wasn''t jealous of their mastery levels, and he was confident he could catch up and pass them with due time and effort. They didn''t spend a lot of time working on Martial Skills like I did when I was younger, so they obviously had more time to branch out into different aspects of practicing their Mana Skills.
Introduction to Philosophy was exactly what it sounded like, but it introduced the different philosophies that had evolved over time with a bent towards looking at it from a Caster''s perspective. This particr ss was the least useful for Reivyn, but he understood the reasoning behind having to learn the information. It would serve him well in the future to not be ignorant of the different schools of thought.
The Elective that Reivyn had chosen was Etiquette. This wasn''t just a simple course on how to properly interact with others in various situations, but it also included such things as dancing, calligraphy, and music. It wasn''t as in-depth as those individual sses would be all on their own, but it gave Reivyn an opportunity to practice several of his Skills. He was finally able to Level up his Piano Skill above 0 after all of these years of having it sit there in his Status with no change.
The real reason he had chosen the broad Etiquette ss over a more specialized one, though, was that it actually had lessons in how to use his tessen for its actual purpose as a fan. A fan was a popr item for nobles and affluent people to carry around, and an entirenguage had been built around their use in different settings.
Reivyn began walking around with his tessen out and using it everywhere he went. His roommates hadughed at him at first, but after seeing the look in the eyes of several girls that witnessed Reivyn using his fan theughter had stopped right away. Now all four of the roommates carried a fan with them at all times. Reivyn wasn''t stingy in teaching his friends what he learned about the topic.
"I feel like it''s easier to give a more refined appearance," Trick said as the group of youngsters walked through the campus. "I subconsciously want to move in a more fluid manner, and it''s starting toe as second nature to use the fan in everyday interactions."
Trick smiled at a group of passing girls as the four friends walked along the pathway. The girls blushed and quickened their steps at the attention, and Trick chuckled to himself.
The four boys walked in unison, their hands holding the open fans with their arms crossed in front of them. They all had therger tessen version of the fans after Reivyn had convinced them to go for something more sturdy than just a regr fan. Each of them had chosen one with a different design on it, so they each had a unique vor to their aesthetic.
"Leave it up to Trick to solely focus on trying to look good to the girls," Vane snickered.
"Hey, you started learning to use the fans for the same reason as me," Trick pouted. "Youughed at Reivyn, too, until you saw what the girls thought about it."
"Be that as it may," Vane replied, his chin held high, "I''ve since evolved to learning the more nuanced uses of the fan."
"Oh? Enlighten me, great fan master, on the different nuances," Trick said.
"Well, for one, it doesn''t just work on the girls," Vane nodded to some passing friends as he spoke. They gave him a respectful nod in return. "It seems to enhance the feelings of goodwill that the Charisma stat brings. Also," Vane used the fan for its original purpose and waved it in front of his face, "it can be used to keep you cool."
"Wow," Trick said, a look of shock on his face, "that''s quite the nuance. How did you ever figure those things out all on your own?" The four boysughed.
"There''s something you might not have realized," Reivyn said, bringing their attention to him. "The tessen can be used as a focus for your Casting. Observe!"
Reivyn activated his Elemental Weapon Skill, and the tessen in his hand was surrounded by fire. He waved his arm about and let the fires extend during the motion, creating an arch of fire with the fan''s outline. It got thick or thin depending on how Reivyn twisted his wrist as he moved it about. His three friends watched in fascination at the disy.
"This is a ss Skill: Elemental Weapon," Reivyn said once the disy was over, "but I got it independently from my ss. You guys could do the same thing. This is one of the reasons I took so much effort to convince you to get a tessen instead of a typical fan."
"Getting a ss Skill outside of the ss?" Tom said, dumbstruck. "We all know it''s possible, but do you have any idea how hard that is?"
"What do you mean?" Reivyn asked. "I got it on the first try." Tom threw his hands in the air, and Vane and Trick shook their heads.
"That''s not how it''s supposed to work!" Tom shouted. "You''re supposed to have to understand the Skill on a fundamental Level to unlock it as a general ss Skill. Have you made any of your ss Skills open for any ss Skill slot?"
"Yeah," Reivyn said. "One other one. I have Charge unlocked."
"Really?" Tom was taken aback for a moment before he continued. "And what was the Skill Level before you unlocked it? And what did you have to do to do so? It should have been the same for your Elemental Weapon Skill, but you say you got it right away?"
Reivyn frowned at thement. Maybe it has something to do with my Mythic Skill and its Level? From the sound of it, it shouldn''t have been so easy to get the Skill. I wonder why Melissa or Larissa didn''t say anything.
"Well, it doesn''t matter," Reivyn said. "You can still use the tessen as a focus to practice your spells regardless of whether or not you choose to work on getting a ss Skill out of it. You could also probably modify it with the Mana stones found in staves and other implements Casters use as a focus."
"Hmm, that''s not a bad idea," Vane said, looking at his tessen. "I think I''ll do that."
"Is nobody else concerned about the ludicrous statement Reivyn just mentioned?!" Tom said, pulling his hair in frustration.
"Nah, everyone has their own specialties and chances," Trick said. "He just said it was based on a weapon, and he''s already told us he was a Martial ss beforehand. His Skill with his weapon probably did the heavy lifting."
"I guess that makes sense," Tom said, looking mollified. "Still, that''s pretty incredible. I bet that Skill wille in handy in any sparring matches you have in the future."
"I thought so, too," Reivyn chuckled. "I can also do this!" Reivyn activated his Mana Shield Skill, and with a small effort of willpower, he transferred the shielding ability to his Elemental Weapon as his "element" and did the same thing he did previously with the fire, but he made a shield arch out of his tessen.
"It uses less mana than to have it running through the Mana Shield Skill this way, and I can manipte the shape easier, as well." Reivyn was proud of his ability to do so. It was something he had worked on in his off-time since gaining both of the Skills.
"Alright, Showoff," Tom said, resuming his air of refinement. "Let''s save it forter. We got ces to be."
Thest thing that caused a flurry of being busy for Reivyn during the first month was preparing to test out of the Basic Political Science ss. He decided to wait until the second week, so he could get a better feel of what would be expected out of him.
After listening for the first week and inquiring from Seamus who had already taken the ss, he learned that the ss was less about getting the right answers as it was about showing an understanding of the responsibilities of those in positions of power.
"The test consists of open scenarios that you''ll have to provide a solution to, and your grade is determined by how well you can exin your decision," Seamus told him. "In fact, the questions usually don''t even have an actual right answer. You''ll be given situations that have multiple solutions with multiple drawbacks. The questions won''t be the same, so I can''t tell you what they''ll be, but they shouldn''t be difficult as long as you keep the fundamental rule in mind."
"And what would that fundamental rule be?" Reivyn asked.
"Make decisions based on how the nobility rule the kingdom: Provide opportunities to people without forcing them to do things against their will as much as possible, and mitigate the fallout for any time it''s required."
"Like conscripting people," Reivyn said.
"Yeah, like that. You might be given a question about an invading force that outnumbers you, and that could be a solution. Conscription is considered eptable as long as it''s done through the System to reward the people conscripted. I hear that some countries don''t engage their System capabilities for governing, and they just use threats. A situation like that doesn''t provide any rpense to those affected, and it''s illegal to do such a thing in our kingdom."
"Oh, I didn''t know that," Reivyn said. "I thought conscription was an automatic thing recognized by the System."
"Nope. It''s the same situation with the Academy and the almost impossible cases of people getting their ss altered to a Tier 3 one while in Tier 2," Seamus said. "There''s a reason you have to graduate and can''t just be dered to have done so. It takes someone using the System functions, and it''s not the System acting in response to the situation."
Reivyn had taken the advice from Seamus, and he had gone to meet his parents over the weekend to get some insights from them to prepare for the test. On Monday, Reivyn had once again gone to Master Salrah''s office after ss and informed her he was prepared to test out the next ss period. She had agreed, and the next period, Reivyn was escorted to a smaller, private room where he was supervised by a third-year to take the exam.
Reivyn looked through the test before beginning, and sure enough, it was filled with hypothetical situations that tested not just his understanding of the system of governance, but also his ethics.
Hmm, first question: There''s a runaway carriage barreling down a narrow alley. The alley splits and can go toward two different alleys further ahead. Down the alley the carriage is headed towards, five pedestrians are in the way. Down the other alley, there''s only one pedestrian. Any pedestrian in the way of the carriage will lose their life. Supposing you''re only able to alter which alley the carriage travels down, what do you do?
Geez, this is a tough first question, Reivyn thought as he rubbed his temples. I thought Seamus said it would be pretty easy, and there won''t be any right or wrong answers. Ok, well, I know what I would do in real life if I was unable to do anything else.
Reivyn wrote his answer down and exined his reasoning.
I wouldn''t alter the course of the carriage. The five pedestrians in the way will lose their lives, but it will not be because of anything I have done. I have a clear conscience. If I decide to alter the course of the carriage, though, I will be directly responsible for the death of an innocent person. My actions would cause that person to die.
One might argue that it is moral to choose the lesser of two evils, but I reject that notion. The lesser of two evils is still evil. I have nothing to do with the carriage or the five pedestrians, so by not doing anything, I have notmitted any evil. If I condemn someone to die, though, then I will havemitted evil.
Reivyn was confident in his own personal morals and principles. He moved through the exam, answering each question in turn. Some required more contemtion than others, but most of them weren''t nearly asplicated or geared toward testing his ethical reasoning as the very first question.
There were many different scenarios posed in the paper. Reivyn answered questions involving asking how he would go about increasing the avability of healers to a city, what to do with tax money, how to walk the line between getting enough tax revenue and keeping the people happy, and many others involving managing people and cities.
They don''t expect us to actually go out and be rulers, but thinking about these questions could help any students be a better advisor to a lord ordy in the future. It also allows us to gain insight into the decisions made by the nobles, and why.
Reivyn turned the test over to the proctor with confidence. He was d he was able to pick his parents'' brains about the topic, as their insights definitely helped. I''ll also have to thank Seamus some time. He didn''t give me a lot of information, but what he did tell me helped out.
He found out on thest day of the week that he had passed the exam.
"I''m actually quite impressed with a lot of your answers," Master Salrah said. "You have a unique take on a lot of the issues, and you''ve shown that you have more than just a cursory understanding. I''ll see you in the second-year ss starting next week."
Reivyn''s first month was a rounding sess, and he ended up enrolled in two of the second-year sses. He continued to study and work on all of the different topics, as well as hold the study session with the other first-year students. They didn''t meet every day, but the number of people who showed up slowly increased each time.
There were over 50 people seeking tutoring from Reivyn''s study group by the end of the month, and almost all of them were actually serious about learning. Even Carri and her friends buckled down to focus solely on the practice after they lost hope of attracting his attention any further than just being friends learning together.
Reivyn even received a small, though not quite unexpected, surprise towards the end.
New Skill Unlocked!
Teaching (1)
Chapter 73: Rank and File
Chapter 73: Rank and File
"It''s the end of the first month, and the student rankings will be updated over the weekend," Master Feld said to the ss. "You second years already know the drill, so begin infusing your Affinities like usual. Reivyn,e up here for a moment and I''ll exin it to you." Reivyn got up from his seat and joined the teacher at the front of the ss.
"Here in the weaving ss, we handle recording the progress of your Affinity Levels. The Mana Theory ss will handle the progress of your Skills, but they don''t do so based on your Levels. They test you on the mastery of the Skill and the content they''ve taught. The non-magical sses will have written tests. I know that you''ve tested out of the first-year course, and that exam will count as your first-month test grade. You''ll still have your tests each month after thatpared to those in the first-year course. It''s not entirely fair to do it that way, but that''s one of the stiptions for testing out early.
"On Monday there will be an assembly and no sses. At the assembly, there will be an orb where you hold your token up as you enter. It will update your token to your student rank. Up until now, nobody has been given a rank, you''ve just been separated into your sses based on your Affinity Levels. One-fifth of your overall score wasn''t enough to give everyone a specific rank, but now we''ll have aplete picture after the first month of sses.
"Any questions?" Master Feld concluded his exnation.
"I have one question," Reivyn replied. "If our rankings are determined by our progress in our Affinities, then what about when someone has a much higher Level than someone else? They will progress slower than those with a lower rank, so it seems counter-intuitive to hold that against people who started with a higher Affinity Level."
"That''s a good question," Master Feld nodded his head. "The answer is simple: The scores for advancing are weighted. Nobody has an Affinity Level less than 11, so we can disregard those Levels. Unlocking a new Affinity gives a bonus of 5 points, but then no points until Level 11. Levels 11 through 19 get one point per Level gain, Levels 20 through 24 get two points per Level gain, Levels 24 through 29 get three points per Level gain, and every five Levels grant an additional point after that. The points are multiplied by the Tier Level, as well, so advancing a Tier 3 Affinity to Level 20 will give 6 points. You started off with your base Affinities at level 44, so advancing to level 45 would give you 7 points for each Affinity advancement."
"What about Level 100, or beyond?" Reivyn asked with curiosity. Master Feld chuckled.
"You don''t aim low, do you? That''s never happened before in the history of the Academy, but we do have a system in ce. Just because it''s never happened before doesn''t mean it''s not possible. Anyway, the scoring system is the same all the way to Level 99, which grants 17 points per Level between 95 and 99. Level 100 grants 20 points, and all Transcendent Levels, those above 100, grant 100 points.
"Those grading systems were just set in ce because it makes sense to always be prepared for any eventuality, not because we expect it to ever happen. I''ve never heard of anyone reaching a Transcendent Level in anything, Affinity or Skill, below Tier 5. Even the Headmaster doesn''t have a Transcendent Level, though I don''t know if he has any Skills or Affinities at Level 100. A good rule of thumb is to assume anyone in mid-Tier 4 or above have at least some Skills or Affinities at Level 100, though, so we can assume that he does."
That matches with what I know about my parents, Reivyn thought. My dad said that he had stagnated at Level 100 in his Weapons Prodigy Skill for a long time, and he didn''t advance to the Transcendent Level until recently when helping to teach me. I don''t know how long he''s been in Tier 5, but I''m pretty sure he already was when he advanced his Skill.
"Alright, thank you," Reivyn said. "I think I get everything."
"Good, and remember," Master Feld said, "it''s a double-edged sword to have higher Affinity Levels. If you advance your Levels during the month, you''ll get more points than other people, but if you stagnate for the month and don''t advance, you get zero points."
The second-year students had lined up and were busy infusing their Affinities into an orb simr to the one used during admissions. There was one slight difference in the procedure, though: the students ced their tokens into a slot, and instead of ramping up their Affinities starting from the lowest Level all the way to the top, their information was recorded on the token, and it somehow bypassed all the previous Levels and worked to extract the appropriate Level from the very beginning.
It''s much faster this way, and it doesn''t cost nearly as much Mana, Reivyn thought as the line moved quickly. There was a staff member recording everyone''s information down on their student records as they moved through the line. Though I suppose a lot of people didn''t enter the Academy with Affinity Levels as high as mine, so they probably never experienced the amount of Mana drain that I did.
It was quickly Reivyn''s turn to infuse his Affinities. He did like everyone else before him and ced his token in the slot. He put his hand on the orb, and he felt the orb absorb his affinities starting off from where it had finished with the initial testing.
Reivyn''s teststed only a little bit longer than the average of everyone else in the ss. Most of the second-year students had unlocked all of the Tier 2 Affinities, and some of them had begun working on their Tier 3 Affinities, as well.
I won''t get any additional points for my Tier 2 and Tier 3 Affinities I''ve already unlocked until they reach Level 11, but that''s fine, Reivyn thought. I''m still ahead of everyone in the first year, and I''ll start getting points from them long before they do. It doesn''t matter for just the first month of sses.
The staff member recorded the numbers down with an obvious look of appreciation on their face. The staff member didn''t know Reivyn was still a first-year student, but from their expression, it seemed he was still at the top of the second year based on Affinity Levels alone. He wasn''t given his score when it was over, but all he had to do was look at his Affinities tab andpare it to what it was when he started to calcte it on his own.
Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (49), Earth (49), Fire (49), Water (49)
Tier 2:
Ice (26), Lightning (13), Magma (26), Metal (26), Mist (13), Mud (13), sma (26), Wood (26)
Tier 3:
Darkness (42), Durability (6), Gravity (6), Kic (6), Light (42), Piercing (6), Sharpness (6)
Tier 4:
Eternal (1)
140 points for my Tier 1 Affinities, 48 points for my Tier 2 Affinities, and 108 for my Tier 3 Affinities, Reivyn did the mental math as he walked back to his seat. So a total score of 296 points during the first month of ss. I think my score is going to be well above those of anyone else in the first year. Reivyn chuckled. He left out the Tier 5 Affinities as he wouldn''t be exposing them regardless.
I already know I passed the first exam for the Political Science ss, so we''ll just have to see how thatpares to whatever exam they have to take. Then we''re all in it together for the other courses. I''m definitely going to remain in the Elite ss, but we''ll wait and see just how high of a position I can get. The Affinities improvement only ounts for 20% of the ranking, so even if I had a thousand points more than anyone else, its effect is still limited.
I also still have a solid lead based on my overall numbers, as that ounts for another 20%, but I don''t know if that''s only Affinities or if there are other Skills or Stats involved. All in all, I basically have 40% of my ranking guaranteed to put me in the first ce ranking, and I''ll need to maintain good scores for the other 60%.
Reivyn stood in line as the students from the first year trickled into the auditorium. Usually, they would all be able to get in at a much faster pace, but because they were updating their student rankings as they entered the building, it was much slower than usual. There were multiple entrances amodating the students, but there were still 2,000 students that had to go through the process.
"So is there going to be an official ranking board or something?" Reivyn asked as they slowly moved forward in the line.
"Nah," Trick said. "There isn''t an ''official'' board, but someone is bound to make one anyway."
"People will find out who''s close to them in their own ss so they understand where they stand against everyone else," Tom said. "So each individual ss is bound to have their own information sorted out fairly quickly. Every year, someone willpile each of the sses together and make a List public to everyone."
"Some people just have too much free time on their hands," Vane chuckled. "It makes sense to understand your own ss and the ones behind and ahead of you, as those are the mainpetitors you''ll be dealing with trying to jockey for a better position. But people love drama. Those in the lower sses will pay attention to what''s happening at the top, and they''ll be looking to stir up trouble so they can watch from the sidelines."
"Stir up trouble?" Reivyn asked.
"Yeah, they''ll start rumors and other little tricks in order to heat up thepetition between the best students," Tom said. "That''s where the duels reallye into y. Most people get along just fine, and there''s really no reason to hold duels or anything other than practice. But every now and then, someone with a lower ranking will do something that garners attention, and the lower-ranking students will start rumors that their positioning underneath someone else isn''t fair. They''ll goad the two students into settling it in the dueling ring, and then they''ll get to watch a show."
"Dueling oues don''t affect your official position unless the duels are part of the course," Vane said. "Then, the results of the duels will be calcted in your Practical Application portion of your scores."
"Doing well in duels will have a positive effect on your position in the girls'' List, though," Trick said. "We don''t care as much for a girl''s performance when it pertains to the List of Angels, but it can be used as a tie-breaker."
"Of course, that''s what you''ll interpret from the rankings and duels," Vane snickered.
"Hey now, I''m not the person who makes the List," Trick defended himself. "If other people weren''t interested, it wouldn''t exist at all."
"You have a point," Vane said.
"So who makes the List, then?" Reivyn asked.
"Nobody, really," Trick said. "It''s a collective will kind of thing. When people talk about a girl enough, she''ll obviously make her way on the List somewhere, and if enough people ept it, then that''s her position on it. There''s nomittee or anything that makes the decisions. It''s organic."
"Do you ever think that this might be one of the reasons why the girls'' List is so secretive?" Reivyn asked. Trick looked at him in confusion. "They might not care enough to codify it like you and the other boys interested in the List do, so it might not exist at all." Trick had a stupefied look on his face for a moment before he shook his head.
"Impossible," he denied. "Their List definitely exists."
"If you say so," Reivyn shrugged.
The four friends made their way to the entrance, and there was another orb just like the Affinities testing orb with a slot for their token to go into. Tom was the first one to step up, and he ced his token in the slot. The Orb shined for a moment, and then a light shed on his token. Tom took it and looked at it while stepping to the side for Vane to move up.
"Hah! Rank 17, boys," Tom said. "I''m firmly in the middle of the Elite ss, pretty much the perfect position."
"Perfect position?" Reivyn asked as Vane retrieved his token from the slot as well.
"What do you have? 19? Also a good spot," Tom said. He turned to Reivyn and addressed his question, "Yeah, those in the bottom portion of the Elite ss have to worry about losing their spot, and those in the top position have to worry about all of the attention. Like we were talking about earlier, those in the top 10 are more likely to have trouble stirred up between them."
"It''s more annoying than anything else," Trick said as he took his token and put it away. "It can get in the way of your studies or practice with people constantly trying to mess with you in one way or another. I pity the person who ends up in first ce, actually."
"What''s your rank? Quickly, tell us," Vane said, jabbing Trick in the shoulder. Trick rolled his eyes and produced the token for his friends to see as Reivyn also put his token down in the slot.
"Hahaha, rank 9," Tom said. "You''re going to be one of the ones that get harassed, and your spot isn''t much worse than first ce. As a person in a low spot in the top 10, people will be equally looking to knock you out of the top 10 and get you a higher spot."
"Yeah, yeah," Trick said, rolling his eyes. "This works well for me, though. I don''t mind a bit ofpetition, and this might get me a spot on the girls'' List if I can capitalize on it correctly."
"Of course," Vane said, wiping his hand down his face. "Reivyn, what''s your rank?''
Reivyn held his token in his hand, looking down at it, and his three roommates joined him in staring at it. On the token, where it had once been nk, arge "1" was prominently disyed in the center.
"Oof," Tom said, pping him on the shoulder. "You can look forward to a lot more people showing up to your ''study group,'' as you call it, and you''ll probably get extra busy with challenges."
"I''m not too concerned," Reivyn said as he put the token away. "You all seem to forget one thing."
"What''s that?" Trick asked.
"You mention that challenges happen because people start rumors about their ranking being unfair," Reivyn said. "But if you crush all opposition and make it clear that you stand on a different level than everyone else, nobody can question whether or not your rankings are close." Reivyn flourished his tessen and allowed some sparks of embers to ignite off of it. "I might be challenged in the beginning, but if nobody can stand a chance against me in the arena, then those challenges will quickly disappear."
"That makes sense," Tom said, stroking his chin. "It''s the same principle as if amoneres into wealth, the othermoners will be jealous of him, but they''re not jealous of nobles or affluent families, because it''s natural that they have wealth. If you make it seem that it''spletely natural for you to be in the first position, so much so that not even the second ce has a shot at knocking you off the pedestal, everyone will just assume that it makes sense for you to be in your spot."
"The premise, though," Vane said, "is that you can crush everyone else in such a manner. You might be able to use your ss Skill in open challenges, but you''ll still have to expend some effort on the Weaving challenges. No Skills allowed, remember?"
Reivyn smiled as he thought about the progress he had made with his Tier 2 weaves and his Lattice ss Skill. As my Lattice Skill increases, and I get more instruction from the teacher as I show my mastery of the weaves, I''m confident I''m further along in that aspect than anyone else, as well.
"I think I''ll be fine," Reivyn said.
"Ok, if you say so," Tom said. "We''ve already seen you in action before, so I''m sure you know what you''re talking about. Let''s go find some seats."
"The first month is over, and that means there will be some changes in how things are done," the teacher announced. It was the same teacher that had given them the speech at their first assembly at the start of the semester. Reivyn didn''t know what his name was, as he didn''t teach any of the sses that Reivyn was in.
"You may now live off campus if you so choose. Your rooms will still be yours, so you''ll always have a ce to stay, but you don''t have to stay there any longer.
"Another change, obviously, is the rankings. Many of you may think that the rankings only determine which ss you''re in because there aren''t any resources allotted to anyone. That isn''t the case.
"While you''re enrolled in the Academy, your ranking directly affects how many sses you can miss and stay in good standing. This will be more apparent as you go off to gain Life Experience in various things. People with lower rankings won''t have enough absent days avable to them to go off and explore Dungeons or participate in Adventurer Guild quests that require any kind of significant travel time.
"If you miss too many days beyond what your ranking allows for, you could fall even further, or even possibly face expulsion. Nobody wants to be expelled, and nobody wants to stay cooped up in the Academy forever. The system is designed to ensure those that are lower in the rankings are spending their time in the most efficient way for their ability levels.
"Higher ranked students have shown that they don''t need as much instruction, and so they''re given more time abroad. We don''t want people to set themselves up for failure by biting off more than they can chew."
That makes sense, Reivyn thought. The lower one''s ranking, the lower Skill and Affinity Levels they''ve disyed, as well as ack of understanding of the outside world when ites to politics and philosophy. People with higher scores within the Academy have disyed a certain level of mastery that they can be trusted to go about independently.
I guess that means Melissa and Larissa are fairly high ranked, as they were gone from sses for well over two months. There might be more to it, though, as it was towards the end of their school year.
"This leads to the next change: Dungeons and Guild Quests. As novices in your first semester, even if you have a high ranking, we don''t want you going off on long expeditions. You will now be allowed to explore the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon located half a day away from The Capital, and you can ept any Adventurer''s Guild quest that isn''t more than a day''s journey away."
"The Cobbled Ruins Dungeon?" Reivyn leaned over and whispered his question to Tom.
"Yeah, it''s one of the Dungeons controlled by The Capital," Tom answered. "Students get preferential ess. It''s a pretty low-level Dungeon, so the army and nobles don''t care for it too much. It''s a bit different than the Dungeon you explored, though."
"Oh, how so?" Reivyn queried.
"It''s not an infinitely instanced Dungeon," Tom said. "It''s an open-air spawn Dungeon. That means that beasts and monsters will pop up out of nowhere in a set range over and over again, but there''s no floor to explore or even a separate space. It all happens here in the real world."
"There are theories about how these Dungeons are formed," Vane whispered, joining the conversation. "Some people think that an infinitely instanced Dungeon failed to form or didn''t connect with our ne of existence properly. It''s still there, and there''s a small connection, though, so monsters and beasts inside of it asionally pop over to the real world."
"So if there''s no separate space and no floors to explore, does that mean there''s no bosses or bonus experience?" Reivyn asked.
"Yup," Trick said. "It''s just a ce where you can go to practice your spells in livebat situations. The monsters and beasts are all weak, too. Tier 1 creatures, like goblins and ferocious beasts that are barely more dangerous than regr predators."
"Hmm, doesn''t seem like it''s worth it," Reivyn said, rubbing his chin in thought.
"No, there''s a reason to still go," Tom said. "You''ll get an artifact from the school that records your performance, and you can get School Credits. Sure, the amount of School Credits you can get from this Dungeon is low, but it''s more than you can get on campus. Plus, it''s the only Dungeon open to first-semester Novice students."
"Next semester, more options will be open to you," the teacher continued. "You''ll be able to explore slightly higher level Dungeons in the surrounding area, and then there''s the third semester of the school year. The third semester is designed to allow students to go further afield and get more Life Experience using the lessons they learned in the first two semesters.
"I''m sure everyone has heard of the new Dungeon in Count Ilpir''s domain near Magron. We had a couple of students explore that Dungeon and one of them was a first-year Novice like you. They were able to go so far away because they were Elite students in the third semester. Your time allotted to you still uses the same concept. Lower-ranking students will be required to attend more sses to make up for any deficiencies, but even they will be allowed to go further away to gain Life Experience.
"That''s all there is to it," the teacher concluded. "You all now understand what the Academy is like and what''s expected of you. You''re not children, so we''re not going to hold your hands the whole time you''re here. There are no sses today, and you can begin making ns for furthering your education outside of simple ssroom instruction and practice.
"That is all. Dismissed," the teacher walked off the stage after ending the small speech.
"Well, that was short," Reivyn said as he and his three friends stood up from their seats.
"Yeah, the main purpose of the assembly was to get everyone their rankings updated in an efficient manner and exin some of the new things, like going to the Dungeon," Tom said.
"We got the rest of the day to ourselves," Trick said. "I''m sure the unofficial ranking list will be out before the week is over, so we still have time before you see anyone making moves."
Hmm, why wait for someone else to make a move? Reivyn thought. A n formed in his mind to get it over and done with.
Chapter 74: Royale Fight
Chapter 74: Royale Fight
"I don''t know how you talked me into this," Tommented.
"It''s because I''m so Charismatic," Reivyn shrugged.
"Yeah, yeah," Tom replied. "That doesn''t change the fact that this is absolutely crazy."
"Ready?" A teacher shouted. Reivyn and Tom both nodded, and the Teacher, after a moment to verify, raised his arm and then brought it down sharply. "Begin!"
Unassisted Bolt Spells flew all over the dueling stage as the entire 30-student Elite ss began a free-for-all magical melee. Reivyn began thebat by creating a mana shield by hand and infusing it with the Eternal Element, using his tessen as the focus for the spell.
His paranoia was right, as over half of the spells came flying to him, but his conjecture on the properties of the Eternal Element was also correct, and all of the Spells were blocked by his shield. He noticed that there was only a small spike in the Mana usage of the shield, much smallerpared to when he used only pure mana.
The actual cost of keeping up the shield with Eternal Mana is higher, so it''s a wash on the Mana cost, Reivyn noted. It''s more powerful than a pure Mana shield, though. There was zero chance of any of the Spells oveing the shield, so it''s already a better method. As I raise my Affinity Level and Skill Levels, though, the Mana cost wille down.
Reivyn dismissed the shield and pulled his left hand out from behind his back, where he had been threading the weaves for a simple bolt spell. He tossed the spell out towards the other side as everyone else was scrambling to form new weaves to deal with each other.
Tom was to his immediate right. All of the students had agreed to not forming any kind of alliance at the beginning of the match, but Reivyn, Tom, and the other two roommates subconsciously focused their attentions on the students across from them. The 30 students were formed in a circle, as there wasn''t enough room otherwise, and some of them attacked those closest to themselves.
Before the match had begun, everyone had been given the two artifacts to create the shields to protect everyone from harm, and the audience stands were full of the other Novice students and even some from the Apprentice and Journeyman sses.
"If their goal is to entertain themselves with drama, why not put on a big show right at the beginning, instead?" Reivyn had brought up the idea to his roommates.
"It''s not just the sparring matches that people will get to see," Trick said. "People also like drama, so it''s likely that the instances will still ur."
"Yeah, but this should sate their desire to watch some magical fun, as well as showcase the Elite ss''s prowess," Reivyn argued. "Sure, they''ll eventually stir up trouble between people, but this will give us a lot of breathing room before that happens."
"I suppose that''s true," Vane said. "And if people can show abilities above everyone else all at the same time, it will get your point across about deserving to be in that spot."
"Plus if we''re all in the arena at the same time, it doesn''t have to be anything serious," Reivyn continued. "We can say it''s just for fun, and we don''t even have to go all out until there''s a clear winner. If we all get up there and go wild, but we don''t fight ''til thest man, that leaves a lot of leeways for people to save face as well as give others something to talk about. Most people don''t have enough mana for a sustained battle like this without using ss Skills, anyway. It''s a win-win situation."
"Ok, let''s run it by the rest of the ss and see what they have to say," Tom said.
It went without saying that they all eventually agreed.
Reivyn''s Fire Bolt Spell went sailing through the empty air, all alone as everyone else was still working on building their next weave. It flew through the air and smashed against one of the other students, a shield popping up to protect him from the effects of the magic. He looked momentarily surprised as he lost concentration on his weave. He shook his head as he reformed his weaves with a renewed effort to try and keep up with the others.
It seems weird, but I can tell that the Ambidexterity Skill definitely yed a role in assisting with making the weave with my off-hand, Reivyn thought. I don''t know if it''s a mental thing, a System thing, or what the cause is, but it seems manipting mana with your hands and not a focus is somehow affected by how well you can manipte material things with that hand.
I thought it was purely a mental thing.
Reivyn dismissed the thoughts from his mind as he focused on the battle going on. Different Elemental Spells were formed andunched by the students, and it became apparent very quickly who was slightly more skilled and who needed more work as the Spells weren''t formed at a uniform speed. There wasn''t much of a difference between the Elite students, but if one paid attention enough, it was there to be noticed.
Reivyn continued to form Spells with his tessen as a focus as well as concealing weaves made with his off-hand behind his back. He noticed that most of the other students used some form of focus, too, be it a fan, as in the case of his friends, or a staff, rod, or wand in the case of most of the other students. Hardly anyone else was just using their hands to manipte their mana.
Reivyn surveyed the field and noticed that everyone mainly stayed put in their position as they concentrated on forming their weaves. He also noticed another peculiarity as the melee continued: There were three girls that received considerably fewer attacks than any of the other students.
Reivyn decided to change that, and he strode out into the middle of the field as he gathered his two mana weaves. Many of the other students were still focused on building their own weaves or on an opponent they had selected for themselves, so most didn''t immediately notice Reivyn''s movements. I''m pretty confident I''m the only person in the dueling ring that has the Battlefield Awareness Skill. I wonder ifpeting in more matches like this will help others get that Skill? Something to think about and discuss with the others at ater time.
He walked toward the center, but then veered in the direction of one of the girls that were getting fewer Spellsunched her way. Either people are subconsciously avoiding attacking these girls, or there''s an ulterior motive behind their actions. Can''t have that. This is a free-for-all, and nobody should feelpletely safe, Reivyn chuckled with a small smile forming on his face.
He threw his left hand forward and released the Spell he had formed. It was a Light sh Spell he had extrapted the weaves for from his ss Skills using Lattice to help deduce it, and an orb of mana shot towards the girl. One of the male students standing nearby had noticed the situation with Reivyn, and he dashed in front of the Spell.
"I''ll protect you!" The boy valiantly dered. Well, that answers that question, Reivyn snorted.
The Light sh Spell detonated in front of the boy''s face, blinding him. He yelled out in surprise and covered his face. Reivyn then held his fan out, closed it, and channeled a sma Beam through it, directly at the stunned boy. The boy''s shield lit up as it protected him, and it quickly dimmed under the onught of the Beam Spell.
Reivyn released the built-up mana he had prepared for the Spell, and the boy''s shield was precariously close to winking out.
"What are you doing?" The girl spoke up to the boy who had jumped in front of her. "I don''t need your protection," she shook her head as she released her own weave upon the boy''s back.
The Spell appeared to be a simple Bolt Spell using the Wind Element, but Reivyn noticed that it had a severe rotation inside of it, like a tiny tornado. It mmed into the boy''s back, and his outer shield copsed. The Wind Bolt had enough power left, though, to shatter his internal shield, and he was eliminated from the match.
"Go down," the girl said dispassionately.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense kicked in, and heunched himself backward as several Bolt Spells flew past where he had just been standing from several different directions. Reivyn looked up and saw several other students grinning at him. Reivyn began weaving his mana again and started moving about the ring. His actions had apparently inspired others, and many of the students began moving away from their original positions.
The melee descended into even more chaos as not just Spells flew about the field, but people ran around in a confusing manner as well. Reivyn continued his dual Spell casting, one after another, as he witnessed the scene.
Reivyn noticed that the other two girls that had been avoided by most of the other students had ended up in a personal duel of sorts. I guess if the others aren''t going to give them the fight they want, they can just fight each other, Reivyn chuckled. The girl that Reivyn had attacked was now fully involved in the melee as the other students saw her attitude toward her "protector."
Most of the students began slowing down their manicunching of Spells as their Mana pools diminished, but Reivyn continued on unabated. He heard theughter of his friends and other students, and several others were eventually eliminated as their shields failed.
It''s about time to end this, Reivyn thought as he witnessed the other students begin to gasp for breath. Sweat trickled down their foreheads and dripped down as the consumption of Mana caught up to them. Reivyn nced at his Mana before summoning his Spells once more.
826/2,240
I''ve been spending about double the Mana as everyone else, but even then, I imagine my Mana pool is considerably higher than anyone else''s. Reivyn nodded to himself as he formed a "me de" from his closed tessen. He formed the Spell to create a shield out of pure Mana with his off-hand, but he kept it in reserve until it was needed.
Reivyn dashed towards a clump of students who had coincidentally formed together as they moved about, and he shed through them all like he was wielding a sword. Their outer shields were already flickering, and he managed to burst three of the five with his maneuver.
"One final attack! He can''t block us all," A call came from a student behind Reivyn.
He assumed a ready stance as he twirled about to see that all of the other students had focused on him. Multiple Spells came flying at him from every direction. He released the shield Spell he had built, and with an effort of will, he transferred the same intent to his "me de." He noticed out of the corner of his awareness that the weave inside of the Spell form altered a bit, and he used his shield to block several Spells from his left, and he used his "me de" to parry the other Spells.
Whatever it was that I subconsciously did, it worked, Reivyn noted as he batted the Spells away with his improvised fire sword. He wasn''t able to stop all of the Spellsunched at him, and his shield artifact lit up as it blocked the ones that got through. His protection, however, was still mostly intact, and it didn''t even flicker.
He stood there in his ready stance as the other students who hadunched the volley witnessed hime out of it almost unscathed. Several of them sighed as they sat down where they stood.
"That''s it for me," Tom said with augh. "I don''t have enough Mana to form another weave, much less continue fighting."
"Me, too," Vane said. Trick nodded his head. The other students seemed to share their sentiments, as they began walking to the edge of the stage. Reivyn stood where he was, his shield Spell and "me de" still going strong. He looked around and saw that the battle was over, and everyone else had stoppedpeting.
He dismissed his Spells, and the sounds of cheering from the crowd finally entered his conscious awareness. It was almost deafening, the loud shouting from all of the students as they fully immersed themselves in enjoying the spectacle. A sudden Notification popping up caused him to pause and inspect it.
New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 1:
Light Armor (1)
Tier 4:
Dual Spell Casting (1)
Nice, Reivyn thought. I wonder if I was able to more easily get it because of the Ambidexterity Skill? I should mention this to the others. And I didn''t realize that these robes would count as "Light Armor." I should practice sparring in these clothes, as well.
Reivyn stood up straight, opened his fan, and strode off the stage towards his roommates with his head held high. He could make out that some people were cheering for him specifically and congratting him on a job well done, but most of the cheering was for the Elite ss as a whole.
"How are you still so nonchnt?" Vane asked, bent over breathing hard. "How much Mana do you still have?" Reivyn nced at his tab once more.
731/2,240
"Just over 700," Reivyn said. His three roommates gave him a weird look as they digested that information.
"What?!" Tom shouted. "You still have over 700 mana?!" Many of the other students nearby from the Elite ss, as well as the closest ones in the audience, looked over with surprise.
"That''s more than half of my total Mana pool," Trick said, shaking his head. "And you were running about casting twice as many Spells as anyone else." Reivyn shrugged.
"Yeah, I can see how you were confident in crushing your opponents," Tom said after regaining hisposure. "It''s not just that you know a ton of weaves already. You''re a monster."
"You''re not wrong," Reivyn said with a smile. "That''s what my parents say, too."
"Your parents call you a monster?" Vane asked, his eyebrow quirked up with a skeptical look on his face.
"In a loving way," Reivyn defended.
"Sure," Trick said. "They ''lovingly'' call you a monster."
"C''mon, let''s go," Reivyn said.
"Hold on a minute," a voice called out. The four friends stopped and looked over to see Master Feld entering the arena. "Elite ss, gather up really quick," he instructed.
The other students stopped their exit and looked at each other before making their way back up onto the stage.
"This isn''t anything important," Master Feld directed his voice toward the audience which had quieted down upon him taking the stage. "You all can go about your business. I''m only going to talk to them for a moment."
The students in the audience mostly resumed walking towards the exit, talking about the chaotic battle they had witnessed enthusiastically, but some stayed where they were to see what Master Feld wanted with the Elite ss.
Master Feld waited for the Elite ss students to gather up before him. Most of them were excited about what they had just done, but some were a little disheartened about their poor performance. The boy who had jumped in front of the girl that Reivyn attacked was one such student, and he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment.
"I noticed several of the students pause and supposedly check out a System Notification," Master Feld said once everyone had gathered around and were paying attention to him. "Now, Skills and Stats are private matters, so I don''t want anyone to think they have to share, but I would like to know if anyone gained anything unexpected out of the melee just now. Just a show of hands will be fine."
The students looked around amongst themselves, and about half of them raised their hands, Reivyn included.
"Excellent," Master Feld said with a small smile. "If anyone wants to share what it was, that would be great. But as I said, you don''t have to."
"Umm," a tentative voice spoke up. Reivyn looked over and saw that it was the boy who had jumped in front of his Spell. "I unlocked the Danger Sense Skill," he said meekly. Maybe he''s trying to recover from the embarrassment, Reivyn thought. I mean, good on him, that''s a very useful Skill.
"Good, good," Master Feld congratted him. "Anyone else?"
"I unlocked Battlefield Awareness," one of the girls who had ended up dueling with the other spoke up. Her opponent on the field nodded her head to indicate she had as well. They smiled at each other. It seems like they''re friends off of the stage, Reivyn chuckled. Kind of like how Tom joined the other students in theirst attack on me.
"Great," Master Feld said. "That''s all I wanted to know. Thank you for sharing. You can go about your business, now." Master Feld took the information he had received and walked out of the Arena.
"What was that all about?" Tom asked to the group of friends as they once more made their way to the exit.
"Well..." Reivyn said, contemting the situation. "How often is the Arena used for a free-for-all melee?"
"I don''t recall anyone else doing it," Trick answered.
"Maybe we showed that there were benefits they hadn''t considered before," Reivyn spected. "Sometimes people are too close to the issues to see everything involved, and they''ve been doing things a certain way for so long that they don''t even consider other avenues of approach."
"That makes sense," Vane said. "It''s just been taken for granted that the dueling arena is used between two people dueling. I don''t see how anyone is likely to unlock Skills like Danger Sense or Battlefield Awareness in a simple duel like that."
"Speaking of," Tom interjected, "I noticed that you raised your hand, too, Reivyn. What did you unlock?"
"I unlocked Dual Casting," Reivyn didn''t conceal the Skill. He had disyed his ability to weave multiple Spells simultaneously to practically the whole Academy, anyway.
"Huh, I would have guessed that you already had that Skill, what with how you were slinging Spells about like that," Trick said.
"Nah, I was using Ambidexterity to help manipte the Mana with my off-hand," Reivyn replied. "Speaking of, that might be an avenue of approach to assist all of you in gaining the Skill if you want to work towards it."
"Yeah, it would definitely be useful..." Tom said. "In the future. I''m not sure any of us have the raw Mana pool necessary to make it a viable strategy at the moment."
"You''re not taking your ss Spells into ount," Reivyn pointed out. "The Mana cost will be a lot less that way."
"Good point," Tom conceded.
"Alright, it''s settled then," Vane said. "Another Skill you''ll be helping us unlock."
Reivyn''s life at the Academy returned to normal after therge, open battle between the entire Elite ss, but it seemed that his little scheme had also drawn a lot of them closer to each other. He could often hear students of the Elite ss discussing different aspects of what had happened during the battle with each other. Everyone was trying to analyze their own actions as well as each others'' in order to be better Casters.
Many students included Reivyn and his roommates in their discussions, and they didn''t hold anything back from each other. His roommates'' predictions of arger study group also came true, as even some of the other Elite ss students joined the group. Their numbers swelled and stabilized at around 80 students each time.
Melissa, Larissa, and their friends went to most of the study groups, but they also had their own things to attend to, so sometimes they had to get a teacher to supervise. Regardless, the girls also managed to make new friends in the Novice ss, and the study group was a harmonious environment for everyone that attended. It was mostly the same students each time, but there were some that rotated in and out.
Another change to the students'' life came about in the official formation of group duels. The school created rules and formalities for different levels of free-for-all battles as well as team battles. They even made it a mandatory exercise going forward to participate in them as sses, and the benefits were seen by staff and students of each year alike.
"You seem to have had a pretty big impact on the entire Academy," Tom said. "It''s been a long time since a change so big has happened, that I''m aware of."
"As long as it''s a good impact," Reivyn said with a shrug. "I''ve always been open about helping anyone and everyone, and if I don''t even have to be involved, even better." The four boys chuckled.
"Yeah, if you were involved every time, you''d have no time for yourself," Vane said.
"Your little n worked even better than we anticipated, too," Trick said. "Now the lower ss students are also preupied with their own battle royales and teampetitions that they have less time to stir up rumors to cause drama."
"It''ll stille," Tom said. "Mark my words, but it does seem like our entire Novice ss is closer to each other, at least on a ss-by-ss basis, than it has been in the past."
"Now that you''ve caused suchrge waves and your own studies areing along, what''s the next step?" Trick asked.
"Well, it''s about time we went to the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon," Reivyn replied. "We''ll have to put our study group on hold while we''re gone, but it should only be for a couple of days at most. It is only half a day''s journey away."
"Sounds good to me," Tom said. "We''ll make preparations and get the recording artifacts from the Academy Quartermaster. When did you want to go?"
"I was thinking we could go towards the end of a week," Reivyn said. "We get allotted time off to be able to go, and I don''t want to go on a weekend so I can go and visit my family for a break."
"Sounds good," Trick said. "You can take us with you, too, and introduce us to your friends at the Knight Academy and family while we''re at it."
"Good," Reivyn said. "Sounds like a n."
Chapter 75: Lurking Ruins
Chapter 75: Lurking Ruins
Reivyn and his three friends dismounted from the horses they had ridden to the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon. There was a small outpost just outside of the outskirts of the Dungeon that reminded Reivyn of the Dungeon Town. This Dungeon was considerably less valuable, though, so it wasn''t a booming startup or anything like that. Most of the people present were on the younger side, gaining their first bit of experience.
The residents were mainly employed by the Crown or the two Academies, and there were ces that specially catered to the students. The young Adventurers had to wait in line for a chance to delve into the Dungeon, despite it being quiterge from what Reivyn could see. It''s at least twice the size of Magron from what I can tell.
The Dungeon got its name from the broken-down fort aesthetic it had. There were crumbling walls and other stone buildings that could be seen in the distance. The roads were just dirt paths created by the many people wandering the Dungeon to find monsters to fight, and grass and weeds had taken over with other flora. It was a mix of ruined fort-city and grasnd with some sparse forests.
"This is the famous Cobbled Ruins Dungeon," Tom said, extending his arm out to indicate the Dungeon in the distance. "We can board our horses at the Academy stables. There''s room and board for staying overnight, and you can pay money or school credits to extend your stay."
Reivyn had kept the horses that he had purchased at one of the stables managed by the Adventurer Guild when they had arrived in The Capital. He had taken the opportunity to increase his Adventurer Rank when he picked the horse up for the journey to the Dungeon.
There wasn''t that much change from being aplete newbie to the Adventurer''s Guild with just one increase in Rank, but he was assured that he could take on more jobs and requests that required a higher level of responsibility. It was practically assumed that someone who had Adventured long enough to increase their rank also came with an increase in wisdom andmon sense. One couldn''t just wait out the time in grade and expect to go up in Rank, one also had to actively participate in adventuring or other simr situations. Reivyn had plenty of aplishments to fuel his Rank increases for another three or four Ranks, and it would only get more as more time went on.
"Sounds good to me," Reivyn said. "Let''s get our horses taken care of, and then we can just jump right into it."
"I''m sure this ce isn''t nearly as interesting as the Dungeon you ran out near Magron," Trickmented.
"It''s not about that," Reivyn said. "I''m not here to gain Levels or seek Life Experience. I''m here purely for the School Credits."
"So are you wanting to separate and go our own ways when we go in there?" Vane asked.
"Not at first," Reivyn said. "You said that the recording artifacts given by the Academy will record our progress, right?" Tom and the other two boys nodded their heads. "How does that work, exactly?"
"It works in two ways," Tom said, holding up his fingers. "It will integrate with your mana signature and record your Spell Casting, so it makes a record of that. Then it also integrates with the System somehow and records the Experience you gain. So it keeps a personal record of how you Cast Spells as well as the enemies you defeat."
"So if it integrates with our mana signatures and the System, does that mean that if we form a party, it will record how well we act together?" Reivyn asked.
"Yes," Tom nodded his head.
"Ok, then our task is to form an official System Party and practice working together to fight monsters and Cast Spells. Once we''ve worked together and formed a cohesive system, we can split up and do our own thing." Reivyn nced at his System clock. It was just after 1 in the afternoon. "It''s still toward the end of summer, and the sun will go down around 8ish or so, which gives us about seven hours to explore the Dungeon. I say we spend about four hours in a Party and then break up for thest three hours. We can do some more exploring in the morning before we leave if you guys want to."
Tom and the other two roommates shared a look and nodded their heads.
"Sounds good to me," Tom said.
Reivyn formed up the Party through the System interface and invited his roommates. The four boys handed their horses over to the stables and immediately made their way to therge opening in the crumbled walls surrounding the Dungeon.
"This Dungeon has been here for as long as anyone in the kingdom can remember," Tom said conversationally. "Nobody knows the origins of the ruins, and it would usually have broken down and faded into obscurity by now, with how old it is. They say it doesn''tpletely copse because it has been integrated as a Dungeon by the System."
"The monsters here are all low-level," Vane added. "We''ll mostly encounter goblins, either alone or in small groups, and wild beasts that have be stronger due to the higher ambient mana in the localized area."
They stepped through where there were obviously once gates in the walls of the fort, and Reivyn noticed an obvious uptick in the mana density. It''s not nearly as much as the Dungeon - Can''t keep calling it that, it doesn''t have an official name yet, but I''ll call it the Revenant Dungeon until then - near Magron. I can see how over time, though, it would warp beasts and animals beyond what can be found in the Tier 1 Region.
"Yeah, if we use the ambient Mana through Mana Absorption to assist in our Spell Casting, we should be able to sustain free-hand weaves longer than we normally could in the Academy," Trick said while looking all around as they walked onto a path. "That''s another thing the higher Tier Regions have on us. It''s not to the point where they can continuously cast without repercussions, but they definitely have an advantage. Mana Absorption bes more and more important the higher the rank of your Spells, and it gets more efficient the higher the Tier of the Region."
"Yeah, the Revenant Dungeon had a higher mana density than here, and I never felt like I was going to run out of mana when exploring that Dungeon," Reivyn chuckled.
"That''s not saying much," Trick said. "You have a ridiculous mana pool."
"I didn''t always," Reivyn pointed out. "Even when I had considerably less Mana, it was always enough."
The boys traveled for several minutes on what was apparently the main road. There wasn''t a lot to see yet, as they didn''t encounter any beasts or monsters of any kind. They asionally passed by other people, though. Some of them were seen off in the distance, and some were heading out of the ruins, walking opposite to Reivyn''s party.
"So how is the Dungeon managed?" Reivyn asked. "I noticed that we didn''t have to wait at all, but there were apparently a lot of Adventurers in the outpost waiting to go in."
"The students get priority," Tom answered. "We don''t have to wait at all, and we cane and go as we please. The other people have to wait their turn, though. There are only so many monsters that can spawn in a given amount of time, and it never exceeds an upper threshold of about two thousand or so."
"Yeah, we don''t have to worry about a Dungeon break with this one," Trick said. "The reason Dungeon breaks are so dangerous is that they release multiple instances at once, greatly increasing the number of monsters one would normally face. The monsters in the open-air Dungeons are still somehow bound to the perimeter of the Dungeons, and even if they could be broken out, their numbers would be limited to what was currently spawned."
"Also, this Dungeon is only goblins and other weak beasts, like we said," Vane added. "If there was somehow a break, they''d be wiped out in less than an hour, even if they spread in all directions from the Dungeon."
"Hmm, I can see that," Reivyn said.
Something tickled at his awareness as they had their conversation, and he swung his head around looking for the source. He noticed a faint shimmer a little ways in front of them on the main road. It kind of reminds me of when I saw the faint outlines of the System Notification when Teilon got an Achievement, Reivyn squinted at the spot. He activated his Mana Sight and focused his Veridical Affinity into his eyes. The faint shimmers immediately became clearer, and Reivyn saw the shadowy outline of four goblins walking together.
As he watched them move towards the Party, he noted that they were slowly bing more corporeal. He held his hand up and pointed at the location where the four goblins appeared toe into full view from his estimation.
"We got four goblins about to appear right in front of us, right there," Reivyn said. As he finished speaking, four goblins suddenly came into existence, walking along the path like they had always been there. "We''ll each take one. Pick the one in the same position as yourself," Reivyn subconsciously Commanded.
The four boys swiftly created their weaves as the goblins spotted them almost at the same time. They screeched and charged forward, just like Reivyn remembered them always doing. They had no care or thought for anything other than getting to the humans and attacking them.
Four Spells materialized from the focuses the boys carried andunched at the goblins. They smashed into their heads almost simultaneously, and the four goblins dropped down, dead.
Enemy Defeated
Exp + 5 (50% for 1 Tier below)
Exp +1
Exp +1
Exp +1
Oh, I didn''t know there was an Experience penalty for killing things of a lower Tier. It hasn''t been an issue until now, Reivyn thought as he examined the Notification. I guess +1 is the minimum.
"So what''s the penalty for killing things even lower than one Tier below you?" Reivyn asked.
"It''s 50% per Tier," Tom said. "These guys are equivalent to Tier 1 Level 10, so they give 10 Experience. You get 5 Experience for being Tier 2, and if you Level up to Tier 3, it''ll be another 50% less for 2 Experience. The System always rounds down, but there''s a minimum of 1."
So once I''m Tier 4, killing the Revenants will only grant 190 Experience, Reivyn tapped his chin in thought. Mom killed a couple of thousand Revenants plus some Tier 4 Demons, but if most of her Experience gains were cut in half, it makes sense that she didn''t skyrocket in Level. She was Level 40 when she showed me her Status, so that means if she was in the 30s before the battle, she would need over 50,000 Experience per Level. I guess she gained five or six levels from destroying the army. Dad would have only gained 85 Experience for each of the Revenants he killed, and he only killed a couple hundred on the wall.
"By the way," Vane said, "how did you know those goblins were going to appear when and where they did." Reivyn shrugged.
"I''m just special like that," Reivyn replied nonchntly.
"Fine, keep your secrets," Vane shoved Reivyn on the shoulder yfully. "It actually is fine."
"Alright, let''s keep going," Reivyn said. "We should practice on teamwork and using synergy for our Spells. I''ll also act as a vanguard sometimes so you can get some experience Casting around a melee ally."
"Why do we need to try so hard?" Trick asked, an eyebrow quirked. "This is the easiest of the easy." Reivyn pped a hand over Trick''s mouth to keep him from talking any further.
"Shhhhh!" Reivyn said, looking around like he was checking to make sure nobody else heard him. "Do you want it to be harder? Never say that it''s too easy out loud. Don''t even think it. Every time I''ve ever had that attitude, something has gone terribly wrong." Reivyn straightened up as Trick eyed him suspiciously. "Trust me. Don''t talk like that.
"Anyway, the point isn''t about this Dungeon at all," Reivyn exined. "The point is to use this opportunity to train for the next Dungeon. During the summer semester, we''ll have a lot more time to go and explore other, more dangerous Dungeons. We can team up with my friends from the Knight Academy and get even more training in with them.
"All of that will be necessary if you want to go to the Revenant Dungeon," Reivyn said. "You guys all want to get the quota to move up to the 2nd Tier Region Academy, right?" The three boys nodded their heads. "Completing the second floor of the Revenant Dungeon will definitely be a huge boost towards that goal. It''s not a joke down there, so you guys need to practice these things."
"That makes sense," Tom said with a thoughtful look. "But if you''re with us, how much training do we really need?" The three boysughed, but Reivyn just shook his head.
"I haven''t decided if I''m going to go with you guys or not," Reivyn said. "I should already have credit for doing so, even if I don''t get the associated School Credits. It might be better for me to get more variety and roam about to get my School Credits than to go back and do the same thing over again.
"The same thing goes for my friends in the Knight Academy. You can count on us to go with you anywhere else in the kingdom to get Life Experience and School Credits, but we''ll need more thought on spending the time to go all the way back to the Revenant Dungeon. It''s all about opportunity cost for us."
"Sure, don''t let us hold you back," Vane said. "Just helping us get the proper training to strike out on our own with our own acquaintances is more than enough."
"Ok, ok," Reivyn said. "Let''s continue. We''re burning daylight."
The Party spent the four hours they had decided on going through various permutations ofbat. Reivyn was quite pleased with how well they picked up on the different responsibilities associated with the different tactics.
He was able to lead the group of four around in a very efficient manner with his ability to detect monsters and beasts about to spawn over from wherever they came from. They witnessed several other groups or individuals waiting around in supposedly "hot spots," waiting for enemies to spawn. Reivyn''s group didn''t have that problem, as he constantly led them forward towards new enemies to practice on.
Experience: 2,021/3,200
Despite only getting 5 Experience per kill, and mostly only 1 Experience for each enemy, I still managed to get around 400 Experience in the past four hours, Reivyn mused as he pulled up his Experience tab. Gaining Experience isn''t the point of this excursion, but it''s still not terrible, all things considered.
"Alright, this is where we should break up and go solo," Reivyn said to his Party.
"Aww, man," Trickined. "How are we supposed to fight anything with you running around snagging up all of the monsters that spawn?"
"I''ll head toward the far side of the Dungeon," Reivyn chuckled. "I''ll stick to that side and not cross the halfway point, so you guys have a city-sized zone to explore."
"We know," Vane said, pushing Trick who was looking at Reivyn with puppy-dog-eyes. "He just doesn''t want to slow down to almost crawling after roaming around with a monster ma for so long."
"Yeah, let''s go," Tom jerked his head to the side. Vane pulled Trick along as Trick held his arms out like he wanted to grab ahold of Reivyn. Reivyn just snorted and shook his head.
I''ll be able to focus more on my own weaves, now, Reivyn thought as he headed off towards the far side of the Dungeon.
He picked his way over the broken stones and asional tree littering the paths. The pathways were much less distinct further away from the entrance to the Dungeon, and he also saw fewer people moving about.
He kept his Mana Sight going with his Veridical Affinity, and he made his way from one group of spawning monsters to another, cycling through his different weaves to deal with them. He entered a state of concentration as he focused on weaving death throughout the dpidated ruins.
"...feel?" a voice heard on the other side of a broken wall intruded on Reivyn''s concentration as he moved down a path between copsing stone buildings.
"I feel great, Your Excellency," the second voice sounded very familiar to Reivyn. He frowned as he came fully out of his concentration and focused on the voices, trying to remember where he knew that voice from. He slowed his steps and activated his Stealth Skills with Eavesdropping. He wasn''t particrly trying to hide, but he also didn''t want to get entangled in anything right now.
"That''s only the beginning," the first voice said with augh. "Keep following me, and there''s more toe."
There was a small hole in the wall that Reivyn was walking alongside, and he peeked an eye through the crack. On the other side of the wall, he saw six people, four males and two females. He didn''t recognize four of them, but two of the people stood out and rooted Reivyn in ce as he took it in.
On the other side of the wall, the prince from Eldiar was standing with four other people behind him, and Ren, the man who had caused him so much trouble and tried to have him killed in the skirmish, was standing opposite them. He was looking down at his hands in wonder, and he constantly gripped and un-gripped them.
"It feels like I never lost it," Reivyn heard him whisper. Reivyn focused on Ren''s actions. He has a new hand, he realized.
"Come on," the prince pped Ren on the shoulder. "We''re only here to get you familiarized with the differences. This is low-Level stuff, but you need a proper understanding if you n on sticking with me."
"Yes, Your Excellency," Ren said. He stopped gripping his hands and got into formation with the other five people behind the prince.
Reivyn took a closer look at all of those present, and he noticed that the other five were students from either the Magic Academy or the Knight Academy. Their student tokens hung on their waists were a dead giveaway. They each carried another token, though, one that held an unfamiliar sigil on it.
That must be some representation of the prince and his House, Reivyn surmised. He looked around himself and at the buildings, searching for the bodyguards that Reivyn knew would be present, but he didn''t see anyone. Either the prince''s bodyguards are just that good and I''m about to get ambushed, or he left them at the outpost. Honestly, it''s probably thetter, but I should move about with caution, assuming it''s the former.
Reivyn wasn''t intending on spying on the group, but there just seemed to be something off about the situation, so he wanted a little bit more information. He tailed the group that moved about the ruins in high spirits. The prince asionally looked at a device in his hands that Reivyn couldn''t see, and he apparently chose which direction to move based on what the device told him.
Reivyn noticed that the group of six was heading towards some monsters that were about to materialize, and he watched as the prince held up his arm to stop his group.
"Should be another group of goblins appearing nearby," he said as he looked around. Whatever he''s looking at must somehow detect the monster spawns, Reivyn thought. I can see them clearly with my Veridical Affinity infused Mana Sight, but it looks like they only get an approximate location from that magic item.
Soon, the goblins came into view, and Ren pulled out his sword and attacked the goblins. Most of the others just watched, but one of the Magic Academy students unleashed a few free-hand Spells as well. There was something odd about the Spells, but Reivyn couldn''t quite ce his finger on it.
He followed them for a bit longer, but they weren''t really doing anything other than hunting monsters like everyone else in the Dungeon. Why am I still following these guys? Reivyn thought. He was about to give up when he had an idea.
He focused once more on the Spell Caster that joined Ren in attacking the monsters, and he flipped his Veridical Affinity infusion off. The Spell weaves still looked exactly the same, but there was still an odd sense that came from the mana. He switched his Abyss Affinity on to his Mana Sight on a whim, and he saw creeping, shadowy mana merging with the regr mana weaves.
They''re using Abyss mana! Reivyn thought in shock. He noticed the token with the prince''s sigil on it re up with Abyss mana as well, and it managed to block all of the Abyss mana from seeping out beyond what Reivyn could see when specifically looking at it with his own Affinity assisting him. That token somehow mixes their Abyss mana in a way that hides it from outside observers. I can only see it because I can specifically see Abyss mana while focusing.
Is the prince a member of the cult? Or maybe his entire family? If it''s his family involved, how much of the Royal Family of Eldiar are cultists? I need to tell my parents about this.
Reivyn lost interest in exploring the Dungeon further and working on his weaves. He backed away from the prince''s group and headed toward the center of the Dungeon. There was nothing more to learn from the group, as they just appeared to be practicing their Spell weaves with Abyss mana. There''s probably something involving Abyss mana mixing with Stamina for the Martial sses, as well.
I still need to record a bit more for the School Credits, Reivyn thought to himself as walked in contemtion. I''ve already done a lot more than most people because of my unique advantage, though, so I''ll just snag up any monsters I spot on the way. I have too much to think about to worry about fighting monsters right now.
Chapter 76: Cultural Affiliation?
Chapter 76: Cultural Affiliation?
The sun began to set as Reivyn sat near the entrance to the Dungeon. He had only killed a few more monsters that spawned near him on his way out after witnessing the prince with Ren and his entourage. He was lost in thought and didn''t even activate his Mana Sight with Veridical Affinity in order to find monsters more efficiently.
It''s a good thing the recording devices, like all of the other magical devices mass produced for the students, are geared towards students and only have functionality up to Tier 3 Affinities and Spells, Reivyn thought. I wouldn''t have been able to find monsters before they spawn or witness the conspiracy, or whatever it is, involving the prince and his people otherwise.
Reivyn didn''t have to wait long until he heard the banter between his friends as they made their way out of the Dungeon. He had spent most of the three hours they had designated for solo exploration in his concentrated state of hunting, and it was almost time to leave the Dungeon anyway by the time he finished eavesdropping on the prince''s Party.
"...probably killed a couple hundred monsters," Trick''s voice reached Reivyn''s ears. He perked up and watched his friends stride into view. "I only killed 30 monsters in the whole three hours."
"Better than me," Vane said. "I got 26."
"There he is, let''s just ask him," Tom said as the friends spotted Reivyn sitting alone on a broken stone brick. "Hey, Reivyn! How many monsters did you kill after you banished us from your presence?" Reivyn frowned as he thought about it.
"I don''t know," Reivyn said. "I didn''t keep track, honestly." He opened his Experience tab and took a nce. "Going by my Experience gains, I killed an additional 160 monsters."
"Look at this guy," Trick said, turning to the other two. "Disgusting." Reivyn shrugged.
"So we going to pick up where we left off in the morning? Get some additional hunting in before we leave to head back to The Capital?" Tom asked as they turned and headed for the designated student quarters.
"No," Reivyn said. "I n on leaving at first light. Something came up and I need to go talk to my parents. You guys are wee toe with me, or you can stay here and keep going on your own; up to you." The three friends looked at each other and shrugged.
"We''ll go back with you," Tom said. "We got enough in the records to get a decent amount of School Credits for the Dungeon. Most studentse here and kill about 50 or so monsters per trip, and we definitely got more than that even if we divvy up the credit for when we went in as a Party."
"Alright, let''s get some dinner and then sleep," Reivyn said. "It''ll be an early morning."
"Sure," Vane said.
Reivyn woke up feeling refreshed. He had only spent a little bit of time working on his Mana Skills and Affinities the previous night, as he was serious about getting up early and leaving right at dawn.
He got dressed, grabbed his gear, and headed downstairs to themon room to get breakfast. As he descended the stairs, he suddenly came face to face with Ren. Ren saw him and frowned as Reivyn took him and the others in.
Ren had been heading up the stairs, presumably to get something from a room, and the prince and the others he had been with the previous day all sat at a table. Reivyn took a quick nce around and noticed three men, obviously not students, standing at various ces in the room watching the surroundings.
The prince saw the two young men stop and stare at each other, and recognition shed in his eyes as he noticed Reivyn. He stood up and walked over to the two with a smile on his face.
"Judging by the reactions you both disyed, you two must know each other," the prince said. Reivyn nced at the prince as he walked up, not knowing what to make of the situation. "So, Ren, are you going to tell me who this is?"
"I dare not keep anything from you, Your Excellency," Ren said, head bowed. "He''s the one I was punished over from my time in the Lord''s Retinue." The prince looked Reivyn up and down with a thoughtful look on his face. The three men, who were obviously bodyguards, zeroed their attention in on Reivyn and stood ready to jump in to interfere if Reivyn attempted to do anything to their charge.
"I see," the prince said. "I know you said you were already punished - Court Martialed, jailed for a time, and kicked out of the Count''s private Retinue - but," the prince held a finger up to draw Ren''s attention, "have you ever actually apologized?" The prince maintained his smile as he looked back and forth between the two young men.
"No, Your Excellency," Ren answered. "This is the first time we''ve run into each other since the incident at the skirmish."
"Perfect!" The prince pped his hands. "Then this is the perfect opportunity. Apologize. Now." The smile left the prince''s face as hemanded Ren. Reivyn frowned in confusion.
"Reivyn," Ren stood up straight and looked Reivyn directly in the eyes, "I sincerely apologize to you for my actions before. I made a mistake, and I won''t do it again." There was no deceit that Reivyn could detect in his expression or tone of voice, but he did notice that Ren clenched his fists until the knuckles went white. The prince also seemed to notice, but he just smiled once again. Reivyn considered the men standing before him for a moment before he replied.
"Out of consideration for my slight friendship with your sister, I will consider the matter finished," Reivyn said with a magnanimous nod. He looked at the prince, "but you can''t expect us to ever be friends."
"Not everyone has to be friends," the prince said, the small smile still on his face. "This is a satisfactory step, though, in my book. You''ve probably already guessed who I am, but allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Prince Galwit from Eldiar. I heard Ren, here, address you as Reivyn. I''ve heard of you in my time at the Academy. I''ll be watching your progress with interest. You''re likely to meet the quota to move up to Eldiar, and maybe we can get more acquainted at that time.
"As it is, I can see that you want to get your breakfast before heading out, so I won''t keep you any longer," Galwit faced Ren once more. "Go about your task, Ren."
"Yes, Your Excellency," Ren ducked his head and made his way past Reivyn, up the stairs.
"I''ll be seeing you," Prince Galwit said over his shoulder as he returned to his table. Reivyn noticed the three bodyguards rx their stances as Galwit resumed his seat. Reivyn shook his head and made his way to a table to order some breakfast. Hispanions hadn''t made it down yet, so he sat alone.
What is happening? Reivyn was thoroughly confused. After seeing them yesterday, I had a preconceived idea of what his personality would be like, but he definitely didn''t act like how I imagined. I would have guessed he would have stood up for his man and tried to make things difficult for me, not force Ren to apologize to my face.
There''s something weird going on. I really need to discuss this with my parents.
Reivyn kept ncing at the table the prince and his people sat at, and he noticed that he conversed with those following him in a friendly,panionable way. The more he watched, the more he was confused
Everything I know about those associated with the Abyss, myself excluded, is that they''re sadistic and murderous, Reivyn shook his head. Either this guy hides it really well, or there''s more truth to mom''s statement about Affinities not being inherently evil. I just don''t know enough.
Reivyn didn''t have to wait long until his friends began descending the stairs. Tom was the first toe down and join him, shortly followed by Vane. The two of them seemed like they had also gotten a decent rest, but Trick didn''t show up until they were almost done with their breakfast, rubbing his eyes and barely paying attention to his surroundings as he stumbled over.
"Nice of you to finally join us," Vane said. "Grab a quick bite. It''s almost time to go."
"Sure," Trick said with arge yawn. He simply grabbed some biscuits and bacon that sat discarded on the others'' tes, not bothering to even ce his own order. The dinner and breakfast for traveling students were free for the basic fare, but Trick realized they were tight on time, not money.
The four were soon finished and got up to leave. Reivyn threw one more nce over his shoulder to the table with the prince and his Party as he left, and the prince was likewise watching him depart. The man smiled and gave a nod to Reivyn as he stepped through the doors to the outside.
"Who was that?" Tom asked. "Seemed a little weird to be paying attention to you so much."
"Oh, was he?" Reivyn asked. "I hadn''t noticed. Anyway, I spoke to him briefly before you guys came down. That was Prince Galwit from Eldiar."
"What?!" Tom said, stopping in his tracks. "That was the prince? You''re just going to drop that on us nonchntly and act like it''s perfectly normal?"
"What''s abnormal about it?" Reivyn asked back. Tom threw his hands in the air in exasperation.
"If you knew he was the prince, it would have been proper to bow and give a farewell as we left," Vane pointed out.
"Why do I need to bow to him?" Reivyn asked, genuinely confused. "I''m not a citizen of Eldiar, and he''s a cousin to the royal family."
"Eh, technically, we are citizens of Eldiar," Trick said. "Our kingdom is a vassal state to theirs, and he is a member of the royal family, even if just a cousin."
"He didn''t seem to mind," Reivyn shrugged. "And neither did any of his bodyguards. If they had a problem with it, I''m guessing one of them would have stepped forward to say something."
"Maybe," Tom said, shaking his head. "Or maybe they felt it wasn''t their ce to interfere with a situation the prince didn''t care about. Either way, you probably left a bad impression on them."
"Guys, listen," Reivyn said, stopping in ce, "it''s not a big deal. Don''t worry about it so much. Now let''s go get our horses and get going." Reivyn resumed his walk to the stables. The other three friends shared a look and shrugged.
"If you say so," Trick said.
The trip back to The Capital was uneventful, but the traffic in the city was much heavier as it was around noon on a weekend once they arrived. Reivyn came to a stop outside the stables he used from the Adventurer''s Guild and addressed his roommates.
"We can get together for dinner or something,ter, with my other friends from the Knight Academy," Reivyn said. "I''m going to go home and discuss some things with my parents. I''ll introduce you guys next time."
"Ok," Tom said, nodding. "It''s not a big deal. We figured you wanted to see them in private from what you said earlier, so don''t sweat it. We can meet up in the market squareter and figure out what to do then"
"Do you need one of us to deliver a message to the Knight Academy?" Vane asked.
"No," Reivyn shook his head, "I sent a message before we left telling them toe to my house in the afternoon today. I''ll see you guys tonight." The other three waved and departed for their own estates as Reivyn took his horse back into the stables. He topped up the payment for the next couple of months, a bit less than it had been at first due to his increased Adventurer Rank, and walked home.
His parents were sitting in the living area of the house as he got home, and his sisters weren''t around. Probably ying out back, like usual, Reivyn thought as he nodded to his parents before sitting down opposite them.
"Well, how was it?" Ameliyn asked with interest, setting aside the little weaving project she had been working on in thefort of her husband''s presence. Refix also focused his attention on his son, waiting for his answer.
"It was nothing special," Reivyn said. "Though something ''special'' did happen while I was there." Ameliyn and Refix looked at each other before turning back to Reivyn.
"What''s this ''something special?''" Ameliyn asked. "Tell us everything."
"I ran into Ren in the Dungeon," Reivyn said. His parents sat up straighter at the revtion. "He wasn''t alone, either..."
Ameliyn and Refix sat in silence as they contemted the information Reivyn had just given them.
"Do you think I should take this information to the church?" Reivyn asked. "I have the Token of Friendship with them, so they''re likely to listen to me."
"It''s not necessarily a bad idea to inform them," Ameliyn said, "but don''t expect an inquisition or anything like that. The churches aren''t in power in these kingdoms. They might span multiple Regions and have a strong influence and power in many ces in the Realm, but when ites to the royalty and nobles of the local areas they''re in, they have to follow the rules just like everyone else. They''re more likely to investigate quietly."
"You also said this prince gave the people a token that blocked the influence of the Abyss Mana from spreading, and you needed to infuse the Abyss Affinity into your Mana Sight in order to see anything," Refix added. "Most likely, they don''t have anyone or anything with a simr level of power to discover the Abyss Mana in this remote Region. Probably not even in Eldiar or Pernius. Tier 5 Affinities are rare even in Tier 4 empires."
"If Tier 5 Affinities are so rare, then how is he spreading the Abyss Mana?" Reivyn asked, confused. This had been one of the issues on his mind the most as he traveled back to The Capital.
"Think about it," Ameliyn said. "When you gained the Tier 5 Abyss Affinity, it no longer appeared as heretical Mana on you. If they''re blocking it from spreading out, that means they don''t have the Tier 5 Affinity making it not appear heretical. One doesn''t have to have the Affinity in order to use the Abyss Mana."
"Then how are they not being corrupted or getting sick?" Reivyn asked further.
"That''s the real question," Refix answered. "Maybe they are being corrupted? We don''t know. Or maybe they''re being steered toward only using Abyss Mana as a bolster and not going down the route of full heretic sses. One thing is likely, though, from what you''ve described: This prince doesn''t seem to be a member of the cult."
"Why would you say that?" Reivyn asked, confused.
"The cult that we''ve been following has always shown the same pattern," Ameliyn stepped in to answer. "They have a core group that uses force to spread the Abyss influence, and they cause mass destruction wherever they go. If it''s the prince''s family, which is more likely than it being him alone, then they are attempting to spread their influence in apletely different way."
"The Abyss is an entire Realm, like ours," Refix said. "They''re not a unified front. There are many factions just like in our Realm, and they''re likely just a different group also associated with the Abyss.
"We''ll still send people to investigate and keep an eye on them, but we''ll have to get more information before taking any concrete actions. We can''t just assume that everyone who uses Abyss Mana is the enemy we''re looking for. If they''re not affiliated with the cult, and they''re not hostile to us... Well, then, we''ll have to go from there."
"Who knows, this might be a good opportunity for you to learn something about it," Ameliyn said. "It''s good to be suspicious and to maintain some distance to figure things out first, of course, and we''re going to do our due diligence to determine if he or they are associated with the cult we''re chasing. I''m just saying, don''t jump into anything before we know everything."
"Ok, so then is there anything I should be doing?" Reivyn asked. Ameliyn and Refix shared another look once more.
"Just keep focused on your studies," Ameliyn said. "Don''t worry about it too much for now. We''ll contact our people in Eldiar in the meantime."
"And don''t feel like you have to tip-toe around this guy," Refix said. "We''re not concerned with Eldiar and their royal family." Reivyn nodded his head.
"Now that that''s out of the way, for now, I had another thing I wanted to discuss with you," Reivyn said. "Do you think it''s a good idea for me to apany my roommates back to the Revenant Dungeon when they go in the future? Or does it make more sense to spread myself out and go for the variety of experiences I haven''t had already?"
"Let me ask you this, in return," Refix said. "Did you fully clear the Dungeon already?" Reivyn shook his head. "Then you should obviously take the opportunity to do so before you leave for Eldiar or any other higher Tier Region. If you can''t form apetent enough group from your friends and acquaintances to clear the full Dungeon on your own, I can give you a way to contact your protectors, and you can go in with them."
"Won''t that defeat the purpose?" Reivyn asked.
"No," Refix denied. "The amount of Experience and Life Experience the System calctes for you is based off of contribution. If they hold themselves back to only perform at the Level required for you to contribute at your maximum potential, there shouldn''t be any problems.
"The reason I''m not taking you into the Dungeon we have ess to is not because we would interfere with the contributions you could potentially make. You wouldn''t be able to make them anyway, and, even with us there, it could still be fatally dangerous to you at your current power."
"We''ll let you go off and do things on your own," Ameliyn said, "but we''re not going to leave youpletely unprotected or let you take stupid unnecessary risks. The Revenant Dungeon''s lower floors should be a great ce for you, still."
"And that leads me to myst question," Reivyn said. "What about the vast amount of Experience I still need to fully unlock my Bloodline? You previously said there was something you might be able to do to help me out with that."
"Yes, we''ve gotten several materials that will be of great benefit to you," Ameliyn nodded her head. "But unlocking your Bloodline fully will shoot your Stats up pretty high, based on what you said. It''s better for you, while you''re still at the Academy and participating in weak Dungeon explorations, to do so at your current level of power. We''ll unlock your Bloodline before you head back to the Revenant Dungeon or any other higher Tier Region or Dungeon."
"Ok, thanks," Reivyn smiled as he got up to give his parents a hug. "Teilon and Kimberly are going toe by in a little while, and we''re all going to go get some dinner or something with my roommates."
"Sure," Ameliyn said as she took up her project once more. "It''s good to introduce your friends to each other. Especially for when you do go back to the Revenant Dungeon or move to a higher Tier Region in the future. You can all be assured that you''ll have friends at your back."
"I''m going to go get some practice in while I wait for them toe around," Reivyn said. He bid his parents farewell and headed to his room.
"This is interesting," Ameliyn said to Refix as she resumed her project. She was making another shirt for the twins. They weren''t short on clothes or anything, but after doing such things for years, Ameliyn found herself making things for her family whenever she had free time. It was an enjoyable thing to do, and it was something she could look upon with pride.
"Yeah," Refix agreed. "We''ve been so focused on chasing the cult down that we haven''t actually run into any other factions from the Abyss until now. We know for a fact that they exist, of course, but this might be a new experience for us."
"That prince and his family better have some tact when ites to Reivyn," Ameliyn said nonchntly. "I''m not really interested in being the cause for upheaval if they need to be reced."
"Even after so many years of living low-key, you still talk about these things so casually," Refix chuckled. Ameliyn gave him a look over her weaving.
"I''m not being casual about this," Ameliyn refuted. "This is about our son. If this prince didn''t show an obvious interest in him, I would never consider getting involved at all. The premise being that they''re not actually associated with the cult, that is."
"Of course, of course," Refix said. "You know what I mean, though." Ameliyn snorted.
"I suppose so," she replied. "We can''t change who we are. I might not have stripes, but I''m a fierce tigress if anyone wants to mess with me or mine."
"That''s what I love about you," Refix said with a smile.
"Oh? Is that what you love about me?" Ameliyn quirked an eyebrow at her husband. "You think I''m a fierce tigress?"
"Definitely," Refix said with a grin. Ameliyn snorted beforeughing. She leaned up against her husband as she continued her weaving.
"You know me best. Am I a tiger, or a house cat?" Refix threw an arm over her shoulder and hugged her close to him.
"Doesn''t matter," he said. "Either way, you have sharp ws."
Chapter 77: Party in The Capital
Chapter 77: Party in The Capital
"... and so I said, if you''re not afraid of your own shadow, you can try it," Teilon said. Reivyn chuckled along with his friend as he told his story. Kimberly smiled as Teilon described their days in the Knight Academy.
Reivyn had been right when he suspected Teilon and Kimberly would be in the Elite ss. They weren''t quite at the very top like he was. They''re about the same as my new roommates, Reivyn spected. They''re just within the top 10 of their ss in regards tobat ability, but their foundations in knowledge and education are a littlecking. I was lucky that mom''s lessons directly tranted to the Magic Academy, and she and dad both have a lot of knowledge of political science and philosophy.
Teilon and Kimberly are a bit weaker on the theoretical aspects. The knowledge that they gained being conscription and adventuring helps a lot, but the Knight Academy is geared to a more formal education. As long as they can shore up their foundations throughout the year, they should be able to secure two of the quotas to Eldiar.
"I wasn''t able to beat the jerk in a fair duel, but he wasn''t able to do anything to me, either," Teilon said, puffing up his chest. "I gained a bit of prestige from that fight, at least. Some people weren''t convinced that my style ofbat was effective enoughpared to their more straight-up tactics. That fight shut up a lot of the whispers, though."
"Hmm, sounds like you fell victim to exactly what Tom and my other roommates warned me about," Reivyn said, stroking his chin.
"What''s that?" Kimberly asked.
"They said that after the official rankings came out, a lot of bystanders will start rumors and try to stir up trouble between people," Reivyn exined. "They''ll question someone''s position or pit them against others. Some of it''s out of jealousy, some of it''s out of boredom, and some of it''s just because people like drama. It sounds like someone spread some rumors about you in order to watch you guys fight it out."
"I can believe it," Teilon said, rolling his eyes. "You wouldn''t believe how juvenile some of the other students can be. I think a couple of months serving as cannon fodder in a military unit somewhere would do them a lot of good. That jerk, though, thinks he''s the king of the world or something. I doubt it required a lot of rumors to get him foaming at the mouth, and I bet he duels another student in a week or two under simr circumstances."
"What was his name again?" Reivyn asked as they made their way to the market square.
"Lance," Teilon said. "He''s the son of one of the Counts located here in the Capital. They don''t have anynd or territory themselves, so it seems like he and his family, like the other nonnded aristocrats, always have something to prove. I admit, he''s apetent fighter, but he''s probably not even as good as Erik, and Erik is just a bodyguard."
"Yeah, but you also have to consider who Erik is a bodyguard for," Reivyn said. "I don''t know if you guys have heard about it or not, but apparently Melissa and Larissa''s family is a branch family to some high-ranking nobles in Eldiar. They''re basically as influential as a Duke''s family here in The Capital. Erik probably receives training from people who attended the Knight Academy in Eldiar, or something equivalent."
"Oh, that really sheds some light on a lot of things," Teilon nodded his head.
"So, have you guys made any friends that you want to bring along next time?" Reivyn asked.
"Not so much," Teilon said. "Most of the other Elite students are nobles, and without knowing about our connection to Melissa and her friend circle, they don''t really spare us a second nce."
"They''re not necessarily rude, minus a few like Lance," Kimberly added, "but the ones who are equal standing as us are typically further down in the Rankings and sses, and we don''t interact with them enough, yet."
"Yeah, a good amount of the noble students have some form of weak Bloodline that gives them a Stat advantage," Teilon said. "Our Peasant Levy sses only allow us to keep up with them for now, and it''s our superior Skill Levels andbat experience that allows us to be in the Elite ss."
"The top 100 plus students, from what I hear, have a Bloodline," Kimberly said.
"From what my parents have told me, a Bloodline is typically formed from having ancestors that consistently achieved Tier 4 or higher," Reivyn mused. "A Bloodline slowly forms over time based on the ss and meridians, but one has to have their offspring after they achieve Tier 4, or it doesn''t umte. The higher the Tier achieved before having children, the more powerful the Bloodline.
"I wonder if there''s a way to artificially induce a Bloodline in someone?" Reivyn thought aloud. "I can ask my parents. If these noble students have the Stat bonuses from their Bloodlines, then as long as they have the same rarity ss as you guys, the only thing you can rely on to keep up is Achievements. But they can get Achievements as well."
"I know that there are some natural treasures in the Knight Academy that can stimte Stat growth," Teilon said. "They cost a lot of School Credits, but they can eliminate the reduction of growth due to diminishing returns. There are apparently even natural treasures avable in Eldiar and higher Regions that make your body grow as you''ve never gained Stat points from your sses or Achievements for a short time. These treasures only work one time, though, so you have to grasp the right timing to get the maximum benefits."
Reivyn stared at Teilon with a smile on his face. Teilon frowned as he saw the expression on Reivyn''s face.
"Why are you smiling at me?" Teilon asked. Reivyn didn''t say anything, his smile growing wider. "Hey! Why are you smiling?!" Kimberly hid her mouth behind her hand as she chuckled.
"...and this is Teilon and Kimberly, my good friends from our hometown of Haluville," Reivyn finished the introductions between his new friends and his old. Melissa and her sister and friends had alsoe along with Tom and Reivyn''s other roommates, so they had quite a crowd of people around. Teilon and Kimberly had already met Melissa and Larissa''s friends, so Reivyn only had to introduce them to his roommates.
"We were all conscripted together, and we formed our first Adventurer Party together," Reivyn said.
"Any friend of Reivyn and Melissa is a friend of ours," Tom said with a smile. They exchanged handshakes and greetings once the introductions were made.
"Hey, hey! What about me?" Larissa said with a pout. Tom rolled his eyes.
"You''re obviously included," Tom said. "It''s just a mouthful to always say Melissa and Larissa."
"Well next time, you can just say my name," Larissa said, lifting her chin.
"Sure, sure," Tom cated her.
"Anyway," Melissa stepped in, "Alisia apparently reserved a private room for us at a restaurant her family owns just across the street, over there," Melissa pointed. "She should be waiting for us, so let''s not waste our time out here."
"Let''s gooo," Teilon said, throwing his arm forward like he was issuing a charge. Some of the bystanders walking through the market square looked over at the shouting teenager and the group of friends. Reivyn pped his hand on his forehead. Trick threw his arm over Teilon''s shoulder as heughed.
"Yeah, let''s gooo," he parroted. The two boys walked toward the restaurant that Melissa had indicated. Larissa hopped up and down as she followed in their wake, and all of the others shared a look before following them.
Reivyn looked around the surroundings as they entered therge building. The decoration is simr in style to the other restaurant that we ate at when we first got here. As in, it''s all high quality, but not oundish. I wonder if her family has an ownership stake in that other restaurant as well? It would make sense, now that I think about it.
Melissa took the lead in introducing the group to the hostess, and they were led up to the second floor where there were many private rooms of varying sizes. They entered the most spacious one in the center, and Reivyn saw that Alisia was seated with some of the staff already cing appetizers and drinks on the table.
Alisia''s eyes lit up as she saw her friends enter the room, and she gave a sly smile to Reivyn as he walked in behind Tom and Melissa.
"Hey, handsome,e sit next to me," Alisia called out to him. Tom turned and gave Reivyn a look before stepping out of the way and finding a seat for himself.
"Now I see why Reivyn isn''t interested in girls," Trick whispered to Vane and Teilon, just barely audible to Reivyn. "He''s already snagged one of the best matches in The Capital." Vane and Trick chuckled, but Teilon simply shook his head.
"Nah, he''s got higher vision than that," Teilon replied, equally in a low whisper. "He''s literally had girls fighting over him before."
Melissa paused in her stride toward a seat and turned her head to give Teilon a look. Teilon smiled innocently, and Trick and Vane shared a confused look with each other. Melissa harumphed and moved to her seat opposite Alisia as the rest of the group filed in and found a spot to sit.
Teilon sat between Trick and Vane, and they immediatelyunched into a conversation. Reivyn tuned them out as he was sure what it was they were already going to be talking about. Trick and Teilon have very simr personalities and interests, and Vane seems to get dragged along by Trick more often than not, Reivyn quietlyughed to himself.
Kimberly sat between Larissa and Haylen, Erin on the other side of Larissa between the two sisters. Tom took a seat next to Reivyn with Vane on his other side.
"I already ordered the appetizers and meals based on the specialty of the chefs and what I know everyone likes from previous times," Alisia said. She must use her Social Memorization Skill for more than just names and faces, Reivyn nodded his head. "That way, we won''t have to wait for our food any longer than necessary. I''m 100% certain everyone will enjoy their meal.
"So, handsome man, did you miss me?" Alisia turned to Reivyn and said. Her tone was more joking than it was flirtatious, but Reivyn kept what Melissa had said in mind as he formted a response.
"How could I not?" Reivyn said. He tilted his head back and ced a hand on his chest. "I''ve been just distraught that you haven''t been able to apany Melissa and her friends to our study group." Alisia giggled behind her hand.
"It can''t be helped," she said wistfully. "I have duties and responsibilities above and beyond those at the Academy. I''m sure you''ll be able to manage without my august presence."
"It''s hard, I admit," Reivyn said, "but I''ve somehow figured it out." Alisiaughed as she swatted Reivyn on the arm. Melissa just took it all in and gave a small shake of her head at her friends'' antics.
"Ok, enough of that," Alisia said, her smile never leaving her face. "I hear that you and your roommates orchestrated quite the spectacle in the Dueling Arena."
"What''s this?" Teilon poked his head up and looked at Reivyn. "You asked me all about my duels and experiences, but you didn''t say anything about you having a duel. Did you run into some jerk, too?"
"Hardly," Vane said. "There isn''t anyone that wants to duel Reivyn, especially after our little exercise in the arena."
"Yeah, they apparently had a huge free-for-all amongst the entire Elite ss," Alisia said, addressing Teilon. "We weren''t all able to attend, but the school has made it an official dueling type, now."
"Oh, that exins some things," Teilon said, nodding his head. "At the start of the week, we got a notice that there would be newbat simtions involving free-for-all''s and team battles. The Knight Academy has typically geared its education toward leadership and singlebat, so they haven''t had students act out pitched battles. Most of the graduates aren''t going to be rank and file troops, after all, so why have them practice such a thing?"
"Apparently they overlooked the fact that there were benefits to acting such," Alisia said. "It''s kind of funny if you think about it. They''re supposed to be the experts, but Reivyn''s stunt taught them all a lesson. There were a couple of people resisting the change - you know how some people are - but they were overruled by the Headmasters of the schools.
"So aside from introducingpletely new styles of dueling and far outstripping your contemporaries in terms of weaves and Mana, what else have you been up to?" Alisia asked, cing her chin in her hand, elbow resting on the table. She appeared to be genuinely curious about the answer.
"Oh, you know, this and that," Reivyn said. "We - Tom and the others," Reivyn pointed at his roommates, "just got back from the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon earlier today."
"Yeah, and this guy apparently struck up a conversation with Prince Galwit this morning," Tom interjected. "Acting like it''s no big deal," he snorted as he ate an appetizer. Alisia''s eyebrows went up at the revtion.
"Really? You''ve already met the prince?" Alisia asked.
"What''s he like?" Haylen leaned forward and asked.
"Is he as charming as the stories?" Erin also turned her attention towards Reivyn and their conversation.
Reivyn pulled his head back in surprise at the sudden outburst from the two girls. It''s like they have an rm system in their heads for any mention of the prince. They were engrossed in their own conversation and not paying attention to us at all, but as soon as the prince was brought up, they immediatelytched onto it. Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"He''s just some guy," Reivyn said. Erin and Haylen frowned and seemed like they were going to refute that statement, but Reivyn held his hand up to forestall them. "I only spoke with him briefly. He was really just like any other person in the short exchange we had. Nothing important."
The two girls narrowed their eyes in suspicion at Reivyn, but Larissa and Kimberly dragged them back into a conversation with them before they could pursue the matter any further.
"Anyway," Reivyn said, turning back to Alisia, "I''ve just been focused on the studies and making the best use of my time." Reivyn held his hand out and started ticking on his fingers. "What we really need to do is n for the future," he lifted his first finger. "We need to keep up with our weaves and theoretical knowledge, we need to practice our individualbat abilities, we need to practice fighting in groups, we need to explore the other Dungeons, we need..."
"Hahahahah," Teilon interrupted Reivyn''s list of things to do with loudughter. Tom, Vane, and Trick rolled their eyes and shared a helpless look between each other. "Now you guys get to experience the training lunatic first hand. Thank goodness the Knight Academy is soxpared to the ve driver that Reivyn is. Hahahaha."
"What are you talking about?" Reivyn interrupted Teilon''sughter. Teilon eyed him suspiciously. "You''re going to go with us to all of the Dungeons. Don''t think that just because you''re in a different Academy that you can escape from this. You just told me earlier that there were treasures for growing Stats that require not only School Credits and preparation to acquire, but you also need to grasp the appropriate timing.
"We got a lot of work to do if we''re going to make sure you keep up with those with Bloodlines," Reivyn smiled evilly at his friend. Teilon''s eyes got wide and he grabbed at Trick and Vane sitting next to him.
"Noooo! Save me!" Teilon eximed, mock panic on his face. "This is why you were smiling at me earlier," Teilon pointed an usatory finger at Reivyn. "You were already nning on dragging me into more training sessions!" Reivyn spread his hands to the side.
"Guilty," he responded. "What are you worried about? It''ll be fun."
"I was hoping to rx a bit longer at the Knight Academy," Teilonmented with a sigh. The girls allughed at the show Teilon was putting on.
"You call life at the Knight Academy rxing?" Trick asked, a look of disbelief on his face. Teilon just shook his head.
"You don''t know Reivyn," Teilon said. "I''m sure you''lle to understand soon, though." Teilon paused for a moment. "I guess I can handle whatever Reivynes up with, as long as he doesn''t ask his dad to oversee the training." Teilon shuddered.
"Hey, that''s a great idea," Reivyn said. "Thanks for reminding me, ''ole buddy, ''ole pal."
"Why did I have to open my mouth?!" Teilon leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
"Now you''ve done it," Kimberly said, rolling her eyes. "I''m about to lose my appetite."
"Why? What''s wrong with Reivyn''s dad supervising the training?" Tom asked, looking back and forth between Teilon and Kimberly.
"Reivyn''s dad is insane!" Teilon shouted. "He made us carry a giant pack of rocks on our journey to the Revenant Dungeon to train on the way there, and that was after months of grueling sparring sessions where he handed our butts to us over and over again. That man has infinite Stamina, I heard him say - ahem," Teilon cut himself off with a cough. "Anyway, there''s a reason why Reivyn is so diligent and interested in constantly training. The apple doesn''t fall far from the tree."
"It can''t be that bad," Vane said.
"It is," Teilon said. "Nothing to it but to ept fate, now," he sighed.
"Don''t be so glum," Reivyn said with a smile. "You still have to attend sses at the Knight Academy, and we won''t interfere with that. You still have a lot of time to yourself."
"Oh, yeah," Teilon perked up.
"That just means we''ll have to be even more intense in our personal training," Reivyn dropped the other shoe. Heughed as Teilon questioned his life choices and the others in the room watched on with skepticism.
A knock came at the door. It opened, and a long line of staff came in to deposit the main entrees on the table.
"Will there be anything else, young miss?" The lead waiter asked, hands sped and posture slightly bent.
"No, that will be all. Thank you, Artio," Alisia dismissed the man with a smile. The other man beamed at Alisia as he withdrew. No doubt happy that she remembers him by name. I wonder if he knows about the existence of the memorization Skill?
A group of young men followed the exit of the staff members, clearly not employees of the restaurant. They were dressed in expensive clothing and based on their bearing and the fact that they were on the second floor of this restaurant, they were most likely also the younger generation of noble and affluent families.
There was an apparent leader of the group of young men, as he stood in front of all of the others, and he walked up to Alisia with a smile on his face.
"I heard the staff mention that Miss Alisia was present with her friends, today, so I took it upon myself to greet you," the young man said with a slight bow.
Alisia held out her hand, and the young man bent forward and ced a very light peck on the back of it. Reivyn raised an eyebrow at the scene, remembering what Melissa had told him of the etiquette in the local kingdom. Alisia pulled her hands into herp, and Reivyn could see out of the corner of his eye that she wiped away the lingering saliva discreetly. She maintained the smile on her face, though.
"I hope you don''t mind the intrusion," the young man finished as he straightened up.
"Not at all, Joven, not at all," Alisia said politely. Joven''s smile grew slightly wider, and he surveyed the room. His gaze directly passed over Reivyn and the others seated at the table, and his gazended on Melissa and Larissa. He walked over to them, and also gave a greeting.
"I figured that Miss Alisia would be apanied by her two friends from the Bluefayres," he took their proffered hands in turn, but he only hovered over them as was the custom.
Reivyn frowned as the manpletely ignored everyone else but the three girls he greeted. The other young men didn''t ignore everyone else like their leader, but they didn''t pay any attention to Reivyn, Teilon, or Kimberly. Only one of the others took note of Teilon and Kimberly, and he stepped forward and whispered something into Joven''s ear.
Joven finally looked at Teilon and the other boys seated at the table, and he turned to Alisia.
"Miss Alisia, I won''t disturb you any longer," he said. The boy who whispered in his ear directed a sneer toward Teilon. Teilon, for his part, ignored the other man in turn. "I''ll schedule a time to meet with you when you''re not with you''re -ahem- ''friends.''" He gave a slight bow and indicated for those following him to depart the room. "Another day."
The group filed out of the room, and silence permeated the room for a moment before Reivyn broke it.
"Who was that?" He asked Alisia.
"A slimy bastard," Alisia said with a frown. "But his father is the brother to the King, so his standing is slightly higher than mine. I can''t be rude and shoo him away, even though I would like to."
"He''s always popping up wherever Alisia goes," Melissa added. "It''s like he has spies that watch her every move, and he shows up any chance he has. It''s no secret that he''s pursuing Alisia, and he''s even asked his father to intervene and arrange a marriage. But his father is friends with Alisia''s father, and even though he''ll indulge his son, he won''t go overboard."
"He seemed like he didn''t really care for anyone else in the room," Reivyn said.
"He''s never impolite or rude, but if he believes you aren''t worthy to talk to him, he''ll treat you like air," Alisia said, the frown still on her face.
"Who was the one who whispered in his ear?"
"That was Lance," Teilon answered. "The jerk I told you about before. If he''s hanging around someone like Joven who''s ''too good'' to interact with the peasants, then his personality makes perfect sense."
"It seems like he wants to stir up trouble," Reivyn mused.
"Let him," Teilon said. "I''m not afraid of him."
"He might not be able to affect you while you''re in the Academy - they''re quite independent of the politics of the nobles - but Joven can affect any appointments or opportunities once you graduate," Alisia warned. "And he''s likely to do a favor for his sycophants."
"Can he interfere with the quotas to Eldiar?" Reivyn asked.
"No, he''s not that influential," Alisia replied. "And if he tried, it would reflect poorly on his family. His father wouldn''t let him do something like that." Reivyn turned to Teilon and smiled. Teilon sighed once more.
"It looks like we really do have to do that training," he conceded.
"I knew you would see things my way," Reivyn said.
Chapter 78: Mixer
Chapter 78: Mixer
"So, what is it that the mana weaves do?" Master Feld asked the second-year ss. He walked back and forth in front of the ss on the little raised dais.
Several hands shot up from the more enthusiastic students, shortly followed by the more restrained hand raising of the other students. Not everyone raised their hand, but almost everyone at least paid attention. Master Feld indicated for one of the female students to answer his question.
"They''re the writtennguage of magic," the girl said. Samantha, I think her name was, Reivyn thought as he listened to her answer. I don''t know everyone''s name, but she seems to volunteer answers frequently. "They describe the properties of the magic and apply them to the Spell. For instance, Fire Bolt Spells have a weave that describes the heat andbustibility of the fire, and it contains the properties of the generic Bolt Spell, as well. All of the Bolt Spells have a weave that describes how solid the bolt is, how fast it moves, and the other properties describing the projectile."
"A textbook answer," Master Feld said. "Thank you, Apprentice Samantha. The weaves of the Spells do exactly that: they describe the properties of the magic and apply them to the Spell. So, is there a limit to the number of weaves that can describe a particr Spell?"
Fewer hands went up this time, but the most enthusiastic ones still reached for the sky, hoping to be called upon. Master Feld indicated for a boy in the front row to answer the question.
"It''s limited by several factors," the boy answered. I don''t exactly recall his name, Reivyn thought. I think it''s Terry? My social Skill is telling me that it''s either Terry or close to it. "The fundamentalws of the world still apply, and only as many weaves as can fit inside the shell of the Spell can be ced there. One can increase this number bypressing the strings and cing the weaves strategically, like a puzzle, but that''s not the only limiting factor.
"The Tier of the Spell and Affinities also restrict the number. For instance, a Tier 1 Spell can hold 20 weaves, 10 for the affinity and 10 for the Spell type. A higher Tier Affinity, though, counts as more than one weave. An Ice Bolt Spell, because it''s made up of a Tier 2 Affinity, can hold 5 of the Affinity Weaves in a Tier 1 Spell. A Tier 3 Affinity would fill the shell with three weaves, and a Tier 4 fills up with just two."
"Very good, Apprentice Kerry," Master Feld acknowledged. Kerry, his name''s Kerry, Reivyn mentally corrected himself. I was close. "And why is it that the Affinity Tier affects how many weaves can fill the space? They''re not anyrger than the lower Tier Affinities."
"It''s not entirely based on the physical aspects of the Spell," Kerry replied. "The size is only one limiting factor. Higher Tier Affinities put more strain on the shell, so if you try to put just as many Tier 2 weaves into a Tier 1 Spell as the basic Elements, then the shell of the Spell can''t handle the strain and will unravel."
"Yes, exactly," Master Feld nodded his head. "This is one of the reasons why higher Tier Spells are more powerful. They can contain more weaves and more of the higher Tier weaves, at that. It is possible to Cast a Tier 1 Spell as a higher Tier. ss Skills automatically match your own ss Tier, but how does one do so outside of the System assistance?"
Another round of hands went up, and Master Feld selected another random student to answer the question.
"It''s abination of increasing the mana used andpressing it to maintain the rtive size and shape," the third student answered. "One can do so withoutpressing, but the Spells will quickly be much toorge to be of practical use. The System does all the heavy lifting automatically for the ss Skills."
"And so," Master Feld nodded to the student to indicate he was correct as he spoke, "we get to the point of this lecture. The shells of Spells can hold a limited number of weaves, and those weaves describe the nature of the Spell. So far, we''ve only been using two weaves to describe our magic: the elemental weave and the Spell weave, but that''s not the only way to Cast Spells.
"You can mix and match different weaves into your Spells. If you choose two diametrically opposed elements, like Fire and Ice, then the Spell is most likely to fail. There do exist sses specializing in such Spells, like the Bluefayre family is known for having a talent in," Master Feld nodded to Larissa, who was seated with her friend circle on one side of the ss. "And it''s possible to Cast those Spells without the ss and System helping you, but it''s very difficult. We won''t be exploring those avenues in this ss."
Larissa was obviously in the same ss as Reivyn, as she and her friends were in the Elite ss. Reivyn asionally interacted with them in ss, but for the most part, he kept to himself to pay attention and learn. They had plenty of time and opportunities to hang out and interact outside of the ssroom, and they had their own social group outside of just the small circle Reivyn had made friends with.
"Instead, we will be focusing on mixingplementary elements, like Fire and sma. There are many, many variations of the weaves that can be mixed into your Spells, and it only gets even moreplicated and intricate once you start incorporating Tier 3 or 4 Affinities into your Spells, so you won''t be graded on specific mixtures. I will simply give you the foundations, and then you can experiment on your own."
Reivyn had an epiphany as he listened to the lecture. Of course! That exins why I was so confused with the weaves for the st Spell variation of my ss Spells. I had been looking at the Spells as if they contained only one element. I should have viewed them neutrally in order to recognize them sooner. Not all of the st Spell elemental variations contained more than one element, but the Fire st Spell contains several weaves of the Air Affinity in it. It makes perfect sense.
Reivyn had run into a couple of hurdles with his own experimentation. He had gotten into the trap of thinking of every weave the System used for his ss Spells as being the Affinity of the dominant element for the Spell. He had noticed that the weaves greatly resembled the ones he had seen for the other elements, but he hadn''t thought to make the connection that they actually were for those different elements.
Trying to use the Air weave as a Fire weave hadn''t been the right approach, and his own free-hand Spell Casting of the Fire st Spell hadn''t performed properly. It had worked, but it hadcked the intensity of the System assisted ss Spell.
It must have something to do with intent, Reivyn spected. The mana weaves of the System Spells aren''t infused with the element directly in a way that I can see with my current Skill Levels. Either I need to look deeper when examining the weaves in the future, or there''s some trick to it.
"Based on everyone''s facial expressions, it seems that you''ve all realized a few things about your own ss Spells," Master Feld chuckled. "The dominant element of your Spells permeates the aura that it gives off, which is why it''s rare for students to discover this on their own. Once you know about it, it''s not a big deal, just make the weave like you would normally with the right Affinity and it works.
"In order to to see the actual differences, one has to be able to parse through the aura of the dominant element. This happens around Mana Sight Level 50. Sense Mana doesn''t help, unless you get it to Transcendent, because it doesn''t do nearly as good a job of differentiating the different Elements unless there are other mitigating factors, like sensing mana from a different Realm.
"We don''t expect the students to get their Mana Sight up to Level 50 and discover this on their own, which is why these sses exist in the first ce," Master Feld concluded. "Now that you know about it, it should be easier for you to work on mixing and matching weaves in your Spells. Not allbinations will create a better Spell, but if you do discover a mix that works really well, you can work at it long enough to be able to override your existing Spell Matrix the System uses. It takes a lot of effort, though, but it is less than unlocking a ss Skill or Spell as a General Skill or Spell would be.
"Now, let''s get to work."
Reivyn sat on his bed, both hands held out in front of him. Two different Spell shells hovered over his outstretched hands, and he manipted the weaves of each independently. Creating simple Spells with Tier 1 Affinities in either hand wasn''t too challenging, even before he gained the Dual Casting Skill; however, creating anything moreplicated than the simple Tier 1 Spells was exponentially more difficult. Even adding more than one elemental weave to the Bolt Spell required considerably more concentration.
He had started off having to start and stop each weave one at a time. It wasn''t true dual spell casting. He would make a weave, then maintain it as he worked on the other one. As his Skill Level increased, though, he was able to create all of the basic elemental weaves simultaneously, and he could even somewhat maintain progress on creating the weaves for the Tier 2 Affinities at the same time.
It had been three months of practicing mixing and matching the different weaves for each Spell, and Reivyn had not only learned the weaves to all of the Affinities he had unlocked, but he had experimented with countlessbinations as well. There weren''t too many differences when it came to the Tier 1 Spells, only marginal increases in power or efficiency when a goodbination was found, but increasing the fundamental Level of the Spell to a higher Tier saw those marginal increases be powerful boosts.
Adding the Kic Affinity to the Bolt Spell increases the speed and impact tremendously, Reivyn mused. Adding three weaves to a Tier 2 version of the Fire Bolt Spell is the most efficient use of the weaves that I''ve found so far. That being said, it''s not the same for each of the basic Elemental Bolt Spells. When making an Earth Bolt, abination of one each of Kic, Mass, and either Bludgeon, Piercing, or Sharpness, depending on the nature of the shape of the Earth Bolt, really packs a punch.
Kic also has almost zero effect on the Beam Spell. There is a small increase in the velocity of the Beam Spell, but the weave of the Beam Spell itself seems to hold some of the characteristics of the Kic weave. There''s really no reason to pursue adding the Kic weaves to such a Spell. As Master Feld said, the right weaves for the right Spell.
Switching in Gravity instead of Bludgeon or the other two also has some interesting effects. Depending on the resistance of the target, it can be drawn to the projectile, and it''s much harder to avoid, even if the trajectory is slightly off. I just recently acquired some more Tier 3 Affinities, like the Bludgeon Affinity, and they''re still not quite as easy to use as the ones I''ve had for a while.
Reivyn pulled up his Affinities tab to check out the progress he had made while he was thinking about it.
Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (55), Earth (55), Fire (55), Water (55)
Tier 2:
Ice (30), Lightning (24), Magma (30), Metal (30), Mist (24), Mud (24), sma (30), Wood (30)
Tier 3:
Bludgeon (4), Darkness (49), Durability (15), Friction (4), Gravity (15), Kic (15), Light (49), Mass (4), Piercing (15), Sharpness (15), Weight (4)
Tier 4:
Eternal (4)
Tier 5:
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)
Gravity, Mass, and Weight all have very simr characteristics, but there are some subtle differences. So far, with the low Tier Spells I''m using, there isn''t much variation in using Weight or Mass, but I''m sure the higher Tier Spells will be able to showcase their individual strengths.
My Tier 4 Affinity has increased a couple of Levels, and it''s easy to see the difference in might for each Level. The lower Tier Affinities are much easier to advance, but the increase in power is much less than an increase in power for a higher Tier. Level 4 Eternal has about the same effectiveness as Level 30 in the Tier 1 Affinities from what I''ve seen.
Reivyn dismissed his contemtions on the Affinities and their weaves and resumed his concentration on the ones he was making. He wasn''t too concerned with the exact makeup of the Spells he was experimenting with, he was just randomlybining weaves to practice. He had recentlypleted the task of being able topress a double weave to the size of a single weave, and he was using his new mastery to stuff his Tier 1 Spells with more weaves.
The semester only has 1 more month left, and most of thest month is dedicated to preparing for and taking the final exams. The final test for the second-year weaves ss is aprehensive analysis of our ability topress mana, and how well we can mix and match the weaves for various Spells.
Master Feld has told us that there will be several base Spells he will select that inherently have different elemental weaves in them, and there will be some from the higher Tier Spells that the students most likely haven''t gained ess to, yet. The point is to show that we can recognize the different elemental weaves in an unknown Spell in order to deduce how to create it. The final portion of the test is to demonstrate our range of mixing and understanding of thebinations by disying some of our own experiments.
Reivyn had long decided that he would show hisbinations with Kic and Gravity. As far as he knew, almost all of the other students were going to choose to use Tier 2 Affinitybinations, and he was confident he would be able to get full marks through his Tier 3 Affinity usage. He had worked on those Spells consistently until he could make them at a moment''s notice, but there was still a long way to go to master the intricacies of magic.
He continued to experiment with randombinations to further his ability and understanding.
"Well, it seems like everyone here has made tremendous progress in their magical prowess over the semester," Reivyn said to the study group. "Everyone has fully mastered the weaves of the base Elements, and most of you have a solid foundation in several of the Tier 2 affinities. The final exam ising up really quickly, so I would rmend putting a pause on learning any brand new elemental weaves that you haven''t already experimented with until the start of next semester.
"That being said, as far as I know, none of the previous years had nearly as many students master all of the Tier 1 weaves before the end of the first semester. I''m d I could help all of you, but I can''t take credit for your own hard work. I''ll continue to offer my assistance next semester, but everyone should be prepared that I''ll have less time to do so."
The students in the study group had all grown pretty close to each other, including Reivyn and his roommates. Some of them frowned at the revtion that Reivyn would be spending less time with the group, but most people seemed to understand what he was getting at.
"The Cobbled Ruins Dungeon is the only Dungeon open to first semester Novices," Reivyn continued. "I n on going to all of the Dungeons nearby that be avable to explore for Novices next semester, and I''ll also be epting some of the quests from the Adventurer''s Guild. Everyone here should work hard to increase and maintain their Rank so they can also devote more time to real-world experience, as well.
"I know that everyone here has attained a decent enough rank that they can spend most of the summer months off campus exploring Dungeons and whatnot, but that''s no reason to waste the opportunity next semester to knock out the closest Dungeons and quests. Remember, practical and Life Experience are much more important at this stage now that you all have solid foundations."
"Do you n on epting any more teammates?" Carri asked with a hopeful look. Reivyn looked at the girl who had previously had ulterior motives in asking for tutoring. After he had made it clear that he wasn''t interested in pursuing anything beyond a friendship, she had buckled down and made great efforts in participating in the study group. It seems that she hasn''t fully given up hope, though, Reivyn thought.
"I''m afraid that won''t be possible," Reivyn shook his head and gently let her down. Carri''s face fell, and Reivyn could see some other hopeful faces fall in the crowd, as well. "My roommates and I have already developed a rapport, and I have a couple of friends from the Knight Academy that are going to go with us, too. It''s not that I''m unwilling to go with any of you, you''ve all shown that you''re willing to work hard, but our group is already formed.
"You guys have all been working well with each other in the study group, so I''m sure you can form your own groups to tackle the Dungeons." The other students looked around at each other, and Reivyn saw many of them nod to each other and set their intent to form their own groups. "With that, we''ll call it a day. We''ll still hold the study group all the way until the end of the semester, so I''ll see you guys next time."
Reivyn and his roommates turned and walked back towards their dormitory.
"I understand why you want to help your friends at the Knight Academy, but why are you moving at such a breakneck speed?" Trick asked as they walked.
"What do you mean?" Reivyn asked, puzzled. "I''m moving at a normal pace." Trick snorted at the answer.
"He''s right," Vane said. "A normal pace would be one or two Dungeons in the second semester, and then a leisurely ''adventure'' during the summer months. You said you intend to take us to all of the Dungeons open in the second semester, plus some additional quests from the Adventurer''s Guild. That''s definitely not a ''normal pace.''" Reivyn shrugged.
"Well, to me it seems normal," Reivyn replied. "I don''t feel like I''m rushing. I just feel like I''m always advancing and not sitting still. I don''t see any reason to stay on campus when we''ve mastered the subject material being taught. Why do nothing when we could be gaining School Credits and Life Experience?
"And speaking of ''leisurely adventure,'' that''s where I met Melissa and Larissa. They didn''t seem like they were taking things ''leisurely."
"They''re an exception," Trick answered. "Melissa was good enough to secure the quota in both her first and second year, but she and her sister are part of arger family with roots in Eldiar. They have a mission to recruit new talents to the family, so they''re not allowed to ept a quota until their third year unless they do something so great that their entire family can go back to Eldiar."
"Oh, that answers a lot of questions I had about that, actually," Reivyn said. "I had wondered why Melissa and Larissa were still hanging around this kingdom."
"Also, most people don''t have the same view on life as you do," Tom said. "To us, not doing anything doesn''t mean that we''re ''sitting still'' or ''wasting time.'' It''s just a part of life. We don''t feel the need to fill every single moment with purpose."
"Well, I''m not particrly trying to fill every moment with purpose, as you say," Reivyn said. "I like being busy and training. I also like getting out there and exploring the world and Dungeons. I don''t really know how to exin it, but to me, it seems perfectly normal. You guys don''t have to follow me to every Dungeon if you don''t want to."
"That''s not what we''re saying," Trick said. "Honestly, we don''t mind it. I just wanted to know what was motivating you to move so fast, but if you feel like it''s perfectly normal, then I guess that also answers my question."
"Yeah, we might be used to a more sedate lifestyle with much more downtime," Vane said, "but that doesn''t mean we''re not willing to do the work to aplish our goals. We had only ever imagined obtaining one of the quotas for the Tier 2 Academy with a ''let''s see what happens'' attitude. Now that we''ve been entangled with you, all three of us have a real opportunity to snatch one of the spots."
"The other students in the top 10 Ranking are going to be working just as hard to keep their positions and move up to the next Tier Region," Tom said. "I doubt any of them will go to the extremes that we''ll be going through, and that''s because we''re with you. If you hadn''t joined our group, we might have had to wait for a chance topete for a spot next year or the following. Our luck in meeting you was even more than I originally thought."
"Don''t get all sappy on me," Reivyn chuckled, shoving Tom yfully in the shoulder. "I''m not going to ease up on my schedule, or go easy on what I expect from you guys as my Party members."
"We wouldn''t dream of it," Vane said.
Chapter 79: Boss Dungeon
Chapter 79: Boss Dungeon
Reivyn looked at the different gateways embedded in the rock. There were three separate entrances to the Dungeon, and each one was marked clearly by the predecessors who had initially discovered and explore the Dungeon.
"So each doorway leads to a room containing basically a boss monster?" Reivyn rified once more. "And you can challenge each room once a month?"
Reivyn stood with his roommates, and Teilon and Kimberly stood next to Reivyn as well, looking at the different entrances. They werepletely rxed as they knew this was going to be the easiest Dungeon run experience they were likely to encounter.
"That''s right," Tom answered. "Typically, Dungeons that hold a space to explore with lesser monsters and bosses on each floor have a one-week reset rate, and Dungeons that have a range of just boss encounters have a one-month reset rate. That''s for the infinitely instanced Dungeons, though.
"You experienced the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon which is open air but doesn''t have any kind of boss monster. There are supposedly variations of the open-air Dungeons that do have boss monsters and even some that have what is referred to as a Rare monster. Boss monsters and Rare monsters in open-air Dungeons both have a guaranteed loot drop enforced by the system, but our kingdom doesn''t have any of those kinds of Dungeons."
"As we''ve told you before, there are three open-air Dungeons, including the Cobbled Ruins, and the other two are more advanced," Vane spoke up. "One has orcs, though there aren''t as many spawns in that Dungeon as there are goblins in the Cobbled Ruins, and the third one contains a mix of both.
"There are two resource Dungeons, not including the new Revenant Dungeon, and one of those is a forest on the border of the Tier 2 Kingdom. There''s basically a grove of trees that you can enter and pass through, and it leads to arge infinitely instanced forest with a smattering of Tier 2 mana-infused trees. The other resource Dungeon is a mine that contains metals and a few Tier 2 mana-infused variations, but the most prominent ore is copper."
"The Revenant Dungeon is an anomaly," Trick said. "From what I''ve heard, there''s basically two types of each infinitely instanced Dungeon in each region, and the Revenant Dungeon breaks that precedent not only in its Tier but also in the fact that it exists at all. The number of open-air Dungeons ispletely random, though there seems to be an upper limit based on the Tier of the Region."
"Wait, hold up," Reivyn held his hand up. "You said that one of the Dungeons was a grove of trees that you pass through and it leads to a forest? And that''s the Dungeon? What happens if you pass through the grove of trees walking in the opposite direction?"
"It doesn''t matter," Tom answered. "The grove in question is overgrown in such a way that it creates a corridor to walk through. You can walk through either side, but as long as you start at one end and pass through the other end, you end up in the Dungeon."
"What happens if someone cuts down the grove?" Teilon asked.
"You''ll get your head cut off," Trick snickered. "It''s a capital crime to destroy the surroundings of a Dungeon intentionally. That applies to any Dungeon, but especially a Resource Dungeon, as those are considered strategic resources by The Crown."
"I''ve heard a rumor that there was a fire that destroyed the corridor a long time ago, and the Dungeon was inessible until it regrew," Vane interjected. "However, ording to the rumor, it grew back in less than a day. ording to the theories, it wasn''t so much that it naturally grew back so fast, but that the System simply pulled another identical entrance way from one of the infinite instances and plopped it down in ce."
"If it''s impossible to actually destroy the entrance, why is it a capital crime?" Reivyn asked.
"Intentions," Tom said. "If someone intentionally destroys a Dungeon entrance, they express their intention to do harm to the kingdom. The Crown and nobility are pretty easygoing in most situations, but if someone acts with intentions to cause harm, theye down with an iron fist. Also, it''s not confirmed that the System will step in and fix the entranceway to a Dungeon. That''s just a rumor, after all."
"Anyway, like I was saying," Vane said, "There''s 1 more boss room Dungeon like this one and 2 more Dungeons that are considered loot Dungeons. They don''t contain natural resources to harvest, but the boss monsters on each floor drop System loot and even the creatures inside sometimes have gear that can be used in the real world."
"One of those Dungeons is an ancient fort like the Cobbled Ruins, but it isn''t in ruins," Trick said. "It contains shadow people, and the gear and loot from inside actually form the backbone of the gear the Royal Army uses. It''s called The Shadow Fort."
"Shadow people?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at the term.
"It''s filled with humans," Tom replied. "They''re biologically exactly the same as humans in the real world, but they''re actually considered monsters. They have no sentience or thoughts of their own, and they only act as you would expect of monsters. People have triedmunicating with them in the past, but they''re not even capable of speech other than some shadow people shouting orders to the others. It doesn''t even work, and the words are just nonsense.
"They''re shadows of people who really existed in the past, though, so they''re called ''shadow people.''"
"That''s very interesting," Reivyn stroked his chin in thought.
"Heh, imagine if one day some shadow people of us popted a low Tier Dungeon," Teilon said. "People would go in and be all, ''this isn''t anything special,'' and then BAM! They encounter the shadow of Reivyn. He would definitely be the Dungeon Boss." Teilonughed.
"Reivyn alone would upgrade the Tier of the Dungeon," Kimberly remarked. "I wonder what kind of rewards the System would grant someone for defeating shadows of us?"
"I have no idea," Reivyn said. "That''s a good question. Would it be based on our Levels alone, or would it factor in our Skill Levels? Would a shadow version of ourselves contain all of our Skills and Affinities or just a representation based on our Level?"
"Or would the System raise the ''Level'' based on the danger your shadow represents?" Teilon pointed out. Tom and the other two roommates just shrugged their shoulders.
"Most people don''t kill other people," Tom said. "Misery is apparently terrible, and it lingers far longer than Euphoria. And battles between kingdoms, while they do happen, are much lessmon than fighting beasts and monsters."
Huh, I''d never really thought about it before, Reivyn mused. I''ve only ever fought and killed beasts and monsters. Is there a different Experience structure in ce for sentient people? Was all of the Experience gained from killing that shadow cloak guy in the Siege of Magron all from his Level, or were there modifiers based on his Skills and overall danger level? From what I could see from the Experience I gained from him, I only got credited with the Experience from his Level, but that doesn''t mean the ones who got the main portion of Experience from his death didn''t get a bonus. I''ll have to ask my parents.
"Back on topic," Trick said. "The Shadow Fort is the main one the Royal Army regrly delves with its soldiers. Not all of the gear that the shadow people inside use can be taken from their corpses, for some reason or another, but sometimes a copy of their gear will drop next to them, and they can be picked up and brought out of the Dungeon. The boss loot is simr in nature, as the bosses are typicallymanders or other officers. They drop slightly higher quality gear than can be found from the regr shadow people, but only thest boss of the Dungeon has a chance to drop anything with magical properties.
"The ''floors'' of the Dungeon aren''t vertical, either. The courtyard inside the walls is considered the first floor, and you have to defeat the boss in order to go inside the barracks, and you have to kill the boss in the barracks in order to gain ess to the main fortress. All of the shadow people inside are Tier 2, and the bosses are high Tier 2 with the ''lord'' of the dungeon being a Caster ss shadow person at low Tier 3."
"Only students in the second semester of their third year are allowed to enter the main fortress of the dungeon because it''s so far been considered the most dangerous Dungeon in the kingdom," Tom said. "I''m sure the Revenant Dungeon will now take that honor, and there will be simr restrictions ced on it."
"How do they enforce that rule on students that have already entered the Dungeon?" Reivyn asked, puzzled. "Couldn''t they just enter saying they''ll only explore the courtyard and barracks, and then go to the main fortress anyway?"
"The recording device you get to record your progress will alert the school when you turn it in," Tom said. "If you get caught breaking this particr rule, it''s automatic expulsion. Nobody is willing to take the risk of getting expelled.
"I supposed you could go in without the device, but then you wouldn''t get the preferential treatment of a student, and you might have to wait in line. You also have to register your Delve, and those reports are delivered to the Academy on a regr basis to be cross-referenced. If your name pops up - and they''ll get your real name as you have to show some form of identity that gets it straight from your Status - then you can get in trouble with the school that way. They won''t expel you automatically, but they will investigate and you could lose School Credits instead of gaining any. The costs don''t equal the reward."
"Hmm, can you get permission to go in early?" Reivyn asked. He wasn''t worried about a low Tier 3 Caster, and he really wanted to clear all of the Dungeons avable to him without having to wait until the veryst semester before graduation.
"Sure," Tom said. "Especially if you''re in the Elite ss. As long as you have a solid record to show that you can handle the dangers, the Academy will give permission. You just have to be sure to ask permission first and not forgivenesster."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said. "The Academy is here to push the students and give an avenue for them to reach the best Tier 3 sses they can while providing a safe environment to do so. In that case, we''ll be sure to visit that Dungeonst, before we head to the Revenant Dungeon." Reivyn had already told them that he would go with them when they went back to the Revenant Dungeon over the summer semester.
"Sure," Tom said. "So, back to this Dungeon. There are three gateways, and each one leads to a single boss monster room. This is the ''easiest'' Dungeon in the kingdom, and the first room contains a Level 10 goblin. It''s basically for the newest of the new adventurers and young aristocrats. The point of this Dungeon isn''t the Experience that can be gained from killing the monsters, but instead thebat experience that can be gained from fighting them.
"The second room contains a Level 30 goblin. To people like us, it''s still as easy as ites, but for young people, it''s a great opportunity. The third room contains a Level 20 orc. That Level 20 is Tier 2, so it''s really Level 50 if you consider one has to reach Level 30 in Tier 1 first."
"The only reason this Dungeon isn''t open to first semester Novices is because of that orc in the third room," Trick said. "The Academy wants their students to have morebat experience than the first two rooms can give before they let their students attempt the third room, and the best way to prevent anyone foolhardy enough to jump to the third room before they''re ready is to just not allow them toe at all."
"Thest thing about this Dungeon," Tom continued, "is that each room is solo only. Even if we walked through the gateway holding hands and in a Party, we would all still end up in our own separate space to fight the creature on the other side."
"The other boss Dungeon in the kingdom is a bit more advanced, and it starts with a Level 10 orc in the first room," Trick added. "The second room is a Level 30 orc, and the third room is a Level 60 orc. They also have higher quality gear than their lower Level counterparts."
"What about thest loot Dungeon?" Reivyn asked.
"From what you''ve said about the first floor of the Revenant Dungeon, it''s very simr," Trick answered. "It''s a goblin nest, and the final boss is a Level 30 orc with five goblins. It''s only two floors, and the loot isn''t anything to write home about. The first floor typically drops rusty weapons or armor, and the second floor drops things an orc would be found using, like arge cleaver. Not many people have a use for such a weapon, and they''re typically just melted down for the metal."
"Remember," Tom said, "these Dungeons are all Tier 1. Our kingdom is lucky to have the Shadow Fort Dungeon, as I''ve heard that most Tier 1 kingdoms don''t have ess to a Dungeon with a Tier 3 boss in it. Another reason why the Revenant Dungeon is so unusual."
"Alright, that''s good for now," Reivyn said. "It''s time to clear this Dungeon. Are all of you confident you can take the Level 20 orc in thest room?" The other three roommates shared a look and nodded their heads.
"Yeah, shouldn''t be a problem," Tom said.
"Good," Reivyn said. "This shouldn''t take too long. In and out. I''ll see you guys when we''re all done."
Reivyn headed to the first entrance that contained the Level 10 goblin. Reivyn chuckled to himself as thought about the situation. I would definitely nevere to this Dungeon if I didn''t want to sweep clean all of the Dungeons in the kingdom. There''s literally nothing it has to offer me other than a check in the box.
Reivyn walked through the entrance, and the door mmed shut behind him. He had expected as much, but he wasn''t too worried. Apparently, the door isn''t locked. Even if it wasn''t a weak goblin in here but something that would give me a run for my money, I would be able to simply open the door and escape if I needed to.
The boss room was a simple cave, and it wasn''t even thatrge. There was nothing to it other than the ethereal lighting found in the Revenant Dungeon. It must be a Dungeon thing rather than just a Revenant Dungeon thing, Reivyn spected.
The goblin in the center of the room immediately noticed Reivyn, and it shrieked as it charged over. It doesn''t even have a weapon, Reivyn noted. It''s literally just a feral child in a loincloth.
Reivyn shook his head and formed his free-hand Bolt Spell. Heunched a Tier 2 Fire Boltden with the Kic Affinity weave, and the bolt pierced right through the body of the goblin, continuing on until it impacted the far wall with a thud. The heat from the magical fire cauterized the giant hole in the goblin''s chest, but it still died instantly.
That was easy, Reivyn thought. He turned around and exited the room and headed straight for the next boss room. All of his friends exited the first room one after another before he even made it to the next room. I''m not surprised that everyone else managed to y the creature so quickly, either. It was weaker than most of the goblins found in packs in the Revenant Dungeon. I think those were all at minimum Level 15.
The second goblin room also posed no trouble for Reivyn, and he quickly dispatched it with his Gravity-infused Earth Bolt Spell. He made his way to the orc boss, and he didn''t hesitate to enter the room.
The orc wasn''t just a higher Tier and Level than the goblins. Reivyn immediately noted that the orc had some rudimentary leather scraps as armor and held a rusty cleaver.
It snarled, saliva dripping from its fangs, as it spotted Reivyn entering its room. It charged over just like the two goblins before it, but it at least disyed an understanding ofbat by raising its weapon. The two goblins hadn''t even prepared a punch or anything as they rushed to their demise.
Reivyn summoned dual Spells in either of his hands, and he hit the orc with a simr Fire Bolt Spell as he did the first goblin, and he followed it up with a zap of electricity from a Lightning Beam. The smoldering corpse of the orc copsed before it had even made it within 10 paces of Reivyn.
That might have been a bit of overkill, Reivyn chuckled. The Fire Bolt Spell, as a Tier 2 Spell infused with Kic weaves, was probably enough to kill it straight away. Oh well. The point of this exercise isn''t to simply kill everything as fast as possible, but to expand my magical abilities while clearing all of the Dungeons.
Reivyn exited the room and waited for his friends to finish their trials. All of the other Party members had apparently also entered the third room while Reivyn was inside dealing with the orc.
I wonder who wille out first? Reivyn thought as he waited. My money is on Trick. He''s a bit more talented in the magical department, but the difference isn''t huge.
Reivyn''s eyebrows rose in surprise, though, as the first person to exit the final room was actually Teilon. I thought the ranged nature of the Spells from my three roommates would have given them a speed advantage, but either Teilon''s experience made him eliminate the monster faster, or his new ss has some Skills that reduce such an advantage.
Reivyn nodded his head in acknowledgment to Teilon as he walked over to join him.
"If all of the Dungeons are as easy as this, then I really don''t have anything to worry about gaining those School Credits," Teilon chuckled. Reivyn eyed him sideways.
"You wish," he snorted. "We already know that at least the Shadow Fort should pose at least a little bit of challenge, and don''t forget, we never fully cleared the Revenant Dungeon. That''s on the list, too."
"Of course it is," Teilon sighed, looking up at the ceiling. Reivyn justughed as he pped his friend on the shoulder.
They didn''t have to wait long for the others to finish the simple Dungeon. Trick was the first of his roommates toe out as Reivyn had guessed, but it was actually Kimberly that immediately followed on his heels. Tom came out next, and Vane was thest to finish, though the time difference between each person wasn''t anything exaggerated.
"Alright," Reivyn said as everyone came together, "that was the quickest, easiest Dungeon we''ll be exploring. We don''t really have time to immediately head off to the next one, though, so we''ll go back to The Capital, attend a couple of sses, and then meet up again at the end of the week to go to the next destination." All of the others nodded their heads.
They had all attended the first week of sses in the new semester, and they had headed to this Dungeon on the first of the second week. They had decided toe at the beginning of the week because of the nature of the Dungeon and the fact it wouldn''t be too time-consuming.
"We''ll tackle the goblin nest Dungeon over the weekend," Reivyn continued. "It''s a bit further away, and it''s not too far from the mine loot Dungeon. We can knock out two more Dungeons over the weekend, and then attend a full week of sses before moving on to the other boss Dungeon. Anyone have any questions or different opinions?"
Teilon raised his hand.
"Put your hand down, Teilon," Reivyn smirked. "We''re not going to cancel the Dungeon delves."
"Aww, man," Teilon kicked at a loose stone on the ground. The others just chuckled.
The six friendsughed and joked with each other as they headed to the exit of the cave Dungeon. The boss Dungeons were a bit different from the other infinitely instanced Dungeons in the fact that they were doubly instanced. The room that held the three boss room entrances was also instanced from the rest of the world, and so they didn''t have to deal with the groups of other people challenging the monsters.
They exited the first instance back into the real world, and a Notification window popped up in Reivyn''s sight.
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Boss: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +20
Second Boss: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +40
Third Boss: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +100
Dungeon Completion Bonus: Exp +100
Total Experience: 260
Level Up! Level 2
Experience: 193/3,400
Huh, that was enough to finally Level Up to Level 2. I had gained 300 Experience from the Monthly Experience Calctions over the past several months, a lot less than if I had been actively sparring instead of mostly attending sses and experimenting with weaves.
I''ll dump the five free Stat points into rity, as it''s my lowest Stat at the moment. I''ll try and bring my rity and Perception up to above 200 with my free points. I have a total of well over 400 Stat point reductions for my ss requirements, so I''m not concerned about those. I have effectively over 600 in my main Stats for ss purposes. There should be something nice for having a bnced build on top of the benefits for increasing those Stats anyway.
Reivyn pulled up his Status Page.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Light Magus Lvl 2
Fighter Age: 11 Health: 2,520/2,520 Stamina: 4,780/4,780 Mana: 2,265/2,265 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 226 INT: 226 VIT: 252 MAG: 227 DEX: 226 CLA: 160 CHA: 67 PER: 174 LUK: 66
Bloodline: Unknown 2,886,274/10,000,000
Experience: 193/3,400
"Well, well, look what we have here," a voice intruded on Reivyn''s Status perusal. He looked up to see a group of teenagers decked out in shiny gear. A couple of the group members were also dressed in the robes associated with Caster sses. Reivyn recognized them as members of the Elite ss of the second year, and they gave him a sheepish look as the obvious Knight Academy students swaggered forward.
Reivyn recognized the leader of the teenagers with arrogant expressions on their faces. Lance and his goons, Reivyn noted. Looks like they''re here to stir up trouble with not only Teilon, but it appears they have their sights set on Tom and us as well.
Chapter 80: Scuffle
Chapter 80: Scuffle
Lance was apanied by five other members from the Knight Academy and three Casters from the Magic Academy. The six students of the Knight Academy had arrogant looks on their faces as they spread out in front of Reivyn and his friends, but the three Magic Academy students shared a nervous look before one of them stepped forward and whispered something to Lance.
Lance tilted his head to listen to the words before his gazended on Reivyn. He was familiar with Tom, Vane, and Trick, and he didn''t seem to be worried too much about their presence.
"What are you worried about?" Lance said after sizing Reivyn up. "I bet..."
Reivyn''s Danger Sense went off, and Reivyn tensed his body and watched as Lance Charged toward him mid-sentence for a surprise attack. Reivyn''s Perception and rity Stats were vastly superior to anyone else around, and so, despite the speed of Lance''s Charge Skill, he was able to calmly watch and respond to the sneak attack.
Lance didn''t pull out a weapon, but he instead balled his fist and tried to use his momentum to smash a punch into Reivyn''s face. I can''t really fault his tactics, Reivyn calmly thought. Take out the opponent''s strongest member fast and hard, just like the time the Second Squad and I fought the ogre boss battle in the Dungeon the first time.
Lance''s fist came flying toward Reivyn''s face, but he wasn''t fast enough to take Reivyn by surprise. Reivyn simply tilted his head to the side, and Lance''s fist moved past his head ineffectually. Lance had timed his charge to punch Reivyn in the face and not crash their bodies together, so he was left overextended with a look of surprise on his face, standing in front of Reivyn.
Reivyn leveled a look at Lance and smirked. He walked forward nonchntly and just centering his body while moving forward he knocked Lance down on his butt. Lance''s body provided zero resistance to his movement, and it looked like he was just taking a stroll without a care in the world. He made his way toward the center of the group.
The other five students from the Knight Academy were caughtpletely off guard at the turn of events, and the Magic Academy students had a look of panic on their faces as Reivyn advanced.
The first Knight student to recover pulled his sword out and thrust it at Reivyn. Reivyn casually parried the thrust aside with his Tessen, and then reached out with his other hand and grabbed the teenager''s wrist. He pulled the boy further off bnce and casually tossed him to the ground as well.
"What are you doing?!" Lance called from the ground. "st him!"
The panic on the face of the Caster student who had walked forward to whisper to Lance turned into terror, and he backed away, holding his hands up in front of himself.
"No, no, no," He said. "I warned you, Lance. You''re on your own." He turned to Reivyn, still backing up. "We don''t want anything to do with this, Reivyn. We''ll just walk away." Reivyn nodded his head at the Casters, and they turned around and jogged further away. They weren''t escapingpletely, though, as they were still with Lance and the other Knight students for challenging the Dungeons. They had just removed themselves from this private feud.
"Cowards!" Lance shouted at the retreating Casters.
"Fools!" The first Caster called back over his shoulder.
The other four Knight students finally regained theirposure, and they all drew their weapons andunched attacks at Reivyn. They had witnessed what would happen if they overextended themselves, so they maintained a more cautious approach despite surrounding Reivyn from four sides. Reivyn calmly sidestepped the attacks and parried thrusts from the swords.
No variation in their weaponry whatsoever, Reivyn snorted. It seems like the sword is the main weapon of focus for these aristocrats. They would be better off if they used spears, but that''s for themoners. Reivyn held a look of contempt on his face as he easily dealt with the offense. His Spatial Awareness Skill along with Danger Sense meant that he didn''t even have to keep his eyes on the two students who were behind him.
Reivyn suddenly heard a loud thunk from behind, and he stole a quick nce. Teilon had taken the opportunity of Lance falling to the floor and attempting to get up to rush up to him andnd a powerful punch right in his face, knocking him back down into the dirt. Heughed as rained more blows down on his nemesis.
"Hahaha, you never thought you''d see the day, did you?" Teilon taunted him.
Kimberly dashed forward and kicked the other downed student in the chest, sending him sprawling on his back. She didn''t jump on him like Teilon had Lance, but she instead continued to kick him around. He tried to swipe at Kimberly once from his position on the ground with his sword, but Kimberly held her own sword ready and parried the attack. He abandoned any attempt to counterattack or get up after that, and he curled into a ball to mitigate the damage.
Reivyn never even used any of his Mana Skills or Spells, and he stood his ground without the other four able to move him more than a few inches at a time for him to dodge their attacks. They were starting to grow desperate and pick up the speed of their attacks as they used more strength, risking unbncing themselves in order tond a hit on Reivyn.
Reivyn Sensed it before he saw it, but several magical Bolt Spells flew over and crashed into three of the students, sending them sprawling on the ground to join the other two Knight students. They had been so focused on Reivyn marching into the center of their little formation, that they had gained tunnel vision and forgotten about Tom, Vane, and Trick.
Reivyn grinned at thest student as he finally activated his Elemental Weapon Skill. His Tessen was engulfed in mes as he casually waved it toward thest man standing. Fear finally crept into his opponent''s eyes as the mes engulfed him for a moment. He screamed out in pain, and he dropped his sword to turn and escape the inferno. His hair was singed, and his clothes smoked, as Reivyn controlled the heat of the mes to cause pain but no serious damage.
They weren''t fighting to the death, even with the weapons involved. Everyone present had more than enough Health to sustain a few strikes from the weapons as long as they weren''t fatal, and Reivyn had noticed that they had carefully controlled their aim in order to avoid any such blows. It would be rude to not reciprocate, Reivyn chuckled.
Lance finally got a hold of Teilon, it hadn''t been that long since Teilon had pounced on him, and he attempted to grapple with the younger teenager. Teilon wasn''t having any of that, though, and he simply smashed his head into Lance''s face to stun him. He extricated himself from the other boy''s grip as he was momentarily dazed from the headbutt, and he stood up. Hended a few more kicks into his ribs for good measure before walking over to join Reivyn and the others.
The arrogant aristocrat Knight studentsy groaning on the ground from the summary pummeling they had received. Reivyn watched as they rolled about,pletely unable to continue the small skirmish. He looked up and noticed that a small crowd had gathered to witness thebat. About 20 other people who were here escorting young Adventurers or others hoping to get into the Academies had formed a semi-circle to watch the fun.
"C''mon, let''s go," Reivyn said to his group. They walked out, heads held high,pletely unscathed.
"You''ll pay for this!" Lance screamed at them as he once again got into a crouching position to stand up. Reivyn didn''t even look as he conjured an Earth Bolt and tossed it back to smash into Lance''s face, once more sending him into the dirt.
Reivyn''s group calmly walked away from the entrance of the Dungeon. It was located inside of a cavern, a little way down from the ground level outside. Reivyn nodded to the three Magic Academy students who were standing near the exit to the outside. They gulped and nodded back, sweat dripping down their foreheads.
"Hahaha, that felt great!" Teilon called as they walked into the sunlight.
"He''s definitely going to seek revenge," Reivyn said, giving Teilon a pointed look.
"Eh, let him," Teilon said. "What can he do? I''ll be protected by the campus rules while at the Academy, and when I''m not at the Academy, I''ll be with you." Teilon shrugged.
"I bet he''ll try and rope you into a groupbat at the Academy," Reivyn said. "You guys really need to make more friends. If you''re not careful, he''ll swindle you into a fight where your own team members are actually part of his group, and then you''ll get your butt handed to you."
"That''s a good point," Kimberly spoke up. "We''ve started to try and make friends with some of the other students, but for the most part, we have to go down several sses."
"The Knight Academy students are a bit more snobbish than the Magic Academy," Tom interjected. "At the Magic Academy, it''s much easier to disy one''spetence and superiority, so they care less for one''s background. There are not only more students at the Knight Academy, but there are also more aristocrats as well. On top of that, it''s not as clear to demonstrate one''s superiority over others unless there''s a huge difference in Skills or Stats."
"Though, we''ve already talked to some of our friends over there," Vane said. "Most of our friends are years two and three, but we have a few in the Novice ss, as well. We''ll give you their names when we get back to The Capital, and you guys can form your own group. That should at least help with any shenanigans they get up to try and trick you into an unfair group battle."
"Thanks," Teilon said, pping Vane on the shoulder. "We appreciate that."
"It''s no problem," Vane replied.
"Most of the friends we have in the Knight Academy aren''t nearly as close-knit as we and Melissa''s family are," Trick said. "Our families have different interests because of the nature of our sses and Skills we focus on, but we do have cordial rtionships."
"It doesn''t matter," Teilon said. "As long as they''re friendly and willing to stick with us."
"That they should be," Tom said. "They don''t run in the same circles as Lance, and they don''t really care for them and their families all that much. We''ll also tell our older friends to keep an eye out and step in if Lance recruits any of his older friends to try and deal with you, too."
Teilon and Kimberly nodded their heads as they walked out into the wilderness. The Boss Dungeon they had justpleted was half a day away from The Capital in the opposite direction of the Cobbled Ruins. It was no ident that the ruins were equally distanced from each other, surrounding The Capital. The Dungeons existed before The Capital was founded, and it was deliberately chosen to be located as close to all of the known Dungeons as possible.
Well, as close to the Dungeons as possible while also being close to the Tier 2 Region border, Reivyn thought. Apparently, Tier 1 Dungeons have a propensity to pop up near the borders of higher Tier Regions. Tier 2 and above Regions have a more even distribution of Dungeons, and the Revenant Dungeon is once again an anomaly.
"What do you think Jaret said to Lance?" Trick asked as they mounted their horses. There wasn''t a small outpost filled with people like there was at the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon, but there was still a ce for people to tie up their mounts that was supervised by someone employed by the government. Even at the lowest rank Dungeon, The Crown took the running and ess to the Dungeons seriously.
"Jaret? Was that the Magic Academy student that whispered to Lance?" Reivyn surmised.
"Yeah," Vane said. "He probably said something like, ''What are you doing? That guy over there is a prodigy. He''s year one and scored higher than everyone else in year two on the final exam.''"
"More like, ''What are you doing? That guy''s a monster,''" Trick snorted.
"He probably didn''t get to say a whole lot," Tom said. "Lance only took a second to decide to engage. He probably only got out something like, ''That guy''s a monster, we don''t want to get involved.''"
"He probably said, ''That monster over there is tougher than any of the Boss Dungeon monsters,''" Teilon spoke up.
"Why is everyone saying I''m a monster?!" Reivyn eximed. The other five friends all shared a look beforeughing.
"Because you are?" Teilon said, chuckling.
"Fine, fine," Reivyn said in exasperation. "I noticed you didn''t hesitate to take advantage of his precarious position to thwack him in the face, though."
"Guilty," Teilon said proudly. "And I''d do it again. In fact, I hope I get to do it again. He needs a few more smacks in the face."
"Doesn''t say anything and immediately Charges to attack," Tom shook his head. "He''s been a dominant force for too long, and he doesn''t ce anybody else in his eyes. You might have to actually fight him for real and thrash him a bit to teach him a lesson, Reivyn. And he won''t be convinced if you use magic."
"Eh, that''s not a problem," Reivyn replied. "I already got a gauge of his abilities and Stats from his Charge Punch maneuver. I don''t need magic to deal with him."
"I like how you''re just like, ''Eh, one of the top Elite Students of the Knight Academy is basically a child in front of me,''" Trick said with a snicker. "I bet he brings along a Tier 3 escort the next time we run into him in the wilderness."
"And it''s probably not a coincidence that we ran into him here," Tom added. "He probably had someone spying on Teilon and Kimberly that told him we came here. I wouldn''t put it past him to pull the same stunt again."
"I can handle up to a mid-Tier 3," Reivyn said confidently. "I''ll be in trouble if he employs anyone that''s close to or beyond Tier 4, though. Does his family have anyone like that?"
"His grandfather is Tier 4, and his father and some of the more important guards are high Tier 3, but it''s unlikely he''d be able to bring any of them along," Vane said. "He might ask for a high Tier 3 guard from Joven. He''s got his head so far up Joven''s butt, that he can smell his breath. I wouldn''t expect something like that to happen until after he brings his own personal bodyguard along, though, so you have time."
"If we run into him again in a simr situation, and he''s brought a Tier 3 bodyguard along to deal with me, then we''ll know for sure that he''s deliberately targetting us like you guessed," Reivyn said. "If that happens, I''ll bring my own ''friend'' along with us after that, and he''ll surely be in for a surprise then," Reivyn smirked to himself.
"A ''friend?''" Tom asked, an eyebrow quirked and a look of confusion on his face. "Do you have a friend in The Capital that can fight off a high Tier 3 or Tier 4?"
"Don''t worry about it," Teilon said, shaking his head. "Just trust us. They don''t have anyone that can cause us trouble out in the wild."
"Has it got something to do with his ''insane father?''" Trick asked. Teilon just smiled and shook his head.
"Ok, well, we''ll take your word for it," Tom said.
The six friends continued their journey back to The Capital, engaging in the asional banter. They were still buoyed by their sess in the Dungeon and the fight with Lance and his crew immediately after, so it was a pleasant and energetic trip back to the city.
"There are two, final techniques to study during this semester," Master Feld said. Reivyn was seated in ss in the second-year Elite weaving course. The first week had been consolidating everything they had learned from the first semester further, and now they were getting into the rest of the curriculum.
"I''m sure many of you have noted the essence of the weaves and how they resemble knots and ropes," Master Feld said. "So, has anyone deduced what thest two techniques are?" Several hands shot up, the same hands that usually shot up to answer the questions. Master Feld once more called upon Samantha.
"Knots," Samantha answered.
"That''s one," Master Feld nodded. "What''s the other one?" He tilted his head as he perused the ss. All of the hands went down after Samantha had said knots, but nobody raised their hands again. "Anyone?" Master Feld continued to look around for a moment.
Reivyn raised his hand. His mother had already told him the answer after he had also correctly guessed knots were the next step, but he wasn''t one to try and steal the limelight. He only raised his hand because nobody else had done so. They alle from prominent families that have Caster sses in them, did none of their family instruct them on it? Maybe they told them to wait and learn for themselves in the Academy. Reivyn mentally shrugged.
"Reivyn," Master Feld called on him.
"Patterns," Reivyn stated simply.
"Yes, exactly," Master Feld said. "Knots and Patterns round out the techniques for building Spells. The truly high-Level Spells can have whole tapestries woven inside of them."
Huh, I guess that that exins why mom has been so enthusiastic about Kailey and Riley''s artistic endeavors, Reivyn thought. They''re already able to create some intricate works with just the simplest things. They''ve been able to make pictures of all of our faces with intricate detail simply from different shades in grass stalks.
"The next portion of our study will be on the knots, and the second half of the semester will be on patterns," Master Feld continued. "Does anyone know what the knots do?" Several hands went up, but they weren''t raised nearly as enthusiastically as before. Master Feld indicated for a student to give their answer.
"Theypress the strings and ropes even further?" The student asked more than answered.
"Yes, partially," Master Feld said. "You can fit more of a particr weave inside of a Spell Shell by creating knots out of the string, but that''s not all they do. There are many different types of knots, and each one has a different effect. They can amplify the characteristics of a weave based on its shape and position, and they can mute other characteristics just the same.
"Let''s say you want to create a Fire st Spell, and you want it to have a super strong burst effect, but you want to concentrate the st within a certain range. You can use one set of knots to increase the force of the st, and another set of knots can mute the dispersion. You could also increase or decrease the temperature of the mes to match the situation.
"Knots can increase the spin of the internal rotations in an Air Bolt, or you can use knots to create multipleyers of different rotations. Knots can vastly increase the versatility and power of your Spells."
Samantha raised her hand after Master Feld introduced the concept to the ss, and he called on her to ask whatever question she had.
"If knots are so versatile and powerful, then what''s the purpose of the patterns?"
"Excellent question," Master Feld replied. "Just like how the number of weaves a Spell can contain is restricted, the number of knots a weave can contain is also restricted. Lessplicated knots put less strain on a weave like lower Affinities put less strain on the shell, and higher Tier Affinities can more easily handle the strain of moreplicated knots.
"Knots don''t affect the strain a weave has on the shell, but it does affect the strain on the weave directly. Patterns, likewise don''t put any strain on the shells. They also put a strain on the weaves, but in a different way than knots. A higher Tier Affinity, like with knots, can contain a moreplicated pattern.
"Knots amplify and mute characteristics of the weaves, and patterns affect the intent of the Spell. The higher your Magic Stat, the more intent you can infuse into your Spell. It works a lot like Knots, but it affects the Spell as a whole.
"As an example, we''ll go back to the Fire st Spell. Using knots, you can only get so far with the amplification of the burst and muting of the dispersion, but then you can add a pattern to it to go beyond the limits of the weaves and knots. Not only can you further amplify it, but you can instill different effects that the weaves themselves would have a hard time creating. You could create a pattern for the Fire st Spell that would cause the st to linger, or move about, or expand and contract multiple times."
Reivyn raised his hand as a thought struck him. I remember my mombined herser ball spells with her Celestial Tornado Spell. Was that an effect caused by patterns? Master Feld indicated for Reivyn to ask his question.
"Can patterns in individual Spells be used tobine multiple Spells together?" He asked.
"Yes! Very good," Master Feld answered enthusiastically. "If you create multiple Spells with either the same pattern or withplementary patterns, they canbine, and the synergy of thebination will create a drastically more powerful effect. This is an advanced technique, though, and most students don''t start doing so until after they''ve graduated. We''ll teach you how to do so, but you''ll have too much to do to work on your foundations while you''re here. That being said, the higher Tier Academies will have courses on the more advanced techniques."
Another reason to fight for the quota, Reivyn mused. I know my mom could help me out a lot with it, especially with her Weaver designation and practice; however, she did tell me that her own education was cut short, so she can probably only help with specific Affinities. Maybe I can learn more and actually teach her a few things to help her out. Reivyn chuckled to himself at the thought.
"The System will automatically add knots to your ss Spells based on your intent once you reach mid-way through your Tier 3 ss," Master Feld said. "The same thing will happen with Patterns once you reach mid-way through Tier 4. That doesn''t prevent you from doing it free-hand, though. You just won''t get assistance from the System in this aspect until you''ve reached a certain level of mastery in your magical abilities.
"Midway through Tier 3 and 4 is just an average, too. If you''re particrly gifted, the System will provide the appropriate assistance when it deems you Skilled enough.
"Ok," Master Feld concluded. "If there are no more questions, I''ll begin instructing you on the different types of knots. We''ll spend a couple of weeks learning this material, and then I''ll teach you what the different positioning of the knots can do."
Chapter 81: Tour de Fort
Chapter 81: Tour de Fort
The days at the Academy flew by. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. Reivyn split his focus between spending a week or two concentrating on his sses and the curriculum and going out and about with his friends to explore the Dungeons and Adventurer Guild quests.
Reivyn''s proficiency in weaves continued to grow, and adding the knots to his repertoire didn''t hinder his expansion in learning new weaves and gaining proficiency.
These knots really aren''t all that difficult, Reivyn thought as he practiced in the privacy of his room. The knots themselves have nothing to do with physical knots. Many of the variations would serve absolutely no purpose, or they wouldn''t even be able to work in the first ce. It makes sense considering the Affinities aren''t based on physical reality, to begin with, so why would knots start to do so?
The only difficult thing about knots is their positioning, but even that bes simpler with strong memorization. Master Feld said that the theory of why the knots work and what their positioning means on a fundamental level are more advanced courses. We''ll get a bit of it in thest semester as year three students, but the Tier 2 and higher Academies go further in depth.
Patterns, likewise, aren''t representative of reality. We''ve only just started exploring the patterns we can weave into our Spell shells with our strings, but from what I''ve gathered, nobody has to use the same pattern to get the same function. Master Feld has instructed us that the patterns are a tool to concentrate intent.
Reivyn had too many Affinities to explore the weaves and knots, so he still spent the bulk of his personal practice time on that subject rather than pushing forward into the patterns. He still worked on them, but his advantage in Affinities and their weaves was quickly turning into a hindrance as the ss advanced to the new subject.
Keeping up with the others is the best I can do for now, but once I finish exploring the knots and positioning for all of my Affinities, I''m confident I can stride ahead of the others in regards to the patterns, as well. A solid foundation has been drilled into me as the most important point to focus on in the lower Tiers. The hindrance it brings to getting ahead of others who don''t have nearly as broad a foundation is a small price to pay for the guarantee of going further in Tiers in the future.
It''s the same concept of siphoning my Experience into my bloodline and unlocking it. While I won''t gain as many Levels as fast as others, I''ll have more choices and a broader future. Leveling up too quickly in pursuit of short-term gains is a well-known facy.
Despite only keeping up with the pack when it came to the new material, Reivyn wasn''t deterred or demoralized from his purpose. He understood that the other students weren''t sacrificing their potential in pursuit of power now, but he wouldn''t waste his higher natural talent in mana Skills and Affinities just to keep pace.
The other main aspect of Reivyn''s Academy life was the Dungeon explorations. The Dungeons in the first Tier kingdom were honestly nothing special to Reivyn, other than the Shadow Fort main boss monster.
Picking up Adventurer Guild quests was also a good way to umte School Credits, and many of them weremissions for acquiring materials from the wilderness or the resource Dungeons. Reivyn had convinced Tom, Vane, and Trick that using their school tokens to gain ess to the quests was a short-sighted option, and they all registered as official Adventurers as well.
Reivyn added them as nominal members to The Frostfire Thorns, and they picked up several quests to pick up materials for the local craftsmen when they went to explore the Dungeons. Reivyn found that conjuring a forester''s axe and a miner''s pick from using his mana Skills not only helped him increase those mana Skills, but the added concentration made it more difficult and actually increased his Leveling speed of Woodworking and Mining.
There were other quests from the Adventurers Guild that they epted other than acquiring materials, too. There were several quests to cull the poptions of wild goblins and ferocious beasts with prolific breeding in the forests and mountains surrounding the more civilized parts of the kingdom. The locations of the Dungeons were still considered to be somewhat within the range of the civilized society, but it wasn''t much of a burden to travel another day or so beyond to where the wilderness was still dominant.
The mountains near the Tier 2 Region border were nothingpared to the majestic range the Revenant Dungeon was attached to. That mountain range was famous for its breadth, though, and it spanned multiple regions. There were even rumors that the highest peaks far, far away stretched into a Tier 6 Region.
Reivyn wasn''t sure if the rumors were urate, but having seen the mountain range in question, he didn''t have any reason to disbelieve them. The mountains he and his friends traveled to in pursuit of the culling quests weren''t part of anyrger ranges, though. They were simply solitary mountains consisting of only a few individual peaks.
The forests near the Tier 2 border were also grander than the ones found closer to The Capital and other cities. The trees were massive towers, and the sunlight was muted on the forest floor.
The ferocious beasts and monsters found in the mountains and forests of the Tier 1 Region, while dangerous to Lifestyle sses and younger citizens, posed no threats to the Party of Combat ssers, and they quickly raked in not only contribution points toward their Adventurer Rank, but also School Credits to match them.
Their expeditions were free from worry, and they didn''t have to deal with any more altercations from the arrogant Knight Academy students led by Lance, but Reivyn always remembered his lessons from growingcent and kept a sharp eye out for any indication of conflict.
Jaret and the other two Magic Academy students that had apanied Lance when he attacked them outside the Boss Dungeon had repeatedly assured Reivyn that they wanted nothing to do with any personal feud that Lance had with him or his friends, and they went out of their way to express goodwill when on campus.
The supposed cease-fire from Lance and his friends wasn''t a permanent situation, though.
Reivyn walked through the streets with his roommates, bantering back and forth as they headed to the restaurant that they frequented when they met up with Teilon and Kimberly. They kept going back to the same establishment that they had originally all grouped up together that was owned by Alisia''s family. It had a splendid menu that never disappointed, and they were treated to a small discount at the instruction of Alisia.
Reivyn and his friends weren''t short on money. Even Teilon and Kimberly still had a substantial sum in their pockets remaining from when they sold the Experience Crystals they had acquired in the Revenant Dungeon.
They were meeting up to go on their final Dungeon Run, The Shadow Fort, and Reivyn had just gotten permission for their Party to explore the whole thing.
This will be thest Dungeon that we explore before the end of the semester, Reivyn thought as they entered their private room. After the semester is over, we''ll take a short break with our families. Teilon and Kimberly will leave ahead of us so they can go home to spend some time with their families as well, and then we''ll all meet up at the Revenant Dungeon to finish exploring the third floor.
Melissa and Larissa have expressed interest in joining us out there again with their other friends. We can spend some time mixing and matching our Party makeup to explore the Dungeon. It wouldn''t make sense for all of us to go in together, even with how dangerous the second floor can be.
If there''s another floor below that, I''ll probably have to go in with my parent''s subordinates instead of my own Party. I really want toplete the entire Dungeon, and the third floor is most likely going to be a challenge for us. There''s no way I would subject my friends to the dangers of a fourth floor in that Dungeon if it exists.
Reivyn and his friends sat down at the table in the private room and ordered the food and drinks. Theyughed and joked around, discussing the different aspects of the Academy and Dungeon exploration while they waited for Teilon and Kimberly to arrive.
Reivyn''s roommates were in great moods recently, because they had all solidly taken a ce in the top 10 of the Novice Rankings after all the hard work they had put in. Trick was still slightly higher than the other two, taking fourth ce Ranking in the ss. Tom was Ranked sixth, and Vane was right on his heels at seventh ce. Nobody had evere close to knocking Reivyn out of his first ce Ranking.
The door banged open as the friends waited for thest two members of the Party, and Teilon and Kimberly came limping in. Teilon made his way to the closest chair and copsed into it, wincing and holding his side as he settled into his seat. Kimberly was a little bit better off than him, and she only had the slight limp that she came in with, not having any trouble sitting in her seat.
"What happened to you two?" Reivyn asked as he filled a couple of cups with a beverage to pass to his friends. Teilon epted it with thanks and downed the contents.
"Lance, that sneaky jerk, finally struck back," Teilon said after finishing his drink. "He and his friends had ignored us and lulled us into a false sense of security. Kimberly and I always kept an eye on him, but the other students that were supposed to make sure he didn''t enlist any older students in a group battle got busy with their own things now that we''re toward the end of the semester. He challenged us to a group battle like you predicted, and he showed up with four third-year students who are about to graduate."
"That guy has no shame," Trick said, gritting his teeth. "He better pray that we don''t run into him at the Shadow Fort. Are you two even in a state to go to the Shadow Fort this weekend?" Trick directed the question toward Teilon and Kimberly.
"We only have some bruising," Kimberly replied. "Even though it was basically a team of third years against us and the lower Ranked friends we''ve made, they weren''t able to secure a blowout victory as they had anticipated. We''ll be right as rain from our own passive recovery by the time we reach The Shadow Fort tomorrow."
"Yeah, it''s not in the way," Teilon said, wincing once more. "We don''t have any broken bones or any serious injuries. Just a bit of wounded pride. The other people who witnessed the match, though, knew what was up, and our prestige hasn''t actually dropped from the result of the match."
"I don''t really care about your prestige in the Knight Academy, as long as you two are fine," Reivyn said. "If you don''t feel up to going to the Dungeon this weekend, we can always wait a couple of days or a week before going."
"We appreciate that," Teilon said, Kimberly nodding along, "but that won''t be necessary. We''re really fine, and we''ll be back to fighting condition before you know it."
Reivyn eyed his friends with concern. He could see the determination and fire in his friends'' eyes, and he nodded his head.
"Alright, it''s settled then," Reivyn said. "Did you guys get permission to explore the whole Dungeon?"
"Yup," Teilon answered. "No sweat."
"When we provided the administration with the makeup of our group and the deeds we''ve aplished, as well as your ranking in the Magic Academy Novice ss, they were perfectly satisfied," Kimberly added.
"Then let''s eat!" Trick shouted. "We''ll have lunch here, and then head to the Army outpost near the Dungeon afterward. We can even take the leftovers to eat on the way there. No reason to subject ourselves to field rations when we can have delicacies from The Capital."
Reivyn kept a critical eye on the condition of his friends, but after they had started eating and drinking, Teilon and Kimberly didn''t disy anything too obstructing. The friends enjoyed their meal and packed some to go before heading out to thest Dungeon exploration of the semester.
"The Shadow People are basically simr to the soldiers you interacted with in Magron," Tom exined as they walked through the heavily militarized outpost outside of the Dungeon. Several squads of armored soldiers were lined up to enter the Dungeon in an orderly fashion at the start of the new day. There was military discipline on disy in all directions, and Reivyn was impressed with how efficient and thorough the soldiers of the Army were.
Reivyn had donned his armor and sword once more for this Dungeon. He wasn''t going to take a Dungeon that had a Tier 3 Spell Caster for a boss lightly. His armor in the military environment made him feel more at home than he had expected.
This is the environment that Knight-Captain Reifold trained in when he was younger, so it''s no surprise that they''re a well-oiled machine, Reivyn thought. It seems that the Knight-Captain got his military bearing and professionalism because of the kingdom''s standing Army, and not in spite of it.
Reivyn nodded his head in appreciation at the workings of the outpost. He turned his attention back to Tom as their Party entered the queue to enter the Dungeon. The entrance to the Dungeon was the gate to the ancient fort, the walls still standing in good condition after thousands of years.
"The troops in the yard will all be low to mid-Tier 2 soldiers, and they''lle at us with simr tactics as the squads of our own military," Tom continued. "Just because they''re actually mindless monsters doesn''t mean their nature as trained soldiers are any different."
"There will be some that are only grouped in small groups or ones that wille at us individually, but it''s mostly squads," Vane added. "The interior of the barracks is a little different. They will all only be in small groups or individuals, but they''re all mid to high Tier 2 Combat ss monsters."
"The real dangeres from the bastion itself," Trick said. "It''s full of groups of two to four ''royal guards,'' as they''re called, and they''re all Level 60 Tier 2 monsters. The lord of the Dungeon is a Tier 3 Caster with four bodyguards."
"Our magical abilities will be crucial to clearing the Dungeon in a swift and safe manner," Reivyn mused. "For the first two ''floors'' of the Dungeon, I''ll mainly act as a Caster in the back row with Teilon and Kimberly taking up the vanguard. I can step up to the vanguard position at any time I''m needed, but I''ll take the lead in confronting the Dungeon lord. You guys focus on killing the four bodyguards while I keep the Caster focused on me, and then we can crush him all together."
"Sounds like a n," Teilon said. "Kimberly will take up the main defensive position in the vanguard when it''s a smaller group of enemies. She''s much better with a shield and spear than I am. Depending on the size of the squads that we encounter, we might need you to step up to the front simply to keep them from moving around us and getting to the other Casters, though," he pointed out to Reivyn.
"Don''t worry, I''m prepared," Reivyn smiled.
"Next group, enter," a crisp militarymand came to the Party. Reivyn saw that they were next in line, and he hurried his friends to keep up to enter to the Dungeon. He didn''t want to be responsible for holding the line up and gaining the ire of the soldiers.
Once they crossed the threshold of the Dungeon, Reivyn saw a familiar scene. The monsters were spread out throughout the open field. Some marched in formation, an endless loop from side to side. Some appeared to be practicing their martialbat Skills either against training dummies or other monsters, and there was one Shadow Man who was obviously the boss of the floor.
The monster in question was attired in splendid, shiny armor, and he had obvious outerments that denoted he was an officer. Another Shadow Person followed him around, simrly attired but with fewer decorations, a clipboard in one hand.
Reminds me of my time as the Aide to Knight-Lieutenant Brand, Reivyn chuckled. He watched the soldiers performing their eternal duties. The boss of the first area apparently wandered the entire ''floor'' randomly, and if they weren''t careful, they could be engaged by him at any time.
"Make sure we don''t identally get noticed by the boss until we''ve killed all of the other monsters first," Tom warned.
"Why? Is he actually harder than he seems? I thought you said he was Level 45 Tier 2?" Reivyn asked.
"No, he''s nothing special," Tom answered. "But he''ll call all of the other monsters still alive to attack us at the same time." Reivyn''s instincts kicked in at the information.
"Oh? What happens if someone engages the boss monster first and kills the entire floor altogether? Is that a hidden Hard Mode?" He asked, an eyebrow quirked with interest.
"I''m not sure..." Tom trailed off. "You''re not seriously thinking about doing that, are you? I''ve only ever heard tales of people fleeing for their lives when they made a mistake."
"Why? You scared?" Reivyn asked, looking at Tom with a grin. "I think that''s a great idea. And if nobody has ever done it before, I''m sure it is a hidden Hard Mode."
"You''re crazy!" Tom eximed. "You want to get us all killed just on a hunch that it might be a Hard Mode?"
Reivyn listened to Tom as he scanned the surroundings. There were several smaller buildings on the outskirts of the main yard. Those look like individual dwellings. I wonder... Reivyn pointed to the smaller buildings.
"What are those? Are there any monsters inside of them?" The others followed the direction he was pointing and spotted the smaller buildings he was talking about. They were little one-room buildings in a row. It looked like one long building with doors leading to individual rooms.
"No, there are no monsters in those buildings," Trick answered. "From what I know, there''s really nothing in them at all. Just bunks."
Reivyn smiled as he walked toward one of the buildings, his Party following on his heels. He noticed that not only were there no monsters inside of the little rooms but there weren''t any monsters rtively close, either. It seems like the Dungeon is simting a typical day where all of the soldiers are either gathered up to train or are in the main barracks.
Reivyn inspected the rooms. He conjured an axe and hacked at the wood making up the building, and it sunk in like it would any other building. He dismissed the axe and contemted the structure.
"Ok, hear me out," Reivyn said. "We can reinforce the walls with our magic, and we can punch some holes from room to room on the inside in case we need to escape. We can lure the enemies over here, and the doorway will prevent them from all getting to us at once. It might be a long fight, but it shouldn''t be a dangerous one, and Kimberly, Teilon, and I can switch out taking turns standing in the door.
"Tom, Vane, and Trick, you guys can take turns standing behind one of us lobbing Spells over our heads at the monsters. With proper rotation, we should be able to easily handle engaging the entire ''floor'' at once."
The other Party members looked at each other and considered the strategy that Reivyn hade up with.
"I like it!" Teilon said. "Might as well add some spice to the adventure, eh?"
"I don''t see why it couldn''t work," Kimberly added. "Especially if we make holes in the interior walls, we''ll have a proper escape route in case things don''t go as nned."
"Alright," Tom conceded. "We can give it a try. They are mindless monsters, all things considered, and they won''t be able toe up with any counter strategies. They''ll basically act like goblins and just rush us without any other considerations other than acting like soldiers. I doubt they''ll even try to hack through the walls to get to us." Vane and Trick shrugged and nodded their heads in agreement, as well.
"It''s settled, then," Reivyn rubbed his hands together. "We don''t have to maintain the reinforcement the whole time. We can take turns as needed when we''re not flinging Spells. I have the most mana, so unless I burn through a lot of it, I''ll do most of the reinforcing to begin with.
"Let''s make it happen," Reivyn said with excitement. I don''t necessarily revel in doing dangerous things, but the Dungeons in the Tier 1 Region, despite their variety, have been pretty boring up until now.
The Party quickly made a tunnel of sorts through the interior of the long dormitory, and Reivyn exited on his own to engage the boss. He waited for several minutes for the boss to get closer on its meandering path, and once it was in range, Reivynunched a powerful Fire Bolt Spell infused with Kic weaves and strategically ced knots for maximum impact.
The Fire Bolt mmed into the head of the boss, and the impact was sorge it lifted it off of the humanoid''s feet and he crumpled to the ground.
What happens if I kill the boss in one shot? Reivyn thought, slightly worried. His worries disappeared, though, as the boss stood up and let out a loud bellow. Its face had arge, smoldering scar on it, smoke visibly wafting away from the burn. All of the other Shadow People on the first floor turned to look at the boss. The boss drew its sword and pointed toward Reivyn with it, and the other monsters let out loud screams as theyid eyes on Reivyn and charged toward him.
Reivyn quickly retreated to the small fortification his Party had set up, and Kimberly stepped forward with Tom right behind her. Teilon was waiting to the side with Vane and Trick standing by. The monsters weren''t that close to Reivyn, so it wasn''t a close call or anything like that, but there were almost a hundred of the Shadow People welling up to get at the Party members inside the dorm.
Kimberly held them off at the door with Tomunching his ss Spells. They would have time to work on free-hand Spell weaving if they maintained enough Mana after they thinned the horde out.
Reivyn found himself just standing around, waiting for his turn while the others fought against the monsters. They weren''t smart enough to try any other avenue of approach other than the open door the Party held fast.
This is actually probably easier than engaging all of the enemies on this floor individually while keeping a lookout for the boss, Reivyn thought. I''m pretty sure the actual boss already died, too. He really was nothing special.
The battle onlysted about half an hour, and Reivyn only took one turnunching Spells at the monsters. He took thest turn holding the door to let Kimberly and Teilon recover their Stamina, though.
Thest monster fell, and it disintegrated like the Duhan had after Reivyn walked forward, identally kicking it in the process. That exins why there''s not a mountain of corpses in front of the building, Reivyn idly thought. There were several pieces of well-maintained equipment littering the floor where the monsters had asionally dropped a piece of loot.
The Party sifted through the weapons and armor, but there wasn''t really anything standing out, so they only took a couple of the more expensive-looking pieces that were most likely dropped from the boss.
"See, no problem," Reivyn said. "Considering how easy that was, I''m guessing that this is actually a pretty well-known tactic, and either people don''t actively spread it, or you guys just never heard of it before."
"Probably," Tom conceded.
Nobody hade even close to the danger levels for Health, Stamina, or Mana, but they still walked over toward the barracks with a n to rest before tackling the next portion of the Dungeon. As they walked over, Reivyn spotted a chest that hadn''t been there before, sitting on the ground next to the entrance to the barracks.
"Told you so," Reivyn said, pointing to the chest. "I''m betting that a System chest isn''t normally rewarded uponpletion of this area, is it?" Tom and the others shook their heads. Reivyn pped Tom on the shoulder with a wide grin on his face. "Have faith in me, and I''ll lead you to all sorts of good stuff."
Chapter 82: Bossy Mage
Chapter 82: Bossy Mage
Spear of the Lost Army A worn Spear that has been wielded by manypetent spearmen
STR +3
DEX +2
Provides minor proficiency bonus to Spears
Dagger of the Lost Army A worn Dagger that has been wielded by manypetent scouts
STR +2
DEX +3
Provides minor proficiency bonus to Daggers
Reivyn pulled out the two pieces of gear that were inside the reward chest. He inspected them briefly before handing them to Kimberly and Teilon, respectively, briefly exining the description the System provided.
"The lord might drop something useful to a Caster ss, and you guys can have a chance at that, but it makes more sense to pass these items off to the two people who can use them right now," Reivyn exined to Tom and the others. "We''ll total the rewards from the Dungeon runter, and we''ll make sure everyone ispensated fairly."
"You don''t have to exin to us, Reivyn," Tom waved his hands in front of his face. "We get it, and we know you''re not trying to just give your friends all the best stuff. I mean, we''re your friends, too."
"True, but I still want everything to be fair at the end of the day," Reivyn replied.
"No sweat," Trick said.
Kimberly ced the two spears next to each other on the wall after inspecting the new one. Teilon immediately reced one of his daggers for the new acquisition, and he patted it with a smile once it was properly in ce. Neither of them had an Inspect Skill of their own, yet, so they had to rely on Reivyn to tell them the effects of the equipment.
The six Party members sat down with their backs against the wall of the barracks to take a rest. They pulled out some rations to have a snack to help replenish their Stamina consumption. They weren''t worried about any passing monsters, as it wasmon knowledge that denizens of Dungeons didn''t leave their floors. Though it''s alsomon knowledge that they don''t leave the Dungeons, either, and we''ve seen how well that holds true. As long as there isn''t any outside interference, we should be fine to rx.
Reivyn kept an eye out for any dangers as they rested, but nothing interrupted them. The Party quickly finished their snack and stood up, ready to tackle the barracks.
"The barracks is made up of a couple ofrge, open bunk rooms, and several, smaller individual rooms," Tom exined. "The entrance should be guarded by a couple of Shadow People in a small reception room, and then behind that is the open quarters. As far as I know, there are multiple groups of two to five monsters each scattered throughout the open room, and there are individual monsters in the side rooms.
"There are three floors, and the third floor is the boss encounter. It''s simr to the first boss we fought. It''s just a bit higher Level than the others, and it will call all the monsters on the floor to join the fight if we don''t kill them first." Tom gave Reivyn a look from the side of his eyes. "Are you going to want to try and see if there''s a Hard Mode for this boss, too?"
"Nah," Reivyn shook his head. "There probably is one, but it doesn''t seem like engaging that entire floor at once is enough to justify it being a Hard Mode. If it''s any moreplicated than that to try and trigger one, I say we just do it normally as quickly as possible and move on to thest area."
The Party all nodded their heads and entered the barracks. Kimberly led from the front, shield up and sword out. She left her spear propped up outside as it would be more of a hindrance in the tighter quarters. Her ss of Fighter and training in the Knight Academy had helped her quickly gain and Level her Swords Skill.
She can definitely use more training in order to catch up to her proficiency with a spear, but she''spetent enough for our purposes, Reivyn noted as she engaged the two Shadow People. Teilon seemed to blend into the shadows as he activated his ss Skills. He popped up behind one of the monsters and managed to sink his daggers into its back, unnoticed until he struck. The Shadow Person threw his head back, a grimace on his face, and Kimberly took the opportunity to stab her sword through its chest to end its life.
She kept her shield up to block the attack of the other monster as she and Teilon finished off the first monster, and three Bolt Spells flew around her to impact the monster and throw it off bnce. It was severely injured after taking three direct hits, and Reivyn finished it off with a sma Beam to the face.
"We can use simr tactics to handle all groups of three or less," Reivyn said as they moved toward the entrance to the bunk hall. "When there''s four or more, I''ll join Kimberly in the front as the vanguard. We''ll still use the same basic tactics, though."
The others nodded their heads as they advanced into the next room. It was a long hall with several bunks evenly spaced in a tidy manner. Reivyn was reminded of his time with the second squad as he noticed that there were several groups "ying cards" or doing some other mundane activity. There were even a couple of Shadow People with brooms and other cleaning implements in their hands, sweeping and cleaning the barracks.
Reivyn let Kimberly lead them from group to group, and they dispatched their way through the hall with ease. Reivyn only had to step up a couple of times to assist Kimberly with his own sword and shield.
The nature of the Dungeon and the monsters really makes this strange. If this was out in the real world, with real people, no way all of these groups would just ignore us as we systematically butchered theirpanions. As it is, they seem to only be alerted if we get too close to them personally, or we engage a monster in the group.
It was actually a pretty leisurely experience, and Reivyn could tell that at least Kimberly was getting marginally better at handling a sword after each encounter.
The Party made its way through the second "floor" of the Dungeon with no hups. The second floor of the barracks was almost exactly the same as the first, just with different make-ups of the groups they fought. They made sure to clear out each of the individual rooms, too. The monsters that had their own rooms were slightly higher Level and more Skilled in their chosen weapons, but being all alone made them no harder than the groups in the hall.
Trick and Teilon had started to rummage through each of the footlockers located at the ends of all of the bunks, but they were all empty. They didn''t even contain clothing or other possessions that would likely be found in a real barracks setting.
They arrived on the third floor in no time, and Reivyn had to spend the entire time up front with Kimberly. All of the encounters on the third floor were groups of five monsters. There weren''t any more of them than could be found on the lower floor, and because they were all grouped up with five at once, they actually cleared their way to the boss much faster than on the previous floors.
The Party wasn''t tired or low on their vitals, so Kimberly immediately initiated the boss fight once they reached the end of the floor. The boss fight was also an encounter with five total, and the other four Shadow People apanying the obvious boss that was dressed simrly to the officer on the field were also higher Level and more Skilled than the regr monster soldiers.
Kimberly took on the boss and one other monster while Reivyn handled the other three. Reivyn didn''t have any difficulty holding the three back and keeping their attention, but he noticed that Kimberly was actually struggling a little with the boss. The second boss was actually pretty skilled with the sword, and Kimberly would have been in trouble if her Armor and Shield Skills hadn''t been honed much higher than her Sword Skill.
Even with the added difficulty for Kimberly, she still calmly held off her two monsters, and the other four party members methodically slew them all, one at a time. They started with killing the actual boss first, Teilon performing his disappearing act followed by a dagger in the kidney to open the barrage of damage, and the fight was very simple after that. Reivyn even managed to y one of his own monsters by himself before the rest of the Party got to it.
"Well, this floor wasn''t too bad," Reivynmented. "I can see why the Academies aren''t too concerned with the students exploring the first two regions."
"None of the Dungeons in the kingdom are really all that challenging," Trick said. "Sure, thest boss of this Dungeon can be tricky, but as long as a Party has a couple of experienced Casters of their own, it should be doable."
"That''s not counting the younger or green people just starting," Vane pointed out. "It''s not really an issue for us or the established Parties, but even the first two floors of this Dungeon could be hard for newbies in over their heads."
"Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean," Trick rolled his eyes. "I''m talking about people like us: talented students of the Academies."
"It''s a good habit to always take fights seriously, though," Reivyn said. "Even though it hasn''t been a challenge for us - except for Kimberly with the boss monster just now, which is to be expected, actually - we shouldn''t growcent."
"We know, we know," Trick said. "You''re always warning us about it."
"I''m sure if you stick around Reivyn long enough, you''ll get to see things go sideways yourself," Teilon said with a chuckle.
"Alright, let''s go kill thisst boss," Tom said, mming his fist into his open palm. "We can be done before lunch and get some real food on the outside instead of more field rations."
"Yeah, real food!" Trick pumped his fist in the air alongside Vane. Reivyn shook his head as he headed for the exit, Teilon and Kimberly chuckling behind him.
Tom snatched up the sword that was dropped by the boss, but that was the only piece of loot that looked like it could sell on the outside. They didn''t have infinite space to store everything like Reivyn had seen his parents do with their magical pouches - I really need to ask them to give me one - so they had to pick and choose what they would take with them. It would be impractical to exit and enter the Dungeon over and over again for the few silvers they could gain from looting literally everything avable.
The group took a ten-minute breather before heading to the central bastion, arge stone building that really rounded out the aesthetic of a small castle. Reivyn nced up at the imposing building and noted the murder holes and other features of the fortification.
"The Royal Guard, as they''re called, will be in groups of two on the first floor, with three guarding the stairwell to the second floor," Tom informed the group. "The second floor contains groups of three to five patrolling the halls and rooms, and the third floor is just the boss room. The boss is the lord of the castle plus four bodyguards.
"Reivyn, we''ll pretty much need you to take the lead once we get to the second floor. Each of the royal guards, from the information I''ve read, is as Skilled as the boss in the barracks. No offense, Kimberly," he nodded to her, and she nodded back with good nature, "but you might not be able to handle the responsibilities of the lead vanguard at that point."
"No offense taken," Kimberly replied. "I know my own abilities, and I''m still learning. This first floor will be good practice for me."
"We''ll let her take the lead for the first floor," Reivyn agreed. "Let''s go."
The group entered therge, double doors leading into the heart of the Dungeon. The interior was well lit withnterns and chandeliers, and the first encounter was right inside the building like the barracks had been.
Kimberly engaged the Shadow People, Reivyn assisting her to the side, and they carried out the same tactics as before.
Teilon blended into the shadows andunched a sneak attack at the rear of the Royal Guard that Kimberly was fighting, but the one that Reivyn was engaged with suddenly threw their shield arm behind theirpanion, blocking Teilon''s strike.
This opened up a different opportunity, though, and Reivyn dashed forward to stab the Shadow Man in the side where its armor was less protective. Reivyn maintained a Sharpness Affinity infusion in his mana sword, and he easily pierced through the underlying leather armor.
The Shadow Man grunted and attempted to hit Reivyn in the face with the pommel of its sword, but Reivyn batted the attack away with his own shield and followed up by continuing his momentum and driving the shield into the Shadow Man''s face. He used the opponent''s off-bnce stumble from the strike to pull his sword out and thrust once more. His sword pierced through the monster''s neck, and the sudden loss of blood pressure caused it to copse to its knees, dropping its sword and shield to hold at its neck.
Reivyn''s Dexterity and Perception Stats were high enough that he was able to spot and react to opportunities in the blink of an eye, and his entire assault had taken less than a second toplete.
Bolt Spells mmed into the first monster, and Teilon was able to finally stab it in the back as its attention was still firmly held by Kimberly. The same attacks as the ones against the Shadow People in the barracks ended the life of the Royal Guard, but they were just delivered in a slightly different order.
"Looks like you need to practice your ss Skills some, too," Reivyn smirked at Teilon as he wiped his sword with a cloth. The blood and other remnants of the corpses all disappeared into smoke, but Reivyn was in the habit of keeping his gear clean. It''s better to go through the motions than to risk losing the habit, Reivyn thought as the Party formed back up.
"I might have been a bit too eager," Teilon said with a shrug. "Monsters - and people, for that matter - with higher Perception can perceive intentions and mood fluctuations. That''s one of the things they taught us at the Knight Academy. I agree I still need to practice, but I think what I really need to practice is embodying the nature of my ss."
"What is your ss, anyway?" Vane asked. "I assumed you were a Rogue or some sort of Scout, but you''re using slightly different abilities than I expected."
"I''m a Spook," Teilon answered candidly. "It became avable after clearing the second boss room in the Revenant Dungeon. It''s geared slightly more toward stealth andbat than a typical Rogue, losing some of the other versatility of that ss in order to boost the sneaking and mobility aspects."
"Huh, I''ve never heard of that ss before," Trick said with a thoughtful look.
"Yeah, me neither," Teilon chuckled.
The Party continued into thest floor of the Dungeon, skirting around the entrance to the next floor to mop up the wandering patrols first. They would run the risk of more patrols getting too close to them and attacking them from behind if they didn''t clear them out first and went straight to the three Shadow People guarding the next floor.
Each encounter was simr in nature to the first one. There wasn''t anything difficult, and Teilon gradually got better at hiding his intentions andnding a sneak attack. Kimberly, likewise, continued to get better with her weapons as well.
Reivyn stood forth to take the lead once the first floor was cleared of all the patrols, and he engaged the three Royal Guards standing at the base of the stairs. The room with the stairs was wide open, with the stairs going up in the center and branching to either side before reaching the second floor. Arge chandelier hung from the ceiling which stretched all the way to the third-floor base, and there was plenty of room forbat maneuvers.
Reivyn was easily able to handle two of the Royal Guards as Kimberly dragged the third one toward her. Reivyn''s Stats and Skill Levels enabled him to have more than enough energy to handle more than one of the opponents. The Party made quick work of the enemies, nothing really changing since Reivyn didn''t have any additional stress from handling another Shadow Person.
I could probably handle an entire group of five, if not for the fact that they could just walk around me to get to the others, Reivyn thought. Their armor and shields make it harder to get a quick kill like I could against the Revenants, but their overall danger levels are much lower, especially against the Revenants found deeper in that Dungeon where the Mana concentration was thicker.
Reivyn led the Party up into the second floor, and there were no surprises as Reivyn was able to handle all of the groups of Royal Guards. He was right that Kimberly was still necessary, though, as therger groups could take up the entire width of the hallway. Teilon even had to step in and distract one of the Royal Guards for a moment in one of their first encounters, but his abilities and the short time he was engaged allowed them to circumvent the issue.
The Party expended considerably more Stamina and Mana in their fight to the third floor than they had on any of the other areas, so the group took a short break to recharge before ascending to the third and final floor after clearing all of the patrols.
"Here we go," Reivyn said. "We''ll do it the same way as the other groups of five. I''ll take the boss and two of the guards. Kimberly will get the two on the left, and you guys take them out first.
"I can utilize my Mana Shield in order to mitigate any Spells the lord throws my way. Just make sure you guys don''t get tunnel vision in trying to kill the Shadow People. The boss is a Tier 3 Caster, and it will hurt to take a st to the face."
Reivyn looked each of them in the eye as he instructed them, and his friends nodded back with serious expressions. They weren''t worried about the boss fight, but they knew it had the potential to be the hardest fight they had encountered since beginning to explore the Dungeons together.
"We got this," Trick said. "The boss is a typical Fire Mage. He''s Tier 3, but I''ve heard that he uses pretty standard Spells: Bolt, st, and Beam."
"Noted," Reivyn replied. "Let''s go."
Reivyn led his team up thest staircase and through the doors into the lord''s chamber. The boss stood on the far side of the room, looking down at a map on a table. The four bodyguards were stationed to either side of the room. All of the Shadow People looked up at the same time as the Party intruded on their domain, and Reivyn Charged the Caster.
This was thest battle they would be fighting in the Dungeon, so Reivyn wasn''t going to hold back. He instantly closed the distance and thrust his Sharpness-infused Mana Sword toward the boss. A shield sprung up and deflected the attack to the side, and the table went flying away from Reivyn crashing right through it. The speed of the response means that that was most likely not a Skill, Reivyn surmised. It''s probably a protective item the boss is wearing, and it will have limited uses. Let''s see if it''s a physical protection, first.
Reivyn canceled the Sharpness infusion and activated his Elemental Weapon Skill using Fire. His mana sword lit up with the mes, and Reivyn pumped additional mana into it to extend the ming de beyond the limits of the sword. He shed his attack at the boss that was still recovering from the sudden assault, and the mes passed through the shield, burning the monster.
The shield dimmed a bit from the magical attack, and the boss snarled at the pain caused by the attack. The boss lifted his hand and three Fire Bolts flew out in quick session toward Reivyn. Reivyn lifted his shield, additionally protected with his Mana Shield Skill, and blocked the Bolts from reaching him. The Bolts impacted the shield, and fire scattered to either side in a ssh.
Reivyn took one more overhand swing at the boss with his ming de. The mes once more passed through the barrier, which once more dimmed further, but the boss lifted his other hand and created his own Mana Shield. Reivyn knew that he couldn''t dy any further, and so he turned back to rush to the closest Royal Guard that was closing in.
Reivyn''s attack on the lord had drawn the attention of all four Royal Guards, and Kimberly used her own Charge Skill to intercept the one closest to Reivyn on the left. She gained its attention and maneuvered it away to also pick up thest Royal Guard she was responsible for engaging. Teilon had merged with the shadows and was positioning himself to strike as Tom, Vane, and Trick began pelting them with Spells.
Reivyn had a limited amount of time, so he ran past the first Royal Guard on the right side of the room, taking a swipe with his still ming sword as he passed it. He ran to the second guard to engage it, and he also began to drag them along with him back to the boss monster. His Charge Skill was on cool down still, not enough time passing for his body to recover enough to use it again. He could force it as he had before with the Duhan, but there was no real need to do so in the current situation.
Reivyn pumped a significant amount of his Mana into his Mana Shield and positioned it at his back, and he felt the impacts of a couple more Bolt Spells as he dragged the Royal Guard back. He needed to get into a position where he could get all three of them in front of himself.
If I hadn''t done the initial charge to the boss, he would have been able to stand behind that table andunch Spells while we fought the guards, Reivyn thought. Charging him first and getting that table out of the way removed that obstacle, and I just took a couple of attacks of opportunity while I was at it. Once I get the guards in the right position, this should go a lot smoother.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense kicked in as he moved backwards to the boss. He relied on his Spatial Awareness to see that the boss wasn''t actually targeting him, but his Sense Mana Skill let him know it was readying a powerful Spell.
"Watch out!" Reivyn called out to his friends. "st Spell iing!"
Reivyn shifted his Mana Shield Skill in the direction his Spatial Awareness indicated, and he Sensed that Tom, Vane, and Trick threw up their own shields. Teilon zipped over behind the trio to take advantage of their Shields, and Kimberly hunkered down behind her own.
The bossunched the spell toward the center of the group, not targeting any single person, and therge explosion shook the entire room. The heat from the mes washed over Reivyn, slightly bypassing his Mana Shield, but it quickly subsided. The force of the explosion wasn''t enough to knock him off bnce, but he was worried about his other friends, especially Kimberly.
He stole a nce in their direction and saw that Tom, Vane, Trick, and Teilon were all fine. Kimberly stumbled a bit, and she was immediately in more danger from the two Royal Guards she was fighting against. The effect of the st Spell hadn''t affected any of the enemies in any way.
That''s just not fair, Reivyn thought ruefully. System shenanigans.
"Quickly, take care of those guards!" Reivyn shouted. "I''m fine over here."
Reivyn disengaged the two Royal Guards he was fighting and sprinted past the lord. The Caster turned to face him and Reivyn was finally in a better position to fight the three enemies properly. He could also passively see the state of the rest of the Party from his vantage.
Teilon dashed towards the closest Royal Guard who wasunching a furious assault on Kimberly,pletely giving up any notions of stealth. His speedpensated, though, and he was able tond a Backstab in the monster. Bolt Spells quickly followed in his wake as he jumped back and away, turning to attack the other guard. The first guard was quickly drowned in magical damage, and it copsed to the floor before disintegrating.
Reivyn mentally rxed a bit once the situation was finally brought under control. Kimberly had suffered some cuts and bruises from the assault after the st Spell, but she was back in top condition, holding off thest Guard.
Reivyn concentrated on the monsters in front of him, pushing himself to move faster and faster. His sword and shield blurred as he turned into a storm of metal, fending off the attacks of the guard and countering with his own. His Stats were clearly superior, and his ability to control the fight was well in hand.
The boss continued to mainlyunch Fire Bolt Spells in triplicate at Reivyn, and he deftly blocked them with his Mana Shield and shield. He angled the shield and Danced around, utilizing the Skill to help him move about while inbat, in order to avoid the Beam Spell the boss asionallyunched.
There seems to be a pattern of attack the boss is following, Reivyn noticed. A couple more Spells my way, and then he should once moreunch a st Spell to the rest of the group.
Hispanions decimated thest Guard and quickly moved to engage the three monsters Reivyn was keeping upied. Kimberly Charged over and mmed into one with her shield. She knocked it off bnce and took its attention away from Reivyn, and Teilon and the othersunched a furious barrage of damage at the other Guard, quickly turning it into dust.
With only the boss monster left for Reivyn to concentrate on, he was finally able to destroy the barrier, and the damage started to umte on the boss. The Caster didn''t simply stand still and Cast Spells at Reivyn, though, and it continually tried to dodge around the room to avoid him. Reivyn was much faster though, and he easily kept up and continued to whittle its health down.
The boss raised its hand and looked toward the rest of the group, indicating it was going tounch another st Spell. As it umted its mana, though, Reivyn dashed in close and mmed it in the face with his shield, stunning it and interrupting the gathering Mana. The boss seemed to lose interest in its previous action, and it continued to dodge and Cast Spells at Reivyn.
Reivyn absorbed thest trio of Fire Bolt Spells from the boss, and he managed tond a solid stab through its heart. The boss stopped moving as its eyes looked into Reivyn''s before losing focus. The boss''s body went limp and copsed to the floor, sliding off of Reivyn''s sword.
Reivyn looked up and noticed that the rest of the group killed thest Guard nearly the same time he finished the boss off.
Kimberly sat down and panted for breath after thebat was over. Teilon walked over and checked on her to make sure she didn''t actually have any serious injuries. Tom, Vane, and Trick likewise took a seat to recover from the chaotic battle. Reivyn wasn''t so tired that he needed to take a seat, but a quick nce at his Status showed that he had burned through close to a thousand Mana points to maintain his Mana Shield and Elemental Weapon Skills.
A sh of light caught everyone''s attention, and a chest suddenly appeared in the center of the room.
"Well, that was a bit exciting, now wasn''t it?" Reivyn said with a smile.
"Yeah, definitely not nearly as boring as the rest of the Dungeons," Trick replied with a snort.
"That would have been a lot easier if the guards had been standing next to the boss monster," Tom said. "If it weren''t for thebination of them being spread out with a Caster boss, it wouldn''t have been nearly so bad."
"I think we did pretty good," Teilon said after making sure Kimberly was fine.
The Party took a couple of minutes to recover before joining Reivyn in front of the chest that had been bestowed by the System. Reivyn looked back and forth between each of the Party members and rubbed his hands together before reaching out to the chest.
"Let''s see what we got for our trouble."
Chapter 83: Rematch
Chapter 83: Rematch
Roster of the Lost Army A scroll containing the names of the Lost Army personnel
INT +3
MAG +2
Channel Mana into the scroll to summon a random Lost Army Soldier once every 24 hours. The summoned Soldiersts for 1 hour or until killed Helpful Hint: This is an "essory" equipment. It only has to be on one''s person to activate the Stat effect
Lost Army Commander''s Insignia
Insignia denoting the proof ofmand of the Lost Army
INT +3
MAG +2
Can be used in conjunction with the Roster of the Lost Army to increase the Level of the Summoned Soldier
Lost Army Commander''s Baton Exquisite baton used by the Commander of the Lost Army tomand the troops
INT +3
MAG +2
Protects Party Members from being affected by one''s offensive Spells
Reivyn pulled the rewards out of the chest and inspected them one by one. He presented them to his Party and exined what they were. There was a record of all of the equipment that had been looted, and some people had done the math on their appearances to determine how rare they were. The Commander''s Baton was the rarest piece of equipment that was rewarded.
All of the pieces of equipment had the mark of the Lost Army on them. The mark was a dragonhead with a curved back fading away, and there were some additional spikes drawn on to appear like they were either shooting out from the spine of the dragon or floating nearby. It reminds me of a question mark, Reivyn chuckled.
"Wow, the Commander''s Baton is one of the most sought-after pieces of gear from this Dungeon," Tom eximed with wide eyes. "If we weren''t from rich families," he indicated himself and his two original friends, "then we would definitely sell it even if it is amazing for Caster sses."
"The Roster is actually not that great by itself," Vane said, inspecting the rolled-up scroll. It was tied with a red ribbon and had the mark of the Lost Army stamped on it. "It''spletely random what kind of Lost Army Soldier is summoned, and it''s directly proportional to the make-up of the monsters in the Dungeon. You''re more likely to always summon one of the weaker monsters from the first two areas than anything else, and only being able to summon once a day means you can''t just try your luck."
"It''s a different story with the Insignia involved," Trick said, holding the pin that held the mark of the Lost Army, but there was a star above the dragon''s head. "If someone channels their Mana through the Insignia first, before summoning through the Roster, then the chances of summoning one of the officers or the Royal Guard are greatly improved. There''s still a chance of summoning a weak Shadow Person, but it''s much less likely.
"The utility of these items isn''t amazing, but they can provide some decent help if you get lucky. I definitely wouldn''t count on them as life-saving items, though."
"That''s kind of interesting," Reivyn said. "Is it possible to summon the lord of the Dungeon?"
"I''ve heard that it is possible," Tom answered. "The chances, even with the Insignia, are extremely low, though. It makes sense if you think about it. The lord is on the roster as themander."
"Oh, you can open it up and read it? I thought it would just be a static representation or something," Reivyn said, looking at the Roster with interest.
"Yeah, it''s a real scroll," Vane said. He held it out to Reivyn. "Do you want to look?"
"Sure," Reivyn took the scroll and unfurled it. There was a long list of names and ranks in small script. The scroll wasn''t huge, but it wasrger than a regr piece of paper. Lord Gorn was the name of the Commander, Reivyn noted. Wonder what the story is behind the Lost Army. Are they just referred to it as that because of the System, or were they literally lost when they still lived?
"Do you mind if I try it out," Reivyn nced at Vane over the top of the scroll? Vane shrugged.
"Sure, we''re not nning on needing to use it soon or anything. Might as well check it out."
Reivyn channeled his mana through the scroll. He got a familiar sense, and he activated his Mana Sight with the Veridical Affinity infused through his eyes. The parchment lit up in his vision, and he saw a cursor of sorts rapidly moving from top to bottom over the names on the scroll. He could maintain the channel with minimum mana coursing through it, and the cursor continued to move, going back to the top of the scroll after reaching the very bottom.
He would need to infuse a bit more mana in order toplete the summoning, but he held off for a moment.
"Hey, mind handing me the Insignia?" Reivyn looked up at Trick who was tossing the Insignia up and down in his hand. He tossed it over to Reivyn upon catching it again, and Reivyn snatched it out of the air.
Reivyn canceled the mana infusion in the scroll, and he started over by running his mana through the Insignia first. The parchment lit up once more, and the cursor returned. The cursor moved slightly slower, and it only scrolled through less than half of the names on the scroll before returning to the top. Aha! That''s why the chances are higher to get a better-Summoned Soldier. If I time this just right... Reivyn concentrated and burst some additional mana through toplete the summon.
A ray of light extended from the scroll, and a shadowy figure began to materialize inside of it. Reivyn still had his Veridical Mana Sight activated, so he was able to see the ethereal outline of earlier and more clearly. The summoning took five seconds, and at the end of it, an exact match for the lord of the Dungeon that they had just defeated stood in the center of the Party. Everyone eximed in surprise once he fully came into being.
The lord looked around and nodded to the Party Members like he was a real person, but he didn''t say anything. Tom stared at the Shadow Person for a moment before shaking his head and turning to Reivyn.
"Just how high is your Luck?" He asked. "I tell you it''s a really low chance to summon him - I''ve heard that most people never even manage to - and you summon him immediately." Tom closed his eyes as he lifted his head in the air and took a deep breath. "Life isn''t fair."
"Get used to it," Teilonmented. Reivyn justughed and pped Tom on the shoulder.
"So how are you going to distribute the gear?" Reivyn asked.
"If we wanted to get the maximum benefit out of the gear while exploring Dungeons, it would make the most sense just to give all three of the items to you," Vane said wryly. "You can apparently summon the lord monster, and you have the most versatility with your Spells. The Baton would work great with you using it."
"That might be true, but I''m not going to snatch your things," Reivyn denied. "I''m not a pure Caster, and I already have some magical gear," he ran his hands over his heavy armor, "and you guys have nothing. I''m sure your families could get you some cool stuff, but these are things you earned on your own merit."
"I think Tom should get the Baton," Trick said. "He uses the Fire Element the most, and that Affinity is more likely to cause coteral damage than either of our elements." Vane nodded in agreement. Tom was the typical Fire Mage, Vane was a Water Mage, and Trick was an Air Mage.
"Sure," Vane said. "And it doesn''t really matter which one of us gets the scroll of Insignia. They both have the same Stat buffs, and if we want to use the scroll to summon something, we can just have Reivyn do it." The Party members all chuckled.
"Ok. I''m kind of partial to the Insignia," Trick said. "I don''t know, I like bouncing it in my hand like a coin." Vane nodded and Reivyn tossed the Insignia back to Trick. He handed the Roster back to Vane.
"How does the summon work?" Reivyn asked. "I summoned the monster, but I don''t feel any kind of magical connection or anything. And I gave the scroll back to you..."
"It will follow the verbalmands of whoever holds the scroll as long as they''re in the same Party as the one who initially summoned it," Vane exined. He turned his head toward the Shadow Caster. "Follow me." The Caster stopped looking around at everything aimlessly and walked to stand a few steps behind Vane. "It will engage anything that attacks us automatically, but we can tell it not to. We can also tell it to attack anything, too.
"Misery and Euphoria still apply, though, so we couldn''t order it to kill an innocent person and get away with it. The System knows who''s responsible."
"Are you guys sure you''re Ok with me having the Baton?" Tom asked, holding said Baton in both hands close to his chest. "I feel like I don''t deserve it."
"You were part of the Party that cleared the Dungeon," Reivyn frowned. "Don''t ever feel like you don''t deserve a reward for your own efforts, even if you think the effort you put in doesn''t match the reward. Especially with us, your friends."
"Yeah, well said," Trick added. "It makes the most sense for you to have it. In fact, it''s better for us that you use it because we''ll be safer when you really unleash your Fire Spells. The Stat buffs aren''t any better than what we got."
"It doesn''t matter that it''s considered the most valuable item," Vane said. "The actual use of it is best in your hands. If you still feel the way you do, you can always make it up to us in some other way."
"Deal," Tom said. "I''ll treat everyone to a truly grand feast once we get back to The Capital." Teilon and Trick high-fived each other at the remark. Kimberly shook her head with a smile on her face.
"Speaking of," Teilon said. "It''s just past lunchtime, and I''m starving. Let''s get out of here and get some real food."
"Don''t attack anyone or anything unless I tell you," Vane ordered the Shadow Caster over his shoulder. It would be bad if something went wrong and the Shadow Caster identallyunched a Spell at someone on the outside.
The Party made their way back toward the exit of the Dungeon. They had swapped some of the lesser pieces of weaponry and armor they were going to sell for some of the better ones dropped by the Royal Guard. Kimberly made sure to pick up her spears before they left, too.
They were in high spirits as they left the Dungeon, and a notification popped up in Reivyn''s vision as soon as they stepped out. He focused on it to see the gains he had made while inside.
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +300
Boss Defeated: Exp +100
Hard Mode Bonus: Exp + 200
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calcting...
Second Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +450
Boss Defeated: Exp +200
Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calcting...
Third Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: +1,000
Boss Defeated: +500
Third Floor Completion Bonus: 2,000
Calcting...
Dungeon: Complete
Dungeon Completion Bonus: Exp +3,000
Hard Mode: 1/2
Total Experience: 8,750
Level Up! Level 3
Level Up! Level 4
Level Up! Level 5
Achievement!
Clear all the Main-Line Dungeons in a Tier 1 Region
All Physical and Mental Stats +3
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Dancing (17 ->18)
Heavy Armor (15 ->17)
Observation (43 ->44)
Running (43 ->44)
Shields (48 ->49)
Tier 2:
Ambidexterity (18 ->19)
Evasion (41 ->42)
Sense Mana (58 ->59)
Strategy (20 ->21)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (20 ->22)
Commanding Shout (6 ->7)
Danger Sense (17 ->18)
Identify {All} (19 ->20)
Inspire (24 ->25)
Mana Conjuration (34 ->35)
Mana Maniption (37 ->38)
Mana Shield (24 ->25)
Mana Sight (39 ->40)
Tier 4:
Mana Weapon (29 ->30)
Spatial Awareness (24 ->25)
Dual Casting (11 ->13)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (61 ->62)
"Reivyn," a worried voice brought him out of looking at his Notifications. Reivyn looked up and immediately noticed something wrong.
The soldiers that were supposed to be guarding the entrance to the Dungeon were nowhere to be seen. In fact, there was no military personnel in the area at all. Standing across the open space in front of the Dungeon were Lance and his friends once again. There were a couple of additions to their Party, though, as Reivyn spotted three older men apanying them.
Looks like he wasn''t satisfied with the group battle he tried to manipte, Reivyn thought. And we were right that he brought some higher Tier bodyguards to deal with me.
Reivyn threw an Inspect Skill at the older man standing right next to Lance. He was older in the fact that he no longer looked like a teenager. He had stubble on his chin and a thin mustache. He had an arrogant look on his face to match the disposition of his employer, and he was wearing fancy medium armor with a sword and shieldbination. Reivyn''s Observation Skill and his understanding of weapons showed him several ces where there were concealed weapons on the man.
??? Tier 3 Level 10-30
Danger Level: Very High
Huh, that''s new, Reivyn thought. I haven''t really been in the habit of Inspecting other people. I just instinctively used it. Probably because I was recently using it on the loot drops. The Danger Level is probably solely based on his Level verse my own. Also, there''s something else there...
Reivyn could sense that there was more information avable, and with a quick infusion of Veridical Affinity Mana Sight, he could see that there was arger System message hidden from view. He tried to strain both his Mana Sight and Inspect Skills, but he wasn''t able to make the ethereal outlinee into proper view.
I must not have enough Skill in Inspect, yet, Reivyn determined.
His inspection of the man onlysted a couple of seconds, and the two groups remained standing in ce, ring at each other. The three bodyguards had an air of superiority about themselves, and their expressions were looking down on Reivyn''s Party.
"You''re taking things too far, Lance," Tom broke the silence. "I don''t care about your feelings or feud with any one of us, but you used your authority to usurp the military personnel here. That''s a crime, and there''s no way you''re going to avoid punishment."
"Who''s going to tell?" Lance sneered. "You? Will you have the guts to, after we''re done with you?"
"I have the guts," Reivyn said, stepping forward aggressively. "Let''s see what exactly you''re going to do with us."
Lance nced at his bodyguard and nodded his head. The man stepped forward with a look of contempt on his face as he drew his sword. He didn''t even pull out his shield, confident that he would be able to deal with any Tier 2 teenagers.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense pinged, and he unsheathed his sword and shield as the man Charged toward him, aiming his weapon for Reivyn''s vitals. So that''s how it''s going to be, Reivyn frowned.
The man''s sword came shing in underhand toward Reivyn''s inner thigh. Reivyn''s sword managed to block the weapon at thest second, and he backed up to maintain some distance. His opponent didn''t let him keep the distance, though, and he kept pace with Reivyn''s retreat, sword shing and thrusting in turn.
Reivyn parried the attacks or blocked them with his shield as he backpedaled. His movements were half a beat slower than the older bodyguard''s, and he just barely managed to defend himself.
Teilon and Kimberly stood impassively as they watched the exchange, but Tom, Vane, and Trick were fidgeting in anticipation.
"Are you not worried?" Tom leaned over and whispered to Teilon. Teilon shook his head.
"This guy is a lot slower than Reivyn''s dad," Teilon replied. "Reivyn hasn''t even shown the Skill Levels he just disyed in the Dungeon, much less his full potential. Just get ready to wreck the other kids at the signal."
"Signal? What signal?" Tom asked, confused.
Reivyn maneuvered the opponent with his retreating until they were moving perpendicr to their original facing. The man''s look of contempt deepened as Reivyn''s face had an expression of concentration that was morphing into panic.
Suddenly, the man lunged forward after a quick exchange, moving much faster than he previously had, and Reivyn casually batted the thrust aside and smashed the man in the face with his shield. The bodyguard waspletely overextended, and the shield bash knocked him to the ground. Reivyn didn''t allow anyone any time to react to the situation, and he immediately charged Lance, smashing his shield once more into the other teenager.
Lance was picked uppletely off the ground, and his body went sailing through the air, a trail of blood from his broken face following him. The other two bodyguards had looks of shock on their faces, and before they could respond in time, Reivyn''s entire body lit up as he channeled Elemental Weapon through his entire being and gear.
His speed more than doubled as he became a whirlwind of fire and steel. The two bodyguards barely got their weapons unsheathed in order to block, but they were on the back foot. The power of Reivyn''s attacks was much more than they had anticipated, and their parries were ineffectual. Reivyn''s sword shed through their leather under armor, and the mes cauterized the wounds.
It was the two bodyguards'' turn to back up and maintain distance. Instead of following them, though, Reivyn pointed his sword at the one retreating on his right and threw out his hand holding his shield to the one on the left. Lightning-infused Mana traveled through his Mana sword and lept out in a brilliant sh of lightning to shock the right bodyguard and a whip of fire formed in his left hand. Hessoed the left bodyguard, and yanked him back towards himself, pulling him off bnce.
Reivyn''s Lightning "Bolt" was over with instantaneously, and he brought his sword arm over to crush his pommel into the left bodyguard''s nose. Reivyn could hear and feel the cartge break, and blood sshed out to either side of his fist. The left bodyguard crumpled to the ground from the concussion, and the right bodyguard''s body was twitching and convulsing from the electric current still running through his body.
Lance''s body still hadn''t hit the ground by the time Reivyn neutralized the other two bodyguards, and the first one that had gone out to confront him was just now standing back up. Reivyn kicked the left bodyguard over and away from himself as he turned back to face the first opponent, dismissing the Elemental Weapon''s fire covering his body.
The first bodyguard with the thin mustache no longer had an arrogant look on his face, and he gazed at Reivyn with trepidation as he wiped blood and snot off of his face with the back of his sword hand. The man finally pulled his shield out and faced off with Reivyn properly. He stood in a ready stance with his shield out front, sword ced against it just to the side, and his eyes were just over the top of the shield. Reivyn recognized that it was very simr to the stance the soldiers would take when in the front row of a skirmish.
He''s probably a veteran of one lord''s army or another. Maybe even the kingdom''s Army, Reivyn appraised.
The other Knight Academy students were still standing with their jaws dropped, and Jaret and the other Magic Academy students once more retreated into the distance.
"That''s the signal. Get ''em!" Teilon shouted. He and Kimberly unsheathed their weapons, daggers for Teilon and the new magic spear for Kimberly, and charged the other students.
"How is that the signal?!" Tom eximed as he began channeling his mana and moving to get a better vantage to aim his Spells. He wasn''t worried about coteral damage now that he had the Baton, but he would still like to hit the opponents instead of identally hitting Reivyn.
"He knocked three of the bad guys down," Teilon called over his shoulder. "What else could it be?"
Kimberly Charged ahead and mmed her shield into the first Knight Academy student, knocking him to the ground. The sudden intrusion finally alerted the others out of their surprise, and they all drew their swords and shields, focusing on Kimberly.
Teilon took the opportunity to use his ss Skills to somehow fade from their awareness. He wasn''t exactly fading into the shadows, but the same principle applied. He circled around out of their view, and once he was behind his target, he waited for an appropriate opportunity to strike.
The other four students fanned out around Kimberly and were forced to turn and face three of them with thest one able to get behind her. She had worked with Teilon for a long time, and they had good synergy, so she knew to focus on the ones opposite Teilon''s target.
The four students struck at the same time, but Teilon had been waiting for this moment. He dashed forward and knocked his target off bnce as he shed him with his daggers. He attacked his fellow student in non-vital positions, though, like before. He wasn''t going to kill the other students. They might be arrogant jerks, but they also weren''t trying to kill him and Kimberly.
Kimberly was much more adept at using a spear than she was a sword. She blocked one attack, side-stepped another, and expertly parried the third with her spear.
"You guys don''t seem to learn," Kimberly taunted them. One of them furrowed his brows at thement.
"What do you - " A barrage of Bolt Spells interrupted his question and mmed into the three opponents confronting Kimberly. They were thrown into confusion just like theirst scuffle, and Kimberly capitalized on the opportunity to m her spear into ribs and m her shield into faces.
Teilon had fully knocked his opponent over and was pummeling him in the face. The other student had his hands crossed in front of his face, weapon and shield abandoned, as he jerked his head back and forth to try and avoid the blows raining down on him.
Reivyn was aware of the rest of the skirmish through his Battlefield Awareness Skill as he once more faced off against the first bodyguard. His enemy was acting much more cautiously as he inched towards Reivyn. He was clearly not excited about confronting Reivyn again, but he had to follow his orders, and Lance hadn''t even made it back to the group in order to issue a newmand.
Reivyn jerked his shoulders forward in a stutter step, and the man instinctively jerked his shield arm up in anticipation of taking a blow. No blow came, though, and Reivyn used the man''s blocking movement as the opportunity to thrust his sword inside the man''s guard. He didn''t go for the stab, though. Reivyn''s sword bypassed the man''s shield on the inside, and he lifted his sword up and out to fully throw the man''s shield to the side.
Reivyn held his own shield against his side at an angle, and he dashed in, pushing his opponent''s sword away from himself. The man was now standing with his arms out on either side, and Reivyn followed up his dash with another shield bash to the face. The bodyguard''s head was thrown back once more, and Reivyn took a step back while simultaneously bringing his sword down and up in a sh through the man''s armor. A piercing attack would have been more effective, but he wasn''t going for a kill.
The bodyguard winced at the pain as he backed up with a wary look on his face, recovering his stance. Reivyn stalked forward, preparing his Mana in his hand but not channeling it through his sword just yet. The bodyguard limped back as Reivyn got closer, the look of panic that Reivyn had faked was now on his face for real.
Reivyn swung his sword overhand, infusing his Mass Affinity into the sword at the zenith of the swing, and brought it crashing down on the man''s raised shield. Reivyn''s Strength Stat, coupled with the magical infusion in the sword, caused Reivyn to m his opponent straight into the ground, despite sessfully blocking the attack. The shield suffered a huge dent right in the center, from top to bottom.
Reivyn raised his sword once more. This time, he infused Sharpness into his sword, and the strike cut the shield in half as the man desperately tried to fend off the attack. Reivyn stood over the man, sword at his throat, just as Lance finally made his way back to the battle.
Lance''s eyes were wide as he took in the scene in front of him. His highest Level bodyguardy on the ground, hands lifted in front of himself with a sword at his throat. He was bloodied in several ces with torn armor and apletely broken shield. Reivyn waspletely unscathed and not even out of breath as he casually shot a nce at Lance.
Lance''s other two bodyguards were also on the ground near where they had originally stood. One was groaning from the electric shock and just starting to roll over to stand up, and the other was on his hands and knees, puking from the concussion he had received.
His fellow students were being pummeled by Teilon and Kimberly, with Tom, Vane, and Trick standing nearby, Spells formed and ready to go in their outstretched hands. There was a fourth Caster that he was unfamiliar with just standing behind Vane, looking around without a care in the world for what was going on around him.
It was apletely one-sided massacre, worse than even the first time they had met outside the Boss Dungeon.
Lance gulped, but he wasn''t willing to give up just like that. He gave a sharp whistle as he red at Reivyn.
Amotion entered Reivyn''s awareness as the soldiers that were supposed to be guarding the Dungeon finally made an appearance, Marching back to their posts. Kimberly and Teilon stopped what they were doing and backed away to stand with Tom, Vane, and Trick. A young officer led the soldiers, and he walked straight to Lance, ignoring everything else. Lance smirked at Reivyn as he turned to the officer.
"Thesemoners attacked me and my friends," Lance said, indicating his bloodied face and the injuries on his bodyguards and friends. "ce them under arrest."
Chapter 84: Dishonorable
Chapter 84: Dishonorable
The officer nodded his head to Lance and turned to face Reivyn and his friends. Reivyn still stood over Lance''s bodyguard, sword at his throat, and he calmly watched the officer walk over toward his group. He didn''t waver and continued to give an impassive look as if he wasn''t involved in the situation at all. The officer frowned as he noted Reivyn didn''t move his sword away even after he obviously knew the reason he was walking over to confront them.
"Fighting in the Military Base, attacking a veteran of the Army on Army grounds, assaulting a noble," the officer listed several infractions as he came to a stop in front of the group. "I, Lieutenant Pawl, hereby ce you under arrest. Relinquish your weapons, and subject yourselves to detention. Men,e confiscate their persons and gear."
Reivyn looked at Lieutenant Pawl and didn''t move a muscle. He kept standing there with his sword at the bodyguard''s throat, and his friends took their cue from him. They remained still and silent, watching the officer. Tom, Vane, and Trick were a little more nervous on the surface than Teilon and Kimberly, but they recalled that Reivyn mentioned he had a powerful friend, so they decided to trust his judgment in the situation. That didn''t stop sweat from beading their brows and their hearts racing.
"Put your weapon down, now," Lieutenant Pawl said, his frown deepening as Reivyn ignored hismands.
Some of the soldiers under hismand stepped forward to follow his orders, and as soon as they took one step past where the Lieutenant stood, Reivyn pushed his sword forward, the tip embedding itself in the man''s throat. Blood started to seep out of the prick in his throat, but Reivyn''s sword didn''t shake or vibrate at all as he casually threatened the man''s life with his actions.
The soldiers stopped moving forward and looked toward the Lieutenant for orders. Lance stood a few steps back, and the sneer on his face warped into joy. He obviously viewed Reivyn''s actions as a death sentence, uncaring for the life of his bodyguard. Reivyn noted the look on his face and frowned. This guy would rather I kill one of his own to dig a deeper hole for myself. Disgusting.
"How dare you!" The Lieutenant screamed. "Get some Bowmen toe and fill this ingrate full of arrows. He''s resisting arrest and threatening esction. Take him down, life or death."
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Anguid voice reached everyone''s ears. Reivyn looked towards where it came from and spotted a cloaked man leisurely lying upon a tree branch on a tree off to the side of the Dungeon entrance. Reivyn recognized him as the Adventurer who specialized in hiding in people''s shadows that was with his parents'' group.
Everyone was taken aback at the intrusion of the man. Nobody had noticed his presence at all, and he had apparently been there the entire time. Lieutenant Pawl grit his teeth as he addressed the new person.
"Who are you to interfere in military affairs? I''ll have you arrested along with these other criminals," he growled. The cloaked rogue shook his head before he jumped down from the branch. His body seemed to fade out of existence and back in, and instead of falling several feet to the ground, he was just on the ground after moving from his spot.
"I don''t think you understand the situation you''re in," the man sighed. Reivyn noticed several of the more experienced soldiers, as well as Lieutenant Pawl and the other two bodyguards who had finally taken their ce next to Lance again, paled at the casual disy. Instant movement Skills were something exclusive to Tier 4 sses at a minimum.
"Just because you''re strong doesn''t give you the right to act at will," Lieutenant Pawl gulped. Things were quickly getting out of hand, and if he needed to call for assistance to deal with this strong intruder, things might not go so well for him. Sweat now beaded his brow as he became nervous, and Tom, Vane, and Trick seemed to rx.
"I''m not the one you should be worried about," the man chuckled. He lifted his hand next to himself where the tree cast a deep shadow underneath itself. He activated some sort of Skill, and the deep shadows appeared to part, and a group of people was revealed to be standing in the shadows.
A group concealing Skill, Reivyn appraised. That has to be super useful. He looked over at Teilon, and his friend''s eyes were practically shining at the disy of the Skill.
"C-C-C-Commander!" Lieutenant Pawl stammered out, throwing a hasty salute toward the group of men. Reivyn looked over and saw that there were four people revealed from the rogue''s Skill. One was clearly older than everyone else with a salt and pepper beard and hair. His lined face told a story of long years of conflict and turmoil. He stood impassively gazing at the proceedings, a young man standing a step behind and to the side. I bet that guy''s the Aide, Reivyn thought. He''s giving me that kind of vibe, and his youthpared to the other three makes him stand out even when off to the side.
There was another middle-aged soldier standing next to the older man, and he had a frown on his face as he looked at the Lieutenant. He was likewise apanied by another soldier standing in a simr position as the Aide to the older man, but his age made it unlikely he was also an Aide. Probably a simr rtionship as Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand, Reivyn surmised.
Silence reigned over the temporary battlefield for a few seconds, and Reivyn could see that Lieutenant Pawl was visibly shaking. None of the new men had returned his salute, so he limply lowered his hand and waited for one of them to speak. Reivyn still maintained his position with the sword tip cutting into the bodyguard''s throat, and he could perceive that the cloaked escort his parents had assigned him seemed to grin at him from within the shadowed cowl of his hood.
The oldest member turned his head to his Aide and signaled with his eyes. The young man was paying attention to every move of the older gentleman, and he immediately reacted.
"Commander Ulvar, handle the situation in-house," the Aide said. The man standing next to the older gentleman took a step back and faced him, offering a salute. He didn''t address the Aide, and acted like the older man had issued the order personally. Well, that''s technically what happened, Reivyn internally chuckled. There might be a reason why he didn''t issue themand personally.
Commander Ulvar stepped forward, the other man - He''s probably a bit older than the bodyguards that Lance brought with him - followed behind, maintaining the same position. He stopped at the edge of the area of conflict and surveyed the soldiers. He turned his head and addressed the man standing behind him.
"Vice-Commander, go and get Lieutenant Vicks," hemanded. "Have hime assumemand here." The Vice-Commander gave a salute to the Commander''s back and strode off towards the officer''s quarters. The Commander turned his attention back to Lieutenant Pawl, who was visibly pale and sweaty by this point. Commander Ulvar shook his head. "Lieutenant Pawl, you are derelict in your duty.
"You abandoned your post, took orders from an outsider, and attempted to make an arrest without ascertaining the facts. It doesn''t matter if this young man is a noble, or not. Even if his father was here, you should know that he can''t issue you awful order.
"Men, ce Lieutenant Pawl under arrest, and escort him to the stockade," the soldiers who were originally moving to ce Reivyn and his friends under arrest saluted the Commander and carried out the order. The Lieutenant kept his mouth shut as the soldiers removed his sidearm and Marched him away. Commander Ulvar watched them go for a second before turning his attention toward Lance, whose expression had finally turned into one of worry.
"Sir, I can exin..." Lance began before being cut off by Commander Ulvar raising his hand to stop him. Reivyn finally pulled his sword away from the downed man''s throat now that the situation was finally turning in his favor. He didn''t sheathe the sword just yet, though, and he held it at his side as he watched the proceedings.
He stole a nce toward where the men had originally appeared, and he saw that the three men - the older gentleman, his aide, and the rogue - were walking away like they had nothing to do with anything anymore. The rogue seemed to sense Reivyn''s gaze, and he turned to give a two-finger salute/wave as he departed.
"Young man, you''re not a member of the military and you''re a member of a noble house, so I can''t arrest you," Commander Ulvar began, drawing Reivyn''s attention back to the immediate concern. Lance''s expression rxed a bit. "That being said, you did try and throw your weight around in my Army base, and you employed one of my officers to carry out your scheme. You are banished from this military base until further notice, and your ess to the Dungeon is hereby revoked. I''ll also be contacting your father and the Knight Academy."
The blood drained from his face at the promation. He finally realized that he had screwed up big time. The Shadow Fort Dungeon was the best ce for him and his friends to currently grind their Skills and Levels, and now he would have to beg someone to allow him re-entry. And it wasn''t a guarantee that Commander Ulvar would agree to the request without serious pressure from his own superiors.
"Go, leave the premises," Commander Ulvar ordered. He looked at the bodyguards standing behind Lance and indicated for them to lead the stunned man away. He turned toward Lance''spanions. "I witnessed the entire thing, and I know that you weren''t part of the usurpation of authority; however, you did participate. I won''t banish you from the base or revoke your ess to the Dungeon, but I will be sending notification to your families and the Knight Academy." He nced at Jaret and the others from the Magic Academy. "I''ll be telling the Magic Academy, as well, but I''ll tell the whole truth of the matter and how you didn''t participate in the conflict."
The other students with Lance nodded their heads, expressions of gratitude that they hadn''t also lost the opportunity to run the Dungeon as well. They turned and followed Lance and his guards'' departure, limping from the injuries they had sustained once more from their conflict with Reivyn''s group. Reivyn and the others watched them go, but something tickled the back of Reivyn''s mind as he watched them leave.
His Danger Sense suddenly exploded, and he acted out ofplete instinct. He didn''t have time to gauge the situation with his Battlefield Awareness or Spatial Awareness abilities, and his body moved almost entirely on its own.
Reivyn spun about in ce, and a shadow of an object flew past his face that he was barely aware of. He lifted his sword to swipe in the direction the Danger Sense Skill indicated. He felt some resistance from his sword, but he had acted at full capacity, and whatever it was that had been in his way waspletely shed through.
The soldiers hadn''t had time to react, and they all stared with wide eyes at Reivyn. Commander Ulvar also hadn''t reacted in time, and he gave an appraising look to Reivyn before waving some soldiers over.
Reivyn looked back at what had caused his Skill to go haywire, and the corpse of the bodyguard he had previously pinned with his sword to his throat entered his vision. His head and one of his arms had beenpletely severed, and blood pooled on the ground around the body. His hand that hadn''t been severed held one of the concealed throwing daggers that Reivyn had initially noticed upon Inspecting the man.
That shadow that flew past me as I spun out of the way was another throwing dagger, Reivyn''s heart beat really fast as he realized the full extent of the danger he had been in. I might have a lot of Stats and Health for my Level, but a daggernding a lethal blow will still kill me. This is probably the closest I''ve ever actually been to actual death, before.
If my Danger Sense Skill hadn''t practically overridden my own reaction...
If I hadn''t spun to avoid the dagger already thrown...
If I had sheathed my sword already...
If, if, if, Reivyn shook his head as he wiped the blood off his sword before sheathing it. All that matters is that those things did happen, and I was able to neutralize the threat.
Reivyn vaguely noticed that there was no feeling of Euphoria from killing the man, but there was also no Misery. Theck of Euphoria meant that his own body had to deal with all of the emotions and chemical reactions raging through his body without any System help. His bile rose in the back of his throat as he looked down at the dead body, and he gagged once before mastering himself.
"First time?" Commander Ulvar asked, cing a hand on Reivyn''s shoulder. Reivyn nodded his head.
"I''ve killed a lot of monsters and beasts, and I''ve fought other people many times," Reivyn said. "But this is the first time I''ve actually killed another person."
"I won''t say you did the right or wrong thing," Commander Ulvar said, patting Reivyn''s shoulder before removing his hand. "But this was my failing. I''ll report this matter to the Magic Academy and my superiors. Letting someone attempt to kill a student - especially one standing right next to me - is a serious issue. You''ll be justlypensated."
"Thank you," Reivyn said. "Don''t beat yourself up, though. I can''t expect others to always take care of me, and I also let my guard down even though I knew he had hidden weapons on his person and that he was slimy when he targeted my vitals during our battle." Commander Ulvar gave Reivyn a strange look, and Reivyn chuckled. "Are you wondering why I would say such a thing after epting help from someone else to take care of me?"
"I didn''t say anything," Commander Ulvar denied with a shake of his head, a rueful smile on his face.
"There are some things that I can''t do on my own," Reivyn exined. "Handling the provocation of my contemporaries, even the attacks from their higher Tier guards, I can handle. Them abusing their authority or background... Those things are out of my reach at the moment. I have some connections to protect myself from those things, though. I don''t consider it relying on outside help when all they do is negate the other party''s own outside help." Commander Ulvar gave Reivyn a serious look as he processed the words.
"I don''t know what your rtionship with that man is, but even if you didn''t have one, I would hold you in high esteem from that attitude, alone," he said. "If you ever find yourself lost for what to do after you graduate, know that I''d be more than happy to rmend you to the Officer Candidate Training. Yourbat abilities, both magical and martial, as well as your attitude... we could always use a young talent like you in our ranks."
"Thank you, sir," Reivyn said with a smile. "I''ll keep that in mind in the future."
The soldiers had taken the body of the guard away and cleaned up the blood as Reivyn and Commander Ulvar had their conversation. The Vice-Commander returned with another young Lieutenant in tow. The young officer saluted the Commander and took charge of the soldiers, assuming the responsibilities that Lieutenant Pawl was previously in charge of.
Commander Ulvar gave a final nod in farewell to Reivyn, and he and the Vice-Commander walked off in the direction the others had departed previously. Reivyn turned to his friends. Tom, Vane, and Trick were staring at him with ck jaws, but Teilon and Kimberly were smiling. Reivyn walked over and his roommates snapped their mouths shut.
"First you casually speak to the Prince from Eldiar, and now you''re having a conversation with one of the Commanders of the Army," Tom shook his head. "And you weren''t lying when you said you had a powerful friend. Do you know who that old man was?" Reivyn shook his head. "He was the General of the Army... the entire Army. The head honcho. And your protector was apparently on equal standing with him."
"A mysterious Tier 4 protector, not fazed by a prince, having a casual conversation with high ranking officers, not worried about nobles..." Trick ticked off his fingers before looking up at Reivyn. "Who are you, really?"
"I''m Reivyn," Reivyn replied with a smile. "I''m just a Magic Academy student."
"Sure, sure," Trick said, unconvinced. "What about you?" He turned toward Teilon. "Did you know about any of this? Did you know about the Tier 4 protector?" Teilon shrugged.
"I grew up with Reivyn, and he''s never been anything other than what he''s shown," Teilon said. "And Kimberly and I have seen that protector before, but he''s actually pretty averagepared to thepanions he was with thest time we saw him."
"Pretty average..." Vane said. He squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ok, well... let''s go?" Tom, Trick, and Vane all shared a look and shrugged.
Reivyn nodded his head and led his friends to the stable to retrieve their horses.
"Why was Lance so upset that he can''t run the Dungeon here?" Reivyn asked as they walked. "I mean, yeah we got an Achievement for clearing all of the main-line Dungeons, but there''s still the Revenant Dungeon he has ess to."
"It''s about honor," Tom answered. "epting help from one''s family or outsiders is deemed perfectly eptable during the formative years before one achieves their second Tier ss, but everyone is expected to work towards their own achievements as much as possible. It''s one of the main reasons a lot of the students don''t get advanced training and instruction from their families and learn in the Academies.
"There''s a progression to how things are done. We would have done all the same things that you''re having us do - go to all the Dungeons, do the Adventurer Guild quests - eventually, but we would have gone at a much slower pace. Now that Lance has been barred frompleting thest main-line Dungeon on his own merit, he''ll have to ept help in the form of gear from his family, or assistance from Casters to fight the Revenants."
"He would have had to do that anyway," Reivyn pointed out. "The Revenants are immune to mundane damage, so he would have always had to rely on Casters or magic gear."
"Yes, but he would have progressed to that point on his own," Trick said. "It doesn''t matter that he''s teamed up with Casters, as they''re not carrying him through the other Dungeons, and he would have properly made it to the Revenant Dungeon along with them. Now he''ll be seen as breaking the chain and jumping over where he should be. It''ll affect his reputation more than trying to scheme against us and get us arrested by the military."
"It all harks back to Life Experience," Vane said. "If we rely too much on our families to help us along, it''ll stunt our growth. That eventually turned into culture over time, and it''s seen as a faux pax to not work for your achievements on your own." Reivyn nodded at the exnation.
"There''s another thing I don''t understand, though," Reivyn said. "Commander Ulvar said he couldn''t arrest Lance because he wasn''t a member of the military, but that Lieutenant Pawl was going to arrest us?"
"It''s not as serious as that," Tom said with a shrug. "Lance was ying it up, but we would have simply been detained for causing trouble in the military base. We would have had to send notice to our families and the Academies, and we would have most likely been required to issue a public apology. It would have been a political win for Lance, and an embarrassment for us.
"You resisting the order was most likely unexpected, and Lance was probably happy that you were making the apparent wrong move."
"If you''ll notice," Vane added, "the punishment the Commander issued for everyone else other than Lance was along the same lines. He did it personally, though, and that''s seen as slightly worse than someone doing it themselves. Even though he didn''t give them the opportunity to send the notices and apologies on their own, it will be viewed as if they refused to do so whening from the Commander."
"I see," Reivyn said. They arrived at the stables and notified the soldiers in charge that they were retrieving their mounts. "So it was basically bravado and Lance trying to besmirch our honor more than anything else."
"Exactly," Tom said. "He probably felt like we had insulted him by not getting our butts beat by him and his goons. He''s small-minded like that."
"What''s really going to suck for himter, though, is the fact that his number one bodyguard tried to assassinate you," Trick said. "It''s very likely that Lance didn''t actually order him to do so, and it was extremely foolish of him to attempt it when he did. His mindset was probably that you were too dangerous to Lance to let you live, and he was either going to ept the responsibilities all on his own, or hope that Lance''s dad would use his political influence to lessen his sentence."
"Since he failed and died, though, he won''t be able to ept all the me," Tom said. "Some of the responsibility will fall on Lance''s head, maybe even his entire family, for raising such a pernicious guard."
"What do you think will happen to that Lieutenant?" Reivyn asked.
"Normally, abandoning your post is a serious crime," Tom answered. "But the General of the Army was here and he recognized it wasn''t a true abandonment, which is why he ordered the Commander to handle it in-house.
"He''ll most likely be detained for a short time, and he''ll have his pay confiscated. He''s politically aligned with Lance''s group, though, so he''ll most likely only get a reprimand and moved to a lesser position while retaining his rank. My guess is that he''ll be perfectly behaved for a long time in order to make up for his mistake. If he steps out of line again, even at the behest of a political ally, he''ll risk getting dismissed, which is the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge for enlisted personnel."
"I bet that protector gets reamed, too," Teilon smirked. "He took off before everything was taken care of, and he wasn''t there when it really mattered."
"I''ll put in a good word for him," Reivyn said. "It wasn''t entirely his fault. I''ll have to learn how to deal with these things on my own eventually, anyway."
"Oh, yeah? And who''s going to get onto this mysterious protector?" Trick asked. "Your ''insane'' dad? And what''s his name, anyway?"
"I have no idea," Reivyn shrugged. "I''ve only seen him twice before. And yes, it''s my dad that''s going to get onto him."
Reivyn and his friends got their horses and mounted up, heading towards the exit of the military base to head back to The Capital. Reivyn turned and faced his roommates as they rode.
"You guys want to go with me and finally meet him?"
Chapter 85: Collateral Damage
Chapter 85: Coteral Damage
A haze filled the air as Reivyn and his Party made it back to the capital. A half day''s travel on horseback didn''t mean half of a full day, but half of normal daylight hours. The trip took about six and a half hours, and the sun had yet to set by the time they reached their destination.
"I wonder what''s going on with this haze, or mist, or whatever," Teilonmented as the city came into view. The haze was localized to the city, and it didn''t appear to be natural. There was no weather to indicate it was a natural fog or anything, and it was contained within the city walls.
"We can ask one of the guards, or a passing pedestrian, once we reach the city," Tom said.
The group was a little intrigued about the phenomenon, but they could see that it was mostly peaceful with people still streaming in and out of the gates. There was no indication of anything abnormal from the guards at the gate or the people moving about their lives, so they weren''t concerned.
"... justpletely gone," a snippet of a conversation entered their ears as they passed by a group of people talking as they got closer to the gates. The speaker was someone leaving the city, and he was apparently answering a question from the group of people about to enter it. Reivyn shared a look with his friends, and they all perked up their ears to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"Justpletely gone?" One of the entrants asked, disbelief on his face.
"Yeah, apparently in one strike," the first person answered, nodding his head. "ording to the rumors, some guy walked up to it,pletely disregarding everyone''s attempts to find out who he was and what he was doing there, and he punched the building,pletely obliterating it."
"Yeah, right," another person said. "You know how rumors are. One person says something, and the next person has to embellish it to make it more interesting, and then there''s a hundred different versions, each one more fantastical than thest. I bet that the building wasn''t evenpletely demolished, much less by one guy with one punch."
"Then you would lose that bet, my friend," the first person said, shaking his head. "I saw it personally. Not only the entire building, but even the foundations arepletely gone. That haze," he pointed above himself, "is all that''s left."
"So everyone was killed, then?" A third person from the group entering the city said, fear on her face.
"Nope," the first person denied. "There weren''t even any injuries, as far as I know. It was..."
The voices faded as Reivyn and his friends continued beyond the range of easily eavesdropping. He shared a look with his friends, and he saw curiosity and wariness in equal measure on their faces.
"Wonder who was so unfortunate as to lose their home, as it sounds like," Trick said.
"We''ll find out soon," Vane answered.
Reivyn had some spections in mind, but he wasn''t going to jump to conclusions without investigating further.
Reivyn and his friends were all students of the Academies, and they carried their tokens on their waist. As such, the guards waved them through the gate after using a tool to verify the authenticity of their tokens without asking any questions.
An entry fee was usually reserved in the form of tariffs to traders, and the regr pedestrians didn''t have to pay one. They still had to go through at least a cursory inspection before being allowed entry, though. Not having to go through such a process was one of the perks of being a student at one of the Academies.
"You guys are official members of the Adventurer''s Guild, so let''s all stable our mounts there for now," Reivyn turned to his friends. "We can go have dinner at my house, and you guys can meet my parents. You cane back and get the horses and head home afterward."
"Ok," Tom agreed. Vane and Trick also nodded their heads.
"We can step inside the Guild Branch to ask about what''s going on while we''re here," Kimberly suggested. "There might be more reliable information among the Adventurers who are more likely to have reliable sources than the everyday citizen just walking around."
"That''s a good idea," Teilon said, smiling at his girlfriend. "I knew I liked you for a reason." Teilon winked at Kimberly. Kimberly gave him a yful shove in reply, to which Teilon justughed.
The Party quickly got their horses settled in the stables provided by the Branch, and they headed inside. The Branches were different than the strait administrative buildings of the Adventurer''s Guild, and they provided space for the Adventurers to rx with some food and beverage.
The establishments that provided the food and drink weren''t actually associated with the Adventurer''s Guild, but they were instead local businesses that bid for a slot in the branches to ply their wares and advertise their business. The contracts were set up for a couple of months at a time, and a business couldn''t win a bid more than two times in a row or in multiple Branch buildings at the same time. It was one way for the Adventurer''s Guild to further support the local economies while not having to pay for the resources involved.
It''s a pretty good revenue stream, as well, Reivyn thought as he surveyed the bustling crowd. Their only cost is maintaining the space.
The group of friends quickly spotted a table filled with peopleughing and carousing, and they heard bits of conversation about the topic they were interested in. There were other people with the same idea as them, and several other individuals and groups stood around the table listening to the story.
Reivyn sidled up to one of the individuals listening to the story, and he leaned in to whisper to him. Teilon and the others spread out to do their own inquiring.
"So it''s true?" He asked. "An entire building was demolished?" The man nced at Reivyn from the side of his eyes before responding.
"Not just an entire building. An entire ," he answered with a nod. "It seems the rumors are true."
"And it was caused by just one guy with one punch? Did he punch each building one at a time?" Reivyn continued asking.
"Nah," the man denied. "ording to these guys, he punched one building once, and that one punch destroyed everything. All the way down to the foundations. The Hawthorne estate is just a giant hole, now. Nobody was hurt, either. Well, except for the few guards that tried to stop the fellow. Apparently, the weaker guards just copsed to the ground from a look, and the stronger guards who actually got in his way ended up with broken bones."
"So he attacked the guards that tried to stop him?"
"No, he just walked into them," the man chuckled. "He acted like they weren''t even there."
"And how do you know these guys are telling the truth?" Reivyn furrowed his brow. The man once again stole a nce at Reivyn.
"They''re friends with some of the Hawthorne guards. Listen, they''re getting to the next part of the story."
Reivyn turned his attention to the man telling the bulk of the story. He was able to get caught up in the telling because so many people asked rifying questions from time to time to stall out the pace.
"... finally brought the big guns out, and the head of the household came out to ask what the man wanted," Reivyn heard. "The man was magically shrouded, and not even Saired Hawthorne himself could see anything other than a fuzzy appearance. The man ignored him, walked up to the front of the building, and smashed his fist into the ground.
"He caused a small earthquake as the vibrations from his strike radiated out, and all of the buildings in theirpound exploded from the force. He had pinpoint uracy in his strike, and not even an inch outside of the grounds were affected, and nobody got hurt." The man shook his head before taking a swig of from his mug. Everyone was silent as they waited for him to continue the story, hanging on his every word.
"I wouldn''t have believed it myself if not for my buddy, Jek, standing right, watching the whole thing. The buildings didn''t just explode into chunks, either. They disintegrated into fine dust, and now it''s floating around the city even now, hours after it happened.
"Saired crawled out of the mess and looked around with distress and worry obvious on his face. He shouted to the man, ''Why?! Why did you do this to us?''" The storyteller took another quick sip of his drink. "The shrouded man paused in his steps, turned his head and said one sentence before leaving." The man paused for dramatic affect, taking on the stance that he described in the story. "''Your son annoyed me.'' And then he was gone."
Teilon and the others had rejoined Reivyn''s side as they had finished their own inquiries and listened to the end of the story. People wereing and going, and it was clear that the man and his group were living it up, telling the story over and over again with donations of drinks from the listeners.
Reivyn leaned over and whispered to Tom.
"Who''s Saired Hawthorne?" He asked. Tom looked at Reivyn with aplicated look before answering.
"Lance''s full name is Lance Hawthorne," he replied. "Saired is his father."
"That''s what I was thinking," Reivyn said. "I think we got everything we need. Let''s go."
Reivyn tossed a couple of coins to cover the cost of drink onto the table, and he and his Party departed the establishment.
"Looks like Lance gets to suffer more than just the punishment the Commander issued," Reivyn chuckled. "He shouldn''t have tried to use his background and connections."
"So you''re confident this is the work of your dad?" Trick asked. Reivyn nodded. "Just how strong is he?"
Reivyn looked at his roommates in turn, contemting what to tell them. He finally shrugged and revealed the truth.
"It''s not a huge secret, though I would ask you guys not to tell anyone else," Reivyn said. He waited until they all nodded ascent. Even Teilon and Kimberly agreed, as they had only spection without concrete confirmation themselves. "My dad is Tier 5."
Tom, Vane, and Trick sucked in a breath at the information. Their mouths once more dropped open, and they stared at Reivyn for a good long while. Teilon and Kimberly shared a look, and they just nodded their heads like it was expected. They had heard Refix say he had over 40,000 Health Points when they were all entering the Academy, so it wasn''t that much of a surprise to them.
"So, considering the rogue at the military base, does that mean..." Teilon trailed off, an inquisitive look on his face.
"The swordsman was my dad," Reivyn confirmed. "What you probably haven''t realized yet, though, is that Caster who summoned the tornado was my mom." That revtion finally got some raised eyebrows from Teilon and Kimberly.
"I think that exins the strange behavior of Melissa that first night we had dinner at your house," Kimberly absentmindedly said. Teilon gave her a frown, and she rified herself. "Think about it. Reivyn has hidden masters protecting him from the shadows, so she definitely knew about what happened at the victory feast between her and Lin. She''s just a Tier 2 person in a Tier 1 kingdom whose family has ties to a Tier 2 kingdom''s nobility.
"Melissa was a stuttering fool after she met Reivyn''s parents, and that''s not like her at all. My guess is that Miss Ameliyn put the fear of God in her with her presence alone during that meal."
Teilon rubbed his chin in contemtion. Tom, Vane, and Trick were still staring ck-jawed at Reivyn, hardly processing the continued conversation. Trick was the first to snap out of his stunned state, and he shook his head to clear the fog away.
"Wait, what?" He said. "Did you say that your mom and dad were in that group of Adventurers that saved Magron from the Dungeon Break?" Trick snapped his fingers in front of Tom and Vane, finally pulling them back to the present. "Guys, this is a great opportunity! Haven''t we all said we wished we could meet such an amazing Mage? Well, we''re about to!"
"I don''t know if I''m ready," Tom said, ineffectually trying to wipe the sweat from his palms on his robes. Vane gave his shoulder a shove.
"Quit acting like a girl," he said. He suddenly stopped and turned his head toward Kimberly who was giving him a death re. "Ugh... no offense." Kimberly turned her head up and to the side with a "hmph!"
"This certainly exins a lot of Reivyn''s abilities and talent," Tom said after a moment. "Why would you even attend the Magic Academy if you had ess to such an amazing teacher?" The others all looked at Reivyn with the question clear on their faces.
"Some things can''t be done by oneself," Reivyn said. "I''m attempting to force a Tier 3 ss transition in Tier 2 through graduation, and I have to attend the Academy to do that. There are various reasons I''m not going to get in to as to the why''s, but my mom also can''t offer me a perfect education on her own. I''ll just leave it at that for now. Maybe one day I''ll exin the rest to you."
"Fair enough," Trick said. "Everyone has their secrets."
"Like your engagement?" Vane teased.
"Hey!" Trick said, mock shock on his face. "I just said everyone has secrets! Why you gotta go and reveal mine like that?"
"Wasn''t much of a secret," Tom said with a grin.
"I didn''t know about it," Kimberly raised her hand. Teilon nodded in agreement.
"See! Right there! It was still a secret to some people," Trick huffed.
"Yeah, like you actually care," Vane said, throwing his arm around Trick''s shoulder.
"Just because that''s true doesn''t mean you need to tell everyone, Mr.-sleeps-with-a-stuffed-bear," Trick retorted. Vane gasped as he removed his arm from his friend''s shoulder.
"How dare you!" He held his hand to his chest. "This demands a duel of honor!"
"epted!"
Trick and Vane stared at each other for a moment, halting their progress towards Reivyn''s home. They both simultaneously entered their dueling stances and attacked: They leaned back, turning their heads to the side, and extended their arms straight out, pping at each other. Tom jumped into the middle of the expert-levelbat, holding his arms out on either side to keep them away from each other.
"Hey, hey, hey," he shouted. "No need toe to violence, you too. We''re all friends." Trick and Vane stopped pping at each other to turn their deadly assault on the new intrusion into their duel.
Teilon couldn''t hold it in any longer, and he double overughing, holding his sides. Reivyn alsoughed at the disy. Kimberly pretended to try and soothe Teilon, patting him on the back, but she had a grin on her face as well.
"Alright, guys," Reivyn said after a moment, interrupting the three-way p-fest. "Let''s get going. We don''t want to wait toote, or my parents will have already eaten dinner before we can get there. I told them to wait to eat tonight, but they''re only going to dy for so long."
The three friends stopped their y fight and straightened up. Trick adjusted his robes as he held his head high.
"Fair enough," he said. "We all know I won the duel, anyway."
"Hmph, I demand a rematch," Vane thumped his chest with his fist.
"Anytime," Trick and Vane grinned at each other.
The Party reigned in their mirth as they walked along the streets. Many of the people were excitedly talking about the incident, but just as many people hurried along, worry stered on their faces.
The City Guard was out in force, a much heavier presence than normal. There were even soldiers from the Army marching about in formation everywhere the group looked as they made their way through the city.
"Do you think they''re looking for the culprit?" Teilon asked with worry. "That might be bad."
"Hardly," Trick harrumphed. "This is all for show. You think the higher ups are going to send the guards and troops, who are most likely mid-tier 2 with some low-Tier 3 leaders, after someone who''s obviously at least mid-to-high Tier 4? Look," he pointed to some pedestrians who clearly calmed down from their frantic walking when they were near the guards and soldiers. "They''re just out to keep the peace and soothe the minds of the people."
"Makes sense," Teilon replied.
I hope that''s all they''re doing, Reivyn thought with a chuckle. For their sake.
"Mom, dad, I''m back," Reivyn called out as he entered the house. The smell of homemade cooking entered his nose as he stepped through the threshold. His Perception Stat was high enough that he had gotten a whiff of it before he opened the door, but it was much more pronounced now that there wasn''t a barrier between him and the food.
His friends followed him inside. Kailey and Riley ran up, giggling, to give their big brother a hug, but they turned around and ran off once more with a shriek when Teilon stepped up.
"Ahh! It''s the Flower Thief!" Kailey shouted.
"Run!" Riley eximed. They giggled as they dashed away from entrance of the house. Trick walked up next to Teilon, his eyebrow quirked up.
"Flower Thief?"
"It''s a long story," Teilon shrugged.
"Big Sis!" Kailey yelled once Kimberly entered the house.
"Sister Kimberly!" Riley shouted. The twins ran up and gave Kimberly a hug. Kimberly returned the hugs with a wide smile on her face. She let the two girls drag her into the living room to show her their creations as Tom and Vane also fully entered the house, closing the door behind them.
Refix was seated on the couch, both arms resting out to his sides in azy manner, and Ameliyn was pulling thest of dinner out of the oven in the kitchen.
"There''s my boy!" Refix said with a grin on his face. "How''d the Dungeon go?"
Reivyn nodded his head to his dad and walked into the living room. He opened his mouth to answer the question, but was forestalled by his mother as she put thest dish on the dining table.
"Hush, you," she admonished Refix. "We have guests. We can talk about thatter, after we''ve made them wee."
"Of course, of course," Refix said, standing up. "Where are my manners?"
Refix made his way over to Tom, Vane, and Trick with a smile on his face and his hand held out in front of himself. The three boys'' bodies locked, and their eyes were wide as saucers as they watched Refix approach them. Refix''s smile faltered just a litte as he lower his hand. He turned to Reivyn.
"I''m guessing you guys put two and two together?"
Reivyn smirked at his father. Refix sighed as he turned back to Reivyn''s roommates with a new smile on his face.
"Hey, you guys have nothing to worry about," Refix said, stepping forward and forcefully grabbing their hands to shake in turn. "You''re my son''s friends. Those Hawthorne bastards had iting. It''s one thing to hold a di - cough - umm, strength measuring contest," he warily nced at his wife who gave him a sharp re, "with one''s own strength. Trying to use one''s background is a no go, though."
"They''re lucky it was Reivyn''s father who handled the situation," Ameliyn said, eyes narrowed. An invisible force bore down on everyone present, and Tom, Vane, and Trick burst out into cold sweat. "He''s entirely too softhearted sometimes." Ameliyn''s expression quickly changed into a beaming smile as she looked at her son''s friends. "But wee, wee. Come in and have a seat."
Ameliyn walked around the table and grabbed Tom''s hands as she personally led him to a seat. Tom let himself get dragged to the dinner table, but he looked like a frightened rabbit.
"I think you broke them, mom," Reivyn said as he also walked to the dinner table.
"Nonsense," Ameliyn swatted at her son''s arm. "Why would I intentionally scare my son''s friends?"
"You mean like Melissa," Teilon piped up, a smirk on his face. He froze while pulling out his chair as Ameliyn fixed a "harmless" smile on her face as she stared at him.
"I''m sure I have no idea what you mean," she said in a sweet voice. Teilon coughed into his hand as he took his seat.
"Of course, of course," he said. "Just forget I said anything." Kimberly swatted him on the shoulder as she sat next to him, shaking her head.
Tom finally snapped out of his fugue, and he stepped back and bowed to Ameliyn and Refix.
"I apologize for my rude behavior," he said before straightening back up. "Thank you for inviting us into your home."
"Think nothing of it," Refix said as he guided Vane and Trick to their seats. "We''re all friends here."
After the awkward start to dinner, Tom, Vane, and Trick were finally able to rx after tasting the home cooked meal. They gave endlesspliments to Ameliyn for her Cooking Skill. They weren''t just ttering her because she was a powerful Caster, either. They were genuinely impressed by the meal.
"If I may be so bold," Trick finally said after mustering his courage, "would it be possible to beg some lessons in Casting?" He had a hopeful look on his face as he addressed Ameliyn. Tom and Vane paused in eating as they waited for an answer from Ameliyn.
Ameliyn shared a look with Refix.
"Training brew?" Refix asked, picking up on his wife''s intentions.
"Training brew," Ameliyn confirmed with a nod of her head.
Tom, Vane, and Trick had looks of excitement on their faces as they shared a look. They waited for more, but Ameliyn just smiled at them as Refix got up to retrieve something from a back room. He quickly came back holding three small sses shaped like thimbles, but a bitrger. They were filled with a clear liquid, and he ced them in front of the three teenagers.
"You''re a bit young for this, Reivyn," Refix said as he set thest ss down. "But you''ll get your chance in the future."
"I hope you portioned them correctly for teenage Casters," Ameliyn said with a serious look on her face.
"Of course," Refix said. "I didn''t even fill the cups up all the way. Look."
Ameliyn nodded her head as the three teenagers looked down at the sses ced in front of them.
"I''m sure young men of your families'' stature have attended banquets and have had alcohol before?" Ameliyn said with a lilt to her voice to indicate it was a question. The three boys nodded their heads.
"Yes, but it''s been carefully regted so that we didn''t drink too much and make fools of ourselves," Tom confirmed.
"Well, this is a bit different," Ameliyn said, indicating the sses. "It''s not just alcohol. It''s a carefully concocted brew that, while getting you tipsy - and t out drunk if you have too much - will allow you to still channel your mana effectively. Go ahead and drink it, and after dinner, I''ll help you learn how to Cast Spells while your thoughts are impaired."
"So we''re just going to learn how to Cast while drunk?" Trick asked, but he still downed the contents of the ss before coughing violently. His two friends also had a coughing fit as they drank their own concoctions.
"Not at all," Ameliyn answered with a smile. "Normal alcohol will impair your ability to channel mana entirely, and this will help you learn how to bypass that impairment more easily. It will also train your willpower. If you do it right, you can even learn some valuable Skills like Clearheaded or even Mental Fortitude.
"Not only will it train you in how to Cast while intoxicated, but this brew is specially designed with certain natural treasures to carry over to when your sober, too. The effort you put into wrestling with your mana will directly trante to increased control, period. Training with normal alcohol won''t have such an affect."
The three boy''s eyebrows rose in surprise. They knew from their parents how difficult it was to train oneself to Cast while drinking, and they were already happy with the help Ameliyn proposed in giving them. The added benefits she exined were just icing on the top.
"Thanksh," Trick said, huping after. His face morphed into surprise, and his head bobbled a little as he turned to share another look with his friends. They also immediately began to sway in their seats.
"Eat quickly," Ameliyn said, pointing to their tes with her fork. "Don''t want to waste the efficacy."
"Are you sure you gave them the right amount?" Reivyn asked his dad with a raised eyebrow. Refix just grinned back at him.
Chapter 86: Flickering Inspiration
Chapter 86: Flickering Inspiration
"Pretty convenient that you just happened to have that Training Brew lying around," Reivyn remarked to his father as they watched his friends fumble along with their Mana weaves. "Were you prepared for when they woulde by or something?"
"It''s not actually ''training brew,'' as such," Refix said with a slight smile. He nced at Reivyn. "It''s just ''brew.'' There are times for celebration, for your mother and I - and our people - and regr alcohol doesn''t really do anything to people with as much Vitality as we have. This special mixture can give us the kind of buzz we would get in a normal party setting, and it doesn''t have that much of a hangover after." He paused for a moment and smirked. "Rtively."
Reivyn watched with amusement as his friends were barely able to stand on their own two feet as they tried to follow Ameliyn''s instructions to craft their Spells. They were quickly deteriorating in their ability to function properly, but Reivyn could tell that even their efforts at the beginning had already had an effect on their weaving while intoxicated. The level of inebriation they were disying lead him to believe they wouldn''t have been able to do anything if they had had to start in such a state.
Theyughed and made slurred remarks to each other as they tried, and usually failed, to Manipte their Mana. They might have better luck if they sat down, so as to avoid so much swaying and stumbling about, Reivyn chuckled to himself. But they''re so far gone that the thought hasn''t even urred to them.
"If they got that drunk off of regr alcohol, they''d be bedridden for a day or two from the hangover," Refix continued. "A hangover is really just dehydration, and they only consumed a tiny amount of the drink. They''re not going to be dehydrated, but they''ll still suffer a minor bacsh from the ingredients that mimic a hangover. Another upside to this type of drink, there''s no memory loss or ckouts. They''ll remember everything tomorrow when they sober up."
"Heh, I can''t wait to see their faces when they remember what they''re doing right now," Reivyn said. He turned to his father once more. "You said you were just going to get them a little tipsy, so why are they so drunk?"
"It''s an initiation prank," Refix chuckled. "The very first time anyone ever trains in this method, it''s customary to get them drunk instead of tipsy. It''s harmless fun. There''s no chance of poisoning or anysting negative effects, and it gives us who''ve already been through it some entertainment and them a story to tellter. Some of the best stories are the ones that are embarrassing for the person at the time."
"Isn''t it spoiled for me now, though?" Reivyn asked with a frown. Refix justughed.
"Don''t think you''re going to escape your fate just because you know of it ahead of time," he chuckled. "You might know it''sing, but it won''t matter once you''ve taken the drink."
"Thanks, I guess?" Reivyn replied. "Now that we''re talking about it, what about Poison Resistance? Can you get that Skill from drinking alcohol or this brew?"
"Your head''s in the right ce, but you''re not considering all of the factors," Refix replied. "The System takes into ount intent when it hands out Skills, and for whatever reason, even though alcohol is technically a poison, if you drink it yourself you''ll at best get Alcohol Tolerance instead of Poison Resistance. That being said, there''s an odd quirk that if someone spikes your drink without you knowing, it''s possible to get Poison Resistance that way.
"As to the drink we used, it won''t give either of those Skills. It''s not technically alcohol, and it''s not poison. The bacsh is magical in nature because of the ingredients used.
Laughter from Teilon and Kimberly distracted Reivyn from watching his friends for a moment. He looked over and saw that his sisters had urately created a depiction of the three roommates'' training session. Kailey had woven one with her typical colored flora, and Riley had carved a drunk-looking Tom. Teilon was encouraging them to add embellishments so he could show it to the boys at ater date, and Kimberly wasn''t doing anything to dissuade them,ughing along.
The two girls were apparently taking turns between Weaving and Carving. Wood shavings and other materialsy strewn about from their creations. They''re getting better and better at those Skills, Reivyn mused. I know that weaving has a direct application to magic, and so does visualization in the form of patterns. I wonder if other artistic expressions have a corrtion to magic. Would my Piano Skill have some form of assistance, or maybe Rhythm? I can ask momter.
"Having fun over there Teilon?" Refix called out to him. Teilon looked up with a big grin on his face and gave a thumbs up. "Well, don''t worry about missing out. I seem to recall there are some training methods for fighting while intoxicated, too. One day soon, when you''re a bit older, you''ll get your chance to experience it as well."
Teilon''s grin instantly faded away, and the blood drained from his face. He woodenly turned back to watch the antics of the twins, but he no longer encouraged them to add any additional details. Reivyn looked at his dad who justughed. Refix winked at Reivyn before turning his attention back to his wife guiding the three inebriated youths.
"Mom, dad, I have something on my mind," Reivyn said. His friends had slowly but surely passed out from the effects of the drink, lying in various poses throughout the living room. Kimberly had been dragged off by the twins to their room for the evening, and Teilon was syed out on the couch. Reivyn''s parents had been getting ready to call it an evening, as well, and Reivyn had approached them before they went to their room.
"Sure, son, what is it?" Refix said. He tilted his head, indicating Reivyn to follow them to their room so they wouldn''t wake anyone else in the house. The master bedroom was decently sized, and aside from the bed, armoire, and dressers, there was also room for a small seating area if Ameliyn and Refix wanted to have some private time together. Ameliyn took a seat with Refix standing behind her, and Reivyn sat opposite them.
"I don''t really know how to bring it up, so I''ll just jump into it," Reivyn said. He took a deep breath. "I killed someone today. It was the first time I''ve actually killed another person."
Ameliyn and Refix shared a look, concern and understanding on their faces.
"Ok, that''s definitely a significant issue," Refix said. "In our line of work, it''s almost inevitable that you would one day. Knowing that truth doesn''t make it any easier to take a life, though. People aren''t inherently designed to kill one another. Heh, we''re not really even designed to kill other creatures, either. Even the System recognizes this. That''s why Euphoria and Misery exist.
"So, how do you feel about it? Walk us through it."
"Well, that''s the thing," Reivyn replied. "I don''t really feel anything about it at all. Right after it happened, I had a physical reaction and almost threw up, but then after that," he shrugged. "Nothing."
"Hmm, that is unusual," Refix stroked his chin. Ameliyn reached out and held Reivyn''s hand. "Not the physical reaction thing. That''s perfectly normal. In fact, a physical reaction in the other direction after someone is steeped inbat and killing is also not unheard of. What happened exactly?"
"I know you''ve heard about the incident outside of the Dungeon, obviously. After we thought everything was settled, Lance''s main bodyguard tried to sneak attack me with some throwing daggers. I acted subconsciously, and I killed him while reacting to the attacks. I didn''t even know I killed him until it was all over."
"So you acted in self-defense, and you killed him in the process. Do you think he deserved it? From your subjective perspective."
"Probably?" Reivyn asked more than answered. "He was trying to kill me. And it was after everything was over,pletely unprompted."
"If you had been cognizant of what you were doing, would you have killed him?" Refix continued to ask.
"I don''t think so," Reivyn shook his head. "I probably would have just subdued him and let the authorities deal with him."
"Reivyn," Ameliyn squeezed his hand, "we know that you''re a good person. The first thing you need to keep in mind is that even if you have ambiguous feelings about it, you''re not a bad person. We love you."
"Thank you," Reivyn gave a small smile. "The main thing that''s been bothering me isn''t the fact that I killed someone who tried to kill me from behind. It''s that I haven''t really felt anything about it, one way or another."
"This is aplicated thing," Refix said. "Many people react differently to taking a life for the first time. Your reaction isn''t unique. The fact that this actually bothers you is part of the manifestation of your emotions on the matter. Turmoil over not feeling guilty is perfectly normal. Do you think you can pinpoint why you don''t feel guilty?"
"Hmmm," Reivyn considered the question for a while. He had been thinking about it a lot, but he hadn''t put it to words, yet. "I think it''s two-fold: I logically understand that I was justified in defending myself and that he gave up his right to life when he chose to take mine away from me. The other factor is my Dreams."
"Can you borate?" Refix nodded his head in understanding as he encouraged Reivyn to explore his feelings on the matter.
"Well..." Reivyn drew the word out as he contemted. "90% of my Dreams are about normal things. In the Dreams, I have a wife and kids, and most of the Dreams revolve around that. 10% of the Dreams, though, are something else. It''s terrifyingbat. It''s like nothing I''ve experienced in real life. Thebat in my Dreams is very, very different.
"There are shes of light and explosions. You hardly ever see the enemy, and death cane at any time. In the Dreams, I''m in a military unit, and we fight other people in many different settings. I''ve had Dreams of fighting in massive cities, deserts, jungles, forests... you name it. We have to constantly move forward, and people get killed or injured out of the blue.
"I''ve witnessed my Dream persona take other people''s lives, and I''ve seen him hold his dying friends. And it''s always fighting against other people. There are never any monsters or wild beasts."
"And you''ve had these Dreams for as long as you can remember?" Ameliyn asked, a mixture of emotions flickering across her face. Reivyn nodded his head with a somber expression. Ameliyn leaned forward as she dragged Reivyn into a hug. "I''m so sorry! I had no idea. Those are no Dreams for a child."
Reivyn hugged his mother back, and Refix reached down and squeezed his shoulder in silentfort.
"Let me ask you this," Refix said after the moment had passed. "Did you feel anything for the people and friends that died in the Dreams?"
"Still do," Reivyn replied. "I don''t have those Dreams nearly as often anymore, almost like they''ve run out, and I don''t have the Dream dreams as often as I used to anymore. Sometimes I''ll get a repeat of a Dream I already experienced, and asionally I''ll have a new one, but that hasn''t happened in a while. In the Dreams, I always experience the full emotions the person I am in the Dream goes through. I''m not going to lie, it''s mostly terror."
"I think I can see why you didn''t feel that much from this situation," Refix said. "To you, this isn''t really the first time you''ve taken a life. Even though it really is, you''ve already been through it, and from what you describe, you''ve been through it multiple times. You''re reacting like a veteran of many life and death situations.
"You intellectually understand that taking a life is inherently wrong, but you''ve already developed the numbness to it that many soldiers have. It just hasn''t had a chance to manifest, because this is the first time you''ve actually been in the situation."
"I think this sheds some light on why you''re so brave," Ameliyn said with a smile. Reivyn gave his mother a surprised look. Refix chuckled at his reaction.
"Go back to your friends in Lord Ilpir''s Retinue, and I''ll bet arge portion of them will tell you they pissed their pants the first time they had to fight for real," Refix snorted. "From what you''ve described, you never had any issues like that." Reivyn nodded his head after a moment of thinking about his time conscripted.
"So I think we''ve resolved the problem," Ameliyn said. "It''s not that you''re a psycho or anything, it''s just that you''ve already been through it, emotionally. If you still feel like there''s something up with it that we haven''t covered, you can alwayse talk to us about it at any time."
"Thank you," Reivyn said. "I think I was just too close to the problem, and you exining it to me like that really helped. I do have onest question, though." Ameliyn and Refix smiled and indicated for him to continue with his question. "If the System recognizes that we''re not really meant to be killing one another, and it implements Euphoria to help mitigate the emotional damage frombat with monsters and Misery to punish people killing innocents, then why are there sses that mitigate Misery?"
"Who told you that?" Refix snorted.
"One of the squad-mates the first time I experienced Euphoria after killing a goblin," Reivyn answered.
"Well, that person didn''t know the facts, and he was probably spouting off nonsense based on rumors," Refix continued. "Only heretical sses will mitigate Misery. The other situation is psychopaths who don''t really feel normal emotions anyway. No amount of emotional stress will affect someone who doesn''t feel emotions."
"Oh, well that makes a lot of sense," Reivyn said. "Thank you again for listening to me." Reivyn got up, Ameliyn following him. He gave each of his parents a hug. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Refix said.
"Goodnight," Ameliyn said. "And remember, our door is always open."
"Ugh, my head is killing me," Trickined. He was slouched over a bowl of porridge at the breakfast table, barely eating anything with his head in his other hand. The n of leaving after dinner to retrieve their horses and head home had been thrown right out the window once the training had been proposed.
Tom, Vane, and Trick were suffering only a little bit of the after-effects, but it was still enough to cause them to have no appetite first thing in the morning. They slowly, mechanically shoveled the porridge into their mouths.
"Eat up," Refix said, quickly spooning his own food into his gullet. "I know it''s hard right now, but the more nutrition you get in your system, the better your Vitality can work to purge the lingering impurities causing the bacsh."
"I''ve noticed you haven''t been your usual, ribbing self," Vane poked Teilon who was eating silently next to him. "I seem to remember a bunch ofughtering from youst night at our expense."
"Dad just reminded him that he was going get a taste of the ''medicine'' one day, as well," Reivyn replied. The three suffering friends shared a look at each other.
"You''ll definitely have to invite us over," Tom said.
"Yeah, for moral support," Trick snickered. He immediately winced after his smallugh, though, and continued to try and get some food down.
The group of friends continued to eat in silence. There wasn''t the usual banter found amongst the group. Kimberly was eating with Ameilyn and the twins, and Teilon was trying to be on his best behavior to mitigate any future teasing.
Reivyn sat and waited for his friends to finish their breakfast, and Refix got up to leave to "go to work."
"Dad, since you''re not really employed by Mr. Einrin, what do you do every day?" Reivyn called out to his father as he was hugging his wife and daughters.
"Well, Einrin does run a legitimate business," Refix replied. "It''s just that we''re the employers and not the employees. I oversee some administrative tasks in the morning - always trust but verify, as the saying goes - and then I train with the Party. We have a broad focus of training, but it''s mostly to shore up our Skills for pressing deeper into the Dungeon. We still haven''t fully cleared it after all these years."
All of the other boys at the table snapped their heads up at the statement and stared at Refix.
"There''s a Dungeon around here that you can''t clear?" Teilon asked.
"Not exactly," Refix replied with a small smile. The other boys looked to be ready to ask more questions, but Refix held his hand up to forestall them. "One day. You''re not ready."
"Well, if he says so, then we''re not ready," Tom said, turning back to his almost finished meal.
"Ok, well I won''t keep you any longer," Reivyn replied. Refix nodded his head in farewell and took his leave.
The group was almost done with their porridge when Kailey and Riley walked up to the table. Kimberly was standing behind them with a smile on her face. Kailey set a parchment down on the table.
"We have something for you," she said to the group.
"We thought it would help cheer you up," Riley said.
Tom picked the parchment up and stared at it for a second before passing it to Vane. He smiled at the twins.
"Thank you," he said. "I like it very much."
"This..." Vane passed it to Trick, at a loss for words.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Trick eximed loudly. He was momentarily surprised when he didn''t automatically wince again from his own outburst.
"Let us see," Teilon said. "Turn it around."
Trick turned it around, and Reivyn finally got a good look at it. It was a picture done in some sort of colored pencil.
In the picture, the three friends were standing next to each other in different poses. Tom was standing to the left, a smile on his face as if he was looking at the person viewing the picture. A fireball was hovering over his hand. Vane was standing in the middle, his hands out to the side and looking up with a look of wonder on his face. There was an arch of water flowing over his head from his outstretched hands. Trick was on the right, and his eyes were closed with a look of concentration on his face. Despite the expression, he had a slight smirk. He was levitating off of the ground, his hands held out in front of himself, palms up. He was drawn in such a way that it looked like a gust of wind was whipping his hair and clothes.
Reivyn sat in stunned silence as he looked at the life-like drawing. It captured the magical essence of each of the boys perfectly. The twins had even managed to pierce the happy-go-lucky facade that Trick always put on.
"That is fantastic," Reivyn turned and praised the twin girls. They beamed at thepliment.
Reivyn turned back to the drawing, and something tickled his awareness.
"Do you mind?" Reivyn asked, reaching out for the parchment. Trick handed it over, and Reivyn inspected it with a critical eye. On a hunch, he infused a trickle of his Mana into the parchment. After looking at the result for a second, he burst out intoughter.
"What is it? What is it?" Teilon excitedly asked, leaning over to get a look as well. He looked up at the three boys and startedughing as well. Tom rolled his eyes and held his hand out.
"Well?" He asked. Reivyn handed it over to him, stillughing. The three boys leaned over to all view the picture before looking up at Kailey and Riley. The two girls stuck their tongues out and took off,ughing.
After Reivyn infused his Mana into the drawing, the picture morphed into somethingpletely different. The three boys were no longer disying their magical talents. Instead, Vane was bent over, a rainbow-colored liquid pouring out of his mouth as Tom was depicted swaying next to him, a ssy look in his eyes. Trick was leaning against Vane, and he was huping bubbles.
The three boys couldn''t help themselves, and they began tough as well. The Mana slowly drained out of the parchment, and it reverted back to normal.
"This is definitely a treasure," Tom said, wiping his eyes. "The only problem is that there''s just one of them."
"We can keep it in themon area of our dorm room for now," Vane said. "We''ll have to see about a repeat performance from the twins so we can each have one to take home."
"I''ll even pay for such a masterpiece," Trick announced.
"Hear that girls?" Kimberly called to the still giggling girls. They lifted their heads up at being addressed. "You have your first paying customers. That means you have to do as good as, or better, a job as this one."
"Ok, Big Sis!" Kailey said.
"Money!" Riley shouted, pumping her fist into the air. Ameliyn rolled her eyes from where she was witnessing the antics from the side.
"I would say don''t encourage them, but that actually sounds like a good idea," Reivyn chuckled. "How did you even think to use rainbow liquid like that?"
Kailey and Riley pointed their hands in unison at Teilon. Teilon held his hands up in front of himself.
"Hey, I didn''t know they were going to use my suggestion like that!" He defended himself. All of the boys at the table justughed.
"Alright, let''s get going. I''ll go with you guys to the Branch Stables, but then I''m going to head to the Academy. I think it''s about time I checked out the School Credit Exchange.
Reivyn sat at a desk in one of the rooms near the Quartermaster office in the Administrative Building on campus. There was a small orb embedded in the top of the desk, and Reivyn was infusing his mana into it. The orb-infused mana produced a System page to pop up, and there was a list of resources and their cost that he could scroll through at his leisure.
There''s the total School Credits Acquired, which is what one''s grades are based on, Reivyn thought as he scrolled through the list, and then there are the School Credits Avable, which can be used to exchange for resources. The only things I remember being mentioned were Experience Crystals and natural treasures that could help one focus on their weaves.
The pop-up list had the names of the resource as well as a short description of what they did.
I have the Lattice Skill that helps me with weaves, and I bet it can help with other mana constructs as well if I get it high enough, so I''m not interested in that resource. As for Experience Crystals, I definitely don''t need any of those. The only thing it could be used for at this time is bolstering my Bloodline, but mom said they would help with that.
Reivyn scrolled through the list and found a couple of promising things. There were several different potions that could replenish Mana, Stamina, or Health, and they were fairly cheap. He also saw a couple of natural treasuries that could grant an epiphany to certain Skills, but they were extremely specific and couldn''t be used for just any Skill. The description mentioned they were useful for helping to break through the Level 25, 50, and 75 thresholds. I bet there are treasures that help break through transcendence, but no way I''ll find something like that in a Tier 1 kingdom. Even the ones avable here mention that there are significant diminishing returns for Levels 50 and 75.
Reivyn continued to scroll, unable to make up his mind on what exactly he wanted to purchase.
His hand stopped scrolling as something caught his eye, finally.
Spark of Light Increases the speed of Leveling up Light Affinity Skills/Spells. Lasts for 10 minutes. School Credits: 10
In Stock: 317
Now that is interesting, Reivyn stroked his chin. There was a "Spark" for each of the basic Affinities, and there were several for Tier 2 Affinities, as well. The Spark of Light was the only one he saw for a Tier 3 Affinity, but there were a lot of them.
There are probably not a whole lot of students with the Light Affinity specialization, he realized. It only costs 10 School Credits, and I have about 700ish avable. There''s no quota of resources distributed to the students, but we do get School Credits based on our Rank each month. On top of that, the Academy isn''t too stingy with their rewards for running the Dungeons, and there was a bonus forpleting all of the main-line Dungeons in the Region.
If I spend all of my School Credits on this treasure, then I can grind my Lattice Skill much more quickly and efficiently. Then that Skill, in turn, can help me derive weaves and other Mana structures at an increased pace. The most important thing to note: there''s no mention of diminishing returns.
If I can grind the Skill up to make it a General ss Skill, then not only would its utility be significantly enhanced, but I''ll be able to keep it forever. I might even be able to turn it into a General Skill.
Reivyn''s eyes lit up, and his enthusiasm for the treasure grew at an exponential rate as he further considered the possibilities.
Let''s not be too hasty, though, Reivyn calmed himself down. Just because it doesn''t mention diminishing returns, doesn''t mean there aren''t any. There might be other hidden pitfalls that I don''t know about. I doubt there are very many other students who purchase any of these treasures in bulk. I''ll buy 10 for now, and see how it goes. If everything works out as I hope, then I can buy more.
Reivyn selected the resource, and another pop-up notification asked for quantity and confirmation. He selected to purchase 10, and the System page told him to simply wait in ce.
After several minutes of staring off into space imagining what his increased Skill Level could bring him, a third-year student assistant entered the small room with a knock at the door.
"Is this student Novice Reivyn?" The girl asked with a sweet smile. Reivyn nodded with a smile in return, and the girl handed him a small pouch. "Here''s your order. 10 Sparks of Light, correct?" Reivyn nodded once more. "Good, once you''ve left the room with the purchase, it is non-refundable. If you change your mind, you can contact an assistant through the interface."
"Thank you," Reivyn said. "I believe I''ll go ahead and take it."
"You''re wee, Novice," the girl inclined her head. "Have a nice day."
"You, too," Reivyn called out to her as she turned and left the small room.
Reivyn turned back to the interface and decided to scroll further to see what else was avable. Nothing really caught his fancy, though he was intrigued by the fact that he noticed some other students had put up private tutoring lessons for School Credit exchange.
Hmm, that''s interesting, Reivyn thought. I could have probably raked in a ton of School Credits this way if I required everyone to make an exchange in order to attend the study group. I''m not upset about it, though. I like the way it turned out.
He finished perusing the list, hefted his pouch of Sparks, and left the room with confidence.
Chapter 87: Worldly Wisdom
Chapter 87: Worldly Wisdom
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (27 ->29)
Light Armor (9 ->10)
Memorization {Social} (14 ->15)
Piano (16 ->17)
Tier 2:
Mana Absorption (50 ->51)
Tier 4:
Dual Casting (13 ->15)
Affinities Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Air (55 ->57)
Earth (55 ->57)
Fire (55 ->57)
Water (55 ->57)
Tier 2:
Ice (30 ->31)
Lightning (19 ->24)
Magma (30 ->31)
Metal (30 ->31)
Mist (19 ->24)
Mud (19 ->24)
sma (30 ->31)
Wood (30 ->31)
Tier 3:
Bludgeon (4 ->8)
Durability (15 ->16)
Friction (4 ->8)
Gravity (15 ->16)
Kic (15 ->16)
Mass (4 ->8)
Piercing (15 ->16)
Sharpness (15 ->16)
Weight (4 ->8)
Reivyn inspected his increases in Affinities, noting another peculiarity with his advancements.
I already noticed that all of my Affinities advance in lockstep, he thought. It would be hard not to notice it. Another strange thing, though, is that it seems my higher Leveled Affinities in the same Tier slow down their rate of progress to allow for the lower Leveled ones to catch up. I don''t make any special amodations for it to happen, it just happens.
He threw the thought to the side as he continued to check his progress. His Affinities had continued to increase at a decent pace, considering he was able to devote much more time and effort to them than he was when he did so much martial training, but that wasn''t the real winner this time. ss Skills:
Basic Elemental Spells (49): Bolt 2(4)MP, sh 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), st 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity
Lattice (69): Bonus to Mana Maniption +21%
True Light (26): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells
Lattice has Leveled up 39 times! Reivyn saw. The Skill was at Level 30 when I started using the Sparks of Light. It basically gains a Level every time I use one. There was a hidden restriction that wasn''t mentioned in the description, but other than wasting a single Spark to find out, it''s really not that bad. I can only use one every 24 hours.
It''s been one month since I started using them, so I''ve been able to use 30 of them, making my Leveling speed skyrocket. They also don''t hinder my regr practice, and I gained an additional 9 Levels through training. I purchased 70 of them, so I still have another 40 to go. I went ahead and purchased additional ones just in case there''s a slowdown after reaching Level 75, and I don''t know if it will have any effect at Level 99.
The semester had gone smoother than Reivyn had even anticipated. He had nned the Dungeon runs and Adventurer quests with additional time allotted in case it took longer toplete the quests or run the Dungeons, or anything else unexpected happened. As it was, nothing had interfered with the schedule, and he and his friendspleted the self-imposed mission firmly ahead of schedule.
Reivyn simply attended sses like normal and continued his training. The study group was able to meet and practice together with uniformity for the remainder of the semester, as well.
The end of the semester ising up really quickly, and then there will be a short break before the summer semester officially begins. Our group''s Rankings mean that we''ll only have to attend about two weeks'' worth of sses during the summer, and the rest of the time can be spent running the Revenant Dungeon.
Speaking of, I never did hear anything about that Prince''s ns for the Revenant Dungeon. Melissa wasn''t pulled into any Party with him, even though she''s the most qualified person to go, at least to an outsider. Either he didn''t form a Party from students, or he took the ones I saw him with in the Dungeon with Ren. Considering his affiliation with the Abyssal Mana, maybe there''s something up with them.
Eh, not really my problem. My parents'' informants brought back a clean bill of health with his family. They seem to really just be living normally and not associated with that cult or anything.
If everything goes to n, then we should all be selected to go to the Eldiar Academy after the summer semester. Melissa is in her third year, so she''ll be able to ept a quota this time around. Larissa will have to wait another year before she can go, herself, as long as she can get to the top of the Apprentice ss.
Larissa definitely had the Skill and talent to be top of the ss, from what Reivyn had seen. She wasn''t number 1 currently because of her School Credits. While she and Melissa had gone off to the Revenant Dungeonst summer, several other students had cleared the main-line Dungeons. The bonus for doing so was equivalent to the bonus she and Melissa got for being the first to delve the Revenant Dungeon, but there were more of them, so the overall score was more.
It was the right decision, in the long run. The other students won''t reap the bonus points for being the pioneers of the Revenant Dungeon, and Larissa''s total School Credits will exceed theirs. As long as she can maintain her Affinity progression and grades, she should have the 1st ce Rank in the bag for next year.
Thepetition was pretty stiff among the other students in the Academy. There were no other standouts quite like Reivyn, but it was worth noting that Melissa and Larissa maintained their rankings without having to break their backs nearly as much as the other studentspeting with them. Even then, with all of the extra effort the other students put in, they still didn''t quite match up with Melissa and Larissa.
They are from a branch of a noble house in Eldiar, and it shows if you know where to look, Reivyn mused. Their talents aren''t even shining as much as they will once they unlock their Dual Fire-Ice sses in Tier 3. I don''t know how they''ll match up against the others in Eldiar, but as long as they''re notpeting against the main branch of their family in the same year, they''re probably going to be at the top of the Eldiar Academy, as well.
Once they reach their Tier 3 ss, that is, Reivyn amended. I don''t know the structure for the Eldiar Academy, but from what I''ve heard, there''s an additional year avable for those who reach Tier 3 before they graduate and don''t get moved to the Tier 3 kingdom.
Reivyn was confident Teilon and Kimberly would be able to clinch a quota for the Eldiar Knight Academy, as well. They had almost double the number of students attending the Knight Academy, and they also had twice the quota. Teilon and Kimberly were firmly in the top 20 of the Novice Knight ss.
The only thing I have left to do in this Region is finish the Revenant Dungeon, Reivyn smiled. After that, I can ept the quota for the Eldiar Academy and use that as an excuse to move my family to Eldiar with me. There''s no mechanism in ce to advance the students in the supplementary school to Eldiar, but it would be a huge waste to let Kailey and Riley stick around in this Region when they have so much talent.
Reivyn channeled his mana with an Earth Affinity infusion as he formed a chain with his roommates. Each of his roommates specialized in a separate Tier 1 Affinity, but they only had three of the four: Air, Fire, and Water. Reivyn was able to round the Tier 1 Affinities out using his Earth Affinity. Even though his ss specialized in Light, his Earth Affinity was still higher than any of his roommate''s Affinity Specialization.
They stood in a circle and channeled their affinities in a circle through each other. Reivyn channeled his Earth Affinity outward to his right, towards Tom who was channeling his Fire Affinity inward, empowered by the Earth Affinity. Tom, in turn, channeled his Fire Affinity outward to his right, towards Trick who was channeling his Air Affinity inward, empowered by the Fire. Trick channeled his Air Affinity outward towards Vane, who was channeling his Water Affinity inward, empowered by the Air. Finally, to round the exercise out, Vane was channeling his Water Affinity outward toward Reivyn, who was channeling his Earth Affinity inward, empowered by the Water.
The exercise had been proposed by Ameliyn, and Reivyn was surprised by the results. They each connected their Mana together in an unending loop, and the benefits were very clear. Reivyn wasn''t getting nearly as much benefit as his roommates, as he had to restrict his Affinity to match their Levels, though he was getting more out of it than he would have practicing alone.
It was normally impossible for one to exercise their Skills and Affinity Levels in tandem, as one could only focus so much on a task while training. This method actually practiced not only Skills and Affinities simultaneously, but it practiced several Skills and all of the Tier 1 Affinities at the same time. Reivyn could feel that he was exercising Mana Absorption, Mana Maniption, and his Tier 1 Affinities all at once.
"Why didn''t you propose this exercise earlier?" Reivyn had asked his mom after she revealed it to the four friends.
"You all needed a minimum foundation of Level 20 in your main Affinity," Ameliyn exined. "Anything less than that would not only not give a proper empowerment to the corresponding Affinity, but it also wouldn''t be able to absorb the empowerment from the opposite direction. I''m sure they teach this method in the second year Mana Theory course, which would exin why Reivyn didn''t learn it in the Academy either because he''s still in the first year course for Mana Theory with all of you."
Reivyn continued to let the Mana flow through him. Even though he was supplying Earth and absorbing Water, the Mana was connected in a full circle to all of the Affinities. The empowerment from the Affinities carried over throughout the entire circle, and that allowed them to all practice their full Tier 1 Affinities together.
Teilon and Kimberly were off to the side, practicing their martial Skills under Refix''s supervision. The husband and wife pair were really in their element, one directing Mana and the other directing Martial. Reivyn once more felt that he was extremely lucky to have been born as their son. My entire family is overflowing with talent, he chuckled. Even with her education being cut short, and having to run around in lower Tier Regions for her entire adult life, my mother is still Tier 4 even with having to postpone her own Leveling with raising children.
"Have any more problems with Lance and his cronies?" Reivyn called out to Teilon as his friends took a quick break. Reivyn and the three other Casters didn''t need a break from their exercise, as it wasn''t physically or mentally draining. In fact, it was a bit refreshing. Teilon eyed the nonchnt circle of Casters with a bit of envy.
"Nah," Teilon replied after gulping a drink from his water skin. "He was reprimanded by the Academy, and it seems he''s having a bit of trouble at home, recently, too. He''s no longer the favored son, and he''s got arge hole to dig himself out of. I''ve only run into him a couple of times outside of ss, and he''s quickly turned around and ran away each time."
"He''s a bully when he thinks he can get away with it, but once someone can''t be intimidated by his background, he doesn''t even have the courage to talk to them," Kimberly snorted. "The coward. We already beat him and his friends in a fair fight, twice. I guess he''s projecting his own personality onto us, as he wasn''t willing to give up. We''re not like him, though. It''s not like we''ll attack him just because he''s nearby."
"If you have the strength to run your mouth, you have the strength to run your legs," Refix called over. "Get to it."
Teilon and Kimberly took another quick swig of water before picking their weapons back up and resuming their sparring. Tom, Vane, and Trick shared a wide-eyed look with each other. They weren''t willing to make any teasingments lest they be subjected to harsher training themselves. They could practically feel Ameliyn waiting for one of them to say something, so they all firmly kept their mouths shut as they channeled their Mana.
"The nature of the world is one vast, infinite ne," Master Salrah said. Being the Political Science instructor, geopolitics was in her wheelhouse. As such, she also exined a bit about the different Regions that the students were likely to interact with throughout their lives. This eventually led to the Tier 4 kingdom that they were ultimately a vassal state to, the Quron Empire.
In order to properly exin the details of the Tier 4 kingdom and their closest rivals, Master Salrah also introduced the students to the wider Realm as a whole. Reivyn had been very interested in learning about the Tier 4 kingdoms, as he viewed them as a peer group to his parents and family. Master Salrah had gone into detail about their Tier 4 kingdom, their trade partners, and their rivals.
She had also drawn a web of trade partners and rivals extending out in an everrger map of Quron''s peer kingdoms. There were crisscrossing rtionships between many of the kingdoms, much more so even than the rtionships between their Tier 3, 2, and 1 vassal states. Despite ovepping rtionships, the web of Tier 4 Empires had expanded out until there were over 20 Tier 4 kingdoms in what Master Salrah referred to as "The Local Group."
There are about 10 million people in this kingdom, and each Tier 1 kingdom has approximately 10 to 20 million citizens depending on the geographical size of the Region, Reivyn thought. Each Tier 2 kingdom also has anywhere from 20-50 million people in them, plus the 10 to 15 Tier 1 vassals under them. Tier 3 kingdoms typically have 50-100 million citizens, with 8 to 12 Tier 2 vassals. Tier 4 kingdoms have anywhere from 100-300 million citizens and 6-10 Tier 3 vassals.
If we average that out, we get 12.5 Tier 1 kingdoms with 15 million people, 10 Tier 2 kingdoms with 25 million people, 8 Tier 3 kingdoms with 75 million people, and then 200 million people for the Tier 4 empires. That''s... Reivyn did the mental arithmetic, 1 billion, 237 million people, on average, per Tier 4 empire. And Master Salrah said there are twenty Tier 4 Empires in the Local Group.
Even if the Realm isn''t actually infinite, I can see why it wouldn''t be a stretch to refer to it as such, anyway. The numbers involved boggled the mind.
"Keep in mind that Tier 4 regions are as high as any empire settles," Master Salrah continued. "There are cities, towns, settlements, and outposts in Tier 5 and 6 regions, respectively, but they''re not a central power group for an empire. They''re mostly made up of independent groups of powerful people, and any families that get started typically move out to a Tier 4 empire because it''s just too dangerous to raise children in such an environment.
"The Realm has up to Tier 8 Regions, but none of the known ones near any of the Local Group empires have any kind of human settlements in them, and only the strongest ssers, or the foolish, dare even step into them. Not only are thererge portions of the Realm too dangerous for human civilization, but there are also vast swathes of empty Tier 1 through 4 Regions that don''t have any people living in them, either.
"There are various reasons for such, two of the main reasons being inhospitable climates, like deserts and too tall mountains, or ack of Dungeons or other resources. There are a few such Regions around our Local Group, but the main reason our Local Group is formed as it is is that there are vast oceans surrounding it.
"The oceans follow the same rules as thend when ites to different Tier Regions, but they also have to ount for the three-dimensional environment. It''s a recognized rule of thumb that deeper Regions are higher Tier, but that''s not an absolute rule. It is extremely dangerous to try and traverse the oceans to another Local Group, but ancient, powerful people have done so. That''s how the teleportation arrays were initially set up.
"Now, to really blow your minds," Master Salrah paused, scanning the room to build anticipation for her next statement, "there are one hundred Local Groups in our ''Local Cluster.''"
A memory from a Dream of vast emptiness filled with billions of stars forming trillions of gxies quickly shed through Reivyn''s mind. The way the Realm is set up is strangely simr, Reivyn thought. If there are 100 Local Groups with about 24 billion people on average, and there are 100 Local Groups in the Local Cluster, that''s over 2 trillion people. And, again, Master Salrah calls it the Local Cluster. Maybe the Realm really is infinite, and it''s not just an apt interpretation.
There might be a record of all of the Tier 4 kingdoms in the Local Cluster. I wonder if the Vynn Empire is one of them? I don''t know how many teleportations my parents took, and I don''t know the range of them, either. But there are 200 Tier 4 Empires in the Local Cluster, so it might very well be...
There was one other lesson that piqued Reivyn''s interest in thest month of the second semester. It wasn''t the full lecture that grabbed his interest, but a portion of it.
"There are eight Tiers of sses, and eight Tiers of Regions, but only seven Tiers of Rarity," Master Hilken, the Mana Theory instructor, said. "Does anyone know why this is?"
Master Hilken paused the lesson to scan the room. Nobody raised their hand to answer the question. It wasmon knowledge, but the students had never really contemted why, including Reivyn.
"Well, there are actually eight Tiers of Rarity. Does anyone know what the eighth Tier is?" He once more scanned the room.
Hmmm... If one can force a Tier 3 ss while in Tier 2, and Tier 3 can go up to Mythic without intervention from an Ascended, then what happens if a Tier 2 forces a Mythic Tier 3 ss? With that line of thought, Reivyn raised his hand. Master Hilken nodded his head to Reivyn.
"Would it be something like Pseudo-Divine?" Reivyn asked. Master Hilken pped his hands together, loudly.
"Exactly!" He said. "Good job. Yes, Pseudo-Divine is the seventh Tier Rarity, and Divine is technically the eighth. Each Tier of Rarity has approximately equivalent Stat gains, increasing with each upgrade in Rarity. Pseudo-Divine and Divine, though, have equal Stat gains, but Divine sses have ess to Divine Skills, which use Divine Mana. Pseudo-Divine does not have ess to Divine Mana. One has to have intervention from a Higher ne to gain ess to Divine Mana.
"Does anyone know why Pseudo-Divine Rarity is notmon knowledge?" Reivyn looked around the ss, and after noticing that nobody raised their hand, he raised his once more.
"Because it can only be obtained in Tier 2?" Reivyn asked once called upon.
"And how did youe to that conclusion?" Master Hilken asked.
"Because one can raise the Rarity of their ss by forcing a Tier 3 ss in Tier 2, and Mythic sses are technically possible at Tier 3. Though, it''s literally unheard of for someone to attain a Mythic ss that early. Those 2 incredibly difficult things in their own right need to be aplished by one person before they reach Level 10 in Tier 2."
"That''s correct," Master Hilken said with a nod. He shook his head immediately after, though, "but that''s only half of the answer. Yes, one can achieve Pseudo-Divine Rarity at Tier 2, but that''s actually the rarer way to get it. The other way, also extremely difficult, is to reach Tier 8. Tier 8 has a minimum requirement of a Mythic Tier 7 ss.
"One of the perks of achieving Tier 8 is the possibility of ranking up one''s Tier to Pseudo-Divine. The difficulty of achieving the requirements, though, is supposedly as difficult as achieving a Mythic Tier 3 ss. I say supposedly because there are myths and legends of people reaching that rarity at Tier 8, but nobody around here knows the full truth of the matter, just that it is real.
"So, there are 8 Tiers of sses, 8 Tiers of Regions, and 8 Tiers of Rarity," Master Hilken paced in front of the ss. "Many schrs espouse the philosophy of the ''Divine 9.'' You might get lessons on it in your Philosophy sses, but I wouldn''t know. Us Casters ascribe to the ''Infinite 8'' philosophy. The 8 Tiers of sses, Regions, and Rarity create infinite possibilities, and the symbol for infinity is a sideways 8.
"Lastly, there are 4 Tiers of Affinities. You might be thinking, ''that breaks the convention,'' but I assure you, it does not. It''smonly known that non-Mana users gain the ability to use Mana Skills when they achieve a Tier 4 ss. This is because one''s ss Tier affects one''s Affinity limit.
"Everyone knows that Casters have a limit to how high they can Level their affinities based on their talent in said Affinity. What isn''tmon knowledge, is that each Tier advancement adds 5 to the maximum Level one can achieve in their Affinities. Tier 1 and 2 sses increase Tier 1 Affinities by 5. Tier 2 and 3 sses increase Tier 1 and Tier 2 Affinities by 5, and so on and so forth. Tier 7 and 8 increase all Affinities by 10.
"Non-Casters have a technical Level 0 cap in their Affinities before they get their first ss, but once they reach a minimum Level cap of 20, they unlock the ability to now Level those Affinities. That also means that non-Casters will never unlock any Tier 4 Affinities without natural treasures found only in Tier 6 and higher Regions."
That''s very simr to what mom said about requiring a foundation of Level 20 in the basic Affinities in order to channel the advanced group exercise, Reivyn thought.
I wonder what the rules for Tier 5 Affinities are?
Chapter 88: Diametric Expectations
Chapter 88: Diametric Expectations
Reivyn stood in front of therge, clear orb. There were bands of multi-colored light swirling about within the crystal. The only instruction Reivyn had received for the end-of-year Affinity test was that he could take it at any time from thest week of the second semester until the end of the first week of thest month of the summer semester.
The Academies only had a total of 10 testing orbs between the two of them, and they were extremely important resources. They were housed in rooms in the Administration Building permanently, and students had to be escorted by the staff to ensure nothing happened to the orb or the students. Since there were so few orbs and so many Affinities, the staff member would insert a magical disk in the podium that held the orb to program the test to the appropriate Affinity each time.
Tom, Vane, and Trick had all decided to wait until closer to the end of the summer months to take their exams, as there was still the possibility of losing their top 10 Ranking positions if they performed subpar and thepetitors did well. They wanted the chance to practice their Affinity Levels and practical application of magic before they took their tests, so they woulde back a little earlier from the Revenant Dungeon to take the tests.
Reivyn didn''t have any suchpunctions. He was firmly in first ce, and he could only lose his position if hepletely failed the test and didn''t pass any of the others, which was basically impossible. Reivyn had chosen to take the Light and Darkness Affinity tests. Even though he was a Novice and only needed to pass a Tier 1 Affinity test and didn''t need the bonus points frompleting the Tier 3 Affinity test, he would get permanent credit for doing so. He would still need to take the tests each year - that wouldn''t change - but his record for graduation would still reflect that he passed two Tier 3 tests while a Novice. The record would go with him when he moved to the Tier 2 Academy, too.
Reivyn didn''t really know what to expect from the test as he inspected the orb. None of the other students had signed up for the Light or Darkness Affinity tests, and if any of them did, it would probably be like his roommates, at the end of the summer semester after additional practice. It was frowned upon to disseminate information about the tests. It wasn''t exactly against the rules, though, which meant it did happen. The instructors didn''t tell the students what was in the tests beforehand, either.
No reason to hesitate, Reivyn thought as he reached his hand out to grip the orb. He infused his Mana into the orb, and the world around him wentpletely white as he had the sensation of being pulled into it. The orbs created an actual side world, so the students would be physically moved to the testing location.
It was almost alwayspletely safe, though, asbat wasn''t the main focus of the Affinity tests. There were some Affinities wherebat was an appropriate gauge, though it was generally against weak goblins or mundane beasts. The Academy wanted to test the students'' abilities with their Affinities and weaves, not their ability to decimate monsters. The point of having them face off against any creatures at all, in the few cases it happened, was to give the students a bit of pressure and a sense of urgency.
Reivyn looked around as he found himself in a world of white. He felt solid ground beneath him, but he couldn''t see it. There was no differentiation between the sky and floor, and there were no shadows cast anywhere. There were plenty of objects scattered around the testing area, but it seemed like every surface was its own source of light, preventing shadows.
Next to Reivyn was a small table. On top of the table was a wand with a white, opaque crystal on its end. There was no visual representation, but he got the distinct feeling that the ground dropped off just a few feet away from him and that it wouldn''t be possible to move from his current location.
Off in the distance, he could see the only things breaking up the monotony of white. Scattered all around were floating crystals of varying shades of color. There were panes of ss with simr colors between Reivyn and the space where the crystals were, and some of the crystals were obscured by walls. There were mirrors at varying locations and angles as well. There was some sort of light barrier in front of the mirror panes, though, and it prevented Reivyn from seeing what was actually reflected.
A Notification suddenly popped up in front of Reivyn, startling him from inspecting the environment. Test of Light Infuse the Light Wand with your Light Affinity. Use your abilities to focus the beam produced as tight as possible, and pass the beam through the colored panes to the best matching colored crystal. Some crystals have obstacles blocking their path, and you can use your understanding of the Light Affinity to pierce the veil obscuring the mirrors.
Objective: To Pass, sessfully match five out of seven crystals with the best matching color. One failed match is allowed per crystal. If you fail to properly match the shades twice, the crystal will disappear. Minimum Passing Score: 65%
If five crystals aren''t lit up, a failing grade will be awarded, and you will be automatically dismissed from the Space.
Reivyn dismissed the Notification and looked at the tools avable to him. He could see three of the colored crystals clearly about 20 yards away, but the other four were obscured by obstacles. There were 28 different panes of color floating between him and the crystals. Each color had four different shades.
So I have to use my Affinity to make the beam as tight as possible, use it to see through the light obstruction on the mirrors to find the right obscured crystal, and I have to use my understanding of Light to match the closest shade panel to the crystal. The three easy crystals are red, blue, and yellow, the three primary colors. Without looking at the reflections, and just judging off the panes in front of me, the other four colors are green, orange, purple, and brown.
There seems to be a small circle carved on each of the crystals, so I''ll have to tighten the beam to match that target as much as possible. It said "as tight as possible," so I imagine a more focused beam is better than diffuse.
Reivyn grabbed the wand and inspected it closely. The crystal embedded in the wand didn''te to a point, and its thickness was about as wide as three of his fingers held together. He pointed it off to the side, away from the crystals, and channeled his mana into it. The Notification said if I matched the wrong shade of color, he thought, but it didn''t say anything about missing the crystals. The beam came out the exact same width as the crystal.
He focused his mind, and bore down on his Mana, slowly but surely reducing the width of the beam. It took quite a bit of concentration to get the beam to shrink down and stay at the size he wanted. The Mana fought back as it wanted to conform to the size of the crystal, but Reivyn could tell that that would be toorge for the targets. His high Perception Stat allowed him to see that he would need to focus the beam to norger than two fingers'' width to seed.
Reivyn activated his Mana Sight. The Light beaming out of the wand was perfectly clear, and he could see the weaves within the beam. There wasn''t anything fancy in the weaves. There were no knots or patterns, just the regr weaves.
Reivyn swept the beam to pass through the closest colored pane, but still away from any of the crystals. Something caught his attention with the Mana as soon as it passed through the pane. The weaves in the Light Beam, when it was clear, were perfectly straight. As soon as it passed through the pane, however, the weaves took on a squiggly shape. Reivyn moved the beam through the next shade of the same color, and the shape of the weave subtly shifted.
Reivyn cut off the Mana being infused into the wand and focused his attention on the red crystal that he could see. In his Mana Sight, the interior of the crystal seemed to be magnified, not by his own skill, but by the crystal itself. He could clearly see the shape of the squiggly weave in the interior of the crystal.
Reivyn reactivated the wand and passed the beam through the four shades of red, and hepared the weaves to the one clearly shown inside the crystal.
There are no definite matches, but one of the panes produces weaves that are closer than the other three.
Reivyn once more deactivated the wand and contemted the situation.
It says to pass I need to match the best color to the crystal. It doesn''t say that I have to use the wand, or that I have to pass the beam through the panes.
With that thought in mind, Reivyn ced the wand back down on the table. The crystal wand did a good job of utilizing his Light-infused Mana, but it also fought to keep the beam at an awkward size.
Reivyn pointed his index finger at the red crystal. He didn''t immediately release the Beam Spell, but he first formed the shell and filled it with a perfectly matching weave. Surprisingly, his Rhythm Skill helped him the most to get the squiggles exactly right. He pointed his finger at the target on the red crystal, and using his finger as a medium, he released a one-finger width beam with a light that perfectly matched the shade of red of the red crystal.
The Beam struck the target, and the red crystal lit up with a more powerful luminosity before it created its own Beam of red light, shooting off into the distance. Reivyn nodded his head at the phenomenon.
I bet if I used the correct pane, thebination of that shade plus the shade of the crystal would have merged, slightly altering the Beam produced by the crystal, Reivyn surmised. Maybe I''m wrong, but I don''t really feel like finding out. Why use an inferior method when I have the ability to do it perfectly?
Reivyn quickly analyzed the blue and yellow crystals, and he duplicated his previous method to hit their targets with perfect matching shades.
The next crystal is obscured behind a light screen in the mirror, so I''ll have to figure out how to bypass that to even find the correct crystals.
The light screens weren''t perfectly clear, though they were close. Reivyn peered at the light screen in front of the first mirror with his Mana Sight, and, just like the crystals, he could see the magnified light weaves of the Spell. He thought about how to go about bypassing the barrier for a second, and then he infused the same, matching squiggles into his eyes.
When the Light Affinity weaves matched the frequency of the light screens, they turned translucent. The frequency of the weaves in the light screens was incredibly simple, much more so than the weaves in the colored crystals. There were four mirrors, and to pass, he would need to sessfully see through two of them. The light screens'' weaves grew slightly more difficult to match for each one. Since Reivyn was able to easily match the frequencies of the crystals, though, it posed very few problems for him.
The closer his own weaves matched the light screen, the clearer it became. Perfectly matching the weaves caused him to see perfectly through the light screen, and he could see the green-colored crystal reflected on the surface of the mirror. He analyzed the next color frequency. He matched the frequency of the crystal perfectly, but he had a suspicion about the light screen.
Heunched his Beam spell in a manner that it wouldn''t hit the colored crystal, and once the Beam passed through the light screen, his internal weave structure was altered by the light screen''s frequency, changing the shade ever so slightly.
Aha! If a student isn''t paying attention, they might choose the wrong panel if they''re using them, Reivyn thought with a grin. The change of the frequency will mean that the end shade isn''t the same as the panel, causing one to misjudge and waste an attempt.
This test seems very simple on the surface, but there are several pitfalls for the students baked into the test on a fundamental level. This is a Tier 3 Affinity test, so most of the students who choose to attempt this test will probably have an Affinity Level of somewhere between 10 to 20, much lower than my 49. I can see how it could be a suitable challenge for someone of such Affinity Level.
Reivyn adjusted his Beam based on the frequency of the light screen, and he struck the next target with a perfect match once again. The green Beam joined the other three primary colored Beams, all four colors joining at a point off in the distance.
Reivyn moved on to the next color, and following his previous actions, he once more quickly struck the target. Once the fifth colored Beam, this one orange, joined the other four, a Notification popped up in front of Reivyn''s face. Passing Grade
71.43% Completion
Exit Space?
ept Decline
Reivyn dismissed the Notification by focusing his will on the Decline option. Since I''ve already decided to do it perfectly, I need toplete thest two colors.
Reivyn looked through the next mirror. This one was slightly different, as the squiggly weave was again moreplex than thest light screen, and there was an additional mirror with another light screen beyond. It took Reivyn a moment to figure out that he needed toyer the next frequency with another weave behind the first one matching the first mirror in his vision. Once he did so, the purple crystal revealed itself to him. He altered the weaves based on thebination of the two frequencies, and the purple Beam joined the other five. Passing Grade - Superior
85.71%
Exit Space?
ept Decline
Reivyn once more Declined to leave early, and he moved his concentration to thest mirror. The frequency of the weaves on thest light screen wasn''t static, and they slowly shifted, undting like a snake.
I can either hold a steady frequency of my own and time it, or I can match the movements of the weave. If I try to time it, when the light screen isn''t perfectly transparent, it might alter the frequency I see from the brown crystal. So I need to create matching undtions in my own vision to get the right frequency for the brown Beam.
Once again, Reivyn''s Rhythm Skill carried the burden, and he found it wasn''t too difficult to match the shifting frequency. If it moved much faster, it might have been a problem, but the shifting shape was slow and steady.
Reivyn matched the technique to the second, also-shifting frequency of the next light screen. It was moving at a slightly faster speed, creating a dissonance in the shifting of the weaves. What followed after wasn''t the brown crystal, though, but a third light screen.
Reivyn found that he had to struggle to maintain three shifting,yered weaves in his vision while simultaneously deducing the brown frequency and applying the undting corrections to the Beam. Sweat beaded his brow as he finished preparing the beam, and he finally released the Spell to strike the target. The brown Beam connected to the point in the distance with the other beams, and a final Notification appeared before Reivyn''s vision. Passing Grade - Perfect
100%
You will automatically be teleported out of the Space
Reivyn felt the pull of the world, and he quickly found himself back in the testing room, the staff member looking bored. The older man straightened up in surprise, though, when Reivyn appeared suddenly. He walked up and patted Reivyn on the shoulder with amiserating look.
"It''s normal to fail a Tier 3 Affinity test or two," the man said. "Especially since you''re only a Novice. Don''t take it to heart, though. This experience will help you next year if you decide to tackle the Light Affinity test again. It won''t be the same test, but this should help."
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow as he eyed the man from the side of his eyes. He must think I failed because of the time I spent inside. I didn''t think I moved particrly quickly, but maybe I did.
The man walked over to the orb and removed the magic disk from its slot. Reivyn could barely see that there were some new numbers shining on the surface of the disk, and the staff member froze in ce, eyes going as wide as they possibly could with his jaw hanging open. He stood and stared in that state for several moments before Reivyn coughed into his hand to get his attention.
The staff member''s mouth suddenly shut tight, but his eyes were still wide when he turned to look at Reivyn.
"Is there something wrong?" Reivyn asked, a frown on his face.
"N-n-no," the man stuttered. "Nothing wrong here." He shook his head and looked at the number again to confirm what he saw. "You got a 100% on the test?!" Reivyn nodded his head in affirmation. "Wow! The previous record for this test was 74%. Most people pass with a score between 65 and 70%.
"If you aren''t already famous, you''re about to be."
Reivyn shrugged, and the staff member chuckled after mastering his emotions.
"Ok, well, I''ll just run this up to the Office of Testing - "
"Ahem," Reivyn coughed once more. "Don''t forget. I''m also taking the Darkness test."
"Of course," the man smacked himself in the forehead. "How could I forget? Let me just change the magic disks out, and you can step right into the next test."
The man quickly inserted the next magic disk that he pulled out of his pocket, and he nodded to Reivyn to go ahead. Reivyn detected a lot more respect in the man''s vision this time as opposed to the bored look before he began the Light Affinity test.
Reivyn stepped up to the orb, this time with illusion of dark striations, and once more infused it with his mana. After the familiar sensation of being sucked into the orb, Reivyn found himself in a world ofplete darkness. A Notification popped up once more. Test of Darkness Use your Darkness Affinity to recognize and traverse the Dark Maze. Forge a key, and exit the Space.
Objective: To Pass, travel through the Dark Maze within 20 minutes. Gather the strands of Darkness with the Darkness Affinity, and create the Key to exit the Space. You cannot generate your own Darkness Mana weaves to forge the Key. Step off the path and start over. Score is based on time spent and integrity of the Key. Minimum Passing Score: 65%
Using Light Affinity is an automatic Failure.
Reivyn dismissed the Notification and looked around with just his eyes and Perception Stat. There was nothing but absolute darkness in every direction. He couldn''t even see his own hand in front of his face.
Reivyn infused the Darkness Affinity into his Mana Sight. The world shifted in his perception, and he was able to pick up multiple different shades of the darkness. It wasn''t just that it waspletely ck, but there wereyered degrees of darkness. With the Darkness infused Mana in his Mana Sight, he was able to see a gradient that started with pitch ck on the far edges that slowly lightened in the center to a clear path he had to walk.
Reivyn knew he only had so much time, so he immediately set off. He wasn''t entirely sure what the Key was, or how to forge it, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it.
He confidently strode down the path that was clear in his vision. It went straight for about 10 yards, and then it started to slowly curve off to the right. The distinction of the gradient also became slightly more blurry as he walked along, and asionally the path would jerk in random directions.
Reivyn usually had a good sense of direction, but after passing through several loops that should have crossed his previous locations with no indication of the previous path, he quickly abandoned any idea of trying to make sense of the maze or mentally map his progress. Whenever the gradient would grow fuzzy, obscuring the correct pathway, Reivyn would simply infuse more power into his Darkness Affinity, and it would be clear again.
After two minutes of walking, ording to his System Clock, Reivyn came to a sharp turn to the left. Straight ahead, though, just beyond reach, a singr weave of Darkness Mana floated in empty space. The Mana of the weave was distinct from the rest of the darkness in his Sight.
So forging the key must be acquiring these weaves and putting them together, Reivyn thought. One of the concepts associated with Darkness is Consuming, so I need to leverage that concept to "absorb" the weave.
Reivyn stretched his hand out and concentrated on infusing Darkness Mana into his palm. He focused his will on the concept of Consuming, and the Darkness weave began to disintegrate as it was pulled toward him from the bottom, up. Reivyn cut off the Darkness Mana infused into his palm, and the weave coalesced once more.
Hmm, if I bring it over here a little bit at a time, then the weave might not match perfectly, Reivyn contemted. The rules are that I can''t use my own Mana to forge the Key, so if I tamper with it to ensure its integrity, that should be against the rules. The rules don''t say anything about using Darkness Mana, though.
Reivyn infused Darkness Mana into his palm once more, but before he absorbed the floating weave, he extended a line of Darkness Mana toward the weave and enveloped it. He had to match the exact shade of darkness utilizing his previous method of matching frequencies in order to perfectly move the weave. Once he began pulling the weave to himself once more, it kept its entire shape. Reivyn was unable to grasp the ethereal weave, so he simply kept the Darkness mana holding it in ce next to himself.
The Dark Maze wasn''t too difficult for Reivyn to follow with his Level 49 Darkness Affinity. Any time the gradient became fuzzy, he simply used more power. The other challenge was that the weaves for the Key began to blend in better with the surrounding Darkness, and the frequencies became slightly moreplicated. This also didn''t pose a problem for Reivyn, though, and he gathered four Darkness weaves, one every couple of minutes.
Once the four weaves were together and ced next to each other, they automaticallybined into the shape of the Key, and it solidified into an object that he could hold in his hand.
Since the Key is formed, the exit should be nearby, Reivyn thought. He infused the maximum power into his Sight, and he began to run down the path.
Time continued to tick by, and once it reached 9:51 time psed, Reivyn finally made it to the exit of the Space. It was arge, solid ck door with a keyhole in the center. He inserted the Key into the lock. The door didn''t open, and instead, a Notification popped up in front of Reivyn. Passing Grade - Perfect
Time psed: 9:57 - No Time Penalty
Key Integrity: 100%
Combined Score: 100%
You will automatically be teleported out of the Space
The pull of the world once more dragged Reivyn back to reality, and the staff member smiled at Reivyn as he emerged. Before he said anything, he walked over to the pedestal and removed the magic disk. He nodded his head and put it in his pocket with the Light test magic disk.
"Another record shattered," the man sighed. "Alright. I''ll run these up to the Office of Testing, and your scores will be recorded.
"Congrattions. Setting a new recordes with a reward of School Credits, and getting a perfect score does, too. Each of those achievements is worth 100 School Credits multiplied by the Tier of the Affinity test, so you''ll get another 1,200 School Credits once it''s all been processed."
"Oh, I didn''t know that," Reivyn said with some surprise.
"Yeah, most students aren''t record-breakers," the staff member replied. "We leave it as a pleasant surprise to those students who do so. It''s not a secret, so you can tell other students if you want to. Most current students don''t know about it, though, because it''s been several years since any record has been broken. The record for the Tier 1 Affinities are all 100%, anyway. Anyone who gets it still gets the reward for breaking the record, though, as it''s impossible to go any higher.
"Thest time anyone came close to breaking a record was two years ago. A female Novice student got a 96% on the Ice Affinity test, and the record is 97%. I don''t remember what her name is, but any Novice that scored that high on a Tier 2 test most likely moved up to the Tier 2 Academy."
"Well, thank you for administering the test for me," Reivyn said.
"Oh no, the pleasure was all mine," the older man replied. "It''s not every day you get to see someone get 100% on a Tier 3 Affinity test. And not just one test, but two in a row."
Reivyn smiled as he nodded to the other man. They went their separate ways once they left the testing room, Reivyn heading to the exit and the staff member heading to the office.
I''ll bet Melissa was the student who got 96% on the Ice Affinity Test, Reivyn thought. It makes sense that she didn''t take the test again, despite not going to the Tier 2 Academy already, if she didn''t know about the rewards. Maybe I should tell her before we all head to the Revenant Dungeon.
Reivyn whistled a tune in high spirits as he walked back to his dorm. He would take a week''s break after the official end of the semester, and then it would be time to clear thest Dungeon in the Region, the first Dungeon he ever ran.
Chapter 89: Advance Effort
Chapter 89: Advance Effort
"Aaahhh!" Teilon screamed as the fire washed over him. He ducked down and tried to hide behind his shield. He waspletely unused to using it in a real-life situation, though, so he appeared awkward with it. He had the Skills, and he had some experience, but especially after forming the Adventuring Party with Reivyn and Kimberly, he had hardly used a spear and shieldbination, so he was rusty.
Kimberly chuckled, not even bothering to hide behind her own shield. She let the mes explode around her, and the ogre and orcs in the first-floor boss room of the Revenant Dungeon screamed in fury and pain. The blistering heat and concussive force were enough to take care of most of the orcs, and the ogre wasn''t feeling too well, either. The other orcs, the ones outside of the immediate st zone had their skin melted, and they ran around screaming while on fire.
The ogre attempted to duck his torso into the knee-high pool of water that was impeding his movement. The pool was perfectly circr, and only extended a few feet beyond the ogre''s range of movement, and it followed him perfectly where he went. Trick had named his custom Spell "The Wading Pool."
It had no effect on the mes or heat, and the ogre lifted its head and roared in frustration. Giving such an opening to the Adventuring Party was a terrible idea, though, and a Wind de Spell, sliced through its neck, nearly decapitating the weakened creature.
It copsed to the floor, dead. The fire and water from the Spells maintained by Tom and Vane were dispelled after confirming it was deceased.
"I told you to stop doing that!" Teilon turned andined to Tom. "Or at least warn me before you cast any big area-of-effect Spells." He glowered at Tom, though he was madder at himself for once more shrieking at the unexpected Spell usage than at Tom for actually doing it.
"You should really be used to it by now," Tom chuckled. "Especially for when you''re not being a main-line vanguard in the future. I won''t always be able to ount for your movements in a dangerous situation that requires arge Spell. At least not until I get more experience. And you know that my Spells don''t affect my Party Members because of the Commander''s Baton."
"I''m more used to having hate from monsters directed at me, so having something explode in my face that doesn''t hurt was easier to get used to," Kimberly said with a grin. "You''ll do better after you spend some more time practicing your defensivebat." She reached out and took Teilon''s hand in her own, giving it an encouraging squeeze.
"I know," Teilon sighed. "Actually, it''s more embarrassing than anything else. I''m standing here next to my girlfriend, acting as a vanguard in the face of an ogre, and she just grins while I scream like a little girl."
"Hmm, I don''t know," Trick said, tapping his chin. "I think you sounded more like a teenage girl that time. Your voice had a little more ''oomph'' to it." Trick dodged backward as Teilon swiped at his shoulder.
The five friendsughed and joked as they took out their food, getting ready to have a snack before moving on to the second floor. The other orcs that hadn''t been immediately killed had been unable to produce any more opposition to the Party, so Reivyn had quickly dispatched them. He felt weird having a smile on his face as he killed the orcs because his friends were making himugh while he carried out the gruesome task.
Thest orc died, and the door to the second floor opened. Reivyn joined the rest of his Party in their break. He had spent the first floor critiquing Kimberly and Teilon''s meleebat, at their request, and he also offered ideas for implementing weaves and using free-hand Spells to the three casters, also at their request.
Tom, Vane, and Trick, while having fought in several intense battles with Reivyn, hadn''t really had an opportunity to fightrge groups of enemies at a time on their own without Reivyn also participating. He could have coasted in the other, easier Dungeons in the Region, but he wanted an authentic experience. He had already solo cleared the first two floors of this Dungeon, though, so he didn''t have any qualms about taking it easy.
"Alright, to recap," Reivyn called out. "The first half of the second floor isn''t too difficult, as long as we have Mana, and we have a lot. At the entrance, Teilon will engage the first Revenant to be killed, and Kimberly will pick up the ambushing Revenant from the opposite room. Tom, Vane, and Trick will continue using their Spells to deal the main damage to the Revenants. I''ll keep everyone''s gear topped up with a Mana infusion and keep an eye out for anything unexpected.
"Once we get to the middle level on the staircase, I would rmend no more experimentation with your Spells, and simply use your ss Spells to conserve Mana. Any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads. They had already been over the n while they were traveling to the Dungeon Town, so they already knew what was in store.
Teilon and Kimberly had met up with Reivyn and the rest of the Party at one of the Branches of the Adventurer''s Guild in Magron after the week-long break. Teilon and Kimberly''s parents and siblings had made the trip with them to Magron in order to spend more time with their eldest children. Kimberly''s family were Lifestyle ssers, but both of Teilon''s parents had been Adventurers when they were younger, so they could handle the security of the trip between Haluville and Magron.
Reivyn had sensed that Teilon''s parents were quite powerful and a little out of ce for a backward town in a backward Tier 1 Region. He didn''t use Inspect, or any overt Skills to figure it out, but abination of it and Sense Danger had given a subconscious feeling of their power.
At least mid-to-high Tier 3, the both of them, Reivyn thought. Once he made his judgment of their strength Level, Reivyn had been pleasantly surprised to receive a Notification.
Skill Unlocked!
Sense Threat (0 ->1)
As soon as the Skill unlocked, Reivyn noticed a subtle feeling in the back of his mind whenever he looked at anyone, or if anyone got within a certain range. The Skill was still only Level 1, though, so the range was very close, and the sense of power level was vague. It wasn''t too inurate, even at Level 1, though, as Teilon''s parents were the only ones that gave him any kind of pressure when he stood close to them.
The two families had treated the Party to a meal to send them off, and Reivyn thought it was a good opportunity to broach the subject.
"So, Mr. Weimyn," Reivyn addressed Teilon''s dad, "how did you end up in Haluville of all ces?"
Weimyn had been getting a drink from his mug when Reivyn posed the question. He slowly lowered the mug to the table, a far-off look in his eyes.
"We lost one too many friends," Weimyn said, sadly. "Liera and I had also decided it was as good a time as any to settle down. We were already nning on retiring from active Adventuring for the most part, with the option of picking it back up one day after any kids we had were independent, and we chose to return to the Tier 1 Kingdom we grew up in.
"We had been fairly established as a Party in Eldiar for a time, and we thought we were ready to tackle some Tier 3 Dungeons in Pernius. We weren''t as ready as we thought we were. We could have moved to The Capital or even a city like Magron, but we wanted a quiet ce for time to heal.
"Then Teilon happened," Weimyn paused to smile at his son, a twinkle in his eye. "And then the conscription and wanting to join you on an adventure. If Refix hadn''te by and convinced me he would be safe, even at his age and Tier, there''s no way I would have let him wander off with you. We''re pretty much recovered, mentally, by now, and we recognize he''ll need to push himself to be sessful, especially out here."
"I''m sorry to hear about your loss," Reivyn said. Weimyn waved him off. "So what you''re saying is, you and your family aren''t particrly attached to Haluville? Did Teilon and Kimberly exin to you guys about the Knight Academy?"
"Sure did, and we''re right proud of him!" Weimyn replied with a grin. "I can see the question in your eyes. Liera and I have had a family discussion about it, and we''re ready to move back to Eldiar if or when the kiddos snag the quota to move up to the Eldiar Knight Academy. Kimberly''s folks, too."
"Good, good," Reivyn said, nodding. "I''ve always strived to push Teilon and Kimberly, but I was unsure if having them move so far away from their families so soon would be good for them, overall. It seems I have one less thing to worry about."
Weimyn quirked an eyebrow and stared at Reivyn for a moment with a strange expression.
"It''s strange," hemented. "You act like you have years of leadership experience, going so far as to take on the responsibility of your friends'' welfare, and yet you''re younger than Teilon. We''ve all really appreciated your influence on Teilon and Kimberly," he waved his hand about to indicate he was including both families in the statement.
"He''s my best friend," Reivyn said, smiling. "Of course, I want what''s best for him."
"Having apetent team leader is one less thing we all need to worry about."
"What you really need to be worried about," Trick interjected, "is a sudden grandch - mph!"
Teilon mmed his hand over Trick''s mouth, ring at him while trying tomunicate with his eyes. The people sitting around the table nced at each other before bursting out withughter. They understood Trick wasn''t being serious, after interacting with him for a bit. They were used to Teilon spitting jokes and being a bit irreverent at times, so they took it in stride.
"I''m really d your parents decided to move to Eldiar with you guys when you inevitably secure a position in the Knight Academy up there," Reivyn said, returning from his contemtion to the present.
"Yeah," Teilon said. "I knew my parents had been Adventurers, and I knew some of the backstories with them, but that was the first I had heard that they had attempted a foray into a Tier 3 Region."
"We''re the ones with affluent backing, but the more I learn about you guys, the more I feel like we''re the ones holding your thighs," Vane shook his head.
"That''s because you are," Teilon pointed out, nodding seriously before cracking a smile.
"All things considered, we''re all prettypatible to team up with each other," Kimberly said. "Once we move up to Eldiar, we''ll all be on the same footing, for the most part."
"Well, we might not all bepatible," Tom said. Everyone shot a nce at Reivyn.
"Hey now!" Reivyn eximed. "I know what you''re getting at, but don''t think for a second that I resent any of this. I know my own worth, but I also know your worth. As long as nobody cks off, we''ll be together for a long time."
---
Reivyn strolled out of the Dungeon nonchntly, hands sped behind his head. The rest of his Party stumbled along behind him, clothes stained with sweat. To anyone watching, it would seem like they weren''t in the same Party at all, but had simply just been walking near each other.
Reivyn wasn''t walking in pristine condition because of his vastly superior Stats, though. He had hardly participated in the Dungeon dive, even for the boss fight. He had relegated himself to keeping everything under control for his friends, and he had only had to step in a couple of times in the hallway leading up to thest room of the second floor. The boss room had once more been the three Spectres and Duhanbination. He had let his friends decide on the difficulty level, and they had chosen to do it without letting any of the Spectres empower the headless undead.
Reivyn led his friends to one of the Church of Light squads still operating their cleansing duties. There were several squads of priests and sword-priests ensuring there was no taint in the Dungeon Delvers, significantly more than had been present before the Dungeon Break.
It looks like they sent some serious reinforcements after the incident. I wonder what Josn''s situation is like, now? Reivyn idly thought as they waited their turn. Even though there were many more followers of Mierna handling the traffic, the traffic had likewise increased exponentially.
The Party had immediately entered the Dungeon upon securing lodging once they reached the Dungeon Town, not even taking a break before starting. Traveling on horseback without training to unlock and Level up the Forced March Skill had meant that they didn''t really need any extra time to recover. As such, Reivyn hadn''t had any time to seek out Josn to catch up with him, but he had sent a calling card to let him know he was back in town.
The priests and sword-priests were efficient in their practice, and Reivyn''s Party quickly had a round of purging done on them. Reivyn received a strange look from the priest when it was his turn, but the priest just shrugged his shoulders and moved on. So the taint within the Dungeon wasn''t caused by the tampering of the active Cult, Reivyn mused. I didn''t think it was, but you never know until you verify for yourself.
The Party made their way through the streets of the Dungeon Town, in the opposite direction of where they had once lived. The foundations of the outpost hadn''t been destroyed during the Dungeon Break, miraculously, and the residents, new and old, had quickly rebuilt and expanded the town. Reivyn looked around at all the new buildings and the hustle and bustle as they walked.
You can see the outline of the original settlement, but it lookspletely different, Reivyn thought. If I hadn''t personally experienced it, I wouldn''t think there had even been any kind of Dungeon Break. This ce still doesn''t have an official name, but it''s almost the size of Haluville after just under a year.
Pooling their resources together, the Party had rented a nice little manor near the northwest wall. The Adventurer''s Guild still had buildings to rent at a discount, even onesrger than the one Reivyn and his friends had stayed in a year ago, but not only were there no openings, there was a fairly long waiting list as well. The Adventurer''s Guild even had to set limits to how long anyone could rent a ce before having to move out. Construction was still ongoing everywhere Reivyn looked, though, and he knew that equilibrium would eventually be reached.
The manor that the Party had rented was built on a slope, and it afforded a nice view over the ins off in the distance. Reivyn even spotted people moving along the road, smaller than ants at this distance, but his powerful Perception allowed him to easily distinguish them.
The party entered the gate to the manorplex. There were two wings attached to a centralized living area, and there were two stories with an easily essible roof for those who wished to gaze at the view. Melissa, Larissa, and their friend group were ted to join Reivyn''s Party in the Dungeon Town next week, and so they had all gotten together to specifically find ayout where they could easily separate the girls from the boys, yet stay in the same location.
I can tell that this town is already extremely wealthy, Reivyn pondered. I wonder how long it will take for Count Ilpir to move his seat of power to this ce? It''s guaranteed that the Dungeon Town will be more powerful, personnel and wealth-wise, and this will be the central focus of travel in the future. Sure, people will still have to move through Magron to get here, but that will still relegate Magron to a transition city in the middle.
Reivyn checked the post box as they entered the residence, and he pulled out a reply from Josn letting him know he would be free to visit in a few days. The Churchpound isn''t done yet, though they no longer live in tents. Still, I think it would be better to entertain him here at this nice manor, so I''ll send a confirmation for him toe to me.
"Ahh, this is the life," Teilon said, copsing onto the couch in the middle of the room. It was wide open with expensive-looking furnishings. There was an intricate rug under a coffee table, and there was even a chandelier that could be installed with Mana lights for any Casters that rented the ce. Tom had obviouslye prepared, and he had already set about to the task of switching out the sources of light.
"Hey!" Kimberly loomed over Teilon, hands on her hips. "You''re still covered in sweat and grime! Don''t dirty the ce up. Go wash and change first."
Trick paused halfway in taking a seat across from Teilon, and he stared back and forth between Teilon and Kimberly. He finally decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and he stood back up, heading to the bath house located in the rear of the manorplex, also split in two distinct buildings. Reivyn strolled over to a seat and casually sat down, smirking at the other Party Members as they all left to clean up. Teilon rolled his eyes at his best friend, but he still hopped up to join them.
Now that the main semesters are over, it''s about time to add martial training back to my itinerary, Reivyn leaned his head back against the back of his seat and closed his eyes. There''s a significantck of heat and humidity that was presentst time, so it shouldn''t be as much of a chore.
My Skill and Affinity Levels are fairly close to my Weapons Master Skill Level, but that''s misleading. Not only is Weapons Master at 62, but that number represents Master Level, and not halfway between Expert and Master. There''s also the sheer versatility of the Skill. So I still have a long way to go before I''m ready to fully implement my Casting with my Martial. I still need to focus more heavily on my magical abilities at this stage.
Reivyn only lounged about for a few minutes before he got back up. They had only dropped their gear at their rooms when they arrived, and none of them had done any unpacking yet.
Mom said she would get me a Storage Pouch after I graduated from the Academy.
Ameliyn had told Reivyn that he didn''t really have a pressing need to acquire one just yet, and if anyone found out that he was carrying such a thing, he might just get attacked. They were exceedingly rare in lower Tier Regions, being hard to find even in Tier 2 kingdoms. The other reason she had not given him one was so that they would have enough time tomission one with a more powerful enchantment. A small, beginner''s pouch, as she called it, wasn''t good enough for her son, Reivyn chuckled.
Refix had given a different reason. He had exined that limited space would be a good tool to teach Reivyn how to manage his equipment and supplies, as well as teach him how to properly evaluate opportunity cost when it came to looting treasure.
I''ve already spent my entire life having the limited space that packs afford, but I''ve always had plenty of extra gear and supplies avable for myself in case of emergencies. Maybe I should try and figure out exactly how much I need per trip, and pack only that. Until I start moving on to the third floor, there''s really nothing more the Dungeon has to surprise me with.
A foreboding feeling came over Reivyn as those thoughts flitted through his mind, and the hairs on the back of his arms stood on end. He paused in his unpacking after realizing what he had done.
Wait, wait, wait! I wasn''t gettingcent! Reivyn argued to himself. I was weighing the options for practicing inventory management! I swear!
The hairs on his arms settled back down, and the prickling sensation that had washed over him went away. Whew, Reivyn swiped his forehead of imaginary sweat and continued unpacking.
Chapter 90: Triple Threat
Chapter 90: Triple Threat
Reivyn, Teilon, and the three roommates strolled through the streets of the Dungeon Town. Reivyn and Teilon wouldment and point out the changes to the other three boys, exining not only how it looked when they came to the townst time, but also what it was like during their conscription.
Reivyn''s four friends weren''t built the same way he was, and they grew restless just training inside the manorplex all the time, so they decided to add exploring the Dungeon Town as part of their schedule. Reivyn wasn''t against socializing and spending some time away from his ownbat-focused training, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t grasp the opportunity of walking through the town to train other Skills.
Kimberly had stayed behind at the manor, as Melissa, Larissa, Alisia, Erin, and Haylen had arrived the day before. She wanted to spend more time with the other girls, as she hadn''t had many opportunities to interact with them as just girls. Erik had also apanied the sisters, along with another young man who was identified as having the same role as Erik, but for Alisia.
Reivyn kept a mental map in his head as they walked the roads, and he attempted to add as much detail as he possibly could. He had only ever gained Levels in his Map Making Skill when actually drawing the maps before, but he also hadn''t attempted to create and maintain a detailed map in his mind while also performing other tasks. There was no Mana involved in the process, but Reivyn could still feel that his Dual Casting and Ambidexterity Skills seemed to marginally improve his multitasking abilities.
While working on the mental map, he also Inspected anything and everything that caught his attention, as well as all the people walking around doing their own things. He would also walk closer to other pedestrians, trying to get the perfect range for his new Sense Threat Skill to activate in order to try and Level it. It was apletely passive ability, but if he focused his will on the Skill, he would get a sense of the distance and range of Levels of the other people. When possible, he would wait to Inspect a person until after his Sense Threat Skill had had a chance to activate on them, and the added confirmation seemed to give a bit of a boost to the Skill.
Whenever a passing pedestrian would make eye contact with Reivyn, he would also greet them in a friendly manner, and if they were amenable to a short conversation, Reivyn would introduce himself and his friends in order to learn their names and work on his Social Memorization Skill.
"What''s up with you?" Teilon asked after the fifth incident of Reivyn starting a conversation with some strangers. "You''re not usually this outgoing with random people."
"I''m using the opportunity to train my Skills," Reivyn replied. It seemed like the perfectly natural thing to do, and he saw nothing strange about it.
Teilon rolled his eyes before sharing a look with Tom, Vane, and Trick.
"See what I''ve had to deal with?" Teilon asked.
"Actually, that''s a pretty good idea," Tom said after a moment of thought. "I haven''t really been paying all that much attention to the small talk, but now that you''ve mentioned working on your Skills, I think I will too. Do you have the Social Memorization Skill, Teilon?"
"Nah, I''m not as Skill-happy as Reivyn is," Teilon denied. "I''ve really only focused on my core Skills and haven''t branched out all that much."
"You should really consider working on getting it," Tom replied.
"Especially since you''re going to be moving up to the Eldiar Academy. It will be more important than ever to be able to socialize with the other students," Vane added.
"There will still be a gap between the nobles in Eldiar and the other students, but the talented students that secure a quota to move up from the lower Region actually have an easier time bridging the gap between them," Trick said. "The nobles up there are more inclined to pay attention to those students in order to try and rope in talent for their families. The affluent families like ours will do the same thing."
"We also have an advantage over other talented students, as we''ll have an in with the Bluefayres due to our rtionship with Melissa''s family," Tom said. "They''re only a branch family sent down here to scout talent, but that''s exactly the point. Basically, you need to work on your Social Skills."
"Speaking of, I just unlocked a new Social Skill," Reivyn joined the conversation. "Do any of you have the Skill Gab? As soon as I unlocked it, I felt that it was easier toe up with words to keep a conversation going in a more meaningful way."
Reivyn inspected the Notification that just popped up as he ended the talk he had struck up with another stranger.
Skill Unlocked!
Tier 2:
Gab (0 ->1)
"Huh, I knew about the Skill, and I had always wondered why none of us had unlocked it yet, but I guess the trick was to hold a lot of random conversations with random people," Trick said with a contemtive look. "Usually, people in our circles unlock the Skill after attending enough social gatherings, but I guess the ones we had been to had too many acquaintances for it to count."
After realizing the trick to unlocking the Skill, the three roommates became much more enthusiastic about joining the conversations with random people. It took a little bit of time and some grumbling from Teilon - "Why are we working on Skills in our free time?" - but his natural personality was outgoing, so he eventually joined in the fun.
Reivyn was actually enjoying himself a lot more than he had anticipated. He always had fun working on his Skills, but this was the first time he had gone around talking to anyone and everyone around. He wasn''t necessarily anti-social or introverted, but his mind would often be focused on more personal styles of training.
Reivyn began incorporating Observation into his Gab Skill while talking to people, and he found that he could more naturally bring up topics of interest to other parties by speaking about things he noticed about them. Afterplimenting several girls and causing them to blush, he received yet another unexpected Notification.
Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Silver Tongue (0 ->1)
Reivyn''s ability to express himself verbally and non-verbally immediately became more smooth upon unlocking the new Skill, and he felt all of his social Skills synergizing with each other. He could practically feel his Skills growing at a fast pace.
The group of friends rounded the corner of a building, moving into the more centralized part of town where the earliestmercial ventures had been established, including the taverns and inns. Reivyn and his friends came to a halt as they arrived in front of a familiar face. They stood stunned for just a moment until the other party greeted them with a smile and walked over.
"Ahh, Reivyn," Prince Galwit said. "What a coincidence running into you again, all the way out here."
"Yeah, a coincidence," Reivyn replied politely. Who would believe that? He thought wryly. Everyone knew you were going toe here, and it''s doubly expected from me, knowing what I know about you.
"Are these your friends? Mind introducing me?" Galwit was the epitome of an "approachable noble."
"This is my best friend from my hometown, Teilon," Reivyn patted his buddy on the shoulder. "And these are my roommates from the Academy, who you''ve previously seen apanying me: Tom, Vane, and Trick."
Each of the Party members offered a polite greeting in turn. Teilon followed Reivyn''s lead and simply said hello, but when it was Tom''s turn, he made to give a bow to the nephew of the King of Eldiar. Galwit reached out and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"No need for that, now," he said, the friendly smile still on his face. "I''m just here as a student and Adventurer, far from the seats of power." He made no move to introduce his own followers to Reivyn''s group, and Reivyn could see that Ren was still one of them. His Sense Threat Skill brought that back, even though he was no threat to Reivyn anymore. He had gained a considerable number of Levels from where he would have gauged him thest time he saw him.
Teilon also spotted Ren with a frown. He had never had any personal dealings with the young man, but he knew all too well who and what kind of person he was. Tom, Vane, and Trick had heard tales of Reivyn''s time in the Lord''s Retinue, but they didn''t recognize Ren as the antagonist from the stories.
"Well, I won''t keep you gentlemen," Galwit said to the group. He turned his attention back to Reivyn. "You should find the time toe visit me at the manor I''ve rented, sometime. I''ve heard that you''re likely to secure one of the quotas. Eldiar would be d to have a young man of your talents joining our ranks, and I believe I could offer some valuable assistance.
"Graduating from the Academy isn''t the only path avable," he gave Reivyn a meaningful look. "The nobles can offer sufficiently talented students an appointment, and they''re technically considered graduates upon epting."
Galwit motioned for his group to follow him, and with onest smile and wave, he departed. Reivyn stood and watched the other young man go, aplicated look on his face.
"What was that all about?" Teilon asked after a moment.
"We told you we ran into him outside of the Cobbled Ruins during the first semester," Trick answered.
"It seems like he''s taken a special interest in Reivyn," Vane said. "It''s not actually that surprising when you take everything into ount."
"I''m not sure if that''s a good thing or a bad thing," Teilon said with a frown.
"Why do you say that?" Tom asked, ncing at Teilon.
"Did you notice his followers?"
"Yeah," Vane said. "I recognized several talented third-year Magic Academy students."
"There were some third-year Knight Academy students, too, but that''s not the point," Teilon nodded his head before shaking it. "One of his followers is an old ''friend'' of Reivyn''s: Ren."
"The guy who tried to get Reivyn killed?" Tom asked, his eyebrows attempting to climb to the top of his head.
"One and the same," Teilon said. "I''m not sure what to make of a person who keepspany with someone like that. Reivyn hasn''t given his opinion on the matter, and he seems perfectly fine on the surface. I''ll withhold judgment until I''ve seen more, though."
"If Reivyn can bury the hatchet with Ren, then Prince Galwit would be a great connection to have once we move up to Eldiar," Tom said. "There''s basically nobody higher than him that we could get as backing. The king''s actual children aren''t likely to scout talent and introduce them to the Region."
"I''ll think about it," Reivyn said,ing out of his thoughts. "If Ren doesn''t cause any trouble with me, then I have no reason to find trouble with him. He was just a bully who didn''t know when to quit, and I could care less to have anything to do with him, but Tom''s right about Galwit. My parents agree with Teilon, too. Everything is fine on the surface. It''s okay to interact with him, but we should still be cautious until we know more about him.
"Alright, enough standing around. Let''s keep going."
"Eww," Erin eximed, holding her nose. "These creatures stink." Melissa''s Party stood in the first-floor boss room, surrounded by the smoking remains of the orcs and ogre.
Reivyn had apanied Melissa''s crew for their dive into the Dungeon, trusting his other Party with his roommates and friends to handle the first two floors of the Dungeon on their own. He had decided to join the girls'' Party for their expedition for a couple of reasons: He wanted to give his friends an opportunity to perform on their own without the knowledge that Reivyn could step in and save the day, and he wanted to witness the prowess of Melissa and Larissa''s friends.
Erin was a Wood Mage, and she was more prone to using her Spells to control the movements of the enemies. The Green family was known for their cultivation of special nts and their expertise in farming. Erin wasn''t much of a fighter, as her family dabbled in more peaceful industries, though she did give her full effort in the Dungeon. Reivyn wasn''t too concerned about turning her into a proper Adventurer or anything, though, as it clearly didn''t interest her.
Haylen was an Earth Mage, and he had been told that her family generally specialized with Earth and Metal. They were known for their metallurgy and smithing endeavors. As an affluent family in The Capital, even though they were in a Tier 1 Region, they had ess to materials from Eldiar. Many of the magical weapons and gear that could be found in The Capital had their hands in their creation, one way or another, whether it was mining the lesser materials, smelting the metals, or the forging itself.
Her Metal Spells were also fairly potent in their own right. Her Metal Bolt Spell was manipted expertly and was a deadly projectile. She also acted to apply magical buffs to the bodyguards'' weapons and armor. It was the first time Reivyn had seen proper buff Spells through the System''s ss Spells. Up until this point, he had only been infusing mana into his and others'' weapons and gear in the crudest way possible. He made sure to especially note the way the Spells worked on the gear forter, personal application.
Alisia was thest Caster that he was unfamiliar with. She was much less flirty and more serious once they had entered the Dungeon, and her magical prowess had surprised even Reivyn. She was a Lightning Mage, and her ss Spells were some of the deadliest ones of the entire group. Her bodyguard was also about the same level ofpetency as Erik, and the two had clearly worked together multiple times in the past.
Overall, I''m impressed, Reivyn made his judgment. This group is perfectly capable of consistently defeating the second-floor boss room, and I would bet they''re able to allow one or two of the Spectres to empower the Duhan. I don''t think they''ll be able to defeat the full Hard Mode boss, though. That guy hits like a truck, and I was only lucky to find the trick to beat it on ident. Knowing the trick and being able to act on it are two different things.
"Get used to it, girlie," Haylen said. "We''re going to be here for a couple of months, working on our Skills and gaining Levels."
"Hmph, I know we''ll be here for a while, but that does not mean I have to ''get used to it,''" Erin replied, turning her nose up. She immediately regretted her decision and lowered her head again, pinching her nose once more. "I''ll be happy to move on to the second floor where we can get away from these nasty monsters," her voice came out nasally.
"Well, if you insist, we can take our break on the other side of the doorway leading to the second floor," Alisia suggested. "You did say that there''s just a couple of roaming bands of mundane skeletons in the first hall, right?" She directed her question to Melissa. Melissa nodded in affirmation. "Then it''s settled. We''ll go to the next floor, and we can kill the normal skeletons, first, before taking our break."
The other girls shared looks and nodded their heads. Erik and Tahl, the other bodyguard, just watched impassively. Reivyn was more of an observer at this point in the Dungeon Delve, so he didn''t offer up an opinion. Once it was apparent that the decision to take the break at the beginning of the second floor had been agreed upon, the two bodyguards simply turned and headed to the exit.
The breaksted about 15 minutes, and it was the same as any other break Reivyn had had with any of his Parties. On thest delve he had gone on with his own Party, he hadn''t yet decided to restrict his own supplies to try and bring the exact amount that would be needed, but this time his pack was considerably lighter. He rationed the food appropriately, and he was pleased to see that he was properly satiated with an equal amount of food supplies remaining.
Dad was so insistent on it, I wonder if there''s a Skill associated with proper gear and supply management?
The second floor of the Dungeon flew by, and Reivyn was further impressed with the other girls'' and Tahl''s ability to adapt tobat against the Revenants. It was apparent that they had gotten a lot of advice from Melissa, Larissa, and Erik beforehand, but they were also able to easily implement the tactics into theirbat.
Reivyn was right again when they got to the boss room, and they only prevented one of the Spectres from empowering the Duhan. The final boss of the second floor was strengthened enough to provide a challenge for the Party, but it wasn''t outside of the bounds of their abilities, and nobody was ever in any real danger. Erik and Tahl expertly exchanged ces in dealing with the ball and chain weapon as well as the mad Charges from the giant boss.
There was also the addition of a System treasure chest after the fight containing two pieces of gear. There was a sword and shield dropped in the same vein as the armor that Reivyn had previously gotten, and they went to Erik and Tahl, respectively.
"You guys did really well," Reivynplimented. "I feel like I waspletely unnecessary." He smiled to show that he wasn''t bothered by it.
"Are you sure you''re okay with simply observing to sate your curiosity?" Melissa asked. "You didn''t do any fighting at all, so are you even going to get any Experience?"
"I still got the Experience for defeating the bosses andpleting both floorsst time, even though I only got a smidgen of Combat Experience from the second floor with the others, so I should get at least a little bit this time, too," Reivyn shrugged. "Also, it wasn''t really about curiosity. I wanted to gauge your abilities so we could further split up the groups into smaller parties and pair people up appropriately. We can talk about that all together once we and the other Party are back at the manor."
"Okay," Melissa replied simply.
"Well, if you want to, why don''t we go check out the third floor?" Alisia suggested. "We can just go in for a moment, see what it''s all about, and if it''s anything too dangerous, we can just run away. No big deal. You guys did say that there weren''t any other types of enemies during the Dungeon Break besides those giant demons, and you guessed they were from the medicinal soup of the rare boss encounter, right?"
"You have a point," Reivyn conceded. "I''m down with checking it out, as long as everyone else is."
The other girls nodded their heads, and the Party decided to take another quick break to make sure they were in tip-top condition. They didn''t eat another snack, as they had just had a break before attempting the boss battle, and Reivyn was still on track to have the exact right amount of food for the dive.
"I''m going to actively participate as one of the vanguards this time," Reivyn notified the others. He was wearing his heavy and medium armor instead of the robes just in case. "We can have Erik acting in the center, as he and I are familiar with each other already, and Erik and Tahl are familiar with each other. This way there shouldn''t be any conflicts."
"Sounds good," Melissa said.
The Party quickly replenished a bit of their Stamina and Mana, and the three young men took up their positions in the front to explore the next, and hopefully final floor of the Dungeon. They took the stairs leading down past the newly opened door and advanced in the same way they had tackled the second floor, just with an additional meleebatant.
The environment was indistinguishable from the second floor. The halls were the same carved stone bricks, and the stairs opened up to a hallway. There were no enemies of any kind in sight for a couple of minutes, and the man-made hallway eventually turned into a natural cave once more. There was a distinct demarcation where the bricks disappeared as if the ancient inhabitants hadn''t finished building their underground fortress.
"Ugh, I don''t like this at all," Erin whispered. It was quiet enough that her voice carried to everyone.
"I feel suffocated," Haylen agreed.
"It''s like there''s a force squeezing my chest and lungs," Alisia added.
Reivyn turned his head to look at the female Casters behind him. They were walking along with obvious signs of difort on their faces. Reivyn happened to catch a nce of Erik, as well, and the other vanguard had sweat dripping down his face where none had been before.
"What''s the problem?" Reivyn asked, confused. I don''t feel any different.
"I don''t know exactly what the reason is, but we all feel pretty ufortable down here," Melissa answered. "It started once we passed thest bricks. You don''t feel anything?"
"No, I feel fine," Reivyn replied. "Just let us know if it bes unbearable. There''s no reason to keep going just to give me a chance at contributing."
"Will do."
They continued their journey deeper into the Dungeon, and the girls didn''t indicate that they were any more ufortable. Reivyn kept it in mind, but he maintained his vignce. After another couple of minutes of walking with no monsters of any kind, the sound of mining activity could be hearding from up ahead.
The corridor opened up into a huge cavern, and there were Revenants in every direction that the ethereal lighting extended. Many were holding pickaxes and striking the walls, but just as many were standing around, fully armed and armored. Their gear wasn''t rusted and falling apart like the other Revenants, though, and they appeared to be very high quality.
All activity from the Revenants halted as soon as Reivyn, Erik, and Tahl stepped past the threshold of the corridor. Every single one of them turned to look at the three vanguards. Reivyn''s stomach dropped at the scene, and he realized where they were.
"Back to the second floor!" Reivyn shouted as the Revenants started to sprint towards them. Not only were they no longer hindered by theck of mana density, but they even seemed to be empowered beyond what they were on the surface during the Dungeon Break. "Run! I''ll keep an eye on them so they don''t do their instant movement technique!"
The other members in Reivyn''s Party didn''t hesitate or ask questions after seeing the horde of Revenantse at them. More and more kept appearing from beyond the limits of the Dungeon lighting, an apparently endless amount. The shrieks of several Spectres reached their ears as they retreated.
Reivyn couldn''t turn around and sprint like the others, but he was still in the corridor, so he couldn''t easily be surrounded. He activated his Elemental Weapon ability, but it felt like he was fighting the Mana to keep it in ce. He used his familiar Fire Affinity, and the mes looked like they would sputter out at any moment. He infused more mana into the Skill, but it didn''t seem to help the stability.
What''s going on? Why is it so hard to channel Mana? Reivyn thought with growing rm. It feels like I''m trying to push the Mana through a strainer or something.
The first of the Revenants quickly reached him, and he engaged them inbat while continuing to retreat. The attacks from the armed and armored Revenants came hard and fast, clearly at a superior Skill Level than any of the Revenants encountered on the second floor. Reivyn judged that they were firmly above the Expert mastery and higher than either Erik or Tahl''s. He sensed with his Skills that the two bodyguards had turned to join him in blocking the Revenants.
Erik dashed up to Reivyn''s side and attacked one of the front Revenants. The skeleton''s sword wove its way around Erik''s de, taking the attack head-on with its armor, and Erik had to scramble to get his shield in ce to block the serpentine thrust. The monster''s sword connected with Erik''s shield, and a loud gong sounded out as he was hurled down the corridor, nearly losing his newly acquired magical sword.
Reivyn''s eyes opened wide in surprise at the sudden turn of events, and something simr happened shortly after with Tahl. Reivyn was once more alone as he fought harder and faster than he ever had before.
"The Mana doesn''t appear to restrict their abilities!" He shouted down the corridor. Several elemental Spells came zipping down from the girls. In the brief moment that Reivyn could see the Spells, they seemed ethereal, like they were going to disappear at any second. They practically bounced off of the Revenants, doing little to no damage at all.
"Magic isn''t working against them, either!" Reivyn yelled. "Go! Get back to the second floor! I got this."
The mention of the ufortable feeling as well as the generalck of potency from the Mana Skills and Spells, coupled with Reivyn not feeling any different, gave birth to an idea in Reivyn''s mind.
The Mana density was increasing on the outside because of the introduction of Abyss Mana mixing into the ambient Mana. The Mana density in the Dungeon has slowly been increasing the further we go into the Dungeon, so does that mean the Abyss Mana has taken over to supnt being the dominant ambient Mana?
Reivyn didn''t have time to think too much, and the thought entered his head in but a moment. He was still wary about using his Tier 5 Abyss Affinity, but he had to do something.
Reivyn concentrated and essed his Abyss Affinity. Instead of infusing his own Mana Skills directly, he mixed Darkness with the Abyss, and using the concept of Consuming once more, he gathered up the local Abyss Mana. He Manipted the Mana to infuse and surround his Skills, and he noticed an immediate improvement. It still felt like he was straining to release his own Mana, as the Veridical nature was still dominant, but now his Elemental Weapon was once more cleaving through the Revenants like it did on the higher floor.
He continued to methodically retreat as he held off the Revenants, allowing Erik and Tahl to recover and catch back up to the girls. They had given up attempting to assist Reivyn, and they ran for their lives to the second floor. Reivyn could hear the Spectres getting closer, and he guessed that there had to be ten or more about to reach him.
Reivyn used his Dual Casting Skill to channel another version of Elemental Weapon, but this time he used it more as a way to use his own body as a focus for a free-hand Spell. He wove and knotted his Mana to replicate Larissa''s custom Spell: Inferno st, thebination of the individual System Spells Inferno and Fire st.
He pulled in more of the Abyss Mana, and he built up his Spell, addingyer afteryer of knotted weaves until the group of Spectres finally entered his sight. He waited until they got closer, still hacking and shing, dodging and parrying, and then suddenly released the st once the Spectres got near. He strained his abilities with Dual Casting, and he used arge chunk of his remaining Mana to cover his entire body in a Mana Shield.
The Inferno st exploded out of him, directed towards the monsters that were crowding through the tunnel, and a huge fiery waveunched forward. The Spectre''s screamed in outrage and pain, and thousands of bones of tens of Revenants shattered and blew apart as a secondary explosion of bone shrapnel. There were no more Revenants or Spectres in the immediate vicinity.
It seems like that Spell even destroyed a bunch of them well outside of visibility.
Reivyn panted for breath, feeling the beginnings of a Mana expenditure bacsh. He hadn''t used too much Mana to send him into a full-on incapacitating migraine, but he could feel the pressure building and throbbing behind his eyes. He surveyed the carnage he had wrought, and then turned and sprinted to catch up with his Party, the feeling of channeling his Mana through a sieve lessening greatly once he reached the bricks once more, his friends having taken up position to be able to keep an eye out for any approaching Revenants once they were back in the Veridical zone.
Definitely need toe in here with a more powerful Party, Reivyn thought. I''m not going to risk exposing my Abyss Affinity to anyone, not even Teilon, and the hindrance down here is too great for anyone in Tier 2. It''s time to contact my parents'' subordinates.
Chapter 91: Dark Relation
Chapter 91: Dark Rtion
Reivyn bent over and gasped for breath. The Party had sprinted all the way to the second-floor boss room and taken up position at the top of the stairs. They had waited for twenty minutes for the horde of Revenants to appear, but they never did. After determining that the third-floor monsters wouldn''t pursue them to the second floor, the Party had retreated all the way to above ground. The feeling of suppression from the Abyss Mana lingered, and they didn''t feel relieved until they were once more in the sunlight eternally suspended over the Dungeon.
"Looks like nobody''s going to be clearing the third floor until some really high-level Adventurers show up," Alisia said.
"The information from the Adventurer''s Guild only says that it''s not advised for anyone to go beyond the second floor for now," Melissamented. "I thought that wouldn''t apply to us because of how powerful our group is, but now I see that it''s because of the suppression. I wonder why there isn''t any more information than that on the third floor?"
"Probably because all of the people who went down there and didn''t turn back once they got ufortable died," Alisia pointed out. "The Church might know what''s down there, but their priority isn''t clearing the Dungeon. They''re here to prevent corrupted materials from spreading, and they only run the Dungeon to gain Levels and experience for the people here. They might send a high-Level team to check it out, but it''s not that important for them. Anyone high enough Level to power through the suppression probably has ess to Dungeons just as good as this one, anyway."
"If they know what''s down there, wouldn''t they spread the word to prevent needless deaths?" Erin asked.
"Yeah, that''s why I said they might know about it," Alisia responded.
"I have a friend in the Church," Reivyn said after he caught his breath. He had taken a little more time than the others to recover because he expended vastly more resources than anyone else. "I''ll ask him the next time I see him."
I should have realized what was going on when the others mentioned they were feeling ufortable but I wasn''t, Reivyn mentally kicked himself. I got tunnel vision, and I was so focused on looking out for Revenants in my role as a vanguard, I hadn''t been paying enough attention. Reivyn shook his head, a frown on his face. Melissa looked at him and noticed the action.
"What''s wrong with you?" Melissa asked. "You saved all of us by stopping the Revenants and Spectres from overwhelming us in the corridor, why are you shaking your head?"
"I should have realized something was up down there," Reivyn answered. "I realized the issue was with the Mana in the depths, but I didn''t think it would do anything other than cause difort. My own immunity to it caused me to dismiss the possibilities."
"How were you supposed to know it would behave any differently than it has before?" Alisia asked.
"I''m more sensitive to the different Manaing from the Dungeon," Reivyn said. "If I had called a halt to our advancement, it might have given us a chance to discuss the issue. I might not have realized it would affect our own Mana, but it would have at least given a chance to everyone else to consider what the implications could have been."
"Be that as it may," Melissa said, cing her hand on his shoulder, "That was the first time we''ve ever experienced any kind of suppression from the different Mana.
"It''s not just on you, we all had the opportunity to call a halt when the situation changed. We were just too eager, and we ignored the warning. It''s not just your fault."
"I suppose you''re right, but that still means I messed up. It just means everyone else did, too," Reivyn chuckled. "I also tell myself to not let myself getcent or to get tunnel vision, and yet it happens over and over."
"I wouldn''t say this was a case where you grewcent," Alisia remarked. "You just didn''t know what you didn''t know. How were you supposed to realize we needed to stop and channel our Mana to verify if it was still effective? It would becent of you if you ran into a simr situation in the future and didn''t do so now that you know it''s a possibility."
"Thanks," Reivyn said, a smile on his face. "Your words make me feel a little better about the situation."
"You''re wee," Alisia said with a smile. "Now, let''s get out of here. I don''t think we''re going to be going back to the third floor any time soon. That being said, I think it''s a good idea to split our group up into smaller ones to maximize our Experience and Skill gains, and before we leave to go back to The Capital, I want to challenge the full Hard Mode of the second-floor boss. I think we can do it with a little more power."
Reivyn sat on his bed in Meditation circting his Mana Affinities. He went over the events on the third floor, and the actions he had taken, trying toe up with a better way to handle it.
I didn''t need to use so much Mana to destroy the Revenants and Spectres, Reivyn thought. I was just panicking and throwing everything I had at the problem. If I had calmed down and thought more rationally, I would have realized I could have done it in a better way. Using myself as a focus for the Inferno st Spell was a good idea, what with so many enemies rushing at us, but I didn''t need to overpower it nearly so much.
If I can figure out the most effective way of doing it, I should be strong enough to solo even that battle. Especially after my parents finally helped me fill up my Bloodline. It''s still not fully unlocked - there seems to be some hidden trigger that even my parents don''t know about - but I still gained a ton of additional Stats from it.
Reivyn pulled up his Status Page.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Light Magus Lvl 7
Fighter Age: 11 (17) Health: 4,860/4,860 (+200) Stamina: 7,821/9,330 (+260) Mana: 1,933/4,580 Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 447 (+6) INT: 455 VIT: 486 (+20) MAG: 461 DEX: 447 (+6) CLA: 400 CHA: 139 PER: 404 LUK: 138 Bloodline: Unknown 26,413/¡Þ; Additional Requirements to Unlock
Experience: 3,919/8,000
Reivyn had gained 216 additional points in each of his Physical and Mental Stats, and an additional 72 points in Charisma and Luck. He had gained a total of 300 points in his normal Stats and 100 points in the other two from dumping Experience and treasures into his Bloodline. The System simply calcted the equivalent Experience by using the natural treasures that his parents provided.
My Bloodline is clearly an evolution of thebination of my parents, but I have no idea what it''s going to do once I fully unlock it. There also aren''t any hints at what needs to be done to do so provided by the System. The only hint I have is the origination of my mother''s Bloodline, but dad says his family doesn''t remember anything about theirs. He just knows that it''s not a derivative of the Imperial Vynn Bloodline.
He had been worried that he would lose the ability to siphon Experience into his Bloodline if he unlocked it, but his mother had ayed his concerns.
"Bloodlines can be upgraded further once they''re unlocked. Because your Bloodline isn''t fully activated, yet, the materials required are just within reach of your father and me. Our Bloodline is fairly powerful, though, and the level of materials required to upgrade it any further has toe from a Tier 5 Region or higher. That''s one reason why Bloodlines found in lower Tier Regions are often weak.
"We had to flee our home before I was able to upgrade my Bloodline. Our family routinely sought after the natural treasures required to do so, but it was customary to wait until Tier 3 to go through the process."
His fears put to rest, Reivyn had absorbed the energies from the pile of resources his parents had procured. Several of the herbs had been refined into pills, and he simply had to swallow them and let the medicine do its work. Many of the treasures weren''t ingredients in pills, though, and not all of them were even herbs. Some of the items were toxic, and consuming them like a pill would kill one before it enhanced the Bloodline.
It had been a week-long process and he did it during his break before heading to Magron, as the energies had to suffuse his Bloodline. He simply didn''t have arge enough stomach to take them all in quick session. If he took too many at once, therge amount of energy could also be detrimental. To absorb the energies from the toxic herbs and metals, he had been guided by his mother to gather up the energy with his Mana Maniption Skill and slowly draw it into his body and direct it toward his heart.
He could feel his body grow more powerful over time, and he was greatly anticipating what would happen when the Experience counter finally reached the required ten million. The treasures had finally ticked the number over, and he waited with bated breath for the unlocking to happen. After sitting for several minutes with nothing happening, though, he checked his status and saw the change in his Bloodline.
He had discussed the issue with his parents, but neither of them had heard of a situation where an additional trigger was required to fully unlock a Bloodline. His parents had told him they would research their own Bloodlines and see if they could discover any clues to the matter, though his father had said it would probably take a long time since the history of his Bloodline had been lost generations ago.
Reivyn had also Leveled up twice when he gained just over 14,000 experience, most of it from the two instances of gaining 5,000 bonus Experience for technically clearing the second floor, from running the Dungeon over the past two weeks. He got almost zero Combat Experience, only getting a little for the couple of times he had intervened during the first foray with his roommates, and an additional 4,000 from decimating that horde of Revenants and Spectres.
I can definitely see some people exploiting this and running people through the first two floors for a fee. It''s basically five Experience Crystals, and it could be sold at a cheaper price than the crystals themselves because one would have to travel all the way here and actually spend the time in the Dungeon.
It might seem like a loophole in the System for quickly gaining Experience, but then you run into the problem of gaining too many Levels too quickly. The System is pretty fair in bncing these issues.
Personally, I could wait a month and run the Dungeon the same way three more times to reach Level 9, or I could go ahead and turn my siphon ability back on - it still works - and move on to challenging the third floor with my parents'' people. I think it''s a better idea to clear it with them first before I attempt to solo it.
My priority right now isn''t Leveling up, and I only want to clear the third floor for personal reasons. I can''t see my future ss options anymore because I''m not close to achieving the next Tier, but I imagine I won''t have any problems choosing an amazing ss. With all of my previous Achievements, I basically don''t have any restrictions from Stats for any Rarity ss, and I only have to worry about my Skills.
Since that''s the case, I''ll go ahead and run the Dungeon with my parents'' Party next week, and then I''ll try and figure out how to solo it. I have a ridiculous amount of Stamina and Mana now, so I should have enough resources tost a long time, but there were nearly a hundred Revenants from that first onught, and that was only one small corner of the giant cavern on the third floor.
For whatever reason - probably a warning from the System - we can see well past the limits of the Dungeon lighting when looking down on the cavern from that hallway on the second floor, and it''s huge.
Decision made, Reivyn continued his Affinities training.
"Ahh, this is a nice ce," Josnmented, rxing back on the couch in the living room of Reivyn''s rented manor. "It wouldn''t be appropriate for the Church to provide such luxury to our priests, as we wouldn''t want their hearts to waiver from their duties, but experiencing it in moderation while meeting with friends isn''t a bad thing."
Josn was doing much better ever since the events of the Dungeon Break. He had visited Reivyn the previous week and they had caught up on all that had happened to each other over the past almost year. The first thing Reivyn had done was apologize for his usation during the hectic battle, but Josn had simply waved it away, saying everyone had been under a lot of stress.
His mental health had not only recovered, but he seemed to be a lot more grounded, as well. He still told stories of being strict with his subordinates, but he wasn''t as harsh or unapproachable to them.
Josn had takenmand of the Church outfit after the Sword-Bishop had passed away, but he was too young to remain in such a position. He was rewarded, though, for hismand of the retreat to Magron, and he had been promoted to a Senior Sword Priest several years ahead of schedule. He wasn''t the youngest in his position, the Church spanned the entire continent, after all. He was definitely one of the youngest, and he had done it on his own merits.
"Yeah, we have such arge group all mingled together for this time around," Reivyn replied. "It didn''t make sense for everyone to be scattered all over the ce, and the setup here is perfect for having separate groups of boys and girls in the same house. We have enough people to form four separate groups and still clear the second floor.
"Speaking of, have any of the priests explored the third floor, yet?"
"No, not yet," Josn replied. "Sword-Bishop Nix had scouted the entrance area of the third floor, but he said he would wait for a higher level team to join him. He told us that he had an uneasy feeling, and that''s all he said. If there hadn''t been a Dungeon Break, he probably would have already gone down there. Have you guys explored it yet?"
"We went to the very first encounter," Reivyn acknowledged. "That ce is super dangerous. The Mana density is much greater, and the corrupted Mana bes the dominant force. It puts a suppressing effect on our Mana, and it isn''t nearly as effective against the Revenants. My immunity came in handy, and I was able to cover the retreat of my Party Members, but I don''t think anyone below Tier 3 should go down there.
"It''s that giant cavern that can be seen in thest hallway on the second floor, and as soon as you step out of the corridor into the open, all of the monsters attack at once. We had almost a hundred Revenants charge at us with almost ten Spectres, and that was just the one corner of the cavern."
"Hmm, I''ll be sure to inform the new Sword-Bishop, and we''ll make sure to let the priests running the Dungeon know that it''s off limits. I''ll also put a note in your record for contributing the information. It won''t get you any kind of reward or anything, but it''ll look good. Have you informed the Adventurer''s Guild Branch?"
"First thing we did aftering out," Reivyn nodded. "How about you? Are you still escorting the younger priests and sword-priests to bring up their Skills and Levels? Don''t forget to take the time for yourself, too."
"Yeah, I squeeze in a personal trip with a couple of the other officers once a month. Having responsibilities greatly reduces one''s options for constantly working on personal growth. But I don''t resent it or anything. This is the life that I''ve chosen, and it''s very fulfilling for me."
"Have you met Prince Galwit from Eldiar?" Reivyn shifted the topic.
"Yes, he''s swung by a couple of times to meet with the Sword-Bishop. I get a strange feeling every time he''s around like I''m missing something. Some of his followers also have a weird sense about them, but I can''t ce my finger on it." Reivyn nodded his head.
"I know what you mean. I''ve met him a couple of times. He''s been nothing but friendly, but daggers can hide behind smiles." Josn gave Reivyn a level look and nodded his head.
"I''ll keep that in mind."
The two young leaders continued conversing about various topics, and Josn stayed for a meal prepared by Teilon. Teilon had finally unlocked the Cooking Skill, despite saying he hadn''t deliberately worked towards it, and, while it wasn''t as good as something that could be purchased at a restaurant with professional chefs, there was a marked difference between his earlier meals.
Josn got along well with Melissa''s crew and the roommates. His family wasn''t nobility in the traditional sense, but they were well established in the local Region''s Church hierarchy, so he was acquainted with some of the same people as they were. He obviously knew who Alisia was, and Reivyn could tell that he was pleased to have made a slight, friendly connection with their family.
Josn wasn''t a political animal of any sort, and he took his job as a Senior Sword-Priest very seriously. That didn''t mean that he couldn''t recognize the benefits of being friends with important secr factions, though. He was also in the enviable position where he could befriend various factions that were normally at odds with each other, as long as he kept a clear distinction between Church and secr matters. Reivyn could tell that his friend understood this point quite well.
Reivyn walked up to the fancy gates of the manorplex that had been described in the note he had received. There were a couple of guards standing at attention at a little post that had been built for them, and they eyed Reivyn as he approached.
"I''m Reivyn," he said to one of the guards. "Prince Galwit should be expecting me."
"Yes, he is," the guard returned. "Come, I''ll escort you to him."
"Do I need to turn in any weapons or anything," Reivyn asked as he was ushered inside through the opened gate?
"That won''t be necessary," the guard replied. He kept a neutral expression on his face and only spoke what needed to be said, but he wasn''t rude or stand-offish.
Reivyn followed the older man to the entrance of the manor, his Sense Threat Skill passively informing him that it wouldn''t be easy to ovee him in a fight, but that he wasn''t a deadly threat. He''s probably around the same Level as Mr. Weimyn. I feel a little bit of pressure, but nothing I don''t think I couldn''t handle if push came to shove. Granted, he''s just one of the guards.
Reivyn had received a missive from Prince Galwit to join him at his residence, and he had alluded to exining some things that Reivyn had suspicions over. I might finally be able to clear the air and figure things out. I''m not too worried about my own safety, walking in here alone. I already met with my parents'' people, and they''re always around to keep an eye out.
The manor itself was much more ostentatious than the one Reivyn and his friends had selected, and it had more facilities attached to it. It would have been unheard of for something this luxurious, even his own rented manor, a year ago. The guard led Reivyn through themon living area and up the grand staircase. Prince Galwit was in a little office a bit of a way down the hall on the second floor.
Reivyn could see a couple of his followers doing their own thing, and he could hear the sound of traininging from the rear courtyard. He didn''t spot Ren anywhere, and none of the other followers paid him too much mind.
"His Highness is waiting for you inside," the guard motioned toward the open door. Reivyn nodded his head and expressed his thanks as he entered the study.
"Ahh, you''re here," Prince Galwit said, getting up to walk around the table and extending his hand in greeting. "Come in,e in. Close the door behind you, if you don''t mind."
The scene reminded him of meeting with Knight-Lieutenant Brand on asion in his office. They both had a simr vibe in how they treated their guests. Reivyn noticed that there wasn''t a whole lot upying the room, but there were a couple of personal effects to give a sense of home. It makes sense, considering he''ll only be here for a couple of months, at most. He took a seat in a chair across from the prince.
"So, based on your reaction to me the couple of times we''ve met, I take it you''ve sensed something about me?" Prince Galwit opened right into the main point of the meeting. Reivyn nodded his head. "And I''m guessing you''re wondering why I''ve taken such an interest in you?" Galwit raised an eyebrow while asking the question, and Reivyn nodded his head again.
Looks like I was right, Reivyn thought. Maybe I''ll finally get some answers.
"Well, just like how you''ve sensed something in me, I''ve sensed something in you. I felt your presence the first time I entered The Capital of this little kingdom, and I''ve kept abreast of news about you ever since. I was ecstatic to find someone like you out in this tiny Region, and I think bringing you along to Eldiar and introducing you to the family would be a great boon for everyone."
"Introduce me to your family?" Reivyn asked, slightly taken aback. "Is your entire family like this?"
"I should hope so!" Galwit said, surprised. "If they weren''t, then they wouldn''t be family."
"So it''s not you, personally, that''s associated with an Abyss Cult, but it''s your entire family," Reivyn said.
Prince Galwit''s eyes widened, and he quickly pulled something out of a drawer, activating it. Reivyn could sense a magical barrier of some sort spring up and surround the office.
"Quiet! This ce wasn''t warded," Prince Galwit eximed with panic. He frowned and eyed Reivyn seriously for a short moment. "How do you know about the Abyss and my connection to it?" Reivyn pulled back in surprise.
"Wait, what? Isn''t that what we were talking about?" Reivyn asked.
"No, I was talking about blood," Galwit said. "I felt a resonance in my blood when I passed by you nearly a year ago."
"Wouldn''t that still be in the same territory?" Reivyn asked, confused. "Unless you really are an outlier, and it''s just you that has an association with the Abyss." Prince Galwit considered Reivyn across from him a moment before he responded.
"No, it''s my entire family," he said. "Eons ago, my ancestors were part of an invading force on this Realm. We lost the war, and they capitted, agreeing to swear fealty to those that had defeated them inbat. The way back to the Abyss Realm had closed, and there was no way to retreat. My ancestors were split into two factions: One wanted to fully integrate into this Realm, and the other wanted to maintain a level of separation, refusing to give up their Abyss Mana.
"I figured that you were a descendant of the first faction, and it would have made sense that you didn''t know about the connection to the Abyss Realm if your ancestors had fully integrated and erased any evidence of their origin. That''s why I was so surprised when you suddenly blurted it out." Galwit paused for a second to gather his thoughts. "So your family is aware of their origins, then?"
"Umm, no?" Reivyn replied. "I simply saw you and your followers using Abyss Mana in the Cobbled Ruins. My family doesn''t originate from the Abyss Realm, at all. I know perfectly well where my ancestry is from: The Tier 4 Vynn Empire. I just happened to gain ess to the Tier 5 Abyss Affinity through an ident in the Dungeon, and I thought that was what you had sensed."
Galwit stared at Reivyn for another moment before throwing his head back andughing.
"This is even better!" He cheered. "Our family''s goal, over the millennia, has been to find a way to make Abyss Mana mainstream and not seen as Heretical, at least by the denizens of this Realm. We had long conceded that it might be impossible for the System itself to recognize that fact. My goal was to bring you along to Eldiar with me, and slowly, over time, use the example of your ancestry integrating into this Realm as a means to further the goal.
"That is if you had been who I thought you were.
"This is even better, though! You''re a true member of this Realm, and yet you have ess to the Abyss Affinity! Do you know what this means?" Reivyn shook his head. "It means we might be able to find a way for the System itself to stop viewing Abyss Mana as Heretical. After all, you have it, and I can see that you aren''t considered a heretic."
"How do you know that?" Reivyn asked. "And aren''t you worried that I''ll rat you out to the Church of Light or something?"
"You would have already," Galwit waved away the concern. "I know you''re friends with Senior Sword-Priest Josn. You would have told him about your findings if you had wanted to. And that very rtionship is the reason I know you''re not a heretic. I have a special magical item that hides my Abyss Mana, but I don''t sense anything simr from you."
"Ok, so let me get this straight," Reivyn said. "Your family is descended from people who lost an ancient war, and you''ve kept your connection to the Abyss this entire time. You''re not part of some cult organization, or have ties to one?"
"Hmph, the Cult," Galwit said with disdain. "They were a splinter group expelled from our ranks thousands of years ago. They risk jeopardizing everything we''ve aplished so far. And for what? Brief personal power? We''re not going to muster any grand crusade again, any time soon."
"Well, that''s a relief," Reivyn responded. He could tell Galwit''s feelings over the matter werepletely genuine.
"Is that why you''ve been so cautious around me? Because of the people who incited the Dungeon Break?" Reivyn nodded his head. "Well, let me ask you this: What do you know about the Abyss Realm?"
"All I know is that it has bloodthirsty, sadistic people who turn other people into resources through dark alchemy. They can turn people into demons, and their overall vibe is one of darkness and death." Galwit stroked his chin as he considered Reivyn''s words.
"You''ve only ever experienced things from the Cult," Galwit pointed out. "They were extremists. In reality, the Abyss Realm is almost identical to this Realm. There are Lifestyle sses and Combat sses, and the vast majority of people pursue a regr life.
"I can see the question in your eyes: ''how do I know this if I''ve never been there?''
"The answer to that is quite simple. My family was part of the group that chose to integrate, but we didn''t want to give up our roots. We especially make sure to have internal lessons about the Abyss, and we''ve kept it up for thousands of years. Part of those lessons is to learn the truth of what the Abyss Realm is like.
"It''s true that there are people like the cultists in the Abyss, and some people can be transformed into demons and other things. But that''s not everyone. The way Abyss Mana works is it feeds on emotions to empower the people. Rage, hatred, and bloodthirst aremon emotions for powerful Combat sses, and so it would make sense that that is what you''ve experienced.
"Take Ren, for example. I recruited him as one of my followers because I had sensed the influence of Abyss Mana on him already. He waspromised by the people associated with the cultists who orchestrated the Dungeon Break long before you ever even met him. He was in the shadow of his twin sister his whole life, and that had fostered rage and resentment in him. I saw this connection, so I picked him up.
"Each of the other people I''ve recruited to follow me have simr situations, though it''s not always negative emotions. The Lifestyle sses in the Abyss are fueled by passion. Passion for their craft, passion for their loved ones, or passion for anything else.
"This is the heart of the reason for our goal of making Abyss Mana mainstream. We''re all just people, like you."
"That''s a lot to consider," Reivyn said. He sat in silence for a moment, mulling over the words. They rang truthful in his ears. "I have onest question, for now: You don''t exhibit anything like what you just described."
"More of a statement than a question," Galwit mumbled. He chuckled and answered the implied question. "My lineage is one of nobility. It''s not just that we''re nobles in Eldiar, but my ancestors were nobles in the Abyss, too. Common citizens of the Abyss are empowered through embracing their emotions and passions, and the nobles are empowered by nurturing those emotions and passions in their followers.
"It makes for a great system. Each group gives and gets something from the other, far more tangible even than the nobility structures of this Realm. That''s another reason why I recruited Ren. I was able to get him out of home confinement and help him develop his ss and Skills, and his loyalty directly contributes to my own."
"Okay, so all of that to convince me to join you in your grand endeavor," Reivyn mused out loud. "Well, I have my own ns, but I''m also not against extending what help I can. I''m not biased against the Abyss per se, just the ones that want to ughter innocents or turn them into Experience Crystals. I say we let nature takes its course, and we can reconvene in Eldiar once I move to their Academy."
"That''s all I ever hoped for," Galwit said with a smile. "I''ll help you out with anything when we''re there, and feel free to ask for my assistance with anything at any time, here, as well. I won''t keep you any longer."
The two youths stood up and shook hands once more. Reivyn left feeling relieved that he wasn''t going to have to defend against some other dark conspiracy involving a noble family of Eldiar.
I don''t mind giving what assistance I can, especially if it leads to a peaceful conclusion, Reivyn thought as he exited the manor. I don''t know why, but I''m sure that everything he said to me was the truth.
Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Detect Lies/Truth (0 ->1)
Ahh, that would exin it, he chuckled.
Chapter 92: Maw of the Abyss
Chapter 92: Maw of the Abyss
"Once we move past the boss room to the third floor, the corrupt Mana in the Dungeon will be dominant, and it will suppress your abilities," Reivyn reiterated to the older Adventurers. "It won''t just make it harder to channel Mana, either. If what I saw of the other two meleebatants in myst Party is any indication, it will affect your Stamina abilities, as well."
Reivyn had signaled to his protectors using the method his parents had shown him after his meeting with Galwit. The older subordinates had been briefed by Refix, so they knew it was a possibility they would be called upon to help their young princeplete the Revenant Dungeon. All of the people in the employ of his parents were loyalists to the Vynn Imperial family, so they knew the truth of the matter, and they gave their loyalty to Reivyn almost as much as to Ameliyn and Refix.
"I want to try and figure out the optimum Mana and Stamina usage to be able to solo the Dungeon for the Achievement, so I just need you to cover me in the corridor. All of the monsters will attack us together, all at once, so we''ll engage them and draw them to the hall so they can''t surround us."
"Yes, Your Highness," the Adventurers responded.
Reivyn paused for a moment, still unused to being addressed that way. They didn''t refer to him as such when they were outside of the Dungeon, just in case there was someone listening that they hadn''t detected, but they had immediately be deferential once they stepped into the Dungeon and became isted from the outside world.
"Ok, let''s go," Reivynmanded. They packed up their sack and headed toward the stairs. Reivyn walked in front, his shiny new gear finally fully recing his old medium armor.
The Adventurers that he had been paired up with by his parents weren''t the same ones that he had previously had encounters with, though they still had the same general make-up. There was a man in full te armor with arge shield, though he carried a wicked-looking battle axe for his weapon. There was a lithe woman in light leathers specialized in hiding in the shadows and attacking from the rear or from a distance.
There was a mage in light robes who used the Sun Affinity. It was a Tier 3 Affinity that Reivyn had never seen before, and the mage had exined that it was simr to his mother''s Celestial Affinity, but it was a step down. He had been specifically assigned to the group for his ability to counter the dark nature of the Abyss Mana.
There was onest Adventurer, also dressed in robes like the mage, but he wasn''t abatant. He used predominantly Water and Wood Mana with a smidgen of the Tier 4 Life Affinity. He was a healer who was able to perform healing magic outside of the influence of Holy Mana supplied to priests associated with a church. Holy Mana was the Mana used by priests and pdins. It wasn''t literally holy, but it was the designation to Divine Mana that wasn''t empowered like someone with a Divine ss would have.
Reivyn knew that there were healers outside of the influence of the churches, but learning that it took a speck of a Tier 4 Affinity for it to work made him realize why it was so rare in the lower Regions. The healer had exined that healers in typical Adventuring Parties were some sort ofbat alchemist. Physicians and other mundane healers didn''t usually go on Adventures, preferring to be attached to a formal organization like a military or setting up shop inside of a city or outpost.
The Adventuring Party had coasted through the first two floors of the Dungeon, and they had initiated the Hard Mode of the second-floor boss. The empowered Duhan had proven nopetition to the powerful team, and they had annihted it with zero problems. They had their own gear, and Reivyn didn''t feel bad about taking the loot that dropped from the System as he knew he could have done it on his own, anyway.
Cuisse: Defender of Light A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
STR +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Greaves: Defender of Light A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
DEX +3
VIT +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Helm: Defender of Light A piece of Heavy Armor infused with the Divine Protection of the Light.
INT +3
MAG +5
Provides minor protection against Evil.
1/7 Set Piece: Defender of Light
Requirements: Only denizens of the light may wear this armor. One must have never suffered Misery unless forgiven by an ordained church.
Full Set Activated
All Stats +1
Minor Protection Against Evil -> Moderate Protection Against Evil
I never noticed much of a difference from the minor protection against evil, but that might have been because of my immunity, Reivyn thought as they descended further into the Dungeon. Maybe I''ll notice a difference, now.
The Party quickly traversed the hall and made it to the end of the man-made bricks. Once they crossed over, Reivyn halted the Party.
"We should familiarize ourselves with the effects of the suppression from the Mana before we head any further," Reivyn said. "This was one of the main mistakes we madest time. You''re all much more powerful than my previous team, but you should still understand the difference in your abilities before engaging the enemy."
"Yes, Your Highness," came the reply.
Reivyn followed up with his own advice and activated several Spells and Skills to test out before there was any danger. He knew he could wrap his Spells in the Abyss Affinity, but he still wanted a baseline of the suppressing effect.
He channeled a simple Fire Bolt Spell, and he was surprised to find that the suppression on his Mana channeling through and out of his body was noticeably less thanst time.
So the Protection Against Evil counters the suppression, and Reivyn was enlightened. So the typical progression should be for Parties to run the Dungeon and defeat the empowered Duhan until they have enough gear to offset some of the restrictions on the third floor. Erik and Tahl had gotten a sword and a shield, and they didn''t have the Protection Against Evil buff on them. It makes sense that they were struggling as much as they were even though they weren''t using Mana.
I wonder if there is any loot for Caster sses to get around the restriction? Maybe my Luck Stat is influencing the drops, and it''s giving me what is most appropriate for me because it''s so much higher than anyone else''s. I''ll have to ask the others if they get anything different from the Hard Mode reward.
"Everyone figure out your situations?" Reivyn asked after experimenting a couple more times. He had determined that he would still be able to function at least a little bit even without the Abyss Affinity, though it would still be at a discount to his normal abilities. His Stats had improved so much, though, that he would still probably be as effective as he was the time he had soloed the Duhan.
"Yes, Your Highness," the four people answered.
"It seems like the power of the Affinities is directly proportional to the suppression," the mage said. "My Tier 1 Affinities are diminished about 90%. My Tier 2 Affinities, though, are reduced by about 70%. Tier 3 is operating at about 50%. If I stick to Tier 3 Affinities to infuse my Spells with, I should be able to more easily power through the suppression. It will just mean much greater Mana expenditure, but I should be fine as long as I pace myself."
"That''s fine," Reivyn nodded his head. "I only want you guys to support me, and only step in if I can''t handle the monsters."
"My Tier 4 Life Affinity is only suppressed about 10%," the healer chimed in. "The Water and Wood Affinities arepromised a bit, but I should still be able to patch up any injuries in an emergency."
"Great," Reivyn said with a smile. "We should be ready to go, then. Follow me."
Reivyn once more lead the team toward the giant, open cavern. The other vanguard Adventurer took up position to Reivyn''s left, and the lithe rogue slunk into the shadows. She wasn''t equipped to act as a vanguard like Teilon would asionally do, though she definitely had the Stats to stand up to the Revenants. Even with their additional empowerment this deep in the Dungeon, they were still fundamentally mid-Tier 3, and each of these Adventurers was at least Tier 4, ording to Reivyn''s Sense Threat Skill and their previous performance.
They quickly made their way to the open mouth of the tunnel''s end, and the defensive Adventurer volunteered to step forward to attract the enemies, just in case anything out of the ordinary happened. The Revenants immediately focused their attention on the intruder likest time, and they charged the man who had desecrated the ce with his presence.
Reivyn took in some calming breaths as he watched them storm in their direction, the older man retreating to take up position next to him once more.
Ok, here we go, Reivyn thought, keeping himself calm. I have no reason to panic this time. I need to pace my Mana usage. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Reivyn used his Dual Casting Skill to activate his Elemental Weapon Spell, taking the mage''s advice into ount and infusing his Mana sword with the Light Affinity. It didn''t have muchbat application, but the point was to bypass the Revenants'' immunity to mundane damage. He simultaneously activated his Mana Shield Skill, and he infused it with another Tier 3 Affinity, Durability.
He could feel the effects of the suppression, though it was further reduced to only about 20%, he gauged, due to his Moderate Protection Against Evil. The first Revenants to reach their position were the miner variants, and they swung their pickaxes like weapons to try and kill the intruders. Reivyn maintained his focus and threw all of his distracting thoughts away oncebat was initiated.
He wasn''t frantic this time around, and he had a solid shield to his left. He wasn''t worried about being surrounded or any monsters bypassing him to attack hispanions. He methodically blocked and parried, and thrust and shed at the enemies. shing and Piercing attacks weren''t the most effective against skeletal monsters, but solid strikes against the bones still did a surprising amount of damage. Piercing attacks, specifically, actually worked extremely well when targetting the skull and the little orb of miasmic Mana empowering the bones of the skeleton.
The armored Revenants were a little more tricky to deal with, as not only were their skulls protected by ck, metallic helmets, but they were also Experts with their weaponry. Reivyn''s own Skills, though, were superior to his enemies, and after a short exchange of blows with the armored Revenants, he would thrust upward into the skulls whenever an opening presented itself. The strikes were just as effective as piercing straight through the tops of the miners'' skulls.
Reivyn''s Battlefield Awareness Skill allowed him to remain apprised of the entire situation, and he wasn''t flustered or surprised when the Spectres made their appearance, shrieking into the melee. Reivyn strained his willpower a bit further and created a third Spell tounch at the Spectres.
He found it a bit easier to manage it whenbining the Dual Casting Skill with his Mana Weapon Skill. Channeling his Dual Casting through additional, actual Skills took some of the burdens off of adding more Spells to his attacks, and hessoed the Spectres with chains infused with the Gravity Affinity. He decided on Gravity in order to reduce the chances of missing the Spectres with his Mana chains, as he still had to maintain his focus on the meleebat with the Revenants.
He could alwaysmand hispanions to handle the Spectres, but he wanted to practice for a future solo attempt. He wasn''t so pressed yet that he needed assistance.
The Revenants kepting in an endless stream, and Reivyn slogged through thebat. They weren''t able to all attack Reivyn at once, so he was able to maintain control of thebat and dictate the pacing to however fast he wanted. The Spectres would join thebat in groups of three to five, and they were the only things that caused him any kind of stress.
Thebat continued unabated, Reivyn entering a zone of total concentration. He was still aware of everything going on around him, and of hispanions, but everything else sort of fell away. Thebat wasn''t anything special once he got into the swing of things, but the Spectres were a bit of a nuisance.
Every now and then, there would still be a Spectre alive from a previous group when new ones showed up. He had lost count on the number of enemies he had in, and the number of Spectres in their groups was beginning to be five at a time more consistently.
If I don''t pick up the pace that I destroy the Spectres, they might overwhelm me, and then I''ll have to use assistance, Reivyn thought. That won''t be the end of the world, but I should really try and find a way to do it on my own. I''ll try and use the trick of enveloping my Mana in the Abyss Affinity again, and hopefully, the loss of the 20% suppression will allow me to clear them all out.
He put thought to action. Adding another Affinity, utilizing the Concept from yet one more, was almost too much for Reivyn with his current abilities. He still managed to do it, only having to infuse the Gravity chain whips, but it caused a bit of mental strain on him.
The method was effective, though, and the Spectres began to be destroyed at a faster clip, reducing the strain of having too many piling up.
Reivyn''s blood pumped through his body, and he could practically hear it thundering in his ears. He looked at the Revenants with distaste. These monsters were incredibly annoying, and they were responsible for the deaths of many innocent people. People who hadn''t even chosen for themselves to delve the Dungeon.
Reivyn''s sword shed faster and faster, and he stepped forward, pressing against the tide of Revenants assaulting their position. He needed to destroy the Revenants. He needed to kill them. His attacks came faster and harder, and the Revenants were reaped like wheat before his de.
Reivyn was suddenly pulled out of his trance as something grabbed his waistband and yanked him back. He looked up in surprise and noticed that he had begun to abandon his favorable position in the mouth of the tunnel.
"Be careful, Your Highness," the other vanguard said, some anxiety in his voice. "It wouldn''t be good to lose yourself in the middle ofbat."
"Right, thanks," Reivyn replied as he reimed his calm state of mind.
Considering what Galwit told me about Abyss Mana, I was obviously influenced by the Affinity coursing through me, Reivyn thought, sweat dripping from his brow. I almost really messed up there. I don''t think I would have been in danger right away, but if I didn''t have someone to watch my back, I would have eventually been surrounded on all sides. They might not have been able to kill me right away, but would I have even paid attention to the damage umting over time from the Revenants able to get behind my guard?
Reivyn dismissed the Abyss Affinity, dropping it like a hot potato. It cane in handy in situations where I can quickly annihte any Spectres that begin to pile up, but I''ll need to release it andpletely calm down before utilizing it once more.
Reivyn''s heart thumped in his chest from the blunder, but he soon calmed back down as he continued the fight.
Reivyn didn''t know how long he fought, but eventually, the Spectres stoppeding. The Revenants were in much greater number, and he had no idea how many he fought through, but they, too, eventually stoppeding.
The ground would have been littered with countless bones if they weren''t in the Dungeon, but the additional Revenants joining the fray stomped on the bones and caused them to dissipate back into the Dungeon like every other monster. An armored Revenant would drop a piece of their superior gear every now and then, but it wasn''t enough to get in the way of thebat.
Reivyn finally shed through thest skeleton, and quiet returned to the Dungeon. He panted for breath and checked his vitals on his Status page.
Health: 4,238/4,860 (+310) Stamina: 1,788/9,330 (+410) Mana: 961/4,580 (+50) Having to use Tier 3 Affinities really cuts into the Mana expenditure, Reivyn noticed. He felt a bit of pressure in his head from the usage, but it wasn''t as bad asst time. Using it over a longer period of time prevented me from getting closer to having a bacsh.
I have just enough Stamina and Mana to be able to solo this floor. If I had tried before filling up my Bloodline, I wouldn''t have been able to do it.
"Thanks for bringing me out of my daze," Reivyn turned to the Adventurer team. "I should be able to handle clearing the floor solo, but it would have been a dire situation if I had decided to attempt it without you guys to watch my back first."
"It''s our duty, Your Highness," the armored man said, inclining his head.
"Still, I appreciate it."
Reivyn kept his sword and shield out, but he dismissed the Elemental Weapon and Mana Shield Skills now that there were no longer any monsters around.
No reason to let our guard downpletely, he thought. Just because we think all of the monsters attacked us together doesn''t mean there aren''t others lurking about.
"Alright, let''s go see what else this floor has to offer," Reivyn said. The others nodded their heads, and they resumed their formation as they walked into the cavern.
This Dungeon was a Resource Dungeon, so Reivyn wasn''t surprised to see veins of metals and minerals on the walls of the cavern. The thing that did surprise him, though, was theck of them. There weren''t nearly as many as he would have suspected, but he guessed it was just because of howrge the cavern was.
Objectively, there''s still a ton of resources avable to mine down here, it just seems like it''s not that much because of the amount of coverage.
The third floor was a huge space, spanning an arearger than that of the previous floors. Reivyn didn''t spot any additional tunnels branching away from the central cavern, but there were natural support columns left in ce.
The Party walked around for almost an hour, exploring every bit of the cavern in a methodical manner. The floor was sorge that they often couldn''t see the walls on any side, and Reivyn''s mental map yed arge role in making sure they didn''t get turned around.
"It doesn''t seem like we''re going to find much down here, Your Highness," the lithe womanmented.
"Seems that way," Reivyn agreed. "Though there is onest thing I want to check before we call it a day."
Reivyn had noticed that the mana density intensified whenever they moved in a particr direction, so he led the troupe towards the source.
The Abyss Mana continued to be thicker and thicker as they moved towards the direction it wasing from, and Reivyn was eventually able to see motes of darkness floating about even without his Mana Sight activated.
"What is this?" the mage asked, reaching out and touching one of the motes. It was pitch ck with a slight red tinge running through it. They flitted about in the air.
"That''s the corrupt Mana," Reivyn replied, ncing at the mage from the side of his eyes. The mage jerked his hand back like he had been shocked.
"Don''t worry, we''ll get a round or two of cleansing from the priests when we leave," Reivyn chuckled. "I don''t think we can umte enough corruption for it to hurt us even down here where it''sing from." Reivyn left out the fact that he was immune, anyway. "If we don''t find the end soon, we''ll go ahead and turn back, just in case."
It didn''t take much longer after the Mana became visible for them to spot what was introducing the Mana into the Dungeon.
Looming above them, stretching beyond the ethereal light of the Dungeon, was a towering gate. It was built out of the same metal as the armor and weapons of the Revenants, and it had a shiny, ck appearance. Murals of demons and acts of violence were carved into it, and it was sealed tight. Abyss Mana leaked through the central crack where the two doors of the gate sealed it shut.
"What in the..." the armored vanguard trailed off as he looked upon the gate. The other Adventurers in the team were speechless as they gazed upon the construct.
Reivyn ran his hand over the metal. It was smooth and almost frictionless, the murals providing the only bumps to his touch.
"So this is the source," Reivyn mused.
He felt a powerful pulse from the center of his being, calling out to him to open the gate and explore the other side. He looked at the gate, trying to find some sort of mechanism to open it, but there was nothing. He was unable to get any sort of hold on it to leverage his physical Strength.
"I don''t think we have any way to open this," Reivyn said, turning to hispanions.
"You want to open it, Your Highness?" The mage eximed, aghast.
"Sure," Reivyn nodded. "We''re in an instanced Dungeon. Whatever we do in here isn''t going to affect the outside world, so it shouldn''t be a problem."
"I guess..." the man said. He was clearly skeptical of the dubious proposition. Reivyn couldn''t exin his desire to open the gate, so he simply left it unsaid.
"It doesn''t matter, anyway," he said. "We can''t open it, so I guess we''ll go ahead and call it here. Let''s go back."
The others nodded their heads and turned to follow Reivyn, using his mental map, leading them to the exit.
I''ll have to consult someone knowledgeable of the Abyss about this gate, Reivyn mused. It just so happens that there''s someone in town who fits the bill.
Chapter 93: Infinite Predicament
Chapter 93: Infinite Predicament
Reivyn walked out of the Dungeon feeling good about the situation. The familiar Notification popped up as soon as he stepped across the threshold.
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +0
Boss Defeated: Exp +0
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +500
Calcting...
Second Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +0
Boss Defeated: Exp +0
Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000
Calcting...
Third Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +22,000
Boss: N/A
Third Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +15,000
Dungeon: Complete
Dungeon Completion Bonus: Exp +30,000
Hard Mode: 1/2
Total Experience: Exp +72,500
I didn''t get any experience from the first two floors because I just let the Adventurers smash through it as fast as possible, Reivyn mused. Looks like I got close to 90% of the Experience from the third floor.
I wonder what the second Hard Mode is? I can''t think of anything that could be considered "Hard" for the first floor, and the third floor doesn''t even have a boss. Reivyn threw the thought to the back of his mind. He was going to clear the Dungeon solo the next week. Maybe he would learn something new then.
"It was a pleasure," the leader of the "Adventurer" Party said, pping Reivyn on the shoulder. "Always d to have the leader of the Frostfire Thorns join us."
Reivyn gave the smiling man a skeptical look before he realized what he was doing. Putting up a pretense for all of the observers, and giving my group a bit of face while doing so.
The entrance to the Dungeon was always extremely busy, and people were constantlying and going. If the city ordinance didn''t prohibit it, Reivyn was sure there would be hawkers setting up shop right here instead of the central market area. Some of the passersby noticed the exchange, but it wasn''t really of all that import to Reivyn.
He''s probably trying to get my Party name talked about a bit for the guide in the Adventurer''s Guild, he thought. Speaking of, we haven''t checked the bnce in a while. I should go pull some money out for living expenses.
Reivyn nodded and waved to the group. They quickly faded into the background, still doing their job of shadowing their charge, as Reivyn strolled over to the Adventurer''s Guild Branch.
They had been withdrawing a little bit of funds each month while in school, and Reivyn had insisted that Melissa, Larissa, and Erik take a share as well. They didn''t withdraw all of it, though, as the Adventurer''s Guild basically functioned as a bank for its members. There was no reason to take it out of the Adventurer''s Guild to either just carry it all around or deposit it in another institution.
The funds from the guide hadn''t taken off until several months after the Dungeon Break, as not many people had returned to running the Dungeon for a time while the town was rebuilt. The ie had steadily increased after that, though, and they had umted almost 20% of the total profits seen from selling the Experience Crystals, which was more than Reivyn had expected.
Reivyn quickly made the trip and grabbed some pocket money. He went ahead and grabbed enough to distribute to everyone in the original Party so they wouldn''t have to make another trip for themselves.
I might as well head over to Prince Galwit''s manor and see if he''s avable to talk since I''m out, Reivyn thought.
He secured the money in a pouch he kept in his inner breast pocket. He kept the money split up, so even though it was worth over a gold, it was split six ways in silver and copper. He wasn''t used to carrying so much around, even when in The Capital. He could feel the weight and feel the jingle as the coins clinked against each other.
Reivyn made his way to the manor, and it looked exactly the same as it had half a week before. It looks like everyone''s here, he thought. The Dungeon resets the same day of the week for everyone, but that doesn''t mean everyone is going to rush to get their run done the first day.
"Is the prince avable to meet right now?" Reivyn addressed the same guard asst time.
The man eyed Reivyn for a second before indicating for him to wait a moment. Reivyn stood outside the gate, contemting how he was going to bring up the discovery to Galwit. He only had to wait a moment before the guard returned and jerked his head to motion for Reivyn to follow him.
The guard led Reivyn to the same study, and Prince Galwit once more greeted him with an enthusiastic smile.
"What''s this? Back already?" Galwit asked. "Did you already think about my proposition? That was pretty quick."
"No, actually," Reivyn said as he took a seat. "I haven''t really had the chance to consider it further. I''m going to wait to speak to my parents about the issue. I don''t keep any secrets from them, ever, for any reason. I might forget to bring something up from time to time, but it''s never deliberate.
"No, I came today because I cleared the third floor with a higher Level Party earlier today." Prince Galwit''s eyebrows rose, and he nodded in appreciation. "I don''t know if you know anything about the third floor, but it should be a yground for you and your people. The Abyss Mana is dominant down there, and it suppresses this Realm''s Mana."
"Yeah, we''ve peeked into it once, but we weren''t confident we had enough Stamina and Mana tost through the horde. I guess over-Leveling it is an option."
"Yeah, most problems can be solved by overwhelming might, I''ve seen," Reivyn chuckled. "But I''m not here to talk about the fight on the third floor.
"We explored the cavern and found something. There''s a giant, metal gate in the deepest part of the Dungeon, and the Abyss Mana is seeping into the Dungeon through that gate. When I saw the gate, I felt a pulse in my very being, telling me there was something important for me on the other side.
"There''s no obvious way to open the gate physically, though, and I wasn''t about to channel Abyss Mana in front of someone else to try and open it that way. Do you know anything about something like this?"
Prince Galwit stared off into space, idly tapping the top of his desk with a serious look on his face. His facial expressions fluctuated as he went through different thoughts in his head before he had an "Ah-ha!" moment.
"Let me first ask you, do you know how infinitely instanced Dungeons work?" He asked.
"I don''t know the fundamental theory behind them if that''s what you''re asking." Reivyn frowned.
"Yes, that''s what I was talking about. Well, you can think of the Realm as a bubble floating in a vast sea. There are countless bubbles, and they''re all independent of each other. Sometimes, another much smaller bubble is formed from within the Realm bubbles, and they sit on the surface, reflecting what''s in the Realm.
"This is how infinitely instanced Dungeons are formed. They sit outside of the Realm, attached to it, and it reflects a snapshot in time from when the first hints of the Dungeon formed. This Dungeon here probably had the first seeds of splitting off a couple of hundred years ago, otherwise, the denizens of the Dungeon wouldn''t be undead.
"Now, that''s not when the Dungeon formed, that was only recently. That was just when the snapshot was taken.
"Okay, that''s a little lesson just to get to the main point: Sometimes these extra bubbles sitting on the surface of the Realm bubbles will attach to more than one Realm bubble at a time. It sounds like that''s what''s going on here."
"So you''re saying that the other side of that gate is the Abyss Realm?" Reivyn asked, horrified.
"No, not quite," Galwit denied, shaking his head. "The other side of that gate could lead directly to the Abyss Realm, but that''s extremely unlikely. It''s far more likely that it leads to another, separate Dungeon that''s technically an infinitely instanced Dungeon of the Abyss Realm. It could also lead to somewhere else that leads to another Dungeon or the Abyss Realm, we don''t know.
"The point is, it''s likely a passageway that ultimately leads to the Abyss Realm as an endpoint."
"And what makes you so sure of that?" Reivyn asked.
"The history lessons I told you about before," Galwit said, and Reivyn nodded that he was following along, "there''s a short snippet of how the invasion was facilitated. It took me a moment to remember it because it''s just mentioned briefly, but apparently, the armies traveled through connections inside Dungeons. It sounds like this could have been one of the ancient connections."
"And it''s still around? Wasn''t that war, like, hundreds of thousands of years ago?" Reivyn was shocked.
"Eh, in the grand scheme of things, considering Realms in their totality, a hundred thousand years is nothing. It''s been a rtive blip in history."
"Well, when you put it like that, it makes sense."
"But you said you felt something calling to you from beyond the gate?" Galwit prodded.
"Yeah, it was from the core of my very self," Reivyn nodded. "It''s most likely something to do with my Abyss Affinity. Who knows, it might help out your goal, too."
"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Galwit stood up and headed to the door.
"Wait, you want to go now?" Reivyn asked, also standing up.
"Sure," Galwit said. "It doesn''t matter to me if I lose a week''s Dungeon run, and you said you cleared all of the monsters. It should just be a stroll to the bottom to check it out. I''ll bring one of my men along, not Ren, just in case."
"Are you sure another person should know that I can use Abyss Mana?" Reivyn asked.
"It''ll be fine," Galwit cated. "All of my followers can use it, too, and if they outed you, they''d be outing themselves. Your secret is safe with me and mine."
"Ok~ay," Reivyn said, walking out of the study room behind the prince. "Well, let me send a message back to the manor to let my friends know that I''ve gone back in. They''ll be expecting me soon, and I don''t want them to worry."
"Sure, I''ll have Guard Stillin send a note on our way out."
Reivyn walked with the prince as he beckoned to the first follower they crossed. It was a Magic Academy student, Reivyn could tell by the robe, but Reivyn didn''t recognize him. The man didn''t ask any questions and simply got in position behind the prince. Reivyn created a new System Party and invited the two of them to join.
---
"Wow, it''s magnificent," Galwit said, clearly in awe at the giant gate. The other follower who had apanied them also had an appropriately bedazzled expression. Reivyn had noticed that the other Magic Academy student had suffered considerably less distress from entering the bottom-most part of the Dungeon.
"Really?" Reivyn asked skeptically. "It seems pretty creepy to me."
"I''m not talking about the murals carved on it," Galwit rolled his eyes. "I''m talking about it as a whole." He took a deep breath right in front of the twin doors of the gate, and Reivyn could see motes of the dark Mana get absorbed into his body. "I''ve never felt more refreshed in my life. I didn''t realize how stifling the local Mana was to my family and me until this very moment."
"Makes sense," Reivyn replied. "Everyone else feels suppressed when theye down here, so it''s no surprise you would feel the opposite. You''re probably just limated to the feeling since you''ve lived here your entire life, and nobody else in your family realizes it, either."
"If we can get System recognition for our use of Abyss Mana, it could change so much more than just how others look at us," Galwit said, fervor in his voice.
"Do you think we can open it?" Reivyn asked.
"I think so," Galwit said. "We''re on this side of the gate, and it leads to the Abyss. I imagine it would require a blending of the two types of Mana in order to unlock and open it." Galwit nced at his follower. "It''s a good thing we brought Lenerd along, as we''ll probably need all three of us acting together to open it."
"So what do we need to do?"
"Well, if my guess is correct, I need to channel pure Abyss Mana, Lenerd needs to channel pure Veridical Mana, and you need to channel a blend of the two. Webine it all together, and push it into the gate, and... it opens? I don''t know. Like I said, I''m guessing."
"Won''t hurt to try," Reivyn said.
The three men took up position. Reivyn stood in the center with Galwit to his left and Lenerd to his right. He could feel the intensity of the calling increase as they began to channel their own pure mana. Lenerd had the hardest time of it. Even though he didn''t suffer nearly as much as the other people Reivyn hade down here with, that only applied because of the Abyss Mana he had somehow been infused with. Channeling Veridical Mana down here was still a chore.
Galwit and Lenerd didn''t have the Realm Affinities, so the Mana they were channeling was simply just the base Mana of the two realms. Reivyn, though, infused his pure mana with the actual Affinities. He formed an orb of Veridical Mana in his right hand and one of Abyss in his left.
None of the three were sure how much they were going to need, so they simply pumped as much of their Mana into their orbs as they could. The pulse within Reivyn continued to intensify as more mana was pushed out, and after a certain amount was channeled into the palms of his hands, he felt a click.
The mana orbs from Galwit and Lenerd were sucked into Reivyn''s orbs like a ma, and then those two orbsbined all on their own, forming a sphere perfectly halved by the two types of Mana. Energy built up and then exploded toward the gate, like an empowered Beam Spell.
Ripples of alternating white and ck lines spread out from the impact of the Mana on the center of the gate, and a loud groaning sound echoed throughout the cavern as the gate began to move.
The very air in the cavern was sucked into the maw of the opening doorway like a vacuum, and the three young men stumbled forward before maintaining their bnce. An equilibrium was quickly reached, and Abyss Mana began to pour into the Dungeon from the now open gate.
Reivyn peered into the darkness, but he couldn''t see anything. It was like a wall of ck separated the Dungeon from whatever was on the other side of the gate.
"Well..." Galwit said, clearly a little unnerved by the sight, "no reason to hesitate now. Lenerd, you stay here. We''re just going to peek inside real quick. I''ll let you know if we need you in a moment."
"Yes, my lord," Lenerd said, a little out of breath. He stumbled over to the side and took a seat to recover from the Mana expenditure. Reivyn checked his own Status and saw that it had taken 1,200 Mana points to open the gate.
I was doing Dual Casting, though, so looks like it cost him 600 Mana. I don''t know how much Mana he has, but I do notice that Galwit seems to be perfectly fine after supposedly spending the same amount. Galwit returned a knowing look when he caught Reivyn inspecting him in thought.
"Ready when you are," Galwit said.
Reivyn nodded and drew his sword and shield. No reason to not be cautious. We have no idea what''s on the other side. Galwit followed suit by pulling out a gnarled wand from within his inner breast. Anticipation thrummed in unison with the pulsing of the call.
Reivyn walked through the partition of ckness on high alert. He took deliberate steps, weapon at the ready and Mana on the cusp of being called. A chill ran through his entire person as he stepped through the portal.
He took a couple of steps inside before stopping to goggle at the sight before him, Galwit turning into a statue next to him.
Before the two young men was a long, rocky bridge spanning over an infinite abyss. Behind the two was an orb shining with a light that gave off thefortable feeling of Veridical Mana, and on the other side of the bridge was a simr orb giving off the feelings of the Abyss. The orbs were the size of arge house, but when Reivyn gazed into the orb, he felt as though he was viewing the entire infinite expanse contained within the confines of the orb.
There were thousands of strands connecting the two orbs, and upon closer inspection, they were simr bridges to the ones Reivyn and Galwit found themselves on. They appeared to be tiny strings, but focusing on one gave a simr impression as the orbs themselves. Reivyn instinctively understood that each bridge was actually identical in size and scope to the one he was standing on.
There were millions of orbs simr to the Veridical and Abyss orbs floating in space all around: above, below, in front, and behind. There was no source of light, the orbs shined unto themselves without seeming to illuminate anything around them, but his vision was crystal clear.
Surrounding the Realms were an uncountable number of flickering lights. They were incredibly tiny, like sparks from an open fire. They were all traveling in the same general direction, but huge tides of the sparks were attracted to the various orbs like gravity. At the same time, an almost equal number of the sparks were expelled from the orbs to join the others in their journey to some other, unknown destination.
"Wha...?" Reivyn choked. "What is all of this?"
"I have no idea," Galwit said, gazing into the vast expanse. "It''s beautiful though."
"What''s that?" Reivyn pointed. Attached to the millions of Realm orbs was a simr thread to the ones attaching the Veridical and Abyss Realms. These threads, though, had a sort of golden shine surrounding them. Every orb had one, and they stretched upwards into infinity, all appearing to lead to the same ce.
All of the orbs had one, except for two.
"Our Realms don''t seem to have one," Reivyn said.
"No, they do," Galwit pointed. Reivyn followed his indication, and he could see that the threads with a golden sheen did exist for each orb, but they didn''t lead up into infinity. They were severed and floating around aimlessly.
"What does that mean?" Reivyn and Galwit shared a look.
"Do you feel the call?" Galwit asked, bringing their attention back to the main topic at hand. Reivyn nodded toward the center of the bridge.
"Whatever it is, it''s noting from the actual Abyss Realm," he replied. "It''sing from the center of the bridge, but I don''t see anything from here."
"Well," Galwit rolled his shoulders, "let''s go see if we can''t find anything over there."
Reivyn sheathed his sword and holstered his shield on his back. There were no monsters of any kind, so he felt no reason to keep the weapons at the ready. The two of them strode across the bridge, the pulsing within his core continued to intensify as they got closer and closer to the center of the bridge.
Reivyn took a step beyond the center of the bridge, and the pulsing suddenly stopped. He paused and looked around in bewilderment.
"Excellent," a deep voice came from behind them. The sound vibrated in Reivyn''s chest, and he and Galwit spun around, weaponsing back out at the ready. "The Gateway has been opened right on time."
Reivyn held his sword at the ready, shield up, as he saw the person who was speaking. A masked man in dark robes like the cultists took easy strides across the bridge toward the two of them. Reivyn felt his hairs stand up on end, and his stomach plummeted. The man''s white mask waspletely nk except for the two eye holes. Reivyn could feel, as well as see, the red irises of the man as he stared at Reivyn.
He walked up to just out of reach of Reivyn before stopping to consider the two youths. Reivyn''s Sense Danger waspletely silent as the man stood there, but his Sense Threat Skill had exploded. It was practically off the charts, and his knees threatened to buckle at the pressure the masked man gave off. His Sense Threat Skill was telling him only one thing.
Instant death.
This man is stronger than dad, Reivyn gulped. A lot stronger.
"You have done well, young Galwit," the man said, his voice still vibrating Reivyn''s body with each syble. Reivyn nced at Galwit, a feeling of betrayal welling up, but he saw only a look of confusion on the other young man''s face.
"Do I know you, your excellency?" Galwit asked with a frown. The masked man chuckled at the question.
"No, but I know you," he responded. "A creature of the Abyss, floundering in a world that rejects him. I know exactly what you''re going through. About your struggle to find a ce for you and your kind.
"A naive wish.
"You will find no eptance. Not from the people. Not from the System.
"But rejoice! If you can''t find amodation, you can simply force it upon them. Now that the gate is once more open, the War can continue, and this time, we will end the conflict and absorb the other Realm, stripping it of its power for ourselves."
Reivyn''s eyes widened in rm as the gravity of the situation dawned on him. He realized that the situation was exponentially more dire than a simple run-in with a powerful cultist.
What have I done?
Chapter 94: Abysmal Situation
Chapter 94: Abysmal Situation
"You want to absorb the Veridical Realm?" Reivyn asked with mounting horror.
"Of course," the Masked Man responded. "The road to immortality is long and arduous. There is only so much energy avable to go around. The Realms might seem to be infinite, but so are the denizens of those Realms. I will lead the Abyss to consume the Veridical Realm, and that will just be the start. I will be a Hero to my people."
The Masked Man clenched his fist in front of him as he spoke with conviction. This guy is crazy! Reivyn thought. But not the loony type of crazy. He''s the dangerous type.
"Who are you?" Reivyn asked. He didn''t get any Danger Sense from the man, so he didn''t know if he nned on killing them or letting them go. If he survived this encounter, he needed as much information as possible for theing days. Galwit stood silently, watching the exchange with a frown on his face.
"Don''t ask foolish questions, Reivyn," the Masked Man leveled a gaze upon Reivyn. "I''m obviously wearing a mask. Why would I do that if I wanted people to know anything about me? You only need to concern yourself with my purpose.
"It will be a great undertaking, absorbing an entire Realm. There will be opportunity to advance beyond your wildest imagination. You can be the strongest being in two Realms. Join us. Lend me the strength I have witnessed this past year."
Reivyn was taken aback by the statement. It was more than just this person trying to recruit him to wage a war against his own Realm. He''s been watching me? Watching us? He''s been in the shadows this whole time, and we''ve never even had a clue.
"You''re out of your mind," Reivyn said before he could couch his words.
"You wound me," the Masked Man said, hand to his heart in a familiar gesture. "Is that any way to speak to the person responsible for everything you have? Everything you are?"
"Everything I have?" Reivyn repeated. "I''ve worked for everything I have, and anything else given to me was by my parents." Reivyn''s mouth wouldn''t stop running.
What''s going on with me? I''m not acting like myself. Now that I think about it, why am I even in the Dungeon with Galwit? I would never have normally just jumped into things without talking about it with my friends first, much less my parents. There was no reason to rush back into the Dungeon in such haste.
"And who orchestrated for your parents to get together in the first ce? Hmm?"
"You..." Realization dawned on Reivyn. "You''re the one who initiated the Dungeon Breaks in Vynn."
"And if I hadn''t, you wouldn''t even have been born."
"You can''t take credit for that!" Reivyn denied.
"Can''t I? Regardless, I see great potential in you. Don''t make a mistake. Join us."
"There you go, saying ''us,'' again," Galwit interjected, hands raised with palms out. "I have nothing to do with this." The Masked Man turned his attention to Galwit and pointed at his face.
"You have no say in the matter," he said. "I have use of you, so you''reing with me." Galwit''s frown deepened at the deration.
"My family has worked so hard over the centuries to get where we are today, I''m not just going to betray everything I''ve stood for my whole life." Galwit pulled out a dagger that had been strapped to his waist and held it up to his throat. "I would rather die than be a party to this madness."
There was no hope of defying the powerful man in front of them. The only way either of them could thwart whatever ns he had for them was to take the extreme way out. Reivyn was shocked at Galwit''s decisiveness, but he was unable to react in time to stop his new acquaintance.
The Masked Man turned his pointing hand over and snapped his fingers. Reivyn caught a sense of something happening around him, so he activated his Mana Sight with Veridical and Abyss Affinities infused in each of his eyes, respectively.
Lines of pure Veridical and Abyss Mana sprang into view. They were different from the regr Mana that he could interact with and manipte. They reminded him of the fundamental Mana used by the very System.
There were countless lines connecting everything to everything. He could see thousandsing even from himself. Some connected to Galwit. Some connected to the Masked Man. The vast majority went from him and connected to the Veridical Realm''s orb, spreading out to connect to other people and ces, one connecting to the orb itself. Another solitary line connected him to the Abyss Realm orb.
As he watched, powerful emanations of Mana surrounded a thread connecting Galwit to the Masked Man. It thickened and multiplied until one turned into hundreds. Galwit''s hand holding the dagger lowered, and he walked to stand behind the Masked Man, face wooden with no expression.
So he''s been manipting us somehow to make the choices that led us here? Reivyn spected.
"Are you beginning to understand the futility of your struggle?" The Masked Man turned back to Reivyn. "You could be above 10,000, under one. With time you would be my most powerful general, leading the forces of the Abyss to conquer and Ascend."
"Never," Reivyn denied. "I''ll never willingly betray my family and friends. If you want me to join you, you''ll have to do the same thing to me as you did Galwit."
The Masked Man considered Reivyn standing before him, still holding his sword and shield in his hands, defiant.
"I''m not controlling him, if that''s what you think," the Masked Man finally said. "I simply altered his Fate and tied him to me more closely. He''ll snap out of his daze in a little while, though his attitude will have been adjusted.
"You and he are different. He''s of use to me, but he could never aspire to be my equal.
"No matter," the Masked Man changed his tone. "I gave you a chance, but you failed to seize it. You''ll be almost as useful to me and my ns as an adversary as you would a subordinate."
"What do you mean?"
"You will be a powerful stepping stone for my underlings," the man chuckled. "You''ve been in the palm of my hand since the very beginning, and you can''t escape just by refusing to join me. Even if you fled to the ends of the Realm, far from any civilization, the conflict will still find you.
"Come, Galwit," the Masked Man motioned to Galwit who was still standing in a daze as he walked past Reivyn. Galwit followed like an automaton, and Reivyn kept his stance ready as he turned to keep facing the man as he casually strolled across the bridge toward the Abyss Realm.
"Just like that?" Reivyn called out to the man. "What was the point of manipting us toe here if you''re just going to let me go?" Reivyn was mentally kicking himself as he still couldn''t just keep his mouth shut, the effects of having his judgment impaired lingering.
"Isn''t it obvious?" The Masked Man paused, turning his head to the side to answer the question. "Only you could open the door. I merely manipted a strand of your Fate for you to perceive something important for you on the other side of the gate and removed your inhibitions a little. It''s not my fault you mistakenly assumed what was important to you was something to do with your Bloodline and not a pivotal moment in your life.
"I already exined that you''ll work for me as an adversary, whether you want to or not, so there''s no reason for me to not let you go. And revealing this information to you means that you, and the paltry few you''ll be able to convince, will train that much harder and put up a better fight in the end. Though..."
The Masked Man trailed off as he fully turned around, once more holding his hand out and snapping his fingers. A ck ball of Abyss Mana sprung up from the very void itself. The flickering sparks flitting about in the space around the orbs shied away and fled in apparent panic, avoiding the ck ball as far as possible.
Reivyn found himself unable to respond as he watched the Mana float up and expand in size. It radiated a dark light, like an inverse sun, and it grew in size and intensity with every passing breath.
"You did insult me and snubbed my most kind offer," the Masked Man continued. "A little punishment is in order."
As thest word left the Masked Man''s mouth, a powerful beam exploded out of the ck Mana, piercing through Reivyn''s very being. He screamed as fire and ice coursed through his body, pain immediately washing away any rationality. The pain was all-consuming, many times more powerful than the alchemical concoction he had fallen into. His Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills did nothing for him this time.
He screamed and screamed, fighting against the insanity that threatened to consume him. He fought and wed his way back to try and retain his sanity and consciousness. He was able to vaguely be aware of the Masked Man watching him impassively, Galwit still in the dazed state he had fallen into when his Fate had been altered.
Reivyn''s awareness began to darken around the edges almost immediately after he gained thatst semnce of consciousness.
"Give me," he heard the Masked Man say, turning and walking away with Galwit trailing behind him.
The darkness consumed him as he screamed.
---
Melissa''s leg shook as she sat at the table in the manor they had rented for their stay in the Dungeon Town. All of the members of the two groups that hade to run the Dungeon during the summer months were present, minus Reivyn and Teilon.
Melissa was nervous for the potential news that Teilon would bring any moment now. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t get the nervous energy from rampaging through her body, thus the shaking leg.
The conversation between therge group of students was quiet and sparse. Nobody wanted to ruminate on what words could be delivered, but they also weren''t able to muster up the mental energy to distract themselves. Larissa gave Melissa a look and reached over to take her hand, squeezing it in support.
"There''s nothing more we can do but wait," Larissa whispered. There was no indication of the bubbly energying from the girl, and there hadn''t been for quite some time. Melissa eyed her sister. If this is the personality she shows others at the estate, then I''m d she shows me the other personality. I''m not sure I could get used to a "serious" Larissa.
Melissa attempted to muster up a smile for her sister, but it was a pitiful failure. She patted the back of Larissa''s hand, still holding it in her other, and sat with her in silence.
The most frustrating thing is that there was literally nothing any of us could have done about this, Melissa thought for the thousandth time. Even if we had known of the possibility, nobody could have changed the oue.
The group continued to sit around in rtive silence. Another hour or so passed before the thumping sound of the front door mming shut reached the teenagers. Teilon walked into the room shortly after, a serious look on his face. All quiet conversation around the table halted as everyone looked up to him. He scanned the room, looking each person in the eye before speaking.
"It has been a month with no news," Teilon spoke. "The Adventurer''s Guild has dered Reivyn to be presumed lost or dead. And the ''lost'' provision was only tacked on because of the involvement of Prince Galwit."
The words were expected by everyone, but Melissa still felt the world drop from beneath her. She lost all focus as the words echoed about in her mind.
"Lost or dead... Lost or dead... Lost or dead..."
A gentle shake of her shoulder brought Melissa back to the present. Larissa was staring into her face, a frown of worry upon her own.
"We knew this was the most likely news," Larissa whispered to her sister. "It doesn''t mean anything. Just standard procedure."
"I know," Melissa took in a deep breath to calm herself. She looked around the table at the various people sitting around it.
Haylen, Erin, and Alisia were the least affected by the news, though they were still a bit distraught. Alisia gave Melissa a knowing look, the only one of the three of her friends who grasped a little bit of what it meant to lose Reivyn. Her family was a bit more connected and "in the know," so she was more aware of his potential than her other friends.
Tom, Vane, and Trick sat in a daze, not even interacting with each other. They had been together with Reivyn longer even than Melissa or Larissa had, despite not knowing him as early. He had quickly be one of their best friends, and they had nned ahead for years, fully expecting Reivyn to be a major part of their lives. It was not only a devastating blow emotionally, but the very fact that it had happened to Reivyn put their own mortality in full perspective.
Teilon and Kimberly were hit the hardest. Teilon didn''t devolve into blustery tears or anything, and neither did Kimberly, for that matter, but Melissa could tell. Teilon sat down at the table, Kimberly hugging him close. They simply sat with their heads together, ignoring everything else around them.
Melissa had long given up on recruiting Reivyn to her family. The emotions running through her were entirely from losing a friend. Melissa hadn''t realized how close she had grown to Reivyn. She had thought that she would have to be strong for her sister, but it turned out that it was Larissa that was being strong and consoling Melissa.
Erik and Tahl didn''t count, as they were almost exclusively concerned with their charges. That being said, Melissa had noticed a slight frown creasing the otherwise perfectly stoic features of Erik''s face for the past week.
"What does this mean for Prince Galwit?" Erin asked.
"Who cares?" Teilon replied without looking up. "As far as I''m concerned, he''s the one responsible."
"Well, you should care," Alisia chimed in. "His family isn''t going to take his disappearance very well, and then they''ll be snooping around us and our families to try and figure it out."
"Let ''em," Teilon mumbled. "It''s their death warrant if they want to mess around." Melissa barely heard the rest of Teilon''s statement, and it was only because she was sitting right next to him.
"What was that?" Haylen asked, confused. Alisia tilted her head to the side, a confused expression on her face. I''m guessing she heard it, too, but she has no idea about the truth behind Reivyn''s family. I only know that they''re way more than they seem, but it seems Teilon is privy to the details. That''s good, though. One less thing to worry about.
"Did that Lenerd fellow say anything to anyone?" Larissa asked.
"Nope," Teilon said. "They apparently skipped town a day after he emerged from the Dungeon, alone. He knows something, but we''re not able to follow up on it until we can get back to The Capital. And the Adventurer''s Guild won''t interfere with a noble house or their subordinates in a situation like this, or so I was told at the Branch."
Melissa nodded her head in agreement.
"I''m not worried about them," she said. "I''m more worried about what we''re going to tell Reivyn''s parents."
"I''m sure we''ll be able to convey our hopes and concerns," Alisia remarked. "They have to be pretty strong themselves to have raised a son like Reivyn. They can handle it." Melissa looked her friend in the eye and shook her head.
"That''s not what I meant," she said. "I''m worried about what they''ll do, not how they''ll feel."
---
Melissa Cast her Spell at the training dummy, attempting to get back in the right mindset for delving the Dungeon. Reivyn had disappeared for almost two months at this point, and it was time for everyone to get out of their funk and get back to their lives.
It had been a struggle for everyone, minus Haylen and Erin. They were sad and upset, but they hadn''t been nearly as close to Reivyn as everyone else had been. Even Alisia took it harder than Melissa had expected.
Larissa had shown herself to be an excellent pir during everyone''s self-imposed exile in the manor. The Parties hadn''t delved the Dungeon the entire time, and Larissa had gone above and beyond in keeping everyone going and sane.
Despite her best efforts, though, she wasn''t able to get everyone back to fighting condition on her own.
It had actually been Josn, who had starteding around more frequently to meet up with everyone else despite Reivyn''s absence, who had banded together with Larissa to finally get everyone''s head back on straight.
He had been open and forting with his own experiences as themander of the retreat from the Dungeon Town to Magron during the Break. He had described his own emotions in great detail, and he had patiently sat with everyone individually to help them confront their own.
Melissa had asked Josn why he went through so much effort to help people he hardly knew.
"It''s my duty," he answered. "Not just my duty as a member of the Church of Light, but my duty as a friend. I considered Reivyn to be one of my few close friends, and he would want me to help you. I know he would do the same thing for me."
Teilon and Kimberly shared their experience of the first time they had encountered Josn, and Melissa was blown away by the difference in the man who went out of his way to help thempared to the one who had harshly questioned teenagers on the side of the road.
Melissa concentrated on Casting the next Spell. She had been practicing a few hours a day for thest three days now, and she was finally beginning to gain the confidence to return to the Dungeon to run it a couple more times before they would need to return to the Magic Academy to officially end the school year. Despite being well into first ce in the third year Rankings with a quota to Eldiar practically guaranteed, she would never forgive herself if she fumbled now and lost the chance because she couldn''t master her own state of mind.
A powerful pulse from someone''s presence alerted Melissa to the onest thing she was dreading. She paused in her Casting and nced at the doors leading into the manor from the rear courtyard.
Well, it''s finally here, she thought. Time to talk to his parents about the situation.
She walked back into the living area expecting to see a storm of emotions on the two people who hade to visit. Instead, she found Reivyn''s parents cheerfully sitting on a couch, yfully scolding Teilon and Kimberly for their ck training.
Melissa frowned as she strode to an open seat. Ameliyn looked up and gave her a bright smile as she sat down.
"What''s going on?" Melissa couldn''t help herself from asking. "This isn''t what I expected at all."
"We know, dear," Ameliyn easily replied. "But let''s wait until everyone is here so we can exin."
Melissa nodded her head and settled in to wait for the others. Refix continued to tease Teilon and Kimberly, with Ameliyn asionally contributing to the banter, and Melissa noticed that they were able to ease the tension in the two youths quickly and efficiently.
They didn''t have to wait long for the rest of the group members to arrive. Alisia''s eyes widened when she first spotted Refix and Ameliyn sitting on the couch, but her expression smoothed out almost immediately. Tahl showed his worth as an observant bodyguard, as his hand immediately went to the hilt of his sword, knuckles white from gripping it as hard as he could. Melissa could see that sweat had immediately beaded his forehead.
Seems like they have some items or Skills that allow them to sense the threat level of people around, Melissa nodded to herself. Ameliyn isn''t flexing on the girl, as far as I can tell, or such a thing wouldn''t even be necessary. If Alisia was able to recover her calm mood that quickly from such an interaction, I would have to re-evaluate almost everything I know about her. Melissa quietly chuckled to herself.
"Okay, that looks like everyone," Ameliyn announced, standing up. "First of all, we really appreciate everything you all have done with, and for, Reivyn over the past year. Your concern over his well-being is clear on your faces.
"As to the reason we''re not concerned, and the main reason we''ve made this little trip to meet with you is because we know that Reivyn is alive and doing rtively well."
Ameliyn reached into the pouch at her waist and withdrew an object. She pulled out a fairlyrge crystal orb, slightlyrger than her hand. It gave off a gentle glow, and Melissa could see eight, smaller orbs floating about inside the main crystal. Each orb, individually gave off a gentle glow, though one of the interior ones seemed to be slightly dimmer than the others.
Melissa frowned as she gazed at the object. It looks familiar, but I can''t quite ce it. It''s just out of reach for me to recall what it is. A gasp broke her concentration, and she looked up to see Alisia covering her mouth, eyes as wide as they could go.
"That''s a Soul Orb," Alisia eximed, pointing at the object in Ameliyn''s hand. Melissa frowned as she returned her attention to it. It does resemble one, now that it''s been pointed out to me, but why is it...
"Why is it so big?" She voiced her thoughts. Ameliyn shrugged.
"We don''t know," she replied. "It''s always been this big, ever since we had it made. We also don''t know what''s up with the eight smaller orbs floating inside of it."
"Each one of the smaller orbs is bigger than any of the Soul Orbs we have for any of our family members," Larissa absentmindedlymented, staring at the Soul Orb.
"I''m sorry," Teilon raised his hand. "A what?"
"This is a Soul Orb," Ameliyn held it out for Teilon and Kimberly to inspect. Everyone else seemed to have already grasped the meaning behind it. "It will crack and shatter the moment whoever is bound to it dies. This is why we know he''s alive. Not only that, but the glow is still healthy, so he hasn''t suffered any irrevocable damage to his soul or body."
"Ahh, I see," Teilon said, leaning forward to get a better look at the orb. "But this one - one of the ones floating around in the middle - seems to be dimming."
"Yes, well," Ameliyn put the orb back in her pouch. That pouch is way too small to hold something like what she just put inside of it, Melissa idly noticed. "That''s the only thing that''s caused us any concern over the past month and a half. But it''s still glowing with the same intensity as all of the others, and we don''t quite know what they are to begin with, so there''s still hope that everything ispletely fine."
"Ahem," Refix cleared his throat. "Reivyn must be going through some sort of trial and tribtion. We know he''s alive and well, and for all we know, healthy, as well. We knew from the letters you all sent, as well as other sources, that you were all worried about him.
"News was sent to Eldiar, too, but Galwit''s family hasn''t made any moves of any kind. They might know something about the situation. If Reivyn''s Soul Orb wasn''t showing that he was doing well, rtively, we would have rushed over there to demand some answers. As it stands now, though, we''ll simply inquire about it from them when we move up to Eldiar this fall."
"You''re still going to move to Eldiar?" Alisia asked, confused. "What about Reivyn and the Dungeon?"
"We have more than one child," Ameliyn answered, cing a hand on the girl''s arm. "And we''re not abandoning him here. We have friends," Teilon snorted, and Ameliyn ignored his outburst as she continued, "that will keep an eye out for him. They can lead him to either return to the Magic Academy to try for a quota somehow, or they can directly lead him to us in Eldiar. It''s not as big of a deal as you might think."
"There''s also really nothing we can do about the situation until hees out of the Dungeon," Refix added. "And it''s been nearly two months. Who knows when he''lle back?
"All I know is that I''m confident he will, and he''ll be disappointed if we don''t take his sisters to Eldiar and apany his friends over such a ''minor matter.''"
"Yeah, that''s exactly how he would react," Teilon smirked.
"That''s all we wanted to say," Ameliyn said. "We knew that a message wouldn''t be convincing, so we decided to drop in and exin it in person."
Refix stood up and joined Ameliyn, and everyone else followed suit. Tom, Vane, and Trick spoke with Refix briefly before running off to supposedly start training again. They were in much higher spirits, even more so than they had been from Josn and Larissa''s help over the past weeks, from the information they had gotten from Reivyn''s parents. Haylen and Erin exchanged pleasantries with Ameliyn for a moment before heading off as well.
Everyone else, along with Melissa, walked with Refix and Ameliyn as they escorted them to the door.
"Won''t you be staying for at least a meal before you head back to whichever inn you''re staying in?" Alisia asked. "The manor is sorge you could stay here, as well. There''s no need to run off so soon."
"That''s sweet, dear," Ameliyn said, grabbing Alisia''s hand and patting it, "but we really must be going immediately. There''s no telling what kind of mischief Reivyn''s sisters could be getting up to in our absence. We really must be back in The Capital by tomorrow evening."
Ameliyn said it casually as she bid farewell to everyone else. Refix imparted somest bits of wisdom to Teilon and Kimberly, and Ameliyn even gave Melissa a short hug, surprising the girl. They were out the door and gone before anyone had a chance to detain them further as Alisia had attempted. Melissa''s friend stared after them with a nk look before startling back to herself.
"Wait, what?!" She eximed. "Back in The Capital by tomorrow evening?"
Melissa looked her friend in the eye and smirked.
Chapter 95: Always a Price
Chapter 95: Always a Price
His eyes opened slowly, the gunk and blurriness making it hard to see right away. His head was swimming, and he shook it to clear some of the cobwebs out of his mind. Through the haze of his vision, he could see an orange glow with arge shadow sitting in front of it. The sounds of wood crackling from a fire reached his ears.
Galwit sat up and rubbed his eyes, clearing away the vestiges of unconsciousness. His vision cleared, and he was surprised to see that he was in apletely unfamiliar location.
Where is this? How did I get here? He looked around frantically, but he couldn''t recall how he got there at all.
He was sitting in a small clearing. He didn''t recognize the species of any of the surrounding trees. The darkness told him that it was deep in the night, but he couldn''t see any of the stars due to the light pollution from the campfire. Arge man in a ck robe was sitting in front of the fire, facing the other direction. Galwit could barely make out that there was another person standing unnaturally still behind him.
A hacking coughing from the robed man brought Galwit''s attention back to him.
"Umm, excuse me," Galwit called out to him. The man coughed once more, then motioned with an arm, directing Galwit to sit on a chopped log across from him on the other side of the fire. Galwit got up and cautiously made his way over.
Galwit sat down and looked up at the robed man. He noticed the man wore a nk white mask, but it was the person standing behind him that caused him to freeze, the hairs on his arms sticking up and a chill running down his spine.
Standing behind the Masked Man, with a wooden expression on his face, was himself. The person was an exact copy of him, minus the unnatural stillness.
The Masked Man noticed Galwit''s gaze, and he turned his head to see what he was looking at.
"Oh," The man softly eximed. "Forgot that was back there." He turned back to face Galwit. "Don''t worry about that. Just a puppet." He waved his hand in the puppet''s direction, and it disintegrated into dust before being absorbed back into the man.
"Who are you and where am I?" Galwit asked, disturbed by the scene of himself disintegrating. The Masked Man chuckled before it morphed into another hacking fit. He brought up a handkerchief and held it under his mask as he coughed. When he lowered his hand, Galwit could see drops of red on the white cloth.
"Straight to the point," The Masked Man examined the cloth in his hand before tucking it away in his robes. "I''m getting too old for this," he mumbled to himself. He turned to address Galwit once more. "I borrowed your appearance to pull off a bit of deception. While you didn''t help me out willingly, you still helped me. One good turn deserves another. Karma and all that. Ask me what you want."
Galwit eyed the man suspiciously. He was keenly aware that the man had evaded his questions, but he was out of his element and in the others.
"I want to go home," Galwit dered.
"No!" The Masked Man pped his hands together, a thunderous sound emanating out from the powerful blow. Abyss Mana leaked out from the man''s hands as he recovered himself. He stared Galwit in the eye through the eye holes of his mask. "Ask me," he pointed to himself, "what you," he pointed at Galwit, "want."
Galwit paused and considered the question. The man clearly knew there was a desire in Galwit''s heart, so he decided to be forting.
"I want the System to recognize my family''s Abyssal roots and not consider us to be heretics," he answered.
"Ask and you shall receive," the man nodded his head. "Tell me, why is it that Reivyn isn''t considered a heretic by the Veridical System?"
"Because he''s a resident of the Veridical Realm?" Galwit ventured. He was only slightly surprised that the Masked Man knew about Reivyn. He seemed to know about my desire before I said it, after all. What else does he know?
"Wrong," the Masked Man held up his finger. "Plenty of people born of that Realm fall into what their System considers heresy. Try again."
Galwit considered the question further. He had been a bit flippant with his first answer, but it seemed like the Masked Man wouldn''t move on until he gave an honest attempt at the question.
"He told me he had the Tier 5 Abyss Affinity, so I''m guessing it has something to do with that?"
"Exactly," the Masked Man snapped his fingers. "But it''s more than that. I''ve seen his Fate. He also has the Tier 5 Veridical Affinity. Without that Affinity, it wouldn''t be possible for him to counterbnce the nature of the System to reject other Realm Affinities."
"Ok, and how does that help me?" Galwit was confused.
"As a descendant of both Realms, you, and your family, have it in you to acquire both Affinities," the Masked Man continued. "Once your family has both Affinities, problem solved."
"You make it sound so easy," Galwit retorted. "It will take years of effort for each individual person to gain those Affinities. I don''t even know how to get those Affinities."
"Well, let me finish," the Masked Man chuckled. "The problem of requiring each individual member of your family to unlock both Affinities has a simple solution. Note that I said ''simple,'' not ''easy.'' What is the way for someone to spread their inherent characteristics to their descendants?"
"A Bloodline?" Galwit asked. The Masked Man nodded and motioned for Galwit to continue his thought process. "A Bloodline passed down from powerful individuals takes on the main characteristics of their chosen Path. People who gain powerful Martial sses will have children with a Physical Stat advantage, and powerful Caster sses will have children with a Mental Stat advantage.
"So, what you''re trying to say, is if we can form a proper Bloodline of people who all unlock the two Tier 5 Affinities, the Bloodline itself will carry on the characteristics of not being rejected by the System?"
"Exactly," the Masked Man confirmed.
"Why y this question and answer game, though? Why not just tell me? It was a simple enough solution," Galwit asked, confused.
"Easy," the Masked Man answered. "If I just gave you the answers to your burning desire, it would count towards removing our Karmic link. I have to y by the rules if I don''t want to die, and if I''m to actually help you, I have to have enough of the link remaining to do what I''m going to do next. Otherwise, it would put too much strain on me."
"And what are you going to do next?" Galwit asked with concern.
"I can see your Fate," the man said. "You already have the Fate of one born to lead a powerful family. Well, rtively powerful. If you want to unlock the Tier 5 Affinities, you''ll need to at minimum secure a foundation in a Tier 4 Empire. Anyway, back on topic. You already have the Fate to lead a powerful family. It only takes a slight tweak of your Fate Strings to alter that to the Patriarch of a Bloodline."
"I already have a Bloodline."
"Don''t interrupt me. Altering a Bloodline just means you have to be a bit more powerful than the originals, and your descendants have to be consistent.
"I''ll tweak your Fate slightly. The foundations for everything are already in ce. It will be up to you to capitalize on the change, though."
Galwit nodded. The Masked Man stood up and waved his arms in opposite circles in front of himself. Galwit could sense the buildup of the Mana, though he couldn''t see anything, even with his Sense Mana Skill. The amount of power he was Sensing, though, was startling. The Masked Man had told him that it would take a slight tweak to affect the change, yet he was sensing thousands of points worth of Mana being channeled into each of the man''s hands.
The Masked Man stopped the circles and threw his hands out in front of himself, toward Galwit. A wind kicked up and blew Galwit''s hair and clothes a bit, but he didn''t feel any other change. The man copsed to the ground, once more devolving into a coughing fit.
Galwit frowned at the apparentck of change before reeling back in horror. Blood seeped from the eye-holes of the mask, and he could see even more dripping down from the man''s chin behind the mask. The Masked Man groaned in agony as he suffered for several long minutes, Galwit unsure of what to do.
The spectacle finally ceased, and the Masked Man sat back up, panting hard from the exertion. He produced a pink towel from somewhere and wiped his white mask clean before once more dabbing at his mouth with the handkerchief. The man noticed Galwit''s horrified gaze.
"Everything has a price," the man said, putting the towel away where it hade from. "That towel used to be white."
"Ok~ay," Galwit said. "Are you sure you''re alright? Wouldn''t it be easier to suffer through that bacsh if you took the mask off?"
"If I could take the damn mask off, don''t you think I would have?" The Masked Man rolled his eyes behind the holes.
"Well, I don''t feel any different," Galwit mentioned.
"Of course, you don''t," the man snapped. "Fate is intangible. How are you going to feel it? Trust me, though, it worked."
"If you say so-"
"I say so!"
"Ok, ok," Galwit held up his hands. "Anyway, can I go home now?"
"No."
"No?"
"Yes. No."
"And why is that?" Galwit said, exasperated.
"For one, I''m in no condition to escort you back to the other side. For two, it''s not time yet. If you go back now, hundreds of years of nning will go to waste. That''s not happening."
"What do you mean by ''the other side?''" Galwittched on to the first statement, conveniently ignoring the one about "hundreds of years of nning." For now.
The Masked Man stared at Galwit for a moment. He turned his head left and right, looking all around, before looking back at Galwit. He threw his arms up in consternation.
"Have you not been paying attention?!" He asked. "We''re in the Abyss Realm. Can''t you feel all the Abyss Mana surrounding you?" He took in a deep breath and let it out in a rxed manner. "Just breathe it in. It feels so good to be back in the Abyss after all of those years on the outside. Just feel it. You don''t have to hide behind your trinket anymore."
Galwit opened his eyes, and Senses, wide for the first time as he fully took in his surroundings. He had been so focused on the man and situation he found himself in, that he had neglected to properly inspect the environment surrounding them. The air was rich with Abyss Mana. He copied the Masked Man, taking in a deep breath, reveling in the liberating feeling.
He could absorb the Veridical Affinity just fine, though he had to constantly work to alter it into Abyss Mana by running it through his particr Mana Cirction before it was usable. The Mana here felt like clear water, whereas the Veridical Mana was muddy water that needed to be purified. He felt lighter than he ever had, in a metaphysical sense.
"Perfect ce for our purpose," the Masked Man interrupted Galwit''s revtion. Galwit looked at the man in confusion.
"And what''s our purpose?" Galwit asked. "I thought you were just paying me back for the use of my likeness."
"Well, I was doing that," the man replied. "Though I''m also going to have to keep you from returning for a few years." Galwit''s eyebrows shot to the top of his head at that statement. "Yeah, sorry about that. Another Karmic link, though this one will be mitigated by our purpose:
"Training.
"If you want to seed in your goal of acquiring a Bloodline that affords the characteristics of having two Tier 5 Affinities, you''ll need a much stronger foundation than you currently have. I''m not a god. Fate magic doesn''t work if you don''t put in the work, too. It''s still possible for you to muck everything up. It will just mean that you didn''t live up to your Fate."
"So it stilles down to my own personal effort?" Galwit cocked an eyebrow.
"Of course," the Masked Man responded. "Fate isn''t real."
Galwit gave the Masked Man the most confused look he had ever mustered in his entire life. Hispanion responded by throwing his head back andughing boisterously.
Reivyn found himself floating in a familiar void. He was only partially aware of what was going on, but it was familiar enough that it had brought a bit of his consciousness awake within himself.
Unlike thest time, though, he knew who he was, and he remembered what had been happening to him. He was aware that something was happening to his body that was causing him immense pain, but it was being blocked out from where his consciousness currently resided by some force that he was unaware of. It draped over his awareness like a nket, and it reminded him of his mother.
Reivyn was aware of what was going on within the deepest parts of his consciousness, yet he was unable to form coherent thoughts into any kind of internal monologue. He was only able to passively observe his inner self.
Something tugged at his awareness, and he shifted his focus somehow, turning around. It was hard to describe what he was doing, as there didn''t really seem to be any direction or anything, yet he could still feel his perception change.
Suddenly, there was arge, bright orb within his awareness. He couldn''t see details on it, as he was more sensing it than seeing it. He could tell that it was perfectly round and perfectly smooth. From his perception, the orb appeared to be asrge as he was.
A force unexpectedly came out of nowhere, mming down on the orb. When it made contact, Reivyn''s entire existence shook. A small splinter broke off from the orb, forming another, much smaller orb floating next to the first one.
Another force came smashing down once more, causing yet another splinter. The force hammer, as Reivyn perceived it, struck eight times total. Each time a splinter was separated from the main orb, and each of the new splinters was the exact same size. The main orb shrunk a proportional amount each time, but the final result was still a main orb that was significantlyrger than the other eight.
He wasn''t sure how it was possible, but each of the orbs maintained a perfect spherical shape. None of them had any cracks or blemishes in his awareness.
The force hammer wasn''t done, though, and it came back once more. This time, it targeted Reivyn''s semi-awareness directly.
His consciousness itself fractured into nine separate parts. There was no pain, only disorientation. He was still aware as if his consciousness hadn''t been fractured at all, and yet, simultaneously, he was aware of himself from nine different vantage points.
It was a good thing that he wasn''t able to actually think, because the paradoxical situation might have just broken him, mentally.
His nine-consciousnesses-in-one were sucked into the orbs, each consciousness proportional in size to the orb it was sucked into. Five of his awarenesses, finally went dark, descending once more into oblivion, including the one in thergest, core orb.
Four, though, remained awake.
"Another one of the internal orbs'' light has started to darken," Ameliyn said to her husband. She was holding Reivyn''s Soul Orb in her hands, stroking it as she stared into it. "The first one is also elerating."
"Let me see," Refix said. Ameliyn held the orb up as Refix leaned over to get a look at it. "The luminosity hasn''t changed, so I think everything is still fine."
Refix leaned back to his position in bed next to his wife. She pulled the Soul Orb back down so that the light wouldn''t disturb her husband as he tried to go to sleep.
Both of them had been having trouble doing so ever since that first emergency message had arrived, weeks ago, though they had recently gotten over their insomnia. Ameliyn had the reassurance of Reivyn''s Soul Orb, and Refix had the peace of a calm wife.
A strange turn of events had distracted the Party tasked with keeping an eye on Reivyn for only a couple of minutes, but it was enough for them to lose himpletely. They had frantically searched and discovered that he had returned to the Dungeon with the prince from Eldiar and one of his followers. It sounded like a conspiracy to Ameliyn, and Refix had to talk her down from storming off to Eldiar to exact swift retribution before they had all of the answers.
Days had gone by without anyone emerging from the Dungeon, and Refix had found it harder and harder to calm his frantic wife down. It took everything he had to keep her sane. It had been a long time since Refix had seen her emotions get the better of her like this.
After five days of nothing happening, the Magic Academy student that had apanied Reivyn and Galwit into the Dungeon finally returned to the real world. He was haggard and distraught, clearly not having taken enough supplies tost more than a few hours in the Dungeon, and yet he had stayed for five days.
It was a simple thing for Reivyn''s protective detail to corner the teenager and extract the pertinent information from him.
Refix and Ameliyn had been shocked to hear about the appearance of an Abyssal Gate. There had been no indication of the existence of such a thing when Refix had led his Party to scour the real-world exterior of the Dungeon. They didn''t know the specifics behind the gate, but they didn''t think it was anything good.
They had been even more shocked that Reivyn had simply opened it and stepped through. They had no idea what their son could have been thinking, but the news had helped ay Ameliyn''s fears that there had been some sort of kidnapping. From the ount of the student, Reivyn had gone willingly.
Being separated by yet anotheryer of reality had gotten Ameliyn thinking about how they could possibly track someone across such a thing, and that had led to her remembering the Soul Orb.
They hadn''t forgotten about the Soul Orb, but they just hadn''t been thinking about its primary function. Their state of mind had been on locating Reivyn, not verifying his life. They still checked the Soul Orb from time to time when Reivyn was off gallivanting around, but their protective details were pretty good about timely reports and keeping abreast of what was going on with their son.
It had been a little while since they hadst checked the orb, and Ameliyn immediately retrieved it from her pouch after she thought of it. She was pleased to see that everything was normal with her son''s Soul Orb, and that had been the thing that finally allowed her to calm down a bit.
She had always known, intellectually, that it was likely for Reivyn to go off on his own for an extended period of time, but she wasn''t ready for such a thing to happen so soon. He was still her little boy, despite his nearly fully-grown size and his adult-like personality and aplishments.
Intellectually, she had known that the Soul Orb would one day be one of her main connections to reassure herself of her son''s well-being. She had still had bouts of paranoia and panic throughout the days in the following weeks, and she pulled the Soul Orb out every time to calm herself down.
Ameliyn had started pulling the orb out every night to gaze at it for hours. Her husband had been worried that she was growing an obsession, though, so she relegated herself to only spending an hour or two at night before bed at his behest. The two of them didn''t need that much sleep with how high their Vitality Stats were, but it still helped with their mental health.
She had finally returned to a modicum of normalcy after about a month and a half, and they had chosen that time to go to the Dungeon Town to reassure Reivyn''s friends. They had actually had a longer time to cope with the news than his friends in the Dungeon Town had, as they hadn''t known the seriousness of the situation until after a full week had gone by.
Ameliyn and Refix had been dealing with it since a few hours after Reivyn had re-entered the Dungeon. They also knew that their son was alive and probably well for a long time before they ventured to the Dungeon Town, both of which had enabled them to put up a cheerful front in the presence of Reivyn''s friends.
Ameliyn hugged her son''s Soul Orb to herself, enveloping it with her Celestial-infused Mana.
"Goodnight, Sweet Prince," she whispered.
Chapter 96: Deep Within
Chapter 96: Deep Within
Reivyn''s consciousness faded by more than two-thirds as the other fractions of his awareness faded to darkness. Swirling lights coalesced within his remaining four, eventually forming a different scene within each.
Reivyn was still unable to form coherent thoughts, and without the guide of the central orb pulling the separate awarenesses together to form a whole, he was left watching dreams that formed from the energies invading his body, wracking it with pain. He wasn''t aware of how he was aware; he just subconsciously knew that the source was whatever the Masked Man had done to him.
The four separate dreams were viewed as if he was a bystander, and it happened all at the same time. His fractured senses knew there were other dreams urring within his mind at the same time, but they weren''t able to pull them together and make any sense of them as one. As it was, the dreams went from something that could have been incredibly vivid, to barely distinguishable.
He was Irk.
He had been sickly his entire life, pushed aside by his older siblings in the fight for family resources. As the youngest and the runt of the bunch, there hadn''t been much left over for him.
Despite keeping to himself and always trying to stay out of the way of his brothers and sisters, they despised the fact that he received anything at all. They had to fight and struggle against each other for the favor of their parents, the strong or cunning beingvished with praise and Vigor. Their bodies adapted to the climate, and their minds grew sharp and cruel.
Irk''s Second Sister was the most cunning and cruel of all.
The morepetent siblings had begun to view Irk''s paltry quota of Vigor from their father as theft from its rightful owners, led by their eldest brother. This, despite the fact that it wouldn''t have made any difference to them at all with how much further along they were in their development.
The Second Sister had taken pity on Irk, and she had defended him from the machinations of his crueler blood. He was wary at first, thinking it was a scheme to snatch his only chance of improving himself one day to stand on his own two feet. His fears were put to rest, though, when her pity turned topassion, and she shared with him of her own Vigor.
He grew dependent on his Second Sister, following her around like a puppy. He felt more kinship from her than he ever did even from his own mother.
Second Sister listened to hisints about how unfair the situation was. If he had been born earlier, his share would have beenrger, sooner, and he could have been one of the older siblings vying for supremacy. His story wasn''t an umon one, as he saw many such younger siblings growing up weak and despondent.
Most of them didn''t make it to adulthood.
His Second Sistermiserated with him and told him she would figure something out, just to give him a chance.
Weeks turned into months, and months turned into a couple of years before his Second Sister finally came to him with a n. She had a bright smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye when she told Irk of the Nomad Arena.
Their society was harsh and cruel. Many people turned to crime to try and solve their problems. Most of them were caught. Their society didn''t believe in redemption, and they scoffed at the idea of letting criminals wallow for years in prison. Thus, the Nomad Arena was formed.
It traveled thends all year long, stopping in towns and cities to take on ves and convicts to fight to the death in an arena for the viewing pleasure of the powerful. She had told him that one could volunteer to fight in the arena, and the victor would get a portion of the Vigor spoils.
Irk had been skeptical, but he trusted his Second Sister implicitly. She had convinced him that he could go and fight, and the amount of Vigor would give him just the boost he needed for a fighting chance.
Irk had followed his sister to the Nomad Arena, and she had signed him up for a match right away. She gave him a thumbs up and smile as she walked to the viewing stands, and he was escorted into the depths.
It was dark and dank, and it stank of blood and sweat. Irk could see many others, scrawny like him, shivering in their seats, refusing to engage with anyone else as they waited for their turn to go up onto the sands to fight. Irk had been confused at the sight, as he didn''t see anyone else like him who was a bit optimistic about their chance to finally break free from their weak lives.
Irk was nervous, though, as he had never been in a life or death fight. Fighting and training with real weapons were required from his parents, so he at least knew his way around a de, but he wasn''t anything special with it. He had been guaranteed fairness, though, and his opponent would be of an equivalent level of Vigor.
Irk was anxious and scared, despite the assurances from Second Sister when he finally stood opposite his opponent in the sands. The cheering of the crowd drowned out his own thoughts on the matter, though, and he could only watch his opponent square off against him with a look of despair in his eyes.
Blood caked the sand all around, and there were even still some bits of internal organs that hadn''t been cleaned up from the previous rounds. Irk had no time for his bile to rise, though, as the match was started almost immediately upon them reaching the center of the arena.
His opponent was a wild beast, and he fought with viciousness Irk had never seen before. It was clear that he hadn''t been born in a prominent family, like Irk had, though, as hecked any real Skill in weapons or fighting in general.
Irk suffered some minor scrapes and bruises, and he almost got stabbed through the heart fairly early on before he could adapt to his situation.
The other man proved to be insufficient, though, and Irk finally slew him. He was too much of a novice when it came to life or death fights, and it hadn''t been a decisive blow. He had simply bled the man out with hundreds of scratches. He had had plenty of opportunities to strike true, but he always found his body wavering at thest second, unable to cross that final line until it was forced upon him.
He had copsed to his knees and vomited.
He was quickly congratted by the announcer and led to the victor''s ring where he was bestowed with more Vigor than he had ever experienced in his life at one time. It might have even matched the sum total he had received to this point.
One of the arena guards grabbed him by the shoulder and directed him to return to the depths to await another match. Irk was confused and tried to reel away from the man, exining that he had only signed up for one fight. The man hadughed in his face and manhandled him to move him to the waiting area. He told Irk that only convicts and ves fought in the arena.
Irk frantically searched the crowd for his Second Sister. She could corroborate his story and let the staff know that he was only here to get a boost and that he was no ve. He found her in her seat, staring at him. When their eyes met, she gave him that familiar smile, but this time it was suffused with malice.
Irk''s heart dropped as he realized what had happened. She had yed a long game in order to catch the attention of their father, and now victory was within her grasp. The mask fell off, and he saw her for the devil that she was.
She stayed and watched every one of his fights. She even went so far as to cheer for him loudly and apud when he continued to win. The nicks and cuts umted on Irk''s body, and he was only afforded a tiny healing draught after each match. It burned like nothing he had ever experienced before, and it only gave his body a tiny bit of paltry healing.
It kept him full of energy, though, so he could continue to fight.
By the time it was over, Irk was an unrecognizable bloody mess. He had cuts and bruises all over his body. Sweat, snot, and tears mixed with the blood, and there wasn''t a single clean spot of skin. He stared up at his Second Sister as the final victor, for there could only ever be one in each bracket, with as much hatred as he could muster.
It wasn''t much, and his Second Sister had simply smirked before walking off, head held high.
Irk was taken with the Nomad Arena to their next location. He had won the final match during his first tour, but there was no reward like clemency or deration of being a champion. He was a ve, and he would fight for the amusement of the popce.
They trained him far more cruelly than he had ever experienced with his father and siblings. More than one ve acquired along the way perished from the strict discipline. They were expected to perform well for their audience, though they would only ever receive Vigor when they won an actual match.
Years went by as the Nomad Arena traveled thend. Irk desperately fought for his life, always being paired up against another opponent who was almost his equal in Vigor. It didn''t get any easier for a long time.
Fighting and killing in the sand pits, though, changed Irk. He started to revel in the bloodshed. He no longer bled his opponents because he was too weak tond a finishing blow. He bled his opponents to watch the realization of their fate turn to despair in their eyes, and for the blood that flowed out of their bodies.
Irk discovered that he had an advantage over everyone else he encountered. He quickly picked up the Skills of any weapons he was given or found discarded in the arena, and none of the new opponents was his match after several years of constant fighting and training.
He acquired many scars of his own, though, and his bodypletely morphed over the years. He hadn''t always been superior to everyone else in hisbat abilities, and his penchant for long, drawn-out fights often added wounds to his body that he wouldn''t have gotten with a quick finish.
Gone was the scrawny build. Gone was the pale skin.
In its ce stood a hulking behemoth, changed by the copious Vigor rewards from the constant fighting. His body and face werepletely unrecognizable with the mass of scars crisscrossing his entire being.
He was given the moniker The Irksome Devil.
His life was nothing but constant battle, and he rejoiced in the blood thirst that he had discovered within himself.
The days bled into years until one day he found himself in a familiar city. He had gone full circle in thend, something that hardly ever happened.
The Nomad Arena took their ve contracts very seriously. There was a provision that any ve would gain their freedom if they survived an entire circuit of thend.
Irk had been unaware of it, as he had been tricked into the whole thing. His match would be the spectacle for the ages, as a champion from the city was appointed for his match, the only exception to the rule of only convicts and ves fighting in the arena.
Irk found himself standing before a man he vaguely recognized. He searched the man''s eyes, but the one across from him didn''t share the same recognition. He scanned the crowd and saw the familiar sight of his older siblings with his parents.
They had all grown older, and several of them had families of their own apanying them to witness the greatest fight that would be seen in the Nomad Arena for generations toe.
They were seated in the VIP section, an honor for having one of their own chosen as the champion to end Irk''s chances of freedom. Theck of his oldest brother amongst his family finally snapped his mind into ce as he realized his opponent was his own eldest brother.
Irk smiled as he ughtered his own family. His eldest brother was quite a bit more powerful in the Vigor department, but Irk was far more experienced and Skilled inbat. He batted away all attempts at ending his life, and he cruelly toyed with the man that had been the bane of his existence as a scrawny child.
He cut off each of his brother''s limbs and bathed in his lifeblood. He walked over to the VIP stands as they watched him advance with conflicting emotions on their faces. This was thend of the strong, and their eldest brother had proven wanting, but he had still been the pride of their family.
He stood in the sands, gazing up at his blood rtives just slightly elevated above where the fighting would ur. It was out of reach for mostbatants, but not Irk. His father seemed to realize the fact as he took up a position in front of his remaining children.
Irk ignored the old man and turned his gaze toward his target. She stared at him with an impassive face, not knowing who he was. She should have known, considering she had been there to witness him win his bracket all those years ago, but she was a narcissist who quickly forgot she even had a younger sibling.
Irk smiled at her.
"Second Sister," he smirked.
She frowned for a second at the words before goingpletely white, fear clearly etched on her face.
The Irksome Devil threw his head back andughed.
He was Kierl.
He grew up in a modest home, and he was spoiled immensely by his mother. His family wasn''t extremely wealthy, but they never had to want for anything or struggle to make ends meet.
Kierl grew up having everything he ever wanted until he had something he had never considered.
His mother gave birth to a brother for him.
Kierl had gazed at the infant, not knowing what to make of the new addition to his life. He tried to love his new brother, but the feelings never seemed toe.
What''s worse his mother began to neglect him in favor of his baby brother. He watched as she sacrificed her time and possessions to ede to his brother''s every want and need.
He knew that it was right and proper for a mother to care for a new infant, and he waited until the day his brother would be old enough for his mother to get out of the phase of giving all of her attention to him.
But it wasn''t a phase. It didn''t end.
Years went by, and Keirl grew to resent his brother. He had usurped his position as most precious in the family. He hated him. He envied him.
Kierl began to hoard his possessions, keeping them away from his brother. He started off as a sweet toddler, just exploring the world around him and wanting to experience everything it had to offer. Kierl had given his best effort to try and share his things as his mother instructed, but his resentment and envy only grew stronger as his things that he shared with his brother became his brother''s things.
His life didn''t be miserable or hard, and he still had the love of his parents, but it was overshadowed by the love for his brother.
Kierl began acting the same way with his friends and acquaintances, outside of the home. He would refuse to share anything with anyone, and if there was ever an opportunity to acquire some sort of reward from the educators, he worked his hardest so that it would be him.
He grewpetent and knowledgeable. He was driven and sessful in everything that he put his mind to, but he was empty inside.
He had driven his friends away with his machinations for hoarding everything he could get his hands on.
He was greedy.
He was greedy for love, but he couldn''t get it no matter how he excelled. His brother was average at best, but his mother would go around singing his praises every time he had even a modicum of sess. Kiehl''s achievements were an afterthought.
A void grew inside him, and he tried to fill it with anything and everything, but it was bottomless.
It all came to a head, one day when he passed by his now teenage younger brother. He had smirked at his crossing, making a snide remark to his own friends. Not only did his brother have the love of their parents, but he was always surrounded by friends. Kierl no longer had any friends.
"There he goes, the oblivious one," the remark reached Kierl''s ears. He stopped and turned to face his younger sibling. His brother smirked at him as continued to speak.
"You all wonder how I''m always so far ahead of you," he gestured toward Kierl. "Well, there''s your answer. He''s still feeding me to this day. Working harder and harder to get the one thing he can''t have. Hahaha."
The group of teenagersughed. Kierl frowned and confronted the group. His brother just shook his head and gave him a look he had never seen before. It was a mix of pity and ridicule.
It was a look of contempt.
"Do you honestly think you''ve driven all of your friends away? When was thest time you saw any of them, hmm? You didn''t drive them away, they just gave up long before you did."
Kierl was confused at this point. He knew he hadn''t been the best friend, but his brother''s words had woken him up. He should have at least seen his old friends around town, but he never did.
He was confused as he stormed off toward home, fleeing theughter of the youths following him.
He ran home and demanded an exnation from his mother. She brushed aside his worries, giving a simple excuse to try and ay his concerns.
It didn''t work. He could see that there was a truth being withheld from him.
He became a man with a mission, as he channeled hispetency into searching out his friends. Empty rooms in homes with only one child, a second child, were all that greeted him.
The conspiracy drove him ever further into trying to fill the void. He knew that there must be something to do with his driven nature, and the taunts of his brother and his friends chased him as he fell into depression.
But the depression couldn''t change him. He had be Greedy. He couldn''t stop himself at this point, even though everything he did only made things worse for him on the inside.
He became a sessful man in his own right, even more so than his own father. He moved out of the house and tried to put everything behind him, to no avail.
Finally, after several years of harried existence, receiving strange looks from everyone in town, from people he hardly recognized any more, his brother showed up at his home.
His brother was a changed man, now that he was fully an adult. No longer was he average at best. He was filled with exuberance and confidence.
He strode into Kierl''s home with a smile on his face, going so far as to even give his brother a hug.
Kierl didn''t know what to make of the strange encounter, and he simply hedged his bets by trying to avoid any meaningful conversation.
His brother wasn''t having it, though.
"Now that I''m an adult, the benefits have ended," his brother said out of the blue. "Nobody eversts as long as you do, and I really do owe you a debt of gratitude. Your aplishments have made me the man I am today, one of the best in the entire province.
"I think it''s about time to reveal the truth to you. Come with me."
His brother led him to the far side of town, to a restricted area he had never been to before. He looked around in confusion as he passed through a guarded checkpoint, and he was shocked to find that they were in a cemetery.
All of the graves were sized for teenagers and children.
"I asked you, years ago, where your friends had gone," his brother said. "Well, here they are."
Kierl looked around with horror, spotting the familiar names on headstones. He walked up to one and crumbled to the ground, sobbing against the headstone at the revtion.
"It''s customary for us toe and give sacrifice to the memory of our incense burner each year," his brother continued. "I haven''t had to do it yet, of course. You''re still alive.
"The first child of a family, for the entire town, is given copious love and attention, and then it''s revoked in favor of a second child. You spent your whole life chasing after something that would never be given to you because it was designed this way.
"You were much stronger than anyone else has been in generations. All of your contemporaries couldn''t handle it, and they either gave up on life or ended it themselves.
"You might be wondering how a parent could do something so horrible to their own children, but the fact is, all of the adults were second siblings, as well. This information is kept hidden from first children, and it''s usually not a problem as it fixes itself after a while," his brother gestured to the graves.
"We really don''t know what to do with you, at this point. The emotional drain you''ve supplied me no longer applies now that I''m an adult, and I doubt you would want to hang around after learning the truth.
"So I guess this is goodbye? Good luck." His brother turned and walked away, leaving Kierl a sobbing mess.
It took Kierl many hours to process what he had been told. It was true that he had no idea what he was going to do with himself, but he sure couldn''t stay here.
The void in the center of his being didn''t go away with the horrifying revtion, though.
It remained, but it no longer sought to be filled with love.
It no longer had a goal. It was just there.
There was nothing left but Greed itself.
Reivyn''s four awareness experienced different emotional traumas. Each one was unique, and each one altered a portion of his soul irrevocably.
He experienced blood thirst, rage, and hatred as Irk. He experienced despair, loneliness, and greed as Kierl. He experienced lust and gluttony as another, and the final awareness experienced nothing as he was shown the life of a psychopath.
His four awarenesses came out of their induced dreams, and they recognized each other, casting off the seeming years of life experienced in the dreams. The other five consciousnesses awoke to be greeted by the changed fractures.
The four orbs that experienced years of emotional damage gave off an aura of darkness, and they glowed with a dark light. Their aura permeated within therger center orb.
Empathy andpassion effused from the five orbs freshly awakened, guided by the central orb. A pure white light escaped from them,bating the taint that they were spreading.
The four dark orbs began to rotate around the center, trying to flee but trapped in the limited space. The white orbs chased after them, attempting to purify the darkness.
Suddenly, the central orb absorbed all of the eight, smaller orbs into its interior. They merged with therger orb once again, turning it half ck, half white. The four ck orbs came together at a point, surrounded by the white light from the four white orbs, and their influence caused the half of the orb the smaller ck ones upied to turn white.
The ck orbs fought back, though, and their aura surrounded the white orbs that had also formed into a point.
Therge orb reached an equilibrium: Half white, half ck, with a point of the opposite color in the center of the aura. The auras formedet-like structures as they surrounded their counterpoints with a trailing tail following behind.
A Notification popped up within Reivyn''s awareness, shocking him out of the strange state he had been in. The pain from the energies coursing through his body was gone, and hey on the ground, panting, as true awareness returned to him.
He was still in the void corridor where the Masked Man and Galwit had left him.
He slowly sat up, gaining his bearings as he looked around the marvelous sight of therge Realm orbs and the infinite flickering sparks. He cut off his examination after determining he waspletely alone, and he pulled up the Notification.
Achievement!
Soul has reached perfect bnce.
Hidden trigger for Bloodline Awakening activated.
Reivyn frowned at the message. He attempted to look within himself again, at the shining orbs, but no matter what he did, he couldn''t perceive them any longer.
Those four smaller shards had obviously been tainted with Abyss Affinity, and the rest were filled with Veridical, Reivyn thought. What does it mean that my Bloodline required me to bnce my soul between Veridical and Abyss?
Chapter 97: Soul Stirring
Chapter 97: Soul Stirring
The blinking light in the bottom left of his vision let Reivyn know that there were more Notifications to be viewed. I guess my souling into bnce was more important and got a pop-up all on its own, he thought as he pulled the notification up.
Skill Unlocked!
Tier 2:
Poison Resistance (0 ->1)
Huh, where did thate from? Reivyn was confused. He thought back to the recent events, and realization slowly dawned on him as he put the pieces together.
The only thing I had that wasn''t from my own personal belongings was a drink that Galwit gave me when I met with him. Dad said that a spiked drink could give Poison Resistance, and the Masked Man told me he had lowered my inhibitions. I assumed he had used his Skills to do so, but I guess he''s not as all-powerful as his aura would lead to believe.
Was Galwit lying to me and with the Masked Man the whole time? But then my Sense Truth/Lies Skill would have been wrong. I''ll need to discuss this, as well as the war the Masked Man was talking about, with my parents when I get back.
Reivyn picked himself up from the ground. He looked towards the gate that led to the Abyss Realm, but there was no longer any feeling within him that there was anything there for him. He turned and walked back toward the entrance to the Veridical Realm.
The view of the various Realms and the flickering sparks was still as breathtaking as ever, and Reivyn took it all in as he walked. He felt better than he could ever remember, and his mind was clear but other than that, he didn''t notice any major differences from finally fully unlocking his Bloodline.
Reivyn was about to pull up his Status page to check it out, but a change in the sparks caught his attention and distracted him. He looked up as millions of sparks stopped flowing with each other in whichever direction they were headed as they began to swirl about.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense didn''t go off, but he still got a feeling of foreboding witnessing the scene. The lights coalesced together to form arge apparition. It didn''t have any specific form, and it continued to growrger as more and more of the lights were drawn toward it.
The hair on the back of Reivyn''s neck stood on end as a threshold seemed to be reached. Thebination of lights birthed a sort of awareness, and Reivyn felt it bear down on him.
Now his Danger Sense did explode. Arge funnel of swirling lights came crashing down towards him as Reivyn started sprinting towards the gate. It smashed into a barrier that formed around the bridge. When nothing was happening, it was invisible, but there was a sort of energy protection around the bridge protecting it.
I guess that''s how I''m able to breathe in this environment, a stray thought entered Reivyn''s mind as he ran all out.
The spark apparition sshed harmlessly against the energy barrier, but it quickly reformed and made for another pass, aimed directly at Reivyn. More and more sparks joined the giant funnel, as well, and the pressure it emitted grewrger andrger with each passing moment.
Reivyn''s heart pounded in his chest as he made his mad dash to safety. The gate to the Veridical Realm was only a couple of seconds further, and he marshaled his Physical Stats to their maximum potential, trying to shed even a fraction of a second off of the time needed.
Reivyn''s heart fell, though, as a sound reached his ears. A loud crack rang throughout the area, followed shortly by a deafening sound that reminded him of shattering ss.
A suction force arrested his movement, his hand outstretched with the gate mere inches from his grasp. The powerful force lifted him up and tossed him back the way he hade, but it alsounched him out and away from the bridge. Whatever atmosphere had been protected by the energy barrier followed with him, and the sound of the wind drowned everything else out.
Reivyn''s body was whipped by the wind and he went tumbling out into the void, his body rotating about, end over end. He almost immediately becamepletely disoriented, and therge bridge he had just been on snapped out of existence and became just another thread tying the two Realms together. The thread grew taut from the forces impacting it, and then, it snapped. Reivyn was barely aware of it disintegrating into motes of energy that dissipated in the void.
Pain wracked his body, and his eyes bulged from the instantaneous drop of atmospheric pressure, and he could feel the blood in his body rush to his head and other orifices, trying to escape. Time slowed to a crawl as he mustered everyst drop of willpower he had to envelop his entire body in a Mana Shield infused with the Eternal Affinity. He had no thoughts other than to try and keep his body as it was.
The sparks charged toward Reivyn after they destroyed the barrier,pletely encapsting him. A different kind of pain than he had ever experienced engulfed him. It wasn''t as bad as what he had been through from whatever the Masked Man had done to him, but there was no defense or Pain Resistance to protect him against it.
He felt a burning, piercing pain in his chest. It felt like his very being would be torn asunder, and he could feel the depths of his core being ripped from his body. He could feel an insatiable hungering from the apparition of sparks as they pulled at his innermost self, trying to separate his soul from his body.
He didn''t have time to think ore up with any sort of n. He acted instinctually as the familiar Mana Weapon Skill was activated with the familiar whip. Heunched it out as he passed close to another thread bridge, using the momentum to stop the tumbling of his body.
He yanked himself out of the torrential sparks. His body flew toward the thread that he had wrapped his whip around, and as soon as he came into contact with it, it expanded into another bridge. He mmed into the energy barrier of the new bridge, his vision swirling as he struck his head at the sudden transformation.
His Danger Sense was still pinging off the charts, and he quickly scrabbled to his feet. Theck of atmosphere made it difficult to run, though, and he was quickly attacked by the apparition again. The soul-wrenching pain returned, and he was peripherally aware of the new bridge being shattered into a billion pieces.
The might of the apparition continued to grow exponentially. It didn''t cause any kind of physical damage, and the apparition itself wasn''t the cause of the destruction of the bridges. They simply destroyed the barriers, and the deste environment did the rest.
Reivyn''s body was once more sent into the emptiness of the void, but he wasn''t tumbling about uncontrobly this time. He found his next target and once moreunched himself towards a thread.
He didn''t stop at the first one this time, though, as he needed to build up some distance between himself and the sparks chasing after him. The soul pain was reced by burning in his lungs, as theck of oxygen for an extended period of time started to catch up to him.
He had to carefully bnce between spending enough time to gain enough distance from the sparks and maintaining his consciousness while doing so. His vision was already starting to go dark around the edges, and the strain of the Mana Shield wouldn''tst much longer. His Mana was dropping fast, and he could feel a significant drop in his Health each time the sparks tried to rip his soul out.
Reivyn swung from thread to thread, the spark apparition plowing through them and destroying them as it chased him. There were only so many left, but he would die from losing consciousness before he risked destroying all of the remaining threads.
The sparks actedpletely on instinct and thatck of ability to think and n allowed Reivyn to gain distance from it as he altered his trajectory each time heunched himself at a new thread.
Heart pounding and vision turning ck, Reivyn finallynded on another thread. He had only gained himself about a ten-second lead from the sparks. He had no idea how to get himself into the interior of the energy barrier, and poking a hole in it would just destroy the bridge. He had a sudden inspiration from his recent experience with Mana frequencies.
He operated faster than he ever had before. He activated his Mana Sight and peered within the structure of the barrier as deep as he could. He gained a feeling of a mesh between Veridical and Abyss, so he infused his eyes with the Affinities. What presented itself before him was aplicated threading of the two Mana signatures. There wereplicated, twisted braids and patterns within the two types of Mana, and they themselves were also twisted about each other in aplicated weave.
Reivyn mustered everyst drop of his abilities and willpower, and he forced a simr infusion into his Mana Shield, switching his Eternal infusion out. He didn''t have time to carefully build the weaves andyers. He forced his own Mana Shield to match the patterns and weaves. He felt a tremendous strain on his mind as it resisted him.
After three seconds of pushing as hard as he could, he felt a snap in his mind as his Mana shifted to the correct design. His Mana Shield''s "frequency" matched that of the energy shield, and his body simply fell through the barrier to m into the ground. He took a gasping breath, warding off the impending descent into unconsciousness as he once more took off for the Veridical Realm''s gate.
He learned his lesson from thest time, and instead of just trying to reach the gate with his hands, hessoed himself to it with his Mana whip. Reivyn mentally congratted himself on the maneuver as he felt the sparks once more m into the bridge he was on. The suction force tried to suck him back out into the void once more, but he used his immense Strength Stat to pull himself to the gate.
Reivyn still had his Mana Sight activated, and he noted that the mana frequency of the barred gate was the exact same as the energy barrier, and he still maintained the same frequency with his own Mana Shield. He had no time to try and open the gate himself as the sparks were almost upon him.
If this doesn''t work, I''m dead, Reivyn thought as he trusted his instinct.
He sailed through the remnants of the air scattering into the void, and he mmed into the gate. It appeared to be a swirling mist from this side of the Realm, and he was ted to find that he simply passed right through the portal. He maintained his momentum, though, and his body hit the ground, hard, and rolled for several yards beforeing to a stop.
Reivyny panting for breath, visionpletely dark as he entered a pitch-ck room.
Suddenly, a blinding light shone from behind him. Reivyn turned his head, protecting his vision by infusing Darkness Mana into his eyes. There was another gate that mirrored the one he had passed through with Galwit in this new ce, and lines of light crisscrossed it. They expanded across the entire surface of the gate as they intensified in brightness before the gate suddenly exploded into rubble, forever detaching from the void bridge leading to the Abyss Realm.
Reivynid his head back on the ground, his arm over his eyes as he tried to recover from the ordeal. He slowly regained his breath as adrenaline still pounded through his body.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense once more pinged, and he reacted instantly, rolling to the side. Something mmed into the ground where he had been lying, and Reivyn quickly scrambled to his feet, arming himself with his sword and shield once more.
It waspletely pitch ck, but his Blind Fighting and Spatial Awareness Skills allowed him to react to another strike directed at him. A spear mmed into his shield with enough force tounch him backward. He sailed through the air before crashing into the wall, the wind getting knocked out of him once more.
Reivyn quickly reoriented himself and assumed a ready stance. He infused Gravity into the soles of his boots and seeped it out into the ground, locking himself to the ground. He brought his Mana Shield up once more and used Eternal Mana to reinforce it. Lastly, he activated his Elemental Weapon with the Fire Element.
Terror flooded his being once more as Reivynid eyes on his assant. What he had thought was a spear turned out to be a metallic leging to a sharp point. His gaze followed the leg to the torso of a giant spider,rger than he himself was.
The spider reeled back and screeched at the sudden light brought by the mes of his Elemental Weapon Skill, and Reivyn seized the opportunity to dash forward and sh at one of the legs. His sword bounced off the metallic leg with a ringing sound, the vibrations from the contact hurting his hand.
The spider shrieked once more as it brought its giant body down on Reivyn, attempting to sink its fangs into him. Reivyn barely had time to see the green ooze dripping from the fangs thicker than his forearm as the weight of the beast mmed Reivyn to the ground. He managed to block the fangs with his shield though, and the spider once more brought its body up, readying for another bite.
Reivyn braided Piercing Mana through his Elemental Weapon as he thrust his sword up at the softer underside of the spider. His sword pierced into the flesh this time, and the wound instantly cauterized as he burned the inside of the spider.
The spider leaped back from the sudden shock of pain, crouching down as fluids leaked out of the hole from the stab. Eight eyes studied Reivyn. Reivyn was able to finally study the spider as well.
The body of the spider was slightlyrger than an adult human, and each of its legs was several yards long. It was shiny and ck, appearing to be made out of metal, and Reivyn could attest that it was more than just for looks.
He noted that the spider was leaking Abyss Mana, its connection to the source having been cut off. The Mana density in the air was still considerably higher than any he had experienced before, even with the source of additional Mana having been destroyed.
He didn''t know what Tier Region he hadnded in, but he could tell from the speed and power of the spider that it was at least a mid-to-high Tier 3 monster.
It''s more dangerous than the Revenants, at least, but that doesn''t tell me a whole lot about the Region or Dungeon, Reivyn thought. For all I know, this could be the starter boss.
The spider didn''t let Reivyn consider it for long, though. It lifted up once more, tilting its body to bring its spinneret to bear,unching a string of sticky substance towards Reivyn. He red his Elemental Weapon and parried the webbing, burning it before it could cause him any problems.
The spider took the opportunity to lift its two front legs and charge Reivyn once again. Its speed was slightly faster than Reivyn, but Reivyn was nearly a Master with the sword at this point. Now that he wasn''t blind from the darkness, he dodged to the side of one limb as he parried the other. He expertly directed the momentum of the attack away from himself instead of trying to bear the brunt of the impact, keenly aware of the power behind the strikes.
Reivyn fluidly circled his sword around and once more stepped in to stab at its face. The spider reacted lightning quick, pulling its head out of range, but Reivyn simply extended the me of his de, scorching the spider''s face.
The spider''s body once more reacted to the pain as it pulled up and back, exposing its belly once more.
Reivyn took a risk in overextending himself, piercing the spider once more just below its head. He morphed the Piercing braid into the Sharpness Affinity, and he brought his sword down, disemboweling the spider.
The spider let out a wail as its body copsed, its insides spilling out as its legs scrabbled about frantically, attempting to do anything to stop its lifeblood from leaking. Reivyn stepped forward once more and beheaded the creature, ending the struggle.
Reivyn sank to a knee, propping himself up with his sword as he once more panted for breath. He had barely had time to recover from escaping the void between Realms when he was thrust into a life-or-death fight with a terrifying monster.
Heunched a bright Light Ball Spell into the air, illuminating the entire room, searching for other threats. There was webbing all around the walls and ceiling, and there were severalrge sacks hung from several of the webs. Reivyn couldn''t sense any life or movement from any of the webbings that were clearly victims of the spider, but he did notice an egg sac off in the corner.
He wasn''t willing to deal with hundreds or thousands of smaller spiders exploding out at him at any time, so he Dual Cast a sma Beam and Inferno st Spell at the sac. It exploded with the fiery remains of palm-sized spiders flinging out.
"Ugh, disgusting," Reivyn said aloud.
There was nothing else of note in the cavern that he found himself in. There was an alcove that lead to the supposed exit, and Reivyn could sense that it was the entrance to this Dungeon.
"This reminds me of the Boss Dungeon in the Tier 1 Region," he mused. "There''s no telling where I ended up after escaping from those sparks in the void. I''ve never heard any rumors of any spider Dungeons in any nearby kingdoms, either. With how big the Realm is, I could be anywhere.
"At least most of the threads connecting our Realms were extinguished. I might have identally ended the war before it could begin.
"Imagine spending decades, or longer, to scheme to reignite an ancient war between Realms, and then I destroy those nspletely on ident."
Reivyn threw his head back andughed.
Reivyn was actually extremely worried and anxious about where he had ended up, but he needed totch onto the one positive thing to keep himself calm.
Reivyn sat down on the ground and pulled his belongings out. He had one set of field rations in his pack and a full water skin. He looked back and forth between the rations and the corpse of the spider, but he shuddered in denial at the idea of supplementing his food stores with the creature.
If worsees to worst, and I can''t find anything else, I can always take the leap to butcher the spider, Reivyn thought as he put his rations away. Trying to get a gear management Skill really bit me in the butt, this time. I have no idea howrge this cave is on the other side of the Dungeon, and I don''t know if any monsters or beasts I find will be edible.
I don''t know where I am, and I don''t know how far any civilization will be from here or in which direction.
I am in quite the predicament.
Reivyn sighed as he tried to keep calm. There wasn''t anything he could do about those situations except slowly explore his options when the time arrived. If his hunch was right, and this was the weakest starter boss of the area, then he could be in way over his head.
Exhaustion reced the adrenaline that had kept him going, and, knowing that he was safe in a separate Dungeon dimension, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep. He would need to be at full energy to tackle the challenges ahead.
Chapter 98: Sticky Situation
Chapter 98: Sticky Situation
Reivyn sat up, stretching the kinks out of his body. His head was still fuzzy with sleep as he looked around. He didn''t remember where he was, and he couldn''t see anything but darkness. He rubbed his eyes to try and clear them, but he still couldn''t see.
Have I gone blind? He thought with momentary panic. Oh, wait. I''m in some pitch-ck Dungeon in a cave. The panic went away before it could fully manifest, but he still wasn''tpletely calm from the memory.
Wait a second... I thought Dungeons had ambient lighting to them? Maybe this is a gimmick to this one? Or do they not all have it? Reivyn shook his head. He didn''t know the answer, and it didn''t really matter.
He summoned a Light Ball in his hand, and he anchored it to float above his head. It didn''t make sense for his source of light to be in his field of vision. He didn''t want the very tool he used to see to give him a blind spot.
Reivyn tidied up his belongings and headed toward the Dungeon exit that he could perceive existed in the alcove. He walked up to the exit and paused, taking deep breaths to calm his nerves. He didn''t know what was on the other side, and this would be his first time in a potentially dangerous environmentpletely alone.
He went to take a step forward, and his Danger Sense exploded. His step stuttered as he hastily drew himself back. He considered the exit for a moment, trying to figure out how to proceed. He nced up at the Light Ball floating above him.
Hmm, that''s a lighthouse pointing straight to me. Probably not a good idea to walk around with a giant "here I am" indicator right above my head.
Reivyn dismissed the Light Ball, and he instead infused the Light Affinity into his eyes. The color faded into varying shades of gray, but he could still see. He made to take another step, but his Danger Sense still screamed at him not to leave the Dungeon.
He frowned as he considered the situation. He dismissed channeling any Mana at all and attempted to leave the Dungeon. His Danger Sense was quiet.
Seems like there''s something out there that can detect Mana, even if it''s infused within myself, Reivyn spected. That means I''ll also likely have to Sneak around and be as quiet as possible. If my Danger Sense warns me that just alerting whatever is out there is dangerous, it''s most likely not a good idea to engage.
Without being able to see anything this time, Reivyn crouched down, sticking his hand against the wall as a guide, and stepped through the exit to the outside world. It was stillpletely pitch ck, but he could notice a shift in the air. It was kind of stale, now that he noticed, in the Dungeon room, but it was cool with a breeze circting the area.
If there''s a breeze in the cave, then there must be an exit.
Reivyn squinted his eyes, trying to see as hard as he possibly could, but so far to no avail. He followed his left hand in the direction of the breeze, keeping to the wall. He made his way through the darkness for several seconds before the breeze suddenly cut off.
The cave grew unnaturally quiet once the breeze stopped, and Reivyn froze in ce, afraid he would make too much noise. He just hoped that the breeze wouldn''t be absent for too long. After another several seconds, though, the breeze picked back up, though in the opposite direction. A fetid stink apanied the breeze this time, and Reivyn had to muster all of his self-control to not cough in disgust.
Reivyn was confused about the change in wind direction, but his hand was on the left-side wall, and he had already chosen a direction, so he kept moving the same way. The wall fell off to his left, and he could sense another Dungeon entrance a few feet away.
So I was right, this is a boss Dungeon, Reivyn confirmed. The only question now is if the first spider was the beginning, middle, or end boss.
Reivyn took a few more steps forward until the wall continued, and he moved forward once more. He encountered three more such Dungeon entrances as he traversed the dark cave. He could barely perceive the wall falling away on thest Dungeon, and a Notification popped up as a reward.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Night Vision (0 ->1)
The cave opened up before his eyes, just a little bit, after getting the Notification.
Just on the other side of thest Dungeon room, a giant pir with spikes sticking out of it rose into the air. Reivyn followed the pir up and up and up into the giant open area that he could now barely make out, and he noticed that the pir had a curve to it. His vision continued to follow the curving pir until it joined a huge, central shape far above. He couldn''t make out the shape, just that it was there, and that there were several other such pirs also in the same area.
Reivyn mentally shrugged as he continued on his way. There were no longer any Dungeon rooms to his left as he moved on.
Judging by the position of that first boss room, it''s either the first or thest. There might be more rooms on the other side, though, so I still don''t know.
Reivyn wasn''t obsessed with figuring it out, but it would help him gauge the Tier of the Region he was in if he could confirm it. He wasn''t about to go delving into other Dungeon rooms in his current circumstances, though, so guesses would have to suffice for now. Trying to determine the Tier based on the Mana Density was just as much guesswork, as the areas around Dungeons were not the same as the rest of the Regions. The Mana density here, though, is quiterge, so it''s definitely higher than a Tier 1 Region.
The wind continued to blow against him, filling his senses with the horrific smell, as he made his way through the cave. After another minute or so, the wind once more ceased. Reivyn stood in ce again to wait for the breeze to return. The direction shifted once more, and the stink apanying it was gone.
Reivyn had no idea what was going on, but he trusted his instincts and continued to move at a steady, sneaky pace, only moving when the wind blew and made noise to cover up any slip-ups he might have from his rtively low Skill Levels.
He passed by three more of the spiked pirs, moving in a curved manner around the cavern that was apparently arge circle. He eventually reached another,rger pathway leaving the circr room, and it sloped upwards. Reivyn was relieved to find that there was, actually, an apparent exit away from this area, and he was happy to see that it led upward, and not further into the cave system.
The pathway was fairly spacious, from the shadows that he could see, but it was still just a tunnel. He guessed that it was about half the width of the main thoroughfare in The Capital, and it continued the same curve as it traveled upwards, just at an expanded radius.
He traveled the path, slowly but surely, until the wall separating the path he was on from the central room fell away. He found himself on an open tform overlooking the space he had juste from. He still couldn''t make out the full shape of the structure with the spiked pirs. The central portion they connected to was still too far above him.
He continued on his way, and he once more was blocked from the central area by the walls of the cave.
The path continued in this manner for well over an hour. It wasn''t nearly as far as the time would make it seem, though, as Reivyn never once rxed his movements. He only moved when there was wind, and he remained crouched, sneaking along as best he could.
Finally, the walls fell away onest time as the pathway deviated away from the spiral. He had lost count of how many times he hadpleted a full circle, but he didn''t care as long as he could get away from the ce that gave him the Sense of Danger.
Reivyn took one final peek over the edge before heading away, and he once more froze in ce. His heart thundered in his chest and he nearly gasped as he finally made out the shape now that he was peering down at it instead of from below.
The spiked pirs were the legs of a giant spider, many, many timesrger than any living thing he had ever encountered before. Reivyn''s eyes were wide with terror as he gazed upon the monster. It appeared to be sleeping or at least sitting very still. He could also finally make out what the wind was.
It wasing from the spider breathing.
That would exin the stink every other time, Reivyn thought. The idle thought brought him out of his fear-induced trance. If I had exited the Dungeon with either the Light Ball or Mana being channeled, and that thing noticed me, I wouldn''t have even been a snack to it. There''s no telling what Tier it is, but it''s definitely higher than anything I can handle.
Reivyn turned on his heels and made his way along the path once more, away from the giant death-beast. He maintained his rationality, though, and kept moving at a slow, silent pace. He was, in fact, even more deliberate in making sure he didn''t make any noise.
The pathway continued to move ever upward, and the wind kept its steady cadence. The only difference that Reivyn noticed was asional pock marks on the walls of the path on every side. Little holes lined the way forward every ten or so yards like a wind-chime, though these ones weren''tplete holes, so they didn''t create any noise. They were positioned up, down, and all around.
Skill Leveled Up!
Tier 3:
Night Vision (1 ->2)
The path and the surrounding walls became marginally brighter to Reivyn''s vision, and he peered into one of the holes as he passed by. Reivyn didn''t freeze this time, though he did feel a sharp, cold spike travel down his spine as his eyes locked with eight more on a much smaller spider hunkered down in the hole.
Smaller rtive to the giant monster. It was still slightlyrger than the boss monster Reivyn had fought. He looked around, extrapting based on the number of holes he could perceive, the distance between them, and the distance he still probably had to go to get away from this nest.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of spiders down here, Reivyn realized. Even if this is the only tunnel leading away from here, and based on the way the cave is set up, it might not be.
If Dungeons are a snapshot in time, then it''s possible the boss spider I fought could have been the giant spider thousands of years ago, or one just like it. It had a sac of hundreds of palm-sized spiders in that room, too. If that''s the case, then are there other snapshots of the same spider as it grew in size and Level?
Reivyn threw the distracting thoughts to the back of his mind. Ruminating on the possibilities wouldn''t help him. The spider that made eye contact with him apparently couldn''t actually see, as the tunnel was still pitch ck. Reivyn guessed that the spiders had adapted in such a way that their sight wasn''t their main way of viewing the world. The Danger Sense from exiting while channeling Mana came to mind.
Another Notification popped up as Reivyn deliberately picked up and set his feet down, trying to make as little noise or indication of his presence at all.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 2:
Silent Step (0 ->1)
Reivyn was moving so slowly and deliberately that he didn''t notice any change, but he could guess that he would make less noise if he picked up the pace. Now was not a good time to try it out, though.
It took two hours for Reivyn to practically crawl his way to the end of the tunnel where there was another change. His body was aching, and sweat covered his entire body despite there being very little heat. His nerves were shot, and his mind struggled to stay focused.
The holes containing spiders finally stopped appearing, and the tunnel exited into another cave. Reivyn didn''t stop right at the exit, though, and he kept moving further in.
He could see stctites and stgmites peppering the new room he was in, and he could see the wavering light of some sort reflecting off of one in the far distance. He looked up and all around at every ce he could think to search for a lurking enemy, but he found nothing.
He finally copsed in a heap, on the other side of a stgmite further into the cave, but still far enough away from the light source in order to not alert whatever that could be.
He rested for close to half an hour, recovering his nerves and eating hisst ration for energy to tackle whatever the next challenge would be. Now is a good as time as any to check out my Bloodline and see what changed, Reivyn thought as he rested. I was too eager to get started earlier, that Ipletely forgot to pull it up. And then it definitely wasn''t safe to try and do so while on the move. He pulled the Stats part of his Status Page up.
Health: 4,860/4,860 (+310) Stamina: 9,330/9,330 (+410) Mana: 4,580/4,580 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 447 (+10) INT: 455 (+4) VIT: 486 (+31) MAG: 461 (+6) DEX: 447 (+10) CLA: 400 (+1) CHA: 139 (+1) PER: 404 (+1) LUK: 138 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 98,913/10,000,000,000
Experience: 7,919/8,000 No difference? Reivyn frowned at the numbers. There hadn''t been any change in his Stats at all. And ten billion Experience to Level it up to the next threshold?! That''s ridiculous!
I should now have unlocked the Stat gains per Level associated with a Bloodline, at least, but I won''t know until I actually Level up. No telling how long that will be. My ns for forcing a Tier 3 ss transition might be totally screwed up at this point.
Reivyn would have to worry about the implications of his situation regarding his Bloodline and future course of actions after he had gotten into a rtively safer location.
Reivyn once more tidied up and psyched himself to keep going. He resumed his sneaking gait and wandered off to the side of the new cave to explore what could be away from both tunnels. He checked both sides, but there were only two ways to progress or retreat.
He made his way toward the light source to investigate what it could be. He approached another stgmite and peered around the side of it.
On the other side, a couple of lit torches were attached to the wall, bracketing another tunnel. Two humanoid figures stood in front of the torches. The flickering light put them on disy for Reivyn, and he frowned as he gazed at them.
They stood tall, almost as tall as Reivyn, and they were equipped with armor and spears. They were scaled with snouts and tails, though, confirming to Reivyn that they weren''t human and possibly another source of threat.
They''re some sort of lizard people, Reivyn observed. And they''re standing to either side of the only exit. There''s zero chance I can sneak by these guys. Teilon might have been able to do so with his ss Skills and higher Skill Levels in Sneaking, but I don''t have that option. High diddle-diddle, straight up the middle is the only way.
A strange turn of phrase flitted across his mind, but Reivyn wasn''t in any condition to ponder over it. He knew it was most likely a remnant of his dreams.
While Reivyn was considering the lizard people, one of them turned to the other and squeaked something out. The other one replied, and they both turned to face in the general direction that Reivyn was. They extended their snouts, long tongues flicking out.
If they''re anything like snakes, then they''ve probably caught my scent, Reivyn thought with dismay. I guess we''re about to find out if they''re friendly or not.
One of the lizard people abandoned his position, grabbing the torch from behind while he was at it, and made its way over toward where Reivyn was hunkered down. It walked forward cautiously, and Reivyn had a decision to make.
He could either keep trying to hide, ying cat and mouse. That wouldn''t work out in the end as long as the other lizard person stayed where he was.
He could pull out his weapons and assume a ready stance, but that might give the wrong impression if the lizard people weren''t inherently hostile.
Or he could stand up and greet them with as friendly a demeanor as possible. Thatst option was definitely the riskiest one, and Reivyn immediately dismissed it.
Instead, he opted for apromise. He kept his stance at the ready, and he equipped his shield without drawing his sword right away.
The lizard person inevitably made its way far enough that the light of the torch exposed Reivyn in his hiding spot, and the creature squeaked loudly in surprise. The other humanoid gave a sharp squeak in response, and Reivyn was slightly amused to see the one that had found him m his mouth shut and cover it with a wed hand, propping its spear up on its shoulder to free his hand while holding the torch with the other.
All three of them stood in silence for a moment. Reivyn stared at the first lizard person, who stared back at him while maintaining his stance of holding his mouth but otherwise seemed to stare beyond Reivyn. The second lizard person pulled out a contraption that Reivyn recognized as some sort of bell as he waited in silence.
The cave was silent, so Reivyn''s Senses were able to pick up the noise before the lizard person in front of him. A skittering sound and hissing reached his ears from behind where he hade from.
Oh, no... Reivyn''s eyes went wide and he hopped forward toward the lizard person. The creature in front of him hadn''t yet heard the noise, and he misinterpreted the action. It squeaked once more and thrust its spear at Reivyn. Reivyn pulled his shield up and deflected the strike, running past the bipedal lizard while pulling out his sword.
He turned to keep facing the lizard that now had its back to where Reivyn hade from. The light of the torch illuminated its face and body as it continued to squeak at Reivyn, hopping on either foot in agitation. The light didn''t extend very far, and it interfered with Reivyn''s new Night Vision, blinding him from the approaching monsters.
"Spiders!" Reivyn shouted at the lizard to no avail. It didn''t understand him, and it thrust its spear at him once more. Reivyn easily deflected the strike, but he remained where he was this time. He didn''t retaliate against the second strike, and he noticed the second lizard person approaching him now that he was out in the open for the both of them to see.
Suddenly, a person-sized spider skittered into the light of the torch, and Reivyn desperately pointed at it, behind the lizard person still wielding its spear at Reivyn. It didn''t pay attention to the motion from Reivyn, but the other lizard person saw it.
The spider pounced on the lizard person, and Reivyn heard and witnessed the disgusting scene of the spider biting through the lizard man''s head. The lizard copsed, dropping the torch, and the spidertched onto it, dragging it back and away into the darkness. The second lizard man started shrieking in panic as it rang the bell in its hand. The bell didn''t seem like anything great, but the sound prated throughout the cavern. Reivyn could tell that it traveled quite a distance.
More spiders made their way into the light,ing toward Reivyn and the lizard man. The two humanoids looked at each other and sprinted toward the tunnel entrance to keep themselves from being surrounded.
Reivyn and the lizard man stood shoulder to shoulder as they upied the tunnel entrance. A horde of spiders came sprinting at them. More spiders dropped to the ground from the ceiling as they swarmed forward.
The two engaged in fiercebat, warding off strikes from metallic legs and evading thrusts of the spiders too eager to take a bite. The lizard person wasn''t as skilled as Reivyn, and his armor wasn''t as good as Reivyn''s magical Dungeon gear. He umted nicks and cuts on his arms and legs as he attempted to fend the spiders off until he eventually slowed from the blood loss to be caught by one of the monsters and dragged off into the darkness.
Reivyn backed up in the tunnel, activating the Spells and Skills he had used against the boss as he steadied himself on the ground as he fought off the spiders with his fire sword.
He fought a retreating battle, asionally killing an eager spider, but mostly fending them off to avoid the same fate as the two lizard folk. Luckily, the tunnel wasn''t as tall as the one the spiders had resided in, and they couldn''t overwhelm him by traversing the ceiling. He was also extremely lucky that they didn''t seem to use their spinnerets at all, and they simply tried to physically hunt him. His fire would have made it a moot point, but it was one less thing to worry about.
A loud shriek entered Reivyn''s ears,ing from behind, and he took the chance to sneak a peek behind him. A stream of spear-armed lizard people came storming down the tunnel, torches flickering to light their way. The front lizard folk gazed at him with hostility as they charged down the tunnel.
Reivyn was confused for just a moment at the looks he received from the other lizard people, but then he remembered that he was the only other person down here fighting off the spiders. They didn''t know what had happened to theirpatriots.
Oh boy...
Chapter 99: Escaping the Lair
Chapter 99: Escaping the Lair
The new army of lizardmen charged into the horde of spiders. The tunnel wasn''t veryrge, but there were manybatants suddenly filling the entire space. Reivyn found himself surrounded on both sides by hostile enemies.
The lizard people in the front ignored Reivyn, just giving him a re as they squeaked and shrieked, as they engaged the spiders. Reivyn could Sense that they were the more experienced, higher Levelbatants of the lizards. They set about killing the spiders who were mindlessly charging forth to hunt for a meal.
Reivyn continued to parry and strike at the spiders closest to him, but the pressure on him immediately lessened due to the intervention of the other lizards. It didn''tst long, though, as Reivyn''s Battlefield Awareness, Sense Danger, and Spatial Awareness Skills all kicked in to warn him of a spear strikeing from the rear.
The lizards weren''t going to take the time to understand the situation, and they wouldn''t care either way. Reivyn was an outsider. A human who didn''t belong to their society. It didn''t matter to them the truth of what was going on. They just knew that their two sentries were gone, taken by the spiders, and an intruder was found in their ce.
They didn''t have the concept of an enemy of my enemy is my friend. They only had the concept of "us and them." Reivyn was one of "them."
Reivyn utilized his Weapons Master, Evade, and Dancing Skills in conjunction with hisbat experience to dance around the battlefield, dodging attacks from lizard people and spiders alike. He kept his hand against the lizard people, for now, and simply parried or dodged their strikes. He wasn''t necessarily against defending himself with lethal force, but he felt a little guilty about the situation they all found themselves in.
He understood he wasn''t entirely responsible. He didn''t make that sentry shout in exmation, alerting the horde of spiders to action, but at the same time, if he hadn''t been there, it wouldn''t have happened.
He noticed that the front-line lizard folk seemed to be quite experienced with fending off the spiders, though, so he recognized that this was most likely a semimon urrence. The spiders needed something to eat, and there were a lot of them. I suppose they also need a way to keep their numbers in check, which is probably how they adapted to not using their spider silk while hunting. If they were too efficient, they would run out of prey, and the sessful hunters wouldn''t be able to survive and reproduce.
Reivyn threw the impromptu life lesson to the back of his head as he focused on thebat. There were hundreds of spiders, and they kepting. Likewise, there were now hundreds of lizard people filling the tunnel.
This isn''t going to work for me, Reivyn thought. I have enough Health, Stamina, and Mana to keep upbat for a long time, but not forever. I need to figure something out so that when they stop fighting each other, I won''t have to keep fighting the lizards. They don''t seem like they want to talk, and even if they did, we don''t understand each other.
Reivyn kept his eyes open for anything he could use to his advantage. He needed a way to disengage and hide. He scanned the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. It was mostly smooth, and the ceiling was low enough that a spear would be able to reach easily. There was no easy solution just waiting for him to exploit. He would have to make an opportunity to escape.
While Reivyn dodged and weaved the assault on two fronts, he gathered his Mana. He drew upon his general and ss Skills, and he brought forth the lessons he had learned from his mother and at the Academy.
Reivyn infused his body with the Light Affinity through the Elemental Weapons Skill. He went further and used his often neglected True Light ss Skill and infused that into his magicalbination as well. He focused his will, drawing 2,500 Mana from his Mana Pool. He concentrated the Mana into the center of his being through thebination of Skills and split a perfect copy of himself off.
He used the True Light Skill to infuse his will into the doppelganger, and he ordered it to charge through the lizard people towards the exit. He anchored the Mana into itself, giving it a life of approximately ten minutes, and then he canceled all of the other Skills except Elemental Weapon, and he changed that one to infuse his entire body with the Darkness Affinity.
One moment he was dodging and parrying, dancing through the horde ofbatants, and then the next moment, his body merged with the shadows, smoothly disengaging from the fight as his copy ran through the lizard people.
He watched as his clone acted exactly like him, twirling and dancing through the thrusts and shes of spears directed at it, and he was astonished to see it sessfully block and parry with its own shield and sword.
It''s a clone made out of pure Light, but it somehow has substance, Reivyn thought. It must be because of the nature of the other Skills I used to form the Spell. It sure took a lot of Mana to do so, so it better work well. Reivyn mentally chuckled.
The doppelganger served its purpose exactly as intended, and the attention of all of the lizard people focused on the distraction. Reivyn followed in the wake of the path the clone cleared for him, careful to not bump into any of the lizards or to step into too much light from the scattered torches. Not all of the lizard folk were equipped with torches, so there were pockets of shadow from where the light was blocked by the mass of bodies.
The beginning of the mad dash by the Light clone was actually the most difficult part. Reivyn was worried that it might get bogged down and give something away for the lizard men to notice something wasn''t right. His disguise in the shadows wasn''t perfect, and if enough of them suspected something was up, they may turn their attention toward seeking him out.
Luckily, the doppelganger made it past the thickest obstruction of lizard warriors. The following rows of warriors, to Reivyn''s inexpert eye, appeared to be younger and less organized, and he could clearly Sense that they were of a lower Level. Though the lowest Level creature I can Sense is still low Tier 3. There was surprise and confusion, or at least what Reivyn thought was surprise and confusion, of the younger lizard people who hadn''t gotten a good look at what was going on in the front.
Reivyn used that to his advantage as their indecisiveness jumbled the ones chasing the clone up, and he was able to slip through the gaps into the less dense ranks. The tunnel went on for about a hundred yards before it opened up into a broader room defended by thest palisade as thest line of defense against the spiders.
The ceiling remained low - probably artificially in order to defend against the wall crawlers - but it expanded enough for Reivyn to be able to leap up as high as he could, infuse Gravity into his lower body and hands as he flipped over, driving it into the ceiling when he made contact, and stick to the ceiling. He took a page out of the spider''s book, and he crawled over the palisade where his clone was trying to force its way through.
He wasn''t used to such climbing action, though, and it was a struggle even with the Gravity Mana. He had to squeeze his abdominal muscles as hard as he could to keep his body in the right position as he leveraged himself forward. He only maintained the Gravity in his lower body and hands in order to keep his upper body shrouded in Darkness in case one of the distracted defenders happened to look up. The Darkness wasn''t just his body shape, as that would make him stand out just as much, and it oozed around him to obscure his entire body even with just a portion infused.
Reivyn made it past thest defense, but he wasn''t home free just yet. He continued to crawl along the ceiling until he got a bit further away so that any noise from him dropping down wouldn''t carry to the lizards defending the palisade. Once he did drop down, he dismissed his Gravity and just maintained the Darkness as he picked up the pace to get some distance from the battle.
The tunnel continued in its cramped structure for another twenty or so yards after the palisade, and then it opened up into arge, lit cavern. The ceiling finally stretched much further above once again, and Reivyn felt a little less ustrophobic. He was used to having an entire open sky over his head.
Reivyn maneuvered himself to the side so he could marvel at the sight before him. There was an entire underground society of lizard people. There was a town of mud and stone houses, clear roadways, and he could even see a market district. Lizard folk in colorful attire walked along the streets, and Reivyn could tell that most of them were either feminine or children.
Reivyn didn''t think that there weren''t any female warrior lizards, there had been plenty of female human warriors with the help of the System, and he didn''t see that it would be any different for this species. It was most likely more of a societal thing, and they may even be thest, hidden defense for the young ones of the town.
He spotted the asional warrior lizards still walking about, just like any human city he had been to, clearly keeping order as a unit that wasn''t called to the front lines.
Reivyn casually threw an Inspect at the clothing of one civilian lizard on a whim. He wasn''t too surprised by the information he received.
Spider Silk Dress
Quality: Fine
There wasn''t much more information on the item. He would need to have a greater personal understanding of the System to get more. The System only provided so much assistance on its own.
Reivyn had no interest in trying to navigate the town, small though it appeared, as his only goal was to reach the surface and meet up with someone he could actually talk to. He didn''t know what kind of reaction they would have to him appearing out of nowhere. So far his experiences hadn''t been great.
He kept to the edge of the town and snuck his way around, searching for another path that would lead up and away. He passed by many lizard people just living their normal lives. He passed by mushroom farms and other herbs that could be cultivated without much light. There were pens of some unknown animals being reared that he could hear and smell.
There were torches all around on the ground level of the small town, and there were glowing gems of some sort embedded in the ceiling or the wall. He hadn''t seen them anywhere else in the cave, so he didn''t know if they were naturally urring, magically enhanced, or if they had been transnted by the residents. It didn''t really matter to him, and he simply bypassed the entire town.
Reivyn felt his doppelganger Spell dissipate as he made his circuitous route around the settlement, and he knew he had a time limit before some of the warriors grew suspicious and spread word to search for an intruder.
He made it almost to the entire opposite side before he finally spotted an exit leading away from the town. It was also guarded by a troupe of lizard people in armor with spears, but they were muchxer in their attention than the two who had been guarding the way to the spiders. Even so, Reivyn needed a distraction in order to slip by them.
Reivyn quickly came up with a n. What better distraction than an apparent historic enemy?
Reivyn conjured an illusion of one of the spiders running across the line of sight of the defending lizard warriors. It didn''t cost nearly as much Mana as his doppelganger, though. He didn''t infuse it with his will, nor did it have any of his other major Skills empowering it. He highly doubted that it would have the same ability as his clone to actually affect the material world.
The conjured spider dashed out of the shadows where Reivyn projected it, and the lizards immediately spotted it, squeaking loudly in panic while pointing. The spider shot across their sight into more shadows where Reivyn dismissed the Mana being supplied to it and quickly used the distraction to get beyond the wall.
Reivyn breathed a sigh of relief as he finally made it past all of the potential enemies and obstructions. Beyond the wall led to another tunnel that followed a winding path up for close to a hundred yards before opening back up into arge cavern. Reivyn''s Night Vision reactivated within the tunnel, as there was no longer a convenient light source, but therge cavern, once more filled with stctites and stgmites, was peppered by the glowing gems he saw above the town.
I guess that answers that question, Reivyn thought to himself.
The new cavern he found himself in was huge. It was muchrger even than the hole that the giant, ancient spider was hibernating - or whatever it was doing - in. Reivyn didn''t know where to go from here, so he simply chose a direction and walked. He kept a mental map running in his head so that he wouldn''t get turned around in the unfamiliar environment.
The sense of foreboding and dread that had been apanying him in and near the presence of the spiders and their ancient matriarch finally dispersed. Reivyn was finally able to move about in a more rxed manner, though he still kept his awareness and Senses out to keep from being surprised by anything else that might jump out at him.
Reivyn walked around one of the stgmites, and arge shadow pounced toward him. Reivyn had been prepared, though, and he easily avoided the surprise attack, drawing his sword in reprisal. He didn''t activate his Elemental Weapon Skill right away, but his sword still easily bit into the flesh of the neck of the creature that ambushed him.
The head went flying as the body copsed, but two more shadows pounced at him from the same direction. Reivyn blocked one with a shield bash to the face as he sidestepped the other attack. Reivyn was able to get a good look at the creatures that assaulted him.
Two monsters that looked extremely simr to the civilized lizard people bared their fangs and ws at him. They werepletely feral, though, and Reivyn didn''t recognize any self-awareness in their eyes.
They came at Reivyn in an uncoordinated manner, and he easily defeated them after just a few exchanges. Reivyn looked down upon their bodies as he cleaned his sword of their blood. They didn''t have a stitch of clothing on them, and it was impossible to tell whether they were male or female from their obvious disyed characteristics.
They''re simr to the civilized ones down below, Reivyn mused as he sheathed his weapon, but there are obvious differences as long as you know where to look. If I had encountered these mindless ones first, and I didn''t pay that much attention, it would be easy to assume they''re all monsters. That might be one of the reasons why those civilized lizard people are living deep in a cave near an ancient spider nest. Might have had problems with Adventurers or local governments thinking they were wiping out a monster nuisance.
That''s all just spection, though. I don''t know if that''s the reality.
Reivyn continued moving through the cavern system. He hadn''t been keeping a mental map of the entire way, as he had been far too focused on not dying when he initially left the Dungeon, so he had no idea of the exact distances he had moved since being down here. He was beginning to get tired, though, so he knew it had been a long time.
The corpses of the lizard people he slew didn''t dissipate, and they were much more appetizing looking than the spiders had been. That wasn''t saying much, though, as they still reminded him of the sapient lizards he had encountered. He felt weird considering eating something that had a working mind of its own. He knew it wasn''t, but it felt a bit like he was considering cannibalism.
If pushes to shove... Reivyn grimaced. Hopefully, I won''t be down here much longer. If I''m unlucky, this could be a nation of scattered lizard people living in cave towns. I sure hope not.
Reivyn didn''t have any rations, and the type of tired he was wasn''t the physical kind. He was getting mentally drained from the entire situation he had found himself in. As such, he didn''t take many breaks and just kept pushing through to try and get out of the underground.
After what felt like weeks, but couldn''t have been more than a day or two since leaving the Dungeon, Reivyn finally sumbed to butchering one of the feral lizards for its meat. He had simply roasted a thigh with his magical fire. Eating the meat without any spices wasn''t that great, and it was a bit gamey. He had been hungry enough, though, that it wasn''t too terrible. He wouldn''t be writing home about it any time soon - if I can write home - and it didn''t make his Poison Resistance tick up.
Eventually, after fighting dozens of battles with small groups of the feral lizards, a sound of metal nging in the distance reached Reivyn''s ears. He looked off in the direction of the sound, hope sprouting in his heart. He hurried over, using Silent Step and his other Stealth Skills to avoid being seen in case it wasn''t a group of humans, Adventurers or otherwise.
---
"Man, this had better be worth it," Sten said for the thousandth time. "I can''t believe I allowed you to convince us toe down here for some silk of all things. What use do we have for silk?"
Kefira nced over at the tall youth swinging a mace to brain a feral lizard. She rolled her eyes at his constantints before turning back to her task. She kept her Mana channeling through her meridians, ready to go at any time in case of an emergency. Seri, her constantpanion, was expertly dispatching another group of three lizards on the other side with a sword and shieldbination.
Kefira wore a breastte over her robes to protect herself, and she had metal greaves and vambraces underneath. Most mages chose to wear at least a little bit of armor on or under their robes, as it wasplete folly to think the robes would be adequate. Not wearing armor as a magic caster was more of a thing in the safety of a city, and it was more aesthetic than anything else.
Herpanion was kitted out in full heavy armor, and she moved about in it as easily as Kefira did with no armor at all. That was just another reason why it was foolish of the few mages who abstained from wearing armor. It didn''t actually hinder them in any way.
"I have use of silk, and I''m the one covering the costs," Kefira retorted. "Just because you don''t understand the intricacies of being presentable doesn''t mean there isn''t any value in the items, either. We can sell these silks for far more than the market price of the ones in cirction. The Lizaldons only ever sell their inferior silks, and then only during certain seasons. If we can get to the source, we can get the good stuff, and make a lot of money at the same time."
Seri gave her a sideways nce, and Kefira responded with a shrug.
"Be that as it may," Sten continued, "I''m not sure it''s worth having toe all the way down here to get it. It took us a week to travel to the entrance of these sted caves, and we''ve been down here for days." He smashed the head of thest lizard that had been attacking them before cing his mace head on the ground, using the weapon as a crutch to lean against as he faced Kefira and her friend.
"Money and looking good aren''t the only important things in life, you know," he said. "We could be running Dungeons or doing quests and eventually get the same amount of coin, but with far more Levels, Skills, and Life Experience to show for it."
"Hmph, what do you know?" Kefira snapped back. "Do you think traversing a desert before descending into an ancient, giant cavework counts for nothing? Most people don''t choose to make this trip, and, I''ll have you know, the System grants better Life Experience rewards to those who do novel things. Now stopining, and let''s keep going. I think it''s this way."
Kefira walked off in a random direction, not really knowing where she was going, but she wasn''t concerned about getting lost. Herpanion would warn her if she made too much of a deviation, but she let her lead the way in order to hone her Skills.
Sten shared a look with thest two members of the outfit, Dowell and Cinna, two young men wielding spears in medium armor. Sten was the most well-equipped of the three of them, and his gear paled inparison to either of the getups of Kefira or Seri. Sten shrugged his shoulders as he slung his mace over his shoulder and swaggered after the two girls.
Kefira marched forward with determined steps when a shadow suddenly stepped in front of her. Her Mana was channeled and ready to go, Seri stepping forward with sword and shield held at the ready, but nothing else came from the abrupt appearance of the shadow. Usually, the lizards wouldn''t waste any time in attacking them, but this new creature had simply made itself known and stopped.
Kefira recovered from her confusion almost immediately, and she channeled some Mana into an object on her waist, causing the gentle glow of light surrounding her Party to expand to epass the man who had suddenly appeared. She gawked at the appearance of the youth who had shown himself to them.
He stood there with an impassive face, gauging everyone with his piercing look. He was wearing heavy armor that had seen better days. Kefira could barely make out what was underneath the grime and dried blood that practically covered the entire surface of his armor except for a few clean spots that were white and others that clearly had some filigree added to it.
His face was that of a youth, and she could see that not all of the spots on it were dirt. He had a decent amount of stubble growing in, adding a bit of age to his otherwise young-looking face.
Seri didn''t rx as Kefira had once the youth made himself known as a fellow human. She had instead tensed up even further. She inched closer to Kefira before leaning over a little and whispering to her.
"This man is extremely dangerous." Seri never took her eyes off of the youth. Kefira snorted and rolled her eyes at her friend''s dramatics.
"That''s what you say about every young boy I encounter," she teased.
"Yes, but I''m actually serious this time."
As if to punctuate the point, a lizard chose this time to leap from the darkness at the young man''s back. Without ever taking his eyes off of Kefira and herpanions, the young man casually swung his sword in an arc behind himself, easily beheading the monster with one, fluid strike. After his arm came back down to his side, his face finally split into a wide grin.
"Finally!" he eximed. "People!"
Chapter 100: New Party
Chapter 100: New Party
"Are you saying that you''re down here all by yourself?" Kefira asked, eyebrows rising in surprise. The young man in front of her shrugged before nodding. "You came down here without anyone watching your back? You don''t even have a light source, how are you getting around? Are you crazy?!"
"More like a fool," Seri snorted under her breath. The man''s piercing eyes nced at Seri, surprising Kefira. I could barely hear thatment, and I''m standing right next to her.
"What about you saying hardly anyone everes down here?" Sten interjected, gesturing at the new person. Kefira tilted her head and looked at Sten with an exasperated look.
"He''s one person. That''s not exactly a caravan of merchants."
The young man made to scratch the back of his head in embarrassment, but once his gauntleted fingers made contact with the back of his head, he stopped and pulled his hand in front of his face to peer at it as if in confusion. He dropped his hand and once again turned his attention to Kefira.
"I didn''t e down here by myself," he said. "I was in a Dungeon with an acquaintance, we got separated, and then I was here. Well, not here, here. I was down there." He turned and pointed in a direction, indicating somewhere far below their current position in the cave system. Kefira''s eyes lit up in excitement.
"You somehow teleported to the Lizaldon''s settlement?!" She took an excited step forward. Seri stepped forward with her to maintain the same positioning as her, but Kefira''s entire attention was on the young man. "Can you take us there? In exchange I might be able to help you with the tele-" Seri leaned over and knocked into her shoulder, cutting Kefira off from continuing what she was saying. She looked over at herpanion and received a stern re in return.
Kefira rolled her eyes at herpanion, but she listened to the silent rebuke and stopped talking. She turned back to the young man to get his answer, and she could see him fighting an internal battle through the expression on his face.
"The sapient lizard people?" The young man asked.
"Uh-huh," Kefira nodded enthusiastically.
"We~ll..." he dragged out. "The Lizaldons are several days'' journey away from here, and I''m not sure if they would be too happy to see me. Thest time I tried tomunicate with them, a small war broke out..." he trailed off with a sheepish grin. Kefira stared at him with a deadpan look.
"You attacked the Lizaldons?"
"What? No!" he quickly denied, shaking his head and hands. "They were fighting the giant spiders."
"GIANT SPIDERS?!" Sten shrieked, recoiling. Kefira was equally confused. She had never heard of any giant spiders in the region. Granted, the Lizaldons didn''tmunicate a whole lot about their living situation when they sent their trading expeditions out.
"Oh, yeah," the young man nodded. "There''s an entire nest of hundreds of them below their cave town. They have a defensive system set up to keep them pinned up, and it looks like they''re used to fighting them. This didn''t seem like a normal battle between them, though, as they weren''t exactly prepared. They only had a couple of lookouts beyond their defenses."
"Of course, the seasons," Kefira muttered, making connections with the information provided. "So the silk they''re famous for is spider silk? How do they conceal that information from Inspect Skills? Maybe it''s because they only sell their inferior products, so it doesn''t count?" Kefira was distracted and started ruminating on tangential issues. She would have continued her descent into the mental rabbit hole if herpanion hadn''t cleared her throat and brought her back to the present.
She startled out of her contemtions to look up at her friend. She shook her head and faced back to the new youth once more.
"Ok, but you can still lead us there, right?" Kefira asked, still hopeful. "I have a magic item that can trante their speech so we canmunicate, and we can clear up any misunderstandings if there are any."
"That''s all well and good, but that still means I have to travel several days back to an area I''ve been trying to get away from."
"You can draw us a map. You can draw a map, yes?" The youth nodded. "There you go. You can draw us a map, and then we can tell you how to get out of here in exchange." Kefira watched him as he considered the option, stroking his chin. She continued, almost like an afterthought, "then again, we''re likely to be the only people you''ll encounter for over a week, and there''s arge desert that might be dangerous to traverse without a horse or proper preparation."
The young man''s fingers froze from stroking his chin as he narrowed his eyes at that statement.
"Hmm, so the real question is do I want to be by myself for another week, or do I want to waste some time and apany you and your Party back the way I came before leaving the cave in rtive safety," he resumed stroking his chin. He stopped and had a determined look on his face. "Well, I don''t really have anywhere I need to be, and you and your Party can fill me in on where I''ve ended up. I guess I''ll be leading you back to the Lizaldon town, then."
"Are you sure about this?" Sten once more interjected. "This guy is aplete stranger, walking around in these caves all alone and with nobody to verify anything he says. He''s an unknown. How can we just trust whatever he says?"
Seri gave Kefira a look that said, "I agree with this guy, for once."
"Do you honestly think I can''t tell whether he''s lying or not?" Kefira asked Sten.
"You have a detect lie Skill?"
"I didn''t say that."
"Alright," Sten conceded. "Wait... You have a detect lie Skill?" Sten''s eyes widened in rm as Dowell and Cinna snickered.
Kefira simply waved him off without exining anything further. Of course, she was aware of all the little fibs that Sten had fed her in order to recruit her and Seri to his team. None of what he said had been out of malice, though, so she let it go. Sten turned to his two friends and they bent their heads together to whisper together. The young man in question frowned as he nced at the trio. Can he hear them, too?
"Ok, if you''re going to join us, then I''ll invite you to the Party," Kefira said. "I''m the Party Leader, and you''ll have to follow my lead. We can''t have anyone not pulling their weight, and from what we just saw a moment ago, I expect you to contribute. If you pull us down in any way, all deals are off. Can you handle that?"
"Not a problem," the youth dered.
"Right, before we do that, though, what''s your name? My name is Fira, and this is my older sister, Sera," she gestured toward her armoredpanion. "These three are Sten, Dowell, and Cinna."
The young man nodded to each person in turn as they were introduced. Sten merely folded his arms across his chest, but his two buddies gave little waves in return. They were the silent, yet friendly type, as far as Kefira could tell, and Sten usually did the talking for the trio.
"My name is Reivyn," the young man said. "Nice to make your acquaintance."
Seri and Reivyn appeared to be of a simr ss and specialty, both in heavy armor with a sword and shieldbination. One more meleebatant wasn''t ideal for their Party makeup, but it wouldn''t be a problem. They weren''t nning on tackling any technically difficult fights. Kefira would simply let Seri dictate where and how he engaged for now. Her leadership Skills weren''t in such dire need of practice that she would need to micromanage every little detail.
"Alright," Kefira extended an invitation to the Party through the System, and a half secondter, Reivyn''s name was disyed under the Party page. "Let''s not waste any more time standing around. You said it was still several days'' journey away from here, so let''s get going."
"It might be a bit less, now," Reivyn replied. "I did kill all of the feral lizards along the way."
"Doesn''t matter," Sten said. "These are nuisance monsters, like goblins from a Tier 1 Region. They''re prolific reproducers. It might be a little quicker for half a day, but then we''ll encounter just as many of them as you did the first time ''round."
"Great," Reivyn sighed. "So these guys are the equivalent of goblins in a Tier 1 Region? What Tier Region are we in, now?"
"You really don''t know?" Sten asked. Reivyn shook his head in denial. "Tier 3. We''re in the kingdom of Drallo, a desert kingdom under the Wispan Empire." Reivyn returned a nk look at the names, not reacting at all.
I don''t Sense that he was being dishonest with what he said, previously, Kefira thought to herself, watching the interaction and using her Observation Skills to verify her gut intuition. She really didn''t have a detect lies Skill, but years of practice in watching for context clues had built a good foundation for when she finally had enough Perception to unlock such a Skill in the future.
Kefira motioned for Reivyn to lead the way. There was no reason for her to pick a random direction any longer, and she fell in behind the young man as he turned and walked into the darkness,pletely unperturbed by hisck of light source.
"I don''t know if this is a wise course of action to follow," Seri whispered. She got right next to Kefira''s ear andmunicated in as low of a voice as Kefira had ever heard her. She didn''t even speak this low back home. Seri noticed the question on Kefira''s face as she continued, "based on his nonchnt walk into the darkness, not to mention probably being able to hear Sten and his friends whispering from over ten yards away, his Perception is either high enough to have unlocked a Skill, high enough to see in the darkness outright, or both.
"That, coupled with his easy dispatch of the feral lizardman, makes me think he''s somewhere around mid to high Tier 3."
"That high? Your Skills are probably higher, though, so I''m sure you could take him if he turns out to be a viin," Kefira patted her friend''s shoulder. Seri gazed ahead at Reivyn''s back for a few moments.
"I could probably hold him off for a minute or two," Seri determined. Kefira''s eyebrows shot up in surprise once again. "Yeah, that''s why I said I''m not sure if this is a good idea."
"Don''t forget the entire reason we''re out here," Kefira said. "Sometimes, in order to get to know someone, you have to take a chance. My intuition hasn''t failed me in a long time, and I''m going to keep trusting it for now. There''s no other way to advance the Skills I need without subjecting them to stress."
Reivyn led the way through the cavern, almost seeming to never tire. Sten''s warning about not encountering any ambushes for only half a day was prescient, as they walked in peace for only close to three hours before their first encounter with more of the predators. Seri only had time to unsheathe her sword and equip her shield before Reivyn killed the three lizardmen.
Kefira watched, wide-eyed, as his body seemed to blur, and then three headless lizardmen fell to the ground. She turned to Seri, who had frozen in her step forward to join thebat. Seri put her gear away again and stroked her chin in thought. She gave Kefira a sideways nce, tucking her thumb into her palm as she looked at her.
Tier 4? Kefira mouthed. Seri just shrugged with a shake of her head.
"30 seconds," she whispered.
She didn''t add anything else to the statement, but Kefira knew that she was telling her that she had amended her previous estimation of being able to hold him off for a minute or two if he turned on them. Kefira nodded grimly.
"30 seconds should be enough," Kefira replied in an equally low whisper. "But my gut tells me we won''t need it."
Sten ran up, panting, as Reivyn continued with hardly a pause at all.
"When you said you spent several days walking, were you talking about at this pace?" Sten asked, sweat dripping from his brow. Reivyn paused and turned to face the other young man.
"Of course," he replied.
"Well, you gotta slow down, man," Sten said, bending over to catch his breath. "We need to take some more breaks."
Kefira looked toward Dowell and Cinna, and she saw that they were in worse condition than Sten was. They weren''t about to copse or anything, but they were definitely expending more effort than was entirely necessary for themselves. She noticed that Sten was eyeing her suspiciously, and she quickly pulled out a water skin to take a deep drink from it.
"I agree," she said with a gasp. "I''m almost at my limit. I wanted to put on a brave face as the leader, but I can''t keep it up any longer."
Kefira bent over to mimic the stance of Sten and his friends. She hadn''t been paying attention to how quick the pace was that Reivyn had set. Her Bloodline and Achievements ensured that her Physical Stats were higher even than a typical Martial ss at her Level. Three hours wasn''t particrly long for an extended hike, but she usually set the pace and allowed for a break every hour.
Kefira noticed Reivyn nce at her, and she could see a small smirk on his face. Is he making fun of me, or did he notice something? She thought. She Sensed her Skills, but she didn''t notice the telltale pull from her Acting Skill that she had grown to recognize when she seeded at fooling someone. He definitely noticed that I''m not actually in need of a break.
Kefira didn''t know if she was happy or worried about each of the new revtions regarding her new Party member. It was a novel experience to bepletely unaware of someone around her own age range.
Reivyn chuckled to himself as he watched the antics of the short girl he had run into. She had dered herself the leader of the Party, and everyone listened to her words, but he could tell that she and her female friend were one group and Sten and the others were another. Reminds me of teaming up my Party with Melissa over a year ago.
Reivyn didn''t know anything, beyond the conversation of silk he had overheard, for why she and her Party were down here, but he could tell that this Fira was clearly on a Life Experience quest, grouping up with Sten, Dowell, and Cinna for convenience. She hadn''t beenpletely forthright in whatever she had told Sten about herself. He didn''t know if there was any future for their acquaintance, so he wouldn''t pry or expose her.
"Do none of you have the March or Forced March Skills?" Reivyn asked, surprised.
"We''re Adventurers, not soldiers," Sten retorted.
"So am I, and yet, I have the Forced March Skill. If you get it and Level it up enough, it will help out with your endurance even if you''re not actually Marching."
That wasn''t entirely false, but it wasn''t the whole picture. Reivyn had almost ten thousand Stamina, and walking at a quick pace meant that he recovered just as quickly as he spent his Stamina, as long as he had enough food and water.
"Though, to bepletely transparent, I did serve in a Lord''s Retinue at one point."
"See, there ya go," Sten said, standing up straight after finally catching his breath.
"Still, maybe you guys should work on it while we''re down here. Nothing else to do, might as well work on some useful Skills."
Reivyn noticed Fira nod her head in agreement. Seri''s face remained impassive, but he could tell that she was watching him.
She hasn''t taken her focus off of me for more than thirty seconds total in the past three hours, Reivyn mused. She sure takes protecting her little sister seriously. Though the term "sister" might just be one of endearment. They look nothing alike.
Fira was short with long, auburn hair and clear ruby eyes. They weren''t a sinister red, but instead, they were like two gemstones. Reivyn had never seen such an intriguing eye color before, and he found himself wanting to look at them over and over again. She only came up to Reivyn''s chest, but he didn''t know if that was saying much considering that even Sten only came up to his chin.
Seri, on the other hand, was as tall as Sten with emerald green jewels for eyes. Her facial features, while pretty, were nothing inparison to Fira.
If there''s one thing that could convince me they''re actually rted, it''s the nature of their eye color, Reivyn thought to himself. Even though they''re different colors, they''re both like gemstones, and that''s definitely unique. I can''t tell what hair color Seri has, as she''s been wearing a helmet this whole time.
"We ready to go?" Reivyn asked.
"Give me a few more minutes," Fira answered. Reivyn looked at her and found himself captivated by her eyes once more. He wrenched his gaze away and gave a nod.
"You three should do what Reivyn suggested," Fira called out to Sten.
"What? Work on Marching?" Fira nodded. Sten just shrugged and turned back to Reivyn. "So what do we do?"
"It''s very simple, actually," Reivyn replied. "You just have to walk in step with each other for an extended period of time until you unlock the Skill. Once you do, you need to keep at it until you get it to Level 15 or so, and then we can push past your limits while Marching, and that will eventually unlock the Forced March Skill.
"Are you and Sera going to unlock the Skills, too?" He turned to the two girls.
"Hmph, don''t look down on us," Fira replied, smugly. "We already have both Skills."
"Then you can help Sten and his friends unlock it while I lead the way."
"Well, that..." Fira nced back and forth between Reivyn and Sten.
"It''s decided," Reivyn turned and walked off again. He could sense the small girl stamp her feet through this Spatial Awareness Skill. He snorted in amusement, unusually pleased with himself.
I don''t know why I did that, Reivyn thought as he walked away. Eh, it was fun, though.
The Party resumed their March back toward the Lizaldon town. Reivyn handled each small group of ambushing feral lizards with ease, hardly slowing his steps, but he remembered to asionally stop to allow Sten, Dowell, and Cinna a break.
There were asionally situations where more than three feral lizard people ambushed the Party. Having more than one person seemed to bringrger groups than what Reivyn had encountered whilepletely alone. Sometimes more groups would attack the rear area while Reivyn was engaged with a couple in the front.
He was finally able to actually witness the prowess of the Party he had involved himself with.
Fira never did anything other than encourage the others and direct the action, though he could feel the powerful Mana within her body ready to explode out at any time. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna werepetentbatants. That was the extent of praise that Reivyn could extend to the trio.
Sera, on the other hand, was impressive. It wasn''t just that her Stats and Skills were miles above the other three young men. Reivyn could tell, gauging with his own Expert ability, that she was concealing her true abilities from the three boys, and yet she still managed to make her fights look easy.
It was a fine line to simultaneously look like one was easily handling every situation thrown at them and not overpower the enemies. Each one of her strikes was ced in the exact perfect position, be that whether to parry or kill the target or to disy a lower level ofpetency. She couldn''t fool Reivyn, though, as he could also do the same thing if he wanted to.
If I had to guess, she''s on the threshold of Expert level, if not already there.
Reivyn couldn''t tell how impressive that was for a Tier 3 Region for her age, as he had no experience with it, and the other three fighters were able to fight off low Tier 3 feral lizards without much undue stress. Reivyn had known that the feral lizards were definitely much stronger than goblins and orcs, but he hadn''t taken into consideration the fact that they were the nuisance monster equivalent to goblins. It made sense to him in that context, though.
There''s probably a half-step monster up above them, like orcs in the Tier 1 Region. Probably something like low to mid-Tier 3, but with the ability to actually think and n, if not exactly sapience.
The journey back to the lizard town took exactly as long as Reivyn had predicted. The three young men were able to unlock the March Skill quite easily, but they didn''t have it long enough or high enough to begin working on Forced March. He could see some subtle improvements in their fighting capabilities as they journeyed, as well, and it was surprisingly due to Fira pointing things out to them while directing thebat.
Sera pretty much did her own thing while sticking to Fira. Reivyn noticed that she hovered around her "sister" quite closely any time he got anywhere near. He just chuckled at her over-protectiveness.
The Party Marched in front of the Lizaldon town, upright and without hiding. Reivyn fell back once the town was spotted and let Fira once more take the lead. She marched right up to the sentries at the gate, pulled out an object, activated it with her Mana, and then let it hang from her waist as she spoke to them. Reivyn could Sense the Mana spring forth and form a sort of barrier between the groups of humans and Lizaldons.
"Greetings, honorable Lizaldons," she said. "My friends and I have journeyed from afar to meet with your people and do trade."
The Lizaldon sentries looked at each other before squeaking out a reply. A sound, simr to the tone of the Lizaldons'' voice, appeared from the Mana barrier, tranting the squeaks into Haman.
"We greet the humans who havee to trade. You will wait here while we send for an Elder."
Fira nodded her head and motioned toward Reivyn and the rest of the Party to getfortable while they waited. It didn''t take long for another, more stately-looking Lizaldon to appear. Instead of wearing the same armor as the sentries, this one was wearing an borately dyed silk robe. He ascended the palisade to address the Party of humans from above. The deeper squeaks prated the Mana trantion barrier and turned into Haman speech that the Party could understand.
"It has been a long time since human guests have graced our town," the Lizaldon emphasized the word guest. "We dly extend our hospitality to anyone whoes in good faith."
I feel like he''s targeting me, Reivyn grimaced. Fira seemed to pick up on it as well, and she nced back at Reivyn before returning her attention back to the Elder.
"You all may enter our home, but that one," he pointed at Reivyn, "must remain outside."
Reivyn held his hands up in front of himself.
"A misunderstanding," he pleaded. "It was a misunderstanding."
Chapter 101: Travel Companions
Chapter 101: Travel Companions
"A misunderstanding?" The Elder Lizaldon said. "Your ''misunderstanding'' caused the deaths of seven Lizaldons. Yes, quite a ''misunderstanding.''"
"No, see, that is the misunderstanding," Reivyn argued. "I didn''t bring the spiders. One of your sentries shouted really loud when he saw me. I was just trying to get away from the spiders after I ended up down there on ident. I tried to tell the sentry about the spiders, but he didn''t understand me, and he got taken by a spider as he tried to stab me with a spear.
"The other Lizaldon you had down there saw what happened, and he and I fought side by side against the spiders, but they wore him down until they could capture him, too, and then that''s when you guys came down and found me fighting the spiders all by myself. If you were down there and saw me, you would know that I never attacked any of the Lizaldons, even when I was being attacked by you and the spiders at the same time."
Reivyn was surprised the Elder Lizaldon actually allowed him to exin himself. He thought he would have a much harder time convincing the Lizaldon to just listen to him at all.
"It is useless to exin these things," the Elder replied. "Even if what you say is true, even if I believe you, there are many others who will not. They will only see that you brought the deaths of seven of us with you. Will you exin to every individual that you''re not at fault? And will they believe you? No, it is safer for both of us if you don''te in."
"Fair enough," Reivyn conceded. He didn''t really want to enter the town in the first ce. He was just tagging along with this new Party. He turned to Fira. "It''s fine. I''ll just wait out here for you guys. Just get me something to eat."
"If you say so," Fira replied skeptically. She gestured to the other members of the Party, and they entered the now-opened gate.
Reivyn walked off a bit and hunkered down to wait. He had finally returned to a semi-normal state. He was no longerpletely alone in an unknown environment. He could slowly gain a foothold using this new connection, and he would be able to find out where he was and eventually where he needed to go to get home.
He wasn''t that physically tired because of his Stats, but he had been on a tight string, mentally, for an extended period of time. Now that he could finally rx a bit, it didn''t take long before he nodded off to sleep. He wasn''t concerned that he would be attacked by any feral lizard monsters this close to the town, and his Danger Sense would alert him if any of the Lizaldons snuck up with nefarious purposes.
"Wake up," someone nudged Reivyn awake. His Danger Sense hadn''t alerted him to the presence, so he didn''t immediately unsheathe his weapon, though his hand did grab the hilt of his sword subconsciously. He was immediately awake, and he looked up to see Fira looking down at him, the rest of the Party waiting behind her.
"We let you sleep through the day and night," Fira said. "We didn''t see any reason to wake you just to have you be bored out here by yourself. Here''s the food you asked for," she handed him a parcel of some local cuisine. "We''ve aplished what we came for, so it''s time to go."
"That''s it?" Reivyn asked.
"Yeah," Fira nodded. "The point ofing out here to purchase the silk directly was more about the experience of doing it. We all got to meet some of the locals, do some shopping, eat at a unique restaurant, and we got some rest in a real bed. It was almost as nice as my own bed back home. I could have just slept in it for days, but we don''t have that kind of time. We don''t have any reason to linger, so it''s time to go."
Reivyn stood up and stretched the kinks out from having to rest on the hard surface. He felt a pang of envy at the mention of resting in a real bed. Fira smirked at his stretching. Oh, she was definitely rubbing it in. I doubt that bed was half asfortable as she described it.
"I''m ready at any time," Reivyn said. "I don''t have much to do, just standing around outside the gates to a town I was trying to get far away from already. I''m sure you don''t need me to lead the way anymore, so whenever you''re ready."
Fira turned to the Party and directed them to make their way back the way they hade once more. Sera lead the way this time, and Fira walked a bit behind her, next to Reivyn. Reivyn could sense some frustrationing from Sera at Fira''s proximity to him. Reivyn felt like being mischievous.
"Where did you put the silks? I don''t see anyrge packs with which to carry them," Reivyn said, stepping closer to Fira to inspect.
"Of course not, we have spatial storage bags," Fira said, patting a satchel at her waist. She looked up at Reivyn with a questioning look. "You don''t have a storage bag?"
"My folks were going to give me one, but then I got swept away to here before they could," Reivyn exined. "They wanted me to get used to managing my space efficiently without one first."
"Probably having you work towards the Logistics Skill," Fira nodded sagely. "So where are your folks, then? Where are you from?"
"You know, nobody ever said the name of the kingdom out loud before. Everyone just referred to it as ''the kingdom.'' Even the capital''s name was literally just The Capital. Kind of strange, now that I think about it.
"Anyway, it''s just a little Tier 1 kingdom. It''s attached to a Tier 2 kingdom called Eldiar, which is under Pernius, which is part of the Quron Empire. Ever heard of it?"
"Can''t say that I have," Fira looked up and to the right, thinking about it. Reivyn took a couple more steps closer to her. "I don''t think it''s in the same local group as we''re in now. I don''t know if it''s in the cluster or not, but you can always find out at a major city with a decent Adventurer''s Guild, assuming you are a registered Adventurer." Reivyn fished out his token and held it out for her to see.
"If it''s not in the cluster, then the local Adventurer''s Guild won''t have the information, locally. You can always petition to get the information, though, at a cost."
"How does that work?" Reivyn was walking almost shoulder to shoulder with the girl now. Well, shoulder to stomach. Fira looked up at him.
"You are very tall," she suddenly said. Reivyn frowned and then shrugged.
"I''m not particrly tall, it''s just that you''re short," he teased. Fira shoved him in the stomach with her shoulder.
"I''m not short. I''m pretty average for a girl, you know."
"I wouldn''t say you''re average," Reivyn said. Fira''s face reddened a little from the quip. "Most of the girls I''ve met have been pretty close to my own height."
"Do youe from and of giants?"
"I don''t think so? Anyway, how does one request the information I need, again?"
"Oh, well, you just put up an official request. The staff at the Adventurer''s Guild can eptmissions, most of them are Adventurers, too. They''ll use theirmunicationwork to check with other branches across the Realm, and once someone finds the information, they''ll ry it back. You pay themission, and they give you the information."
"And then I''ll have to go to a teleport station and jump from ce to ce until I end up in the right ce."
"Exactly," Fira nodded. "Though teleportation is prohibitively expensive for themon person. It might take some time to wait for the information, so it would make sense to do some Dungeons or quests to get some money."
"How much does it cost?"
"It will depend on how many jumps you need to make. Teleportation tforms are only found in Tier 4 Capital cities, and they only teleport to other empires they don''t have a rivalry with. It typically costs 1 gold coin per jump. If you have to do a hundred jumps, then it''ll cost a hundred gold."
"Yeah, I can see how that would get expensive," Reivyn was worried he might never have enough money to make it home if it was too far away. "So do you guys have a spot open on your team?"
"Sorry," Fira turned her face to look Reivyn in the eye. "We already have enough close quarters Martial sses. It''s not much of a problem on an expedition like this, but it could cause problems to have too many if we ran Dungeons or quests with such a Party."
"Oh, well, I''m not a close-quarters Martial ss," Reivyn said. Fira quirked an eyebrow at the statement. Reivyn chuckled as he held his hand out and summoned a Light Ball. "I''m a Light Magus."
Reivyn took a couple of steps before noticing that Kefira wasn''t walking by his side anymore. He looked up and noticed that everyone had stopped in ce and was staring at him. Kefira could sense despair fill herpanion, Sera. She had already conceded that their new addition would be able to overpower her within about thirty seconds, and that was before his casual disy of magic.
The magic itself wasn''t anything impressive. Light Mages weren''t exactly umon, and they weren''t particrly powerfulbatants. The problem here, though, was that Reivyn had already disyed a shockingpetency in meleebat, and he was heavily armed and armored.
He had casually strolled through the caves, easily dispatching countless feral lizardmen, and not once had he shown any indication that he was a Caster.
And what''s this Magus designation? I''ve heard of Mages and Weavers, but never a Magus. I''ll have to do some research when I get home.
Seri was trying to get her attention - No doubt trying to tell me to get some room between the two of us, she rolled her eyes - but Kefira simply walked back up to her position next to Reivyn, waving for everyone to keep going.
"In that case, if you can utilize your Light Spells in an offensive, defensive, or supportive manner, that would change things," Kefira said, resuming their walk.
"Yeah, I can manage something for all three situations," the young man nodded.
Kefira contemted the information as her worldview crumbled. It wasmon knowledge that people had to sacrifice proficiency in a subject in order to excel at another, and yet Reivyn had shown more Skill than her friend, dedicated to a lifetime of training with a sword and shield, had as a Caster.
"Don''t tell me you''re secretly an expert archer, too," Kefira chuckled.
"I''ve dabbled. I don''t know how to track or stalk or anything like that, though."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Yeah, if you knew how to do all of that on top of what you''ve already shown, I think my brain would break." Reivynughed, but Kefira just looked at him with a serious expression. "I''m not joking. I think my brain would literally stop working.
"How is it that you''re so Skilled with a sword and shield as a Caster? Have you been wasting your time on a hobby or something? Or did your parents fill your head with nonsense and have you spread too thin? You mentioned something about them having you get a Logistics Skill, and you have Forced March, so it doesn''t seem like you have no idea what you''re doing."
"My first ss wasn''t a Caster ss. My first ss was Fighter."
"So your Tier 2 ss was Fighter. Your Tier 3 ss was Light Magus... What''s your Tier 4 ss? Some sort of hybrid?" Kefira peered up at the youth. He was taken aback by the question.
"Tier 4? I don''t have a Tier 4 ss."
That''s not a lie, but there''s something weird about his reaction, Kefira studied his bodynguage. She nced at Sera, but she was no help with a simple shrug in return.
"I can offer you a probationary position. It''s not that I doubt your abilities, we''ve seen what you can do, but we need to make sure we all mesh well together."
"Understandable," Reivyn replied. Then he leaned down real close to Kefira''s face, and she could feel her ears burning. "But to be clear, I want to join your Party."
He wants to join my Party?! What does he mean by that? Does he want to take me away from the others? He should have recognized that I wouldn''t leave Seri behind.
"I know that you and Sera are a separate group from Sten, Dowell, and Cinna. When you guys leave, I want to go with you, not them."
Oh.
Kefira felt a twang of disappointment, but she couldn''t tell from what. She squashed the feeling as she addressed Reivyn''s issue.
"Of course. We would be happy to have you."
"You and Sera? Or just you?" Reivyn leaned in again. Kefira leaned away as she swished her hands in front of herself.
"Don''t be silly. We''d both be happy," Kefira said. She straightened up and lifted her chin. "Sera will go along with whatever I say, anyway." She heard herpanion snort ahead of her, but she chose to ignore it.
They continued their journey. She would converse with Reivyn about his past experiences in the Lord''s Retinue, the Dungeons he had explored, and his time as a Magic Academy student. Thatst part hadn''te as much of a surprise to her. She didn''t know the extent of his magical abilities, but if he was half as good with Mana as he was with a sword, then he would be one of the elites.
Well, one of the elites in a Tier 1 Region, she amended. He would be at least in the upper echelons even in a Tier 3 Academy, but hisck of focusing on one aspect might prevent him from standing out in a Tier 4 Academy. I don''t doubt that he would at least be able to pass admission into one, though.
Reivyn had a glib tongue, and he was able to hold a conversation quite easily. Kefira noticed that he must have been using a social Skill or two. She had some herself, and she had seen many other people use them as well over the course of her life.
That tells me that he at least has 20 Charisma. It''s the bare minimum requirement to get Gab, which is the most basic social Skill for holding conversations. I wonder how his Skill Levelpares to mine. I don''t think I''ve been doing that good of a job disying my mastery of the Skill. His, uh, closeness, has been distracting.
After she regained herposure, though, she was able to hold her own. While he described some of his past exploits, she regaled him with tales of the Tier 3 Region they were in and the various things she and Seri had seen and done. Reivyn was also considerate enough to draw Sten and his friends into the conversation, though Seri maintained her silence and vignce.
It wasn''t strictly necessary to remain silent and not join any conversation in order to maintain one''s alertness, as both Kefira and Reivyn were able to react nearly instantly whenever a threat appeared. Seri wasn''t quite as fast as Reivyn had been in dispatching the ambushing enemies, but it was still enough that most of the other Party members didn''t have to participate unless multiple groups jumped at them at once. She was definitely disying more of her Skill than she had previously.
In order to disy his abilities, Reivyn started slinging Spells instead of engaging in hand-to-handbat. He only used the most basic Spells, but he had ess to all of them: Bolt, sh, Beam, and st. That was slightly surprising in and of itself, but what really shocked Kefira was that he had the ability to use the Spells through the System for all of the Affinities he had unlocked.
He mainly stuck to the four Tier 1 elements, but he also disyed several of the Tier 2 Affinities, like Ice and sma. Kefira wasn''t surprised that a student of one of the Magic Academies, even if it was a Tier 1, had ess to so many Affinities, but most people could only use the base Affinity of their ss for System-assisted Spells.
"It''s because of the Magus designation," Reivyn exined. "I got ess to it because I worked on unlocking so many Affinities before I took the Caster ss. The Magus is all about experimenting with different Affinities with just a slight bit more focus on one of them."
The trip back to the surface was quite pleasant, Kefira enjoying thepany and conversation of Reivyn much more than that of Sten. Their fundamental outlook on life was different. Where Sten would constantly open up a conversation with aint, Reivyn would point out something that he found interesting. She never heard half a word ofint; the only time he ever came close was when they first met and he mentioned that leading them to the Lizaldon settlement would have him backtracking several days.
Now that Reivyn was going to join them on a probationary period, which Kefira was more and more sure would turn out fine, she wasn''t anticipating parting ways once they reached the surface.
The encounters with ambushing feral lizardmen also dropped off the closer they got to the exit, and thest couple of hours were spent without having to fight off any at all.
They stepped out into the blessed light, and Sten dropped to his knees, thanking whichever church deity he believed in for their deliverance from the depths of the caves. Kefira rolled her eyes.
"It wasn''t that bad," she said. "At least it was a lot cooler down there than it is out here. Now we have to deal with the desert sun and heat."
"I''m used to that," Sten retorted. "I''m not used to not being able to see the sky for such a long time."
"So this is the desert?" Reivyn walked out of the cave on the rocky ground, surveying the surrounding area.
The area they were in was rocky and barren, though there were hardy shrubs and other flora able to survive in the desert. The entire Tier 3 Region was mostly desert with pockets of greenery scattered throughout, mainly where the cities were located.
The area the entrance to the Lizaldon''s underground town was located, though, was in the middle of a vast swathe of sand dunes. Most of the desert region wasn''t sandy, but the ce above the underground cave system was unusually barren, even for a desert.
Giant rocks protruded from the ground in several ces. The entrance to the underground was a hole in one of therger rocks.
"This is the most deste part of the desert," Kefira corrected. "The whole region is technically a desert, but it doesn''t all look like this. We''ll need to wait until nighttime before making a move. We have about five days of travel time ahead of us before we reach the less deste area.
"The dangers of crossing this part of the desert aren''t monsters or beasts. We''ll have to keep an eye out for scorpions and sand tarants, but those are regr creatures. They''re a bit hardier because of the Mana density, but they''re more of a nuisance than a danger.
"The real danger is the sun, heat, andck of food or water."
"I can see that," Reivyn said, "There''s hardly any moisture in the air, so drawing any out of the environment is out of the question. Do you have enough water to ount for another person?"
"Of course! Who do you think I am?" Kefira took up a pose, hands on her hips. She flipped her hair over her shoulder before continuing. "We made sure to pack an extra for ten more days, twice as many as needed for the journey, for each person. There''s plenty of water."
"That seems a bit excessive, actually," Reivynmented.
"Eh, we had the space, and water''s cheap when you have it in abundance. One of the goals ofing out here was to beat the market price of the silk. If we run into any lost stragglers in the desert, that water will be worth more than liquid gold to them. Everyone''s priorities change based on the circumstances. A man wouldn''t be willing to pay more than a couple of coppers for a water skin, but that same man would pay his life savings for a full one if he was dying of thirst."
"And you''re just going to give me that ''liquid gold'' for free?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"We~ll, that wasn''t the n originally," Kefira admitted. "But you''re a Party member now, so I''ll loan you some. I''ll even charge you a fair interest rate, too."
"I''m so grateful for your generosity."
"I know, right."
Reivyn rolled his eyes at her as she pulled a fresh water skin out of her spatial storage pack. She handed it to him and watched as he took a healthy swig, feeling unusually pleased with herself. He noticed her watching and gave her a questioning look.
"The deal is sealed," she said. Seri rolled her eyes at her from behind Reivyn.
"How much did I just agree to give you?"
"Didn''t I just say it?" She smirked. "A man dying of thirst would part with his life savings. You just need to give me a portion of your life, with interest, and we''ll call it square."
"Hmph, I''m not dying of thirst, though," he pointed out.
"You would be, though," Kefira countered. "We''re not talking a lot here. Let''s say... Ten years of indentured servitude. With 10%pound interest, you''ll be free to leave in 15 years or so. Quite a steal for hundreds of years of continued living, if you ask me."
"Sure, a steal," Reivyn sarcastically replied. Kefira giggled.
"Alright, alright. You''re one of us now, so obviously you can just have it. Just give me the water skin back when we get out of here."
"Sure," Reivyn nodded. "And thanks."
"Don''t mention it."
Reivyn handed the water skin back to Kefira, who took it with a confused frown.
"Just leave it in your storage pack for now," he answered. "I have my own in case of an emergency, and this way it''ll stay cold and refreshing. I can always just get it from you when I need it."
Kefira nodded and stored the skin away again. Seri smirked at her, but Kefira chose to ignore it.
Chapter 102: Quite the Pair
Chapter 102: Quite the Pair
Reivyn settled down in the shade of one of the rocks. There were several hours left until sundown, and the other Party members had segregated themselves to get some rest. Reivyn surmised that he had the highest stats. He was always thest one to suffer fatigue, so he volunteered to keep a lookout while the others got some sleep. He wouldn''t have been able to sleep at the time, anyway, so might as well do something useful.
There really wasn''t much to keep watch for. It was more the principle of the thing and to not get into bad habits.
Don''t have much else to do, might as well review my Experience and Skill gains recently. More and more often, Reivyn found himself letting his notifications wait until he could review arge amount at the same time. It wasn''t a conscious decision he had made, it had just happened. I used to pull everything up as soon as it happened because I liked the way it felt to see tangible progress. Now I think I enjoy getting arge drop of information all at once more.
He pulled up the Notifications that had been umting.
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Boss: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +300
Dungeon Completion Bonus: (1/5) Exp +1,000
Total Experience: 1,300
Combat Initiated.
Enemies Defeated
Exp +340
Exp +340
...
Exp +340 x 11
Combat Initiated.
Enemies Defeated
Exp + 200
Exp +200
Exp +200
... Enemies Defeated x 41
Exp + 200 x 41
Combat Initiated.
Enemies Defeated
Exp +50
Exp +50
Exp +50
... Enemies Defeated x 89
Exp +50 x 89
Total Experience: 17,820 Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Athleticism (45 ->48)
Bnce (46 ->48)
Dancing (18 ->22)
Hiding (28 ->33)
Map Making (20 ->23)
Observation (44 ->46)
Rhythm (21 ->23)
Running (44 ->45)
Sneaking (27 ->31)
Heavy Armor (17 ->21)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (26 ->28)
Eavesdropping (25 ->26)
Evasion (42 ->45)
Gab (1 ->6)
Linguistics (10 ->11)
Pain Resistance (42 ->49)
Silent Step (1 ->5)
Stealth (23 ->25)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (22 ->23)
Blind Fighting (10 ->14)
Danger Sense (18 ->21)
Detect Lies/Truth (1 ->2)
Mana Conjuration (35 ->38)
Mana Maniption (38 ->41)
Mana Shield (25 ->28)
Mental Fortitude (41 ->44)
Night Vision (2 ->6)
Sense Threat (1 ->4)
Silver Tongue (1 ->4)
Tier 4:
Dual Casting (15 ->22)
Iron Will (15 ->21)
Mana Weapon (30 ->32)
Spatial Awareness (25 ->29)
Tier 5:
Heroic Bearing (4 ->7)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (62 ->63)
Hmm, it seems like Partying up after reaching a certain threshold actually imparts a penalty on Experience gains, Reivyn noticed. Up until now, I''ve gotten 100% of the Experience frombat, but I''ve only been in Parties with Tier 2''s up ''til this point. I guess as one advances, the rules change. It kind of makes sense if I think about it. The System has rewards for groups and Parties, but it''s mostly about rewarding individual effort.
Reivyn wasn''t surprised about his progress in his Skills either. The huge jumps in Pain Resistance and his Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills were to be expected after the harrowing experience on the Realm bridge.
He had another set of Notifications to sift through.
Achievement!
Gaze upon the Multiverse
Mental Stats +10
Achievement!
Survive the River of Souls
Luck +10
Achievement!
Travel a total distance of more than 100 miles away from your birthce.
Physical Stats +1
Achievement!
Travel a total distance of more than 10,000 miles away from your birthce.
Physical Stats +3
Achievement!
Travel a total distance of more than 10,000,000 miles away from your birthce.
Physical Stats +6
Ten million miles! That''s how far away, at minimum, this Region is from my home?! Reivyn was bbergasted. He stared at the Achievement Notification for several long moments.
I already knew I was flung really far away, and I knew I would need to use the teleportation tforms to get back home. The actual distance involved only matters in how much wealth I''m going to have to burn to make the trip.
Reivyn put the worries of the long distance he would need to traverse to the side for now.
I got a decent amount of Experience. Let me pull up my full Status and take a gander.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Light Magus Lvl 7
Fighter Age: 14 (20) Health: 4,960/4,960 (+310) Stamina: 9,530/9,530 (+410) Mana: 4,680/4,680 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 457 (+10) INT: 465 (+4) VIT: 496 (+31) MAG: 471 (+6) DEX: 457 (+10) CLA: 410 (+1) CHA: 139 (+1) PER: 414 (+1) LUK: 148 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 118,033/10,000,000,000 Experience: 7,919/8,000 So I crossed the threshold of 100,000 Experience put into my Bloodline, but I didn''t get any Stat improvements this time. If I need an increase of a thousand-fold per Stat increase to match the thousand-fold increase in Experience needed to upgrade the Bloodline, then I''ll need one hundred million Experience for the next Stat gain.
Reivyn rubbed his chin as he contemted the astronomical increase in numbers. He idly looked over his Status page. His hand stopped rubbing his chin as he froze in shock.
Am I seeing this right?! Reivyn rubbed his eyes to try and clear his vision. He looked at his Status page again, but it still showed the same thing. He leaped to his feet in a panic, staring at his page with wide eyes.
14 years old! 14 years old?! What happened to thest three years?! I just turned 11 not that long ago.
He had a hard timeing to grips with the reality ced right in front of him. He had lost three years of time somewhere. He began to pace back and forth, his adrenaline pumping through his body.
Calm down, calm down, Reivyn repeated to himself. Think. Think! What happened that could ount for such a huge change? It had to have happened when I was attacked by the Masked Man with whatever it was he did, but that doesn''t make sense. I would have died if it had taken that long. Sure, there was energy fueling my body from the changes made in bncing my soul, but it wasn''t years'' worth.
Reivyn stopped his pacing as an idea struck him.
Time must flow differently in the space between Realms. That''s the only thing that makes sense to me. Reivyn nodded his head as he felt he was on the right track. But if that''s the case, then wouldn''t my age stay the same while everyone else aged? It wouldn''t make sense for time to pass slower, as that wouldn''t resolve the issue of starving to death while experiencing three years in aa.
There has to be some sort of tie between the bridge and the Realms that makes the time difference still affect the people on the bridge.
Reivyn took deep breaths and entered a state of Meditation to calm his nerves. He sat back down as the adrenaline wore off, and his racing heart finally slowed to its normal pace.
My family and friends must think I''m dead, Reivyn thought. Despair tried to consume him, but he ruthlessly squashed the emotion. That just means the reunion will be that much sweeter.
Reivyn sat in Meditation for several minutes. He could rationalize the situation, but he could tell that he would freak out if he didn''t keep a tight rein on himself.
He spent the rest of the time waiting for nightfall switching back and forth between Meditating to keep calm and keeping an eye on the surroundings. He wouldn''t let an existential crises prevent him from doing his responsibilities.
---
Kefira stretched to get the kinks out of her muscles from sleeping on the hard floor. She stood up and noticed Sera doing a simr set of stretches.
"It''s hard moving from a nice,fortable bed to the hard rocks," Kefira mentioned. "I''m not sure I''ll ever get used to it. Can you exin again why I can''t just bring afy mattress with us in my storage pouch?"
"You know why," Sera rolled her eyes. "It''s all about the experience. One day, when you have arger spatial inventory, you can fill it with whatever you want, but that time isn''t now."
"I know, I know," Kefira sighed. "I just wanted toin."
She and Sera tidied themselves up and walked from their secluded section over to where Sten, Dowell, and Cinna had already joined Reivyn. She nced at Reivyn. He had a hang-dog look about him.
"What''s wrong with you?" She asked as she walked up. "Bite off more than you could chew, and now you''re regretting you didn''t get any sleep? You look terrible."
Reivyn turned his eyes to gaze into hers. The piercing look that had been present was reced with a hollowness.
"I''m fine," he said, unconvincingly. "I just realized my situation is a little moreplicated than I thought. It''s not a big deal."
"If you say so."
"Yeah, I''ll be back to normal after some time." His voice caught on thest word. Kefira just raised her eyebrow at him.
"Well, let''s get a quick bite to eat, and then set off. We only have so much time during the evening for traveling. We would technically be fine traveling through the day, but we''d go through a whole lot more water doing that."
Reivyn nodded at the exnation. He probably already understood that, subconsciously, but he''s not from a desert region, as far as I can tell. It doesn''t hurt to give small reminders for the decisions we make.
The Party quickly ate their rations and headed off into the desert.
The rocks marking the entrance to the undergroundbyrinth that held the Lizaldons fell away, and it was reced by endless sand dunes. The wind blew sand across their bodies and faces, and Kefira used the stars to navigate. She turned to Reivyn, walking with his head down, not really paying attention. She shoved him on the shoulder, and when he looked up with a frown, she pointed up at the sky.
"Another reason we''re moving at night is that we can tell where we are based on the stars," she exined. Reivyn followed her finger and stared at the night sky. "All the way out here, the celestial bodies are quite beautiful. Too much light pollution in the cities means you never really get a good look at what''s out there."
Reivyn contemted the starry sky for several moments. Kefira enjoyed the view alongside him. It had been a long time since she had simply gazed upon the stars just to look at them and not to use them. She could get so caught up in life that she would sometimes forget to live. It was a good reminder for herself. Teaching someone else and witnessing them take it all in helped her to rediscover the wonder for herself.
"It is quite pretty," Reivyn nced at her as they walked. "It''s in goodpany." Kefira rolled her eyes, brushing thement off, but she could still feel her ears heat up. "Are those the other Realms?"
"No, the stars are independent..." Kefira began. She stopped and looked up at Reivyn sharply. "You know about the other Realms?"
"Sure, it''s not some kind of secret, is it?"
"No, it''s just notmon knowledge, even in a Tier 3 Region. You said you were from a Tier 1 Region, so it just shocked me that you knew. I guess I can''tpare a Tier 1 Region filled with giants with a normal one."
"Heh, you were about to answer the question, too. You say it''s notmon knowledge, but you obviously know a bit more detail about it."
"Of course!" Kefira put her hands on her hips. It didn''t have the same effect walking as it did when she could strike a pose, though, so she lowered them back down after a second. "Who do you think I am? I know all about the different Realms."
"Really?" Reivyn raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. "How many are there?"
"No idea."
"How do you get to one?"
"No idea."
"Where''s the closest one?"
"No idea."
"If the stars aren''t the other Realms, then what are they?"
"No idea."
"So you don''t know much?"
"No idea... Hey!" Kefira stamped her foot as they walked. "You were asking all the wrong questions! Nobody knows the answers to those questions."
"Then what do you know?"
"I know that our Realm is called the Veridical Realm. I know that we''ve had major conflicts with no less than three other Realms, the most recent one being with a Realm called the Verdant Realm. They might sound simr, but the Verdant Realm is full of sapient nt monsters, and their System involves the cultivation of flora for the people there.
"In fact, this desert Region is one of the ancient battlefields. They did something here to suck all of the vitality out of thend to fuel their own armies. That''s obviously not the case for every desert in the world, but it had something to do with forming this deste region in the middle of the Region."
"That''s interesting," Reivyn said. "There are remnants of people from the Abyss Realm where I''m from."
"The Abyss?! That''s one of the oldest conflicts our Realm has had."
"Well, they''re still around, here and there."
"That''s news to me," Kefira muttered. "Anyway, each Realm has its own celestial body, and as far as I know, they''re not the same. Nobody I know of knows the full extent of the matter."
"And who do you know of?" Reivyn leaned in close.
"I know of plenty of schrs," Kefira crossed her arms, lifting her chin imperiously with her eyes closed. She peeked an eye open and was startled to see Reivyn leaning in really close. She jumped back in surprise. "What are you doing?"
"I''m trying to see inside that head of yours," Reivyn smirked.
"It''s full of things! Things you will never know."
"Full of nonsense."
Seri snorted, trying to suppress augh. Kefira red at the back of her head before turning back to Reivyn.
"I see that you''re feeling better," Kefiramented. Reivyn''s smile slipped from his face. Kefira grimaced. "I shouldn''t have said anything."
"It''s fine," Reivyn said, shaking his head. He stumbled on his next step and recovered with a sheepish grin.
"Walking on the loose sand is an art," Kefira said. She demonstrated by gliding forward at a normal pace, not slipping on the sand at all. "Bnce, Athleticism, and a few other Physical Skills can help, but what you really want is Sure Step. It will also help with slipping on wet surfaces at higher Levels."
"I see. How do you unlock it?"
"Here, I can guide you. Watch my steps."
Kefira slowed her pace down and took careful steps. She deliberately stopped herself from unconsciously using the Sure Step Skill, and she carefully controlled her weight distribution and pacing. Reivyn watched intently as he tried to copy her. Kefira was pleased to see that she didn''t have to exin all of the minutiae, and he was able to spot the differences in how she walked on his own.
"I see that I don''t have to remind you to pay careful attention to my body and how it moves. You''ll be able to unlock the Skill pretty quickly at this rate."
"It''s easy," Reivyn replied. Kefira frowned for a second at the casual dismissal. "And the walking part isn''t too hard, either."
It wasn''t just her ears or cheeks that blushed this time. Kefira felt her entire head, starting from the neck, turn red as she realized what he was referring to. She coughed into her hand to regain herposure.
"Yes, well, it''s a Tier 3 Skill, so it might take several hours of work for several days before you unlock it. Let me know if you need a reminder on how to move."
"I think you''ll need to guide me for a week, at least," Reivyn said with a smile.
Kefira rolled her eyes once more. I''ve been doing that a lot more since running into this rapscallion. Kefira looked forward once more and saw Seri ncing back with a stern gaze. Kefira stuck her tongue out at her and deliberately took another step closer.
Kefira didn''t know why she was trying to press herpanion''s buttons, but she felt like rebelling a little. She had never met a young man that had elicited such a desire before. It was a novel feeling for her, and she was enjoying the attention for once. It didn''t feel slimy or like it was masking an ulterior motive.
Kefira only reveled in her friend''s frustration for a moment before addressing Reivyn once more.
"I''ll leave you to it. If you have any questions, you can ask me any time."
Reivyn nodded his head as he continued mimicking the steps she had shown him. Kefira turned and walked over to join Seri.
"Oh, is the young couple breaking up already?" Seri snorted.
"Hardly," Kefira replied. "There''s no reason for you to be so uptight. You know that I know how to behave."
"Do I know that?" Seri raised an eyebrow. "From what I''ve seen, you know how to get yourself in trouble."
"I haven''t gotten myself into any kind of trouble in a long time, and you know it."
"I shouldn''t have to remind you that that man is very dangerous," Seri said sternly. "We don''t know anything about him, or whether or not he''s telling the truth about his situation. Have you unlocked your Detection Skill yet?"
"You know that my Perception isn''t high enough, yet," Kefira sulked. "But my experience in Observation is telling me he''s not lying."
"You''ve been wrong before."
"I''m not wrong this time."
"I just want you to be safe," Seri ced a hand on Kefira''s forearm with a concerned look. "Don''t get caught in a trap."
"I know you''re just looking out for me," Kefira patted her hand with her own. "But it''s your job to look out for me. Not to tell me what to do."
"Yes, I understand."
"Good."
Their conversation had been held outside of the range of hearing of anyone else in the Party, and Kefira was reasonably sure they had been quiet enough, and Reivyn was distracted enough in trying to unlock the Skill, that she didn''t think even he heard them.
Sten and his crew had distanced themselves a little from Kefira and Seri ever since Reivyn had appeared. She had been worried that Sten would do something foolish, like challenge Reivyn to a sparring session in order to bully him into his ce, but that had been squashed with Reivyn''s disy ofbat power. Sten was apparently intimidated enough to not make any trouble. He didn''t know that she had given Reivyn a probationary position in her Party, though. She didn''t know what kind of idiocy he might get up to if he did know.
She had seen it several times over the years. There were plenty of female Adventurers and Adventuring groups, but she found many of the dramatics associated with teaming up with such a group to be more of a headache than fending off the attentions of young men. There were also many more men in the Adventuring profession. There was just something about it that appealed to them more than it did most girls, though it wasn''t a universal rule. She herself had quite a liking for the lifestyle.
She would inevitably enter into a partnership with a Party with cocky guys in it, and they would get distracted by trying to show off for her or Seri. It had only been seriously dangerous a few times, and she had quickly abandoned any association with those groups. It was one thing to try and show off and quite a bit different to cause life-threatening danger.
It wasn''t all that different from the other young men she met outside of Adventuring. They just found other ways to try and show off. She didn''t have it as hard as some of her older siblings, but it was still an annoying thing to constantly have to go through.
At least it was, Kefira thought, ncing at Reivyn. I can finally see why some girls actually enjoy the games they y with the boys giving them attention. I''ve never been able to feel any sincerity before, though. That''s not to say I think Reivyn is serious, but he''s at least not a creep.
---
It only took Reivyn a couple of hours on that first day to unlock the Skill.
[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Tier 3:]
[Sure Step (0 ->1)]
He didn''t want to expose how quickly he was able to gain Skills, though, so he continued to pretend like he was concentrating on the training Fira had assigned him.
He was grateful to her in more ways than one. She had distracted him from his brooding, and his mood had improved tremendously. He enjoyed teasing her for some reason that even he wasn''t entirely aware of. It also amused him to watch Sera''s reactions to their interactions.
They continued their journey across the sands of the desert during the night. Reivyn tried to interact with everyone equally, attempting to draw Sten, Dowell, and Cinna into the conversations. Dowell and Cinna were naturally the quiet type to begin with, though they were friendly enough. Sten, though, seemed to be afraid of him or something. He just shrugged it off.
He tried to interact with them equally, but he always ended up talking the most with Fira. It wasn''t just that she was the one most readily epting of joining him in conversation. He found himself drawn to her, and he often found himself looking into her ruby eyes without realizing it.
Their trip in the desertsted six days, and they finally reached the end to enter a more lush environment.
"This is an oasis. A natural hot spring on the edge of destion," Fira jumped up and down excitedly. "I''ll finally be able to take a proper bath. I don''t know how the rest of you can stand it. Especially you, Reivyn. You stink."
"Must be the blood and grime from all the fighting," Reivyn replied.
"No. It''s you."
"I don''t stink!" Reivyn tilted his head down and took a whiff. He recoiled with a disgusted look on his face. "Alright. I stink. Huh, I''ve never had that problem before."
"When was thest time you went multiple weeks without changing out your armor or taking a bath?"
"Umm, never?"
"See, there you go. You just didn''t know that you stink, because you''ve been taking proper care of yourself."
"The way you say it makes it sound like smelling is my natural state."
"Of course it is! It takes external effort, like washing, to get rid of your stink."
"Could you please stop saying that I stink?"
"As soon as you don''t stink."
"Fine! I get it, already," Reivyn eximed in exasperation. Kefira just giggled as she walked off to a rocky outcropping in the distance with Sera.
"We''ll be going over here. Only death awaits any boys that follow, so keep your stink to the other spring."
Reivyn watched them go for a second before sharing a look with Sten and the other two young men. He shrugged his shoulders and walked to the opposite outcropping. There was enough privacy afforded by the natural rocks in the area that nobody had to worry about people spying on each other from the other springs.
Reivyn stripped down and tossed his armor and clothes into its own separate pool. He didn''t have any soap in his pack - an oversight that will be addressed from this point forward - so he simply scrubbed the clothes against the armor. A brick of soap plopped into the water by his side, and he looked up to see Dowell giving him a thumbs up. Reivyn waved to the silent youth with a nod and a smile, and he got to work cleaning everything up.
After he had smelled himself several times to make sure there wasn''t any lingering odor, he finally rxed a bit in the waters of the spring. It was called a "hot spring," but the temperature was constant. It was cool in the summer and hot in the winter. Right now, in the early dawn, it was a bit warmpared to the chilly air.
He and the other boys of the Party didn''t linger, not knowing how long the two girls would take, and so they got dressed once more and went to wait in a central area.
"This ce is actually quite popr," Sten remarked as they settled to wait. "I''m surprised there aren''t any other people here right now. It''s usually busy all hours of the day."
"Might just be a coincidence of timing," Reivyn replied.
"Maybe."
They fell into afortable silence as they waited. Despite the stereotype of girls taking forever to get ready, they didn''t have to wait long until Fira and Sera made their way over to join the waiting boys.
Reivyn looked up and his jaw nearly hit the floor. Fira was still toweling her hair dry, but she had donned a new set ofbat robes. The biggest difference, though, was that she was no longer wearing the breastte over her new robes.
Reivyn felt feelings in his chest that he had never experienced before as he watched her walk up.
That''s quite the...
"What?" Fira paused in drying her hair as she spotted Reivyn looking at her. He promptly shut his mouth and cleared his throat.
"Nothing. You look nice." It was Reivyn''s turn for his face to turn red. He panicked and just blurted out the first thing that entered his head.
"Thanks?" Fira finished drying her hair and stowed the towel away. Sera was giving Reivyn a stern look from behind her shoulder.
"The nearest city is only half a day''s journey away," Fira announced to the group. It was more for Reivyn''s benefit, as Sten and the others hade from their destination, to begin with. "Might as well not stop here for the day and just push on to the end."
Reivyn remained sitting for a second as heposed himself. Once he was ready, he joined the others on the final leg of their trip.
That was new...
Chapter 103: Disturbing Discovery
Chapter 103: Disturbing Discovery
"Since we''re pushing through during the day, you should carry your armor instead of wearing it," Fira rmended. Reivyn nodded his head. "It''s quite cold in the desert at night, and we''ve been careful to use shade to rest during the day, so you haven''t experienced the full extent of the heat yet. It''s not as bad outside of the deste sands, but it''s still hot."
Reivyn removed his armor and contemted how to carry it along. He didn''t have a convenient way to strap it to or put it on his pack as it had never been an issue up to this point.
"Umm, do you think you could do me a favor and put it in your storage pack?" Reivyn implored Fira. She quirked an eyebrow at him and paused like she was going to make a quip, but she just nodded her head and helped him store it in the spatial storage. "Thanks."
"It''s not a problem. I have plenty of space, and you''re one of us right now," Fira shrugged. "Ok, well, let''s get going."
The environment was noticeably different. It was no longer sand dunes for miles on end. The desert wasn''t just an area devoid of vegetation though. There were still plenty of nts and animals. Most of them were kind of dreary in appearance, but there was still plenty of green.
"After the rare rain, this ce can actually be quite beautiful," Fira wistfully remarked. "The nts will pop up out of nowhere, and it will be a sea of green for a short period of time as they soak up the water and bask in the sun. When it doesn''t rain, though, they''re dormant."
Reivyn could picture the scene in his mind. He had memories from his dreams of seeing something simr, so it was easy for him to visualize.
The early morning dusk wasn''t too bad as they trekked along, but once the sun started really beating down on them, Reivyn was grateful for the advice to remove his armor. There wasn''t much of a wind, and there was zero humidity. The heat was really dry, and Reivyn found himself asking for the water skin often. He would use his own, but it wasn''t cool and fresh like the one he was borrowing, so he saved it for an emergency.
"Only a couple more hours to go," Fira said when they took a break near the shade of a clump of stunted trees.
Reivyn gulped the water down and wiped the sweat from his brow. He had never sweat so much from just walking around and existing. He was used to sweating from exercising extensively, but this was the first time he had been drenched without being exhausted as well. The other members of the Party were much more used to the heat, and they still appeared quite normal.
"Mmm, you smell a lot better after you washed all the grime off," Fira remarked as Reivyn handed the water skin back, "even though you''re sweating so much. What kind of scent did your soap have, it smells really good."
"It was scentless," Sten piped up. Fira looked back and forth between Sten and Reivyn for a second before blushing once more.
"That''s all me," Reivyn chuckled. "See, I told you I don''t stink."
Fira took a swig from the water skin in a panic to try and buy some time to calm down and formte a response.
"Umm... That''s the water skin I''ve been using," Reivyn pointed out.
Fira lurched forward, pulling the water skin out of her mouth before looking at it wide-eyed.
"You, you, you..." She stammered, pointing at Reivyn.
"What? It''s not that big of a deal."
"Not a big deal?! It''s like we just kissed!"
"Oh,e on! That''s a bit childish, don''t you think?"
"No! Your saliva was all mixed up with my saliva! I don''t think I''m being childish."
"Then howe I don''t feel like we just kissed?"
"Because you drank first!"
"Do you feel like you were just kissed?"
"It''s the principle of the thing!"
"So, no?"
Fira red at Reivyn through her brows. Reivyn just smirked at her. She started to say something, but before she could start, Reivyn leaned in real fast and ced a peck on her lips. She opened her eyes wide in stunned silence as Reivyn straightened back up, a slight smile on his face.
"There, problem solved," Reivyn said.
"What?! What problem did that solve?!" Fira''s eyes remained wide open as she stared at Reivyn in disbelief. Sera walked over to stand right at Fira''s shoulder, ring at Reivyn with a hand on the hilt of her sword.
"The problem of the incongruence of your argument," Reivyn replied. He spoke as if he were applying logic to the situation, standing straight with his head held high, hands behind his back. "You imed that I didn''t feel like we had just kissed because I didn''t experience your saliva mixing with mine. Then there was the fact that you didn''t feel like you had been kissed.
"I just solved both of those problems with the simplest solution. Now I''ve had the experience of your saliva mixing with mine, and now you have the actual feeling of being kissed."
Reivyn was calm andposed on the outside, but inside, he was screaming at himself.
Why did I do that?! What''s gotten into me? He maintained hisposed outward look as Fira and Sera stared at him. Fira''s mouth was moving like she was trying toe up with something to say but didn''t have the words, and Sera was staring like she was trying to stab a million daggers into Reivyn''s face.
"If there''s nothing else, I think it''s time for us to move on," Reivyn casually said. He turned to find the other three young men also staring at him.
He looked back and forth between the two groups. He shrugged and walked off in the direction they had been walking before the break. After a short moment of walking by himself, the others caught up and continued the journey with him. He noticed that Fira kept more distance between them, and she actively avoided looking at him.
Reivyn just acted like nothing had happened and kept walking.
The gall of that man! Kefira thought to herself. I have never had someone take such brazen liberties with me before. Who does he think he is? How could he just do something like that?
Kefira walked in silence, brooding over the situation. She actively avoided meeting Reivyn''s eyes, but she still kept ncing at him when he wasn''t looking. She actually didn''t know how to feel about the situation.
Objectively speaking it wasn''t that bad, Kefira conceded. In fact, it was kind of nice. I had no idea it would feel like that. Lips have a smoother sensation than I had expected. Kefira paused for a second. Wait! What am I thinking right now?! She put her hands on either side of her face. She could feel the heat on her face in her hands.
I should think about this objectively:
Is Reivyn a creep who I now need to avoid? No. Although he stole a kiss from me, he didn''t make any other overtures or try to take advantage of me.
Is this enough of a big deal to part ways with him? No. He flirts with me a bit, but I don''t dislike it. I actually enjoy the attention. And he''s a very capable fighter. I like his flirting, and I like his fighting abilities.
"Fira," Reivyn had walked over without her noticing and touched her on the elbow to get her attention. She jumped up into the air in surprise and turned to re at the offending person. Reivyn just smirked at her reaction and she felt herself redden further.
He keeps putting me in these embarrassing situations! Her heart pounded over the close proximity of the handsome youth walking next to her. She could see Seri paying 90% of her attention that was supposed to be on the surroundings on Reivyn now that he had closed in on her.
"Can I get some more water, please?" He asked innocently. Kefira huffed.
"No! Drink your own!" She turned her head to the side. She walked like that for a few steps before ncing at the young man out of the corner of her eyes. She saw him drinking from his own warm water, and she felt a spike of disappointment.
What''s he doing? All he had to do was make an argument, any kind of argument, and I would have given him the cool water. But nooo, he''s just going to ignore me.
Kefira huffed once more and continued walking. She couldn''t get the thought of her first kiss being stolen away like that out of her mind.
All in all, am I actually upset about it? Kefira finally had to face the reality of her feelings. No. I''m not upset. I was just surprised and didn''t know how to react.
She pulled out the cool water skin and walked over to Reivyn to hand it to him, wordlessly. Reivyn took it with a thanks and got his fill of cold water. He handed it back to Kefira. She stared him in the eye as she raised the same water skin to her lips and took a drink herself. Reivyn just stared back with a nk face.
"What?" She asked, lowering the water skin and putting it back in her storage pouch.
"I didn''t say anything." Reivyn shook his head.
"That''s what I thought," Kefira replied with a smug expression.
What am I doing?! Did I just encourage him?
She was acting calm on the outside, but her heart was pounding a mile a minute in her chest. She looked up to see Seri looking back, staring at her with an open mouth. Kefira lifted her chin as she walked up to herpanion.
"Close your mouth. You''ll attract flies like that," she said. Seri''s mouth snapped shut.
"I hope you know what you''re doing," she said.
"Me too," Kefira said. "Me too."
They walked inpanionable silence, and Kefira''s beating heart eventually slowed down to a normal rate. She had worked through her feelings and decided she wasn''t entirely opposed to the actions of her new acquaintance.
"Something doesn''t seem right," Reivyn''s voice intruded on the silence.
She looked over at him to see a frown on his face as he stared off into the distance. The terrain wasn''t entirely t and open, and there were trees and short hills blocking their vision to the horizon.
"What isn''t right?" She queried.
"Well, we should be pretty close to the city by now, but I don''t see any smoke in the sky, and I don''t hear any noise, either," Reivyn exined.
"It''s the middle of the morning in a desert," Sten interjected. "Do you expect people to have fires lit in their homes? And we''re still a ways away. You would have to have a really high Perception Stat in order to hear anything all the way out here."
"Maybe," Reivyn replied as Kefira assumed a thoughtful look. "But what about industry? Wouldn''t cksmiths and other Lifestyle professionals have their fires going by now? Are they not working? There should be something. And as to not hearing anything, there are always people outside of major cities, as well. My Perception Stat should be high enough to catch the asional babble of the crowd on the wind.
"Granted, there''s a lot of things in the way that could be obscuring it, but I just have a strange feeling about it is all."
"If it''s just a strange feeling, then it''s probably not a big deal."
"No, I think we should take his words at least a little seriously," Kefira remarked. "Instead of heading straight to the city, let''s head to the top of a nearby hill so we can see what''s going on. Kirlon, the name of the city," she supplied for Reivyn, "has a pretty strong goldsmithing industry. Reivyn''s right that we should be able to see some smoke in such a clear sky."
With a new destination, the Party veered off the course that would lead them straight to the gates of the city, and they refocused on reaching a close, tall hill where they could get a good vantage to see.
They were still a bit of a ways away, but that was only considering the fact that they were walking. If they were on horseback and moving at a decent clip, it wouldn''t seem like nearly as much of a distance away.
Seri led the team, threading through the shrubbery and walking along animal trails leading up the hill. They eventually crested the hill and got their first view of Kirlon in the distance. Everyone froze and stared at the sightid before them.
"What happened here?" Kefira whispered.
Off in the distance, they could see that the walls around the city had beenpletely smashed. Rubble and broken stone littered the ground. They could see no movement from any people from within the city, and there were obvious signs of something attacking the city, destroying everything in its path.
The cityy in ruins, and there were no people to be seen anywhere. Just two weeks ago, there had been tens of thousands of residents and Adventurers there. It was a major trade hub on the outskirts of the deste sands.
Not many people ventured into the sand dunes, but the Lizaldons often sent trade caravans of silk and metal ores to trade, and there were plenty of monster nests and a decent Dungeon nearby. There was no above ground river or anything connecting the city to the rest of the country, but there was an underground water source, and the roads were well maintained to allow for robust trade.
"This doesn''t look like the work of a beast tide," Reivynmented. Kefira nced over at him. She noticed Seri also turn her attention to the young man. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna still stared at the city in shock. It was understandable. This was their home.
"What makes you say that?" Kefira asked.
"Look," he pointed at the area in front of the city walls. "I might not be able to track, but that doesn''t mean I can''t recognize the tell-tale signs of a formation. The lines in the ground indicate orderly formations, and there are deep tracks to indicate wheeled siege engines. If you look over there," he pointed inside the city, "you can see a boulder just lying in the street.
"Someoneid siege to the city."
"Have experience with siege warfare, do you?" Seri remarked a bit snidely.
Kefira could understand her skepticism. It was practically unheard of for such things to happen anywhere in the world. There were plenty ofnds avable for people to settle, and resources weren''t scarce. The only conflicts that usually happened were in open, un-tamed zones where two nearby kingdomspeted for the higher grade resources.
Attacking cities in a well-established kingdom just wasn''t something that happened.
"I''ve defended an outpost against a beast tide, and I''ve defended a city from atop the walls against a semi-organized army," Reivyn replied smoothly. "It wasn''t another kingdom attacking us. There was a Dungeon break, and a horde of ancient skeletons was bound together by some cult to attack us. So yes, I have some experience in siege warfare."
Seri just stared at him with a frown on her face for a moment before looking back to what he had pointed out.
"Yes, it''s easy for us to see what you''re talking about," Kefira said, patting Seri on the shoulder to cate her. "The only questions are who and why? It doesn''t make any sense to attack a city out here. This is only a Tier 3 Region, and any kingdom that can attack a Tier 3 Region is most likely of the same Tier or higher. What could they get out of it?"
"People?" Reivyn ventured. "I don''t see any people moving about down there. I doubt they ughtered everyone here, though it is a possibility. But if they killed everyone, did they take the time to bury all of the bodies? I don''t see any corpses in the streets or outside the walls."
"Hmm, I can''t see that far," Kefira squinted her eyes, holding her hand over them to shade them from the light. "What exactly is your Perception Stat? It''s got to be close to 200 for you to make that out from here." Reivyn coughed into his hand. "Oh, sorry. You don''t have to answer that."
"I don''t mind saying a little," he replied. "I will say it is over 200. I can see the city pretty clearly."
"Do you see anyone hanging around nearby, waiting in ambush or something like that?" Seri asked. Kefira nodded her head. When ites down to serious business, she knows to put her feelings to the side. Good.
"I don''t see anyone, but I can''t see the other side of the city," he answered.
"Then our next course of action is to scout the other side of the city," Kefira decided. "We''ll follow the animal trails and circle the city to another hill on the side where we can get another vantage point."
"I suggest we don''t skyline ourselves next time," Reivyn said. "I wasn''t really thinking along the lines of enemies at the gate, but now that we know it''s a possibility, we should stay out of sight as much as possible until we know there''s nobody watching."
"What does ''skyline ourselves'' mean?" Kefira tilted her head curiously.
"It means standing on the very top of a hill or ridge," Reivyn replied. "If someone was looking up at us from down below, they would be able to see the outline of our bodies against the sky in the background, thus skyline. If we don''t go on the very top of the hill, though, behind us would be more hill, and it would be harder to see us."
"That makes sense," Kefira said. "So how much experience do you have in warfare? You mentioned you worked in a Lord''s Retinue at one point, and you just said you fought against beast tides and sieges. You''re, what? 17? 18 years old?"
"Umm, 14," Reivyn coughed into his hand once more. Seri joined Kefira in her surprise. That''s unexpected.
"Are you some sort of prince in disguise? An ambiguous Tier 4 at the age of 14?! Are you kidding me?"
"Well, what about you?" Reivyn retorted. "Despite not participating much in the actual fighting, don''t think I haven''t noticed therge amount of Mana running through your body at all times when we''ve fought. You can''t be much older than 17 or 18 yourself, and you''re mid-Tier 3."
"Ahem," it was Kefira''s turn to cough. "I''m also 14. But I''m a magical prodigy! You would be shocked out of your socks if I were to disy my magical abilities." Kefira took a pose, hands on her hips as she raised her chin with pride.
"I believe you," Reivyn replied with a smile and a wink.
Why did he have to wink? We were having a perfectly normal conversation, and he just had to add a wink to turn it flirty, Kefira rolled her eyes, though she was secretly pleased. She was beginning to get used to the attention, too, and her face didn''t even blush.
"Well, our job right now is to ascertain if there''s still anyone else around waiting to ambush more peopleing to investigate. Once we''ve determined that, we can search the Adventurer''s Guild for theirmunication device and send word of the attack. If they, or the city administration, don''t have theirmunication tools still lying around, we''ll have to walk to the next city, which would be another approximate week."
"Good idea," Reivyn concurred. "It would be best to assume they had a way to block messages from getting out."
"My thoughts, exactly," Kefira nodded. "Alright, Sera, lead the way."
Seri once more led the Party down the hill along the animal trails. They stayed out of direct line of sight of the city as they spent the next couple of hours traversing the countryside to another hill. Luckily, they didn''t spot an army camped on the other side of the city. There were obvious marks on the ground to indicate more siege equipment or wagons moving about.
Kefira was worried about Sten and his friends. They were silent and brooding during the whole trek, and she could tell they were impatient to get inside to check up on their family and friends.
"Just a little while longer before we can get into the city," Kefiraforted them. "Thank you for bearing with us and not rushing ahead."
Sten gave a weak smile with a nod.
"We understand. We''re not so naive as to put everyone in danger just to get there a little sooner."
Kefira patted him on the shoulder as shemanded Seri to lead them to the city.
It only took a short while to make it to the city from the hill they had ascended. They didn''t have to sneak around now that they knew nobody was watching, and they rushed quickly to the smashed gate. Kefira could tell that Sten, Dowell, and Cinna were extremely anxious to check out their homes.
"We''ll go to your houses, first," Kefira told them. They gave her an appreciative smile in thanks.
"What about you?" Reivyn asked. "Are you not worried about checking up on your families?"
"Sera and I aren''t from here," Kefira replied. "Our families are definitely safe. No need to worry for us." Reivyn nodded his head.
The Party made its way through the rubble of the city. Like Reivyn had said, there were no corpses anywhere, but many of the buildings had been smashed. It would take a lot of work and a lot of time for anyone to resettle in the city in the future.
There were no bloodstains on the ground, and Kefira was hopeful that there really hadn''t been a ughter. The genocide of an entire city of tens of thousands wasn''t something to brush off. The kidnapping of tens of thousands of people wasn''t much better, but at least they would still have their lives and a chance at rescue if that was the case.
They made it to Sten''s neighborhood, and everyone was relieved to see that the houses weren''t destroyed. There were no people, but there were no signs that they had been killed, either.
"I can live with this, for now," Sten remarked,ing out of his family home. "My parents and siblings should be fine, wherever they are. They''re Lifestyle sses, so they''re not likely to put up any kind of resistance that will get them killed."
"We''ll do everything we can to ensure their safety," Kefira told him. "I can''t imagine what you''re going through right now, but we won''t turn our backs on you. I won''t turn my back on you."
"Thanks."
"Reivyn, can I rely on your help in this matter?" Kefira turned to the young man. Her heart beat heavily within her chest as she waited for his answer. He has no obligation to help any further at this point. Will he choose to stay, or leave?
"I can''t ignore the plight of one of mypanions in good conscience," Reivyn replied. "You can count on me."
Kefira smiled.
Chapter 104: Spring in the Desert
Chapter 104: Spring in the Desert
It only took them a few additional minutes to verify that Dowell and Cinna''s families were in the same situation as Sten''s. There was no indication that anyone had been killed, so they assumed they had been taken. That was all it was at this point, though: an assumption. It was better than assuming the alternative.
"Let''s go search the Adventurer''s Guild and see if theirmunication tools are still around," Fira said. "If it was another kingdom that attacked, they would have their own branches, so they would know about themunication tools. If they wanted to keep things silent, they would make an effort to take or destroy them, so let''s hope someone had the foresight to hide one."
"If it''s hidden, how do we find it?" Sten asked. "I know you guys can Sense Mana, but if they''re not on, wouldn''t they not have any Mana running through them?"
"That''s a valid point," Fira said, "but I have a magic item that can ferret out other magic items if in close proximity."
"That sounds like it coulde in handy," Reivynmented.
"It''s alright," Fira dismissed it. "Usually, there aren''t many magic items hidden away. There are some in higher Tier Dungeons that have secret rooms and such, but most of the time the rewards are distinct. I just have it in my storage pouch in preparation for the future, and just in case, like situations like this."
The Party made its way to the central part of the city. If there was an intactmunication device, it would be found at the central Guild Branch, or, barring that, one might be found in the city administration building.
The central area of the city was on the main path of destruction. It was much more heavily damaged than the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Buildings were smashed, the road was shattered, and rubble and splintered wood littered the ground.
"There''s no way there weren''t significant casualties from this attack," Reivyn said, peering at the damage as they walked along the broken road. They had to pick their way over the rubble. "But there are no bodies or blood stains. Whoever did this had to meticulously clean up the carnage afterward.
"You guys were just here about two weeks ago?"
"That''s right," Fira confirmed.
"In that case, they probably haven''t had enough time to get that far away from here. Unless they attacked the literal day after you left."
"We''ll have to figure out which direction they headed."
"Isn''t that something we should send in the message?" Sten asked.
"Yeah," Fira nodded her head. "We should have someone go out and check to see if they can tell from the tracks. There''s no danger in the city right now, so it shouldn''t be a problem to split up. Might as well multitask."
"I''ll do it," Reivyn volunteered. "You guys know your way around the city and the buildings much better than I do, so I''m just tagging along at this point. I''ll climb up the intact parts of the wall and get a look to see if I can tell which way the tracks lead out."
"Sounds like a n," Fira said. "We''ll take an hour to scour the Guild Branch and the admin building. If we don''t find it in an hour, we''ll wait for you here, at the central square. We won''te looking for you, because we won''t know which side of the city you''ll be on in your search. If we go looking for you and you''re looking for us, it will take longer."
"Ok. I''ll see you guys in about an hour. Hopefully, I can figure it out."
Reivyn gave a wave and a small smile to Fira. She gave a small smile in return while Sera red at him. He chuckled to himself as he turned and headed off, back to the walls of the city.
He carefully made his way back over the rubble, but once he made it to a less damaged section of the road, he picked up into a run. Might as well take advantage of my Stats to cut the time. It only took a couple of minutes to reach the first part of the walls he wanted to check.
Not all of the walls had been demolished. There were sections on three sides of the city with gaping holes in the fortifications, and one side was still fully intact. There were multiple towers with stairs leading up still intact. Reivyn ascended the first whole tower he found and peered over to inspect the tracks of the wheels.
This first section only has a couple of marks to indicate siege weapons. I can see where they trundled forward into ce, and then they turn and head off to the east. That might be where they met up after the siege, so I''ll go over there.
Reivyn descended the walls once more. He went to the outside of the city this time, so he wouldn''t have to pick his way through winding alleys or over the rubble. It was much quicker to run along the outside of the city, and he made it to his destination in about ten minutes.
He could see how the ground was torn up from all of the foot traffic and other wheel marks as he ran by, but he couldn''t make any sense of it from the ground floor. He ran back through another broken gate and up into another tower to get a clear view from above.
That''s a lot of tracks, Reivyn thought. There had to have been tens of thousands of assants. Makes sense if they wanted to subdue an entire poption. Conventional wisdom for assaulting a fortified location is 3-to-1 troops, too. I don''t know how many people were mustered to defend the city, but it obviously wasn''t enough.
Reivyn studied the tracks for several long moments.
Ok, I can see where they came in from off in the distance, and I can see where the other sides converged, too. If I look close enough, there''s a portion where the wheel tracks make deeper ruts in the ground where they must have lined up in formation. So if I exclude the parts where they''re shallower and dispersed, I can see that they headed off to the northeast.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 2:
Tracking (0 ->1)
Sessfully deducing the differences in the tracks led to Reivyn unlocking the new Skill. He just nodded his head as if he had expected the oue.
I don''t know what''s in that direction, but the others should.
The deste sands the Party had arrived from were to the northwest of Kirlon. It appeared that the siege army was skirting around the sand dunes at first nce.
Reivyn checked the time and saw that it had taken him about forty minutes total to make the discovery. Most of the time he had been running from ce to ce. It would take about ten to fifteen minutes to run back to the central area. If the others weren''t done by the time he got there, he wouldn''t have to wait long for them.
The trip back was uneventful. The silence of such arge city was a little unnerving, but Reivyn just focused on the trek.
He spotted Fira and the others sitting on the edge of a water fountain, waiting for him. They stood up as he approached.
"Could you figure it out?" Fira asked.
"They left in the northeast direction," Reivyn confirmed. "Did you find amunication device?"
"Yeah, the Guild Master apparently had a spare that he hid away in his assistant''s office."
"If it was in the assistant''s office, why do you think it was the Guild Masters?"
"He left a note," Fira gave a simple response. "Anyway, that''s not important. It''s only half of themunicator. We can send a message out if we pump it full of Mana ourselves, but we can''t receive a reply."
"Alright. That''s good enough, I suppose. So we just send a message out that says Kirlon has been sacked and the invading force left to the northeast? What''s in the northeast?"
"The next closest city is due east of Kirlon," Fira exined. "There really isn''t anything to the north until you get much further away from the sands, so I don''t know why they would be heading off in that direction without further information. Could you tell where they came from?"
"Not so much," Reivyn shook his head. "The tracks leading up to the city were from a centralized rendezvous, apparently, and I couldn''t see from where that came from."
"It''s fine. It''s not as important. It would just let us know the likelihood of them having attacked another city already. Let''s send this message out."
Fira pulled out themunication device. It was just a handheld, forked wand. It was supposed to interface with another magic tool that would disy messages received, but the one it was linked with was either destroyed or confiscated by the invaders. She gathered a decent amount of Mana - about a thousand or so if I''m judging correctly - and then concentrated on the message she wanted to send.
"It''s done," she said after a moment. Sweat beaded her brow from having to use so much Mana at once, but she didn''t appear to be close to a Mana expenditure bacsh. Heck, the sweat could just be from exerting herself in this heat. I don''t know how difficult it was for her to use that much Mana. In my expert opinion, though, I would say she''s north of 3,000 Mana.
"How much Mana do you have?" Reivyn asked. Might as well see if she''ll tell me.
"That''s a bit personal, don''t you think?" Fira quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Doesn''t hurt to ask," Reivyn shrugged. "I''m not trying to pry. I was just curious."
"I know, I''m not mad," Fira said with a slight smile. "Ok, so I''m open to suggestions for our next move, but I rmend we head east, toward Oreck, the other city I mentioned."
"Sounds good to me," Sten said. Dowell and Cinna nodded their heads in agreement.
"I don''t have an opinion," Reivyn said.
"Are you sure?" Fira asked, concern on her face. "Your priority is to find out where you are rtive to your home. I know I asked for your help, but we can''t expect you to abandon everything for this."
"Is there an Adventurer Guild Branch in Oreck?" Fira nodded. "Then our tasks aren''t mutually exclusive. I can stick around with you guys and aplish my own goal at the same time. I''ll probably have to wait around for an answer, anyway." Reivyn shrugged.
"Alright, then we''ll head to Oreck."
Sera didn''t have an opinion on the matter. Reivyn noticed that she went along with everything Fira said without question. She reminds me a lot of Erik. She''s not as stoic as he is, but her actions and attitude are a mirror to his. If that''s the case, then who exactly are Fira and Sera? I''m sure I''ll learn one day. It''s not a priority right now.
The Party decided to check the stores for provisions before they left. From what they could tell, most of the goods had been ransacked, but they had seen things here and there to indicate that not everything had been picked clean.
Reivyn was directed to an establishment that had catered to all the needs of Adventurers when he asked Sten. He sifted through the debris. It was slim pickings, but there was the asional find underneath some rubble that Reivyn used abination of Gravity and Earth Mana to lift out of the way.
"Aha!" Reivyn shouted in excitement. The others looked up from their own searching. Everyone had some sess in finding some provisions that would be useful. Reivyn bent down to secure the prize he had discovered, and he stood back up holding a satchel. "It''s a spatial pouch!"
"Congrattions," Fira said. "Now you won''t have to bum off of me, anymore."
"I''m not going to say the first thing that came to mind," Reivyn said with a smirk.
"What''s that? What''s the first thing that came to mind?" Fira tilted her head in puzzlement.
"Don''t worry about it. Just help me transfer my armor over if you would."
"Ok, if you say so."
"Pervert," Sera muttered under her breath, a frown on her face. Fira nced at her with a strange look, but she just pulled the armor out of her pouch and handed the pieces to Reivyn. Reivyn ignored thement from Sera and stored his gear away in his new storage satchel.
"Thanks," Reivyn nodded to Fira.
"No problem," she replied. She turned to face everyone.
"Ok, has everyone had a chance to refill their rations, water, and any other gear they could think of?" Everyone nodded in response to the question. "Then let''s go ahead and get started. It''s still just before noon, so we have most of the day to travel. It''s not ideal to travel during the day, but it doesn''t make sense to wait any longer in this situation.
"Will you be able to handle it, Reivyn?"
"Sure, I should be fine," Reivyn replied. "I snagged some extra water skins, and I filled them up with some cool water. It''ll stay fresh now that I have my own storage pouch, and I won''t have to borrow yours anymore. I can get hydrated any time without bothering you."
"I didn''t mind."
"I know. I''m just saying it''ll be easier."
"In that case, let''s go."
The Party tidied up their gear and headed to the east gate. It wasn''t as eerie traveling with a group through the silent city, and it definitely wasn''t as bad once they got out into the open field again.
The Party traveled with a heavy heart. Intellectually, they knew that the popce was most likely still alive, but that didn''t mean they were fine. There was no telling what their captors were putting them through or making them do. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna were impatient to save their families, but they knew there wasn''t anything they could do with such a small group. They needed to get to another city and form up a proper resistance force if the news hadn''t spread and one hadn''t been made yet.
Reivyn was mostly silent, but he still bantered with Fira asionally. It was still amusing to him to push Sera''s buttons with his interactions with Fira, but that was no longer his main motivating factor. He had started flirting with Fira because it was funny, but now he was enjoying it for the sake of flirting itself. Fira was also receptive to it, and she was actually more open and less prone to blush after he had kissed her.
My interest in her reminds me a lot of the dreams I''ve had. In the dreams, the man I''m seeing through had no interest in any girls until he met his wife. I''m not saying I intend to marry Fira, I hardly know anything about her, but it''s parallel. No other girl has ever engendered any of these kinds of emotions or thoughts in me before.
It was another five days or so to Oreck from Kirlon, and they made decent time. There were apparently fewer instances of roaming monsters like there were goblins and orcs in the Tier 1 Region Reivyn had grown up in, so they weren''t interrupted on their trek. They still kept a lookout, though, and made sure someone was awake during the evening. Any roaming monsters or beasts were guaranteed to be at least weak Tier 3 like the feral lizardmen in the cave system.
They were seated around a campfire on the second night. Reivyn and Fira had taken to sitting next to each other with a bit of space between them and the others. Sten had briefly made as if he was going to sit closer to them, but a re from both Sera and Fira had stopped him in his tracks. He gave a meek smile as he rejoined his two friends, finally fully giving up on any pursuit of Fira. The assist from Sera hade as a surprise to Reivyn, but he assumed Fira had said something to her.
Reivyn hadn''t been too concerned with Sten''s obvious interest in Fira. It wasn''t his intention to get between anyone, but he had noticed that it had been a one-sided pining from Sten, and he hadn''t really even done a whole lot to try and get closer to her since Reivyn had joined the Party. It was kind of an unspoken rule to not actually talk about their budding rtionship, though, and they just naturally went with the flow.
"I have over 6,000 Mana," Fira suddenly whispered. Reivyn looked up at her in surprise. She was looking down, fiddling with a stick in the dirt as she blurted the information out.
"You didn''t have to tell me," Reivyn said back.
"I know. I wanted to. I just didn''t want to say it in front of everyone else. It''s none of their business."
"And it''s mine?"
"It is now."
"Do you trust me that much?"
Fira was silent for a moment as she continued to doodle in the dirt with the stick.
"I trust you enough with that much information," she finally replied. "I''m not going to tell you all of my Stats or secrets, though. Not now."
"Not now? So in the future?"
"I don''t know. Maybe. We''ll see."
"In that case, even though I''m from a Tier 1 Region, my parents aren''t. My parents are from a Tier 4 Region."
Fira stopped doodling and looked up at Reivyn. He could see the fire dancing in her eyes, and it entuated the beauty of her ruby irises. Reivyn gulped at the stare, and Fira''s mouth twitched up into a smile.
"So that could exin some of your prowess, but not all of it. What other secrets are you willing to divulge?"
"There''s no harm in telling you," Reivyn shrugged. "When I said my first ss was Fighter, I meant my first, First ss." Fira tilted her head in puzzlement. "I was conscripted before I was Tier 1. I never had had a Viger or Citizen ss, and there were extenuating circumstances that prevented me from receiving the Peasant Levy ss. Light Magus is my Tier 2 ss, not my Tier 3 ss."
"Wait, so you''re saying you''re only Tier 2?" Kefira''s eyes opened wide in astonishment. "Tell me you''re at least close to Tier 3."
"Level 7."
"Wha-?!" Fira stared off into space, unable toprehend the information right away. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before she continued. "Then you either have a butt load of Achievements, a powerful Bloodline, or both."
"I do have a lot of Achievements. Kind ofes with the territory when you''re thrust into conflict at such an early age," Reivyn shrugged again. "But you''re also right about the Bloodline. I have a pretty powerful one. I don''t know all of the intricacies, so please don''t ask."
"Fair enough. I also have a strong Bloodline. My family is from a Tier 4 Region as well. I''m sure you''ve noticed by now, but Sera isn''t my actual sister. She''s my bodyguard."
"What are you doing all the way out here in a Tier 3 Region delving into caves to beat the market price on silk? Shouldn''t you have more of a protective detail so far from home?"
"It''s all about Life Experience. If I had arger group, the System wouldn''t give me full credit. And while my parents love me, let''s just say that I have a lot of older siblings."
"Ahh, so you''re some sort of noble, then?"
"Something like that."
"You remind me of my friends Melissa and Larissa," Reivyn looked off into the distance with a wistful look. Fira frowned at his expression.
"Melissa? Larissa? Who are they?" Reivyn looked over and saw the frown on her face.
"What? Are you jealous?" Reivyn smiled.
"Jealous? What do I have to be jealous about? You''re here, and they''re there."
"Uh-huh. They''re two girls that I met when running a Dungeon. They were daughters of an affluent family that had ties to a Tier 2 kingdom''s noble family. They had their own bodyguard, Erik, as well."
"I see," Fira trailed off. "I guess I can see the simrities, but don''t think I''m some hick from a backward Tier 1 Region. The simrities end there."
Whoa, that was unexpected. Her reaction reminds me of my mom, actually, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
"Ok, ok, I get it," Reivyn held his hands out, cating her. "But you''re wrong about one thing. There''s one more simrity." Fira tilted her head, waiting for him to continue. "You''re pretty."
"Hmph," Fira flicked her hair behind her shoulder. She didn''t even blush at thepliment. "I know exactly how pretty I am. I would bet that''s more of a difference than a simrity."
"I don''t know..." Reivyn said. "I doubt you realize how pretty you really are."
"Oh yeah? Well, how pretty am I?" Fira leaned forward, intent on his answer.
"You''re the most beautiful girl I''ve ever seen."
Fira finally blushed once more. Reivyn watched as the heat climbed up her neck to turn her entire face red as she looked down, trying to hide. She mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that? I didn''t catch it," Reivyn smirked. He did hear it, but he wanted to hear her say it louder.
"I said," she looked up, speaking louder. She startled herself, though, looking around to see if anyone else was paying attention. She continued in a quieter voice. "I said, ''you''re not too bad, either.''" Reivyn felt a warm feeling suffuse his chest as she looked at him. "And you actually smell pretty nice, too."
"I''ll take your word for it. I can''t smell myself."
"A good thing, too," Fira quipped. "When you stink, you stink."
Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"There you go again."
"It''s not my fault I have a sensitive nose. Maybe I notice it because of the contrast."
"Maybe," Reivyn said. He scooted closer to Fira. "How do I smell right now?"
Fira looked away, acting shy.
"Good."
Reivyn smiled. He reached over and grabbed her hand. She looked up at him, not making to withdraw her hand from his grasp, and he just smiled as he held it. She looked away after a moment and let him continue to hold her hand.
They passed the rest of the evening like that, butterflies pping their wings in Reivyn''s stomach.
Chapter 105: Developing Report
Chapter 105: Developing Report
The Party made good time on the road to Oreck. It wasn''t all sunshine and roses between Reivyn and Fira the whole time. They understood their otherpanions were under stress from the possibilities involving their families, so they mainly just took opportunities during resting hours to sit near each other and have discussions. They didn''t want to unt their budding rtionship in front of the other Party members during this time.
Sera rxed in her scrutiny of Reivyn when she noticed he didn''t press any further than sitting with Fira and holding her hand, though she still kept up the watch.
"So what were you doing in a Dungeon that you got separated from your friends and got flung all the way to the ends of the Realm?" Fira asked one evening.
"I was a student at the Magic Academy," Reivyn answered. "I was solidly in first ce, but I still took everything seriously, and I worked hard with my friends for them to be able to keep up. We seeded, and we were all pretty much ted to get bumped up to the Tier 2 Academy the next year.
"A Dungeon had sprung up that was an anomaly for the Region. It was a Tier 3 Dungeon that had formed recently, and securing it for the Count was the entire reason I was conscripted in the first ce.
"We had been running the Dungeon for Levels, Life Experience, and Skills, but I was outgrowing it at a much faster pace than my friends. I was attempting to clear the whole thing solo, and I went to thest floor, the third floor, with a higher Level Party to check it out. We discovered a gate at the end of the cave, and it led to the Abyss Realm.
"Mypanion and I made the stupid decision to check out the other side, and we got separated on the bridge between Realms. I got attacked by some sort of apparition formed by billions of these little sparks that were floating around between the Realms, and they destroyed several bridges as they pursued me, including the way back to the Dungeon I hade from.
"I finally escaped to another exit to our Realm, and it led me here."
"Wow," Fira was entranced by the story. "What I wouldn''t give for an experience like that. You''ve actually been outside the Realm, to the ce between. Going there would do amazing things for my ss."
"Oh yeah? What exactly is your ss? If you don''t mind me asking."
"It''s fine," Fira waved her hand in dismissal. "It''s not something I tell everyone, but it''s also not something I could really keep secret, anyway. The nature of my Spells would give it away.
"My ss is Discer Esper." Fira paused as she watched Reivyn for any kind of reaction. He just shrugged his shoulders. Fira rolled her eyes. "What are they teaching you at your Magic Academy?" She sighed.
"A Discer Esper specializes in Space Magic. It''s a Tier 3 Epic ss. My Tier 2 ss was Space Weaver." Reivyn gave out a low whistle at that revtion.
"They didn''t teach us anything about the Space Affinity at the Magic Academy, though that might be part of the curriculum forter years. I wouldn''t know, I was just a first year.
"My mother was a Weaver ss. Well, she was a Light Weaver for her Tier 2 ss. Not as impressive as a Space Weaver, but still."
"Hey, anyone who can get the Weaver designation represents the cream of the crop, even in a Tier 4 Region. That''s nothing to scoff at, and the Light Affinity is Tier 3. That''s not exactly weak. Though, I''ve never heard of the Magus designation before.
"What about her current ss? I highly doubt she''s a Tier 2 still."
"I''ll tell you mine if you tell me yours," Reivyn replied, poking her in the side. Fira twisted her torso to try and avoid the poke, though unsessfully. She frowned for a moment as she considered the issue. "You don''t have to tell me. It''s fine."
"No, no. I want to tell you," Fira shook her head. "It''s just that I''ve never talked about it with anyone out and about before." Fira took a deep breath. "Ok, here we go. My mother has a Tier 5 ss: The Queen of Gems." Reivyn just nodded his head and smiled to encourage her. Fira tilted her head at him. "That doesn''t surprise you? My mother''s ss has the word ''Queen'' in it. Does that change things between us?"
"Meh, so what?" Reivyn shrugged. "My mother''s ss is only Tier 4, but it''s The Forgotten Celestial Sovereign."
"So you are a hidden prince!" Fira nearly jumped out of her seat in excitement. "My revtion might not have changed things for you between us, but yours sure did for me! This is great news!"
"Why is that great news? I mean, I think I understand why, but could you articte it for me?"
"It means my parents are less likely to kill you."
"Oh... I see..." Reivyn trailed off.
"Rx," Fira reached over and ced a hand on his forearm. "I meant metaphorically. Though, my mother... Best not to think what reaction she would have. They''ve been pretty lenient with me over the years. As I said, I have a lot of older siblings. Pretty much all of the political marriages have already been ounted for, and there are other reasons why they would be reluctant to ''sell'' me for political reasons."
"Something to do with your Discer Esper ss?"
"Yeah. Something like that. Anyway, back to you. Are your parents on an extended Life Experience expedition like me? Why were you born in a Tier 1 Region if she''s a Sovereign from a Tier 4 Empire?"
"Well, the Empire my parents are from doesn''t exist anymore. There was a Dungeon Break in all four Dungeons in the capital city. They fled to one of their vassal states, but they didn''t find any help there, and the vassals ended up engaging in Civil War to try and im the Tier 4 Region and make it their own. My parents followed leads of a mastermind behind the Dungeon Breaks, and it led them to the Tier 1 Region.
"Is that going to change things again? The fact that I don''t have an actual political backing associated with my parents'' origin?"
"Shouldn''t," Fira denied. "My parents are more concerned with someone''s potential. Your current Stats and Level would speak volumes in your favor, but the fact that your parents are Tier 4 royalty definitely negates a lot of headache being amoner would have initially caused.
"So then what about your father?" Fira asked. "Who is he?"
"He was originally the ceremonial personal bodyguard of my mother. Things happened in the years that they were outside, and they fell in love and had me. And my sisters. I have two, younger twin sisters."
"Are they as talented as you?"
"Let me put it this way: they could craft magic items without knowing what they were doing at the age of six." Fira''s eyes opened wide in astonishment.
"Maybe more, then," she chuckled.
"Yeah, maybe. I make up for myck of talent with hard work, though."
"Oh sure, humble brag why don''t you?" Fira shoved Reivyn in the shoulder, giggling. "Now all of that leads to another question that I have that''s been bothering me: Why and how are you only Level 7 in Tier 2? I can''t figure it out. You were down in the caves by yourself for several days, fighting those low Tier 3 monsters. That alone should have pushed you up to Level 12 or so unless you were still Tier 1 when you entered the caves. But that doesn''t make sense, either, because you would have had to have been in your Tier 2 Caster ss to get epted into the Magic Academy. What is going on?"
Reivyn stared at Fira for a moment as he considered how to answer the question. We''ve already decided to trust each other with some pretty sensitive information, and she''s been extremely forting. If I want to get closer to her than we''ve already gotten, I''ll have to trust her with more information. It really shouldn''t matter, either. My parents told me they weren''t particrly hiding, and it''s not likely that she or her family will ever run into them in the future if we go our separate ways.
"I have a way to suppress my Experience gain," Reivyn finally answered. Fira''s eyes once more opened wide at the implications of that statement. "I was trying to game the System by graduating from the Magic Academy and getting a forced Tier 3 ss conversion while still in Tier 2.
"That seems unlikely to happen now, though. I might have to abandon that goal in light of the current circumstances just to get strong enough to survive. If the conflict is as bad as we think it might be." Reivyn tossed some small sticks into the campfire, staring off into space. Fira once more ced her hand on his forearm to get his attention.
"Graduation isn''t the only way for the System to force a ss change," she said, looking into his eyes. Reivyn was once more captivated by the gem-like ruby irises. I guess that might exin where "Queen of Gems"es from, he thought. He nced at Sera. Then what about her sapphire eyes? They''re not siblings. Maybe she''s like my dad. A noble with distant ties to the royal family, and, instead of being assigned as ady-in-waiting, she''s a bodyguard.
"I know, but I''m so far away, and there''s going to be a lot of danger..."
"Well, I can reliably tell you that you are far superior to the averagebatant that you''ll find out here participating. Most of them will be low to mid-Tier 3, and you''ve disyed abilities at high Tier 3 to low Tier 4, as far as I can tell. Don''t make any decisions on breaking your goal just yet. Wait and see."
"Thanks. I will," Reivyn smiled. He lifted her hand up from his forearm and gave a kiss on the back of it. Fira blushed and looked away, but she didn''t try to take her hand away.
"So anyway, I''ve only told you about my mother," Fira continued after a moment. She turned back to face Reivyn, still letting him hold her hand. "My father is also Tier 5. His ss is Monarch of Eons."
"Eons? Is he some sort of Time Mage, or something?"
"Not exactly. It''s hard to exin."
"Alright. I''m not really interested in your dad, anyway," Reivyn wiggled his eyebrows. Fira rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked up into a smile. "My dad is also Tier 5. His ss is Embodiment of Righteousness."
"Your parents are something else," Fira leaned back, a look of almost disgust on her face. "Embodiment?! Are you kidding me? Do you know what that means?"
"No," Reivyn shook his head.
"That''s one step below Hero. I''m sure you know what a Hero is, but do you understand what it means to have the ss designation of Hero?" Reivyn shook his head once more. "I swear, the education in the backward Tier 1 Regions leaves a lot to be desired.
"A Hero designation isn''t some fairy tale scenario of someone being destined to save the world or anything. It means one has nearly reached the pinnacle of their profession. I dare say, if you traveled to a thousand Tier 4 Empires, you wouldn''t find one.
"The Embodiment designation is just one step below that. Now, do you understand? That has to be a Legendary ss."
"Yeah, it is," Reivyn confirmed. "I did hear one of his subordinates identally let out that he almost qualified for Hero, once."
"Seriously?! That means he has a good chance of getting a Hero ss at Tier 6 if he makes it that far. How old are your parents? If I had to guess, I would say mid-fifties? Low sixties?"
"My mom is 33, and my dad is 36."
"You''re kidding? Right? My mother is 64, and my father is 73. I can see how your father almost qualified for Hero if he''s a Legendary Tier 5 at the age of thirty."
"I never really thought about it," Reivyn said. "I guess it makes sense if you think about it. People do live a lot longer with higher Tier sses and Stats, and your parents would have to be older if, as you say, you have a lot of older siblings. How does that work, by the way? Doesn''t getting older reduce the chances of having children?"
"Maybe formoners in a Tier 1 Region. My parents don''t just look like their bodies are still 25ish years old. They effectively are still 25, and having more power and control over one''s body makes it more likely they can induce pregnancy on purpose, not less likely."
"That''s interesting."
"Yeah. Anyway, I think it''s time we finally get some rest." Fira pointed to the others who had already fallen asleep. Sera had the first watch, and Reivyn would take up thest watch. He didn''t need as much sleep as he used to, but it was still a good idea to stay fresh.
"Alright. Goodnight." Fira looked up at him, slightly leaning forward. Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at her. Fira rolled her eyes as she sighed, getting up.
"Men!" She stomped off toy down closer to Sera.
"What?" Reivyn asked the empty air. "What did I do?"
Reivyn shrugged andid down to get some rest.
Reivyn could see the activity at the gates of the city of Oreck off in the distance. Thend had grown increasingly greener as they got closer and closer to their destination. It wasn''t nearly as green as the Region he had grown up in, but it was still much better than before. Reivyn could see the sheen of water from a river snaking along the opposite side of the city.
The feelings associated with a more lively environment were juxtaposed against the anxiety of finding another abandoned city. Those feelings were dispelled, though, once they finallyid eyes on the city. They had been worried because there was no traffic on the western road from the city on their way in.
Reivyn could see a lot of people entering the city, and he could see that it seemed to have an unusuallyrge military force patrolling the walls and streets. Reminds me of the time my father destroyed the Hawthorne estate. I''m guessing they got the message Fira sent out and took it seriously.
The road was well maintained leading up to the city, and Reivyn nced at the palm trees lining the road. He counted fourteen on either side, neatly ced in a row. He frowned as a distant memory tugged at him.
"What''s that look for?" Fira asked by his side.
"The palm trees," Reivyn gestured to either side.
"What about them?"
"I don''t know. I just have a feeling that one of them is missing or something."
"If you say so," Fira gave him a strange look before shaking her head.
The people trying to enter the city were lined up by the guards, and everyone was going through a rigorous inspection and identification.
"Line up for inspection! Line up for Inspection!"
The call was clearly heard by everyone, and nobody tried to cut in the line or bribe the guards to enter the city ahead of time or skip the inspection. Not everyone at the gate came from the road leading toward Kirlon. Almost everyone else came in from surrounding roads that converged on the major highway.
Reivyn and his Party lined up with the others, waiting for their turn patiently.
"If you have an identification token, make sure it''s handy," Fira whispered to Reivyn. "Your Magic Academy token should work fine."
"Won''t they be suspicious if I don''t prove I''m a citizen of this kingdom or an affiliate?"
"Maybe. We''ll deal with that when it happens, though."
The line moved fairly quickly, and it was soon their turn. Sera and Fira provided some sort of identification that had the guards waving them through almost immediately, Reivyn noticed. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna were questioned a little more, but their identification was from Kirlon, and they were also waved through without incident.
"What''s this?" The guard asked Reivyn, inspecting his Magic Academy Student Token.
"It''s my student token," Reivyn replied.
"I can see that. It doesn''t have any kingdom listed, though. It doesn''t even have a city name. How are we supposed to know where you''re from? As far as I know, the local Academies include that information."
"I''m not from one of the local Academies," Reivyn exined. "It''s just some Tier 1 Region, far away from here."
"Uh huh. Some ''Tier 1 Region, far away from here.'' How do we know you''re not a spy?"
"Have you had trouble with spies?"
"Well... answer the question!"
"I don''t know. That''s all I got. I''m just some guy from a Tier 1 Region. You can ask mypanions. They''ll vouch for me."
Reivyn indicated his other Party members that had been waved through already. Fira noticed themotion and walked over. An older guard with a more intricate rank insignia saw her movement and hurried to follow after.
"What''s the problem?" Fira asked with a frown.
"This doesn''t concern you," the guard waved her off, trying to stare her down. It didn''t work. "I''m just trying to ferret out any spies."
"This man isn''t a spy."
"Says you. What does your word count for?" The guard hadn''t paid too much attention to the person following her, but he saw him now. He stood up straighter and offered a salute. "Sir!"
"Her word counts for enough," the obvious officer said. "Let this man through."
"Yes, sir." The guard stepped aside and immediately moved on to questioning the next person in line. Reivyn nodded his head at this, and the officer noticed his action.
"I see you understand we''re all just doing our jobs," the man remarked to Reivyn.
"Yes, I see that," Reivyn agreed. "I don''t hold any bad feelings for the man."
"That''s good." The officer turned to Fira. "Our guards noticed your mana signature matched the distress call we received almost a week ago. Am I right in assuming you''re the one who sent the message?"
"That''s right," Fira nodded. "And for further proof this man isn''t a spy, he''s the one who supplied the direction and approximate strength of the enemy army."
"And it was greatly appreciated," the officer nodded to Reivyn. "The City Lordmanded us to bring whoever sent the message to him if they ever showed up so that he could get a clearer picture. If you don''t mind," the man indicated for the group to follow him into the city.
Fira exchanged a look with Sera, who nodded. She turned back to the officer and gestured for him to lead the way. Reivyn, Sten, Dowell, and Cinna fell in line and followed them in.
Once they entered the city walls, Reivyn could see groups of men assembling and being outfitted with basic gear. It wasn''t just that the city was more militarized than normal, but they were actively inting their ranks. He saw many people standing around in loose formation with their own armor and weapons, but a lot of people were either non-Combat sses, or they were lower Level. Most people were in the former group, though, so it wasn''t quite simr to the situation of the conscription of Peasant Levies Reivyn had experienced before.
Everywhere they looked, signs of war preparation could be seen. It wasn''t the only thing going on, though. Most people were still just going about their regr lives, and the signs of militarization dropped off precipitously as they entered the more affluent part of the city.
The officer led them to the centralized administrative building. It was much grander than anything found outside of The Capital from Reivyn''s experience, even though this wasn''t the capital city of the kingdom. There were cultivated nts and trees, and the greenery exploded aspared even to the greener countryside nearby.
They were led to a conference room filled with older, grizzled men and mature women. They were discussing the war preparations, from what Reivyn could glean from his Eavesdropping Skill. The Party waited just outside as the officer entered to announce their presence. A middle-aged man with a trimmed goatee perked up at the news whispered into his ear from the officer, and he called a temporary halt to the discussion as he motioned Fira and the others inside.
Fira marched up fearlessly, Sera a half-step behind her. Reivyn followed behind them with a casual walk, but Sten, Dowell, and Cinna were obviously nervous to be in front of such high-ranking people. Reivyn tried to give an encouraging smile to them, but they were too nervous to pay attention.
"So, you''re the ones that sent the message," it was a statement. "We were a little concerned that someone had been pulling a prank when we weren''t able to send a message back, but that very fact, alone, also led credence to the news."
"Yes, we were only able to send a message out," Fira pulled the forked magic item out of her storage pouch. "The other half of the magic item this is supposed to interface with was destroyed or confiscated."
"That makes sense," the bearded man nodded. "Oh, how rude of me. I am Count Yaolo, the City Lord. This is my counsel. Now, could you borate on the situation you found in Kirlon?"
Fira used her Social Skills to easily converse with the City Lord as she exined in detail what they had found in the sacked city. Reivyn studied the counselors as she told their tale.
We didn''t encounter any scouts sent out to investigate. I would say they might not have been prepared enough to do so, but the preparations outside show that that''s not likely the case. Are they just ipetent, or are there other extenuating circumstances?
Fira quickly finished exining everything she knew, and the City Lord turned his attention to Reivyn. Reivyn stopped his contemtions and focused on the man addressing him.
"Miss Fira here says you''re the one who determined their size and the direction they went?"
"Yes, sir," Reivyn answered. "Though, I am not an expert in Tracking. I just unlocked the Skill when I figured out which way they left."
"The System granting you the Skill from that likely means it was urate, at least," the City Lord stroked his beard. "What makes you say there were tens of thousands of them, though?"
"Two things: The number and orderliness of the tracks - there were many, many, many tracks all lined up in an orderly formation on three different sides of the city - and the conventional wisdom of assaulting a fortified position requiring three-to-one odds."
"Conventional Wisdom?" Reivyn heard the armored man sitting near Count Yaolo mutter under his breath. He was obviously one of the ranking military members of the city.
If he doesn''t know that much, then that''s not a good sign, Reivyn mentally sighed.
"So you have some military training, young man?" The lord picked up on his general''s muttering.
"Yes, sir."
"We would be happy to have someone with experience join us in case this turns into a big deal."
"Are you conscripting me?" Reivyn frowned.
"Not at all," Count Yaolo shook his head with a smile. "It''s all volunteer at this point. You can choose toe or go as you please."
"I understand," Reivyn replied.
"Well, if that''s all...?"
Fira took the hint and turned around to usher everyone back out of the room, back to the waiting officer.
"Thank you for your cooperation," the officer said as he led them back out of the building. Reivyn could hear the sounds of discussion resume in the conference room after a few steps. He could clearly hear skepticism about his statement in the voice of a few people. He just shook his head as they walked.
The Party headed to a nearby inn to acquire amodation before they discussed their options.
If Fira''s Tier 4 Empire is the one this kingdom is a vassal to, then she has a duty to ensure things turn out favorably. She''ll definitely be sticking around. There''s no way that Sten, Dowell, and Cinna don''t volunteer in some way, either. The real question is: What am I going to do? I have my own goals, and this conflict doesn''t really concern me.
The Party found a table in themon area of the inn. Before they could even sit down, though, Sten turned and faced Reivyn.
"I know this is extremely selfish of me. Of us," he indicated himself and his two friends, "but we could really use someone of your caliber in this fight. We know something is afoot, and the looks of the volunteers so far don''t lend a lot of confidence. We really need someone like you."
Reivyn studied the man''s face. All he saw was determination. He nodded his head.
"As long as it doesn''t tie me down for an undue amount of time, I''ll help how I can."
Sten thanked him profusely, over and over, and Reivyn could see a smile light up Fira''s face.
Chapter 106: Commission
Chapter 106: Commission
"We''ll probably split up from this point going forward," Fira said as the Party sat around the tavern table. "Sera will go where I go, and I''ll be going to the Mage Corps. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna, you''ll most likely go to the regr infantry. We don''t have our own horses, and that''s a requirement to join a cavalry unit - they don''t supply those to anyone but officers - and you''re a bit young and inexperienced."
Sten shared a look with Dowell and Cinna.
"We understand. At this point, we don''t really care where they stick us; we just want to help get our families back," Sten said.
"I''m sure they''re fine," Fira consoled, reaching her hand out to pat Sten''s.
"Reivyn, on the other hand, you have options," she continued. "You''re a Caster ss, so you coulde with me to the Mage Corps, or you could go to the infantry."
"Either one works for me," Reivyn detected a slight frown from Fira at that answer. "The needs of the army will dictate what I choose."
"If you say so," Fira said. Reivyn could tell she wasn''t entirely enthusiastic about it. "We''ll go to one of the recruitment centers tomorrow. They''ll be able to point us in the right direction at any one of them."
"I''ll need to swing by the Adventurer''s Guild to ce mymission for the information on how to get back home, first," Reivyn said.
"That''s fine. We can make a detour on the way," Fira nodded.
The Party members had already made up their minds to assist in the war effort, so they quickly ate their meal. The banter at the table was subdued as everyone contemted the immediate future.
Seems like I''m going back to my roots, Reivyn thought. I can only hope themand structure is half as good as Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand, though.
The dinner quickly wrapped up. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna left immediately for their shared room. They weren''t exactly in the mood to have a jovial conversation. Reivyn looked at Fira and tilted his head and flicked his eyes up toward the upstairs. Fira nodded her head and they made their way to her room.
"Sera, stay out here for a moment," Fira said outside the door. Sera crossed her arms and red at Fira, clearly disapproving of the decision.
"No, it''s fine," Reivyn interjected. Both Fira and Sera looked at him in surprise. "It''s not that kind of visit."
Fira stared at him for a second before turning to open the door without a word. Reivyn waited for the two girls to walk into the room before following them in. Fira walked over to the bed and took a seat on the edge, looking up at Reivyn. Sera stood to the side, arms still crossed as she examined him from head to toe as well.
"I hope you''re not thinking of getting with the both of us," Fira said with a re. That statement caused Sera''s face to morph into shock. She apparently hadn''t considered such a scenario. Her frown deepened as her re turned sharp.
"What? No!" Reivyn quickly denied. "I just wanted to talk."
Fira continued to re at him skeptically before she broke into a grin and startedughing.
"You should have seen both of your faces!" Sheughed, pointing at the two of them. Sera huffed in annoyance, and Reivyn mentally wiped his brow, his heart beating a mile a minute. This girl...
"I asked Sera to be here just for her peace of mind," Reivyn exined after Fira had calmed down. "I know she''s overprotective of you, and I''m not going to put her in apromising situation."
"Well, thank you for your consideration of Sera, but what about your consideration for me?" Fira quirked an eyebrow.
"It is in consideration for you. What do you think your parents would say when Sera inevitably reports this to them?"
"Sounds like it''s more consideration for yourself."
"It''s for both of us, ok?" Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"Man, you''re really easy to tease tonight," Fira stuck her tongue out at him. "So what did you want to talk about?"
"Nothing super important. Can''t I just want to talk to you?" Reivyn made to sit next to Fira on the bed, but he nced at Sera and thought better of it. He dragged a chair over from the small sitting area to the side to sit in front of her. He was a little lower and had to look up at her, but he didn''t mind.
"I suppose," Fira said, idly twirling her hair in her finger. The motion was a slight distraction for Reivyn, but he quickly snapped out of it.
"So, is this Tier 3 kingdom a vassal state to your empire?"
"Uh huh," Fira nodded.
"So then why don''t youmandeer the situation?" Reivyn asked with a frown. "Aren''t you everyone''s superior?"
"Technically, yes. But it doesn''t work that way. Right now we don''t know if it''s another one of our vassal states invading or if it''s a rogue city-state within the kingdom vying for control. In either of those scenarios, it would be viewed as an internal matter, and our job would be to only help when called for. We would help minimize the damage and then arbitrate between the two parties.
"If it''s a non-vassal state invading, then it would be appropriate to take charge because then it''s not an internal matter. It would be another empire encroaching upon us, and it might very well turn into a multi-Region conflict. Maybe even between the two Tier 4 empires directly.
"For the most part, vassal Regions are fairly autonomous. We facilitate trade between them, us, and each other while siphoning some of the resources and higher talented individuals from them. In return, some of the talented people who don''t like the fiercerpetition will migrate back down, and we offer protection from outsiders and monsters that are too difficult for them to handle."
"I see. So your objective is to essentially scout out the situation and make sure you don''t need to call in the big guns."
"Big guns? What''s a gun?"
Reivyn was confused for a second as he stared at Fira, not knowing what she was talking about. He startled after he realized what he had said.
"I have no idea. It just popped out. Anyway, that''s not important. I just meant you need to make sure you don''t have to call reinforcements from your people."
"You say the strangest things sometimes, but yes, that''s one of the reasons. Actually, the bigger reason is still Life Experience. Just to be safe, I already sent a message to my family letting them know the situation, and they''ll be the ones to determine the next best course of action overall. I''m still pretty low on the totem pole, all things considered, and if our intervention is needed, my parents will send one, or a few, of my older siblings to takemand. They''ll still definitely send more protection for me, though.
"In an emergency, I have the power to takemand, but I''m less likely to be taken seriously than one of my older brothers or sisters." Fira held her hand out in front of herself, indicating her youthful face.
"I dunno... I think you''re pretty amazing," Reivyn wiggled his eyebrows.
"I''m talking about my fighting capabilities andmand experience. Not... what you''re talking about."
"Who said that''s not what I''m talking about?"
"You haven''t even seen me fight!"
"I can infer. I know your ss and associated Affinity for it, and you''ve told me how much Mana you have. That tells me you have really high Mental Stats to empower your Spells. Plus, a girl as pretty as you couldn''t possibly be average." Reivyn winked. Fira rolled her eyes.
"Hush, you. What do my superior looks have to do with my abilities?" Fira flung her hair over her shoulder. Reivyn simply smiled as Fira obviously preened under thepliment. "What I want to know, is why did you say you weren''t going to go with me to the Mage Corps?"
"Because we should put our personal feelings aside for the overall situation," Reivyn said seriously. "We''ll be busy and not able to interact with each other nearly as much as we have been regardless of where I go, and we''ll still have downtime where we can meet up when we''re not. Once we march out to actually confront the bad guys, we won''t have time to spend with each other anyway."
"All the more reason we should have had Sera wait outside," Fira muttered petntly. Sera gave her a skeptical look through her brows.
"All the more reason for me to be here, you mean," Sera said. Fira stuck her tongue out at her.
"Speaking of the ensuing conflict, how long do you think it will take to send out the messages to figure out how to get back to my home?" Reivyn asked.
"That depends on how far away it is," Fira answered.
"I got an Achievement for traveling further than ten million miles away."
"Wow, that far, huh? In that case, it could take three to five years for a round trip. Then it''ll be several months, most likely, jumping from teleport to teleport in the Tier 4 empires, as well as the time it takes to travel to there from here.
"So you''re looking at anywhere from three and a half to six or seven years before you reunite with your family."
"That''s half my age," Reivyn said as he took the information in. "I guess I have plenty of time to participate in the war, then. Why would it take so much longer for the messages to travel than to actually make the trip"
"Are you trying to get away from me sooner?" Fira cocked an eyebrow. She put her hands on her hips as she gave Reivyn a severe look, but it didn''t quite work as well from her sitting position.
"You know that''s not what I mean," Reivyn rolled his eyes, and Fira broke into a giggle. "You''re really in a mood tonight."
"You know it. Anyway, it will take longer to send the messages than the trip because the people involved aren''t going to prioritize it as you would. It might sit unanswered at a specific location before it''s passed along for quite some time. You never know."
"Noted. Your family is rich, isn''t it?"
"Ye~s? Why bring that up? I''m not going to pay for your running away from me if that''s what you''re thinking."
"Nothing of the sort," Reivyn shook his head. "I just figured you could go with me when the timees if you wanted."
"Woah, I know we''re getting closer and all, but isn''t that a little sudden?" Fira looked down and to the side shyly.
"I meant to just apany me on the trip."
"In that case, we''ll see. It''s still a little early to make any ns that far in the future, but... I''ll consider it."
"Good."
Reivyn stayed for close to an hour talking with Fira. Sera remained silent, standing to the side, and Reivyn almost forgot about her presence, much like Erik used to fade into the background.
After an hour, Fira started to yawn, and Reivyn stood up to make his exit. Fira followed him to see him out. Reivyn opened the door and turned onest time toward Fira. She stood close, looking up at him expectantly. Reivyn reached out and ran his hands through her hair as she leaned into his touch.
He pulled his hand back, but he swooped it down again, snaking it around her waist to pull her closer to him. He bent down and ced a deep kiss on her lips. It was no quick peck like the first one he stole from her. She melted into his arms, and they were both lost in the sensation.
"About time," Sera said, startling the two out of their moment. Fira turned her head sharply and red at herpanion fiercely. Sera just chuckled. Fira turned back to Reivyn, but the moment was over.
"It''s gettingte," she sighed. "I''ll see you in the morning. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Reivyn said. Fira closed the door reluctantly, and Reivyn headed to his room.
Breakfast was still a subdued affair. Reivyn and Fira shared some looks with each other, but they still didn''t unt anything in front of the others. It was obvious that Sten, Dowell, and Cinna knew about their rtionship, but that wasn''t an excuse to ignore their feelings and get all happy in front of them.
"I suppose this is as good a time as any to officially disband our Party," Fira said. The others stopped eating as they looked at her. Sten nodded his head.
"I speak for all three of us when I say it was a pleasure to Party with you," he said. "I know I liked toin a lot when we went to the Lizaldon settlement, but we''re grateful you chose us to Party with. If we hadn''t joined you, we would either be dead or captured ourselves."
"I hadn''t really even considered that possibility. Regardless, I''m d it worked out."
Fira dismissed the Party, and Reivyn couldn''t help but feel a slight loss at the broken connection. He understood it was just superficial, and they were still right next to each other, but he couldn''t help how he felt.
Everyone finished eating and shared a look with each other before getting up to head to the Adventurer''s Guild. Reivyn paid more attention to the surrounding people as they made their way along the streets than he had the day before, as they had been practically rushed to the admin building to report to the City Lord.
He noticed that the clothing of the average person was of superior quality and cut, and the gear that he could see on the Adventurers and soldiers was clearly superior, as well. The Tier of metal and leather used in constructing the gear was higher, and it was clearly made with higher Skill from the Lifestyle sses who made it.
"Do you see what I meant about you being from and of giants?" Fira said, looking at him sideways.
Reivyn looked closer at the people in the crowds, and he noticed that the average person only came up to his chin. He hadn''t really everpared himself to other people before, and he had thought he was pretty typical for a fit young man. Looking now, though, he saw that not only did he stand almost a head taller than most of the people around, not just the women and younger teenagers, but his overall build was much broader and more muscr.
It has to have been my Bloodline fully unlocking, along with the time loss, Reivyn realized. People''s Stat gains from Leveling don''t affect their body shape, but someone''s own efforts do. That also includes people''s natural height and build. My Bloodline was dormant for most of my life. There hadn''t been too much time from the Stat gains unlocking for it to have affected me noticeably, but now that''s changed.
"I guess I just hadn''t finished growing before I got here," Reivyn said sheepishly.
"You grew a head taller in the time it took you to go from there to here?" Fira asked skeptically.
"Yes?" He didn''t know how to sinctly exin the situation, especially not with all the extra ears around. It was one thing for him to tell Fira more about himself, but he wasn''t that close with the others.
"If you say so."
It was a quick jaunt to the Adventurer''s Guild where Reivyn submitted his request, and it wasn''t long before they reached the recruitment center. There were men and women standing out front, some in uniform and others in civilian attire, directing the volunteers in two different directions.
"Martial sses and Hybrid sses line up to the right! Caster sses line up to the Left!" They called out to the people continuously as more people streamed in.
At least it appears that a lot of people are going to be volunteering, Reivyn thought as he noticed the numbers. There were already about twice as many people waiting in the various lines to volunteer as had been conscripted for the Dungeon im.
"This is where we part ways, temporarily," Fira stopped and faced Reivyn. He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it, as Sten, Dowell, and Cinna continued on to get in line. Reivyn could feel and Sense several jealous gazes directed his way from the bystanders watching. They weren''t hostile like they wanted to jump in and dere, "who do you think you are!" or anything, but he could tell the others were envious of the disy of affection with such a pretty girl.
"Yes, temporarily," Reivyn nodded. "We still have our rooms at the inn, so we''ll still see each other every night until further notice."
"I already can''t wait until evening," Fira said before blushing. Reivyn chuckled.
"Go. Wow them with your amazing talent."
"There''s no doubt about that," Fira flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Don''t mess up and make me look bad. I have an image to uphold."
Reivynughed and shook his head as they separated to join their respective lines.
The line moved quickly, as it broke up into several inspection sections to gauge the capabilities of everyone volunteering in order to put them in the right ce.
"Have any identity tokens that have a record of your aplishments ready, and ce your hand on the orb," staff members were calling out instructions as they moved forward. Other people were behind the tables with the orbs, writing things down and waving the volunteers in the right direction. Reivyn stood taller than most of the people in line, so he had a clear view of everything that was taking ce.
After about a ten-minute wait, it was already Reivyn''s turn to step up to a table. Sten, Dowell, and Cinna had already gone through, having gotten several spaces ahead in line as Reivyn and Fira had said their farewells to each other. He nced at his Status onest time to ensure that he left out his Mythic Skill, but he kept his Legendary Heroic Bearing on disy on his false "public" Status page. He didn''t know if the orb in use was high enough Tier to pierce through the deception, but he doubted it. Even if it was, it probably wasn''t that big of a deal.
Hopefully, he thought to himself as he handed over his Magic Academy and Adventurer Guild tokens. He ced his hand on the orb and felt the tingle of Mana. The orb lit up with a noticeably brighter glow than the previous applicants, and the staff member did a double take from all of the information on disy from the three sources.
"If you would step to the side and wait a moment," the man said after regaining hisposure.
Reivyn hadn''t seen anyone else be asked to stand aside. He moved to the indicated location with a frown on his face.
"Is there some sort of problem?" Reivyn asked.
"No problem," the man denied. "I just need to call a superior over. It will just be a moment."
"Ok."
Kaerl sat at his desk, bored out of his mind as he "supervised" the inspection of the volunteers. After it got up and running, he had literally nothing to do. The other soldiers and staff members knew their jobs well, and they didn''t need to be micromanaged. None of the volunteers caused any problems either. The types of people lining up to join the military during this time weren''t the type to cause trouble. At least not right away.
That''ll change if things go south and we have to conscript people, he thought. Adventurers don''t appreciate their time being "stolen" like that, as they see it. Even the ones that were on the fence about volunteering will be resentful at that point. Let''s just hope it''s not as serious as that.
The only good thing about that kind of situation is the Level andpetency of the conscripts. Most of the people lining up so far to volunteer are just low Tier 3. There has even been a couple of high Tier 2 babies rushing to throw their lives away.
Kaerl leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, feet on the desk in front of him. He was beyond the point of caring that he was giving a nonchnt appearance in front of the civilians. What do they know or care about proper military discipline and bearing?
He felt a tingle run down his spine, and he brought his gaze down from the ceiling to spot a young man standing off to the side of one of the inspection tables, looking in his direction. The young man didn''t have an expression on his face, but he could detect disapproval from it. The feeling was so palpable and reminded him so much of his Company Commander, that he subconsciously threw his feet off the table and straightened up.
It was then that he noticed the inspector in charge of the young man''s table was walking toward him.
Finally, something to do!
"What is it, Corporal Wailen?" Kaerl asked excitedly. His enthusiasm for engaging with the corporal startled the man momentarily, but he recovered and passed him a couple of sheaves of paper. They were forms printed out from the interface of the token inspection.
"This young man over there, Reivyn," he jerked his head in the direction of the youth Kaerl had just spotted, "is a bit of an anomaly. You instructed us to bring you anything that stood out like this."
"So I did," Kaerl said as he examined the papers handed to him. "Number 1 in his ss at the Magic Academy - what''s he doing over here in this line? Hybrid ss? - Leader of his own official Adventurer Party with several credits... Previous member of a Lord''s Retinue... Let''s see, here... Fought against a Tier 3 undead incursion while still Tier 1 - wait, what? - Fought in a Tier 4 Siege battle... Assigned the position of Aide with the rank of Warrant Officer... Experience with actual Command... And he''s fourteen years old?!" Kaerl''s eyebrows rose higher and higher as he read off each aplishment.
"Quick, hand me the paper from the orb inspection," he held his hand out to Corporal Wailen. The man handed the paper over promptly. "This here says... all of his Stats are above 200?! We''ll have to get him to check with a higher Tier orb to get a more urate description. What kind of Skills does he have?" Kaerl scanned his eyes down the significant list. The list only gave an approximation of his mastery level, but the Skill Level wasn''t as important as simply having some crucial Skills.
"Swords, Spears, Bows, Pugilist... all close to or at Master level. What?!" Kaerl shook his head to clear his mind. "He has Command and Battlefield Awareness at nearly the Apprentice level, Commanding Shout - I don''t even have Commanding Shout, yet - and Inspiration at Apprentice level. He also has a Legendary Skill: Heroic Bearing?!" That probably exins the feeling I got from his gaze.
"Take me to him."
"Yes, sir," Corporal Wailen said, turning on his heel to take him toward the young man in question. He saw the frown on his face deepen as he approached him. He smiled to try and dispel any worry. It seemed to work, as he noticed the young man rx a little.
"Reivyn, is it?" Kaerl asked. The youth nodded his head. Now that I get a closer look, I can tell he''s younger than most of the other people here. The baby face he likely had is gone, but remnants of it still haven''t been fully outgrown yet. "I''m First Lieutenant Kaerl. I''m sure you''re wondering why we''ve had you step aside. It''s nothing serious. Your Stats, Skills, and Aplishments gged you for an officer''s review. If you''ll follow me?"
Reivyn nodded to Kaerl and got in line behind him as Kaerl led him into the building where the inspections were being held in front of. He walked down a hall and entered arge conference room. It was filled with people sitting in seats paying attention to a presentation at the front of the room.
Kaerl paused as he spotted another trio of people who had entered the room right ahead of him with some other newbies, but they were obviously arriving from the Caster Side of the recruitment. The youngdy - and she was obviously ady - turned, and her smile froze him in ce. She was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen in his life with long auburn hair and distinctive ruby eyes.
She''s smiling at me?! Kaerl was dumbfounded for a moment before he realized the girl was smiling at the young man behind him. He nced at Reivyn and felt a brief twang of jealousy, but he squashed it ruthlessly. Now was not the time to be distracted by a pretty girl, and they obviously knew each other already, anyway.
The youngdy and her bodyguard were led to the left side of the room where they took a seat. Kaerl snapped out of his stunned state and led Reivyn to a seat on the right side of the room.
"The Battalion Executive Officer will exin the situation to you and the other toon Leaders," Kaerl said. That got a reaction from the young man.
"toon Leader? Are you sure?" Reivyn asked, surprised.
"Sure. You have all of the requirements, and it would be a waste to send you into the ranks."
"But I''m aplete stranger. Nobody knows anything about me other than what was shown on the screens."
"Where do you think we get the officers for the irregrs?" Kaerl questioned back. "We don''t have enough regr officers to take them all on. Don''t worry. You''ll spend two weeks going through the ropes ofmand and leadership to weed out the ones who don''t quite match up to expectations, though I''m sure you''ll be fine. Your specs are higher than pretty much all of the other prospective toon Leaders in this room.
"After that, it''ll be a couple of weeks to familiarize yourself with themand structure and how we run things. So about a month of training before you step in front of any troops.
"Yourmission will be probationary and provisional, though. It''s possible to receive a regrmission, but only if you have outstanding results in actual battle. Who knows? If you do well enough, I might have to salute you one day."
"I don''t know about that," Reivyn said skeptically. "Wouldn''t you also advance in ranks by that time, too?"
"I''m an admin officer," Kaerl shook his head. "We have fewer opportunities for meritorious advancement in war time, and everyone here is going to be on the front lines. No offense, but you guys are going to be bearing the brunt of any conflict that actually arises from this. That risk alsoes with the appropriate reward."
"Ok. Sounds good to me. I did say I was going to volunteer in whatever capacity the army decided to put me in."
"Good man. Now pay attention to the Major. He''s the one who''ll be inmand of the irregrs. I gotta get back to my post - boring though it is - but let me be the first to wee you to the army."
Kaerl shook the young man''s hand. He was still a little confused about the turn of events - he had shown up to enlist, and he''s suddenly getting amission as an officer, after all - but he could tell that he was quicklying around.
I have a good feeling about this young man, Kaerl thought as he made his way back outside.
Chapter 107: Candidate
Chapter 107: Candidate
"I see that we have a couple more new additions," the man at the front of the conference room said as Reivyn and Fira took their seats. "I will just say that I am Major Dobrik, and I will be your Commanding Officer. Your Company Commanders will be introduced to you during training. There''s a packet being passed back to you to cover the information you''ve missed so far. It isn''t much, we''ve just started."
Reivyn sat attentively and epted the packet of information that was passed back to him. He flipped through it briefly, noticing that there were documents to sign as well as the information provided. I''ll go through this afterward. If I read it now, I''ll miss what he''s saying, and I''ll end up having to read everything while missing any additional information from the speaker.
"So far we have limited intel on the overall situation. No other cities, that we know of, have reported attacks or passing armies, but that doesn''t mean it hasn''t happened and we just don''t know about it. For the time being, this will mainly be a double effort: Defense of the city and local territory, and a rescue operation.
"The defense of the city will be handled by the regr troops and city guard. The majority of the rescue operation will be handled by the auxiliary, you. That doesn''t mean we''re throwing you to the wolves to handle the most dangerous objective on your own. There will be regr troops apanying you, and, considering the intel we do know, defense of the city might be more dangerous. We don''t know.
"As an auxiliary unit, you''re basically unaffiliated mercenaries attached to the local garrison. In the packet of information you have in front of you is a preliminary contract. It is only for the duration of the training.
"The terms are simple: You agree to undergo an abbreviated version of officer candidacy, one designed based on the official training and testing methods, so there won''t be any surprises there. You can willfully quit at any time, for a mary penalty, or you can be dismissed by the staff for failing to reach the standards.
"Marypensation will be in ordance with the rank of Sergeant for the duration of the month-long training. When it''spleted, you can choose to ept a provisionalmission, or you can part ways, no questions asked.
"However, until further notice, the city is on lockdown in ordance with wartime rules and regtions. People cane in, but they can''t go out. This will likely be in effect until we learn more about the potential enemy."
Reivyn nodded his head at the statements so far.
Training to be an officer is different than being enlisted. It makes sense to offer a higher sry during training, but not quite at the level of one who has already epted amission. We haven''t earned it, yet.
As for the lockdown, I did notice that there wasn''t any foot traffic exiting the city yesterday when we arrived. We had been rushed ahead so quickly, though, that I hadn''t really considered it at the time.
"The packets contain the information on housing and other non-marypensation, such as contribution points and services avable to you. That''s for after passing the training, though. During the training, you will be housed in male and female separate dorms for the duration.
"Are there any questions so far?" Major Dobrik paused and surveilled the room. Nobody raised their hands. Most people were paying attention, and the few who weren''t were perusing the documents.
"Remember, this is mainly a rescue operation effort. If it turns out that there''s full-blown war, the kingdom itself will handle the situation. Volunteering now, in case that happens, will look good on your record, though. You won''t have to stick around with your provisionalmission in that instance, either. There will be more options avable.
"For the most part, the auxiliary units will receive minimal training, but as the officers in charge of said troops, we have to ensure you have at least a minimum standard.
"That will be all for now. We''ll have the legal teame in and sort through the documents you''ll need to sign."
"Attention!" A seasoned sergeant called from the side of the room as the Major departed from the podium. Reivyn''s body acted on instinct, and he stood up from his seated position, body locked, head straight forward. The others in the room were much less responsive, Fira included.
It must be strange for her to take orders like that, knowing she''s technically a superior rank to everyone present, Reivyn thought. Well, she''s the one who wanted the Life Experience.
Major Dobrik nced at Reivyn as he exited the room, but he didn''t give any outward appearance to his internal thoughts on the matter.
"At Ease," the sergeant called.
Everyone took their seats once more. Reivyn flipped through the packet of documents as several people, presumably the legal team, entered the room.
I really didn''t miss much, Reivyn mused. Basically just the introduction to themand structure. It''s only slightly different from the ranks and structure of the Lord''s Retinue in Magron. I don''t see any Knight-designation ranks. Second and First Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel. It says here that Generals are the exclusive prerogative of the monarch and his counselors to assign.
Colonel Zok is the highest military authority under the Count. He''s most likely the man I saw yesterday who didn''t understand the three-to-one-odds wisdom of assaulting fortified positions. Maybe he''s a political appointee, and the Major might be the true strategist. I hope the Major knows what he''s doing. He seemed like a no-nonsense military man, at least.
The legal team filed in with stacks of papers. There were several individuals, and they each grabbed some papers out of the stacks and started approaching different people seated to go over the contracts. The documents they had were apparently the information on the individuals, Reivyn noticed.
"Well, aren''t you a big boy," the man seated next to Reivyn said, looking up at him? He wasn''t as short as Fira, but he was still a head shorter than Reivyn.
"I''m not that much taller than everyone else. I''ve seen taller," Reivyn said with a slight smile.
"Yeah, but none of them are in here, and it''s not just your height," the man nced at Reivyn''s broad shoulders for emphasis. "The name''s Jek." The man held his hand out, and Reivyn grasped it firmly for a shake.
"Reivyn."
"Well, nice to meet''cha, Reivyn. Not your first time in the military?"
"Yeah, I have some experience."
"Noticed. What with how you leapt out of your seat when that guy called attention. Where''d you serve, and what''d you do?"
"I was in the Lord''s Retinue of some far away Tier 1 Region. I was the Aide to the Adjutant, and we secured a new Dungeon as well as fought off a beast tide and Dungeon break."
"Oh, really? So you don''t have just some experience being in the military, you have actualbat experience. Leadership role, at that, too."
"Yeah, it wasn''t as special as it sounds on paper, though parts of it were exciting. If you call fearing you''ll be overrun by hordes of beasts, demons, and undead and killed at any moment exciting."
"Psh, yeah, I guess that would get your heart pounding," Jek chuckled. "Looks like we''ll be teamed up for the foreseeable future, so hit me up with any tips or tricks you got."
"Instant obedience to orders," Reivyn immediately said. "That''ll definitely get you through the training program with no problems. Do what you''re told, when you''re told, immediately and quickly. Speed, speed, speed is the name of the game. Demonstrate that you understand that concept, and you''re less likely to be harassed."
"''Instant obedience to orders'' and ''speed, speed, speed,''" Jek repeated. "Why is speed the most important thing to demonstrate?"
"Not just speed, but doing the right thing fast," Reivyn corrected. "It''s not just about acting quickly, you have to obey the orders instantly. And the reason it''s important, consider if we''re on the battlefield, and you''re ordered to send your troops to hold a position on the line, but you, or your troops, dilly dally and don''t make it on time. Now the enemy has breached the line and nked your allies. Take the macro-concept and apply it all the way down to the micro-level."
"Makes sense. Thanks, pal!" Jek pped Reivyn on the shoulder.
"No problem. So, you apparently don''t have any experience in organized military operations, how did you end up ted for an officer position?"
"Ahh, I''m a very sociable person. As such I''ve developed a lot of Social Skills. They told me that three, in particr, were crucial in their decision to include me: Motivate, Direct, and Instruct.
"Motivate is like a lesser version of Inspire. Direct is a lesser version of Command, and Instruct is a higher version of Teaching. That, plus being Level 70, led to my current whereabouts.
"Most of the other volunteers, from what I could glean, were around Level 20 or so, with the highest one I saw being Level 40. Heck, there were even a couple of Tier 2 newbies, who thought much too highly of themselves, lined up to join. Couple the lower Levels with the implied lower Skill Levels and the fact that most Adventurer types are a bit of the loner-type, then me being selected makes perfect sense."
"Yeah, I can see that. So you say you have Direct, huh? I''ve never actually heard of that Skill. I''ve only ever heard of Command."
"I unlocked Direct by convincing people to follow directions in an informal setting. Command requires a much more formal organization. Who knows? I might be able to get that Skill out of this whole ordeal. Direct and Command would have amazing synergy. Well, once I get a decent Level in Command, that is."
"I bet. I already have Command, but I don''t have Direct. Any tips on how to unlock that Skill?"
"Sure. You helped me out with a tip, so it wouldn''t be right if I didn''t reciprocate. All you gotta do is get people to follow your orders without them perceiving them as orders. No formal organization, either. That includes a System Party. Honestly, despite it being a lesser version of Command, it''s probably trickier to unlock. Harder to unlock doesn''t always mean better Skill."
"Words of wisdom if I''ve ever heard any," Reivyn nodded his head.
Their conversation was interrupted by staff members finally making it to them with their documents.
"Reivyn?" A young man inquired, standing next to Reivyn''s seat.
"That''s me," Reivyn confirmed.
"Alright. I have your information here. We''ll use it as a reference to discuss the contract avable to you after you pass the training. If you''ll pull out the training contract, I''ll go over any questions you have of it."
Reivyn descended into the most time-consuming, boring part of joining a military organization: paperwork.
Reivyn stood in formation with the other officer candidates. There were fifty officer candidates for the auxiliary. They were aligned based on height, so Reivyn found himself at the front of thest squad, able to just barely peer over the head of the man in front of him. The Caster candidates had been taken to a separate location. Their training would be somewhat different.
After going through the documentation and signing the training contract, the candidates had been directed to the quartermaster to get their gear, which took up the rest of the morning. After that, they had deposited their gear into their new dorm, an open barracks like the one in Magron on the edge of the city, and had eaten their lunch. There had been no reason to dy starting the training, so they began immediately.
There was arge, open space blocked off from the general public for the training of not just candidates and recruits, but for the military organization of the city as a whole. Reivyn could see tracks, training dummies, and obstacle courses.
"Before we begin, everyone will equip these bracelets," a man walked out to the front of the formation. He was dressed in a simr uniform to the one provided to the candidates, but he had the rank insignia of a senior sergeant.
Several lower-ranked troops carried chests onto the drill field and opened them up in front of the formation. They grabbed handfuls of bracelets out of the chests and walked through the ranks, handing them out to the candidates.
"Prison bands?!" The first candidate eximed in shock, staring at the bracelet. He refused to take the bracelet from the soldier trying to hand it to him. The rest of the candidates broke out in a restless discussion. Reivyn just watched with a frown. This was the first time he had encountered such an item, and he didn''t know anything about it.
"SILENCE!" The senior Sergeant bellowed. The candidates stopped talking, more in surprise than obedience to orders. "You''re in formation. Unless given the order of Rest, you will not speak.
"Yes, these are prison bands," he continued. "It is standard operating procedure to equip these items for the duration of officer candidate training. Every one of the officers you''ve encountered have had to go through this exact same thing. You''re all lucky. They had to wear them for the full three months, but you''re only going to have to wear them for two weeks.
"These bands will restrict all of your Stats to 20, and they''ll restrict all of your Skills to Level 1. That''s only in regards to System assistance, though. If your Skill Level is high enough to not need assistance from the System, it won''t affect it. It will prevent you from channeling Mana outside of your bodies, for all of you who have ess to Mana Skills or Spells.
"The purpose of this is to test your mental fortitude. We will push you, physically, not to gauge your physical abilities - we all know they''re high enough - but to see how you function under stress. Will you break? Will you barely press through? Will you shine? That is what''s needed in an officer. You will have to lead from the front, and if you''re running away because things get tough, then your troops will follow.
"Now put them on. That''s an order. You''re free to quit right here, right now. You can buy your freedom for the low cost of one gold coin. If you''re not going to quit, then GET. WITH. IT!"
There was still some grumbling under people''s breath, but nobody quit at this juncture. Reivyn quickly received his bracelet from one of the troops. He gave it a cursory look and threw an Inspection at it before putting it on.
Prisoner''s Shackle
Restricts all Stats to 20.
Hinders Skill usage.
Restricts Mana from flowing out of the body.
Note: This item cannot be removed by oneself, or by another person wearing a Prisoner''s Shackle.
It''s exactly like the senior sergeant described, Reivyn thought. Their usage is actually quite appropriate for the desired oue. With this Prisoner''s Shackle, I don''t know how my Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills will assist me, and will I get Skill Ups in them for performing without their assistance?
Those were questions forter, and he would inevitably find out. After adorning the bracelet, Reivyn felt his body turn sluggish and weak, and his senses dimmed to what they used to be when he was still a child. Despite once having these Stat levels not that long ago, he didn''t limate to the change. He felt a constant drain on his strength and stamina, and he nearly felt nearly blind by the loss of information from his senses.
"Now, we can begin," the senior sergeant said, a predatory grin on his face.
"STAND UP STRAIGHT!" A loud, booming shout came from further down the formation, followed by a loud smack and cry of pain. "NO NOISE!" The same voice shouted. Another smack and another cry. "NO NOISE!" Another smack, but this time, there was no shocked cry of pain.
"HEELS TOGETHER, TOES APART!" Another yell, followed by a simr smacking noise. The individual in question had apparently learned the lesson from the first person, and there was no follow-up cry.
"HEAD STRAIGHT, EYES FRONT!"
"ELBOWS LOCKED, ARMS STRAIGHT!"
Reivyn stood at attention, body locked, as several other sergeants descended on the toon from nowhere. They used a simr training rod as his father had used to correct him when he conducted weapons training many years ago. The strikes from the rods didn''t cause damage, but the loss of Pain Resistance for everyone meant that the brief, sharp pain was a surprise.
Despite everyone having their Stats reduced to 20, that didn''t mean their underlying Health and Vitality didn''t still exist. The blows from the training rods did negligible damage, and the pain was short lived. It had the intended effect, though, as everyone straightened their posture and assumed a presentable military stance.
"Now that we have your attention, I''ll demonstrate the proper posture for marching, and then we''ll march. You must maintain the proper posture at all times, or you will be corrected."
The senior sergeant demonstrated the different facing moves as well as the proper way to march: left foot first, on the call of "Left," right foot second, on the call of "Right." Most of the people had the March Skill, but that didn''t mean it was based on proper posture and execution. It just meant they would have more endurance while walking in step with others.
The senior sergeant only disyed the proper way to move once, and then he immediately began issuingmands. Reivyn followed along with the rest of the candidates as they turned about in ce, other sergeants yelling and striking the candidates to ensure proper execution.
After several minutes of facing drills, the senior sergeant turned them to the right and had them step off.
"Lean back, and strut! Lean back, and strut!"
The sergeants never let up on yelling and correcting the candidates, and they marched around for nearly an hour.
"Double Time!" The senior Sergeant called out. The candidates began to jog forward along the track they had been led to. The other sergeants pulled back from correcting as much while they were jogging so as to avoid tripping anyone up, but they still shouted at candidates who let their postures ck or their feet to get out of step.
The senior sergeant led them around the track at a jog for another ten minutes before leading them to an open field. They spent the rest of the afternoon doing different physical exercises. The heat was really getting to Reivyn long before they got to the end of the day, and his vision was swimming. Sweat poured from his body and stung his eyes, but he refrained from wiping it away, letting it just run its course.
"Alright, we''re done for the evening," the senior sergeant said after marching them back to their starting location. "Fall out!"
More than half of the candidates copsed in ce, and the rest bent over to catch their breath and wipe their sweat away. Reivyn maintained his posture of standing straight despite the burning in his muscles andck of breath. He noticed a group of soldiers standing in the distance with clipboards, watching the candidates and writing things down.
Normally, I would bet they would March us to the barracks to get cleaned up before heading to the mess hall for the evening meal. The presence of those other soldiers with the clipboards, though, indicates they''re already judging our mental strength. Having us fall out of formation suddenly like that was a trap.
"Bro... does your... bracelet... not work?" Jek sidled up to Reivyn, gasping for breath.
"I''m just as tired as you," Reivyn denied. "Remember how I said instant obedience to orders and speed were the most important aspects to show?" Jek nodded his head. "Well, that showed itself by the other sergeants shouting and striking the candidates. How many times did you get struck by one of their rods?"
Jek stopped gasping for breath as he contemted the question, a look of realization on his face.
"Exactly. Those that took too long to follow the orders, or didn''t do it correctly, got smacked. Everyone else who did it quickly, and correctly, got away without any problems.
"That''s only the first important aspect. They told us explicitly what the other one was: Military bearing. Even if you''re exhausted, even if you feel like you can''t move another muscle and you''re having a hard time catching your breath, you need to look the part of an officer. Stand up straight, regte your breathing, and appear as if nothing is bothering you."
Jek followed the advice as Reivyn gave it. He straightened up, quit gasping for breath, and tried to stand nonchntly. He couldn''t quiteplete the look, though, as he had a grimace on his face.
"This is way worse. I regret everything." Jek squeezed his eyes shut as his body shook from standing straight. Reivynughed and pped him on the shoulder.
"Bearing isn''t just your posture. It''s your face, too. Keep a neutral expression. Chant to yourself, ''this is nothing, this is nothing. I can keep going, I can keep going,'' over and over. It''ll help."
Reivyn watched as Jek slowly rxed. The grimace on his face eventually disappeared, and he re-opened his eyes. Some of the other candidates nearby listened in, but only a couple of them mimicked the instruction.
"I maintain that this is worse," Jekined.
"Yeah, but now nobody will notice," Reivyn pointed out. "Keep it up, and you might unlock Inspire, as well."
The other candidates who listened and followed Reivyn''s advice had thoughtful looks on their faces, but the ones who listened and didn''t follow rolled their eyes as they dismissed his words. Reivyn mentally shrugged. I''m not here to hold their hands. If they want to take my advice or not is on them.
Reivyn looked up to where the clipboard soldiers were standing. The senior sergeant was standing with them. He had his left arm crossed over his chest, and his right arm was resting on it as he stroked his chin, watching Reivyn and the candidates immediately surrounding him. He bent his head towards one of the troops, saying something to him, and the soldier made some more notations ording to the instructions.
Reivyn turned back to Jek and the other two who had mastered their bodies.
"Get used to it," he said. "This is only the first day, and it''s a half-day, at that. They''re going to stress us out in new ways every day before we ever even learn how tomand others."
"Oh, joy," Jek said sarcastically. "I''m so d I agreed to the idea of volunteering for a leadership position instead of being one of the troops with no expectations."
Reivyn simplyughed as he shook his head.
"It''ll be worth it. You''ll see."
Chapter 108: Stupid Games
Chapter 108: Stupid Games
The Candidates were dismissed for the day after they were given the order to fall out. They weren''t directed to the barracks to wash up, and they weren''t led to the mess hall. They were instructed that they were on their own until they were mustered in the morning.
Reivyn noticed that, despite theck of direction, there was still the presence of soldiers with clipboards in the distance, watching and taking notes.
"C''mon," Reivyn said to Jek. "Our bodies will recover as we go. Let''s get washed up, changed into clean clothes, and get some dinner. I noticed a particrck of information on the time they would muster us in the morning, so we should expect to be woken up at zero-dark-thirty."
"Zero-dark-thirty?" Jek asked with a skeptical look. "Is that military jargon or something?"
Reivyn frowned as he contemted the saying. I''ve never heard anyone mention that term before, he thought. It seems like more and more unusual things from my dreams are spilling over as I''m doing things more closely rted to those memories.
"Something like that," Reivyn responded, turning to walk toward the barracks in the distance. Not only Jek followed him, but the other two individuals who had taken his advice about military bearing also fell in step with them.
"Oh, hey, what''re your guys'' names?" Jek extended a hand, a friendly smile on his face.
"Derik," the first man shook Jek''s hand with a nod.
"Furok," the other man answered.
"The name''s Jek, and the boss-man, here, is Reivyn," Jek said.
"Boss-man?" Derik questioned, tilting his head as he peered at Reivyn.
"Don''t look at his young face," Jek replied. "He''s the one with the experience. You''ve heard his advice. He seems to know what he''s talking about."
"Yeah, what he said made sense," Furok said. "The others who dismissed his words didn''t even listen to what he was actually saying."
"If you pay attention, you can see that they''re taking notes on everything that we do," Reivyn nodded his head in the direction of the clipboard soldiers. "Everyone who''s still lying on the ground back there, or just milling about, can be sure that that behavior will be noted on their record.
"Everything they''re doing is a test to see how we''ll act. We weren''t given a specific time that they''ll wake us up, and they''re leaving us to our own devices to see if we''re responsible enough to make the right decisions. The right thing to do right now is get cleaned up, get a meal, and get some rest. Everyone else who takes their time right now will be eating into their sleep time, and they''ll suffer for it tomorrow."
"Makes sense to me," Jek said.
If people were willing to listen to him, Reivyn wasn''t going to keep his thoughts about the training to himself. It didn''t hurt him to have others do well, and there was no reason to be a loner in such a situation. Especially since the entire reason for the training was for a leadership position.
The four Candidates quickly got cleaned up and into fresh uniforms. They had been supplied with several uniforms, implying they would go through a lot of them in a quick time frame, and there was aundry bag to put their soiled clothes in. They hadn''t been informed of the protocols for cleaning their gear, yet, but it was only a matter of time. They wouldn''t let the Candidates run out of fresh uniforms unless it was due to the Candidate''s own negligence.
They filed into the mess hall, and Reivyn immediately spotted that there were already some delicious-looking meals pre-prepared for the candidates; however, as they moved in and grabbed their tes, Reivyn also noticed that the recement tes were filled with less appetizing fare. There were only enough of the more tasty-looking tes for the first ten people, and Reivyn''s group snagged four of them.
Reivyn walked to a table at random. They were all empty, so he wasn''t too picky about the location. As soon as they sat down and started eating, Reivyn noticed some more people enter the mess hall. A group of people in simr uniforms walked in, but he only recognized the first two girls: Fira and Sera. Fira perked up as soon as she saw Reivyn, and she quickly grabbed a te with Sera and separated from the other three to walk toward his table.
"I see the real reason you were in such a hurry to get here," Jek elbowed Reivyn in the ribs, ncing sideways at the twodies approaching their table.
"It''s just a perk," Reivyn smirked.
"Whew, quite the day," Fira said, plopping her tray down right next to Reivyn''s. Jek was seated next to him, but he obligingly slid his tray over and took a different seat. He gave Reivyn a wink as he moved his tray.
"So is Sera having to participate in the same training?" Reivyn asked. He didn''t address Sera directly, as he assumed she would just brush it off and not answer, though Fira had no suchpunction.
"No, she just stands to the side and watches," Fira said as she sat down. "She''s not going to be an official member, and because it''s provisional, they allow her to stay by my side. We made sure to get it in writing on the contract with the legal team."
"Good idea," Reivyn nodded.
The meal was actually quite good, and Reivyn was happy that he had rushed to get there. It wasn''t just the ability to spend some time with Fira, the food was truly good. It didn''tst, though, and he noticed that several of the people who took their time before heading to the mess hall after the training session grumbled about their inferior meal.
Now wasn''t the time to be focusing on spending time with Fira, so they only conversed for as long as the meal allowed. He and his new mates quickly made their way back to the barracks as the sun reached the horizon, and Reivyn urged them to go to sleep and get some rest right away. It appeared that the night watch would be handled by the enlisted soldiers, so he didn''t have to worry about that aspect, though he suspected the real candidates would have had to provide for their own.
Reivyny in bed, about to go to sleep when he pulled his arm up and inspected the Prisoner''s Shackle on his wrist.
The System said it can''t be removed by the person wearing it, or by anyone else also wearing one, but the System also has had a habit of not giving all the information, Reivyn mused as he looked over the band. The Akashic Record wouldn''t be a thing if it did. I wonder...
Reivyn circted his Mana, and he found that it functioned exactly like it was described by the System. He infused his pure Mana with his different Affinities, going through each of them one by one. As soon as he reached the Tier 3 Affinities, he noticed that the restriction imposed by the magical item seemed to be strained.
He ran through the Tier 3 Affinities quickly, but none of them did any more stress on the restrictions than any of the others. He finally moved on to his Tier 4 Eternal Affinity, and this time, the Mana was able to materialize above his palm. It felt like it was moving through a sieve, though, and it was a strain on his abilities.
So these bands aren''t infallible, Reivyn confirmed. What about Veridical Affinity?
He infused his Mana with his Tier 5 Affinity, and he was able to manipte it freely as if there were no restrictions at all. Reivyn infused his Mana with Fire and wrapped it in the Veridical Affinity, and he was able to create a ball of fire with no problems.
If the Veridical Affinity allows me to bypass the restrictions on Mana, does it affect the other restrictions as well?
Reivyn infused his entire body through the Weapons Master and Elemental Weaponsbination, as they were still essible even when reduced to Level 1. His Weapons Master Skill was high enough that he no longer received any assistance from the System, though, so it wasn''t impeded. That Skill was wholly his.
His entire body was infused with the Veridical Affinity, and he felt his strength return to him. Gone was the lethargic feeling caused by his Stats being reduced to 20 across the board.
That''s refreshing, Reivyn''s entire fatigue was wiped clean. It''s a bit of an unfair advantage over the other candidates, but they did specifically say that we can use our Skills, and the ones high enough to not need System assistance wouldn''t be impeded. That implies I''m allowed to use my abilities to bypass the Prisoner Shackles.
That would defeat the purpose of the training, though, and I''m not a good enough actor to deceive them if I''m using my full Stats. I''ll just use this little trick to regain Stamina if I need to.
Reivyn reached over on a whim, his body still infused with the Veridical Affinity, and he just simply removed the band with no problems. It just came right off when he twisted the snap.
Huh, that, too, Reivyn chuckled. Looks like the Veridical Affinity is the universal key. Reivyn put the bracelet back on. He wasn''t going to risk going to sleep with it off due to the chance he might forget to put it back on in the morning.
And Reivyn was once more right about the timing of the sergeants waking them up. It felt like his eyes had just closed when they came in, making loud noises, yelling and banging on things to wake everyone up and get started on the next day. Jek gave him a thumbs up and a wink as they ran out to fall into formation, and Derik and Furok gave him a nod of appreciation.
Not everyone had gone to sleep in a timely manner, though most actually had. There were several people who were still stumbling about, trying to wake themselves up when they got into formation.
"Yesterday was just a taste," the senior sergeant said, taking his position in front of the formation. "Today is the first, full day of training. We''re going to have fun."
The two weeks of psychological evaluation were a grueling affair. If all of the candidates had ess to their full stats, it would have been a walk in the park, but they were all reduced to their Tier 1 Stats.
The instructors had their jobs down to a science. The local military wasn''trge enough, and it didn''t have enough rotation in its members, to require them to act as candidate instructors all the time. Despite that, though, they were able to pool their knowledge and experience from across the kingdom, and there were years and years of experimentation to draw upon.
It was a little hectic the first few days. The instructors weren''t used to only spending two weeks on the training. The regr officers had to spend three months in training, and the instructors had to figure out how to condense that three months into two weeks.
The training that ramped up gradually that usually took ce had to be elerated. If Reivyn had toe up with an analogy, they started at a jog and worked toward a run,pletely skipping the baby steps.
The first full day of training had been more of the same as the first, though they went considerably longer than the first day. Breakfast and Lunch were also closely monitored, separate from the Mage Corps Candidates. The evening meals, though, were considered "free time," and both the Martial and Casters had the same time span. The so-called "free time," though, was only enough time to get washed up, eat, and sleep if they didn''t want to be dragging the next day.
The first week went by in a blur, culminating in the instructors leading the Candidates into what they called "the hot box." They did their calisthenics and exercised in a closed room that had had the burning sun bearing down on it all day.
The instructors pushed them physically while still yelling and correcting their movements, and it didn''t end until several Candidates had passed out from the heat and dehydration. Reivyn noticed that the ones who passed out were the ones that were chronicallyte to get meals and rest. He shared a look with his new entourage, and he could see clear relief on their faces that they had joined up with him in the beginning.
Reivyn didn''t use his nifty trick to regain his Stamina until well after each session had been recorded by the clipboard soldiers. He feltpelled to operate in an above-board manner when it mattered, but when it was time to finally rest, he didn''t see the need to continue to suffer if he had the tools to bypass it. Because he always maintained his bearing, nobody noticed any difference in how he acted, so nobody noticed that he was always fresh almost immediately after a training session.
The second week of the training was entirely conducted out in the field.
They were loaded up with packs of food and water, and they carried their freshlyundered uniforms out into the desert. Everyone present for the Candidate Training was an experienced Adventurer, so roughing it in the field wasn''t a problem for them. The increased intensity andck of decent rest after were what broke them.
Reivyn stood tall, sweat pouring from his brow, after a particrly tough training exercise in the sand. Even his three followers in the program were having a hard time recovering. Several of the Candidates wereid up on the ground, and one of them stared up at him resentfully.
"Bro, you''re making the rest of us look bad," heined, grimacing while panting for breath. "Is your Prisoner''s Shackle even working?"
"Yeah, I never see him struggle with anything," another one chimed in. "Are you doing something to your bracelet to cheat?"
"Yeah, I suspect this guy''s cheating," a third one added his voice.
Reivyn stood there, his threepanions behind him, and watched as the rest of the toon started toin and voice dissent. The senior sergeant, Torran, Reivyn had learned at one point, came marching over.
"What''s themotion about?" He demanded. "This is a precious opportunity for you to recover what little Stamina you have, and you''re wasting it moring like magpies!"
"Senior sergeant, we think this guy''s cheating," the first Candidate stood up, pointing at Reivyn. He took several steps toward the young man, thrusting his finger into his chest to emphasize his points. "He never struggles," thrust. "He''s always able to go on, no matter how hard the training," thrust. "He never has to copse to the ground after, like almost everyone else," thrust. "And he always gets the best food," thrust.
Reivyn let the man thrust his finger into his chest over and over again, and after thest one, where the man tried to really drive his finger forward, he snapped his hand up, grabbing the offending finger, and he twisted it all the way back to the back of the man''s hand. The man cried out in shock and pain as Reivyn sped his hand over the other man''s, trapping his finger bent all the way back. The other Candidate''s knees buckled from the pain as he threw his head back and howled.
He stared down at the man impassively as he tried to w Reivyn''s hand off with his other hand. Reivyn simply brushed the man''s attempts off, and then he pped him across the face. The man was stunned for a moment,pletely not expecting such an action, and even the senior sergeant seemed like he didn''t know what to do at first.
"I don''t care about your feelings," Reivyn opened his mouth, staring the man down. "Go ahead and suspect me of cheating. I know I''m not. But if you think you''re going to march up to me, and thrust your finger against my chest like that without any repercussions, then you must have been kicked by a donkey as a child. Keep your hands to yourself, or lose them."
The other Candidates, his three followers and the sergeants included, stared at Reivyn ck-jawed. He was obviously the youngest person present, and nobody had expected such an aggressive stance from him. They had assumed, as a much younger person, that he would have gone along with what the older, more experienced people decided to do.
Reivyn finally let the man go, and he stumbled back to the ground, tears and snot dripping from his face. He cradled his hand with the clearly broken finger against his chest, scooting back to get further away from Reivyn.
"Here," Reivyn held his hand out, offering his Prisoner''s Band up for inspection to the senior sergeant. The senior sergeant stared at Reivyn for a moment before stepping forward.
"Medic!" He yelled over his shoulder before turning his attention to the Prisoner''s Shackle. He grabbed ahold of it and brought out a device to inspect it. The item he brought out looked simr to themunication device Fira had used to send the information of Kirlon ahead. It was a simple, rectangr object with a wand extending from it, and it was used to check the Mana levels and functionality of the Prisoner Shackles.
"It''s working perfectly," the senior sergeant turned toward the Candidates who were now silent but were previouslyining. "In fact I would say that the Mana reserves powering it are probably higher than all of yours are. Now get back in formation. You''ve wasted your resting time on this nonsense."
The vast majority of the other Candidates let the matter drop, but a couple of them frowned in Reivyn''s direction as they turned to get back in proper formation.
"You might have made a couple of enemies," Jek leaned forward and whispered.
"Doesn''t matter," Reivyn shook his head. "The ones in charge are likely to view me in a better light, and that little stunt will definitely leave a ck mark on their record. Interfering with military order is a serious crime, especially in abat situation. If they''re so small-minded as to use someone of cheating because they''re doing better, and they''re willing to cause a distractingmotion over it, how are they going to be trusted withmand?"
"Maybe," Jek shrugged. "But they need the bodies. There are only enough candidates, at least right now, to barely takemand of each fifty-man toon of volunteers. We''ve already had fifteen people quit, and five were kicked out."
Reivyn nodded his head.
"You might be right, but we''re all going to be Provisional Lieutenants. I don''t have to worry about being under them, and we''ll have other officers in charge of us to limit any revenge they might think of taking. And if they make the supremely stupid decision to try and take revenge in abat scenario, they''ll fail, and they''ll be made an example out of."
"I believe you. Just keep your head on a swivel, just in case." Jek pped him on the shoulder.
"Thanks," Reivyn smiled.
The toon of Candidates continued their evaluation after the short interlude. Most of the others didn''t think anything more of Reivyn''s performance, but he noticed several others keeping a closer eye on him after each session. The one who Reivyn had bent his finger back didn''t quit, and he wasn''t knocked out of the program from the injury.
The soldiers simply used some healing magic to fix the break, and he kept going. There were no longer anyments from him or the others who had congregated around him, though, and the training went on.
Each day was filled with physical exertion to the extreme. They had to lift logs up and down as a unit and then ran several miles while carrying them over their heads. They had to crawl through the hot desert sand, their clothes getting inundated with it to stay for the rest of the day. Most of the training was team exercises in one way or another, and Reivyn spected that they were recording the way the Candidates reacted to the others who weren''t pulling as much weight just as much as they were in the effort given by the individuals.
A military unit was fundamentally different from an Adventuring group. They were both groups, but the level of teamwork and the mission werepletely different. The soldiers in charge of the training had to ensure that the ones who were going to be the leaders of the other volunteers were not onlypetent individually, which was discovered during the recruiting process, but that they were also team yers who knew how to be gracious when the time called for it.
Reivyn wasn''t silent during these exercises, either. He yelled just as much as anyone else. When someone wasgging behind and struggling, he would give an encouraging word. If someone was cking off, he would call them out on it, but he would drop the issue as soon as they put their back into it. He neverined, though.
Reivyn wasn''t the only one setting a good example. Most of the Candidates were chosen for a good reason. Theiners actually made up a small minority of the group, and their voices got smaller and smaller as Reivyn and the others set a good example. It wasmon for people to descend into mob mentality, especially whenints were loud and aggressive, but the Officer Candidates were generally more mentally mature and experienced to fall into that.
The Candidates had a good sense of camaraderie and pride, even the ones who were initially the loudest in theirints when they finally returned to the city. There was a sense of aplishment for the Candidates involved, and they held themselves high as they marched back to the barracks.
Reivyn was looking forward to eating a good meal again. Seeing Fira in the mess hall once more wasn''t too bad of a prospect either. He didn''t suffer quite as much as the others, but his little trick wasn''t that much of a game changer. Everyone always had enough time to rest to be close to 100% by the start of the next day, and Reivyn didn''t use his advantage during the exercises.
"Alright," Senior Sergeant Torran addressed the remaining thirty Candidates outside of the barracks. "We''ve seen what you''re all made of. Tomorrow will start the ssroom instruction. We have two weeks to teach you guys how to lead your troops. We''re not expecting any tactical geniuses or anything, but you''ll all be able to put swords and spears to target when and where they''re needed.
"You''re provisional, temporary officers, so we''ll be able to cut out a lot of the history, ceremony, and other sses not strictly needed for the rescue operation. If, in the future, you want to join the ranks of the regr officers, you''ll have to make up all of the sses we''re cutting, but you won''t have to go through the evaluation to test your mental fortitude and character again.
"We''ve prepared a good meal for everyone this evening as a reward forpleting the first part of the training. All of the food from this point forward will be of the better variety, though not quite as good as the meal tonight. It''s a special asion.
"Once I dismiss you, step forward to the troops, and they''ll collect your Prisoner Shackles from you.
"Fall out!"
None of the Candidates copsed to the ground this time. They hadn''t been as physically tested towards the end of the day, for one, and they were also finally used to the exertions. Reivyn got in line with the others and filed forward to have their bracelets removed. Reivyn rubbed his wrist where he had allowed the shackles to remain for the previous two weeks, the skin more tender and white than the rest of his tanned body.
"Whew, that feels good," Jek said next to Reivyn. "I almost forgot what it was like to have my full Stats. I feel like I could smash through the walls of the barracks."
"You''re a Level 70 Martial sser," Reivyn pointed out. "You probably could easily smash through the barracks walls."
"You know what I mean. It just feels good to finally be done with those infernal bracelets."
"Let''s go get cleaned up and get fed," Reivyn said, Derik and Furok joining the two. "I''m looking forward to a hot meal, again."
"You mean you''re looking forward to seeing your little girlfriend, again," Jek chuckled.
Reivyn smiled.
"I never said I wasn''t."
Chapter 109: The Basics
Chapter 109: The Basics
"What does it mean to be an officer?" Major Dobrik asked, addressing the Candidates who had passed the initial evaluations.
The schedule was much more rxed after having been through two weeks of intense physical training. The higher-ups had seen the grit and guts of the Candidates, and now they were to learn how to actually be officers. It wasn''t just the pomp and circumstance sses that were cut, though, as they still had to mount an imminent rescue operation. The typical six-month-long course had to be truncated even more severely than the mental evaluation.
They would cover most of the information, but it wouldn''t be as detailed. They didn''t feel the need to train the new officers with a foundation for bing battalionmanders. They just needed quick and dirty leaders for what was possibly a short conflict. If it was going to be a multiple-countyrge conflict, the kingdom would get involved, and the responsibilities would be with others. They would have the bare minimum to transition into kingdommissioned officers if that was the case, but that wasn''t the current goal.
One of the Candidates raised his hand and waited for the Major to call upon him. When Major Dobrik motioned for him to give his answer, he stood at attention before addressing the senior officer.
"The officers devise the strategy and direct the soldiers to follow it," the man said. He sat back down in his seat after giving the answer.
"Close, but not exactly," Major Dobrik shook his head. "Anyone else?"
Several of the Candidates shared looks with each other before several others raised their hands. Major Dobrik nodded his head to one sitting in the front row. The man stood at attention.
"They are the spiritual leaders of the troops. They set the example."
"A good answer, but not quite what I''m looking for."
Several of the Candidates offered up other answers, all along the lines of being the strategist or example for the troops, just worded in different ways. Major Dobrik acknowledged that these were good answers, but not the right answer.
Reivyn had raised his hand from the very beginning, but the Major was calling on the Candidates in a semi-random order starting from the front of the room. The Candidates had naturally arranged themselves in the ssroom ording to where they had sat at the initial briefing when they signed up, so he was in the back. He was finally called upon, and he stood at attention to give his answer.
"They are the enforcers," Reivyn said. "They enforce good order and discipline. It''s not just that they lead by example ore up with strategies. They make sure the mission is aplished."
"Yes, the most important thing is mission aplishment," Major Dobrik nodded his head. "As I said, everyone here has a pretty good grasp of what it means to be an officer, but Candidate Reivyn added that little bit that was missing.
"You''re not friends with the enlisted troops. You''re not their mommy or daddy, either. You are the arbiter of military discipline, which is one of the lynchpins to sess. Leading by example,ing up with the right strategies and tactics, and enforcing good military order are all directed at mission aplishment.
"In the next two weeks, we will equip you with the necessary tools to aplish the missions assigned to you. You''ve all disyed your ability to function under extreme stress, and you''ll need tobine that capability with the proper methodology to trante to victory on the battlefield.
"Your first ss will be on Map Reading. Everyone will have to unlock the Skill and Level it up to at least five in the next two weeks. Five might not seem like a lot, and it isn''t, but it''s just a minimum standard that will continue to improve as you perform your duties, anyway."
Major Dobrik stepped off the raised podium to allow the instructor, one of thepanymanders that the provisional lieutenants would be serving under, to take his ce and begin the ss. He didn''t waste everyone''s time with ceremonial speeches about how proud he was of their performance, or about how he was looking forward to what they would aplish in the future. He simply got everyone in the right mindset of learning how to be an officer while introducing the ssroom instruction, and then he let it begin.
Reivyn had his Map Making Skill at Level 23. It wouldn''t be much of a stretch to trante that skill into Map Reading. He didn''t know how his own Skill would affect his ability to read a map created by someone else, or if it would affect the way he could read different kinds of maps. He was used to making smaller, local maps, on paper and in his mind, and they weren''t as detailed as a topographical map could be. He did have vague recollections of lines on paper indicating elevation and other things.
"The first lesson is recognizing what you''re looking at on a map," the captain said. "I''ll have a copy of two different types of maps of the local area passed around to everyone. One is a physical map, showing the terrain in a colored representation, and one is a topographical map, showing the terrain through lines. The topographical maps are easier to mass produce and can show more urate descriptions, so that''s what we''ll mainly be learning. The physical maps provided of the local area are a tool used to help you visualize what the lines on a topographical map represent."
The maps were passed around, and everyone focused on the lesson by the captain on how to read the topographical map. Reivyn''s memories from his dreams helped him immensely, and that, coupled with his Map Making Skill, allowed him to unlock the new Skill in about fifteen minutes.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 1:
Map Reading (0 ->1)
Several of the other Candidates already had the Map Reading Skill, so this was nothing new to them, and several others had other Skills that helped to facilitate gaining the new one, as well. There were only a couple of people who didn''t unlock the Skill after an hour of instruction and examples.
"Even though some of you haven''t unlocked the Skill, you''re still able to read and understand the maps generally by this point. The next part of Map Reading is determining where you are on it. The essential method of finding out where you are is taking an azimuth.
"In simple terms, taking an azimuth involves recognizing two or morendmarks, finding them on the map, orienting yourself with a Manapass, and using that to draw a straight line at the angle of thepass through thendmarks located on the map. The point on the map where the lines intersect will be your location.
"Since this is a truncated lesson, I won''t go into all the nitty, gritty details of how the Manapasses work. Just know that they do work, and they''re universal to the Realm. The Map Reading Skill will improve the speed and uracy you can orient yourself with apass, not just how easily you can read a map."
The students took notes of the important points of the lesson, and the captain went into the practical application after the brief introduction. It wasn''t important for the Candidates to learn every little thing there was to know. They just needed to know how to make it work.
The ss hadrge pictures drawn out of notablendmarks with thepass shown on the picture. They were instructed on how to calcte the angle and draw the lines through repetitive examples of the local area matched to the topographical maps provided. Reivyn''s Skill Level ticked up quickly with the synergy between his memories and other map Skill.
Skill Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Map Reading (1 ->3)
"Next week we''ll be heading to the field for real-world application, and everyone should have the minimum Level 5 in Map Reading by the time we return to the city, among the other training exercises we''ll engage in."
The lesson on Map Reading, using a Manapass, and taking an azimuth took up the majority of the morning hours. It was clear to see that they took the subject seriously.
The first week of ssroom instruction went by much slower than the physical training had. While they were engaged in the suffering work of the mental evaluation, every second seemed to stretch on for minutes or hours, and yet, once it was over, it seemed like it was just a sh.
The ssroom instruction, however, didn''t have a fluctuating appearance to the time investment. It just dragged. All of the Candidates, Reivyn included, despite having spent a year as a student at the Magic Academy, were used to getting out and doing things. Even the sses at the Magic Academy were structured in a way to allow the students to have ample time between lessons to get out and do things. The lessons for the Candidates were from breakfast to dinner, straight, with a short break only for lunch.
They had lessons on various toon tactics. They weren''t restricted to just infantry tactics, either. They would be working with the Mage Corps, and cavalry was an important part of Martialbat, so they received instruction on how to coordinate between them.
Reivyn was left disappointed at the tactics involved, as they appeared to be quite rigid. The Mage Corps would bombard an enemy unit until they were too close, and the cavalry was used as a brute force to charge enemy lines. His dreams involved unit tactics that involved much more coordination andbination between different functions ofbat, and he was disheartened to find that the military tactics didn''t get as involved.
"A portion of the Mage Corps will expend their Mana in order to throw up a defensive barrier to surround the troops to protect you from the enemy''s own Mages. The lines ofbat, though, are often long and wide, and they can only do so much to protect you and your men.
"It is essential to train the troops to develop a group-shield Skill. Not everyone has ess to Mana, but enough troops will have ess to a minimum amount, or are hybrid sses, that will allow them tobine their Mana pools together and spread a shield across the line."
Reivyn raised his hand. The tactic of having the troops form a group-Mana Shield was a solid one, but there could be so much more. The instructor paused in his lecture and indicated for Reivyn to pose whatever question he had.
"Sir, what about using our Mage Corps to suppress their Mage Corps? And the cavalry, the fastest unit on the field, could be used to harass the nks and pressure the enemy Mages. Horses won''t charge a wall of spears, anyway. And what''s the effective range of the Spells from the Mage Corps? If we can..."
"Let me stop you there, Candidate," the captain held his hand up, and Reivyn stopped talking mid-sentence. "These are the tried and true tactics of warfare, so these are the tactics that you are going to learn. While it''s good to keep an open mind and use everything to your advantage inbat, don''t fill your head with nonsense and abandon the basics."
Abandon the basics? Reivyn thought, stunned. I''m talking about the basics!
Reivyn sat in silence for a moment, the two men staring at each other. This guy''s not going to change his mind Reivyn realized. He''s stuck in his ways, and he''s determined to teach these methods to everyone. I''ll have to convince Jek, Furok, and Derik to train our men in more than just brute force fighting, at least a little, and I can probably convince Fira to do the same with a few of the Mage Corps officers. If we can get that much, it might be doable to put some better tactics together in the short amount of time that we have.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn conceded while silently nning to spread his ideas.
"Good," the captain continued his lecture. Reivyn shared a meaningful look with Jek and the other two as the lesson continued.
The majority of the ssroom instruction was spent on map reading and tactics. They were only taught a cursory lesson on overall strategy, as that mission was the purview of the higher-ups, and they wouldn''t have much say in the matter. It was always good for people to be able to grasp the intent of themanders and understand the overall goals, though, so they did get some instruction on the matter from the point of view of a toon leader.
Reivyn was pleased to see that the captains also included lessons on military bearing and appearances. They didn''t go into the ceremony side of things, and they didn''t receive any dress uniforms or anything, but Reivyn was vindicated further by the inclusion of the lessons. Jek, Furok, and Derik nodded their heads when the instructorunched into the lesson, and several of the other Candidates who had heard Reivyn''s advice but chose to ignore it snuck nces back at him.
Most of the Candidates were already leaders in some capacity or another, and the military instruction they received expounded on what most of them already knew and tranted it to a military setting.
They received lessons on militaryw, and they were taught how to judge infractions and mete out proper punishments to ensure military order and discipline. They were only going to be provisional lieutenants, though, and most of the proper actions to take that were taught were to send it up the chain to their ownpanymander. They were expected to handle less serious infractions, however, and they spent ample time memorizing the military code of conduct.
Overall, I would grade them as pretty good on the leadership side of things, but woefullycking in the strategy and tactics department, Reivyn summarized at the end of the first week. They only gave us an overview of what the strategies and how they would be determined are like, but from what I saw, it was a whole lot of: find the enemy, engage them, win with superior strength. Not a whole lot of nuance or room for maneuver in that mindset.
"We''ll have to band together to practice some better tactics," Reivyn addressed his mates and Fira at dinner. It wasn''t until the end of the week that the timing between the Mage Corps'' free time and the Martial Unit''s free time coincided.
Reivyn had been busy brushing up on remembering the things he had read in thependium for junior officers Knight-Lieutenant Brand had given him, as well as the lessons they had been taught in ss, to seek out Fira and spend time with her. This was the first time they had spent any meaningful time together, and Reivyn was more concerned with securing safety and victory in the future than he was with developing further rapport.
Fira had been visibly disappointed at the direction of conversation Reivyn had continued to steer them in, but after listening to his thoughts and concerns, she had also gotten on board with the idea.
"I''ve made a few friends that I think I can convince to spend some time training their people to coordinate," she said. "We only have a week with the troops before we set out, though. Even though it seems like we''re taking our time to mount a rescue operation, it couldn''t have been done any sooner with the numbers involved unless the City Lord was willing to leave the city defenseless."
"That''s a whole other conversation," Reivynmented. "Like, why weren''t any scouting units sent out? And if they were, why didn''t we encounter them? Where did they go, and what were they looking for? They should have at least sent people to verify the ims instead of hoping and waiting for us to show up."
"Wait, what?" Jek asked, pausing with his fork halfway to his mouth. "You guys are the ones who sent the information?"
"Well, yeah," Reivyn said. "You didn''t know that?"
"Of course not!" Jek said. "We never talked about it, and you didn''t mention it on your own."
"I didn''t think it was that big of a deal," Reivyn shrugged. "The City Lord and counsel know about the problem, and they''re handling it."
"Not a big deal?" Jek rolled his eyes. "The way you put it, yeah, it''s not that big of a deal; but!" He held a finger up to emphasize his point. "You''ve known the truth behind the rumors this whole time, and you could have alleviated our minds on the matter. We''ve been under the assumption that this could all be blown way out of proportion, and we might not see any real action anyway.
"Some of the other Candidates think this is a witch hunt and just a way to scam some contribution points and achievements without having to do any real work."
Furok and Derik shared a look and nodded their heads.
"I can tell you directly, that is not the case," Reivyn explicitly denied. "The poption of Kirlon is gone, and there are tracks of well over 40 to 50 thousand enemy troops." Reivyn waved his arms to preempt any further questions on the matter. "That''s all we know. We only stuck around to find out that information and send it ahead of ourselves, and I''m only volunteering for this mess because a couple of mypanions had family in Kirlon and they asked me to help.
"I don''t know why, I don''t know where, I don''t know if, and, or but. All I know is, there''s going to be a fight, and we need to take this seriously."
"Well, that puts a whole other perspective on why you''re so adamant about adding your tactics to our repertoire," Jek said, cing his fork down. He seemed to have temporarily lost his appetite. "So what do we have to do?"
"As I said, the only thing we can do is independently learn the tactics I have in mind and convince some of the Mage Corps officers to practice with us," Reivyn answered. "We only have a week, and two of those days are going to be spent on field exercises directed by thepanymanders and one day for rest before deploying. That means we have four days to polish our troops on what the captains expect of us and the tactics we can introduce."
"So what are these tactics, and how can we learn enough to teach those under us?" Fira asked. Sera watched silently from the side, but Reivyn could sense a different emotion emanating from her usual over-protection. He could sense that she was not only intrigued by any ideas he might give but that she was also impressed that he was taking everything so seriously.
"The best way I can demonstrate to think of it in a short time is like this: We have short, medium, and long-range units. We have stationary and mobile units, and we have fast and slow units. We have light, medium, and heavy weapons.
"The bulk of the volunteers are going to be short and medium range. In this context, we can view archers as medium range. We won''t need toe up with anything fancy in order to properly deploy the archers. The Mage Corps are generally going to be stationary, and they can be considered medium and long range. The infantry is slow, mobile, and the cavalry is fast, mobile.
"Skirmishers and archers are light weapons, infantry is medium, and the Mages can be considered Heavy. Cavalry can be all three, depending on how they''re used, but I think it would be more effective tobel them as light, and use them to assault nks and pressure the enemy heavy weapons, i.e. their Mages.
"The tactics the instructors haveid out for us are generally to have the archersunch several salvos, have the cavalry charge the enemy lines, and follow it up with the infantry. Meanwhile, the Mage Corps will be hitting the enemy formation with medium-range, heavy-duty Spells. That''s pretty much all they''veid out for us, and all of the other instruction has been on how to maneuver the troops to line them up to do so.
"That''s going to get a lot of people killed, and for no good reason.
"If this is a universal tactic, then we''ll be marching into a meat grinder, and the cavalry will just charge each other. What''s the point of that?
"We canbine all of these different elements together to more effectively utilize them. Our Mage Corps, instead of trying to shield a portion of our troops from the enemy Mages, can instead focus on bombarding the enemy Mages directly. We should suppress their heavy weapons with our heavy weapons. Add on harassing hit-and-run tactics from the fast cavalry units, and they won''t be able to bombard our infantry.
"If we rout their Mages, or take them out of the fight, then our Mages can switch to focusing on bombarding the enemy units with impunity."
"What do we do about the enemy cavalry that will be charging us?" Furok asked with a frown.
"Horses won''t charge into a wall of spears, and if they do, they''ll be ineffective," Reivyn pointed out. "We just make sure everyone, no matter what type of weapon they usually use, has a spear. They don''t need the Skill to use it for the purpose we have designed. They just need to nt it in the ground and angle it up. The enemy cavalry will do all of the work for us when they charge into the spears.
"A lot of the enemy cavalry will perish from that alone, but the ones that don''t will be easy pickings for the infantry. That''s nothing revolutionary, and I thought it was prettymon. It seems like themanders are assuming the enemy won''t be able to mount a proper spear-wall defense because of the magic bombardment, and there are a lot of assumptions being made about the enemy''s use of cavalry, as well."
Jek, Furok, and Derik nodded their heads. Fira still had a contemtive look on her face.
"You mentioned that the Mage Corps could be considered medium and long range, but you only mentioned medium range," she said. "I get that we can fling our Spells pretty far, but how far are you thinking?"
"Out of line-of-sight," Reivyn replied. "We spend all this time on navigation and pinpointing where we are on a map, but they haven''t taught us to extrapte that training into pinpointing the enemy location on the map. If we can find them, ce them on the map, andmunicate their urate position to a Mage Corps unit far away, they canunch a Spell without ever having to see them for themselves, depending on how far you all canunch your Spells.
"The other important aspect ofbining our units together involves movement under fire." Jek looked at the other two and mouthed the words with a questioning look. "Basically, we''ll need to evaluate the terrain and move through it properly so the Mage Corps can freely cast their Spells over our heads while we maneuver.
"The way they have the tactics set out right now, they have the Mage Corps standing off to the side so there''s no obstruction. That puts them in a precarious position, vulnerable to assault."
"We''ve been learning how to direct Mages tobine their Mana to createrger effects," Fira said. "We can alter that slightly by either changing one of the Mages to add velocity instead of power or adding more Mages to the Spell matrix.
"If your idea is feasible, it won''t just allow us tounch Spells at far away enemies, it will also allow us to lob Spells over obstacles, like mountains, sand dunes, or any of the smaller forests around rivers and such." Reivyn smiled at Fira as she applied the thinking to further problems. The benefit of working with smart people.
"You''ll have to work with your Mages to figure out exactly how fast and far you canunch your Spells, and you''ll have to teach the other Mage Corps officers how to do the same," Reivyn said. "I''m assuming you have the Mathematics Skill?"
"Of course," Fira lifted her chin. "I''ve had an excellent education."
"You''ll have to apply your Mathematics Skill with Map Reading in order to determine the proper angle to hit the target. Every officer is given a magic tool tomunicate across a fifty-mile radius. We should make sure we have some extras to give to any scouting units sent out to find the enemy so they can send the information without having to meet back up with the main unit they''re attached to."
"Ok, you''veid out some pretty grand ns for all of us to go over," Derik said, leaning forward. "So do you have any other, specific tactics?"
Reivyn nodded his head and smiled. We only have two days with the troops to train in these tactics, but the overall movement and orders should ovep with each other. It''s much more important that the officers and leaders understand the tactics, and they''re definitely on board.
Chapter 110: Provisional Lieutenant
Chapter 110: Provisional Lieutenant
Reivyn was pleasantly surprised to find that, despite what was said in the ssroom and on paper, once they entered the field for practical application, the tactics and diversity of weaponry was much moreplex than they were led to believe. Two toons of regr soldiers, a squad of mages, and a squad of cavalry were pulled to assist with the training. They were equipped with javelins, pikes, halberds, swords and shields, hammers, and bows.
Instead of having everyone in the unit equipped with just pikes and swords, half the squad was equipped with halberds. Everyone had a sidearm and a shield strapped to their back, and thest squad, the fifth squad, had bows and war hammers. They were a "just in case" kind of squad, and Reivyn could see how having heavy blunt damage could be useful against heartier monsters and armored foes.
The pikes gave stopping power while the halberds added a finishing move or they could use their hook to unseat horsemen. The squads could be rotated out, but they didn''t need to use four full squads for the task. As an average entire Tier higher than what he had encountered in Magron, the troops had much more Stamina, and they recovered faster. The first and second squads rotated with each other, the third and fourth squads rotated with each other, and the fifth squad was ranged and specialized.
The individual troops were extremelypetent in their tasks, and the Candidates took turnsmanding squads in simtion tomanding a toon. Sometimes they were given the opportunity to move the entire toon around. Most of the practice in the first half of the week involved learning the propermands to give for what situation, and how to maintain formation with the rest of thepany. They were told that most of the tactics would be implemented by thepanymanders assigned to them, and it was unlikely they would be operating independently, anyway.
Reivyn wasn''t entirely convinced of that, as every n onlysted until the first arrow wasunched. There was no telling what could happen whenbat was initiated. They didn''tpletely ignore teaching tactics, though, it just wasn''t as in-depth as Reivyn had hoped.
The tactics demonstrated also incorporatedbinations with the Mages and Cavalry, but Reivyn felt it could be so much more. They didn''t attempt any kind of movement under fire, as he had told hispatriots, and the Mages were used more like an initial bombardment of the enemy. That was all well and good, and it was effective in its own way, but Reivyn thought they could do it better.
He wasn''t nning on usurping authority, or implementing his own tactics over that of the ones ordered by themanding officers. That was a way to sow confusion and get people killed. He just felt it was better to be prepared. What if they got separated from the rest of thepany? What if thepanymander was incapacitated or killed?
If he got into a situation where he was in charge, whether that was stepping up as thepanymander or being separated from the rest of the unit, he wanted his troops to be prepared to execute his ideas. The concept of movement under fire would bergely irrelevant if he was simply separated from the rest of thepany somehow, but that was no reason to ignore it.
nking maneuvers were well understood and practiced, and the cavalry showed that they were more than just a battering ram to thrust into the enemy formation. They still didn''t seem to use them to the extent of suppression that Reivyn would have liked, but they weren''t ineffective by any means.
Overall, I would say that they''re much better in practice than they are on paper, Reivyn mused. Maybe that''s because of the truncated ssroom lessons. I don''t know. There''s still room for improvement, in my opinion, but it''s not so bad as I had feared.
Another significant portion of time was spent on navigating and Map Reading.
The toon of Candidates were split up into smaller groups. Reivyn and the others were blindfolded, sat upon a horse, and then led in random directions before being sent off into the distance without knowing where they were.
Reivyn was helped off of the horse, and the instructor removed his blindfold. He was handed a Manapass and a map. Two other Candidates were still blindfolded, seated on their horses. They would apparently have their turn at a different location.
"Where are we?" The instructor posed. He indicated for Reivyn to use the tools provided to pinpoint their position on the map.
Reivyn''s Map Reading Skill had steadily ticked up, and it was now sitting at Level 12. He scanned the environment to get an understanding of the terrain. Off in the distance was a decently sized teau and some rolling hills. In another direction, there was a smattering of desert brush on tnd. Off in the distance, he could see a dry river bed, and even further away on the other side of the river bed he could see a single mountain peak.
Reivyn took the map and located a general area to the southeast of the city that had simr features. He took out the Manapass, calcted the angles, and quickly had intersecting lines on the map. He poked the intersection with the pen, and looked up at the instructor.
"Good," the instructor nodded. "Now, our objective is here," the instructor marked another spot on the map. "Take us there."
The location on the map the instructor indicated was beyond the teau, and there were several steep hills and cliffs directly between them and the destination. They wouldn''t be able to simply go straight there, and Reivyn had to path a route that would take them around the obstacles. After some simple calctions and drawing on the map, Reivyn had an eptable route to take that he believed was the quickest feasible route, and he mounted his horse to lead the team to the next testing site.
The desert region, aside from the deste sands he had initially been transported to, was basically just a dry and arid area. Other than ack of forests, less farnd, and not as much greenery, the actual terrain was still fairly simr to what he was used to. There were still hills, mountains, cliffs, teaus, ravines, and valleys. It wasn''t just a t in, devoid of life, for miles on end.
The exercise didn''t end once Reivyn led the team to the next location. After they arrived and the next Candidate was given a fresh map to perform the same tasks, Reivyn''s blindfold was reapplied. The team of candidates spent the entire day, rotating between themselves, moving from location to location to identify where they were and find a way to get to the next location. The sun was setting on the horizon by the time the Candidates arrived back at the base camp.
"I can safely say that I don''t think there''s any possibility of getting lost anywhere nearby," Jek jokingly said as they got a quick bite for dinner.
"Yeah, but how''s your Map Reading Skilling along?" Reivyn asked. His own Skill had reached fifteen during the exercise. He had an advantage to growing his Skill, but he couldn''t deny the effectiveness of the method.
"I reached seven at thest destination," Jek nodded his head. "Can''t say they don''t know how to teach Map Reading. That''s some fast Skill Leveling. I don''t even have any supplementary Skills to boost it."
"I have Sense Direction, a Tier 3 Skill that helps me remember where I''vee from and where I''m going if I get turned around," Furok supplied. "It''s not exactly aligned with Map Reading, but my Skill reached nine earlier today."
"Eight," Derik said, not expanding on the information.
"What about you?" Jek asked Reivyn.
"Fifteen," Reivyn answered.
"Ahh, already had it?"
"No, I have Map Making, though," Reivyn exined.
"Even then, that''s pretty quick," Jek said.
"Even though I didn''t have the Skill for it, I already had some experience other than making my own," Reivyn shrugged.
The second week of lessons ended much quicker, it seemed, than the first week. They didn''t have specific lessons on the tangential aspects of being an officer. They were just expected to incorporate them while focusing mainly on drill, tactics, andnd navigation.
Reivyn was actually impressed with the Candidates'' abilities tomand the regr troops during training. Now they would just have to see how they fared in front of the volunteers. The volunteers were a different breed than the professional soldiers. They had spent the same amount of time on brushing up their abilities to followmands and fight in formation, but their mindset wasn''t the same as the soldiers in the regr military.
The Candidates were formed up in front of the barracks, in clean, crisp uniforms, and Major Dobrik stood in front of them. The Mage Corps Candidates were in their own formation off to the side, but they fell under the ultimatemand of the Major, as well.
"You have all worked hard and performed well over thest month," he addressed the Candidates. "Today, you''re no longer Candidates. Shortly, you will receive your insignia, and you will bemissioned as Provisional Lieutenants. The rank of Provisional Lieutenant is equivalent to a Third Lieutenant: You''re above warrant officers, but under Second Lieutenants.
"The volunteers have also been training over the past month, learning how to fight and move in formation. After the weekend, you will finally stand in front of the men and women under you, and you''ll have a week to limate them to your specificmand. The end of the week will culminate in an exercise of the entire force, and then it will be time to depart to rescue the citizens of Kirlon.
"They have been taken from their homes for a month and a half, and we can only specte on the treatment they have received. Imend each and every one of you for stepping forward to partake in this mission. Together, we''ll be able to secure peace and safety for the people of Drallo."
The speech was short and sweet, just like every time the man had stood before the Candidates. Provisional Lieutenants, now, Reivyn corrected himself. This is probably the longest speech he''s given, actually.
Major Dobrik stayed where he was, and each of the men and women in formation was called forward to the front of the formation, individually, to receive their rank insignia on the cor of their uniform. Major Dobrik offered them each a salute, personally, and then gave a congrattion.
Reivyn was called as thest one, and he smartly marched to the front with pride. The Senior Sergeant and Major pinned the red, metal bar to his cor. He exchanged salutes and marched back to his position. He didn''t feel any different after the official transition from Candidate to Officer, but he was filled with pride as he held his head high.
The Mage Corps was handled next, and Reivyn continued to stand at attention, eyes front. He was able to witness each of the Mages receive theirmission as well, though, and he wouldn''t be able to truthfully say he didn''t watch Fira the entire time out of the corner of his eye. His face almost cracked into a grin as she received her insignia pinned onto her cor.
I wonder what the regtions are for the royal family of Wispan serving in the military? Reivyn idly thought. I seem to have recollections of royal families sending their sons to serve as Lieutenants themselves, within the chain ofmand. I can''t really think of where that was, though.
"You can continue to wear your uniform over the weekend," Major Dobrik continued after Reivyn had resumed his position in formation. "The break is well deserved, but be ready to get to real work at the start of the week. We still have the mission to aplish ahead of us, and I''m confident we''ll be sessful.
"Dismissed!"
Major Dobrik marched off with the Senior Sergeant, and the newly promoted Lieutenants cheered for themselves and each other. Reivyn only halfheartedly cheered, as he turned and searched for Fira in the crowd of Mages. An arm was thrown over his shoulder, and a body crashed into his.
"I know the food was pretty decent there in the mess hall, especially with always being the first ones to arrive," Jek said, a jovial smile on his face, "but let''s go celebrate at a real restaurant."
"Sure, sounds good," Reivyn nodded his head, his eyes not leaving their target. "Let me just get Fira and Sera, and we''ll go find a ce."
"Of course, of course," Jek said, disentangling himself from Reivyn. "Wouldn''t want to separate you from your girlfriend."
"That, too, but it''s not the only reason," Reivyn replied. "She''ll bring the friends she made, and we can confer with them on our ns for extended tactics."
"This is supposed to be a celebration," Jek rolled his eyes. "Can''t you give it a rest for just a minute."
"No."
"Well... Ok, then," Jek said, slightly taken aback at the simple rejection.
"Jek," Reivyn faced the man, looking him in the eye. "I''m not against celebrating, or putting things to the side for a moment, but this is a good opportunity. We''ll celebrate, don''t worry, but that doesn''t mean we can''t talk about important things, too."
"Alright, man," Jek said, holding his hands up. "Your advice has been spot on for everything so far, so I''m notining, or anything. I''m just trying to get you to rx a bit."
"Thanks," Reivyn pped the man on the shoulder. "I''ll be sure to let myself have some fun."
"That''s all I''m asking."
Fira walked over with three other young women in tow, Sera walking to the side. Jek''s eyes lit up as they made their way over, and Furok and Derik made their way over to join them when they saw the Mages walking over as well.
"These three youngdies are Hera, Valerie, and Sammy," Fira introduced the new Mages to the group of Martial Lieutenants. "These gentlemen are Reivyn, Jek, Furok, and Derik," Fira pointed to each of the men in turn as she finished the introductions.
"I see what you were saying," Valerie said to Fira, ncing Reivyn up and down.
"Hands to yourself, sister," Fira struck a pose, hands on hips. The other three girls giggled behind their hands, and Fira wasn''t able to maintain the straight look on her face, either, her mouth splitting into a grin.
"C''mon! Let''s go eat!" Jek cried.
"The list of new Lieutenants is avable for perusal, sir," Major Dobrik stood at attention in front of Colonel Zok''s desk. The Colonel picked up a sheaf of papers and casually flipped through them, not really reading them.
"Alright, Major," Colonel Zok replied. "I''ll be sure to inform the City Lord. Thank you for your hard work. Dismissed."
"Sir!" Major Dobrik snapped a salute and departed in a crisp manor. Colonel Zok waited a moment for the man to leave, and then he straightened the papers up and followed him out.
I''m not sure why we keep these paper records when we can just ess the information through the System, Colonel Zok mused as he walked down the hall toward the Count Yaolo''s office. Just another old holdover that we could probably do without. I''ll see about passing down an order to streamline it better. He was pleased with himself and his decision to improve the efficiency of the military unit.
It was only a short distance down the hall to the Count''s Office, and Colonel Zok quickly made his way there. Major Dobrik could have delivered the information directly to the Count himself, but there was a clear chain ofmand. It was right and proper for the Major to pass the information along to his direct superior.
I didn''t get where I am today by allowing my subordinates to go over my head. Proper military protocol must be adhered to.
Colonel Zok knocked on the door and waltzed into the office. The Count had an open door policy for his counselors, so he didn''t have to wait to be called in. He marched up to the desk and waited for his liege to address him.
The Count finished writing whatever missive he was working on, and then he looked up at the Colonel before indicating for him to take a seat. Colonel Zok ced the documents on the desk in front of the City Lord.
"I''ve finished training the volunteer Candidates, and I''ve prepared the reports for you to look over at your leisure," Colonel Zok said, taking his seat. "They should also be ready for ess through the System, now that it''s be official."
"Very good," Count Yaolo nodded his head. "You''ve done an excellent job, once again. Let me just take a quick gander at the information..."
The Count got a far away look in his eyes as he obviously pulled up the System information, leaving the documents unattended on his desk. Colonel Zok noticed the unused papers, and his conviction to increase efficiency increased.
"Hmm?" Count Yaolo had a frown on his face as he read over the information in the System. "What''s the meaning of this?"
"Sir?" Colonel Zok had a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Have you not looked at the list of new Lieutenants?" Count Yaolo peered over at him, a skeptical look on his face.
"I''ve briefly nced over the papers, but I haven''t gone into detail in the System, yet," Colonel Zok could feel sweat bead his brow.
"Well, pull it up," Count Yaolomanded him.
Colonel Zok essed his System interface, and pulled up his tab for the military units. He scrolled over to the new tab of Provisional Lieutenants.
Provisional Lieutenants
Unassigned:
Lt. Reivyn (Prov)
Lt. Jek (Prov)
Lt. Keeron (Prov)
Lt. Rejiv (Prov)
...
Lt. Gaspar (Prov)
"You looking at it?" Count Yaolo asked. Colonel Zok nodded his head. "Focus on the first name, the number one graduate, and tell me what you see."
Colonel Zok followed the orders. He focused his attention on the name at the top of the list.
Lt. Reivyn (Prov)
ss: Light Magus, Tier 2 Level 7
Secondary ss: Fighter
Age: 14
"Do you see what I see?" Colonel Zok nodded his head once more, the feeling in his stomach intensifying. "Exin to me, why is a Level seven Tier 2 not only a Provisional Lieutenant, but the top of the graduating ss?"
"Umm, sir," Colonel Zok choked on his words for a moment before taking a deep breath and calming himself down. "All of the more in-depth information is recorded on the sheets of paper provided. If you''ll just take a moment to nce through them, all the answers should be crystal clear."
Colonel Zok was mentally crossing his fingers, hoping his subordinates hadn''t yed a cruel prank on him. If there isn''t an adequate answer avable, especially after I assured the Lord that there was, there will be hell to pay.
Count Yaolo picked up the documents. Reivyn''s information, as the number one graduate of the group, was right on the top. He leaned back in his chair as he perused the document. His brows shot up on his head, and Colonel Zok was amazed to see that they continued to climb higher and higher, almost defying reality, as his lord continued to read.
"Ok, I''m convinced," Count Yaolo nodded his head, returning the paper to the top of the stack. "Again, excellent job. Make sure this young man is appropriately ced."
"Of course, sir," Colonel Zok bobbed his head vigorously. His sense of relief suffused his entire being. I''ll need to see what that paper says. What can a Tier 2 Level 7 Light Magus have on his record that so easily convinced the City Lord that it''s apparently natural for him to be ranked how he was?
Colonel Zok stayed with the City Lord for several more minutes discussing the uing training session to evaluate the entire Auxiliary Corps. He left all of the details up to Major Dobrik, as he was ced in charge of the volunteers. Colonel Zok had a much more important mission that he had reserved for himself, namely the defense of the city with the bulk of the regr troops.
After he was dismissed from the Count''s presence, he made his way to the personnel office where the originals of the documents were being filed. He popped his head and took a nce at the administrative staff hard at work. He was immediately noticed, and the soldiers came to attention as his body followed his head in.
"Good work, everyone," Colonel Zok said, a smile on his face. He pped the shoulder of the closest man as he walked further into the office. "At ease, at ease. Continue what you''re doing. I''m just here to follow up and make sure everything is running smoothly. Need to make sure efficiency is a priority, but we can''t let speed interfere with uracy, now can we?"
Colonel Zok had an amiable smile on his face as he sidled over to where the documents were being filed.
"Excuse me," Colonel Zok said, snagging a copy of the personnel records being filed. He pretended to nce through the information seriously before cing it back down. "Do you have the record for the honor graduate? Lieutenant Reivyn? Just want to make sure everything is as it should be."
"Of course, sir," the staff member replied, quickly pulling the record and handing it over to the Colonel.
"Excellent, excellent," Colonel Zok said, reading the information.
He couldn''t see himself, but he could feel that his eyebrows were doing the same reality-defying trick he had witnessed the City Lord do just moments before as he continued to read the record. He re-read the document several times, just to make sure he wasn''t seeing things, before handing it back to the staff member, his face once again a mask of neutrality. He could feel the question burning in the younger man, but he ignored it.
"Well, everything seems to be in order," he said, smiling to each staff member individually. "Make sure you keep those records nice and safe. It''s important that we have hard, physical copies of all the information on our troops. Your work is needed, and appreciated."
"Thank you, sir," the staff member who handed him the record called out as Colonel Zok retreated back to his office.
That young man is definitely qualified, he mused as he walked through the halls once more. The Count said to make sure he was appropriately ced. He and the second ce graduate seemed to have a good rtionship. I know just where to put them.
Colonel Zok nodded to himself at his brilliant idea, prepared to ce the two best graduates in the most appropriatepany.
Chapter 111: Demonstration of Authority
Chapter 111: Demonstration of Authority
Reivyn marched in front of the toon of volunteers who were formed up. Each of the Lieutenants was instructed to take charge of their toons in their various locations. They weren''t all together, so as to give a more intimate meeting between their toonmander with the troops, but they were still nearby. Each of the toons was formed up in their own little space, separate from forming the entire battalion.
Reivyn surveilled the fifty-man toon. There were only a few members that were around his age. This wasn''t the same situation as the conscription in Magron where the Tier 1 teenagers were forced into a Peasant Levy ss. Each of the troops was people that volunteered on their own, and they kept their sses. It wouldn''t be too much of a problem, as that didn''t preclude them from using the appropriate weapons and gear.
For the most part, all of the volunteers already had the corresponding Medium Armor Skill, and a lot of them also already had the Spears Skill, as it was an extremelymon weapon. The saying goes, "easy to learn, hard to master," Reivyn mused. It''s amon weapon that''s easy to pick up, but that doesn''t mean there aren''t nuances to wielding it in an expert manner.
The Auxiliary Unit wasn''t equipped with veteran soldiers, so there had been no time to umte time or merits to promote enlisted leaders from within the ranks. They were still formed up ording to their height, and it would be Reivyn''s job to evaluate the men and promote from within.
Reivyn stood in front of the formation for a moment, checking everyone out. Like he was inspecting the troops, they were checking him out through the corner of their eyes, as well. He could already pick up on a sense of discontentment from them. They had expected an older, more experienced person to be selected to lead them, and they got a young teenager instead.
"My name is Lieutenant Reivyn," Reivyn lifted his voice, infusing it with Commanding Shout. "You will address me as Lieutenant, or Sir.
"We have all volunteered to participate in the rescue operation of the citizens of Kirlon, and we''ve all undergone training for the past month and a half. I have high expectations for you, and, I assume, you do for me as well. I can already sense that some of you are skeptical of my abilities, judging me purely on my younger face.
"Unlike the vast majority of you, though, I have already served in a leadership position in a military unit. I have fought against semi-organized monsters, beast tides, and hordes of undead in a military formation, and I have brieflymanded the defense of a city siege.
"I have been tested, mentally and psychologically, by the officer instructors here in Oreck. I can assure you, I know what I''m doing. I won''t lead you into a death trap, and I won''t give orders that make no sense. I will alwaysmunicate the intent of what we''re trying to aplish, and I will use yourbat abilities toplete the mission while bringing as many people as possible home alive.
"I have seen the tracks of the enemy army. There will be fighting, and some people will die. I''m not going to sugarcoat it and say it''s going to be rainbows and flowers. If you follow my orders, and you trust in your training, you will seed, and you will survive.
"We have a week together to get used to each other, and I expect this toon to be a well-oiled machine by that time.
"I have reviewed everyone''s personnel file, so I''m familiar, on paper, with each of you already. That isn''t good enough, though, so in a moment, I''m going to call each of you forward, individually, and everyone''s going to disy whatbat ability they''re mostpetent with as well as their abilities with a spear, javelin, and sword and shield."
Reivyn looked up at the sun bearing down on everyone, and he looked over to the wall where there was some shade.
"Actually, before that..
"Right, Face! Forward, March!"
Reivyn turned the formation, who obeyed hismands instantly despite the sense of resistance he got from some of them. It didn''t interfere with his orders, though. He marched the men over to the shade, and hemanded them to halt where it was slightly morefortable.
"I don''t see any reason to stand in the sun when there''s perfectly good shade avable to us," Reivyn said.
The other toons were also meeting with their new toon Commanders, but they all remained in the ce where they had initially formed up. The other new officers were a bit hesitant about doing things out of the norm, but they were very specifically not formed up as an entire battalion. Reivyn was in charge, and he could do what he wanted. Positioning his troops in a better location was perfectly reasonable, and he didn''t even think twice about moving them.
"At Ease!" Reivynmanded. He didn''t give the order to Rest, which would have enabled the soldiers to converse quietly with each other while maintaining their formation. At Ease would allow them to rx a bit, though, and he wasn''t too concerned if some of them did actually talk. They weren''t professional soldiers, and he was far more concerned with their fighting abilities than their ability to look good and maintain proper military decorum.
"Private Jerzen, Front and Center!" Reivyn ordered the first man in the first toon to make his way. The man stepped forward, and he had the beginnings of a smirk on his face as he marched in front of Reivyn. The smirk faltered, though, as he got closer and got an actual good look at Reivyn, who was half a head taller and considerably more broad-shouldered than Jerzen was, and Jerzen was one of therger volunteers in the toon.
"Attack me with your spear," Reivyn ordered, standing with arms at his side. The man frowned for a second as he hesitated. "Well, what are you waiting for? Take up a stance with your spear, and attack me with it," Reivyn insisted.
Jerzen shrugged as he assumed a fighting position and thrust the spear at Reivyn. Reivyn rolled his eyes as he easily avoided the thrust by just twisting his body.
"What was that?! Do you expect to defeat our enemies with such ackluster disy? ATTACK ME!"
Jerzen crouched down and delivered a more serious thrust. Reivyn gauged the force of the strike, and he parried it with his open hand, directing it to the side. Jerzen was anticipating this, and he brought the spear back around for a swipe, which Reivyn simply took a step back to avoid, and then he once more parried a thrust with his bare hand.
"Very good, Private Jerzen," Reivyn indicated for him to stop. "I believe I''ve got a basic understanding of your Skill with a spear. Now use your sword and shield."
Reivyn unsheathed his own sword and stood in a rxed manner as the other man holstered his spear in ce on his back and pulled out his sword and shield. Jerzen assumed a guard position as he inspected Reivyn beforeunching forward with an upper swing. Reivyn parried the attack, and the two men exchanged a quick bout of blows, Reivyn never moving a single step from his position as Jerzen danced around to try and find an opening.
"Excellent," Reivyn called a halt to the duel. "I''ll get a gauge of your ability with a javelinter. What weapon are you most familiar with?"
"Sword and shield," Jerzen answered. Reivyn looked at the older man through his brows, crossing his arms in front of himself.
"Sword and shield... what?"
Jerzen frowned as he thought about the question for a second.
"Sword and shield, Sir," Reivyn nodded his head in approval.
"Very good, I can tell that you''re prettypetent with them," Reivyn sheathed his weapon. "That will be all, return to your position."
Jerzen turned around and started to make his way directly back to his position in the front of the first squad.
"Stop!" Reivynmanded. Jerzen halted and turned his head to see what his Lieutenant wanted from him. "March to the side, and circle around the back," Reivyn pointed to his right, toward the back of the formation. Jerzen turned and followed the orders to go around the formation.
"Private Jekle, Front and Center!" Reivyn called.
The man that had been standing at the front of the second squad sauntered forward, a clear smirk on his face this time. He had witnessed the exchange between Reivyn and Jerzen, and he believed he had gotten a good grasp of Reivyn''s abilities. He walked in front of Reivyn, standing casually as he stopped in front of him.
"Hey, Sir, do you know what the difference between a Second Lieutenant and a Private First ss is?" Jekle asked.
Gonna be one of these guys, I see, Reivyn thought.
"Oh, no~o, what''s the difference?" Reivyn asked back in an exaggerated manner.
"A Second Lieutenant hasn''t been promoted, yet," Jekle''s smirk remained on his face.
"Oh, yeah. Ha, Ha. That''s very funny," Reivyn said, deadpan. "Do you want to know what the real difference is?" Jekle nodded his head and held out his palm for Reivyn to continue.
"ATTENTION!" Reivyn shouted, infusing his voice with Command and Commanding Shout.
Jekle''s body locked into a perfect military position of attention, and so did all of the other troops in the toon.
"You will stand at attention and lock your body when you address me!" Reivyn yelled, holding his hand, fingers, and thumb together in a perfectly t, vertical position, right in front of the man''s face. Reivyn stared at the man who now had sweat dripping down his face before turning to look at the rest of the toon. He raised his voice above the conversational tone he had been using with the men he called forward in order to address the entire formation.
"That is the difference," Reivyn said. "I am not some new recruit that you can bully. I''m not some inexperienced newbie. I dare say I have more experience in these kinds of endeavors than any of you. I am your Commanding Officer, and you will treat me with the respect that position deserves." Reivyn pointed off to the side. "The door''s over there. If you don''t like it, pay the fine and get the hell out! We don''t need you."
Reivyn turned back to Jekle. The man was still standing at attention, and he, too, now had sweat dripping down his face.
"What did you do to me?" Jekle asked, not rxing his position of attention.
"I am yourwfulmanding officer," Reivyn simply said. "I gave you awfulmand, and I have the Skill to invoke obedience. It''s not mind control, or anything. It only works forwfulmands on people who are legally bound to obey themand, or on those who believe they are subordinate." Reivyn looked the man up and down. "You''re both. Your ego is telling you to test me, but you believe, deep down, that I''m yourmander.
"Now," Reivyn said, taking a step back, "assume a stance and attack me with your spear."
Jekle''s body rxed and he immediatelyunched into lightning-quick strikes. Reivyn judged the attacks and chose to avoid them all instead of parrying, twisting his body up, down, and all around. He lifted his foot to avoid low sweeps, and he moved back and forth, never letting his general position be altered by the strikes. Jekle finally came up short, panting for breath.
"Great!" Reivyn enthusiastically appraised. "That was excellent spear work. Now, sword and shield."
Reivyn unsheathed his sword once more and engaged Jekle. Jekle wasn''t holding back, and Reivyn didn''t either. He parried Jekle''s sword and avoided the attempted shield bashes. Reivyn''s sword came down, hard, on Jekle''s shield after the failed attempt, and the man was sent stumbling back. Reivyn advanced, and his sword snaked and swung around in intricate patterns, dancing past Jekle''s own defenses. Reivyn didn''t strike the other man, but he simply pped him with the t of the de whenever he made contact, which was almost every attack.
Reivyn stepped back from Jekle who was panting for breath, eyes wide after the exchange.
"What weapon are you most familiar with?" Reivyn once more sheathed his weapon, standing nonchntly.
"I''m a Pugilist, Sir," Jekle said, standing straight and storing his weapons away. Reivyn internally smiled at the quick change in attitude.
"Show me," Reivyn assumed a hand-to-hand stance.
Jekle rushed forward, arge haymaker swinging toward Reivyn''s head. Reivyn smirked as he recognized the feint. He stepped forward and brought his hands down to block the knee that wasing up to connect with his midsection, and then he flowed smoothly from the block to striking Jekle in the sternum with his elbow. He held his strength back, though, as he didn''t want to injure anyone in the sparring sessions.
The two men exchanged rapid blows with each other, Reivyn disying a clear superiority inbat Skill. They exchanged punches, kicks, elbows, knees, and throws, and Reivyn responded with the appropriate method and a devastating counter each time. Jekle was thoroughly convinced of Reivyn''s prowess, and he gave a respectful bow after Reivyn disengaged. It wasn''t strictly military protocol, but one Reivyn had seen others engaged in Pugilist sparring use.
"You know your way aroundbat," Reivyn nodded his head. "Fantastic. You''ll be an excellent pir for the toon. Return to your position."
"Yes, Sir!" Jekle smartly saluted and marched around the formation in the direction that Reivyn had instructed Private Jerzen ahead of him.
The grumblings, joking, and overall sense of discontent Reivyn felt from the toon had already vanished after two demonstrations. Reivyn mentally nodded his head as he called the next person forward to disy theirbat Skills. The next person in line was the same height as Reivyn, though Reivyn was still broader, and the remaining three people were slightly taller than he was.
Reivyn spent the next hour getting a grasp of everyone''s abilities. He disyed a better grasp of thebat abilities of every single member of the fifty-man toon, and he even disyed superior Skill with their own specialized weapons as well. All of the volunteer soldiers were thoroughly convinced of his fighting prowess, and they were all onboard with giving him the benefit of the doubt on his ability tomand. They addressed him as "Sir" without having to be told, and they held themselves with proper discipline.
The best way to convince people of your authority is with a disy ofpetency, Reivyn nodded his head. That was actually quicker than I thought it would be, to be honest. It might have helped that Jekle was one of the strongest soldiers in the toon, and he was the second person to spar with me.
Reivyn had a lot of Stamina, so he wasn''t winded or tired at all after the sparring sessions. There was still some time before lunch, so Reivyn marched the toon over to the training area where the dummies were.
The toon resumed their individual disys as Reivyn had each of themunch a couple of javelins at the targets. Each of the volunteers was able to put the javelin on target, though not everyone was able to strike the center dot. Reivyn nodded his head.
"Sir!" Reivyn looked up to see Jekle raising his hand. The men were At Ease, so it wasn''t inappropriate for him to do so, though calling out to themander was a little off. Reivyn let it slide as he indicated for the man to speak. Jekle looked around at the other volunteers who nodded back at him, and he stood at attention before opening his mouth again.
"You showed us your abilities with the other weapons. I think I speak for everyone when I say we want to see your Skill with a Javelin."
Reivyn looked at each of the soldiers, most of them men, but there were a few women in the formation as well, further down as they were still lined up ording to height. He saw the eagerness on their faces.
"Alright," Reivyn agreed. "Toss me your spear."
Jekle threw his spear to Reivyn, and he snagged it out of the air. Reivyn looked over his shoulder at the target that still had a spear embedded in it. He concentrated, twisted his body, and utilized thebination of Weapons Master and Aim as heunched his spear from his current position, considerably further away from where he had had the soldiers take aim.
The spear sailed through the air and pierced into the target, shearing through the edge of the spear already there on the side closer to the center of the target. Reivyn turned back to the toon, and he could see the level of respect tick up marginally once more.
"Alright, I''m going to dismiss everyone from the formation, and I want you to form up into random groups. Not your current squad," Reivyn instructed. "You''ll all practice your spear work and other weapons for a while as a group, and I want you to show me what you got working in smaller groups before we move on to working as an entire toon.
"Fall Out!"
The soldiers stood in ce for a moment, looking around, not quite knowing what to do right away. Jekle once more raised his hand, and Reivyn nodded to the man.
"Sir, how are we supposed to group up?" he asked. Reivyn just shook his head.
"Figure it out amongst yourselves."
Jekle shared a look with several of the other troops. Not all of the current troops ced in the position of squad leader made to take charge and sort the troops into groups, but several did. Jekle called some of the morepetentbatants over to him.
They formed a little circle and had a short discussion before they started divvying up the soldiers into groups. Jekle had his own group, but he also assisted with giving his thoughts on who should group up with whom, and there were several different smaller groups formed up quickly.
Reivyn nodded his head as he watched, keeping a mental tally of those disying leadership abilities, and those that had others naturally follow their suggestions and instructions. Jekle was clearly the most respected by everyone in the toon, and Reivyn mentally went over his personnel file once more.
He''s the leader of a fairly prominent and active Adventuring Party, and they''ve all volunteered. The other members of his Party aren''t in the same toon as him, which I can understand on one level. The higher-ups don''t want cliques forming in ce of the camaraderie formed from being a member of the toon, but on the flip side, they could have formed their own efficient Squad or Fire Team.
It''s not strictly necessary to determine all the way down to the Fire Team Leaders, now. I can get the rmendations from those stepping up to act as leaders now for the lower-ranked positions.
Reivyn was happy to see several people step up and assume minor leadership roles. It was imperative that there be more than one person in the overallmand. Reivyn was determined to decide on an XO, a toon Sergeant, and Squad Leaders that he could use to direct the rest of the toon through. Jekle was clearly XO material. He didn''t have the authority tomission another individual, but one didn''t have to be officially promoted to assume the position.
Reivyn had the toon work with their spears for a while before switching to swords and shields. When it was time to let the men go get lunch, he formed the toon back up.
"Privates Jekle and Paul, Fall Out of the formation ande stand behind me," Reivyn ordered. "Private Turro, go to the front of the First Squad. You''re the First Squad Squad Leader. Private Herrik, Second Squad. Private Rippo, Third Squad. Private Ingrid, Fourth Squad. Private Merrith, Fifth Squad."
Ingrid and Merrith were two of the females that had volunteered, but they didn''t let their gender get in the way of stepping up to a leadership position over the men. While it was still rare for women in general to take onbat roles, Reivyn had long known that it didn''t y much of a factor for those that made the choice to do so. Ingrid and Merrith were just as willing and able to act as Squad Leaders as any of the men were.
Reivyn turned to address Jekle and Paul standing behind him as the toon shifted about.
"I don''t have the authority to promote ormission others, but I can request it. It''s unlikely they''ll refuse the request, either.
"Paul, I''m going to rmend you be promoted to a Provisional Senior Sergeant, and you''re going to be the toon Sergeant.
"Jekle, you''re going to be the XO, or Executive Officer. As I said, I can''tmission you, but that doesn''t mean you can''t fill the role. I''ll request for you to receive the same promotion as Paul, but your position is superior to his. You''ll be with me from now on.
"I''ll request the Squad Leaders to be promoted to Junior Sergeants. I''m going to further break the squads down into smaller groups known as Fire Teams, and it''ll be your job to confer with the Squad Leaders to rmend the appropriate people to promote to Corporals to lead those teams.
"Private Paul, take charge of the toon. March them to the Mess Hall for lunch and a short break. Have them formed back up in the shaded area we first Marched to by one o''clock. We''ll perform toon maneuvers at that time."
"Yes, Sir," Paul saluted before stepping forward into Reivyn''s position in charge of the toon. He didn''t waste any time after the squads had shuffled around, and he Marched them off to the Mess Hall. His cadence was a little choppy at first, but it got better as his confidence grew. He wasn''t used to issuing themands, yet, but he knew what they all were from having to perform them himself.
"Jekle, you''re with me," Reivyn waved the man to walk next to him on his left side. "As I said, you''re not amissioned officer, but you''ll be acting as one in regards to the toon. I''ll teach you how to fill in for me as themander of the toon, and once you''ve got that down, I''ll teach you how tomand apany."
"The entirepany? Isn''t that a bit..." Jekle trailed off.
"Every person should understand how to fill the role of two ranks above themself," Reivyn exined. "As the acting XO, you need to understand your job as the XO, the toon Commander, and the Company Commander. It''s highly unlikely you''ll have to step up to such a role, but you never know when ites tobat.
"Likewise, once you''ve got those things down, you and I will have to make sure the others understand the same thing: how to operate two ranks above their position. All the way down to the troops not assigned to any kind of leadership role, currently. I want every single person in the toon to be able to act as a Squad Leader, at minimum, no matter what.
"We only have a week to ourselves before we head out, but these are things we can continue to study and learn as we go. You''re used to leading an active Adventuring Party, and you have the respect of everyone in the toon. Just like with me, showingpetency to others in the eventuality that you have to step up will inspire them to follow you and obey yourmands.
"Also, I doubt the other lieutenants are going to be training their soldiers in the same manner as I am, and that''s OK, for now. We''ll set the example, and others are sure to follow."
"Yes, Sir," Jekle replied.
The two men marched to the Mess Hall where they would eat separately from the rest of the troops. Reivyn was going to introduce Jekle to the other three lieutenants he had spent the most time with, and he was sure they would pick up on his intentions and spread the doctrine to their own troops.
Chapter 112: Wheelin It
Chapter 112: Wheelin'' It
"Look at the map," Reivyn said to Jekle. "See, your forces are here and their forces are there. Look at the terrain and devise a way to engage the enemy. Where should we go, and how should we attack?"
Reivyn had brought Jekle with him to lunch with his officer group, and as he had suspected, none of them had begun to delegate authority to smaller groups within their toons. They had asked about Jekle''s presence, and for his part, he had been a bit hesitant to engage in conversation with themissioned officers. That was fine with Reivyn, as he wasn''t trying to make them be friends or anything, he just wanted him to get familiar with them.
A toon didn''t typically have an XO position, and Lieutenants didn''t have aides. A toon Sergeant was the closest thing they had, but Reivyn felt Jekle''s abilities would be wasted in such a role. Jekle might have himself been ted to attend the officer candidate training if he had already unlocked the Charisma Stat or had some more Skills associated withmanding or leading people.
Jekle was a quick study, already having the Map Reading Skill, and it didn''t take more than a few examples until Jekle picked up on the way Reivyn devised his own tactics. Reivyn had worked with the other officers over lunch to continue educating them on movement under fire and suppression tactics. They already had a good foundation, and thepanymanders woulde up with most of the tactics to aplish the strategy the Major came up with. It wasn''t much of a stretch to introduce the ideas to them.
Reivyn and Jekle had continued where they left off after Reivyn had Paul put the toon through drills. Reivyn split his attention between instructing Jekle and watching the toon do their maneuvers. It had only been several hours, but Reivyn was impressed with their ability.
"Here, I''ve prepared some more scenarios for you to evaluate," Reivyn pulled out more copies of the maps that he had drawn on. "Continue to familiarize yourself with these tactics. Tomorrow, we''ll join up with the other three toons, and a couple of Mage Corps Units to practice some more ideas."
"So, the enemy is entrenched on that short teau over there, and we need to get up there and engage them," Reivyn was standing in front of four toons from the Martial Units and Fira''s toon from the Mage Corps. Well, it''s more like a squad, Reivyn thought, ncing at the fifteen Mages. It''s not even half the size of a regr toon, but it''s the standard size of a Mage Corps "toon."
"Conventional tactics would have the Mages and archers bombard the defensive position as we Marched up the slope to engage," Reivyn continued. "Cavalry wouldn''t be as effective, and they would probably be used to prevent the enemy from forming up ranks in another defensive position. That won''t change; that''s not what we''re going to work on.
"What we''re going to do, instead of just Marching up the slope where it''s easy to line up in a regr formation, is we''re going to split up into squads and move up the gulleys. Instead of lining up all neat and pretty and painting arge target for the enemy defenders to attack us as we move, we''re going to form smaller bands that will leap-frog over each other as our Mages work on suppressing the enemy Mages.
"Sure, it would be somewhat effective to do the traditional bombardment with our Mages, as that itself would give some suppression to returning Spells, but moving under semi-cover while deliberately targeting their ability to fight back will result in fewer casualties.
"I''ll have my toon go first, and I and Senior Sergeant Jekle will lead the first two squads. After that, each squad in each toon will have a go.
"Fall Out!"
Reivyn led his troops away from the gentle, wide slope over to a narrower ravine that led up to the same position. The sides of the gulley were steep, and it would offer the enemy position on top of the hill less visibility. He walked up to the entrance of the gulley where he would be concealed from the defenders and squatted down.
"Here''s the basic concept," Reivyn addressed the first squad that was also crouched down beside him. "One squad will be on one side, the other squad on the other. Each person will be in a staggered position from the person in front of them. We''ll sprint up the hill while chanting in our heads ''I''m up, he sees me, I''m down,'' and when you finish the chant, you''ll drop to your bellies.
"This is the time when you would use any ranged Skills you have avable. The Mages will beunching Spells overhead from behind us, but we can add to the suppression of returning Spells and arrows as well.
"While we''re on our stomachsunching ranged Skills, the other squad will sprint forward, chanting the same thing in their minds. They''ll do the same thing, and we''ll take turns rushing up the slope.
"We don''t have to have the entire toon rush at the exact same time, though. The purpose is to get up top as quickly as possible, with as few casualties as possible, and secure a position to form up. The other squads will be following behind in the same manner, but once we secure a defensive position and the pressure on the troops moving up the hill lessens, they''ll be able to just sprint the rest of the way up and form up the toon.
"Let''s make it happen."
Reivyn ordered the troops to follow him out into the open, and he signaled for Fira to begin having the Magesunch their spells. To simte a realistic scenario, Reivyn had the Mages arc Spells way overhead tond in the middle of the teau as well as have someunch their spells straight up the ravine. They weren''t using powerful Spells in case of idents, but he did tell Fira to make sure they were shy. He wanted the troops to be used to Spells flying right over their heads as they moved.
At first, the troops were a bit hesitant in their movements. They hadn''t practiced anything simr before, and they weren''t used to a barrage of Spells flying by their heads so close. They ran with their heads ducked, but Reivyn was actually approving of it as long as it didn''t hinder their speed. Making themselves smaller targets was a sound idea. It would only be a problem if it interfered with the assault itself.
"I''m up! He sees me! I''m down!" Reivyn shouted, falling to his stomach at thest word. The squad followed suit, and Reivynunched a few fireball Spells of his own. He didn''t have time to notice if there were any reactions from the troops at his disy of Magic, and it wasn''t that big of a deal, anyway. His ss was never a secret, to begin with.
Jekle led the second squad forward, shouting the same slogan. The two squads performed the maneuver in concert, taking cues from each other for proper pacing. The other squads lined up to begin their practice assault immediately after, and there was no downtime between them.
The four toons practiced the maneuver until the Mages ran low on Mana. Reivyn called the four toons up to the top of the short teau after thanking Fira and her Mages, and they left to go do their own practice after recovering. They wouldn''t be needed for the next part of Reivyn''s practice.
"Ok, so we''ve practiced rushing up the hill," Reivyn said. "Now, once we get to the top, as I said previously, the mission is to establish a defensive position so the rest of the toon can be formed up properly once more. What we''ll do now, is have two toons practice reaching the top while holding off a melee assault and as the other toons rush up to join them again.
"We''ll have the two squads face off against one of the other toons over here before rotating, and the other two toons can also practice the same drill over at the gentle slope. The actual positioning for these drills doesn''t matter as much as the drill itself.
"The point is not to press forward and further engage the enemy. You''ll be too busy to do that. The point is to get the toon formed up properly. Can anyone specte why this is?"
Reivyn looked over the soldiers intent on his instruction. He had already exined the reasoning to Jekle and Paul, but they weren''t going to supply the answer. Most of the soldiers had a nk look on their faces, but a few raised a tentative hand. Reivyn selected a soldier from Jek''s toon.
"Umm, if we engage the enemy''s nk first, then they''ll turn, and now the slope is the nk?" The man ventured, more a question than an answer.
"Exactly," Reivyn nodded his head to the man. "Everyone understands the importance of nking maneuvers. Using conventional tactics, moving up the gentle slope would be the initial engagement, and then we could assault up the ravine or another side. We flip the script a bit, though, and allow for less iing damage by switching the nks around.
"Once the enemy has shifted their focus, even before the squads have fully made it up the ravine, another toon can begin marching up the slope to nk the enemy. We only need to secure a defensive position long enough to pincer the enemy."
"What if the enemy doesn''t shift?" A man called out.
"Excellent question," Reivyn said. "In that case, the toon at the gentle slope will be a distraction, and once the toon that moved up the ravine is formed up, they''ll be able to press forward under less resistance. If they still don''t shift focus at that point, they''ll get decimated, so they''ll have to. If they still don''t, then the toon up top will make sure their ability to suppress our own troops is destroyed first so the toon on the gentle slope can advance.
"Either way, we''re going to have a pincer attack. That would be true even with conventional tactics. Just know that the toon in the initial assault really needs to focus on their squad-shields or they''ll suffer.
"If there are no more questions, let''s move on to the next exercise. Once we''ve all practiced forming up the toon while engaged, we can move on to the final step of putting it all together. We''ll have two toons up top with two attacking toons, and then we''ll switch.
"Let''s begin."
The next several hours were spent performing the tactics that Reivyn hadid out for thepany. Even though the Company Commander hadn''t made an appearance yet, and Furok and Derik''s toons were in a differentpany, they still operated as one for the sake of the practice session. Reivyn would be sure to pass the ideas on to the other toons in his ownpany, and he was sure Furok and Derik would do the same.
"Alright, we''ve been together for several days now, and I''m immensely pleased with your willingness and ability to perform your tasks," Reivyn addressed his men in the dawn light. "Today is the first day we''ll be meeting our Company Commander. Even I haven''t met him yet, though some of the otherpanies have already had their captains get involved in their training.
"We''ll spend two days out in the field, and this will be the culmination of our training. I don''t expect we''ll be doing much more of what we''ve been focusing on in the past couple of days moving forward, but it''s good that you have a basic understanding of my tactics. You never know if we''ll need to call upon it someday in the future, and a couple of days of practice and familiarity is better than none."
The otherpanies were already formed up with their captains already taking charge. Reivyn''s captain had yet to appear, even now. Major Dobrik gave the order to the captains to move their men out, and Reivyn and the other Lieutenants shared confused looks with each other as the battalion began to leave without their captain.
After thestpany had already started to move away, and Reivyn was about to go ahead and order his toon to March, three young men on horseback appeared. None of the other officers were mounted, and Reivyn didn''t know who any of them were, but he heard a groane from Jekle standing next to him. He turned his head to give the man a questioning look.
"That''s Yorik," Jekle nodded to the lead horseman. "He''s the oldest son of Count Yaolo."
"Our captain is the son of the Count?" Reivyn asked, surprised. Jekle shook his head.
"Nope, he''s a dandy. He''s not associated with the military in any way, but the other two... the one on the right is Zokkan, the son of Colonel Zok, and he''s alright. But thest one is Sanjin. He''s best friends with Yorik and Zokkan, and I''m pretty sure he''s going to be our captain."
Reivyn nodded his head as turned back to watch the three young men approach with their horses. He could see that they were each a bit older than him, but they were younger than the average volunteer in his toon. The three youths stopped their horses and stared back at the formed-up men for a moment.
"Well,e here!" The one pointed out as Sanjin shouted toward the toon Commanders.
"Stay here," Reivyn ordered Jekle before rushing forward. The others also broke into jogs, and the four lieutenants converged on their captain.
"Here," Sanjin pulled out a folded-up map and tossed it on the ground at Reivyn''s feet. That''s the location we''re Marching to. I''ll meet you there."
He turned back to his two friends, and the three of them cantered off,ughing and joking. Reivyn bent down and picked up the map, opening it to share with the other three Lieutenants. The destination wasn''t anywhere they hadn''t been already, and Reivyn knew exactly how to get there. He wouldn''t have to find his own way, any way, he just needed to get his troops caught up with the rest of the battalion. They had only been waiting for the order from their absent captain.
"Alright, I''ll get my toon moving. It looks like we''re basically on our own, though," Reivyn said, folding the map up and storing it away. The other three lieutenants just nodded their heads and ran back to their toons.
"He didn''t even introduce himself," Reivyn muttered under his breath before reaching his toon. He kept a stern face and didn''t disy any discontent. It wouldn''t be appropriate for those under him to see him dissatisfied with his superior.
"Senior Sergeant Paul, take charge of the toon. We''re going to catch up to the rest of the battalion."
"Yes, Sir," Paul saluted before about-facing, taking charge of the toon.
Reivyn motioned for Jekle to walk with him, and he headed to the front of the toon. It was his job as themander to set the pace, and they needed to go a bit faster to catch up.
"See what I mean?" Jekle asked under his breath.
"He''s ourmanding officer," Reivyn replied. He left it at that as he assumed his position in front of the toon. Senior Sergeant Paul ordered the men forward, and Reivyn stepped off, leading them forward.
The first half day was spent mostly on getting to their destination, and the second half of the day was spent Marching about in formation under themand of Major Dobrik. They performed several maneuvers against stationary targets, getting a feel for what it would be like in a muchrger formation that spanned multiplepanies at once.
Captain Sanjin had ridden to the destination with the sons of the most powerful military figures, and they appeared to just be there to spectate the goings on. Sanjin finally departed from his friends with some reluctance, and he "tookmand" of hispany. His orders to Reivyn and the other Lieutenants were to listen for the orders of Major Dobrik and to take any cues from the other toons in differentpanies.
Reivyn internally shook his head as the man just kept up appearances by walking nearby. He didn''t do anything after telling Reivyn and the others to go along with themands of the Major.
Reivyn was worried about the effect the man would have on the morale of his troops, but he was pleased to see his men perform well during the exercises.
At the end of the day, the battalion was split into several groups, and multiplepanies were sent off to bivouac in different locations.
"Our mission tomorrow will be to locate and engage anotherpany," Reivyn returned to his toon after getting the information about the next day''s main exercise from the Major''s staff. "We''ll begin tomorrow on the move, and then in the afternoon, we''ll set up a defensive position as the opposingpany takes their turn.
"Excellent job today. Get some rest."
Reivyn looked around for Captain Sanjin. He hadn''t been at the briefing for the next day''s exercise.
"He took off with the other two about an hour ago," Jekle said, noticing Reivyn searching for thepanymander. "There''s a vige an hour away. They''re probably going to sleep in afy bed tonight."
"Very well," Reivyn responded. "Let''s get our own tents set up. Senior Sergeant Paul, confer with the Squad Leaders and set up a fire watch."
"Yes, Sir!" The two men saluted before everyone began making camp.
Reivyn and the other three lieutenants in thepany stood in a circle, conferring with each other.
"We can''t wait any longer," Reivyn argued. "He doesn''t seem to care, either way, and it''s time to go."
"I''m with Reivyn on this," Jek said.
"Ok, fine," another lieutenant, Lieutenant Grent, said.
"I don''t have an opinion," Lieutenant Laris replied.
"Then I''ll get the men moving," Reivyn announced.
The four men separated and moved back to their toons that were formed up and ready to go. It was well past dawn, and they should have already been on the move long ago, but their captain was nowhere to be seen. They had argued about whether to wait or go without him, and they had decided to wait a little longer. Time kept marching on, though, and he never showed up. They couldn''t wait any longer, and it was time to begin the exercise.
"Senior Sergeant Paul, take charge of the toon and move out. Senior Sergeant Jekle, you will lead the troops," Reivyn ordered.
"Yes, Sir!" The two men saluted. Jekle took off to the front of the toon as Paul faced them to begin Marching.
The troops stepped off, and Reivyn moved along beside them, the other toons following suit behind them.
"Wait!" A call came from the distance. Reivyn looked up to see Captain Sanjin galloping forward on his horse. "Wait, wait, wait!"
He charged toward thepany and dismounted. He stalked up to Reivyn, a furious look on his face.
"You do not move the men without me!" He screamed. Reivyn stood at attention as he was shouted at.
"Yes, sir!" Reivyn replied, not making any excuses. Captain Sanjin red at him for a moment.
"Halt the troops."
"Yes, sir." Reivyn about-faced to address Paul. "Senior Sergeant Paul, call a halt."
"Yes, Sir! toon, Halt!"
The other toons followed suit, and Captain Sanjin adjusted his uniform as he watched them all stop and turn to face him once more.
"Well?" Sanjin asked after a moment. Reivyn furrowed his brow in confusion. "Get them moving!"
"Yes, sir." Reivyn mentally rolled his eyes. "Senior Sergeant Paul, order the men forward."
"Yes, Sir!"
Thepany once more began Marching forward in the early morning light. The three other lieutenants Marched in front of their toons, but Reivyn had Jekle assume that role for him. He Marched alongside the captain, who seemed to be pleased with himself.
Thepany moved through the countryside for a couple of hours, converging on the location they had already been told to search out thepetingpany. Reivyn kept his head on a swivel, identifying the areas he would choose to set up a defensive location.
"They must be just over that hill," Captain Sanjin said, pointing to the distance. Reivyn looked in the direction he indicated, almost directly in front of them. It''s like he just wants to March forward or something, Reivyn thought. There are much better locations to set up a defensive position.
"Sir, I think..." Reivyn began.
"No, they''re over there," Captain Sanjin interrupted him. "I''m the captain, and I know how the other captains operate. Get the men formed up to assault that hill."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn replied, sighing to himself.
He ordered Paul to turn the men so their nks would be aligned in the proper direction for an assault, and the other lieutenants followed suit. Reivyn stayed with the captain as Jekle and Paul assumed their positions, leading the toon forward.
Thepany leveled their spears and Marched forward toward the hill directly in their original path. The Captain didn''t order any forces to break away for nking maneuvers, and he didn''t hold any of them back to act as a reserve unit. He just ordered the entirepany to march forward on the position.
A shadow on another hill to their right nk caught Reivyn''s attention, and he looked up to see a man standing by himself, skylining himself. A loud whistle burst forth from him, and Captain Sanjin finally looked up to notice the soldier.
"Ahh! They''re on that hill!" Captain Sanjin dered, pointing. "I was pretty close, huh? Have the men Wheel Right to engage."
"Wheel Right?" Reivyn asked. It wasn''t a maneuver they had practiced.
"Yes, don''t you know?" Captain Sanjin asked skeptically. "Have the center maintain their position as they turn, have the right nk move backward, and have the left nk move forward. Wheel Right. Maintain the line and face thepany.
"Yes, sir." Reivyn turned toward thepany and raised his voice, infusing it with Commanding Shout. "Company! Wheel Right!"
There was a lot of confusion among the troops as they looked back and forth between each other. They began to awkwardly attempt to carry out the order as Reivyn once more mentally sighed. The men eventually got the movement down, and the entire line rotated in the center, changing direction.
"Good, good," Captain Sanjin seemed happy with the movement. Reivyn wanted to face-palm, but he kept his military bearing. "Continue the assault."
Thepany continued Marching forward up the much more defensible and less traversable slope. The point of the exercise wasn''t to actually engage in hand-to-handbat, though, so only a token defense was put up before the otherpany retreated from its position.
The opposing captain came up to Captain Sanjin as his troops packed up and Marched off.
"Excellent job locating us and assaulting our position," the man said with a vacuous smile. "You''ll be sure to take over Major Dobrik''s position one day."
"General," Captain Sanjin shook his head. "I don''t have any ambitions for taking over such a small-scale operation. I''m going to move to the capital one day, and I''ll be a General."
"Of course, of course," the other captain said, his smile straining. "I''m sure you''ll lead many victories one day." He gave Reivyn a nod before turning to catch up to his own men.
"Alright, Lieutenant Riven, it''s time to move on," Captain Sanjin pulled out another map. He opened it up and showed it to Reivyn. There was a location with arge box drawn on it, indicating where they should go to set up their own defensive position. It wasn''t very far away, and the otherpany they had just interacted with wasn''t the samepany that would be assaulting their position.
Reivyn studied the map and noticed several ces that could make excellent camps. He ran his fingers over several, prepared to offer his opinion.
"We''ll take the troops here," Sanjin ced his finger right in the exact location that Reivyn would choose deadst for a defensive position.
"Sir... that''s a valley... surrounded by hills," Reivyn pointed out.
"Exactly!" Captain Sanjin replied. "It will offer excellent concealment, and the men will be fresh and ready to fight. It''s a great ce to set up a defensive formation. Get the men moving."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn said.
Reivyn ordered Senior Sergeant Paul to get the toon moving before rubbing his temples.
"Everything ok, sir?" Jekle asked on his way to assume his position at the front of the toon once more.
"Yes, Senior Sergeant. Everything is great."
We''re all going to die.
Chapter 113: Furlough
Chapter 113: Furlough
"Where was your horse?" Captain Sanjin questioned Reivyn.
"Sir? I don''t have a horse," Reivyn replied, confused.
"No horse? Then how are you expected to report to me?" Sanjin asked, equally confused.
"I''m not sure I understand, sir. I have to stay with the men of First toon."
"Why?"
"I''m the toon Commander, sir."
"Isn''t that Jeckly guy the toon Commander?"
"That''s Senior Sergeant Jekle, sir. He''s not amissioned officer."
"But he''s been the one acting in charge?"
"I''ve been grooming him formand, and I''ve been having him out front, but I''m the one that''s beenmanding, sir."
"Normally I would say that''s a colossal waste of time, but it works out great in this circumstance," Sanjin nodded his head. "Go to the quartermaster and get a horse. You''re now the Company XO, and you''ll need the additional mobility in order to report to me."
"Yes, sir. And where will I need to go to report to you, sir? You won''t be with thepany?"
"Why would I be with thepany?" Sanjin was taken aback. "I''ll be with the battalionmand staff, obviously. I''ll need to stick close to the Major if I''m to contribute my military genius to the overall situation."
"Yes, sir. Of course, sir."
"Here," Sanjin handed Reivyn an empty requisition form for the quartermaster with his signature on the bottom. "Fill this out, and get yourself a horse. No need to find me tomorrow, I''ll be with the Major. Just take charge of thepany, and have them March out with the battalion."
"Yes, sir." Reivyn saluted, turned about at the obvious dismissal, and departed from the captain''s office located in the central administrative building of the barracks. The captain''s office was on the second floor, and the quartermaster''s office was on the first floor, near the exit leading to the warehouse for the military gear.
Reivyn headed towards the quartermaster, the soldiers bustling about the interior of the building stepping back and saluting as he passed by. Even though Reivyn''s rank was Provisional, he was stillmissioned, and the regr soldiers maintained proper military decorum. Nobody looked at him askance because of his younger-looking face, even though it was beginning to finally mature.
They''re probably used to seeing officers selected for nepotism, Reivyn mused. As far as I know, they still have to go through all the same training, but if my guess is correct, they don''t have the possibility of failure.
The rest of the exercise in the field with the battalion performing the search-and-engage maneuvers had been pretty boring. Reivyn had ordered his men to build rudimentary fortifications in the valley, and the other toons had gotten to work doing simr things after Jek had followed suit, but Captain Sanjin had put a stop to it.
His reasoning was that they wouldn''t be there for very long, and they weren''t actually fighting, so why do all that unnecessary work? Reivyn had tried to argue that it was part of the practice, but Captain Sanjin rebuffed him. It would have been easy for the other man to just let them do what they needed to do, but he specifically ordered them not to do anything unnecessary. Reivyn had felt it wasn''t unnecessary, but he had to act ording to what Captain Sanjin thought.
After the otherpany discovered them and "drove them off," they once more met up with the rest of the battalion. They hadpleted their training mission, as it was more to get the captains familiar with moving their men about than it was gaugingbat readiness. They had already done those evaluations during the other training. The battalion had cleaned up and headed back to the city.
The Major had taken a moment to address everyone about the uing mission, and then they had received a day off before it was time to head out. The officers were required topile reports about their subordinates. Reivyn had delivered his reports to Captain Sanjin on their day off, and the captain had had Reivyn write up the report for thepany as a whole, using the excuse that Reivyn was his selection for XO. Reivyn suspected it had been more along the lines of him being the first officer to deliver the reports, and the captain didn''t want to do the work himself.
Reivyn stopped at a small table to fill out the supply requisition form.
Let''s see... I need to put in the request for the horse, obviously, but this is basically a nk check from a superior officer. I can take this chance to get the additionalmunication magic devices, as well as some extra spears and other gear.
Reivyn filled out the form with his own requests added to it. He didn''t go overboard and ask for the moon. He felt like the additional requests were perfectly reasonable. He nodded to himself as he tucked it back into his breast pocket, and then he made his way downstairs to the quartermaster.
He stepped through the doors and was greeted by a soldier standing behind a desk. The room was fairly bare, with the other side of the desk leading directly to the warehouse attached to the back of the administrative building.
"How can I help you, sir?" The young soldier asked.
"I have a requisition form here," Reivyn said, pulling the form out and cing it on the desk in front of the soldier. "I need a horse, thirty spears, thirty swords, thirty shields..."
"Hold on a moment, sir," the soldier held his hand up. "Let me get the Supply Officer for you."
"Very well," Reivyn nodded his head as the man excused himself to walk into a side office. A momentter, another man came out with the young soldier. He was a bit older, and he had the rank insignia of a captain on his cor.
"What can I help you with..." the Supply Officer peered at Reivyn''s rank insignia for a brief moment, "Provisional Lieutenant?"
"I have a requisition form here that mypanymander, Captain Sanjin, ordered me to bring," Reivyn indicated the form signed by Captain Sanjin.
"Alright, let me just take a nce, here," the Supply Officer picked the form up, perusing it.
"Mhm... mhm... yes... mhm," the man nodded to himself. "Hmm... no, no, this won''t work at all." He shook his head.
"What seems to be the problem?" Reivyn asked, a frown on his face.
"Well, your captain is requesting four additionalmunication tools. See, here?" The Supply Officer pointed at the spot where Reivyn had just written the request, emphasizing the rank of captain. "There''s no way I can satisfy that request."
"And why is that, exactly?" Reivyn asked. "How manymunication tools do you have avable?"
"ording to the supply manifest, we have forty of them, but if I gave you four, then I would only have thirty-six. Do you see the problem?" The man asked, a mild smile on his face.
"No."
"We have to maintain a minimum amount of extra gear on hand," the Supply Officer exined. "And we just happen to have forty of these items in reserve at all times. Protocol, you understand. So if I give you four of them, we won''t have the necessary reserve any longer. I''m afraid I can''t give you any."
"Isn''t the entire reason you have to keep any reserve is so that they''re avable for when they''re needed?" Reivyn questioned, feeling a headacheing on. "We''re stepping off on a rescue mission tomorrow, and we need lines ofmunication."
"Hmm, one would think so, but that''s not the case," the man shook his head. "The protocols are very clear: We must maintain a reserve of forty units at all times. It doesn''t stipte that it''s so that we have them for when they''re going to be used, and even if that was the case, how can we determine that your use for them is more important than someone else''s use for them in the future?"
"Because we''re leaving the confines of the city to travel hundreds of miles away, and everyone else who''s still here literally won''t need any?" Reivyn pointed out.
"Mmm, I''m afraid that''s not enough of a reason. You''ll have to get a requisition with the Major or Colonel''s signature on it. Captain Sanjin''s rank isn''t high enough to give me an order to go against protocol."
"I see," Reivyn said, irritation nearly filling his voice. "But everything else is in order?"
"Oh, yes, I can give you everything else that you have listed here. We have plenty in reserve," the Supply Officer nodded amicably. "A word of advice, though," he leaned forward and lowered his voice, "make sure you request everything associated with the mount. You only listed that you needed a horse, but you left off the saddle, tack, and everything else associated with a horse, including the horseshoes."
"Including the horseshoes? You can''t be serious? Isn''t itmon sense that a mount woulde with everything required to use it as a mount? Wouldn''t adding everything else be to request extras?"
"Oho, you might think so," the man replied mirthfully, "but we have to keep meticulous records, and we need a way to cross-reference everything that''se in and gone out. You understand. I''ll have Private Porro fix the mistake... this time."
"Thank you... sir," Reivyn replied, deadpan.
"Of course, of course!" The Supply Officer smiled happily.
The private ran out to the warehouse to get the gear that was approved for requisition, and the Supply Officer told Reivyn he could go out back to pick the gear up. Reivyn nodded his head before excusing himself to run to the barracks to get Jekle to form a work party to pick up the additional gear for the toon.
He didn''t feel bad for not getting additional gear for the other toons, as he saw a line of supplies being loaded up for the entire battalion. He had just secured some extra gear for his men early, and they wouldn''t have to go through the trouble of getting gear in the field right away.
Jekle immediately understood Reivyn''s orders, and he had Senior Sergeant Paulmand the squad leaders to volun-tell some of the troops to go get the gear. Reivyn ran back to the warehouse to see a horse, properly kitted out, already being held steady for Reivyn to receive.
"Do you guys keep horses in the warehouse?" Reivyn asked, walking up to the soldier.
"No, sir. There''s a stable attached to the other side," the soldier informed him.
"I was under the impression that I would be able to pick my own," Reivyn nced at the soldier through the side of his eyes.
"There''s a rotation, sir," the man exined. "But don''t worry. We don''t have any nags or weak horses. They''re all of simr quality and training, and you''ll be sure to be happy with this horse, here."
"Thank you... Lance Corporal," Reivyn replied after verifying the man''s rank.
It appears that there was a stable and pasture for the horses not assigned to anyone where they could be housed and trained, and the ones that were assigned had their own stable much more essible for retrieval. The supply troops would be in charge of handling all horses not assigned to an officer or staff sergeant, but the individual toons and soldiers were responsible for the upkeep of their own horses.
Reivyn waited for the detail of his troops to arrive to take charge of the requisitions before he mounted his horse and departed. He rode the horse around to get familiarized with it, and the soldier hadn''t lied to him. While it wasn''t a powerful specimen like the personal mounts of the young men, his own captain included, it was a well-cared-for mount. It followed his instructions easily, and it didn''t give him any problems.
After trotting about the grounds for a while, he took it to the battalion stable and left it with the grooms. The stable within the militarypound was mainly manned by civilians, but the soldiers from the toons also assisted them so they understood what to do out in the field. Not all of the troops were trained in horsemanship, and the officers didn''t have time to do all of the maintenance themselves.
Reivyn decided to go ahead and do the maintenance himself this time, as he was still letting the horse get used to him. He would do so several more times, at minimum, but hismand duties would probably preclude him from doing it too often once they were on the move. The horse was docile enough, and Reivyn wasn''t too worried that he wouldn''t be able to form at least a little bit of a bond with it before they saw anybat.
Done with his tasks, Reivyn was finally able to enjoy the day off. His morning had been busy, but it hadn''t taken up too much of his time. It was still well before noon, and he knew exactly how he was going to spend the rest of his day.
"What''s taking him so long?" Kefira paced back and forth in her inn room. Once they had volunteered to join the Auxiliary Units, they no longer had a need for a room to themselves at an inn; however, now was the only opportunity they would have for the foreseeable future to have any privacy, so Kefira had reserved another room for the day.
She had foregone the typical robes that Mages wore, and she was just in a in tunic and pants. in in that they aren''t extravagant, Kefira thought to herself. The clothes were still extremely high quality despite theirck of outerments.
"He seemed like the type to take his duties seriously," Seri replied. "I''m sure he''s just finishing up his reports."
"If he takes his job as seriously as you say, shouldn''t he have done the reportsst night?" Kefira countered. Seri shrugged.
"I don''t know. That Sanjin character he was assigned to seemed like a clown, to me. He probably roped Reivyn into doing his reports, too."
"Yeah, what''s up with that?" Kefira stopped her pacing. "Wasn''t Reivyn the top graduate? Why was he assigned to such an idiot?"
"I can think of two reasons, but it''s only spection," Seri said, holding her hands out to tick off her fingers. "One, the Colonel thought he was assigning him to the best captain because he''s friends with his son. Or, two, he assigned apetent toonmander to a terriblepanymander to make him look better. Either way, what''s done is done."
"He better pray he shapes up," Kefira said, crossing her arms. "And it''s not even a matter of putting Reivyn in danger with his ipetence. Well, not entirely."
"Uh huh," Seri smirked.
"Hey! We don''t know if this is a bigger issue, yet, or not. If it turns out these are outsiders from the kingdom, then I''ll have every right to interfere at that time. If it''s not a bigger issue at hand, the chances of catastrophic failure in rescuing the civilians are pretty low, anyway."
"They defeated and captured everyone in a city of tens of thousands of people," Seri pointed out.
"Yeah, but our current goal isn''t to defeat them in turn. It''s to rescue the poption of Kirlon. Failure is still very much a possibility, but not a catastrophic failure. Like our own forces getting wiped out in the process. Anyway, all that to say, it''s unlikely anything majorly bad will happen if it''s an internal dispute, and if it is an external invasion, I''ll have the ability to make sure morons aren''t in charge of getting people killed."
"If that''s the case, it might be wiser to wait for one of your older siblings to arrive to takemand."
"Of course it is, but that doesn''t mean I have to let idiots stay in positions of power while we wait. And I''ve already alerted the family to the possibility."
"What did they say in reply?"
"The usual," Kefira shrugged. "They just acknowledged the information and told me to do what I felt was best for now. Without more information, we would be seen as meddlesome. While that''s not too terrible, it might affect our prestige among the other empires."
"Since when have you cared about that, Little Miss Run Away Anytime There''s a Banquet?"
"Hey! I care!" Kefira pouted. "I just don''t care for my personal prestige. I''m still young, and the mystery revolving around me always being absent, among other things, has actually added to my own prestige. You''ve heard the rumors. Don''t think that I haven''t."
A knocking sound came from the door, interrupting their conversation. A smile threatened to split Kefira''s face in two as she leaped to the door to answer it. She threw the door open and mmed into the person on the other side, barely using enough time to verify it was the person she had been waiting for.
"Oof," Reivyn called out, instinctively circling his arm around Kefira''s waist. "Miss me?"
"Of course," Kefira answered, leaning back without letting go to gaze up into his face. "This will be thest time we''ll have any real privacy. Speaking of," Kefira turned to Seri, "go wait in themon room."
Seri raised an eyebrow at themand, and Reivyn took a step back, concern on his face.
"Are you sure that''s a good idea?" Reivyn questioned, Seri nodding along.
"I let you be the gentlemanst time and convince me to let her chaperone us," Kefira said, turning back to Reivyn. "But not this time. We''re going to have some real time alone together." She addressed Seri once again. "I promise it won''t be for long enough for anything untoward to happen, so you can go with a clear conscience."
"Really?" Seri eyed Reivyn up and down as she walked to the door. "By the looks of him, I imagine twenty seconds would be enough."
"Huh?" Reivyn tilted his head with a confused look before realization hit him. "Hey! That''s a bit uncalled for, don''t you think?" Seri justughed, and even Kefira snickered. "Et tu, Fira?" Reivyn said, grasping at his chest.
Et tu? Kefira frowned. There he goes again, with his weird sayings.
"I don''t know... Why are you getting so defensive?" Seri returned to Reivyn.
Seri walked out the door and gave a wink to Kefira before turning to head downstairs. Kefira yanked Reivyn all the way into the room, mming the door shut. She turned back to Reivyn, once more embracing him. Reivyn bent down and nted his lips on hers, encircling her in his arms, and she felt happiness and butterflies explode in her being.
They only spent about ten minutes together truly alone. Fira had been much more aggressive than she had ever been, and they had ended up cuddling together on the bed for a few minutes before Reivyn decided to do the responsible thing.
"We really should call Sera back in here," Reivyn said into Fira''s hair. He heard an unhappy harumphe from her, and she tightened her grip on his arms around her.
"Seri," she said.
"Come again?" Reivyn asked.
"Her name is actually Seri," Fira said. "Sera is her nickname, and that''s the name we use when we''re out and about."
"Oh? Trying to stay incognito?"
"Yeah, and using a nickname we''re used to makes it easier to respond to a pseudonym thaning up with a fake name."
"So if Fira is your nickname, then what''s your real name?"
"Guess."
"Hmm... If it''s simr sounding so that it''s easy to remember, then... Amy?"
"AMY?!" Fira turned around and red at him fiercely. "Try again, knucklehead."
"Hahaha," Reivynughed. "Ok, ok, for real this time. Fira... Fira... Is it Fir?"
"Fir? Nooo... You''ll never guess it. My real name doesn''t have the exact same sound as my nickname. It''s Kefira."
"Kefira. Ok, I can see how Fira would be your nickname. Especially on paper. Your nickname sounds like ''fear-uh,'' and your real name is ''ka-fire-uh,'' but you probably spell them the same, huh?"
"Bingo."
"Well, I''m just Reivyn. No nicknames or anything."
"I suspected as much."
"Ok, I think that''s enough stalling for time," Reivyn gently patted Kefira on the arm. "Let''s call Seri back up here."
"N~o, I don''t wanna," Kefira pouted, squirming deeper into Reivyn''s hold. Reivyn sighed.
"I know. I don''t want to either. But we should. I don''t want to impugn your reputation to your parents."
"You just don''t want my mom to p you," Kefira pinched his arm.
"Guilty," Reivyn chuckled. "But the other reason is valid, too. Your mother wouldn''t want to p me if she didn''t suspect me."
"You don''t know my mother," Kefira whispered under her breath, but she extracted herself from Reivyn''s embrace. She tidied up her clothes and hair; they had gotten a bit tangled up. Reivyn appraised her looks and secretly found the wild look to be quite attractive. Kefira noticed the look. "What?"
"Just admiring your beauty," Reivyn smiled.
Kefira flipped her hair over her shoulder after getting it straight, and then she sashayed to the door.
"Eyes up top," she said. Reivyn''s eyes snapped up to the back of her head in time to catch her eye as she turned her head to smirk at him. Sheughed as she left the room to call her bodyguard back to the room. Reivyn quickly got up off the bed and took a seat at the small side table.
His appearance was impable, and he was seated in a respectful manner by the time Seri stormed through the door to try and catch him not looking like a perfect gentleman. Seri paused at the sight and sniffed at the air before looking at the bed with its obvious wrinkles. Kefira waltzed passed her and took a seat next to Reivyn, not paying any attention to where her bodyguard was looking, but Reivyn could see the tops of her ears had turned a bright red.
"Have a seat, Seri," Kefira nodded across the table. Seri was momentarily surprised, shooting a sharp nce at Reivyn, from the address, but she did as she was told. "I took the liberty to order some lunch while we were down there," Kefira turned to Reivyn, holding her hand out, palm up for him to grasp. He took the opportunity presented to hold her hand. "We can eat in some peace and quiet, and then we can figure out what to do with the rest of ourst day alone together."
"I''m looking forward to it," Reivyn smiled.
Chapter 114: First Contact
Chapter 114: First Contact
"Who''s taking care of the scouting?" Reivyn asked, walking among the other Provisional Lieutenants in hispany.
He Marched alongside the men as long as he didn''t need the mobility of the horse. None of the other officers were mounted, much less the enlisted men, and he didn''t need the horse the vast majority of the time.
The other three officers shared a look with each other, and Jek shrugged his shoulders.
"As far as I''ve seen, none of the otherpanies have sent out any scouts," he answered.
"Not even the Major has ordered scouts out?" Reivyn was surprised. He had thought that no scouts had been sent out, but he wasn''t 100% sure. The other officers had spent time with other toonmanders from otherpanies on asion, so he thought they might have had some additional information. He hadn''t expected the Major to not send any scouts, either, from what he had seen of the man so far.
"Alright," Reivyn shook his head. "I guess we''ll have to take care of it ourselves. Compile a list of people with the appropriate sses and/or Skills. We need people with Tracking, Observation, and Movement Skills. We''ll pick five people from each toon and form a special twenty-man squad to perform the scouting duties." The other toonmanders nodded their heads and headed back to their toons to make the arrangements.
There was no cavalry in the battalion that could take on the mission, either. They had learned about tactics involving cavalry, and they had even practiced it, but all of the cavalries had been kept with the Colonel in the city.
Reivyn hadn''t realized that all of the cavalries had been ordered to remain behind until the second day after they had been on the move for over an hour. He had thought that he just hadn''t seen them, yet, and that they were out and about doing the job of scouts. He had kept an eye out for any returning to make reports. It was possible they would have been equipped with amunication magic device, but there still would have been some physical movement.
After an hour of not seeing anything, and having seen nothing from the first day, he had conferred with the other lieutenants.
How are we even going to find them at this rate? Reivyn thought. Are we just hoping to follow their tracks from Kirlon? Those tracks will have been scattered by the wind at this point. Even if they''re still there, that will only tell us what happened a long time ago. There''s been plenty of time for them to spread out and set up ambushes.
Reivyn took a deep breath as he tried to keep calm. He had had higher expectations from the Major, but aside from being no-nonsense in his personality, he wasn''t living up to the image he portrayed.
The battalion of volunteers Marched for three weeks into the desert, chasing the tail of the aggressing army. The logistics were handled like couriers, orchestrated by a familiar face. First Lieutenant Kaerl, the man who had initially sent Reivyn to the officer candidate program, was the man in charge of supply. It was the one time, other than some of the senior officers and his ownpanymander, that Reivyn witnessed mounted soldiers.
They would travel in squads of ten, and they would ferry food, water, and other necessities in dozens of spatial storage bags at a time. First Lieutenant Kaerl wasn''t embedded with the battalion, but he moved in and out in to supervise both ends of the spectrum. He was one of the most diligent officers Reivyn had seen in Oreck so far.
Word of Reivyn''spany sending out scouts had spread through the battalion, and the Major had eventually passed down the order for the otherpanies to follow suit. The otherpanymanders weren''t resistant to sending out scouts of their own until ordered to, but Reivyn had learned that Captain Sanjin had been boasting about how much more responsible he was than the other captains, and he had said he could handle the operation all on his own.
The Major had eventually recanted his decision to let the younger captain take all the credit when it became apparent the small 20-man squad of scouts wouldn''t be able to keep up with the task on their own. Reivyn had hoped that setting the example would result in morepanies following suit, but it had taken several days longer than he had hoped. His scouts were almost to the point of exhaustion from all the additional running about in the desert they had been required to do.
Reivyn had made arrangements for them to rest with the medical corps, which had wagons for transporting wounded when the other scouts were finally sent out.
It had taken just over a week to reach Kirlon, as traveling as a battalion was much slower than as a small Party. Nothing had changed in the surroundings of the city, but the tracks had be much less pronounced. There wasn''t any water erosion, but the wind, like Reivyn had spected, had blown over all but the deepest ruts.
The tracks led off to the northeast of Kirlon, moving tangentially to the deste sands that were to the northwest. The deste sands weren''t a square block. It didn''t have a definite shape, and it extended out and retracted inward in unpredictable ways. Traveling northeast from Kirlon, if nothing changed, meant they would reach one of the furthest extensions of the deste sands. Though, they would remain outside of it.
The tracks became more clear over the following two weeks of Marching. The tracks maintained a straight path to the northeast, and it only veered to avoid obstacles in the path. If the hills were small enough, they would just move over them, but if there were cliffs, teaus, or small rivers, the tracks would deviate long enough to pass around.
The Major got more serious about sending out and conferring with scouts once they finally started following in the footsteps of the enemy army. Reivyn assumed he had always nned on setting up the scouts, but he was just beingcent and wasn''t going to send them out right away. Reivyn taking matters into his own hands had forced him to make the decision early.
The tracks of the enemy army were getting clearer and clearer each day, and it was getting apparent that they were closing in on the muchrger force. The enemy army wasn''t just arger military unit, but they were also apparently hauling around arge civilian poption with them. It made perfect sense that they would move considerably slower than the volunteer battalion. The battalion only moved slightly slower than Reivyn had in his Party with Kefira and the others, but the enemy was apparently moving at a snail''s pace.
Reivyn surveyed the terrain on the map as thepany dug in to build their camp. Engagement was imminent, and the Major had ordered them to set up their base camp. A toon from the firstpany would be responsible for defending the base camp as the rest of the battalion set out in the morning for the expected confrontation.
Shortly before the Major had held an all-hands briefing with the officers toy out the n of attack, and Reivyn couldn''t really find any major faults. It was simple enough: The vast majority of the battalion would assault a corner of the enemy once they were found, after a bombardment from the entirety of the Mage Corps, and there were two toons in the fourthpany that had been especially manned with the fastest sses. They would sneak around and corral the civilians to lead them away. The rest of the battalion would then need to cover their escape, and hopefully, they would be able to disengage.
The overall strategy was fine, as they would have to do something simr no matter what Reivyn could contribute. The only way to change anything would be if they were strong enough to actually soundly defeat the enemy without them being able to resort to ughtering the civilians. It wouldn''t be feasible to sneak into the enemy camp to mount the rescue, as there were far too many people to move.
Reivyn just wished they had been allowed to bring their cavalry unit along with them. Even with the Mage Corps, having a military unit consisting entirely of infantry was a serious disadvantage.
Reivyn poured over the map, running his hands along the topographical lines. He felt a synergy of his Skills, mainly consisting of his Mana Skills, trying to tug at his awareness, but he was stumped as to what it could be. He continued to search the map to try and figure out what it was, but he only had the vague feeling that there was something there. His frown continued to deepen the longer he studied the map.
"What''s with the frown?'' Jek asked, entering Reivyn''s tent.
"There''s something more going on here, I can feel it, but I just don''t know enough to put the pieces together," Reivyn exined, leaning back in his chair. "Is the encampmenting along?"
"Yep," Jek nodded. "They''re pretty much squared away by now. Why in such a rush to get the camp built? We didn''t need to push so hard, I don''t think. We have hours of daylight left, and we still haven''t actually made contact with the enemy."
"Have you seen any of the otherpanies preparing to send out patrols?" Reivyn asked back.
"Not that I''ve seen," Jek shook his head. "The Major apparently wants everyone to be fresh for moving out tomorrow."
"Everyone..." Reivyn tapped the map on his desk as he considered. "Ok, well, this is the same concept as with the scouts. I don''t understand why he''s not sending any patrols out, but it''s a necessity. If nobody else is going to do it, then we need to do it.
"My orders from Captain Sanjin, and I quote, are ''Take charge of thepany, follow the Major''s orders, and don''t do anything unnecessary.''
"The orders from the Major were to just build the base camp and be prepared to move out in the morning, and, in my opinion, sending out a patrol is absolutely necessary.
"I''ll be taking my toon out on patrol this evening. I''ll need you to stand in for me as the XO for a couple of hours. Everything''s already been seen to, so the only thing that could happen is an unexpected visit from the captain, but that''s unlikely. He hasn''t shown his face in front of the troops since the final exercise almost a month ago."
"Sure thing. I''ll even have my toon get some rest earlier so they can handle the duties of fire watch that your men would have taken."
"Thanks."
Jek left soon after, not wanting to waste Reivyn''s time as he had indicated he would need to get some rest for the evening expedition. Reivyn had Jekle and Paul order the toon to eat dinner and get some sleep early, not hiding the fact that they would be Marching out in the evening. He made sure to convey the orders for all of the men to tie all of their loose equipment down so it wouldn''t bounce around and make noise. Sound carried surprisingly far in the clear night air.
"Our mission is simple," Reivyn whispered to the men huddled around to listen in the darkness of night. "We''re scouting in force. Because we''re scouting in force, we''re able to go beyond what the squad of scouts has been safely able to. We''ll spend a couple of hours hiking out, do arge loop, and then return to get a couple more hours of rest before we''re needed with the battalion.
"I understand that this will be a bit taxing on all of us, but if I didn''t think it was necessary, I wouldn''t be doing it.
"Once we step out, there is to be absolutely no idle conversation. If you need to convey a message, use hand signals. If you can''t get the message across that way, then you may whisper no louder than I am now. Sound will carry way further than you think, and we don''t know what the Perception Stats of those guarding against us will be.
"There will be no cadence of any kind, so all of you will have to utilize your Marching Skill to the best of your abilities. It''s not strictly necessary to maintain a perfect formation with perfect step, but it will help with keeping you from walking all over each other.
"Senior Sergeant Paul, form up the toon and get them moving."
The toon automatically moved back to their position at the order from Reivyn, and Paul had them moving out in short order. Reivyn didn''t have Jekle leading the men like before and simply had Paul do so. Jekle kept pace by Reivyn''s side. There was no reason for Paul to be in the position of issuing Marching orders, so he acted as the Guide to the toon.
The first couple of hours Marching in the dark had been pretty boring. It had taken a little while for everyone to get their eyes adjusted to the dark, but once they did, visibility wasn''t too bad. The moon wasn''t full or anything, but the ambient light from it and the stars were enough to easily see by. Most things in the distance were still shadows, but they weren''t obscure or hard to see.
Reivyn had the toon march east before turning north to make arge loop across the northern front in the area between the battalion and where the tracks led. The toon was kept in the gulleys and valleys between the hills, and if they couldn''t easily go around, Reivyn made sure nobody was ever on top of a ridge. Skylining in this scenario would make them visible for miles and miles.
Even though they were acting as a scouting unit themselves, Reivyn still had several of the soldiers acting as scouts for them, as well. They had the unenviable task of traveling across all of the hills and slopes to keep an eye on their surroundings, and the toon was basically acting as a ship for them tounch from for the real task of observation.
Shortly before it was time for the toon to change their trajectory north, one of the scouts came scrambling down from a nearby hill, sprinting toward Reivyn. Reivyn gave a meaningful nce to Jekle, and he took off to have Paul stop the toon.
"Sir," the scout ran up, panting. "There''s a small force just on the other side of the hill over there. They''re heading in a direction that they''ll intersect with us, and they have about thirty people. I scanned further ahead, but I didn''t see any other forces anywhere, and none of the other scouts have reported anything, either."
"Very good," Reivyn nodded. "ss and weapon make-up? What kind of force are we dealing with?"
"I couldn''t really make it out, sir. I didn''t see any spears or shields, and I could only see some crude one-handed weapons. It didn''t look like everyone even had a weapon."
"Ok. Get back to the toon." The man saluted before rushing to take up his position in his squad again.
Reivyn ran over to join up with Jekle and Paul as they hurried over to him from the front of the toon.
"Get the men up on top of the hill," Reivyn ordered. "Not the very top," he quickly rified, "and have them circle around so we can charge down on the approaching force. Have them be ready tounch a javelin volley on my signal."
"Yes, Sir!" The two men whispered fiercely.
Reivyn took up his position to the side of the toon. He wouldn''t be a part of the formationbat. His job was to direct the men and make sure there were no unexpected threats that they couldn''t handle. He wasn''t to the level where he was so far above them as Knight-Captain Reifold had been to his men, but he was still the most Skilledbatant in the toon and the only one who could use magic.
The toon quickly and silently made their way into position, crouching down to further obscure their visibility as they got into position. Reivyn was able to instantly spot the force of thirty men moving along the other side of the hill.
They weren''t rowdy and talking andughing or anything, but they were definitely disorganized. They didn''t have properly dressed lines, and they weren''t even trying to keep in step. They were just a jumble of thirty men, and their equipment was even worse off than he had expected from the report from the scout.
None of the enemy force, and Reivyn was 100% sure they were part of the enemy force, had any armor of any kind. They didn''t even have helmets, the one piece of armor that was absolutely mandatory for an infantry force. If people weren''t provided gear by their unit and had to supply their own, the one piece of gear they would absolutely show up with was a helmet. A blow to the head was far more lethal than a stab to the gut. One would kill right away, and the other could usually live long enough to seek out medical attention.
None of that was found here. Most of the men were alsopletely unarmed, like the scout had said, and they wore simple trousers without even a shirt. Reivyn could only see ten people with a weapon, and not all of them were appropriate forbat. Most of them simply had long knives, and the ones that did have swords were clearly low quality, even from Reivyn''s distant vantage.
The hostile force meandered forward,ing abreast of the toon''s nk. Reivyn stepped forward slightly so he was visible, and slowly raised his hand into the air. As soon as the enemy was in a position for maximum engagement from Reivyn''s toon, he chopped his hand down fiercely.
The smaller spears used as javelins sailed through the air without making any noise, and they crashed into the jumble of men below. Shouts of surprise, anger, and pain filled the air as Reivyn stood up fully, drawing his sword and leveling it down at the enemy troops.
"Charge!" Reivyn Commanded.
The toon charged down in an orderly fashion, only twenty yards away from the hostile force. The javelin ambush had been extremely sessful, and most of them had found a mark. Only about four of the enemy had died from the initial barrage, though, and most of them simply had spears impaled in their bodies.
Reivyn watched with wide eyes as several of the enemy troops simply helped each other yank the spears out before wielding them themselves to ward off the attack. The injuries they suffered didn''t seem to slow them down at all, and those that didn''t manage to get a spear and were still unarmed simply threw themselves at the attacking toon.
The unarmed men practically let themselves get impaled by the pikes, but that didn''t kill them. They twisted their bodies about so that the blows weren''t immediately fatal, and they held the pikes down with their body weight so theirpatriots could close the distance and engage. The unarmed that made it further leaped onto the shoulders of the first squad.
The enemy that had weapons then used this opportunity tounch vicious attacks at the soldiers that had their fighting ability impaired by the maneuver.
"First Squad! Abandon Pikes. Draw Swords!" Reivyn Commanded.
The troops were well coordinated to obey Reivyn''smands, even without him using his Skill, and they immediately abandoned their long weapons to draw swords and shields to defend against the crazed assault.
"First Squad! Shield Wall! Second Squad! Kneel and Repel! Third Squad! Hack and sh! Fourth and Fifth Squads, peel off to envelope!"
The first two squads had pikes for stopping power with swords and shields to make a shield wall if needed. Reivyn hade up with the simple "Hack and sh" Command for the third and fourth halberdier squads to let them know to use their axe edges. He had seen no reason to keep the second squad on their feet when they were using their pikes for stopping power when they had the shield wall in front of them, so he had them kneel down so as to allow for better reach and ess for the halberdiers behind them.
The fourth and fifth squads weren''t contributing where they were, and they would normally be used as a reserve to switch out with their squad-mates in front of them. This wasn''t the kind of battle that was going to be fought over a long period of time, wearing down each other''s stamina, though. The enemy was attacking with fervor,pletely ignoring wounds and fatal damage.
It''s like their basic strategy is to just throw bodies at the enemy in a manner to win as swiftly and brutally as possible, Reivyn noted. If they seed, they''ll be able to treat their wounds after and will most likely survive. If they can capture the momentum and demoralize their enemies with the tactic, as well, they''ll be more likely to seed.
In such a scenario, speed is crucial. We can''t let them have the initiative, and we can''t back down an inch.
His toon recovered from their shock at the ferocity of the response, and the wounds on the enemy umted enough that they started to die. Even with the tide not turning in their favor, though, the enemy force never even tried to change their tactics.
Reivyn''s toon had managed to maintain theirposure, and they flung the enemy troops off that had been trying to tie them down for the others that were armed. The enemy kepting, and the toon kept them in check. The fourth and fifth squads circled around on either side, and Reivyn thought they were finally going to surrender when it becamepletely hopeless for them to win the fight or even get away.
That wasn''t the case, though, and Reivyn watched with a grim expression as the enemy practically forced Reivyn''s toon to massacre them to thest man. Thest man standing didn''t even pay attention to the death and destruction around him. He just kept continuing to try and kill the person in front of him until he himself was killed.
Silence descended over the desert night once more, and Reivyn surveyed the carnage. He only looked for a moment, verifying that none of his men were one of the ones dead on the ground.
"Do a head count," Reivyn instructed. "Make sure everyone is ounted for. Then assess the severity of any casualties. If simple bandages won''t be enough, bring them to me and I''ll cauterize the wound."
The toon carried out his orders, and, thankfully, nobody was injured enough to require anything drastic like cauterizing the wounds. Most of the injuries from the initial frenzied response had been negated by the superior armor and equipment of the toon members. Nicks and cuts had been suffered, but nobody even got close to losing half of their Health, much less getting seriously injured.
If they had been the ones to ambush, and not the other way around, it would have been a different story, Reivyn thought with a serious expression.
The fight had onlysted a couple of minutes. It would havested longer, but the enemy was intentionally letting themselves get hurt to try and win psychologically before they won physically. It hadn''t worked against Reivyn''s toon, and the fight ended shortly after.
Another scout came running up to Reivyn as the toon formed back up, ready to March off again.
"Sir, you need to see this," the scout said, catching his breath. He jerked his head to the hill on the other side of where they had just had their engagement.
"Get the men moving along the northern route we had nned," Reivyn ordered Jekle before following the scout across the valley and up the hill.
Once he got close to the ridgeline, Reivyn and the scout got down on their bellies to crawl forward. They made their way across, and Reivyn immediately spotted the unusuality that had caught the scout''s attention. He focused his gaze into the distance and infused his eyes with Light Mana to enhance his vision.
Off in the distance, snaking through more hills littering the countryside, was a long line of people. Thousands upon thousands of people. Tens of thousands. Reivyn couldn''t make everything out from this distance, but there was clearly one group being ushered by another. Even from this distance, though, Reivyn could make out the traces of their passing behind them.
Reivyn frowned as he witnessed the scene. They were headed in the same direction the battalion from Oreck was, just from a different trajectory. Something was nagging at Reivyn, and he finally realized what it was.
There are no tracks in the ground in front of or around them. That isn''t a group that went off somewhere and came back.
That''s an entirely different enemy force.
Chapter 115: Unexpected Result
Chapter 115: Unexpected Result
"Scrap the n of continuing the patrol," Reivyn instructed Jekle and Paul. "Turn the men around and head directly back to the base camp."
"Yes, sir!" Paul saluted and quietly turned the toon around to backtrack.
"Sir, there''s something you should see," Jekle said, walking next to Reivyn.
Reivyn looked up at the man, and he indicated toward the bodies of the defeated enemy soldiers. The toon had quickly dug a grave to put the dead bodies in, but two of the corpses hadn''t been put in. Reivyn frowned as they walked over.
The two bodies had beenid next to each other, rictus scowls frozen on their faces. They were distinctly different in their dress and gear. They were both dressed in only trousers and no shirt, but one had been unarmed while the other had been equipped with a nicked, rusty sword. The unarmed man had crisscrossing scars all over his body, and while the armed man had some as well, they were to a much lesser extent. Most of the scars had obviouslye from a whip.
The other difference was theplexion. The unarmed man had a much more tanned tone to his skin, and his hair and beard were both unkempt and wild. The armed man had slightly paler skin, and his hair and beard were neatly trimmed, though not styled or especially taken care of.
Reivyn noticed something on their foreheads that drew his attention, and he reached down to move the bangs of the unarmed man. He had a brand burned into his forehead. A single, vertical stroke. He moved his hand over and adjusted the bangs of the armed man, and he had a clear numerical "2" branded onto his forehead.
So that vertical stroke is a "1," Reivyn thought. Where have I heard of something simr?
Reivyn tapped his chin in thought. A passing rumor that one of his friends had mentioned in the Magic Academy crossed his mind.
Is the practice of branding moremon than I thought, or are they connected? And if they''re connected across more than ten million miles... Reivyn could only imagine the implications if that was the case.
"Have some men jerry-rig a couple of stretchers," Reivyn said. "We''ll take the bodies back to the camp with us."
"Yes, Sir!" Jekle rushed off to see to it.
It only took a moment to make the stretchers. They had the supplies necessary for their construction in the toon storage satchel in case of having to transport wounded soldiers. The bodies were loaded up, and the toon stepped off, back the way they hade, with a much quicker pace than they previously had. Reivyn set the pace. He wanted to get back to inform the battalionmand of the discovery.
If there''s one group of reinforcements of equivalent size to the first army, then there could be more, Reivyn''s face was grim. We could be Marching into an army of hundreds of thousands. We''re not equipped to take on the first army in an actual collision, much less this.
Sten, Cinna, and Dowell aren''t going to take this news very well. They''re not in mypany, but I''ve seen them around. They''ve been in high spirits as we''ve gotten closer to the goal, but there''s no way we can aplish the mission now. Not without help from Kefira''s empire.
The hike back to the base camp went slowly and quickly in equal measure. It went slowly in that Reivyn was incredibly impatient to get back, and it went quickly in that they actually made really good time. Reivyn had considered sending one of the faster scouts ahead to make the report, but he rejected that notion.
It would only arrive twenty to thirty minutes ahead of time in the middle of the night, and Reivyn had a feeling that he would need to present the evidence to corroborate the story for it to be taken seriously. Themand structure had proven to be less reliable than Reivyn had hoped for, but the bodies themselves should help pierce any doubts.
That didn''t mean he didn''t send anyone ahead. He crafted a note and had it delivered to Kefira in the Mage Corps camp. Her receiving the information was far more important in the grand scheme of things.
The soldiers of hispany that had stayed behind that were manning the current fire watch were a bit surprised at the return of the toon so much earlier than anticipated, but their faces turned grim as they spotted the bodies being carried along. Reivyn dismissed the toon to get rest, and he had Jekle and Paul each take charge of dragging one of the bodies as he headed to the battalionmand tent.
Reivyn made a beeline to the battalion staff, veering slightly to head to Captain Sanjin''s tent. There was a time and ce to go over someone''s head to a higher authority, and while this might seem like one of those times, it wasn''t. It was a trap to get into the mindset that monumental news had to be shared directly with the highest authority without going through the chain ofmand because it appeared to be an emergency.
That''s a good way to get a superior officer to resent you, Reivyn mused. Sure, if you want to deal with amander scheming against you, go for it. The trick here is to deliver the news in such a way that the captain can''t ignore it or prevent it from being passed on.
Reivyn shared a look with his subordinates and nodded his head for them to drag the corpses to the most conspicuous position possible while he rushed to his captain''s tent. Standing outside the tent, Reivyn raised his voice as loud as he could.
"Captain Sanjin, Provisional Lieutenant Reivyn reporting, as ordered, sir!" He infused a bit of his Commanding Shout into his voice.
A curse came from within the tent, followed by the sounds of someone rummaging about to get dressed quickly. Captain Sanjin came storming out of his tent, fury written on his face at being woken up in such a manner. He stalked up to Reivyn who was standing at attention.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?!" Sanjin fiercely whispered. Even though he was incredibly angry, he wasn''t foolish enough to raise his voice as Reivyn had done and wake everyone in the battalion staff up, much less the Major himself. It was a foregone conclusion that they already had been, but Sanjin wanted nothing to do with that responsibility, despite Reivyn''s wording.
"Yes, sir!" Reivyn replied, standing straight, eyes front. "After following yourmand to do ''everything necessary,'' the patrol mission you ordered made a grave discovery that cannot wait."
Several senior staff sergeants and the Major''s aide had already exited their tents, and before they could make their way over to themotion Reivyn was causing, the two corpses that had been dragged into their midst caught their eye. They walked over to inspect the bodies for a moment before the aide rushed off to the Major''s tent.
"The patrol mission I ordered?" Sanjin asked, confused. "I told you not to do anything unnecessary," Sanjin hissed between his teeth.
"Yes, sir, and I interpreted that order as to do everything necessary."
Sanjin stared at him for a moment, mouth a thin line on his face, before turning his attention to where the senior staff sergeants were conversing with Jekle. The aide was already rushing back alongside the Major.
"Don''t drag me through the mud," Sanjin red at Reivyn. He motioned for Reivyn to follow him, and they walked over to the two bodies to wait for the Major to arrive.
The aide had apparently already described the scene to the Major, and he simply walked up and looked down at the bodies. He looked up, ncing at each man present before settling on Captain Sanjin.
"You''re the one who ordered the patrol to be sent out?" Major Dobrik asked Captain Sanjin.
"Err... Yes, sir," Captain Sanjin stood at attention, sweat beading his brow. "Provisional Lieutenant Reivyn, here, was themander in charge."
"Excellent initiative, Captain," Major Dobrik nodded his head with a smile. Sanjin stood stunned for a moment before a beaming smile split his face. "Lieutenant Reivyn, report!"
"Yes, sir!" Reivyn responded.
Reivyn remained at attention as he delivered the report of the excursion. He colored it in such a way that he had been ordered to do so by hismanding officer from the very beginning, and Reivyn''s interpretation of his orders made perfect sense to him.
Getting credit foring up with the n as well as executing it wasn''t important to him. Getting the information passed along, as well as maintaining a harmonious rtionship with his ownmander was the goal. If Captain Sanjin looked good because of it, despite his attempts to stop Reivyn from doing exactly what he had done, didn''t matter.
"It is my opinion that the rescue mission cannot bepleted as we are, now," Reivyn concluded.
"Nonsense!" Major Dobrik rebuked. "You said therger enemy force you witnessed was several hours away, still, and you only spected that they were reinforcements. Do you have any hard proof to indicate they''re not the enemy force we''re after themselves?"
"No, proof, sir, but the evidence..."
"I''m not interested," Major Dobrik interrupted him. "We''ll just need tounch our assault earlier. If they''re the force we''re looking for, then we''ll take their camp for ourselves and ambush them as they return if the civilians weren''t left in the camp under a smaller guard. If they''re a reinforcing army, as you suspect, then we need to hit the enemy now while they''re still away.
"Even if they get here while we''re in the midst of battle, they''ve been traveling through the night. They won''t be in any shape to put up any meaningful resistance."
"But, sir..."
"Captain Sanjin," Major Dobrik ignored Reivyn''s protests. "You''ve shown excellent initiative the entire operation. You''ll remain with me, coordinating directly with my Aide. Have your XO take charge of thepany for you until further notice."
"Yes, sir!" Sanjin saluted. He motioned with his eyes, dismissing Reivyn.
Reivyn stood there in stunned silence for a moment, not believing the turn of events. He finally took a deep, calming breath, and he motioned for his two subordinates to leave the corpses behind and follow him back to thepany. He only took a few steps before he noticed Kefira, followed by Seri, rushing forward. Hope surged in his chest as he paused to see what she would do about the situation.
"Major Dobrik!" Kefira stormed forward, no longer wearing the uniform of a Mage Corps officer. She had an emblem pinned to her chest, distracting Reivyn for an embarrassing amount of time considering the circumstances. Major Dobrik''s eyes noticed the emblem right away, and his eyes almost bugged out of his head.
"Yes, ma''am!" Dobrik replied, his body automatically assuming the position of attention. The rest of the staff in the area were dumbfounded by the change, and they instinctively came to attention, too.
"New information has been obtained that changes the circumstances. I am no longer able to function as one of your subordinates in light of the revtion. If I''m understanding the situation correctly, you''re prepared to order the battalion to attack ahead of time? Despite the information you''ve just seen?"
"Yes, ma''am. The reports are unverified, and it is my professional opinion that an assault now is the most appropriate response."
"I disagree. In light of the circumstances, it is my duty to assumemand of this operation, and I order you to retreat until we can receive reinforcements of our own. I have already passed the news up to the higher authority."
"I''m afraid that won''t be possible, ma''am," Major Dobrik replied, amiserating look on his face. "While I appreciate your willingness to extend help, only an imperial order could supersede the proper protocols. A mere viscount can''t usurp my authority, and you''ll have to confer with Lord Yaolo, and possibly his superior, as well, in order to change themand structure.
"I would be immensely appreciative of your continued help, though, and you''re wee to maintain your position of authority over your Mages until such a time. If you''ll excuse me, I have an assault to oversee."
Major Dobrik politely, but firmly, made his stance known and departed with his staff. Kefira stood there, fuming for a moment, Seri shaking her head behind her. Reivyn walked up to her after the others had left.
"I knew that only bringing the identity of a Viscount would bite us in the ass," Seri muttered.
"We had perfectly good reasons for doing so at the time," Kefira argued.
"I''m sorry, viscount?" Reivyn asked, walking up to Kefira. She stopped stewing for a moment to nce up at him, a small smile crossing her face at his presence.
"Yes," Kefira confirmed. "There are dangers with disying my identity, and I''ve told you I don''t have imperial authority to just willy-nilly do as I please. I''m not in an official position, yet, like my older siblings. As such, when Seri and I go out for Life Experience in lower Regions, we only bring an identity token of a viscount. It''s usually enough to stave off any problems that might arrive, and it''s not high profile enough for anyone with nefarious ideas to take risks against us. The downsides to failing outweigh the potential rewards if they think I''m just the daughter of a lowernded noble."
"I see," Reivyn said. "That does put us in a small predicament, though. I''m stillmissioned through a contract with the local lord, and I''m not going to desert or disobey orders. That would be a betrayal of my troops, too, so I have to stick around."
"Yes, hmm..." Kefira tapped her foot in thought. "I''ll participate as well, hoping to stave off as much damage as this idiot is probably going to cause. One of my brothers was dispatched through the teleportation array with his staff as soon as I passed the message along, but it will still be some time before his own troops will be able to follow him. He''ll just be able to assumemand of the kingdom''s forces, which are still far away from here."
"Better than nothing. I don''t n on getting killed, here. We''ll have to work together to minimize the casualties moving forward."
"Yes, and along those lines, follow me back to my tent," Kefira peered up at him through hershes. "I have something for you."
"Alright," Reivyn nodded. He ordered Paul to return to the toon to cancel their rest and get ready for action, but he motioned for Jekle to follow him. He gave out instructions to his prot¨¦g¨¦ as they walked.
"Go to my tent and get the map out," Reivyn instructed. "Study it and devise some appropriate escape routes. We don''t know what''s going to happen after we engage the enemy, so we''ll need to n for multiple contingencies."
"Yes, sir!" Jekle saluted before rushing back to their toon.
Reivyn walked alongside Kefira, Seri walking alongside her, a half-step behind. None of them spoke as the activity in the base camp began to pick up as people woke up and prepared to depart before it was even light out. They quickly made their way to Kefira''s tent, and she motioned for Reivyn to follow her right in.
Kefira rummaged through her belongings by her field desk, and she came up with a rolled-up scroll. She walked over to Reivyn and handed it to him. It had a neat, blue bow holding it closed in ce of a seal.
"Open it up and sign it," Kefira said.
Reivyn took it from her, a skeptical look on his face.
"What is it?" He asked, undoing the bow and unfurling the scroll.
"Standard request for Academic Transfer," Kefira responded. "I had my sister inquire about the specifics, and then I copied the contract using the appropriate Mana infusions she described to me. She also officially made the request in your name, so this contract is perfectly valid on all fronts.
"Once you sign it, you''ll officially be transferred from your position as a student in a Tier 1 Academy to a student in our Tier 4 Academy."
"Ok~ay," Reivyn said, cing the scroll on the desk, preparing to sign it. "Why now, all of a sudden?" He signed the scroll.
"Excellent!" Kefira snatched the scroll up as a notification popped up in Reivyn''s vision.
Notice of Academic Transfer!
Novice Reivyn has sessfully transferred from Garoq Magic Academy to Wispan Magic Academy
Novice Reivyn has graduated to Apprentice Grade
Garoq? Reivyn idly noticed. Is that the name of the Tier 1 Region I''m from?
"I was going to wait until after the rescue mission, once you had achieved some merits to make it more ptable to others, but I think your achievements of defeating the enemy patrol and discovering multiple valuable pieces of intelligence are enough.
"Apprentice Magic Student Reivyn, kneel." Kefira''s voice took on an odd timbre, and Reivyn could sense her using a particr Mana Affinity that he was unfamiliar with in aplicated braid.
Reivyn went to one knee, but he kept his head held high as he stared at Kefira. She beamed at him with a gentle smile. She pulled out another scroll from her spatial storage and opened it. She held it aloft, but she didn''t read from it.
"In ordance with my lineage as a Princess of Wispan, I hereby appoint you as my Imperial Liaison. Your responsibilities shall be to coordinate the Imperial desires of Princess Kefira to the nobility and military of her vassals until such time as you are dismissed from her service by voluntary resignation or promotion.
"Do you ept the Appointment?"
"Don''t worry about the details," Seri whispered next to him. "Just say yes."
Reivyn followed the advice and didn''t hesitate.
"I ept the Appointment."
The Mana braid being carefully maintained by Kefira burst forth and dug into Reivyn''s being. It wasn''t ufortable, and he felt a connection between them form that was as solid as a rock. He instinctively felt he would be capable of removing the link if he wished at any time, though.
You have epted an Imperial Appointment!
Select a ss. You have 30 minutes to choose before Imperial Liaison: Fortune Teller is permanently set.
Tier 3 sses Avable Umon*:
Expert Hunter
Expert Laborer
Expert Mason
Expert Miner
Expert Story Teller
Expert Woodsman
Imperial Liaison: Fortune Teller Rare*:
Cataphract
Expert Hunter *Wood
Expert Laborer *Earth
Expert Mason *Earth
Expert Miner *Earth
Expert Miner *Metal
Expert Woodsman *Wood
Marksman
Statesman
Recon
Soldier
Soldier of Fortune
Imperial Liaison: Wizard Epic*:
Imperial Liaison: Arcanist
Assassin
Chevalier
Imperial Liaison: Elemental Swordsman*
Imperial Liaison: Mystic
Shade
Sharpshooter
Imperial Liaison: Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water
Veteran Legendary*:
Imperial Liaison: Arcane Elementalist
Champion
Death Knight
Juggernaut
Imperial Liaison: Sorcerer *Dark/Light
Warlord Mythic*:
Edge of Duality
Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist
Justicar
Master Pseudo-Divine*:
Incarnation of Darkness
Incarnation of Light
Lost Soul
Soul of Duality
Reivyn reeled back from the sudden notification window taking up his entire vision.
"Wha-?" Reivyn took a moment topose himself. He noticed out of the corner of his vision, beyond the notification window, Kefira stared at him with a huge grin on her face.
Reivyn turned his attention back to the notification window.
Pseudo-Divine sses! He was once more astounded. Too bad none of them are avable for selection. They''re either ipatible with being appointed from a Magic Academy, or I don''t fully meet the requirements. It''s kind of a cruel joke for the System to show me what could have been possible.
The Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist is the obvious choice, and I''ve already perused most of the other sses avable for choosing. I seem to recall that I spected Fortune Teller, despite its powerful implications, was set to Common, which would have precluded anyone who took it from advancing to Tier 4.
Wait... Could the Masked Man have had the same opportunity as me? If he can manipte fate, and Fortune Teller mentioned it had limited ability to alter chance and minuscule threads of fate, then did he force a Tier 3 Fortune Teller ss as a Tier 2, opening that branch of pursuit? But isn''t he from the Abyss? Do they have the same sses? Reivyn shook his head. Now''s not the time to think about it.
There weren''t many additions that Reivyn could choose, as he was forced to take a Caster ss for his Appointment. Those other sses will still be avable when I really move to Tier 3 in the future, so I can take my time to read through them, then. I know I have thirty minutes to choose this time, and not just a minute, but there''s no reason to waste time.
Reivyn focused his attention and selected his ss.
Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist The very fabric of reality bends to your will.
The Grand Arcanist is the peak of Magical veracity. They have an understanding of Magic far beyond their Tier. Things that are impossible for others are a mere moment of concentration away from them. All levels of Spells, of all Elements, are avable for them to use. Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Tier 2 (3) Mythic (Legendary)
Advancement: 9 Unassigned Stats/Lvl (Tier 3, Pseudo-Mythic)
STR: +2 INT: +9
VIT: +7 MAG: +14
DEX: +2 CLA: +7
CHA: +1 PER: +7
LUK: +1/2
ss Skills:
Magic Spells (40): Level 1 2MP, Level 2 10MP, Level 3 20MP, Level 4 50MP, Level 5 100MP, Level 6 500MP, Level 7 1,000MP
Deconstruct (55): Pick apart Spells to their base Elements. Bonus to understanding Weaves, Knots, and Patterns. Bonus to Mana Maniption +75%
Will of the Realm (12): Your Will is True
Avable: Enforce, Impart, Mana Well, True Mana
"WHAT?!" A scream from Kefira brought Reivyn out of his musings. "My.." Kefira cut herself off with a cough,posing herself. She continued in a whisper, "Mythic?! When you told me you were aiming to force a Tier 3 transition, you weren''t aiming low, were you?"
"Wait, you can see that?" Reivyn raised an eyebrow. Seri was staring at him with an open mouth from Kefira''s outburst. She had moderated her voice so she didn''t shout it out to the entire base camp, but Seri was standing right there.
"Of course!" Kefira said, striking a pose with her hands on her hips, chin lifted. "You''re my Liaison. The System grants me information on you as if you were my subordinate."
"Subordinate?"
"Hey! Our rtionship isn''t going to change just because of a System technicality," Kefira frowned. "As Seri told you, don''t worry about the details. I used my one opportunity to secure a powerful ally in the future in order to help you out. I don''t regret it for a second, and I have zero misgivings. It''s only a System technicality. You''re not my subordinate."
Reivyn got up from his kneeling position and walked up to Kefira, wrapping her up in his arms and nting a kiss on her lips. He pulled back and smiled at her.
"Even if I was temporarily your subordinate, I wouldn''t have minded," Reivyn rified. "I would have just felt a bit conflicted about this," he waved his palm up and down, indicating the two of them embracing. "I think I''ve made my stance on the matter pretty clear, though."
"Mmm, perfectly clear," Kefira tilted her head back, inviting Reivyn once more. Seri coughed to the side.
"We don''t really have time for this right now," she pointed out.
"Of course," Reivyn stepped back, squeezing Kefira''s hand as they separated. "I need to take charge of thepany. Captain Sanjin was pulled away from hismand. I don''t know if that''s a nod to me, or if the Major is really rewarding the captain, though. It doesn''t really matter. I''ll be able to take better care of thepany without his interference."
"Yes, go, go," Kefira said, though her face showed her reluctance. "I''ll manage my Mages, and I''ll urge my brother to get here faster."
Reivyn nodded his head as he exited the tent.
Finally breaking through the Tier 3 Transition is going to be a game changer, Reivyn thought excitedly. I''ll check my full Status after I make sure thepany is in order. I can already feel the changes, but that''s not the priority right now.
Reivyn felt just a little better about the situation.
Chapter 116: Price of Arrogance
Chapter 116: Price of Arrogance
"The enemy troops use human wave tactics, as far as I can determine," Reivyn addressed the other lieutenants of hispany. "The lower ss soldiers will rush into the nks to tie down your weapons and bodies to try and make an opening for the troops behind them. That includes throwing themselves on shields and swords. They will try to use their body weight to prevent effective fighting.
"They don''t back down, and they fight until thest man. They will rip javelins out of their own bodies and use them as weapons for themselves. We''ve only fought against one patrol, but it''s better to assume the whole will act simr to the part."
"So we need to keep them at length with the use of the pikes?" Lieutenant Grent, the third toon Commander asked.
"Yes," Reivyn nodded his head. "It seems simple enough, and it''s what we would usually do, but there''s a difference here. The enemy will charge through the pikes and use their bodies to prevent the troops from recovering them to continue using them. The first rank of soldiers has to be prepared to immediately abandon their pikes and switch to the shield wall.
"Against a small patrol, I had the second row kneel down to allow better ess to the third-row halberdiers. That won''t be tenable, though, as we''ll need to maintain our maneuverability. When we make contact, we''ll need to hold the position for a moment to cause some damage, and then back up several steps to allow the second-row pikes to continue working.
"Have them rush in, stall out and take damage, then back up to make some room and start over. Rush in, stall, back up. Rush in, stall, back up."
"What about protecting the nk of our allypany next to us?" Lieutenant Laris spoke up.
"That''s a good point," Reivyn said. "The toon closest to them will have a harder time of it. I expect the numbers of the enemies to be enough to outnk us outright, so we''ll have to adjust the angle of our line to ount for that. We''ll engage with three toons on the line, and the fourth toon will be in reserve. The third toon will have to take more steps back and turn, just like the wheel right exercise we did, but the anchor will be the point between First toon and the otherpany.
"Any more questions?" Reivyn looked back and forth between the other three toonmanders and Jekle, who was inmand of the first toon. They all shook their heads. "Alright, dismissed. Take charge of your toons and await further orders."
The battalion was already in column Marching toward their destination. The tracks were abundantly clear to follow at this point, even in the dark. Reivyn had his little impromptu strategic meeting with the other lieutenants as their men marched in the final position of the column.
Despite having been in many life-or-death struggles, and many organized military battles as well, Reivyn''s heart was still beating hard in his chest. He didn''t have nerves or butterflies in his stomach, but he could feel the adrenaline already pumping through his veins. His high Stamina would have prevented him from feeling fatigued at this point, anyway, but even if he didn''t have such high Stats, he was sure that any tiredness would have been washed away.
The battalion of volunteers marched for an hour in the dark, and the sun wasn''t even starting to peek over the horizon by the time they spotted the enemy camp. It was a huge, sprawling mass of tents and bodies, and Reivyn spotted zero fortifications or entrenchments. There were obvious scouts keeping watch, as a horn blew in the distance.
Reivyn''s heart sank, as, like an ant nest being agitated, tens of thousands of people scrambled to emerge from their rest to defend their camp. From Reivyn''s estimate, gazing at the enemy force, there had to already be three forces equalling the original one alreadybined, not even including the reinforcements only about an hour away.
There''s no way! Reivyn thought. The Major has to see that this is a hopeless cause.
Reivyn waited for the order to pull back toe down the line, but it never happened. He grit his teeth in frustration as the battalion started to veer to the left so that they could orient their nk for an engagement.
Already, pockets of enemy troops were sprinting towards the battalion in apletely disorganized way. Before Reivyn could even get hispany up to the front line, thepany in the front was already engaged with the enemy, and more and more were already pouring forth towards them.
If they attack us piecemeal like this, we might stand a chance of not getting totally overwhelmed, Reivyn felt hope surge, but it was just as quickly dashed as he continued to watch. More troops were forming up in ranks than were rushing at them. It seems those disorganized soldiers aren''t just rushing us because of bloodlust. They''re probably to prevent us from forming up properly as their own main force gets situated.
Reivyn had to begrudgingly approve of the harassing tactic, but it didn''t make him feel better.
"Company! Double Time! Move, move, move!" Reivyn Commanded at the top of his lungs. "Get your men up there! Now!" Reivyn yelled at the toon from the nearestpany in front of him.
The lieutenant in charge noticed Reivyn''s urgency and his orders for thepany to rush forward, and he followed suit without hesitation. His actions, in turn, caused his fellow lieutenants to do the same, and soon the entire back half of the battalion was rushing forward to get in line instead of Marching methodically.
The battalion formed up its line quickly, and a horn sounded from the Major''s position, ordering the advance. The soldiers didn''t need the individual direction of the lieutenants, and the battalion Marched forward. Reivyn''s fourth toon held back, and as themander, Reivyn Marched next to them so he could view the entire line.
Suddenly, the night sky erupted in bright light as magical projectiles came screaming at the battalion from the rear of the enemy encampment. The volunteer Mage Corps answered with their own volleys, and the Spells lobbed over allied soldiers toe crashing down on the advancing troops of both sides.
The soldiers had practicedbining their mana into toon-wide shield Skills, but Reivyn didn''t put much trust in it. The amount of firepower approaching them was magnitudes higher than what was beingunched against the enemy.
Reivyn watched arge fireball arc through the air, and, even at this distance, Reivyn could make out the Spell structure within it. He had an instinctual feeling course through him, and he reached out with his will, seizing control of the Spell. He was momentarily surprised as his willpower simply brushed the Mage''s will aside, and he took control of the Spell at the cost of close to 100 Mana.
Reivyn didn''t let the momentary surprise stall him out, though, and he immediately controlled the Spell to crash down on the advancing army. They hadn''t taken long to form up their own ranks, and shouts and horn sts could be heard as they also advanced in a huge wall of people towards the much smaller battalion.
Everything about this is screwed up, Reivyn thought as he picked more Spells out of the air to use against their own people. What three-to-one odds for an assault? It''s like fifty-to-one against us. I understand that Levels, Skills, and sses can make a huge difference, but not that much.
Sweat broke out on Reivyn''s brow as he simultaneously kept watch over hispany and snatched enemy Spells out of the air. He didn''t only catch Spellsunched towards his ownpany, though his range couldn''t epass the entire battalion. His intervention made the Spell battle closer to even than the one-sided bombardment it would have been.
We have to do something more to suppress those Mages. We can''t just use our Spells on the troops only. Especially against psychos like these who don''t care about their own casualties.
It was conventional strategy, ording to what he had learned in the ssroom training, that the Mages would disengage as the meleebat started. Reivyn watched as the battalion finally made contact with the enemy force, but the enemy Mages never stopped hurtling their magic.
As the distance decreased, Reivyn''s proximity to the Spells increased, and he could grasp the feeling of being able to interfere with the enemy Spells on a wider front. He was having to struggle a bit more against the closer Spells, as the Mages that had encountered him overpowering them had wizened up and begun putting up a fight, though it was like a child instead of a fly in the face of Reivyn''s willpower. A hundred children, though, could exhaust him far more than a hundred flies.
Reivyn formted a n, and he checked his Mana pool to gauge the feasibility of it. His total Mana pool had exceeded 5,000 after transitioning to a Tier 3 ss, and he was down to about 3,000 already. Spending close to 100 Mana per will-battle only allowed him to act so much.
Instead of trying tomandeer control of the next Spell, though, Reivyn analyzed the tether connecting the Mage to his Spell, and he reached out with his own Mana, connecting himself to it without taking control. He used his own tether to the Spell as a conduit, and he pumped Lightning Mana, wrapped in Veridical on a hunch, along the lines.
Reivyn watched in satisfaction as it worked as he had hoped, and the Lightning Mana shot through the improvised Mana circuit. He couldn''t see the end result, but the Spell he used winked out, and another one didn''t immediately follow.
Looks like that maneuver only cost about 60 Mana, Reivyn noted, ncing at his Mana pool. Alright. I can afford to do that several more times. Let''s get to work.
The sounds of men screaming and yelling, weapons shing, armor nking, projectiles whistling through the air, and the overall sounds ofbat echoed out over thendscape as Reivyn kept a careful watch on hispany while actively suppressing the enemy Mages.
"I don''t know how long you can keep that up."
Reivyn was startled at the sound, not having noticed anyone approach him. He quickly nced to the side and noticed Kefira standing next to him, but Seri was nowhere to be found.
"What you''re doing is amazing, but it won''t be enough," Kefira looked at him. "I have a better idea. Draw your sword, and take my hand."
Reivyn didn''t hesitate or stop to ask what she meant. He did as asked, drawing his sword with his right hand while cing his left hand in hers.
"This might be... disorienting. Here we go."
Reivyn felt a tremendous burst of Mana from Kefira, and the world shifted. He found himself suddenly surrounded by men in tattered robes,unching Spells into the air. Several of the closest ones stumbled back in surprise, and Kefira started sting them with magic. Reivyn quickly understood what was going on, and he activated his Elemental Weapon Skill across his entire body and sword.
He stormed into the enemy Mages, bing a whirlwind of death and destruction. Reivyn wasn''t able to reach everyone with his sword alone. He used his sword and fist while simultaneouslyunching Spells of his own. He didn''t hold back like he would in the Academy. He pumped his Spells full of Mana, using a deadlybination of Affinities, and he aimed for vital parts.
His sword would sh through the neck of a robed man while his fist drove into the gut of another, the fire wrapping his body leaping to immte the enemy, and while he was doing that, a de of Metal and Wind, empowered by Sharpness, wouldunch toward the neck of yet another Mage.
Kefira rained death and destruction around her, as well, and she made sure to keep up close to Reivyn. The enemy Mages began to take note of the two harbingers of death within their midst, and Reivyn had to switch from using his Mana offensively to defensively. Kefira rushed up to him and ced a hand on his shoulder.
"Time to go," she shouted. Mana once more stormed through the area, and they shifted back to their original position. Reivyn was slightly disoriented, having been in the middle of swinging his sword, but he quickly recovered. He looked at Kefira with a raised brow. She simply winked and put a finger across her lips.
Seri finally showed up, rushing forward from out of nowhere with a re leveled at Kefira.
"Don''t. Do. That. Again!" Seri hissed.
"It was necessary," Kefira argued back, turning her head in a huff.
"I''m not talking about the teleportation! I''m talking about leaving me behind!"
"Oh," Kefira said, looking properly chastised this time. "Well, you know that I only have enough control to take one other person with me, right now, and I felt Reivyn would be the better choice. Not only is he more proficient atbat than you, but it might also have been dangerous if he was still shooting lightning down on the Mages when we went over."
"No more excuses. Let''s go back." Seri jerked her head back toward the center of the battalion.
"You''re right," Kefira gave Reivyn a sheepish grin. "I need to be with my unit in case they need me, and you obviously have your own duties."
"Be safe," Reivyn nodded, turning his attention back to hispanypletely as Kefira walked off with Seri.
Reivyn surveyed the field and noticed that his toonmanders were operating under the instructions he had given. The line wasn''t perfectly straight anymore, but that didn''t matter. If they had tried to keep their position perfectly, they would have been nked by the massive horde of enemy soldiers already. The First toon, his toon, was managing, but he could tell that they were losing Stamina a lot faster than the other two.
"Lieutenant Laris! Lead Fourth toon to relieve First toon!" Reivyn turned andmanded the other lieutenant standing nearby, ready to go.
"Yes, Sir!" Lieutenant Laris didn''t technically have to refer to Reivyn as sir ording to their ranks. Still, his position as the actingmander of thepany had been cemented in everyone''s mind by this point.
The Fourth toon Marched forward, and the soldiers of the First toon made space for them to maneuver their way to the front line. First toon disengaged in an orderly manner as the Fourth toon took over their duties.
The n is to distract them long enough for the specialized unit to rush in and get the civilians moving out of the camp, Reivyn thought as he kept watch of the action. The battle has only been going on for several minutes, now, and it''s already apparent that it''s not going to be enough. Why hasn''t the Major issued the order to retreat?
Reivyn nced to the center of the battalion where the Major and his staff were sitting on their horses. Reivyn could see the man calmly watching the action, and Captain Sanjin was attempting to talk his ear off. Reivyn shook his head. At least the Major doesn''t seem to be letting himself get distracted by that idiot.
Reivyn inspected how the otherpanies were fairing in thebat. He could already see that they had suffered casualties against the enemy tactics, despite Reivyn having exined them to the Major. He had assumed the Major would have someone pass the information down to the other captains, but that either hadn''t happened, or they hadn''te up with a proper response before attacking.
From his position, Reivyn could tell that the men of the otherpanies were gging much more than even his First toon had been. None of the other captains had ordered a reserve toon, either. Everyone except his toon was currently engaged in fiercebat with the relentless enemy.
Reivyn''s mood continued to worsen as he was impatient with the Major and his orders. There wasn''t any relief for any of the other troops, and there weren''t any units on standby to seize opportunities.
Reivyn looked back toward the enemy camp, and he noticed that it was finally almost empty. He could see where the civilians were corralled, and he frowned as he noticed that they were hunched over, attending to some sort of task being overseen by some soldiers who didn''t seem to care one way or another about the battle. They were being put to use to do something, and Reivyn could only imagine what it might be. His thoughts wandered to the Skills that tried to form an idea for him while he looked over the map previously.
Reivyn noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and he spied the specialized unit finally making their move to infiltrate the camp and rescue the captives. It seemed like everything was actually working out how they wanted it to, but Reivyn knew that there was no way they would be able to maintain their pace to keep their attention long enough for the civilians to make it far enough away to escape.
Some might get away, which is better than nothing, but we don''t know how the enemy is going to react to losing a portion of their captured workforce, Reivyn thought.
As he kept a careful eye on his ownpany and watched the infiltrators make their way through the camp in the distance, light finally began to peek over the horizon in the distance. Something about it felt off, though, as Reivyn watched the sky lighten.
Wait... that''s the west. The sun rises in the east... Reivyn turned to look at the horizon in the east, and it was still dark. There was no sign of the sun rising, yet.
His stomach fell as a horn st sounded from the direction of the light, and the cause of it finally came into view.
Another enemy force, holding torches to light their way, crested a dip in the ground. That''s not even the enemies that I spotted on the patrol! They''reing from apletely different direction!
The infiltration force paused in their movements to look up and see them, and then the reinforcements charged into the camp. The infiltrators turned to flee, but they were drowned in the bodies of the new enemy unit.
Not only a hopeless failure but aplete and utter defeat, Reivyn thought, his mouth making a line. What the hell is wrong with the Major?!
Reivyn was ready to sound the retreat for his men, and he looked toward the Major and his staff. Reivyn''s eyes bugged out at the scene before his eyes.
Cloaked men moving about in the shadows had materialized, and they wereying waste to the battalion staff. The Major''s horse stood, saddle empty, as the staff members engaged in fiercebat all around. Reivyn searched a bit further and spotted Captain Sanjin galloping away in the opposite direction of hispany, not even turning to see if anyone was pursuing him. There wasn''t.
"Company! Disengage!" Reivyn Commanded. "First toon! With me!"
Reivyn began moving forward to engage the enemy with his toon as the other three began walking back, trying to build space between them. He noticed the lieutenant of the closest toon from the nextpany that had followed his lead earlier turned to look at him as he reached the back row of the men engaged with the enemy. Reivyn didn''t have time to exin anything, and he simply pointed insistently toward where the Major had been.
The other man looked where Reivyn was pointing, and then he frantically began trying to order a retreat, as well.
"Jek!" Reivyn motioned for his friend to rush over before he took charge of the fighting. "Take the men and run! Set up a defensive line with one of the toons fifty yards back as the others continue to escape! We''ll set up a leapfrog escape as we attempt to retreat in an orderly fashion."
Reivyn felt a tremendous umtion and release of Mana off to the side. A huge explosion and small quake nearly knocked Reivyn and the men from both armies off their feet. Reivyn looked toward the center of the line to see a smoking crater. Bodies and body parts littered the ground where the center of thebat had just been taking ce. It didn''t matter that far more of the enemy army had been decimated in the attack. Others from the opposing army were already sprinting through the hole in the center of the line.
"Go, go, go!" Reivyn yelled.
Heunched himself forward, infusing his sword with his Mana once again. He had regained a considerable amount of Mana in the short time the battle had been going on, and it should be enough for his purposes.
The other three toons managed to break away from the meleebat as Reivyn charged into the enemy,ying waste about himself with his magical sword. They turned and began to sprint under the urging of Jek, and Reivyn held the enemy back, almost single-handedly. He stood off to the side of the toon, not directly with them, and he extended the me of his weapon to a degree that he could swipe tens of yards at a time.
Reivyn didn''t have time to focus on the rest of the volunteer battalion, but he could see that they were in full rout. There was no organized retreat happening elsewhere, other than the one toon right next to him.
The fact that there was about to be no protection on either nk, with a huge force able to make use of that weakness immediately, forced Reivyn''s hand.
"Jekle! Take the toon and get to Lieutenant Jek! I''ll buy some time! Go, go, go!"
Reivyn umted as much Mana as he ever had before, and he drove it down into the ground. Over 2,000 Mana points mmed into the ground, creating a huge shockwave of Mana and Earth, explosions of Fire with shrapnel from the destroyed ground infused in it,unched toward the enemy force.
The rampaging enemy was thrown through the air, hundreds of them being torn apart in the massive Spell, and hundreds more were tossed about like rag dolls. They careened through the air, and they fell to the ground, unable to get up.
He had seeded in creating enough space to allow for hispany, and the itinerant toon, to get enough space to turn and sprint away.
Reivyn felt exhaustion threaten to take over, and his mind exploded in a splitting headache. He didn''t have time to let it slow him down, though, and he turned and followed the toon that had already begun sprinting away. Hispany was in much better shape than the rest of the battalion, but that didn''t mean they hadn''t suffered casualties of their own.
Bodies of men he had just been spending time with were strewn about the ground, and Reivyn had to crush the emotions creeping up to distract him from his responsibilities over the survivors.
Reivyn quickly caught up to hispany with his superior Stats. He was relieved to see that they were mostly calm while running for their lives, and he would be able to assertmand over them in such a state of mind.
There was only one thing that was really dragging him down and distracting him.
There''s no sign of Kefira.
Chapter 117: Retreat
Chapter 117: Retreat
"Keep together," Reivyn yelled out at the running soldiers. "Keep going."
Reivyn kept a litany of encouragement going as thepany fled. The battalion had suffered high casualties there at the end, but it had been concentrated in the center of the formation. Reivyn''spany had been on the far end to the right, so they only suffered the casualties from the hand-to-handbat.
There were several troops that were being assisted or carried by others, and Reivyn felt extreme regret over not being able to bring the bodies of the few who had died with them. With their Stats, it wasn''t much of an impediment to carry the weight of another person while running.
Reivyn nced back behind himself and saw the enemies chasing after them. The main bulk of the enemy force didn''t give chase, as they would be too slow while maintaining their formation, but that didn''t prevent smaller pockets of loose fighters from running after them. The pursuing force was strung out in a long line of individuals, and they didn''t have any sort of unifyingmand.
The tactic is very simr to how they let people rush forward, in the beginning, to disrupt forming up the battalion line, Reivyn thought. They''re just a harassing force to keep us from being able to organize. Luckily we''ve been able to stay together. Can''t say the same for the rest of the battalion. I don''t know for sure how scattered they are, though. I can only hope someone can rally them together.
Thepany kept running in the direction of the base camp, hoping to reconnect with others that had fled. The sun finally started to crest the horizon on the east as they ran up a short slope. Reivyn looked around and back towards the way they hade. There was still no mass of soldiers pursuing in a formation, and the line of those who were was even further spread apart.
"Company! Halt!" Reivyn Commanded. His Skill infused order caused the men toe to a stop, and the lieutenants and sergeants automatically dressed their ranks. "Lieutenants, orient the soldiers to face the way we came and get on line. Fourth toon, in reserve."
The lieutenants, including Jekle and the toon that had followed them from the otherpany, ordered the troops to form up facing the pursuit at the top of the slope. The first row of soldiers had their shield wall ready, and the pikes and halberds were leveled at the enemy charging up the slope.
There were only about thirty enemies right at the front, but there were a couple hundred more in a scattered line still catching up. The toons made short work of the disorganized soldiers, most of them unarmed, but they kepting one at a time. Reivyn knew they didn''t have time to waste taking care of all of them in such a manner.
"Lieutenants, order your fifth squads to step out and use their bows to target the stragglers."
The back squads of the front three toons stepped aside, merging together and working as one, to attack those still in the distance. The slope allowed their range to be much further, and they had the Skills to improve their uracy and power. Reivyn watched for a moment to gauge their effective range, and then he got to work himself.
His Mana still hadn''t recovered a whole lot, but he did have more than a thousand Mana still avable to him. Using the new ss Skill, he instinctively knew what he was capable of with System assistance and what Level of Spell and Mana would be needed to aplish his goal.
Reivyn umted Mana in his hands through the Skill, draining 500 Mana to create a Level 6 Spell. He infused Fire, Wind, sma, Lightning, and Gravity into theplicated contraption of Mana he created. A giant, ming ball took shape in front of him, looking like a miniature sun, sun spots and sr arcs included. Reivynunched the sphere into the air as it continued to grow, and he made it hover in the sky beyond the range of the archers.
Whips of sma and Lightning descended from the floating ball, disintegrating people in fiery bursts as theyshed the enemies. The giant sr arcs left the environment zing, and many of the victims didn''t even leave behind scorched remains.
That was only the auxiliary effect of the Spell, though, as, after it stabilized, it consumed itself to form a barrage of fierynces that came crashing down to the earth. Hundreds of thences descended with tremendous speed, covering thousands of square yards. The sma, Fire, and Lightning created incredible heat and they were connected with a field of electricity that filled in the areas between the fallennces. Those that escaped being skewered by the zingnces were electrocuted.
The disy of magical mightsted for a full minute, and once it was done, a wall of fire stood between Reivyn''spany and the rest of the pursuers. Hundreds had been eliminated in short order, and there were no more living enemies between thepany and the wall of fire.
Reivyn looked at the devastation for a moment before turning back to thepany. All of the men and women, no longer embroiled inbat, were staring at Reivyn with ck expressions. He coughed in embarrassment.
"Hey, I just figured out how to do that, and I''m almost out of Mana at this point," Reivyn awkwardly said, thinking that the looks he was receiving were usatory.
"We''re not mad that you didn''t do it earlier," Jek finally said after a moment of silence. "We''re just surprised. That was a lot more powerful than anything the others in the Mage Corps did during the battle. You might have been more effective with them instead of in charge of us."
"We''re not going to go down the path of ''what if''s,''" Reivyn shook his head. "There are circumstances behind it, but if I had been with them, I wouldn''t have learned how to do it. It''splicated. Anyway, it doesn''t matter, and a lot of you might have been casualties if I had been.
"Now that we''re pretty much safely disengaged from the enemy, we can March out of here in a more organized manner. Fleeing at top speed might have gotten us out of there faster, but it''s not sustainable. The base camp is still close to an hour''s March away. We might be able to meet up with others who fled if they head there, and that''s where all the supplies still are.
"Lieutenants, form the toons up in a column and set off toward the base camp."
Reivyn wished he had amunication device, but those had been distributed to the captains. That meant Captain Sanjin had theirs, even though he had been with the Major the entire time. Just one more thing that man managed to screw up.
Reivyn Marched with his troops, setting a quick pace to cover ground but maintain Stamina over a long period of time, but his thoughts weren''t on the immediate situation now that they had a modicum of safety.
I hope Kefira managed to get out of there alright.
Kefira stumbled after the forced teleportation, Seri falling to her knees next to her. They had barely had time to register the existence of a tremendous umtion of Mana, and her protective item had activated and whisked them away before it could be released.
The magical item in question would activate upon detecting fatal danger, and it would tap into Kefira''s own abilities to send her to safety. The item would use its own Mana reserves to power the Spell, so it could send her further, safer than she could do on her own, even when she had full Mana reserves.
It chose a random direction to send her and her bodyguard, but it wasn''t truly random. The person who had designed and built the magical item had designed it to tap into Kefira''s abilities not just for the ability itself, but because it would subtly affect the usage and send her in a direction that she subconsciously viewed as safe. As such there was no possibility that it would randomly deposit her in the midst of the enemy camp.
Kefira was slightly disoriented, not knowing her exact position. Still, after scanning the horizon for a bit, she was able to determine the direction of the battle based on the smoke rising into the sky from the magical Spells that had been flung about.
"We have to get back!" Kefira said to herpanion, both of them helping each other to their feet. "We need to make sure the other Mages can get away, and we need to help Reivyn."
"No, it''s too dangerous," Seri denied. "I''m using my position to veto that idea. We can get a bit closer and help any who escape, but we''re not going back to the battle itself. That was an absolute disaster."
"But Reivyn..."
"He''s fine. You have to trust in his abilities, for now. We can go look for him after we secure your own safety."
"Fine," Kefira said, her lips making a thin line.
They started making their way back towards the battle, keeping to the gulleys and ravines to stay out of sight. Even if Reivyn hadn''t put the exercise of skylining to words, they had enoughmon sense to stay out of sight in such a situation.
They had been teleported closer to the deste sands, the opposite side of the field that Reivyn had been on. She wasn''t familiar with any of the people on this end of the battalion, as she had spent her time and focus on where Reivyn had been located. That didn''t mean she couldn''t recognize people, though, and they started to encounter men and women, dressed in the uniforms and robes of Oreck, fleeing away from the battle.
Kefira used some of her dwindling reserves of Mana tounch some res into the sky, drawing their attention to her position. The fleeing troops began to converge on her, and she let Seri get them sorted as she kept looking towards the battlefield.
"We have to get away from here!" One of the men yelled, trying to convince Seri and the others to continue fleeing.
"Shut your mouth!" Seri backhanded him, hard, with a gauntleted hand. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he tumbled to the ground. "You will do as you''re told, and you won''t panic the others with your nonsense! We''re perfectly safe for the moment, and we''ll be safer as we gather more people.
"Make a formation and wait for orders!"
"Who are you to give usmands?!" The man argued back fiercely, ring up at Seri with wild eyes. Seri calmly extracted her insignia, one that matched the one Kefira had shown the Major. A couple of gasps escaped some of the onlookers, and the man''s expression calmed down from the panicked fear it had been.
"We''re nobility from Wispan. Without orders from the officialmand chain stating otherwise, we have the authority to assumemand. Now, do what you''re told."
"Yes, ma''am," the downed man said in a subdued voice, getting back to his feet to join the others.
Seri stood with her arms folded under her chest, her mere presence and the troops forming up behind her drawing more stragglers to them.
"I''m going to make a couple Jumps to check things out," Kefira said. She turned to look at her bodyguard who was giving her a disapproving frown. "I''m not asking, and I''m not going to go very far. I''m just going to check things out. I''ll be right back."
"Jumping?" Someone in the formation said in surprise. The man turned to the man standing next to him. "Do you think she has connections with..."
Kefira didn''t hear the rest of what the man had to say as she took a step forward. The single step, infused with her Mana braids, took her several hundred yards forward. Her Mana was at a decent level for traveling a bit, but it wasn''t enough to get into a fight at the moment. She only moved in rtively short bursts to ces she could see were safe.
After spending a couple of hundred Mana points and traveling close to a mile, she finally stepped in front of a man fleeing on a horse. She had spotted the man and recognized him from afar. She made the split decision to confront him and see what he knew about the situation.
Captain Sanjin reared back with his horse, scrabbling to hold therge sack draped over the horse in front of him to prevent it from falling. He patted the horse to calm its nerves from the sudden appearance of Kefira.
"Captain Sanjin, what''s the situation with..." Kefira trailed off as she got a closer look at the sack that Sanjin was holding in ce. "Wait, what is that?" She asked, pointing. It was clearly not a sack. Captain Sanjin turned one side of it to reveal the face of the unconscious Major.
"We were ambushed by some high-Level assassins, and the Major was struck with poison," Captain Sanjin exined. "I don''t have the antidote on me, and the staff was caught up in the fighting. I snatched the Major off of his horse, and I''m getting him back to the base camp where they should have some more medical supplies. I''m sure someone in the battalion has the cure, but it was too dangerous to try and find them in that situation."
Thoughts raced through Kefira''s mind at the implication of the Major being indisposed. She quickly came to a conclusion and firmed her face as she addressed Captain Sanjin once more.
"Since the Major is out ofmission, I''m assumingmand. You already know who I am, and I won''t ept any balking this time. My bodyguard and I are rallying stragglers about a mile away, that way," she pointed to where she hade from. "Take the major over there and see if any of them are from the Medical Corps with an antidote before you continue on to the base camp.
"If they have what you need, then you will assumemand, under me, of course." Kefira watched the warring expressions on the man''s face as he tried toe up with a response. Kefira could see that he was impatient to get the Major to safety. "If the Major has enough time to make it back to the base camp without sumbing to the poison, he has enough time for you to check with the stragglers."
"Yes, ma''am," Captain Sanjin made his decision. He saluted Kefira before wheeling his horse toward Kefira''s stragglers.
Since I''m takingmand, I need to gather as many of the soldiers as I can, Kefira looked in the direction that she expected Reivyn and hispany were. There was a considerable distance from here to there, and there was a high chance she would get tied down by the enemy and unable to make it all the way over there and back. She couldn''t use her Jump Spell with a group of soldiers tagging along, and she had decided to take responsibility for them.
She continued to Jump about on the left side of the battalion, picking up soldiers and directing them where to go as she went. It was clear that the ones fleeing at the moment had turned tail before the final disaster, but she eventually made contact withrger groups of soldiers.
The enemy was chasing after the fleeing troops, but Kefira managed to spot several small groups of Mages.
My own Mana reserves aren''t enough to step forward and make a difference, but if I can get them on my side...
Kefira Jumped in front of a group of fleeing Mages. She was familiar with almost all of the volunteer Mage Corps, and they recognized her, as well.
"I''ve gathered many people together already, and I can lead you all to safety," Kefira didn''t waste any time, exining what she could do for them first. "I just need you all to create a barrier to prevent further pursuit from the enemy of our troops. If we can stop panicking and do that, we can get away."
The Mages hade to a halt at her sudden appearance, surprise on their faces from the clear teleportation in use. Despite being familiar with her, none of them knew the true extent of her abilities. Surprise morphed into impatience as Kefira started talking, but then it turned into determination as she convinced them to look around at the situation.
"Alright," the lead Mage said, gesturing for the others to turn and follow him.
There were six Mages running together, and they all turned to cast their Spells at the enemy chasing after them. Kefira nodded her head. They had been fleeing in a panic, but after calming down and assessing the situation, they were able to act once again.
People do stupid things when they don''t think, Kefira mused.
"We don''t need to kill the enemy, though nobody will cry if you do," Kefira said. "Just stop them from being able to continue chasing us. I''ll Jump around and gather more people."
Kefira took off toward another group of soldiers and Mages. The disy of magic drew the attention of the fleeing soldiers, but it also drew the attention of the enemy force, as well. She Jumped to the next group and exined her n once more. They quickly agreed, the soldiers veering to meet up with the other soldiers, and the Mages used their Spells to cover their retreat.
The situation snowballed as more and more soldiers and Mages regained theirposure, and before long, the entire fleeing battalion on the left side of the formation had regrouped and was calmly making their way away from the battlefield. Thebined might of the Mages, and theck of magical support for the enemy so far away from the engagement, meant that they were able to finally turn their rout into a proper retreat.
Kefira once more looked towards the other side where the rest of the battalion had been, but she was getting dangerously low on Mana. She shook her head, grit her teeth, and turned her back to move with the soldiers.
All of the officers had managed to survive, and Kefira quickly asserted her authority over them, disying her insignia of nobility from Wispan. The captains may have been regrs in the chain ofmand, but they understood that Imperial intervention was only a matter of time now that it was very clear that this was not an internal affair. It was the duty of the Tier 4 Empire over them to step in during times like this, anyway, and so none of them resisted the change ofmand.
"Does anyone have poison antidote or purification Skills?" Kefira asked as they Marched towards their destination.
"I do," an officer stepped forward. "Lieutenant Kaerl, ma''am. I''m in charge of the logistics, and I brought a squad of supply soldiers with me to the battlefield, just in case. We have everything we need for an extended operation. Enough supplies for," he scanned the crowd, taking the numbers into ount and doing some mental math, "probably a couple of weeks, at least."
Kefira nodded her head.
"Select one of the faster soldiers, and have him deliver the antidote to our destination ahead of us," Kefiramanded. "The Major was hit with poison, and he''s unconscious right now. We need to get it to him as quickly as possible."
"Yes, ma''am," Lieutenant Kaerl saluted before heading off to his own men. Shortly after, a man took off running across the barren desert in the direction Kefira had directed Lieutenant Sanjin.
"What''s our next move?" One of the captains Kefira was unfamiliar with asked.
"We''ll organize and depart for the base camp," Kefira answered. "This is only half of the battalion. I was unable to make it to the other side to gather more of our strength, but they''re sure to retreat to the base camp. We can meet up with the survivors there and assess our strength before making any more decisions."
"A wise decision," the man nodded. Kefira mentally rolled her eyes. I don''t need you to tell me that, she thought. Actually, I''ll just say it.
"I don''t need confirmation from you," Kefira leveled her gaze at the man. The man''s eyebrows went up in surprise. He hurriedly tried to apologize, not understanding what he had done wrong, but Kefira held a hand out to stop him.
"This doesn''t just go for you," Kefira nced at the other officers, raising her voice. "I don''t need ''yes men.'' I need all of you to think of things that I don''t, or can''t, think of, and I need you to give your honest advice. If you see a w in my thinking, I expect you to bring it up. That being said, I''m inmand, and I''ll make the decisions. I can''t make the best decisions if I don''t have all of the information, though.
"Can anyone think of something that I haven''t at this point?"
The captains shared looks with each other before the first one turned back to her.
"Only one," the man said. "We should use ourmunication devices to contact the other captains and let them know what we''re doing. They can get the Mages on that side of the battalion to cover their retreat the same way we did, and they can know for sure to meet up with us at the base camp."
"Excellent suggestion," Kefira nodded. "Make it happen. Oh, and let me know when you make contact with a Lieutenant Reivyn."
"Yes, ma''am." The officer saluted.
He, along with several other captains, stepped away so they could use the magicmunication tools without sounds interfering with their messages. After several minutes, the first captain returned.
"The message has been delivered, and two otherpanies have replied with positive responses. They should be regrouping in their retreat as we speak."
"Good. What''s your name, Captain?" Kefira asked.
"Oh, Captain Dorran, ma''am."
"Ok, Captain Dorran. Good work. I see that you have more to say, though?" Kefira quirked an eyebrow.
"It''s just... We weren''t able to make contact with anyone named Lieutenant Reivyn. None of the other captains had any contact with him."
"I see..." Kefira trailed off, looking forward as they Marched. "That will be all."
"Yes, ma''am," Captain Dorran saluted before walking back to the formation.
You''d better be safe over there.
Chapter 118: Noose
Chapter 118: Noose
"Report!" Reivynmanded the scout that ran up to him.
Thepany had Marched in an orderly manner back toward the base camp, and Reivyn had immediately resumed normal operating procedures, sending scouts out ahead. Even though the enemy, for all they knew, was long behind them, Reivyn wasn''t going to let himself getcent.
"Sir, the base camp is gone," the scout reported. Reivyn''s eyebrows went up as he focused his attention on the man.
"Exin."
"Yes, sir. I did as instructed and stayed out of sight, crawling over the ridge closest to the base camp. I peered over, and the base camp was swarmed with enemies. I don''t know if they came from the main enemy camp or if they were a patrol or something, but there are hundreds of them. They had the men holding the camp in irons, and they seemed to be digging in to defend the camp."
"Very well, good job. Go back to that ridge and keep an eye on any movement."
"Yes, sir!"
"Lieutenants!" Reivyn called out to the toonmanders.
He surveyed thepany as the lieutenants came jogging over. Each toon, when they were at full strength, consisted of five toons of ten men. Four toons, plus the one they picked up in the rout, and they had just under 250 troops.
The scout said they were digging in, and that there were hundreds of them, Reivyn thought. If it were mainly those guys with the "1''s" branded on their heads, it might be doable, but I don''t know if that''s the case. Not only that, it''s extremely suspicious that they''re here. It smells like we walked into a trap. If I had to bet, there are other patrols roaming about, and they''ll try to herd us back together.
Even Reivyn hadn''t considered the possibility that the enemy had not only known they wereing but had spread out forces to encircle them once they arrived. It wasn''t just the reinforcements of entirely different enemy armies converging. There was no telling how many men they had roaming about to stop anyone from escaping.
"Change of ns," Reivyn announced to the lieutenants after they gathered around him. "A scout reported that an enemy patrol of hundreds of soldiers has captured the base camp." Several of the officers swore under their breath at the news. "We only have enough supplies on us tost a couple of days, at most, so we have to secure some more supplies, but that will have to be done with a raiding partyter tonight.
"My conjecture is that there are multiple bands of enemy soldiers roaming about, and they''ll try to pen us in, preventing us from getting away. Our mission, right now, is to not get caught. After we get away, we can forage and raid for supplies, but even that will most likely be nned for by the enemies. They''re apparently a lot savvier than we gave them credit for.
"Have the scouts map out a route that will keep us away from spying eyes, and let''s move the troops to a safe ce. We''ll re-evaluate once we''re clear."
The lieutenants saluted and returned to their men to carry out the orders. The scouts knew to return on a regr basis to report the situation around them, whether they found anything or not, and so it didn''t take long until several had reported painting a picture on the map of a direction thepany could snake through to avoid eyes.
Reivyn had been right in his conjecture, and there were several bands, ranging from a couple hundred to nearly a thousand, enemy soldiers walking about in the desert. They didn''t have any outposts or positions constructed atop any of the hills or teaus in the area. Probably because they don''t want to give away that they''re lying in wait. That will change when they realize we''ve figured it out, though, so we need to race ahead as much as possible.
Reivyn could only trust in the abilities of his subordinates, so he let the scoutse up with the route to traverse. Once they had a n of action, Reivyn gave it over to the other lieutenants to lead their toons through the ravines and gulleys, keeping out of sight as much as possible.
There was nothing they could do about their tracks, and it was only a matter of time before the enemy came following after them. As long as we can get far enough away that they can''t muster a superior force to overwhelm us, we should be good.
Thepany spent the rest of the morning Marching at a quick pace to get as far away as possible. Reivyn kept them in a tight column, and they didn''t stop to take any breaks like they normally would when hiking somewhere.
"Sir, they''ve begun to crest the hills," a scout ran up and reported around noon. "They''re all behind us for now, and we haven''t seen anyone abreast or ahead of us for a little bit of time, now."
"Very good, continue," Reivyn Commanded.
Reivyn once more summoned the lieutenants to him.
"Alright, they''ve figured out that someone has slipped by them, and they''re no longer trying to hide. It seems we''ve broken through their blockade, though, so we need to find a defensible location not too far away to hold off the inevitable raid thates our way. It''s only a matter of time before they either spot us or our tracks, and we don''t want to be caught with our pants down when they show up."
Reivyn unrolled a map on the ground and motioned for the lieutenants to gather around. He scanned the map, noting their current location and searching for a decent ce to fortify. He ran his fingers over the lines on the topographical map, and the other lieutenants bent over to also scan the map.
"This, right here, looks like a good spot," Reivyn jabbed his finger on a ridgeline several miles away. The map was veritably covered with lines indicating slopes, hills, and cliffs. The terrain was not at all t, and the presence of so many hills more than made up for theck of concealment thick vegetation would provide.
"It''s a pretty steep slope, kind of in the shape of a horseshoe," Reivyn exined. "We can fortify near the top of the hill, and we can hide a toon on either side, behind the horseshoe."
Reivyn gave his ideas for the tactics they would use to thwart the first assault on their position that he knew would being, and the other officers gave their opinions and rmendations. Once they had everything fleshed out, Reivyn ordered thepany to continue to the location as quickly as possible.
It was several miles further toward their destination, but they were able to move quickly. It took half an hour to arrive at the steep horseshoe-like ridge. Reivyn nodded his head at the sight, and he ordered the men to get to work digging in. The time on the System clock showed that it was nearly one in the afternoon.
Reivyn climbed his way to the top of the ridge, intentionally skylining himself with the other officers, watching the men build their fortifications. They dug arge trench behind some wooden boards they had avable in their storage pouches. The little walls they built wouldn''t hold up for long in a concentrated attack, but that was fine.
Reivyn ordered Jekle to takemand of the First toon and had them situated in the very center of the defensive line where the heaviest fighting was likely to take ce. The new officer and Jek were tasked with heading off to either side of the hill toy in wait for the signal to nk the enemy attackers. If the enemy showed up from an unexpected direction, they built some simple fortifications on those sides, as well, just in case.
"Now we just have to wait," Reivyn said, looking into the distance from which they hade. "Have the men get some rest and eat some rations if they haven''t already."
Reivyn watched the surroundings in all directions, not letting himself get fixated on the direction they expected to be pursued from. The men were finally able to rx for the first time in several hours, but their stress levels were still pretty high. They knew they needed to rest and recuperate before the next fight, but it was difficult to do in the situation they were in.
A trace of dust in the air eventually entered Reivyn''s vision, and he was relieved to see that it was following directly on their trail. He scanned the horizons in the other directions, but there was no indication ofrge forces of men moving about the desert toward their position from nking directions.
"Here theye," Reivyn called out. "It seems like they weren''t expecting us to pick a spot to fortify and wait for them, so they''reing in hard and fast from one direction.
"Lieutenants, take charge of your toons, and await the enemy engagement."
"Yes, sir!" The other four Lieutenants and Jekle saluted before moving toward their men. A couple of soldiers from each of the toon were positioned behind Reivyn on the ridgeline in order to stand out for the enemy to spot, and they would return to their toons once they confirmed the enemy took the bait and charged towards them.
On one level, the strategy used to ensnare us was intricate and well thought out, Reivyn mused, but on the other hand, the tactics and strategies of the smaller units are trash. If they don''t have a higher up with them, I expect they''ll just charge up the slope to their deaths.
The enemy force finally came into view, and as Reivyn had thought, they didn''t slow down or hesitate once they spotted Reivyn''spany. They picked up the pace and charged into the horseshoe hill. Reivyn estimated that there were about 800 or so enemies.
We have 250 men, so they''re almost to the three-to-one threshold for conducting a sessful assault, Reivyn found it slightly amusing. Too bad for them, they''re mostly greatly outmatched in terms of Skill and gear, so that number would need to be much higher for them like it was earlier.
There was no indication of an officer standing out giving orders, and it seemed like they were just a ravenous pack of wild animals as the enemy charged to the hill.
"Archers! Loose!"
Reivyn heard themands from the Lieutenants below him. He turned his head and gestured for the squads behind him to move back to their toons. Reivyn maintained his position on top of the hill.
If there''s a Mage or an officer that stands out, I''ll be able to draw their attention and counter anything they can throw at me.
No such thing happened, though, and it didn''t appear that there were any Casters with the 800-man patrol. From what Reivyn could see, the situation was the same as the first patrol of thirty they had encountered, just scaled up on a muchrger scale.
Arrows rained down on the enemy, and Reivyn watched as several men with multiple arrow wounds fell to the ground, trampled by theirpatriots. If an arrow managed to pierce a thigh, it was a death sentence as the man fell, or if several arrows hit the same person. Many, many more arrows, however, pierced into chests and arms, and those people acted as if nothing had happened at all.
Is their main training method just to increase their Pain Resistance Skills as high as possible?
It had been several hours since Reivyn had used his Mana, and his reserves had recovered quite a bit. It wasn''t full, but his high Stats ensured that his Mana recovered very quickly. Reivyn nced at his Mana pool in his Status.
[Mana: 3,704/5,310]
I don''t need anything fancy likest time, Reivyn mused. Just add a bit of damage to the attackers. If they were normal fighters, it would be a psychological blow, too, but I don''t think they''ll care.
Reivyn summoned his Mana, and using 50 Mana at a time in each of his hands, he summoned Spells of varying Affinities to rain down on the enemy in conjunction with the arrows.
Oh, wait! I almost forgot.
Reivyn quickly disabled his Experience Siphon ability.
None of the Experience I got from the first battle is going to count toward my Level, Reivyn shook his head. Ipletely forgot to take it off, getting caught up in the "excitement."
Reivyn mentally kicked himself for not thinking about it in the hour-long trek to the first fight. After that, he had been too preupied with navigating thepany about safely, but there was no excuse for not paying enough attention earlier.
Reivyn felt the suction in his heart disappear, and he immediately felt the difference as the strange energy of Experience began to flood his being properly, once more. His Spells didn''t always kill those they struck, but he left arge dent of devastation in the enemy lines. He threw his Spells out to cause as much area damage as possible, and he wasn''t targeting individuals.
He still knew he killed many of the attacking force, though, as the stream of Experience he felt was nearly continuous as the opponents made their way to, and then up, the slope.
There''s no Euphoria to go with the rush of Experience, Reivyn idly thought. Then again there''s also no Misery associated with killing innocent people.
"Javelins!"
Themand from the lieutenants issued forth, and the spears from the front two ranks sailed through the air to impale the attackers. The enemies had been reduced to a much more disorganized rabble by the time they finally reached the wooden walls.
The first row didn''t use their shield wall as they did in the open, and they used their pikes along with the second row to keep the enemy from breaching the walls. They stabbed and pierced the enemy, and it seemed like they would be able to hold the position indefinitely. The enemy had lost a third of their troops, and they hadn''t so much as injured one of Reivyn''s troops.
Reivyn cupped his hands to his mouth, and he issued forth a loud whistle, instilling it with Commanding Shout. He was a little surprised that it worked, but he guessed it made sense because it was literally a Command.
The two toons that had been hiding behind the sides of the hills emerged, silently, and they advanced on the nks and rear of the assaulters. None of the enemy troops even kept a lookout to see if something like that would happen, and they smashed into the rear and sides with devastating effect. The two toons scythed through the enemy with no resistance.
"Company!" Reivyn called out at the top of his lungs. "Advance!"
The defending toons had been waiting for themand. The first row dropped their pikes behind the wooden barricades to draw their swords and shields as the second and third rows extended their reach to drive the ones trying to climb the walls back. The first row braced their shields against the walls, and because of how the slope and fortifications were built, they simply shoved forward, dislodging the wall and sending it tumbling down into the enemy.
The three toons manning the walls marched forward, the pikes and halberds reaping lives as the shield wall advanced. There wasn''t much the enemy soldiers could do to hold the halberds down, as they just shed through them, but the pikemen had already learned their lesson to not impale the enemy too far to let them weigh their weapons down with their body weight.
The pikes stabbed forward with precision, the halberds shed through necks, and the shield knocked the wounded soldiers down. They trampled over the fallen men, and their swords pierced into the throats of those they Marched over as they pressed the assault back into the two nking toons. The fifth squad made sure all of the fallen enemy troops were actually dead as they advanced.
The three toons eventually met up with the two nking toons, and there were no more enemy soldiers standing on the hill. They stopped and looked at each other, panting before loud cheers erupted from the men and women of thepany.
Reivyn let them cheer for a moment before raising his voice to cut through the noise.
"Excellent work!" He yelled. "Dig a grave at the bottom of the hill, and get their bodies buried. After that, we''ll rest for ten minutes before moving on. They''ll be sure to send more soldiers after us when they don''t return any time soon."
Thepany cut their cheers off and immediately got back to work. It didn''t take much effort to build a mass grave, and they rolled the bodies down the hill into the hole. After it was covered, Reivyn had the troops move to the other side of the hill where they would step off again after their break.
"Great coordination, men," Reivyn addressed the lieutenants. "If we can fool them with the direction we head after this, we''ll be able to get somewhere safe and get a proper rest."
"How''re we gonna do that?" Jek asked, skeptically.
"Magic," Reivyn winked.
Ten minutes wasn''t a long time, and thepany soon found themselves once more Marching forward. Instead of having them move about through the ravines and gulleys, though, Reivyn had them March straight over the very next hill that was situated several hundred yards away. He had the men continue on their journey, but he turned back to face the way they hade.
Alright, let''s see if this works, Reivyn thought to himself.
He gathered his Mana, dropping a thousand Mana points into his outstretched hands. He envisioned the scene he wanted to replicate, and he infused it with the Affinities he believed would work best.
A significant portion of Air, a touch of Fire and Water, and a helping of Gravity all went into the Spell matrix.
Reivyn wove the Spell, instinctively understanding how to do so with the assistance of the System, and heunched it into the air behind him.
A swirl of clouds materialized out of nowhere, but they hung low in the sky. Reivyn was concerned they might be spotted from a distance, but it wouldn''t matter all that much. They were still at the location they had just been discovered at. The cloud coalesced together, and it turned into a mini wall cloud.
Reivyn used the Fire Affinity to gather the heat at the base of the cloud, sucking it from above to meet with the heat of the desert below. The difference in temperature caused the winds to stir in addition to what he was pumping in, and the wall cloud started to rotate. Soon, a funnel cloud descended, and the tornado swept through the valley between the two hills thepany had traversed.
Reivyn let the tornado run, continuing to pump Mana into it to maintain it, for several minutes. When he finally dispelled the Mana, Reivyn used his superior Perception Stat to gaze upon the work he had done.
The desert, although it wasn''t sandy like the deste sands, had been washed clean of all traces of thepany''s passing.
When they follow the trail we left behind, it will lead them to the horseshoe-shaped hill, and then all traces will disappear from there, Reivyn nodded in satisfaction. Hopefully, they''ll assume we headed off in a different direction or at least adhered to our previous way of traveling through the hilly terrain. Instead, we''re going to March in a straight line for quite a ways, and then we''ll be able to rest easy for a time.
The next most important thing to do is acquire supplies to survive the desert.
Chapter 119: Pantry Raid
Chapter 119: Pantry Raid
Combat Initiated
Combat Resolved
Calcting
Skirmish
Exp +480
Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role: 100%
Exp +800
Achievement!
Force a higher Tier ss in both Tier 1 and Tier 2
Permanently reduce the requirements for unlocking sses
Combat Initiated
Enemies Defeated
Exp +276
Exp +284
Exp +268
Exp +260
Exp +292
Exp +300
Exp +284
Exp +272
Exp +320
Exp +312
Exp +280
Exp +284
Exp +300
Combat Resolved
Calcting
Large Scale Battle:
Defeated
Exp +7,000
Calcting
Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role: 9%
Exp +1,530
Combat Initiated
Enemies Defeated
Exp +100
Exp +98
Exp +104
Exp +110
...
Exp +100 x114
Combat Resolved
Calcting
Skirmish
Exp +110
Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role: 85%
Exp +212
Combat Initiated
Enemies Defeated
Exp +100
Exp +106
Exp +102
...
Exp +100 x89
Exp +288
Exp +260
Exp +272
Combat Resolved
Calcting
Small Scale Defensive Action
Exp +340
Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role: 75%
Exp +600
Level Up! Level 8
Level Up! Level 9
Level Up! Level 10
Experience: 87/5,200
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (29 ->30)
Marching (15 ->22)
Observation (46 ->47)
Heavy Armor (21 ->22)
Tier 2:
Evasion (45 ->47)
Forced March (13 ->16)
Gab (6 ->9)
Sense Mana (59 ->60)
Strategy (21 ->24)
Tactics (25 ->28)
Tracking (1 ->7)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (23 ->25)
Command (24 ->30)
Danger Sense (21 ->24)
Detect Lies/Truth (2 ->3
Inspire (25 ->29)
Mana Conjuration (38 ->40)
Mana Maniption (41 ->44)
Mana Shield (28 ->30)
Mana Sight (40 ->42)
Mental Fortitude (44 ->45)
Commanding Shout (7 ->18)
Sense Threat (4 ->8)
Silver Tongue (4 ->6)
Sure Step (1 ->6)
Tier 4:
Mana Weapon (32 ->33)
Spatial Awareness (29 ->30)
Dual Casting (22 ->26)
Tier 5:
Heroic Bearing (7 ->10)
Tier 6:]
Weapons Master (63 ->65)
I missed out on several Levels, Reivyn mentally kicked himself. Sure, that Experience wasn''t wasted. It was funneled into my Bloodline, but it was only a tiny fraction of what I need. It could have given me several more Stat points.
Speaking of Stat points, I have 55 unassigned points from switching sses and Leveling up three times. I was putting them in my Mental Stats before in order to shore up the difference and ensure I could unlock a good Tier 3 Caster ss. My Bloodline made that point moot, though, and now my Mental Stats are advancing at a much faster pace than my Physical Stats, and they''ll do so for 60 Levels. I''ll need to put all of my unassigned points into Strength and Dexterity in order to keep up and make sure I have ess to a good Hybrid ss in the future.
Reivyn finally had time to sit down and examine all of his Notifications and gains. He examined his Status and ced his unassigned points in his Physical Stats. His Vitality was perfectly fine with plus seven each Level, but there was a huge difference between fourteen points per Level in Magic and two points per Level in Strength and Dexterity.
After assigning the points, all of his main Stats were over 500, except for rity and Perception, and they weren''t far off. It would only take four more Levels until they breached 500, as well, even without putting in any unassigned Stat points into them.
The vast majority of people who reach Tier 4, at least in the lower Tier Regions, will do so with an Umon ss, at best, Reivyn contemted. I can''t use that metric for these higher Tier Regions, though. I don''t know for sure, but I would guess most people would have the chance to reach Tier 5 in their lifetimes, but not Tier 6. So that would mean most people have abination of Umon or Rare in Tier 2 and 3, and Rare in Tier 4.
All of that spection to say that my Stats are mostly on par with the average low Level Tier 4. Talented people like Kefira and Seri, though, will have far higher Stats. I should be able topete against someone in the mid to high Tier 3''s.
That''s purely Stats, though. My Skills and Affinities have advanced considerably faster than my contemporaries. I don''t know what Level of Skills Kefira has, but I would guess that she''s only on par with me, currently, and I''ve lost three years of time. It''s unfortunate that that happened, but given enough time, I should shoot past even the most talented people in my peer group once again.
Not just my Skills, but my ss is Legendary even without forcing the transition to make it Mythic. From what I''ve gathered, the fact that my dad has a Legendary Tier 5 ss is just that, literally legendary. And I''ve achieved that at Tier 2.
Reivyn pulled up his Status Page.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Lvl 10
Fighter Age: 14 (20) Health: 5,450/5,450 (+310) Stamina: 10,460/10,460 (+410) Mana: 5,655/5,655 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 501 (+10) INT: 541 (+4) VIT: 545 (+31) MAG: 590 (+6) DEX: 500 (+10) CLA: 478 (+1) CHA: 149 (+1) PER: 477 (+1) LUK: 153 (+1)
Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 143,709/10,000,000,000
Experience: 87/5,200 Reivyn nodded his head at his Stats, satisfied with his growth. I lost about six Levels from not turning my Experience Siphon off. About 40,000 Experience got drained into my Bloodline, and the next six Levels would be 40,600 Experience.
Reivyn shook his head as he stood up. He exited his tent to the sight of hispany resting in the twilight. They had had a long day, especially for his First toon. He had given them the entire night off, not requiring them to post Fire Watch.
Thepany had traveled for another couple of hours, and he had the scouts keep a close watch on any movements from the enemy. They had reported dust clouds in the distance as they had spread their forces out to sweep in every direction from theirst contact. Either Reivyn''s magic hadn''t left any traces that could be found after several hours, or there were still no Mages capable of finding them with the search patrols.
Reivyn''s decision to obscure their tracks had worked out well, and they were nowhere close to locating hispany. Now we have the initiative.
ns and strategy filled Reivyn''s head as he walked to the meeting point for the nning of the supply raid. It was imperative that they secure some much-needed supplies for surviving in the desert. The other ns, in their infant stage, would have to wait.
"Alright, is everyone here?" Reivyn stepped into the firelight, with a couple of officers and squad leaders present for the meeting. There were seven people, other than Reivyn, present. Two of the squad leaders, Merrith and Rippo, were from Reivyn''s First toon, and Jekle was there as well.
Despite having been awake much longer than anyone else, the two squad leaders vouched that the men and women of their squads were higher level than the average, thus their Stamina could handle another expedition. Reivyn knew the Stats of his toon, and he knew they weren''t just blowing smoke. Rippo''s squad was the main halberdiers in the third squad, and Merrith''s squad was the specialized soldiers in the fifth squad.
This expedition could use people from the specialized squad, but they would be leaving their pikes and halberds behind. The other squads from the other toons were also from the fifth squads.
"Yes, sir," Jekle nodded his head.
"Good. Has everyone taken the time to eat and review their Notifications?"
Everyone nodded their heads.
"Then, let''s get to work."
Reivyn crept over the edge of the hill, observing the base camp below. They had traveled in three separate groups, approaching their target from different directions. They had moved along different routes than they had used to escape the noose the enemy had tried to entrap them with, but, because they were much smaller forces, they were able to move at a much faster speed.
Reivyn had set a pace that would cause them to pant with exertion without unduly draining their Stamina. They would have time to recover what they spent while they reconnoitered the base camp.
Reivyn focused his gaze, using his Night Vision in ordance with his Light Affinity to get a bright view of the target below. Smoke billowed up from craters in the ground, and the fortifications that his scout had told him about were demolished. He didn''t spy any prisoners or anyone who looked familiar, and the enemy force upying the base camp was still busy adding new defenses.
There were at least several thousand people in the base, and most of them were in little tents, resting. A couple hundred of the soldiers continued to dig ditches, build short walls, and observe the nearby terrain.
The base camp wasn''t in the worst position possible, like Captain Sanjin would have chosen, but it wasn''t in the best spot either. Reivyn, and his two other squads, had ess to hills that had higher elevations than the base, so they were able to peer down on it.
Reivyn had taken one squad to lead himself, and the other two squads, as he called them, were actually abination of the other squads from the toons.
Reivyn descended a bit down the hill, out of view of the enemies upying the base. He didn''t know the method to create the magic necessary for long-distancemunication, so he hade up with simple signals to give to the other two squads. Reivyn channeled his mana to create extremely tight beams of light, and he directed them toward the other two squads. The light didn''t disperse, and it was covered by the terrain.
He sent one, quick beam to each side, signaling for them to wait until further notice. The signals he hade up with were simple: 1 Beam to wait, 2 Beams to converge together on his location, 3 Beams to evacuate, and 4 Beams to execute their n. He didn''t want anythingplicated, so they kept it as simple as possible.
Their mission wasn''t to do any damage to the enemy''s defense. They were just going to sneak in, grab some storage pouches, and sneak out.
Reivyn had issued an order ofplete silence until they were long gone from the base, so he didn''t discuss his thoughts on the state of the base. It was clear to him that another surviving remnant of the battalion had either walked into the trap and fought their way free, taking the prisoners with them, or they had deliberately assaulted the base to free the prisoners. Either way, there were no longer any prisoners in the camp.
One less thing to worry about, Reivyn thought with relief. That was going to be the trickiest part of the n, much like the original n to free the civilians. Now that we don''t have to worry about that, it''ll be a lot easier to secure some supplies, as long as they''re still there. If not we''ll have to locate and steal some of theirs.
Reivyn sat back, having a scout keep watch from each of the locations so they didn''t get snuck up on, and they waited until the activity in the camp died down as they finished their fortifications and went to sleep. They weren''t going to be assaulting the enemy, so it didn''t matter if they had some simple defenses erected as long as they could sneak through.
After about an hour of twiddling his thumbs, Reivyn once more crested the hill to nce at the camp. The soundsing from it had lessened considerably over thest ten minutes, and he figured it was about time to make their move. He wanted to strike when they were the weariest and least observant, so they had to time it for when more people were asleep, and before the changing of the guard, if possible.
He peered down at the camp, and sure enough, there were far less people keeping watch of the surroundings. There were a couple of patrols with torches making their rounds around the perimeter, reminiscent of his time in the Lord''s Retinue. There were a couple of short towers erected on the corners, as well, and there were men on top of the towers. They didn''t have any actual, solid walls, and so there were no soldiers keeping watch atop them.
Reivyn continued to watch the watchers, trying to spot any weaknesses they could exploit. After several minutes, the man on the watchtower closest to them yawned before slouching down, resting against the railing.
Bingo, Reivyn thought. He waited until one of the outer patrols made their way across their path, and he descended back down to give the signal to sneak into the camp.
After verifying his other two squads began their movement with his brighter vision, Reivyn signaled for the squad following him to move out.
Reivyn had had the soldiers eschew their armor, and they had doused their clothes before rolling around in some mud. They had caked their clothes in dark dirt, and Reivyn had used his Mana to create lines and streaks in the caked-on mud in order to break up the outline their bodies would make. He instinctively knew, from his Dreams, that the strange clothing of his Dream-self had been intended to hide them from observing eyes.
The creation of the designs hadted Reivyn a new Skill.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 2:
Camouge (0 ->1)
Reivyn low-crawled with his squad across the open ground between the hill and the makeshift walls. There was no Skill, that Reivyn knew of, that governed one''s ability to crawl, but his Athleticism and, strangely, Bnce and Acrobatics Skills directly affected his speed and maneuverability. Reivyn had to hold himself back, though, or he would have quickly outpaced those following him.
He still took the lead and stayed out in front of everyone. They silently made their way to the wall, and Reivyn crouched down to assist the others with scaling the wall. Each squad had to operate independently at this point, and they would only converge to help run interference if an rm was raised.
Reivyn and the others already had locations in mind to check, from their memories of theyout of the camp when they had still been there, and Reivyn directed his squad to advance to the first location.
They tip-toed their way down the alleys, staying crouched down and avoiding any light sources. Reivyn''s Silent Step, Sure Step, and other Stealth rted Skills yed a crucial role in his ability to move quickly and silently. The other squad members clearly had lower Skill Levels, despite being selected for the fact that they had them at all.
Reivyn had warned the squads not to split up further once they had begun their mission, so Reivyn didn''t take advantage of his superior speed. He remained with his squad, leading them to the first ce to investigate.
As he had suspected, the enemy force didn''t change up theyout of the base camp, except for some minor differences where they had set up their tents and expanded the borders to amodate therger poption. They quickly found their first target, wagons set aside to hold physical supplies and storage satchels. The first location was a bust, though, as there was nothing remaining in the back of the wagon.
Reivyn shook his head to the squad members and immediately led them off to the next target: the tents nearby where the enemy might have moved the goods.
This was an opportunity where it was safe to split up a little bit. There were several tents nearby, and Reivyn had the squad break up into four groups. Three of the groups had three members, and he selected one other person to apany him. He deliberately chose the squad member with the lowest Stealth Skills, as he was just going to use him as his lookout as he snuck into the tent.
As the other three groups coordinated their efforts to silently enter the tents they had selected, Reivyn crouched through the opening of thergest tent, the p being held open by the lookout. He didn''t want to risk unnecessary movement and noise, so his partner would just hold it open as he stood outside, only letting it close after Reivyn backed out.
Reivyn scanned the interior of the tent. It was furnished more than he would have expected. Several pieces to make it more homey were strewn about the inside, and a many sleeping on a cot in the center of the tent. There was a foldup table and chair to the side, and Reivyn spotted a small mound of storage pouches gathered together behind the man.
Reivyn snuck his way around the man, careful not to jostle anything or make any noise. The man was lying on his side, turned away from Reivyn, and Reivyn gently moved around toward where the pouches were. It was pitch ck inside the tent, Reivyn using his Night Vision and Light Affinity to find his way, so he didn''t have to worry about casting a shadow over the man''s eyes. A change in the lighting, if the man was a light sleeper, would definitely stir him awake.
Reivyn reached the pouches in short order. He grabbed the one on the top and quickly inspected it. He nodded his head as he sensed the inside was filled with foodstuff and water skins. He didn''t bother checking any of the other pouches, as they had a time limit on their mission.
Reivyn attached several to his person, and then slowly made his way back to his partner keeping watch. He handed the bulk of them over, and then he headed back for more. He silently arrived, once more, and snagged several more pouches. He wouldn''t be able to steal all of them away, simply because he didn''t have enough room to carry them.
Out of curiosity, Reivyn nced over at the sleeping man. His girth was muchrger than the wild soldiers he had fought against already. Not only was he muchrger, but the nket he was sleeping under was clearly high-quality silk. Intrigued at the discrepancy, Reivyn nced at the man''s face, and he noticed that there was a "4" branded onto the man''s forehead.
This is one of the officers! Reivyn realized. ording to this man''s proximity to the supplies, he''s probably a logistics officer. Their higher authority has so far been fairlypetent, so if I eliminate this man, it might throw a wrench into their ability to project their strength.
Reivyn understood from his own Skills that there was a high possibility that the man would sense any hostile actions directed at him. Reivyn needed to strike him without alerting him to his presence. He had the Backstab Skill, which he assumed would work as a bonus to damage even if he wasn''t technically behind the man.
Reivyn attached the satchels to his belt and robes, and he sidled over to the sleeping man. His sword was strapped to his back to help him sneak around, but he had sought out a long dagger to strap to his side for exactly this kind of situation.
I''m not stabbing the man in the cot, Reivyn told himself. I''m stabbing the ground beneath the cot. There''s no hostile action involved.
Reivyn psyched himself up, convincing himself he wasn''t attacking someone, but that he was simply thrusting his dagger down into the ground.
Reivyn used his Meditation to calm his heartbeat and breathing, and after focusing on his intent, he swung his dagger down at the ground. The man''s throat just happened to be in the path of his dagger.
The dagger pierced into the man''s neck, and his eyes snapped open in rm. The man started to leap up, but Reivyn threw his body on top of him while simultaneously covering his mouth with his off-hand. The man was only able to groan in pain, and his eyes rolled about in panic as he tried to make sense of what was going on. Blood spurted out around the edge of the dagger, and Reivyn used his strength to sh his throat wide open.
The loss of blood pressure from the gaping hole had an immediate effect, and the man died in mere seconds. His Health pool, no matter howrge it could have been, yed almost no role in keeping him alive.
I never asked my dad how much damage a sh to the throat does, but it''s apparently substantial, Reivyn thought to himself as he cleaned the blood off of his dagger on the man''s silk sheets. It probably has devastating Health per second damage.
A Notification popped up in front of Reivyn''s vision as he sheathed his dagger.
New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Infiltration (0 ->1)
Tier 4:
Assassination (0 ->1)
Reivyn noted the contents of the messages, and then he dismissed them immediately. The mission had been aplished with a little bonus to damaging their logistics abilities.
Reivyn crouched back out of the tent, the lookout lowering the p, and they waited for the others to exit the tents they had searched. Everyone came out of the tents, several of them carrying new spatial pouches, but not everyone had something.
Reivyn nodded his head toward the wall, and he lead the squad back to the outskirts of the camp. They weren''t here to disrupt the enemy camp or steal all of their supplies. They had gotten far more than they had anticipated, based on the contents of the one pouch Reivyn had inspected, and the other two squads might have had sess, as well.
It was a simple matter to make their way back to the wall, wait for the patrol, and then scramble back out into the wild. Reivyn led the men in another crawl across the open field, not trusting that the observation posts were still as unobservant as they had been on their way in, and they sessfully made their way up and over the hill.
It was only a short whileter before Reivyn spotted the other two squads returning to their positions, and he gave the signal to evacuate. There was no point in chancing being discovered by converging together at this point, so Reivyn simply had them retreat along the routes they had previously chosen during the nning session.
Twenty minutester found the three squads once more merged together into one.
"We''ll inventory the storage pouches once we make it back to the base camp," Reivyn kept it short. "I''ll obscure our tracks on the return. Good job, everyone."
The supply raid had gone off without a hitch, and Reivyn was feeling more and more confident about using thepany to harass the enemy from doing any morerge expeditions. He obviously wouldn''t just keep the men out in the desert. Now that they had supplies, he would be able to confidently send a small, fast group off to deliver news to Oreck, and possibly other cities.
It would be a long, grueling campaign, but they only had to hold out until the reinforcements from Wispan that Kefira had already called for showed up. If they were lucky, Oreck and the other surrounding cities would mobilize based on the new information before Kefira''s older brother even arrived.
Chapter 120: Countermeasures
Chapter 120: Countermeasures
"Sir, we found something we think you should see," one of the soldiers informed Reivyn. Reivyn recognized the man. It was Jerzen, the first person Reivyn had sparred with when he tookmand of the toon.
Reivyn was in his tent, writing reports of what thepany had been through since the disastrous battle and retreat. There was nobody to send the reports to right now, but they would be necessary eventually. Reivyn had decided to go ahead and get the work done while he had some free time so that he could ensure that everyone got the credit they deserved. He would have the lieutenants and squad leaders make their own reports, as well, and he would cross-reference them to make sure nothing was left out.
"What is it, Jerzen?" Reivyn asked as he got up from his folding chair to follow the soldier out of his tent. Jerzen perked up at being addressed by name.
"There were some documents in one of the pouches we''re inventorying. Most of them are manifests, but there appear to be notes and maps, as well."
Reivyn and Jerzen rushed out of the tent and headed over to where the soldiers were pulling everything out of the supply satchels they had snagged. It wasn''t good enough to just sense the items in the pouches. Reivyn wanted the troops to see just how many supplies they actually had, and he made sure they kept a careful ount of everything present.
They didn''t have a supply chain leading back to Oreck, and they didn''t have a reliable way to secure additional food and gear other than raiding the enemy at this point. Their supplies were their lifeline. Reivyn had sent out a group of four fast runners with their own supplies, now that they had enough, to run back to Oreck to report the situation. Hopefully, they would be able to re-establishmunication and connect another supply line, but that would be in the future.
"What do we got?" Reivyn strode into the circle of men and women, meticulously inspecting the spatial pouches.
"Here," Jek handed over a sheaf of papers. "There''s a map with obvious supply routes and depots marked on it. There''s a lot more going on here than we thought."
Reivyn took the papers and flipped to the marked map. He unfurled it andid it out on a desk that had been set up for just this purpose. Reivyn''s eyes were immediately drawn to the lines connecting what were apparently several base camps of enemy armies. The map provided wasn''t just local, either. It painted a picture around the entire deste sands.
There weren''t as many cities on the scale of Kirlon around the deste sands, but that didn''t mean there weren''t any poption centers. From what Reivyn had gathered from the direction of that first additional army he had spotted on patrol, they also weren''t just attacking cities in the immediate area around the sands, either.
This is invaluable information, Reivyn thought. I was so focused on securing supplies that Ipletely neglected the opportunity to snoop for intelligence. We got lucky with this one. This is a good reminder that I''m not infallible.
Reivyn''s Mana Skills once more began to tick, trying to synergize together to inform Reivyn of something. He still wasn''t quite able to grasp it, but he began to put pieces together.
The enemy horde ispletely barbaric, Reivyn surmised. They don''t operate in a methodical, military manner. Instead, they''re like raving lunatics.
There was a connection to the Abyss in the depths of the caverns in the deste sands, and the Spider Matriarch, if that''s who it was in that Boss Dungeon, was clearly tainted by Abyssal Mana.
Are they connected to the Abyss somehow? Are they trying to make a connection with the portal?
"I think I have some preliminary ideas," Reivyn said after a moment. "That will be for the Generals to think about, though. What we need to focus on, for now, are these supply lines and depots." Reivyn pointed to a particr spot on the edge of the map that had several lines leading off to army encampments, but there were no other connections other than that. It was outside of the circle that was drawn, surrounding the deste sands. "What''s this? Anyone have an idea?"
"Ahem," Lieutenant Laris cleared his throat, exchanging looks with the other officers. "It''s only spection, of course, but we believe this is the entry point to the Region."
"If the brands on their heads really indicate the Tier of Region they''re from, and you''ve mentioned seeing a ''4'' brandst night, then they have toe from a neighboring empire," Lieutenant Grent added. "The only problem with that is, this Kingdom isn''t on the border of the Wispan Empire. They would have had to travel across multiple, multiple Tier 1 and 2 Regions to get here.
"There''s no way they would have made it all the way here, sacked several cities, and set up this borate operation without being spotted ahead of time."
"We believe this is a long-range teleportation circle," Jek said. "They''ve obviously been nning this attack for a long time. If I had to guess, they had some high-Level Mages infiltrate the Wispan Empire, and they had them travel all the way out here to set this portal up ahead of time."
"I see," Reivyn tapped the map with his finger as he thought. "Alright. That is priority number one. We have to figure out if that''s the case or not, and if it is, we have to destroy it. As long as that teleportation circle exists, they have an infinite supply line and infinite reinforcements.
"Everything that we n will be geared toward that number one goal. Continue with the inventory for now. Make a copy of the map and anything else you think is important, and we''ll all review them on our own time. When Lieutenant Morrin gets back from his patrol with his toon from the otherpany, make sure he gets a copy.
"On that note, make sure the men are always doing something. Once we get through the inventory, have the toons rotate on doing drill and exercise. Rest is important, and we''ll get plenty of that, but we don''t want to get rusty, either."
"Yes, sir!" The officers saluted and returned to their tasks.
Reivyn returned to his tent to continue his reports as he waited for the copies to be made. Despite the difficulties they had faced, morale in thepany was actually high. Giving the men tasks to focus on would prevent them from stewing on the debacle of the failed mission and their current circumstances of being separated from the battalion.
The copies of the maps and other documents arrived several minutester, and Reivyn put his reports to the side. He focused his attention on the map and kept notes about what he felt would be good strike points on the enemy supply lines. He cross-referenced the timetables provided in the notes from the deceased logistics officer, as well as the distances involved.
The ticking from his Mana Skills once more intensified, and Reivyn had to stop looking at the map with a military, strategic eye. He sat back and frowned as he tried to let the Skills form together as he stared at the map.
He picked the map up on a whim, walked to the wall of his tent, and pinned it in ce. He sat back down and stared at the lines drawn around the deste sands.
Looking at it like this, it''s almost like it''s a Spell Pattern... Reivyn stroked his chin. If these lines are weaves, and these depots are knots...
New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Decipher (0 ->1)
Tier 4:
Runes (0 ->1)
Suddenly everything came together in Reivyn''s mind. The Mana Skills synergized and extrapted data that he hadn''t learned before, and he recognized what was going on.
It''s a giant Spell matrix! Reivyn was enlightened. It is connected with the Abyss somehow. They''re creating this giant Spell in the desert, and they needed manpower to draw the weaves of the Runes. They''re not invading in the traditional sense. They''re just killing two birds with one stone. They don''t want the locals to interfere with their mission, and they need people to do the work, so they just took the people!
It doesn''t really change anything for us. There''s no telling what their goal actually is or what the ramifications will be if they seed. But at least we might be able to stop them now that we know what they''re doing out here.
Reivyn quickly grabbed another sheet of paper to write his conjecture down. He wanted everything fresh in his mind after the epiphany. He wrote out two copies of his thoughts.
I''ll keep one copy to go with my reports, but I need to get this information sent out to the higher-ups as soon as possible.
Reivyn stuck his head out of his tent and motioned for a passing soldier to get Lieutenant Jek for him. Reivyn only had to wait a short moment before his friend came running over. Reivyn handed him a sealed envelope containing his hypothesis.
"I think I''ve figured out what they''re doing out here," Reivyn said. Jek''s eyebrows rose to the top of his head as he took the envelope. "This is important information, and it needs to get to Oreck as soon as possible. I know we already sent out a group to inform them of what''s happened to us, but we need to send another runner to either try and catch up or to get to Oreck on their own.
"Pick a few suitable people, and send them with this missive."
"Yes, sir!" Jek saluted and rushed off to get the mission aplished.
Four people in the initial group sent off, and another four people sent off with this new information... Reivyn stroked his chin in thought. Eight people shouldn''t hinder us, and their missions are imperative.
Now that I''m no longer being bugged about the Spell matrix every time I look at the map, it''s time to make some ns.
Reivyn marched alongside the volunteers of First toon. The nights in the desert were never as dark as they were in his home Region, as there was rarely any overcast. The stars and moon shown brightly upon the ground, and the toon made their way across the terrain in silence.
There was no glinting off of the metallic armor the soldiers adorned. One of the supplies they had confiscated, for some reason, had been paint. Reivyn had ordered all of the soldiers of thepany to paint over their armor in the camouge patterns designed to break up one''s outline. Dulling the sheen of the metal was an added bonus.
Even Reivyn sometimes had a hard time spotting scouts returning to give their reports. One such man was walking alongside Reivyn, doing just that.
"Just like the schedule stated, there''s an enemy toon just on the other side of that ridge," the scout pointed forward and off to the side. There was a steep teau that would be difficult for the entire toon to climb in short order without making a racket.
"Good," Reivyn nodded. He dismissed the scout back to the toon and turned to address Jekle and Paul. "Have the first four squads get into position just on this side of that hill. I''ll take the fifth squad up the cliff with me. Remember, have the men cover their faces until I give the signal."
"Yes, sir!" The two men saluted and turned to obey the Command.
Reivyn gathered with the fifth squad, and they silently rushed to the cliff face. Each of the members of the fifth squad could be considered an irregr, and they had a wider Skill set than the main fighters of the toons. They took out ropes with grappling hooks, and they tossed them up to secure them against some rocks and boulders on top of the cliff.
Reivyn ascended the teau with the other ten people, and they low-crawled to the far side to peer down on the advancing toon. The structure of the enemy army wasn''t the same as Oreck''s. The enemy toon consisted of 100 men, whereas Reivyn''s toon had 50. Most of those people would be the fodder soldiers with 1''s branded on their foreheads, though.
If the "4''s" are in charge of the armies and overall logistics, then it makes sense that there would be "3''s" at the battalion and/orpany level, Reivyn surmised. I doubt we''ll run into any "3''s" in this toon.
Reivyn watched the enemy soldiers as they continued to march closer to Reivyn''s toon, lying in wait. They were very specifically not "Marching," as they were more a disorganized mob than anything else. The member of the fifth squad reallocated the ropes they had used to climb the short teau by tying them to rocks on this side of the ledge, but they didn''t toss the ropes down just yet.
Reivyn had ordered the toon to cover their faces, and he also ordered the soldiers from the fifth squad to follow suit. He waited until the enemy was almost to the edge of the teau, ready to step out in front of his waiting men, when heunched the signal.
The signal was a giant, extremely bright orb that he manifested directly in front of the enemy toon. It shown down on them, and its sudden appearance caused them all to reel back and exim in shock. Reivyn had the orb descend to just over their heads before he detonated it in a loud boom. The sound and brightness of the Spell caused the enemy to lose their sense of sight and sound temporarily, and that was the signal for his men to charge out.
The fifth squad leapt to their feet and began pelting them with arrows as the main infantry advanced on their position, and Reivyn joined them by hurling more Spells down from his vantage.
The first four squads of the toon crashed into the disoriented soldiers. The enemy put up little resistance at first, but Reivyn could tell the back rows were slowly regaining their ability to function.
"Come on!" Reivyn Commanded the fifth squad.
Reivyn and the men flung the ropes over the edge, and they rappelled down the cliff. They gained their feet and charged at the back line of the enemy toon. Reivyn used his Elemental Weapon Skill, but he didn''t infuse it with anything shy. He didn''t want the light of his Spells to blind his own men. He simply infused the Sharpness Affinity, and his sword sliced through enemies with ease.
The battle onlysted a few minutes, and Reivyn and the fifth squad soon found themselves meeting up with the soldiers of the first four squads.
"Another wless victory," Reivynmended the troops. "Mop up!"
The soldiers of the toon went about making sure all of the enemy soldiers were actually dead, and after confiscating the supply pouches from some of the ones with "2''s" branded on their heads, they dug another grave and deposited the bodies.
"Let''s go. We need to meet up with Third toon and get to our next destination as soon as possible," Reivyn Commanded.
The toon once more formed up and Marched off, the scouts sent out to prevent any surprises. A Notification popped up in Reivyn''s vision as they stepped out.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Ambush (0 ->1)
"Why don''t any of them ever surrender?" Jekle muttered under his breath.
"They seem like they''re brainwashed or something," Reivynmented. Jekle looked over at hismanding officer, a question on his face. "They don''t stop to think, they don''t use any kind of tactics, and they never quit." Reivyn ticked the points off on his fingers. "Sounds like fanatics to me."
"Yes, sir, I guess you''re right," Jekle sighed. "It just doesn''t sit right with me, all of this death. It''s like they don''t care about their lives. I feel like we care more about their lives than they do."
"That''s a good thing," Reivyn said, pping Jekle on the shoulder.
"Sir?"
"Think about it. If you ever get to the point where you don''t care about the lives of your enemies, you''ll eventually turn into the monster you fight. It''s hard, too, when they don''t give us any other choice. We have to stay strong in our moral beliefs in the face of such actions. If, one day, you find yourself in another war with different people who do surrender, but you''re so used to killing everyone to thest man, you might not even realize they''ve surrendered.
"So don''t ever stop thinking about their lives, and don''t ever embrace the emotions of unfeeling for them. Stare into the Abyss, and the Abyss stares back." Reivyn hadn''t meant to utter thatst sentence, but it seemed like Jekle didn''t pick up on the deeper meanings behind the words. He just nodded his head as he continued to contemte.
Jekle moved back to his position in front of the toon alongside Paul, and Reivyn Marched to the side of the formation. Jekle might be more experienced in life in general, but the man, along with everyone else in the volunteer army, didn''t have any experience withbat and killing. Reivyn''s experiences and Dreams ensured that he was the wise one when it came to matters of warfare.
The strategy that Reivyn and his officers hade up with was equal parts safe and dangerous. It was quite daring for their situation. Reivyn recognized that the teleportation portal would be heavily guarded, so they needed to draw the defenders away. The entire scale of the enemy operation was huge, though, so they needed to create a good reason for them to do so.
They had decided to split thepany in two and go in two different directions. They wouldn''t wait for the eight troops sent to deliver messages to return. Reivyn''s First toon and the Third toon moved north toward the hub they suspected was the teleportation circle. They weren''t making a beeline, and they weren''t nning on tackling it right away on their own. Reivyn needed to verify the situation, and he wanted to be there in person toy eyes on it.
The second, fourth, and additional toons moved out to follow the edge of the eastern border of the deste sands to the south. They wouldn''t immediately strike at the supply lines on the way, and they were given more of the supplies they had secured from the raid to ount for that. They would travel to the far side of the deste sands and begin wreaking havoc on the enemy over there.
Reivyn had split thepany up in such a manner because he trusted Jek''spetence more than any of the other lieutenants, and he was the Second toon Commander. That wasn''t to say that Reivyn didn''t have trust in his officers, just that he knew howpetent Jek was for sure.
The two groups of toons would travel together most of the time, but they would further split into individual toons to raid multiple supply lines at the same time. They wouldn''t keep a permanent base to return to, and they would have to build and move an outpost every time they stopped to rest.
Once Reivyn''s toons verified the information regarding the teleportation circle, they would loop around to the northwest of the deste sands and do the same thing over there. The entire strategy was to iste the armies that were already out there and starve them out. If they ever ran into a situation where it was feasible to rescue any civilians, they would try to do so, but that was no longer their priority.
It was clear that there was more than just the poption of Kirlon that had been uprooted from their homes. Disrupting the supply chain would inevitably put a strain on the civilian poption as well, but there wasn''t much more Reivyn could do about it with his current military strength. They had to destroy the mechanism they received more food and troops from if there was to be any hope of stopping them.
The n was very risky, especially since not only did they not have anymunication devices, but even if they did, the distances involved would make it a moot point. It had taken Reivyn and Kefira''s Party days to walk out of the deste sands, and that had been in a straight line. The target of the enemy wasn''t a circle by any means, but if looked out from a far enough distance, it was basically the same thing. The caves that housed the Lizaldons and cave spiders were located very close to the center.
The First toon Marched another couple of hours through the night, not running into any other enemy forces or armies. They eventually met up with the Third toon, led by Lieutenant Laris, and they grouped back together to find a ce to hole up for the day. For the foreseeable future, they would be operating at night and resting during the day.
"Have any sess?" Reivyn asked Lieutenant Laris as they Marched together.
"Yeah," Laris nodded his head. "They were exactly where the map said they would be, at the exact time it said they would be there. Like clockwork. Whenever it involves the ns of people with higher-numbered brands, the strategy, tactics, and execution are amazing, honestly. If their lower toons consisted of these morepetent people, then there would be no way to win."
"We''d find a way," Reivyn said. "There''s always a way."
Chapter 121: Interlude: Team Refix and the Regal Twins
Chapter 121: Interlude: Team Refix and the Regal Twins
A piercing beam came screaming out of the dark corridor, forcing Refix to hastily duck down to avoid the sneak attack. His ethereal weapons were swirling about, keeping the horde of little blue monsters at bay, but the sneak attack was timed to perfectly thread through the tiny gap between the surrounding weapons with extreme precision.
"Teilon!" Refix called over his shoulder. "You''re up! Time to show us what you''ve learned." The beam was actually the afterimage from a small stone that had beenunched by an enemy ambushing in the distance, and it was Teilon''s mission to counterattack.
Teilon nodded his head as he turned to face the wall leading into the corridor. The area beyond the wall was a maze of twisting paths, guarded by hulking monstrosities. The giant ogres weren''t intelligent, per se, but they were perfectly built forbat. They were stupid to the max, but their instincts were impable. They could seize opportunities in a sh just based on their reflexes that would pass even high Tier 4 ssers by without them even noticing them.
Refix wasn''t too worried about the situation. The entire point of the delve was to take the hard lumps of solid foundation that he had been building in Teilon and Kimberly for years and polish them into the sparkling gems he knew they could be. Despite consistentlygging behind his own son, Reivyn, when they were together, it was undeniable that Teilon and Kimberly were actually extremely talented individuals who had also gotten a lucky break with their conscription.
Refix and his team brought them into the Dungeon they had an ess key to in order to mature their training. They had started off by just letting them participate in some simple fights on the higher floors against the Tier 3 enemies that swarmed the ce, but Refix had decided it was time to throw them into the waters. He wasn''tpletely crazy, though, and he was just letting them get their feet wet first. They had upgraded from stepping in a puddle to wading in a pool.
Refix and his team engaged the horde of blue goblins, a considerably more advanced version than the green ones found in the Tier 1 regions. They were still dumb and violent like their cousins, not ever stopping to consider whether simply charging an enemy was a good idea or not, but they were low Tier 4 instead of Tier 1.
The floors of the Dungeon contained monsters in descending order from where you could expect to encounter them. The first ten floors of The Descent, floor six being their current location, contained mutated monsters found in Tier 1 Regions: goblins, orcs, and ogres; and there were hundreds of them.
The next ten floor contained the mutated versions of monsters that could be found in many Tier 2 Regions: ratmen, kobolds, and owlbears. Those monsters were upgraded to Tier 5, getting higher and higher Level within the Tier the further one went down.
Before Reivyn had disappeared, Refix''s Party had only been able to reach the 17th floor before having to turn back. Refix had never stopped delving the Dungeon, though, and Ameliyn had once more started going with him when the girls were in school, and they had managed to finally pierce beyond the 19th floor and reach the area containing the Tier 3 mutated monsters.
The third zone of ten floors contained lizaldons, snakemen, and dust devils. Each floor, and Region, followed the same kind of pattern: Swarms of non-sentient, humanoid monsters that were considered the Region''s "nuisance" monsters, and they were barely considered sentient. The next step up would be more organized monsters that were sentient but not sapient. And thest type of monster would be a strong brute-type, ones that were often enved by the middle-tier, sentient monsters.
The dust devils weren''t swirling, mini-tornados like the name would imply. They were horrifying monsters formed of loose sand or dirt that could blend in with any desert environment and wait for their prey to let themselves get surrounded before they gathered together into giant, horned monstrosities bent on extinguishing all warm-blooded life. They had a hard time detecting the life signatures of cold-blooded creatures, so they didn''t harass the lizaldons or snakemen of the Regions.
The snakemen were unable to control them like the previous two Tiers of Regions'' sentient monsters, but they had learned to make their nests nearby, using them as a kind of defensive measure for anyone that they could either lure to their doom, or those that were seeking them out to eliminate them.
These monsters weren''t just found in desert regions, either. They were the main monsters found in most Tier 3 Regions. There were different variants of them depending on the climate of the Region they were found in, though.
Refix and his Party had only briefly encountered the mutated versions of those monsters. Refix was strong enough, individually, to push further, but one of the mainstays of his ss was teamwork and leadership. He was the Embodiment of Righteousness, and he stood strong against the pressing threats. He also helped build up those around him.
It wasn''t just because Reivyn was his son that he worked so hard in helping develop his Skills. It was his nature. Likewise, he wouldn''t abandon hispanions to delve further into the Dungeon alone. He would make sure they could follow him every step of the way.
Teilon continued walking toward the wall without slowing. Instead of slinking into the shadows to try and sneak his way down the hallway where the mutated ogre was waiting, he simply walked right through the wall. His unique experience in the Revenant Dungeon where he had been possessed by the Spectre that phased him through the pir hadn''t just opened up a variant Tier 2 ss. It had unlocked an entire branch of sses, culminating in his Tier 4 ss, Spectral Walker. His unique Skill Set, with his earlier training in Stealth and Sneak Attack Skills, had allowed him to develop into an infiltration expert.
"Kimberly, standby," Refix turned his head and called out to Teilon''s fiance. Kimberly nodded her head and walked up to the spot where Teilon had just phased through the wall.
While Teilon had continued down the path of the rogue, expanding on his abilities to move and reach inessible ces, Kimberly had continued down the path of the vanguard. Despite having the frame of a fairly petite youngdy, her Skills and Stats ensured that she was apact juggernaut. She wasn''t decked out in extremely heavy armor from head to toe like Refix''spanion, though. Her experiences with medium and light armor, and dancing about the battlefield, had led her down a path of an Evasion expert.
She could take a hit, but that wasn''t how she operated. Teilon''s maneuverability and unpredictability synergized extremely well with Kimberly''s Shimmer Spear ss. Teilon wasn''t just able to phase through solid walls. Ever since he had unlocked his Mana Skills at reaching Tier 4, he had gained the ability to do short teleports.
Kimberly would hold the attention of the enemies, not just because she was in their face with her spear, but her Dancing had a unique Charm to it all their own. Her ss also provided her with a superior, intrinsic increase in her Charisma Stat. The glinting of light off of her armor and weapons, as well as the twirling and rhythmic movements of her Dance, enraptured the enemies, even if they were of the less-than-sentient variety.
Kimberly would sway about the battlefield, moving about in her own chaotic order, and Teilon, after years of practicing together, was able to appear and disappear at random, always aiming for the perfect time and ce tond an unexpected strike on the enemy.
Refix had seen countless iterations of Kimberly attracting the attention of any enemy with Teilon waiting in the background to strike. He was testing their ability to switch it up in this particr instance. A Tier 4 mutated Ogre would have been a bit difficult for Kimberly to engage in with their traditional method, but if Teilon was able to bypass its defenses and critically wound it, first, they would be able to gain the upper hand safely.
Refix had intentionally brought them to an intersection in The Descent where he knew there was one of these ogres waiting to ambush a Party that was engaged with the blue goblin horde roaming about in front of the maze. Refix and his teammates were acting as if they were just slightly superior to the Tier 4 blue goblins, around the same level as Teilon and Kimberly, and he hoped that the added pressure of the scenario would focus the two younger delvers.
A roar, quickly followed by a higher-pitched yip, came from down the hall.
"Go, go, go!" Refix Commanded.
Kimberly leapt out from her hiding spot and charged down the hallway. Refix followed at a distance where he could observe her and Teilon''s fight without interfering, dragging the little blue menaces trying to reach him along with him.
Kimberly charged at a blue ogre facing Teilon with an enraged look on its face. She leapt forward, careful to not overextend herself, and pierced it in the side with her spear. The ogre was about to ignore the second fly that had shown up to bother it, continuing its attack on Teilon, but Teilon suddenly disappeared from its vision. Kimberly took the opportunity to prick its thick hide several more times as it looked back and forth for its first target. It quickly lost all thoughts about Teilon and focused on Kimberly.
Refix nodded his head as Kimberly began her deadly dance with the foe, twirling about and distracting it with her Charm Dance. The glinting of the metallic armor and weapons didn''t just help to hold its attention, but it also distracted it in a way where it miscalcted where to swing its giant, spiked club. Kimberly danced about the corridor, always moving her body just the right distance to avoid any attacks haphazardlyunched her way. Teilon popped in and out, slicing and stabbing with his long daggers.
Another roar came from the end of one of the branching corridors in the maze, and a second ogre came charging down the hall. Teilon popped up in front of it, swinging low to trip the monster, causing it to copse and roll several feet down the hall. Teilon took the opportunity to descend on it, leaving long gashes in its neck and stab wounds in its joints. The vitality of a mutated ogre was tremendous, however, and he wasn''t able to deliver a fatal blow in such short order.
The ogre leapt to its feet and swung its spiked club at Teilon. Teilon hopped back, disappearing into the wall, and the spiked club smashed into the wall where he had been. Arge dent, with long fissures extending out of the small crater, was left in the wake of the blow.
Teilon re-materialized on the other side of Kimberly, and another short hop allowed him to pop out once more right behind a third ogre rushing around a different corner. His dagger bit deep into its kidney, and it howled in pain. Before it could turn and swipe at Teilon, he once more moved back to the first enemy that he and Kimberly had engaged.
Kimberly confused the first ogre enough to cause it to way overextend, its spiked club smashing into the ground from an overhead attack, and Kimberly thrust her spear deep into its throat. Teilon materialized next to her, and he crossed her stab with one of his own from the other direction. Blood fountained out of the ogre''s neck, and it copsed forward onto the ground, dead.
Kimberly didn''t miss a beat as the second ogre charged over, and she once more captured its attention with her deft movements. The third ogre quickly joined the fray, but it didn''t faze Kimberly at all. Not only was she still able to easily avoid the devastating attacks directed her way, but she was able to smoothly integrate the body of the first ogre into her dodging.
She rolled over the corpse at one point, and a club pierced into the thick skin of the deceased ogre, getting momentarily caught. Teilon had blown through a lot of his Mana pool with all of the quick teleportations he had done, but that didn''t mean he didn''t still have his more basic abilities to move in and out of a fight to strike at opportunities. He used the small dy to move in andcerate the ogre''s back and jab at its knees.
Refix was extremely pleased with the performance of the two youths, and he nodded his head when Teilon quickly identified the intrusion of otherbatants and quickly dealt initial damage to them to reduce theirbat efficiency. The battle against the remaining two ogressted another couple of minutes, but they ultimately fell to the umted damage caused by the duo.
Once they were done, and he no longer heard the sounds ofbating from behind him, Refix quit ying around with the blue goblins, and his ethereal arsenal chopped them into bits.
"Fantastic work, you two," Refix pped his hands as his other teammates walked up to the trio. "I do believe it''s time to incorporate the two of you into the actual group fights. We''ll keep it slow and steady so that you can build a betterbat rapport with the team, but it''s definitely earned. I think you''ll start to see your stagnated Skills once more begin to increase, and your contributions will you additional Experience from the delves."
"About time!" Teilon said, throwing his head back in relief. "I feel like I''ve been training since the day I could walk!"
"Who said we''re done training?" Refix gave Teilon a confused look, one that expressed, "you must be out of your mind."
"Not done training?" Teilon eximed in exasperation. Kimberly nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, a smirk on her face.
"Training is never done," Refix grinned. "Now you just have to work for real, too.
"C''mon, let''s go."
Teilon sighed to the chuckles of the other Party members as they shuffled off deeper into the maze.
"Mom, look!" Kailey eximed, getting Ameliyn''s attention.
Ameliyn looked up to see her daughter stride into the living room wearing a ck leather dress. Despite the materials used, the dress was flowing and flexible just like one made from the finest cloth. Ameliyn watched as her daughter twirled, the skirt shooting out around her, and her eye''s widened as she hastily threw up a Mana Shield to block Wind des that shot out with the spinning skirt.
Ameliyn was about to shout in outrage, anticipating the destruction of her fine living room from the unexpected Spell, when the Mana was sucked across the room toward her other daughter, Riley, as she waltzed into the room behind her sister. She held a folded fan in her hand, and the Mana was sucked into the instrument, umting in Ameliyn''s sight along the ridges of the implement. Riley opened the fan, and the Mana from the Wind des dispersed into a refreshing breeze as she fanned herself with it.
"Do you think brother will like this fan?" Riley asked Ameliyn, her and Kailey''s eyes clear and bright.
Their innocent expressions couldn''t hide the wicked glint of mischief sparkling in the corner of their eyes, though, and Ameliyn''s mouth formed a line of displeasure.
"How many times do I have to tell the two of you, no magic in the house?!" Ameliyn reprimanded.
Riley and Kailey shared a mirthful look before they burst out inughter. They both skipped over to the couch and sat down on either side of the couch, inviting their mother to join them by sitting in the center. Ameliyn rolled her eyes and obliged, lowering herself onto the couch. Riley and Kailey giggled as they each grabbed an arm to hug to themselves.
"You didn''t answer the question!" Riley used, swaying Ameliyn''s arm back and forth.
"And not just the fan," Kailey added, swaying the other arm. "Do you think he''ll like the clothes we''ve sewn?"
The two twins had continued to refine their magical crafting abilities over the years. Not only were they more potent, but the attributes they could ascribe to their creations had greatly diversified to the point where they had actual magical abilities all on their own, as clearly shown by their newest additions.
Gone were the vague attributes. Ameliyn wouldn''t be surprised if Kailey''s dress not only could execute Wind des from twirling, but could also shoot lightning bolts out of the buttons. She suspected that the dress also contained Stat increases that would put Reivyn''s magic armor to shame. She surreptitiously spied theplicated runic weaves incorporated with the thread running all through the dress.
Riley''s fan had not only sucked in the wind des conjured by Kailey, but Ameliyn had also felt a tug on her own Mana Shield, as well. It wasn''t strong enough to wrest control away from her, but she didn''t know if that was because Riley hadn''t put much effort in, or if the fan was too weak to do so, still. She wouldn''t have been surprised if Riley had actually been capable of sucking her own Mana away as well. She had acted in haste and hadn''t established anything truly solid, after all.
"Your brother would be over the moon to get anything made by the two of you," Ameliyn answered. "Those new pieces are quite impressive. Is there a specific reason you made them?"
"They were part of our entrance project to the Magic Academy," Kailey said.
"I know we still have close to eight months before we can officially enroll, but we should be Tier 2 long before then," Riley said.
The two girls were preparing to gain entrance into the Quron Magic Academy. Refix and Ameliyn had basically epted Teilon and Kimberly into their family as godchildren, and they had moved along with them as they had advanced from the Tier 1 Knight Academy all the way to the Tier 4 Knight Academy in the Quron Empire.
They were beyond the initial three years required to graduate from the Academy, but they had been selected to advance once again for post-graduate training. It was considerably more difficult to secure a quota position for post-graduate training even from the students of the Quron Academy, much less from the Academies located in Pernius.
It was a testament to Refix''s nurturing, as well as Teilon and Kimberly''s natural talent and effort.
Ameliyn had been slightly apprehensive about the Tier 1 sses her two daughters would unlock. They weren''t particrly trying to hide their status, but it was always better to not have to answer questions if they didn''t have to. Reivyn had skipped right over the problem when he had been conscripted.
Ameliyn wouldn''t have been surprised if Kailey and Riley had simply unlocked the Common Citizen Tier 1 ss, but she was equal parts apprehensive and expectant that they would unlock the Rare Princess Tier 1 ss, as she had.
That wasn''t what had happened, though. Something that she had never heard of, nor could she have anticipated, had urred.
Both of the girls had unlocked Regal Artificer.
And it was Epic.
As far as Ameliyn knew, like everyone else in existence, it was literally impossible to get a higher Rarity than Rare in Tier 1 and 2 without manipting the System in a simr manner to how Reivyn had. Nobody had an intrinsically Epic Tier 1 ss. Not only that, but it indicated it wasn''t a simple introductory ss. Every Tier 1 ss, until the twins, was just a representation of a nk te dependent more on their parents'' status than their own.
Ameliyn and Refix had been prepared to shoulder any questions about their daughters being Princesses, but they were not prepared for the storm that would follow the revtion of the existence of an Epic Tier 1.
Ameliyn had used her connections to send a message to Josn, asking him to petition the Church of Light to help the sister of a "Friend of the Church." Josn hadn''t let them down, and without even asking the reasons why, he had leveraged his reputation in the Church that he had been able to develop since the Dungeon Break to get them a meeting with the Cardinal of the Quron Cathedral.
They had beenpletely upfront about their entire life experience with the Cardinal. They knew that they couldn''t fib or obfuscate anything, anyway, and they would get a much more favorable impression if they just volunteered the truth.
The Cardinal had been stoic throughout the story, having lived the majority of his life in a Tier 4 Region himself, but even he had been shocked at the final revtion. He had told them that he needed to pray to Mierna for the right answer, and Ameliyn and Refix had been nervous about what that could have meant.
Their nervousness, however, wasn''t needed. The Cardinal, even though he was extremely politically savvy, was a true believer. When he had said he needed to pray, he had meant it literally. A weekter, two pendants had been delivered to their residence with his greetings. Ameliyn had been relieved to find that the pendants had a transcendent obfuscation Spell attached to them.
Anyone with an Observation or Identify Skill, and all magical devices of simr nature, below a Skill Level of 110 wouldn''t be able to pierce the shroud. The pendants would simply disy that the girls were Rare Nobles, a not-unheard of ss for recently deposed Royalty.
The two parents had had one worry alleviated, but now they were worried that their daughters would b the truth to their friends. They had broken out of their little twin-bubble a long time ago, and they had developed into quite the little socialites. Ameliyn and Refix had once more no need to be worried, though, as it turned out that the girls almost exclusively talked about Reivyn to their friends.
That had brought a sad smile to Ameliyn''s face when she had discovered it. She still had the soul stone, now half-white and half-ck, to reassure her of her son''s continued existence, but it had been so long since she had held her little boy, much less seen him.
It had been a tense time when Reivyn''s soul stone had continued to darken over the years. Ameliyn had once more been on edge and frantic with worry until it had finally stopped changing and the little orbs within therger soul stone had begun to move about in perfect harmony with each other. That change had only happened a few weeks ago, but after nothing else had happened, Ameliyn was finally able to calm down. She couldn''t imagine what her son had gone through to elicit such a strange change in his soul.
Ameliyn was about to continue the topic of the uing admissions for her girls when the front door mmed open and Refix came sprinting inside. Teilon and Kimberly followed him inside in a more orderly manner, but she could practically see their bodies vibrating with pent-up energy. Ameliyn frowned at her husband as he rushed into the house.
"This is highly improper..." Ameliyn began to rebuke Refix for acting like a child, but she stopped short when she saw the huge grin on his face.
"There''s been word of Reivyn!" He sped Ameliyn''s hands in his own. Kailey and Riley gasped beside her as Ameliyn''s heart began to pound. It felt like Refix was taking an eternity to continue his message, though it had only been literally one second.
"Hurry! Tell me!" Ameliyn practically shouted, impatient for her husband to continue. Refix was unfazed, and he didn''t even pause at the outburst from his wife.
"The Headmaster of the Garoq Magic Academy received a System Notification informing him of an official Transfer of Reivyn to the Tier 4 Wispan Magic Academy!"
"That''s fantastic news!" Ameliyn leaped off the couch into her husband''s arms, hugging him tightly. They stayed like that for a moment before Ameliyn calmed down and pulled back, a frown on her face. "But, where''s Wispan?''
"I have no idea!" Refix replied, the grin still on his face.
Chapter 122: Harsh Discipline
Chapter 122: Harsh Discipline
Kefira rubbed her temples as she reviewed the map on her table. She sat with her elbows on either side of the parchment, her hair hanging down on either side of her face. The map contained the estimated locations of enemy forces as well as the locations of skirmishes and battles they had had since the first debacle.
Reivyn made it seem so easy to read a map, Kefira thought. I have the Skill, granted, not very high, but I have a hard time visualizing what the lines on the page mean in person. Reivyn could nce at a map and just know what it looks like.
Kefira wasn''t bad at reading a map, but she was still just a beginner. She could tell what was what and form a bird''s eye view in her mind, but that didn''t mean she could see what it would look like from the ground. She was quite embarrassed the first time she led the remnants of the battalion to a cliff face that was too steep to climb easily.
After that little incident, she had taken a step back from micromanaging the soldiers. They didn''t need it anymore by that time, as hermand had been securely established. An antidote had been quickly found for the Major, and he had fully recovered. Kefira left the details of running the battalion to him and the other officers, and she worked on the overall strategy.
That still meant she had to stare at maps, and so far the strategy had meant not getting caught by an overwhelming force.
Kefira had led the soldiers back to the base camp in the hopes that she would be able to meet up with the rest of the fractured battalion. The otherpanies that had been closer to Reivyn''s had managed to get the message and meet up with them, but Reivyn''spany was nowhere in sight.
She and the others were happy, at first, when they spotted the base camp and the battalion became mostly whole again, but that was when the second hammer dropped.
The base camp had been taken by another enemy force, and the soldiers who had remained behind were taken captive.
With more than one enemy army behind them and an unknown number still roaming about the desert, Kefira had made the decision to immediately assault the base camp. The mission was to hit it as hard and fast as possible, get the captives and whatever supplies they could manage, and get out. They were never going to stay at the camp in the first ce, but this was proof that the enemy had far more military intelligence and manpower than they had assumed, even in the worst-case scenarios.
There were sixpanies total in the battalion: five volunteerpanies, and one regrpany. The regr soldiers had been ced in the center of the formation, and, in hindsight, that was probably why they had been targeted by that final, devastating Spell. Less than half of the regrpany had survived the st, and Reivyn''spany was absent, so Kefira had four and a halfpanies of about 200 soldiers each under hermand.
The nearly thousand soldiers had stormed the base camp, apanied by a barrage of Spells from the Mages. Kefira hadn''t participated in the barrage. The enemy force that had upied the base camp had miscalcted how many people from the battalion would be able to group up and return, so there were only about a thousand defenders.
Normally, ording to Reivyn, a thousand versus a thousand entrenched troops would be a losing prospect, but the volunteer battalion was far better equipped and higher level than the mass of soldiers with "1''s" branded on their heads.
Kefira wasn''t taking any chances, though. While the battalion stormed the camp, she had used her restored Mana pool to jump to where the captives were being held with Seri, and they had freed and armed them. Kefiraid about herself with her Spells as Seri led the men to meet up with the rest of the battalion.
Kefira would have liked to prolong the engagement a bit longer so that they could find some more supplies, but more enemy forces had appeared while they were in the pitched battle. The reinforcements had chased them to the southwest, further away from the initial battlefield. During that chase was when they had run upon the cliff that they couldn''t scale, and Kefira had decisively givenmand of the escape back over to the Major.
The Major had shown that he was actually fairlypetent when he wasn''t underestimating the enemy. He had already seen what they were capable of and how he had vastly misjudged their numbers.
Kefira took charge of the Mage Corps, and under her leadership, they had covered the escape of the battalion into the wilderness. They had encountered one other group of enemy soldiers, part of arger to keep them contained, but they had met them far enough away from other reinforcements that they had been able to punch through.
"I still don''t understand why he didn''t listen to Reivyn''s warnings and call the assault off," Kefira muttered under her breath.
"He''s used to fighting monsters," Seri said. She had been standing behind Kefira, ready to assist or defend her charge.
"And?" Kefira asked, looking back over her shoulder at Seri.
"How many feral lizaldons do you think Reivyn could handle on his own?" Seri asked back.
"I don''t know. Fifty?"
"And I could probably handle twenty or so. Let''s split the difference and say that each soldier because they''re fighting together and synergizing with each other, could easily handle thirty to forty feral lizaldons to each soldier. With that kind of thinking, the odds the Major saw from the enemy army weren''t nearly as bad as they appeared to us.
"He probably thought we would achieve a pyrrhic victory, but a victory nheless. With the healers, most of the injured soldiers would have been recoverable, and the Major would have been able to return with triumphant sess after a short campaign. His own experience is what blinded him to the reality of the situation.
"War between nations, especially on this scale, is unheard of. Everywhere you go, you''ll find people geared toward fighting monsters, not humans.
"This makes me even more curious about Reivyn and hisment about three-to-one odds for assaulting an enemy position. He mentioned he''s fought in a ims battle between two counts, a beast tide, and a siege battle against a Dungeon break. None of that would indicate he understands warfare between nations. Where did he learn that from?"
Kefira listened quietly to Seri''s exnation, frowning when she brought her doubts about Reivyn''s understanding of warfare forward. She didn''t care where he learned it from, or how or why. There was something in her inner being that told her to just trust him, and it didn''t have anything to do with her attraction to him.
"The exnation for the Major''s decision makes sense," Kefira nodded her head. "Even in Wispan, the army is focused on fighting the monsters, and they also enjoy an incredibly high efficiency against them. I can wrap my head around that, but he was still negligent in dismissing one of his officer''s warnings."
"Not everyone is you. Not everybody is going to just trust what Reivyn has to say. He took the information about the second enemy army, and he gave the orders he thought were appropriate for the situation. Also, don''t forget, he was taken out by an assassination squad before he could order the retreat, and the rest of themand staff was embroiled inbat with nobody overseeing the overall situation."
"That doesn''t increase my opinion of them," Kefira said. "There should have been contingencies in ce. The way Reivyn ran hispany, he told everyone they needed to know how to assume the responsibilities of up to two positions higher than their own. Captain Sanjin, instead of running away with the Major, should have takenmand and ordered the retreat. He could have passed the task of getting the Major to safety onto an enlisted soldier."
"Oh, I have no disagreements, there. But what can you expect from someone like Sanjin? I bet if we head over to his part of the encampment, we''d find him carousing with the soldiers."
Kefira turned her body and looked at Seri with a sharp re.
"What did you say?"
"Umm... That Captain Sanjin is probably carousing with the soldiers?" Seri swallowed, nervous at the sudden shift in her charge''s demeanor.
"And you knew about this?"
"Yes? I thought you knew about it, too."
"Of course not! I would have put a stop to it right away if I had known." Kefira took a deep breath to calm down her anger. "In the future, if somethinges to your attention, don''t worry about whether you think I know about it already or not, just tell me."
"Yes, mydy," Seri lowered her head, chastised.
"C''mon, then," Kefira stood up and walked purposefully out of the tent. Seri caught up and walked behind her in her usual spot. The two soldiers assigned to her guard detail outside her tent snapped to attention and rendered a salute, Kefira nodding back in acknowledgment.
The twodies walked through the short distance to the Major''s tent. She waved to one of the sentries, and he reached over and opened the tent p for her. She didn''t bother announcing herself. There was only one person in the camp that would dare to intrude into his tent without permission, so she expected he would know it was her.
She marched right up to the Major''s desk, and he immediately set some papers to the side upon seeing her approach.
"Do you know about the actions of Captain Sanjin?" Kefira asked without preamble, lifting her chin imperiously.
"I''m sorry... what actions?" Major Dobrik seemed confused.
"About him carousing with his troops."
"Oh, that," Major Dobrik looked relieved, but he sat up straight when Kefira quirked an eyebrow without changing the expression on her face. "He''s just letting off steam. Letting the men cut loose also helps to keep morale high."
"Keep morale high?!" Kefira''s eyes bugged out. She didn''t have personal experience ofmanding soldiers before, but that didn''t mean she wasn''t educated on the matter. She also listened to the tales of her older siblings who were with the Wispan military whenever they had the free time to regale their younger sister with their exploits.
"Do your other officers ''keep morale high'' with the same method?" Kefira pressed.
"Well... no. Most of the other officers stick with each other and let the sergeants deal with the enlisted soldiers. That being said, Captain Sanjin also doesn''t usually hang out with the other captains. He spends most of his time with the Count and Colonel''s sons."
"I see." Kefira stood in silence for a moment, contemting her next course of action. "I need a squad of men and an officer," she Commanded.
"Of course." Major Dobrik rang a bell, signaling one of the sentries to duck his head inside. "Go get Captain Dorran, and have him assemble one of his squads for Lady Kefira."
"Yes, sir!" The sentry saluted before rushing off to obey the order.
Kefira turned on her heels and followed the man out of the tent. Major Dobrik scrambled from behind his seat to catch up to her.
"If I may ask, what do you intend from the squad of soldiers?" Major Dobrik asked.
"I''m going to go arrest the Captain and the men he''s ''carousing'' with," Kefira stated simply.
Major Dobrik stood with his mouth agape, standing in ce as Kefira continued to walk off in the direction the sentry had gone. He quickly snapped out of the stunned state and hurried to follow after.
"Are you sure this is the appropriate course of action?" Major Dobrik asked, once more matching steps with Kefira. "It''s just a bit of harmless fun, and the soldiers need the chance to vent."
Kefira nced at the Major out of the corner of her eye.
"Where did you receive your formal military education?" Kefira asked.
"I''ve been with the Count Yaolo''s Retinue since I was 19," Major Dobrik puffed out his chest. "The former Colonel groomed me to be an officer himself before he was recruited to join the King''s Army in the Capital. I assure you, I have the best training an officer can have."
"Ok, so your mentor was impressive enough that he got promoted to the standing kingdom army, but," Kefira held up her index finger, "what formal military education did he have before he went?"
Major Dobrik lowered his head, pondering the issue.
"He taught all of the officers based on the standard military doctrine, adding his own understanding and experiences to it to further enlighten us on the subject."
"And was that the standard military doctrine of Oreck? Drallo? Wispan? What was the foundation of that military doctrine?"
"I believe it''s derivative from Drallo, but I''m not entirely sure."
"So basically you don''t have a formal military education, and what training you do have, is from a military doctrine of dubious origin."
"Well, I guess you could word it that way, but that''s kind of misleading. The military doctrine we follow is sound, and it''s worked for generations."
"Uh huh," Kefira said, sounding unconvinced. "I haven''t seen a whole lot to inspire confidence in it, so far."
Major Dobrik grimaced, unable to refute the words. The three of them walked for just a moment longer before Captain Dorran ran up with a squad of soldiers in his wake.
"Captain Dorran reporting as ordered, sir!" Captain Dorran slid to a halt in front of the Major, offering a salute. Major Dobrik returned the salute and gestured to Kefira. Captain Dorran saluted once more as Kefira never broke her stride.
"Come along with me," she Commanded. "Your squad is punitive."
"Yes, mydy."
Kefira led the soldiers, including Major Dobrik still following along, to the location of the camp that Captain Sanjin was inmand of. The camp was mostly silent, with just the noises one would expect from any military camp until they walked into Captain Sanjin''s area. The sounds of menughing and horsing around could be heard, and it got louder the deeper they got.
Kefira rounded the corner of a tent to a fire surrounded by men drinking andughing. Kefira frowned at the obvious signs of intoxication, and she waved the soldiers forward to form a line directly behind her.
The rowdy soldiers noticed the intrusion of the armed squad, and the sounds slowly began to die down. Captain Sanjin was sitting right in the middle of several enlisted soldiers,ughing louder than anyone else. Silence eventually descended on the scene as Kefira viewed them with a critical eye. Captain Sanjin finally noticed the change in atmosphere, and he looked up to see Kefira, the Major, Captain Dorran, and the squad of men watching him with serious expressions on their faces.
"Captain Sanjin!" Kefira lifted her voice. "What do you think you''re doing?"
Captain Sanjin nced around at the soldiers, a confused look on his face. He finally turned back to Kefira, the frown still there.
"I''m not sure I..." He began.
"Stand on your feet!" Seri took an aggressive step forward. "You will not address thedy sitting on your backside!"
Captain Sanjin scrambled to his feet and stood at attention.
"Ahem. I''m not sure I understand the question, mydy."
"It''s a very simple question," Kefira responded. "Why are you fraternizing with your men?"
"Fraternizing?" He asked, still confused. "I''m just letting the men vent their emotions."
"And that requires you to be with them, acting the same way?"
"We~ll... How are the men going to respect me if they don''t know anything about me?"
"Respect you? Respect you?! And how, exactly, are you engendering their respect?"
"I''m letting them see that I''m not some high and mighty, untouchable existence. I''m just one of the guys."
"Oh? Are you insinuating that you don''t respect me?"
"What?! No, mydy! Nothing of the sort," Captain Sanjin began to sweat.
"But I''m a ''high and mighty, untouchable existence.'' You don''t know anything about me. I''m not ''just one of the guys.''"
"I didn''t mean it like that..." Captain Sanjin sputtered.
"Your actions right now are not gaining you the respect of your men," Kefira said sharply. She looked around at each individual soldier, meeting the eyes of Major Dobrik in her inspection. "You''re breeding contempt. Oh, sure, they might like you, but it''s not your job to be liked by the soldiers. When ites time to give them orders, they''ll remember that you''re ''just one of the guys,'' and they''ll be less inclined to obey.
"The soldiers don''t respect me because they like me," Kefira continued. "They respect me because I demand it. Imand it with my actions. This," Kefira gestured toward the fire and the soldiers surrounding it, "is the opposite of demanding respect. You''re begging for it, and soldiers don''t respect that.
"Captain Dorran!"
"Yes, mydy," Captain Dorran stepped forward at attention.
"Arrest these men. All of them. March them to the center of the camp."
"Yes, mydy," the Captain saluted before ordering the squad forward.
They didn''t draw their weapons or ce the soldiers in irons, but they did herd them together. The soldiers, for their part, were too stunned to offer any kind of resistance, and Captain Dorran escorted Captain Sanjin personally.
"Major Dobrik!" Kefira turned to the Major.
"Yes, mydy," Dobrik said in a subdued voice.
"Order the entire battalion to form up at the center of the camp."
"Yes, mydy."
Major Dobrik strode off back to his tent. Kefira stood in ce, Seri still to her side.
"Seri, go to the Mage Corps. Tell them I want them to raise a temporary tform using Earth Mana. It doesn''t have to be very big, just a few feet off the ground. Install two posts about eight feet apart, and tie some cord to the top of the posts."
"Yes, mydy," Seri bowed her head before rushing off to see to the orders.
Kefira let a few minutes pass, letting everyone attend to her orders before she walked back toward the center of the camp. The preparations had already been made, the battalion was formed, and the arrested soldiers were standing by off to the side. Kefira strode up and ascended the tform, turning to address the battalion.
"Captain Sanjin has been found guilty of fraternizing with the enlisted soldiers," Kefira announced without preamble, raising her voice for all to hear. "His punishment shall be fiveshes. He may seek out healing treatment after 24 hours."
Kefira nodded her head to Captain Dorran. He took the cue and led the shell-shocked Captain Sanjin up to the posts. Captain Dorran and the squad leader tied Sanjin''s hands to the posts with the cord, pulling it tight so that he stood with his arms spread out. Dorran rolled his shirt up, exposing his back, before stepping away.
Kefira took a deep breath to steady herself as she walked behind Captain Sanjin. She had ordered the punishment, and she was going to take responsibility for it. She gathered her Mana and formed a whip of Air. She didn''t let the tension build any further, and she struck out at the Captain.
He cried out in pain as the Air whipcerated his back. She struck four more times in quick session. Captain Sanjin slumped against the restraints, tears and drool leaking from his face.
Captain Dorran and the squad leader removed the knots of the cord and gently helped him walk back to his previous position.
"You can take him back to his tent," Kefira said in a soft voice. "He can stay there until it''s time for him to seek healing. The 24-hour restriction doesn''t mean you can''t bandage his cuts. Make sure the wounds are properly cleaned and dressed."
"Yes, mydy," Captain Dorran answered. Kefira detected a hint of fear in his gaze. She sighed mentally.
Kefira walked back to the front of the tform once again.
"These eleven enlisted soldiers have been found guilty of fraternizing with an officer," Kefira''s voice once more carried out across the silent battalion. "Their punishment shall be twoshes. They can seek healing treatment after 24 hours."
One by one, the enlisted soldiers were brought up to the tform, bound by the cord, and whipped by Kefira''s Mana Whip. The battalion silently observed the entire proceeding, the only sounds were the cries of agony from the punished soldiers.
There were no magical impediments to Pain Resistance or anything like that. A couple of the soldiers clearly had higher Levels of Pain Resistance, as they didn''t cry out at all, hardly even making a face at theshing. Kefira performed her duty, maintaining a stoic mask throughout.
Once it was all over, she once again addressed the battalion.
"This is no longer an issue of a simple rescue mission of one city," Kefira called out. "The kingdom of Drallo itself has been invaded by an outside force. We don''t know their motivations or total strength, but this is war. We cannot allow military order and discipline to ck at this crucial time.
"I understand that most of you aren''t professional soldiers, but that doesn''t matter now. You''re the ones here. You''re the ones that will hold the line and prevent the enemy from sacking more cities and capturing innocent civilians.
"I don''t want to mete out such punishments again," Kefira scanned the crowd, looking people dead in the eye, "but I will.
"Together, we can cause enough of a nuisance to prevent the enemy from expanding their influence over the region. We only have to hold out until the Wispan Imperial Army arrives in force, along with the King''s Army of Drallo. I have faith that we will seed.
"That is all. Dismissed!"
Kefira walked off the tform, motioning for Major Dobrik to follow her. Thepanymanders took charge of their men and saw to it that they returned to what they had been doing. Kefira strode off to an empty area between tents and rounded on the Major.
"Major Dobrik," she began, "I appreciate that you understand how to properly run a military outfit during normal times. These aren''t normal times." Kefira jabbed her finger into therger man''s chest. "This is yourst chance. Understand?"
"Yes, mydy," Major Dobrik replied, a cowed expression on his face.
"Good. Now, we''re not staying here for more than 24 hours. We''re going to maintain the same schedule and depart for a new location in the morning. Send the healers to those that were just punished an hour before it''s time, and make sure they''re fully healed and ready to go."
"Yes, mydy. Umm, ma''am, didn''t you just say they couldn''t get healed for 24 hours, though? Theshings they received shouldn''t interfere with their ability to travel."
"I didn''t say they couldn''t be healed for 24 hours," Kefira shook her head. "I said they couldn''t ''seek it out'' for themselves. We don''t know what might happen on the road. Everyone needs to be prepared to fight. I''m sure the punishment they received, and the perception of the punishment, has gotten the point across."
"Yes, mydy," Major Dobrik hesitated for a moment. "And, thank you." Kefira tilted her head, a question on her face. Major Dobrik gave her a level look. "I''ve seen your magical prowess. You could have driven them into the dirt. Not only did you only apply enough power to sting them and break their skin just a little, you''re even allowing them to be healed much earlier than you had implied. I appreciate your mercy."
"I''m not an unreasonable brute," Kefira had a small smile as she replied. "It''s more about making sure the point gets across than it is about punishing them."
Kefira left Major Dobrik to return to her own tent with Seri. She sat heavily in her chair, threw her head back, and sighed.
"Did I do the right thing?" Kefira asked, her eyes closed as she reyed the events in her mind.
"I believe so," Seri replied. "If you had let that fester without a strong response, it would have grown like a tumor."
"I understand that. I''m not here to make friends, but it still makes me feel like crap that I had to do that."
"Everyone has to make sacrifices. They''re sacrificing with their bodies, and you''re sacrificing your feelings."
"Thanks for the pep talk," Kefira snorted.
"That''s what I''m here for," Seri couldn''t hide the mirth in her voice.
Chapter 123: Moonlight Expedition
Chapter 123: Moonlight Expedition
The moon reflected off the packed dirt as Reivyn trudged along the barrenndscape. He led a group of three other individuals as they crept their way in the bright night. Reivyn kept his eyes scanning the horizon, able to see for miles in the open in. Forty other groups, spaced quite a ways apart, marched in parallel in the distance.
The sounds ofbat reached Reivyn''s ears, and he looked to the west to spot one of the groups engaging in a swirling mass of dirt, dust, and wind. Three other groups sprinted toward them to surround the ambushing enemy, and those closer to, but too far to help, paused in their advance.
Reivyn and his group didn''t stop on their trek across the desert. It wasn''t the first encounter of the evening, and it wouldn''t be thest. Reivyn had already personally dispatched three with his group, and they had assisted the other squads nearby several times.
The truncatedpany had been traveling steadily north, and they had ambushed several supply convoys on the way. The enemy, for one reason or another, hadn''t been able to fully react to their actions by the time they had traversed a couple of hundred miles, and the convoys remained exactly the same. They were the same size, the same route, and the same timing as what was on the information they had stolen.
Reivyn had slowed down the operations against the convoys as they moved further north, though, because he had spotted a ring issue on the map. There was arge stretch of perfectly tnd that had zero convoys moving through it. In fact, the supply lines showed that they were specifically giving the area a wide birth.
"Probably a den of snakemen," Jekle had said as Reivyn pointed it out. "Look, this type of terrain is perfect for some dust devils to hole up, and the snakemen like to settle nearby."
"Dust devils and snakemen?" Reivyn asked.
"Yeah, the snakemen are kind of a mix between the sapient lizadlons and the feral ones. They''re sentient, smart, and move in groups that use tactics, but they are extremely vicious and fierce, and they attack people on sight no matter what. They''re far more dangerous than the feral lizaldons, though, not only because of their groups and tactics but because they use weapons and armor."
"Hmmm, they sound like the orcs that can be found in Tier 1 regions," Reivyn mused.
"Exactly," Jekle nodded his head. "Every region has three types of ''nuisance'' monsters: Low-Level and stupid, mid-Level and smart, and high-Level and stupid. The feral lizaldons are like goblins, the snakemen are like orcs, and the dust devils are like ogres. If we''re going to use Tier 1 Regions as aparison.
"Though, I don''t know why the enemy doesn''t just sweep through them. It wouldn''t really cause them much damage, considering their numbers." Jekle scratched his head.
"I can think of two reasons," Reivyn said, tapping therge open space on the map. "One, they don''t want to waste resources on something they might deem ''unnecessary.'' Sure, it might not pose any real problems for them, but what are they going to get out of it? Fighting against us, well, that''s necessary.
"Two, it''s a trap for inexperienced or inattentive people. I''m new to the Region, and I didn''t even know that snakemen and dust devils were a thing, so I would have marched our men right through there without a second thought. I would have just assumed that the enemy wanted to stick to the cover and concealment of the more hilly terrain, which, they might actually be doing, honestly.
"Either way this is actually a good opportunity for us," Reivyn smiled.
Reivyn bent down and buried another beacon in the dirt. It was attuned to his Mana signature, infused with the Light Affinity, surrounded by Veridical. If Reivyn let the Spell lie dormant on the beacon, it wouldn''t expend the ten-minute duration of having the Mana locked to it, but it would still slowly dissipate. He could leave a trail that wouldst about a week with this method.
The two toons were moving in a fairly loose, four-group staggered column through the desert. It was much wider than they would normally be moving about while Marching in formation, but rtive to the size of the area they were covering, it was like threading a needle.
Reivyn perked up as he Sensed coalescing Mana, and the pebbles and dust nearby started to quiver and shake before they levitated and started moving together. Reivyn held his fist up high to notify the three people following him of the impending ambush, and he gathered his Mana in his two hands. They didn''t have to wait for very long before the dust devil formed and struck at Reivyn in his leading position.
Dust Devil: Tier 4 Level 44-56
Danger Level: Very High
Reivyn had been practicing his Sense Threat Skill, and it had gotten slightly more precise as it had Leveled up. The dust devils had been mostly in the mid-Tier 4 range, though he had spotted one that had an upper range over Level 100.
The dust devils were slightly more than Reivyn could safely handle on his own if he didn''t go all out with his Spell Casting. He didn''t want to expend too much Mana, though, and not have anything left to deal with emergencies. He had thought that he would only need to use Level 4 or 5 Spells, 50 and 100 Mana, respectively, but the dust devils had shown that he had been naive to think so.
Reivyn''s sess with his Spells,tely, had been against some fairly weak humans, all things considered. He could st hundreds of Tier 2 and low Tier 3 enemies with ease, killing them instantly, but the dust devils were a different story. Either they inherently had a Magic Resistance, or it was because they were Tier 4. Reivyn knew from his education that Tier 4 beings all had ess to their Mana. He just didn''t know if that was the factor here.
Kefira knows the answer. I''ll have to consult her the next time we meet, Reivyn idly thought. I could ask one of my soldiers with a hybrid ss, but I don''t want to appear as if I don''t have all the answers. Confidence is key, and if this ismon knowledge in these parts, it could be demoralizing to the troops to find out I don''t know such a basic thing.
It didn''t really matter, though, as they weren''t immune to mundane attacks like the Revenants had been. Reivyn doused the fully formed dust devil with a torrent of water, and then he froze it with his second Spell, spending 200 points in a second. The dust devil, after unsessfully sneak attacking Reivyn, had its movements frozen in ce for several seconds.
The frozen ice sculpture of a dust devil suffered several powerful blows from the hammers of the three soldiers following Reivyn,rge chunks sting off and falling to the side. The two Level 5 Spells, despite how effective they were at freezing the enemy in ce, would onlyst a few seconds, and they didn''t do any inherent damage itself. It only served to magnify the damage of the blunt weapons of the fire team.
Reivyn''s sword was next to useless against these things, even when he used Elemental Weapon on it. Instead of using his sword, Reivyn simply infused himself with the Skill. He covered his body in sma, superheated fire, as the three hammer soldiers disengaged, and he charged his entire body into the dust devil. The sma instantly turned the ice into steam, and using a bit of Mana Maniption, Reivyn arrested the whirlwind that formed to gather the steam and sted chunks off,pressing it all and exploding it once more.
The rest of the dust devil went with the explosion, and the creature was no more.
After some experimentation, Reivyn and his fire team discovered the most efficient way to deal with the dust devils. If they retained too much of their mass before Reivyn detonated the final Spell, the shrapnel would be too heavy and cause injury to Reivyn and the others. If they destroyed too much of the dust devil, conversely, there wouldn''t be enough material left over to trigger a detonation. The dust devil would just get smaller and continue to harass them.
Reivyn''s group was the only one that didn''t need anyone else to rush over and help them deal with ambush predators. The other four-man groups would be able to hold their own, but it would take too long. Reivyn had designed the staggered column for optimal support so that they could squash any threats as quickly as possible.
Enemy defeated
Exp +1,044
Level Up! Level 23
Tier 4 Level 48, Reivyn noticed. Reivyn had discovered something about the Experience values gained frombat after overhearing several of the soldiers talking about their gains from the battles.
It turned out that one didn''t always get 100% of the Experience from killing or participating inbat. Only Tier 1''s and 2''s unconditionally got 100% of the Experience, no matter how many people were in the Party. Once someone reached Tier 3, there were different calctions for Experience added to the base numbers.
Parties started off with two or more individuals, and a Party of two people ensured that each person got 75% of the Experience frombat. The next two-Party members would reduce the Experience gain by 12.5% each, for a total of 50% for a four-man Party. The Experience gain would be reduced by an additional 5% per member for the next four, down to 30%, but any Party over eight people would get zero Experience.
Tier 1 and 2 members still got 100% of the Experience, but they also counted as full members towards the Experience penalty of the ones above Tier 3, and there was apparently a hard-cap of 15 members for a Party consisting entirely of Tier 1 and 2 members.
Large-scale battles operated on a different equation, but Reivyn understood that the Tier 3 members also experienced a penalty, though he didn''t understand the mechanics behind it, yet.
Adventuring Parties had to hit the sweet spot between safety and return on investment. Too few members and they couldn''t do much if they weren''t strong enough, but too many people and nobody would get anything worth the trouble. ording to Jekle, most Adventuring teams in Drallo consisted of between three and six members, withrger organizations banding together in order to create Parties with good synergy for their official members.
I''m getting really good Experience out here, but it''ll drop off once I reach Tier 3. I''ve gained fifteen Levels since the first battle a couple of weeks ago, but from the chatter I''ve heard, the most anyone else has gained is three. Not only do they have to get far more Experience per Level in Tier 3, but they also get less. The only two instances that they don''t suffer a penalty are going solo and the monthly calctions.
There was one final discovery that informed Reivyn of his troops'' slower Leveling speed: There was no bonus Experience for fighting things in a higher Tier, but there was a steep penalty for fighting lower Tiers. Killing an enemy that was one Tier lower than someone had a 50% penalty, two Tiers lower was a 95% penalty, and three plus Tiers lower gave one Experience.
The enemies with the "1''s" branded onto their foreheads were almost entirely Tier 2 with a few Tier 3 outliers, and the ones with a "2" brand were all Tier 3. Reivyn had no idea what Level those with a "3" would be, but the one guy he had killed with a "4" was only low Tier 3, so it wasn''t guaranteed they would all be a higher Level.
The dust devils didn''t drop any magic cores or anything else that could be worthwhile loot, so the group just kept going after dealing with the monster. Most "nuisance-grade" monsters didn''t have anything worth taking until the Tier 5 Regions and higher.
Reivyn continued to nt beacons every fifty yards or so as the soldiers traveled deeper and deeper into the t zone.
Eventually, no more dust devils were encountered for several minutes, and Reivyn guessed that they had entered the territory of the snakemen. He called for the two toons to form back up, and they marched forward in a proper column.
The territory of the snakemen wasrge, but it was concentrated in the center. The area consisting of dust devils was considerablyrger, but it was dispersed around where the snakemen den would be located. Snakemen were apparently hit-and-run raiders, and Reivyn was confident they wouldn''t attack the two toons of heavily armored soldiers as long as they stayed well enough away from the actual den.
Reivyn had plotted a course that would cut through the edge of the central zone for just this reason, but he wasn''t taking any chances. Instead of dispersing scouts far and wide to keep a lookout, Reivyn had them go only a short distance away and monitor every direction.
The desert snakemen variants not only wore clothing that blended in with the desert surroundings, but their own inherent coloring was also a natural camouge. That being said, as long as there was fast enough movement to indicate an iing assault, the scouts would be able to see them. Camaflouge worked best when one didn''t do a whole lot of dashing about.
The only thing that Reivyn was truly apprehensive about was the fact that the desert variant of snakemen was venomous. Not only did their bites have an extremely painful paralytic venom, but they coated their weapons in it, as well.
He was confident their armor and shields would deflect most attacks, but it was inevitable that some would get through. There had been no antidotes for the paralysis with the supplies they had raided, so they would just have to wait the symptoms out. Luckily the venom wasn''t fatal, and it didn''t do much more than superficial damage to one''s Health.
Reivyn hadn''t needed to be worried, though, as they never even spotted any scouts from the snakemen. That didn''t mean they weren''t there, watching, but they didn''t judge Reivyn''s group enough of an easy target or threat to engage. Once the two toons encountered their first assault of dust devils on the other side, four at once because of how they were formed up, Reivyn once more ordered them to disperse into the staggered column of groups.
It would have been safer to stop and rest halfway through the ordeal if the snakemen weren''t an issue. As it was, the two toons had to race the rising sun to reach an area on the other side so they could hide through the daylight hours.
The sun had risen in the east, exposing them further to any patrols, before they found a suitable location, but they were lucky that they didn''t run into anyone. The enemy force, for the most part, also moved about more in the evening than in the daytime. It made sense to Reivyn, as they were obviously not native to a desert climate.
Another three days of sneaking around in the night found the toons looking up at a steep cliff face. Reivyn had led them to arge teau a couple of hours away from their target. It would take several additional hours to go around the teau on either side, and they would be fully visible to any watchers if they ascended it. Reivyn was sure the far sides were also under scrutiny.
Reivyn stepped forward in front of the troops, and using Earth in one hand and Gravity in another, he began to drill a hole straight through the hill. He steadily operated with his Mana as he built a tunnel. The Earth Mana moved the dirt to the sides, and the Gravity Mana held the dirt above them in ce. The soldiers worked quickly to build support beams like a mine shaft would have as Reivyn delved deeper into the center of the hill, making sure he kept sufficient venttion for breathable air by making holes upwards to the top as well.
His Mana wasn''t infinite, though, and he could only take them about a third of the way before he was too exhausted to continue. The soldiers lit up torches as Reivyn created a thin barrier, sealing them inside with additional small holes to assist the airflow, as he took a rest. The other soldiers took turns manually continuing the dig from there.
The dirt was hard-packed where it existed, but it was mostly solid stone. Reivyn''s Earth Mana worked almost as well against the stone as it did the dirt, but the soldiers had a harder time clearing it out. Their pace increased noticeably, though, as people started to gain the Mining skill like Reivyn had so long ago. Reivyn would use his Mana asionally as it restored to meld the loose material back into the hill so they didn''t leave any kind of trail.
Once they reached the far side of the teau, Reivyn sent out several of the Scouts with higher Stealth abilities to keep an eye on enemy movement and check the numbers of the enemy camp. They would wait another four days to see if they would send out any troops in force to react to the attacks on their supply line that the rest of Reivyn''spany had enacted. If they didn''t spot any movement, though, they would have to take the risk and just go on their scouting mission.
Reivyn was rxing by himself in the little alcove he had dug out for himself, trying to recover his Mana. He had used a lot of it digging the tunnel, but it usually only took a couple of days for it to return to full even when he got all the way down to close to 10%.
His Mana was sitting at around 60% after two and half days spent in thepleted tunnel when his high Perception picked up on some dust falling from the ceiling.
It was normal for dust and dirt to fall asionally as the men moved about in the tunnel, but Reivyn noticed that it was far too consistent to be attributed to them. Not only that, but it appeared that the concentration of the dust falling was moving deeper into the tunnel. He didn''t have to wait long for his hunch to be confirmed.
"Sir!" Jekle came running up to where he wasid out. He quickly stumbled to a position of Attention and offered a salute. "A scout just reported arge force moving away from the target."
"Excellent," Reivyn said, returning the salute after standing up. "Get back to your squad and stand by."
Jekle, Paul, and Laris soon showed up as Reivyn tidied up his gear. They were ready to go, and Reivyn nodded at them as he turned and headed to the front of the tunnel. There was a little window about waist-height cut into the little doorway, and one of the scouts was on the other side.
"What''s the situation?" Reivyn asked the scout in a whisper.
"An army-sized unit is passing over the teau," the scout replied, equally softly. "I would say about three-quarters of the strength of the enemy camp from what we could determine."
"Good," Reivyn said. "We''ll give them an hour to get far enough away before we move out."
He turned to the leadership of the two toons.
"Alright, remember the n. We''re about to see if we can decide the war in just a little while."
Chapter 124: Precipitous Shift
Chapter 124: Precipitous Shift
The sun was blinding after so many days of traveling exclusively through the night and then followed up by several days in a dug-out tunnel. It had only been mid-morning when Reivyn and his two toons emerged to finish theirst jaunt to the suspected teleporter.
Reivyn crawled forward on his belly, alone. He had instructed the two toons to form up and hide just out of sight, and he would go do the inspection himself. His Stealth Skills weren''t anything amazing, but those coupled with his Spells allowed him to seamlessly blend into the desertndscape. He wasn''t taking any chances, though, and so he slowly crawled into position.
He could clearly Sense and hear the activity in the base in the distance, but he didn''t raise his head just in case someone with a powerful Mana Sight Skill could detect anything from his slow movements. The base that he was approaching was actually onpletely tnd, and there were no raised or lowered elevations to take advantage of for either attacking or defending.
It''s like a mini version of the snakemen den, Reivyn thought. It makes sense to choose such a neutral ground for a staging area, if that''s what it is. Someone looking for it on the map would subconsciously disregard it for several reasons. Not only is it far away and not part of the circle being formed around the deste sands, but it has absolutely no strategic value at all.
It took Reivyn two hours to crawl along the dusty ground, concealing himself with as minimal Mana usage as possible. He could have wrapped his Mana in the Veridical Affinity, which would have shielded it from anyone who didn''t also have the Affinity unlocked, but it would have cost magnitudes more Mana to maintain, and he didn''t think the added speed would cover the expenditure. He didn''t know how much Mana he was going to need to aplish his goal, and he would definitely need to use it at that time to avoid being spotted.
Reivyn finally made it to his destination just outside the makeshift palisade. He needed to be able to see farther at this point, so he calmed himself down and added the Veridical Affinity to the mix. He went from a low crawl to a squat, and he began moving along the edge of the palisade, looking for the target.
The walls weren''t perfectly made, and one shouldn''t expect them to be if it wasn''t going to be a permanent base. Everything about the camp eximed "temporaryunch point." These people were here to aplish a specific goal, and then they would leave. There was no telling what that goal was, how many people would be harmed, or what thesting negative effects would be.
Reivyn had to err on the side of caution, though, because everything he had seen about them indicated they cared nothing for human lives.
He made his way a quarter of the way around the camp when he finally spotted something suspicious through the gaps in the wooden poles making up the palisade. Arge metallic structure, forming a "V" shape could be seen in the distance. There were some permanent, heavily armored guards keeping watch over the area, the likes that Reivyn and his men had not run into before.
If I had to guess, those guys would have "3''s" under their helmets.
Reivyn needed to get a better view of the structure, so he silently climbed over the wall, careful to not rustle anything in his passing. There were guard towers and patrols on the outside, but they weren''t anything special, and there wasn''t much activity inside the palisade that he could see. It appeared that most of the enemy soldiers were resting.
After descending to the ground inside the wooden wall, Reivyn finally got a good look at the metallic object. With his high Perception, he was able to see intricate carvings all along the entirety of therge metal poles sticking out of the ground. His Runes Skill notified him that they were a powerful Mana conductor. He switched his Mana Sight Skill on, and the world became a jumbled mess of colors.
The dominant color surrounding the structure was a purple-ck. It oozed around the metal poles, but at the same time, there were pockets that remained stationary, stretched between the poles up until about the halfway point. To Reivyn''s perception, it seemed like there was lightning coursing through the strands, but it wasn''t a bright white. It was a deep ck, almost like the inverse.
My instincts and Skills are telling me that that''s concentrated Space and Void Mana, Reivyn thought. It makes sense if they have to travel such a long distance. It would require less power, though still an incredible amount, to breach the void and make a connection that way if the distances are incredibly far apart.
Brief memories of taking flights in a giant, metal tube up and around on a globe to save on time and distance shed through Reivyn''s mind.
I have no idea what Tier this Spellcraft is, but it''s time to see what my Deconstruct Skill can do.
Reivyn reached out with his will, wrapping his Mana in Veridical to mask it from any spying Mage''s Mana Sight, and he connected to the structure through his Skill. Information poured into his mind. Esoteric calctions andplicated Mana theories threatened to overwhelm his mind, but he bore his will down on sifting through all of that to focus only on the Mana weaves and knots.
There were thousands of patterns interconnecting to each other to create evenrger patterns, coalescing into one powerful image that contained the intent of the Spellcraft. Reivyn ignored the masterful work, and he focused only on the Runic weaving. The knots employed were far moreplicated than anything he had been introduced to in the Tier 1 Magic Academy, but he hoped that it would only be a matter of time before he could make some inroads on them.
If he could unravel the knots and snip the weaves, it didn''t matter how intricate the patterns were, or how mind-consuming the information was, the entire thing would unravel. He would have to destroy the physical representation of the poles, as well, or they could just power it back up with enough time and energy. Something told Reivyn that he didn''t have the power to do that until after he destroyed the Runic Spellcraft, though.
Reivyn didn''t have any time to waste, and he began to run his Mana through the weaves and knots like a needle, forcing it into the tiniest of gaps that he could find. He spent what felt like hours loosening the knots, one at a time. He didn''t know what would happen if he destroyed a knot and wasn''t ready to move on yet. He could alert a powerful Space Mage, if they were still around, or even just anyone if he acted rashly. He chose toy the foundations for the total destruction before he began though.
He used his Mana like a scalpel, and he left nicks and cuts in the weaves between the knots. It was grueling work, and it wasn''t just the heat of the sun beating down on him that caused him to sweat profusely. Without actually destroying things, though, it seemed like his Deconstruct Skill wasn''t actually drawing on his Mana too intensely. The greatest expenditure came from masking it with the Veridical Mana.
His Mana pool was steadily declining, though, and he had to make sure he hit the sweet spot between doing enough prep work to get the job done, and not using too much to spend all of his Mana and leaving himself vulnerable.
Reivyn didn''t waste his concentration checking the time in his System, so he didn''t know the exact amount of time that had passed, but eventually, he felt like he hadid enough groundwork. His Mana pool had reached over 7,000 after reaching Level 23, but he still blew through 4,000 points before he was satisfied. It was a long, deliberate expenditure, though, so he wasn''t going to be in danger of a bacsh unless he used thest 3,000 all at once.
Something pulled at Reivyn''s awareness as he resumed threading his needle through the knots. He didn''t just wriggle his Mana through this time, though. Instead, he left a long tether like he was actually sewing string. He wrapped his line around where he had left the nicks and cuts, too. He tried to ignore what was pulling at his awareness, but it finally interrupted him enough to notice what it was.
The strands of Void and Space Mana that had been connecting the two poles in the "V" structure had initially only reached about the midpoint, but now there were strands connecting all the way to the top, and the ones that had existed before had been filled in, leaving arge, gaping hole in Reivyn''s Mana Sight vision.
Tremendous power coursed through the entire structure, and Reivyn could see a figure slowly materialize in the void, drawing closer to stepping through to this side of the teleporter. The figure was slightly taller than average, and it was covered in shining mail from head to toe. There was arge, pink plumeing out of the top of the person''s helmet.
A sense of dread filled Reivyn at the sight of the approaching figure, and he poured his Mana into his intricate Deconstruct Spell threads. He felt resistance, but he kept pushing with his Mana and will, and eventually, the spots he was concentrating on flexed and tore through hundreds of knots and weaves all at once. Reivyn felt lightheaded, but a sense of relief flooded him at his sess.
It wasn''t over, though.
Reivyn could still see the Void, and the figure took a step forward to try and breach into the location. It seemed like they hit a ss wall, though, and they bounced back into ce. The person looked around with what Reivyn thought was confusion before Reivyn felt arge amount of Mana burst from the individual.
The ss wall holding the person back shattered, a surreal vision to Reivyn. It was like the very air itself broke.
The figure stepped through the portal.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense began screaming at him, but he hadn''t finished his mission. The energies contained in the teleporter, as well as the power that was used in the transfer, began to run wild. Reivyn scooped up the rampant Mana with his will, and he directed it back at the structure.
The metal poles crumpled like tin, and parts were even severed. The entire structure copsed in a heap of billowing dust and Mana.
The figure with the pink plume''s head snapped in Reivyn''s direction, and a finger pointed in his direction. The heavily armored guards turned and immediately drew weapons and sprinted at Reivyn. Reivyn hastily constructed ayered Mana Shield in front of himself. He angled it so it wouldn''t take a blow head-on, but would instead deflect it, out of instinct.
His instincts and Danger Sense had been right, as a red beam of Mana materialized from the finger of the armored figure and moved at the speed of light to connect with Reivyn''s shield. It was deflected away, but the amount of power sted Reivyn backward through the wall of the palisade. The wood splintered and chipped as it disintegrated from the force of Reivyn crashing through it, and he tumbled along the ground for tens of yards beforeing to a stop.
Reivyn''s entire body screamed in pain, and he hastily checked his vitals.
Health: 4,488/6,360 (6,670) That one deflected st had taken over two thousand points of Health off of Reivyn. He was wearing his heavy, magic armor that granted him an additional 310 points. He had camouged it just like his men, so it didn''t appear to be of ornate workmanship. Reivyn didn''t know how much damage he had taken from getting thrown through the wall andunched across the ground, but he guessed it hadn''t been more than several tens of points total.
He scrambled to his feet and took onest nce at the figure and springing soldiers. The newly arrived soldier seemed to want tounch another attack, but they swayed from side to side, nearly copsing to the ground. The person bent over, and even from this distance, Reivyn could see copious amounts of blood pouring from the mouth area of the protective face mask in the helmet. The person copsed to one knee, holding themselves up with their arm, as several soldiers and attendants rushed to their aid.
Reivyn had time to throw a Sense Threat Skill at the armored person.
???? ?? ??
Danger Level: Fatal
Reivyn didn''t wait any longer, and he turned and scrambled in a half-sprint, half-jog toward his waiting toons. There was no need for secrecy any longer, so heunched a re Spell into the air to notify them to be ready to move.
There was arge distance, several miles, between Reivyn and where he had left his soldiers behind some gently sloping hills. Even though Reivyn was running at a much slower pace than his Stats would allow as he struggled with the pain, he was still keeping ahead of the chasing armored soldiers. He hadn''t used his Sense Threat Skill on them, so he didn''t know their approximate strength. He only assumed they were much stronger and smarter fighters than the rabble they had fought against so far.
Reivyn not only kept ahead of his pursuers, but as he was able to increase his speed as the pain faded, he pulled ahead of them further and further. Reivyn hadn''t run in an all-out sprint for a long distance in a long time, so he didn''t know how much ground he could cover or how fast, but he realized it had be a lot since his Stats had exploded.
It took him less than ten minutes to sprint across the three miles of open terrain that had taken him a couple of hours to crawl across. He didn''t bother going around the gentle slopes of the small hills, and he ran straight to where his waiting toons were. The pursuers were now several hundred yards behind him, but they hadn''t given up.
Reivyn ran over the hill, and he immediately spotted his troops formed up in a defensive formation. He could see visible signs of relief on the faces of the soldiers as he charged down the hill to them.
"Move the toons forward a little bit," Reivyn Commanded the officers. "I have some pursuers about a minute behind me. If we get close enough to the slope, they won''t have time to stop before running headlong into our formation."
"Yes, sir!" Jekle and Laris saluted.
The two men ordered the toons to jog forward a bit, and they settled down to wait for the enemy toe charging over the hill. They only had to wait about twenty seconds after getting into ce.
Thirty armored soldiers crested the hill, and Reivyn could see the surprise in their eyes at the sight of the waiting pikes leveled at them. Reivyn had been right, and they didn''t have enough time to arrest their forward momentum on the downslope.
These soldiers were much better than any they had fought before, but thirty against nearly a hundred wouldn''t be enough. Also, just because they were much better than the unarmed enemies with the "1''s" on their heads didn''t mean they were superior to Reivyn''s own troops.
Laris didn''t even have to be told, and he ordered his toon to advance and nk the pursuers that had run up on First toon. They couldn''t help but engage the soldiers, and they didn''t have time to regain the initiative to disengage before they were enveloped.
Theysted longer than the normal toons of enemy soldiers, but only by about half a minute. They were summarily put down. Out of curiosity, Reivyn approached one and flipped his helmet off. His suspicions were confirmed, and arge "3" was branded right in the middle of the dead man''s forehead.
"No time to bury them," Reivyn shouted. "Turn and rush back to the teau. Most of the soldiers still in the camp were resting, but there was a new arrival that I''m sure will be able to rouse them and use them efficiently. Move, move, move!"
Jekle and Laris got their toons formed up, and they ran them back where they hade. They had been cautious in advancing to their position earlier in the day, so it had taken them a couple of hours to March from the teau to where they had been waiting. Running back at speed took them only half an hour, less than a quarter of the initial timing.
Reivyn didn''t say anything about his mission while they ran. He focused on his breathing and keeping his Stamina expenditure steady, and he didn''t want anyone else to waste more than they had to with talking while running either.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense began to pulse as they finally approached the teau, and he could feel the relief in the soldiers as they neared the tunnel they had dug. Reivyn frowned and gathered mana into either of his hands, keeping his head on a swivel for an impending ambush.
Something reflected the sun from atop the teau, and Reivyn looked up as the soldiers ran to the cliff. His Perception zeroed in on where the light hade from, and his heart sank as he made out the shapes of hundreds of enemy soldiers hunkered down on top of the cliff.
Without hesitation, Reivynunched the Spells he had been umting up at the top of the cliff. A powerful sma Beam extended from his right hand, and he swept it across the length of the cliff that he could reach. His other Spell was abination of Fire and Wind, and a huge ball that cost 500 Mana shot up and exploded over the heads of the enemies on the high ground. Fire whips and Wind descerated those outside of the st zone.
"Enemies on the cliff!" Reivyn shouted. "Just sprint to the cave! Don''t stop!"
Reivyn didn''t use any subtlety, and he simply sted the doors open. The enemy hadn''t expected to be spotted, and they hadn''t expected the toons to charge into the cliff face. They had been prepared to stop them from scaling the wall, but Reivyn''s soldiers simply disappeared into the earth beneath them.
"Keep going! Run, run, run!"
The soldiers lit some torches as they ran. Reivyn didn''t waste his Mana on assisting them, and he didn''t need to. The toons sprinted through the tunnel in good order. They had smoothed the shaft of the tunnel out meticulously, and nobody tripped or fell.
The teau was only several miles wide, and they began to emerge into the open air on the other side in no time. Reivyn was positioned between the two toons, but he stopped after exiting the tunnel, stepping to the side to encourage the men to keep going.
His Danger Sense once more pinged, and he looked up to see a barrage of Bolt Spellse flying down to the exposed men of his toons. Reivyn acted on instinct and wrestled control of the Spells away from the Mages that had cast them, and he turned them back on their Casters. Explosions rang out from up above, and shrapnel of loose rocks and gravel rained down on their heads.
Almost all of the soldiers had exited the tunnel when Reivyn''s Danger Sense went haywire. He looked up and saw a boulder crashing down right into where his men were exiting the tunnel.
Time seemed to slow down for Reivyn. He sprinted forward while creatingssos of Air. He threw them into the tunnel and wrapped the remaining men up with them, and using his tremendous Strength fueled by adrenaline, he simply yanked them out. He wasn''t able to move all of them out of the impact zone though, and he unstrapped his shield and braced himself on the ground.
He tried to reinforce himself with his Mana, but it wasn''t enough against the giant rock. It smashed into him, and he held it at bay with his shield for one whole second. His legs were driven a couple of inches into the ground, and all the bones in his body creaked in distress. It was enough, though, and thest of his troops used the moment from the Airsso to dive out of danger.
The giant boulder''s weight and momentum proved too much, and with the assistance of the Mages on top continuing to drive it down, it smashed down on top of Reivyn, crushing him to the ground.
He screamed in agony as his bones shattered, and he felt like his body was on fire. The weight of the boulder only held him down for a fraction of a second though, as several soldiers who had seen what was going on, but were too far away to get there on time, mmed into the boulder, shoving it off of Reivyn.
The light returned to Reivyn, and he mastered his pain, shutting his mouth and gritting his teeth. Arms scooped under his arms and lifted him. He hissed in pain at the jarring movement, but he didn''tin or tell them to stop. The soldiers dragged him with them, and Reivyn got a good look at the top of the cliff as they escaped.
There, on the top of the teau, surrounded by armored soldiers, was the new arrival with the pink plume. His hand was outstretched in their direction, and there was no mistaking who had been responsible for thatst boulder attack.
How did...the...whazit... Reivyn''s thoughts were a jumble, and his vision was getting darker along the edges as he was finally picked up and carried on someone''s shoulder.
"Keep going..." Reivyn gasped out to whoever it was. "Don''t... stop..."
Darkness descended.
Chapter 125: Sensational
Chapter 125: Sensational
Aerie watched as that confounded man was dragged away from the empowered boulder she had dropped on his head. She was stunned to see that he had survived the crushing blow, and her body was momentarily frozen in ce with her arm outstretched. She lowered her hand and whipped her head around to the nervous man standing behind her and to the side of her.
"What the hell was that about?!" She yelled, hands on her hips. Her armor mostly hid her figure, but if anyone looked close enough, there was no denying that she was feminine. She subconsciously stood with her hips slightly tilted as she stared at one of her subordinates. "Who are those people, and why are they interfering?"
"Umm... locals?" The man, Colonel Irio, ventured.
"Locals?!" Aerie leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. "You''re telling me that a local not only deflected my Death Beam, but that he also destroyed my Tier 6 Teleportation Array, from a distance?"
"Umm... yes?" Colonel Irio tapped his two index fingers together as sweat dripped down his brow.
"Ridiculous!" Standing with one hand still on her hip, Aerie raised her right hand up to the ponytail sticking up out of the top of her helmet and flipped it dramatically. She turned and stalked off back towards her base. "Fix it!" She Commanded over her shoulder.
These idiots had better not dy my goal, Aerie fumed. I deployed the entire first Division so that they would have enough manpower to get the job done quickly and efficiently, and they''ve apparently gotten themselves into a war! I need to get the reports to see what the hell is going on.
That man... Aerie paused in her stride, turning her head as she thought about the obviousmander of those "locals." I wonder who he is? I could sense that he wasn''t old. Even in the capital, there aren''t many around my age who could block my Death Beam and be able to sprint for miles afterward. Interesting.
Reivyn felt like he was tossing and turning. He couldn''t get any restful sleep at all, as his world was constantly rocking up and down. It was incredibly annoying. Not only that, but it felt like there was a hard stone digging into his ribs. He couldn''t adjust himself at all. Maybe he was tangled up in his covers, because every time he tried to shift, he was forced back into the ufortable position by something.
Reivyn''s eyes opened and his mind couldn''t make sense of what he was seeing. He felt like he was on an ocean of sand, rocking to the waves. There were other people all around, but the world was sideways. Reivyn was only able to try and make sense of what was going on around him for a moment, though, as he was unable to keep his eyes open, and the darkness returned.
The darkness was all-consuming. He was still vaguely aware of the movements keeping him from fully descending into unconsciousness, but the world was ck. Despite there being no sight, Reivyn''s mind was still dizzy, and he felt like the world was constantly tilting to one side, but it never quitepleted the shift.
Eventually, a constetion of stars appeared in the distance. Reivyn felt a connection to the bright lights, and he wanted to connect to them. At first, they seemed to be impossibly far away, but they drew closer and closer. They weren''ting straight to him, though. It was like they were slowly descending tond somewhere off on the horizon in the distance.
Reivyn wanted to get closer to the evenly spaced lights, and he struggled to pull his consciousness to the surface. He needed to gain control of... something in order to make theme closer to himself. He could feel the restraints preventing him from shifting his position tighten around him as he wiggled about to try and change the direction of his own motion.
His mind wed its way out of the darkness for a moment. The same strange scene of a sideways world with men and some women running down it came into view.
"Familiar..." Reivyn whispered.
"... was that..." A voice came from beside the annoying lump in his ribs.
"Falling stars... over there... familiar..."
Reivyn struggled harder and harder until he felt a shift in the direction the sideways world was moving. They moved to start moving in a closer direction to the familiar lights in the distance. Reivyn didn''t know why relief flooded him, but it allowed his mind to once more sink down into the darkness.
In the bouncing world, the bright lights began to descend toward him again, but they were on a collision course. The string of lights continued off into the distance farther than Reivyn could perceive, but more came into his perception as they got closer and closer.
After what felt like an eternity, they drew abreast of the first light. Reivyn''s mind extended out and connected to the light. It burst into a shower of colorful lights as his will made contact with it.
There was a change in the world of darkness. It didn''t seem to be quite as dark as it had been before, yet it was still pitch ck. Reivyn couldn''t make sense of what the difference was, but there was a marginal change somehow. It wasn''t the connection to the light itself that made the change, Reivyn''s instincts told him, but it did have an effect.
He continued to bounce toward the next light, and a simr scene happened. His will reached out and connected to the light, and it burst into a little supernova of power. The darkness once more seemed to shift, and now there were thousands of faint lines perceivable all around.
They made absolutely no sense to Reivyn''s tired mind. They weren''t stationary, and they moved about, yet most were stationary rtive to each other.
The lights continued to descend, and Reivyn continued to burst them with his will. The lines grew more and more distinct until he eventually could make sense of what they were. The scene of him and many people running through a sideways world were replicated in the lines. They were only outlines in the darkness, though. There was no substance to the world, just the outlines of the people and the ground.
It grew more and more distinct as they ran. Their path deviated slightly from the line of stars, but they were still close enough that Reivyn could connect with them. As the outline world grew more and more distinct, he was able to reach out farther and farther to the lights, so he wasn''t too concerned, though.
A sharp incongruous disturbance entered the ouline world. Instead of a t ne for the ground, there appeared several distinct specks spread about on the ground. Reivyn didn''t know what they were, but something was pulling at his awareness that they were a danger.
There was a swirling mass of Mana connecting the fragments together, and Reivyn reached out to connect to it with his will. He needed to do something to alleviate the danger they represented. His will made contact with the Mana, and a new awareness mmed into his mind.
Reivyn was filled with thoughts of bloodthirst and hatred. The other awareness didn''t scream out in outrage at him, and the fragments strewn about the ground began toe together. The will of the other... thing tried to batter Reivyn''s mind with brute force as it screamed at him, but Reivyn redoubled his efforts to grab ahold of the Mana.
He mentally pped the will of the thing to the side and grabbed a firm grip of the Mana. He didn''t really know what to do with it now, though. He hesitated with indecision as the outlines of the running people drew closer to the fragments that were beginning toe together in arger andrger shape. Without having many options, Reivyn simply yanked back against the Mana that he had grabbed with his will.
Arge ball of violent Mana extended out from the central mass of the Mana holding the fragments together. There was still a connection from the Mana Reivyn had seized connecting it to the central mass. The other awareness added panic and terror to the emotions that were mming into Reivyn, but Reivyn didn''t let up. There was resistance as the seized Mana reached a tipping point, and Reivyn bore down with his will, pulling as hard as he could until the connection snapped.
The seized Mana, no longer connected to the central mass, became free and flew toward Reivyn. The other awareness snapped out of existence from Reivyn''s perception, though he knew that it still existed with the other mass. Reivyn had seized over half of the total Mana holding the fragments together, and, as a result of gaining control of the Mana, over half of the fragments disintegrated into nothingness.
The Mana that Reivyn seized crashed into his mind, and he felt a soothing sensation envelope his mind. It was like he had dunked his head in a cool pool of water after a tough training session.
Pain exploded in his awareness. He hadn''t been aware of how much pain he had been in until the soothing sensation had entered his mind. His mind stopped the eternal tilting, but there was still excess Mana floating about in his mind. His body was in excruciating pain, and without knowing what he was doing, Reivyn grabbed the Mana and shifted it toward the ces that were screaming the most.
The cooling, relieving sensation abated the pain he was in, and it was no longer all-consuming. The Mana rapidly depleted, though, and he wasn''t able to eliminate the painpletely.
Reivyn tried to reach out and seize more Mana, but now that the fragments had fully formed together, there was a barrier preventing him from digging his will into the foreign Mana.
The outlines consisting of the world grew magnitudes more clear after absorbing the Mana. The running people finally made contact with the fragments that had formed up. The fragments hadn''t been able to fullye together because of Reivyn''s intervention, though, and the outlines of the people descended on it. Reivyn couldn''t make sense of what happened, but the lines of the people surrounded the fragments and continuously made contact with it until the Mana disappeared, and the rest of the fragments also disintegrated into dust.
The conflict onlysted a short moment, and the running people hardly slowed down.
More and more fragments were in the way of the running people, and Reivyn continued to steal Mana away from them to soothe his own body. He was still in immense pain, but it was manageable, by the time they passed into a zone where there were no more interactions.
Reivyn had been so focused on yanking the Mana away from the danger, he had lost focus of the stars. Reivyn frantically searched with his awareness, and he eventually found the line again. It was now far off into the distance, the running people having deviated from the line from their fights with the fragments. Reivyn was about to wiggle about once more to shift and make the person carrying him aware of needing to change course.
He had eventually been able to recognize that the hard rock in his ribs was the shoulder of a man carrying him as he gained more faculties from stealing the Mana. There was no substance to the outline world around him, and some of the outlines were filled in with more detail. Reivyn could perceive the world around him in a bubble that extended about twenty feet, but everything beyond that point was still just darkness. The only exception was the stars in the distance.
Before he could shift about to get the man''s attention, though, the ground exploded up in a shower of dirt and dust. About 60 to 70 forms jumped out of the ground in front of the familiar outlines and charged at them. These new outlines were roughly simr in shape to the familiar ones of the running people, but they were elongated and obviously not human.
Lines representing weapons and shields shed as the group of running people quickly formed into an organized rectangle to ward off the attack. The man carrying Reivyn stood behind the formation, and Reivyn could perceive him directing the others.
Another explosion of dirt happened right next to Reivyn and the man holding him, and Reivyn could feel another new change. He felt his left hand wrap around something hard and smooth, and it yanked upward, blocking a sneak attack from the sudden appearance of another humanoid.
Reivyn had no control over his body, but as the frantic attacks wereunched at the man holding him, his body moved on its own, blocking all of the strikes. He didn''t counterattack, and he couldn''t muster the will to do anything with his body on his own.
After a brief exchange where Reivyn automatically blocked seven swift strikes in less than a second, the man carrying him finally retaliated. The new assant panicked as he was unable to get beyond Reivyn''s parrying, and the man took advantage of it to press it to the breaking point. The reptilian humanoid tried to disengage with the man, but the outline of the man''s sword shed through its neck, severing its head.
The fight continued for another couple of minutes before several of the sneak attackers managed to get away and flee into the distance. Reivyn''s left hand still held the hilt of his sword in a death grip, but he was unable to do anything about it.
Reivyn needed to tell the man carrying him that they had deviated from the path they had been traveling, but he was having a hard time pulling himself to the surface of the darkness once again. In desperation he grabbed ahold of his own Mana that was swirling about within himself, and using the same technique he had used with the rogue Mana, he pinched pieces off and began infusing it into his mind and other aching parts of his body.
With the relief from the pain, he was finally able to open his eyes.
"The line," Reivyn muttered, pointing toward where the beacons were buried.
That was all he was able to do though before he began dry heaving from the headache and disorienting vision. The outline of the world didn''t dissipate once he opened his eyes. He had full vision, powered by his high Perception Stat, but he still had a 360-degree view of the surroundings within twenty feet.
His mind wasn''t built to handle the shing perceptions, and a splitting headache made it feel like his head was going to burst apart. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, cutting off one aspect of his perception, but the bubble outline still remained. It violently tilted once again, as a severe dizzy spell hit Reivyn.
"That way," Reivyn threw his hand up, indicating the direction of the beacons. "We''re off course."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn heard the reply.
He wasn''t able to focus on anything else, though, as another wave of dizziness hit him, his headache intensifying even more. Somehow, the bubble awareness included sounds, and it shed with the words he heard from his ears. He desperately tried to dismiss his own hearing.
The sense of sounds he got from his bubble awareness was incredibly detailed and intricate. He could tell the exact position each and every sound came from, and he had perfect rity of what the noises were. It was information overload, and Reivyn''s mind once again tried to descend into darkness, but he knew that it wouldn''t help. Even when he had been fully unconscious, this new bubble of awareness had been present.
He rallied his will and forced himself to stay awake. He focused his mind, and he cut his physical sensation of sound off with a mental flip. He didn''t know how he did it, but he didn''t care. The amount of information provided by his new awareness, though, was still exponentially more than he had ever had to parse through. The only thing he could do was hang on for the ride as he tried to adapt.
He was vaguely aware of the shifting direction toward the beacons, but Reivyn had pulled his mind into himself, trying desperately to not go mad from the overload in his brain.
The soldiers continued to run, and Reivyn had a sense of relief in the back of his mind as he noticed them get back on track, running along the line of beacons he had previously buried.
Reivyn once more entered a world of partial awareness, but this time it was due to his own sense of survival. He wasn''t unconscious, but he deliberately shut out as much of the world as he could.
Slowly, slowly Reivyn allowed minute amounts of information to pierce into his direct consciousness as he adapted to the new sensations. There were no more ambushes from the snakemen, and the dust devils hadn''t had time to repopte the narrow line they had cleared out nearly a week ago.
The original n had been for Reivyn to once more erase any signs of their passing so that any pursuers wouldn''t know where to go to follow them across the tnds. Reivyn would also destroy the beacons as they passed by, just in case they had someone who could sense them.
Luckily, in Reivyn''s fugue state, he had identally been able to carry out one portion of their n. He had been unable to erase their tracks, though, so the enemy would at least be able to have a rough estimate of where they were headed. At least thend where the snakemen and dust devils dwelled was hard-packed dirt. They wouldn''t leave anysting, permanent signs of their passage, and the wind would help mask what tracks they did leave.
Reivyn didn''t know how far away the pursuers were, but if they had at least a couple of hours'' head start, they should probably be fine. The enemy would cross into the snakemen den, and they would get tied up in fighting the dust devils and snakemen. That would give Reivyn''s two toons enough time to get away and hide.
Hours passed as Reivyn fought to maintain his sanity, and his outline world all of a sudden snapped into perfect rity. It was like he was fully awake, but with a perfect 360-degree vision and perfect perception of everything going on around him within twenty feet. The headache disappeared as it had never been, and his mind was finally able to ept the information being fed to it.
He opened his eyes once more, but he immediately became dizzy with the shing views. He snapped his eyes shut once more, and the dizzy spell dispersed after a moment. At least the headache didn''te back, Reivyn thought as he fought the roiling in his stomach from the dizziness.
He had only had his eyes open for a split second, but the conflicting view had been confusing. Everything in his twenty-foot bubble was perfectly clear, but the view he had seen beyond his bubble had been muted with shades of gray and ck.
"Ugh, I think we''re good to stop for a bit," Reivyn said with a groan. He had cotton mouth, and it was hard to get the words out. "Put me down and let''s take a break."
"Yes, sir," Jekle replied. He called for Paul and Laris to halt the toons, and then he moved about in a circle, hesitating to put Reivyn down.
"What are you doing? Just put me down," Reivyn said.
"Yes, sir. Umm, I can''t see where to put you down, though. It''s a new moon, and the stars aren''t enough to illuminate everything. I''m afraid I''ll put you down in an awkward position."
"Wait, is it nighttime?" Reivyn asked.
"Yes, sir."
Hmm, that would exin the contrasting views. It seems like my new perception isn''t influenced by the light orck thereof.
"It''s fine. Just bend your knees and I''ll hop off," Reivyn said.
"Ugh..." Jekle continued to hesitate. "I''m not sure that''s a good idea. Your body is pretty broken right now."
"It''s alright. I''m already a lot better. Just put me down."
"Yes, sir."
Jekle finally bent his knees, and Reivyn shimmied himself off of his subordinate''s shoulder. His legs made contact with the ground, and upon putting his weight on them, searing pain shot up his legs and he crumpled to the ground. Jekle reached out like he was going to catch him, but Reivyn steadied himself, gritting his teeth.
He instinctively used his new trick with this Mana, running it through the painful areas, and it lessened considerably. He sighed with relief after a moment and sat up in a cross-legged position.
"Did we lose anyone?" Reivyn asked. His first question was about the status of his men.
"A couple of minor wounds from the scuffle with the snakemen and dust devils, but nothing serious," Jekle answered. "Everyone made it out of the tunnel. You were the only one we were worried we were going to lose."
"Well, as you can see, I''m fine, now," Reivyn said.
"You weren''t for a long time," Laris said in a subdued voice, walking up to the pair with Paul.
"How long was I out of it?" Reivyn asked.
"Six days."
"Six days?! Are we still being pursued?"
"Not that we can tell," Jekle shook his head. "We spent nearly two days rushing to and across the tnds. After we determined that we had gotten away, we''ve been moving towards the next destination ording to our previous method: resting during the day and moving at night. You just happened to call out while we were moving."
"So you''re saying that the fight with the snakemen was four days ago?" Reivyn asked.
"Yes, sir," Jekle confirmed.
"Huh, I thought it had only been several hours since then. I didn''t think I had fallen unconscious again." Reivyn sat in silent contemtion for a moment. "Just give me a minute to check my Status and get used to some things, and then we can get going again."
"Yes, sir," the three men offered a salute before walking a short way away.
Reivyn pulled up his vitals in his Status before doing anything else.
Health: 713/6,360 (+6,670) Stamina: 12,210/12,210 (+12,620) Mana: 7,150/7,150 (+7,200) 713 Health after six days of recovery? Reivyn was bbergasted. Just how close to death had Ie? Reivyn shook his head and moved on to the Notifications blinking to get his attention.
Fatal Crushing Damage: -4,500
Helpful Hint: More than half of your bones have been crushed. You won''t recover any Health Points until your bones have healed.
I had been taken down to under 4,500 Health after taking that hit from the new enemy boss. I don''t know how much my body had recovered from then til getting crushed, but it couldn''t have been more than a hundred points. I should have died from the shock of going below 10% Health in such a manner...
Reivyn remembered his dad, many years ago, telling him that it wasn''tpletely necessary to reach 0 Health to die. If someone lost so much Health in a manner that they dropped to 10% or lower extremely quickly, the shock to the system would more than likely be fatal.
Well, what''s important is that I survived. Let''s see what else is going on.
Achievement!
Deconstruct a Spell that is three or more Tiers above your own.
Bonus to manipting "free" Mana.
Achievement!
Survive a blow of more than 50% of your Health that simultaneously drops you below 10% Health.
New Skill Unlocked! Regeneration (0 ->1)
Helpful Hint: Regeneration is deactivated until your bones are further healed.
New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 5:
Mana Drain (0 ->1)
Mana Healing (0 ->1)
Mana Reinforcement (0 ->1)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (0 ->1)
Helpful Hint: Theck of Divine Mana greatly restricts the effectiveness of Divine Sense. Gain ess to Divine Mana to upgrade the Skill to Tier 7.
Perfect Domain (0 ->1)
Helpful Hint: Perfect Domain is a perfect integration of Domain and Divine Sense. Gain ess to Divine Mana to upgrade the Skill to Tier 7.
Tier 6.5?! Reivyn was taken aback. Does that mean they''re Pseudo-Divine? The Helpful Hint basically says they''re actually Divine Tier Skills, but I don''t have ess to Divine Mana, so I can''t unlock their full capabilities.
And Domain? Didn''t mom say that was something to be talked about once I approached Tier 4?
Well, it''s not important right now. The real prize, despite being a Tier (and a half?) lower is the Mana Skills I gained. Apparently, the Mana of the dust devils is considered "free" Mana when they''re not fully formed, and I drained the Mana away from it. Then, I somehow used it to heal myself and reinforce my body. That would exin the soothing sensation and my Health recovery.
Looks like I subconsciously restored my bones to the point I could recover my Health.
I wonder what this means for my future training sessions with dad?
Chapter 126: Baby Steps
Chapter 126: Baby Steps
Reivyn sat at his field desk, eyes closed. Even with his eyes closed, he was able to see everything inside of his tent in aplete circle around himself. Even the walls of the tent didn''t obstruct him from being able to see what was on the other side.
If there was something buried in the dirt below me, I''d probably be able to "see" that, too, he mused.
Reivyn didn''t have any sentries standing post outside of his tent. The soldiers had tried to insist on him having a few, but he had assured them that their time would be better spent resting or practicing with their squads.
It had been another week after Reivyn had fully regained consciousness, and he was exhausted. Not being able to switch off his vision and hearing due to his new Skills made falling asleep a supreme chore.
Not only sleeping but even just getting around had been difficult. The nature of his new perception was almost like he was trying to control someone else''s body that he was looking at from up above. Except it was even worse than that. Not only was it like he was looking at himself from up above, but also like he was looking at himself from in front of himself. He was used to perceiving things like he was behind himself, in a way. Now, he was simultaneously behind, in front, to each side, above, and below himself, all at the same time.
Last, but not least, every single thing within the range of his Skill was as sharp and in focus as if he was holding it an inch in front of his face, all the way to the very edge of the Skill.
Even though his mind was able to trante all of the informationing in after having adapted to it, that only meant he could see and hear what it was trying to tell him. It didn''t actually help with the new problem he faced, which was learning to control it or to just shut his brain off so he could sleep.
His mind no longer worked that way. It was like his eyes were open 24 hours a day, now, even though he actually kept them closed almost the entire time.
Reivyn reached up and touched the blindfold over his eyes. The conflicting views from seeing with his eyes and his Divine Sense still sent him into an extreme dizzy spell, apanied by an intense roiling in his stomach. It was like he had spun himself around at full speed for several seconds beforeing to an abrupt halt, something he had enjoyed doing as a child.
This experience was not fun, though.
Reivyn had decided to treat it like any other training session. He took a deep breath, grabbed the corner of the blindfold, and lifted it above his right eye. He peeked it open for just a moment, and he tried to fight off the side effects as he stared at the interior wall of his tent. He held it for as long as he could before he felt like he was going to gag.
He re-covered his eye when it got too much for him, and after a short break for the world to stop tilting, he did it again with his other eye.
The final portion of his training session was to open both eyes, but he was only able to hold them both open for about ten seconds before it overwhelmed him.
Ten seconds, Reivyn panted. Much better than the 0.2 seconds I could do when I woke up from my stupor.
Reivynid his head down on the desk as he regained control of his breathing. His Divine Sense didn''t work like his normal vision. It wasn''t affected by the tilt of his head, and his perception remained constant as if he was standing straight up and down.
I''ll have to incorporate that into my next tier of training. Once I can keep my eyes open for a significant amount of time, I''ll need to either figure out a way to control the perception to match how I''m facing, or I''ll need to adapt my body to be able to function with the askew view.
He had tried doing a handstand and controlling his body once, but it was like trying to control his movements by only looking in a mirror. Except it had been hundreds of times more difficult.
Reivyn sighed as he sat back up, and without moving his body to peer down at his desk, he studied the map that wasin across it. They hadid off attacking any of the supply lines after escaping the base camp, their number one priority for the war having been aplished.
There was no way to contact the other three toons that Reivyn had under hismand, though, and he assumed they were still diligently carrying out their orders. The overall n was to rendezvous with them in the northwest and try to bleed some of the army-sized stations as much as they could. That would entail getting back into the action of stopping their supply chain so that the enemy would be weakened by the time they struck.
The thinking behind the strategy wasn''t just that they would be able to lure a significant portion of soldiers away from the teleporter. They had, to an extent, and Reivyn still didn''t know why they had returned to set up an ambush instead of staying put to defend the teleporter, but it would also roll into their next step, as well: Luring enemy soldiers away from the southeast, which is where the reinforcements from Wispan would most likely initially engage the war.
If they could open a front on the northwest that required consistent reinforcing, then without the teleporter, the reinforcements would have toe from somewhere. Reivyn could employ gueri tactics, a word that had just popped into his head to describe the strategy, and then the main force would have an easier time picking off the other bases one at a time.
The biggest factor was whether or not they could do enough damage to slow the enemy down from achieving their goal long enough for the Wispan soldiers to arrive. With the arrival of the presumablemanding general, though, Reivyn wasn''t optimistic.
We''ll have to take more risks, he thought, tapping lines drawn on the map indicating enemy convoy routes. Instead of hitting smaller squads and stealing a rtively small amount of supplies from them, we''ll have to focus on actually causing significant casualties. We don''t have the manpower to stage assaults on their main bases. We''ll have to continue to bait them out into the open and take them on piecemeal.
He already had some ideas on how to aplish that, but he didn''t want to move to do such a dangerous thing until he had adapted enough to his new circumstances.
He sighed once more as he lifted his hand to his blindfold, ready to continue his training.
"Mydy, Major Dobrik is here to see you," a sentry standing post outside of Kefira''s tent peeked his head inside, not looking up in case she was in a precarious state of dress. There had never been any idents or any close calls for that matter, but the men still respected her privacy.
"Alright, send him in," Kefira said, not looking up from the map.
She had gotten a lot better at visualizing what the map represented from a ground view over the past couple of weeks, and things were finallying much more naturally to her as she strategized the conflict.
The battles had taken a strange turn over the past week or so. There were hardly any convoys or search parties encountered by the patrols that Major Dobrik sent out, which was a far cry from the first week of moving the battalion about.
Most of the directions were cut off by too powerful forces guarding the way, and traveling further southwest had been the only option. Kefira didn''t know if they had fallen into some sort of trap, or if she had been lured into removing their soldiers from being a significant enough nuisance. It made trying to counter the enemy''s next move quiteplicated.
Major Dobrik ducked inside the tent and made his way over, nodding his head to Seri, ever standing behind her charge''s back. Kefira waved for him to take a seat without looking up.
"Have a seat, Major. I''ll be with you in just a moment."
Kefira finished her train of thought before looking up. She had sensed that the Major had not taken a seat as she had indicated. She was about to ask him why, but she froze in astonishment for a solid two seconds before leaping up from her seat in joy.
"Jek!" Kefira eximed, a huge smile on her face. She rushed over to the other side of the desk and grabbed the man''s hands, looking up at him earnestly. "Is Reivyn here? Why didn''t hee in with you? Is he alright? Did something terrible happen? Oh no! Something terrible happened! Why aren''t you answering me?! Tell me what happened!"
Jek stood in wide-eyed shock, and Major Dobrik''s jaw seemed like it was going to hit the ground. The two sentries once more peeked their heads inside, this time actually scanning the room to make sure everything was alright.
"Rx. Rx," Jek said, shushing Kefira after he recovered from his stunned state. "Reivyn''s fine. I would have told you that if you had given me a chance to speak." He chuckled wryly.
Kefira retracted her hands and took a deep sigh, cing one hand on her chest. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves before once more indicating for both men to take a seat. This time Major Dobrik did take a seat, soon followed by Jek. Kefira returned to the other side of the desk and joined them.
"Ok, so is Reivyn here?" Kefira inquired.
"No..." Jek began.
"Why not?!" Kefira interrupted him with another outburst. She closed her eyes and took another breath to calm herself again. "I''m sorry. Please continue."
"Err, yes, mydy," Jek coughed into his hand. "Ourpany was separated from the rest of the battalion as you know, but we didn''t have amunication device. Reivyn was in charge of thepany, and we picked up an additional toon that had been right next to us, and we retreated all the way back to the base camp.
"There had been a trap, though, and we didn''t have nearly enough men to assault the entrenched camp, so Reivyn led us east until we could escape the noose of patrols." Jek looked down at the desk and saw Kefira tapping the table impatiently. He once more coughed into his hand. "Right. Well. After we got situated and secured some intelligence, Reivyn said he thought he had figured out an important clue.
"There''s some sort of main base where the enemyunched their invasion from, and Reivyn spected that there was some sort of long-distance teleporter constructed there. He took two of the toons with him to verify. Our mission was to cause enough damage to their supply lines that they sent their forces from their main base to investigate so Reivyn could slip in and verify."
"Ok, and where is this main base camp that you discovered?" Kefira asked.
Jek coughed into his hand, his face blushing briefly before he reached over and pointed to a spot on the map. Kefira stared at the location for several seconds before mming her fists on the tabletop.
"That''s practically on the exact, opposite side of the map!" She yelled. "Major, we have to turn the battalion around..."
"Ahem," Major Dobrik interrupted before Kefira could get going. "I think we should finish listening to what the Lieutenant has to report, first, mydy."
"Yes, of course," Kefira sat back in her seat, indicating for Jek to continue. She bounced her leg, impatient to get on with it and get orders passed down.
"He''s not going to stay there, obviously," Jek continued, ncing at the Major out of the corner of his eye. "We weren''t just supposed to draw them away from the main base. We''re also going to hit all of the convoys traveling all the way west and then north. The n was to meet back up with Reivyn''s toons in the northwest corner."
Kefira stared at the map once more, taking in the words and extrapting them to the map. She snapped her fingers at Jek.
"Do you have a copy of the map that contains the enemy routes?"
"Of course," Jek said, reaching into his breast pocket for a folded map. He handed it over to Kefira who promptly opened it andid it on top of her own. It wasn''t asrge as hers, and itcked some of the finer details because of it, but it had everything necessary.
She immediately spotted the location of the main base that Jek had mentioned.
Yes, I see, she thought, tapping her lower lip in contemtion. It does look awfully suspicious. All of the other camps have two points of contact, forming arge circle. This is the only one that is in one direction, and it has multiple lines reaching to several of the Spell Nodes...
Kefira froze as her conscious mind caught up with her thoughts. She peered closer at the lines drawn on the map, and her Runic Skill kicked in and verified what she was looking at.
"It''s a giant Runic Spell!" Kefira said. She traced her finger over several lines. "With these linesid out on top of it, it''s clear as day to me."
"Ugh, yes," Jek nodded his head. "Reivyn mentioned something simr. He sent a scouting party of four to rush that information back to Oreck when he first thought of it."
Kefira looked up at Jek, quirking an eyebrow.
"Reivyn has the Rune Skill?" It was a rhetorical question. Kefira didn''t expect an answer.
"He said he was ''finally able to figure it out,''" Jek shrugged. "Maybe he got the Skill when he noticed the possibility."
Seri snorted. Kefira turned her head sharply to herpanion. Seri held her hands out, palms up, in a half-shrug.
"You''re saying he got the Tier 4 Mana Skill from looking at lines on a map? Sounds like he was making baseless spections, to me. A guy from a Tier 1 Kingdom, with less than a full year of formal Magic Academy education? He''s lucky he was right, or he could have caused a serious misjudgment."
"Tier 1?" Major Dobrik mumbled under his breath.
"Oh,y off it, Sera," Kefira huffed, throwing a crumpled piece of paper at Seri. "We both know he''s unusually talented. Plus he''s not really from a... ahem," Kefira coughed to stop herself from revealing any more private information about her Reivyn. He didn''t seem to deliberately keep secrets, but it was his information to tell.
"Anyway, I heard you mention something about convoys and luring enemy forces?" Kefira turned her focus back to Jek.
"Yes, mydy," Jek bobbed his head. "We''ve been striking at the supply lines on the map as we''ve traveled further west."
"So does that mean..." Kefira trailed off, looking to Major Dobrik.
"Exactly right, mydy," Major Dobrik said. "Jek and his three toons are the reason we haven''t been encountering any enemy oppositiontely."
"Hmm..." Kefira crossed her arms, sticking her right hand up to tap her lips.
Kefira stared at the map again as she thought about the report that Jek had provided. Relief had flooded her at the mention of Reivyn being fine, and a weight that she hadn''t realized she had been carrying was lifted from her shoulders. Her mind was crisper than it had been since the first disastrous battle, and it was like a portion of her mind that had been dedicated to worrying about Reivyn had finally joined the rest of her consciousness.
"I think we can work with this," Kefira said, looking back up at the two men. "I don''t see any reason to alter the ns you and Reivyn came up with. Especially since we don''t have a way to get into contact with him across the vast distance. We''ve been trying to think of a way to employ the battalion effectively, and I think we can just incorporate ourselves into this n.
"We can even elerate the timetable, and we can do more damage than just picking off smaller convoys while we''re at it. Lieutenant Jek, you will remain in charge of the two toons you brought with you, and the third one can rejoin their ownpany. You''ll act as themander for the two toons, and I''ll employ you as a reserve or special unit, as the situation dictates.
"Go inform the Major''s staff, as well as the captains, to join us here in my tent. We have some nning to do."
Reivyn stood in the center of the two toons as they visited wrath upon their enemies. He stood silently, trying to focus his Divine Sense further to encapste the entire skirmish. Even though his senses only extended out 25 feet, his Battlefield Awareness Skill still allowed him to gauge the progress of the battle.
It was dangerous to stand where he was, but he had been perfectly able to counter any enemy troops that thought he was an easy target and charged over to attack him. He was sure they simply saw a blindfolded man standing in the middle of the battle, and their bloodlust caused them to attack without thinking about why such a man would be where he was, doing what he was doing.
His Divine Sense Skill had started at extending only 20 feet when it had first unlocked, and after over a week of literally continuous usage, it had finally gained a single Level. That one Level had extended his range to 25 feet. It was still not nearly enough to effectively function as amander, though.
Lieutenant Laris had been pulled frommanding his own toon, and he stood where Reivyn normally would have to take charge. If it had just been First toon, Reivyn would have used Jekle, but Laris was the only choice to stand in for multiple toons. Reivyn had confidence that the other Lieutenant had seen how he did things enough that he could be trusted to not screw things up, and so far, he had done a good job.
On the first couple of skirmishes they had engaged in, Reivyn had remained by Laris'' side, in case the man had any doubts or questions, but everything had worked out well. Now, Reivyn focused on pushing his Divine Sense Skill as hard as possible by giving it as much stimtion as he possibly could.
His training regime had slowly but surely bore fruit, and he was able to keep both of his eyes open for 15 seconds before he had to shut them and cover them with the blindfold again. It didn''t seem like much progress, but it had taken him a third of the time to add five seconds as it had to get to one whole second, initially.
My adaptation to the Skill is growing exponentially, Reivyn idly thought as the battle raged around him. He casually swiped his sword to parry the attack of yet another raving enemy before cleanly beheading him. Another week or two, and I should be good. Then I''ll be able to focus on the next step. I''ll have to incorporate sparring with some of the soldiers as I get used to the strange perception, too.
The sooner I''m able to function properly again, the sooner we can really get the ball rolling.
Reivyn stood perfectly centered between the two toons until the small battle was over. He had focused on taking in as much of the information as he could in order to strain the Skill. It hadn''t actually been that overwhelming despite how detailed and intricate that information had been.
He was able to perceive the blisters on the feet of some of the soldiers. He could see, and hear, the sweat rolling down the back of their necks. He could sense every single scar crisscrossing the bodies of the enemy soldiers, including the ones on the bottoms of their feet.
He was able to take all of that information in, parse it, and focus on those tiny details while simultaneously keeping his concentration on the battle overall. It was, quite frankly, a ridiculous experience.
In the first couple of battles, he had been able to get the information, but it was like he had to sift through it, one at a time, to get all the little details. This battle had felt like a turning point in his progression, and he was ready to try and focus on pushing the boundaries further out.
Luckily, I''ve been spared the sensation of taste, Reivyn ruefully chuckled as he perceived the bowels expel from a dying man. If I really zero in my focus, though, I can tell what it should be like for my other sense. I can look at the grain of wood on something, and I''ll instinctively know what it would feel like to rub my hand across it if I think about it.
Reivyn waited for the men to finish mopping up the battlefield and bury the dead. Once they were formed up in their neat formation again, he walked back over to join Laris, nodding his head.
"We''re done here," Reivyn said. "Lead the men ahead. I think... probably three or four more battles like this, and I''ll be good to takemand again."
The soldiers departed to the west, along the northern border of the conflict zone. Morale was high. They were whittling their enemy down, one skirmish at a time.
Chapter 127: Desert Guerillas
Chapter 127: Desert Gueris
Reivyn lifted the blindfold over his eyes and peered into the distance. He was able to keep his eyes open most of the time, now, but it still wasn''t perfect. If nothing important was going on, Reivyn didn''t bother covering his eyes until he got close to his limit, but there was a good reason he was doing it in an opposite manner at this time.
They had continued to hit the asional supply convoy as they traveled west, but they didn''t take them all out. They didn''t want to get bogged down too early, waiting for the convoys when they could be making better time to the rendezvous point, and they didn''t want to draw an entire army force out to search them out until they were ready.
There were also fewer supply convoys being sent out now that the teleporter had been destroyed. There was still apparently some sort of warehouse or other setups at the main base, though. The supply chain didn''t just disappear. Reivyn didn''t know how much they had stockpiled, and they would have to send out raiding parties eventually to secure more food and water, depending on how long their n took. Hopefully, it would take that long.
Reivyn felt a bit guilty toward the civilians that would suffer from the raiding parties in the future, but there was nothing he could do about that. The only way to avoid that bit of suffering would be to capitte, and then the civilians that had already been abducted would have no hope of rescue. He had to weigh the pros and cons, and with the ability to ambush the raiding parties, the overall damage done had a good possibility of being less with their current strategy.
Now that Reivyn was able to function at nearly 100% again, they had decided to up the intensity of their engagements.
Reivyn watched as First toon fought against a patrol sent out by a nearby enemy base. They had hit them pretty close to the enemy encampment, and Reivyn expected that the First toon''s activities would be spotted. Reivyn patiently waited for his toon to achieve their objective and retreat toward him.
The sound of horns in the distance reached his ears, and Reivyn knew that they had seeded. First toon finished off the enemy patrol and quickly retreated toward Reivyn''s position. Reivyn stayed in ce as he allowed them to run past him, and he kept his eyes on the distant slope that had been near the skirmish.
After waiting about another minute after First toon rushed by, a line of figures appeared on the ridgeline, and a horde of soldiers descended into view. Reivyn gathered his Mana in each of his hands and waited for the pursuers to enter his effective range. There were far more enemy soldiers than Reivyn had expected toe, but it was still within the range of what he thought they could handle.
Hundreds of bloodthirsty men sprinted down the short hill onto the tnd,pletely ignoring the bloody carcasses of theirrades that they trampled over. Reivyn counted down in his head, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Reivyn flung his hands out, and 2,000 points worth of Mana shot out with the motion. The first Spell struck the ground beneath the feet of the charging enemy, right in the center of their numbers. The ground immediately cracked and heaved, giant pirs shooting up into the sky while other parts copsed into the depths. Men were tossed into the air, fell into the giant holes, and were crushed by the earth mming against each other.
The radius of the Spell wasn''t enough to epass the entirety of the enemy, though. Many of them came to a sudden halt at the appearance of the mini-earthquake, but Reivyn''s second Spell reached its zenith above their heads. It had been packed tight into as small of a ball of concentrated Mana as Reivyn could make it, and with the distraction of the earthquake, nobody had noticed it.
Now, it exploded in blinding light, and a giant orb of Fire and sma formed a miniature sun in the sky. Just like thest time he cast this Spell, whips of Fireshed out at the ground beforences of Fire and sma pierced the bodies of the soldiers below. Lightning chained between the fallennces, and those that weren''t killed by the fire were electrocuted by the lightning.
Reivyn had deliberately aimed for a position left of center, not confident he couldpletely wipe out the horde of enemybatants, and those that were outside of the area of the Spell were herded to the side. The final piece of the trap sprung at this moment, and Second toon shot up out of their hiding space, one constructed with Reivyn''s Mana and their Camouge Skills, and they descended on the panicked troops.
The number of enemies was still far superior to Reivyn''s Second toon, but they were panicked and disorganized and werepletely unable to put up any resistance. The First toon, which had appeared to run away in their own panic, suddenly returned from just behind Reivyn, and they charged back into the fray, nking the confused enemy.
Even with all that had happened to them, none of the enemy soldiers broke or tried to flee. They didn''t exactly try to rally, though, either. They just kept rushing headlong into Reivyn''s ambush, and their scattered force was picked off one at a time.
The battle onlysted another couple of minutes, and then silence descended on the field. The only sound was the crackling of fire and lightning from Reivyn''s second Spell as it lingered on the ground.
Reivyn surveilled the carnage as the toons formed back up. Another couple of horns sounded in the distance once more.
"Time to go," Reivyn said.
The two toons ran away in good order, Reivyn erasing evidence of their passing with his magic.
Reivyn knew that the enemy didn''t have just meleebatants. He didn''t know how many Mages each enemy camp had, but they were sure to have more than he could handle on his own. The next group of soldiers to charge after them were sure to have their Mage Corps apanying them, and that was not a scenario he was prepared to fight off in this situation.
The two toons charged off to the southeast, backtracking a bit from their progress. They would slowly shift their direction, though, to veer to the west and circle around this enemy camp. Reivyn suspected they would be able to hit them one more time before they adapted enough to be a danger.
"What''s the situation?" Reivyn asked the scout that ran up to him.
Reivyn had been right that they could hit the enemy camp once more. He had set up an identical situation as thest skirmish from a different angle, but instead of ambushing the pursuers, Reivyn had led Second toon into the enemy camp after they had used most of their troops to charge after First toon.
Reivyn had rained fire down on the fortifications and tents, torching their living quarters as well as a good portion of their supplies. There was a contingent of soldiers left behind, and Reivyn had noticed that they were guarding arge number of civilian prisoners. Reivyn had avoided attacking that area of the camp with hisrger Spells, but heunched Bolts and sts at the guards as Second toon attacked.
The soldiers left to guard the prisoners were slightly better than the raving horde of soldiers that they usually encountered, but only in the fact that they formed up in an organized manner before charging at Reivyn and his men.
Reivyn led the first four squads of the toon to y cat and mouse with the enemy. Heunched Spells at the soldiers or torched more infrastructure of the base any time it seemed like they slowed down their pursuit, keeping their attention on him.
They had apparently practiced their shared shield Skill, though, and he wasn''t able to devastate them nearly as much as the soldiers with "1''s" branded on their heads. Reivyn suspected that this unit was at least "2," possibly led by several "3''s." There were still far too many of them for Reivyn to befortable in a stand-up fight against them.
While Reivyn and the fourth squad led them on a chase around the camp, the fifth squad circled around and freed the captives. There were several thousand civilians, but they didn''t seem to be in too rough shape, all things considered. The members of fifth squad gave them spatial pouches containing some of the supplies they had raided over the weeks and instructed them to run into the desert before attempting to find their way to safety.
Reivyn didn''t have the manpower or time to look after the captives properly, so he simply gave them enough food and water that they wouldn''t be in danger for a week or two and left them to their own devices. There hadn''t been enough time to interrogate any of them to find out what they had been through, and none of them wanted to stick around with Reivyn''s soldiers.
A sense of aplishment had filled the hearts of the men, though, after they had disengaged and escaped once more. Part of their initial objective had finally beenpleted, though it was unknown if any of the captives had actually even been from Kirlon.
"There''s a force of enemy soldiers in the distance, but they''re acting in a way we haven''t seen before," the scout reported, snapping Reivyn back to the present. "There''s a long line of people - probably a group of captives - doing something in the ground, a wagon train, and the bulk of the enemy soldiers are set up in a position a distance away, just watching."
"Hmm... show me," Reivyn Commanded.
"Yes, sir!" The scout saluted before turning on his heels and leading Reivyn away.
Reivyn motioned for the other officers to stay where they were and halt the troops, and he followed the scout as he retraced his steps. They moved through gulleys and ravines for several minutes before ascending a hill, getting on their bellies as they reached the top.
Reivyn crawled forward and spied the situation the scout had described. He used his high Perception Stat to view the activity below, and he saw that it was indeed a group of captives doing some manualbor. He watched as they retrieved what looked like spools of wire from the wagons, and theyid the wires down in the dirt, making sure there were no gaps in their connection.
The line of activity sprawled for several miles as they worked, and overseers with whips supervised. There were three separate contingents of soldiers camped to the side of the work. They appeared to just be resting in a hastily fortified position, and each group of soldiers was approximately a thousand men strong. Each encampment had a section separated from the whole, and Reivyn saw what he could only assume to be Casters in robes milling about.
Reivyn motioned for the scout to follow him back to where they hade from after he got his fill of gauging the situation. They returned back to the two toons where Jekle and Laris were waiting nearby. Reivyn dismissed the scout and approached the two toonmanders.
"This nut is a bit too tough to crack," Reivyn said. "Approximately 3500 enemy soldiers separated into three distinct groups with a group of about a thousand prisoners lying some wires or something. There was a group of Casters with each group, so I''m not confident I could do enough damage to make it safe to engage. We''ll go around and find another opportunity to strike and rescue more prisoners."
"Should we wait and investigate what they''re making the prisoners do? We could sabotage their work," Laris said.
"No," Reivyn shook his head. "I didn''t Sense any Mana coursing through the wires, so even if it is the foundation for the Runic Spellcraft like I suspect, there''s no Spell to interfere with, yet. The amount of wires they''reying down, and the speed they''re doing so, is far too much for us to meaningfully interfere with at this point.
"A better use of our time would be to keep what we''re doing. We need to weaken their ability to wage war before the Wispan military arrives, and maybe we can rescue more civilians. Even if we rescue all of the civilians, they could just have their own soldiers do the work, so there''s no stopping the construction of the Rune. We just have to race against time as we try to slow them down in a more effective way."
"That makes sense," Laris said.
"Alright, let''s get the men moving. There are still more major camps to attack."
Another couple of weeks passed as Reivyn led the two toons further and further west. There were six major enemy bases, including the first one they had assaulted and freed the civilians from. They encountered more and more instances of prisoners being led out to build the framework of the Runic Spell, but each time they were guarded by far too many soldiers for Reivyn to issue an order of attack.
They still encountered patrols and supply convoys, but gone were the easy skirmishes where Reivyn could always decimate the enemy single-handedly. Word had apparently spread, and each group of enemies now had a squad of Mages escorting them. Reivyn could still overpower the Mages, but it greatly hampered the scale and speed that he could affect the battles.
They had raced ahead of the news of their tactics to the next base, though, and a repeat of what they had aplished at the first base they had struck urred. They set up two ambushes, and they managed to save a group of civilians. The group they saved was considerably smaller than the first, though, and Reivyn suspected it was most likely due to the work parties being out and about,ying the wires down.
The addition of enemy Mages meant that the soldiers in the toon had to shoulder more of the heavy lifting in the battles, and they finally started to suffer casualties.
Nobody had died, aside from the few unlucky ones in the first battle, but the injuries decreased the toon''s fighting strength enough that Reivyn had to slow their activities down. Morale was still high, even among the injured, but war weariness was also beginning to set in. Reivyn heard more and more grumbles from the troops wishing to spend some time in a nice tavern or rxing at home with their families.
The war had only been going on for about two months at this point, but there had been almost zero significant rest for the troops from the very beginning. They had constantly been on the move and fighting against the enemy. Mental fatigue would be a problem if they had to operate at the same pace for much longer.
"Sir, another enemy force up ahead," a scout ran up and offered a salute. Reivyn had tried to exin to the men that saluting in the field was inappropriate, but if there were no enemies around, they continued to do so. Reivyn wasn''t too worried about it, so he let it slide.
"What''s the situation?" Reivyn asked.
"It appears to be a group escorting some prisoners, but they''re not nearly asrge as the ones we''ve seen before."
"Exin."
"It''s just one group of about a hundred soldiers and overseers escorting a wagon train of civilians. There are six wagons, and each one seems to contain about ten captives. Also, I didn''t see any obvious Casters with this patrol."
Reivyn shared a look with Jekle and Laris.
"Let''s go check it out," Reivyn nodded his head. "Have the men prepare for action, but keep them out of sight for now."
"Yes, sir!" All three of the men responded.
Reivyn followed the scout toward the location of the enemy patrol, and Jekle and Laris Commanded their toons to follow behind. He once more ascended a small hill with Jekle and Laris in tow, and they crawled forward to spy on the enemy troops.
The situation was as the scout had described. There was a wagon trail following behind a group of about a hundred enemy soldiers. Reivyn could see the heads of the civilians as they sat in the back of the wagons, but not much else. There were no older people or children among the captives, but that made sense to Reivyn. He hadn''t seen anyone but those able to work outying the wires, but there had been elderly and children among the captives freed from the camps.
Reivyn frowned as he watched the procession move along.
Something seems off, but I can''t quite put my finger on it... Reivyn thought.
"Should we order the men to prepare?" Jekle whispered.
Reivyn shook his head.
"Wait a moment. Let me look a bit longer."
Reivyn scanned the men as they walked in front of the wagons. They were in their typical disorganized group with no neatly dressed lines, but there was something strange about the way they moved. Reivyn''s Danger Sense wasn''t going off, and none of his other Skills were tugging at him, but there was something...
"They''re in step," Reivyn whispered, finally noticing the oddity. "They may not be in a formation, but they''re definitely Marching. None of the other groups we''ve encountered have done so."
"What does that mean?" Laris asked, puzzled.
"It means this is a trap," Reivyn answered. "Those with ''1''s'' and ''2''s'' on their heads haven''t acted in such a way before. If we go down there, I would bet everything I have that they''re all ''3''s'' or higher. If they''re concealing their strength in this way, they might also be hiding Casters among the soldiers, as well.
"We''re retreating."
The four men, the three officers plus the scout, descended back down the hill and met back up with the toons. Reivyn ordered them to quietly move back the way they hade.
After Marching for a couple of minutes, another scout came sprinting toward Reivyn from the direction they were heading. A sense of dread filled Reivyn as he watched the scout approach.
"Sir, an enemy patrol of about a hundred men is heading this way, straight ahead," the scout panted.
Reivyn turned to get the attention of Jekle and Laris, but another scout running toward the toons from a different direction caught his eye. He paused and waited for the man to run up to him.
"Sir, about a hundred enemies are approaching us from that direction," the scout pointed back the way he hade.
"Sir," Reivyn turned to face the third scout he had perceived run up to him with his Divine Sense Skill.
"A force of a hundred mening at us from that direction?" Reivyn cut him off. The scout nodded.
What are the chances that there are three patrols zeroing in on our position right after we spotted a convoy transporting prisoners? Reivyn thought.
"We''ve been surrounded," Reivyn said, looking at Jekle and Laris. "No time to be stealthy. Get the men running. We have to punch through one of these groups before they can meet up and nk us. Go!"
Laris and Jekle ran back to their positions and started sprinting forward, angling for a direction that would lead them between two of the iing groups. The soldiers increased their pace to match theirmanders, and Reivyn ran alongside the two toons. They needed to run in a direction that they wouldn''t run straight into the enemy, but they also needed to avoid positioning themselves in a way that they could get caught in a pincer.
The two toons ran through a gulley, and then they were out in the open as the hills to one side fell away. Reivyn saw one of the iing enemy patrols in the distance, and they saw Reivyn''s toons at the same time. Reivyn could hear the sound of orders being barked, and the patrol started sprinting toward Reivyn''s men.
There were still some hills on the right-hand side of the advancing toons, so there was only one group of enemies in sight of the toons at the moment, but Reivyn knew that it was only a matter of time before another group appeared from the other side. Reivyn had been running on the right side of his toons, and he sprinted to the other side to get between them and the enemy.
He gathered his Mana in his hands, and heunched a Spell at the enemy, trying to stall for time. His suspicions were confirmed, though, when he sensed Mana re around three of the individuals in the enemy force.
A Mana Shield sprang up and intercepted his first Spell. It didn''tst long against the power of Reivyn''s Spell, though, and it shattered after draining some of Mana away. A second shield sprang up after the first, and Reivyn''s first Spell disintegrated on impact. His second Spell, though, punched through the Shield, and blinding light followed by a loud explosion detonated above the heads of the iing soldiers.
They were momentarily disoriented from the sh bang, but they were much more resilient than the previous soldiers Reivyn had used the trick on. They only stumbled about for a couple of seconds before they recovered and continued their charge.
The third Caster didn''t create a shield to protect the rest of the men, and an offensive Spell of their own counterattacked Reivyn. Reivyn reached out with his will and wrestled with the Caster for supremacy over the Spell while simultaneouslyunching another barrage of Spells from his hands. Multiple, less powerful Bolts flew out of Reivyn''s right hand, screaming toward the iing enemy.
Reivyn gained control of the enemy Caster''s own Spell, a giant fireball, and he brought it down on toward the heads of the advancing troops. Another series of Mana Shields sprung up, stopping the Spell from doing any damage. Reivyn''s bolts mmed into the Shields right after, bringing them down, and Reivyn took the opportunity to release the Mana he had umted in his left hand.
A separate Beam of sma wasunched at light speed from each of his individual fingers, and he strafed his hand across the line of soldiersing at them. Once more, Shields sprung up to protect the troops, but this time, it was the group-shield Skill of the individual soldiers. The sma Beams ate through their shields, though, and several men along the front line copsed to the ground. Some of them caught fire, and others had serious burns on their bodies, but they all got trampled by those rushing forward from behind them.
"Keep running!" Reivyn Commanded. "I''ll hold them off as much as I can and try to take their Casters out!"
Reivyn continued to run alongside the toon, casting Spells and asionally throwing up Mana Shields of his own when he was unable to steal an enemy Spell. His efforts did manage to slow the advance of the enemy soldiers enough that his toons squeezed through the trap, and he managed to knock one of the Casters out ofmission.
Reivyn''s heart was pounding, but a sense of hope filled him even as the next group of one hundred soldiers appeared on the hill to their right. They had gotten past them, though, and if they didn''t get slowed down by the enemy Mages, they had a good chance to get away unscathed.
The two toons ran up a hill, and Reivyn was about to order them to really push it on the down slope, when he and his men came to a crashing halt.
In front of them, on the other side of the hill, was another group of enemy soldiers, about two hundred strong. They were outfittedpletely differently than any they had seen so far. They were all extremely heavily armored, and all of their gear was shiny and deadly looking.
An armored figure with a pink plume on their head stood in front of the patiently waiting soldiers.
Chapter 128: Confrontation
Chapter 128: Confrontation
Kefira sat straight and prim in her saddle, scanning the horizon as the battalion ambled into their defensive position for the foreseeable future. The terrain was rocky and filled with rolling hills, so it was difficult to see very far, even during the light of day. Kefira didn''t have a visual Skill to help her see in the dark, but she did have a very high Light Affinity for her Level at 43. Infusing the Affinity into her eyes opened up the scenery for her well enough to see by the light of the moon and stars.
"This is the approximate position you agreed on?" Kefira turned her head and addressed Lieutenant Jek.
"That''s right, mydy," Jek bobbed his head. In private, Jek referred to her as Fira, the name he knew her by, but they never saw each other in private these days. He had taken to referring to her as "mydy" like everyone else after she had revealed the noble''s token from Wispan. "We didn''t want to designate a specific location in case there wereplications and changing circumstances, so we just circled a position on the map and agreed for each of us to send out scouts and patrols until we discovered each other. Sending signals during the day would be too conspicuous, and we didn''t have anymunication devices."
"Very well," Kefira said. "Major Dobrik, get the soldiers settled. There''s still most of the evening left, so go ahead and send out scouts and a patrol."
"Yes, mydy," Major Dobrik replied.
Kefira remained sitting on her saddle, chewing her lip as she watched the battalion get set up. The location that had been circled for Reivyn''s toon to meet up looked small on the map, but it covered a ratherrge area in reality.
Kefira was impatient to meet back up with Reivyn if for no other reason than to verify he was healthy and well, but he also might have extremely valuable intelligence on the enemy. If that depot on the map was a teleportation tform, it would be imperative to take it out of operation. She felt like there was more she could be doing other than just standing around, waiting to issue orders that could just as easily be given by the Major.
"Come on, Seri," Kefira said to herpanion, nudging her horse to move in the direction where she could see two toons getting ready to step off for a patrol.
"What are you nning?" Seri asked skeptically.
"We''re not needed here right now. Major Dobrik and the other officers have everything under control. You know perfectly well that I have the ability to expand the search to meet up with Reivyn''s toons quickly and efficiently. We''re going to attach ourselves to the patrol."
"Shouldn''t this be something we tell the Major?" Seri asked.
"I don''t need his permission," Kefira retorted.
"That''s not what I meant, and you know it."
"Ok~ay, fine!"
Kefira and Seri made their way over to the toons and spotted a familiar man overseeing the preparations. They dismounted next to Captain Dorran, who immediately offered a salute upon seeing who it was.
"Captain Dorran," Kefira addressed the officer, "have one of your men take our horses to be seen to, and while he''s at it, inform the Major that we''ll be joining the patrol."
Captain Dorran opened his mouth and hesitated as if he wanted to object to the order, but Kefira simply raised an eyebrow at him. He quickly shut his mouth, though, and summoned one of his soldiers over to see to it.
"Yes, mydy," Captain Dorran said.
Kefira stood to the side as Captain Dorranid out a map and discussed the route they would be taking with the two Provisional Lieutenants he had selected from hispany to perform the task. They weren''t taking the entirepany, just the two toons, and one of the other volunteer officers in thepany would see to the other three toons that were staying behind.
Kefira memorized the details of the operation, noting that they would travel to the edge of the circle drawn on the map for the rendezvous. Amotion pulled her out of her contemtion, and she looked up to see Major Dobrik and several of his staff rushing over.
"Mydy," Major Dobrik said as he approached, "are you sure this is a wise course of action?"
"It is," Kefira answered simply.
"Well... at least let me send some guards to protect you," Major Dobrik said, motioning for a couple of his staff toe forward. Kefira held a hand up to stop him.
"I have Sera with me," Kefira said. "She''s more than enough to ensure my safety."
"I have no doubts as to Lady Sera''s abilities, but she''s only one person. What will happen if you get surrounded?"
"We''re not going out to fight, and even if we were, I''m very much able to get away with my unique set of abilities. Adding more bodyguards to protect me would actually hinder me, as I can only bring one other person with me on my jumps. I wouldn''t be able to run away in good conscience if it meant I had to leave someone behind."
"Very well. Just... be safe, mydy."
Kefira looked at Major Dobrik and saw the sincerity in his eyes. Although their working rtionship had started off strained, they had built a good rapport over the passing weeks.
"Thank you, Major. I appreciate the concern," Kefira gave him a small smile. "Everything will be fine, though, so you don''t have to worry. This area is far from any of the known enemy bases or convoy routes."
"Yes, mydy."
Major Dobrik and his staff departed back to overseeing the construction of the fortifications, and the two toons led by Captain Dorran were ready to step off. Kefira nodded her head to the Captain, and he ordered the patrol to get going.
Nobody was mounted for the expedition, and Kefira didn''t decide to walk along with them simply out of solidarity. She would be a target if only she and Seri were on horseback if the enemy did happen to be around and spot them.
The patrol was a fairly boring thing, all things considered. The toons walked through the ravines and gulleys between the rolling hills, sending scouts up and around the hills to check things out as they moved. They walked east, southeast for a couple of hours, approaching the edge of the circle on the map. The n was to head a bit north before heading back to the base camp to rest for the day.
The patrol didn''t run into any enemies, but they didn''t expect to. They were far enough away from any operation zones that it would be extremely unusual to see anyone. The enemy sent out patrols other than their supply convoys, but their patrols were limited to basically the same area.
A lot of their activity had switched from patrols to escorts over the past week, too, as they beganying down long lines of wire with the captives. Kefira had ordered the Major to disrupt their activities ofying the wires whenever they came across it, and they had seeded in freeing several groups of captives. None of them had been from Kirlon, though. Most of them had been from smallermunities spread across the desert.
They didn''t go out of their way to set up arge-scale mission to disrupt the activity, though. Kefira and the other officers had spoken about it, and they had decided that that would be part of the next leg of their defense against the invasion in conjunction with trying to whittle theirbat effectiveness down.
They had discovered that anything they did now, other than freeing the captives, would be a waste of time; as scouts sent back to the locations where they had destroyed the enemy, progress had shown that the wires had been reced as if nothing had happened.
The patrol reached the edge of the search area, and they turned north. There were some teaus further east that Kefira could see. She turned to Seri and gave her a look before approaching Captain Dorran.
"Captain, Sera and I are going to jump over to those teaus and check out the other side, just in case," she informed the captain. "We''ll move parallel to the patrol, and we''ll stay in sight the entire time, so you don''t have to worry about us getting lost. Once it''s time to head back west, we''ll jump back and return with you."
"Yes, mydy," Captain Dorran replied. "Are you sure you don''t need any additional guards for your protection?"
"You can send a group of scouts to split the difference," Kefira conceded. "That way, if we spot something or run into trouble, we can get the information to them, and they can get it to you."
"That''s reasonable."
Captain Dorran waved a scout over who had just returned and gave him his new marching orders. Kefira waited until that was settled, and then she grabbed Seri by the hand before making the first jump.
She hadn''t participated in muchbat since the first day, but as the overallmander of the battalion, she got a decent chunk of experience for each battle that took ce, even the ones where she wasn''t present. There was a hefty penalty for those battles, but it was still better than nothing. As such, she had gained several Levels since the first day, including the Experience from the monthly calctions she had recently received. She had reached Level 72 of Tier 3, eight Levels higher than when the campaign had begun.
Her jumps had expanded by several tens of yards since thest time she had used them, and she and Seri quickly made it to the teau, ascending it in short order.
They came out of a jump in the center of the teau, and she felt the tingle of Mana before she even regained her bearings. Off in the distance, bright lights were shing over and over. She shared a look with Seri, and the pair jumped to the far edge of the teau, another fifty or so yards away, and they looked into the distance.
With her enhanced vision, she was able to see multiple groups of soldiers, so far away and tiny that they looked like ants, moving toward the positions where the shes wereing from. A particrly bright sh lit up the sky, revealing the extent of the encirclement. There were over ten separate groups of upwards of one to two hundred soldiers converging on the magical disy. A faint boom followed the sh several seconds after it had dissipated.
"That''s Reivyn. I know it," Kefira said. "Wait here for a moment."
Kefira immediately jumped back the way they hade, leaving Seri behind, hand outstretched. Seri had obviously thought Kefira was going to jump toward Reivyn and the magical fight going on in the distance, but now was not the time to be reckless. She needed to inform the scout right away. She quickly made it to the position of the man that was located halfway between the teau and the patrolling toons.
"Target spotted," Kefira said to the man, who jumped in surprise at her sudden appearance. "They''re under siege on the other side of that teau. Have Captain Dorran send the men up the hill and set up for defensive action. I''m going to try and break them out."
Kefira didn''t wait for a reply. She immediately jumped back up to the teau and joined Seri once again. Seri did not look amused, but the fact that Kefira hadn''t rushed headlong into the fray on her own appeased her just a little.
"This is not a good idea," Seri said, trying to loom over Kefira.
Kefira gazed into herpanion''s eyes for a moment before making a decision. The battle was still raging in the distance, and she didn''t have time to be dawdling. She reached into her robe and pulled out an amulet. Seri''s eyes opened wide at the sight.
"Princess, no..."
She was cut off as Kefira decisively broke the gem in the center of the amulet. Power that had been suppressed in her core exploded out. Kefira had never felt so good in her life. Years of feeling like something was weighing down on her were lifted, and she felt as if she would float away into the air if she didn''t keep herself grounded.
"That''s for life or death situations only!" Seri said, pinching her nose.
"This is life or death," Kefira countered. "Now,e on."
Reivyn stood in ce, sword and shield out at the ready, as he stared at the pink-plumedmander. He hadn''t noticed before because he was in such a rush, but themander was obviously a woman based on the curves of her body.
She stood with one hand on her hip, slightly cocked to the side. She took her other hand and ran it through the plume, flipping it up in an obvious habit, before striding forward. The sword at her waist bounced against her leg as she strode forward, but Reivyn didn''t spot a shield or anything strapped to her back.
Reivyn tightened the grip on his sword hilt, ready for action, but none of the enemy soldiers made a move. The enemymander walked forward until she was only twenty or so yards away from Reivyn and more than forty yards away from her own troops. The act ofplete disregard for the danger spoke volumes of her confidence.
"You''ve caused me quite the headache these past few weeks," a melodious voice issued from the closed helmet. In any other situation, Reivyn might have been enchanted by the sweet sound, but the juxtaposition of the sweet voice with thebat situation only made him more alert.
"I have to say, I''m actually quite impressed. My name is Aerie. What''s yours?" Aerie asked conversationally.
"Uh... Reivyn," he replied, not sure about the situation anymore.
"Well, Reivyn, what do you say? Lower your weapons, and join me. I guarantee with me, you''ll be able to go much farther than you ever could as a littlemander of some backward desert kingdom." The armored woman folded her arms across her chest, legs slightly apart, and chin lifted high.
Reivyn was stunned for a moment. That was thest thing he had expected to hear. He was ready for demands of surrender or even a speech about the futility of the situation, but he was not thinking she would simply ask him to switch sides and join her.
"You want me to join you in your invasion?" Reivyn asked skeptically.
"What invasion?" The girl tilted her head to the side, sounding genuinely confused.
"What invasion?" Reivyn repeated back. He gestured all around with his sword. "This invasion."
"One moment," Aerie held up a hand. She turned her head slightly as a man ran out from the enemy lines at her gesture. "Colonel Irio, what''s this man talking about?"
"Umm... well, mydy, uh, you''ve read the reports about our operation here," the nervous man stuttered. "It seems the locals have taken it as an invasion."
"I see." Aerie turned back toward Reivyn. "This isn''t an invasion."
Reivyn was once more taken aback. She said it like he was just supposed to believe her at face value.
"Forgive me if I don''t believe you," Reivyn replied. He was still standing at the ready. "You''ve brought over a hundred thousand troops into the territory, kidnapped tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, more civilians, and you''re making a giant Rune Spell in the middle of the desert with forcedbor. How is this not an invasion?"
"Hmm, yes, I can see how you would think it would be. me my ipetent soldiers for the kidnapping of the people. I never told them to do that. As to the hundred thousand soldiers I brought, it''s just one division, and not a particrly good one, either. Mostly made up of rabble, I''m sure you''ve noticed."
"That''s... wait, are you saying you''ll free the people you''ve kidnapped when you''re done?"
"Of course. What use would they be to me after?"
"Well, what about right now, instead?"
"Nope."
"Why? You just said it wasn''t part of your order."
"Because I already have them. They''re a free resource. Why wouldn''t I use them?"
"A resource? This is people we''re talking about!"
"So? Manpower is a resource."
"I mean, techni... wait, that''s not the point! They''re not just something you picked up on the side of the road to do with as you please. They have their own lives to live!"
"Yeah, and I''m sure they''ll get a good boost of Life Experience from going through this ordeal. I''ll bet you thousands of people will break through a bottleneck they''ve been stuck at, and the overall Level of the poption will explode upwards. You could even say I''m doing them a favor."
"Is that how you justify your actions?"
"I wouldn''t use it as a justification to initiate the action, but since it''s already done..." Aerie shrugged. "Enough. I''ve asked you politely to join my side. Now I''m telling you. Sheath your sword, and join me."
"You want me to serve you?" Reivyn frowned.
"Is that what I said?" Aerie retorted. "Sure, any of your followers thate with you will join the ranks and serve me, but you... You''re different. I think you have what it takes to stand by my side. Join me."
"I already have a girl..." Reivyn began.
"But not a wife?" Aerie cut him off.
"Uh..."
"So what''s the problem? In fact, you can bring her along, too. I don''t mind a littlepetition."
Reivyn stood in stunned silence for a moment, just staring at the girl standing opposite him.
"You''re not what I expected," Reivyn eventually said. "You''re kind of weird."
"I''m not weird," Aerie huffed. "I''m just supremely confident." She once more struck a pose and flipped her plume. Upon closer inspection, Reivyn realized that it was actually a ponytail sticking up from her helmet.
"Well, I have to disappoint you. I''m not joining your side. You''re doing something dangerous with that Rune Spell."
"What''s dangerous about it? Do you even know what it''s for?" Aerie retorted.
"I know it has something to do with the connection to the Abyss in the depths of the deste sands."
Reivyn was fishing for information. He actually knew no such thing. It was just spection on his part. Aerie dropped her hands to her side as she stood up straight, and Reivyn could feel the piercing gaze she directed toward him. It was almost a physical sensation.
"A little Tier 2 nobody in a backward desert kingdom knows about the Abyss channels?" Aerie said. "Now I''m even more interested in you.
"If you won''te willingly, I''ll just have to bring you by force."
Reivyn''s Danger Sense exploded as Aerie raised her hand. He hastily drew upon the Mana he had been umting and formed ayered Mana Shield in front of himself. Another dark red beam shot out of Aerie''s palm and instantly crashed into Reivyn''s shield. He had learned his lesson fromst time, and the secondary shield he had erected absorbed most of the impact.
He still suffered nearly 100 points of Health damage, but he was only pushed back several feet instead of beingunched across the desert likest time. The beam was deflected andunched up into the sky, harmlessly away from his soldiers still in formation behind him.
Reivyn Charged forward, manually activating the Skill with his own understanding and experience with the ss Skill. It was much easier to use it manually like this than it had beenst time. He didn''t suffer any extreme stress from activating it immediately after having used it. The distance closed in a fraction of a second, and Aerie calmly drew her sword to parry the strike.
The power of the attack behind Reivyn''s swing obviously surprised the girl as she was pushed back further than Reivyn had been from her beam attack. Reivyn lifted his shield in front of himself, and using the hand holding the strap, heunched his own Spell at his opponent. The nature of the Mana allowed it to bypass the shield held against his arm, and a fiery st exploded in front of Aerie.
Aerie calmly lifted her other hand and erected her own shield. The st and heat were directed around the bubble she had created, and she waspletely unharmed. Reivyn didn''t give her the chance tounch another Spell from a distance, though, and he rushed forward to engage her in hand-to-handbat.
Reivyn used his Elemental Weapon Skill to infuse his sword with the Metal and Sharpness Affinities. Metal reinforced and amplified the attributes of his sword, and Sharpness didn''t need an exnation. Aerie''s eyes behind her protective face mask on her helmet widened in surprise at the Mana coursing through Reivyn''s body and weapon, but she still calmly engaged him inbat.
It was clear that Aerie''s abilities with a sword were top-notch, but they were still below Reivyn''s. Reivyn pressed his advantage, and Aerie was on the back foot. His Danger Sense once more pinged, and he swirled around to block a sneak attackunched at him by a man that had run out from Aerie''s troops.
"Hey!" Reivyn turned toward Aerie''s voice as she yelled out. He maintained his stance of holding his shield up to hold off the sword still pressing down on him, and he desperately umted Mana to ward off the next attack that he was sure wasing from the girl.
He was bbergasted, though, as instead of taking the opportunity to attack him, Aerieunched a Spell at her own man, exploding his head on impact. The man''s body dropped dead. Reivyn stared at the girl with his mouth open.
"Sorry about that," Aerie flipped her hair again, recovering her stance. She waited for Reivyn to also recover his stance before turning her head to the man she had addressed as Colonel Irio. "This is a personal matter. Don''t let anyone else interfere again, or it will be your head next time."
"Yes, mydy," Irio bowed his head.
"Are you crazy?! That was your own man!" Reivyn shouted.
"So? He was death sworn. He should feel honored to die by my own hand."
"All of you people are crazy!" Reivyn shook his head.
"Enough of that. Let''s continue."
Aerie gathered her Mana, but instead ofunching the powerful beam attack, a barrage of other Spells pelted Reivyn. He anchored a dual Mana Shield to his physical shield and dashed forward,unching his own Spells at his opponent.
Aerie had learned her lesson, though, and she only ever allowed Reivyn to exchange a few blows with her before she disengaged to Cast more Spells. The only time Reivyn managed to close the distance to engage in physicalbat was when she had to concentrate a bit longer for arger Spell.
The battle continued without neither side gaining an advantage, but Reivyn''s Stamina and Mana were depleting at an rming rate. He had caused zero damage to his opponent, and his Stamina and Mana hadn''t been full when they began the duel. He could sense that Aerie wasn''t trying her hardest, though, and she had ample Stamina and Mana to whittle him down.
He wasn''t sure, but he could feel some excitement exuding from his opponent the longer they fought, and Aerie became tougher and tougher to handle as the duel dragged out. Mana was flung back and forth between them, causing the area to seem like a thunderstorm had rolled in, and Reivyn was beginning to get desperate.
Suddenly, a huge aura of Mana descended on the area, and Reivyn saw Kefira and Seri pop up out of nowhere. Kefira lifted her hands andunched several Spells at Aerie. The very fabric of reality tore as giant rips in the air zipped toward Aerie. The void threatened to spill out from the ck scars, but the rips healed themselves in the wake of the attacks.
Aerie pulled out an item from her inner breast pocket, though, and the spatial tears were pushed to either side of her, dissipating without harm after traveling several more yards past the woman. Aerie jumped back and looked back and forth between Reivyn and Kefira for a moment.
"Is this the girl that you mentioned?" Aerie asked. Reivyn simply stood still, not reacting. "Tell her to stand to the side and wait for our fight to end. I''ll give her a spanking for interfering after I show you which one of us is superior."
Kefira screamed in rage as a huge whirlpool of Mana surrounded her, kicking up dust and dirt around her. Seri jumped back, a frown on her face, and a giant beam of ck death, once more tearing a huge rip in the Realm,unched toward Aerie.
Aerie suddenly exploded in speed she hadn''t disyed before, nimbly dodging the attack beforeunching her own beam in retaliation toward Kefira. Kefira disappeared from her position, though, reappearing a short distance away. More Spells came out in quick session toward Aerie, but she dashed from side to side, avoiding them all, as she closed the distance with Reivyn.
"Colonel Irio, you have my permission to attack now," Aerie calmly called out. Her sword came shing down toward Reivyn from the side, orders of magnitude faster than before. Reivyn lifted his shield and blocked it, but the power behind the blow caused his shield to smash back into his face, and he was once more sent tumbling across the ground.
Aerie, apparently, had been regting her own Stats to match what Reivyn had shown, but after Kefira had joined the battle, she unleashed her true abilities.
The fight intensified. Aerie didn''t use Spatial Magic to jump around like Kefira, but her physical speed alone was enough for her to easily hold off the two of them in their coordinated fight. Reivyn focused on physical attacks enhanced by his Mana, but he still Cast his own Spells topliment the barrageing from Kefira.
Kefira was an unending well of Mana, bouncing around the battlefield andunching powerful Spells like they were nothing. Reivyn had to admit that he wouldn''t be able to keep up the level of magical prowess that she had been disying for very long. Each one of her Spells seemed to be as powerful as anything he could do when using his highest level Spells using his ss Skill, and she Cast them at the speed it would take him to use a 50 Mana Spell.
Not only did she continue her attacks against Aerie, but she also managed to deflect all of the Spellsing at them from the Mages of Aerie''s soldiers after she had issued themand to attack. She countered the enemy Mages, as well, causing them to have to devote some of their concentration to defending themselves from her powerful Magic.
Despite them having tremendous synergy in their efforts, though, Aerie was undeterred. She truly was superior to both of them. Her Skill with the sword wasn''t as good as Reivyn''s, and her Skill with her Magic wasn''t as good as Kefira''s, but her Stats alone made up for the discrepancy and then some.
The duel seemed tost forever, but Reivyn realized it hadn''t actually been that long, as the soldiers that had surrounded them and stood off to the side hadn''t made it to the fray to engage Reivyn''s toons behind him. His own men had formed a circle to prevent themselves from being attacked on the side. Still, they werepletely surrounded by a vastly superior force, and each of the members of the enemy was clearly just as powerful as any of the individuals in Reivyn''s toons.
Seri stood nearby, ready to intercept any enemy soldiers taking the opportunity to attack Kefira, but it didn''t seem necessary. Kefira''s jumping took her in aplete circle around Reivyn''s soldiers and Seri, and she suddenly appeared right by Reivyn''s side after he had once more been knocked back by Aerie.
"Time to end this!" She yelled.
Kefira grabbed Reivyn''s arm with one hand as she threw her other hand into the air, her head back. Mana exploded out in a huge st, forming a circle matching the route she had taken in jumping around the battlefield. Reivyn was surprised to see that the enemy beyond the limits of the circle came to aplete halt, just feet away from making contact with Reivyn''s toons. Spellsunched by the enemy Mages seemed to move through the air in slow motion.
"Come on! We don''t have a lot of time!" Kefira shouted.
She began to drag Reivyn away to the west, and Reivyn quickly ordered his men to make a sprint for it as well. There was a wall of enemies in front of them, but they were frozen in ce.
Reivyn tore into the line of attackers, shortly followed by his toons and Seri, but Kefira continued to hold her hand in the air, copious amounts of Mana flowing from her hand into Reivyn, his men, Kefira, and Seri. She was apparently unable to do anything else at the moment other than maintain whatever Spell she had invoked and run.
They breached the line and raced to the west. There was a teau in the distance, and Reivyn could vaguely make out a line of soldiers on top of the ridge in a defensive position.
He turned his head to look back the way they hade, and he was shocked to see that Aerie was running towards them in an exaggerated slow motion, but it was considerably faster than the rest of the soldiers present. None of the other soldiers had moved an inch in the minute that had passed, but Aerie seemed to be slow jogging toward them.
"I can only maintain the Spell for another couple of minutes," Kefira gasped next to him. "We have to get to the teau before then."
Reivyn nodded and turned back around to concentrate on escaping. They ran across the open desert for several minutes before it seemed like the world shifted. They made it to the foot of the teau, and Kefira''s body copsed. Reivyn reached out and grabbed her. He looked down to ensure she was alright, but she was unconscious.
"Up the hill!" Reivyn Commanded.
He and the rest ascended the hill to join with the soldiers of the patrol that Kefira hade out with.
Aerie stood in ce, watching the interesting young man run up the hill with the girl held in his arms. Despite losing her prey, she had a grin on her face under the protective mask.
"Looks like his vision is good, too," she chuckled. "Space and Time Magic. I definitely need to let him bring his girl along with him once I make him mine."
Chapter 129: Pleasant Jaunt
Chapter 129: Pleasant Jaunt
"Honey, here''s the info pack for Wispan," Refix held out a sealed envelope with the Adventurer''s official seal. They had sent several of their own people out in several different directions instead of waiting for someone in the Adventurer''s Guild to ept amission. They had burned through several years'' worth of savings, but that didn''t matter. It was still a drop in the bucket for the wealth they had umted over the years of running Dungeons and businesses, and if they weren''t going to spend it on finding their son, what would they spend it on?
"Give here, quick!" Ameliyn snatched the envelope from his hands and went to tear it open, but she calmed herself down before making a serious mistake and used her magic to verify the seal and Spell cast on it. After confirming the authenticity and decoding the Spell lock, she tore the envelope to shreds in her haste to get at the information inside.
There were several papers, and each one containedplicated webs of routes that could be taken from Tier 4 teleporter to Tier 4 teleporter in a long chain to the final destination. Refix had been adamant that they map out multiple alternative routes just in case, and it had led to an incredibly thick packet. Ameliyn ignored all of that, though, and zeroed in on the fastest route possible.
"86 jumps to get to Wispan, that''s more than we made from Vyndinn to get here," Ameliyn said, handing the pages with the alternate paths back to Refix. "We only took 37 jumps from Vyndinn to get to the neighboring empire before wandering around all the way to Haluville, but that was basically in the opposite direction."
Refix read through the papers, memorizing several of the routes written on the paper. Ameliyn had snatched the paper with the shortest route, but there were many alternate routes that could be taken. There were more than Refix could memorize in a short time, so he only memorized a couple from several key points along the main, shortest route. The longest method he memorized included 126 jumps, though there were still others that were longer.
Some of the routes involved took so many more jumps to aplish because of the political rtionships of the empires involved. There was no such thing as war between the empires, but friction frompeting for high-level resources made their rtionships strained.
"I''ll get my team together, and I''ll head out immediately," Refix said, folding the papers up and storing them in his pouch.
"Absolutely not!" Ameliyn said, giving Refix a severe look. "We''re all going."
Ameliyn stared Refix in the eye, daring him to contradict her. Refix rubbed his forehead and sighed.
"What about Kailey and Riley?"
"What about them? They''reing with us, obviously."
"But they have school."
"They''re the darlings of the Academy. We can just ask permission for them to take their semester exams a bit early. Even though it''s 86 jumps, that should only take a couple of months there and back, if we don''t stop to sightsee."
"Fine. I''ll send a message to the girls and contact the Academy administration. I''ll have Teilon and Kimberly take care of our house while we''re gone."
"I knew you would see things my way," Ameliyn smiled and leaned in for a kiss.
"You know I can''t say no to you," Refix reciprocated. "At least, not for long."
The coupleughed and hugged for a moment before separating. Their spirits were high as Ameliyn began packing their things for the trip and Refix sent some people with messages to the Academy and their subordinates.
We''ll finally see what that boy''s been up to all this time, Refix smiled to himself.
Refix led the way toward the corridor that sprung up in the center of the teleport tform. Ameliyn walked behind him with Kailey and Riley underneath an arm, each. The corridor was like a doorway that materialized out of thin air, leading into a star-lit tunnel. It was like they were walking on the air once they passed the threshold, but the ground was firm and secure.
Kailey and Riley "ooh''d" and "ahh''d," pointing out the cosmic scenery as they followed behind Refix. Ameliyn just had a smile on her face at their reactions. Refix and Ameliyn had been through enough void corridors that they were no longer blown away by the sight of it, though it still never ceased to awe the couple. Going through a teleportation circle had a way of reminding people just how big the universe was, and how small they were as individuals.
There were other groups of people following behind them, and Refix could see still more entering the corridor from the other end, traveling to Quron from the other teleporter. The people traveling in the opposite direction of Refix and his family had obviously different skin tones and clothing aesthetics. Most of the world, that Refix had traveled through, was pretty simr in style and poption, though there were always some small discrepancies. Sometimes, though, the climates were so vastly different that there were hardly any simrities at all.
Each teleporter would make a connection with a separate empire once a day for approximately an hour, operating for about ten hours a day. Each empire was connected to anywhere from ten to thirty other empires, and depending on the situation, people would have to find an inn and wait for the appropriate connection to be made.
Waiting for the right time for a connection was the real reason long trips took up a substantial amount of time. That and if people needed to go to a lower Tier Region in another empire. Teleporters only connected from one Tier 4 to another Tier 4. There were no connections to their vassal states beneath them. It wasn''t that it wasn''t possible, just that it didn''t make sense to use the valuable time and power sources for such connections. Refix guessed that there were some empires that were rich enough to have individual, smaller teleporters to their vassals, but he had never been to one.
Refix passed by the other travelers, Ameliyn and the twins in tow. The regr team that Refix Partied with, minus Teilon and Kimberly, followed behind the girls. Other than the incredible sight of walking through space, the trip was no different than walking down a fairly crowded side street in the city. The conversation between the travelers didn''t cease, and Refix could spot several people that were apparently veterans like him and his wife, based on the looks on their faces.
The corridor was only about fifty yards long, and it was over before they knew it. They stepped out into the sunlight once more, in a simr teleport circle in a new city. The buildings were simr in style, just like the clothing on the people was mostly the same, but theyout and positioning of the buildings werepletely different. Each empire capital that Refix had been to had its own unique charm.
"Alright," Refix said, turning to Ameliyn and the others, "we''re lucky that the next connection we need is only in a couple of hours. The first several jumps can be made on the same day, but we''ll have to wait at the fourth jump for two days before the right connection is made.
"Let''s go grab a seat at one of the benches, and we''ll just wait here for the next connection."
Refix directed Ameliyn toward a seating area, and as she and the others headed over there to grab a seat in arge gazebo, Refix walked over to the administrators of the teleport circle. He handed them a pouch of gold coins, and after they counted to verify the amount, he received a stack of parchments for everyone to hold for the next jump.
If someone stood in the circle without the parchment that contained a Runic Spell on it, the connection wouldn''t be made. It was easy to locate any people that were trying to sneak through the payment process, though, as the parchments gave off a glow when the teleport circle was activated.
One could pay their fee in Mana Stones or gold, and Refix preferred to always pay in gold whenever possible. Mana Stones were a scarce resource, and there was always a losing conversion rate when trading them for currency. Most of the business that they did with their people earned them gold and silver, so it made sense to use that for payment and hoard the Mana Stones for personal use whenever possible.
Mana Stones had a wide variety of uses, much more so than some mundane metal coins. Ameliyn had used some to saturate the area when they had rushed to Reivyn''s rescue in Magron so that she could use her highest level Spells without issue, and many magical devices used them as power. The teleporters they were using were just one example.
Higher Level magical gear also required Mana Stones to power them, though one could use their own Mana Pool to do so as well. That was to be avoided, though, as, just like with anything else, there was a loss of efficiency aspared to using a condensed Mana Stone. One could also absorb the Mana directly in an emergency.
Refix andpany spent several hours hopping between teleport circles, thest one ending just a couple of hours before dusk. One simrity between every imperial capital was the prevalence of high-end inns near the teleport circles, and after spending an evening in a luxurious set of rooms, Refix and his family were able to take the next day off to do a little exploring.
It was a good opportunity for Kailey and Riley to peruse various other crafts produced by high Tier Lifestyle sses. There was always arge market of high-quality things to find in an imperial capital, but the local resources often dictated which direction the poptions focused their endeavors on. Kailey and Riley were able to expand their horizons on such a trip.
The days passed, and Refix and Ameliyn grew progressively more excited and anxious at the prospect of reuniting with their firstborn son in Wispan. Each day simultaneously felt like it went by in the blink of an eye andsted an eternity.
"Just three more jumps after this one," Refix smiled to his wife and girls as they entered yet another void corridor. The cosmdscape was slightly different each time, but only someone with a high Perception Stat like Refix and Ameliyn would be able to notice the differences. It wasn''t that the scene itself was different, just that they were in a marginally different location within the void. Refix could point out where the stars in the distance were a couple of inches off from the first corridor they had passed through.
Something tugged at Refix''s awareness as they walked along the corridor, but he couldn''t quite figure out what it was. He nced all around, but the cosmic scene didn''t offer any clues. His Danger Sense, though, started to ping ever so slightly, and it ramped up with each step he took.
He looked up at their destination, and it finally dawned on him what the difference was.
"Something''s off," he called over his shoulder. "There are no peopleing from..."
A huge sound, like shattering ss, interrupted Refix, and the corridor rocked from side to side. The invisible walls protecting everyone from the void grew visible cracks along the way, and Refix turned fully around to grab his wife and daughters to protect them. He lunged toward them, but as he moved forward, the distance between them grew further and further apart.
An astral wind kicked up from nowhere, and Refix watched as his three girls were picked up and swept out into oblivion. Ameliyn held onto both of her girls as the phenomenon tried to rip them from her grasp. A darknce, darker than ck, shed through existence, and several people that had been walking behind Refix''s team simply disintegrated into particles upon contact.
Refix was alsounched into the void, in the opposite direction of his wife, and he vaguely noticed that his team was scattered as some were pulled straight up into the air and some seemed to fall through the ground.
Refix didn''t panic, and he gathered his Mana and Stamina, weaving them together in aplicated knot that Reivyn had never even considered possible before, and smashed his fist against the nothingness. Fractures appeared in front of him, and they seemed to move with him as he was tossed about. No matter how it felt he was moving in the void, the fractures he created remained right in front of his face.
He mmed his fist over and over into the air, and finally, with another sound of ss shattering, reality became visible in front of him. Without waiting to check what was on the other side, Refix threw his body through the hole. The wound in reality quickly healed itself behind him, and he was alone, separated from his family andpanions in apletely unknown location.
He immediately began falling from several hundred feet up in the sky. Refix oriented himself to the ground, and he used his Mana and Stamina to stomp on the air, creating artificial stairs to arrest his fall. Once he had his descent under control, he continued to run down the air like he was running down a stairwell, and he quickly reached the treetops.
Sounds of people screaming and metal shing on metal entered his ears as the sound of the wind stopped, and he looked below to see people running in a panicked mob. Men on horseback ran them down and indiscriminately shed their swords at the fleeing people.
None of the people running for their lives were armed, and they were obviously civilians. The ones on horseback were heavily armored, and they were obviously a cohesive military unit.
After witnessing several dozen horsemen run down fleeing people and gallop past the location he had chosen for his descent, Refix noticed a horde of foot soldiers quickly following behind the horsemen. Whenever they encountered the fleeing people that had survived the massacre from the horsemen, they would tackle them to the ground and ce a heavy iron cor attached to a chain around their necks.
The men had it the easiest, as they only received a beating if they resisted. The women on the other hand...
Refix couldn''t abide by what he was witnessing, and he drew steel. He performed a somersault, stomping on the air above him instead of below to increase the speed of his fall. He came down like a meteor, steel and ethereal weapons sweeping out and decimating the closest group of soldiers.
Refix gained his bearings almost instantly, and heunched himself into the middle of the oing horde of soldiers. The sword in his hand quickly turned from shiny silver to bloody red, and his ethereal weapons reaped the lives of the transgressors. His precision was impable, and none of the fleeing civilians lost so much as a strand of hair from Refix''s onught.
The horde of soldiers seemed to know no fear, and they just kepting. Refix turned into a meat grinder on the dirt road in the forest, and none could escape his wrath. He dashed toward the oing soldiers, a tornado of death sweeping everything up in his path. Blood, guts, and body parts were the only thing spat back out.
The engagement was over only after a few short minutes, and Refix came to a halt, hardly breathing hard at all. He calmly inspected his work, the sound of weeping and wailinging from behind him. There wasn''t much left of the aggressors for him to gather clues from.
He turned and saw fear and uncertainty in the eyes of those he had rescued, blood dripping from his sword. He gathered his Mana and sent his ethereal weapons screaming down the road after the horsemen, deftly weaving around the civilians that were still in the way.
He pulled a rag out of his spatial pouch, wiped his sword clean, and tossed the drenched fabric to the ground as he sheathed his weapon. He approached a young man close by who was blocking a young woman from view as she tidied up her clothes, tears streaming down her face apanied by sobs and hups. The young man eyed Refix wearily, but he could see the determination in his eyes instead of fear.
"Where is this? What''s going on here?" Refix questioned the young man, staring him in the eye and not letting his gaze waver. The young man watched for a moment to make sure Refix wasn''t going to try and get past him or sneak a look at the young woman before replying.
"You really don''t know?" He asked, his face devoid of emotion.
"Did you not see me literally fall out of the sky? I was using the teleport circle to travel to the capital when something went wrong."
"The capital was sacked," the young man replied. "We''re all people who live just outside of the walls, and the fact that we were looked down upon is what allowed us to have any chance of getting away. The people inside the city had no chance."
"The capital was sacked? What do you mean?"
"What else could I mean? It''s war. Another empire invaded some time ago. Nobody really thought much about it at first. The army was dispatched to take care of it, but despite their high Levels and equipment, they were routed in the first battle. The enemy empire moved faster than anyone anticipated, and they just so happened to reach the capital today.
"I imagine the problem you had with the teleport circle was the destruction of it on this end."
"That makes sense," Refix stroked his chin in thought.
So it''s very likely that Ameliyn, the girls, and mypanions are scattered across thendscape of this Tier 4 Region. I don''t have to worry too much about Ameliyn''s safety, as long as she was able to get the girls out, nor the others. I was the furthest one along the corridor, so I''m most likely the closest one to the capital, though spatial magic doesn''t exactly work as point A to point B.
The ethereal weapons that Refix had sent out zipped back to him, and they disappeared into his being. He didn''t react at all, still standing there in contemtion, but the civilians all flinched back at the passing arsenal. All of them except the boy in front of him. The girl he was trying to protect finally finished getting her clothing situation settled, having to pin some tears together. She kicked what remained of her assant as she stood up, screaming and crying as she did so.
The young man finally took his eyes off Refix as he turned to envelop the girl in a tight hug. She continued to sob as she hugged the young man back, kicking the corpse a couple more times for good measure.
"Boy, what''s your name, ss, and how old are you?" Refix addressed the young man.
"Cecil," the youngster replied, not turning away from the young woman in his arms. "Why do you want to know the rest?"
"Look around you," Refix answered. The young man did as instructed, turning his head left and right to take in the scene of the frightened civilians. "Are any of these people your family?" Refix continued to ask. The young man shook his head. "And what''s their reaction to me?"
The young man tilted his head in thought. He hesitated to open his mouth, but Refix could see that he understood what he was getting at.
"None of them will even look at me," he said. To emphasize the point, he nced at another group of people nearby. They flinched back from his gaze. "You''re the only person who will look at me, and not only that, look me in the eye and stand up to me to protect the girl behind you. Who is she to you?"
"She''s my wife," Cecil said. Refix noticed the young man clench and unclench his fist, defeat and frustration evident from his back if not from his face.
"So, what''s your ss and age?"
The young man hesitated for another moment before deciding to answer the question.
"I''m just a Tier 3 Forester, and I''m 19 years old," Cecil said, turning his head to once more look at Refix. "Why?"
Refix gave him a stern look.
"You''re not fooling me, young man. I can sense the Mana in you. What''s your ss?"
Cecil returned the stern look with a hard one of his own. They stood staring at each other for several long moments. The girl in his arms stopped sobbing and stood back, a look of surprise on her face.
"Fine! I''m a Deep Ranger!"
"Ranger?" His wife asked, astonishment on her face, breaking through the tears and hurt. "Isn''t that a Combat ss?"
"I was going to tell you, honey," Cecil turned back to his wife, responding to her with a consoling voice. "It just wasn''t the time, yet. I thought long and hard about the decision, and even though I still work as a forester right now, I''ve been buying lessons from some Adventurers at the Adventurer''s Guild so I could move to Dungeon Delving."
"That exins why we''re always short on money. I thought you were... Anyway, I''m not mad about it, but we''ll continue this talkter."
"Of course, dear." He turned back to Refix. "You still haven''t answered my question. Why do you want to know?"
"Well, Cecil," Refix replied, "like you, I have a wife. She and my twin daughters were with me in that void corridor when it broke, and I suspect she''s somewhere around here. I''m a leader of men, Cecil, and you, are a man. You help guide me through the terrain around here, and I''ll help you figure out how to use your ss for what it''s intended for. Deal?"
Refix held his hand out. Cecil and his wife shared a look before he grasped Refix''s hand in his own.
Chapter 130: Merits
Chapter 130: Merits
Reivyn held Kefira''s wrist as he channeled his unattuned Mana from his hand into her meridians. The frown on her face gradually lessened as his Mana acted like rain on a dry desert. She hadpletely emptied her Mana Pool, thatst Spell she used to alter everyone''s time had cost a lot of Mana. Reivyn had seen a Mana Stone disintegrate in her hands before she copsed.
Thatst Spell had alsoe as a shock to Reivyn.
She wasn''t lying when she said she was a magical prodigy, he thought. I was told that it''s impossible to be skilled in both Space and Time simultaneously, yet she is. I wonder what mother will think when I tell her? Reivyn chuckled.
Reivyn sat on a stool next to Kefira''s cot, and Seri stood at the foot of the bed, watching him like a hawk. Reivyn wasn''t in the mood to get up to tricks regardless, but he was actually appreciative of Seri''s attitude. It meant he never had to worry about anyone trying anything funny when he wasn''t around.
The frown on Kefira''s face gradually eased, and the sweat beading her brow evaporated. Reivyn had been pushing his Mana into her pathways ever since he had caught her on the hill, and it had been a couple of hours. He couldn''t read her Status to see the exact numbers of her Mana Pool, but it was only now that he could perceive a noticeable uptick in the Mana within her.
It wasn''t that she had so much Mana that he couldn''t fill it, though. Most of the Mana was dispersed to deal with the side effects. Not only the Mana he sent to her, but her own passive recovery as well. One of the consequences of a Mana expenditure bacsh was requiring Mana to soothe the body before it could fill the vessel.
Kefira''s eyelids fluttered briefly before she opened her eyes. She gazed around in confusion for a moment before her face took on a look of panic. She leaned over the side, and Seri expertly tossed a bucket to Reivyn. He caught it, and Kefira immediately emptied the contents of her stomach into it. She continued to dry heave for a few moments before finally settling down.
She copsed back onto the cot, exhausted from the strain, and Reivyn gently wiped her mouth with a wet cloth. He was relieved to see that the difort seemed to have finally fully passed, though, and she didn''t rpse back into unconsciousness or break out into a sweat again.
"Ugh... That sucked," Kefira muttered, her forearm covering her eyes. "How long have I been out?"
"Three hours," Reivyn said quietly, afraid a loud voice would give her a headache.
"Whew, I''ve never had such a strong bacsh before. My worst one before now was, like, twenty minutes."
"You shouldn''t have pushed yourself so hard," Seri rebuked.
Kefira rolled her eyes.
"It was necessary. You saw what we were up against. Not only were we outnumbered twenty to one, but that Jezebel was pretty tough."
"Jezebel?" Reivyn muttered, confused. "She told me her name was Aerie."
Kefira focused her attention on Reivyn, staring at him with a t look for several seconds.
"A Jezebel is a woman who... never mind," she waved her hands to dismiss her words. She narrowed her eyes at Reivyn. "But I see that you know her name. Have a pleasant conversation with her?"
It was Reivyn''s turn to roll his eyes. He grabbed her hand and patted the back of it with his other.
"Knock it off. You have nothing to be jealous of. I did learn some valuable information from her, though."
Kefira sat up without letting go of Reivyn''s hand and scooted back so she could sit cross-legged in her cot. She kept her nket pulled up to her waist like she was just enjoying afortable day in bed. Her expression went from narrowed eyes to one of curiosity.
I would never say jealousy looks bad on her, but this look is definitely cuter, Reivyn thought to himself.
"Like what?" Kefira asked.
"Should I call for Major Dobrik?" Seri asked, taking a half step toward the tent p.
"Sera, you can be really stupid, sometimes," Kefira sighed. "He can wait. I''m talking to Reivyn."
Seri resumed her stance, arms folded across her stomach with a small pout at the rebuke. Reivyn just chuckled.
"I learned that they''re not actually invading the kingdom and that they''ll let the civilians go if or when theyplete their objective."
"And you believe her, just like that?"
"I have a Skill. It''s not very high, but my gut tells me she was being honest."
"Did you find out what that objective is?"
"No, but I imagine it has something to do with the caves beneath the Lizaldon settlement."
"The Spider Lair?! What could she possibly be after with the spiders?" Kefira was genuinely confused.
"No idea, but that''s not the only thing down there," Reivyn replied. "Do you remember what I told you about how I ended up here?"
Kefira nodded.
"You said something about being in a Dungeon, and you got separated from your teammate and ended up here somehow."
"Uh-huh, but I left out a couple of key details. Do you remember how you told me the deste sands are the remnants of something people from the Verdant Realm did, sucking the life out of the Region?" Kefira nodded her head again. "Well, there''s more to it than that. There''s a connection to the Abyss Realm down in the depths."
Kefira gasped and Seri''s eyes widened at the news.
"There was a gateway in the Dungeon I was in with my teammate, and when we went through it, we were on a bridge between the Realms. That''s actually where we got separated. Some things happened, the bridge was destroyed, and I got chased by... something... and I ended up escaping back into our Realm through a different gateway.
"That gateway led me to one of the Boss Dungeons at the bottom of the Spider Lair."
"So you''re saying there''s a bridge to the Abyss Realm down there?" Kefira gasped.
"Maybe?"
"What do you mean, ''maybe?'' You just said there was."
"Well, the thing that was chasing me was destroying those bridges left and right. I think it broke around a dozen or so as it chased me. I managed to dive through the gateway ahead of it, but I don''t know if it destroyed the bridge or not. I didn''t stick around to find out, and then I was in a boss fight against a giant spider that was tainted with Abyss Mana."
"Ok. So, you know about the Abyss connection down there because that''s where you came from, but how would they know about it?"
"That''s my point. If they have a connection to the Abyss, they might have been able to sense it somehow. The Spider Matriarch down there is still alive, and it''s obviously been tainted by Abyss Mana. My conjecture is that the boss I fought in the Dungeon was a snapshot of that giant spider from thousands of years ago."
"A thousand-year-old Spider Matriarch? Are you sure it wasn''t its ancestor or something?"
"No, but the matriarch down there was about a quarter the size of Kirlon, so..."
Kefira and Seri''s eyes opened wide at that information. They shared a look between each other before focusing on Reivyn once more.
"If it''s really an ancient, thousand-plus-year-old spider, it might very well be Tier 7," Kefira said. "Do you think it''s possible their goal is to do something with that spider?"
"It''s possible," Reivyn nodded his head. "As I said, I don''t know for sure. The attitude of the invaders leads me to believe they have some sort of connection with the Abyss. Their cavalier attitude toward life is very simr to those with connections to the other Realm I''ve encountered in the past.
"Right now, though, with the information we have, we should assume their goal is either something to do with the Abyss or the Spider Matriarch. Either one of those things could spell bad news for everyone here."
"Ok. We have to gather the other officers for a debriefing, and we need to get this information sent to the local authorities. I can send a message to my family, though, so we don''t have to worry about that.
"Sera, you can go inform the Major, now. Reivyn and I will wait here for you toe back with the other officers."
"Sure thing," Seri said, walking to the exit. "It''s pretty early in the morning, though, and everyone''s bound to still be asleep. It might take me a while to round everyone up." She winked at Kefira before ducking out of the tent.
"Maybe she''s not so stupid, sometimes," Kefira muttered with a smile.
The next moment sheunched herself out of the cot and wrapped her arms around Reivyn. Their lips met.
"You''re certain you destroyed the teleportation tform?" Major Dobrik asked Reivyn.
"A hundred percent," Reivyn nodded.
"Any chance they have a backup? Or some other way to transport troops and supplies?"
"Not that I know of."
"From what you''ve described, and the activity we''ve seen, it doesn''t seem like they''re overly concerned with the issue, though," Dobrik pressed.
"I can''t answer that," Reivyn shrugged. "Maybe they already have everything they need to aplish their goal. Maybe they have another escape route, or maybe they just don''t care about getting away the same way they got here."
"Hmm, it''s definitely something we''ll have to keep in mind." Major Dobrik turned his attention to Kefira. "Mydy, what are your thoughts on the intelligence Lieutenant Reivyn has gathered?"
"I doubt we''ll be able to stop them frompleting the Runic Spell," Kefira said. "They just have too much manpower for us to contend with. The only way we''d be able to effectively do so is with the support of the reinforcements from Wispan.
"In my opinion, that leaves us with two tasks: One, weaken them enough that the reinforcements can take them out quickly and easily by continuing the efforts we''ve already started in hitting their supply convoys and engaging them in smaller scale skirmishes. Two, find a way to preemptively counter their n involving the Spider Lair.
"We don''t know for sure what their actual goal is, but we have narrowed it down. The problem is, I have no idea how to stymie their efforts, especially if we have to do so after they''vepleted the Spell. From what we''ve seen, if they''re on equal pace all around the deste sands, we have a week, at most."
"That''s... disturbing," Major Dobrik said, stroking his chin in thought.
Reivyn watched the discussion without offering any input now that his report was over. Kefira was a member of the Wispan Imperial family, and Major Dobrik was the local militarymander. Even though Reivyn had performed extremely well and gathered lots of valuable information, it wasn''t his ce to interject without being invited to do so.
He and the other lieutenants simply stood off to the side, out of the way, and even the other captains didn''t interrupt the two people in charge as they deliberated their course of action. Reivyn was already pleased to see that Major Dobrik had had aplete mental shift in how he approached the war effort, no longer letting his experience fighting nuisance monsters cloud his judgment from what he could see, and he could tell that his thoughts and theories on strategy and tactics had rubbed off on Kefira.
To be perfectly honest, he had no idea what to do in this situation either. The enemy had overwhelming numerical strength, and they apparently had units that were just as strong as theirs, as well. If their goal was to do something with the giant Spider Matriarch, then there was practically no road forward without assistance from an extremely high-level team from Wispan. They would need to be even more powerful than his own parents.
It wasn''t hard to imagine that Wispan had ess to teams like that, especially since a lot of their conflict between other empires centered around Tier 5 and 6 Regions, but if they had to wait for those teams to travel from a higher Tier Region all the way to Drallo, then there was no way they would arrive in time to do anything to interfere with the giant spider before it was toote.
"We have to do something to weaken the Spider Matriarch," Major Dobrik said.
"What about copsing the caves on top of it?" One of his staff members supplied an idea.
"Wouldn''t work," Dobrik shook his head. "If what Lieutenant Reivyn said is urate, and this thing really is Tier 7, it would just be an itch on its back. The rest of the spiders down there would die, but we don''t really have to care about them."
"What if we destroyed the Boss Dungeons down there? The energy released should be enough to hurt the spider," another staff member said.
"Absolutely not!" Kefira denied. "What if the connection to the Abyss is still there, and it tethers itself directly to the Realm? That would be an even bigger disaster. We would be criminals of the entire Realm if that happened."
"Then what about just the Boss Dungeons that don''t have the gateway?" Major Dobrik asked. He turned to face Reivyn. "How many Dungeons were down there?"
Reivyn had to think about it for a moment before giving his answer.
"I couldn''t see very well while I was down there, so I''m not 100% certain, but I would guess at least five. The Dungeon I came out of had a high Tier 3, maybe low Tier 4, boss in it, and its position makes me think it was on the low end of the power scale. The other Dungeons might have Tier 5 or 6 variants in them."
Of course, Reivyn had to reveal the information that he had traveled to the kingdom of Drallo through a connection between the Dungeons. He didn''t reveal everything about the experience, but he did have to tell them about the bridge to the other Realm.
Kefira had insisted on everyone making a System sanctioned vow to not ever reveal anything about the information without Reivyn''s express permission. Even identally revealing the truth would lead to harsh punishments, though Reivyn had exempted Kefira and Seri from that aspect of the vow.
Seri hadined that it would make her job more difficult to keep that information hidden from Kefira''s parents, but Reivyn didn''t care. He simply said he and Kefira would tell them all the facts when the time was right. That concession had marginally mollified Seri.
"Going down there to destroy the Dungeons would be a suicide mission, though," Kefira pointed out. "It definitely wouldn''t be enough to kill the Spider Matriarch, and if the energy released is powerful enough to hurt it, it would kill those involved. If the destruction of the Dungeons somehow didn''t kill the ones down there, then the Spider Matriarch definitely would, and I don''t know anyone who would volunteer to be eaten alive by a giant spider"
"So destroying the Dungeons is ast resort, one we don''t even know will be necessary," Major Dobrik replied. "What about engineering a Dungeon Break? Even if the boss monsters inside the Dungeons are snapshots of the Spider Matriarch from the past, they''re just soulless shadows. They would be seen as an invading nest, and they would be mindless monsters that would attack the Spider Matriarch all on their own."
"That''s all well and good," Kefira said, "but do you know how to engineer a Dungeon Break?"
"No," Major Dobrik conceded. "I had hoped that you would maybe have some ideas on that, being a noble Caster from Wispan, and all."
"Nope, sorry," Kefira denied. "Even those of us from the Tier 4 empires don''t know how to cause Dungeon Breaks. That being said, there is someone here who has experience with them. Lieutenant Reivyn," Kefira turned to look at him, "you''ve been through a Dungeon Break before. Do you know how to make one happen on purpose?"
"I do not," Reivyn shook his head. "All I know is that there was an excessive amount of Mana leaking out of the Dungeon prior to it happening, but itsted for months before the break urred. Even if I knew the mechanism behind doing so, we wouldn''t have enough time for it to happen in a timely manner."
"Hmm, pity," Kefira said.
Major Dobrik stared at Reivyn for a moment, still stroking his chin.
"Lieutenant Reivyn again," he muttered, a gleam in his eye. "You''ll have to sit down with me one of these days and regale me with your story. Just one soldier to another."
"Certainly, sir," Reivyn agreed. Since he had alreadye clean about his origins, and he didn''t have anything particr to hide, there was no reason he couldn''t tell the Major about his experiences.
The meeting continued for several hours, most of the lower rank officers growing bored at the constant back and forth with no clear n established. They would asionally be asked for their ideas on the situation, but most of them, even the captains, didn''t have the experience or knowledge to contribute anything worthwhile.
The meeting eventually ended with the tentative n of continuing to hit the enemy bases, luring them out of their fortifications and whittling their numbers down, while they chose a wait-and-see approach toward dealing with the enemy''s objective.
Major Dobrik motioned Reivyn over as the officers filed out of the tent. He walked over to join the Major with Kefira and Seri, Kefira giving him a wide grin as he approached.
"Lieutenant Reivyn," Dobrik said, holding his closed fist out, palm down, "with the rmendation of Lady Kefira, as well as in light of your own, personal merits, I have decided to give you a field promotion to Provisional Captain. Captain Sanjin will remain where he currently is, and you''ll take over as the full-time Company Commander for yourpany."
Reivyn held his hand out, and the Major dropped something into it. He opened his hand and saw that it was the rank insignia of a captain.
"You''re still not a regr officer. As a Provisional Captain, you''re a half-step below all the other captains in the chain ofmand, but you''re now above even the regr lieutenants. Keep up the good work, Captain."
Reivyn offered a salute, that Major Dobrik returned, before turning on his heels and marching out of the tent. There was no official ceremony or anything for the promotion. Reivyn simply removed his lieutenant''s insignia and pinned the captain''s insignia on hispel. Because everyone wore their own armor, the rank insignias could be attached anywhere on thepel or shoulder area. Reivyn''s heavy armor had a leather strap in ce where he could attach such a pin.
He stepped out into the sunlight, and Jek immediately threw an arm around his shoulder. He leaned his weight on Reivyn in a friendly manner and immediately spotted the new captain''s insignia.
"Well, it looks like I really do have to address you as ''sir,'' now," he chuckled. Lieutenants Laris, Grent, Furok, and Derik were also waiting nearby. They all fell in together as they made their way to the mess tent that had been erected. The meeting hadsted so long that it was nearly lunchtime the following day after Reivyn and his toons had been surrounded.
Each of the other lieutenants congratted Reivyn on his promotion, and they bantered back and forth while talking about their experiences engaging the enemy.
"The war has hardly begun, and you''re already hoarding and cashing in on all the merits," Jek joked. "See, boys, I told you we wouldn''t go wrong following his lead."
"Haha, you say that now, but don''t you know the old military maxim, ''crap rolls downhill?''" Reivyn quipped. "Credit goes up, and responsibility goes down. All of you will have to work twice as hard to make me look good from now on."
The othersughed at the joke, obviously knowing that he wasn''t being serious. They had had enough experiences together to know Reivyn wasn''t like that.
"By the way," Reivyn said, "does anyone know what a Jezebel is?"
The other lieutenants shared a look before breaking out intoughter.
"Let me guess, Lady Fira said something like that about that Aerie girl," Laris said, chuckling.
"Yeah, how''d you know?" Reivyn frowned.
Jek pped him on the back, stillughing.
"A Jezebel is a woman who sleeps with a married man," he answered.
"Oh. I see," Reivyn said.
"Looks like Lady Fira didn''t take too kindly to the offer that Aerie made to our captain, here," Laris said, failing to suppress his mirth.
"Ooh, you''ll have to exin it to us in more detail," Jek jabbed Reivyn in the ribs.
"That woman is definitely crazy," Reivyn shook his head.
Reivyn exined the situation, with Laris adding remarks about the encounter from the side, over lunch. The other lieutenants thought it was the funniest thing in the world, but Reivyn was actually a little worried about Aerie''s intentions.
Chapter 131: The Pointy End
Chapter 131: The Pointy End
"Remember what I told you," Aerie said to Colonel Irio as she walked out of themand tent.
She strode through the camp, condensing a red ball of mana with ck streaks in it into her palm. She attached anchor points between it and her index finger, and she dropped it down almost to the ground, letting a string of Mana spool out from the two points. Once it reached her shin, but before her ankle, she arrested the downward movement and pulled it back up by reducing the length of the Mana string.
She did this over and over, mimicking a silly toy she had seen one of her younger siblings get their hands on back home. She had enough Stats to brute force the exercise, but shecked the control to create a working device entirely.
It had been over a year since she had idly yed with the concept, but her wounded pride demanded she resume. She had thought that she was Skilled enough that she could take it easy on this expedition, but who would have guessed that two people slightly younger than her would upstage her so much with their Skill Levels?
Back home, she was the pride of her family. She was the most talented of the younger generation by andslide, nobody evening close to catching her coattails. Her master had told her it was perfectly reasonable to rue more Experience and push into Tier 4, and she was already a dozen Levels into her newest ss.
Then she had fought against that youngmander, and if she hadn''t had superior Stats, she would have been embarrassed. His Skill with his sword was, frankly, frightening. There had been a couple of close calls where she wasn''t sure if she was going to have to eat arge hit to her Health in their little duel while she was suppressing her strength, but luckily, her Stats had allowed her to avoid anything like that in front of her troops.
What would those gossipy cretins back home say if it came to light that I had been knocked on my backside in front of all of my soldiers? Aerie clenched her teeth at the thought.
Not only had that young man, who was from a Tier 3 desert kingdom of all ces, been far more Skilled in meleebat than she had been, but her Inspection Magic Tool had informed her that he was Tier 2, Level 28. Tier 2! One might think it was some kind of saving grace that he was only as good as her with his magic, but that was also a punch in the gut. She was Tier 4, and he wasn''t even halfway through Tier 2!
Then his little girlfriend had shown up, and that was an eye-opener. Not even the Transcendents had the ability to effectively use Space and Time Mana. That could be exined away by her being uniquely gifted with those particr Affinities, but her mastery over her Spells and repertoire showed that she was leagues ahead of her in that aspect as well.
Aerie was held on a pedestal for having a Tri-Soul talent, and she never cked off on her training, yet that Tier 3 girl had shown her up as well. She had never gotten close enough to engage her in hand-to-handbat to see what her level of expertise was in that regard, but even if she wasn''t great at it, Aerie had no doubts that she wouldn''t be bad.
She continued to y with her make-shift Mana toy, trying to perfect the object by adding the proper spin to the orb. So far all she could do was let the Mana string wrap around the orb as it spun down and up, but the next step would be to create a groove in the center of the orb so it would flow more naturally. It was considerably harder than it appeared to not-quite cut the orb in half and keep it whole.
She bit the thumbnail of her other hand as she thought more about the fight with the two anomalies.
They have to be from some other kingdom, she thought. They might even be from the Tier 4 Empire above this one. What was it called again? Wishin? Wishpen? Doesn''t matter. Those two are definitely not locals of this desert kingdom. Theck of resources in a desert climate almost always ensures that the residents are more of a half-step between the other Tiers than a full promotion from one below it. I''m not being arrogant in thinking that they couldn''t be from here.
She stopped in ce for a moment.
Or am I? Nah, I''m not.
She continued on her journey around the camp.
Getting her pride hurt hadn''t caused feelings of anger or jealousy. Far from it. Sure it was confounding, and a bit embarrassing, but it acted as fuel to motivate her to notze about.
It also created a burning desire to recruit the two of them to her side.
He said that she was his girl, but I don''t mind. Daddy has three wives, and if this Reivyn character progresses on the same trajectory as he''s currently on, then he''ll be miles above anyone else by the time he reaches Tier 4. There''s no shame in attaching myself to such a powerful man in the future. He''s bound to have women flock to him, but if I wait until he gets there, my opportunity will be gone.
My biggest hurdle, right now, is I don''t know my new sister''s name. I have to figure out a way to get closer to them.
Aerie''s steps led her around the camp, and she looked up after her contemtions to see that they had subconsciously taken her to the temporary drill field they had set up. She nodded her head with determination and strode into the field, seeking out the officer in charge.
The man overseeing the training of the Tier 3 Deathsworn was an imposing bear of a man. He had bronze bands around his biceps, and not a stitch more clothing on his torso. His hair was wild, and his eyes were fierce. He used his piercing re to bend the Tier 3''s into submission without even having to strike them, though he did do that. Quite a lot, actually. Pain Resistance was one of the staple Skills for any sessful army, whether it was the Tier 1''s or the Tier 4''s.
Even Aerie still had to maintain her training in the Skill. She was just privileged enough to be able to do it in private with a Magic Tool. There were some hardships that amander could suffer with their troops to instill confidence. Lying in the fetal position while crying wasn''t one of them.
"Lugius," Aerie addressed the man as she walked up. He turned his head to see who called his name, and he immediately turned about and went to one knee, head down, when he noticed it was her. "No need for formalities, Lugius. I''m here to train."
Lugius raised his head, eyebrows following suit.
"You want to whip the soldiers into shape personally?" He asked, surprised.
"No. I mean to train myself," she answered. "You will be my partner, and we''ll train with our swords."
"Have I done something to invite your ire, My Liege Lady?"
"Of course not. I''m not here to teach you, or anyone else for that matter, a lesson. I''m here to be taught a lesson. We will suppress our Stats to a standard, and we will train with Skill Level, only."
Lugius''s eyes shown brightly with excitement as he stood up. He sped his hands together with a simple bow and instructed one of the assistants to fetch his sword.
"I would be honored, My Liege Lady."
Aerie nodded her head like it was to be expected. Lugius was from a lower Tier Region, and that ensured that his upward mobility in the Empire was limited. His current position was probably as high as he would ever go, officially, but the prospect of bing the personal sparring partner for Aerie was a huge chance.
Lugius was a Skilled meleebatant in a wide array of weapons, and he was several decades older than Aerie. His Level might be considerably higher than hers, though still in the Tier 4 range, but hecked a sufficiently powerful Bloodline and opportunities for Achievements. Her Stats outssed his in every way. That being said, his Skill Level with his weapons was definitely above hers.
"If I may ask, My Liege Lady, what prompted this decision?" Lugius asked. It was not normally proper behavior for one in his standing to ask such a question, but on the sparring field, her answer might be able to give him some insights on how to train with her in the way she was envisioning. She didn''t hold it against him, especially since she had already told him to drop the formalities.
"There was a Tier 2 local who was a better swordsman than me," Aerie replied simply.
Lugius''s eyes widened in shock. It was understandable that it would be difficult to believe. Aerie had spent her entire time since gaining her first Tier 1 ss mopping the floor with everyone around the same age as her in the capital, and they were a particrly martial civilization, even considering the fact that most of the world had arge number of Combat sses due to the nature of the Realm.
"So your goal is to best him in the field at his own expertise, thus instilling fear and panic into the heathens? Or do you just want to prove something to yourself while you send the assassins to erase any evidence of a more talented foe?"
"Absolutely not!" Aerie swished her sword angrily, taking a step forward before mastering herself. Lugius visibly swallowed his saliva, and Aerie could see beads of sweat break out on his forehead. "Talent like that must be captured. He must serve me (by my side). I won''t allow anysting harm toe to him. That being said, his presence has reminded me that I can''t take it easy as I thought. I must continue to improve myself at all times."
"A lofty goal, My Liege Lady," Lugius nodded. "I believe I understand your purpose enough to show you the way."
The two readied their swords and began their sparring match.
"I know we''ve actually done a lot of training in various ways since we met, but never really together," Kefira said to Reivyn. "It''s time to get down to business."
Kefira had summoned Reivyn to her tent via Seri, and that was the first thing she said to him upon his entrance. He eyed her up and down, taking note of her form-fitting clothes and armor. Gone were the robes that typically signified a Caster ss. She was outfitted for hand-to-handbat. She had a sword strapped to her side, and with his Skills and experience, he could pick out a couple of daggers concealed around her body as well.
Kefira noted where his eyes roamed, and she gave him a slight smile as she struck a pose, one hand on a cocked hip.
"So, you want to practice the sword?" Reivyn ventured. Kefira nodded her head. "I have two questions, then: One, what''s your Skill Level? And two, why not just do it with Seri?"
"Well, I have two answers," Kefira replied. "One, my Swords Skill is at 24, just about to break through to 25. And two, I don''t want to." She stuck her tongue out with one eye closed. Seri, standing behind her, just rolled her eyes.
"What prompted this decision, by the way?" Reivyn asked, genuinely curious.
"Well... Jezebel was very proficient in both Martial and Magicalbat. I''ve only ever really focused on my Caster Skills, and I''ve worked to gain the minimum requirements necessary to not embarrass myself in court with my Swords skills. Not only her but there''s you, too. I''ve seen what being good at both can aplish."
"Is that what you''re going to keep calling her?" Reivyn chuckled. "You know, you referring to her in that way besmirches my honor, too."
"Hmph!" Kefira turned her head to the side, closing her eyes and crossing her arms. She had the perfect "petnt child" look down to an art. "Not necessarily. Who knows how many taken men she''s tried to snatch? We know there''s one, and that means there''s a greater than zero chance that there''s more than one."
"I guess I can see the logic in that..." Reivyn quirked an eyebrow. Kefira opened one eye and peeked at Reivyn.
"And you should stop trying to defend her."
"But it''s so fun to tease you."
Kefira''s face turned red, but she refused to open her eyes or turn to face him.
"Ok, back on track," Reivyn said. "Do you want to do it privately, or publicly?"
Kefira stopped ying around and looked at Reivyn.
"What do you mean by that? It would be better if we were alone."
"No, I get that. What I mean is, do you want to, like, go off somewhere where nobody could identally stumble upon us, or do you just want to seal off a ce so people don''t go there? Where are we going?"
"Hmm, yes, I see. Well, even though I can easily jump us a distance away, I can only take one person with me at a time, right now, and there''s no reason to take any stupid risks. I''ve already told Seri to inform the Major to block off a part of the camp for us to train in."
"Gotcha, and I agree. Though, I would have done what you wanted," Reivyn gave a one-shoulder shrug. He started to turn to exit the tent, Kefira stepping forward to follow him, but he stopped and nced back at her with a frown. "Is it me, or did you have a much more powerful aura around yourself when you came to rescue me the other night? I had thought that you had gained a ton of Levels or something while we were separated, but you''re mostly back to how you were."
"Oh, you''re talking about this," Kefira fished out an amulet from her neckline. It was a sparkling emerald set in a silver chain. "I''ve worn one of these the entire time you''ve known me, but I destroyed the other one. Sera keeps a spare on her in case I have to do that."
Reivyn threw an Inspect at the obvious Magic Item.
Soul Suppressor He didn''t get any other information out of the System other than the name.
"Ok~ay... but what does it do, exactly?"
"It suppresses my soul," Kefira answered.
"Yes, I saw that, but what does that mean?"
"It''s...plicated. There are a lot of intricate details into how it works, but it basically makes me operate at just above half of my power. There are reasons other than just gaining Life Experience for wearing it, and I''ll exin it to you some other time, promise."
"Ok, I trust you," Reivyn smiled.
Kefira smiled back and ced the amulet back inside her shirt. Reivyn was distracted as Kefira patted her neckline where it disappeared. Her breastte concealed anything interesting from view, but the little action still drew his eye, and he could remember what it looked like without the constraints. Kefira''s smile turned into a grin.
"Hah! Take that, Jezebel. I''m not just better at magic than her," Kefira pointedly looked down and then back up at Reivyn. "There are other things that are superior about me."
To be fair, Aerie was wearing armor, too... Reivyn thought. He wisely kept his mouth shut, though.
The two exited the tent and headed in the direction that Kefira pointed out to him, and they quickly reached a circle that had been artificially made bybining the tents of the officers in themand area into a circle. Most of the enlisted soldiers would have no businessing to this part of the camp, and even if they did, it was difficult to see what was going on because of the wall of tents.
"Alright, let''s start off by you showing me your forms," Reivyn said.
Kefira frowned as she stood with her sword out.
"My Skill is above Level 10," she said. "I''m at the threshold of breaking through to the next tier of mastery."
"Uh huh, but if you have any small bad habits, those might be holding you back without you knowing. You did say that you hardly focused on your Swords Skill, so there was less opportunity for any of your tutors, or whatnot, to find any of these mistakes. Who knows? If you do have some bad habits, and we iron those out, you might hit Level 25 before we even start to spar."
"That makes sense," Kefira conceded. Seri nodded her head from her position watching the pair.
Kefira spent the next several moments going through the drills that she had learned from her imperial tutors. The forms were slightly different than what Reivyn was used to, but not enough that he couldn''t instantly pick up the simrities and figure them out for himself.
He drew his sword, and keeping his eyes on Kefira''s form, he performed the moves in tandem with her. One of the reasons he did so was to gauge how his body should move and feel while doing the actions. His Skill Level was high enough that he only needed to see it once to perform the movements properly, and his body itself told him whether it was perfectly executed or not.
He took some time to go through the moves independently, marginally adjusting it here and there until it feltpletely right. Once he had it down, he stopped the exercise, and he told Kefira to go through the motions once more.
He immediately spotted some discrepancies, and he held out his hand to stop her. Kefira held her position as she looked at Reivyn, waiting for him to say something.
"Your body movement is slightly off... here, and here," Reivyn pointed to a couple of points on her legs and arms. "You should move, ever so slightly, this way." Reivyn tried to convey his meaning to Kefira, but she wasn''t quite moving her arms and legs the way Reivyn wanted her to.
"I think you''re going to need to put me in position," Kefira said, staring Reivyn in the eye.
Reivyn swallowed his saliva as he nodded his head. He stepped forward and reached out to reposition the slight errors he had seen.
"What are you doing?" Kefira asked. Reivyn pulled his head back, confused. Kefira shook her head. "Get behind me so you have the proper perspective, and you can move me where I need to go better."
"Ok~ay..." Reivyn said.
He walked around her, and because of how she was standing, he had to sidle up close to her in order to be able to reach around both sides of her body. His body pressed into hers, and he didn''t avoid it. He ced his hands on her hips, adjusting her center ever so slightly, before running his hands up her sides, onto her arms, and then down to move them into their perfect cement.
"Are you sure this is how you want me to correct you?" Reivyn whispered into her ear. His position ced his face right next to hers, and he saw her neck and face turn red from feeling his breath on her skin.
"I''m pretty sure this method will sear into my brain better than any other way," Kefira''s voice came out raggedly.
"Uh huh. I''m sure it will."
Reivyn ran his hands back up her arms, down her sides, and past her waist to tweak the positioning of her legs. Kefira''s breathing came in gulps, and Reivyn finally stepped back to appreciate - ahem, inspect - Kefira''s stance.
"Good," he nodded his head. "Do you got a feel for exactly how your body is positioned?"
"Perfectly," Kefira answered.
"Ok, start over, and try to get into this exact positioning while going through the motions this time."
"Ok, but I think you might have to help me get into position a couple more times before I can get it down while moving."
"That won''t be a problem," Reivyn smiled.
The duo worked on Kefira''s form for over an hour, Reivyn stepping in to adjust her body multiple times for each form. Despite how close and sensual the exercise had turned into, Reivyn could tell that Kefira was taking it seriously, and it was putting quite a bit of strain on her muscles as she performed the movements.
Once they had gone over all of the moves separately and Kefira performed to Reivyn''s exacting standards, he had her do the entire routine all together. Kefira''s face lit up when she was done, and she turned and leaped into Reivyn''s arms, careful not to stab him with her sword still in her hand.
"You were right!" She said, looking up at him from below. "As soon as Ipleted the movements thatst time, my Skill ticked up to 25!"
"Congrattions!" Reivyn said, hugging her back. "Now we can get to the real thing."
"Good, though I don''t think it''s going to be nearly as fun."
"Yeah, you''re probably right."
Chapter 132: Attune Up
Chapter 132: Attune Up
"Hah," Aerie sighed, lowering her sword. Blood dripped from the tip, dribbling on the ground. It wasn''t just her sword that was stained red, her opponent''s sword likewise dripped her blood.
Lugius lifted his sword and rested it on the back of his shoulders as he appraised Aerie. She had nicks and cuts across her arms and legs, but only a few jabs in her torso. None of her vital spots had even a scratch. She had gotten better over the past week of constant sparring with Lugius, seeing a steady uptick in not only her Skill Level but her actual application.
But she was still frustrated. Lugius, for all of his prowess, was not as Skilled as Reivyn. Sure, Reivyn hadn''t managed to nick her at all in their duel, but she also wasn''t suppressing her Stats to a standard to match his. She only suppressed hers to an approximation of what she thought his Stats were.
Another ridiculous anomaly of his, she thought. I''ve never heard of a Tier 2 sser having Stats to match an upper Tier 3. Not even the most powerful Bloodlines that I''ve heard of are that powerful.
"Is there something the matter, My Liege Lady?" Lugius inquired.
If there was something wrong with his teaching, then this wasn''t a valuable opportunity for him, it was a nightmare. Aerie shook her head.
"No, you''re perfectly adequate," she answered. "My Skills are increasing at a fast pace. Faster, even, than they have in a very long time. It''s just that after so much sparring with you, I can tell that you''re not as good as my opponent(man)."
Lugius sucked in a breath at that statement. It was one thing for Aerie to meet a contemporary that had a higher Skill Level than she did. It was something else entirely to meet someone with a higher Skill Level than the chief instructor of her Martial training.
"Well, to be fair, My Liege Lady, Swords isn''t my mainbat Skill. Pugilist is my number one, and Axes are my second."
"Don''t get me wrong, I''m not criticizing you. Your Swords Skill is perfectly fine for my training. It''s just... I don''t know how to say it. I wanted something closer to what he could throw at me.
"It doesn''t matter. We''ll continue after a short break."
"Yes, My Liege Lady."
Aerie walked to the side of the training ground, pulling out a water skin to quench her thirst. The cuts and scrapes on her body stung with her sweat, and she needed to rehydrate often. The heat of the desert was brutal when she was pushing her training. She was used to a much more temperate climate.
The Runic Spell is getting close topletion. I''ll need to execute the other n soon, as well. Sparring with Lugius isn''t the only way I can increase my Skill Levels.
Aerie subconsciously had a small smile on her lips as she thought about the immediate future and what it would bring.
"Sit up straight," Kefira said from behind Reivyn. "You don''t have to be stiff, but your posture needs to be clear. If you hunch, then your meridians will move with your body, and they could be harder to distinguish in your inner mind. Once you''ve fully mastered the technique, though, and you have a perfect grasp on the cement of the meridians, then you can exercise in any way you want."
Reivyn was sitting in the lotus position, hands on his knees and eyes closed. Kefira was kneeling behind him, whispering into his ear a different way to circte his Mana to increase his Affinities.
Before, he had just moved the Mana as a ball throughout the meridians permeating his body over and over again, soaking his meridians and flesh and bones in the attuned Mana to increase his Affinity Level. Kefira had scoffed at such a method, dering it to be the lowest of the low.
Apparently, there were many different methods to circte one''s Mana for Affinity training. The mostmon method in the higher Tier Regions wasn''t to follow the exact path of one''s meridians. Kefira had exined that that was more for the System to add Stats from Leveling and Bloodlines than it was for attuning one''s body to an Affinity. Instead of running the Mana through every single tiny channel, which a lot of them were dead ends and required one to split off a portion from their central Mana ball, one would only follow the most rudimentary path through the body.
It might seem counterintuitive to do so, but Kefira had exined that the attuned Mana would naturally spread from the Meridians, soaking the body in the Affinity and that the minuscule speed increase of following 100% of the pathway was far outweighed by an increase in the number of rotations one could achieve by shortening the path.
She had offered to teach him the method of her own family. Reivyn didn''t balk or try to talk her out of it, and he had simply agreed.
"Ok, now let''s begin," Kefira said, reaching around Reivyn to ce both of her hands on his stomach. "Actually, wait. I think you should take your shirt off."
Kefira once more removed her hands and leaned back. Reivyn turned his head to look at her face, a mischievous grin on her lips.
"Oh, yeah? You think that''s necessary?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"Mhm, absolutely," Kefira winked.
Reivyn shrugged and simply took his shirt off without preamble. He resumed his posture, and after a silent moment, he felt Kefira''s hands return to his stomach.
"Ok. What you''re going to do is to start off exactly the same way you would with the method I taught you previously, but instead of imagining your Mana as a solid ball radiating light and warmth out to the surroundings of your body, imagine it as a ball of yarn. The yarn is as thin as you can possibly make it, and it must still have the same properties of seeping its power out around it.
"Start here," Kefira pressed with her index finger directly in the center of his core and held her hand there.
It didn''t take Reivyn long to manipte his Mana into the ball of yarn that Kefira had described. He nodded his head that he was ready to go once he had it down.
"Now, unspool the yarn, leaving it anchored in your core. Follow my hand, moving at the same speed I do."
Kefira kept her left hand in ce on his core, and then she started tracing Reivyn''s internal meridians on the outside of his body with her right hand. She had watched him perform his exercise enough times, and with her Mana Sense and Sight Skills, she was able to pinpoint the path he moved his Mana. Having a different Bloodline and a Combat ss as his first foundational ss, his pathways were different enough from her own that she wouldn''t have been able to guide him this way if she hadn''t carefully watched him.
Her hand traced his body with a slow, deliberate speed. Reivyn matched the speed, unspooling the yarn and keeping the thread taught between the anchor and the ball. The ball of yarn reached the first major point in his meridians where it split off into several different dead-end paths, and Kefira''s finger paused for a moment.
"Circle the ball of yarn several times in ce, and imagine looping it around to create a knot."
Reivyn followed the instructions, and then Kefira''s hand resumed its journey. The two of them traced his main meridian path, one on the outside and one on the inside, all the way around, stopping at several junctures to create a knot. They did this until they had moved all the way back to his core where they made one final knot.
"Now, the next step is toy a second track down next to the first. You might think that you need to follow the exact same path and strengthen the string that you have in ce throughout your body, but that would be a mistake. You need to make a second, separate line.
"We don''t really know the exact reasoning behind how or why it works this way, but doing multiple lines next to each other creates a better benefit than simply strengthening the one line you''ve made. The second trick is after you''ve made a separate knot next to the ones at your junctures, you need to make a third knot that epasses the two of them.
"Again, we don''t know why it works better. We''ve just found after countless generations of trial and error that it has the best effect."
Reivyn nodded his head and once again followed her hand with his Mana yarn ball. Kefira suddenly tightened her grip around him with her arms as she leaned forward into him, pressing herself against his back tightly. She obviously wasn''t wearing armor in this setting, nor was she wearing anything that greatly restricted her, either. Reivyn felt beads of sweat form on his head as he fought to maintain his concentration.
"Sorry, my legs were getting tired," Kefira whispered into his ear.
"Uh huh," Reivyn didn''t have the mental capacity to say anything else in the situation.
They continued the exercise, and Reivyn''s mind almost began to wander as Kefira seemed to unconsciously sway side to side ever so slightly on his back.
"Concentrate," Kefira half giggled, half scolded. Reivyn just gritted his teeth as he continued to unspool the yarn.
After the third revolution waspleted, Kefira stopped tracing his body and allowed Reivyn to continue moving the ball on his own. She kept a careful watch on his speed with her senses, though, asionally telling him to slow down or speed up just a little to maintain the perfect pace.
Reivyn did notice that she hadn''t moved her body away from his, though. He didn''t mind, even though it made it a lot harder to concentrate.
After eight full rotations, Kefira told him to stop.
"Woman, were you trying to make me fail?" Reivyn rounded on Kefira.
Kefira backed up, lifting a hand to hide her smile as sheughed at him.
"Of course not," she denied, "but you of all people should know that one gets better results by struggling. I was helping you."
"Uh huh, some help. What now?"
"That''s the end of the first lesson," she said.
"Just the first?" Reivyn asked. Kefira nodded.
"Yeah, if you do more than eight rotations with this method, then you start getting diminishing returns, and the time spent doesn''t equal the benefit. It makes more sense to stop, take a break, and then start over from the beginning with a different Affinity to work on. You can still choose to work on the same Affinity for the next session, but, again, there will be diminishing returns.
"A good rule of thumb to go by is the rule of three. Do two different Affinities before returning to the first to get the absolute maximum benefit out of the exercise."
"And what''s the second lesson?" Reivyn asked.
"The second lesson is blending and splicing other Affinities into the yarn. You can''t change the affinity of the Mana while doing the exercise, so you have to build your yarn ball with the perfect-sized string for each rotation. This will take many attempts to get just right, but the benefit is worth the effort.
"The next step of the method is toy four different lines of Affinities down, and then double them up on thest four rotations. You''ll lose a little bit of efficiency from not focusing on one main Affinity, but it''s not as much as you would think. The overall speed of increasing all of your Affinities will double, and the most basic method I just showed you is probably about four times as effective as themon way of doing things.
"Do you see now why I said the way you were doing it before was the lowest of the low? The way I train my Affinities, and the way you''ll be doing it soon, is ten times faster, at least."
"I can see that. I''ll be catching up to you in my proficiency in no time."
"Hah! Keep dreaming. I''m a magical prodigy."
"Oh yeah? Well, I never did tell you that out of my initial Stats and Skills, my Mental Stats and Mana Skills were higher than my Physical ones. I simply got forced into a Martial ss at the beginning, though I probably would have chosen one anyway if I had the choice.
"What''s your highest Tier Affinity, and what''s your highest Level?" Reivyn asked.
"My highest Tier would be the Tier 4 Space/Time at Level 16, and my highest Level would be the Tier 3 Emptiness at Level 53. What about you?"
"Wait. Space/Time? Not Space and Time?"
"Correct. I haven''t met anyone who knows any more than I do about it, but from what I''ve gathered, Space and Time are basically one Affinity; however, the System also imposes a hard separation between the two. Anyone who gets Space-rted Affinities, regardless of if it''s Space itself or not, is generally precluded from gaining Time-rted Affinities, and vice versa.
"I''ve heard of legends where extreme Transcendents are able to unlock the other side, but as far as I know, people think it''s just a myth."
"And yet you have it."
"And yet I have it."
"Hmm... well, my highest Tier Affinity is the Tier 4 Eternal at Level 4, and my highest Level would be the Tier 3 Light and Darkness Affinities, both at Level 49."
Kefira stared him in the eye for a second, not making any sound or movement.
"You know, you don''t have to keep secrets from me. I wouldn''t reveal them to anyone. If you don''t want to tell me the truth, you could just say that."
Reivyn could detect that there was a bit of genuine hurt in Kefira''s voice as she said that. He shook his head before taking her hands in his.
"It''s not that," he said. "It''s more like I don''t really consider the other Affinities to be my own at this point. It''s true, I do have two Tier 5 Affinities, but I got them in a weird way, and I''ve been told that it''s basically impossible to work on them until I''ve reached Level 100 or higher in a whole lot of other Affinities before I''m even supposed to be able to acquire them."
"You have the Realm Mana," it was a statement, not a question. "But wait, you said you have two Tier 5 Affinities?"
"Veridical... and Abyss," Reivyn confirmed.
Kefira once more stared at him for a moment. Reivyn held his breath, waiting for her reaction.
"That''s... interesting. I didn''t know that was possible. I know about the Veridical Affinity, of course. There''s even more than one Archmage in Wispan who have it unlocked, but Abyss Affinity..." Kefira shrugged. "Well, whatever.
"Thank you for trusting me with that information."
Kefira ced her hands on either side of Reivyn''s face and leaned in to give him a kiss. They held the position for several minutes before breaking away once again.
"Yeah, that''s one of my biggest secrets," Reivyn said.
"Only one of," Kefira rolled her eyes. "Of course it is.
"But you weren''t lying when you said you might catch up to me. It all depends on how fast you can break through to Level 50 in your Light and Darkness Affinities. You still have a way to go before you canpete with me in the Tier 4 Affinities, though." Kefira stuck her tongue out.
"Yeah, I''ve fallen way behind," Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head. "I haven''t worked on my Affinities in three years."
"Shut up!" Kefira threw a pillow at his head. Reivyn didn''t avoid it, and it bounced off of his face. "I think I''m going to throw up. That''s how disgusting you are right now.
"Three years! You haven''t worked on them for three years?! It''s not fair. Life isn''t fair."
Reivynughed and leaned forward to wrap Kefira up in a hug.
"Get your hands off of me! I''m mad at you," Kefira huffed, folding her arms and refusing to return the hug. "Three years.
"I''ve worked my butt off every day, never giving myself a break from doing at least a little training. Even when you were ''missing'' and I was worried sick about you, I never failed to do at least a little bit of training. And you tell me you haven''t trained your Affinities in three years!
"Which one of us is the magical prodigy?"
"Come on, it''s not that bad," Reivyn tried to console her.
"You think I''m joking?" Kefira red at him. "Do you think I''ve been telling a silly joke when I''ve said I''m a magical prodigy? No. I''ve been told my whole life that I''m the most talented Caster that''s been seen in thousands of years, regardless of which Region or empire you look.
"And then you show up and sweep me off my feet and take my breath away in more ways than one. I feel like I''ve been punched in the gut."
"Kefira," Reivyn grabbed her hands and stared at her face until she looked back into his eyes. "There''s more to talent than Affinity Levels."
"I know," Kefira took a deep breath. "And I''m not actually mad about it, either. It''s just... my entire worldview just came crumbling down. Your Swords Skill is around the Master level, right?"
"Technically."
Kefira paused, her mouth open. She narrowed her eyes at Reivyn.
"We''ll address that answerter." Kefira recovered herself once more. "Anyway. Imagine working for years to achieve the Master level in Swords, and then someone around your age shows up with a Transcendent Skill Level."
"You mean like my dad?" Reivyn teased.
"Gah!" Kefira balled up her fist and hit Reivyn on the chest to emphasize each word. "You. Are. So. Hateful. Sometimes."
Reivyn captured her hand in his once more, throwing his head back andughing.
"Sorry, sorry. I couldn''t resist. My dad is more than twice as old as I am, so he''s not exactly around my age.''"
"Didn''t you say he was in his early to mid-thirties?" Reivyn nodded his head. "Man, your whole family is something else."
"Yeah, they''re not bad."
Kefira rolled her eyes once more as Reivyn pulled her into another hug. She sighed and leaned her weight against him.
Reivyn witnessed the soldiers of hispany mop up the remaining enemy soldiers on the battlefield. Smoke billowed from charred craters, and bodies littered the ground everywhere. A group ofbat medics was tending to the wounded from Reivyn''s side, and he could see a couple of bodies covered in white cloth off to the side.
The resistance the enemy put up had increasingly gotten tougher and tougher. No longer were they exclusively hordes of raving lunatics with "1''s" branded on their heads. They ran into just as many "2''s" and arge amount of "3''s" as well. They still had the overwhelming advantage in the quality of soldiers, but the enemy had the numbers.
It felt like they were hardly making a dent in thebat effectiveness of the invaders. Counter to what one would expect, it seemed that taking out huge numbers of those of lower standing in the opposing army had caused the effectiveness of their soldiers to go up as they bolstered their ranks with the higher branded numbers.
Reivyn stood stone-faced, not letting any emotion show, though he felt saddened at each loss of life his soldiers suffered.
The time for tears is after the battle, Reivyn couldn''t remember where he had heard that saying from, but it was apt.
Lieutenant Jek came walking over, and Reivyn turned his head and indicated for the man to give his report.
"Sir, there''s a small group of the rescued civilians that insist on meeting you," Jek said.
"Oh yeah? Did they say what about?" Reivyn asked.
"No, sir. They simply said they would like to meet with someone who could make decisions. I figured you weren''t doing anything..."
"That''s alright," Reivyn nodded. "I''ll meet with them. Lead the way."
Jek turned about and led Reivyn toward the rescued civilians. There was a clear distinction between most of the civilians and a group of about fifteen or so who stood slightly apart from the rest. A young man stood in front, clearly elected the voice of the small group.
"You''re the one in charge?" The man eyed Reivyn up and down. He didn''t have a hostile tone in his voice, and the look on his face was one of curiosity.
"That''s me," Reivyn confirmed. "Provisional Captain Reivyn, the Company Commander. What I can do for you?"
"We want to fight," the man said, determination on his face.
Reivyn stared the man in the eye, and he didn''t see any fear or wavering in them. He nced around the others, and he saw simr expressions and stances.
"Do you have Combat sses?" Reivyn asked.
"Each of us has a semi-Combat ss," the young man nodded.
"Semi-Combat ss?" Reivyn directed his question to Jek.
"Oh, that means it''s a Lifestyle or Support type ss that, when used in a certain way, can be an effective Combat ss."
"I see," Reivyn said. He turned back to the young man. "And what ss do you have?"
"I''m a Metal cksmith. I have my Mana Skills unlocked, and I dare say that my Hammer Skills will be higher than any of the soldiers you have in your toons. I''ve seen that you have squads in each of them that are equipped with such implements."
"Mhm," Reivyn stroked his chin in thought. He turned to a young woman who was standing closest to the man speaking for the group. "And you?"
"I''m a me Dancer," the girl replied. She was taller than most of the other civilians, with blonde hair and a lithe body. "Normally, my ss is one of support. I can light the fire in one''s heart and boost their capabilities. If I pair my Skills with a weapon, though, it trantes almost directly tobat. And I have a lot of training with the sword."
"I see. That''s two of you with an elemental designation to your ss. How many of you have your Mana Skills unlocked?"
"We all do," the young man answered. "That''s one of the reasons why we stepped forward."
"Ok. Jek, get the particrs from each person. You know what information is relevant," Reivyn instructed his officer. He turned back to the young man and the group of civilians. "I can''t promise that I can guarantee a spot for all of you, but we do have other civilians in our camp. Even if I can''t get you a spot as a volunteer, I''m sure I can find something for all of you to do.
"After we vet you, of course."
"Of course," the young man nodded.
"What''s your name?" Reivyn asked.
"I''m Gauis," the man held out his hand, and Reivyn shook it. His grip was strong and firm.
"I''m Rayha," the dancer said.
"Good. As long as everything checks out, wee aboard."
Gauis nodded his head, and Reivyn saw Rayha give a small smile out of the corner of his eye before he turned to head back to his position.
Chapter 133: Shifting Sand
Chapter 133: Shifting Sand
Reivyn crawled on his belly over the sand dune. He cupped his fingers around his eyes to give himself a stable temte to manipte his Mana. He had seenrge strides in his Affinities since he started training with Kefira, as well as improving his theoretical knowledge on several.
A memory from his Dreams hade to him one day when he had wished he could see just a bit further, and he had been trying to recreate the item he had seen his Dream-self use to see far distances. He used his Light Affinity to bend the lighting through the Mana construct so as to amplify the image.
It had been moreplicated than he had initially thought, and his first several attempts had given back nothing more than blurry images that gave him fewer details than if he had simply looked with his eyes. After experimenting for several days, he finally discovered that it needed two Mana membranes to pass through to get the effect he wanted. His memory of the Dream wasn''t that great, and he had had to figure it out on his own.
Adjusting the distance between the two Light Mana membranes, Reivyn zoomed in on the distant image of the enemy forces making their way south, toward the center of the deste sands. They weren''t particrly in a hurry, it seemed, but they were moving in the middle of the day instead of the evening, and Reivyn could only think that it was because they were on a deadline.
The enemy force was strung out across a long line. They didn''t March, and they only loosely moved together as a whole. It didn''t appear as if there was even anyone in charge, from what Reivyn could see. Considering the responses to the attacks Reivyn and his allies had perpetrated on them, and the response to those attacks, he could believe it.
This was one of the groups that had been hit several times by the battalion as the war efforts intensified in their location. They had slowly ramped up their level of attacks on this particr enemy camp, and they had finally set things up to try and lure them apart tond a final blow. It had been a surprise when the scouts had reported that the enemy camp was deserted.
Reivyn had volunteered to go out with a couple of his toons to do reconnaissance, as he and his men were the most familiar with the areas outside of their operating range. Major Dobrik, with Kefira''s approval, hadn''t hesitated to take advantage of his experience with the local terrain.
It had quickly be apparent, though, that the camp hadn''t simply moved to a new location. Reivyn and his men had found their tracks and determined they were heading into the deste sands before notifying the rest of the battalion by runner.
Reivyn had remained shadowing the enemy in the desert throughout the evening into the morning, waiting for a response from the officers in charge. Now that he had reunited with the main force of the battalion, he had obviously gotten his hands on amunication device, so they were able to move about more freely without the risk of losing each other in the wilderness.
"Ry a message back to the battalion that they look tired and strung out," Reivyn whispered to Jekle next to him. He had his prot¨¦g¨¦ handle themunication device while he was doing his assessment, and he would take it back once he was done. There was no reason he couldn''t lend it out to a subordinate to operate the equipment when he was otherwise upied.
"Tell them that if they send a fast unit ahead, we have an excellent opportunity to harass their rear."
Jekle sent the information as Reivyn continued to observe the enemy through his fingers. He was scanning the crowd, looking for signs of higher-level troops or the presence of Aerie. If she or her personal soldiers were around, a fast attack on their rear wouldn''t be viable, but he was 90% sure she wouldn''t be there. He still had to take into ount the small possibility that they had met up with each other while they were out of sight, though.
After assessing the enemy forces and determining there had been no change in their makeup, Reivyn signaled to Jekle to descend the sand dune, and they met back up with the two toons he had led into the deste sands.
"Major Dobrik sent back that they would be sending apany-sized force made up of soldiers specializing in speed," Jekle said as Reivyn called the other two officers and the toon sergeants over.
The terrain of the deste sands was a lot more open than the surrounding desert, but there were still dunes and rocks enough that they could keep out of sight as long as they kept an appropriate distance apart. It would be extremely hard to sneak up on anyone, though.
"Here''s the deal," Reivyn looked at each of the leaders in the eye. "We have a chance to do some more harassing action here, but the terrain is too open to get close enough without them noticing anything and responding in time. We need to double-time ahead and get in front of the enemy force toy an ambush.
"We''re going to be a feint, though. If they have their attention on us, they''re less likely to be able to notice and/or respond to the fast force attacking them from the rear. There''s a good chance that the stragglers are lower level than the ones out front, but that''s not a guarantee. They might just have different Skill Levels for traveling long distances.
"We don''t need to actually engage the enemy, but we do need to time our feint to coincide with the arrival of the actual strike force."
Reivyn pulled out a map andid it on the ground. The other officers crowded around to be able to see what he was going to show them.
"See here, several miles ahead, there''s arge rock outcropping. Just a bit before that, there''s a decent-sized sand dune. If this map isn''t too old, and the wind hasn''t shifted the dune, we can set one toon here and the other at the rocks. We get their attention at the rocks and lead them back toward the sand dune where the second toon can nk them with some ranged attacks.
"We can act like we bit off more than we can chew and scatter in a ''panic.'' We''ll meet back up, here," Reivyn poked another spot on the map with his finger, "and then head back to the battalion after.
"I''ll be with the first toon," Reivyn said, standing up and folding the map back up. "That way I can counter any Spells they might toss our way while we get their attention. The second toon should focus their fire on any Mages that rush out with any soldiers that we manage to lure away.
"Remember, this is a feint. We just need to make it seem like we got in over our heads and hold their attention long enough that the other soldiers can do some damage to the stragglers.
"Any questions?"
The other officers had seen enoughbat with Reivyn to understand what he wanted exactly, so they simply shook their heads. It wasn''t the first time they had split their forces to draw enemies into a trap, and this one wouldn''t even be a conventional ambush.
Reivyn led his two toons in a jog across the desert to reach the destination ahead of the enemy forces that were in a straight line toward the ambush location. They would only have several minutes to get into position, but it didn''t matter too much as they weren''t going to be engaging in a traditional fight.
The map was urate enough, and the sand dune was still in the ce where it was located on the map. The toons split up, and Reivyn ordered the men to run the rest of the distance in a half-crouch. There were smaller rocks scattered about to offer some concealment, and their camouge abilities had all increased over the past weeks, but if they ran as a group just standing tall, there was a possibility that the enemy force would spot them.
There was enough distance between them, still, that running while hunched over still kept them mostly out of view. Reivyn wasn''t entirely concerned if they were spotted, anyway, because that was kind of the n in the first ce. It would just change the timing a little.
Hemunicated with the other captain leading the strike force, and he knew that even if they drew the attention of the enemy early, they would only have to keep them upied for a little longer. It ended up being a moot point, though, as Reivyn got his toon into position behind the rocks.
They waited in ce for just over ten minutes, and the enemy column approached within range of Reivyn''s n. He and the specialists of the toon jumped out from behind the rocks andunched a volley of ranged attacks toward the enemy column. Reivyn Cast several Spells and flung them at the line of approaching soldiers, and then they put on a little show of acting like they hadn''t realized they were attacking such arge force.
He and the soldiersunched a second, "desperate" volley before turning on their heels and taking off across the desert sand. Most of the other soldiers hadn''t acquired the Sure Step Skill, so their mobility was a bit reduced on the loose sand, but they had initiated the attack with that problem factored in.
Reivyn heard the sound of horns calling out, and he knew that the enemy force had sent a contingent of soldiers to chase after them. They sprinted across the sand, and they angled their direction so that they would run parallel to the sand dune where the other toon was hidden. They had used simr tactics many times before, but without apetentmander to take charge of the enemy army, they had nevere up with any kind of fancy countermeasure.
The tactic was adapted, of course, but it was usually along the lines of throwing more bodies or magic at the problem to try and fix it.
Reivyn Sensed several Mana signatures approaching them from behind, and he quickly turned to wrest control of the Magic away to send it back to the Mages thatunched the Spells. With his increase in Levels and Stats, it was getting easier to impose his Will on the enemy''s Spells, though he still had to strain himself if they ran into anyone with a higher number brand.
He had never had the opportunity to pit his Will against Aerie''s because the Spells she had used were almost exclusively instant-type Beam Spells in the one duel they had had together.
Reivyn took his toon beyond the sand dune, and after about a minute, he heard the tell-tale sound of another missile barrage. He ordered his men to halt, and he took the archers back with him a ways tounch another round of attacks at the pursuing force.
This was the first time he had actually gotten a look at the number of soldiers that had chased after them, and he was surprised it was only a couple of hundred. Either they were more confident in their Mages than they should have been, or someone had actually shown some restraint. They usually lured a much more significant amount of soldiers out when they performed such actions.
Reivyn didn''t feel any more Manaing from any Mages in the enemy force, so he assumed they had either been taken out, or they were hiding in the group because of Reivyn''s actions. Arrows rained down on them from the top of the sand dune, and Reivyn and his archers added more arrows to the mix.
The enemy soldiers had only been confused for a brief time, and they resumed their spring toward Reivyn and his men, ignoring the nking toon atop the sand dune. Reivyn once more turned and ran into the desert, away from therger column of enemies, with his men, and the toon on the dune onlyunched attacks for as long as they were within range.
Reivyn and his men continued to run ahead, keeping a pace that kept the pursuers just close enough that they thought they could catch up. Hismunication device beeped with a signal from the other captain, telling him they had sessfully engaged the stragglers, and Reivyn finally unleashed a couple of Spells to blow the sand up into the air behind them.
Not only did he obscure the enemy''s vision with his Spell, but it picked up a huge amount of sand, causing the ground to be too uneven to run easily across, and they used the distraction to pick up the speed to disappear from the sight of the pursuers.
After several minutes, they met back up with the other toon, and after nodding at the other officers, Reivyn led his men back toward the battalion that had begun to move into the deste sands.
Kefira had sent a message saying that if one of the major bases was moving into the desert, it was likely that most, if not all of them, were doing the same. It seemed like the Runic Spell was close topletion, and Reivyn agreed with that assessment.
They still didn''t know exactly what was going to happen when the giant Spell was initiated, but time was running out. It was a close thing, too, because Kefira had informed him that her older brother had arrived on the scene, and they would be reaching the deste sands in about a week''s time. If they had gotten here just a bit earlier, or if the Runic Spell had taken just a little longer toplete, they might have been able to stop the entire thing before it got to this point, but there was nothing they could do about that now other than roll with the punches and try to mitigate as much damage from whatever wasing as they could.
"Sir Reivyn, can youe by and give us some more pointers?" Rayha practically bounced in her enthusiasm as she ran up to walk alongside Reivyn. He looked down at the other teenage girl and couldn''t help but smile at her infectious personality.
"Sure," Reivyn said. "I''lle by after my own training session."
Rayha gave a little pout at the answer.
"Maybe I could join you?" She asked, twisting her shoulders back and forth coquettishly. "I know you and Lady Fira have a thing going on. I promise I won''t get in the way of that. Just, you know that I''m better with a sword than the others. I think I would learn a lot more with you than with them."
Reivyn rolled his eyes at the request. It wasn''t the first time she had brought it up, though her earlier attempts at getting personal lessons from him had been a lot more subtle. Reivyn stopped in his stride toward Kefira''s tent and faced the girl that came up to his chin.
"Rayha, this is my personal time, so I''m going to have to say no." He was firm but gentle in his tone.
Rayha leaped forward and hugged him by the arm, swaying it back and forth like he remembered his sisters doing when they were younger. She had a pleading look on her face, but Reivyn was more surprised at the fact that he hadn''t been able to respond in time to avoid the little maneuver than anything.
"Ple~ase," Rayha gave him puppy-dog eyes.
Reivyn grabbed one of her arms and peeled it off of himself before pinching the bridge of his nose. He normally wouldn''t even consider the issue, but what she had said was actually true. Her Skills with a sword were better than anyone else''s in hispany. Better than anyone else he had seen in the battalion.
The fact that she was so skilled with a weapon despite ostensibly having a Support-type ss had initially set rm bells off in Reivyn''s mind. He had instructed Jek to continue to investigate the origins of the refugees they had taken in. There had actually been several other refugees they had picked up from elsewhere that had stayed behind to corroborate their stories.
That had been enough to slightly mollify Reivyn''s suspicions, but he had finally put his guard down after a scouting mission had reported spotting Aerie being carried by a pnquin into the desert. They had reported that she had apparently been traveling like a queen on the backs of her "Deathsworn," as she had called them.
There had just been something tickling the back of Reivyn''s mind whenever he looked at Rayha and considered everything about her. He hadn''t necessarily thought she was Aerie in disguise, but the thought had crossed his mind. Knowing that the entric enemymander was over a hundred miles away had let him put thest doubt to rest.
From what Reivyn could see, Rayha was just incredibly enthusiastic about advancing her Skills and contributing, and she had a bubbly personality. He had thought she might be trying to get close to him on purpose, but further surveince had shown that she acted the same way towards a lot of people, whether they were in positions of power or just regr foot soldiers.
Rayha had even acted the same way towards Kefira and Seri, and, surprisingly, despite how close and affectionate she seemed toward Reivyn, Kefira had grown to like her.
"I''ll tell you what, Rayha," Reivyn said after a moment. "I''ll talk to Lady Fira, and if we have time, maybe we''ll invite you over for additional training after we''re done." Reivyn held up a finger to forestall Rayha''s enthusiastic jumping up and down. "Maybe."
"Of course, of course," Rayha said, pping her hands together with a wide smile on her face. "Maybe I can ask Lady Fira for some tips about increasing my Fire Affinity, too. Do you think she would help me?"
"I''m sure she would if you ask nicely," Reivyn said. "Now, if you''ll excuse me..."
"Oh! Right. I''ll wait for the good news!" Rayha scampered off toward the other refugees, and Reivyn noticed her do the same thing to another girl, trapping her in a hug before he shook his head and resumed his walk toward Kefira''s tent.
Reivyn had been suspicious of Rayha''s motivations even after he had verified her identity through multiple methods, but the more he saw, the more he was convinced that she just wanted to be everyone''s friend.
She had somehow weaseled her way into befriending Kefira and Seri, both, but she had never tried to do anything other than being friendly. She never tried to poke her nose into any kind of business she shouldn''t, and she never brought up ss or station. She seemed to ignore the fact that Kefira had the title "Lady" in front of her name, and she never bragged about being friends with her to any of the other refugees.
She also kept their rtionship out in the open and only ever interacted with her when she was out and about. She never tried to get into Kefira''s tent, and her attempts at getting more training out of the two of them had always been for the sessions in their little secluded arena.
Reivyn sometimes thought that Rayha had made friends with him, showcasing her abilities with a sword, just so she could be friends with Kefira, and she wanted to be friends with Kefira simply out of interest in being friends. It hadn''t been until after she had grown on Kefira that she had even found out about Kefira''s prowess as a Caster.
Reivyn wouldn''t have minded getting a little closer to the other refugees, as well, as they were all verypetent. They hadn''t lied when they said their Lifestyle sses could convert intopetent Combat sses with the right tools and circumstances, and he had been impressed with their work ethic and ability. They were all much more cognizant of the difference in their status, though, so none of them tried to actually make friends with Reivyn, Kefira, or Seri.
Reivyn once more shook his head as he chuckled to himself. He knew Kefira liked the girl, but he wasn''t sure how she would feel about her wanting to join them in their private "training" sessions. They had long gotten past the point of having to physically direct each other in their practice, but the more time they spent together, the more they touched, not less.
It was definitely Kefira''s feelings on the matter, and not his own wish for the intimacy, that had led him to offer thepromise of maybe instructing Rayha after their own training.
Chapter 134: Parallel Advent
Chapter 134: Parallel Advent
Reivyn strode through the field with his other officers. The soldiers of thepany were finishing off thest remnants of the enemies from the camp they had been harassing for a while while the other soldiers from the battalion focused on their assigned fields.
They had gotten luckier than they had realized when Reivyn had lured their attention away for the quick strike force when they chased them into the deste sands. They had apparently foolishly sent thest of their Mages after Reivyn''s toon, thinking they would be easy pickings. The result was that Reivyn and his ambushing second toon had killed thest of their Mages.
After several skirmishes trying to tease out another response, the officers noticed an odd behavior from the enemy. Instead of immediately sending out soldiers to pursue the agitators, the enemy forces pulled into themselves and hunkered down, refusing to chase after anyone. After several probes, it was found that they had zero Mage support remaining, and Kefira had ordered the Mage Corps to bombard them with their heavy magic.
It had been a massacre.
Once the Spells started tond with zero defense, other than their own shared shields, the enemy realized they would just be pummelled to death if they didn''t do anything. The Mage Corps had been separated into different groups, spread around the enemy, and when they sallied forth in order to try and reach the groups of Mages, the melee soldiers had sprung the final trap.
The enemy had already been heavily damaged from the bombardment, and getting nked while taking heavy Spell fire from the front was the final straw. It was the first time Reivyn had seen them flee in the face of danger. They had tried to take some captive when they fled, but they would still fight to the death if they had no way out, and if they were subdued, they would try tomit suicide.
Reivyn paused to watch the refugees he had epted into his ranks at Kefira and Dobrik''s consent. Instead of incorporating them into his standing toons, he kept them to themselves as their own unit, and he even appointed Gauis as their squad leader. It wasn''t arge enough unit to designate them as their own toon, and they didn''t receive any formal ranks, though Dobrik had agreed to pay them as such.
Gauis was apetent leader, and all of the others listened to him easily. Reivyn simply used them as a specialist, reserve unit like he would the fifth squads of each toon, but they were not attached to arger toon like the others. Gauis would walk alongside Reivyn, awaiting any orders, and Reivyn would simply give him a mission to aplish when needed and give him free rein to figure out how to do it.
It had worked very well so far, and Reivyn was seriously considering expanding the smaller unit tactics across hispany. The flexibility it allowed when put into the hands of a smart leader was very much worth investing in. The nature of howbat worked meant that they would still have to haverge, cohesive forces as the central means, but there was no reason they had to keep all of their units in a strict formation at all times.
Reivyn paused to watch the fire dance that Rayha performed. Not only did her lithe body move in a mesmerizing way, but the fire element that she called forth also undted in an intoxicating manner. Her movements, paired with her sword, were deadly to the enemy and inspiring to herrades.
Reivyn didn''t receive a notification of getting a buff, but he was sure that had something to do with the fact that he wasn''t technically in her unit and/or Party. Those fighting alongside her were definitely disying increasedpetency aspared to their sparring practices.
Reivyn nodded his head and continued moving along the lines, inspecting the work of his toons. The enemy was already a broken force, incapable of putting up much of a resistance, but it was still imperative to keep a watchful eye, just in case. Just because the battle was won didn''t mean there couldn''t be more surprises that could cost the lives of his men.
Don''t becent. Don''t becent, Reivyn subconsciously chanted in his mind.
A squad of his men detached themselves from their toon and chased after several fleeing enemy soldiers.
"Stop!" Reivyn Commanded. The soldiers came to a halt and turned to face him. "There''s no reason to chase after them. They''ll kill themselves before surrendering, and they''re likely to die alone in the desert anyway. Even if they manage to make it to another army, the few who do won''t make a difference. Don''t let our forces get spread out for no good reason. Just let them go."
"Yes, sir!" The squad leader saluted and returned to the formation with his troops.
They had achieved great sess. It had taken over a month of carefully nned skirmishes and ambushes to wipe out an entire enemy army, and it wouldn''t have been possible without disabling their Magical capabilities, but they had done it.
Just goes to show the importance of bnce, Reivyn thought. If we had had cavalry avable to us in the beginning, we most likely wouldn''t have suffered such a devastating defeat. We might have even been able to seed in our initial purpose of rescuing the captives that day with the speed and mobility the horsemen could provide.
Only fifteen or so more armies of equivalent size and power to go. Reivyn ruefully chuckled.
"Lieutenant Jek," Reivyn called out to the First toonmander. Jek jogged over and offered a salute. "The battle is won. Have the toon sergeants take charge, inform Gauis to stick with Senior Sergeant Jekle for now, and gather the other officers. All of you meet me at the battalionmand with Major Dobrik and Lady Fira for debriefing."
"Yes, sir!" Jek ran off to do as ordered.
Kefira sat up straight in her chair, listening to the Major discuss the ns for future engagement with the other officers present. They had finished off an entire enemy army unit, and morale among the soldiers was as high as it had ever been. They had gone full circle from being summarily defeated in openbat to annihting an equivalent force through their own hit-and-run tactics.
It had been a brutal lesson that many people hadn''t survived to learn, but it had shown them the importance of developing a doctrine to fight against humans instead of just mindless monsters. The arrogance of expecting to simply overpower a superior number of foes through a higher quality had been squashed. The truth of quality over quantity had still been established, as the enemy soldiers had mostly been Tier 2 or low Tier 3 with hardly any equipment, but it had also engraved the truth of sufficient quantity having quality on its own.
Reivyn wasn''t the only officer toe up with effective tactics and strategies, but he had been one of the first. The variety of tactics he hade up with had also been quite diverse, and, coupled with their own experiences, many of the other officers had put down their pride to learn from him. Reivyn had shown an understanding of the politics involved withmand officers, too, and he had guided them in a way that they couldrgely figure things out on their own, and they had proved that, for the most part, they weren''t just paper tigers.
Even Captain Sanjin, after getting his head screwed back on straight, had progressed in his abilities as an officer. With the absence of the two sons of the Count and Colonel, and the end of his carousing with the enlisted troops, he had finally been able to observe and emte the other officers. Kefira still didn''t trust him in amand position, but he no longer put on airs as a future genius general, and the advice he gave from his perspective and the execution of his orders from the Major was much more tempered and sane.
"The other armies have converged much too close to each other by this point, and I''m afraid that any encampment we attack will be able to receive support from two fronts," one of the staff officers said.
"That gives additional opportunities to set ambushes for those supporting units, though," another officer added. "We would just have to split our forces into three, and that could give rise to its own dangers."
"That''s all well and good, but I think the right course of action is to wait for more information on the Runic Spell," one of the captains joined the conversation. "We don''t know what''s going to happen, and you staff officers aren''t the ones that are going to be risking your lives attacking the enemy. We might need all of our forces for what''s toe very soon."
"We can do both," Captain Sanjin offered his opinion. "Executing one or two raids should be rtively safe before they wise up to what we''re doing. They all converged toward the center of the deste sands, too, so it wouldn''t take long for us to relocate to another location to perform another attack. Everything we''ve seen so far has shown that the armies don''t reallymunicate very well with each other, so we should be able to catch more than one front off guard, and if they domunicate with each other, then we just need to maintain our vignce and be ready to abandon the attack at any time."
"That... is the best idea I''ve ever heard from you," Kefira said. "I think that''s feasible. Major Dobrik, draw up some ns and contingencies to move forward with that course of action. We also..."
Kefira froze mid-sentence as she felt a pulse of Manae from within her breast pocket. She reached in and pulled out themunication device that she had on her person at all times but had been inert since leaving the capital. The council of officers stopped talking and focused their attention on Kefira as she ced the device on the table and sent a matching frequency Mana pulse into the magic item.
An image sprung up above the table. It was the upper half of a young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties, but with how aging worked, that could mean a range from 15 to 50. Kefira knew that this young man in question, though, was 27 years old.
He had a serious expression on his handsome face, with a square jaw and impableplexion. His hair was short, and his eyes shown with a topaz glint. Below his face, he was adorned in a military uniform with the insignia of a general, and the token of the imperial family was attached to a chain hanging off of his shoulder. As one of the siblings that weren''t in the line of session, he had dedicated his life to military service, and he was one of the highest Level members of the immediate family.
With the way ruling an empire worked, the emperor and empress were typically some of the lowest Leveled members of the royalty. Kefira''s parents were Tier 5, but their own siblings and older generation were still around, and their power and loyalty were what protected the family.
"Brother!" Kefira smiled widely at the appearance of the projection. The man on the other end of themunication magic item was Kayzor, her third brother.
The young man''s stern expression softened at the sight of his sister. He eyed her up and down, and a smirk made its way onto his lips.
"Sister! I would say you''re looking good, but you know me, I''m not one for dishonesty. You look like trash."
"Thanks, brother," Kefira rolled her eyes as her brotherughed. "Way to undermine my authority in front of my subordinates."
Her brother''sughter cut off, though he still had a mirthful smile on his face.
"Oh, are you in council right now?" He asked. "Sorry about that. I thought you would make contact with me when you were alone."
"We just got done with a battle, and we were discussing the next steps to take in the war effort," Kefira exined. "Since we''re able to connect like this, I assume you''re close by? I didn''t expect you to arrive for another couple of weeks."
"Yeah, we should be close," her brother nodded. "We found the traces of one of the enemy armies marching into the sands, and ording to the map, we''re only a couple of days away from the center. We arrived ahead of schedule because I didn''t wait for the forces from Drallo to convene before Marching ahead with my own troops. I brought 50,000 soldiers from the Imperial Army."
"Good. Are youing from the direction of Kirlon?"
"Yes, we''re approaching from the southeast."
"Ok. We''re positioned to the northwest, opposite you guys. We just wiped out one of their armies, after over a month of hit-and-run ambush tactics, but they still have fifteen or so armies surrounding the center of the desert."
"Oh, good. I was afraid you would have finished mopping up the enemy before we arrived," Kayzor chuckled.
"I''m not that powerful," Kefira guffawed. "Besides, they have way more soldiers than we had thought possible. If it had just been the one army, then, yeah, we would have won by now, as evidenced by our victory over one of their armies.
"But these armies filled with weaker rabble aren''t the only forces out here. We ran into an extremely powerfulmander, and her personal troops are higher Level with high-quality gear."
Kayzor''s expression once more turned serious at the news.
"So some old fogey finally showed himself and took personalmand of the armies?"
"Not exactly," Kefira said. "From what we could tell, she''s a young woman not much older than us."
"Us? Who''s ''us?''" Kayzor''s eyes narrowed.
"Nothing, nothing. I just meant, umm, me and some of the other volunteers around my age."
Sweat began to run down Kefira''s back. Ahh, a slip of the tongue! Now''s not an ideal situation to reveal my rtionship with Reivyn, especially considering he''s technically a subordinate. Oh no, is my decision to help him force his Tier 3 ss transition going to bite me in the butt?! It''s not going to look good.
"Does it have anything to do with this Reivyn character that you got special admission to the Magic Academy for?" Kayzor quirked an eyebrow.
"How do you..." Kefira started before snapping her mouth shut.
"Kefira, you''ve never been able to keep secrets from me and don''t forget, my rtionship with Sophia is the best among our other siblings. She didn''t tell anyone else about the message you sent the long way around, but I was with her when she got it. What''s your rtionship with this Reivyn?"
Kefira kept her lips together in a line, staring her brother in the eyes. She refused to say anything about it at this time, especially not in front of all of her subordinates. Her brother knew that she was in council, so he was obviously trying to pressure her toe clean, probably assuming that none of her subordinates knew about her rtionship.
That wasn''t the case, though, as Kefira and Reivyn hadn''t hidden anything from the very beginning. It had helped that they had established their rtionship in everyone''s mind before Kefira had revealed her status.
"Very well, we''ll talk about thister, when we meet up in person. I''ll keep this secret from our parents... for now."
"Thank you," Kefira said in a clipped tone. "Let''s keep the discussion to the matters at hand, though."
"Alright. You said you were in council to determine what to do moving forward. I''m listening."
"We were justing up with a n to split our forces into three to try and lure some soldiers into some ambushes. Each army encampment is close enough together that they can receive support from the armies on either side of them, and we were going to goad them into sending troops with a false attack on one of them. If soldiers from the neighboring armies get sent out, we''ll ambush them with our split forces, but if they don''t send any out, we would be able to bring those split forces together to nk any troops we lured out.
"We were just beginning to develop the appropriate tactics for the strategy when you pinged mymunication device."
"Hmm," Kayzor stroked his chin as he thought about the strategy. "That seems like it could work a couple of times on different fronts, but now that I''m here, it probably won''t be necessary. How about instead of doing that, you meet up with me to the east? I''ll act as the main attack force instead of making a false attack to lure troops out, and you can split your forces in two to watch our nks.
"If they send support from either side, and it''s not too much, you can intercept them. If they send arger force than you''refortable engaging, you can warn us in time to retreat. If we''re lucky and fast enough, we can employ this strategy several times in multiple locations, and by the time we''ve done it three or four times, the other reinforcements from Drallo should be here to help us finish them off."
Kefira looked up at the officers who had been sitting patiently in silence, and they all nodded their heads in agreement. Kefira looked back to her brother after seeing the confirmation from her officers.
"That sounds like a n, but the enemymander, from what we know, is in one of the armies to the east. I''m sure you''re stronger than she is, but with her might and thebination of her sturdier troops, it might bog us down more than we want to at the beginning of the strategy, so I think we should meet up to the west, instead."
"That''s fine. Either way is good for me."
"Alright, then..."
Suddenly, the transmission cut off as Kefira sensed the ambient Mana go haywire. It created enough interference that her connection was severed, and a growing sense of dread grew in Kefira''s core. Reivyn shot to his feet as he looked all around, and then the earth began to shake.
The earthquake started as a simple vibration, but it quickly increased in intensity until the ground was literally shaking from left to right. A tremendous roar apanied the quake as the ground rubbed against each other. The sound drowned out everything else, and many of the officers were thrown from their seats and the interior of the tent was tossed about.
Reivyn crouched low to the ground to maintain his bnce, and he rushed over to help Kefira maintain her bnce and protect her from flying debris.
The earthquakested a couple of minutes before it settled down, but there were still asional tremors that could be felt in the ground. The ambient Mana, though, was still going haywire, and the amount in the air was continuing to rise exponentially.
"Come on," Reivyn said, grasping her hand.
He rushed out of the tent, dragging Kefira behind him, and Seri quickly followed. The other officers saw them depart, and they began to file out of the tent after regaining their feet.
They stepped out into the open air. It was still some little time before dusk, and the ambient Mana had already grown so dense that it created a visible spectacle, even when Kefira wasn''t using her Mana Sight Skill. The other officers stepped out and eximed in shock as they stared at the sky.
There were long, undting lines of Mana dancing in the sky. It resembled a phenomenon that Kefira had heard about but never seen from the higher Tier Regions, but this was anything but a natural spectacle.
On the horizon, in all directions, a line of interlocking hexagons of bright yellow Mana started to build up into the sky. It moved at an astonishing pace, and it quickly formed a dome, centered over the center of the deste sands. All of the enemy forces and their battalion were inside the dome, and it quickly sealed off the entire area.
Four separate structures began to form at the top of the dome in the four cardinal directions, and the hexagons that formed the dome started to get sucked up into the forming structures. The Mana wasn''t forming a barrier to seal them off from the rest of the world, it was just the form that the Mana took to build the unidentified structures up in the sky.
Just as quickly as the dome had formed, it was no more. The four strange structures floated in the sky, giving off a blinding light, almost turning the night into day in the local area.
Kefira watched as the Mana continued to umte until it reached a breaking point, and then chains of Mana shot down into the ground at lightning speed. The chains remained attached to the structures floating in the sky, and they stabbed into the earth in the very center of the desert. Another tremendous roar soon followed the chainsunching into the ground.
This roar was obviously different from the earthquake. There was an undertone of a screech apanying the loud roar. The chains had obviously attached to the Spider Matriarch, and she was not happy about it.
"Well, it seems like we know what the purpose of the Runic Spell is," Reivyn said beside her, not taking his eyes off of the Mana chains. "It looks like they''re trying to enve the Spider Matriarch. If they were trying to kill it, why would they use chains?
"I think we should abandon our ns of whittling down their army. We need to get to the center of the deste sands to find out what they''re going to do with it."
"I agree," Kefira said, also not looking away from the chains. "My brother would alsoe to the same conclusion, though he probably doesn''t know much about what''s in the center of the Runic Spell as we do. If we want to meet up with him, getting to the center is the best choice."
"How strong is your brother? Do you have confidence that his involvement will help?"
"No. He''s still young, only 27. He''s mid-Tier 4 with an Epic ss, but that wouldn''t be enough to fight against a possible Tier 7 monster. That being said, he should have several Tier 5 bodyguards apanying him. His personal head bodyguard is almost Tier 6. That''s still not enough to handle the beast, but with an army at their back, if the spider goes on a rampage, we should at least be able to secure a pyrrhic victory against it.
"We would most likely have to stall the enemy army from interfering in that situation, which will be just as dangerous in the long run as going up against the Spider Matriarch directly.
"We don''t know if that''s what they''re going to be doing, though, and the fact that Aerie said she wasn''t interested in taking the lives of the local popce makes me think that''s not what''s going on."
Kefira turned back to the other officers, finally taking her eyes off of the spectacle in the distance.
"Major Dobrik! Change of ns. Get the troops mobilized. We''re going to punch through the location the destroyed army was upying and head to the center. We won''t engage the enemy right away, though. We''ll wait for my brother to get here. With the change in circumstances, I''m sure he''ll rush his troops to get here faster, and he''ll probably send some cavalry ahead."
"Yes, My Lady," Major Dobrik replied.
He gave her an appraising look filled with even more respect than he had before. The officers weren''t dumb. They had seen the imperial insignia her brother wore and how they addressed each other in such a familiar way. Putting two and two together, it wasn''t hard for them to realize that she wasn''t just some viscount''s daughter.
"I need to get back to mypany," Reivyn said. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss before straightening back up. "Let''s go see what the finale of this desert tour has in store for us."
"Yeah," Kefira replied.
And hopefully, we''ll be able to make it out on the other side.
Chapter 135: Last Leg
Chapter 135: Last Leg
Reivyn ran alongside hispany, keeping an eye out all around and an ear to hismunication device. The battalion was moving as one, but in such a situation where everything was unknown, it made more sense to keep in touch with magic even with these small distances involved. The interference with themunication devices apparently only affected connections between inside and outside of the sphere of the Runic Spell.
Reivyn could see dust clouds whererger enemy forces were converging on either side of them, but they were still considerably further ahead than they were. Their harassment of the one enemy army they had conducted had apparently dyed them enough that they were nowhere close to the position they were supposed to be.
He couldn''t see them, but he could also imagine that there were over ten other such plumes of dust and sand luding the air from where the rest of the armies converged on the central position of the deste sands.
There was no coincidence of running into the lizaldons from the vige down below, but Reivyn assumed they had gotten to safety. After they had determined that the goal of the invading force was either the Spider Matriarch or the Abyss connection, Kefira sent a group of people to ry that information to the lizaldons and evacuate them from their predicament.
They weren''t a warrior race, despite their nuisance of distant cousins and living situation with the spiders, so there was no reason to even ask them to entangle themselves in the conflict if they didn''t have to. Their hometown was going to be affected, and possibly their ability to trade in the lucrative spider silk, but that was all secondary aspared to their lives. Kefira had told Reivyn that they had umted a vast amount of wealth over the many years that they had sent out trade caravans, but nobody knew what they did with it.
Reivyn''spany was to the rear of the battalion, in the same location that it had always been. His contributions hadn''t changed the arrangement of the battalion, and it hadn''t really been any kind of issue up to this point, anyway, as they had mostly been operating independently or in groups rather than a battalion as a whole. They only ever marched together in columns as a battalion when they moved from one location to another.
Reivyn surveilled the troops arrayed before him as they ran at a decent pace to try and make up for time. He had memories of learning about the folly of allowing oneself to be ambushed while in a column, but that particr nugget had never really been applicable to this unit because they had enough Strength and Stamina from their sses and Levels to be decked out in full battle gear at all times. A lot of the devastation from getting caught t-footed, ording to his Dreams, had had to do with not being equipped to deal with suddenly being attacked at the wrong time.
That had also been a major factor in their sess against the perpetrators, too. Over 80% of the enemy force didn''t have any kind of armor or weapons to speak of, and they were basically just pugilists with extremely high Pain Resistance that attempted to hinder their ability to fight with their bodies. Without supernatural healing abilities, it would never work, and against someone who recognized the tactic early and managed to counter it, not adapting to the change had also contributed to their high casualties.
The sun glinted off of the metallic armor and weapons as the long line of soldiers ran through the desert. Since they were a volunteer battalion, they didn''t have uniform equipment, but they were all fairly close to each other in capability. As such the armor and weapons they could afford were made of almost entirely the same type of materials, so even though they had different styles and fits, they still looked like a decently impressive military force.
Reivyn mentally nodded his head as he watched them.
They''ve all been baptized through fire, he mused. Through both sess and failure. They''ve all been hardened toward fighting other people, and the volunteers and officers both will be able to spread their experiences along as they progress through life. If we can manage to make it through thisst ordeal, there is no telling what kind of impact this will have on Drallo and Wispan, and other empires with a close enough rtionship with them.
The terrible screeching that had apanied the tremors after the activation of the Runic Spell intensified as the hours passed. It wasn''t a constant bellow from the Spider Matriarch, but every now and then, arge roar would emit from the destination they were running to. Reivyn felt an increasing tingle pass through his spine, and his hair stood on end as they drew closer and closer.
It was well past midday, though still some hours until sunset when Reivyn was finally able to see more dust clouds in the distance converging on the same location. They hadn''t bothered to stop to rest or get a meal, and they would simply suffer the Stamina expenditure until they got close enough. The soldiers simply pulled out dry rations and their water to eat and drink as they ran.
Chow is continuous in the field, Reivyn thought. No reason to let yourself get low on energy and nutrients just to maintain a consistent eating routine in such a situation.
A shadow, backlit by the light of the Runic Chains, became visible after a little bit longer, and Reivyn was finally able to see just howrge the Spider Matriarch truly was. It had been pitch ck in the caves, and he hadn''t had Night Vision, nor had he dared to use his Mana, so he had never gotten a good look at the creature.
It was massive. From what he could estimate, based on its size and distance, it had to be asrge orrger than the entire city of Magron. Not only that, but if it had traveled to the city, it would be able to tower over it on its huge pirs of legs.
It thrashed about in the distance, fighting against the magic of the Runic Spell, but from what Reivyn could See and Sense of the Mana, the efforts of the Spider Matriarch weren''t depleting the power of the Spell. Instead, the Runic Chains were slowly but surely draining the Stamina of the spider.
The plumes of dust in the distance had settled, and the Spider Matriarch, surrounded by the enemy armies, grew ever closer as the battalion continued to run. Eventually, they crested a sand dune to witness the entire struggle in all its glory.
The Spider Matriarch had woken up from its slumber and immediately exploded out of the ground, throwing huge boulders, rocks, and debris everywhere. Thendscape of the entrance to the caves beneath the deste sands waspletely alien to Reivyn. It no longer looked anything like it once had.
There was a huge, gaping hole in the ground where the spider had obviouslye from, and the armies of the enemy surrounded the hole while keeping a respectable distance from it. Even after so many hours between the time the Runic Spell had activated and the time it took for the battalion to arrive, there were still hordes of lesser spiders spilling out of the hole to attack the waiting armies.
Now that I see it, and considering the words of Aerie, this is probably the original intention of bringing such arge force of soldiers along.
There was a growing mountain of spider corpses littering the ground, and the enemy armies continued to back away in the most disciplined, military manner that Reivyn had ever seen them perform. They acted like a regr army should, instead of a band of raving lunatics that fought to the death.
They still fought to the death, it would seem, as Reivyn also spotted many corpses of the enemy soldiers as well. Reivyn guessed that there were far more dead than what the bodies indicated, though, as he witnessed spiders snatching soldiers up, only to retreat into the horde of their brethren to feast on their still living flesh.
Reivyn heard hacking and gagging sounds from the men of hispany, and he saw that all along the battalion, soldiers bent over to empty the content of their stomachs after witnessing the macabre scene.
Even though they''ve experienced warfare against other humans, it''s still been rtively tamepared to a lot of my Dream memories. They''re still not to the point where seeing such horrible things won''t affect them. Even I, with all the tempering the Dreams had given me, almost lost my lunch the first time I killed a person, much less these people who''ve only experienced this one, rather tame, campaign. The monsters they''re used to fighting aren''t the kinds that will snatch up their friends and eat them alive.
Several soldiers copsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Many more saw the scene and started to lower themselves to the ground to get some rest, even if they weren''t as affected by the gruesome scene.
"Do not sit down!" Reivyn yelled, projecting his voice across the entire battalion with Commanding Shout. "Don''t lie down! Eat some food, drink some water, but rest standing up!"
A lot of the soldiers, those not in hispany, turned their heads to give him a baleful look, but Reivyn just returned a simr gaze. The other officers reiterated hismand and ordered their men to continue standing.
"Why not let them sit down to recover?" Jek asked, sidling up next to Reivyn. "We''re not engaged with any of the enemies, be they beast or men, right now."
"We''re in abat situation," Reivyn shook his head. "Even though we''re not engaged right now, it would be a bad habit to get into. If people start sitting down to rest while they''re not on the front lines, then they won''t be able to get up in time in case of emergencies. It might be harder on them in the short run, but it''s definitely better for them in the long."
"I see," Jek nodded his head.
The order came down for the battalion to align themselves for battle, even though the enemy armies had the spider horde under control for the time being, and none of them were looking back toward their battalion. Reivyn and his officers obeyed the order, and after they were online, the officers were ordered to convene with the Major and Kefira.
"Captain Reivyn," Kefira called over to him after everyone was assembled, "you''ve been down below the lizaldon settlement where the Dungeons are, do you have any estimate of just how many spiders are down there?"
"No," Reivyn answered. "I only saw a small part of it, and it only consisted of several hundred spiders. I had thought that that was the main nest. This is aplete surprise to me, too. It seems like the spiders near the lizaldon vige were just a tiny fraction. Not only that, but if you look closely, you can see some spiders that are obviously higher Level and more ferocious than the majority."
It was true. There were some spiders that were more than twice asrge as the ones that Reivyn had seen in the skirmish with the lizaldons. Maybe only the younger ones had been near the surface, and the older spiders, using some unknown hierarchical method, made their abode deeper into the earth. Considering the size of the Spider Matriarch, there were obviously countless more branches stemming from where she slumbered than the main one that led from the surface to the Dungeons.
"Very well," Kefira was in Commander mode, and she immediately turned her attention to the Major after not getting any new information. "Do you have any suggestions, Major?"
"I say we let the enemy take care of the spiders, but we should be ready to go at any time," Major Dobrik said. "They seem to have the situation in hand, at the moment, and we have no idea how many spiders there are. I see no reason we should give them any kind of assistance, even if that means there''s a breakout somewhere else along their line.
"The reinforcements from Wispan will arrive shortly, and even if they don''t get here in time to participate in this battle, they''ll at least be here to put a stop to any mass of spiders that make a break for it in the desert."
"I agree," Kefira simply stated. "Anyone else have any other suggestions?" She looked around the conference of officers, but nobody stepped forward to offer any other ns. "Then that''s what we''ll do. After your men have recovered enough from the run, you can let them sit in ce, but they are not to break formation. I also want the first two rows of soldiers to always be standing in case of any unexpected urrences. We will not be making camp, here, we will be waiting in the battle array for any changes.
"Dismissed."
Kefira caught Reivyn''s eyes with her own and indicated for him to join her to the side as the other officers returned to their men. Reivyn instructed his lieutenants to head back without him, and he made his way over. He saw that Gauis and Rayha had joined the group of officers, but they had stood at the back. They remained in ce, though, after the officers split up, but Reivyn didn''t think anything of it.
Probably wants to speak to me, Kefira, or both of us.
Reivyn walked up to Kefira and frowned when he noticed her shivering a bit. It was most likely not visible to anyone without a really high Perception Stat from far away, but Reivyn was extremely in tune with how she normally acted.
"What''s wrong?" Reivyn asked as he approached. She looked up at him with wide eyes.
"You never told me they were so icky!" Kefira eximed. "Blegh!"
Kefira turned her head and spit onto the sand. Reivyn was stunned for a second, never having seen her spit before, but then he justughed out loud.
"Of course, they''re ''icky,''" heughed. "They''re spiders! Have you ever seen a spider that you didn''t think was disgusting?"
"You have a point," Kefira tilted her head as if lost in thought.
"Hey! That''s not fair," Rayha''s voice reached them, and they both looked over to see her walking over toward them. Gauis just stood back, holding his face in his palm.
"It''s not nice to eavesdrop, Rayha," Kefira scolded, but there was no fire in her voice and she had a smile on her face.
"You guys weren''t being circumspect. You can''t me me for hearing what you didn''t intend to hide."
"That''s true, but what do you mean it''s ''not fair?''" Kefira questioned.
"Not all spiders are disgusting," Rayha said, looking over at the giant spider in the center of the conflict. "That Spider Matriarch, for example, is quite elegant, if you think about it."
"Elegant?" Reivyn guffawed. "Look at its face. Look at its mouth. It has giant fangs with venom and saliva dripping down from it, not to mention the halo of darkness surrounding it."
"It''s cute," Rayha retorted.
"Cute?!" Reivyn was bbergasted. "I would call it many things, but ''cute'' isn''t one of them."
"Look at the raw power that''s in its body," Rayha said with passion. "There''s a certain elegance to that, alone. And if you look at it without the preconceived notions of human standards, then maybe you can see what I''m talking about." Rayha turned away from the struggling Spider Matriarch to look Reivyn and Kefira in the eye in turn. "Don''t judge everything based on your own perspective."
Reivyn folded his arms and tapped his lips as he studied Rayha. Kefira just folded her arms and harrumphed.
"You know what, tha''ts actually really good advice," Reivyn conceded.
"Exactly," Rayha nodded her head once in satisfaction.
"Even then, it''s not cute," Reivyn smiled.
"Oh! Look," Rayha pointed to a spot in front of the giant spider.
As if on cue, a huge red beam of death scythed through the lesser spider horde. They were tiny from this distance, but there was no mistaking Aerie striding out into the opening, followed by a huge coterie of Mages at her back. Even at this distance, Reivyn could sense the huge amounts of Mana running through them.
They must be linking together, somehow, Reivyn spected.
Even though he could Sense the tremendous amount of Mana being directed into and by Aerie, there was something strange about it. He couldn''t quite put his finger on it, though.
"Do you Sense anything weird about the Mana?" Reivyn turned toward Kefira. She nodded her head absentmindedly as she watched the spectacle.
"Yeah, but it appears to be beyond my Level," she answered. "I can tell that there''s something strange going on with it, but I can''t tell what."
"Me, too," Reivyn confirmed.
"What are you talking about?" Rayha asked, peering into their faces one at a time.
"Ahh, nothing," Reivyn said. "There''s just... something."
"Ok," Rayha shrugged her shoulders.
They all three turned their attention to Aerie and her Mages. The Spell that she had cast had not only killed a huge amount of the lesser spiders, but it had also burnt their bodies to ash. There was a giant open space for her to stand in as she confronted the Spider Matriarch as the Caster of the Runic Spell.
Not all of the Mages behind her were joined to the link that fed her Mana to do whatever she was doing. Several of them stepped forward and sted any spiders that tried to move into the open space once more. It didn''t stop the neers from within the hole in the ground from popping up right there, but they managed to keep the space almost entirely clear all by themselves.
Reivyn watched as Aerie, hands thrown out in front of her and in obvious deep concentration, manipted the Runic Chains. The Spider Matriarch hissed and screeched, a terrifying sound now that Reivyn was so close, as it struggled against the bindings of the chains. Whatever Aerie was doing, it was causing the spider tosh out and expend more of its deep resources.
It didn''t seem to matter, though, as even now that the Runic Spell wasn''t just passively restraining the spider but actively working against it, the power in the chains never seemed to go down. The Spider Matriarch, however, had obvious signs of gging.
Its lunges and snaps with its horrendous maw weren''t as sharp as before, and there was more time between them. The chains dangling from the sky continued to bind the spider, and as the resistance the spider put up lessened, it split into more, smaller chains that wrapped around the other appendages.
The chains split up and wrapped around the giant spider in an intricate pattern, one that Reivyn could see was there but not make sense of, until a ball simr to the initial dome covered the entire spider, blocking it from sight.
The new ball pulsed and shook from the struggles of the Spider Matriarch, but it slowly began to condense. It was hard to notice at first, but with his Perception and Mana Sense, Reivyn was able to make out the subtle shrinking of the ball.
Aerie''s body slumped after the ball was fully formed, and some heavily armored, obviously higher Tier soldiers strode forward to escort her back to the rear of the ranks. The rest of the Mages, though they were showing simr signs of exhaustion, were left to fend for themselves, but the ones not part of the link covered their retreat with their Spells until they could get behind the line of soldiers guarding their retreat.
"So, did you have anything specific you wanted to talk about?" Reivyn finally turned back to Kefira.
It seemed that Aerie was well on her way to aplishing her task, and it didn''t seem like there was anything they could do about it at this point. Based on the changes in the Runic Orb that had been built out of the chains, it was going to take a while before whatever it was doing wasplete, and the horde of spiders from below were still spilling out of the hole.
"Not really," Kefira said, twirling her hair with her finger. "It just seemed like this was the best time to have you to myself. Once something happens and we have to get fight, there won''t be any time to do anything else, and your lieutenants have everything in hand for the moment."
"Oh, really?" Reivyn smiled as he took a step closer to Kefira, standing right next to her. "You''re not afraid of exposing our rtionship to everyone else?"
"I mean, everyone already knows," Kefira turned her head, a slight blush on her face. "And considering the circumstances..."
A force crashed into the side of Reivyn and Kefira, nearly knocking them off their feet. They both quickly regained their bnce, though, and they realized a third figure had intruded into their personal space.
"Yay! That''s a great idea! Good thinking, sis," Rayha eximed, hugging the both of them together.
Reivyn and Kefira just stared at Rayha, not moving. The girl had her eyes closed at first with a smile stered across her face, but after a moment of silence with no movement, she peeked her eyes open. After noticing the deadpan stares the two of them were giving her, she slowly released her grip on the both of them and took a couple of steps back, chagrin on her face.
"I''ll just, uh, be over there," Rayha said before scampering back to Gauis''s side. Gauis just rolled his eyes at her antics.
Reivyn turned back to Kefira and started to reach around her when a sudden influx of Mana from a location within her clothes caught his attention. It also caught her attention, as she immediately fished out themunication device Reivyn had seen her use previously to speak to her iing brother. She infused her Mana into it, and an image of her brother once more sprang up.
"Kefira! You''re Ok," the man visibly rxed as he sighed. "I came with my fastest people. We can see the light ball in the distance, and we should arrive at your approximate position in just a moment. Do you need help?"
"No, everything''s fine at the moment," Kefira said. "In fact, we''re not in any immediate danger. That being said, now would be the perfect time to attack Jezebel, the enemymander, as she just did something that drained her a lot. She''s on the east, northeast side of the circle. The rest of her army is holding off a huge horde of lesser spiders that are spilling out of the underground. There seems to be no end to them."
"Good," Kayzor nodded. "My men and I willunch a sneak attack on her position to try and stop whatever it is she''s doing, and I''ll ry orders to my officers to bring the main force up but not engage right away. Might as well let them wear themselves out, first."
"That''s exactly what we thought."
"Alright. Since you''re not in any immediate danger and in need of rescuing, consider this formal order of transfer ofmand. I am assumingmand of this operation, and you are to coordinate your forces with mine from his point forward."
"Yes, brother," Kefira replied.
"You know better than that. For now, it''s ''sir,''" Kayzor gently reprimanded.
"There''s no one else here, so no," Kefira stuck her tongue out at her brother.
Kayzor just rolled his eyes before shaking his head.
"Fine. I''ll see you soon."
Kayzor cut off themunication and Reivyn and Kefira stared at the spot where his projection had been for a moment. Kefira eventually put the device away once more.
"He got here fast," Reivyn idlymented.
"Yeah," Kefira replied. "Then again, he''s a whole Tier higher with his speed-based soldiers, and they didn''t have the army to slow them down since they ran ahead."
"I remember it took us several days to get out of the deste sands when we emerged from the caves."
"But we weren''t in a hurry. If we had pushed it to the limit, we could have done it in just over a day, and it took my brother most of the day."
"Looks like we have even less time than you originally thought," Reivyn said, finally grasping Kefira in a hug. She looked up at him with a sly smile.
"Nu-uh," she shook her head. "After this fight, we''ll have more time together. Don''t forget. You''re my Imperial Liaison."
Kefira winked.
Chapter 136: Success?
Chapter 136: Sess?
"It''s time for you to get back to yourpany," Kefira said, unwillingly.
They had stood together in the center of the battalion under the watchful eye of Seri, just talking about random things and enjoying each other''spany. Reivyn had sensed a short pulse of Manae from Kefira''smunication device, and the both of them understood that to mean that Kayzor was about to engage Aerie.
"Alright," Reivyn bent forward and gave Kefira a parting kiss. "Since we''ll be coordinating with your brother''s army, this battle shouldn''t be too long, and we''ll see each other again soon."
"Mhm. When it''s over, hand your duties off to one of your lieutenants and then join me in your ''official'' capacity."
"Will do," Reivyn gave a little wave as he turned to head back to his men.
Gauis had returned to his band of volunteers a while ago, but Rayha was still hanging out just on the edge of being polite. She bounced with enthusiasm, waiting for Reivyn and Kefira to finally separate, and much to Reivyn''s amusement, she immediately ran to Kefira, lunging into hug the other girl. Reivyn didn''t wait to see what they talked about, and he continued on his way.
After walking for just a minute or so, he perceived Rayha running up to him through his Divine Sense, and he took a deft step to the side as she tried to do the same thing to him as she had Kefira. She was quite dexterous, though, so she didn''t fall to the ground. She quickly regained her bnce and turned on Reivyn as he kept walking.
"Hey! I thought you were going to wait for me," she crossed her arms and huffed.
"Why?" Reivyn just kept walking.
"Because we''re friends?"
"Eh, you can see me back at thepany."
"Rude," Rayha stamped her foot.
"Hey, I was there to see Fira. You just tagged along."
"Hmph," Rayha cocked her hip and ran her hand up the back of her hair before flipping it.
Reivyn frowned as the movement tugged at his awareness, but Rayha quickly bounced up to him breaking his line of thought.
"So this is it, huh? After this battle, all of this will be over," Rayha said.
"What makes you say that? They''re still here, and the civilians are still unounted for," Reivyn retorted.
"But isn''t this the culmination of what they''re doing? If they release the captives after this, is there a reason to continue fighting?"
"That depends on what they do with the Spider Matriarch. We can''t let them use her to go on a rampage throughout the kingdom. But it''s not up to me to decide. The Prince of Wispan will probably decide the course of action to take. They did attack several cities, killing the defenders and kidnapping the people. I''m not sure the king and nobles of Drallo will just let that slide."
"You think they''ll try to annihte the invaders?"
"I don''t know. They''ll definitely want to hold those responsible ountable, though."
"What are your ns after this is all over?" Rayha turned the conversation to a new topic. "Are you going to follow Fira back to Wispan?"
"Probably," Reivyn answered. "I don''t know what her ns are after this, but I''m sure her family is going to want her to return after participating in a war."
"Maybe. If she was out on a journey to gain Life Experience, as long as she had already done a lot of the things she had wanted to prior to this war, then she would most likely go home. If she had just started her journey, she could probably get away with just updating her brother."
"That makes sense. It''s not like she''spletely out ofmunication with her family, but I don''t know how long she''s been out or what other adventures she''s had. Traveling to an underground vige way out in the middle of a huge desert and then participating in a war are pretty big events when ites to Life Experience. Not many people can say they''ve done either of those things, much less both in quick session."
"She''s a Caster, so she might have some specific things rted to her Path she might want to aplish, too."
"Her Path? You mean the direction she wants to go with her future sses?"
"Yeah. I''m following the Path of a de Dancer. It might sound like a Combat ss Path, and it kind of is, as I''m sure you''ve seen, but it''s not entirely. It''s kind of like a Bard who can improve theirpanion''s abilities and negatively affect enemies through their Mana-infused music, but it also synergizes with Bards and other support-type sses."
"Bards, huh? I''ve only ever experienced a Blessing from a Pdin before, but I''ve seen how you affect those around you when you''re inbat. I don''t know if Fira needs to do anything rted to her Path or not, but I would guess that leading a Mage Corps in battle would do good things for it."
"Yeah, sounds like she''ll most likely head home after this. Maybe I should tag along with you?"
Reivyn stopped and gave her a quizzical look.
"What are you talking about? What about your family and friends here? Why would you tag along with us?" He asked.
"I''m not from here. I just happened to be around the area and got caught up in this. I don''t have any family or friends nearby, so it doesn''t matter to me if I follow along."
"Oh, well I can sympathize with that. My family is way far away, too, and it will take a long time to get everything sorted out regarding that. I can''t make any decisions about travelingpanions, though. You''d probably have to convince Fira''s brother."
"Hmm..."
The two finished their short journey back to Reivyn''spany in silence. Reivyn didn''t really have anything else to say, and Rayha was lost in thought.
A surge in Mana caught Reivyn''s attention, and he looked into the distance to see where it hade from. Powerful fluctuations of Mana and bright lights exploded into view at the location where Reivyn had seen Aerie retreat to earlier. It was still a long distance away, so he couldn''t see any particrs, but the amount of Mana being wielded was considerably more than had been used when he and Kefira had had their duel with the enemymander.
The sounds of explosions from the Spells and Skills being used reached their ears several seconds after they saw them. The distance was far enough that there was a significant dy.
"Everyone, stand at the ready!" Reivyn called out. "Themander of the reinforcements is engaging the enemymander. We don''t know what the fallout is going to be, but their main force still has some time before they''ll arrive. We''ll be coordinating with their force, but we don''t know if there will be a change in the currentbat situation. Be prepared to fight the enemy or the spiders, either way."
The line of soldiers, all up and down the battalion, quit their rxed resting and resumed their ready stance in formation. They still just stood in ce, waiting for any changes, but they would be able to react instantly. The spidersing out of the deep cave were still pouring forth, but Reivyn was hoping it would end soon. He would much rather fight against people than man-eating giant spiders.
The Runic Ball in the center of the entire mess was still slowly shrinking, but the rate at which it reduced was elerating slowly over time. It was already only two-thirds the original size, and the shaking and pulses caused by the struggle of the Spider Matriarch had almostpletely ceased.
Maybe because it doesn''t have to put as much effort into thwarting the escape attempts of the spider, it can focus more on doing what its actual purpose is. From the context of what''s going on, it seems like they''re trying to enve the monster, but what they do with it after is the real cause for concern. I''m just hoping that this is the only reason they''re here, and they''re not going to use the spider to somehow connect with the Abyss bridge. I''m pretty sure that gateway has been demolished, but we can''t be sure without confirmation.
Reivyn and the rest of the battalion continued to watch for changes, and the fight between Kayzor and Aerie intensified as it dragged on. Reivyn frowned as it seemed the power of the attacks was slowly growing beyond what he would expect to Sense from so far away. It was getting louder and more noticeable, and several of the more experienced soldiers were beginning to fidget a bit.
"I think they''re headed this way," Reivyn called out. "Get ready to retreat in an orderly fashion if we have to."
It wasn''t long before his spection was confirmed, as he spotted the figure of Aerie, her pink plume on her helmet streaming behind her,ing into view running away from a man decked out in shining armor. There were Mages and other guards attempting to interfere with the man chasing her, but Kayzor, as Reivyn assumed the man to be, wasn''t alone, either.
The troops that focused on speed that had apanied Kayzor in his sprint into the deste sands were likewise intercepting the efforts of Aerie''s protectors. The soldiers on either side were creating an intricate dance as they ran after the twomanders while dashing in to attack and jumping back to avoid. Spells and Skills were flung about from each group.
It was an amazing disy ofbat capabilities, though Reivyn was a little confused that Aerie was doing nothing but running for her life and using her Skills and Spells to avoid any attacks from Kayzor. She had shown much better offensive abilities when he and Kefira had fought her, but she wasn''t showing any of those abilities at this time.
I know she expended a lot of Mana, and possibly Stamina, in constructing the Runic Ball, but she had been linked with a lot of other Mages. It shouldn''t have reduced her to the state of not being able to fight back unless Kayzor is just that much more powerful.
Reivyn knew that Kefira''s siblings, the ones not ted to take over ruling, were all very high Level with Rare and Epic sses, but he didn''t know the specifics. He knew that her older siblings weren''t that much older than she was, with the oldest one being only 12 years older, and Kayzor had been identified as Kefira''s 3rd brother.
If I had to guess, from what I''ve been told and what I''m seeing here, I would say he''s high Tier 4, possibly low Tier 5 but conserving his energy in case of interference from the enemy army.
The invaders, those not specifically assigned to protecting Aerie,pletely ignored the goings on behind them, and they focused entirely on continuing to keep the horde of spiders from breaking through. It was like the life or death of theirmander made no difference to them.
Reivyn wasn''t too surprised by such an attitude, though, as he could imagine that Aerie hadmanded them to not waver in their fight against the spiders. As Deathsworn soldiers to her, it was anathema not to obey her direct orders.
The fight between the two sides continued to move across the battlefield, behind the line of soldiers defending against the spiders. The distance away from Reivyn''s battalion was still very far, and Aerie wasn''t able to focus on sprinting in a straight line, so it would still be some time before they would get close to the battalion if they moved away from the back line of the soldiers, that is.
Reivyn and the others watched the pursuit unfold as they also maintained their vignce in the fight with the spiders. It wouldn''t be a good idea to get so engrossed in watching the high-Level spectacle that they got ambushed in in sight from the front. The Runic Ball continued to condense, and the rate continued to increase.
Reivyn frowned as Aerie adjusted her trajectory and started making her way toward him and the battalion. There was less chance of the shockwaves and aftereffects of the Spells and Skills doing damage to her soldiers from moving away, but Reivyn couldn''t think of a reason why she would make such a decision.
Does she think she can plead with me or Kefira to surrender? Reivyn thought. That was the only idea that he coulde up with. To him, it would make more sense to head off in a direction that nobody was upying, much less an enemy force.
The Mages and personal guards assigned to protect Aerie were verypetent soldiers, but they weren''t a match for Kayzor''s men. Kayzor had shown up with about a hundred speed-based ssers, and they had started off severely outnumbered, but they had only lost a couple of their numbers while inflicting significant casualties on Aerie''s guards.
Aerie made great efforts in running towards the battalion, for whatever reason, but there was eventually a tipping point in the struggle. The protectors were no longer able to keep up with the interference caused by Kayzor''s elite troops, and they were unable to slow him down any longer. He sprinted ahead of the others and quickly pounced on the fleeing Aerie.
Aerie''s Skills and tricks at avoidance seemed to have beenpletely used up, and she was forced to turn and finally engage properly with Kayzor. With his high Perception Stat, Reivyn could see everything clearly.
Kayzor was dressed simrly to how Reivyn would expect an imperial prince to be. His armor was incredibly shiny, and he could perceive no dings, dents, or scuffs, though he might be able to spot some if he got closer. As it was, he projected a very heroic image from this distance. He had a white cape billowing behind him, and his helmet contained a full face mask simr to Aerie''s. Reivyn had seen his face in the projection, though, so he knew what he looked like underneath it.
I''m sure mom would say he''s ''passable'' as a potential brother-inw for me, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
Aerie was on the back foot the entire time, and Reivyn''s frown deepened as she failed to perform at the prior level he had seen of her. Kayzor''s sword shed like lightning, and Aerie had a hard time parrying the swings and thrusts. Kayzor suddenly dashed forward and mmed his shoulder into her after he had baited her into getting a bit off bnce, and her helmet got knocked clean off her head.
Reivyn watched as the helmet, the pink plume fluttering in the wind from where it was attached at the top, went sailing into the air, and then he turned his focus on the girl that had been knocked to the ground. Kayzor walked up, sword out, and pointed at her throat, as she attempted to scramble back, her sword lost in the sand.
This was the first time Reivyn had gotten a look at her beneath the helmet, but he still couldn''t see her face. Long blonde hair cascaded down from where it had once been balled up underneath her helmet in a way that Reivyn could only assume had been quite ufortable.
Reivyn couldn''t see Kayzor''s lips moving, and he couldn''t hear anything because it was so far away, but he assumed he was saying something to the girl on the ground before him.
He apparently didn''t get the answer he was looking for, as he suddenly lunged forward and pierced his sword through her throat. He quickly pulled his sword back out, and a fountain of blood followed. The girl turned over, facing the battalion, and stretched her hand out, as if pleading for something.
Reivyn felt a little bad at the demise of the enemymander, as she hadn''te off as exactly hostile. She had just seemed like someone with a different worldview but wasn''t inherently evil. There were no other feelings, though, aside from the slight pang of pity at the loss.
Suddenly, Mana matching the color and signature of the Runic Spellunched from the girl''s outstretched hand as she bled out in the sand. The Mana zipped across the open space at lightning-quick speed, and Reivyn watched as it seemed to hurtle straight toward him. It didn''te straight at him, though, and he turned to follow its trajectory as it smashed into Rayha, standing a short distance away from him.
He watched, stunned, as the ball of magic didn''t do any harm, but instead entered Rayha''s body. Everyone else, likewise, turned to watch the scene unfold, and her body began to shift subtly.
She slowly grew a couple of inches taller, reaching Reivyn''s chin, and her hair turned a shade of pink that matched the plume from the helmet worn by the girl Reivyn had assumed had been Aerie. Rayha''s facial features remained mostly the same, but they became slightly more symmetrical. She shifted into a more beautiful girl. Before, she had been what Reivyn would consider cute, but now she had a different air about her. One of more maturity and authority.
She stood tall and straight, her chin lifted high as the Runic Magic settled within her chest. Likewise, the Runic Ball surrounding the Spider Matriarch reached a crescendo in condensing and suddenly seemed to wink out of existence, but Reivyn could still feel the immense power of it in the distance. Reivyn Sensed it moving, and a shining, golden ball screamed across the open air to arrive right in front of Aerie.
Aerie held her hands out, and the ball plopped down in them. The shining winked out, and in its ce was a transparent orb with a tiny spider about the size of his hand nestled within.
Aerie lifted her hand and brushed her hair back, exposing a "6" tattooed on the side of her neck. She turned and faced Reivyn with a smile.
"Well, Reivyn, it has been very interesting getting to know you and sister Fira over these past weeks," she said. "I''ll miss our time together, but I got what I came for, now. I''ll keep in touch. Oh, and the civilians we captured are all fine. They''re a day away to the east in a little camp we made for them."
Suddenly, immense pressure came from behind Aerie, and everyone, including Kayzor in the distance, was forced to the ground. Reivyn struggled against it, but he, too, was forced to take a knee. Aerie blew him a kiss, and a little ball of Mana followed it along to smack Reivyn right in the side of his face. He felt the kiss that she blew as if she had nted her lips directly on him, and something else seemed to settle in his mind, but he was unable to pinpoint it after just a moment.
A portal opened behind Aerie, and a dignified man stepped out. He swept the surroundings with his gaze, and everywhere he looked, people broke out into a cold sweat. He stood with his hands sped behind his back. His hair was starting to go gray, and he had a neat, trimmed beard and mustache. His eyes had a fierce light to them, and Reivyn felt his entire body go cold when they settled on him.
"Master!" Aerie shouted before jumping forward to hug him in the same manner she did with Reivyn and Kefira. The man stoodpletely still, his gaze still focused on Reivyn.
"Is this the one?" A voice deeper than Reivyn would have expecteding from the man.
"Uh-huh. Isn''t he cute?" Aerie wiggled her fingers at Reivyn.
"Do you want me to bring him?"
"Not yet, he has things to do."
"Very well. Come along."
The man turned and stepped back through the portal. Aerie followed behind, but she turned her head onest time.
"Bye, Reivyn!" She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted loudly toward the center of the Battalion. "Bye Sister Fira! I''ll see you, soon!"
Then she stepped through the portal and was gone. The portal winked out of existence, and the pressure holding everyone to the ground disappeared with it. Reivyn Sensed other, just as powerful Mana fluctuations from the direction of the enemy army, and after he gained his feet, he saw that twelve other massive portals had sprung up behind the soldiers fighting the spiders.
The soldiers slowly, but methodically made their way through the portals in an orderly manner, never ceasing their fight against the spiders. Twelve heavily armored soldiers stepped forward from each portal, though, and took over the defense of the retreat of the armies.
Kayzor staggered to his feet, and he started to make his way toward the battalion, slowly at first, but he gradually picked up speed as he recovered. The soldiers he had brought along followed behind him.
Reivyn regained his feet, and he watched as the enemy army slowly disappeared through the portals, leaving the battlefield.
"Everyone get up and get ready!" Reivyn yelled at the top of his lungs with Commanding Shout. "Prepare for battle!"
Some of the soldiers looked at him in confusion as their bodies obeyed the order, but everyone regained their feet and stance in formation.
The enemy army might have retreated from the field, but the horde of spiders was still spilling out of the hole in the ground.
Chapter 137: Breakaway
Chapter 137: Breakaway
"Hold the line steady!" Reivyn shouted. "Don''t hesitate to switch out if you need to!"
Reivyn tossed some Spells over the heads of his men as he encouraged them. With the number of spiders rushing at their position, this was a marathon situation, not a sprint, so he had to regte his Mana ordingly. His Mana regeneration was enough that using three or four 50 Mana Spells a minute was enough for him to sustain the rate for a very long time, so that''s what he did.
The spiders, despite living their entire lives in almost pitch ckness, weren''t affected by the light of the setting sun, but it seemed like they were getting more active as the light dimmed. Reivyn alternated between his elements to find which one affected them the most, and after several rounds of experimentation, he discovered that Lightning Mana was the most effective.
50 points of Mana wasn''t enough to create a huge chain of lightning, but he could st one with the magic and it would jump to six or seven others nearby. There were so many of them crowding around each other, like a sea of darkness trying to consume the soldiers, that there was no possibility of the lightning not affecting more than one spider per Spell.
Fire also affected more than one target at a time, but they had high enough resistance that it didn''t persist on their corpses to catch others on fire and spread, and it wasn''t as much as the lightning. Reivyn wasn''t particrly enthusiastic about trying to set the horde on fire, either, because then they would have a ming tsunami on their hands.
Water didn''t do much but douse the spiders rushing at them, and earth was mostly shrugged off by the oversized bugs. Air was decent at slicing through the joints of the spiders, but it couldn''t pass through more than two spiders at a time.
The other Tier 2 Affinities were more deadly than water and earth, with ice being more fatal than water. It didn''t do much else, though, other than slow the movements of any spider that wasn''t outright killed by the strike. Magma and sma were the second most effective, but the rate of killing was a little slower than Lightning.
Mud could cause some spiders to sink into the ground, but the other spiders would just crawl over their bodies, and once the earth hardened again, the spiders that weren''t killed would just crawl out of the little swamp that was created. Mist was absolutely useless in this situation, as the spiders didn''t use their eyes to pinpoint their targets, to begin with.
Metal and Wood could create powerful enough single-target Spells, but it was nowhere near as good as the chains created by the lightning.
Reivyn experimented with one Spell cast with a Tier 3 Affinity, Kic, and it was very effective, sting through several more spiders than the Air des heunched at the horde, but increasing the Affinity, despite the costs listed by the System being static, would cause him to burn through more Mana. The costs didn''t equal the results, and it was only on par with using Lightning Mana.
More Spells wereunched from Mages to either side of Reivyn into the mass of spiders, most of them concentrated on the edge of hispany in order to prevent the spiders from nking them. There were only a few Mages spread across the rear of the line to help lessen the burden on the soldiers, and the rest of the Mages were on the far end of the battalion doing the same job as the ones on the edge of Reivyn''spany.
Arge portion of the spidersing up on the north and west sides of the hole immediately zeroed in on the battalion and rushed straight to them. Other monsters nearby, seeing the activity of their fellow spiders, were also dragged along with them. It was almost a third of the spiders spewing out of the deep hole that turned and rushed toward the soldiers left alone on the battlefield.
Not all of the spiders attacked the battalion, though. Most of them simply ran off into the distance, scattering across the sands. Kayzor was no slouch, and he had immediately noticed the problem before the battle had even begun, and he and his speed elites had rushed off to intercept the spiders rushing in the direction that Reivyn had informed him and Kefira where the civilians had been left.
Reivyn didn''t hear the orders, but he had Sensed the Mana pulse of him using hismunication device, and he knew that he had sent orders to the rest of his troops to expedite their travel.
We only need to hold off on the spider horde for a couple of hours before we get fifty-thousand reinforcements, Reivyn thought, sweat dripping down his brow as he sted another group of spiders with his Lightning Mana. If they''re even anywhere close in power to the elites that followed Kayzor, this will get a lot easier.
I''m very confident that we''ll be able to hold on for that long, too. These spiders, other than the odd one out that''s muchrger, are on par with the nuisance lizards down below. Their behavior is also really strange. Sure, they''re aggressive by nature, but they shouldn''t be this aggressive.
It''s almost like they''re... Reivyn''s eyes widened in astonishment as the thought crossed his mind, and he instinctively knew that it was correct. It''s a Dungeon Break.
I only assumed that all of the Dungeons down there were Boss Dungeons, but what if one or two of them was a regr Dungeon filled with spiders? With the way instanced Dungeons work, if the Runic Spell activating did something to them, it could have broken innumerable ovepping Dungeons at once and released the monsters within.
If it wasn''t a Dungeon Break, I doubt there would have been enough spiders down there, despite howrge the space was, for it to have been this endless for this long.
Reivyn considered informing the others of his thoughts, but he ultimately decided to keep it to himself for now. There was no reason to distract anyone else with what was basically useless information at this point. It didn''t matter if it was a Dungeon Break or not. The spiders were there and they weren''t going anywhere.
It only mattered how many instances were released from the interference caused by the Runic Spell. He didn''t know the full mechanics behind a Dungeon Break caused by the destruction of a Dungeon, which he didn''t know if that was the case or not, but he did know that there was a finite amount that could break at a time when a Dungeon still existed.
Once we defeat the horde, we''ll have to send people down to investigate exactly what happened down there.
The fight continued on, the soldiers of the battalion not giving any ground. It wasn''t super important that they hold this specific position, though it was advantageous as it was atop a small sand dune on top of the spiders having to climb out of the hole, to begin with. If they tried to retreat in the face of the pressure, they would risk having their line break.
The Mages didn''t have the luxury of sifting through all of the avable Affinities like Reivyn did, as they were mostly specialized in one or two of them. They were effective in their Spells, though, and it did a lot to lessen the pressure on the melee troops. Kefira walked up and down the line Casting her own Spells while she simultaneously checked on the Mages to make sure they weren''t burning through their Mana too quickly. Most of the Mages in the Mage Corps didn''t have anywhere near as many Mana reserves as Kefira and Reivyn.
The sunset and the fight continued. The soldiers continued to fight by the light of the Spells going off, and the scenery was quite surreal. Memories of Dreams of nightbat sprang into Reivyn''s mind. Thendscape was mostly lit with a subdued light with the asional sh of much brighter light. The extent of the horde still charging at them was mostly shrouded in the darkness, but the creepy crawlies could be seen in a horror scape for the brief shes.
asionally, the dim light extinguished, and because nobody had their night-eyes trained,plete darkness would descend for a second or two, and only the horrifying click-cking, screeches, and sound ofbat could be heard by most of the masses. Those short periods ofplete darkness were the most dangerous times, and their frequency was increasing as the Mages got lower and lower on their Mana pools.
Before it became a problem, Reivyn pulled himself away from sting the asional lightning-chain Spell, and he concentrated on his hands. He had gained the Skill Dual Casting by splitting his focus between his hands, but that wouldn''t cut it with the size of the battalion line. Instead of just concentrating the Mana into his palms, he bore his will down even further and split the Mana into his fingertips as well.
The Mana in each hand tried to retain its cohesiveness, but Reivyn systematically severed the connections between them until he had ten little balls of Mana on each of his fingertips. He infused them with his Light Affinity, and then hurled them into the sky to hover in ce. Once they were up there, he fed them all with additional Mana, creating individual little highways running down his arms and through his fingers to attach to his threads connecting to them in the sky.
The ten orbs of Light, evenly spaced along the line of the battalion, grew in size and luminosity until the battlefield was lit almost like day in the little circle where it was taking ce.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 5:
Multi-Casting (0 ->1)
Once the System Notification shed into his view, maintaining the separate threads of Mana became instantly easier. It wasn''t nearly as simple as Dual Casting had be with the increase in his Skill Level, but it was no longer taking all of his concentration to maintain.
Reivyn surveilled the battlefield, but he refrained from once more engaging the spiders with his Lightning strikes. His lightning sts were marginally helping, but the loss of them was nothing too big. Maintaining consistent lighting over the entire battlefield was much more important, and it would save far more lives of the volunteer soldiers than extinguishing a few more spiders would.
Reivyn had to adjust his position, as the farthest orb of Light Mana was just outside of his range tofortably keep floating in the air from where he had been standing, but he was still close enough that he didn''t have to abandon overseeing hispany.
His Mana began to tick down exponentially faster than it had been before, but he had been frugal enough with his Mana that he was confident he could maintain the Light orbs until the break of dawn in several hours.
The hours, as well as Reivyn''s Mana supply, steadily ticked down, and the sun eventually crested the horizon to the east. The increased visibility once again showed that the tide of spiders was finally beginning to thin out. The spiders leaving the hole on the far sides dwindled down to a trickle, and most of them were pouring forth to continue to assault the battalion''s position, but even that was already considerably fewer monsters than had beening out for hours on end already.
Reivyn wiped the sweat from his brow as he cut off his connection to the Light orbs floating in the sky. The lights winked out, and the battlefield dimmed slightly once again, but it wasn''t a problem any longer. The Spells from the other Mages continued to asionally st holes in the swarm, but Reivyn didn''t join in once again. He had gotten to below 1,000 Mana in his reserve, and he felt it was more prudent to save the remaining for an emergency.
The pressure lifted as the tide of spiders turned into a river and then into a stream, and there were no additional surprises once thest of the spiders was killed. The corpses of the spiders had slowly fallen down the slope of the sand dune, and many had further been moved out of the way as the additional spiders had crawled over their dead bodies. The field waspletely littered with dead spiders, and it was connected to a ring surrounding the hole.
"Jek, take charge of thepany, I need to go report to Lady Fira and Major Dobrik," Reivyn ordered.
Jek offered a tired salute and turned towards thepany. Reivyn made his way to the center of the battalion where he could see Kefira and Major Dobrik, as well as his staff, already getting together for a discussion. Reivyn walked up and offered his salute before catching Kefira''s eye, indicating he had something to say.
"Captain Reivyn, you have something to report?" Kefira asked. She, like everyone else, was exhausted, and her clothes, where they were exposed outside of the armor she wore over her robes, were clinging to her body with sweat.
"With my experience dealing with Dungeon Breaks, I believe the majority of the spider horde was caused by one. I don''t know if the Runic Spell destroyed the Dungeons down below or what, but their behavior and numbers lead me to believe they have been affected by the Runic Spell in one form or another. I think we should send a team down below to investigate."
Kefira turned her attention to the Major, and he nodded his head.
"Good," she replied. "Major Dobrik, select several of the higher Leveled soldiers to apany Captain Reivyn down below. Seri, you go with them as well."
"Yes, mydy," Major Dobrik replied. He immediately turned to his staff and started giving out instructions to them to gather some soldiers to follow Reivyn down below.
It wasn''t just finding troops to go with Reivyn to check out the bottom of the hole. The Major and his staff were busy issuing orders for the captains to immediately send their men off to other urgent missions. There were thousands of escaped spiders roaming the desert, and they needed to begin chasing them down. The rest of Kayzor''s army should be arriving soon, but nobody knew if Kayzor had already issued them updated orders or not, so meeting up with them was another imperative task.
Kefira had tried to get into contact with Kayzor, but he had apparently been too busy to actually speak to her to answer her questions. She had informed everyone that he was definitely okay, though, as he had responded to her request with a pulse of Mana to themunication device. Even though he and his elite speed troops were strong andpetent, they had thousands of spiders to defend against, and a lot of civilians to protect.
It was only a couple of minutes before several soldiers arrived to go with Reivyn. He could have just selected his own soldiers from hispany but considering where they were going and the possible dangers, Major Dobrik and Kefira wanted the most experienced adventurers to go with Reivyn. This mission was more akin to a delve than a military operation, and even though all of the volunteers were adventurers, not everyone was of the same caliber. Unsurprisingly, Jekle was one of the ones selected by the Major and his staff. Three Mages had also been chosen from the Mage Corps to go with them.
"Lieutenant Kaerl," Reivyn approached the logistics officer as the soldiers assembled and were briefed on their mission. "We''re going to need some rope."
"Ahh, Captain Reivyn," Kaerl smiled at Reivyn. "I told you it wouldn''t be long before I had to address you as ''sir,'' sir. How much rope do you need?"
"Well, we have our own with our gear, but this hole is extremely deep. It won''t be enough, so we''ll need several lines of it tied together to descend into the depths. The entrance to the caves below was located here, and I had thought that the lizaldon settlement and spider caves were actually considerably further away from this entrance, but it would appear that the caves spiral down without one realizing it if they don''t have a great sense of direction. I''m guessing that we might need all of the rope you have, just in case."
"Ok, that''s not a problem. I mean, that''s what we have the supplies for. Let me round my men up and have them go through our storage pouches to find it for you."
"Thanks."
It''s good to work with apetent supply officer, Reivyn thought. Not like that other jerk located at the headquarters. He would have told me that if he gave me the rope, then he wouldn''t have any more.
Lieutenant Kaerl gathered his men up, and they began sifting through their supplies to gather as much rope as they could. Reivyn also instructed the gathered soldiers for the mission to go back to theirpany to get some from them as well.
Once arge number of ropes had been gathered, they took some time to tie them together. They didn''t have any gear that would allow them to rapidly repel down into the caves, but everyone was Tier 3 and supernaturally strong, so it wouldn''t be any trouble to climb down the normal way.
Reivyn led his task force to the hole, having to navigate walking through the field of spider corpses. They weren''t like people, though, and none of them were pretending to be dead to escape the massacre or ambush them along the way. They first had to clear a space around the hole and roll somerge boulders in ce to secure their ropes to, but that didn''t take that much time, especially with Reivyn and the Mages assisting with their Earth magic.
"I''m not entirely sure what to expect below, but there might be some stragglers from the Dungeons. Based on how they were behaving with storming up here and attacking us, though, I don''t know if that''s the case. But just in case, make sure you''re able to get to a weapon quickly and easily at all times as you descend. The spiders won''t have any trouble attacking you while you''re still up in the air against the wall."
Reivyn was one to lead from the front, so he tossed his rope down into the depths and immediately began climbing down. The rest of the adventurer soldiers quickly followed suit, and a group of 20 experienced delvers was quickly descending into the dark cavern. Noon was several hours away, still, so the sun wasn''t in a position to shine directly down into the hole.
The hole at the bottom of the cave wasn''t uniform, and there were several pockets on the way down where there was no wall to brace oneself against. That wasn''t a problem for Reivyn and the adventurers, though, as they could easily just continue climbing down hand over hand. They didn''t even need to climb the ropes in the traditional way in Reivyn''s Dreams where they had to brace themselves with their legs for support, and the descent, despite being quite far, didn''t take all that long.
Upon reaching the bottom of the hole, Reivyn immediately began scanning the area for hostile creatures. He sent several orbs of Light into the air to illuminate the area below, but his caution was unnecessary as there were no lingering threats. Reivyn waited for the rest of the soldiers to climb down and assemble together, and then he led them along the wall to find the Dungeons he hade from.
He didn''t know exactly where they were rtive to where they had climbed down, so it took them several minutes to find the location of the Dungeons. Since Reivyn was able to light their path using his Mana instead of stumbling about in the pitch ck trying to avoid a nightmare creature, they were able to move at a fast pace.
"Looks like my spection was correct," Reivyn said to himself.
Reivyn felt the presence of a couple of Dungeons as they neared the hub. The ascent of the Spider Matriarch had altered thendscape down here a bit, and the portals to the Dungeons were no longer located in their own little private alcoves. Several Dungeons could be seen in as day. Reivyn had only seen Dungeons that blended into the environment and transitioned seamlessly up to this point, but with the walls having crumbled down, it was easy to spot the distortion in the air.
Reivyn had spected that there could possibly be seven or eight Boss Dungeons down here when he first arrived, but there were only two that they could see. With his Mana Sight, Reivyn could see Mana trickling out of the entrances to the Dungeons, but there was no corruption of Abyss Mana associated with it like from the Revenant Dungeon. He could also see that the amount of Manaing out was slowly decreasing.
It seems like these two were damaged, and the others were destroyed, Reivyn spected. Based on the Mana seeping out slowly reducing over time, I would guess that they''re self-healing.
The group continued moving forward as Reivyn searched for any telltale signs of the Abyss Gate when Reivyn suddenly spotted a figure walking in the distance. Reivyn held his hand up to halt the men following him.
"Hello?" He called out.
His voice echoed against the cave wall, but the figure didn''t respond. It just kept walking about aimlessly. Reivyn moved forward to get a better look at the person who was down here against all odds, and as he got closer, he realized he could see right through the person. Reivyn frowned as the features of the individual shifted to look like apletely different person as he got a better look.
"What is that? Some sort of ghost?" One of the adventurers eximed.
As Reivyn and the others watched the transparent individual walking about, a familiar-looking tiny orb floated over and merged with the apparition. As it was drawn into the person, its transparency was reduced by a fraction and it appeared more solid.
"Ahhh!" One of the soldiers let out a scream, and Reivyn turned to see that another apparition had walked right next to the person from behind.
The ghosts, as Reivyn thought of them now, didn''t make any noise, and he couldn''t Sense them with any of his Skills. He and the others frantically looked around, and they realized that there were several of them wandering around, not paying attention to anything going on around them.
"I don''t know if mundane weapons can do anything to these creatures, but they don''t appear hostile, yet," Reivyn said. "If anyone can infuse Mana into their attacks, then be prepared to do so, and if you can''t, I or one of the Mages will infuse some into your weapons."
Reivyn quickly followed that up by doing just that. He and the three Mages infused their Mana into the weapons of over half of the adventurers, and they continued to look around for the source of the apparitions. They hadn''t been a thing thest time Reivyn had been down here.
In just a short amount of time, Reivyn spotted the source of the ghosts. In a spot where a Dungeon would have been located, the outlines of a broken gateway could clearly be seen. Half of it had been severed andy on the ground, and as Reivyn looked at it, one of those tiny orbs sprung into existence and started floating around.
The orb bobbed around, not doing anything or going in any particr direction for a while. One of the ghosts walked nearby, and the orb seemed to immediately notice it, though, and it headed straight to the transparent person. They merged together, and the features of the ghost, like the first one they had seen, shifted to look like apletely different person.
"What is going on? Why do these things keep shifting to look like different people?" One of the Mages asked.
"Do you not see the little orbs floating around?" Reivyn asked. As they spoke, another one popped into existence. Several of the adventurers shared looks with each other before turning back to Reivyn.
"Uh... no?" The Mage answered.
"Ok, well, these little orbs are popping up at this broken gate, and they merge with the ghosts. When they do, the ghosts shift."
"Is this where you said you came out of the Dungeon, sir?" Jekle asked. Reivyn nodded his head. "Then is that the gate you came through?"
Reivyn turned his attention back to the broken gateway. He hadn''t gotten a good look at it before his attention was arrested by the orb, but he had suspected that it was the gate leading to the Abyss as Jekle suggested. There was no Abyss Mana seeping out of it, though, so he hadn''t been 100% sure until he could inspect it closer. Upon doing so, he realized that was exactly what the broken gateway was.
"Hmm. If I had to guess, I would say these orbs are the same things I saw on the other side of the gate that was floating about between the Realms," Reivyn said.
"It sounds like they''re souls," one of the Mages put forth. Reivyn turned to him with a questioning look, and the man continued. "Legends say the River of Souls traverses the universe between Realms. When people and sapient creatures die, their souls are sent out of the Realms to seek either reincarnation or ascendance. Nobody knows for sure, but the legends speak of it and talk about how reincarnated souls are wiped clean by the Realm barriers."
"Huh, well it would seem like these ones aren''t getting wiped clean," Reivyn said, stroking his chin.
Reivyn activated his Mana Sight and inspected the gateway, all the while more orbs asionally popped into existence. He didn''t notice anything overt right away, but he could tell that there was something strange happening with the gateway. He infused his Veridical Affinity into his eyes, and the truth wasid bare. He pulled out hismunication device and immediately activated it to contact Kefira up above.
"Fira, I''m going to need you toe down here," Reivyn said.
"Why, what did you find?" Kefira''s voice transmitted through the device. Seri walked up and frowned at Reivyn. She had been mostly keeping to herself, but her interest was piqued upon hearing Reivyn call for Kefira to join them.
"There''s a rent in reality down here where the gateway used to be, but none of us have the Space Affinity," he replied. "And from what I can tell, it''s expanding."
Chapter 138: Sole Worry
Chapter 138: Sole Worry
"This is fascinating," Kefira said, her hand reaching halfway to the tear in reality before dropping again.
"What''s fascinating about it?" Reivyn asked.
"Well, the space fissures and gates I''m used to seeing aren''t nearly as ''deep.'' When someone makes a portal to travel to a distant location, the path that one walks is rtively close to the Realm. When I look through this hole, though, I can see that it goes far beyond anything I''ve ever encountered. It leads to the outside. Even the most powerful portals, traveling hundreds of thousands, or even millions of miles, will only create a bridge on the surface of the Realm.
"Does that make sense?" Kefira turned her attention away from the hole and nced at Reivyn. Reivyn''s eyes weren''t trained on her, though, and his eyes followed something she couldn''t see that apparently came out of the tear.
"Maybe?" Reivyn looked back at Kefira. "So what you''re saying is, if the Realm is a ball, we''re located in the center, and when space magic is used to travel, the further the distance, the closer to the edge of the ball the path is created. This hole doesn''t do that, it goes straight topletely outside of the ball."
"Yes, exactly like that," Kefira nodded. "I knew that you had mentioned being on the bridge to another Realm before, and I intellectually understood that you had to have steppedpletely out of the Realm for that to happen. Seeing something in person, though, is much more interesting."
"Can this space fissure be used to travel outside the Realm?"
"Oh, no. Absolutely not," Kefira vehemently denied. "I''m guessing the gateway containing the tear did something to make it safe, but if anyone tried to go through this hole to get to the outside, it would tear them into thousands of tiny shreds almost immediately.
"Luckily, it''s not aplete tear, and the membrane of the Realm is preventing corporeal forms from traveling through it at this time. If it continues to grow, though, that membrane might snap and drag people to their doom. If left unchecked, this thing could be a huge disaster."
"Lovely," Reivyn sighed. "Can you fix it, though?"
"As it is, now, yes," Kefira nodded her head confidently. "If we had waited until it had broken the membrane, like I just described, then I''m not sure. It''ll take some time, though."
"Ok, well, I''ll let you get to it."
"Sure."
Kefira didn''t watch Reivyn walk away, her focus was entirely on the space fissure. To her perception, it was just a sliver of a few inches wide, but it went from the floor to almost twice her height. Using her Space/Time Affinity to Observe the fissure, she could somewhat see through to the far side, out into the void between Realms.
She couldn''t really see anything beyond that, though. It was just a ck line that simultaneously appeared right in front of her and impossibly far away. The space fissure was a great opportunity for her to further her understanding of the Affinity.
It''s so weird, Kefira thought, marveling at the phenomenon. It''s like I can see a tunnel with the differentyers one would use when normally Casting Space Spells, but it''s also like a t piece of paper at the same time.
Kefira twined her Mana together, infusing it with Space/Time, and sunk it into the hole. Deeper and deeper it went, but it seemed like it was still just floating at the surface. She knew it wasn''t, and she could feel the difference, but it juxtaposition between what she felt and what she saw was difficult to parse.
She caressed the edges of the tear with her Mana, feeling the jagged edges of the interior of the space crack. It wasn''t a smooth tunnel, with sharp spikes that would easilycerate anyone foolish enough to try and move into the fissure. The deeper her Mana delved, the more frequent and sharp the jagged edges became. By the time her Mana finally reached the far edge, reaching out into the void, it was aplete mess of crisscrossing serrated daggers.
Kefira allowed herself to operate on instinct. She pulled her Mana back to the front of the hole, and using her Space/Time-infused Mana, she slowly began to smooth out the jaggedness. She didn''t think about what she was doing or what the next steps would be. This was beyond anything she had ever done before, but she knew that she was capable of fixing the problem. All she had to do was let the System assist her.
It wasn''t always necessary to learn how to do everything before you did it, as long as your Skills and Affinities were high enough. The assistance the System could provide could be the most valuable learning tool avable. Just do what needs to be done with the guidance of the System, and then reflect on the actions you took to learn backward.
It wasn''t always possible to be able to do so, however. Instances ofing into a situation you had learned virtually nothing about yet or contained the ability to do were very rare. Kefira wouldn''t give up this opportunity to learn something that would be incredibly hard to receive instruction on. Not only was it rare for people to have talent in Space or Time, but those who did most likely never ran into a simr situation as this, either.
The people who hade down to investigate what happened continued to move about, inspecting things here and there. They were only marginally within Kefira''s consciousness, though, and she didn''t let their presence distract her. In the back of her mind, she was aware of the arrival of many more people, but she didn''t turn to see who they were.
Reivyn was never that far from her, and she was more acutely aware of his presence than anyone else''s, even Seri''s. In her state of letting herself be guided, her subconscious mind made many connections that she hadn''t previously thought about, and some of them floated to the surface as she worked.
There seemed to be some sort of intangible thread connecting her to those close to her, just out of her ability to perceive, but, just like how she knew she could fix the space fissure, she just knew that they were there. Her mind tried to reach out to those connections, and the deeper she fell into her unique state of mind, the clearer those connections became.
Just on the edge of perception, Kefira could sense threads simr to Mana, but of apletely different nature. She didn''t know what they were, and she couldn''t interact with them in any way. There was an entire tapestry of moving parts creating an intricate web between herself and everyone down in the hole with her. Most of the threads were ephemeral and seemed like they could snap at any second, but three of them were much thicker and more solid than all of the others.
Of the three most powerful threads, the weakest one connected her to Seri, who was standing not far away with a watchful eye on everyone around her. The next thread connected her to a presence still off in the distance, but she could tell that it was getting closer. This thread was very solid, and it seemed just like a powerful Mana weave with many threads woven together to create an incredibly solid link.
The second thread, however, paled inparison to the final one. It was like a shiny steel beam, and it connected to Reivyn.
There''s something strange about this connection to Reivyn, a stray thought entered Kefira''s mind as she moved her Mana in ordance with the System guidance. All of the thoughts and perceptions about the threads connecting her to other people were going on in the back of her mind, and she was only vaguely aware of them. This thought, though, just barely broke through the surface and made her slightly more aware of it for a brief moment.
It''s like that connection existed before I even met him.
The thought that flitted through her mind was a bit of a shock, and it brought her out of the depths of her state of mind. Her vision focused once more and she was once again fully focused on repairing the space fissure. All the vague thoughts and perceptions of the threads linking her to other people fled her mind, and she was simply left with the slight impression that she and Reivyn had been connected before they had ever met.
She shook her head to clear all the stray thoughts. She turned her head to find Reivyn, subconsciously remembering his position from the connection she had felt, and beckoned him over to her.
"Yes? Did you find something?" Reivyn asked.
"No, it''s not that," Kefira shook her head. "I just wanted to see if I could help you get something out of this, as well. This is a great opportunity for experiencing the Space Affinity. I know you already have an offshoot of Time, and it would be really hard to get anything rted to Space, but you''re incredibly talented. Maybe you can get something."
"Ok, that sounds good to me. What do I need to do?"
"Just send a thread of Mana out and mix it with mine," Kefira instructed. "Just let me guide it along my own, and see if you can feel anything from it."
"Alright."
Reivyn sent out a thread of Mana and attached it to Kefira''s. The contact was more intimate in a way that she couldn''t really describe than she had anticipated. It wasn''t umon for people''s Mana to interact with others, but blending them together in the way that they were was a different story. Usually, when Mana threads connected between different people, there was a distinct delineation between them, but Reivyn''s Mana seemed to submerge perfectly into Kefira''s.
She was able to feel the exact position of his Mana, despite how well it blended together with her own, and she was able to guide along her own thread into the space fissure. She took it and guided it along to feel the jagged edges that she was working on smoothing out.
"Can you feel that?" Kefira asked.
"Yeah," Reivyn answered breathlessly. "It was like we were moving along smooth ss, but then the surface turned into rough stone. The further along it goes, the rougher it gets."
"Yes. Now, feel how the surface is changing as I smooth the roughness out of it."
Kefira continued to guide Reivyn''s Mana, and the two of them explored the mysteries of the space fissure. Without knowing it, the two of them had drawn their bodies together. Reivyn stood at Kefira''s back, and the two of them lifted their arms towards the tear. Their hands were ced together, and their fingers were interlinked.
Anyone who didn''t know that they were working on an important mission to heal a rent in the fabric of reality would think that they were having a private moment together.
"The horses are practically useless out here in the loose sand, so we''ve grounded the cavalry," Major Rolik said as he walked alongside Kayzor. "We''ve had to send the light infantry to chase down the remnants of the spider horde. Luckily, they''re mindless beasts and have left very clear tracks on where they went."
"Good," Kayzor said. "Just make sure they don''t get too spread out. That was a lot of spiders. They''re no threat to our troops when handled appropriately, but if a squad separates from the rest and runs into several hundred, or thousands, of those nasty creatures, we might have some casualties. No reason to take unnecessary risks, as all the civilians have been ounted for, and there should be no other people around for hundreds of miles in any direction."
"Yes, sir. I''ll remind themanders." Major Rolik gave a salute and turned to see about his duty.
Kayzor made his way to the gaping hole in the center of the deste sands. Soldiers from the volunteer army raised by Count Yaolo were busy sweeping the spider corpses together, and the Mages set them on fire. There was apparently a situation down below that would require some time to solve, and there was no reason to remain in a field of corpses.
It wasn''t strictly necessary to handle the spider corpses in this way so deep in the dry desert. Chances of disease springing up were low considering the circumstances, but that wasn''t the main purpose of burning the bodies. The soldiers were just incredibly uneasy being surrounded by so much death, even if they were just disgusting monsters.
Major Dobrik, his sister''s subordinate, had his own men well in hand, and there was no reason for Kayzor to interfere with theirmand. If the enemy army was still around, it would make sense to establish a firm authority over them, but that was no longer going to be necessary.
He had thought that they had made it in time to thwart the ns of the invaders, and victory seemed well in hand as he defeated the enemy mander." It turned out he had just wasted his time fighting a body double, and the invaders simply took their spoils and left. He felt incredibly frustrated at having to rush out here over the past month with his army to only feel like he punched cotton.
His spirits lifted a bit, though, as he began descending one of the ropes into the deep hole in the ground. It had been a couple of years since he had seen his youngest sister in person. They had spoken briefly over theirmunication magic items, but that had been all business.
Kayzor quickly descended the rope, half his bodyguards went down first, and the other half followed behind. His guards spread out to keep an eye out for any danger, and they made their way in the direction that had beenid out by the adventurers that hade down before them. It was arge open space, so it wasn''t hard to navigate, but they had put down markers to show the way toward the problem. It was a small city-sized circle, after all, and if you didn''t know the exact location, you would have to waste a little bit of time searching for it.
After several minutes of rushing along the path, Kayzor''s face finally lit up into a smile as he saw Seri standing next to a couple of people standing in a wholly inappropriate manner.
If Seri is there, then Kefira can''t be far away, Kayzor thought. But why would she tolerate that kind of behavior right next to her? I''m surprised she hasn''t yelled at them until they were quivering in their boots.
Kayzor looked around for his sister as he got closer and closer to Seri, but he didn''t see her anywhere. His smile turned into a frown, though, when he finally got close enough to see the face of the girl standing in that man''s embrace, and he immediately started rushing forward, hands clenched. He was brought up short before he could reach out and throttle the man who dared stand so intimately with his sister, though, as Seri stepped in front of him.
"Don''t interrupt them," she said, giving him a warning look.
Kayzor was taken aback for a moment, and his frown turned into a look of confusion.
"What do you mean?" Kayzor questioned. "You''re supposed to be down here handling some sort of problem, and yet you''re just letting a man brazenly take advantage of my sister."
"That''s not what''s happening," Seri shook her head. "If you look closer, you''ll see that they''re investigating the space fissure together. Princess Kefira was exploring the fissure with her Mana, and then she called Reivyn over to help him see if he could learn something about the Space Affinity. They just kind of, um, subconsciously ended up like that."
"Subconsciously, you say," Kayzor frowned again. "They look like they''re a lot closer than just ''subconsciously'' standing together, hands sped."
"They are."
"They are? That''s all you''re going to say."
"Yes."
"Need I remind..."
"I don''t work for you," Seri cut him off. "I serve Kefira."
Kayzor stared at Seri for a few seconds before letting out a sigh.
"Alright, I will withhold judgment for now. I''ll give Kefira a chance to exin things."
Kayzor turned away from Seri to watch the two standing together. He hadn''t been born with a great natural talent for Mana, though he did have ess to it before Tier 4. He was much more focused on his Martial Skills, and not having developed his Mana Sense and Sight Skills very high, he was unable to perceive what the two of them were doing.
Instead, he smiled as he watched his sister for a few moments before turning his attention to the man she was standing against. The man was much younger-looking than he had thought he would be, probably around the same age as Kefira, which was another surprise. He had never even heard of another individual being anywhere close to as talented as his youngest sister, but if this Reivyn character was the same age as she was, then he might be close.
He could admit that he was objectively good-looking, but that didn''t mean he was a match for Kefira. His sister was the cutest, most bestest girl in the world, and she deserved no less than an imperial prince as her suitor. He could see that the muscles in the young man were well developed, and even while concentrating on the task of investigating the tear with his Mana, he stood in a way that he was ready to react to any external threats or attacks.
He could see the explosive power just lying underneath the man''s exterior, and Kayzor nodded to himself in grudging approval.
He''s barely adequate in the physical regard, but I remember Sophia saying that he had been epted into the Magic Academy through Kefira''s rmendation, Kayzor thought. If he''s put so much effort into his Physical Stats and abilities, then his Mental Stats and Mana abilities must becking. What can someone like him aplish? Kayzor snorted in disdain.
"I know what you''re thinking," Seri said, bringing him out of his thoughts. He turned to look at her once more, an eyebrow quirked.
"Oh, really?" He asked.
"Yes, and you would be wrong."
"We''ll see."
Kayzor returned to waiting for the pair to finish their little flirting session, impatient to speak with his sister once more.
"Do you see that one?" The boy, Reivyn, suddenly said. "There''s another one just behind it."
"I think I can catch a vague glimpse of it," Kefira said.
Wait... he''s teaching her? Kayzor thought in shock.
"I don''t think we should let any more of theme through," Reivyn said. "There has to already be thousands of them on this side, and that can''t be a good thing."
"It''ll take some time to block off their ess, though," Kefira responded.
"I think that should be your priority if you can."
"What are they talking about?" Kayzor leaned over to whisper to Seri.
"Look around," Seri waved her hand around in a circle.
Kayzor turned to look for what she was indicating, confused. It didn''t take him long, though, to spot the dozens of transparent figures walking about aimlessly. Some were little more than a wisp, and others were almost fully corporeal.
As he watched some of them walk about, their features shifted dramatically. It wasn''t just that they would sometimes look slightly different. They would grow and shrink considerably. Their facial features and clothes they were wearing would bepletely different, and often times they switched between genders. One moment one of the apparitions was a tall, fat man, and then the next moment, it was a short, slender girl.
"What is going on?" Kayzor asked, dumbfounded.
"Not entirely sure," Seri answered. "One of the Mages mentioned that they were likely souls from the River of Souls beyond the veil of the Realm."
"Hmm, that actually makes sense," Kayzor said. "Why do they shift about, though? Why are some more transparent than others?"
As he watched the apparitions, he witnessed two of them walk into each other and merge into one. The transparency of the new ghost was much less than the two that had made it up.
"None of us can see it, but Reivyn had mentioned that there are little floating sparks floating around, and as theybine together, they form these apparitions. He said that those sparks are most likely the actual souls."
"Yeah, and they gain strength as theybine together," Reivyn said, turning and approaching Kayzor and Seri.
Kefira remained in ce, concentrating on the space fissure, and Kayzor finally got a good look at the young man''s face. He had only seen him in profile as he stood with his sister, but now he got a look at his whole face.
Hmm, he''s almost good-looking enough for my sister, Kayzor thought, keeping a neutral expression on his face.
"You must be Reivyn," Kayzor said. He didn''t extend a hand in greeting.
"That''s right," Reivyn nodded. He also didn''t extend a hand in greeting. Nor did he offer a salute of any kind. Kayzor could see Seri smirking at him from the corner of his eye.
"A captain, I see," Kayzor squinted his eyes as he scrutinized the young man in front of him. "Well, Captain, would you mind borating on these so-called souls?"
"Certainly," Reivyn nodded. "I don''t know for sure that they are souls, but I have seen them before. They''re pretty harmless when they''re floating around by themselves, but they can be..." Reivyn trailed off as his eyes widened.
"I can definitely see some now!" Kefira called out. "Something''s causing more and more of them toe through, and now it''s pretty hard not to see them."
"Get that hole sealed!" Reivyn shouted.
Kayzor frowned at the urgent tone in Reivyn''s voice. As he was about to open his mouth to say something, he noticed several of the more corporeal apparitions wander over toward their little group. They stepped into each other and began to merge together.
The merged apparitions no longer looked like several different people existing in the same space, flickering between themselves, though. It morphed into a strange, shining blob. It just floated in ce for a moment, seemingly trying to gain its bearings.
Suddenly, it shifted into a hand and it lunged at Reivyn, trying to snatch him up. Kayzor and Seri took a step back in shock as Reivyn dodged away from it. The apparition had ended up in a spot between Reivyn and Kefira, and it hesitated as it seemed to consider who to attack. Kayzor leaped between the blob and his sister, just as itunched itself at her.
The ethereal hand passed through him, and pain like he never experienced exploded within his head. It threatened to drown out all conscious thought, and he fought to maintain his sanity. He screamed at the top of his lungs as it passed through him, and he could feel his vitality get sucked away. The very core of his being felt like it was trying to be dislodged, sucked into the entity that passed through him.
He copsed to the ground, shivering and sweating profusely, and he felt a powerful Mana shoot out over him tosso the soul creature. He got to his knees and looked up to see what was happening, and he spotted ropes of Mana looping around the creature, holding it in ce just mere inches away from his sister.
"Mages!" He bellowed. "Get all the Mages down here!"
He didn''t know how many of those sparks that only Reivyn could apparently see made up the soul apparition, but if he and Kefira were right, and more and more wereing through the veil, then they would need all the Mana they could to defeat this thing. He was entirely sure, based on how it had just moved right through him, that only Mana would be able to affect it.
I really should have worked on my Mana Skills a bit more, Kayzor mentally kicked himself.
Chapter 139: Souldiering On
Chapter 139: Souldiering On
Reivyn threw his weight back and drove his feet into the ground to maintain his bnce. Even though the soul entity was ethereal and could pass through solid objects, roping it with Mana still required him to exert both mental and physical force to keep it from pouncing on Kefira.
He couldn''t allow her to be distracted. Her job was incredibly important, as she was the key to keeping this thing from growing more powerful. Until the breach was closed, the soul ghost would continue to grow stronger and stronger. Several more sparks had alreadye out of the space crack and merged with the monster.
Reivyn struggled to keep the soul monster in ce, but he could feel the power ticking up slightly for each new spark that merged into it. He could hear other people shouting in the distance, and he knew more people were on the way. Kayzor had already called for them to get all the Mages down here, and someone had already ryed that information up top with theirmunication device.
Another rope of Mana sprang up next to him, and Kayzor stepped up to help assist him in holding the creature back. Thebined might of Kayzor''s assistance allowed them to slowly drag it away from Kefira. They dragged it back further and further, but the pace they were moving was slowing down as the phantom continued to strengthen.
"We have to get it away from Kefira," Reivyn panted. "I don''t know how it chooses targets, but it''s fixated on her right now."
"Don''t you think I noticed that?!" Kayzor yelled.
Seri stood next to Kefira with her hand on her sword hilt, ready to draw it but with a look of uncertainty on her face. More of the adventurers ran over, and one of them rushed forward to try and attack the soul entity with a Skill. His weapon simply passed through the shining blob without even slowing down. A look of surprise shed across his face right before the soul entity jabbed a tendril into his body.
The adventurer''s body locked up as he dropped his weapons and fell to his knees, letting out a horrendous shriek of agony. The entity almost immediately removed its tendril, almost like it was disgusted by what it had touched. The man copsed to the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
"All of you get back! Only those of you who can utilize your Mana can affect it," Kayzor Commanded.
The rest of the Adventurers retreated while several stepped forward next to Reivyn and Kayzor. They brought out their Mana with their Mana Maniption Skills, but it was clear to Reivyn that they had not spent nearly enough time on the Skill in order to be anywhere near effective with it. The Mana threads looked like limp noodles to Reivyn''s eyes. Every little bit would help, though, and if their threads didn''t snap, they would be able to use their physical strength to further restrain the monster.
The three Mages that had originallye down with Reivyn''s group finally made it over, having a much slower running speed than their more physical counterparts. Theyunched several Spells at the restrained soul beast. One Spell exploded on contact, and the other two Spells pierced into the blob. After the explosion cleared, though, Reivyn was able to see that it was unharmed.
"I don''t think this thing can be killed!" Reivyn yelled. "It''s not alive, but it''s also not undead. I don''t think it has a Health pool."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Kayzor asked. Even he was beyond his depth in this situation.
"We have to somehow force it back into the void right before Kefira manages to seal it up," Reivyn said. "We have to keep it at bay until the rest of the Mages can get here. How many Mages did you bring with your army?"
"We have a thousand Mages, but it will take some time for those numbers to get down here safely. Someone ry to the top to scrounge for more ropes to drop down here!"
The three Mages ran over to join Reivyn and the others already wrestling the entity, but they didn''t have nearly as much physical strength to add much more to the struggle. Their Mana threads were just more secure than the others. Some of the other adventurers noticed the problem, though, and they ran over to team up with the Mages to help pull them back by grabbing hold of their waists.
The soul entity didn''t seem to be doing anything other than trying to get at Kefira. It didn''t make any ns or try to use any tactics to aplish its goal, though. It simply mindlessly pulled against the restraints. It made sense to Reivyn, though, as it wasn''t alive. It didn''t have a brain or any other way to think. It was simply acting on instinct.
I wish I knew what the driving instinct for this thing was, though, Reivyn thought.
They finally pulled the beast further away from Kefira, and it was now closer to Reivyn than her. As soon as it crossed some invisible threshold, it seemed to lose all interest in Kefira, and it reversed direction, plunging straight toward Reivyn. The Mana threads held by all of those able to create them instantly went ck, and everyone jumped out of the way to avoid the creature.
A couple of them weren''t quick enough, though, and they were brushed by the edges of the blob. The Mage and adventurer that wasn''t lucky enough to get away copsed to the floor, screaming in agony like the first one who had attacked the beast. Even he hadn''t recovered and gotten back up, yet, much less these new two new victims.
"Don''t let it touch you!" Reivyn yelled. "It sucks your vitality out of you!"
"And if you''re too weak, it might swallow your soul!" Kayzor added. Several other people looked over at him in surprise, though Reivyn didn''t. He understood what he was talking about. "It passed through me earlier, and it felt like it was trying to yank the very center of my being out of me."
As they were yelling their warnings, they never stopped running. Reivyn quickly realized that the entity was now chasing him, reminding him of his mad dash through the void several months ago. Everyone else scattered out of the way, and Kayzor started rounding them back up to reattach anothersso of Mana around it.
Reivyn ran away from any concentration of other people, and he made sure that it was pulled further away from Kefira. Not only would it be less likely to change targets, but it would take additional sparks more time to reach it to strengthen it.
"I think that if we get it far enough away, the new sparks won''t be able to find it right away and merge with it, causing it to not grow any stronger!" Reivyn called out as he kept moving away from the space fissure.
"Then what about all the new sparks thate in after?" Kayzor questioned. "Won''t they merge together and make a second one?"
"Maybe, but I think we have enough time for that. This space fissure has been open for over a day, and it just now got powerful enough to create this thing. I think the fact that it was growing stronger was also the cause for the eleration of the sparks flying in here. If we keep it away, the rate should slow back down again, and then we''ll have another day and a half or so before we have to worry about a second entity."
"Alright, I''ll trust you on that. With the number of Mages we have avable, it shouldn''t be too much of a problem if we can just wait until they get here."
Not having Reivyn avable as assistance in holding the creature at bay was a huge detriment to their efforts. They weren''t able to stop it from chasing after Reivyn, but they did keep it slow enough that Reivyn could leisurely stay away from it after he had calmed down from the initial dash to keep away from it.
He kept jogging at a consistent pace, heading for the opposite side near the ropes but along the outer ring of the giant circle. Word was sent ahead to the Mages on their way on where to go to intercept them, and the group of people holding the Mana leashes were pulled behind the entity like they were ying a losing game of tug-of-war.
They weren''t able to maintain their strength forever, though, and Reivyn noticed that he had to gradually pick up his speed in order to maintain the distance between him and the soul beast. Luckily, the additional Magesing from up top finally started to trickle down, and they were able to add their strength to keep the soul monster held in ce.
Reivyn bent over to gasp for breath as he was finally able to stop running. It wasn''t that he was tired, but the ordeal had been so sudden and chaotic. It was more about getting his heartbeat under control and breathing deeply helped with that.
Kayzor managed the new Magesing over to take over holding the beast in ce, and Reivyn was apprehensive about moving from his spot. He didn''t know what it would do if it lost its current target, and it was still trying to get at him with all its might. They had dragged it far enough way, though, that he didn''t see any additional sparks floating over to strengthen it further.
"We should send someone over to ask Kefira if she can sense whether or not the rate of the sparks entering the Realm has slowed down or not to verify our prediction," Reivyn called out to Kayzor.
"On it," he replied. "We''ll get some of the other Mages to go over and try and assist her as well. We don''t have any other Mages that specialize in Space Mana, but we do have some that have tangential talents in them. It should help a bit."
Speaking of tangential talents, Reivyn thought, eyeing the blinking light of his Notifications. He brought it up and inspected the new message.
New Affinity Unlocked!
Tier 4:
Traveler (0 ->1)
That''s interesting, Reivyn mused. It''s the first time I''ve unlocked an Affinity while not actively circting my Mana. It must have had something to do with not only the circumstances but the fact that I had my Mana melded with Kefira''s.
It wasn''t the Space Affinity, but neither was Eternal the Time Affinity. They were tangential branch Affinities, fractions of the whole.
Just the fact that I was able to unlock anything rted to Space at all, considering I already had one for Time, is a surprise. I know I''m talented, but there seems to be something else other than talent that acts as a gatekeeper for getting both kinds of Affinities at the same time. I''ll let Kefira know that her efforts in showing me the space fissure through her Mana didn''t go to waste.
"Do you know why it came after you and Kefira?" Kayzor asked, walking up to Reivyn after he had gotten everything else settled.
"Not exactly, but their nature might have something to do with it," Reivyn said. "They''re souls, and they must be attracted to powerful souls. I don''t know what they want from them, but I''ve experienced the same thing you did about it feeling like your very being was trying to be ripped from you."
"Powerful souls... hmm," Kayzor stroked his chin in thought. "I guess I can see that. It''s said that the strength of one''s soul directly corrtes to how talented an individual is, so it makes sense that it would go after Kefira and then you, someone who might be close to as talented as she is, considering the things I''ve heard."
"Uh huh," Reivyn said, eying Kefira''s older brother. "And what things have you heard?"
"Hmm? Oh, just that you were given special admission to the Magic Academy in the Wispan Capital based on Kefira''s rmendation. I''ve also seen the strength of your Mana, and I have a good eye for how strong you are based on how you move and hold yourself. All those things added together, with your age, leads me to believe you''re quite talented yourself.
"Don''t get me wrong, saying you''re almost as talented as Kefira is high praise. She''s the most talented person we''ve had in our empire for thousands of years, maybe ever, considering..." Kayzor paused and eyed Reivyn up and down for a second.
"Considering her unique Affinities?" Reivyn ventured.
"So you know. I guess you are more than a passing fancy for her, then, if she trusts you with that information."
"More than a passing fancy, huh? Yeah, I''d say we''re beyond that at this stage."
"I''m not someone who thinks that nobody is good enough for my sister, but I justifiably believe there are very few. You''ll have to show me more than what you already have if you want me on your side when ites to my parents and older siblings."
"Everything will reveal itself in due time," Reivyn confidently stated. "I will say, though..." He paused and looked at Kayzor out of the corner of his eye for dramatic effect. "I''m currently only Tier 2."
Kayzor frowned for a second at the statement before his eyes widened inprehension.
It''s good to talk to smart people, Reivyn mentally chuckled. A superficial person would hold that against me, but someone who knows what''s what would understand what that means for my potential.
"Well... That''s definitely something to consider," Kayzor said. "Better not let my parents hear about that without the right context, though, or you''ll never even be given the chance to meet them and exin. If they hear from someone that Kefira''s been gallivanting about with a Tier 2 captain from a Tier 3 Region, they''ll assume you''re some dandy noble who hasn''t put in any effort to your own growth, and that you''ve tricked their darling little girl."
"Yeah, I can see that," Reivyn chuckled. "Does that mean you''re not going to send a message ahead, saying exactly that?"
"We''ll see," Kayzor said. "I still need to gauge your character. From what little I saw of Kefira interacting with you just now, she seemed perfectly at ease and happy with you. There has to be a reason behind that, and I''m gracious enough to give you the opportunity to convince me.
"But, as I said, that''s just for getting me on your side. You''ll still have an uphill battle with my mother no matter who you are. You could be an Ascended Being descended back down to the Realm, and she would still make things hard for you. Kefira''s her baby girl, you know."
"Well, I can think of a solution to that right now," Reivyn winked. "She just needs to have another baby. Give Kefira a little brother or sister, and the doting mom''s attention will be distracted. Don''t you think?"
Kayzor stared at Reivyn for a second before throwing his head back andughing.
"Hahaha. You really know what to say, huh?" Kayzor pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "Don''t let my mom hear you talk like that, though. In fact, don''t let Kefira or Seri hear you say that either. Kefira likes being the baby of the family."
"Sure, sure." Reivyn scratched the back of his head.
"Alright, I''m going to go back over to the space crack and see what needs to be taken care of over there. I''lle back over here to get you guys and let you know when we''re ready to try and force that soul creature back into the void."
"Sounds good. I think we''re just going to have to wrap it up in a Mana cocoon and force it back through the channel. I don''t foresee it being an easy job."
Kayzor nodded his head and then jogged off back to the space fissure.
Reivyn remained in ce with nothing to do. There were still more Mages showing up to take a spot in helping hold the soul entity in ce, and there were enough of them now that they were able tofortably switch out to allow each other some rest.
Reivyn turned his attention back to his Notifications.
Combat Initiated
Enemies Defeated
Exp +224
Exp +224
Exp +224
...
Exp +224 x712
Combat Resolved
Calcting
Large Scale Beast Tide
Exp +1,020
Leadership Role
Bonus Experience for Leadership Role: 15%
Exp +6,000
Total Experience: 167,180
Level Up! Level 35
...
Level Up! Level 50
Experience: 2,311/13,000
Achievement!
Be tangentially involved in a conflict with an entity 5 Tiers above you
Luck +2
Wow, just from watching the struggle of subduing the Spider Matriarch, the entire Battalion got a bonus to Luck, Reivyn was shocked. If they didn''t have it before, then the entire Battalion has it now unlocked. At least I''m guessing. I got +2 Luck for a 5 Tier difference, and the battalion soldiers are a 4 Tier difference.
I wonder what the rewards Aerie and the soldiers that actually fought for her were.
Reivyn hadn''t viewed his Skill Level Ups in a while, so he pulled those up while he was thinking about it.
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (30 ->32)
Athleticism (48 ->49)
Bnce (48 ->49)
Heavy Armor (22 ->24)
Hiding (33 ->35)
Map Making (23 ->26)
Map Reading (15 ->22)
Marching (22 ->25)
Observation (47 ->50)
Running (45 ->48)
Sneaking (31 ->32)
Tier 2:
Ambidexterity (19 ->21)
Camouge (1 ->13)
Gab (9 ->13)
Eavesdropping (26 ->28)
Evasion (47 ->49)
Forced March (16 ->19)
Mana Absorption (51 ->52)
Mana Cirction (33 ->37)
Meditation (33 ->35)
Pain Resistance (49 ->50)
Sense Mana (60 ->62)
Silent Step (5 ->11)
Stealth (25 ->26)
Strategy (24 ->26)
Tactics (28 ->30)
Tracking (7 ->18)
Tier 3:
Ambush (1 ->6)
Battlefield Awareness (25 ->38)
Blind Fighting (14 ->20)
Command (30 ->42)
Commanding Shout (18 ->24)
Danger Sense (24 ->25)
Detect Lies/Truth (3 ->7)
Inspire (29 ->38)
Mana Conjuration (40 ->46)
Mana Maniption (44 ->50)
Mana Shield (30 ->34)
Mana Sight (42 ->51)
Mental Fortitude (45 ->48)
Night Vision (6 ->22)
Sense Threat (8 ->11)
Silver Tongue (6 ->8)
Sure Step (6 ->14)
Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (15 ->16)
Dual Casting (26 ->39)
Iron Will (21 ->22)
Mana Weapon (33 ->34)
Spatial Awareness (30 ->46)
Tier 5:
Heroic Bearing (10 ->16)
Mana Drain (1 ->4)
Mana Healing (1 ->2)
Mana Reinforcement (1 ->5) Multi-Casting (1 ->2)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (65 ->68) Regeneration (1 ->6)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (1 ->4)
Perfect Domain (1 ->5)
It seems like doing mental maps helps with Map Making. I wonder if getting the little details right in order to be more urate in such barren locations is what helped me bridge the Level 25 threshold. It also looks like standing in the back of meetings, faded into the background and forgotten, and listening to the people talk helped to Level Up my Eavesdropping Skill. Interestingly enough it seems like simply recalling the Dreams I''ve had in greater detail has contributed to Leveling Up the Dreams of the Past Skill. I wonder if that will cause me to have more frequent Dreams.
Reivyn dismissed his Skill progress report and brought up his Status Page. Before perusing it, he put his free Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity evenly, like he had been doing the entire time.
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Lvl 50
Fighter Age: 14 (20) Health: 8,250/8,250 (+310) Stamina: 15,860/15,860 (+410) Mana: 10,255/10,255 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 761 (+10) INT: 901 (+4) VIT: 825 (+31) MAG: 1,150 (+6) DEX: 760 (+10) CLA: 758 (+1) CHA: 189 (+1) PER: 757 (+1) LUK: 172 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 143,709/10,000,000,000 Experience: 2,311/13,000 His first Stat had finally breached the 1,000-point mark, but that only meant it was half of what his mother''s Magic Stat was at.
Considering I''m still 10 Levels shy of Tier 3, I don''t think I''m doing half bad. Holding my Level back for so long and forcing the ss transition in Tier 2 was definitely worth it. Speaking of, I need to select my second unlocked ss Skill. I picked Enforce the first time around, thinking it would help me enforce my will upon other Casters to make it easier to capture their Spells, but that''s not what it was at all.
Enforce (4): Enforce themands of the Imperial Princess, Kefira Yeah, that had been a flop, Reivyn chuckled. I could change it right now, but I think I might actually get some use out of the Skill once we go to Wispan. I don''t see any reason to flip-flop my ss Skills about right now, as the conflict is over. If, when we get to Wispan, there isn''t an opportunity to show it off, I''ll switch it out for one of the other Mana Skills.
Reivyn was confident in his Mana Skills and his abilities to outss other Caster sses that weren''t within range of Kefira''s power level in their age range, but he thought that Enforce mighte in handy with dealing with the other young noble scions of the Tier 4 empire.
Let''s take a look at the other ss Skills I have avable to choose from.
Impart: Delve into the experience of the System granted by your Skill Level, and directly enhance the learning capabilities of a student That Skill would definitely help me power-Level Kefira''s Martial Skills, but I don''t have any disciples or students. It mighte in handy with training troops under mymand, but that''s about to be a moot point, too.
Mana Well: Increase your Mana Regeneration by 20% This Skill is broken, Reivyn thought. If I Level that up until it''s a General Skill and it no longer takes a ss Skill slot, then I would basically have infinite Mana eventually. What would happen if I reach Transcendence in this Skill? Would my Mana literally overflow and empower those around me, bing a literal Mana Well?
He was incredibly tempted to take this Skill, but he wanted to refresh his memory on thest Skill first.
True Mana: Your Mana isced with the very essence of Reality That''s... not very definitive. I imagine it has a passive effect of coating my Spells with the Veridical Affinity, but I can already do that on my own. It just takes a little bit more concentration. I can see how this would increase one''s ability to do so if they didn''t have a high enough Skill Level, but then how would they have unlocked the ss necessary to even get the Skill? Maybe there''s more to it than I''m thinking, but the System isn''t making it easy for me.
It doesn''t seem like I''m going to have my Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist ss for very long. I only have 11 more Levels to go until I''m officially Tier 3. Then again I can turn my Mana Siphon ability back on in order to gain more practical Life Experience and Skill Levels to increase my chances of getting a legitimate Mythic ss once I reach Tier 3.
Even if I''m not able to get a Mythic ss at Tier 3, I still think it would be a good idea to go ahead and do so. I''ve made up my mind, and I''m going to pick Mana Well, and I would like to try and push it to a General ss before I gain my Tier 3 ss. I''ll still have three ss Skill slots avable for my Secondary ss, but I have other Skills I want to focus on, too. Deconstruct and ess to System assistance for basically every Spell are both paramount, and I can foresee good Synergy between Will of the Realm and True Mana.
With how Experience drops off upon reaching Tier 3, I''ll probably be in Tier 3 for a while, and I''ll be able to have three of my current ss Skills for a long time. Getting my Spells and Deconstruct to develop into General Skills are probably going to be the easiest ones, and I think True Mana will be one of the hardest. Let''s try and get the low-hanging fruit taken care of first. It''s not like choosing Mana Well over True Mana will be useless, either.
Decision made Reivyn officially selected it in his Status.
Some time had passed since he had been looking over his Notifications and deliberating on what ss Skill to choose, but Kefira and the Mages assisting her still weren''t ready to go. There was no change in the soul beast trying to get to Reivyn, and the Mages and adventurers assisting them with their physical strength had grown to a size where they were able to switch out conveniently in order to maintain their top position.
Another several hours passed, and Reivyn just lounged on a small stone bench that he sculpted from the ground with his Mana. He was considering whether to lie down to take a nap or not when Kayzor finally ambled over.
"Things are in the final stage over at the space fissure," he announced. "We''ll be ready to go in just a moment, so get prepared."
Reivyn nodded as he got to his feet. He used a bit of his Mana to meld the stone seat back into the ground from where it hade, and then he proceeded to do some stretches and calisthenics to get his blood pumping.
Well, here we go. Time to try and stuff an incorporeal being into a chute.
Chapter 140: Soul Eater
Chapter 140: Soul Eater
Getting the soul beast back over to the space fissure wasn''t a difficult task. Reivyn simply walked around it, keeping a safe distance, and headed back to where Kefira and the other Mages were surrounding the tear. There were more than enough Mages in the bottom of the hole that there was little the creature could do against the restraints.
There was no need to hurry, but there also wasn''t a reason to dally, either. Reivyn walked at a normal pace to get to their destination. Once they got there, Reivyn approached at an angle that Kefira would be on the other side of the tear aspared to the soul beast. It would be counterproductive if the soul beast switched targets and lunged for Kefira when Reivyn was trying to steer it into the crack.
As Reivyn approached the final destination, more Mages approached and began wrapping the soul creature up in more and more threads of Mana. It was possible to use one''s willpower to harden the Mana threads so that they could push instead of pull, but not only did it require more concentration, it required more physical coordination as well. It was much easier to simply leave the Mana threads like a rope and pull it.
The Mages surrounded the creature in aplete circle. Just in case, they wanted to be able to push or pull the beast in any direction if it went wild. The soul beast hadn''t shown any indication that it would do anything other than an attempt to get straight to its target, but it also hadn''t been threatened with anything yet. It was invulnerable to damage, as far as they could tell.
Kefira and the Mages assisting with closing the portal had created a funnel that they ced into the crack. It had a wide mouth that the Casters could easily guide it toward, and then it narrowed into a tunnel that would direct it back to the void. The funnel''s width was precisely controlled so that there was no space between the blob and the edges, so any new sparks would automatically merge with it and note into the Realm.
As the soul creature was brought to the space crack, the speed of the sparks infiltrating the Realm once more picked up the pace, but this time there were more than enough Mages and adventurers to keep it in check. They could probably let it strengthen continuously for a couple of hours before they lost control of the beast.
The soul beast waspletely wrapped up in Mana threads and using his Mana Sight, Reivyn wasn''t even able to see anything other than the cacoon as it was directed to the mouth of the funnel. Reivyn, Kefira, and the Mages carefully coordinated so that the creature was led straight into the funnel. The edges of the funnel were infused with the Space/Time Affinity to seamlessly meld with the space crack.
The first change urred as soon as the beast crossed the threshold of the funnel. A soul-piercing shriek escaped from the Mana cocoon, causing a splitting headache in everyone at the bottom of the hole. Most of the Martial ssers copsed to the ground, holding their heads in pain, and even several of the Mages were put out ofmission.
Reivyn had joined in with the other Casters tosso the soul creature, but as they were positioning it to shove it back to where it hade from, Reivyn watched as incredibly thin tendrils began to seep through the spaces between the Mana threads. It was no longer acting like a blob. It had grown countless tentacles, and they began to whip back and forth in a terrifying manner.
The tentaclesshed out and mmed into the Mages, bringing them to their knees in agony. It didn''t recoil from their touch as it had for the one adventurer that had attacked it previously, though, and the tendril jabbed into their bodies and sucked the vitality out of them. Not all of the victims were so unlucky, though, as the soul beast still seemed to have some sort of criteria for who it considered draining.
A dozen Mages were stabbed with the ephemeral tendrils, and Reivyn watched in horror as they visibly aged. It only took a few heartbeats until they turned into dried-up, desated corpses. The dead bodies fell to the ground after beingpletely sucked dry, smashed into dust, and the dust billowed out into clouds, covering everyone around.
Several adventurers got a mouth full of the corpse dust, and they bent over, gagging and trying to throw up. Reivyn thought fast and blocked his face with a Mana Shield around himself. He saw Kefira do the same, and several other Mages did as well.
"Get the creature all the way into the funnel!" Reivyn yelled. "Wrap the edges of the funnel around it andpletely seal it off. Instead of passing it through the funnel tube to the void, we''ll just shove the whole funnel out!"
The initial n had been to simply use the funnel as a bridge to get it into the space crack more easily, but no n survived the first assault. Reivyn saw no reason they couldn''t adapt on the fly, and if they sealed this thing off with Space/Time Mana, it should prevent it from being able to attack them.
Another soul-piercing wail shook the people, and more and more tendrils snaked their way out of the cacoon. Two turned to four, four turned to eight, and suddenly there were hundreds of tendrils iling about. The Martial ssers attempted to get between the tendrils and the Mages, and it worked some of the time, though anyone struck by a tendril would immediately go down. Whether they had their vitality sucked out of them or not, getting hit by the soul beast meant they were down for the count.
The Mages pushed and pulled, struggling to move the soul beast into the funnel. The tentacles continued to multiply and lengthen, and more sparks began pouring out of the space fissure. The Mana cacoon prevented them from merging with the soul beast directly, but the tendrils would snatch them up and lengthen themselves.
It had only been about ten seconds, and the soul beast had be incredibly hard to manage. It was rtively easy to stop it in ce from getting at a target it was lunging for, but if it didn''t want to move, Reivyn and the Mages found that it was incredibly hard to get it to budge.
Kefira and her assistants noticed the issue almost right away, and they began expanding the mouth of the funnel, bringing the creature fully into the magical contraption. The tendrils were still a problem, though, and Reivyn was worried that it might either hinder sealing it uppletely, or that it would get severed and leave some soul sparks in the Realm where they clearly weren''t meant to be.
"I''m going to use my Mana to make a giant sphere topress all the tendrils back down to the main body!" Reivyn yelled out. "Get ready to seal the beast behind me on my mark!"
Reivyn abandoned his Manasso. He hadn''t really been making much of a difference considering the number of Mages that were participating, even though every passing second, anywhere from three to a dozen Casters would be put out ofmission. Most of them were just knocked down, foaming at the mouth, but the soul beast continued to drain the lives of some as well. The death count after only fifteen seconds of the fight had reached almost thirty people, most of them Casters.
Reivyn worked as fast as he could, gathering the full amount of Mana that the System would help him Cast a Spell with. He dropped a thousand Mana into a giant dome that he ced overtop the beast. He quickly lowered it into a good position. Kefira and her assistants altered the shape of their funnel to allow the dome toe down without interfering with each other.
"Stand by!" Reivyn called out. "Three. Two. One. GO!"
With a flex of his will, the Mana mmed down as it contracted in an instant. The hundreds of tendrils were smushed together, and because the dome was seamless with zero cracks or space between threads like the cacoon was, the soul beast had no way to snake its way out of it.
Kefira and the other Mages helping her immediately surrounded the entire apparatus, and they fused the edges together to create aplete bubble of Space/Time Mana around the beast. All of the other Mages simultaneously cut off their Mana threads, and the soul beast came into full view.
In the center, where it had once been a shining blob, was a terrifying death''s-head. The tendrils were the individual hair strands, and the eyes of the beast were giant sunken holes. The mouth was a gaping maw, and the soul-piercing wails that emitted from it caused a visible vibration in the air. The death''s-head had a rictus snarl on its face, and the hair continued to whip about in a frenzy, looking for a way to pierce through the Space/Time bubble.
The death''s-head slowly turned until it was facing Reivyn, and he felt a cold chill run down his spine. All of the hair on his body stood on end as he became the focus of the deathly stare.
"Quick! Shove it through the space fissure!"
All of the Mages once more threw out Mana threads, connecting themselves to the Space/Time prison that had been sealed around the soul beast. Because it was open on the end of the void, the sparks that continued to try and flood into the Realm were able to finally merge with the soul beast. It no longer shined with a golden brilliance, and instead, a dark halo surrounded the floating head.
The Mages put all of their willpower into shoving the prison through the space crack. It slid through the tunnel easily, no longer giving any resistance as the death''s-head had previously done. It took only a second for the Space/Time bubble to reach the void, and Kefira anchored it to the edges of the tear. She and her assistants worked quickly to merge the seal into the fabric separating the Realm from the void, and the hole was finally patched.
Turning the funnel into the patch at the end of the space fissure had been part of the n from the beginning, though the way they got there was a little different than imagined.
All the Mages, Reivyn and Kefira included, slumped to the ground in relief. They maintained their contact with the seal with their Mana, but because of the nature of how the Realm worked, it seemed as if the soul sparks and the soul beast on the other side could no longer sense them. There was no external pressure exerted on the seal, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
After a brief moment to recover, Kefira once more got up and continued her job of sealing the space crack. Reivyn and the other Mages with tangential Space talents joined her. Most of the heavy lifting had already been taken care of in preparation for this operation, so it only took another ten minutes until the space crack was finallypletely removed from existence. There wasn''t even a hint of where it had previously existed.
"Officers! Let''s get a head count going," Kayzor immediately took charge. "I don''t know who we lost, and their corpses have beenpletely destroyed, so we need the units to identify them. Let''s get some medical personnel down here, too, and have them look at the injured. We have no idea what thesting effects will be ofing into contact with that monstrosity."
Reivyn walked over to Kefira, and the two of them sat down next to each other as there was a flurry of activity all around. Kayzor''s officers and soldiers were well-disciplined, and the headcounts were done very quickly. The medical personnel checked out the injured people.
Those that had only been injured only had a shock to their vitality and a drop in Health points. Such an injury was harder to recover from, but it only required a bit more time than a physical injury. Reivyn himself had suffered the same kind of damage multiple times before, and he knew that it wasn''t anything serious in the long run.
Just a ncing blow from the soul creature had caused hundreds of points of vitality damage. It was easy to see how those that had sustained continuous draining had died so quickly. Reivyn was surprised that Kayzor had been hardly fazed when he had had the entire blob pass through him.
This soul beast seems to have done considerably more damage than the entity that chased me in the void, Reivyn thought. Maybe it has something to do with thews of the Realm? I don''t know, and it doesn''t really matter, all things considered.
The soul entity that had chased him in the void had been made up of thousands of more soul sparks than this creature had been, but it seemed as if the rules worked differently outside of the Realm. It made sense to Reivyn. Each Realm had its own System governing them, so it wasn''t much of a stretch to believe that there was some other form of System or rule set in ce for the void between Realms.
"You ok?" Reivyn asked Kefira after a while.
"Yeah," Kefira said, leaning her head on Reivyn''s arm. "It was kind of scary, but think about the Life Experience this encounter will give us."
Reivyn gave her a sideways look.
"You sound even crazier about advancing than I am," Reivyn chuckled.
"Crazy isn''t the word I would use," Kefira shook her head. "I would say ''enthusiastic.'' My enthusiasm for advancing is higher than yours."
"Sure, sure."
"Hey! Are you implying that I''m crazy?!" Kefira sat up straight and red at Reivyn.
"And what''s wrong with that?" Reivyn smiled at her. "Crazy attracts crazy, I would say."
Kefira considered the statement for a second before shrugging.
"There''s some truth to that."
A set of armored boots stepped in front of the pair. They followed the legs up to the person they belonged to to see Kayzor looking down on them. Kefira sunk into herself a little, a look of embarrassment on her face. Reivyn threw his arm over her shoulder and smiled up at her brother. Kefira let herself be pulled to Reivyn''s side, not offering any resistance.
"Fraternizing with a captain?" Kayzor quirked an eyebrow.
Kefira leaped to her feet, pointing her finger in her brother''s face.
"Don''t give me that! I''m not officially in the chain ofmand, and he''s my Liaison!" Kefira fumed.
Kayzor stared at Kefira with a deadpan look for several seconds. Kefira slowly lowered her hand as she realized what she had just said.
"He''s your Liaison." It was a statement.
"Yes?" Kefira whispered, looking away.
"You do realize that the one-time appointment of an Imperial Liaison is something that is carefully considered and orchestrated by our parents, right? What are you going to tell them? You wasted all of their nning and effort on a captain of a Tier 3 Region."
Kefira put her hands on her hips, regaining her confidence as she struck a pose filled with attitude.
"Hah! I dare them to say that they''ve found me someone better!" Kefira arrogantly dered. "There are things involved here that I''m not at liberty to disclose at this time, but once you learn all the things involved, you''ll think back to what you just said and p yourself in the face!"
"Really?"
"I guarantee it."
"Well, in that case, I believe you," Kayzor stated matter of factly.
"You do?" Kefira asked in surprise, losing some of her haughty fire.
"Of course," Kayzor nodded. "Who else has always had your back, always standing up for your decisions?"
"Sophia," Kefira immediately replied.
"Besides Sophia!" Kayzor huffed.
"You asked..."
"Anyway, I''ve seen how this boy..."
"Man," Kefira interrupted.
"... I''ve seen how this man reacts under pressure, and I felt the power he had in thatpression Spell he made up on the spot. He might not be as talented as you, but he''s got promise."
Kefira stared at her brother for a few seconds before throwing her head back andughing. Seri had been standing to the side, in the background like she typically was, but Kayzor nced at her as even she snickered.
"What''s so funny?" Kayzor directed back to Kefira.
"You''ll understand one day, when you''re older," Kefira patted Kayzor on the shoulder.
"Hey, now! I haven''t said that to you in a long time."
"I bet you''ll p yourself twice," Kefira giggled behind her hand.
Reivyn simply remained sitting, watching the affectionate faux argument between siblings. He suddenly had a pang of homesickness, missing the simr interactions between himself and his sisters.
"What was that look?" Kayzor questioned, bringing Reivyn out of his musings. He didn''t expect that Kayzor had been keeping a watchful eye on himself. He stood up so as not to be rude when talking to Kefira''s brother.
"I was just thinking about my sisters," Reivyn exined. "It feels like it''s only been a couple of months since thest time I saw them, but it''s been over three years, now."
"Oh? Do your duties as a military captain in Drallo keep you so busy that you can''t meet with your family? Or are they in a different city from where you epted yourmission?" Kayzor asked. He seemed genuinely curious.
"Nah, this battalion is made up of volunteer adventurers," Reivyn exined. "I''ve only been in the army for a couple of months."
"And you''re already a captain?" Kayzor had a hint of respect in his voice.
"I''m exceptional," Reivyn shrugged.
"Pft, quit bragging," Kayzor rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, the entire reason we were down here investigating the space crack in the first ce is because I was familiar with this ce..."
Reivyn spent a couple of minutes exining the situation. There was no reason to hide it. He had already revealed everything about his circumstances to the battalion officers, anyway, and this was one of Kefira''s family members. One of the ones she was apparently on really good terms with. He didn''t know how the sibling rivalry worked in Kefira''s family, but he was d to see it wasn''t the stereotypical all-vs-all of an imperial family vying for session.
Kayzor nodded along as Reivyn told his tale, not revealing what he thought of the situation with his facial expressions.
"So you''re actually from a Tier 1 Region," Kayzor stated.
"His mother is a disced Tier 4 Imperial Princess," Kefira defended him.
"And you believe that?" Kayzor asked, raising an eyebrow at his sister.
"Of course," Kefira nodded.
"Ok. I believe you, and if you believe him, I''ll take his word for it until we learn differently."
"I don''t know how you''re going to verify it," Reivyn said. "My family is tens of millions of miles away, and who knows how many teleports are between here and there. Kefira told me it would probably take years before I hear back from themissions I''ve ced to try and figure out the path."
"Sure, it would take years just waiting on the goodwill of people from the Adventurer''s Guild, but if you had arge force and enough money to travel from point to point yourself, it would be much quicker," Kayzor pointed out. "You wouldn''t even have to have the scouts make it all the way to the final destination. They would just need to travel far enough that the name of your empire ismon knowledge or easily discoverable."
"And how much would that cost?" Reivyn asked rhetorically. "More than I have. And where would the manpowere from? I don''t suppose I could enlist some of your imperial soldiers to take the task on?"
"Of course not," Kayzor easily shot it down. "But what if you had your own subordinates? The Adventurer''s Guild, whether passively waiting for news or actively sending scouting Parties of your own, is unreliable; however, if you had your own trusted subordinates do it... Well, that''s a different thing entirely."
Hmm, he has a good point, Reivyn stroked his chin in contemtion. My parents had their own subordinates to handle all kinds of tasks for them, but they also had a legacy and a lot of wealth behind them. They also had ess to a Tier 4 Dungeon Gate Key where they could replenish their wealth once a month.
My resources are considerably less than theirs. I would need to form another Adventurer Party in Wispan and tackle the local Dungeons over and over. I might even need to go on an expedition with a Party into a Tier 5 Region. I have the time...
"That''s definitely something to consider," Reivyn said. "Thanks for the advice."
"No problem," Kayzor nodded. "Every prince should have their own loyal subordinates."
"What about you, Kefira?" Reivyn turned to her. "You got more loyal followers in Wispan other than Seri, here?"
"Of course," Kefira shrugged like it was no big deal. Reivyn actually wasn''t surprised by the answer. "Seri is just my most trusted follower. Her entire family is pledged to my service."
"How does that work, what with the session and all?" Reivyn asked.
"We can get into that another time," Kefira dismissed the question for now. "Just know that it doesn''t interfere with session or their loyalty to my family as a whole."
"Well, if there''s nothing left to do down here, I figure it''s time to get topside for the debriefing," Kayzor said. "Kefira, round up your officers'' staff, and meet me up top in an hour."
"Yes, brother," Kefira gave him a cheeky grin. Kayzor paused from turning away for a second, ncing at Kefira, but then he rolled his eyes and strolled away.
"I wonder what his reaction would be if I addressed him the same way?" Reivyn mused as he watched Kayzor walk away.
"Oh, I would love to see that," Kefira giggled. "But right now probably isn''t the best time. Maybe in a more private setting."
"Heh, you know I was just joking, right?" Reivyn eyed her sideways.
"Yeah, but I wasn''t," Kefira stuck her tongue out.
Chapter 141: Liaizy Conversation
Chapter 141: Liaizy Conversation
Reivyn suppressed a stretch and a yawn as he stood in the back of the tent, listening to the higher-ranked officers discussing the after-action and the cleanup of the spiders being done in the deste sands. Everything that he could have contributed to the debriefing, Kefira or Kayzor were already witnesses to.
He didn''t need to add his own personal ount of the battle against the beast tide, and he hadn''t done anything other than find the space fissure by himself. He had offered a few insights, here and there, when they had talked about that particr part of the debrief, but that was all.
All in all, the incident at the bottom of the hole had been deemed a scary fight against an invulnerable creature that had, rtively speaking, not been that dangerous. It hadn''t had enough time to umte enough power to effectively resist thebined might of the Mages in the army.
If Reivyn hadn''t gone down to investigate and they had simply packed up and left to hunt down the spiders with everyone, it could have been really bad. Not only would the space fissure have continued to expand, who knows howrge, but the soul beast would have grown strong enough that nothing short of direct System or Divine intervention would have been able to stop it.
Reivyn was suspicious that the System would have ced some sort of limiter on the thing to prevent it from bing a Realm-ending catastrophe, but nobody knew for sure. It was definitely a subject to investigate in the future, though. Especially if there was going to be an attempted Realm invasion in the future. Even just having Kefira experiment with deep Space/Time could lead to a fatal ident.
This experience had definitely prepared her how to mitigate any such idents from happening in the future, but now they knew that the potential was there.
"Alright, that should wrap it up for now," Kayzor finally dered. "Major Dobrik I''ll leave escorting the civilians back to their homes to your battalion."
"Yes, sir," Major Dobrik replied.
The Major and his staff members were the epitome of respect in Kayzor''s presence. Captain Sanjin''s eyes practically sparkled with stars as he watched every move that Kayzor made. Kayzor was a legitimate Imperial General, the height of Sanjin''s ambitions. Reivyn''s formerpanymander had had his previous attitude adjusted, and instead of putting on airs andparing himself to the general, he was trying to learn everything he could about how Kayzor operated.
Reivyn was skeptical that the man would ever reach anywhere close to such a position in his life, but he was more than happy to see the shift in his personality.
Kayzor dismissed the officers, staying behind to speak with Kefira a bit longer on a more personal level, but Reivyn had to go back to tend to hispany. He didn''t know when he would get the chance to spend some time with Kefira again in the immediate future with having the responsibility of escorting all of the captured civilians back to their cities.
"Captain Reivyn and Lieutenant Jake," Major Dobrik called out to the two men as they clumped together with the other officers making their way out of the tent. Reivyn and Jek turned to face the older man. "Wait for me outside the tent for a moment."
Reivyn and Jek shared a brief look before giving a salute and acknowledging the order. They ducked through the tent p, and they spotted Jekle standing off to the side a ways. The two men walked over and greeted the Senior Sergeant to wait for the Major toe out.
Eventually, Major Dobrik made his way over to the trio, and he waved away their attempt to give him another salute.
"Alright," Major Dobrik smiled to the three men, "Captain Reivyn, remove your Captain''s Insignia, and give it to Jek. Jek, remove your Lieutenant''s Insignia and give it to Jeckle."
The three once more shared an uneasy look, but theyplied with the order. Reivyn unpinned his rank insignia and handed it over to Jek, who had likewise given his to Jeckle. Under the encouragement of Major Dobrik, Jek and Jekle pinned their new rank insignia to their armor.
"Reivyn, under the order of General Kayzor and Lady Fira, you are hereby discharged from your duties as amissioned officer under the volunteer battalion of Oreck. You are to forthwith assume your responsibilities as the Imperial Liaison to Lady Fira."
With Kayzor going around addressing Kefira by her actual name in front of everyone, it wasn''t difficult to deduce that "Lady Fira" was a pseudonym. Kefira hadn''t made the matter clear, though, so everyone pretended like they didn''t know and continued to address her as such.
Major Dobrik reached into his breast pocket and removed a new insignia, one that Reivyn noticed held a simr crest to the Imperial Family Insignia that Kayzor wore, but the crest was much smaller than one given to a member of the Imperial Family.
Reivyn epted the insignia and pinned it to his armor where his captain''s insignia had previously been.
"Thank you, sir," Reivyn said, offering a salute.
Major Dobrik once again waved the salute away.
"Actually, with the way ranks and titles work, I should be addressing you as ''sir,'' now," Dobrik chuckled. "You''re not in the chain ofmand or anything, but your rank is now technically higher than mine. I don''t know all of the ins and outs, but Lady Fira should be able to fill you in on them.
"Captain Jek, you will now take overmand of thepany, and Lieutenant Jekle will fill in your previous role. Liaison Reivyn kept meticulous records about the achievements and merits of all of the men in hispany, and you guys are definitely capable of fulfilling your new tasks."
"Thank you, sir," Jek and Jekle responded together.
"Liaison Reivyn, there will be time before we head out to escort the civilians home for you to meet up with your previouspany, but General Kayzor and Lady Fira indicated for you to rejoin them in themand tent."
"Thank you, Major," Reivyn nodded his head.
Major Dobrik''s eyes sparkled at the quick transition in how Reivyn addressed him, mirth on his face. He gave a little wave to the three of them as he walked off toward his own tent. Reivyn turned to face the other two officers.
"You know, I''ve technically been with the two of you for several months now, but I think this is the first time you two have stood right next to each other like this, at least in front of me. I''m just now noticing how simr your names are. They''re not pronounced the same way, but they''re spelled almost identically."
Jek and Jekle shared a look before theyughed.
"Yeah, man, we knew that a long time ago," Jek said.
"Captain Jek wasmanding a different toon when he wasn''t acting as the XO, and you weren''t quite as hands-on for the individual toons after you took over as thepanymander," Jekle added.
"I don''t know what Lady Fira and General Kayzor have in store for me now that I''ve been officially transferred over, but I''lle see thepany off here in a little bit," Reivyn said, pping each man on the shoulder. "If my path leads me back through Oreck, which it probably will, I''ll try and stick around long enough to hang out with you guys onest time before moving on."
"Sounds good," Jek said.
Reivyn gave a short wave to the two men as he turned around and headed back to themand tent.
I was just wondering when I would be able to spend some more time with Kefira, Reivyn chuckled. It seems like now is the answer.
"So are you nning on returning with me to Willowan City?" Kayzor asked.
Kefira and her brother were sitting together in the tent. Kayzor had already been through his earlier adventures when he was a teenager, and he was well beyond the point of having to rough it. He had pulled out twofy couches for the two of them to lounge in, and Kefira was taking as much advantage of thefort as she could. She was practically sinking into the softness of the cushions.
"Yea," Kefira said. "I had briefly considered going on one final adventure to try and gain some more Life Experience revolving around my Space/Time Affinity, but not only did I unlock my soul and utilize a Haste Spell during a fight, but I also got to delve deeper into Space Magic than I ever thought possible at my Level."
"You unlocked your soul?" Kayzor sat up straight, looking at Kefira with rm. "Have there been any problems?"
"No, none," Kefira shook her head. "I only had it unlocked for thirty minutes or so, so there wasn''t any bacsh. Well, other than the Mana expenditure, but that had nothing to do with the unlocking."
Reivyn ducked in through the tent p as Kefira was answering the question, and Kayzor quickly shushed her. Kefira rolled her eyes, and she patted the cushion next to her, indicating for Reivyn to sit there. Her brother had been wise enough to give her a two-seater.
Reivyn settled down on the cushion, and Kefira leaned her head on his arm. He nced back and forth between the two of them, noting the serious look on Kayzor''s face.
"What?" Kefira asked her brother. "I''ve already told him about the amulet and how it seals a portion of my soul. It''s not a big deal."
Kayzor pped his hand over his face and groaned.
"Have you kept no secrets from him, already? He''s not a member of our family, and we haven''t verified his origin."
"The Spider Matriarch and space fissure were exactly where and how he had described," Kefira pointed out. "Plus I met him down below on my way to the lizaldo settlement, and in the first days I knew him they verified that he hade from below their vige."
"That doesn''t mean he''s the son of an Imperial Princess," Kayzor huffed, folding his arms across his chest.
"Should I tell him, or not?" Kefira turned and looked up into Reivyn''s face. Reivyn just smiled back down at her.
"I''m not hiding anything," he replied. "Anything I''ve told you, unless I say otherwise, you can tell your family and most trusted subordinates, like Seri."
Kefira nodded her head and turned back to Kayzor. He eyed the two of them suspiciously.
"The reason why I wrote to Sophia to get Reivyn transferred to the Magic Academy, was so that he could force a Tier 3 ss transition in Tier 2. He has a Mythic Tier 2 ss: Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist."
Kayzor''s mouth dropped open, and Kefira giggled at his expression.
This is the first time I''ve seen him actually lose his bearing and be so shocked, she thought. He usually cultivates his military persona at all times. He''llugh and joke around in private, but he never truly lets himself go like this.
"Hah! I feel a sense of aplishment at causing you to go speechless," Kefira smiled smugly.
Kayzor''s mouth slowly closed as he recovered himself.
"Well, don''t take a victoryp just yet," he retorted. "You weren''t the cause of it."
"Sophistry!" Kefira eximed.
"So what were you talking about in regards to the soul sealing when I came in?" Reivyn asked.
"Kayzor was just making sure that I hadn''t suffered any damage from when I unlocked it," Kefira exined. "It turns out that my body and bloodline aren''t powerful enough to contain the strength of my soul, and it had caused a lot of physical impairments and sickliness when I was a young child.
"Conversely, the same thing could also be true, though it''s much rarer. A baby with a too-weak soul will be stillborn. That''s not the cause of all stillborn babies. It''s not even the majority, but if you see a powerful couple suffer a stillborn pregnancy, more than likely that is the cause.
"It took a long time to figure out what was going on, and it wasn''t until I disyed an unusual ability in Magic that one of the imperial schrs got a clue. My Bloodline has already been elevated to Level 2, and it''s still not enough to handle the power of my soul, but the materials required to reach Level 3 have toe from a Tier 6 Region. My parents have been sending expeditions for a couple of years now, and we''ve only gotten about half of the treasures required."
"And it''s not like we have a weak Bloodline, either," Kayzor supplied. "Imperial families traditionally have one of, if not the, most powerful Bloodline of the empire. It''s not just from sitting in a position of power and wealth for so long, either. One has to unlock and build a powerful Bloodline if one wants to establish asting dynasty, to begin with.
"Our Bloodline has a total of twenty thresholds when we unlock it for the first time."
"Is twenty a lot?" Reivyn asked.
"A Bloodline that''s considered strong has about ten to twelve, and the average Bloodline one can find in a Tier 4 Empire has five," Kayzor exined.
There was silence for a moment, and Kefira looked up toward Reivyn, He was staring off into the distance, apparently in deep thought about something.
"What Level is your Bloodline?" Kefira asked Reivyn. He snapped out of his contemtions and looked down at Kefira.
"I just recently unlocked my Bloodline. It''s only Level 1. You guys seem to know a lot about Bloodlines and their thresholds, care to fill me in? My Bloodline was activated way back before I had even reached Level 10 in Tier 2, but I haven''t gotten any of the benefits from it for each Level up."
Kefira frowned at Reivyn.
"Aren''t you Level..." She cut herself off, ncing at her older brother. She beckoned for Reivyn to lean down, and she whispered into his ear while blocking sound from escaping with her Mana. "My System Page tells me you''re Level 50. You haven''t gotten any per Level bonus Stats yet?"
Reivyn nodded affirmative.
"How many thresholds did you have when you unlocked it, if you don''t mind me asking?"
Reivyn peered into her eyes, biting his lip as he thought about whether to answer or not. He didn''t take that long, though, and he cupped his hand over his mouth to whisper his answer.
"One hundred."
Kefira''s mind went nk for a second, unable to process the information she had just heard. The words echoed around in her head like they were bouncing off the walls of her empty skull. The words finally prated her mind, and she leaped up off the couch.
"One-one-one-What?!" She stammered. She almost let the information slip through, revealing the answer that Reivyn was clearly not ready for others to hear, yet, but she got control of her tongue quick enough to change the word before she identally yelled it out in shock. Reivyn just nodded his head.
Kefira stood there for a second, just staring at Reivyn for a good long while until Kayzor politely coughed behind her. She turned and looked at her brother, but he tactfully didn''t pry into the secret. Kefira sat back down and resumed her previous posture, leaning against Reivyn''s arm.
"To answer your question," she said at her normal volume. "Each threshold corresponds to a Level." She leaned away from him and gave him a serious look.
"O~oh," Reivyn eximed in sudden understanding. "Ok. That makes sense, then."
"Is this one of those things that you''re specifically saying you don''t want the rest of us to know?" Kayzor asked with a smirk.
"You betcha!" Kefira answered for him. "This is High Secret, Need to Know Only, and you don''t need to know."
"Fair enough," Kayzor held his hands up in surrender. "I won''t pry, but mom and dad might ''need to know,'' so be prepared for that."
"Thanks," Reivyn said.
"Don''t mention it. Anyway, Reivyn, I was just asking Kefira if she was intending to follow me back to Willowan City, the capital of Wispan. From what Kefira said about helping you force your ss transition in Tier 2, I''m assuming your role as Liaison is superficial, but it''s officially recognized by the System. Are you nning oning with us?"
"I don''t see why not," Reivyn said. "The only real question I have at this point is what to do about my contribution and merit points I''ve umted in the army. Are we going to swing by Oreck to check on them? Will the fact that I''m no longer technically amissioned officer in the volunteer battalion void them?"
"Ahh, no, that shouldn''t be a problem," Kayzor answered. "Since you were officially transferred to be Kefira''s Liaison, you''ve basically been given a promotion in the eyes of the local authorities and the System. Your contribution points will directly trante into Imperial Military contribution and merit points.
"The real gem of this promotion, though, is that you''ll technically get credited with participating in an expedition as an Imperial Army Commissioned Officer. Your rank will automatically be set as a lieutenant, for purposes of the contribution and merit points, but that''s still better than that of a captain from Oreck."
"I see," Reivyn replied, stroking his chin. "That''s one less worry I have to deal with. There''s nothing tying me to Oreck, or Drallo for that matter, other than wanting onest hurrah with the friends I made in the battalion.
"I can also ess themission for my quest in the Adventurer''s Guild through any branch, and the capital of a Tier 4 empire will have exactly what I want." Reivyn paused to give Kefira a meaningful look. She felt her neck and cheeks heat up as she blushed, lowering her head to look away. "Superior Dungeons."
Kefira''s face froze for a second. She sat up straight and smacked Reivyn in the arm, which only caused him tough.
"I would have to go there, anyway, to use the teleport circle," Reivyn shrugged. "Plus, I don''t see any reason to separate from Kefira at this point. We make a good team."
"Uh huh, a ''good team,''" Kayzor snorted. "She will have to enter the Imperial Pce for some time. Your rank as her Imperial Liaison will allow you some leeway to enter with her, but until you get a firm handle on the situation, always remember that you''ll be a subordinate of the youngest Imperial. You''ll be above the servants and guards, but you''ll basically be the low man on the totem pole."
"That''s fine. If someone tries to make things hard for me, I can always head out on some sort of ''mission'' that Kefira assigns to me."
"That''s a good idea," Kefira said, tapping her chin. "Though it won''t work when dealing with my family members. Only my mother should really be hard on you, though."
"You guys have really been emphasizing how hard it will be to convince your mother," Reivyn said. "Are you sure it''s going to be alright?"
"Probably?" Kefira said, more a question than a statement.
"I don''t think she''ll try to have you killed... Most likely." Kayzor said.
"Great."
Chapter 142: Marching Spears
Chapter 142: Marching Spears
"Yeah, just like that," Kefira said. "Iste the Traveler and Eternal Affinities in the point of your knot. They''re not Space and Time, but when you join them together, there should be some synergy that brings those pureponents out. Keep infusing it. You should be able to feel a threshold reached when it''s saturated enough, and then you should be able to ovey it with another knot."
Kefira was instructing Reivyn on one of her signature tricks for empowering her Spells. She normally couldn''t perform such a feat, though, unless her soul was unlocked. She couldn''t demonstrate the method to Reivyn for that reason, so she was left with just trying to exin it to him. She had learned it all on her own and didn''t know the more intricate details because she had only her own feeling of the Mana and Affinities to go on.
One of the things that sealing a portion of her soul did was to seal her ess to one side of the Space/Time Affinity. She had told Reivyn that with her father having ess to the Time Affinity, she had focused on that portion of it for much longer, and one of the goals of her Life Experience expedition this time around was to get more experience using the Space side, and she could choose which one was sealed when invoking the amulet. The Affinity level was identical, as it was technically one Affinity, but her usage of them wasn''t.
"I don''t know," Reivyn said, failing to aplish the task once more. "It seems to me that because the two Affinities are so specific, I can''t draw out the application that you can."
Reivyn let the Mana go as he mentally reviewed what he was trying to do. The way that Kefira used her Affinity allowed two or more knots to upy the exact same position, but his own Traveler Affinity made the knot want to move about. As soon as he infused the Affinity into the point of the knot, it felt as if it wanted to dance away from his grasp.
The Eternal Affinity made the knot seem like it wanted to remainpletely unchanged in its current state, which made perfect sense to Reivyn. Putting the two of them together into a single knot created a point that vibrated with energy. It felt like it had the potential tounch itself a mile away in an instant, yet it was being held in ce by an invisible force.
Kefira had described her trick as making the knot seem ethereal, and she could just ce another identical one on top of it. Reivyn wasn''t seeing that kind of result at all, no matter how much effort he put into the exercise.
"You may be right," Kefira sighed. "It might require additional Space and Time Affinities, or it might not be possible without a more pure Space Affinity. I haven''t talked to any Mages that have the Space Affinity, just ones that have tangential Affinities like you. I''ve only tried to show this trick off to one of the court Mages, one trusted by my family, so I don''t know the extent of the difficulties.
"I had hoped that if you also had ess to a tangential Time Affinity, it might make up for it, but you might need either the Space Affinity exactly or a purer version of a tangential Affinity. I just don''t know."
"It was worth a try," Reivyn said. "And the practice hasn''t been for nothing. I''ve gained a couple of Levels in my Mana Maniption, and I feel as if I can exert more control in line with my Level."
Reivyn returned his attention to the road in front of them. He was riding on a horse next to Kefira, not the same one he had arrived with, as it had never been recovered from their initial base camp that had been overrun by the enemy forces. Only the Major and his staff still had their horses, as the other officers had walked on their own two feet when they initiated the first battle.
The horses he and Kefira were riding on were extras that had been brought with Kayzor and his army. Seri also had her own horse, and she rode just a little behind and to the side of Kefira opposite Reivyn. Kayzor rode with his staff just a little ahead of them in the middle of the column. He was themanding general of the 50,000-strong army, but he didn''t need to micromanage everything, so he frequently fell back to talk with his sister.
The rest of Kayzor''s army had caught up with them a day and a half after the fight with the soul beast, except for the cavalry. They hadn''t had the opportunity to rest for very long, though, as they had to be immediately dispatched to deal with the escaped giant spiders. It wouldn''t be good to let them scatter too far and escape the deste sands into the surroundings. If arge group of them got away and happened onto a vige ormunity, it could be disastrous.
The cavalry had stayed outside of the loose sand, and Kayzor had sent word ahead to them. They had been ordered to circle around and try to prevent anyrge groups of spiders from escaping. If they were bunched up, it would be necessary to catch them, but if they spread out into smaller groups, they would be just like any other roaming monster. Adventurers or patrols would likely kill them before they had a chance to cause any damage in that case.
Even though the cavalry was mounted and able to move faster, the deste sands were huge. It would be well over a week to just get into position trying to circle around the whole thing, but luckily, the position that Reivyn and his battalion had taken up was on theplete opposite side of where the reinforcements had arrived from, and many of the spiders that would have gone north or west had ended up grouping up with the horde that had attacked their position. Not only that, but the group of spiders that had fled in the southeast direction had been eradicated by the army on their way to the center of the deste sands.
The cavalry split in half, one heading further north to block off the east and northeast and the other heading west to block off the south and southwest. Kayzor ordered his army to dispatch a battalion in the same four directions to pincer the spiders between the groups.
The operation had taken six days toplete, and Kayzor and the volunteer battalion had already exited the deste sands. There was no reason to meet back up in the center of the desert. The volunteer battalion, led fully by Major Dobrik once more, had already begun to split up and escort the civilians back to their cities scattered around the deste sands, and Kayzor and the imperial army had waited near Kirlon for the others that had been split off to handle the beasts to return.
Reivyn and Kefira hadn''t idled about in that time, either. They had continued practicing where they had left off, and that had eventually led to Kefira trying to teach Reivyn the previous method of ovepping the knots. Kefira had exined that with her Affinity Level, it wasn''t yet possible to ovep the entire structure of the Spell, so she had opted for the knots for efficiency.
"I have another question," Reivyn spoke up. "If you''re making multiple knots for every position in your Spell, doesn''t that slow down the Casting time significantly? Not only do you have to use whatever Affinity your actual Spell is consisting of, but you have to create additional points all over with the Space Affinity infused into it."
"Yeah, at first," Kefira answered. "When I first experimented with the method, it waspletely unusable in an actualbat situation, but practice increases the speed that it can be done. When my Affinity Level and mastery reached a certain Level, the System took over a portion of the heavy lifting. I''m capable of doing a double-knotted Spell just as fast as a single-knot Spell.
"Adding more still takes time, but it''s not that crazy. Being in the Mage Corps with the soldiers protecting us out front also allows me time to focus if I need to, but there are also diminishing returns. I''ve found that anything more than four knots just isn''t worth it. That might change when I''m able to do more than just the knots, but it''s definitely not something that will be infinitely scble. I would guess that if I include the entire Mana Weave structure, plus the imagining, eight or nine would be the maximum effectiveyers."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said. "What''s the benefit of doing so instead of just empowering more Mana into your Spells, though?"
"Not everyone is like you," Kefira rolled her eyes. "There''s an upper limit that one can boost their Spell power when using their System assisted Spells. I can''t just drop a thousand points of Mana into a Level 1 Spell and make it super strong as you can. We have to be inventive in how we work around the restrictions. I can use all of the same tricks as everyone else, but this one, at least for now, seems to be unique to me. I''ll be able to have just a little more oomph to my Spells that others won''t be expecting."
"Noted," Reivyn eyed her up and down, sizing her up for a fight.
Kefira reached over and shoved his shoulder.
"We look happy," Kayzor said as he sidled his horse up next to them. "Did you finally seed in whatever Kefira had you doing?"
"No, we figured it was a lost cause," Reivyn answered, exaggerating a dejected sigh.
"Well, look at that," Kayzor smirked. "The wonder boy can''t do everything." He winked and broke out into a grin to show that he was just joking.
"Wanna fight?!" Reivyn flexed his bicep and red at Kayzor over his arm.
Kayzor held his hands out, waving them in denial.
"No, no, no," Kayzor said. "I''m no good with Magic. Even though I was born with Mana, my talent is nothing to speak of in that regard, and I''ve focused mostly on my Martial Skills."
"That''s no problem," Kefira said, a gleam in her eye. "Reivyn has done some training with a sword, just like how our family has a minimum requirement to achieve. Maybe you can give him some pointers."
Kayzor looked at his sister in surprise before looking back to Reivyn for his opinion.
"I don''t mind," Reivyn shrugged. "I could go for some sparring."
"Well, not to be dismissive or anything, but if you''re the same age as Kefira, then I have a decade of training on you. Not only that, but my Stats are going to be considerably higher than yours, too. Are you sure you''re up for it? I could always have one of my otherpany-level officers spar with you."
"It should be fine," Reivyn said. "And you can always relegate your Stats somewhat. Let me see," Reivyn paused to double-check his Stats. "Just control your Strength and Dexterity to around 760 if you can."
"760!" Kayzor eximed. "What would that be, a couple of hundred points difference? You think you can handle a 200-point or more gap?!"
"What? No!" Reivyn denied. "That''s around what my Strength and Dexterity are. It would be an even matchup."
"You''re joking, right?" Kayzor looked between Reivyn and Kefira. When they didn''t have a reaction, he looked at Seri, and she just shrugged. "760?! Aren''t you a Caster? My Strength and Dexterity are only around 1,200, and I''m mid-Tier 4.
"My Intelligence and Magic Stats are much lower than your Strength and Dexterity. How did you get your off-Stats so high?"
"Trade secret," Reivyn replied. "You don''t think I wear heavy armor and carry a sword around for no reason, do you?"
"Alright, well, in that case, I''ll try and relegate my Stats to around that. It''s not something super urate, though, so it will probably be closer to 800 or so."
"That''s fine."
"Ok~ay. I guess we''ll have a little match when we stop for the evening."
Kayzor cantered back to his position to resume overseeing the army. Kefira chuckled as he left.
"He''s in for a surprise tonight," she said. "I won''t tell you what his Skill Level in Swords is, but it''s probably pretty close to yours. That being said, Swords aren''t his main Martial Skill."
"Oh, yeah? What''s his main weapon?" Reivyn asked.
"Spears. The Spear is the mainstay of the army, and in order to be a bettermander, he devoted a lot of attention to training with all of the weapons that his soldiers would use, and training in the spear isn''t a waste of time, either.
"I''m sure you''ve realized it, but training in a wide array of weapons for a Martial ss can unlock some better sses for people who can''t reach the required threshold in one specific weapon. My brother is good at both. Not only has he trained in a lot of different weapons, but he''s also good at a lot of them with high Skills. He''s a Master of the Spear, and he''s close with Swords."
"That''s great," Reivyn nodded. "I''m looking forward to it."
Reivyn and Kayzor stood apart, swords at the ready. They weren''t decked out in their armor, and they didn''t have shields, either. They were just using some wooden practice swords, and their Vitality was high enough that there was almost a 0% chance of seriously wounding one another. It was possible for things to go seriously wrong even with practice weapons, but that was for amateurs. Not being Skilled enough was more dangerous when it came to sparring than being highly Skilled.
Reivyn calmly assessed his opponent, and Kayzor did the same. They didn''t have arge crowd watching, as there were more important things to do than watch a bout between themanding general and a Caster. That didn''t mean there were no observers present, though. Several of the staff officers were watching, and Kefira and Seri were obviously there. Nobody was cheering for either side, though, as this was just a regr sparring match.
Kayzor glided forward quickly andunched a test strike at Reivyn. Reivyn didn''t budge and expertly parried the attack. Kayzor nodded his head and then closed the distance to exchange several moves.
The two took turns in stabbing, shing, and evading, circling around each other, and Kayzor''s face lit up with surprise at first and then a grin. He increased the pace and intensity of his moves, and Reivyn matched him strike for strike.
The cking of the weapons rang out into the evening air, and the staff officers began to watch the bout with more appreciation. Kayzor continued to speed up his attacks, and he began to throw in some trickier maneuvers as well to see how well Reivyn could respond.
Reivyn never missed a beat, and the two continued their exchange. Reivyn took the opportunity to perform a couple of his own more intricate attacks, as well, and Kayzor was pleasantly surprised. Reivyn could tell that he had started off a little apprehensively, but he was beginning to enjoy himself.
Kayzor wasn''t lying when he said that he couldn''t be too urate with relegating his Stats, and Reivyn was asionally pushed back by a heavier or faster strike than he could handle with his Stats alone. His Skill Level of Weapons Master, though, prevented Kayzor from gaining an upper hand in those situations. He calmly maintained his stance and was still able to counterattack to prevent Kayzor from gaining momentum.
The two moved back and forth around the little arena they had set up, getting faster and faster while maintaining their precision. The watching officers began to sweat as the match picked up to a point where it was hard for them to follow along. Reivyn was not only able to keep up, but he was even able to asionally put Kayzor on the back foot despite his advantage in Stats.
The practice match continued on for close to ten minutes. Both parties had incredibly high Stamina, so they were able to perform at high intensity for extended periods of time. The match finally ended when Reivyn took advantage of Kayzor striking too hard to bait him into overextending. Reivyn pretended to lose his bnce more than he previously had, and as Kayzor attempted to move in to capitalize on it and gain the momentum, Reivyn''s sword swept past his defense and struck him in the abdomen.
"Oof," Kayzor cried out involuntarily.
The two stopped in ce, Reivyn''s posture was tilted a bit on the back foot, and Kayzor was reaching forward, but Reivyn''s practice sword appeared to hold him in ce, resting against his ribs. The two straightened their postures up and looked at each other with respect.
"Very nice," Kayzor said. "I must say that I am pleasantly surprised. Your Skill in Swords has to be right at the Master Level, or even a few points higher."
"Yeah, I''m a bit familiar with Swords," Reivyn replied with a smile.
"Being too humble is also a form of bragging," Kayzor rolled his eyes. "You''ve clearly put in a lot of time and effort into your Swords Skill. Do you have any other weapons you''ve trained in? How about another match?"
"Sure," Reivyn said. "Kefira told me you''re a Master of the Spear, so how about a spar with spears? To take advice from you, I can tell you that I''m just as skilled with a spear as I am with a sword."
"Really?" Kayzor was taken aback. "When did you find the time to practice your Magic if you''re that well-versed in two different weapons?"
"There are special circumstances behind it," Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Well, fine with me."
Reivyn and Kayzor handed their wooden training swords to one of the watching officers, and they were handed spears with rounded tips in exchange.
The two faced off once more, standing with their spears at the ready. They had already gotten a good gauge of how each other moved, and after hearing that Reivyn was just as skilled with a spear as he was with a sword, Kayzor didn''t bother with any probing attacks. He dashed forward and struck like a viper.
Reivyn spun his spear up to deflect it up and to the side, but Kayzor maintained a good bnce, using the momentum of the strike to twirl the spear around and bring it back in a continuous motion to strike at Reivyn once again from the other side. Reivyn was used to sparring with his father, who had considerably more Stats and tricks than Kayzor did, so he wasn''t caught off guard by the move and deflected it as well.
The two once more entered into an intense struggle of back and forth with jabs, swipes, twirls, and parries. The wind from their spears was strong enough to blow the clothes and hair of the spectators watching from tens of yards away.
Kayzor suddenly leaped back and thrust his spear into the air.
"March of Spears!" He shouted.
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at the strange behavior. He hadn''t witnessed anyone call out a ss Skill to activate it in a long time, not since he had been part of the Lord''s Retinue back in Magron. He didn''t maintain the facial expression for long, though, as ethereal spears matched the movement of the one thrust into the air by Kayzor, except they exploded out of the ground in a line headed straight for Reivyn.
The ethereal spears moved much faster than he would even be able to Charge his opponent, and it reached him in the blink of an eye. He desperately dove out of the way, barely avoiding getting pierced from below by the Skill.
"Thousand Lances!"
Reivyn was still in the middle of scrambling to his feet when the next shout entered his ears, and he hastily brought his spear up, spinning it in a circle to block the next assault. Kayzor''s arm seemed to disappear as he thrust forward, and dozens of jabsunched out in a simr fashion as his previous Skill. They weren''tpletely ethereal strikes this time, though, and they were empowered by actual thrusts from Kayzor''s spear.
Reivyn was unable to maintain his block of the Skill with his spearmanship, and several of the strikes moved past his guard at lightning speed. He was struck seven times in seven different spots across his torso, from top to bottom. The power of the attack picked him up off his feet andunched him several yards back. Hended on his back with the wind knocked out of him.
He rolled over to his knee, propping himself up with the training spear. He had to maintain the position for a moment to recover his breath, though. He could inhale just fine, but when he tried to exhale, it was like he had no power behind it. The pain in his stomach and ribs wasn''t all that much as Kayzor had only used the appropriate amount of strength for the Skill, but the loss of not being able to expel his breath threatened to induce panic in Reivyn.
He felt his blood throbbing in his temple as he struggled to breathe, but he fought to maintain his calm. After only a few seconds ofbored breathing, he realized he wasn''t having any feelings of asphyxiation or anything.
Oh yeah, I can hold my breath for over an hour because of my vitality, Reivyn remembered.
Kayzor and Kefira reached him at the same time and helped him to his feet. Kefira had a worried look on her face as she looked at Reivyn, but once she realized he waspletely fine, she turned a fierce re onto her brother. Kayzor had a look of embarrassment on his face.
"Sorry about that, Reivyn," Kayzor said with a strained smile. "I got a little carried away."
"A little carried away?!" Kefira shouted. "I didn''t realize it was customary to use ss Skills in a friendly sparring match. I thought the purpose was to pit your Spears Skill against each other."
Reivyn waved his hand and shook his head when Kefira looked at him. He finally expelled his breath, and his breathing returned to normal.
"It''s alright," Reivyn said. "What I''m really curious about is why you shouted the Skill names when you invoked the Skills. Isn''t that something a newbie would do?"
"I did it for your benefit," Kayzor replied. "Even though I got caught in the moment and wanted to secure victory, I still knew we were in a sparring match. I guess you''ve never participated in a spar where you go all out with your ss Skills. It''s customary, at least in our imperial army, to shout the names of your Skills the first time you use them against an opponent in a spar.
"It allows the participants to understand exactly what their sparring partner is doing, as well as gives them a fraction of a second heads up."
"I guess that makes sense," Reivyn replied. "Are those your Tier 4 ss Skills?"
"The Thousand Lances Skill is one of them, but the March of Spears is from my Tier 3 ss. My Thousand Lances Skill is still very low, only about 12, which is why there was nowhere near a thousand spear thrusts. If I Level it up to 100, there would literally be a thousand thrusts in the span of just a few seconds."
"That''s... actually pretty amazing," Reivyn nodded his head. "Imagine being able to fuse that Skill with an infusion of your Mana. I imagine pumping the Piercing Affinity into your spear would make a truly deadlybination."
"Oh, believe me, I''ve been told," Kayzor tilted his head toward Kefira. "I''m just not that great with my Mana Skills and Affinities. I''ve been working on it, but I have a long way to go until I can do it easily."
Reivyn pped his hand down on Kefira''s arm as she surreptitiously lifted his shirt to check his body for wounds. He gave her a look, but her eyes shed in excitement.
"You''re going to have bruises on your stomach and chest from that attack," she said, bouncing up and down.
"Why do I feel like you''re happy about that?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"Come on! I''ll apply a balm to reduce the bruising and swelling!"
"Oooh," Reivyn was quick on the uptake.
Kefira grabbed his hand and began dragging him away, followed by Seri. Reivyn tossed his training spear to one of the watching officers and let himself get led away.
"See you tomorrow, brother!" Reivyn called out over his shoulder.
Reivyn didn''t look back to see the reaction on Kayzor''s face, but Kefira tilted her head back andughed.
Chapter 143: A Chore
Chapter 143: A Chore
"What''d you guys think?" Kayzor asked.
He was in hismand tent with his staff and aides, sipping on some tea after the bout with Reivyn. It had been a long time since he had had such an exhrating sparring match. Reivyn was nowhere near his opponent when it came to Stats, and that showed when he let his control slip, but his Skills were the real deal.
"An excellent find, my lord," his executive officer, Brigadier Cren, intoned. "I''ve only briefly skimmed the relevant reports regarding his Command ability, but it would appear that he has the foundationid like you need, to have a good understanding of how soldiers can be used to maximum effect."
Kayzor continued to sip his tea, not making anyment, yet.
"As it stands now, just because of his young age, he would have to fight an uphill battle to gain the respect of any troops we put under him," One of the battalionmanders said. "His Skills, though, qualify him to be an excellent trainer. If he spent some time training the troops in hand-to-handbat, he would gain their respect that way."
"I''m guessing he''s mid to high Tier 3, so we could also get him teamed up with an experienced squad for some Dungeon Delving to bring his Level up to raise his Stats," anothermander offered. "If he had the Stats, not just the Skills, to simply overawe the soldiers, he has the chance to really make a name for himself."
Many of the other officers nodded their heads along with the statements made by the seniormanders. The Army was 50,000 people strong. It was much more than just a battalion. It was a task force made up of two entire divisions. There were several high-ranking officers tagging along with Kayzor, and most of the staff officers and aides were too low-rank to feelfortable adding their opinion to the mix in their presence.
Most of them didn''t have a differing opinion, though, so they just nodded their heads.
"I think you''ve all misunderstood," Kayzor said, setting his teacup down. "I''m not asking you to evaluate his potential as a prospective officer."
"Forgive me, my lord, but wasn''t he a captain in the Oreck battalion?" The executive officer asked. Kayzor nodded his head in the affirmative. "And now he''s traveling with us to Wispan after having gained a lot of merit fighting against the invaders..." Kayzor nodded once more. "Sooo... isn''t he being recruited to the Imperial Army?"
"Nope," Kayzor shook his head. He looked at his officers with a slightly confused face. "You have noticed my sister, right? And the rtionship they have together?"
The officers shared a look with each other before turning back to face Kayzor.
"We''ve been very busy, my lord, so we haven''t paid too much attention to it. Isn''t he just a young talent that the youngdy has discovered and befriended?"
Kayzor barked augh.
"No," he shook his head. "He''s courting her."
Gasps filled the room at the news.
"Isn''t Lady Kefira the..."
Kayzor held a hand up to stop the executive officer from continuing.
"Forgive me, my lord," he bowed his head.
Not everyone present was qualified to know the secrets involving the imperial family. Kayzor took a moment to scan the faces of the officers present to see if he could spot anyone perking up or paying unusual attention to the line of conversation that was just caught. He had been leading these men for a long time, now, though, and they had all been rigorously vetted. Nobody seemed to want to pry, so he let it go for now.
I should have one of my personal bodyguards shadow the executive officer for a while, just in case, Kayzor thought. See if anyone fishes for information. It''s not healthy to be so paranoid about my own men, but that was a pretty serious blunder involving a very serious secret.
"Back on track," Kayzor said, picking his teacup back up, but not drinking just yet. "After hearing about his exploits and seeing his Casting and Martial Skills in person, I''ve decided to give him a chance. That being said, I know my own biases, and I wanted the opinion of my subordinates to see if I missed anything."
"I can say that his talent seems to be on par with Lady Kefira, from what I''ve seen," Cren said, giving a meaningful look to Kayzor. "I''ll have to look into the records to know for sure, though. We haven''t known him long enough to gauge his character, though."
"I understand that," Kayzor said. "There''s still time for that, but I just wanted to know your honest thoughts on the matter. They''re not really hiding their rtionship, so it''ll be public knowledge, eventually, when we return to Wispan. I just wanted to know your thoughts on the matter against public opinion.
"None of you saw my sister drag him off to put balm on his wounds? I for sure thought you all would have made the connection."
"Ahem," one of the battalionmanders coughed into his hand. "Personally, I assumed she was going to have Lady Seri do it."
"Oh," Kayzor said. He sat there in silence for a couple of seconds. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"If you want to truly know public opinion from our observations, it would be a good idea to spread rumors about the sparring match," another colonel said. "We were the only ones present, and if people don''t know about his Skill, they''ll assume the worst on ount of it involving one of the Imperial Family members with an unknown."
"That''s an excellent point," Kayzor said. "I''ll leave it up to you guys to make sure such rumors reach the ears of the troops. If they unjustly think badly of Reivyn, then that might cause Kefira to suffer some hardship."
It''s better that Reivyn gets a helping hand from me than to let Kefira worry about what the people are saying about him, Kayzor justified to himself. He was unaware that he was already more than halfway bought to fully supporting Reivyn and his rtionship with his sister.
The conversation about Reivyn and Kefira ended, and the officers moved on to other subjects of importance. Kayzor would leave it up to the officers to figure out how to spread the word about Reivyn''s Skills. He had faith that his men would do a good job of it. Most of his officers hadn''t been present to witness him in action against the soul beast, either, and he would have them trickle that information down once they read the reports, as well.
Anyone who wants to court my sister has to be the ultimate talent, Kayzor thought. I don''t know if that''s Reivyn, or not, but he''s the closest I''ve seen so far.
Reivyn was unaware of Kayzor''s scheming to make sure the troops had a positive opinion of him. He was sitting with Kefira, his shirt off, as they continued practicing their Spellcraft. He had made to put his shirt back on after Kefira had applied the soothing balm, but Kefira had pointed out that it needed time to dry. It was left conveniently forgotten long after the balm was no longer moist, though.
Reivyn concentrated on pouring his Mana, pure and not infused with any Affinity, into Kefira''s thread. She was sitting in front of him, and she was drilling a hole in reality with her Space Affinity. She had gotten practice on repairing the jagged edges of a rent in space and patching it back up, but she hadn''t tried to make a space tear in quite this way herself.
"What was it like?" Kefira asked. She didn''t have to concentrate too hard on her task, as she was just drilling a hole. Theplicated parts hadn''te up, yet.
"What was what like?" Reivyn asked.
"Being outside the Realm."
"Oh, it was... amazing. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I could see multiple Realms floating in the void, giving off their own unique light, and there was a sea of those sparks floating about between them in the emptiness. Without thembining together to attack me, they gave off a tranquil feeling.
"If I had to describe it, I would say it was like standing in the stars in the sky, but the stars were practically within reach."
"I would like to experience it for myself one day," Kefira said whimsically.
"We''ll need to figure out a way to safeguard ourselves from those soul sparks, first. They were just as attracted to you as they were to me, and that''s their home turf."
"Oh, I know. I wonder if we could get something simr to the amulet I use to seal a portion of my soul, but one that masks the signature instead?"
"Hmm... I don''t know what kind of talented craftsmen you have in Wispan, but I imagine that''s something my sisters could cook up in several years when they''re older and have formidable sses of their own."
"You think they''re going to go the Lifestyle ss route? Would your parents agree to that?"
"My parents have never pushed us in any particr direction other than being the best at what we choose. My mother might have had ns for what the twins could be in the future when she started teaching them Mana techniques, but I''m sure she just wants them to be happy and pursue whatever they want to."
"A hidden upside to losing your court," Kefira chuckled. "If you guys had remained in your empire, then their tutge would have been much more strict."
"Did your parents force you down the path you''ve chosen?"
"Um... kind of? They definitely wouldn''t have agreed to me choosing a Lifestyle ss, and I''m expected to contribute to the Imperial Family and the empire, but I have a fair amount of freedom on how I choose to do that. Being born with a powerful soul and natural talent for the Space/Time Affinity, though, has narrowed my choices down a lot, and my parents wouldn''t let me ignore those gifts."
"Sounds like your parents are pretty lenient and fair, to me," Reivyn said.
"I realize that now, of course, but I didn''t always. I''m also the youngest, and most of the responsibilities expected of imperial children have already been ounted for, so that gives me a lot of freedom of choice."
"How many siblings do you have, again?"
"Five older siblings. Kayzor you''ve met, and he''s my third brother. Sophia, you''ve heard mentioned, and she''s my fourth sister. Garet is my first brother, the oldest and crown prince, Faria is my second sister, and Trevor is my fifth brother. He''s only three years older than I am, but I''m closest to Sophia and Kayzor."
"So three brothers and two sisters. Pretty even spread, with you counted in the mix. What about Seri? I noticed that the two of you have the same type of eyes."
Reivyn heard Seri snort in the background at Reivyn''s inquiry.
"She''s from a loyal, noble family. We have simr eyes because my mother is her aunt."
"And she''s your bodyguard?" Reivyn asked with some surprise.
"Technically she''s mydy in waiting," Kefira answered. "But she''s far too rambunctious to sit around in a dress all day, managing my affairs. Plus I like her just where she is. There are a couple of otherdies in attendance that handle those duties."
"So if she''s not your official bodyguard, do you have others?"
"Of course," Kefira nodded. "But it''s traditional to only take one with us when we go out for Life Experience, and there was no way I was not going to bring Seri with me. She''s close enough to my Level and Skill Level that we can Party together directly, and we don''t have to worry too much about crime or assassins, or anything like that."
"Well that''s good to know," Reivyn said. "It''s good to know that I can rest easy without having to worry abouting to your aid from a surprise attack in the middle of the night."
Kefira turned around a bit and swatted Reivyn on the shoulder.
"I see how it is. Turning it around about how it''s good for you."
Reivyn justughed, and Kefira joined him after a short re.
"Let''s see if we can punch the hole a bit deeper before we quit for the night," Kefira said, turning her full attention back to the task at hand.
"Sure thing," Reivyn said, resuming his own concentration.
The March back to Oreck seemed to take longer than their March to engage the invaders. It was actually shorter, what with the soldiers being higher Level and better at Marching, but Reivyn didn''t have as much to do. He didn''t have apany to oversee, and he and Kefira didn''t spend their entire time working on their Mana Skills.
Thendscape slowly drew past them as they made their way, but there wasn''t much that caught Reivyn''s attention. He found himself watching the soldiers whenever Kayzor came back to chat with his sister, though he would asionally converse with her brother when he was brought into the conversation, too. Most of the time, though, Reivyn and Kefira just rode inpanionable silence.
There really wasn''t a need to talk to each other nonstop, and they simply enjoyed each other''s presence. The leisurely March back without having to check up on troops or worry about the impending battles, plus the pleasantpany, made it seem like it was both fast and slow at the same time.
They eventually did reach Oreck, though, and Kayzor allowed for the troops to set up camp outside the city to take a break. They would be allowed to enter the city for some personal time on a rotating basis, and Kayzor also knew that Reivyn wanted to meet up with his pals onest time if they made it before they had to move on.
Kayzor wasn''t free to apany his sister strolling through the city, but Reivyn, Kefira, and Seri were. The first ce Reivyn went was to the Adventurer''s Guild to check up on hismission. They were too far away from Garoq for the records of the money his guide to the Revenant Dungeon generated to be essible, but he wasn''t worried about it. He had already withdrawn funds before getting transported across the Realm, and he had been paid by the supply officer for his time in the battalion.
As expected there had been no progress yet made on hismission of finding the path back home, but Reivyn had expected that.
"So where do you want to go, now?" Reivyn asked Kefira as they stepped out onto the busy street.
"Well, Seri and I didn''t sell all of the silk we had acquired in the Lizaldon settlement," Kefira said, a sparkle in her eye. "Wemissioned some outfits of our own to be made, but we never had a chance to pick them up before we left. We did pay for it and send notice to the shops that it could be a while before we could, though, so they should still be waiting for us."
"So we''re going to go shopping?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"Of course!" Kefira jumped up and down in glee.
Reivyn could already feel the energy draining out of his body. Every time he went shopping, it was like he had a hole in the soles of his feet, and his Stamina leaked out of it into the ground. He didn''t know why he felt that way, but it was the main reason he usually didn''t like going shopping. Looking at some high-qualitybat gear, though, didn''t seem to have that effect on him.
He resigned himself to his feet as he followed Kefira and Seri energetically making their way through the crowd to a prominent tailor. His shoulders sagged and his feet dragged, but he didn''tin out loud.
They stepped through the doors of the shop, and the two girls made a beeline to the counter. Kefira pulled out a scrip and handed it to the attendant.
"Here to pick up ourmissions," Kefira said.
The attendant looked at the scrip and motioned for them to wait a moment as she went to the back of the store to bring the clothing items out. It didn''t take long, and she quickly returned to the front of the store with several outfits in her arms.
"Would you like to try them on to make sure they fit the way you want them to?" The attendant asked.
"Of course!" Seri took the bundle, and Kefira snagged a dress on the top of the pile. She turned to Reivyn and winked. "Just wait a moment."
Reivyn nodded his head, but inside he was in turmoil.
If she tries on every single one of those outfits, this is going to take forever, Reivyn groaned internally.
Kefira had been dressed in her customary Adventurer gear, a battle robe, and armor, so it took a bit of time for her to switch outfits. She eventually returned from the fitting room, and she struck a pose in front of Reivyn.
"What do you think?" She asked.
The dress she had taken fit her body perfectly. Without the constraints of her armor, Reivyn was able to see all of her curves. The dress was split on either side, but Kefira wore a pair of silk leggings underneath that were obviously a matching pair.
Reivyn looked her up and down, a bright smile on his face.
"It looks amazing," he said.
Maybe this isn''t going to be such a chore, after all.
Chapter 144: Drunk as if Dreaming
Chapter 144: Drunk as if Dreaming
Reivyn tilted the mug back and downed the contents. His throat chugged several times as he drank the brew. The loud sounds of his friends cheering him on, encouraging him to drink as much as possible, drowned out the other sounds of the tavern.
Reivyn mmed his mug down to the approval of the soldiers-returned-Adventurers around him. Jek, Derik, Furok, Grent, Laris, Jekle, and even Morrin, the lieutenant from thepany next to Reivyn''s that had teamed up with him after the first battle, were all in attendance. Kefira and Seri were present, too, but they took a more demure stance this evening, as they understood Reivyn''s former officers wanted to give him a good send-off.
She wasn''t excluded, nor felt left out, from the evening''s activities, because even though she had been a bit separated from them in the action, she and Seri, too, had participated in the life-or-death struggles alongside them.
Reivyn''s vision swam just a bit, seeming to perpetually tilt to one side, but never quite tipping over. He knew that he was beyond tipsy, but he didn''t mind too much. The drinks that he was continuing to add to the debt would hit him soon, but he wasn''t going to spoil everyone''s fun by bowing out.
He was the youngest one present that was drinking heavily, but he had an advantage in Vitality over everyone else. Their Skill with Alcohol Tolerance, something they told him he wouldn''t unlock until he regained his sobriety the next morning, though, allowed them to match him drink for drink. It also wasn''t fair that they took turns toasting him instead of everyone drinking at once.
Everyone''s face had a blush to it as the alcohol and the environment got their blood running, and Reivyn could practically feel the alcohol seep into his blood and rush to his brain as his heart pumped. As Adventurers, they didn''t go to a tavern that catered to the Lifestyle ssers. Everyone in the tavern had higher Vitality than the average citizen, so the drinks likewise had an added punch to them.
Reivyn vaguely recalled his father talking about having to drink literal Mana poison in order to get tipsy or drunk with his high Vitality Stat, and he wondered if the drinks here contained a little bit of something simr. The taste of alcohol wasn''t overpowering, in fact, it was a bit subtle. The vor of the drinks was a trap to get people to spend more money as their inhibitions lowered faster than they expected.
The price of the drinks was never considered, though, as Kefira had immediately dered that the night was on her, and for everyone to just let loose and have fun. She only sipped on a couple of drinks, though, and Seri only had one at the insistence of her charge.
"Sho, Captain, you''re going to be leaving uss for the wider world, huh?" Jek said, throwing his arm and holding his mug over Reivyn''s shoulder. Some of the liquid in the mug sloshed out over the brim, but nobody paid it any mind.
"Well, yeah," Reivyn replied. "I wash with Kef, Kef, Kefira before I ever shigned up for the army."
Kefira hid a giggle behind her hand, and Reivyn peered at her in confusion at what was so amusing. He and Jek were having a perfectly articte, reasonable conversation about the future, and it involved her. What was so funny about that?
"What I wouldn''t give to go with you," Jek got a far-off look in his eye.
"Why dont''cha?" Reivyn asked back.
"C''mon!" Jek removed his arm from around Reivyn''s shoulder and gestured wildly with it, sloshing even more drink onto the table. "You''re all hooked up with the Imperirmy. No ce fer a Jek like me."
"Thene after."
"Hey! That''sh a great idea," Jek perked up like the thought had never crossed his mind. He turned to face another person a couple of seats over. "Yo! Jeky, Jeky, Jekle-boy, how''sh about I join yer crew and we get our buttsh on up to Wishpan."
Jekle had been in the middle of taking a drink when Jek called out to him. He calmly lowered his mug and gave Jek a serious look. He was obviously not nearly as intoxicated as the others around the table.
"My guys and I have seriously been considering it, but we didn''t know if we had what it takes just yet," Jekle said, perfectly clearly. "If you join up with us, and especially if we can get a couple of Casters, too, we can form arger group to make apany. If you''re really serious about it, let''s talk when you''re sober."
"Fer real?" Jek swayed a bit from side to side. "Yeah, jusht remind me in the morn''."
"I can rmend a few Casters to you," Kefira said to Jekle. "There were a few that I think had the same idea as you guys, but I don''t know if they have their own Party or not. I can ask them before we leave in a couple of days."
"I''d appreciate that," Jekle nodded.
"Yeah! And if they shay no, I''ll give ''em a good ''ole zap with me lightning," Reivyn chimed in. "I''ll shay, ''Whatthehellsthematterwithyou! Thish ish the opportunity of a lifetime! A lifetime!"
"Of course you will," Kefira patted him on the shoulder.
Reivyn nced at his shoulder where Kefira had patted him for a couple of seconds before grabbing a fresh mug set in front of him to continue with the celebration. He lowered the mug, already half-drained, and wiped his mouth. When he looked up, he saw two familiar faces standing nearby.
"Sten! Dowell! How ya been?!" Reivyn called out to them with a smile.
He had initially joined up with the army at their request in order to help free their families from captivity, but he hadn''t seen them since the day they had all signed up. He looked around for a moment before turning back to the duo.
"Where''s Cinna?" He asked.
Sten and Dowell''s faces lost a bit of their cheer, and they lowered their heads in silence. Because of the drink, it took Reivyn''s mind a couple of seconds to figure out what their silence meant, but he eventually made the connection. He set his mug down, stood up, and grabbed Sten into a bear hug.
"I''m sorry," He said, patting the other man on the back.
Sten stood in ce for a second, hesitant about how to react, but he gave into his emotions and hugged Reivyn back. Reivyn stepped back and repeated the process with Dowell. As far as he knew, Dowell had been closer to Cinna, but they all three had been a team for many years. A single tear escaped Dowell''s eye and fell down his face.
"What about your families?" Reivyn asked in a subdued voice.
"All good," Sten said, wiping at his eyes. "And Cinna''s family, too. We lost him on that first day, so he never got to hear the news, but I''m sure he would have been happy to know."
"That he would. That he would," Reivyn nodded.
"We just wanted to drop by and say thank you for all that you did," Sten continued. "We heard about the things you and your toons did in stopping the teleportation circle as well as figuring out the runes. I know we didn''t end up stopping them from doing what they came here for, but we aplished the goal we set out to do."
"We might not have fought side by side, but we fought together nhlesh," Reivyn tried to keep his voice from slurring, but he could only do so much. "That makes us brothers. You don''t have to mention anything like thanksh to me. Here, have a drink in honor of our other brother."
Sten and Dowell were handed a mug, and Reivyn grabbed his from the table and raised it up.
"To our fallen brothers. Lost, but never forgotten."
"Lost, but never forgotten," everyone in attendance echoed.
They all took a hearty swig from their drinks, and the others continued what they had been doing before. Reivyn hadn''t realized the others had paid attention to his conversation with Sten and Dowell, but, based on their reaction, they felt a simr way even though they had never actually met the two, or Cinna, before this evening.
Sten and Dowell didn''t stick around for too long, but they did converse with several others before departing. The rest of the evening faded to darkness, and Reivyn didn''t recall anything else.
Kefira sighed as she watched the sleeping form of Reivyn. It was nearly noon, and Reivyn still hadn''t woken up from his drunken stupor. She wasn''t worried or anything, though, as she watched his chest rise and fall with his breath. Despite the state he had gotten himself into the previous night, he looked content and at peace while asleep.
They hadn''t gone back to the camp outside the city walls, and everyone had booked a room upstairs in the establishment before they had started drinking. Kefira hadn''t slept in the same room with Reivyn, and Seri was having none of that no matter how dead to the world Reivyn was, but they had gone back over to his room after they had gotten up and had breakfast.
"What am I going to do with you?" Kefira whispered to herself.
Once Reivyn had gotten past a certain point in his inebriation, it was like he turned into a different person. No more was the calm, collected individual with tact. He turned into just about the cockiest person she had ever met.
At one point he had challenged some others to a dance-off of sorts, and they had climbed up onto the table to do so. It took a bit of persuasion, and a little bit of force, to help the tavern staff get them down. Reivyn had actually been surprisingly good at it, though, and he had given more than a few winks and moves in her direction.
Kefira''s face blushed at the memory, and she pped either side of her face.
She had apologized profusely to the staff, and she had somehow convinced them not to kick them out of the establishment, but that was the end of the alcoholic drinks. The drunk Adventurers didn''t seem to notice, though, and Reivyn even eximed at one point that his tolerance had gotten so high that the drinks tasted like water.
Kefira and Seri had shared augh at that, as Reivyn''s mug had been filled from a pitcher of water right in front of his face. They had gotten a lot of water into them after that point, and some of the more experienced Adventurers like Jek and Jekle seemed to know what was going on, but they just went with it like it was perfectly normal.
Apparently, it wasmon practice to switch out the alcoholic beverages with water after a certain point as a courtesy to help alleviate the symptoms of the next day''s hangover. Kefira had never known that, but she had also never frequented such establishments before.
Reivyn stirred in his sleep, and Kefira perked up. After a moment of moving around, his eyes slowly opened. He remained still as he stared at the ceiling, apparently trying to figure out where he was and how he had gotten there.
"Good morning," Kefira said.
Reivyn didn''t even flinch, and she wondered about his reaction. He hadn''t looked at her, so she didn''t know how he knew that she was there.
"That was incredibly strange," Reivyn said, groaning as he rolled over to sit up.
"What was?" Kefira tilted her head and asked with a sweet smile.
"Hold on," Reivyn held his hand up, palm out to her. "I know what you''re going to say, and before I go into what I was talking about, I have no idea who Ashleigh is."
"Why, whatever do you mean?" Kefira kept the smile on her face.
"I really, truly have never met a woman, or girl, named Ashleigh before. I have no idea who she is or why I would call you that. Unless..." Reivyn trailed off in thought.
Kefira gave him a minute to continue, but he just sat there for several moments
"Unless... What?"
Reivyn seemed startled at the question and looked up at Kefira.
"Have I ever told you about my Dreams?" He answered with a question.
"I don''t believe you have," Kefira said, the sweet smile reced with a serious expression.
"Well, all my life, I''ve had these Dreams - memories, even - and in them, I''m a different person. I was Marc, and I had a wife named Ashleigh. The only thing I can think of is that those Dream memories were interfering with my mind when I was drunk, and I referred to you as Marc''s wife."
"Hmm... That makes me feel a little better," Kefira said. "But you better hope I never find out that you''re lying, or you and this Ashleigh character are going to have some exining to do."
"Of course, of course," Reivyn hastily nodded. "I would never lie about something as important as this."
"So what was the strange thing you mentioned?"
"Oh, that. I got a new Skill a while back that helps me perceive the world in a unique way. I''m assuming it had something to do with the alcohol or the Mana poison that spikes it, but I was able to perceive the world simultaneouslypletely sober and intoxicated.
"That being said, I couldn''t act on my sober perception, nor think clearly. It even worked while I was passed out, which is why I wasn''t surprised that you were already here this morning. I knew you were here before I even woke up.
"It was the strangest experience, and now that I''m sober and can remember most of the night, the ovep in my memory is crazy. I also remember dancing on the table and drinking the water, but there''s no ovep with my inebriated memory. That''s just a nk."
"Figures. You did get pretty wastedst night," Kefira flipped her hair over her shoulder as she crossed her legs. "I mean, you would have had to have beenpletely gone to refer to me by some other woman''s name."
Reivyn stared at her for a second before scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"You''re never going to let me live that down, are you?" He asked.
"Nope," Kefira grinned. "Hopefully I won''t let something about it slip in front of my mother. Who knows what kind of reaction she would have."
"Pft. From all the hints you''ve been dropping, I would guess she would seek out this imaginary Ashleigh and try to pawn me off to her to keep me away from you."
"That, or she could create a new one. Or maybe she''ll kill you, saying she''s just sending you back to your past life''s wife."
Reivyn sat in silence for a moment.
"Past life, huh? Do you think that''s what it could be? I''ve always been a bit suspicious, but never willing tomit because of the ramifications."
"Oh, I was joking," Kefira said, sitting up straight. "But if that''s really the case, let''s hope Ashleigh didn''t get reincarnated, too, because I''m not giving you back."
"Really? That''s a pretty bold statement,ing from you."
"I know what I want, and we''ve been together long enough and been through enough that we can be totally honest with each other and our rtionship."
"I agree," Reivyn said, reaching over and giving her hand a squeeze. "With both being honest and with what we want."
"Good," Kefira smiled.
She leaned forward and gave Reivyn a kiss, but before it could get any deeper than much more than a peck, an annoying cough interrupted them. She pulled back to re over her shoulder at Seri sitting in the corner of the room. In defiance, she turned back and gave Reivyn a deeper kiss before pulling away. Seri just rolled her eyes.
"How do you feel? Hungover?" Kefira asked. Reivyn shook his head. "Then are you up for getting some lunch?"
"Sure," Reivyn said. "Just let me get changed."
He was still in the same clothes he had worn the night before. Kefira was going to remove them so he could sleep morefortably - honest - but Seri had shut that down.
Reivyn stood up and grabbed his pack that he had deposited in the room before the celebration and pulled out a change of clothes. Seri stood up to follow Kefira out the door, but Kefira remained in her seat, watching Reivyn.
Seri coughed once more, and Kefira looked up to see her standing with her arms crossed, tapping her foot.
"What?" Kefira asked innocently. "It''s not like he''s going to get naked, and it''s nothing I haven''t seen before."
Seri just lowered her head and managed to somehow intensify her look of disapproval. Kefira rolled her eyes and huffed as she stood up.
"Fi~ne!" She pouted.
Kefira tromped across the room and exited behind Seri. It didn''t take Reivyn long to change his clothes, and she could tell that he had even taken the time to use the water basin to clean up a bit beforeing out. He didn''t smell of alcohol or act like he had gottenpletely drunk the night before, and he didn''t seem to have anysting negative effects.
The three of them went down to themon room where the other participants of the evening''s celebration were already seated at a table. They had a rxing lunch where they bid theirpanions farewell.
Chapter 145: Wisp of Mana
Chapter 145: Wisp of Mana
It was a strange thing. The climate shifted abruptly as Reivyn and the Imperial Army crossed over from Drallo to Wispan. He had never been to one of the borders of a region before, but he had suspected that it would be a more gradual shift. The ambient Mana in the environment was definitely higher in the Tier 3 Region at the border to the Tier 4 Region, but the weather and flora were like a line drawn in the sand.
It was clearly visible from a couple of miles away. Thendscape was orange-brown all around, and in the distance was a green line. Thendscape itself, the hills and elevation, didn''t change abruptly, but the shift stood out in stark contrast.
The road leading to Wispan was well-paved all the way to the border, but there was another clear distinction once the road actually entered the higher Tier Region. It was clear that the highway was maintained by two different powers for the two different portions of it, and it was also clear that the base materials used were ofpletely different quality. The stones paving the highway on the Wispan side practically glowed whenpared to what Reivyn had been traveling on up to this point.
I hadn''t had a good example to clearlypare it to before, Reivyn idly thought, but now that I think about it, the quality of the highway in Drallo is exponentially higher than the ones in Garoq. A lot of the "highways" in Garoq had been dirt paths, and only the ones leading from major city to major city had been paved at all.
There was a guard post at the border on the highway, and soldiers dressed in simr, but not quite as high-quality armor as the soldiers in Kayzor''s army, inspected the people traveling along the highway. The traveling pedestrians got out of the way of the Marching army, and therge gate that was closed to regr traffic was opened without question. Not only was the Imperial Army immediately recognized, but they had been expected, too.
There had always been something that bothered Reivyn about the immigration between Regions, and now that he was about to experience it personally for the first time, he finally decided to ask the question. He leaned over a bit and addressed Kefira with his inquiry.
"So, I understand that the immigration and emigration of the Regions are regted, but why don''t more people just go around the checkpoints? It''s not like there''s a wall or anything keeping people out, and it would make a lot of sense for people who live too far away from any checkpoints but close to the border to just hop over."
"Ahh, a lot of people who haven''t actually made the journey have the same questions," Kefira said. "There''s actually nothing that prevents people from doing so, and a lot of people actually do; however, there''s a benefit for crossing over ''officially.''
"People who go through the checkpoint receive a Mana imprint, and that imprint can allow easier ess to many things in the higher Tier Region. You came from a Tier 1 Region, and there are literally no lower Tiers than that, so they don''t ever have to worry about such a thing. The Mana imprint can get you faster eptance to a job, reduced rates of rent rtive to those who don''t have the imprint, and a fast track to gaining citizenship to the higher Tier Region.
"It''s not strictly necessary to get the imprint, as all of those things can be gained through one''s own hard work, regardless, but it makes it a lot easier. People moving up typically have a harder timepeting for jobs and resources against the local residents, and getting faster admittance to a job and lower rates go a long way in easing that burden.
"Technically, you wouldn''t have to go through the checkpoint to get your Mana imprint, because you''ve been epted to the Magic Academy. All you would have to do is visit the Magic Academy in the capital, and upon proving you are who you say you are, you would get the imprint with the student ID. At that point, the imprint is superfluous, though, because the student ID of the Magic Academy provides a simr function, but to a higher degree.
"Andst, but not least, your token as my Imperial Liaison is a couple of steps above even that, so it doesn''t really matter if you go to the Magic Academy or go through the checkpoint officially. If you really want to go to the Magic Academy to further your studies, that can be arranged, but I have the power to send a missive about your appointment as my liaison and you''ll automatically be considered a graduate of the Wispan Magic Academy with full honors."
"Wow, really? What do ''full honors'' get me?" Reivyn asked. "And what about the people who are born here?"
"Having full honors means nothing much, at this point," Kefira shrugged, and Reivyn frowned. Kefira nced at his face and chuckled. "It''s actually the prerequisite step to seeking employment with the Imperial Family for those that do so the normal way, thus the automatic designation for your case.
"As for the local-born popce, they receive the Mana imprint from the environment while being nurtured by the local Mana in the womb. For those mothers that have traveled outside of their native Region, their own Mana imprint will do the same thing, but it will draw upon their Mana instead of doing so naturally. It''s not any different from the one that you''ll receive artificially, so people can''t distinguish whether you''re a local or not from the imprint alone."
"Ahh, I see. That''s interesting."
"So you probably have the Tier 4 Mana imprint from your parents'' empire," Kefira gave him a sideways nce.
"Will that be a problem?" Reivyn asked.
"No. The Mana imprint for Wispan will just add itself to yours. For anyone in Wispan, it will appear as if you have our Mana imprint, and if you ever return to your parents'' empire, it will appear as if you have theirs. Mana imprints aren''t mutually exclusive."
"Oh, that would exin why I never got any weird looks or had any trouble while in Drallo," Reivyn had an epiphany. "My inherent Mana imprint appeared as if I was from a higher Tier Region. How do people check that, though? Not everyone is Tier 4 or born with ess to Mana."
"There are magic devices used at the more prominent establishments. Not all of them have them, but high-end realtors and businesses definitely do."
Reivyn had been feeling the uptick in the ambient Mana as they had drawn closer to the border, but as soon as they crossed over the demarcation into Wispan, the increase in density hit him in the face. It was magnitudes higher than even what it was a couple of steps behind him in the Tier 3 Region. He couldn''t even begin to imagine what it would be like to step into a Tier 5 or 6 Region.
It''s not that the Mana gradually increases in density as we get closer to the Tier 4 Region, Reivyn realized. It''s that the Mana is so much higher in the Tier 4 Region that the little bit that leaks out has a noticeable effect. I guess it makes sense that the guards manning the checkpoint are all on the Tier 4 side of the border.
He hadn''t really paid attention to the fact until he experienced the difference, but now that it was so obvious, it was clear that there were zero people guarding the border on the actual Tier 3 side. The emigration from the Tier 4 Region wasn''t nearly as regted as the immigration to it, so there weren''t even any guards watching those that were leaving.
I''m not sure about their stance on guarding against fleeing criminals, but either the crime rate is low enough that it''s not an issue, or they have other systems in ce to ount for it.
"Should I go ahead and take a minute to hop over to the guard post to get the Mana imprint?" Reivyn asked. "I know you said it''s not necessary, but there might be some questions if people see my insignia but I don''t have the Mana imprint, especially at my age. I''m not old enough to look like I''ve lived long enough to gain citizenship to qualify for the things you''ve described through my own hard work."
"It couldn''t hurt," Kefira nodded her head. "Seeing youe from within the ranks of the Imperial Army would also expedite the process, so it shouldn''t take more than a couple of minutes. Your insignia, aside from being proof of qualifications in and of itself, also contains your merit points and technical achievement of acting as an Imperial officer in the Imperial Army for the expedition."
"Alright, I''ll be back in a minute, then," Reivyn said, steering his horse to the side to angle towards a horse post outside the guard house.
Several of the soldiers manning the checkpoint watched him approach, not knowing what he could want from them. He had been part of the column of the Imperial Army, and his physical position among the ranks had been close to themand staff, but he wasn''t dressed in the armor or uniform of one of its soldiers. He was just in clothes that he had acquired while in Oreck. They were high quality, but they weren''t indicative of a military officer or Wispan nobleman.
"What can we help you with, sir?" One of the soldiers approached as Reivyn tied the reins to the post. He seemed apprehensive about how he should address Reivyn, and he had just defaulted to calling him ''sir.''
Reivyn turned so that the Imperial Liaison insignia was prominent on his chest, and he smiled at the inquiring soldier. The man''s eyes nearly popped out of his head when theynded on the insignia.
"I need help getting the Mana Imprint," Reivyn exined. "I would like to avoid any unnecessary confusion in the future when people think there''s a discrepancy between having this insignia but not having the Mana imprint."
"Of course, my lord," the soldier bowed. "If you''ll follow me into the guardhouse, I''ll notify the Captain, and he can handle the procedure personally."
Reivyn wasn''t entirely clear on all the protocols and etiquette for the Imperial Army and the nobles of Wispan, but it would appear that the soldier had judged that he wasn''t an officer in the army and thus didn''t warrant a salute. He also wasn''t some random person, though, and he had a direct affiliation with a member of the Imperial Family. Even if he wasn''t born of Wispan noble blood, he was definitely higher on the totem pole than any of the soldiers on the border.
He didn''t have to wait long until a man with the captain''s insignia on his uniform came rushing into the building. He wasn''t dressed in armor like the rest of the soldiers on duty, but Reivyn could tell that he hadn''t hastily put his uniform on, either. He had been dressed appropriately the whole time.
Not sure if he''s a stickler for propriety, or if he wasn''t taking any chances with Kayzor''s army unit passing through his checkpoint, Reivyn thought.
The man ran up in front of Reivyn and sketched a hasty, though proper, bow.
"I''ve been informed about your request, my lord, and I''ll be more than happy to get right on it for you," the Captain said.
Reivyn unpinned his insignia and handed it to the startled man. The Captain held it in two hands like it was a precious gem that would shatter if he dropped it.
"Let''s make sure all of the proper procedures are followed," Reivyn said. "You can ess the relevant information for my qualifications with the insignia."
The insignia was obviously more than just a rank emblem. It acted much like his Adventurer''s Guild and Academy tokens had. One could use a magic device intended to do so to link up with it and extract the information magically contained within. All of that information had already been uploaded to the insignia before Major Dobrik had ever handed it over to him.
"Right away, my lord," the Captain rushed around the counter as some of the other soldiers watched on with wide eyes.
It hadn''t been publicized to the others present who Reivyn was, but some of the more observant soldiers had gotten a look at the insignia that Reivyn had passed over and their postures had immediately straightened until Reivyn was sure he could throw them like a javelin.
The Captain didn''t have to wait for anyone else to get done with the inspection of qualifications, and he immediately got to work on properly recording everything. It only took a couple of minutes to make sure everything was in order, and he gestured for Reivyn to step on an obvious Magic Rune to the side of the counter in the spacious room.
"If you''ll stand there, my lord, the imprint will only take a moment of your time."
Reivyn nodded his head and stood where he was instructed to. He casually inspected the Rune on the ground, and at a nce, he could tell that it was leagues lessplicated than the giant one Aerie had constructed around the deste sands.
The Runes lit up with blue Mana, and after shining for a bit, seeming to do nothing, they coalesced around Reivyn and seemed to settle into his skin. He didn''t feel any different when the lights finally went out, but the captain began to check over the magic device connected to the Runes in a panic. Reivyn looked over and could see the sweat beading his brow from where he stood.
"Is there a problem, Captain?" Reivyn called over.
"Uh, not so much a problem, my lord," he replied. "It just shouldn''t have been so quick. I''m double-checking that everything worked properly."
"Oh, it probably has something to do with the fact that my Mana imprint is from another Tier 4 Region."
Looks of understanding washed over all of the soldiers present, including the captain.
"Aha, yes, that would do it," the captain visibly rxed as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Instead of having to have the entire amount of Mana infused into your aura, it''s like adding an additional stamp to it. That makes perfect sense, my lord."
The captain came back around the counter and gingerly handed the insignia back to Reivyn. Reivyn immediately returned it to the position of being pinned to his chest.
"Is there anything else I can assist you with, my lord?" The captain asked.
"Nope, that''s everything," Reivyn shook his head. "You''ve been a great help, and you run a tight crew, Captain."
"Thank you, my lord." The captain bowed once more as Reivyn gave a little wave before departing.
He retrieved his horse, and it didn''t take long before he returned to Kefira''s side in the column of soldiers. Even though they were high Level and could move at a very quick pace, they were still a huge military column that would take time to get anywhere.
"Everything done already?" Kefira asked.
"Yep, no problems," Reivyn answered. "It seems I did have a Tier 4 Mana imprint already, and the Runic Spell didn''t need nearly as much time infusing the Mana into my aura as it would normally take because of it."
"Ahh, I should have thought of that. I''ve never had to deal with such things before, so I didn''t know that was a thing."
The twopsed back into apanionable silence, and the day drew on as they continued their advance into the interior of the Region. The Mana density didn''t noticeably increase the further in they headed, but Reivyn suspected the capital city would be somewhere close to a Tier 5 border if they had one touching the Region.
Not all of the Regions in the Realm directly connected to a higher or lower Tier Region on their borders, though it was incredibly unusual for one to skip a Tier at their border. It did happen asionally, but the vast majority of those instances were at a corner border where three or more different Tiers met at a point. Reivyn had only briefly learned about such urrences while in the Academy, but they were apparently home to many unusual natural treasures that you couldn''t find in even higher Tier Regions.
I wonder if there are ces where all of the different Tier Regions connect at a point, Reivyn thought as he recalled the information. If such a ce exists, it''s likely somewhere deep in the ocean. There''s much more area - or would it be volume? - for such a thing to ur in a three-dimensional environment. Considering the size of the Realm, there has to be, and I would bet those are the single most dangerous ces in the Realm.
That was an issue for another day, as Reivyn didn''t have any inclination or reason to search out such an environment any time soon. He wasn''t even ready to delve into a Tier 5 Region on an expedition for natural treasures and resources, much less a more dangerous locale.
Reivyn took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, marveling at the sheer amount of Mana floating about in the air. With his Sense Mana and Mana Sight Skills, he could see that it permeated the ground to a high degree, as well, and his Divine Sense Skill let him know that it prated at least as far as his Senses could perceive down, too.
"Ahh, the air is so fresh," Reivyn eximed. "My mother told me that there''s double the amount of natural treasure in each ascending Tier Region, and I can believe it with this amount of Mana density. I''m surprised that it''s not actually more, to be honest."
"It is more," Kefira said. Reivyn looked over with a questioning expression. "The amount of natural resources matching the Tier of the Region is double for each ascending Tier, but each Region also contains the natural treasures that can be found in the lower Tier Regions as well.
"If you''ll look off into the distance, over there," Kefira pointed to a forest in the distance, "you''ll find that the most mundane tree you can find in that forest would be considered a natural treasure in a Tier 1 Region. Even the grass beneath our feet is so high in Mana density as to be considered a natural treasure in a Tier 1 Region.
"That isn''t to say they have the inherent properties of a natural treasure, though. They just have the Mana for it. Supermundane things like those would never be exported as natural treasures, though, unless they were on a corner border. There''s no reason to send such things down to one Tier below, as they have plenty enough for their own needs that they can find in their own Region."
"I can see that," Reivyn said. "Why waste time on sending regr resources down with a higher Mana density when you could focus on trading real treasures? It''s all about opportunity cost and subjective value."
"Are you educated in economics?" Kefira seemed genuinely surprised. It didn''t seem to fit his circumstances.
"I''m ayman, but I know more than someone who knows nothing," Reivyn shrugged. "My parents were going to teach me more about those kinds of topics over the years, but that kind of got sidelined."
"Well, if you''re ever interested in self-study of a topic that interests you, with your Imperial Liaison insignia, you have ess to both the Magic Academy Library and the Imperial Library. Most young men in the capital spend their time on different forms of entertainment, though."
"Oh, like what?" Reivyn asked.
"There''s the Striker''s Guild," Kefira answered after some thought, tapping her lip. "It''s unarmedbat, and it''s much less brutal than the Arena. There''s much less blood and death involved, and one''s team is just as important as the strength of the individualbatant.
"There''s a lot more strategy involved, and a young man courting a young woman would usually be much more inclined to take her there instead of the Arena. There''s an entire industry built around analyzing and strategizing matchups."
"That definitely sounds like something I''d like to check out sometime," Reivyn said. "And I''m a young man courting a young woman..."
"Sure, I''ll take you some time. Would that be considered you courting me, or me courting you, though?" Kefira gave Reivyn a wink.
"Doesn''t matter much to me," Reivyn shrugged.
Chapter 146: Majestic Dagger
Chapter 146: Majestic Dagger
Reivyn watched the grass and trees bend in lines as the wind blew across them. The scenery of the grasnds and forests was exceptionally beautiful to Reivyn after months of the orange-brown desert. There had been the asional greenery in the desert of Drallo, but it had been few and far between. Not only was the seat of the Wispan Empire exceptionally colorful, filled with the green of the trees and grass, but also the various shades of flowers littered across thendscape. It practically exploded.
The Mana density was rich, and even though Reivyn had grown ustomed to it, the visual impact still remained. Every which way he turned his head, the world glowed in his Sight. He didn''t even have to activate his Mana Sight Skill in order to tell that the flora was drowning in Mana, but when he did, it took a moment of concentration, even with his Skill Level of 51, to be able to parse all of the information.
The column of soldiers extended forward and backward for miles from Reivyn''s position in the center. The troops never rxed their posture, nor did they devolve into small talk while Marching. Reivyn had wondered if it was the strict discipline of the officers or the soldiers themselves until he saw the eyes of a young boy who had stood out of the way to let them pass with his family. The only way Reivyn could describe the look in his eye was awe.
These soldiers are proud to be in the Imperial Army, Reivyn thought. It''s not just that they have good discipline. They would berate themselves if they tarnished their reputation in any way.
There was a major difference between a local militia, a Lord''s Retinue, and a standing Imperial Army. Reivyn had seen the disdain in some people''s eyes when it came to local militias, and the Lord''s Retinue had garnered mostly indifference except for after the Dungeon Break.
The Imperial Army was loved by the citizens of Wispan, and it was an aplishment to get a position in its ranks.
The journey towards the capital continued for several weeks, and Reivyn had learned that at the pace they were traveling, it would take about a month in a half from the border to the city. The Region of Wispan was considerablyrger than even Drallo, and that Region had been nearly double the size of Garoq.
Reivyn kept an eye out on the passingndscape, and one day, off in the distance, he noticed a majestic mountain top among a long mountain range. It pierced into the sky, and it was topped with eternal snow. The climate they had experienced up to this point had been fairly temperate, between spring and summer, with the asional rain shower. It had been a long time since Reivyn had experienced snow, and seeing the huge mountain brought an idea to his mind.
"So, is there any reason we have to stay with the army?" Reivyn turned to Kefira and asked.
"Not really," Kefira answered. "We''ve just been going with them to be polite to my brother. We''re both headed to the same destination, and it doesn''t matter if we get there together or not. Why?"
Reivyn nodded his head to the mountaintop on the horizon.
"Sightseeing," he simply said.
"Sightseeing?" Kefira cocked an eyebrow. "You want to go climb The Dagger to ''sightsee?''"
"The Dagger?" It was Reivyn''s turn to quirk an eyebrow.
"The Sword Peaks were already taken," Kefira shrugged. "Plus it''s much shorter. That being said, it''s a famous mountain in Wispan. The namees more from how difficult it is to climb than it does from any resemnce of a dagger, though it does kind of look like one. The cliffs are smooth as ss, and there are several points where the edges could cut someone with a thousand Vitality."
"Oooh, now I''m even more interested. Have you ever climbed it?"
"Nope. Never really cared to."
"Seriously? Kefira," Reivyn gave her a deadpan stare, "this is the perfect opportunity for you. Not only will you gain some Life Experience, but you can work on your Space Magic, as well.
"Think about it. If there are ces that we can''t easily traverse, you can jump up above us and set a rope in ce for us," he gestured to himself and Sera, obviously not leaving her out of the equation. "Then, once we get to the top, you can really try something new."
Reivyn paused and wiggled his eyes at Kefira. She frowned, not quite getting what he could be hinting at. Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"How far can you jump right now?"
"Several hundred yards," Kefira answered after thinking about it for a moment. "A bigger limitation on my ability is being able to see.. Oh!"
"Exactly!" Reivyn nodded, a smug smile on his face. "And not only that, we''ve been getting further and further into the deep parts of Space Magic. I wonder how being able to go deeper into the void tunnel will affect your jump ability. How far do you think we could see from the summit?"
"We could see half the Region," Kefira said, a thoughtful look on her face. "I doubt I could jump that far, even with the increase in my Affinity and ability to go deeper, but that''s definitely something to consider."
"And, if you can jump even a fraction of how far you can see from up there, we might not even lose any time! Though, you will have to practice your ability to take more than one person with you."
"What about the horses?" Kefira threw a wrench in Reivyn''s idea.
"We trade these ones out for a few of the weaker ones, and then we can sell them to a farmer or something once we get close."
"You want to sell an Imperial Warhorse to a farmer?" Kefira gave an incredulous look.
"Or the militia," Reivyn said defensively. "What matters is that we take the ones that are likely to be rotated out of duty the soonest, and then we can get rid of them humanely. Don''t forget you might not be able to jump super far, and we might have to descend the mountain to retrieve the horses, anyway."
Kefira nodded her head before she looked Reivyn up and down, a considering look on her face.
"Is that really the motivation for your spontaneous journey idea, or do you just want to get away from my brother and his army?"
"You wound me," Reivyn held his hand to his chest in mock outrage. "I feel that your brother and I have developed some form of friendship over the past weeks."
"Be honest," Kefira leaned in close and whispered, "you want to get me alone to do naughty things."
Kefira giggled as Reivyn''s face turned beet red. It was usually him that caused Kefira to blush with his teasing, but she definitely got the best of him this time with the unexpectedment. Reivyn sat straight in his saddle and cleared his throat.
"While I''ll never deny such a charge, in this context, it hadn''t entered my mind... yet. It''s there, now, though. Thanks for that."
Kefira pursed her lips into a kiss and winked.
"Wee!"
"Seriously, though. I really just wanted to get out and explore a little. Fringe benefits aside, I think it would be fun."
"Well, I haven''t exined all of the danger, yet," Kefira said. "Not only is it nearly impossible to scale unless you have a ss for it or a really high Climbing Skill, but we would also have to dodge the Ice Trolls that live near the top. They''re low-Tier 5." Kefira gave him a pointed look.
Reivyn stared back at her for a few seconds.
"I''m waiting for the part that''s supposed to make it ''not fun,''" he replied.
"They''re nearly immune to magic, they''re super fast and strong, they''re smart, and they have ridiculous regeneration. They''re harder to kill than many of the higher Level Tier 5 monsters you could find in the Region. To finish it off, they''re not solitary creatures. If you run into one, you run into four or five at a time."
"Hmm," Reivyn stroked his chin in thought. "That does sound like it has the minor possibility of not being fun, some of the time." Reivyn tapped his chin in consideration for a moment. "Well, if you practice your ability to be able to jump with both Sera and me at the same time, it shouldn''t be too big of a problem. I don''t imagine we''ll run into any of them on the face of the cliffs leading up."
"No, for the cliff face, we have to worry about the Blue Wyverns," Kefira mentioned matter-of-factually. "They''re not nearly as dangerous as the Ice Trolls, and they''re only high Tier 4, but they''re still dangerous for climbers."
"Are they nearly immune to magic?"
"Not that I''m aware."
"Then it shouldn''t be a problem for us. A little gust of wind, maybe some exploding rocks, and they''re taken care of. I can see how they''d be a problem for Martial ssers that haven''t gained the ability to use their Mana at range after reaching Tier 4, but we''re powerful Casters. Shouldn''t be a problem."
Reivyn nced at Sera quietly listening to the side and frowned.
"That being said, I''ve never asked before because it hasn''t really been an issue or anything, but can Sera use her Mana?"
Sera nced at Reivyn for a moment before simply nodding.
"You can tell him if you want," Kefira said to her friend.
"I''m proficient with Water, Ice, Cold, and Freezing Affinities," Sera exined.
She held her hand out, palm up, and a ball of Ice coalesced above her hand. She only held it for a second before letting it dissipate, and she returned to stoically riding forward.
"She doesn''t have a ss associated with it, yet, but she''s probably going to go that way for her Tier 4 ss," Kefira said. "She''s been working hard on it for some time now."
"Awesome," Reivyn nodded his head, giving Sera a thumbs up. She snorted at the gesture. Reivyn simply grinned.
"In that case, we''re all able to use offensive Spells to some degree or another, and we have the ability to avoid the trolls if we run into any. I don''t see a problem."
"When you put it that way... Alright, I''ll go tell my brother."
The trio cantered along on horseback through the open fields. The distance to the mountain range where The Dagger was located was deceptively far. The mountains towered over the one the Revenant Dungeon had been a part of, though that one supposedly continued for thousands of miles, spanning several different higher Tier Regions, eventually. The Dagger itself was an obelisk climbing the sky.
The view was breathtaking, though, and it only got more awe-inspiring the closer they got. The mountains grew taller and taller the further they traveled.
There hadn''t been a nearby highway for the three to take, so they had simply cut across the open fields and forests. There was the asional road to move along, and even so far from centers of civilization, they had been paved and well maintained. It was just another example of the difference between a Tier 1 Region and a Tier 4.
The viges dotting thendscape had been prosperous rtive to what Reivyn was used to, and he could tell that even the normal Lifestyle Vigers had an average mid-Tier 3 ss as adults. In Garoq, the average adult was still Tier 2, and only those that pushed themselves or lived dangerous lives were Tier 3 without traveling abroad to higher Tier Regions.
Kefira had exined that the higher Mana Density ensured greater Experience rewards with the monthly calctions, as well as an increase in Experience gained from handling Mana dense materials in every day life. It wasn''t a monumental difference, but it added up over time.
Even before reaching Tier 3, Reivyn needed well over 10,000 Experience for one Level. Getting an additional hundred Experience per crafted item or several hundred to a thousand more each month eventually led to hundreds of thousands of additional Experience Points to allow for the growth of the citizens of a Tier 4 Region. Not only that, but it was an exponential rise, because the increased Levels and Skills made it so that the people could in turn work with more interesting materials that gave higher Experience returns.
It took them almost two weeks to reach the foothills of the mountain range. They had dumped their horses off at the closest vige, selling two to a farmer and one to the head hunter that acted as the local guard captain. They had stipted that if they didn''t return in two weeks, giving themselves plenty of time for their excursion, then the deal was final, but if they showed back up before then, they had the option of buying them back with a 20% premium plus costs.
The foothills weren''t anything like the ones near the Revenant Dungeon. Instead of a smooth, gradual climb up, the hills immediately ascended from the ground, creating a steep path to follow.
Reivyn, Kefira, and Sera weren''t deterred, though, as their Stats allowed them to easily handle such hardship. The three of them simply trudged up the steep hills, climbing the short cliffs when needed, and made their way up into the mountains.
Reivyn had somehow made it through life to this point without acquiring the Climbing Skill, despite having gained the Acrobatics and Bnce Skills long ago. That didn''t remain the same for long, however, after only climbing up three short cliffs he got the notification.
[Skill Unlocked!]
[Tier 1:]
[Climbing (0 ->1)]
The new Skill leveled quickly in the environment, and Reivyn was confident that it would be a good boost by the time it was really needed. The mountains weren''t short, and it took them several days to reach a point where it finally came in handy.
The other two girls simrly gained the Skill, and they weren''t a burden to Reivyn. They had procured plenty of rope and climbing tools not only from the soldiers before leaving, but also from the various viges and towns they passed through on the way.
Kefira had taken the time to hone her jumping ability, too, and she was able to easily carry both Reivyn and Sera with her when she did her hops. Whenever they reached a cliff face that was above a few dozen yards, Kefira would jump to the top and secure a rope in ce to allow for faster, easier climbing of the other two. She had offered to just jump all three of them at once, but Reivyn had said that he wanted to experience the climb, and Sera had agreed.
Kefira had just shrugged her shoulders, not as concerned with the other two over it because her inherent nature was one of being able to use Space Magic to her benefit. She gained more relevant Life Experience jumping to the top than climbing the long way, but she still used the Physical Skill for the shorter routes to round it out.
On the fourth day, Reivyn stood at the face of a sheer, blue wall. He ran his hands over the smooth, nearly frictionless surface. He peered up overhead where the wall disappeared behind a wall of mist. If he concentrated, his Perception allowed his vision to pierce the veil of the clouds, and he could clearly see the top of the first major hurdle.
He turned to face Kefira.
"Can you see the top?" Reivyn asked. Kefira nodded. "Think you can safely jump up there?"
"Shouldn''t be a problem," Kefira determined.
"Then business as usual, just a bigger leap."
Kefira gathered here Mana, and after concentrating for a few seconds, she disappeared with a pop that Reivyn could only perceive with his Sense Mana Skill. Shortly after, a rope was flung down and dangled against the icy cliff face.
Reivyn channeled his Mana into his feet, and he created little Earth spikes for traction. Reivyn didn''t need to use his feet against the wall to climb the rope, but there was no reason not to take every measure to ensure a safe ascent. It didn''t take but a few minutes for Reivyn and Sera to rejoin Kefira nearly a hundred yards higher than they had previously stood.
"Not too bad," Reivyn smiled.
"That was just the first real leg of the journey," Kefira pointed out. "There are some cliff faces that are several hundred yards straight up before there''s any kind of footing."
"As long as you''re confident, it should be fine. You yourself said that your jumping range was several hundred yards, and it was being able to see far enough that was the real limitation."
"I know. I''m just saying."
The three continued their climb up the mountain. They didn''t run into any situation where Kefira couldn''t jump to a higher position, sometimes traveling as far as 500 yards up in one go, and the climb wasn''t all sheer cliffs, either. There were still plenty of paths to traverse on foot.
It was another half a day before they ran into their first monster. Reivyn was half-way up a 300 yard cliff when he heard Kefira''s voice reach down to him.
"There''s a couple of Blue Wyverns headed our way!" She called down. "I think I might have spooked them, but they look like they''ve spotted the two of you."
Reivyn looked up and out over the vast expanse of sky. Way up above his head, he spotted two flying creatures that looked likerge birds at first, but with his Perception, he could tell that they were anything but.
They wererge lizards with two legs and two wings. It was hard to judge without anything next to them forparison, but Reivyn figured that they had a ten-yard wingspan, at least. Their legs looked incredibly powerful and muscr, and their ws were probably as long as Reivyn''s torso. He could see their reptilian heads pointed down in his and Sera''s direction, and he knew that they had shifted their focus from Kefira to the "easier" prey along the cliff face.
Reivyn watched as the two Wyverns'' wings folded up, and their bodies took a nose dive straight for him. They picked up incredible speed extremely quickly, and Reivyn summoned two different Spells, pumping 500 Mana into each. The bodies of the Wyverns shifted as they brought their ws forward, ready to try and skewer Reivyn and pluck him from the cliff, and Reivyn timed his Spell for that moment.
A huge gust of spinning wind,ced with des of Air shot out from Reivyn straight to the descending reptiles. The wind was contained in a huge bubble, and it looked almost like a tornado orb. The lines of the tornado propelled the des of air at lightning-quick speed, and the two Wyverns were easily knocked off course as it struck them.
They had been incapable of adjusting their aim, and it was inevitable that they would fly straight into the wind st. Lacerations appeared all over the Wyverns'' bodies and wings, and their nosedive was thrown off course. They screeched in pain and defiance as they wheeled further out into the sky, getting ready for another attack.
They had learned their lesson though, and while they still wanted toe in with a hard charge, they weren''t stupid enough to build up enough momentum to stop them from being able to dodge another Spell.
Reivyn readied another set of Spells.
"Sera, get ready!" Reivyn called.
"I''m on it," she replied.
Reivyn thrust his Spell out once more at the advancing beasts, but this time he angled it so that it would fly past the attackers. As he had expected, they dodged to the side out of reflex, and because he had shot off-center, they moved in the direction he wanted them to.
Another burst of Mana followed right on the heels of his Spell, and Reivyn felt it travel up the cliff face alongside him. A loud explosion rang out, and soon a giant shard of ice came crashing down, smashing through the Wyverns. They had been takenpletely by surprise, and they were crushed to death at the foot of the cliff by the giant ice boulder that Sera had dislodged.
A Notification for the battle shed in the lower corner of Reivyn''s vision, but he ignored it for now. He turned back to the task of climbing the cliff, and after another couple of minutes, he and Sera joined Kefira.
Reivyn looked over and noticed a third Wyvern lying on the ground. It had been severed in half, and blood and entrails leaked from the clean cuts. He turned and raised an eyebrow at Kefira.
"What?" She asked innocently. "I never said all the Wyverns had focused on you."
Chapter 147: Sharp Locus
Chapter 147: Sharp Locus
A couple more days passed as the threepanions climbed The Dagger. The appearance of Wyverns was infrequent, but the higher they climbed, the more often they were attacked. Not only did the number grow, but the size of the reptiles did, as well. Reivyn''s Sense Threat Skill notified him that their size was directly rted to their Level.
The runts and the young were the ones at the lower parts of the mountain, and the older, smarter Wyverns lived closer to the peak. Reivyn didn''t understand why the monsters would separate themselves in such a manner, at first, but after they began reaching the top of the mountain where the air was thinner, it became clear.
Reivyn, Kefira, and Seri didn''t have any trouble breathing the thinner air, and the cold didn''t bother them either. The Dagger might be a veryrge mountain rtive to the mountain range it was situated on, but there was a reason The Sword Peaks were named swords and The Dagger was named dagger. The Mana density yed a role in allowing the three to livefortably, but their own inherent strength is what allowed them to take advantage of it.
Reivyn didn''t understand the intricacies involved, and Kefira and Seri said they hadn''t learned about it in their education, but the vibrancy of the Mana density did something to allow the air to be more efficient for those that could take it. A mountain of simr height in a Tier 1 Region would actually be more difficult to ascend, and ironically one would need to be even higher Tier in order to climb to the top.
Reivyn walked along with Kefira between himself and Seri, the mountain pass being wide enough for more than three people to walk side by side. They were walking along a more horizontal level leading up to the next incline, and Reivyn spotted some boulders inexplicably rolling down the hill in the distance. A loud screech from above caught his attention, and he looked up to see a couple of Wyverns diving toward the boulders.
Therge rocks suddenly sprung up into twelve-foot-tall behemoths and swiped at the Wyvernsshing out at them with their ws. They were icy blue, much paler than the dark blue of the Wyverns, and Reivyn could see their ugly visage from well over fifty yards away. They had tusks protruding from their lower lips, and he could see saliva dripping off of them tond on the ground where they instantly solidified into ice.
They had swirling patterns on their naked bodies, their modesty only covered by a tattered loincloth. Their muscles bulged, and they roared back in defiance as the Wyverns swooped away, out of reach. The Ice Trolls made to roll up into disguised boulders once more and continued on their path, but another set of Wyverns came charging down, halting them in ce once more.
The battle between the two trolls and the four Wyverns that traded ces in pairssted for about ten minutes, with neither side making any headway until the trolls turned around and mbered back up the incline.
"I guess that''s why the higher Level Wyverns are further up the mountain," Reivyn said. "It''s not a hierarchy, but self-preservation."
"Luckily for the Wyverns, those were young trolls," Kefira remarked. "If they had been a legitimate hunting party, just the four Wyverns wouldn''t have been able to stop them from trespassing into their territory."
"How do you know that?" Reivyn asked, ncing at Kefira.
"There are two reasons: One, there were only two of them. A real hunting party would have half a dozen; And two, they were only twelve feet tall. That means they''re like older teenagers. The fully grown adults are fifteen to eighteen feet tall.
"I would guess that they were testing their mettle on a little adventure."
"Are they smart enough for that?" Reivyn asked.
"You''ve mostly encountered lower Tier Region monsters, and even in Drallo, the monsters you fought were either nuisance creatures or Dungeon monsters. Only the snake people have a bit of wisdom, but if you pay careful attention, you would notice that they''re far smarter and more organized than the orcs of the Tier 1 Region. The higher the Tier of the Region, the smarter and wiser the non-nuisance monsters will be.
"These trolls and Wyverns don''t have a society as we would understand it, but they''re not stupid."
"Yes, I see. That''s definitely something to consider. If that''s the case, then why are they always so hostile to humans and don''t set up trade rtions and try to live in peace with people?"
"There are versions of the monsters in Regions that do so, just like the lizaldons. Though it''s not exactly fair to refer to them as monsters. A goodparison would be how humans and apes are simr to each other. The lizaldons and the feral nuisance lizards down in that cave are only slightly rted.
"One thing that all monsters seem to have inmon is extreme xenophobia. Not just toward humans, though, but toward everyone else. They will enve or use other monsters, but they''ll never be allies with them."
"Then what about even higher Tier Regions?" Reivyn asked.
"That''s one of the reasons it''s so hard to get an established empire above Tier 4," Kefira said, "The smarter monsters have their own little kingdoms, so their opposition to human intrusion is much fiercer. It''s not just that they''re inherently stronger, though that is also a major factor."
"Good to know."
The two of them ended their conversation as they drew closer to where the battle had just taken ce. They weren''t going out of their way to move stealthily and hide, but they also weren''t advertising their presence. They had been speaking in a low voice, but now that the monsters had dispersed and there was no additional sound to mask their conversation, they stopped talking.
The Wyverns seemed to care too much for keeping an eye on the Ice Trolls, so they weren''t bothered by any air dives from them, and there seemed to be an invisible border where the Wyverns wouldn''t easily cross. The Ice Trolls seemed like they weren''t moving very fast, now that they were trudging up the peak, but their considerably longer legs carried them much further with each stride. They eventually outpaced the trio and were out of sight.
"I think if we''re going to fight some Ice Trolls, those two should be it," Reivyn said after a moment. "We can rush ahead real quick and engage them before they rejoin their tribe, or whatever it''s called."
"Sounds like a n," Kefira said. Seri unsheathed her sword and nodded. "Did you get a chance to use your Sense Threat Skill on them?"
"High Tier 4 or low Tier 5," Reivyn said. "It''s still not urate enough to pinpoint such arge gap."
"That sounds about right. They''re almost adults, but not quite."
"Let''s go."
Reivyn also unsheathed his sword, and he dashed ahead. He knew that they were supposedly nearly immune to Magic, but he readied a couple of Fire-attuned Spells anyway. Even if the Mana didn''t harm them, the heat should, and he knew from talking with other Adventurers that fire was a weakness to trolls of all kinds, so it should be doubly so for the Ice Trolls.
Reivyn ran up a steep incline and rounded a bend, and he immediately ducked down low andunched himself forward into a roll. His Divine Sense had picked up that the Ice Trolls had known about them all along, and they had hidden behind the curve of a wall to ambush them. They couldn''t escape his Perception, though, and he baited them into attacking him.
The two girlsunched their attacks at the exposed Ice Trolls, Seri shing her sword deep into the meat of the arm that had tried to pound Reivyn into the ground, and Kefira shot out a de of pure ck Space. It was simr to a Wind de, but it was infinitely sharper, literally as thin as possible.
Reivyn watched as the Space de made contact with the forearm of the first Ice Troll, and it seemed to wink out of existence, absorbed by an aura surrounding the troll. It did nothing, though, and a thin line of blood trailed from a shallow gash. The line that had been opened in the troll''s skin sealed back up, visible to the naked eye.
The damage that had been done to the second troll by Seri was much more severe, though her de had bounced off of the bone of the troll''s forearm. It screamed in rage and pain, and it flung its arm into Seri''s chest, sending her catapulting back down the incline they had just charged up. She flew through the air, and then tumbled and rolled for a bit afternding, a small rock arresting her movement.
She threw her head back and stifled a scream, a look of agony on her face. Reivyn didn''t have time to go check up on her, though, and heshed out with his sword at the same wound that Seri had initially caused. The troll''s arm had movedpletely to the other side, exposing his back to Reivyn, when it had backhanded Seri.
Reivyn released two 1,000 Mana Fire Bolts, concentrated to as small a point as he could make them, as his sword shed halfway into the bone of the arm. The first Fire Bolt followed his de, and, like Kefira''s Space de, it seemed to be absorbed into an invisible aura. It had been pumped with much more Mana, though, and it lingered in ce for a couple of seconds before disappearing.
As Reivyn had hoped, the fire itself, and the intense heat given off by it, worked to destroy the regenerative properties of the troll''s body where it made contact. The gash on its arm and bone stopped healing at a visible speed, and it once more screamed in pain. It didn''t wildly attack Reivyn, though, but it instead cradled its mangled arm against its chest, looking down at it.
The second Fire Bolt had beenunched at the other troll''s face, more in order to keep it under control than to do damage, but it also let out a piercing howl. After the fire dissipated, Reivyn saw that its face was partially melted, and it wasn''t healing.
Kefira took the opportunity tounch another salvo of smaller Space des directed at the face of the first troll, and to Reivyn''s and Kefira''s delight, the aura surrounding its head seemed to have been weakened by the fire. Instead of winking out of existence after leaving a small scratch, the myriad Space des left countlesscerations on the troll''s face, even going so far as topletely destroy one of the eyes.
Reivyn was inspired by the finding, and he activated his Elemental Weapon with his Fire and sma Affinities, oveying them to get maximum heat. sma and Fire weren''t exactly the same thing, and Reivyn didn''t know if it was the actual Fire Affinity that did the damage and weakened the aura, or if it was the heat of the fire. There was a bit of Fire Affinity Mana motes contained in each me one could find, so it wouldn''t be a stretch to believe that even mundane fire could hurt trolls because of the Fire Affinity itself.
Reivyn''s sword zed to life in a deep red, fire and sparks spitting off of it, and heid into the second troll that he and Seri had targeted. He wasn''t trying to do actual damage, though that was a definite bonus, but he was instead working to hit as many exposed ces as possible to destroy the Magic Immunity aura and eliminate as much regeneration across asrge an area as possible.
The troll had never experienced such torture before, and it was clear that it didn''t know how to react. Its instincts didn''t immediately kick in, the inherent fear of fire paralyzing it in ce momentarily, but it went berserk after just a moment. Its upper body twisted and jerked about, iling its arms all around as it screamed in defiance into the sky. All the while bloody gashes that didn''t heal were left all over its torso, arms, legs, and neck.
It turned toward Reivyn and stared at him with a baleful look. It took a huge step forward, but then it suddenly stopped as a sword suddenly pierced through its lower abdomen. It stopped and looked down at the sudden intruding metal, not understanding where it hade from, and Reivyn nodded to Seri that was on the other end of it. He had seen her approaching with his Divine Sense, and he had gone all out to capture the troll''s attention, not just weaken it.
Seri pulled her sword back out and nimbly dodged backward, weary of a simr attack from the backhand of the troll. The troll half-turned toward her, and Reivyn took the opportunity to leap forward and stab it in the exact same wound with his ming de. He pumped as much Mana as he could into the sword, letting it explode up and out, into the body of the troll.
The troll threw its head back and screamed louder than anything else they had heard yet, and Reivyn could smell the disgusting stench of its flesh and internal organs roasting. Seri was quick-witted, and she also dashed forward to stab it again in a different spot. There seemed to be a pop that Reivyn could only perceive with his Mana Sense.
The two humans pulled their swords out and backed away from the adolescent troll, watching for its next move. It had only been a couple of seconds since Reivyn had started thrashing it, and Kefira was keeping it busy by jumping around andunching Space des at its face.
The troll that Reivyn and Seri had been attacking suddenly charged forward at Reivyn with tremendous speed, taking himpletely off guard. He didn''t have time to dodge out of the way, and he was tackled to the ground by the hulking monster. He felt a pain in his back and ribs as he was momentarily stunned, pinned beneath the troll.
Without thinking about it, Reivyn transferred his Elemental Weapon from his sword to his body, and he wrapped his arms around the stomach of the creature. His legs couldn''t get all the way around the beast, so he settled for wrapping them around onerge leg, the size of a small tree trunk.
The troll immediately realized its mistake as it began to try and get up and away from the burning man, but Reivyn held on, not letting it go. He infused Gravity Mana into himself, causing his weight to exceed what the troll could easily lift from its position.
Seri sprinted up from behind and began hacking at the back of its neck. One, two, three, four times. She stopped just in time frompletely beheading the troll as she felt her de sever the spine, decapitating it and ending its life.
It had already lost its Magic Immunity aura from when Reivyn had pumped Fire and sma into its insides, and it hadn''t been regenerating since then either. It had never experienced such a thing before, so it hadn''t even fully realized the extent of the damage it had suffered. Added on the full body ze that Reivyn continued to cook it on the outside with, it had weakened enough for Seri to chop its head off.
Reivyn ended the Mana coursing through his body, and he used his arms and legs to heave the creature off of himself. He didn''t know if the corpse would regain its regenerative properties. Something in the back of his mind told him that if it wasn''t burned to ash, it was very well possible. Now that it was just a dead body and didn''t have the Magic Immunity, Reivyn conjured more Fire and sma and set the whole beast on fire.
Seri didn''t stop to catch her breath, and she immediately ran over to join Kefira in harassing the other Ice Troll. It saw what happened to itspanion, and it screamed in rage, wanting to rush over and kill Reivyn. Kefira prevented it from effectively moving where it wanted to. Seri was much less mobile than Kefira, so she followed behind the monster and took the asional potshot at it, waiting for Reivyn to join them and add more Fire to make it vulnerable.
Once the dead troll was thoroughly cooking all on its own, Reivyn cut off the Mana and reignited his sword. The three of them together made short work of the other troll, having learned how to deal with it from their defeat of the first one.
The three stood panting, looking at each other as Reivyn idly burned the second corpse. Reivyn suddenly grinned andughed out loud. The two girls shortly followed, and the three of themughed the tension out.
"Well, that was something, wasn''t it?" Reivyn said. "I can definitely see how the fully grown ones in a hunting party would definitely be in the category of ''not fun.''"
"Yeah, these two didn''t seem to know how to use their strengths effectively," Kefira nodded. "Maybe they''re younger than we thought, and the fully grown ones are evenrger than eighteen feet tall."
"That''s a scary thought," Reivyn said. "Let''s hope that''s not the case."
Seri couldn''t take it any longer, and she let herself slump to the ground. Kefira was at her side in an instant, and she helped her get out of her armor to check the extent of the damage on her back. The rock that she had mmed into hadn''t looked like a good way to stop one''s momentum.
Reivyn walked around the corner of the wall, out of sight, and moved a distance away so that his Divine Sense didn''t pick up the two, either. Technically, he could see everything at all times through people''s clothes, but it was obscured by the contact of the clothes with the skin. It was hard to describe, but basically, Reivyn wasn''t intruding on people''s privacy on ident. If someone wore loose enough clothing, however, that was a different story.
Luckily for everyone, besides some of the vigers they had interacted with, that had been around Reivyn, everyone had been in armor that hugged their bodies. Kefira and Seri knew about his Skill, but they didn''t know the extent of how detailed it could be. They hadn''t thought to question whether or not he could see underneath, and they had just taken for granted they he was only seeing them as they were.
There was no way he was going to inform them of the truth, for their peace of mind. He was sure Kefira would get over it very quickly, but Seri might take some exception to it. It wasn''t like there was anything he could do about it, though. All he could do was move away from the two to allow Kefira to inspect and deal with the wounds without him being nearby.
After several minutes of sitting in silence by himself, Reivyn saw theme up to him through his Divine Sense, and Seri gave him a nod in thanks after walking up to him. Reivyn simply nodded back before looking to Kefira.
"Ready to keep going?" He asked.
"Yup."
The three didn''t engage with any more Ice Trolls on their way to the top. The Dagger wasrge enough in circumference that there was plenty of space for them to move about without intruding on the domains of the monsters. There had been a couple of close calls when boulders had suddenlye to life next to them, but they had always been able to jump away to safety thanks to Kefira.
It took them another day to reach the peak of the mountain. Thest little bit to the top wasn''t that high of a cliff, and Reivyn had convinced Kefira to just climb up the normal way. Reivynssoed a rope over a protrusion, and the three climbed up the final stretch.
Reivyn turned around and extended a hand to give Kefira some assistance, as she was next in line. Seri brought up the rear.
As Reivyn was pulling the girl up, his Divine Sense picked up two people materializing out of nothing behind them. He didn''t have time to think, and he used his full strength to bodily haul Kefira to the top as he spun around, pulling out his sword in one smooth motion.
Kefira stood next to him, momentarily stunned by the rough handling and not recognizing what was going on right away, but after a second, she noticed the two people standing there as well.
The very top of the Dagger was like a pir about twenty feet in radius, and on the far end from where Reivyn and Kefira ascended, a point jutted into the air in a sharp point another fifty feet or so up. There was no good way for one to stand on the tippy-top peak of the mountain, so everyone recognized this final spot as the final top.
Standing in the center of the circle were a man and a woman. The man had long, flowing hair to his waist, and it blew in the breeze. His face was gentle and his skin was unblemished. He stood proudly with his chin up and shoulders back as he turned his head about, taking in the sight of the peak of the mountain.
The other person was a young woman who looked simr to the man. Her hair was tied in a bun with an intricate hairpin, and she was hugging a sheathed sword to her chest.
They were wearing matching white and blue robes without any apparent armor. The robes were simr to the ones that Reivyn fancied, and they didn''t look like the garb of a Caster. The two of them appeared to be of a simr age to Reivyn and Kefira, but it was hard to determine sometimes.
The girl stood a little behind and to the side of the young man, and she stared at Reivyn and Kefira as herpanion looked around. She didn''t look like she was ready to fight, but Reivyn got the sense that the sword in her arms coulde out much quicker than expected from how she was holding it.
"What a breathtaking view," the young man said. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The air is crisp, though the Mana is a bit sparse."
The Mana is sparse? Reivyn frowned. What is this guy talking about?
"I see that we''re not alone on top of the world," the man''s eyes opened and focused on Reivyn.
Reivyn was standing at the ready, sword out and prepared to strike. The two sudden interlopers didn''t seem to care, though, and they directly ignored the implied threat of violence. Seri popped up, and she immediately unsheathed her sword as well.
"Ahh, another one. Wee!" The man smiled at the appearance of Seri. "No need for hostility. We''re not going to attack you or anything."
Reivyn slowly stood up and sheathed his sword. He didn''t get the feeling of danger from the two, and he had mostly been surprised at how they had just suddenly been there from nowhere.
"Forgive me, but you just appeared out of thin air," Reivyn said. "I was startled. How did you get here?"
"Oh, we teleported," the man answered cheerfully.
"Are you sure about that?" Kefira questioned. "I didn''t feel any Space emanations or Mana fluctuations."
"Of course not," the manughed. "I''m not at liberty to give details away, so I apologize for that, but I''m not lying when I said we teleported here. Anyway, how rude of me not to introduce myself. My name is Szaine, and this is my Junior Sister, Virna. It''s a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Likewise," Reivyn automatically responded. He mentally shook the cobwebs out. "My name is Reivyn, and these two are Kefira and Seri." Reivyn gestured to the two in turn. Kefira nodded her head in greeting, but Seri maintained her stance with her sword out, eyeing them warily.
"As much as I would love to stick around and chat, my Junior Sister and I must really be going," Szaine said apologetically. "Hopefully we can meet somewhere more civilized in the near future."
The man turned and walked to the edge of the cliff, his "Junior Sister" following behind... and they just kept walking, stepping out into the air. Reivyn fought to keep his jaw from dropping as he watched them descend in the air like they were walking down a flight of steps. It only took a couple of minutes for them to be far enough away that they were nothing more than dots in the sky.
Reivyn turned to an equally astonished Kefira and Seri.
"Well..." Reivyn said, arresting Kefira and Seri''s attention from watching the two depart, "that was new."
Chapter 148: Here and There
Chapter 148: Here and There
Kefira shook her head at Reivyn''s response. It wasn''t the first time she had seen someone walk through the air, but they were definitely the youngest people she had seen do it.
"It''s not all that umon to see people walk through the air," she said. "Almost all Casters with a specialty in the Air Affinity are able to do so once they reach a certain Level, and people who reach high-Tier 5 are able to do so by manifesting their will in their Domain."
"I was told that a Domain was a Tier 4 thing, but I already have a Skill that gives me a Domain," Reivyn said.
"That''s different. The Domain that you were told about is more esoteric. It''s not an actual Skill, just an amalgamation of Skills that act in such a manner as to give powerful people control over a limited space around themselves. Your Skill is probably the actual, legitimate thing, but I haven''t heard of anyone else with the Skill.
"Tier 4 is generally epted as the earliest someone can raise their Skills and Stats high enough to create their own Domain, but it''s moremon in Tier 5, and only those that were talented enough to cultivate one in Tier 4 are able to use it to manifest their will inte Tier 5."
"So, do you think I''ll be able to manifest my will using my Skill?"
"Probably, but it would likely have to be at minimum around Level 50 before you could do so. Anyway, that''s all stuff forter and doesn''t really matter right now. I just wanted to let you know that what they did wasn''t that strange. The only strange thing about it was that it didn''t seem like a Domain thing, and they looked too young. It might have been ss Skills or something, though not Magic."
"Fair enough. Do you have any idea who they were or who they''re affiliated with? Two people just materialized out of thin air on top of a deste mountain top."
"No clue," Kefira shrugged. "They seemed friendly enough, though, so what does it matter?"
"Yeah, you''re probably right. Just an unusual circumstance for an encounter. If we had passed them along the road after they descended the mountain, we wouldn''t have looked at them twice."
"I''m going to go ahead and try out this ''whole jumping ''as far as I can see'' thing, now," Kefira said.
Reivyn nodded his head, and he began to walk around the peak, looking out over the terrain. Seri stood guard behind Kefira as she sat cross-legged. The wind was constantly blowing, and the air was incredibly cold, but none of those things bothered any of the three. Kefira calmed her mind and entered into a state of Meditation.
She had been working on the Skill for as long as she could ess her Mana, and she didn''t have to keep her eyes closed to stay in the mental state, though she hadn''t progressed it to the point where she could move around and interact with people and things. She had heard of someone who had reached Transcendence with their Meditation Skill, and they could have it activated perpetually without it negatively affecting their life in any way.
That was the thing with Transcendent Skills: they typically broke the rules that one had abided by to reach Level 100 in the Skill in the first ce. It was one of the reasons why so few people achieved it in any Skill. That didn''t apply to ss Skills, though, as Level 100 wasn''t the cap.
Kefira looked over the world below, and if she wasn''t in a Meditative state, the sight would have taken her breath away. The world stretched out before her, and she could see for miles and miles. Her Perception gave out before the terrain did, and the distant horizon appeared to fade away into mist as it blended with the sky, but everything she could see was vivid and spectacr.
The green of the ins and forests took up most of thendscape, but she could clearly see the rivers andkes, as well as the main highway they had been traveling across toward the capital. The capital was on the other side of somerge hills, too small to be considered mountains, much further in the distance, and she felt that if she could just strain her Perception Stat just a little more, she might be able to make out the outline of the city.
She didn''t focus on that for too long, though, as that had the possibility of breaking her Meditation. She could focus on mental things and magic pretty heavily, but she still wasn''t Skilled enough to focus too much on external things too hard.
I first have to establish a baseline, Kefira thought. I haven''t been able to perceive a limitation on my jumps for some time now, but looking at the open sky doesn''t work. I need to find something I can see and get on the verge of Casting the jump to see if it will work.
She was very clear in how she would be able to determine if she could reach a destination or not. She hadn''t always been able to jump very far, and in her training and experiments when she was younger, she found that the Spell would just fizzle out and she would instinctively understand that it was because she had tried to go too far. Over time she had learned to feel what it would be like if the Spell was going to fail before she attempted it, and that was what she was going to do now.
She looked down the mountain, drawing on her Mana and bringing the Spell up without fully activating it. She felt for the difference in the Spell, whether it would allow her to go or not, as she extended her vision ever forward down the mountainside. The mountain ran out of view before she ever reached that feeling, though, and what she could see of the ground beyond was definitely further than she could reach with her traditional Casting method.
Hmm, looks like I''m going to have to figure this out a little blind. I''ll just have to delve deeper into the void with my Space Mana and hope that I can reach a point I can see where I can tell that the Spell would work. If I can do that, I''ll know that I''m on the right track, but if not, I might not even know if I''m going the right way.
I should have gained a baseline before ascending already to the peak, but I hadn''t even thought of it, too caught up in the adventure with Reivyn. Oh well, nobody''s perfect.
She put thought to action, and she drilled her Space Mana deeper into the void, tunneling through the invisible space between the Realm and "outside." The line separating the Realm from the rest of the universe was simultaneously deep and paper thin.
From her experiments with the rent in reality down by the Boss Dungeons that had been destroyed in the Spider Lair, she knew that as soon as her Mana pierced the veil, the perception was that it was paper thin. That wasn''t the case when she was tunneling through the tear, though, and it had seemed like it was hundreds of yards long.
She put some of her Mana a bit into the void tunnel, and she cast her jump Spell normally parallel to her strand, trying to see if she could tell how deep it usually traversed the void when she used it. The Spell didn''t activate, of course, as she wasn''t going anywhere, but she could feel the Mana trying to send a thread into the void to bend around the physical space.
The thread that her Spell sent out didn''t even pierce into the void beyond reality. It just brushed up against the edge. Kefira''s eyebrows rose in surprise at that discovery, and she nearly lost her Meditation.
She forcibly grabbed the strand with her will and dragged it into the depths of the void tunnel with her other strand of Mana, and she instantly felt like she was able to sessfully cast the Spell to the foot of the mountain that she could see over the edge. It wasn''t the actual foot of the mountain, though, it was several hundred miles away because of the angle that she was looking down.
She put her focus on how deep her thread had gone and was once again surprised to see that it had only gone about an inch in before the Spell had expanded multiple folds.
The Spell remained in an iplete state, though, and she could tell that it would require more Mana to fuel it. Jumping about 400 hundred yards with her normal method would require about 50 Mana, but it didn''t scale like that. If she only jumped ten yards, it would still require at least 30 Mana to activate. Dragging someone along with her doubled the cost, and adding a third person was about two and a half times the cost. She didn''t fully understand the rules governing how much Mana was required, but it had never been that big of an issue for her to pin it down exactly before.
She pumped her Mana into the Spell, trying toplete the connection so that she could activate it, and it seemed like it was a bottomless well. More and more Mana went into the Spell, and she feared that it would never reachpletion as there was no indication if it was filling up or not.
Suddenly, the Spell reached a tipping point, and it wouldn''t take any more Mana as it felt as if it could finally be activated. She checked her Mana reserves and found that she had pumped 2,000 Mana points into the Spell to be able to reach the new edge of what was possible for her.
Wow, that''s a lot of Mana. I''m not sure I could call this a casual "jump" at this point. If I wanted to bring Reivyn with me, it would be 4,000 Mana, and if I brought both Reivyn and Sera with me, it would be 6,000. That''s most of my Mana Pool.
Kefira didn''tplete the Spell, and she slowly drew the Mana back into her. One of the things that a high Skill Level in Mana Absorption allowed one to do is recycle unused Mana, not just absorb the ambient Mana from the surroundings. It wasn''t perfectly efficient, though, and Kefira lost about 30% of the Mana she had pushed into the Spell before she had reimed it.
She broke off her Meditation and stood up, walking over to Reivyn.
"I''ve figured it out," she said.
Reivyn turned to face her with a look of appreciation on his face.
"Already? That was fast." He replied.
"Yeah, I already had a lot of the groundwork done when I was exploring the tear previously, so I just needed to adjust my thinking and work through the process. I can teleport us to just where we can see the ground beyond the mountain, but I don''t think I have enough Mana to go any further than that."
"Well, that''s still rather impressive," Reivyn chuckled. "I hadn''t actually expected you to be able to seed, I just thought you would get some good practice in."
Kefira stared at him for a couple of seconds with a nk look.
"You know, there are some pretty tall towers in the capital..." she trailed off.
"Yeah, but that''s not on top of a mountain," Reivyn answered back. "It wasn''t just about you getting to practice your teleporting. We got to explore the world a bit onest time before we reached our destination. I think that even if you hadn''t been able to figure things out, it would have still been worth it."
"When you put it that way, I supposed you''re right," Kefira said, rolling her eyes. "But, Hah! I beat your expectations, didn''t I? Who''s the magical prodigy?"
Kefira struck a pose, hands on hips and chin raised. Reivyn simply smiled at her as he cupped her face.
"I already knew it. You don''t have to prove anything."
"Who''s trying to prove anything to you?" Kefira folded her arms and huffed.
"Haha," Reivynughed. "So, you said you could take us just to the edge of where you can see the ground beyond the mountain? Does that mean just you, you and me, or all three of us?"
"All three of us," Kefira regained her serious manner. "If it was just me, I imagine I could go halfway back to the highway. As it is, we''ll be about 80 or so miles on the other side of the vige we left our horses at if I get the right spot."
"Wow, that''s impressive," Reivyn looked out into the distance. "Considering how far we are up in the sky and the distance to the halfway point, that''s, what, 600 miles?"
"I''ll take your word for it."
"Well, we didn''t push the horses too much, and I would say we traveled about 60 to 70 miles a day, give or take. With how long it took us to get here, 600 miles seems about right."
"That would mean it''s around a thousand Mana per 100 miles, or so," Kefira said, specting to herself. "If it scaled perfectly, which I know it doesn''t, it would be about 20,000 Mana to travel 100 miles with my normal method of just brushing up against the edge of the void with my Mana. Since I know it doesn''t scale like that, but I don''t know how the costs increase as I go further, yet, so let''s just say it would be 10,000+ Mana or ten times the cost."
"Yeah, that''s what I would call improving efficiency," Reivyn chuckled.
"I still have to manually drag the Spell''s Mana into the void after drilling a hole with another strand, though, so it''s not the instantaneous cast. I''ll have to work on it for quite some time until it bes natural for my Mana to work that way, and I doubt there would be any significant changes in the cost for the distance of hops I would normally do, anyway."
"Then I guess you''re going to have to really pick up your training on Map Reading," Reivyn said.
"Huh?" Kefira frowned.
"The next logical step is to figure out how to jump without seeing the destination with your eyes. You''d have to visualize where you''re going and know the exact elevation you wish to jump to, so you''ll need to perfectly understand a map to avoid any idents."
"I guess you''re right," Kefira sighed. She really didn''t enjoy Map Reading.
"Of course I am."
The two stopped their conversation and just looked over thendscape before them, taking in the beauty of the world. Seri was silent as always, but Kefira knew her well enough to know that she was also enjoying the experience. The three of them stayed on the mountaintop for several more minutes like that.
"Well, are you ready to get going?" Kefira broke the tranquility and looked up at Reivyn.
"Sure," he nodded. "We''ve done everything we set out to do, and more, and we''ll have to backtrack a bit to reim our horses."
"Alright, take my hand."
Kefira held out both of her hands. Reivyn sped done, and Seri came up and grabbed the other. Kefira remade the connection with the void tunnel to channel her Spell through, and after priming it with nearly her entire Mana pool, shepleted the Spell.
The jump was a bit different than the ones that she had performed before. Instead of almost an instant shift in space, Kefira felt like she was dragged out into the void and then spit back into reality along a parab. It didn''t actually take any additional time, but her perception of the jump was longer. It was a strange experience.
Reivyn and Seri stumbled slightly, suffering from a bit of vertigo as they arrived at the destination Kefira had focused on. The three of them looked around, and Kefira was happy to see that there hadn''t been any deviation in her target. They hadnded in a clearing near the road that led to the vige they needed to go to to get their horses.
"Ugh, I''m not sure I enjoyed that," Reivyn said, holding a palm against his head. His body swayed a bit as he regained his bnce. "It''s like I spun myself around with my eyes closed a bit. The whole world was swimming there for a moment."
Seri wasn''t much better. In fact, it took her a couple of seconds longer to regain her bearings. Kefira hadn''t noticed anything different other than the sensation of how they traveled. She chalked it up to her Space/Time Affinity.
"Well, let''s get going," Kefira said cheerfully.
The three regained their mounts, paying the premium they had promised plus the cost to house and feed the steeds, and made their way once more toward the capital. They didn''t cut across the open fields this time, as there was no reason to go all the way back to the main highway that connected the capital city to the border.
The roads between the viges would eventually lead them torger andrger cities, all the way to the capital itself. It meandered a bit, here and there, but overall it was a straighter path than going all the way back to their starting point. The roads weren''t nearly as wide as the highway until they reached some of therger cities, but they were all in good condition and properly paved.
Not cutting through the wilderness, on top of going a bit shorter distance, saved them a decent amount of time on the trip. It had taken them twelve days, almost a full two weeks, to reach the foot of the mountain from the highway, and the capital city was quite a ways further than that along the highway. The journey to the capital took another three weeks.
The roads way out in the furthest viges weren''t patrolled by the army or the local militias, so they had to ward off some wild beasts and fight some of the nuisance monsters, but it wasn''t anything they couldn''t easily handle. There were norge tribes of monsters like Reivyn had encountered with the goblins in Garoq on his first outing when he had been conscripted. They generally ran into individuals or small groups of four or five.
Reivyn''s Experience continued to tick up from the small fights, but even with killing the Wyverns and the two Ice Trolls, he was still several thousand Experiences away from gaining another Level.
Battles and warfare seem like a great way to get a lot of Experience, Reivyn surmised. Depending on the ess one has to Dungeons, it might even be worth more. I would have to gain some more Experience with battles and higher Tier Dungeons to really figure it out. The biggest contributing factor would be theck of a time restriction on Battles imposed by the System.
The journey, like all things, eventually ended as the trio finally reached Willowan, the Capital of Wispan.
Reivyn sucked in a sharp breath at the majesty of the sight before him. It was iparable to any of the cities he had seen before, easily eclipsing The Capital of Garoq. The walls were huge and shined a blinding white and gold. Towers pierced the sky in the distance, and Reivyn could tell that the size of the city was more than ten timesrger than the secondrgest city he had seen.
Soldiers in gleaming armor patrolled the walls and grounds outside the city, and there were thousands of pedestrians along the roads going in and out. Reivyn couldn''t even see to the other sides of the city, but he imagined there were just as many people along the roads to every entrance.
The city wasn''t a square. It wasn''t any definite shape, but Reivyn could tell that there were possibly dozens of gates leading into the city. It snaked around the naturalndscape, with rivers and mountains jutting up against the edge that could be seen in the distance. There wererge hills, too small to be considered mountains themselves, within the city with buildings built all along the incline and the top.
Sitting atop thergest hill, nearly in the dead center of the city, was a majestic pce that had towers topped with the entire spectrum of the rainbow. Even from this distance, Reivyn could tell that it was built with marble, gold, and all sorts of precious gems.
Reivyn stood in ce, just admiring the sight before him. He was even more taken aback by the beauty than he had been atop The Dagger.
"Wee to my home," Kefira said, a delightful smile on her face as she looked up at Reivyn. "The Jewel of Wispan."
Chapter 149: Willowan
Chapter 149: Willowan
The sounds of the city washed over Reivyn as he walked along the main road of Willowan. The Outer City was densely packed like any other major city he had been to, but the buildings, even the ones of the lowest rung of society, were very high quality. The Outer City managed to give off a rustic charm at the same time that it was a bustling metropolis.
The streets were wide and easily amodated multiple wagons and horses, but it left room for the pedestrians to easily get around as well. One thing that Reivyn had never noticed in a city before, though, was three specialtynes on the main road. On either edge of the road was ane designed for children and for low-Tier ssers, bothrge enough for their families to walk safely without getting smashed by high-Tier ssers rushing about. In the center of the road was a doublene designed especially for Runners.
Even though Reivyn was Tier 2 and should have technically been relegated to the low-Tierne, his Stats basically put him in the Tier 4 range. One thing he noted, though, was that even though his Perception was high enough to easily see and react to the few Runners he saw traversing the centernes, he would be lying to himself if he thought he could keep up with them.
There''s no way that someone who''s just a Runner would be a Tier 5 or have a considerably higher Dexterity Stat than me, Reivyn thought. Their sses must have some amazing ss Skills to allow them to sprint around so quickly and see where they''re going.
The trio strolled along the main road on the right-hand side. The road was divided by the centerne to allow for easier transportation to keep the flow of traffic moving in a consistent direction. It hadn''t been necessary for any of the other major cities Reivyn had been to, but the cities he had been to in Drallo weren''t major cities, and The Capital of Garoq didn''t really count.
The buildings on either side of the main road were mainlymercial, but there wasn''t any kind of strict zoningws or anything. Houses could be seen interspersed withmerce, and there were cksmiths and other workshops as well. Even though it was the Outer City, Reivyn could tell just from looking at the people working at the workshops that they were high-quality establishments.
"Only the best or luckiest get the chance to secure a spot on the main road," Kefira said, noticing Reivyn''s attention. "Some of the workshops out here in the Outer City on the main road are even better than the ones that can be found in the more secluded ces of the Inner City. That''s not to say that there aren''t ''hidden masters in either ce who like the quiet, but it''s generally understood that you won''t go wrong purchasing from a ce on the main street."
Reivyn nodded his head at the exnation. He had guessed as much. The sounds of faint cheering reached his ears as they kept walking, and it grew louder and louder until he spotted arger, enclosed building on the corner of a major intersection. The sounds were clearlying from within.
"What''s that?" Reivyn nodded his head toward the building.
"That''s what I was telling you about before," Kefira said. "It''s a branch of the Striker''s Guild. They have smaller venues all over the Outer City, and the ones in the Inner City are a bitrger. The Championship is held in a stadium near the center of the Inner City.
"The people who fight in these outer branches are generally lower Level people with the right kind of ss for the sport, or they''re Adventurer''s who simply have the necessary Skills. They''re typically considered amateurs. The fighting stages are protected by rings that suppress people to have the same Stats, but it doesn''t do anything for the Skills.
"Someone of a lower Level with the right kind of ss, like Pugilists, will be able to have the right Skill Levels to go against a higher Level Adventurer with the same Skills. After all, Adventurers don''t typically focus too heavily on their non-lethalbat Skills.
"The branches in the Inner City are where you''ll find the true professionals, people with Tier 4 sses specialized in non-lethal fighting. I want to say that the current champion''s ss is Iron Bone Scrapper. He was lucky enough to be born with a great talent for the Metal Affinity."
"Huh, I''d never really considered abat-oriented Lifestyle ss before, but it makes sense," Reivyn said. "If dancing and music are legitimate forms of entertainment with corresponding sses, why can''t fighting have a corresponding entertainment ss? I know you mentioned there was an entire industry built around it before, but hearing the specifics makes it clearer in my mind."
"It would be a waste of time to go check out one of these amateur matches," Kefira said. "That''s not to denigrate the people trying to make it in the Striker''s Guild, but your Level and Skill would make watching it boring. The only thing you would get out of it is watching how the support team works, but you can watch that in the professional league as well as in the Inner City."
"It''s definitely something to check out."
They continued on their way, heading deeper into the city toward another set of walls separating the Inner from the Outer. Reivyn wasn''t wearing his pin so as not to stick out in the crowd too much and draw unwanted attention, but just to show it to the gate guards to gain entry. It wasn''t that people were necessarily kept out of the Inner City, but there was still an inspection. It was unlikely one of the guards would recognize Kefira or Seri, and it just made more sense for Reivyn to use his token surreptitiously to skip the line.
The threepanions passed by several other Striker''s Guild branches on their way, and Reivyn spied even further down some of the otherrger roads. It was apparently a booming, popr business. There were no Arenas where life and death matches happened in the Outer City. There was only one Arena, and it was located in the Inner City near the center, just like the stadium for the major Striker matches.
"Halt! Get in line for inspection," a guard in heavy armor held his hand up as Reivyn walked to the open gate leading to the Inner City with Kefira and Seri in tow. The gear that the man wore was the same as that of the border security. It wasn''t as high quality as the expeditionary forces under Kayzor, but it was still high-quality heavy armor.
Reivyn fished out his token and handed it over to the guard. The man held it up to his face, and his eyebrows shot up with recognition. He immediately handed it back like a hot potato and waved the three of them through.
"Sorry for the dy, sir," the man said, sweat beading his brow.
"No worries," Reivyn patted him on the shoulder as he passed.
"Hey! Why do they get to skip the line?" One of the people waiting for his turn shouted out. It was understandable that he would suspect Reivyn of bribing the guard, as those that didn''t have to wait were either known people, or they had a visible token on disy. Nobody else had gone in the same way Reivyn had without openly showing their qualifications.
The guard nced at Reivyn, seeking advice on whether Reivyn wanted to disclose his status. Reivyn gave a slight shake of his head.
"They''re residents," the guard replied curtly. "Why, you got a problem?"
The man didn''t back down in the face of the aggressive demeanor of the guard. Instead, he grew even more agitated, convinced something fishy was going on. He took a step forward, though not too far, as he didn''t want to lose his ce in line.
"Yeah, I got a problem. The Imperial Family advocates fairness, and here you are openly taking bribes. Call your captain over here, and let''s see what he has to say about it."
The guard took a threatening step forward, but Reivyn put his hand on the man''s arm, stopping him in ce.
"It''s not that big of a deal," Reivyn said. "Go ahead and call your captain over."
"But he''s taking up your valuable time, sir," the guard whispered.
"I''m not in a hurry, and he has a point. If the Imperial Family advocates fairness, then we have a duty to ay his concerns."
"Alright, it''s up to you."
The guard motioned for someone standing near a door leading into an office built into the wall. The other guards had heard what was going on, so he didn''t need any instruction on what to do, and he disappeared inside. It only took a moment until another man came out with a captain''s insignia. He first walked up to the irate pedestrian.
"What can I do for you?" The captain asked in a polite tone. Getting called out to handle a situation didn''t seem to put him in a bad mood, and Reivyn suspected it was amon enough urrence.
"I suspect your guards are taking bribes and letting smugglers, or who knows what, into the Inner City," the angry man eximed loudly.
"I assure you, if that''s the case, those involved will be arrested and punished ording to thew."
The captain turned toward Reivyn and the gate guard that had waved them through, and he gave a "this guy" kind of expression as he walked up. Reivyn didn''t wait for the guard to exin himself, and he simply handed over his token to the captain. The reaction of the captain was identical to the guard, and after handing the token back quickly, he gave a small bow.
"Sorry for the dy, sir. I''ll handle this." He turned back to theinant and motioned him over. "Come over here for a second, sir. I assure you that you won''t lose your ce in line."
The man frowned as he stepped out of line and walked over to the captain. The captain turned his body and pulled out a piece of paper with a list written on it, and he motioned for the man to stand beside him where he could show him the paper. The captain whispered in a low enough voice that those in line couldn''t hear what was being said, but Reivyn could hear it clearly.
"See here," he pointed to something on the paper, "that man and thosedies are what this indicates. They''re on official business, and the guard just said they were residents so as not to spread the word around. He just showed the guard the token to prove his status is all."
Theining man looked up in astonishment at Reivyn, Kefira, and Seri.
"I''m sorry, sir, I didn''t know."
"It''s fine," Reivyn smiled. "You just wanted to be treated fairly. I can respect that."
"If that''s all?" The captain asked the civilian.
"Yes, of course, of course," the man waved his hands profusely before turning around and getting back in his ce.
The captain nodded to Reivyn and retreated back into his office. Several of the other civilians leaned forward to whisper to the chiefinant to find out what he had discovered, but so far he was keeping his mouth shut.
"What was it that the captain showed the man?" Reivyn turned back to the guard.
"If I''m guessing correctly, he showed him a list of military personnel, dignitaries, special envoys, and diplomats. As to what, specifically, he told him you are, I don''t know."
"Fair enough. Have a good day," Reivyn turned and headed through the wall once again.
"You too, sir. Ladies," the guard called after them.
"You handled that appropriately," Kefira said. "I''m d you didn''t take the arrogant option and choose not to exin anything. You gave me and my family some face by waiting like that."
"Even if I was a jerk, I wouldn''t do it with you standing right next to me," Reivyn chuckled.
"Eh, good point."
The three continued into the Inner City, and Reivyn noticed a considerable change right away. If he would have had to guess how the city was structured, he would have said that the buildings would be denser the closer one got to the center, but that wasn''t the case. The Outer City had been extremely packed, but the Inner City was dominated by individual buildings withrge yards and courtyards. Some blocks were entire individualpounds.
That wasn''t to say that there weren''t any closely packed buildings, but the blocks that were built that way were few and far between. It was much more open in the Inner City, and the foot traffic was considerably less.
That wasn''t the only difference. The Outer City was mostly t, and there were only a few parks and fountains. The Inner City had rolling hills, and there were even some small wooded areas in addition to parks, fountains, and statues. Reivyn could feel the wealth of the Inner City inhabitants.
"The city wasn''t always like this," Kefira suddenly said. "The Outer City was originally the outskirts for those that couldn''t afford to move inside the walls. As the city grew and became more prosperous over time, however, the second wall was built. We don''t have amunity of people living outside of the walls like a lot of other Imperial Capitals do, but that''s not to say there isn''t a poorer area. It''s just located in a different part of the Outer City that we didn''t pass by."
Reivyn inspected everything around the main road as he had in the Outer City. It was clear to see that the industry andmerce of the Inner City were a step up from that of the Outer City, and the patrolling guards were clearly members of the military whereas the guards in the Outer City had been closer to a militia. They had still been outfitted with high-quality gear, but Reivyn could tell at a nce that the few patrols he spotted in the Inner City were more professional and higher Skilled.
There wasn''t nearly as much noise pollution in the Inner City, and Reivyn could hear the sounds of nature as they walked along the road. He could see cksmiths and other craftsmen, but there was no noise ringing out from their shops.
Probably some sort of noise-canceling Mana barrier or some such, Reivyn surmised. I wonder if there''s aw prohibiting it in the Inner City? Now that I think about it, the walls probably have something simr as I didn''t notice the sounds of the Outer City reaching in here after we had passed through.
Despite the Inner City having less poption than the Outer City, the area was considerablyrger. It took them twice as long to traverse the distance from the wall to the Imperial Pce grounds as it had to reach the Inner City upon entering the outer walls. They walked over several smaller hills until they reached the base of a muchrger one, and Reivyn could see the pce sparkling atop it. Up close it was much more dazzling than it had been when he had spied it outside of the city walls.
The guards protecting the entry to the pce were some of thergest men Reivyn had ever seen, and they gave off an air of contained violence. Reivyn looked them up and down, noting their clearly magical arms and armor, and he threw a Sense Threat at one of them.
[??: Tier 5 Level ??]
[Danger Level: Fatal]
The man that Reivyn inspected turned to face him and red at Reivyn, but his eyesnded on Kefira almost immediately, and he straightened back up and offered a salute.
"Wee back, Princess!" He shouted. The other guard immediately saluted as well, but he didn''t add his voice to the greeting.
"Sorry about my Liaison, here," Kefira patted Reivyn on the back. The first guard''s eyes flickered to Reivyn in surprise. "He''s new to the area and didn''t mean any harm."
"No, no, no Princess. It''s my honor to gain the attention of the Imperial Liaison," the guard hurriedly denied any apology from Kefira.
"Well, I''ll apologize for myself, then," Reivyn stepped forward and gave a short bow. "I didn''t mean anything by it. I was just genuinely curious. I hope you don''t take offense."
The guard seriously eyed Reivyn up and down before nodding his head.
"Apology epted Imperial Liaison. A word of advice, don''t use any Inspect Skills on anyone in the Imperial Pce. Even if they don''t show it, they''ll know it."
"Point taken. Thank you."
Kefira smiled at both of the guards as she led the way into the pce, Reivyn and Seri trailing behind. Kefira had been content to let Reivyn take the lead up to this point, but it would be strange for those in the pce to see her following behind someone unknown. This was her home, and she knew everyone here, but none of them knew who Reivyn was.
Reivyn pulled out his token and secured it in ce. There was no reason to hide anything anymore. They had just wanted to walk through the capital in peace without drawing attention, but now everyone they ran into would know exactly who Kefira and Seri were.
"I''m going to go meet my parents," Kefira said. "Seri, take Reivyn to my quarters, and thene find me." She turned to Reivyn. "I''ll tell my parents about my adventures and meeting you first instead of just showing up with a strange man right away."
"Fair enough," Reivyn nodded.
Kefira strode ahead into the interior of the pce, and Seri led him down a side corridor. The pce wasn''t just onerge building, but it was instead a hugepound in the center of the city atop thergest hill. Seri led him to a side door leading into the interior of thepound, and Reivyn could see several smaller buildings that were obviously quarters for the Imperial Family and other nobles attached to them.
The buildings were only smaller rtive to the main building of the pce that they had already walked through, and they were made of the same base material and high standards of architecture. Seri walked down a luxurious path, passing several of the houses until they reached Kefira''s. There was a wall separating each abode, and they all had multiple buildings in their own littlepounds.
Seri pointed to a smaller building on the right after entering the yard.
"That will be your quarters," she said. "The center building is Kefira''s main chambers. We can wait for her there."
"Do you live in the same building as Kefira, or one of these other buildings?" Reivyn asked.
There were four buildings in total within thepound. There was a gazebo and a tiny stream within the main yard, and Reivyn could see a garden around the back.
"Technically, as a noble attached to the Imperial Family, I have my ownpound, but as ady in waiting for Kefira, I live with her in her home."
"I see."
Seri led him into the main building, and there were several maids waiting in the foyer. Reivyn looked around and noticed that it was an open concept in the entryway with a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the second story. There was a curved staircase leading up to an interior balcony. It reminded him of the headquarters building in the barracks in Magron, though there wasn''t a military feel to it. The colors and lighting had a sort of feminine charm to them.
The maids curtseyed to Seri, greeting her as they entered, and they eyed Reivyn curiously. Seri nodded back to them, greeting them by name and introducing Reivyn as Kefira''s Imperial Liaison before leading him into a side sitting room.
"You can wait here until we eithere back or someone fetches you," Seri said. "I don''t know if Kefira''s parents are going to want to meet you right away or not, but I would assume they will if I were you."
"Thanks," Reivyn said.
Seri nodded and immediately left once more. A maid entered the room and ced a cup of tea on a table for Reivyn, and he thanked her. The maid left to go back to whatever she had been doing, and Reivyn found himself alone. He shrugged and took a seat, reaching for the tea to take a sip.
I wonder if Kefira''s mother is anywhere close to as scary as they kept portraying her. Reivyn thought, sipping the tea. No pressure. Just going to meet the ordinary parents of my ordinary girlfriend who happen to be ordinary Imperial monarchs. What could go wrong?
Chapter 150: Distinguished Guest
Chapter 150: Distinguished Guest
Kefira strode through the halls of the pce, heading toward the sitting room of her family. They all had their own individual courtyards, but those were mostly used for sleeping and appearances. Her family was quite close, and they spent the majority of their time in the "official" pce where all the work was done.
None of her family members were idlers, though. They all had some sort of responsibility that they upheld, but being the leaders of the empire, they could set their own schedules. Her father, Ge, spent the majority of his time in an imposing-looking office on the first floor, and her first brother usually apanied him, learning the tasks of running the empire.
Her mother, Silfa, would often apany her father, but she had her own little pet projects that she ran, and her main responsibility was to look over the functions of the pce itself. She had a reputation of severity mainly from strictly enforcing the rules of the pce and making sure the staff did an impable job, though she was quite sweet in a personal setting.
It was a bit of a running joke that her mother was vicious, and it was usually more to tease neers than it was true. That being said, Silfa could paralyze new staff members with a sharp re of her prismatic eyes. As the Queen of Gems, her eye color incorporated the spectrum of precious gems, not just one solid color like Kefira''s ruby eyes.
And just because it was mostly a joke and not the whole truth about her being so severe, it didn''t spring from nowhere. She could be as cold as a cier when she needed to be, and she was extremely fierce when it came to anything to do with her baby.
I hope she doesn''t go overboard when she meets Reivyn, here in a bit, Kefira frowned. If I know mother, she''s guaranteed to give him the cold shoulder for some time, but I''m sure we can get her to warm up to him over time. I just worry about how cold she''s going to be, and how long it''s going to take for her to ept him.
The little remarks she had been making to Reivyn about how her mother would receive him had been more to prepare him for any eventualities and to make him think it could be worse. It would have been counterproductive to exin the nuances of her mother''s personality to him, as he might not take it seriously enough to ever truly break through to her.
A little teasing is also a bit of fun, too.
The pce wasn''t exceptionallyrge, but the sitting room she was headed to where she could meet privately with her parents and siblings wasn''t located in a traditional location. Instead of being near the center of the pce, it was actually a bit of a way down one of the wings. It had never been truly necessary, but it was a holdover from a long time ago when her ancestors used a bit of misdirection to make it harder for infiltrators or assassins to locate their privacy as easily.
Apparently, there used to even be a secret tunnel behind one of the central rooms that led to the private family space, but nowadays it was just in the hallway. There was no need for such subterfuge with their solid grasp on the empire and love from the people. It had just be a tradition of sorts.
Kefira ascended to the second floor, and as she stepped into the hallway leading to her destination, she saw two young adults walking toward her. One was a girl who was several years older than Kefira, and she was being trailed by a young man who was just a bit younger than her. Their faces lit up in delight as they spotted Kefira entering the hall.
"Little Fira!" The girl picked up her pace and hurried to greet Kefira. She was wearing a simple, yet exquisite dress and the fit and color of it fit her personality perfectly, in Kefira''s opinion. It was a forest green that also matched her emerald eyes.
"Sophia! Trevor!" Kefira rushed forward, arms out, and hugged her sister.
"Little sister," Trevor nodded his head with a smile. His eyes were the color of amethyst, but he wore the uniform of the imperial army like her brother Kayzor. He wasn''t armed and armored, though. He was still working his way through the ranks and hadn''t yet earned a position as amander like his older brother.
"I was wondering when you would return," Sophia said. "Kayzor got back a couple of days ago with his army. I didn''t listen in on the report he gave, but from what I gathered from the gossip, the army didn''t seem like it suffered any losses."
"Eh, they got there basically at the end, but they did help immensely with the final problem that we had," Kefira separated from her sister and gave a quick hug to her fifth brother.
"Well, I''ll listen to you tell the tale. You''re always so much more interesting to listen to than Kayzor. He''s quite the bore with his military-esque, boring reporting. I swear he''s talking to father, not our uncle." Sophia rolled her eyes.
Kefira''s first uncle, the second brother to her father, was The General of the Army, and he had a much higher Level than his younger brother, the monarch. He didn''t personally oversee too many operations anymore, but he took his job very seriously. asionally he would switch out duties with another one of Kefira''s uncles, and he would go adventure in the bordering Tier 5 Region.
Their family had to maintain their sharpness, and most of the older generation was actually practically living in the Tier 5 Region to the north. Kefira had even heard rumors that their older generation took expeditions into the Tier 6 Regions nearby.
When one got to a high enough Level with enough Vitality, one''s lifespan would extend quite a bit. It was nothing crazy like living for thousands of years, but Kefira knew that her great-great-grandparents were still alive and well, and they were well over 300 years old at this point. They were apparently still living the life of a high-end Adventurer, and her own parents were likely to eventually follow in their footsteps.
Her family had a tradition of the reigning monarchs abdicating power to allow for the crown prince to take over, and then they would assume different responsibilities for the family. Namely, they would spend some time training the youngest before heading out to secure resources. It wasn''t a good idea to let others handle the procurement of higher-Tier resources all on their own unless one wanted to see the name of the dynasty change.
"Oh, sure, sure," Kefira nodded her head. She smiled at her youngest, older brother. "Are you upset that you didn''t get to go?"
"I was," Trevor sighed. "But then I heard the reports from Kay, and now I''m kind of d I didn''t waste my time."
"Oh? You''re saying it was a waste of time to travel out to meet your sister who was fighting for her life?" Kefira''s eyes twinkled.
"Hey, now! Don''t put words in my mouth. That''s not what I meant, and you know it." Trevor wiped the sweat that had mysteriously appeared on his brow with the cuff of his shirt.
"Hmph!" Kefira turned her head to the side. "Since I haven''t seen you in a long time, I''ll forgive you... for now."
"Of course, thank you," Trevor took a deep, calming breath.
"Come,e,e," Sophia grabbed Kefira''s hand, dragging her along the corridor. "Let''s go meet Father and the others. I''m sure you want to see them, and I know they''re looking forward to your return."
Kefira allowed herself to be dragged along the hallway, eager to meet the rest of her family after being away for so long. Each of the siblings had been on multiple journeys to gain Life Experience, and this had been one of the major, culminating expeditions for Kefira. There was no telling if she would need to go on a longer, more dangerous trip in the future to secure a better ss at Tier 5 or 6, but she knew she was going to have great options for Tier 4, at least.
In only a few moments, Kefira was being led into an informal sitting room, and she immediately spotted the rest of her family members. Her father was sitting in afortable-looking chair, reading a report. Her first brother, Garet, was standing behind him looking over his shoulder. There was a long coffee table in front of the chair, and there were several other ces to sit around it.
Off to the side, on a longer seat meant to hold three people, Kefira''s second sister, Faria, was in the process of taking a sip of tea. There was an expensive-looking porcin set on the table, and Faria had impable manners as she took her sip. She held one hand under the cup as she sat perfectly straight. Kayzor, on the other hand, waszing in another two-seater, sprawled across it with his leg over the armrest at the other end of the table. Kefira rolled her eyes at theplete opposite decorum he had shown while leading the expeditionary army.
"Father!" Kefira called out as she rushed across the room to give her father a peck on the cheek.
Her father put the reports down immediately upon being addressed, and he gave a smile to his youngest.
"Ahh, there''s my girl. Back from the bug stomping, finally," he chuckled.
Garet, straightening up behind their father, gave a little smirk. Kefira punched him lightly in the shoulder.
"Brother," she leaned over and gave him a one-armed hug.
"Kefira. d to see you''re no longer... tied up," heughed at his own joke.
"That... was terrible," Kefira said with a straight face.
"I know," Garet''s face fell, but then he shrugged. "I couldn''t think of anything better."
"Try harder next time. How''s a future monarch going to survive if they can''te up with the right words?"
"Yes, I keep telling him he needs to work on his wit," Faria said, setting her tea cup down. "It''s good to see you extricate yourself from the snare of adventure, Fira."
"Not you, too?" Kefira ran her palm down her face. "Though, that was a little better."
"I was just disying my superior wit to our dearest brother," Faria sat primly, smug in her oneupmanship.
"Hey, I''m the one who brainstormed the word snare!" Garet said, crossing his arms.
"Yes, and then you promptly failed to use it." Faria patted the seat next to herself. "Come, Fira, have a seat next to me and enjoy some of this freshly brewed tea. It''s recently been brought back by a third uncle from Terrezin."
Kefira sat down where indicated and epted a cup of tea. As she brought it up to her mouth, she looked around the room and noticed something amiss.
"Where''s mother?" She asked, realizing that the seat next to her father was empty.
"These two," her father gave a long-suffering look, "drove her off with all their talk of spider-puns. You know how she is about spiders. She stepped out and said she would be back after you told your tale, and she said that you could catch up on everything else in private,ter."
Kefira took a sip and looked around the room at everyone else. Sophia and Trevor had taken their own seats by this time.
"You guys do realize that I did a lot more than just fight some giant spiders, right?" She quirked an eyebrow.
"Yes, tell us," Ge leaned forward in his seat, eager to hear what she had to say.
"For one I traveled into the underbelly of a deste desert, meeting the lizaldons and doing some trading with them..."
"To get spider silk," Garet interrupted.
Kefira shed a look his way.
"And while down there, Seri and I met a...panion..."
"Who came out of a spider Dungeon," Garet snickered.
Kefira leaned forward and mmed her fists down on the coffee table, rattling the porcin.
"Dammit! Will you let me talk!" She huffed, ring at everyone in the room in turn.
There was a couple of seconds of silence before everyone burst outughing. Kefira sat back in her seat, folding her arms, and sulked.
"Ok, ok. Let her speak," her father held his hands out to calm everyone down. "We''re all very interested in listening to your adventure. Start from the beginning."
Kefira took a deep breath and calmed down.
"From the beginning... Let''s see. Seri and I decided to work as Adventurers in Drallo..."
Reivyn rxed in his seat, bouncing his leg over the armrest of the chair in boredom. The seat wasn''t exactly designed to be sat in such a way, and the opposite armrest dug into his ribs. He didn''t care, though, and he simply lounged while waiting for someone toe pick him up.
He had taken his armor off after entering the sitting room, and he was dressedfortably in a set of robes that Kefira hadmissioned for him with some of her extra silk. He had also acquired a new Tessen, his old one having been left behind in their temporary house near the Revenant Dungeon, and he was fiddling with it.
He looked up as the door creaked open, and a smile bloomed on his face as he stood up. Kefira stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.
"That was quick," he said, walking over to the door. "I thought for sure you would spend a bit more private time with your family..." Reivyn trailed off as he noticed something was amiss. He frowned as he peered into the girl''s eyes.
The neer looked very simr to Kefira, but after taking a closer look, he realized that her manner of dress and hairstyle were a bit different, and the shade of her eye color was slightly darker. Upon closer inspection, her face was a bit older, and the way she carried herself was more formal, as well.
"I''m sorry," Reivyn stepped back and gave a little bow. "I thought at first that you were Kefira, returned from meeting her parents. You must be Sophia." He straightened up and held his hand out.
The girl eyed his hand for a moment before striding forward and holding her own hand out, palm down. Reivyn had double-checked with Kefira about the etiquette in her empire, and he didn''t make a faux pas this time. He bent forward and kissed the back of his own thumb after taking hold of the proffered hand. The girl smiled back at him and gestured to the seats.
"Have a seat and talk with me for a moment," Sophia said.
"Certainly," Reivyn nodded and pulled a seat out for his guest before taking his own again.
Is she considered my guest in this situation? Reivyn thought, slightly confused. This isn''t either of our ces, but I was here first... but she lives in the pce... Reivyn shook his head. I''ll never figure it out.
Kefira hadn''t gone into detail about what her other family members looked like, but she had mentioned that she was very close to Sophia. Considering the resemnce and eye color, and the fact that the girl didn''t refute him, Reivyn was secure in his assumption that the person sitting with him was Kefira''s fourth sister.
"Kayzor''s told me a lot about you," Sophia said. "And Kefira mentioned you a few times in the missives she was able to send before the whole war thing happened."
"Good things I hope," Reivyn said, pouring a cup of tea for each of them. He settled back in his seat, but kept a straight posture, noting that Sophia did the same. She reached out and took the newly filled cup, sipping from it.
"Eh, things," Sophia said, staring at Reivyn over the rim of her cup. "So, Little Fira has given you the position of her Imperial Liaison." It was a statement, not a question. Reivyn nodded his head. "I feel it''s my duty toe and vet you, a bit. Make sure you''re not taking my d, ahem, sister for a ride."
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at the statement. That was a bit awkward timing to clear her throat. Maybe the tea didn''t go down right?
"Of course," Reivyn said. "I know I would want to make sure any ruffians that swindled my sisters were on the up and up."
"Just so," Sophia nodded, setting the cup down. "So you feel that strong family ties are important?"
"Very much so."
"And yet you''re out all alone, bereft of any contact with your own family, following a strange girl into a strangend?"
"That... was an ident," Reivyn felt sweat bead on his forehead. "Unexpected things happened. Kefira was in an entirely different Region than you guys, too."
"She had her cousin with her at all times," Sophia pointed out. "And she had a device she could use tomunicate with us in case of an emergency. Who apanied you on your adventure, and what steps did you take to make sure you could keep in touch with your parents?"
"Umm, I went on a school-sanctioned trip to a Dungeon with my ssmates, and my parents had some of their subordinates follow me."
"Hmm," Sophia sat perfectly straight and looked into Reivyn''s eyes for a moment. "So you left your family behind, cing your trust into ''subordinates'' that they could get a message to your family, and then you went gallivanting off to war with a girl you had just met. Then, once the war was over, you followed her home. Yes?"
"That''s hardly an urate representation of the facts," Reivyn pulled at his cor and reached for his tessen.
Is it getting hot in here? He flipped his tessen open and fanned himself in the face a couple of times. Sophia nced at the fan, but she didn''t otherwise react.
"I''m assuming Little Fira told you about our mother, yes?" Reivyn nodded his head at her question. "How do you expect to get past her if these little questions get you so flustered? She''s hardly a nice person. She''ll tear you apart."
Reivyn frowned at the characterization of Kefira''s mother.
"Hey, now. I think that might be a little unfair," Reivyn protested.
"Hardly," Sophia snorted. "Just a couple of questions have you sweating."
"No, not that," Reivyn shook his head. "I think it might be unfair the way you described your mother. From all ounts I''ve heard, she loves her children, and she has every right to be fierce when ites to their business. I''m an unknown quantity, falling from the sky into your lives. I would be disappointed if your mother didn''t take a strong hand with me."
Sophia sat back and blinked in startlement.
"You think it''s appropriate that our mother grills you harshly?"
"Of course," Reivyn nodded his head. "My mother''s the same way. She thinks I didn''t notice her attitude to some of my female ssmates, but I noticed. Our parents just want what''s best for us. Giving us what we want isn''t always the wisest choice. Giving us a free hand to choose who we partner with needs to be bnced with weeding out the chaff, and I fully support that attitude."
"I see," Sophia gazed into Reivyn''s eyes to see if there was any hint of deception. Her questing look apparently gave her the answer she needed, and she promptly stood up. "Well, I think you''ll do just fine when you meet her."
Reivyn hurried to stand up with the girl. He rushed ahead of her as she turned and headed to the door, and Reivyn grabbed the handle and opened it for her. Sophia paused and gave a slight smile at the action before stepping through to the other side. Reivyn bowed his head slightly.
"It was a pleasure meeting you," he said.
"Yes, of course," Sophia replied, not stopping her stride to the door leading out of the house.
Reivyn closed the door behind her and walked back to the table. He sat back down in his original posture, leg thrown over the armrest, as he fanned himself to cool off.
Wow, I thought Sophia would be firmly in my camp, Reivyn thought. She''s a lot more protective of her sister than I gave her credit for. If she''s so tough, I can''t imagine what meeting their mother is going to be like.
Chapter 151: Meet the Parents
Chapter 151: Meet the Parents
Reivyn took some calming breaths as he stood just outside the double doors leading to the formal petition hall. A maid from the main pce hade and picked him up a little while after his short meeting with Sophia.
Guards were standing on either side of the double doors, and several other people were walking about or just standing around in the foyer. Pce staff were busy moving about, attending to their duties. Several of the people standing around were obviously politicians of some sort, and Reivyn could practically feel the cool arrogance of nobility oozing off of several of them.
There weren''t any younger generation members in attendance with them, and they each had a mature appearance. If Reivyn had to guess, based on Kefira''s description of her parents, he would say that these people were the heads of their families, and they would be one generation older than the sitting emperor and empress.
Reivyn had never been involved with any kind of official politics, only some squabbling of children on the periphery. He had no idea about the intricacies of etiquette involved with meeting the people in charge. There was a steady stream of people going in and out of the petition hall, and several would stop to discuss things with those standing in the foyer, either on the way in or out.
"Boy, what family do you belong to? This isn''t the ce to be sightseeing," a voice intruded on Reivyn''s thoughts.
Reivyn looked over to see one of the older gentlemen approaching him with a severe expression. Reivyn frowned as he tilted his head, trying to think of how he had offended this person. It took a second for things to click in his mind, and the older man had stopped in front of him, a frown on his face as he waited for an answer. Reivyn pulled out his insignia and deliberately fastened it to his cor.
"I''m on official business," Reivyn said, meeting the man''s eyes.
"Interesting," the man said, ncing at the insignia. "I hadn''t heard that a Liaison had been appointed. Which scion are you attached to?"
"Excuse me, who are you?" Reivyn nced at the man''s eyes, noting the striking hue, before turning to face the closed doors, clearly dismissing the other party.
The older man barked augh.
"It''s been a long time since someone of the younger generation has been so rude to me," despite the words, Reivyn didn''t notice any malice in the man''s tone. "I''ve never seen you before, and considering your station, I''m assuming you''re not one of the nobility of Wispan, so I''ll forgive you. I''m a magnanimous man."
"With all due respect, sir, I don''t need your forgiveness," Reivyn nced at the man again.
"Haha! A sharp tongue on this one," the older man seemed happy that Reivyn rebuked him. "Whether you need my forgiveness or not is yet to be seen. A word of advice, not everyone is as amodating as I am."
"I have shown you my affiliation, and, yet, you have still not told me who you are."
"Ahh, my old age must be catching up to me. I just assumed everyone knows who I am."
"A strange assumption, considering I just told you I have no idea."
The older man threw his head back andughed. He turned to the group of individuals he had been previously standing with. They were all smirking at the interaction.
"I like this kid! He doesn''t let me lead him around by the nose." The man turned back to Reivyn and his amicable face changed to one of seriousness. "I am Bellefrent, the empress''s older brother and patriarch of the Gemwayre family."
Reivyn raised his eyebrows in surprise. He turned and gave a short bow to the older man.
"Apologies. It''s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Uncle."
The older gentleman lost all traces of amusement as he stared at Reivyn for a long moment.
"Boy, what did you call me?" He finally asked.
"Are you Seri''s father, or her uncle?" Reivyn asked back.
The man gave a thoughtful expression.
"So you''re attached to Kefira," the man smirked at Reivyn''s expression. "It was either her or Kayzor. You have the attitude for Kay, but not the reverence for the imperial family, and I would have known about you if it was any of the other children.
"Come find me sometime after you''ve made your introductions to Ge and Silfa."
Bellefrent gave a curt nod before turning on his heels and rejoining his associates. Reivyn watched him go, noting the eyes of other nobles on their interaction. He could tell that he had suddenly be the topic of discussion for several of them, but he maintained his cool appearance after a quick nce around.
The double doors to the petition hall opened, and arge group of people streamed out. Reivyn could finally see into the room properly, and it appeared that everyone was exiting. There only remained two people seated in the center, a younger man standing behind the older man, clearly Kefira''s father, and a younger woman standing behind Kefira''s mother.
The staff and the guards were still busy with their duties inside the room, but all of the officials walked out. There were probably close to thirty or so peopleing out of the room, and a pce staff member decked out in much more exquisite clothing than the rest threaded his way through the throng and approached Reivyn.
"His and Her Majesties will see you, now," the man said.
Reivyn adjusted the cor of his robes before striding through the double doors with confidence. He wasn''t nervous, per se, but he did want to give a good first impression. He strode to the center of the room and gave a slight bow to the two seated individuals. The four people eyed him seriously, each one with a serious expression. Their looks and expression were so simr, that if Reivyn didn''t know better, he would think that he was simply meeting Kefira''s siblings, albeit with a strange sitting arrangement.
"Your Majesties," Reivyn intoned. "This humble Reivyn gives his greetings."
Reivyn straightened up from his short bow and met the eyes of Kefira''s father, Emperor Ge. The man sat with his arm propped on his armrest, his index finger resting against his cheek as he slightly leaned to the side.
"Are you not going to kneel to your monarch?" The man finally asked.
"No," Reivyn answered simply. "Forgive me, but you''re not my monarch."
"Presumptuous," the younger man behind Ge dered.
Reivyn nced at him. That must be Kefira''s first brother, Garet. Reivyn didn''t respond to the outburst, simply looking back to the seated emperor.
"You wear our family''s insignia on your cor, and you im you''re not one of our subjects?" Ge asked.
"This is an indication of my rtionship with Kefira, not my status as your subordinate."
"Is that what you think?"
"That''s what I know."
Reivyn and Ge stared at each other for a moment, neither backing down.
"What are your intentions for our daughter?" Silfa spoke up, getting straight to the heart of the matter.
Reivyn turned his attention to Kefira''s mother. She looked a little familiar, resembling Kefira and Sophia whom he had met previously, but she had a more mature air about her. Her eyes also weren''t one solid color, instead, they were a kaleidoscope of brilliance.
"Do you want the simple answer or the flowery answer?" Reivyn asked back. He could feel a pull on his thoughts, urging him to just blurt out the first thing that came to mind. He quashed the impulse, though.
"Let me hear the truth in your voice," she replied.
"Marriage," Reivyn gave the simplest answer.
All four of the people across from Reivyn were taken aback. Silfa was the first one to get over her shock, but Garet and the other young woman, presumably Faria, lost their bearingpletely, sharing a look.
"That''s... straightforward," Silfa said.
"You said you wanted to hear the truth in my voice," Reivyn said. "Did you hear it?"
"How can you determine that you want to marry my girl?" Silfa sidestepped the question. "You''ve only known each other for several months."
"I''ve thought about it a lot," Reivyn answered, not hiding anything. "She''s the first girl to grab my attention in any meaningful way. The more I''m with her, the more I want to be with her.
"We haveplimentary talents, and I enjoy spending time with her. I want to get to know her more, and everything I do is with the ultimate goal of being her partner. I''m not ying around with her or using her, and after some introspection, all roads eventually lead to marriage. So my intentions are to, ultimately, marry your daughter."
"And what makes you think you''re worthy of our daughter? She has talent never seen in tens of thousands of years, as I''m sure you''re aware. A unique Affinity that, as far as we know, has never been achieved by any individual. She''s on the cusp of Tier 4, and you''re still only a Tier 2 whelp."
Reivyn tilted his head as he looked at Silfa thoughtfully.
"Have Kayzor and Kefira not told you about my circumstances?" Reivyn asked.
"They''ve said some things. I''m still reserving judgment. You tell me why you''re worthy. I want to hear what you think about yourself."
"In that case, in my opinion, the real question should be why you think Kefira is worthy of me," Reivyn said. He hadn''t meant to word it in such a way, but he was feeling cocky at the moment. He didn''t have time to think about where his attitude came from.
"She was born with exceptional talent, but so was I. I gained a Mythic Skill before I had my first ss. I haven''t rested on my talents, either, achieving what only a rtive handful have in all of history. I may be Tier 2, but I have three sses. I have an Epic Tier 2 ss for my first ss, and now I have a Mythic Tier 3 ss for my Tier 2 ss.
"I''ve put in the work, despite being better at everything than my peers. I''m not arrogant or standoffish, either, helping my friends to better themselves. I have two pseudo-divine Skills," Reivyn bit his tongue, hard, drawing blood. He had not meant to divulge that information.
This woman is dangerous, Reivyn narrowed his eyes at Silfa. It was faint, but he detected a slight tilting up of the corners of her mouth. She''s doing something to lower my guard. Must be a Social Skill, or abination of them, and she''s far more Skilled than I am.
"It is right and proper for you to judge me for your daughter, but at the end of the day, your opinion is only a rmendation," Reivyn said after mastering himself. "I know my worth, and it is up to Kefira to determine if I''m worthy of pursuing her."
Silfa stared at him for a moment without responding. She turned to look at her husband, clearly ending the line of questioning.
"What do you n to do with your position as Kefira''s Liaison?" Ge asked, changing the subject. "She hasn''t indicated anything to us, and she hasn''t assumed any official responsibilities, yet. Are you just going to spend your days as an idler, or do you n to do something with your newfound authority?"
Reivyn considered the question. They hadn''t talked about it before, Kefira only saying that she didn''t consider him an actual subordinate of hers.
"I haven''t really thought about it," Reivyn answered truthfully. "That being said, I''m not one to be idle. If I have nothing to do, I''ll train. If I reach a bottleneck, I''ll go gain some Life Experience. I know that I''m still only Tier 2, and this is the beginning of my life. I''m not content with just coasting forward on my current achievements, but I will instead use them as a stepping stone to climb ever higher.
"There are a lot of things I still haven''t experienced, having spent most of my time fighting in one way or another. I''ll apany Kefira to social events to round myself out in that way, and I''m sure I can do things to increase her prestige among the popce."
"To what end?" Ge questioned further. "What would be the purpose of endearing her to the people? Do you want her to fight for the session so you can sit in my seat one day?"
Garet, standing behind his father, shot daggers at Reivyn upon hearing that question. It didn''t have any bite to it, though. It feels... scripted. Like he was expecting that line of questioning from his father.
"I''m not interested in ruling an empire," Reivyn shook his head, not getting apprehensive over the usation. "And neither is Kefira. As to the purpose of increasing her prestige, it''s all about Life Experience. We''re still in our foundational sses.
"Anything and everything can be leveraged to increase our ss choices for future advancement, and that''s one of the most important things that I always keep in mind as I make my decisions. As a member of the Imperial Family, I''m sure there would be great personal benefits for Kefira if she was able to leverage that aspect of her life, regardless of what her goals are."
"Hmm, we''ll see," Ge nced at his wife. She didn''t make any kind of expression or say anything, but Reivyn got a distinct feeling that they weremunicating.
Ahh, I see, Reivyn realized. He focuses on the administrative aspects, and she focuses on the rtionship aspects. His questions were solely focused on responsibilities, and her''s were focused on my intentions with their family. Instead of spreading it out amongst each other, they can get deeper into both subjects by taking care of one aspect all on their own.
"So," Silfa turned back to Reivyn. "What is it that your family does? There can''t be a whole lot to do in a Tier 1 Region where the atmosphere is so thin."
Reivyn gave her a look, not believing for a second that she knew about the fact that he was born in a Tier 1 Region but didn''t know that his parents were actually from a Tier 4 Region.
Maybe she wants to see if I''ll be truthful?
"My mother is a disced Imperial Princess from the Vynndin Empire," Reivyn replied. "It had four Dungeons located in the capital, and all four of the Dungeons had a Dungeon break at the same time. The Imperial Capital was lost, and the vassal states, instead of helping, decided to seize power for themselves.
"I don''t know the full story of how my parents ended up in a Tier 1 Region, but it had something to do with investigating a supposed mastermind, which I have since learned is absolutely true, as I met the man. I can''t speak further on that at this time.
"As for what my parents do, my father is still active in Adventuring, and they have a lot of loyal subjects that still follow them. He was originally a ceremonial bodyguard for my mother, but it turned into something deeper as they escaped together. My mother took a break from the active lifestyle when I was born, and I imagine she''s still spending the majority of her time raising my twin sisters."
"So you have the Bloodline, but not the upbringing," Silfa condensed his answer into a short sentence. "How are you nning to support my daughter with yourck of an education?"
"Ack of apleted formal education doesn''t mean ignorance, and seeking knowledge is done through a lifetime," Reivyn retorted.
"And how many opportunities will be lost as you shore up your foundations?"
"None," Reivyn tly denied. "I seek partnership with your daughter, not stewardship. It won''t be up to me to make her decisions for her. She''s perfectly capable of seizing her own fortune, and my job will simply be to allow her to do so more easily."
Silfa''s body shook imperceptibly, and Reivyn got the distinct feeling that she was holding herself back from nodding along to his answer.
"What''s your opinion on the invasion of Drallo?" Ge once more took over the questioning.
"It seems to have been a little bit of a misunderstanding," Reivyn said.
"A misunderstanding? Sending in hundreds of thousands of soldiers to enve the popce was a ''misunderstanding?''" Ge seemed offended at the notion.
"When I say misunderstanding, I mean more along the lines of a dissonance of philosophy."
"Exin."
"The trip was a personal one for a high-ranking member of their faction," Reivyn said. "I had the chance to speak, briefly, to that person, and from what I can gather, they view human life differently than we do. She referred to the popce as a resource to exploit for her purposes, but she didn''t intend to seize thend or the people permanently.
"They came and aplished their goal, and then they left."
"So you''re saying we should just forget it, then? Let bygones be bygones and forgive them because they have a different philosophy than we do?"
"That''s not what I said. I never said it wasn''t a transgression, just that it wasn''t what we thought it was. Certainly, if you can find them, you should hold them to ount for their actions."
"If we can find them?" Ge quirked an eyebrow.
"Do you know where they are?" Reivyn questioned back. "I don''t, and I suspect they''re from an organization of a higher Tier, as I''m sure you''ve read in the reports."
"Then what would you think if I told you we''ve received missives asking for help to repel invading forces that have simr distinguishing features? There have been multiple Tier 4 Empires that have reported massive armies ransacking their territories, raping and piging as they devour thend like locusts."
Reivyn frowned at that information. He hadn''t been back long enough to hear any of these kinds of rumors.
"I would say it sounds like a simr, or even allied, force doing such a thing," Reivyn ventured. "From your words, I''m guessing the invaders have brands on their foreheads?" Ge nodded his head. "They don''t sound like they''re doing things the same way as the invaders we encountered. There was no raping or piging, in the traditional sense, when they took the civilians to do their work for them.
"Even if they are the same people, just led by differentmanders, I would rmend getting involved right away. Send out the expeditionary armies to reinforce those requesting help."
"And why should we do such a thing?" Ge pressed. "What does it matter to us that other empires are suffering the invasion of foreigners? None of the ones requesting help are our allies."
"Then charge them," Reivyn said. "The main purpose is all about Experience. Not just Levels and Life Experience, but an actual understanding of how to fight them. Fighting people is a lot different than fighting monsters, and the experience of yourmanders and soldiers, if they think in such simple terms, could lead to a disaster.
"I would rmend forging your armies in the fire while that fire isn''t burning your homnd."
Ge sat back in his seat with a thoughtful expression.
"So if it was up to you, you would lead our daughter out to engage in more warfare, far from thefort of her home and the ones who love her?" Silfa interjected.
"If that''s the course that she chooses, I wouldn''t stop her," Reivyn said. "Instead of holding her back, I would make sure that she was safe while doing so. Flowers grown in the greenhouse can''t handle the weather as well as those born in the wild."
Silfa narrowed her eyes at him.
"I think you''re dangerous," she said.
"I know I am," Reivyn responded. Internally he kicked himself. I let myself slip again. He once more bit his tongue.
Ge guffawed, and Reivyn saw the corners of his lips twitch at his answer. The two siblings standing behind their parents raised their hands to cover their mouths with their sleeves simultaneously, and Reivyn would have sworn that their shaking was due toughing. Only Silfa didn''t have any kind of reaction to his bravado.
"And you want me to trust the wellbeing of my precious daughter to a self-proimed ''dangerous man?''" Silfa further questioned.
"The best person to catch a thief is another thief," Reivyn quipped, remembering the lesson from his father all those years ago.
"Are you a thief?"
"Of hearts."
Reivyn''s eyes widened at his own answer, and he drew more blood as he bit down on his tongue harder. I have to resist the temptation to answer right away, Reivyn rebuked himself. When I do, I''m more likely to say outrageous things.
"What I mean is, I''m the best candidate, and I''ve already got a spot in your daughter''s heart. She''s not a fool."
"Are you insinuating that I''m foolish for questioning her decisions?" Silfa raised an eyebrow.
"Not at all," Reivyn denied. "I''m simply saying that you can trust her judgment."
"So to sum it up, you have the Bloodline, some talent and work ethic, and you understand a modicum of etiquette," Silfa ticked off on her hand. "But... youck an in-depth education, you''re a bit s¨¦ about your familial rtionship, and you don''t respect your elders."
"Respect is earned," Reivyn said, frowning. "I''ll be polite, and I''ll be a bit deferential to those more experienced than me, but my respect will only go so far as I''ve seen one earns it. You can''t demand respect from me."
Silfa and Ge sat in silence for a moment, digesting that statement.
"So you''re admitting that you won''t respect us?" Silfa used.
"If you deserve it..." Reivyn shrugged.
Ge and Silfa shared a look. Ge turned back to Reivyn.
"That will be all for now," he said, nodding his head.
It was a clear dismissal, and Reivyn gave a polite, but short, bow.
"Your Majesties."
He took a step back before turning on his heels and exiting the petition hall once more.
That... could have gone worse, Reivyn mused. It could have gone better, of course. I stillck in the Social Skills department. Something I''ll have to focus on in the near future if I''m to apany Kefira in public.
Kefira and Seri were standing outside the room when Reivyn exited, and Kefira broke into a beaming smile at his appearance.
"Well, it looks like you have your limbs intact, still," she chuckled. "Come on, let''s go back to my courtyard. My parents still have some duties to attend to, and there''s a bit more time until dinner. You''ll get to meet the rest of my siblings, then."
"Oh, I already met your sister, Sophia, earlier," Reivyn said, walking next to Kefira.
"When?" Kefira looked up at him in puzzlement. "She''s been with me since we got to the pce, and she was still with me before I came to wait for you."
"Wait, if that wasn''t Sophia, and the one in the petition hall was your sister Faria, then who came to talk to me in your sitting room?" Reivyn frowned.
Kefira was silent for a moment, a frown on her face as well, as she thought about it.
"The only person who wasn''t with us was..." She looked up at Reivyn with enlightenment. "My mother."
Chapter 152: Devious
Chapter 152: Devious
"Oh, I like him," Silfa said, turning toward her husband. "We''ll have to step up security because if anything happens to you, I might have to fight my daughter over a new man."
There was a scandalized gasp from Faria standing behind Silfa. Ge stared at his wife with a nk expression for a few moments.
"Are you trying to get me to kill him?" He said. He rolled his eyes. "Don''t think I don''t notice your tricks. You''re trying to goad me into testing him on a personal level with you. You would only do that if you really had high hopes for him, so we''ll just go ahead and check that off as a pass. I have my own ideas to see if he can handle the responsibilities of his position."
"You know me so well," Silfa smiled. "Quick, tell me what you have in mind."
"Nu-uh," Ge shook his head. "You started the conversation, and even tried to get me to help you with your own ns. You go first."
"You''re no fun," Silfa pouted, sticking her tongue out. If Reivyn had been present, he would have marveled at how simr Silfa could look and behave to Kefira when she was acting mischievous. "My n is quite simple, but it will cover a lot of bases: We hold a banquet in honor of Kefira''s sessfulpletion of her Life Experience Expedition. We''ll stack the invitation list with the most eligible noble bachelors, really imply that we''re looking to pair Kefira up with someone, and the wolves wille sniffing.
"Kefira''s rtionship with him isn''t public knowledge, and we''ll keep silent on it. Even if they expose it at the banquet or any social events in the future, we have ways to suppress it and deny it."
The three others in attendance mulled over the implications of the move for a while.
"That''s... evil," Garet said from his position standing behind his father.
"I know. It''s quite brilliant," Silfa preened.
"That''s not what I said..." Garet whispered, trailing off.
"What was that? I didn''t quite catch it," Silfa tilted her head, ncing at her eldest son.
"Nothing," Garet denied, shaking his head.
"And with whatever youe up with to test his abilities to assume responsibilities, he''ll be too busy to train his Skills ahead of time." There was a devious glint in Silfa''s eyes.
"I''m almost worried to give him too much to handle," Ge said. "Your n hits all of his biggest weaknesses right off the bat in a subtle way: His unfamiliarity with the locals, hisck of Social Skills and Levels, and his avable time to shore up foundations someone else raised as a noble his age would have.
"He has the Liaison Insignia. The other young nobles will view him simultaneously as a threat, an obstacle, and someone they can ignore. He''s in a very unique position.
"Do you think Kefira will resent us for this move?"
"Nonsense! I''m her mother," Silfa refuted. "And that will only be our public stance. In private we''ll fully support Kefira.
"If he''s half as talented as he ims to be, he''ll be able to gain the Skills and Level them up adequately on the fly," Silfa snorted. "Dare to im he''s talented in front of my daughter. Who told him to think we should wonder about whether Kefira is good enough for him?"
Reivyn''s attitude and responses had clearly impressed Silfa, but they had also caused some bit of resentment, as well. Kefira was the most talented person they had ever heard of for millennia, and he had the gall to imply she might not be good enough for him. That wasn''t exactly what he said, but it was up to Ge and Silfa to interpret his words how they wished.
"I distinctly noticed ack of mentioning how she''s unlikely to resent me, her father," Ge said.
"Kefira''s a big girl. She''ll understand," Silfa waved his concerns away. "Now, tell me what you have in store for him." Silfa pped her hands in excitement.
Ge rolled his eyes at his wife''s antics. Even after all the years they had been married, he was still enraptured by her personality. Their children came by it honestly, and he couldn''tin. He loved to y pranks, and, as a father, he firmly believed it was his duty to act like a vagabond toward his kids whenever the opportunity presented itself.
"Well, in ordance with his own words..."
The couple discussed their ns for testing Reivyn both on a personal and official level. The two had been working together to handle the empire and their extended family, as well as their ties to the popce and the nobles, for several decades, and they had built up a great rapport. Garet and Faria remained mostly silent in the background, soaking up the machinations of their parents and learning how to deal with such a situation.
It wasn''t long before Silfa stood up to excuse herself. She wasn''t normally in attendance at the petition hall while her husband worked. It was time for Ge to resume his responsibilities with his noble counsel, and Silfa had her own things to oversee, as well. Faria followed her mother out of the room.
"Are you sure Kefira won''t resent us for heaping so much on top of her, ahem, boyfriend?" Ge called out to his retreating wife.
He was still a little worried. It was their duty to ensure that Reivyn was the absolute best candidate for their son-inw, but not at the expense of their rtionship with their daughter.
"Of course! When have I ever lied to you?" Silfa called back over her shoulder.
"That''s a relief," Ge muttered. Silfa had never been one to shirk the truth, so he took her words at face value. His eyes widened in realization, though, and he called out once more to Silfa as she reached the door. "Wait a second..."
Silfa turned her head and shed him a grin, her canines prominent in her predatory smile. She winked at her husband as she slipped through the door.
"So, Reivyn, Kefira tells us you''re also a Caster?" Trevor leaned forward in his seat diagonally across from Reivyn.
Dinner was a less formal asion than Reivyn had expected, but because of the size of their family, they still had to sit at a long table. The children were arranged in order of their seniority, with Ge seated at the head of the table and Silfa to his right, and Garet sat to the left of his father, across from his mother.
The seating wasn''t purely based on seniority, though, and the girls all sat to one side and the boys to the other. Based on the fact that Silfa sat to the right of her husband, Faria, Sophia, and Kefira sat on the side next to her, and the brothers sat across from them.
It wasn''t an irond rule that the family followed, just something that they had naturally done, and after years of sitting like that, everyone was used to it. Reivyn, at first, had assumed that he was expected to sit next to Trevor, as there was a space reserved next to him, but he was informed that that was not his seat. He didn''t go into it in detail to figure out who was supposed to be sitting there, and he was allowed to simply sit next to Kefira without anyone making anything of it.
I wonder if that seat is reserved for an uncle, a cousin, or some such, Reivyn thought. He had nced at Kefira, indicating the empty seat, and she had simply mouthed the word ter" to him.
"Yes," Reivyn nodded his head as a maid ced a te of food in front of him. The fare looked extremely appetizing, better even than anything he had eaten at any of the high-end restaurants in Drallo. "Not to hide anything, my ss is Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist."
"That''s the Tier 3 ss you transitioned to?" Ge asked with genuine curiosity. Now that they were in an informal setting, Ge and Silfa came off far more approachable, though Reivyn could tell that they were still closely examining him.
"Yes, your majesty," Reivyn answered.
"Please, we''re in an informal setting, and you''re a guest of the family. You can simply address me as ''His Imperial Highness, the Emperor,''" Ge stared at Reivyn with a nk expression. Reivyn didn''t know what to make of it right away.
"Dad," there was a warning tone in Kefira''s admonishment.
Ge rolled his eyes.
"Oh, alright. Sir would be fine, I suppose."
Reivyn looked back and forth between Kefira and her father. She turned and just smiled at him sweetly.
"Of course. Thank you, sir."
"Wait. So your position as the Imperial Liaison for Kefira had an actual effect on your ss?" Trevor continued to ask, confused.
"Yes, that was the entire reason Kefira appointed me in the first ce," Reivyn answered. He continued after seeing that it hadn''t cleared up the confusion on her youngest older brother''s face. "I''m only Tier 2, and, because of special circumstances, I was working towards forcing a Tier 3 ss early. Your sister wrote a letter to Sophia, and she got me transferred from the Tier 1 Magic Academy I was technically still a student of to your Magic Academy. Once she appointed me, it triggered the requirements of graduating from the Academy before Tier 2, Level 10 to force the ss change."
"Oo~oh, I see," Trevor was enlightened.
"Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist," Garet spoke up. "I''ve never heard of the Grand Arcanist ss before. I''ve heard of Arcanist, though it''s pretty rare, but never a Grand Arcanist."
"It''s a Legendary Tier 3 ss," Reivyn simply answered. There was silence from Kefira''s siblings as they digested that news. Not everyone had known the extent of his talent, not even Kayzor. Apparently, Kefira had only shared that tidbit with her parents.
"Wait," Kayzor set his utensil down, focusing on Reivyn, "if Grand Arcanist is a Legendary ss, and you forced the Tier 3 ss while in Tier 2..." He trailed off.
"Yes, I have a Mythic ss," Reivyn nodded his head.
Kayzor sat back in his chair, a look of disgust on his face.
"That exins why your stats are so high," he said. "I should have realized when you had a higher Skill with Swords than me as a Caster."
Trevor had been taking a sip of his drink when Kayzor said that, and he nearly choked on it, spluttering. He set his cup down, wiped his mouth, and then stared at his older brother in astonishment.
"Well, to be fair, my first ss was Fighter," Reivyn exined. "In my hometown, everyone below Tier 2 with a Vitality above 20 was conscripted. Because my mother was a princess, I was excluded from being given the Peasant Levy ss. The System went a bit haywire and allowed me to choose my own Martial ss. I was also excluded from selecting a Caster ss at the time."
"Interesting," Ge stroked his chin. "We all know about conscription being the only way to force a Tier 2 ss transition in Tier 1, but no noble, royal, or imperial family has been willing to allow their children to get conscripted due tock of autonomy. It also wouldn''t be possible to conscript the children of the reigning monarch.
"You say that because you were technically the child of a monarch, you were excluded from Peasant Levy and got to choose your own ss?" Reivyn nodded his head. "I wonder if there''s a way to use this to our advantage? I''ll have to contact my allied Tier 4 empires to discuss this with them."
Reivyn wasn''t surprised that Kefira''s father would immediately jump on the opportunity. It wasn''t hard to believe that it was not widely known that a noble couldn''t be a Peasant Levy. Who in their right mind would be the first to experiment with their children to learn the truth?
Parents in the Abyss probably take advantage of it, Reivyn spected.
"Wait, so if you''re a Caster, why were you a captain in the battalion and not one in the Mage Corps during the invasion?" Trevor asked, bringing the topic back to Reivyn.
"Oh, I already had some Command experience," Reivyn said, turning back to Trevor. "Not just the Skill Command, but actualmand. Because of my unique situation, I wasn''t ced with the other conscripts, and I was given a position in the official Lord''s Retinue. I was allowed to participate as a squad member to gain Life Experience at first, but then I was given the rank of Aide de Camp and treated as a Warrant Officer.
"When the Dungeon broke - "
"There was a Dungeon break?" Trevor interrupted.
Reivyn just nodded his head and continued.
"When the Dungeon broke, I had already left my position, but I had volunteered to defend the city. I was given my position back, temporarily, and because there were maniptors behind the scenes who instigated the Dungeon Break - I don''t know how they did it, so please don''t ask - there was a time when I had to step up to assumemand for a moment.
"Anyway, all of that backstory to say that it was on my record attached to my Adventurer token, and it was picked up by the recruiters. They assigned me to the Officer Candidate School, and that''s how I became an officer in the battalion."
"You weremissioned directly as a captain based on your experience? Weren''t you just technically a warrant officer and not amissioned one?" Garet interjected again.
"No, I received a field promotion," Reivyn exined. "I was already leading thepany from the very beginning, anyway, and with Kefira''s rmendation to the Major, he made it official."
Dinner with Kefira''s family turned out to be an enjoyable experience for Reivyn. He could see the respect and admiration for him grow as he told the tale of his Life Experience. The brothers focused on the adventuring and the fights, and Kefira''s sisters jumped in to question him about the cities, environments, and aesthetics of the Regions he had been in.
The meal wasn''t some grand five-course meal or anything like that, but it was delicious. Reivyn wasn''t one to overeat, but he was definitely tempted to ask for seconds.
Ge and Silfa, aside from the asionalment or question, let their children do most of the talking, and Reivyn felt like he was building a solid rtionship with them by the end of the meal.
"Onest thing," Silfa called out as the family members began to get up to disperse. She raised her hand and several maids came forward and handed some pamphlets out to the siblings. "We''re going to host a ball for Kefira in honor of her achievements... Tomorrow. This is a list of the invitees."
Kefira epted the pamphlet from the maid, and Reivyn could tell that her body went stiff after looking at it. She didn''t have any other reaction, though. Reivyn looked up and noticed a hint of a smile on Silfa''s face, a glint in her eye.
The other siblings also seemed to have noticed something from looking at the pamphlets, though Garet and Faria didn''t seem surprised. Reivyn noticed theirck of reaction.
This must have been nned after meeting them in the petition hall, Reivyn realized. Though I don''t know what trick there is to it, yet.
"Is this right?" Kefira looked up and asked her mother. "I think the list needs to be altered."
"I''m afraid it can''t be," Silfa said with remorse. "The ball is tomorrow, and we''ve already sent the invitations. There just isn''t time to change it."
"Well, can I add some more people to it?" Kefira tried a different tactic.
"At thiste hour?" Silfa seemed surprised at the notion. "How will they have time to properly prepare?"
Kefira lowered the list to her side and stared at her mother. She grabbed Reivyn''s arm and turned to stomp out of the dining hall. Reivyn allowed himself to be dragged along, confused about the situation. He could hear the siblings begin talking about the invitation list, though he couldn''t distinguish the specifics.
"What''s the matter?" Reivyn asked.
"Mother!" Kefira thinned her lips into a t line. "Here, do you see anything strange about this?"
She handed the list to Reivyn. He took it and looked through names, though he wasn''t sure what he was supposed to see.
"I don''t know anyone on this list..." Reivyn nced back up at Kefira.
"Of course," Kefira rolled her eyes, more at herself than at Reivyn. "75% of the names on that list are boys." She stared into Reivyn''s eyes. When he didn''t react, she continued. "Unmarried boys, of eligible age."
"Ahh, I see," Reivyn finally got it. "How much do you want to bet your parents are going to assign me some sort of official role as your Liaison to keep me away from you during the event?" Reivyn chuckled.
"Why are youughing? This is serious." Kefira frowned.
"Is it?" Reivyn asked back. Kefira tilted her head in confusion. "You apparently know who these people are. Do you like any of them?"
"That''s not the point," Kefira shook her head. "If any of them can entangle me enough, they can use that as an excuse to go to their parents and have them petition for an engagement. It doesn''t matter what my feelings on the matter are, and it doesn''t matter what the truth is, either. They only have to create the illusion of ''hitting it off'' with me, and they can leverage that for their own personal gain.
"Because it''s my ball, and these people were specifically invited by my parents, it will look like I''m the one who''s seeking a suitor, and I won''t be able to just brush everyone off without damaging my and my family''s reputation.
"Once someone gets their parents to officially petition for an engagement, they can then spread rumors about whether my parents agree or not. Hell, they don''t even have to respond. Then what? Everyone will think the rtionship is true, and that scummy bastard will be able to push the boat along in the public eye by requesting to meet with me and take me ces.
"And if my parents are the ones behind setting this whole thing up, it''s guaranteed they''ll make me go."
"I see," Reivyn said, the smile sliding off of his face. It came back, though. "Huh, you don''t even know who''s going to do such a thing, and you''ve alreadybeled them a ''scummy bastard,''" he chuckled.
"Anyone and everyone willing to do such a thing is a scummy bastard," Kefira replied. "I''ll bet there''s at least fifteen who are willing to stoop that low, and if there''s that many, that will cause its own set of problems.
"Not only will I have to allow someone to approach me, but I''ll have to give fair time to all of them, taking up all of my free time. I won''t be able toin, either, because it will seem like this is my own desire. Then there will be apetition between them to jockey for position, and that can be done even without my involvement.
"There will be more rumors, more public opinion, and people will have their own ideas. They''ll garner support to put pressure on me and my family, and my parents will have to listen at least a little.
"And where will that leave you? You''ll be viewed as someone who doesn''t know their ce, sticking your nose where it doesn''t belong. You''ll get the hate of all of the nobles and the general public. Even if we make our rtionship and my parents'' schemes known, that knowledge will be suppressed.
"This is a huge problem!"
Kefira stamped her foot and threw her head back, letting out a frustrated scream.
"Calm down," Reivyn tried to cate Kefira, hugging her into his arms. She let him hold her, resting her head against him. "We''ll figure this out."
"There isn''t time!" Kefirained. "I''ll be busy all day tomorrow getting prepared. There''s no way my mother will allow me to shirk my responsibilities, and you''ll definitely be pulled away to be instructed on some duty or other."
"Hmm, a duty..." Reivyn muttered. Kefira backed up and looked up into his face with a questioning look. "I think I might have thought of something, but I''ll need to go catch Kayzor."
"What have you thought of?"
Reivyn smiled and exined his idea to her. Kefira''s face gradually lost the worry, and a look of appreciation took its ce.
"So what are we going to do about all the petitions we''re going to receive?" Ge asked his wife as they got ready for bed.
"Nothing," Silfa replied.
They didn''t dress in anything tooplicated, so they didn''t need the assistance of any maids to help them get undressed or anything. Some of Ge''s allies in the other empires had strange customs where their dress was far tooplicated for one to take care of themselves. Most Regions had simr customs and traditions, but there was enough variation to allow for some wildly different social environments.
"Nothing?" Ge repeated. The couple got into bed, but they continued to face each other with the lights on, not ready to go to sleep just yet.
"Mhm," Silfa nodded. "We''re not actually trying to break them up, just add some difficulties. Who knows? It might even be good for their rtionship in the long run, and they''re bound to get some decent Life Experience out of the ordeal.
"If we take an official stance, then it would only be one of rejecting every petition. Where''s the fun in that? Let the wolves snap at each other, and if things get truly out of hand with the rest of the nobles and the popce, then we can step in and say it had all been a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding, huh?" Ge chuckled. "If things don''t turn out the way we hope, we might end up testing ourselves with our abilities just as much as young Reivyn just to cate everyone."
"I''m sure you can handle it," Silfa leaned over and gave her husband a peck. "I can also tell my dad the truth, and he can spread that information to the patriarchs and matriarchs. If the grandparents of those involved know what''s going on from the beginning, there will be a lot less bacsh in the future.
"The smart ones will also wonder why we''re pushing so hard to find a suitor for Kefira when even our eldest son hasn''t formally married his fianc¨¦e, yet."
"Hmm, it seems you''ve thought of everything," Ge said.
"Of course I have! Now, let''s just sit back and watch the show."
Chapter 153: Preparation is Key
Chapter 153: Preparation is Key
Reivyn was up before dawn. He would be lying if he said he wasn''t consumed with thoughts of the ball that would take ce in the evening, but that wasn''t the reason he was an early riser. He had been on the road for a long time, and that wasn''t conducive to keeping a schedule, but now that he was settled down, it was time to make sure that he got his training in.
He had done his Meditation and Affinity training with Kefira in the evening, both of them understanding that the opportunity was probably going to disappear soon, and he had decided to go back to his daily physical exercises first thing in the morning. It was a great way to wake up each day, for one, and he really needed to consolidatebining his Caster abilities with his Martial ones.
His increase in Affinities and Stats meant that he could do so much more, and he could do them much more efficiently. If he didn''t practice, he wouldn''t know the limits of his power.
He started the session off with calisthenics to warm up, and he immediately began practicing his Weapons Master Skill in its purest form. There was a small arsenal of training weapons avable in the exercise area behind Kefira''s house, one that Reivyn assumed Seri used more than Kefira, and he took advantage of the various weaponry.
It was all well and good to focus on just using one or two weapons, as that would still increase his Skill Level, but he had found that the higher he took the Skill, the less efficient it was. The System only did so much to assist him, and the higher one''s Skill Level, the less assistance the System afforded. He was entering the territory where he had to personally understand the intricacies of the weapons he used.
He didn''t spend too much time on each weapon, just going through the basic forms of each and attacking a practice dummy for a few minutes, and he didn''t neglect unarmed strikes. He then switched to exclusively using his Mana sword, the one that had followed him all the way from Magron to Wispan. It had held up very well, and it still hadn''t needed any serious maintenance other than meticulous care.
There was no reason to use the other weapons for his next bout of training, as they wouldn''t be able to handle the Mana infusion, and the purpose of the training wasn''t in using the weapon, anyway. He still made sure that he used the proper forms each time he swung the sword, but that was more so that he wouldn''t build any bad habits or get sloppy.
He ran through the gamut of his Affinities, infusing the sword with each one and going through his exercises. He experimented with how much Mana he could pump into the weapon, how fast he could do it, how far he could stretch it out, how much Mana he could save by retracting the Mana and using his Absorb Mana Skill, and he paid special attention to any differences in how he performed aspared to before he had started focusing on his Affinity training again.
He was pleasantly surprised to find that he barely had to even think to expertly control all of the basic Affinities, and the Tier 2 Affinities were within reach of the same speed as well. There was a noticeable difference in the efficacy of his Affinities as he used them, as well. For this Tier 3 Affinities, he still had to concentrate when using the Elemental Weapon Spell, but Light and Darkness came even easier to him than the Tier 1 Elements did.
His Tier 4 Affinities had only marginally increased, but he had one more of them to try out than before. His Eternal Affinity did a great job for defensive actions as well as ensuring the integrity of his gear, but the Traveler Affinity required a bit more finesse to figure out how to use it correctly.
He had saved it forst, and he found that it didn''t just increase his mobility, though it did allow him to move further than each of his steps would have one assume when he moved about the practice yard. That had taken some getting used to, and even with Divine Sense never shutting off, he still managed to walk face-first into a wall more than once.
The biggest action Reivyn had discovered he could use the Affinity for was to basically teleport his attacks. Not only could one of his swings bepleted almost instantaneously with zero forewarning, but he found that he could even bypass obstacles. He had identally discovered that neat trick when he overestimated one of his swings, and his sword had simply passed through the training dummy without touching it.
It didn''t allow him to actually phase through the object, as thrusts didn''t work. When he had tried it, the Affinity had simply failed to activate. He wasn''t going to be stabbing his sword through a wall any time soon - Well, I could do it with brute Strength - but shields could be null and void in front of him with enough practice.
Shields were dynamic and not stationary, so he would have to increase his Affinity several more times to gain enough mastery to effectively execute the maneuver in actualbat, but he could see some serious potential in the Affinity. It wasn''t just physical shields, either. He threw up one of his Mana Shields and anchored it to the training dummy, and his sword passed through the barrier with no problems.
Having a perfectly spherical bubble around the dummy still prevented him from bypassing it, as that counted as phasing through an object, but if it was just a wall, his sword could just avoid it entirely.
This gives me some interesting ideas withbining the Traveler Affinity with my Spells, Reivyn thought as he dried himself off after washing up. Especially if I can see the target, I canunch a Spell, and because it''s detached from anything, I''ll be able to warp it right passed the enemy Mana Shields to devastating effect.
Increasing the Affinity Level will allow me to move things further as well as get the timing of it down better. I wonder if I''ll be able to sh my opponents with my sword when I''m standing dozens of yards away once I get the Affinity high enough? Can I "travel" the effect of the attack separately from the object causing the effect?
There was still much to learn and experiment with. His Traveler Affinity didn''t currently let him actually teleport around as Kefira could do, but it somehow shortened the distances between two points. He didn''t understand the intricacies involved, he just used it to his advantage. Simply walking while infusing his body with the Affinity would allow him to move faster than someone galloping on a horse. Eventually.
There was a knock at his door as Reivyn ate a breakfast prepared by one of the maids assigned to Kefira''s estate. Reivyn got up to answer the door, and he wasn''t surprised to find Kayzor waiting for him. Kayzor gave a small wave as he strode right through the door.
"Mornin''," he said casually.
He walked to the sitting area and dropped a package on the coffee table.
"Here''s what you asked for yesterday," Kayzor said, dropping into one of the seats and rxing. "I also have a list of the rewards you can get with your contribution points. I only brought the short list of what''s avable for purchase, as you wouldn''t be able to get any of the more expensive things right now anyway."
"Thanks," Reivyn said, closing the door and walking over to take another seat. He could finish his breakfast after his guest left. "I really appreciate you helping me out with this."
"It''s not a problem," Kayzor waved the appreciation away. "I''m not just here on personal business, though. I''m here to inform you of your duties for the ball as Kefira''s Imperial Liaison."
Kayzor peeked his eyes over to see if Reivyn had any kind of reaction to the news. He rolled his eyes when Reivyn simply stared back at him, not surprised at all.
"We figured something like that was going to be added," Reivyn snorted.
"Yeah, well, my mother can''t make it easy, you know," Kayzor said. "Basically, you''ll be in charge of making sure that the guests arefortable and well taken care of. Because of the implied nature of the ball, not only are the young men going to be in attendance, but their parents and some sibling will attend, as well.
"For the most part, the parents are going to be entertained by my parents and uncles and aunts, but they''re going to have the chance to go and ''check up on'' their children attending the ball. Your job is to make sure that they don''t have anyints, or if they do, that it''s handled appropriately."
"So your mother is going to have me running around the ballroom, attending to all of the ''unimportant'' guests while their sons try and shmooze my girl," Reivyn nodded his head. He shrugged. "I can handle that."
"That''s it in a nutshell." Kayzor nodded his head to the package. "How is that going to help you out tonight?"
"Are you going to be there?" Reivyn asked back.
"I''ll be making an appearance, but I doubt I''ll stick around for the whole thing," Kayzor nodded his head.
"Then you''ll see tonight," Reivyn smiled.
Kayzor rolled his eyes and stood back up.
"Fine, don''t tell me," he said. "I''d love to stick around longer, but I got other things to do."
Reivyn got up and escorted him to the door, thanking him one more time as he left. He closed the door behind him and turned his attention to the package.
One piece down, Reivyn thought. It''s the most important part, though, and now I just need to wait for Kefira to deliver the "essories" to go with it.
"Is this really necessary?" Kefirained, standing still with her arms outstretched.
A seamstress was taking measurements with pins sticking out of her mouth. She made a noise as she took mental note of the numbers on the measuring tape, but didn''t say anything yet.
"I couldn''t have grown that much since thest time you measured me," Kefira continued to whine.
She was not happy with the current circumstances. She was certain that her mother had scheduled the seamstress to take extensive measurements to simply waste her time, not allowing her to do anything. Luckily she and Reivyn had had some forethought, and they had implemented their n the night before. She simply had to wait for Seri to deliver the items without her involvement.
The seamstress finally backed away and removed the pins from her mouth.
"It''s a good thing I did take your measurements, your highness," she said. "You might not have gotten any taller than before, and your waistline is still slim as ever, but you would have had an embarrassing time trying to fit any of your current gowns over your bust. I would say that your growth stage isn''t quite over, it''s just continued in a different area." The seamstress chuckled.
"It can''t be that much of a difference," Kefira said, lowering her arms. She looked down at herself, trying to judge any difference, but she couldn''t tell. Any change was too subtle for her to notice, and she had been wearing a breastte and clothes that constricted her for an extended period of time while she was out adventuring.
"Oh, honey, no," the seamstress shook her head. She walked over to her extensive collection of gowns that had been pulled out for reference, selected one, and brought it over to Kefira. "Put it on."
Kefira epted the dress, skepticism written all over her face, and shimmied into it. When she got it up to her chest, even with the back open, she could tell that it was way too small. She forced it up and over, and a maid stepped forward to try andce the back together. After a couple of moments, Kefira felt the maid stop working, and she turned her head to look at the girl.
"I''m sorry, miss, but it''s not going to work," the maid seemed contrite, almost taking it as a personal failure for not being able to tie theces together in the back.
"Can we just add a longerce?" Kefira asked the seamstress.
"Look in the mirror," she tilted her head toward the long mirror hanging from the wall.
Kefira looked in the mirror and found that the dress didn''t fit her at all. It wasn''t just that the bust was too small and had to be forced into position, but the cut of the dress was nowpletely off. Instead of entuating her curves, the dress now hung over her front like a board. She turned around to look at her behind. Everything was fine at her lower back and midsection, but once it got to around her rib cage, the opening in the back was wildly spread apart.
"I see what you mean," Kefira pouted. "I liked this dress."
"That''s not a problem, hon," the seamstressforted. "There''s not enough material in this one to alter it in any way to fit you, but I made that dress in the first ce. I can make you several identical ones that will fit properly and have them ready to go before evening, today. I am a Tier 4 Master Agile Seamstress."
The seamstress twirled a needle that materialized in her hand out of nowhere. Kefira was sure there was some sort of System shenanigans going on, as the light perfectly glinted off of the silver needle at just the right time. The seamstress grinned as she struck a pose.
Just as quickly as she had made the needle appear and done her little trick, it disappeared as if it had never been there. Kefira didn''t know what she did with the needle, as she didn''t see any obvious movements to make it appear and disappear, and there didn''t seem to be anywhere on the woman convenient enough for her to have grabbed one for her little disy.
"Do you have the Sleight of Hand Skill?" Kefira asked.
The seamstress held her index finger over her lips.
"Ady has her secrets," she replied. "Now choose some dresses you want me to make, and I''ll get started on these right away."
Kefira took the current dress off and added it to the pile that she wanted to be made right away. It really had been one of her favorite dresses. She took her time to select seven more, at the approving nod of the seamstress, and added them to the pile. The seamstress had one of her assistants scoop them up.
"The first one will be delivered to your house as soon as it''s done, and the rest will be sent over tonight."
"Thank you," Kefira said, giving the older woman a charming smile.
"Of course! It''s no problem, no problem. Just make sure you take the chance to let me see what you look like wearing it in the future."
"I will."
The seamstress and her team left the building, and Kefira got dressed again in her casual outfit. She descended the stairs from her private quarters to find Seri waiting for her in the foyer, standing next to the sitting room. Kefira nodded to her and went to sit down for a drink, Seri following behind.
"The ''essories'' have been delivered," Seri said, pouring a cup of tea for Kefira before pouring one for herself and taking a seat.
"Very good," Kefira replied, taking a sip.
"What exactly is the use of such things?" Seri asked, genuinely curious.
"Psychological warfare," Kefira said. Seri quirked an eyebrow at her. "That''s what Reivyn said. He''s going to use them to establish his superiority before anyone even says a word."
"I can see that," Seri nodded her head. "Almost everyone who''s going to be in attendance tonight isn''t going to be old enough to have held an official position, and the few who have won''t have anything as impressive as what you gave Reivyn."
"Un uh," Kefira shook her head. "I didn''t give them to Reivyn. Everything was done ording to official protocol, and he earned them."
"Well, be honest. You had me fill out the rmendation, and you signed the approval. It''s hardly standard to basically sign for yourself."
"Hey, I didn''t write the rules, I just followed them," Kefira smirked. "Everything was done to the letter, and we didn''t leave any ws. There''s nothing anyone can say about it, and it''s official record and fact that he did do the things he did.
"By the way, where is he right now?"
"Your brother Garet snatched him up a little while ago to talk about his official responsibilities," Seri answered. "He told me he would have a meeting with you about them as well since they''re actually going to be yours. They''re just letting you focus on the ball tonight, first, but Reivyn wasn''t given that courtesy as he''s not technically invited."
"I see. Do you have any idea what those duties are going to be?" Kefira asked.
"Not yet," Seri shook her head. "There hasn''t been any gossip about it. I''m guessing your parents and siblings haven''t spoken about it outside of the petition room, and only the most trusted guards are stationed there when your family is present. State secrets and all that. They would lose their position and possibly be punished if they even mentioned what words your parents used in greeting."
"Well, it''s not a big deal," Kefira shrugged. "It''s not like they''re going to set me up for failure, or anything. They''re just taking up Reivyn''s time before the ball. That''s the only reason they''re having the meeting with him now. there''s no reason he couldn''t have just been present while they told me about it."
"Doesn''t it piss you off a bit, what you''re mother''s doing?" Seri asked.
"Not really," Kefira said dismissively. "I was at first, but Reivyn seemed confident. It''s kind of fun, actually. I get to see my man shine, and that''s the entire goal of what my parents are doing anyway. I have faith in him."
"Are you not worried about your reputation or the bacsh you might receive from the other nobles once the truthes out?"
"Nope, that''s what my parents are for. It''s their job to protect me and shield me from such things. It would only be my responsibility if I was the one to cause the trouble, but this is the bed that they''re making.
"Plus, this particr event will let me show off my dazzling dress in front of Reivyn."
"What about all the other eyes that are going to be on you?"
"They can count themselves lucky. I''m no stranger to being the focus of public attention, but it''s all incidental for them."
"Fair enough."
"I heard Reivyn practicing in the backyard this morning," Kefira changed the subject. "I think it would be a good idea for you to join him."
"Me? With that monster? What about you? Why don''t you join him?" Seri was taken aback.
"I would, but my Skill Level is so far lower than his, that I would just be a distraction," Kefira exined. "You, on the other hand, have an actual chance to learn something and further your Skills.
"Once my mother is finally appeased with his performance and she backs off, I''ll have time to join him in the mornings. For now, just getting some time to practice our Affinities and Mana Skills in the evenings will be hard enough."
"Ok~ay, if you really feel that way. I guess I''ll get my will written out and my estate in order."
Kefira pped Seri on the shoulder yfully.
"It''s not that bad."
"Speak for yourself," Seri snorted. "He''s careful with you because he likes you. I''m afraid he might actually kill me with the intensity of his training."
"I know, he''s pretty amazing, isn''t he?" Kefira got a wistful look in her eye.
"That''s not at all what I said," Seri replied.
"So handsome."
"Are you even listening anymore?"
Kefira brought her attention back to the present and giggled. The two girls continued to discuss various things, mostly focused on the gossip they had missed while they were gone that Seri had picked up. The maids in the household weren''t just useful for taking care of everyday chores. They also had an extensive spywork, or the equivalent of one, and Seri had long cultivated them to keep her in the loop of anything interesting. It was easier to approach her and talk about such things than it was to Kefira.
Kefira didn''t have anything to do other than prepare for the ball at this time, and she didn''t have time to meet with any of her other friends or acquaintances ahead of time, so the two of them just spent a leisurely afternoon together. It wasn''t long before a replica of Kefira''s favorite dress appeared, and it was time to put it on.
The dress that she chose was a deep purple with an open back. It had frills around the edges, nothing fancy, but they entuated the cut most appropriately. Kefira was extremely pleased with the oue. She topped it off with a simple white jade crown and some pearl earrings. She hadn''t had the chance to put on any kind of jewelry in front of Reivyn before, as it wasn''t practical while adventuring, and she didn''t take any with her.
Kefira was a natural beauty, so she didn''t usually wear any makeup, but she knew her mother would reproach her if she didn''t make an effort this evening. She simply went with some lipstick, blush, and eyeliner. It wasn''t anything fancy, and it was a subtle entuation of her natural looks. Her hair was done up in the back with another white jade hairpin, and it fell in ringlets to frame her face.
They didn''t wear anything like a corset in the circles of the Wispan nobility, and the dress wasn''t too tight as to be ufortable. She could move and breathe easily enough, and she didn''t need a corset to highlight her curves.
She nodded at herself in the mirror, pleased with her looks. She anticipated Reivyn''s reaction when heid his eyes on her. He would escort her to the ballroom, a building separate from the main pce, but on the opposite side of the living areas.
She descended the stairs to the foyer, and she got her first glimpse of Reivyn standing there. She saw the look on his face, and she was sure that her expression mirrored his. She had seen him in the Drallo uniform several times, but he struck apletely different imposing figure in the uniform of the Wispan Imperial Army.
Reivyn''s eyes never left her, and she almost stumbled when she didn''t look away from him either. The thing that Reivyn had asked Kayzor to deliver him this morning had been a fitted officer''s uniform, and Kefira and Seri had worked together to requisition some medals to adorn it.
Because of Reivyn''smission in Oreck and his subsequent transfer to Wispan as Kefira''s Imperial Liaison, he was technicallymissioned as a lieutenant. He didn''t get to keep a one-for-one transfer of his rank, but Kefira had written the rmendation of making the technicalities fully official, and Kayzor had signed off on them as the Commanding General of the Expeditionary Army.
Kefira and Seri had done something simr for the medals. Seri had written up the rmendation letters based on his actualbat achievements, and Kefira, as themander of the battalion he served in at the time, had signed off on them. It was skirting the line of what was possible, but the rules were quite clear that it was perfectly justifiable. As a Wispan Imperial Family member that had taken charge of a vassal army, it had technically been within the chain ofmand of the Wispan military.
The most important medals that one could achieve required either the Counsel of Nobles or the Monarch''s signature, but Kefira didn''t seek out those awards for him. She had chosen the medals very specifically and then added the valor designation to them because they had been achieved duringbat. He stood with a lieutenant''s insignia on his shoulders, his Imperial Liaison Insignia on hispel, and seven medals hanging from his left chest.
The Wispan Imperial Army uniform was white with gold trim and buttons for the officers, and he looked quite dashing to Kefira''s eyes. The cut was more in line with the aesthetics of what she was used to than the uniform of Oreck had been.
She walked up to him, and they simply stared into each other''s eyes for a moment. He finally held his arm out, and she looped one of hers around it to rest her hand on his forearm.
"Mdy," he gestured with his free hand, and Kefira smiled up at him.
Chapter 154: Dancing with the Devil
Chapter 154: Dancing with the Devil
Reivyn walked arm in arm with Kefira, escorting her through the grounds behind the main pce building to the ballroom. The path had been lit with Mananterns, and there were decorations tastefully disyed along the way. Even though Reivyn knew that everything had been thrown up within thest couple of hours - there hadn''t been a single decoration ormp when he left the meeting with Garet - it looked like it had been nned for months ahead of time.
"If I didn''t know better, I would think that your parents were prepared for this," Reivynmented.
"Oh, they definitely were," Kefira snorted. "They roughly knew our schedule and the fact that we were headed here, and I''m sure my mother had several different ns set up before ever meeting you. Even if I hadn''t dragged you home with me, there''s a pretty good chance my mother would have thrown me a legitimate celebratory ball."
"That makes sense, and there''s nock of manpower to get everything in position promptly." Reivyn looked over and saw a maid topping up one of the Mananterns to keep it bright. "There''s no way that maid is Tier 4. Do all of the pce staff have their Mana Skills and Affinities unlocked?"
"I wouldn''t look down on the pce staff," Kefira said, ncing in the direction Reivyn indicated. "Most of the lower ss maids are exceptionally talented people, just ones who''ve run into problems they can''t solve on their own. They''re not selling themselves into very, or anything, but a lot of them are orphans.
"We give them a home and a family of their own, and we take care of them. They''re fiercely loyal. The upper-ss staff, that''s a bit of a different story. Some of them are even nobles from vassal states here to train their Skills.
"The most trusted subordinates, though, are families that have followed us for generations, and we even have marriage ties with them. Take Seri for instance. She''s technically a servant, but she''s also my cousin."
"Speaking of Seri, where is she?" Seri had not been at the house when Reivyn arrived to pick Kefira up.
"She''s got double duty tonight," Kefira answered. "The first part of the evening, she''s with the guards, and then she''ll be ''allowed'' to attend the party as my attendant." Kefira gave Reivyn a pointed look. "She''s an important ally this evening. Since you don''t know everyone, and there hasn''t been time for you to learn, she''s going to martial some of the otherdies and intercept any of the exceptionally bad eggs before they can even get close to me."
"If they''re so bad, then what chance do they have with you?" Reivyn asked.
Kefira nced up at him and quirked an eyebrow.
"Don''t be naive. The really bad ones are bad because they lean on their powerful families. It''s not them that I''m worried about. Most of them are wastrels. It''s the political pressure their parents or siblings can bring to bear."
"I see. Well, she''s not going to be here during the first half of the evening, and I''m going to be with you as you greet everyone as theye in, so you''ll need to give some sort of signal when we encounter one you think might try to approach you before Sera shows up."
"Will do. I''ll ping your Traveller Affinity with my Space Affinity. It should go undetected, and if anyone does notice it, I can just say I was giving you orders."
The two turned on the wide path leading to the ballroom. The facade of the building wasn''t as grand as the main pce building, but it was still quite grand. Reivyn could see arge dome topping the center of the structure. Imperial Guards were patrolling the grounds, and he could sense several hidden presences with his Divine Sense nearby. There was some sort of obstruction with his Sense Mana, but he was Skilled enough in it that he could catch some faint echoes of more guards further away.
The two entered the building, and Reivyn immediately scanned the surroundings. The floor was wide open, and there were only some small rooms along the edge of the building on either side. The rear was arge wall of ss looking out into an ornate fountain, and there was a clear exit that allowed people to go back there and stroll in the gardens.
There were two sets of stairs to the right, leading up to a balcony that hung over a quarter of the floor.
"That''s where my parents are going to be entertaining the older guests," Kefira nodded to the balcony.
Staff was already present setting tables and making sure everything was perfect. There were no early guests, and none of Kefira''s family members had arrived ahead of them, either. Reivyn was a firm believer in the saying: "If you''re not fifteen minutes early, you''rete." Sometimes that tranted into arriving even earlier, as the meeting times already took arriving early into ount.
"Looks like the time they gave us was the early time," Reivyn said, looking around.
"I don''t mind," Kefira said, walking over to a table and taking a seat. Reivyn followed and took a seat next to her. "Just means we get to spend more time together. They can''t me us or try toe up with ways to separate us for getting here earlier than they told us to."
Reivyn and Kefira sat at the table and spoke about minor things. They didn''t go over any of their ns. They had already done all of that, and there was no reason to let their voices be heard by ears that weren''t supposed to hear them. Kefira trusted the staff, but they were loyal to her parents, not necessarily to her. Her own maids weren''t present.
While they chatted, additional people in service of the ball showed up. The orchestra arrived and set up, the food arrived and was arranged neatly on tables under the balcony where it could easily be retrieved for the dinner, and some of the nobles that didn''t have children attending the ball but wanted to wine and dine with the monarchs and other nobles filed in and went straight to the upstairs.
Reivyn noticed that Bellefrent, Silfa''s brother, was among one such group, and he gave Reivyn a slight nod on his way up.
It wasn''t a long wait until a few familiar faces showed up, though, and Trevor and Sophia strolled through the doors. Trevor was a lieutenant in the Imperial Army, working his way up through merit just like his older brother, but he wasn''t dressed in a military uniform. Sophia''s dress was still a shade of green that matched her eyes.
Reivyn had questioned Kefira about how her mother''s eyes hadn''t matched when she snuck in to get an early look at him, and it turned out that she could freely manipte the color. She had to concentrate to do it, though, and her natural look was the full spectrum.
Sophia and Trevor walked over and greeted the pair.
"Don''t have much time to talk, I''m afraid," Sophia pouted. "There''s already some guests behind us. They''ll being through the doors in just a moment."
"Thanks for the heads up," Kefira smiled sweetly at her elder sister. She got up and leaned forward to exchange kisses on the cheek. Reivyn stood up and shook Trevor''s hand.
The two walked over to the door to await the arrival of the guests. Reivyn stood in a position where he could easily direct the parents up the stairs. A herald was standing at the entrance, ready to announce all of the guests who entered. If it was a function for Kefira''s parents, that position would have been led by the major-domo. His duties were specifically for the monarchs when he acted personally.
Sophia sent a message over to the orchestra via one of the maids to begin some light background music, and it was just in time for the first guest to arrive.
The first guest to arrive was a young man, clearly younger than Reivyn or Kefira, and he practically bounded into the venue in excitement. His mother apanied him, and Reivyn could sense exasperation oozing off of her. The Herald announced the two in a voiceced with a Skill. It wasn''t a booming shout, but Reivyn was sure that every single person in the vast ballroom would be able to clearly hear it.
"Petre and Madam Ayalo from House Cordon."
"I''m so d you could make it, Petre," Kefira greeted warmly, sping hands with the young teenager. Petre had a face-splitting grin on his face.
"Yes, I''m so happy you''re back safely," Petre said enthusiastically.
"Madam Ayalo, if you would, parents up the stairs," Reivyn gave a short bow, holding his left arm to his chest and his right hand ring out in a deliberate disy. "The little boys will stay downstairs."
Petre and Ayalo were visibly taken aback, and they quickly snapped their heads to stare at Reivyn. Kefira burst outughing.
"Actually, Reivyn, Petre is a friend."
Reivyn inclined his head to Petre, a contrite expression on his face.
"In that case, I apologize, Petre. Nothing personal. It''s not directed at you, but I do have to be consistent."
"Umm, ok?" Petre looked at Kefira with confusion. Kefira leaned forward and whispered into his ear, and he got a look of enlightenment on his face.
Madam Ayalo looked Reivyn up and down, taking his military uniform, medals, and especially the Imperial Liaison Insignia into ount. She ced her hand on her chest andughed. It sounded like tinkling bells to Reivyn''s ears.
"I see what''s going on here," she said. "This is going to be fun."
Madam Ayalo nodded to Reivyn and walked in the direction he indicated to the stairs. Petre gave a little wave to Kefira and then rushed off to join Trevor and Sophia.
"Remfort and Madam Cylia of House Horace." The herald announced the next arrival.
Reivyn felt a ping of Space Affinity reach out to him from Kefira, and he took special note to pay attention to the mother-son duo entering the ballroom. Reivyn got a slimy feeling from Remfort as he walked in with a shroud of arrogance surrounding him. His mother didn''t seem much better, and she walked with her nose to the sky.
"Wee Remfort," Kefira greeted.
Remfort obviouslypletely ignored Reivyn''s presence as he walked up. He reached out for Kefira''s hand to give the proper greeting as dictated by etiquette. Reivyn made his same gesture of bowing and ring his right hand out, but he over-exaggerated with his right hand, and it just happened to block Remfort''s lips from making contact with the back of Kefira''s hand.
Mission sessful, Reivyn thought. Getting my own hand kissed by that slimy bastard is a small sacrifice to pay.
"Madam Cylia, if you would, parents up the stairs. The little boys will stay downstairs."
Kefira giggled and withdrew her hand as Remfort spluttered, turning a fierce re on Reivyn while still hunched over. Madam Cylia''s eyes could freeze a lesser man, but there wasn''t time for either of them to make an actual fuss as the herald announced the next guests. They were quickly ushered away to make room for Kefira to greet the neers.
Reivyn and Kefira spent close to an hour greeting all the guests. Reivyn stood straight and proud in his uniform with his military merits for valor on clear disy. He was the epitome of courtesy in his manner, but he addressed every single male invitee as a little boy while directing them into the ballroom. Some of the invitees arrived with a sibling or two, and the youngdies were escorted by their fathers.
Only a couple of them managed to slip past his guard and kiss the back of Kefira''s hand, and each of those individuals was one that Kefira hadn''t warned him of with her Mana. Reivyn desperately wanted to wipe the saliva off the back of his hand, but he took a certain glee when he noticed others encounter the slobber with their lips and give a surprised expression.
It apparently wasn''t custom to leave a trace when greeting a youngdy, and yet so many of the sleazy teenagers did just that.
Thest of the guests finally arrived, and Reivyn escorted Kefira to the head table where her siblings waited. He didn''t join them, as he wasn''t a "guest." He had official duties to attend to, and he would make sure that it was done to the letter.
Garet was the first of the siblings to get up and give a speech after the food had been served, but each of Kefira''s siblings got up to say something. Each of the guests gave a bit of apuse after each short speech, and they were short. Garet was quite the orator. He managed to heap praises upon his sister, tie it into the aplishments of the empire as a whole,pliment the invitees, and he did so in five minutes.
Reivyn left the invitees downstairs and headed to the balcony. Attack the source of power first, cut off the supply line, and alienate the enemy, Reivyn thought to himself. Those in attendance on the balcony were far more people than Reivyn had seene in and be announced by the herald. Apparently, the fathers of the young men, and the mothers of the young women, were also here, but they had simply not gone through the trouble of being announced.
Kefira''s parents had also sneakily arrived, and they were mingling with the adults.
Is there some sort of protocol of etiquette involved with having the opposite sex parent escort their children through the herald? Reivyn thought, idly. He wasn''t too concerned about the answer, though, and he threw it to the back of his mind.
He marched up to his first target, Madam Ayalo. She already understood what his purpose was, and she yed along beautifully.
"Lady Ayalo," Reivyn bowed once more to the mother of Petre. "Princess Kefira was so happy that you took the time to attend her celebratory banquet. Do you have any words you would like me to convey to her for you? Is there anything you need?"
"Oh, I''m extremely ttered," Madam Ayalo held her hand to her chest and smiled. "Just let her highness know that we''re all very proud of her and her aplishments."
"Of course," Reivyn replied enthusiastically. "And I must say, you look absolutely dazzling in that dress, mdy. Once the ball gets going, I might have to steal you away for a dance or two myself." Reivyn bent his head down, and when he looked back up, he had a twinkle in his eye and a charming smile.
"Oh," Ayalo had a genuinely surprised expression on her face from thepliment.
Out of the corner of his eye, Reivyn could see one of the other mothers of a child on friendly terms with Kefira looking away in apparent disinterest, but he could see red creep up her neck and reach her face. She crossed her left hand over her chest, rested her right elbow on her left hand, and fanned her face.
Reivyn reached into his waistcoat and pulled out his tessen where it had been surreptitiously ced. He snapped it open, waved it at his own face a couple of times, snapped it closed, twirled it around utilizing his Weapons Master Skill, and handed it to the young mother. He gave her a wink as she reached out to ept the proffered fan.
"Oh my," she whispered under her breath.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 4:
Charm (0 ->1)
Reivyn straightened up and smiled at thedies seated at the table, taking back his fan. He made his way around the balcony, greeting the mothers one by one, starting with the ones who weren''t hostile, and schmoozing with the best of them. He could feel his Skills ticking up, and he noticed an immediate effect from his new Skill. Thedies were more brazen when they looked back at him, and there was more than one instance of ady fanning herself as he addressed the table.
By the time he had circted the entire upper floor, even the mothers that had given him a dirty look when he referred to their sons as little boys now had a positive impression of him.
At one point, the music really started going, and Reivyn understood that the dancing had started. Ge had disappeared from the upper floor to apany his daughter in her first dance of the evening, and Reivyn took the opportunity to spy that Seri had made it to Kefira''s table. She was waiting and ready.
After the first dance was over, Garet took a turn dancing with his sister. Reivyn made a beeline to Madam Ayalo as other attendees spilled out onto the dance floor. Even though the vast majority of those on the invite list had been eligible males, there was still a quarter of the list for girls. There were also plenty of siblings in attendance. There were plenty of people at the ball to fill the floor with dancers.
"The dancing has begun, and, as promised, I''m here to steal you away, Madam Ayalo," Reivyn held his hand out and bowed.
Madam Ayalo ced her hand in his and looked around at the other mothers at the table. They had encouraging smiles on their faces.
"Should I?" Madam Ayalo asked, even though she was already getting up to agree.
Reivyn led her down to the first floor and joined the dancers with his partner. He didn''t do anything fancy, and from what he could see of the other children, his Dance Skill was about equal to the others. He could tell that his Rhythm Skill was apparently not as widespread, and he easily moved to the beat of the music, picking up the differences in dance style on the fly.
Kefira spotted him dancing with Petre''s mother, and sheughed. He had warned her that he was likely to dance almost just as much as she was going to have to, but he hadn''t exined exactly who he was going to be dancing with. He could see a slight look of relief on her face once she realized his n.
Once the music was over, he escorted Madam Ayalo back up to her table. She sat back down, a little out of breath and flushed in the face.
"That was lovely," she said, smiling up at Reivyn.
"I''m d I could offer you some entertainment instead of my liegedy," Reivyn replied.
He turned and held his hand out to the nextdy sitting at the table, the one he had offered his tessen to. She didn''t hesitate and immediately epted his hand.
Once again, Reivyn made his way from table to table, dancing with the mothers of the invitees. He started with the most approachable, friendlydies, and his act lowered the defenses of the more standoffish mothers. He kept an eye out on the dance floor, making sure that Kefira wasn''t burdened with having to entertain one of the slimeballs.
It eventually happened, though. Reivyn wasn''t sure of the particrs, but he guessed that the one in charge had coordinated with some of the others to get Seri and the others covering Kefira distracted before making his move, and Reivyn looked down to see Remfort holding his hand out to Kefira.
This is where all of the groundwork Iides into y, Reivyn thought.
He walked straight to Madam Cylia, Remfort''s mother, and held his hand out while bowing.
"Madam Cylia, it''s such a fine evening for dancing, and all of the other youngdies are having a ball - if you''ll excuse my pun. I see that you have a bit of anticipation in your lovely eyes. Would you do me the honor of joining me for the next dance?"
Reivyn could sense the conflict warring within the woman, and he felt his new Charm Skill tick up a point. Madam Cylia made her decision. She smiled as sheid her hand in Reivyn''s, allowing herself to be helped up out of her seat. He escorted her down to the dance floor.
Huh, now that she doesn''t have her nose to the sky, she''s actually kind of pretty, Reivyn noted. Nothingpared to Kefira, of course, but still.
The music started, and Reivyn led the dance. He started off perfectly normally, but as the dance went on, he gradually shifted their location until they were dancing right next to Remfort and Kefira. He made sure that he was perfectly in sight of Remfort, but Madam Cylia didn''t notice. She was enjoying herself and just watching Reivyn.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Remfort came to a stop in the middle of the dance floor. Reivyn nced over at him but didn''t stop dancing with his mother. His mother nced at her son, too, and frowned. "That''s my mother!"
"And?" Reivyn asked. "She''s a lovely dance partner." He stepped back away from Madam Cylia and gave her a twirl.
"Get your hands off of her!" Remfort fumed.
Reivyn gave a confused look at Remfort.
"But your mother wants to dance. I don''t understand. If I leave her, she''ll have to go back without finishing her turn, and I could tell she''s been waiting for a long time to get the chance to dance."
Reivyn pretended to think about the situation for a second, never stopping dancing. Kefira rolled her eyes at his antics, but he could see the ghost of a smile on her lips.
"Oh! I have a solution," Reivyn said. "Let''s just switch partners."
Remfort looked back and forth between his mother and Kefira. He struggled for a moment, but he finally let go of Kefira, and Reivyn smoothly came to a stop, allowing Remfort to take his ce. He stepped up to Kefira, and the two of them began where they had left off.
"Thank goodness," Kefira said with a smile. "I don''t know how much more of that I could take."
"Bad dancer?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"Bad person," Kefira rolled her eyes.
The two finished the song, and Remfort took the liberty to escort his mother back upstairs. Madam Cylia made eye contact with Reivyn and gave a slightly apologetic look to him, but he just smiled and nodded.
"I''m tired, so I''m going to announce a break in dancing," Kefira said. "You go and do your thing with the invitees down here. I think you''ve done enough with the parents for now."
Reivyn smiled as she walked off, and he turned and made his way to a table where he spotted Petre and Trevor. Kefira had the herald announce a short break in the dancing, and Reivyn began to mingle with the young scions, using Petre and Trevor as a guide.
It wasn''t long before trouble found him, though, and as he wasughing and joking with several young men, a group led by Remfort approached. One of the siblings of one of the boys following Remfort had the invite list in his hand.
"Lieutenant - or is it Liaison, I''m confused. It''s definitely not lord - I think it''s about time for you to get back to your station," Remfort said. He pointed down at the ground. "The ballroom and the dance floor are for invitees, not staff. I''m going to have to ask you to return to the second floor, or I''ll have to petition Lord Garet to have you removed."
Reivyn nodded his head, looking at the faces of the several individuals Remfort had dragged along.
"So you want to enforce the rules by the letter of thew, then?" Reivyn asked for rification.
"Exactly. You''re not on the list, so you''re not a guest. Please leave."
"Ok," Reivyn nodded his head again. "Trevor." He held his hand out, and Trevor reached into his breast pocket, extracted a little pocketbook, and ced it in Reivyn''s hand.
"This here is the pce staff handbook," Reivyn held it up for them to see. He flipped it open to a particr page. "Chapter 8: Official Events. Section Three: Guests. Subsection C: The Imperial Liaison is an extension of his or her liege''s will. As such they are simultaneously a staff member and a participant. In the circumstance that the event is held in his or her liege''s honor, he or she is a de facto host."
Reivyn snapped the book closed and looked back up at their faces. Their faces had turned from ones of glee in watching someone about to suffer to ones devoid of blood as their faces paled.
"Do you know what category of guest isn''t included in the rules?" Reivyn inquired. Remfort frowned, sensing that things were about to go from bad to worse. Reivyn smiled, his canines on disy. "Siblings. There is no mention of siblings anywhere at all in the official rules of the pce. It''s just been something that''s been overlooked.
"Now, since you want to enforce the rules by the letter of thew, should I ask all of the siblings of the invited guests - per your request - to leave?"
Remfort''s face was a mask of fury, and his lips drew a line. He took a step forward, lifting his finger and opening his mouth, ready to speak, but one of his allies grabbed his arm and leaned forward to whisper something in his ear. Remfort''s eyes darted from Reivyn''s face to his medals and back up again. He snorted and turned on his heels, stomping off.
"And thus ends the lesson," Reivyn said, tossing the pocketbook back to Trevor.
Chapter 155: School of Hard Knocks
Chapter 155: School of Hard Knocks
"And then the Ice Troll tackled me to the ground," Reivyn spun a tall tale based on truth to the captivated audience. "But I had trust in my teammates. Princess Kefira didn''t let me down, and she did what she had done before, nullifying the protective aura around the Ice Troll. Not only eliminating its defense against magic, but also its regeneration.
"Lady Seri charged over, seeing that I was taken down, and she thrust her sword through the back of the beast, yanking it out and severing its spine. It was all over after that. The twodies weren''t used to such bloodshed, so while they rested for a moment, I finished the foul beast off with a sh to its throat."
That wasn''t what had happened, obviously, but Reivyn wasn''t trying to toot his own horn. He had depicted a scene of him bumbling to the front, stalling the trolls while Kefira and Seri used their excellent teamwork and abilities to save his life. The young men had stars in their eyes at the mention of Kefira''s heroics, and Reivyn could even see a couple of the more hostile foes turn and depart.
It was a losing strategy to try and paint himself as an unconquerable hero. That would just rouse the jealousy and envy of his more stalwart opponents. Instead, he made Kefira out to be unconquerable, and Seri wasn''t too far behind. The first strategy of bringing Kefira up as much as possible would arouse the interest of the morepetitive suitors, but bringing Seri up with her dampened the enthusiasm of those without a strong posse.
The likes of Remfort, who had arge crew of other young nobles following him, wouldn''t be deterred no matter what he did, but Reivyn was hard at work eliminating as much of the chaff as he could.
The strongbination of putting them down as children who hadn''t stepped into the world at first, then wooing the mothers who loved to dance but didn''t get the opportunity as often anymore, followed by increasing the status of Kefira and Seri in the eyes of all those present had gotten rid of 80% of the potential marriage seekers.
Reivyn turned and left the group of young men as they copsed in on themselves to talk about the exploits Reivyn had told them. He didn''t limit it to just a slight fabrication of their encounter with the Ice Trolls. He also told the story of how the typical "damsel in distress" had been turned on its head when Kefira swooped in and saved him from being captured by the enemy.
All of the hype that Reivyn had put on Kefira had been deserved if it hadn''t been told most honestly. He felt his Gab and Silver Tongue Skills tick up, a sensation he had been feeling more and more tangibletely. He didn''t understand why he was able to more closely monitor his Skill Leveling without the hard numbers from the System, but it was a thing that he just rolled with.
"Come now, Reivyn," Trevor leaned in and whispered, "everyone knows that trolls aren''t susceptible to Space, and Seri''s talent lies in Ice. Those are hardly conducive to turning the tides against an ambush from the Ice Trolls."
"Trevor," Reivyn stopped and put his hand on hispanion''s shoulder, "sometimes being right isn''t ''right.'' Do you understand?"
Trevor''s gaze shifted up and to the left, as he thought about the words Reivyn said.
"So, pointing out that the Ice Trolls couldn''t possibly have sumbed to Space and Ice, while ''right,'' is wrong because you would steal Kefria''s glory at her event?" He ventured.
"Close enough," Reivyn smiled. "While that''s true, the main purpose is to scare the more weak-kneed suitors off. If they think Kefira is so much more powerful than them, especially the ones that are several years older and havepleted their pilgrimages to gain Life Experience, then they''ll back off from seeking an engagement.
"It''s all about strategy. That being said, it woulde back to bite us if we told outright lies. There''s enough truth in the stories I stretched, and some of the stories arepletely true, that nobody would be able to fault me."
Reivyn casually roped Trevor into being his aplice by mentioning "us" when he talked about his strategy. Trevor wasn''tpletely oblivious, he was just hot-blooded and wanted Reivyn to thump his chest and get the other boys excited with him. He let it slide, though, as he was bing more and more attuned to the idea of Reivyn being his future brother-inw.
"Your Highness, Lord Liaison," an Imperial Guard walked up and saluted the two young men as they walked along the edge of the ballroom floor. He leaned in and whispered something to the two of them. "There''s an incident in the back gardens that we thought prudent to report. We''ve already sent someone to Prince Garet, but young Remfort and a group of his friends have attempted to bribe some of the Imperial Guards."
Trevor''s face morphed from an amiable smile into a cold mask of anger in a sh.
"This is a serious allegation," He said. "I trust that I don''t have to instruct the Imperial Guards on the proper course of action to take?"
"Yes, Your Highness," the guard saluted with a small bow and made to leave. Reivyn reached out and stopped him.
"Well hold on for a second," Reivyn said with a twinkle in his eye. "Let me guess, the bribe is for them to ''look the other way?''"
"Among other things," the Imperial Guard nodded. "Despite the serious breach in ethics and thew, they''ve been careful to word their request in a way that wouldn''t necessarily implicate the guards if there was an investigation."
"I see," Reivyn stroked his chin in thought for a second. "Do you happen to know the guard that was on duty at the gate when I and Kefira first arrived?"
Recognition dawned in the Imperial Guard''s eyes at the question.
"Shift Leader Lencet, sir."
"Good. If you would be so kind, track him down and let him handle this. Tell him to agree to their request, but to do so grudgingly and to haggle over the price of the bribe. Have him use the breach of etiquette on my part when I used an Observation Skill on him as the reason for doing so.
"Don''t forget to ry this information to Prince Garet. I don''t want anyone to get in trouble over this, other than Remfort and his crew. Make sure he understands that he''s not actually epting a bribe, but that he''s carrying out orders."
"Yes, sir," the Imperial Guard once more saluted and gave a small bow before hurrying off toplete his task.
Trevor frowned and gave Reivyn a sideways nce.
"What''s the purpose? You obviously know they''re going to spring a trap on you. What are you going to do about it?" Trevor asked.
"Phase four is about to be initiated," Reivyn said.
"What are the other three phases?" Trevor asked.
"Phase one: contrast the fact that the invitees are young men who haven''t seen the world by belittling them as little boys while wearing medals for valor," Reivyn ticked down on his fingers. "Phase two: re-establish a good impression with the mothers, building a rapport and waiting to strike at the opportune time. Phase three: let them know that they can''t handle me with half-baked methods.
"I gave them a little taste earlier, and phase four is going to be a lesson they''ll never forget.
"Watch," Reivyn said. "Two things are going to happen here in a little bit: One, Kefira is going to be dragged off somewhere where I can''t see her. Two, someone we know and trust is going toe to tell us that she''s waiting for us in the back gardens.
"She''s not actually going to be there, or this little scheme wouldn''t work, but we''re not supposed to know that. She just has to be out of sight, out of mind, and then they can ''trick'' me into going to see her. I''ll y along, and then I''ll take them to school when they think sess is in the bag."
"What about me?" Trevor asked. "Wouldn''t my presence also put an end to their n?"
"I don''t know exactly how they''re going to separate us, but separate us they will," Reivyn answered. "Just let it happen, and you can follow along after and watch the show."
"You seem awfully confident about this," Trevor said. "I thought you weren''t good at political maneuvering."
"Two things," Reivyn held up his fingers and counted them down. "One, your sister and Seri grilled me on several different scenarios that could ur tonight. Two, as I said, it''s all about strategy. If you apply the concepts that you would use on the battlefield to the ballroom, you can guess what the enemy is going to do.
"If I were them, just like I did with my dancing with their mothers, I would separate the target from their support and ambush them in the least likely ce. For me, the least likely ce was directly on the dance floor in front of everyone. For them, it''s the back gardens that are protected by the Imperial Guards." Reivyn shrugged. "Put two and two together."
"What would you have done if the Imperial Guard just now hadn''t alerted us?"
"Moved on to another n. They wouldn''t be able to seed without outside interference. Remfort''s so arrogant that he thinks his own social standing is enough to get away with attempting to bribe the Imperial Guards. Send him a guard who supposedly has a grudge against me, and he and his friends won''t question their sess."
Trevor stopped in ce and stared at Reivyn.
"I think my mother was wrong about your weaknesses," he shook his head. "Everyone assumed that you didn''t have a head for political intrigue, but they left out two keyponents in their analysis: They didn''t ount for your obvious alliance with Kefira and Seri, and they discounted your experience on the battlefield and ability to apply it to other situations."
"They saw myck of typical Social Skills, forgetting that Strategy is effective against all forms of conflict." Reivyn''s smile was predatory. "Look."
Reivyn elbowed Trevor and pointed to the distance where Kefira was seated. Trevor followed his direction and the two watched as a group of youngdies approached the table. A conversation ensued, and, as Reivyn had predicted, it ended with Kefira and Seri getting up to follow the other girls. Reivyn faced Trevor and wiggled his eyebrows. Trevor just rolled his eyes.
It wouldn''t be prudent for Remfort to lure Reivyn to the back gardens right away, because he didn''t know if he had seen Kefira leave or not. Reivyn figured they had at least a couple of minutes before the next attack in the plot arrived. He and Trevor took a couple of seats at an empty table and watched the dancers whilementing on the differences between what Reivyn was used to and what was in vogue in Willowan.
"There you are," a voice intruded on their thoughts. "I''ve been looking everywhere for you."
Reivyn looked up to see Petre standing nearby. He gave Trevor a wink before addressing the enthusiastic young man.
"Looking for me? Why, whatever for?" Reivyn didn''t have the Acting Skill.
"One of the other nobles looking to curry favor with Kefira gave me a message that she was requesting your presence," Petre said. "She''s out in the back gardens, waiting for you."
"Thanks," Reivyn beamed at Petre, standing up and pping him on the shoulder.
Trevor got up to follow, and the three young men made their way to one of the exits leading to the gardens. As they got closer, another young man stepped forward. He wasn''t quite blocking Trevor''s path, but he was close enough to do so that Trevor would have had to adjust his footing to avoid bumping into the young man.
"Your Highness! Just the person I was looking for," the young man gave a short bow, a look of cunning that he couldn''t hide from Reivyn on his face.
Reivyn subtly tilted his head in the neer''s direction. Trevor''s eyes widened in recognition.
"Well, you found me," he said,ing to a stop. He reached out and grabbed Petre by the arm. "I''m sure my sister would like a little bit of privacy while Reivyn goes to find her, don''t you think?"
Petre was slightly taken aback at first, looking back and forth between the prince and Reivyn. Reivyn gave him a little nod, and he shot a "thumbs-up" to Trevor from where the interloper couldn''t see it.
"I''ll see you in a bit," Reivyn said to Trevor. The young man who had stepped forward couldn''t hide the smirk that tried to steal across his face.
Reivyn walked out into the darkness of the back gardens. It was well-lit enough, but it was nothingpared to inside the ballroom. The lighting was dispersed to give a certain ambiance to those who strolled along the pathways. Reivyn just shook his head at the antics of hispetitors.
Kefira had mentioned that one of the most likely scenarios, if it was looking like he was doing a good job, was to be separated from everyone else and someone would either challenge him to a duel or ambush him. As soon as the Imperial Guard had shown up and mentioned Remfort, he knew exactly what the n was.
Remfort had seemed to want to challenge him to a duel openly on the ballroom floor earlier, but one of his friends must have pointed out what his medals actually meant. Remfort hadn''t dismissed him or given up, he had simply shifted strategy. If he was unlikely to win in a fair duel that he had proposed in front of everyone, then he should simply abandon the duel and fight Reivyn in the dark. Literally and metaphorically.
Reivyn casually strolled through the pathsid out, admiring the way the nts looked in the dim lighting. His hands were behind his back like he didn''t have a care in the world. There were flowers, flowering bushes, and groves of trees, all interspersed with streams and paths meandering through the gardens.
After rounding a bend through a particr grove of trees, just beyond the line of sight of the ballroom, Reivyn encountered Remfort standing in the road. He stood in a rxed stance, sword already drawn. A sneer appeared on his face as Reivyn arrived.
"I bet you didn''t see thising," Remfort gloated. "The mighty Imperial Liaison, a lucky captain from a Tier 3 Region who snuck his way into bamboozling Princess Kefira into epting him as her Liaison.
"I don''t know what you think you''re doing, but you''re interfering with your betters. Don''t think my friends haven''t ryed to me how you''ve ridden the coattails of Princess Kefira to gain her trust, but that act ends now.
"I challenge you to a duel!"
Remfort raised his sword into the guard position. Reivyn snorted at the demonstration.
That''s a bit unexpected, Reivyn thought. I guess my strategy of giving Kefira all the credit for everything increased his confidence. Or at least enough to try it out before they jump me.
The others hiding behind the trees and bushes couldn''t escape Reivyn''s Divine Sense. He figured Remfort either wanted to put up a front, or he just wanted to test the waters beforemitting topletely tearing face with Reivyn.
"A duel you say?" Reivyn responded. He unclipped his tessen and snapped it open, holding it in front of his chest like he couldn''t care less about the steel pointed at him. "Are you sure about that? Let''s see... One, two, four, seven... eleven people hiding in the bushes."
Remfort''s calm gaze flickered to one of uncertainty. Reivyn hadn''t given any indication that he had noticed the others, and he hadn''t been looking around, either.
"Are they just the witnesses to your extraordinary abilities in challenging me to a fair and open duel?" Reivyn grinned at the other man.
"Nonsense! Draw your weapon," Remfort frowned.
"Against you?" Reivyn looked Remfort up and down before clearly dismissing him. "I don''t need it."
Remfort''s lips drew into a displeased line.
"Well, I gave you a chance. It''s your own funeral."
Remfort used some sort of Skill to close the distance quickly. It wasn''t Charge, from what Reivyn could see, but it was basically the same thing. Reivyn casually took a step to the side and swiped his fan out, gently nudging his opponent''s sword off course just a little bit more.
Reivyn''s fan came back to his center chest as he stepped past the over-extended Remfort. He didn''t take the opportunity to strike back, yet.
Remfort recovered from lunging forward and shed at Reivyn. Reivyn angled his fan to intercept the attack, and he looped his wrist around to have the sword go past him harmlessly. Remfort was once more in a bad position, his shoulders squared the wrong way. Reivyn reached out and pped him across the face with his free hand before stepping back once more.
Remfort was stunned for a moment,pletely disbelieving what had just happened. He turned a furious re to Reivyn, but Reivyn''s eyes just twinkled in amusement over the edge of his fan.
Remfort took a step back, readying his sword, and Reivyn''s Danger Sense pinged. It pinged in a way to let him know that something potentially harmful wasing, but that it wasn''t really that big of a deal. A Skill was activated, and like Kayzor''s Thousand Lances Skill, several sword thrusts appeared simultaneously aimed at Reivyn''s vital points.
Reivyn frowned at the attack, noticing the ruthless gaze in Remfort''s eyes. He stepped forward, between several ethereal sword thrusts. The step neutralized the targets, bypassing all of the strikes easily. The Skill was either in its infancy, or it overly relied on the inexperience of the opponent. It was a trap to try and moveterally or backward, but moving forward avoided the Skill entirely.
Reivynid his fingers from his free hand on Remfort''s wrist while he was still in the ending position of the Skill. He squeezed with his monstrous Strength, and he channeled Gravity into his fingers. The Mana caused his fingers to want toe together even more than his Strength would allow, and he felt a satisfying pop as several of the smaller bones in Remfort''s wrist shattered.
At the same time, Reivyn channeled Eternal into his Tessen, ensuring its shape and durability, and smashed it straight on into Remfort''s throat. Another crunch was felt as he sted the cartge protecting hisrynx.
Remfort dropped his sword from the pain in his wrist, and he grabbed his throat, his eyes opening wide from the pain, as he stumbled back from the second attack. He couldn''t get far, though, as Reivyn hadn''t let go of his wrist. He copsed to one knee, struggling to breathe, one arm still extended.
"Murder!" Someone shouted from behind Reivyn.
Suddenly, the eleven bystanders rushed out with weapons drawn. It was a serious breach to draw naked steel in the Imperial Pce. Most people didn''t even bring their weapons with them, in their storage pouch or otherwise. Reivyn assumed his "friend," Lencet, had delivered the weapons. He''s so considerate, Reivyn smiled.
Reivyn noticed that Remfort''s gaze hadn''t lost its ruthless gleam. He shook his head as he smacked him over the head with his fan.
"Looks like the cavalry''s here, huh?" Reivyn smirked. "That''s what you must be thinking. I hate to burst your bubble, but you''re not the only one who knows how to lie."
Reivyn didn''t borate on the confused look Remfort gave. He hadn''t struck him hard enough to copse his windpipe entirely, so he wasn''t in danger of actually dying. Even if he had, with a Vitality Stat as high as Remfort was bound to have, he could live without oxygen for several minutes. It was well beyond long enough to seek life-saving medical attention.
Reivyn released the boy''s wrist and stepped into the maelstrom of swords that greeted him. He tapped into his Dance Skill to fluidly move about. His Divine Sense and Spatial Awareness kept him abreast of where everyone was and the attacksing at him, and his Battlefield Awareness let him know the optimum routes to take to avoid further danger in the future.
He danced in the dim lighting, swords gleaming. Nobody even came close to touching his clothes, and he mentally shook his head at the poor foundations of the young nobles. Some of them were fairly decent, but it was clear that they weren''t Masters of the Sword.
I would say that none of them are even close to Expert, Reivyn judged. Seri might have a bit of a hard time fending off all of them at once, but that''s just simple numbers. None of them can hold a candle to her Skill.
Reivyn looked like he was still casually strolling through the gardens as he avoided the attacks of the young nobles. He used his experience and Skills to judge when it was a proper time tounch a counterattack, and as the fight drew on, those opportunities grew more frequent.
He hadn''t even defeated thest of the bunch before they suddenly backed off, staring at him with wide eyes. Several of them were knockedpletely unconscious, and all of them were breathing hard. Reivyn stood with his legs apart, tessen held against his chest once more. His breathing was still perfectly normal.
One of Remfort''s underlings rushed to his side and helped him up. The others who were still able to stand and move about dragged their downedpanions away from Reivyn, and they formed a line. Remfort stood up and shook off the helping hands now that he had his feet under him.
He attempted to say something, but only a gurgle came out. He shook his head and gestured angrily at thepanion standing next to him. The other young noble tilted his head in confusion and frowned. Remfort rolled his eyes and gestured toward Reivyn.
"Oh, Oh!" The young man faced Reivyn. "You haven''t heard thest of us!" He shook his fist angrily at Reivyn.
Suddenly, Reivyn was right next to Remfort. He palmed his face and mmed his body back to the ground again. He stood up, his foot on Remfort''s neck, and the other boy grabbed his foot with his good hand, trying to move it off of him. Reivyn''s foot didn''t budge, and he could see panic finally set in on the boy''s face.
Reivyn peered down at him before sweeping everyone else standing in line. They all flinched back as his gaze met theirs.
"For your sake, you better hope I have," Reivyn calmly said.
He removed his foot and strolled back the way he hade. Remfort allowed his underling to help him to his feet once more, and Reivyn turned his head to call out over his shoulder.
"Leave the weapons on the ground," he said. "We all know those aren''t yours." He took a couple more steps before he called out again. "Shift Leader Lencet."
A man dressed as an Imperial Guard materialized right next to Reivyn. Reivyn was slightly surprised, but he didn''t let it show on his face, though he did hear a couple of gasps from behind him. He was far enough away that I couldn''t detect him with my Divine Sense, but he arrived by my side instantly when I called, Reivyn thought.
Lencet saluted and gave a short bow, a look of newfound respect in his eyes when he looked at Reivyn.
"Yes, Lord Liaison?" He asked.
"Make sure nobody steals any property of the crown," he instructed.
"It will be done, My Lord."
Several more Imperial Guards materialized out of the shadows on either side of the path, silently watching the youths. Reivyn could hear the ng of metal as the swords were dropped as he continued walking back to the ball.
This was a fun night.
Chapter 156: A Pleasant Evening
Chapter 156: A Pleasant Evening
Reivyn walked back the way he hade, back to the ballroom. As he approached the light shed by the doors into the dark exterior, he noticed a man waiting in the middle of the path. He walked up and gave a salute to the smiling older gentleman.
"Uncle," Reivyn addressed Bellefrent. He still wasn''t sure of the older man''s noble status, but he had so far been able to get away with just addressing him as Uncle.
"You gave us quite the surprise, tonight," Bellefrent said, stroking his chin. "Silfa could hardly contain herself after she realized your strategy with the mothers. I dare say that if you keep up your superb performance, the games might never end. They''re just so entertaining."
"Well, I have no reason to hide my abilities," Reivyn replied. "There''s an adage that sess is met with more responsibilities, or in my case, more tests. That''s a risk I must take to put forward my best foot."
"I knew you understood. I must say I was quite surprised by your ''duel,'' as well. Remfort isn''t exactly known for his martial prowess, but defeating eleven people without breaking a sweat is somethingpletely different. You did us a great service by allowing their bribery scheme to go through. If they had beaten you, it might not have worked out so well, but as it is it allows us to suppress their families a bit in court."
"I''m not working with the goals of intervening in anyone''s political schemes," Reivyn said. "I''m with Kefira, and that''s it. If I help you out incidentally, as Kefira''s uncle, that''s all well and good, but don''t expect me to go out of my way to maneuver in such a way as to affect politics deliberately."
"Not even at the request of Kefira''s family?" Bellefrent quirked an eyebrow.
"If Kefira asks me to," Reivyn shrugged. "She hasn''t said anything about you to me. I don''t know the political factions, and I don''t know which one you stand with."
"A fair and honest reply. Those typically won''t get you very far in court, though. You should always hold something back, especially in a situation like this where there are too many unknowns."
"Oh, is this you returning the favor?" Reivyn asked.
"Not at all. A bit of advice isn''t any kind of repayment... That was more advice, by the way," Bellefrent gave Reivyn a look. "As repayment, I can help you block the efforts of the next best suitor. Always seek action for action.
"Back on the topic of a fair and honest reply, if it had been me, I would have said, ''I will always seek to further the interests of Kefira, and stand by whatever her goals are.'' It makes your standpoint clear enough, and it''s ambiguous enough to leave room for interpretation.
"For instance, it lets me know that if I have a political agenda, I just need to figure out a way for it to benefit Kefira, and then I might get your assistance in the future. It also leaves you and Kefira the option to refuse, anyway."
"I see," Reivyn said. "I appreciate that, Uncle." Reivyn inclined his head. "And if I could make a request, don''t block the efforts of the next best suitor." Bellefrent raised his eyebrows in question. "Block one of the sneakier ones. Dealing with the ones standing out will send a message of personal strength, and having someone block the efforts of someone who''s trying to y in the background will send a message of connections."
Bellefrent threw his head back andughed.
"Hah! If you hadn''t said so yourself, I would never believe that you don''t have the typical Social Skills to almost Expert Level already. You learn fast, my boy."
"I had some excellent teachers."
"Yes, yes. Excellent response," there was a spark of genuine amusement in Bellefrent''s eye. "I won''t keep you any longer. Prince Trevor and young Petre should be waiting for you just inside."
Bellefrent nodded his head and strode to the far entrance so as not to intrude on Reivyn''s reunion with the other two young men. Reivyn watched him go, a thoughtful look on his face.
He seems like an ally on the surface, but I can''t forget that he''s Silfa''s older brother, Reivyn thought. That means that he''s most likely in my camp with his sister, but he''s going to take her side for anything other than what he promised me. He might even pay me back in a way that ultimately leads to more headaches; we''ll see.
Reivyn wasn''t naive enough to take Bellefrent''s advice on not beingpletely open and honest and not apply it to the man himself. He had nevermitted himself to Reivyn''s side, nor had he exined what political faction, if any, he stood in after Reivyn had expressed his ignorance.
Reivyn walked through the doors to reenter the ballroom, and just like Bellefrent said, Trevor and Petre were sitting at the closest table, keeping an eye on the door. Trevor spotted him first, and he immediately stood up and hurried toward him. Petre wasn''t far behind.
"That was amazing!" Trevor whisper-shouted. "What kind of weapons Skill did you use? Was it Pugilist? How did you manage to so seamlessly incorporate a fan into your attack and defense? I''ve seen Pugilists use knuckles and katars, but never a fan."
Reivyn chuckled at the enthusiasm.
"Here, touch it," Reivyn handed his tessen over.
Trevor was confused at first, but his eyes widened at the weight of the fan. He snapped it open and ran his fingers along the infrastructure.
"It''s got metal fortifications," Trevor said.
Petre leaned over and ran a finger along the edge of the fan with curiosity as well.
"It''s called a tessen," Reivyn said, epting the fan back and clipping it back to his waist. "It''s a war fan. I''ve practiced both Pugilist and Fan to nearly the Master Level."
Trevor and Petre were taken aback. Petre only because of how unusual doing such a thing was, but Trevor knew the inside scoop about Reivyn''s abilities with a sword and spear.
"Swords, Spears, Fans, and Pugilist all at the threshold of Master Level? And I think Kayzor said your Sword Skills were already there? How do you find the time?" Trevor was astonished. Petre''s eyes widened even further at that information.
"Haha," Reivynughed. "I started training with my father in all sorts of weapons when I was five years old, and I''ve basically never stopped. I also trained my Mana Skills with my mother since I was that young, so I''ve always been used to a full day involving both Martial and Magical Skills."
"Again, where do you get the time?" Trevor asked. "How do you get anything else done? You were a captain in the army andmanded apany. Plus you''ve said you''ve delved into several Dungeons."
"We don''t have to train every day," Reivyn rolled his eyes. "Practicing can only get you so far. Practical experience is one of the best teachers. Fighting with your life on the line does wonders for your understanding and Skill Levels."
"But still!" Trevor argued. "You would have to spend six hours a day, at minimum, to get those weapons Skills up, then you have Mana Skills in the evening. Do you just not sleep ever? I don''t see how you have the time to do anything else in the day, unless..." Trevor''s eyes widened. "Do you also have a Time Affinity?"
Petre was busy looking back and forth between the two, his eyebrows never getting a moment to rest.
"Noment," Reivyn smiled.
"Alright, be all mysterious about it," Trevor sulked.
Reivynughed as he grabbed the two by the shoulders and directed them to walk once more toward Kefira''s table. She, Seri, and a few other girls had returned as they had never left, but she was no longer epting any invitations to go dance. The music had started up again, and people were still dancing, but Reivyn could tell that it was beginning to wind down with the absence of the main host no longer participating.
Trevor and Petre took a seat next to a couple of youngdies and began conversing with them. Most of those in attendance were at least familiar with each other, and those sitting at the same table as Kefira were definitely friends. Kefira had said that Petre was a friend, so Reivyn wasn''t surprised to see him mix in so easily with the others present. They weren''t the only boys at the table, but they sat the closest to Kefira.
Reivyn went around and stood behind and to the side of Kefira. She turned and looked up at him.
"Where did you go?" She asked.
"Just got some fresh air," Reivyn shrugged.
"Uh-huh. I hope you didn''t hurt them too badly. Teaching them a lesson is one thing, crippling them, another."
"I knocked a couple of heads and bruised a few egos, but that''s about it."
"Is that where you''re going to stand for the rest of the evening?"
"I''ve already made all the rounds. I danced with some of thedies and mingled with some of the young nobles. I think it''s about time I made myself avable to my ''boss.''"
Kefira snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Ok. It won''t be long before we retire for the evening. It''s still a little early to leave just yet. We''ll wait until there''s a noticeable dip in those interested in dancing, then we''ll make our exit."
"Sounds like a n."
"By the way," Kefira casually asked, "what made you think of dancing with the mothers?"
"Do you enjoy dancing?" Reivyn asked back.
"A little. Not as much as I used to since I only got to dance with you once. And that wasn''t even for an entire song."
"What about these other youngdies?" Reivyn continued to inquire.
"Most of them aren''t under any kind of pressure to find a husband, yet. They all love to dance."
"Exactly," Reivyn said. "And what are the mothers doing right now? Sitting at a table, talking to the same friends over and over again. I dare say that they don''t have too many events they go to where they get to dance. Their husbands are all trying to further the interests of their families. They don''t have time to lead their wives out for a dance or two.
"All of those mothers used to be youngdies just like all of you, and I would bet that they haven''t lost their love of dancing." Reivyn shrugged. "I gave them what they wanted. They were a little hesitant at first, and I bet your parents had something to do with keeping their husbands from chasing after me to get me to stop, but once it got going, they could hardly wait for their turn. Even Remfort''s mother only hesitated for a moment."
"Hmm, I hadn''t considered that," Kefira said. Seri peered up at Reivyn with a considering look. "I had always just taken it for granted that the teenagers and young adults danced at these events."
"So you weren''t just showing off in front of Kefira, letting her know that you could dance just as much as she could?" Trevor teased.
Petre looked up from his conversation, and Reivyn looked them both in the eyes.
"Trevor, Petre, if there''s one thing you should learn from tonight, it''s that if you ever find a girl you''re really interested in never ask her to dance," Reivyn said.
The table grew quiet as all the nearby girls simultaneously turned frowns in Reivyn''s direction. They weren''t the only ones. Trevor and Petre frowned as well, not quite understanding what he was getting at. He simply smiled at the attention.
"Dance with their friends. Dance with their mothers and aunts. Dance with their mothers'' friends. Drop some hints of your interest and show them a good time, and you won''t have to ask her to dance. They''ll do all the work for you."
The frowns all disappeared, reced by thoughtful expressions. The girls exchanged nces with each other, and several of them bent their heads together to whisper.
"I saw him dancing with your mom," one girl whispered to her neighbor. The other girl blushed and gave Reivyn a furtive nce before rolling her eyes.
"I came here with my brother," she replied. "He was dancing with all of the young men''s mothers if you noticed."
"I don''t know... he''s pretty handsome."
Simr conversations were whispered around the table. They didn''t know who Reivyn was or his abilities. Even without his Divine Sense, he would have been able to pick up almost all of their words with just his Perception Stat alone.
Kefira coughed to get everyone''s attention.
"Don''t overthink things,dies," she replied coolly.
Nobody but Trevor knew of Kefira and Reivyn''s rtionship, and even Petre only thought he was running interference for her against her parents'' wishes. Calcting eyes watched Reivyn, and another bout of whispers ensued.
"Yeah, I suppose he''ll be too busy dealing with things for Princess Kefira right now," one girl whispered.
"We''ll have to wait until she gives up some of her control before we have a chance," her friend replied.
Kefira looked back at Reivyn in exasperation. Reivyn just gave her a surprised expression in return that said, "What?." She rolled her eyes at him and returned to conversing with her friends.
The rest of the evening was uneventful for Reivyn. By the time he had assumed his position behind Kefira, there were no more young men seeking to dance with her. Only some of the young men that she or her friends were on friendly terms with came by to briefly converse with her, and several of the girls switched out with others as they continued to dance a little.
Each time one of the girls returned to the table, she gave Reivyn a considering look. Reivyn just ignored them.
Finally, the dance floor only held a few couples still dancing, and Reivyn could even see some people staring off into space, obviously checking the time. A few even had to stifle a yawn. Kefira noticed it, too, and she stood up. She struck her ss with her spoon, giving out a Mana-infused, clear note. It captured the attention of everyone still present. Only a few people had already left, and Reivyn didn''t see Remfort or his cronies, so he assumed they were in that bunch.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Kefira announced, Mana flowing through her words to spread them easily across the ballroom. "I thank you all for attending my little gathering, and I greatly appreciate all of your well-wishes. I had a wonderful time, and I hope you all did, too.
"It''s gettingte, so it''s time for me to go. If you want to get a few more dances in, by all means, stay a while longer, but it''s time for me to retire for the evening. Good night."
A chorus of "good nights" and congrattions sounded out from the crowd. Reivyn moved her chair back so she had space to step away from the table, and he offered her his arm. Kefira smiled up at him as she looped her arm in his, not hiding her expression at all. Reivyn escorted her to the exit, Seri just behind them.
Several of the more observant youngsters in the ballroom stood frozen, surprised expressions on their faces. Reivyn smirked at a couple of the young men that had been trying to woo Kefira on the dance floor. All eyes were on the couple as they left the building.
The night air was cool and refreshing with a nice breeze. The scents of the garden wafted over to give a pleasant aroma as the three walked back to Kefira''s courtyard.
"Well, that went better than expected," Kefira said. She paused for a moment to bend down and remove her shoes. She handed them to Reivyn, and they continued with her walking barefoot. "Ahh, that''s better. My vitality is high enough that I don''t think I''ll ever suffer blisters again, but it still feels morefortable this way."
"I know the feeling," Reivyn replied. "These dress shoes aren''t exactly made forfort."
Kefira stared at him for a moment.
"You will never understand the plight of a youngdy in heels," she dered.
Reivyn justughed.
"So how many engagement requests do you think will go through from this evening?" He asked.
"Probably only a couple," Kefira replied. "Seri did a great job intercepting the most sleazy boys, but a few of the sweeter ones were clearly enamored. They''re sure to bring it up to their parents."
"Oh, were some of them sweet on you?" Reivyn asked.
The first thing that had popped into his mind had been something else entirely, but he wasn''t under the stress to blurt out the first thing that came to him like with her mother''s interview. On second thought, it didn''t sound right at all, so he kept it to himself.
"You know what I mean," Kefira yfully pped his shoulder. "They were gentlemen."
Reivynughed at her antics.
"Alright, alright," he said. "Do we have any idea what your mother has in mind for Round 2?"
"Not yet," Kefira shook her head, "but I imagine she''s going to give my father time to implement his tests first. By the way, you still haven''t told me what you discussed with Garet earlier today."
"Oh, that. I''ll be overseeing the training of severalpanies he and your father have ted to send to aid the other Empires against the invaders. It seems like my answer to his question the other day was in line with their way of thinking, and they''re going to operate some mercenarypanies. The end goal is to gain experience fighting against people for our own troops."
"''Our'' troops?" Kefira quirked an eyebrow at him.
Reivyn motioned to his officer''s uniform.
"Even if I wasn''t your Liaison, I hold the rank of lieutenant in the Imperial Army, now," he shrugged. "My job will be to oversee their Martial and Magical Skills, as well as to train theirmanders in Strategy and Tactics for fighting against humans.
"The reports of relying on experience from fighting monsters being less than adequate has inspired your father and brother to correct it ahead of time, and I''m the perfect candidate for the job."
"Um, that you are," Kefira muttered. "So just training and instructing? Notmanding?"
"I don''t know," Reivyn answered. "For now it''s just training, but they haven''t told you what your responsibilities are going to be going forward. If I have to guess, they''re going to give you the job of sponsoring your own unit, and I''ll have to be the one to lead it. That''s technically the main purpose of a Liaison. I''m your representative and what better way than to lead your own, personal army?"
"That... could be annoying," Kefira huffed. "Guarantee that mother will time one of her tests while you''re away, and who knows how long you''ll be gone if they go that route."
"That''s where youe in." Kefira gave him a questioning look. "You''ll have to negotiate to not be required to enter into any kind of long-term contract. If your father gives you the order to raise a military force and send them to another empire to seek employment in any manner possible, then he might have a say in the contracts you ept.
"You''ll have to demand the right to operate your force autonomously, without any oversight from him or anyone else. That way we can negotiate a contract with the other empires where I''ll have plenty of leave toe back to Willowan."
"That''s if my father gives me that kind of responsibility."
"Right now that''s what I would bet on. Even if he doesn''t, you''ll need to fight for less supervision from them for whatever task he gives you. That''s the only way we''ll bepletely free to handle any and all situations thate our way."
"I thought I was the one advising you on political maneuvers," Kefira nudged him in the ribs. "That''s good advice."
"I''m a quick learner, and I had a good teacher," Reivyn gave her a dazzling smile.
"tterer," Kefira rolled her eyes.
The trio arrived back at Kefira''s courtyard, and Reivyn escorted her right up to her door. The two separated for a second before embracing tightly, sharing a fierce kiss. The emotions and stress of the evening bled out of the two of them, and Seri turned her head, pretending like she didn''t see or hear anything.
Kefira and Reivyn had to consider the presence of the maids waiting just on the other side of the door, and there were always Imperial Guards with heightened senses patrolling the grounds. The two didn''t linger too long in each other''s embrace, and they separated all too quickly.
Reivyn smiled as Kefira and Seri entered her rooms, and then he turned and walked over to his own dwelling. Kefira''s parents weren''t too concerned with Reivyn living just one building over. They knew that not only the Imperial Guards would stop any sneaking around, but Seri also wouldn''t allow any shenanigans.
It waste enough, and Kefira and Seri still had enough work ahead of them to get out of their outfits and store them away properly, that it wasn''t appropriate for Reivyn to practice his Mana Skills with Kefira.
I''ll just do some Meditating and Affinity training on my own, then get some sleep, Reivyn thought. I have to report to the Imperial Army recruit training grounds in the morning, already.
Chapter 157: Interlude: Weary Soles
Chapter 157: Interlude: Weary Soles
Refix kept a weary eye on the surroundings as the miles passed them by. It had been over a week since they had seen smoke from a ransacked vige, but nobody knew if there were still enemies all the way out here. He was pretty sure that they wouldn''t bother going so far out of their way and would remain concentrated closer to therger poption centers, but it wasn''t something he would take for granted.
The field of view wasn''t the most favorable at this point in their journey. They had been in a fairly thick forest for quite some time, but Refix''s Perception, as well as his more experienced subordinates'', was high enough that he could still notice anything amiss in the immediate vicinity.
He looked over his band of followers, proud of their aplishments. Cecil, the newest member of their crew, had been worth recruiting, and it hadn''t taken long to find Ameliyn and his girls in the nearby mountainous wilderness. The others he had brought along aspanions hadn''t been flung too far away, either. There was a distinct corrtion between their positioning on the void bridge during the teleportation with where they ended up in the real world.
The barbaric soldiers that had chased down the fleeing refugees near the capital had only been one small part of a vast army invading the Region. At first, it seemed like they were bent on wanton destruction, letting the soldiers rampage andmit terrible atrocities. It was still true that they were let loose to do whatever they wanted, but there was also a heavy leash applied after their goals had been attained.
Marching across the Tier 4 Region, one only Cecil and his wife had any information about, they had witnessed the results of the conflict, and they had pieced together the goals, too. Themanders of the invading army were consuming all of the natural resources, including the people. They were like locusts, and they had no regard for human life at all, not even their own.
The popce of the Region was enved and put to work, receiving a brand of their own on their foreheads. They weren''t afforded a "4" mark like themanders of the enemy army, but they were instead branded with a "1" as a conquered people.
The conflict had nothing to do with Refix and his family, so they avoided it as much as they possibly could, but that didn''t mean they wentpletely unnoticed. There had been more than a handful of battles against some truly ravenous lunatics, but they had obviously not been expecting the level of resistance Refix and his crew could put up.
If they ran into a situation where they could help without exposing themselves too much or taking up too much time, though, they would. There were several instances where Refix simply led his people through an enemy encampment or upied town. Their goal wasn''t necessarily to liberate the people, they didn''t have the time or resources to look after so many people. They just couldn''t stand letting the atrocities ur right in front of them without doing something.
They had eventually "liberated" some mounts from an enemy cavalry unit, too, and their Marching had transitioned into Riding. Not everyone already had the Skill, and Refix, and the others that did, spent several hours helping the others unlock it. It might have seemed like they lost some time, wasting it with Horsemanship training in the middle of their journey, but the training didn''t mean they stopped in ce and didn''t move. Any loss of progress they had suffered was easily made up forter.
It wasn''t always ideal to trade one''s legs for a horse''s hooves. If it had been just Refix and his Party, they would have simply run, but not everyone in their group had super high Stats.
There was more than one person, Adventurer or otherwise, with a Combat ss and nothing else to lose who had decided to follow Refix, and he didn''t turn them down. The numbers of his crew swelled from the original Party of five to a small troupe of seventeen. That included Cecil and his wife. The youngdy wasn''t a Combat ss, but she had nowhere to go, and Kailey and Riley took her in.
Cecil continued to disy his worth as a Deep Ranger, now having proper guidance from someone who knew what they were doing, and watching his wife interact with Kailey and Riley only reinforced his loyalty toward Refix. It wasn''t just that Refix had saved them and taught him valuable Skills, he was a true leader and took care of his people.
He also wasn''t a brash leader, charging in at every instance of injustice he saw that he didn''t think he could easily solve. The fact that he chose not to risk his people''s lives at every opportunity had more to do with garnering the loyalty of the new people than his righteousness.
They had garnered the attention of a localmander at one point, and they had been chased for many days. It had finallye to a head, though, when the enemymander, a man with a "4" branded on his forehead, grew overconfident because Refix had been focused on fleeing, and he exposed himself to retaliation. He hadn''t been able to put up much of a fight against Refix, and they had had a mostly smooth journey from that point on.
They had already been far enough away from the center of the Region that there wasn''t arge concentration of enemy soldiers anymore. They had only encountered a few bands of smaller squads roving the countryside. Those people had been eliminated, and neither Refix nor any of his people cared that they didn''t personally witness their terrible deeds. There had been no remorse after several weeks of traveling through the horror show.
"The border to the Tier 3 Region, Vaskan, is just ahead," Cecil came riding up, returning from a scouting mission. "There''s a fortified military camp just on the other side of the border."
"Are they preventing people from fleeing?" Refix asked with a frown.
"Not that I could see. They simply make everyone passing through reveal their foreheads. I saw a couple of severed heads lining some spikes over the walls with brand marks on them. They were all just ''1''s,'' though."
Refix''s lips formed a thin line.
"Ameliyn," he called to his wife, turning toward her.
She was smiling as she watched their daughters interact with Saralee, Cecil''s wife, and a couple of female Adventurers that had joined them. The girls were mostly cheerful, but Refix could see the haunted look in a couple of the Adventurer girls that had joined his crew. Ameliyn turned to face him at being addressed.
"Yes, dear?" She smiled.
"Make sure the girls are distracted when we cross the border," Refix said. "There''s something they shouldn''t have to see on the walls."
"Of course," Ameliyn smiled and turned back to watching her girls.
Refix nodded his head. His girls had really shown their natural charisma, above and beyond the Stat, on this journey. They had quickly gained a ce in everyone''s hearts, and not just from their personality. They continued to work on their unique talents by patching up and repairing any damaged gear, and the pieces usually came out stronger than they were before.
They weren''t quite proficient enough to work on metal, yet, but they got around that by employing their mother''s Mana, directing her, and pointing out where she needed to make adjustments.
They finally exited the forest, and the aforementioned military camp came into view. The gruesome sight of the severed heads on spikes entered Refix''s eyes like a ma. He looked over and noticed that his girls hadn''t lifted their heads from their conversation, yet, and he noticed Ameliyn ride a bit closer to engage in the talk.
Refix subtly increased the speed he was riding forward, and the others subconsciously kept up. He really didn''t want his young girls to see such a thing, but it was inevitable that they would look up in curiosity. What woulde finally came, but his girls didn''t bat an eye. He nced at his wife and noticed a gleam in her eye.
"Mo~om," Kailey suddenly whined, whipping her head around to Ameliyn.
"You''re doing it again!" Riley echoed, pouting at her mother.
"Doing what?" Ameliyn asked innocently.
"You know what you''re doing," Kailey said.
"Is there something you''re hiding from us?" Riley inquired.
"Haha, just a little test," Ameliyn consoled the twins. "I was just checking to see how attentive you were and how long it would take you to notice."
"That''s a likely story," Kailey crossed her arms over her chest.
"We''re not children, you know," Riley added.
"Oh yes, you are!" Ameliyn retorted. "You''re only eleven years old!"
"We have our sses," Kaileyined.
"You have your Tier 1 sses," Ameliyn said.
"Reivyn had already served in the military and started delving Dungeons by the time he was eleven," Riley pointed out.
"You''re not your brother. First of all, you don''t have Combat sses. Secondly, you haven''t trained in fighting Skills for years. Finally, I''m the momma, and you''ll be my children forever."
"Yeah, we''ll be your children forever," Kailey agreed.
"But not children forever," Riley disagreed.
"I don''t see a distinction," Ameliyn said.
The little conversation between the three females of Refix''s familysted long enough to get the two girls close enough to the walls that they would have to look at an unreasonable angle to see the severed heads.
Refix should have guessed that Ameliyn would just do some little magic to block his daughters'' sight. They were fabulous with anything rted to crafting in any way, even just simple grass bracelets, but they weren''t interested in actual Spell Casting. Their argument had been pretty sound after theirst demonstration when Refix had returned with news of Reivyn, though. They had simply said that their items could do it for them.
Because of theirck of interest in Spell Casting, their defense against magic was equally as deficient. Ameliyn tried to get them toe out of their shell by "testing" them now and then, but it had so far only increased their Mana Sense and Mana Sight Skills. They would spot the anomaly and then cajole their mother into dispelling it. Ameliyn was usually very strict in her Mana teachings, but she had a soft spot for her daughters, and they had shown enough talent with their likely Lifestyle ss direction that she would acquiesce.
"Halt!" A call came from behind a barred gate.
None of the guards were standing on this side of the fortifications, but there were plenty on the walls that had watched their approach. Refix and his group stopped their horses where they were in in view.
"Show your foreheads!"
Refix had been expecting the order, so he simply lifted his bangs with his hand. He wore his hair in a style where his bangs didn''t cover his forehead, but there was no reason to not make a show of good faith. All of the females moved their hair out of the way, and thepanions that were wearing helmets took them off.
The guards standing behind the bars carefully inspected everyone''s heads, trying to see if there was anything used to cover up a brand mark. When they were confident that that wasn''t the case, they unlocked the gate and let it swing open, motioning the group to move through.
Refix led his team to cross the border to the adjacent Tier 3 Region.
"If you would, we have some questions about your travels," the guard addressed Refix, the clear leader of the band of people.
"Certainly," Refix motioned for Ameliyn to lead the others to the side of the road where they could stop and rest for a moment. He dismounted from his horse and handed the reins to his wife.
"Where are youing from?" The guard inquired.
"The long answer, or the short answer?" Refix quirked an eyebrow.
The guard frowned at the reply, never having heard such a response before. It was a simple question, why make itplicated?
"The true answer," he said after thinking for a second.
"We''reing from Quron, a Tier 4 Empire 70 or so jumps away from this one. The portal was destroyed mid-transit, and we were spilled out over the countryside." Refix didn''t have any reason to hide the truth.
"Well, ugh... where are you headed to?" The guard fumbled.
Usually, the people passing through recently were locals headed to their Region as refugees. Refix''s answer insinuated that this Tier 4 Region might not have been their actual destination. They usually wanted to know where people were going within their own Region so they could regte the poption of the refugees, but Refix didn''t seem like a typical refugee.
"We were headed to Wispan for personal reasons when we were interrupted," Refix confirmed the guard''s suspicion. "We want to head to the closest Tier 4 Region where we can use their teleport circle toplete our journey."
The guard looked back at another soldier near the guard station. The other soldier gave him a surreptitious thumbs-up that couldn''t hide from Refix''s perception. The guard turned back and nodded to Refix.
"In that case, you''re in luck," the guard was much friendlier now. "Our empire''s Tier 4 Region is unusually close to the next, closest empire. If you follow the highway, but turn south at the first major intersection in a couple of days - you can''t miss it, it''s the only road the same size as this one crossing it - you''ll head toward another Tier 3 Region in about half a week by horseback.
"That Region is on the border with another Tier 3 Region that''s a vassal of the neighboring empire. You can get to the capital in about a month or so, depending on travel conditions."
"That is lucky," Refix agreed. "My wife and I have traveled across an empire in a caravan before, and let me tell you, it''s a minimum of a ten-month journey to go from one Tier 4 Region to another that way. One month, plus the three weeks we already spent, is a much better prospect. Thanks for the information."
"No problem," the guard said. "Just make sure you keep clear of the roads when any military units are using them, and don''t stop for an extended time at any major city. The refugee problem is quite out of hand, and we''re having a hard time cing the new ones."
"I understand," Refix said. "After seeing what''s going on back there, I can''t me them for running, but, I do have a question for you."
"And what would that be?" The guard asked.
"Why are you all holed up on the border? That''s your liege empire, but you''re not helping them."
"We get that question a lot," the guard sighed. "The truth of the matter is that we did send help. We sent an entire division, half our military strength, and they never came back. There''s been no word, and, at this point, we can only assume that everyone''s lost.
"I had a brother in that division, as well as many friends..."
"I''m sorry," Refix said with genuine contrition. "I''ve just been in a situation where vassal states ignored the pleas of their liege empire, choosing to ignore helping those they swore to follow instead to fight each other for the right to take over. I guess I''m just a little touchy on the subject."
"I''ve never heard of warring empires before, just the asional scuffle between lords and Regions seeking benefits. What''s this worlding to when someone nearly a hundred jumps away has a simr story?" The guard shook his head.
"It was a little different," Refix touched his nose. "It was due to a Dungeon Break in the capital, and it was more than double that many jumps away. Anyway, it''s a sad state we''re in right now. Keep your head up." Refix pped the man on the shoulder.
"Thank you," the guard replied. "Most of the refugeesing through here don''t care about the truth and curse us out anyway for standing around. You have a safe journey, now."
Refix and the guard nodded to each other, each one feeling as if they had built a bit of rapport during the short interrogation that had somehow turned into a friendly chat between veterans on the perils of life. Refix walked over to where his group was waiting for him and remounted.
"So?" Ameliyn inquired.
"They were friendly enough," Refix answered. "He even told me that we''re not going to have to spend a year traveling to the next Tier 4 capital to continue our journey to Wispan. The next closest Tier 4 region is only three Regions away."
"There must be a Tier 5 region between them," Ameliyn said thoughtfully.
"That''s what I was thinking. Most Tier 4 Regions aren''t directly next to a Tier 5 Region, but there are almost always two or more Tier 4 Regions connected to it if there is."
"Thanks for the geography lesson. I didn''t know that," Ameliyn said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, I''m just thinking out loud," Refix defended himself.
"I know, my Love. I was just teasing." Ameliyn leaned forward and ced a peck on his cheek. She straightened up in her saddle. "Now let''s get going! Only a month away from seeing my little boy!"
Refix grinned at his wife''s enthusiasm. He shared the same sentiments, after all.
Just a little longer and we''ll be able to bring him back home with us.
Chapter 158: Training Day
Chapter 158: Training Day
Reivyn awoke once more before dawn, refreshed and feeling energized. Their n at the ballroom had gone much better than they had anticipated, and he was feeling great.
Now we just need to watch out for Silfa stepping up the next challenge, Reivyn thought as he stretched his body. She doesn''t seem malicious, but she definitelyes across as one who''s greatly entertained by the situation.
Reivyn headed out to the backyard to continue exploring new avenues for his abilities, and he was slightly surprised to find Seri waiting for him. She was dressed in simple workout attire, as well, and she was already swinging her sword around.
"Morning," Reivyn called, beginning some calisthenics.
Seri stopped swishing the training sword and turned to face Reivyn.
"Kefira thought it would be a good idea for me to get some training in with you," she stated simply. "I just advanced to Tier 4 after receiving the final push from my monthly Life Experience calctions, and I thought I was doing a really good job with getting an Epic ss...
"Now that I''ve met you, I''m not so sure, anymore. Tier 2 with a Mythic ss." Seri shook her head. "I need to do better if I''m going to remain relevant to Kefira, and I can already tell that your entry into her life has already started to propel her beyond what she was previously headed to."
"My ss is technically a Legendary Tier 3 ss," Reivyn said after some thought, "and that''s only one rarity above Epic. It''s just the nature of how and when I got the ss that made it Mythic."
"Yeah, but that''s even more rare, so if you look at it a certain way, it''s still genuinely mythical," Seri argued.
"I was just trying to lessen the blow," Reivyn shrugged. "So what''s your goal with training with me?"
"To get stronger," Seri said as if it was obvious.
"That''s a given." Reivyn shook his head. "I mean, what''s your goal? Short-term and long-term. If you train with a specific direction in mind, you''ll be able to tailor your exercises ordingly, and you''ll get much further."
"I need to get a Legendary ss at Tier 5," Seri said, determination in her eyes.
"You''re not aiming low." Reivyn nodded in approval. "So that''s the long-term goal, and we probably have several years to get there unless you start heading off to run all of the Dungeons every reset."
"Even then it would take a long time," Seri said. "Experience gains noticeably drop at Tier 3, and it only gets worse the higher one''s Tier gets. I''m only Level 1 Tier 4, and I need 42,400 Experience to reach Level 2. There are 150 Levels in Tier 4. It takes almost 11 million Experience to get to Tier 5 from Level 1 Tier 4."
"I thought Experience gains only dropped if you fought things below your Tier," Reivyn said with a frown.
"Well, yeah, but most of the Dungeons don''t start with Tier 4 monsters, even the ones in our Tier 4 Region. Only the premiere Dungeon of the Region has all Tier 4 monsters with Tier 5 bosses. The Dungeons in our Region, and most Tier 4 Regions, are like a pyramid: There are four Dungeons with tier 1 to 2 monsters, three with Tier 2 to 3, two with Tier 3 to 4, and one with Tier 4.
"Tier 5 and up Regions are slightly different. Tier 5 is a watershed, and it acts like Tier 1 rtive to Tier 4. There will be about four or five Dungeons in a Tier 5 Region with Tier 5 monsters and some Tier 6 bosses. Tier 6 Regions will have four with Tier 5''s, and three with Tier 6''s. Et cetera, et cetera.
"But it''s not so simple as just hopping over the border to a Tier 5 Region. Sure, there are ces like that in the world, and you could even find all of the Tiers close to each other in certain special areas, but our Region isn''t bordering a Tier 5 Region. There is some Wilderness to cross for about a month, at least, to get to the Tier 5 Region we send people to."
"What do you mean by wilderness?" Reivyn asked. "My understanding of wilderness is just uncivilized ces."
"Not wilderness, but Wilderness, with a capital ''W,''" Seri exined. "Wilderness, in terms of Regions, are ces where the Mana density fluctuates erratically, and it''s not fluctuating in fixed ces. One moment you could be standing in a spot that feels like a Tier 1 Region, and the next moment, it feels like a Tier 6 Region.
"That''s an extreme example, most Wilderness areas between Tier 4 and 5 don''t exceed Tier 4 or 5 Mana density, but you get the idea."
"Huh, I never knew that."
"Why would you? It''s not something a Tier 1 Region would be concerned with. If you had progressed all the way to a Tier 4 Academy in the usual way, you would have learned about it organically.
"You can think of each Local Group as a giant circle with concentric rings. The very center is a Tier 8 Region, and it expands outward all the way to Tier 1 Regions. The Tier 1 Regions are on the outer edge of the circle, so there are way more of them than any of the other Tiers.
"That''s not a literal representation of what a Local Group looks like, but it gets the idea across."
"That makes a lot of sense. We did learn that there are multiple Tier 1''s attached to a Tier 2, and multiple to a Tier 3, up and up to Tier 4, so it makes sense that there are way more Tier 1 Regions than any other. I just didn''t know about the Wilderness, I thought the Regions progressed evenly to Tier 8."
"Nope, and there''s also vast expanses of Wilderness between the Local Groups. The Wilderness has its own unique opportunities, but it''s generally weaker than the Tier 4 Regions that border it. There are also no Dungeons orrge deposits of valuable resources due to the fluctuating Mana density.
"But back on topic, there''s a reason it takes years and years to reach Tier 5. You mentioned that your father was 33 when he was mid-Tier 5, and as far as I know, that''s some sort of record. Kefira''s parents are twice his age, and they''re just reaching mid-Tier 5. Granted, they don''t see muchbat, but as the reigning monarchs, they have systems in ce to not let themg too far behind."
"The Imperial Guards are Tier 5," Reivyn pointed out. "What about them?"
"The Imperial Guards are low-Level Tier 5, and the youngest one is 45 years old." Seri chuckled. "Don''t forget, Vitality extends lifespan and keeps one looking younger, longer."
"That''s a good point, but then again, my father was an Imperial Guard as a teenager."
"Didn''t you say he was a Ceremonial Imperial Guard?" Seri quirked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I hadn''t realized there was such arge difference."
"If he was anything like you, and considering you said he has a Legendary Tier 5 ss I can only assume he was, then his actualbat power probably wasn''t too far off from matching a typical high-Level Tier 4 Combat ss while still in Tier 3. The Imperial Guards only have Rare sses, and some of them even had Umon sses in Tier 2 or 3."
"That makes sense. My mother did say that he was way more powerful than anyone had expected when things went south."
"There you go. Anyway, to get back to the main point, again, I have time to increase the future rarity of my sses if I put in the hard work. A lot of the powerhouses in Tier 5 and 6 weren''t people who always had the maximum rarity ss for their Tier. There''s at least one famous man who scraped by with the bare minimum for advancing each time: Umon Tier 3, Rare Tier 4, Epic Tier 5.
"It''smon for hardworking people to gradually increase the rarity of their sses as they go. It''s the people who rush too fast without building their foundations or grow toozy that get trapped."
"Well, that was some nice information you provided for me, and I do believe it was the most words you''ve ever spoken to me before." Reivyn smiled. "I think you just said more words now than the sum of everything you''ve said to me prior."
"Well, don''t get used to it." Seri rolled her eyes. "The only time we''ll be hanging out without Kefira present is during these morning training sessions, and she told me she ns on joining again once all the tests are over."
"Fine by me. Anyway, your long-term goal is to upgrade to a Legendary Tier 5. The Imperial Guards have Rare Tier 5 sses for the most part, and they''re all below Master Level with their weapons Skills. That should be one of your short-term goals: Reach Level 75+ with your Primary weapon.
"What about auxiliary weapon Skills?" Reivyn asked.
"I''m familiar with the mostmon ones," Seri answered. "It''s always a good idea to have an understanding of what one may be fighting against. I have Spears, Hammers, Axes, and Daggers at around Level 10, each."
Reivyn nodded his head along to Seri''s exnation, thinking about a path forward for her.
"That''s a good start. You''re a Novice in each of those Skills, and I think another good short-term goal would be to bring those up to Apprentice Mastery, so Level 25. We should also throw in some other weapons to add to the list. I noticed you didn''t mention any ranged weapons, so we''ll add Throwing, Bows, and Whips to the mix, and if you want, I can teach you how to use a war fan."
"Do you have all of those Skills?" Seri asked, surprised. She was present when he had demonstrated a near Mastery Level with Spears on top of his Swords Skill.
"Sort of." Reivyn smiled mysteriously. Seri snorted and rolled her eyes. "I don''t want to ruin the surprise, but I think there might be a pleasant oue if we raise all of those to Apprentice Mastery. Not only that, but getting a better understanding of all of those weapons will alsoy a broader foundation to expand upon with your Swords Skill.
"Have you been stalled out with your Swords Skill for a while, now?"
"Yeah, it''s been sitting at 55 for months," Seri confirmed. "It''s not even a major threshold, but I''ve been stuck there for a long time.
"Hey, I''ve been telling you all about my Skills and Levels, what about you? What''s your Swords and Spears Skills at?"
Reivyn did a quick check of his Status page before replying.
"They''re sitting at 70," he said.
"70?!" Seri was shocked. "Isn''t Master Level reached at 75? You''re definitely at that Level with Swords, and nearly there with Spears. How are your Skill Levels so low?"
"70 is low for a Tier 2?" Reivyn asked with amusement. Seri rolled her eyes. "The simple fact is, I don''t have the same major thresholds as everyone else. I think it''ll bnce out at Transcendence, but I''m not sure."
"Things just get weirder and weirder the more I learn about you." Seri shook her head. "I''ve never heard of anyone having any Skills that didn''t follow the same pattern: 1-24 for Novice, 25-49 for Apprentice, 50-74 for Expert, and 75-100 for Master."
"Huh, I just noticed, but there''s no Journeyman Mastery Level," Reivyn said with a frown.
"Journeyman is a professional designation." Seri shrugged. "People who are Journeyman with Lifestyle sses are typically at Level 50 to 60 with their basic General Skills. They''re low-Level Experts."
"Alright. Good to know."
Reivyn cut the conversation short, or he would never get anything done before he had to leave for his new job. The conversation wasn''t actually that time-consuming, but every minute counted. He walked over and grabbed the different ranged weapons he had mentioned to Seri.
"Ok, for the first short-term goal, we''ll start with having you acquire the ranged Weapons Skills I mentioned," he said. "We''ll start with Whips. It''s a hand-held weapon with medium range, so it''s probably the best transition weapon for you from melee to ranged. We''ll work on Throwing after that."
The practice whip that was supplied to Kefira''s yard looked like it had never been used. It was in pristine condition, and it was made out of some sort of soft cloth that wouldn''t cause too much damage even when striking bare skin.
Reivyn tossed it to Seri. The weight and shape made its bnce wonky as it flew through the air, but Reivyn''s Weapons Master Skill also applied to throwing things. It sailed like it was aerodynamically designed to do so.
Seri started in surprise, thinking that she was going to have to dodge to catch the tricky weapon, but she stopped in ce as it was thrown perfectly to her. She caught it and gave Reivyn aplicated look.
"Your Throwing Skill is also close to the Master Level?" She seemed defeated.
Reivyn barked augh and shook his head.
"Not exactly," he said. "Don''t worry about it. If what I think can happen does happen, you''ll understand.
"By the way, you never did tell me what your Tier 4 ss is. It might help me to design better training for you if I know."
"Sure. It''s no secret." Seri shrugged. "I''m The Sapphire de. It''s a sort of Spell-de hybrid ss, but it focuses on the Ice Affinity, and my own unique charm was added to it. Tier 4 and up sses are generally personalized to the individual."
"That I did know," Reivyn said.
"Alright, let''s get to work."
---
The morning had been fruitful, if not for Reivyn, and Seri had already unlocked Whips and was well on her way to unlocking Throwing. Once she got everything unlocked and started Leveling them, he would be able to participate more with his own Skills while helping her.
He wasn''t discouraged by losing out on training himself. He remembered that his father had told him that training Reivyn had been the thing that pushed him past Level 100 in his Weapons Prodigy Skill. It would be good to get a different perspective while teaching.
And that could be doubled up with overseeing the training of the mercenaries we''ll be sending out, Reivyn thought.
Reivyn took his time getting dressed in his officer''s uniform. It was a different one from the formal attire he had worn the previous evening. Garet had supplied it to him when he had detailed his mission.
The biggest difference between the two uniforms was mobility andfort. The other major difference was theck of medals and other "essories."
They looked roughly simr, but this one was paired with boots, and it was designed to be worn with armor over it, much like he had worn while in Drallo. He didn''t put any of the armor on, though, as he wasn''t going to be fighting today.
I may participate in sparring matches in the future, but even then it might send a certain message if I never wear armor.
He had breakfast while he waited, and it wasn''t long after that there was a knock on the door. He set his finished te aside for the staff to take care of and opened the door to find Kayzor waiting for him simrly attired, just with a General''s rank insignia.
It might seem strange for a General to personally escort a lieutenant, but the Imperial Liaison Insignia offset that thought.
"You ready to go?" Kayzor asked, eyeing Reivyn up and down.
"Sure am, brother." Reivyn smiled.
Kayzor rolled his eyes.
"It''s a good thing I like you," he said. "Notice how I feigned ignorance of your ss and Rarity at dinner the other night?"
"Yeah, I thought that was a little weird."
"It was so you could brag a little about it. Not everyone there knew everything about you."
"Ahh, I see. Thanks?"
"You''re wee." Kayzor nodded. He eyed Reivyn sideways as they walked toward the main pce. "What are you going to do to repay me?"
"Do my best to make sure your men don''t die?" Reivyn queried.
"That''s without saying! That''s your main job, anyway!" Kayzor wasn''t having any of that.
Action for action, Reivyn remembered the advice that Bellefrent had given him. Does this count as an action, though? It did have a good effect on Kefira''s other siblings...
"Well, what do you want?" Reivyn asked.
"A regr sparring partner," Kayzor answered immediately.
"That..." Reivyn was tempted to say he could agree to that request immediately, but he held back for a moment.
I''m going to be super busy, and there''s no telling when Silfa will start her next action to test me, Reivyn thought. If I blindlymit to this arrangement, I might be shooting myself in the foot.
"That can be arranged... eventually," Reivyn said, keeping it vague.
"I see you''ve been learning court lessons, already." Kayzor chuckled. "Don''t worry. It''s not a ploy by my parents to take up more of your time, though they would probably encourage me to do so if they knew. I''m ready to wait, and we can do something less regrly until you know exactly how much free time you''ll have."
"In that case, yeah." Reivyn shrugged. "I don''t see any reason to say no. I would have agreed even if it wasn''t to repay you."
"Oh, yeah? I noticed you like to train." Kayzorughed.
"If you''re sitting still, you''re falling behind," Reivyn said. "Other people are working toward getting better all the time."
"Are you serious?" Kayzor nearly came to a stop in surprise. "Who''s going to surpass you in your age range? Kefira could, but she''s with you, anyway."
"I recognize that I have a huge lead over my cohorts," Reivyn said. "But if I just take that for granted and coast along into the future, one day I''ll meet someone in the same Tier as me who''s stronger. I would only have myself to me for that."
"If you say so."
Reivyn gave Kayzor a look.
"I''m not going to stay in a Tier 4 Region forever. The world is huge, and there''s plenty of higher Tier Regions to explore."
"A lofty goal, but are you an Adventurer or a soldier?" Kayzor asked.
"Aerie, the enemymander, had a ''6'' tattooed on her neck," Reivyn replied. He looked at Kayzor through hisshes for a moment, letting that statement sink in. "The other empires facing enemy invasion have reported brand marks on the enemy soldiers'' foreheads. I''m guessing there will be plenty of opportunity for both in the future."
"That''s a good point." Kayzor frowned. "It''s also very troubling. That Aerie girl was around the same age as you and Kefira, maybe a few years older, but her station was the same as mine. I easily defeated the decoy, but you mentioned that she had monstrous Stats when you and Kefira fought her, so she''s probably the same Level, or even higher, as I am."
"And her Master was the strongest person I had ever seen," Reivyn said. "And I''ve seen some strong people. Has Kefira told you about my parents?"
"She''s said enough for me to understand what you''re getting at," Kayzor acknowledged. "Are you saying her Master was stronger than your father?"
"Definitely," Reivyn said. "He put everyone on their knees with his presence alone. I don''t think he was actively suppressing us. That''s not something my father can do, as far as I know."
"So probably mid-Tier 6, at minimum," Kayzor said thoughtfully. "He didn''t seem to be actively taking part in the invasion, though. I don''t know what level of support they''re going to give to their offensive fronts."
Reivyn shook his head.
"We can''t win a war by just sitting back and defending," he said. "We''re going to have to eventually find them and strike at them ourselves. When that happens, we''ll need to be prepared for that Level of resistance."
"But we''re not at war with them," Kayzor pointed out. "We''re just going to be sending soldiers as mercenaries to gain some resources and experience."
"Isn''t one of the main purposes of getting experience for the soldiers the possibility that they''ll attack Wispan?" Reivyn countered. "We should make ns for every eventuality, and getting officially dragged into war should be one of the higher priority scenarios. You should definitely be making ns."
"You''re right, and I am." Kayzor smiled and pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "I''m a General, and I wasn''t just appointed to the rank with nepotism. I worked for it. Father, Garet, and I have already begun the nning sessions with the other brass, and once my uncle gets back from his Adventure in the Tier 5 Region, he''ll join as well."
"Good to know."
The two hadn''t been standing still while holding their conversation. Kayzor had led him out of the pce grounds and toward a barracks that Reivyn could see from atop the hill. It was located along the Inner City wall near where Willowan abutted against some mountains. Reivyn was relieved to see that there were manned fortifications atop the mountain. It wasn''t left undefended.
It didn''t take long for them to traverse the city. Pedestrian traffic got more sparse as they got closer to the barracks. Themercial and residential areas gave way to industries and lodging obviously set up to amodate the army. Not everyone walking about in this area was in uniform, but Reivyn could tell that the civilian poption dwindled as military personnel became the norm.
Kayzor led him to a barracks off to the side of the main military buildings. Reivyn could recognize that it was clearly set up for recruit training.
"Are these going to be fresh recruits, or...?" Reivyn asked.
"No," Kayzor denied. "They''re from the regr military, but none of them are from my Expeditionary Unit. We thought it was prudent to give them a break after their long trek. We''ll eventually recruit from Adventurers and former soldiers in the future, but the first couple of batches are going to be regr military personnel."
Exnation: If I get sent as a mercenarymander, it will be irregr troops that I''ll have to lead, Reivyn interpreted.
Kayzor led him to the drill grounds of the barracks, and there was already apany formed up. Reivyn surveyed the troops lined up, noting that they were just as disciplined as the ones that Kayzor had led if a little small in number.
Thepanymander spotted Kayzor right away.
"Company! Attention!" He Commanded.
The soldiers snapped to attention from a state of rest, and the captain turned about to offer a salute to Kayzor.
"First Company, all present and ounted for, sir!" The captain eximed.
Kayzor returned the salute.
"Very well."
The captain took his ce to the side and behind Kayzor, on the other side of Reivyn. Kayzor stepped forward to address the soldiers.
"Everyone knows what you''re here for, so I won''t give a long-winded speech. Your captain can do that at ater time." There were no chuckles or fidgeting from the soldiers, but Kayzor and Reivyn weren''t expecting any. "This," he gestured toward Reivyn, "is Lieutenant Reivyn. He was present for the invasion of Drallo, and he fought against them from the beginning to the end.
"Don''t let his young age fool you. He was apanymander, and he''s a Master of the Sword and Spear. I''ve sparred with him, personally, and I can attest to his prowess. He will be acting as a training overseer, but his main job will be to instill the differences between fighting monsters and humans.
"As everyone knows, war, real war, between empires is unheard of. Reivyn was there when hismanders assumed their experience fighting against monsters would trante to fighting against people in war. They were wrong, and they paid the price.
"Pay attention to what he has to teach you. That is all. Captain."
The captain walked out in front of Kayzor and offered another salute.
"Take charge of thepany and carry out the mission of the day," Kayzor ordered, returning the salute.
"Yes, sir!"
Kayzor performed a smart about-face, and he winked at Reivyn when nobody else could see him. He marched off, leaving Reivyn standing where he was, the captain looking at him with expectation.
Alright, let''s get to work.
Chapter 159: Instructor Reivyn
Chapter 159: Instructor Reivyn
"What is the biggest difference between fighting a horde of monsters and fighting against other people?" Reivyn asked.
He was in a small ssroom with the officers and senior enlisted personnel of thepany he was training. The regr troops had been given some basic drills based on Reivyn''s previous experiences practicing maneuver under fire, and he brought the leadership aside to give his wisdom on warfare.
"Skills," one of the Lieutenants raised his hand and said. "Being able to increase General Skills to be a better fighter, and ss Skills to use offensively and defensively."
"That''s a good guess, but not what I''m looking for," Reivyn nodded to the lieutenant. "Think about it. Several types of monsters use weapons, and they have a certain level of proficiency. Some monsters can use Mana and Spells, and that works like ss Skills. Some monsters have racial characteristics like camouge or poison.
"Also, how often do you actually get the chance to use your ss Skills in groupbat? If your troops are fighting individually and have the chance to use their Skills, then something has gone horribly wrong. At that point, they''re not fighting for victory, they''re fighting for survival."
Several of the veterans nodded their heads absentmindedly at Reivyn''s remarks on Skills. He let the silence wash over the room as he watched and waited for the leaders to consider the issue and have an opportunity toe to the right conclusion.
"Organization," the senior staff sergeant finally said.
"That''s another good one," Reivyn inclined his head to the older man. "Organization ounts for a lot of things, and it can even be tied to the answer I''m looking for. Organization isn''t just soldiers standing in line and protecting the nk. It involves all sorts of issues from overall strategy, to individual tactics, and the supply chain.
"What about organization and leadership separates monster hordes from armies? I''ve already given you a clue."
"Strategy and Tactics," the captain said. "The ability to intelligently devise ns and countermeasures."
"Yes," Reivyn said. "The biggest difference between monsters and human armies is their ability to analyze and exploit your weaknesses.
"In Drallo the enemy army exploited our misapplication of experience with fighting against monsters. We thought we could trick them and aplish our main goal of rescuing the civilians by distracting them, but instead, we walked right into a trap and an entirepany was annihted because of our hubris in the first battle.
"On a smaller scale, they used shock troops to literally throw at our spear wielders, and they would use their bodies to nullify the spears and let those behind them move in for the kill while the front lines were flustered.
"You''re not going to encounter a monster horde that''s going to do that. They might identally achieve the same result just from how they instinctively fight, but they''re not going toe up with a n to do it intentionally.
"This is where your leadershipes into y. You have to be able to spot the goal of the enemy''s actions and issue the proper orders. In my case, I didn''t hesitate to order my men to abandon their spears and switch to another weapon.
"Ok, what''s another difference? We''ve already mentioned Skills, organization, strategy, and tactics. What''s something else you need to ount for? Something that we live with every day of our lives and probably take for granted?"
Reivyn once again paused to let those present think.
He wasn''t going to immediatelyunch into how to counteract these differences. The biggest mistake he made in Drallo was not pointing out these underlying issues when he tried to introduce different tactics. If he had been able to convince the leadership that they needed to consider different factors, that first battle might have gone differently.
He had an advantage this time, though, because he was now in a trusted position with the confidence of the Imperial Family behind him. He had proof of his experience.
"sses and Levels," one of the sergeants ventured.
"Exactly," Reivyn said. "Monsters typically fall within a predetermined Level range. People, on the other hand, will have vastly different power levels. People have different sses and Levels, and that in turn means they have different Stats.
"You will never be able to look at the enemy army and just know how effective they''re going to be in fighting. You''ll have to test the waters with actualbat to get a feel for it.
"The invaders sound like they''re at least affiliated with the same people that invaded Drallo, so I can tell you that they''re mostly low Tier soldiers that have no regard for their lives. The enemymander referred to them as ''Deathsworn,'' so I imagine there''s some level of brainwashing going on.
"You''ll be able to tell their approximate Tier based on the brand marks on their foreheads. It was pretty universal that higher numbers indicated higher Levels and better quality gear. Heck, more than half of the regr enemy soldiers didn''t even have weapons."
The officers and sergeants were very attentive and took notes. Reivyn could see that they were taking this lecture very seriously.
"So, we''ve talked about the main differences between monster hordes and armies. Now, what does that trante to in a practical sense?"
Reivyn looked at each of the soldiers attending his ss. He could tell that they were understanding his point, but they just weren''t able to put it in the right words.
"It means that you''re not going to face ten-to-one odds ande out on top," Reivyn said. "Contemporary wisdom for assaulting a fortified enemy position is three-to-one odds, and by that I mean you have three to their one.
"You''re not going to be able to just roll over your enemies. Don''t hesitate to use everything to your advantage. One of my favorite things to do was to distract an enemy patrol with a portion of my troops and then descend on their nk from an elevated position. Use your maps and the terrain to your advantage.
"It is not the same as fighting monsters. All my life, the biggest problems I''ve ever encountered have almost always been due tocency. Even a tiger gives its all when it hunts a rabbit. Learn to utilize light, medium, and heavy infantry. Make your soldiers use the tools you give them. Be flexible.
"Over the next month, we''ll be going over different scenarios in the ssroom, and then you''ll take the lessons you learn in here to the troops out there. I haven''t had time toe up with aplete schedule, yet, but I do know that I want to spend thest week in the field with anotherpany acting as an enemy force.
"Captain, do you have a Mage Corps that''s going to apany your men?" Reivyn turned to thepanymander.
"We have a Mage Squad," the captain answered.
"We need to incorporate their training with the soldiers. There''s no reason to separate them at this point. There''s a ce inbat for them standing back and hurtlingrge Spells at the enemy, but you''ll want to be as effective as possiblebining your arms. I have a Caster ss, and I mainly used Magic when confronting the enemy on the field to tremendous effect.
"That''s all for now," Reivyn began to dismiss the leadership. "I need toe up with the scenarios for you to analyze, and we can begin on those tomorrow. Let''s go check out the troops."
"Lieutenant Reivyn, will you be assessing their individual Skills?" The captain asked as they waited for the current drills thepany was running to end.
Reivyn had given them some simple maneuvers to practice. One of the things that had led to great sess for him in the previous campaign was splitting up his toons into their smaller individual sections. Small unit tactics had a ce in contemporary warfare. Not all battles had to be huge battalions lined up facing off against each other.
The tactics that Adventurers used with their small Parties and the tactics that a military squad used were different. It wasn''t difficult to investigate and extrapte the different fighting styles that regr Adventurer Parties used when they epted missions to hunt down monsters. It was perfectly normal for the military units to understand and even practice these tactics, especially since they also participated in Dungeon delves to Level up.
Adventurers usually took on missions that were smaller in scale than would make sense for the military to handle, and one of the main purposes of the Imperial Army was to defend against monster and beast hordes. They focused onrger-scale battles and didn''t send their soldiers to hunt down the smaller bands of monsters and beasts.
Working as a small team against other people, though, ones that would be organized just like them, was a different story. The drills that Reivyn had assigned the soldiers of thepany to practice had been how to disengage from a whole unit into smaller ones as quickly as possible, as well as how to form back up amidbat.
Forming back up into apany or toon level might seem like something easy andmon sense, but adding in the chaos ofbat while doing so added dangerous variables to the mix. To simte this, the four toons of thepany were split in two, and they took turns breaking up and forming back up with one toon performing the maneuver while another harassed them.
"That won''t be necessary," Reivyn denied. "I''m more interested in their ability to work together than on an individual level. There won''t be too many duels when fighting against the invaders. Almost all action is going to be in groups, and I trust your own judgment on your troop''s Skill Level.
"I''ll mainly be focused on personally training you and the other leaders who are more likely to fight alone if you fight at all."
"If we fight at all? What do you mean by that?" One of the lieutenants asked.
Reivyn nced at the man.
"It''s not the job of the officers to do the fighting for their men. Your job is to oversee the overall situation, and you should only step in if there''s a threat that your men can''t handle, like a really high-Level enemy elite, or someone with Master Level Skills."
The captain nodded his head at the words, and the lieutenants had thoughtful expressions on their faces. The lieutenants weren''t as experienced as the captain, and they were still hot-blooded young men. Their idea of warfare was most likely still romanticized, and they had daydreams of standing out in front of their toons, leading a charge.
"Leading from the front doesn''t mean literally standing in front of your men. It''s more along the lines of being there with them and not sending them off while you stay at headquarters. As long as you''re in your proper position, doing your job and not backing down in the face of danger, your men will view you as ''leading from the front.''"
The toons finally ended their practice. He could tell that several of them had been flustered at the beginning of their training, and they were still out of breath, but they had been performing smoothly at the end. Repetition was the name of the game for this type of practice. Doing it over and over again, under stress, would make it so that they could act without having to think about it.
Until Reivyn had assigned them the training, they had only ever formed up under ideal conditions. Throwing in a harassing force had shown them that they weren''t quite as prepared as they had assumed.
"What I really want to know is their level of Skill in working together and obeying unexpected orders," Reivyn turned to the captain. "I''ll assumemand over a toon and give them somebat orders, sir."
"Very good," the captain nodded. "First toon, stay where you are. Second, Third, and Fourth toon, Fall Out!"
The lieutenants and sergeants went to their men and made sure that they didn''t disperse. They formed up into a semi-circle behind First toon, and Reivyn took up his position behind them.
"First toon, Advance!" Reivyn Commanded.
The toon began to March forward in an orderly manner.
"First Squad, Javelins! Throw! Draw Swords! Shield Wall! Second Squad, Spear Thrusts! Abandon Spears! Withdraw in Order! Third and Fourth Squads, Disengage Left and Right! Second Squad Retreat at Speed! Shield Push! Disengage! Retreat! Third and Fourth Squad, Envelope! Second Squad, Draw Swords, Charge!"
The orders came fast and hard. The toon was in the middle of following one Command as Reivyn was already issuing the next. There was some hesitation from some of the men at the fast pace, and it disrupted the flow of the orders slightly, but it wasn''t too bad at first.
The real issue came when Reivyn ordered the Third and Fourth Squads to disengage to the left and right. The soldiers in the squads didn''t know which direction they were supposed to follow, and they ended up tripping over each other. That caused a further issue when Reivynmanded the Second Squad to retreat quickly. The First Squad performed the action of the Shield Push easily enough, but there was still a tangle when they were supposed to retreat.
By the time Reivyn ordered the Third and Fourth Squads to envelope the enemy, the toon was in full disarray. Only a few of the soldiers were in position to follow the Command, and there was nobody avable to Charge the enemy from the Second Squad at all.
Reivyn watched it all with an impassive face. The soldiers continued to try and follow themands that they expected Reivyn wanted them to follow, and there was eventually a situation where the Second Squad was formed up with the men from the Third and Fourth Squads on either side of them. The First Squad was now several yards behind, also formed up.
"Ok, fall back in!" Reivyn said. He walked out in front of the toon, apanied by the captain and the toon Commander with a sheepish look on his face.
"Combat is fast," Reivyn said after they had regained their order. "Officers won''t always have time to give all the little nuances of amand for everyone to fully understand what they want. This can be alleviated by practice, practice, practice.
"When I called for the Third and Fourth squads to break off to the left and right, nobody knew which squad I was ordering where. There are two ways to get around this. First, like I said, as you practice with your lieutenant, you will learn his intentions. Second, you should always assume that a ''respectively'' is added to a Command including more than one element.
"If I had said, ''Third and Fourth Squads, Disengage Left and Right, Respectively, you all would have understood that I was saying Third go left and fourth go right. That being said, speed is paramount inbat. What if adding the word ''respectively'' to themand interfered with the timing of what I was trying to aplish?
"That was the biggest problem. The other problem was hesitation. As the soldiers following themands of your officer, you are going to be engaged in closebat. You won''t always be able to see everything your leaders can.
"When I ordered the Second Squad to abandon their spears, half of you hesitated. You hesitated because you didn''t understand themand. You need to put your trust in your leaders'' orders, and follow them instantly. Don''t think about why you''re getting the order, just obey. You can always figure out why an order was giventer.
"For instance, in the campaign in Drallo, the enemy soldiers would charge forward and deliberately get impaled on our spears. They would use their bodies to hold the weapons down, and in the moments that the spearmen didn''t know what to do, those behind would swoop in and attack. I had to order my soldiers to drop their spears to protect their lives.
"If something like that is happening somewhere on the line, but not to you personally, you might not understand the order. If you hesitate because you don''t understand, you put yourself and everyone around you in danger."
Reivyn looked each soldier in the eye. He could see chagrin and embarrassment on their faces.
"It is perfectly eptable to make mistakes right now," Reivyn said. "I don''t look down on you and think you''re not good because of what happened. I did it on purpose so you can learn. Right here, right now is the time to make mistakes. We''ll practice different scenarios, and we''ll push you fast and hard to throw you off bnce so that you won''t make the same mistakes inbat. Here a mistake means you have to do it again. Inbat a mistake means you die.
"Let''s go again."
Reivyn once more assumed his position behind the toon. He gave out the same Commands as before, but he issued them in a different order just so they wouldn''t be anticipating them. They performed all of themands properly, and the final result was everyone witnessing a phantom toon fall into a trap as they thought they had routed the toon.
The First Squad ran away from their position, the Second Squad Charged through them as the Third and Fourth Squads descended on the nks. The First Squad turned around and supported the Second Squad, and the final result was a textbook disy of luring an enemy into a trap. There wasn''t an actual enemy, of course, and everyone watching the toon perform the maneuvers had to use their imagination.
"Very good!" Reivynplimented the men after they once more formed up. "Take a breather, and we''ll have the other three toons start practicing."
Reivyn walked to the side with the captain as the other toonmanders took charge of their toons.
"Have the lieutenants give fast orders," Reivyn said to the captain. "They don''t always have to make sense. Just have them give a lot ofmands quickly, but not so fast that they can''t be carried out at all. In the meantime, sir, you should be thinking up simrmands you can issue to toons as a whole and practice the same thing on arger scale."
"Sounds good," the captain said. "How long do you want us to continue?"
"A couple hours, with breaks," Reivyn said. "You should also have the lieutenants switch which toon they Command, and you can also have the squads mix and match with each other to formpletely different toon make-ups.
"You never know what''s going to happen out in the field. I ended up with a toon from apletely differentpany under mymand for a couple of months, and we had to jerry-rig specialized squads for certain situations."
"Hmm, that''s something I hadn''t considered." The captain stroked his chin in thought.
"Hey, don''t feel bad, sir," Reivyn said with a smile. "I hadn''t prepared for it, either."
The two men chuckled.
"I have some nning to do forter and some letters to write, so I''ll let you get to it," Reivyn said. "When you''re done, just do your thing, and I''ll see you tomorrow morning."
"Alright, see you, then."
Reivyn walked off the drill field and returned to the building next to it where he had given his lecture earlier. He had been given a small office, and he went straight there. The inside of the office didn''t have any personal effects, obviously, but it did have a bookshelf with various books relevant to the Imperial Army. There were books on regtions,mon strategy and tactics, maps and information on the various vassal Regions, and some standard treatises on leadership.
Reivyn wasn''t interested in any of those things, though. The ''mercenaries'' he was training weren''t going to be operating in any vassal states to Wispan. He also didn''t need to know all of the rules and regtions of the Imperial Army just yet. He simply sat at his desk and pulled out some parchment and a pen.
A Mage Squad isn''t going to be enough for training purposes, Reivyn thought as he put pen to paper. I''ll need more Mages to train with each toon for maximum efficiency, and the ce to get more Mages...
Reivyn considered what he wanted to say for a moment before he drafted the letter.
I am the Imperial Liaison attached to Princess Kefira, Lieutenant Reivyn. I am writing on behalf of the Imperial Army to request a joint exercise with some of the more advanced students. We are practicing the tactic ofbined arms, and we are in need of more Mages to efficiently train. As a de facto graduate of the Magic Academy, I could think of no better option than to petition you for cooperation. This is a great opportunity for the students to get some practical training they''re unlikely to get anywhere else, and they can make friends and acquaintances with people they would normally not interact with.
I''m not requesting you to act out of goodwill. We will offer justpensation with contribution points and other rewards to the students who volunteer, and if you have anything you require to secure the cooperation, please let me know. This is a venture that has the full support of the Imperial Family.
I look forward to working with you,
Lieutenant Reivyn
Reivyn kept the missive short and to the point before putting it away in an envelope and sealing it.
I can get the name of the Headmaster when I go back to the pce, Reivyn thought as he pulled out another piece of parchment. I''ll have someone deliver it, then.
He moved on to the next letter to draft. He could just go in person, but he felt it was better to go through official channels considering his mission.
Prince Trevor,
I am the Imperial Liaison attached to Princess Kefira, Lieutenant Reivyn. I understand that you are looking for new and exciting ways to train your men...
Chapter 160: Old Dog
Chapter 160: Old Dog
Reivyn stuffed the papers into his storage pouch. Anything that was put into it would be preserved exactly how it was ced inside, so he didn''t have to worry about them getting crumpled up or shifted out of order. He wrapped the papers up in a thin folder that was in one of the drawers of the desk to keep them all together before putting them away.
He hadn''t had time to prepare for a whole lot on the first day. He had only given a simple lecture to the leaders of thepany. He used that time to gauge their understanding of the situation as well as their personality, as far as he could see in such a setting, as much as they were evaluating his insights and ability to impart knowledge. The exercises of the soldiers had been quite basic, as well.
He had spent the past several hours devising many different scenarios they could run into. He didn''t just use his experience of fighting the war in Drallo, but he also delved deep into his Dreams and came up with things he hadn''t personally dealt with.
I seem to have a lot of Dreams covering a wide variety ofbat situations, Reivyn thought. I never really realized how many different types of Dreams all centered around the same thing I had had over the years. Something about "every clime and ce." Arge majority of the dreams focused on desert and urbanbat, though.
He hadn''t had time to read the reports of where thepany was going to be deployed, yet, so he had simply created scenarios for every situation he had ideas for. Most of them were situations that they could realisticallye across, but he also had to factor in Magic to his Dreams. In his Dreams, there were weapons used that simted Magic, but it wasn''t nearly as flexible.
He had managed toe up with some truly oundish situations rtive to his Dreams once hebined Magic into the equation.
Scenarios they could be fighting in weren''t the only thing that he developed for the education of the leadership. He also wrote up several simple tests. The first one that he nned on giving them the next day was simply to get a look into their inner thoughts. There weren''t any right or wrong answers, and he just wanted to see how each of them tackled problems from their perspective.
It included questions like: "In what kind of situation would it be beneficial to split up your forces into their individual squads? What about splitting them even further than that? Who should be in charge of the smaller units, and what would the chain ofmand look like?"
As a mercenarypany, they might find themselves attached torger units fightingrge-scale open battles, but, in his estimation, it was more likely that they would be given more autonomous missions. Developing small unit tactics to increase flexibility seemed like a good route to go down for now.
Reivyn tidied himself up and then stepped out of his office. The building he was in was a simple one designed for ssroom learning. There weren''t any administrative offices or anything, though thepanymander did get his own temporary office. The training grounds weren''t restricted to this, though, and Reivyn simply walked out of the building to make his way over to the local administrative building.
He walked in and headed straight to the scribes. He knocked on the door as he entered, and several young male and female soldiers in their nonbat uniforms looked up.
Huh, I''ve been so used to just referring to the soldiers in the toons andpaniestely as "men" that I forgot that women are fighting in the military, too. It''s not that I have a prejudice or anything, Seri is definitely a good example of apetent fighter of the fairer sex. I just haven''t really thought about it. They were all in armor with helmets, anyway, so it''s hard to tell without digging.
It seemed like the distribution of the soldiers ording to gender was roughly simr to when he was in Magron. It was only an assumption on his part, though, as he hadn''t investigated too deeply. It just seemed at first nce that there were more women present in the scribe''s office than men, and he made the logical conclusion.
"What can we do for you, sir?" A youngdy with sergeant''s stripes asked as Reivyn walked up to the desk.
"I have several documents that I need several copies made," Reivyn said, pulling out the folder containing his afternoon''s work.
The sergeant epted the folder and scanned the contents briefly before looking up and nodding her head.
"Certainly, sir. How many copies do you need, and when do you need it done?"
"Let''s start with eleven copies for now, and I''ll need them done by tomorrow morning."
"Not a problem, sir. Just leave them with us and you can pick them up first thing."
"Thanks, sergeant."
Reivyn nodded his head and took onest nce into the back of the room to see the scribes hard at work. He noticed that their writing speed seemed to be beyond what was possible without some sort of active Skill, and with his Perception, he could tell that they were making exact copies. Not all of them were doing such work, of course, but Reivyn was only interested in that portion, so his eyes were naturally drawn to it.
There are eleven people in the leadership lecture, Reivyn thought as he exited the building. Thepanymander, his XO, the four lieutenants, one senior sergeant, and four sergeants. I''ll need a master copy of my work if I''m going to be training another batch next month. No reason to have to rehash all the same work over again. I''ll be able to add to it and refine it, too.
Reivyn was pleased with the oue of the first day. He hadn''t known exactly what he was going to be doing when he had shown up, and he had kind of just winged it at first. After he had gotten into the swing of things, though, he had been able to create a sort of mental road map for himself. He had spent the rest of the afternoon after writing the letters preparing for the rest of the journey.
There was nobody to escort Reivyn this time. Kayzor had gone with him in the morning to not just take him where he needed to go but to also introduce him to the soldiers. It wasn''t aplicated path to get back to the Imperial Pce, so Reivyn wasn''t too concerned about not having a guide.
He walked along the streets, marveling sights and sounds of the city. Now that he wasn''t moving with purpose with Kayzor, he was able to really take everything in. He hadn''t missed too much on his trip to the practice grounds, but he could now focus on the little details.
If Reivyn didn''t have Divine Sense, he might have missed it, but he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure sitting on the second story of a nearby restaurant. Reivyn looked around and smirked, but he didn''t show any outward change in his gait. At the end of the block, he turned off the main path and headed into an empty alleyway.
He took several steps into the alley, and then he just stopped and waited. He saw the maning for him with his Divine Sense as soon as he entered his range. He didn''t turn around, curious as to how the man would approach him.
The man didn''t say anything, and he quietly charged toward Reivyn''s exposed back, thrusting a long dagger at his kidney. Reivyn frowned at the action.
If that''s how you''re going to y it...
Reivyn twisted his body as he ignited his entire self with a congration. He hadn''t disyed any of his magical abilities in front of anyone in the capital before, and the man was caughtpletely off guard. Reivyn''s hand swooped down and mped on the man''s wrist. There was no ying around this time.
Reivyn applied his full Strength, coupled with Gravity Mana, and crushed the man''s wrist bones into dust. The dagger ttered to the floor, and the assassin took in a deep breath to scream in anger, pain, and fear, but Reivyn''s other hand came over in a chop and destroyed the man''s throat. His actions were extremely deliberate.
Reivyn held the limp man''s wrist as he turned and looked up into the eyes of the familiar figure in the restaurant. Reivyn used a wisp of Air Mana to scoop up the dagger. The Fire still raged around him, and the man''s clothes and skin were melting from the heat, but he could only give out silent screams. Reivyn inspected the dagger briefly before turning it over and plunging it into the back of the man''s neck, severing his spine and ending his suffering.
Reivyn stood back up, flipped the dagger over to hold it by the de, andunched it up through the open window of the restaurant. Remfort stared wide-eyed down at Reivyn, the dagger, still dripping blood, pierced into a beam an inch away from his face from where he was watching from the window. Reivyn smirked at him, turned back onto the main road, and continued his walk back to the Pce.
He had scanned the man''s body with his Divine Sense, and there hadn''t been any incriminating evidence on him. It would simply be his word against Remfort''s if it came to that.
He wouldn''t hide the information from anyone, and he would immediately report it to the Imperial Guards at the Pce. They didn''t have jurisdiction over the urrence, but it would be better than Remfort lodging aint of murder against Reivyn from out of the blue. Reivyn did perform a slight trick and mentioned that there had been a mastermind watching from somewhere, but he had only seen his shadow.
He told Prince Garet immediately about what had happened, though, and he didn''t hide that it had been Remfort''s doing.
He whistled a happy tune as he departed the scene, not caring about the aftermath.
Reivyn had been correct in his actions of not hiding anything. His little trick of not mentioning who the mastermind was to the guards had put Remfort in a tight spot when he hade forward with the allegations. If he had been smart, he would have gotten one of his underlings to do so, but he had thought that he had a solid case against Reivyn and didn''t think clearly.
The Imperial Guards delivered that information to the constables, and an investigation wasunched. There had been zero witnesses in the alley, and Remfort imed he was the only one to witness Reivyn brutally attacking someone for no reason from the restaurant. Reivyn hadn''tpletely disfigured his assant''s face, so it was very strange when there was no body discovered. He would have implicated Remfort by having been in his employ.
The entire thing turned into Reivyn''s word against Remfort''s, but since there was no body, no weapon, and no witnesses, it didn''t amount to much. It did make Remfort lose a lot of prestige in the noble social circles, though, as Reivyn hadn''t been shy about spreading the truth of the matter. To use a sneak attack against someone''s back was the epitome of dishonorable.
Of course, Remfort had his diehard friends who would believe anything he said. They also wouldn''t have cared if he was guilty anyway. He was a noble, and Reivyn was a nobody. The entire debacle only ended up making Reivyn look like someone decisive when choosing to kill, and Remfort looked like a cowardly idiot.
The weeks went by after that first day, and there were no more incidents other than rumors about it. The training that Reivyn devised, while not perfect on such short notice, was good enough, and he was seeing positive results from both the leadership and the soldiers.
Reivyn never became friends with the other officers, and they didn''t hang out after the training was done. They would be going off in a month anyway, and it would be a long time before Reivyn would see any of them again. It made more sense to use this experience to be friends after they came back from their expedition if Reivyn was still where he was.
The officers and senior NCOs took learning the things Reivyn was teaching them very seriously. They weren''t stupid, either. Once Reivyn opened the door for them, they pretty much were able to extrapte the next steps for themselves. Reivyn was just there to guide them and point them in the right direction if there was a hup in their understanding.
After a week of training, a reply finally came from the Magic Academy, and it was apanied by twenty Magic Academy Students. They had a wide range of specialties for their Affinities, and Reivyn was pleased to see that they could pick up on what he wanted from them very quickly. They weren''t first-year students, but he could tell that even if they had been, they were all a cut above what was found in Garoq.
He wasn''t surprised at theirpetency, though. From all the talk and the things he had seen from Kefira and the Mages that had apanied Kayzor''s army to Drallo, Reivyn knew that they were capable people. He only told them what he wanted from them, and then they got to it. He didn''t even have to give them safety guidelines while practicing throwing spells around really close to moving soldiers. They handled all of that on their own.
Reivyn put forth a requisition letter to Prince Garet, not going through Kefira, to set up the contribution points and other rewards for the students. Reivyn didn''t have to do anything, as the entire purpose of the training was the Imperial Family''s idea to begin with, and he was simply given a promise that it would be handled appropriately.
Thest week of the training was spent in the field, and Reivyn had pitted thepany against Trevor''spany. He had recently been promoted to captain, and he had been looking for a way to get some training and experience in for his troops aside from running Dungeons and regr drills. Reivyn didn''t leave him high and dry, either. He supplied him with exactly the same information he was teaching the "mercenary"pany.
The twopanies had a st coborating, setting up battles and situations for each other to solve. Thepany Reivyn was training wasn''t stingy with reciprocating the favor, and they seemed to benefit almost as much from devising tactics for Trevor to solve as they did the other way around.
The battles between thepanies looked nothing like the traditional setup of soldiers lining up en masse and Marching into each other. They were spread out all over the ce, divided up into multiple smaller units across a wide range of terrain. As a bystander, Reivyn had been not only impressed by how quickly they adapted, but it was entertaining as well.
There were several times he had forgotten himself as he watched a squad or toon move about knowing that there was an ambush nearby. His heart would pound and he would wonder how they nned on getting out of the situation.
They didn''t always. There were times when the toons and squads had to ept a defeat and go back and reflect on what they could have done better. Reivyn had made them agree with each other not to pit each other against impossible odds. There was never a situation where one of the entirepanies ambushed a single squad or anything like that. Every situation had a solution to it, so they needed to figure out what it was.
By the end of the week, Reivyn finally had to step in and put an end to some of the shenanigans going on. They had gotten more and moreplicated to the point that it was no longer making sense. Reivyn had shaken his head at Trevor and thepanymander he was training, and they had simply said they were having too much fun.
"Well, get it out of your system!" Reivyn yelled, real anger in his voice. "This is war. It''s not fun! It''s alright for you to enjoy a job well done and be proud of yourself, but don''t get lost in it. You should take pride in beingpetent fighters, and it''s fine to have fun. What is not fine is ignoring the purpose of your training in pursuit of entertaining yourselves!
"People die inbat. You need to take this seriously."
Reivyn tapped into his Heroic Bearing Skill while he used Commanding Shout to yell at the officers. It was the first time he had raised his voice, and he could tell that none of them had been ready for it. He had been pretty soft-spoken, all things considered. The officers stared back at him with deathly white faces, Trevor included.
Did I go overboard? Reivyn thought. He didn''t change his facial expression, though, and he continued to stare them down. A blinking notification caught his interest, and he opened it up to check.
[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Tier 5:]
[Aura {Bloodlust, Heroism} (0 ->1)]
Oh. Reivyn was stunned. I guess that''s what it was.
Reivyn hadn''t realized that while using his Heroic Bearing to inspire awe into the people he was chastising, his own experiences and anger had turned it into something else entirely. He had thought that he might get some sort of intimidation Skill sometime soon with how he had handled Remfort and his cronies, but he hadn''t expected an Aura of Bloodlust.
With a mental flip, he could switch between being a pir of strength, raising the morale of his own soldiers to being an emissary of doom, instilling fear into the enemy. He was only at Skill Level 1, but it didn''t seem difficult to switch between the two. He seemed to have an intuitive grasp of how to do so. Maybe the higher Levels increase the potency and range, not the ability to invoke the Skill.
Reivyn didn''t storm off in anger or anything, though he could tell that some of the officers had wished that he had. They moved about awkwardly in front of him for a while, but they eventually got their heads screwed on straight again.
Overall it had been a fantastic sess. The twopanies, though they wouldn''t be seeing each other for a long time, had bonded quite a bit over the experience, and the officers had built a good rapport, as well. It didn''t hurt that Trevor was very Charismatic. Reivyn stayed on the sidelines, watching.
It wasn''t that he was anti-social. He would be perfectly happy to make friends with any number of officers, especially ones that were already friendly with one of Kefira''s siblings, but he just didn''t have the time to invest. He knew that he would have to continue to train morepanies to send out into warfare, and he and Kefira were both waiting for the next move from her mother on the social front.
He simply said that he was impressed with how well they had grasped the concepts and ran with them to make them their own, but he continued to caution them to not lose sight of the forest for the trees. They didn''t have to treat each individual soldier like a chess piece.
Thepanies returned to the city, and the Magic Academy Students returned to the Academy. There would be another bunch of students for the nextpany training if they thought it was worthwhile. Reivyn knew that it definitely had been for the soldiers, but he would have to wait on a response from the Academy on whether or not they thought it was a good idea to continue sending more Mages. He was optimistically hopeful.
"So, what did you make of him?" Rupert asked as he flipped through the report.
Rupert was the Headmaster of the Wispan Magic Academy. It wasn''t just students that he had sent at the request of the Imperial Liaison, but they had sent an instructor to witness it, as well. The man Rupert had sent had been a trusted confidant of his for many years.
"Him, sir?" Pi, the supervising instructor asked. "Are you asking about the Imperial Liaison?"
"Who else?" Rupert snorted.
"Umm, I''m not sure I understand, but it''s all in the report, sir."
"Quit being so wishy-washy. I have the damn thing in my hands," Rupert rolled his eyes. "I''m not talking about your thoughts on the exercise, I can see it right here. I''m asking you what you thought of the man. The Liaison as a Mage. What would your opinion of him be if you were an instructor and he was your student?"
"Well, I didn''t get to witness a whole lot of his Spell Casting, but from what I did see, he had a fantastic grasp on even some fairly high-level Spells. I would say I was more impressed with his thoughts on Magic in organizedbat, but I put that in the report.
"If I may, why do you care so much, sir?" Pi asked.
"I don''t, really," Rupert said, cing the report down. "I would have cared, but he''s already technically graduated. Maybe we can send him an invitation to put his thoughts on military Spell-Tactics into a treatise or even teach a ss on it..." Rupert trailed off, lost in thought.
"I''m not following, sir."
Rupert was brought out of his musings and he looked up at Pi. He rolled his eyes at the man.
He''s always been trustworthy, he thought, and he has a great grasp of Magic. Anything outside of that, though, he has no interest in trying to figure it out for himself. What am I going to do with him?
"He''s that random kid that Princess Sophia came running in here all those months ago to get transferred to our Academy," Rupert reminded Pi. As soon as he mentioned it, recognition dawned in Pi''s eyes. "Yeah. That one.
"I thought it was just a favor for the Princess and we''d have to keep an eye out for someone who probably didn''t belong. Then this guy shows up, already an Imperial Liaison - with all that entails about graduating with honors - and he''s flinging fireballs, firestorms, lightning chains, and all kinds of Spells about like they were nothing. And. And he has some unique concepts about warfare."
Rupert mmed his fists on his desk, loudly. The papers and pins jumped into the air, and Pi flinched at the sound.
"He could have been my student, dammit!" Rupert leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Do you know what sort of prestige mentoring such a talent would get me? Well, that''s out of the question, now, but if he can''t be my student..." Rupert gave Pi a cunning look, a twinkle in his eye. "Maybe he can be my teacher."
Rupert sat in silence for a few moments, watching and waiting for Pi''s reaction. The other man just stared back before replying.
"But what could he teach you? You''re the Headmaster," Pi said.
Rupert smacked himself on the forehead.
"I meant he could be a teacher who works for me, Pi. That''s almost as good as being a mentor. I''ll get less credit for what he does, but I''ll still get some."
"You would steal his credit?" Pi was taken aback, bbergasted by such a prospect.
"What are you talking about?!" Rupert mmed his fists on his desk again, not quite as hard asst time. "He would get his credit, and I would get mine. They''re two different things, Pi. When have you ever seen me steal anyone''s credit?!"
"Oh, right," Pi said. "Now that you mention it..."
"Just go," Rupert held his head in one hand as he motioned for Pi to excuse himself. "Go, go, just go. Post this cooperation on the notice board for the Third Years. We''ll keep sending anyone that wants to volunteer."
Pi scrambled from his seat, grabbed his copy of the report, and left the Headmaster''s Office. Headmaster Rupert sat with his head in his hands for several minutes.
How do I get that Liaison over here? He''s apparently attached to Princess Kefira, and he''s currently working for the Imperial Army. Hmm... He did say to contact him if there''s anything we need to make the cooperation possible... Yes, yes, this could work...
Chapter 161: Connections
Chapter 161: Connections
New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 1:
Drill (0 ->7)
Tutor (0 ->6)
Tier 2:
Teach (0 ->4)
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (32 ->33)
Athleticism (49 ->50)
Dancing (22 ->27)
Horsemanship (11 ->16)
Light Armor (10 ->12)
Marching (25 ->27)
Memorization {Social} (15 ->18)
Observation (50 ->51)
Ride (14 ->18)
Running (48 ->49)
Rhythm (23 -26)
Tier 2:
Alcohol Tolerance (7 ->9)
Eavesdropping (28 ->30)
Evasion (49 ->50)
Gab (13 ->18)
Mana Absorption (52 ->53)
Mana Cirction (37 ->40)
Meditation (35 ->38)
Sense Mana (62 ->64)
Silent Step (11 ->14)
Strategy (26 ->29)
Tactics (30 ->32)
Tracking (7 ->9)
Tier 3:
Ambush (6 ->10)
Battlefield Awareness (38 ->40)
Blind Fighting (20 ->23)
Command (42 ->43)
Commanding Shout (24 ->25)
Danger Sense (25 ->27)
Detect Lies/Truth (7 ->10)
Inspire (38 ->39)
Mana Sight (51 ->52)
Night Vision (22 ->25)
Poison Resistance (1 ->3)
Sense Threat (11 ->13)
Silver Tongue (8 ->10)
Sure Step (14 ->15)
Tier 4:
Dreams of the Past (16 ->17)
Dual Casting (39 ->43)
Mana Weapon (34 ->36)
Spatial Awareness (46 ->50)
Tier 5:
Heroic Bearing (16 ->18)
Mana Drain (4 ->6)
Mana Healing (2 ->5)
Mana Reinforcement (5 ->10)
Multi-Casting (2 ->6)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (70 ->72)
Regeneration (6 ->8)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (4 ->6)
Reivyn perused the progress he had made in his Skills over the past several months. It wasn''t the first time he was seeing it, but he hadn''t dismissed the screen. He had let it umte into an in-depth picture of growth over time. There were a couple of things that stood out to him.
It seemed that his Divine Sense not only didn''t hinder his other Perception Skills from Leveling Up, but it also elerated their growth rate. His Night Vision was perfect within his Divine Sense Range, and yet the ability to "see" everything in near-pitch darkness had helped the lesser Skill increase. That effect tranted into his ability to see things outside of his Divine Sense range, as well. The greatest beneficiary of this synergy had been Spatial Awareness.
He raised an eyebrow at the notice that his Poison Resistance had ticked up by two Levels, too. Looks like someone spiked one of my drinks at the ball the other night. I guess my Vitality, and the fact that I had Poison Resistance unlocked, was high enough that I didn''t even notice it. It wasn''t a surprise that his Alcohol Tolerance had gone up. Almost all of the drinks had been slightly alcoholic. Everyone in attendance was fully grown.
He was most happy with his increases in his new Tier 5 and higher Skills. He had begun sparring with Seri in his attempt to increase her variety of weapons Skills, and he had deliberately allowed her to strike him during their sessions. His own Weapons Master Skill had finally fully formed into the Master Level, so he wasn''t too concerned with his own Skill growth when it came to sparring with Seri.
Allowing openings for Seri to strike him with her much lower Leveled Skills had had another interesting effect. He had unlocked the Tutor Skill from their individual training sessions, and her Skill growth had noticeably elerated afterward.
I don''t know if it''s the confidence she gets fromnding blows against me that has led to her increase in Skill Leveling, or if it''s the Tutor Skill, Reivyn thought. Which came first? Is the Tutor Skill just a reflection of my sess, or is it the cause of it? I won''t know until I train someone else around the same Skill Level and can gauge the difference in Leveling speed.
Saying that Seri''s Skill growth had elerated was a bit misleading. She didn''t suddenly shoot up to Apprentice Mastery Levels in her Skills, and she didn''t mention her numbers going up faster. Reivyn could just tell with his expert eye that her abilities were growing faster. She still had a long way to go before she would be ready to unlock the Weapons Prodigy Skill as his father had. He had taken a couple of years to initially get his wide range of weapons Skill to Level 10, though Seri was working with a better foundation than he had when he was a child just starting.
Reivyn had kept up the training sessions with Seri every single morning over the past month, but he still hadn''t been able to join Kefira in resuming their evening Mana practice. The training with thepany had been pretty tame at first, but as time went on, he had more and more to do in the evenings. It was especially impossible in thest week, as he had joined thepany in the field for the duration.
Now that thepany has finished their crash course in human-on-human warfare, they''re about to head off to do their mission, Reivyn ruminated. They''ll be gone for a couple of years, it seems, and there''s a week''s break before I need to train the nextpany. After that, I should have a lot more free time, too.
Despite not getting to spend much time with Kefira over the past month - they had still managed to see each other at least a little bit, here and there - he had made ample progress on his Affinities using the methods that Kefira had taught him. He pulled his Affinities tab up to take a gander at them, as well.
Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (74), Earth (74), Fire (74), Water (74)
Tier 2:
Ice (49), Lightning (49), Magma (49), Metal (49), Mist (49), Mud (49), sma (49), Wood (49)
Tier 3:
Bludgeon (24), Darkness (80), Durability (24), Friction (24), Gravity (24), Kic (24), Light (80), Mass (24), Piercing (24), Sharpness (24), Weight (24)
Tier 4:
Eternal (9), Traveler (5)
Tier 5:
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)
He was still in that strange lock-step of Leveling his Affinities together. He did give each Affinity an equal amount of time when doing his Mana Cirction, so it wasn''t that surprising. It was more surprising that the Affinities that had previously been lower Level had easily caught up with the ones he had unlocked earlier and stayed with them.
Maybe my talent in each of them is to a degree that it won''t disy a difference until I''ve Leveled them to a certain extent, Reivyn thought. My Basic Elemental Affinities are almost at the Master Level, though, and each of the other Tiers is hanging out at the next threshold down, except for Darkness and Light.
Reivyn and Kefira had tried to squeeze as much time together as they could, but her parents had her resume her training with her mentor after a week of being back. That had kept her out of the Pce most of the times that Reivyn was present, and he had ended up spending more time with her siblings than her. They hadn''t made it a regr thing, yet, but Reivyn had managed to have several sparring sessions with Kayzor, and Prince Garet had been in attendance at a couple of them.
Prince Garet had informed him that it wasn''t the n to have him personally train every singlepany that was going to go out. The officers of thepany had secretly been grading Reivyn on how effective they thought his training and methods were, and now that they had given their stamp of approval, Ge and Garet were going to invest more manpower into the project.
The next training session Reivyn wouldn''t be training just anotherpany in the nuances of fighting other people. He would be training his recement instructors. The third training session would see those recement instructors taking over the bulk of the mission, and Reivyn would be evaluating them on their performance.
If all goes well, I''ll only be busy for another two months, and then I''ll have a bit of a break before Kefira''s dad gives me another test. I don''t know what the next test will be, but I have a hunch it''s going to be focused on something other than the military.
His hunch came when he received a reply to his letter sent to the Magic Academy well after the firstpany''s training waspleted. He recalled the contents of the letter.
Imperial Liaison, Lieutenant Reivyn,
Greetings and salutations (I know that''s redundant, but I''m an old man, so deal with it). I have long heard of your exploits as a Liaison attached to Princess Kefira from her older sister, Sophia. It was almost every other day that she would drop into my office to regale me with thetest scoop on your heroics. sting enemy soldiers withrge-scale Spells like it was nothing. Leading from the front and challenging themander of the enemy army to personalbat all by yourself. Consider me shocked when I heard the tales of your conquests!
I don''t know if Princess Kefira, quite the prodigy of magic herself, has elucidated to you the benefits of continuing your education after your "graduation," but I assure you, we can offer mutual satisfaction. You would be hard-pressed to find another student or teacher with the same experiences as you, and I believe your knowledge and expertise onbat would be most wee among the young Mages.
Yes, you''re reading that right. When I say "continuing your education" I mean as an instructor. You told me, most graciously, to let you know if there was anything I needed to secure our cooperation with you, and I dare say, the opportunity for further learning is what the Magic Academy is all about.
You seem like a well-rounded young Mage, and my colleague has given a glowing review of your training sessions. There aren''t enough slots avable for the students to attend the joint training sessions with the military in its current form, and even if there were, a ssroom lecture would still be the best supplement for them.
Come by my office sometime to discuss what you can get out of it, as well. I understand you''re currently busy, but my "old-man senses" are telling me it won''t be for long.
I look forward to meeting you.
Respectfully,
Arch-Magus Rupert
Headmaster, WMA
P.S. That''s my title, not my ss. If you want to know more about this old man, you''ll have to meet me in person.
Reivyn had been amused at thenguage the older gentleman had used in his letter. He had sprinkled entricity, ttery, bragging, and humor, and dangled a promise of new knowledge and remuneration in a very short missive. Reivyn remembered the contents of the letter so well because he had been so amused by it that he had read it several times. He had chuckled each time.
Reivyn wrapped up his morning training and progress evaluation. Now that he had a week''s vacation from training, he had decided to try and spend more time with Kefira. He had told her well in advance about his week off, and she had promised to try and get some free time as well. Her duties were a bit different than his, though, and she was still considered a student. There was a fundamental difference between a student and a teacher, and she had to abide by her mentor''s schedule.
Reivyn had never met her mentor, but he knew that it wasn''t the Headmaster that had sent him a letter. From what Kefira had told him, he wasn''t interested in such a position, and he had been a court Mage for a long time. He had gotten his position because of his Time Affinity, though he wasn''t a prodigy like Kefira. It was more important that he had the actual Time Affinity and not one of its offshoots.
Kefira had exined that an Affinity Level of 10 with the broad Affinity was superior to a Level of 25 in an offshoot if for no other reason than its versatility. It didn''t end there, though, and it was much like Reivyn''s Weapons Master Skill. A lower Level was both broader in range and more potent.
Reivyn walked across the little courtyard to Kefira''s house and knocked on the door. One of the maids opened it for him and led him to the sitting room off to the side.
"Her Highness is almost done getting ready," the maid said.
"Thank you," Reivyn nodded his head and epted a cup of tea.
He didn''t have to wait for long before Kefira descended the steps. He saw her through his Divine Sense, so he got up right away to go and wait for her toe down. She saw him waiting and smiled, bounding down thest few steps to throw herself into his arms.
"Hey, you," she said, looking up into his face.
"Hi."
The two separated and Kefira motioned him to follow her outside. As Kefira opened the door, Seri came out of her own abode across the way and assumed her position following behind Kefira. She had obviously taken the time to wash off the sweat and grime of their morning sparring session.
"I didn''t manage to get today off, but my Magus Farril did agree to give me thest two days of the week off, so we''ll have four days to spend together before you get busy again," Kefira exined.
"Ok." Reivyn nodded his head. "We had expected as much, and two days is more than we had hoped."
"Uh-huh. Now that you have some free time, you can apany me to the Magic Academy and get yourself acquainted with some of the people there."
"Yeah, I got an invitation from the Headmaster to teach a ss about what I''m doing with the Mages in the military, so I should probably find some time to meet him, too."
"I wouldn''t go meet him yet," Kefira said, shaking her head. "Let him sweat for a bit. Better yet, let it be known that you''ve visited the campus and didn''t immediately seek an audience with him."
"Why is that?" Reivyn asked, confused.
"Power y," Kefira said. "He''s not your superior, and you''re technically an honor graduate with the position of an Imperial Liaison. You don''t want him to get in the habit of you being avable at his beck and call."
"Hmm, his letter dide off as a request, but it wasn''t worded in such a way," Reivyn said, stroking his chin in thought. "It was a bit ambiguous. The tone was one of asking, but the wording said ''do this.''"
"See, he''s testing you." Kefira nodded her head. "The position of Headmaster is as much a political one as it is one ofpetence. Don''t get me wrong, he would never have been a candidate if he wasn''t a good Mage, but that''s not how he got his position, and it''s not what his duties are."
"I hadn''t ever really considered it before. Do you know who his ''friends'' are?"
"My uncle, Bellefrent, is his main sponsor." Kefira gave Reivyn a pointed look. "I know you''ve met him a couple of times, and I haven''t really said anything about him before. I''m not going to now, either, for certain reasons." Kefira gave an exaggerated wink.
"Let me guess. He asked you not to?"
"Noment." Kefira smiled.
"Ahh, so I''m guessing he''s an ally - which makes total sense, considering he''s your mother''s older brother - and he wants to test me out. Speaking of, he did ask me to meet with him sometime, too. I guess I''ll have to make time for that this week, too."
The two continued to converse as they left the pce and headed to the Magic Academy, Seri still trailing behind them. The Magic Academy was located in the Inner City rtively near the Imperial Pce, but it was still a bit of a walk. With their Stats, though, it didn''t take them that long to arrive.
The Magic Academy in Willowan was simr to the one that Reivyn had attended in The Capital of Garoq, but it was much more ostentatious. It was also several timesrger. The gate guard simply nodded and waved Kefira through, and he only hesitated a moment before spying Reivyn''s Liaison insignia on his cor. It was a clear indication of his position as an academy graduate. One didn''t need to have graduated from the Magic Academy. The Knight Academy graduates were candidates who worked for the Imperial Family, too, but either way, he was still allowed unfettered ess.
"Come on," Kefira said, grabbing Reivyn''s hand and dragging him along. "I''ll introduce you to my mentor. Even though he''s a Court Magus, he still mostly spends his time in his office at the Magic Academy."
"Alright," Reivyn said with a smile.
Refix stepped out of the void corridor with his wife and daughters in tow. They had learned their lesson from the time they had been briefly separated when the void corridor had copsed on them, and they had traversed the way holding hands. Each of the members of Refix''s troupe had made the journey with four or five simrly holding hands.
They weren''t going to take the chance of everyone getting split up again. Refix had remained calm on the surface, but there had been some real terror when he witnessed his wife and children get flung into Space.
"So this is Willowan," Ameliyn said, looking around. She took a deep breath. "This ce is a bit superior to the other Tier 4 Regions we''ve traversed to get here."
"What do you mean, mom?" Kailey asked.
"The Mana density feels the same to me," Riley said.
"It''s the purity," Ameliyn rified. "Each Tier Region has almost an identical amount of Mana density, but the level of purity varies. Some of it has to do with the climate. Some of it is due to the natural resources present. I''ve also heard that the people can have an effect, as well, though I don''t know how true that is."
"Reminds me of home," Refix said wistfully. Ameliyn gave him a small smile, but Kailey and Riley just looked at him in confusion.
"What home?" Kailey asked.
"Garoq?" Riley quirked an eyebrow.
"No, no," Refix said with a chuckle. "I''m talking about a long time ago. Your mother and I weren''t born in Garoq, I''m sure we''ve told you that."
Kailey and Riley shared a look, frowning at each other. They looked like someone looking in a mirror to Refix. Their facial expressions loosened at the same time as they had an epiphany.
"Princess Amily," Kailey said.
"And Brave Sir Fenrix," Riley added.
The two turned to look both Refix and Ameliyn up and down, thoughtful expressions on their faces.
"I don''t see it," Kailey said.
"I thought Sir Fenrix would be more dashing," Riley pouted.
"Hey!" Refix said, holding his hand to his chest.
Kailey and Riley burst outughing. They giggled together at the look on their parents'' faces for a moment before they calmed down.
"So you''ve kind of been hiding it from us." Kailey gave Ameliyn a pointed look.
"Pretending to tell us a fairy tale," Riley said.
"We were going to tell you, but, you know, life happens," Refix said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Now''s not the time for a history lesson," Ameliyn said, taking charge. She picked a direction and started walking off. "We need to locate the Magic Academy, find lodging, investigate the situation, and try to contact Reivyn.
"We have a lot to do, and I expect to meet my son as soon as possible."
"Alright, lead the way," Refix said. He motioned for Kailey and Riley to follow their mother as he stepped up to his Party mates. "Drok, Go find suitable lodging for everyone and send some people to mix with the pedestrians. Let''s get a feel for the people here so we know what to expect."
"Yes, my lord," therge man who usually acted as Refix''s vanguard said. Even though he wasn''t wearing his heavy armor, it was unmistakable what his profession was. Nobody would look at him and think anything other than a frontline warrior.
He had a bit of an irreverent attitude, but that was something Refix actually appreciated about the man. Whenever the Party was split from being under his direct leadership, he was the man to take charge of the team. Having delegated a mission to his followers, Refix quickly caught up to his girls.
Ameliyn didn''t waste any time. She immediately asked the first person she came across for directions to the Magic Academy, and she set off with purpose. Refix and the twins kept an eye out for the surroundings, taking everything in, but Ameliyn was razor focused on her mission to find her son.
The teleport circle was located on the outskirts of the Inner City from what Refix could tell. There was a wall nearby that separated the city from more city, so it wasn''t on the outskirts. It was typical for the teleport circles to be located near the more prosperous center of capital cities. Only rich people, even by Tier 4 Region standards, made use of the teleport circles.
They didn''t stand out from the crowd much. Other than hurrying along and looking around wide-eyed at everything, they seemed to fit right in. They had gotten lucky in the rotation of the teleport circles, and they had only had to spend four days before they reached their final destination once they had trekked across thend for a month to reach the neighboring empire capital. It was plenty of time to wash off the travel dust and get some much-needed rest.
It wasn''t long before they were standing at the gates of a luxurious campus, and Ameliyn marched right up to the gate guard. The man held up his hand and stepped in front of Ameliyn, blocking her path. He wasn''t hostile, or anything, but he was clearly barring them from barging through.
"May I inquire as to your purpose?" The man asked with a smile on his face.
"We''re looking for our son," Ameliyn answered. "He''s a student here."
"Certainly, certainly," the gate guard said, nodding his head.
He motioned for Ameliyn and the others to follow him to the office next to the gate. Another gate guard took up a position where he had left off. He walked to a counter and pulled out arge book from underneath.
"What''s your son''s name, and what year is he in?"
Ameliyn turned to Refix and frowned, flustered at the question.
"His name is Reivyn, but I don''t know if he''s a second-year or a fourth-year," she answered.
"You don''t know?" The guard asked, skeptically.
"He was absent from school for three years," Ameliyn exined. "We got a notice from his previous Academy that he had transferred here, but we don''t know any other details."
"I see." The guard flipped through therge tome and scanned the list of names present on each page. There were thousands of names, but the man went through them very quickly. He was apparently familiar with the task.
He flipped through several pages before putting the tome aside. He pulled out another one, and he once again began flipping through the pages. A frown appeared on his face, and it only deepened as he continued to search. He finally set the secondrge book aside, as well.
"I''m sorry, ma''am, but there''s no student here by the name of Reivyn." The guard said. He gave a little shrug and had an apologetic look on his face.
"What do you mean by that?" Ameliyn asked. Her own frown was beginning to deepen.
"Exactly as I said," the guard answered. "I''m sorry. Did you get the wrong information? You said he was transferred after several years absent?"
Ameliyn took a deep breath. Refix could see the fire building in her, and he quickly stepped forward, grabbing her hand and squeezing it.
"The message of his transfer was very specific," Refix said. "The Willowan Magic Academy in Wispan. Is there someone we could meet within the administration?"
"Oh, sure." The guard nodded his head. "However, they''re all very busy, so you''ll have to make an appointment."
"That''s fine," Refix said. He leaned over and whispered to Ameliyn, "It''ll be alright. Just stay calm."
The guard pulled out another booklet, this one much smaller than the other ones that contained the student rolls. He flipped to the most recent entries and scanned the page.
"How does the afternoon mid-week sound?" The guard asked, looking up at Refix. "Two days is the earliest I can squeeze you in."
"That''s perfectly fine."
"Alright, I''ll put you down." The guard bent forward and made a notation. "When youe by, I''ll be happy to escort you where you need to go."
"Thank you. You''ve been a big help."
Refix and Ameliyn turned around and pulled their daughters along with them. They stepped out into the street and turned to look at the Magic Academy.
"We''re so close." Ameliyn sighed. "He''s right on the other side of these walls. I can feel it." Ameliyn gave Refix a sideways nce. "Do you think you could..."
"I''m going to stop you there, honey," Refix said with a tight smile. "There''s no reason to do anything foolish like breaking into the grounds. Yes, I could do it, and I could probably get away with it, too. It doesn''t make sense to take the risk, though.
"It''s only three days before we can get an answer from the administration. Let''s just be patient."
"You''re right. I''m not thinking clearly." Ameliyn leaned forward and gave Refix a quick peck. "We can wait another three days, but they had better have some answers!" Ameliyn gave Refix a stern look.
"I know, I know."
Reivyn suddenly stopped outside the doors to Kefira''s mentor''s office. He had a strange sensation in his gut.
"What''s the matter?" Kefira asked, pausing her grasp toward the door knob.
"I don''t know," Reivyn said, shaking his head. "I suddenly felt that I''ve forgotten something back at the pce. I got the urge to hurry back to look for something, but I can''t think of what I could have forgotten."
"Is it important?"
Reivyn gave her a wide smile.
"How could it be? I''m not going to let whatever it is I forgot to intrude on our little bit of time together. I''ll go look in a bit once you''re busy."
"Alright, if you say so."
Chapter 162: Prospective Siblings
Chapter 162: Prospective Siblings
Ameliyn stepped out into the street, feeling frustrated. They were here. They had traveled all this way suffering countless dys and even getting sort of caught up in some ridiculous war, and now that they were standing at the gates of their destination, there was a solid wall thrown up in front of him.
"What do they mean there''s no record of our boy?!" Ameliyn fumed. "Could there be another Willowan Magic Academy in Wispan somewhere else? I know the world is big, but that seems like a stretch."
"Stranger things have happened," Refix said. Ameliyn gave him a fierce re. "I''m just saying." Refix shrugged defensively.
"You''re not helping," Ameliyn said.
"Well, I think we should go to the Adventurer''s Guild," Refix said. "We need to make use of theirmunications to send word back to Teilon and the others who are still in Quron, plus we can petition for a list of the empires in the surrounding Local Groups."
"Do they have that information?" Ameliyn asked. "Isn''t the Adventurer''s Guild more independent at this level?"
"Yeah, there''s no overarching leadership overseeing the entire Adventurer''s Guild. The Guild Masters at the Tier 4 capitals are generally considered the local masters. That doesn''t mean there aren''t records. And we''re only searching for the Tier 4 Regions. The message the Headmaster sent us was clear that it was a Tier 4 Magic Academy.
"My gut is telling me that this is the right ce, but there''s no harm in searching out more information. It''s not mutually exclusive. We can do both."
"You just want to find out some information on the local Dungeons and Adventuring opportunities," Ameliyn smirked.
Just because she was frustrated that they hit a temporary snag didn''t mean she couldn''t still joke around and flirt with her husband. She agreed with Refix. This felt like it was the right ce. There was just some sort of mimunication somewhere that prevented Reivyn''s name from showing up on the rolls at the front gate. His name might be on a more up-to-date list and just hadn''t been passed along, yet.
Refix began shifting his eyes around, keeping his head on a swivel, and Ameliyn recognized that he had noticed something amiss. She followed his gaze with him, and even though she wasn''t quite as experienced as he was, she wasn''t far off. She had spent years running about with Refix before they had gotten married, and he had taught her a lot.
She very quickly spotted the situation that had alerted her husband. Some men who were obviously some sort of militia, constable, or military members, but they weren''t in uniform, watching them. They seemed to think that they were doing a good job of watching them surreptitiously, but they couldn''t hide from the Perception of the couple.
Kailey and Riley were still oblivious. It hadn''t yet been necessary to teach them the rules of the wider world yet. They had been safely ensconced at home or in a preparatory school, preparing for entering the official Magic Academy at Quron next semester. It wouldn''t be long now before they unlocked their Tier 2 sses.
The two twins were still happily ogling all of the grand buildings around them, mostly focused on peering over the walls to therge, ornate Magic Academy grounds. Even from their vantage, they could feel the whiff of Mana spike and could tell that there was something grand to see just on the other side of the obstacle blocking their view.
Kailey and Riley huddled their heads together and pulled something out of their pouches. They didn''t yet have a storage pouch as Refix and Ameliyn believed they needed to learn to economize their carrying space before being given such a valuable item. One needed to learn to walk before one could run, and they applied that philosophy to a lot of their parenting.
Ameliyn couldn''t make out what it was that they had pulled out, but she suddenly felt arge spike in Mana as whatever it was Cast some sort of Spell. The two girls looked at it intently, not realizing that a lot of passersby suddenly took notice of them. Ameliyn hastily threw up a Mana Barrier, cutting them off from the surroundings.
It had only been a second that they were exposed, but the damage had been done. Most of the pedestrians shook their heads like they had seen an illusion or something, but Ameliyn''s heart started to beat faster as she noticed an older gentleman suddenly veer from his path towards the Academy gate toward the little family of four.
The older gentleman was wearing a red suit with a cape, and he had a little matching walking stick to go with it. The wood of the stick was brown, but the ornate handle was ruby red. His hair was gray, and he had a handlebar mustache under bright, clear eyes. Those eyes were filled with interest as he looked at Kailey and Riley who were still oblivious to the trouble they had caused.
Ameliyn stepped forward, and Refix was right next to her. Now that he was closer, the older gentleman was not very tall. He was actually a couple of inches shorter than the two eleven-year-old girls who had sparked his interest. He wasn''t hunched over or anything, but he was a bit portly.
He had a grandfatherly smile on his face as he saw Ameliyn and Refix step forward. He immediately changed his direction from approaching the two girls directly and walked up to Ameliyn. He held one hand out in a sort of half-wave, half-disarming manner.
"Oho, I see that a couple of treasures have graced our Academy today," the man said, stopping in front of Ameliyn and Refix. "I take it the two of you are their parents?"
Ameliyn narrowed her eyes at the older man. She hadn''t trained her Sense Threat enough to get a gauge of the man''s danger level, but the fact that Refix was resting his hand on his sword''s pommel told her everything she needed to know. The man had a knowing look in his eyes as he gave a nce at Refix''s stance, but he quickly dismissed it. He had a twinkle in his eye, and Ameliyn could faintly glean the distinct sense of amusement from the man.
"That''s right," Ameliyn answered, the suspicious look on her face not wavering. "And who might you be?"
"Oh, how terribly rude of me," the man said.
He sketched a quick bow. His movements were fluid and much more graceful than belied his portly figure. He straightened back up quickly.
"My name is Rupert. I''m on quite good terms with the Headmaster of the Academy, and when I noticed the spike of Manaing from the lovely littledies over there, I feltpelled toe introduce myself.."
Refix didn''t move, but Ameliyn heard his voice loud and clear in her ear. He was sub-vocalizing, and he was doing it in a way that only Ameliyn would be able to hear.
"He''s not lying," Refix said. The message was sinct. Left out was "He''s telling the truth." Just because he wasn''t lying didn''t mean he wasn''t holding something back.
"Is that so?" Ameliyn quirked an eyebrow at him. "And why would you say that?"
"Oho, no need to be so defensive, mydy," Rupert said with augh. "I''m just a sucker for talented youths. The vor of the Mana your two girls gave off was quite something. It wasn''t a System Spell, and it wasn''t a weave with knots or patterns. I''m guessing it was a Magic Item?" Rupert stared into Ameliyn''s eyes, and she would have sworn that she didn''t give anything away. The man nodded to himself like she had confirmed something anyway before continuing. "And judging by the intensity and focus, I''m guessing it''s one they crafted themselves?"
"I''m not sure what you''re getting at," Ameliyn said. Refix''s hand moved from his pommel to the grip of his sword, his fingers tightening.
"Would you be interested in enrolling the two girls as special admissions students in the Academy?" Rupert asked abruptly. "I would kick myself if I didn''t try to introduce these two young girls to my friends in the Academy."
"So do you work in the Academy, then?" Ameliyn asked.
"I''m a Mage, yes," Rupert answered.
"And apparently a politician, too," Ameliyn muttered under her breath.
Rupert barked out augh.
"I''ve never held such a ss, mydy." He grinned at them, a twinkle in his eye.
"I see," Ameliyn said, focusing on Rupert more closely. "It''s not the right time to ept students, though?"
"That''s why I said ''special admissions'' students. As long as they achieve their Tier 2 sses, they can apply for special admission, take a little test, and be official students regardless of the time. I take it that they''re enrolled in the preparatory school?"
"I''m not sure I should be divulging any information to you," Ameliyn said. "You haven''t exactly been entirely forting, yourself."
"Ah, but that''s because you''re outsiders," Rupert said, holding up a finger. "If you became insiders, I would have nothing to hide."
"Fair enough," Ameliyn conceded. "I hate to burst your bubble, but my girls are still only Tier 1."
"We''re about to be Tier 2!" Kailey said, popping up next to Ameliyn.
"We could probably reach it in a week if we have enough materials," Riley added, stepping forward on Ameliyn''s other side.
Ameliyn leveled a stern re at each girl in turn. They wilted slightly at the fierce look but soon straightened up their spines.
"What? It''s not like it would be in the way," Kailey said.
"There aren''t any conflicts with us going to school," Riley added.
"Aren''t you the one that''s always encouraging us to focus on our training and education?" Kailey asked.
"Isn''t this what you want?" Riley raised an eyebrow.
Ameliyn almost staggered at the barrage from the two girls. Refix just nced at her, and she could see theughter in his eyes.
"Girls," Ameliyn said in a firm voice. "Now is not the time."
Kailey and Riley stopped arguing. They knew that tone of voice, and it would only hurt their cause to continue at this point. Ameliyn looked back at Rupert who had watched the interaction without interrupting. He gave her a charming smile when he noticed her attention back on him.
"I can see that you all are busy, and you probably have your own difficulties," Rupert said. "No worries. No pressure. If you change your mind, juste back to the gates and let the guards know that you wish to apply for special admission with Rupert as the rmendation.
"I won''t keep you any longer, and I bid you a good day." Rupert gave a little nod to the couple before twirling his cane about as he turned and walked back to the Academy gate.
Ameliyn watched him go, and she noticed that Refix rxed his grip on his weapon.
"That bad?" Ameliyn asked him.
"I could have taken him," Refix said. "But it wouldn''t have been pleasant. And that''s not counting the fact that there would be a swarm of other Mages and soldiers flocking to our position right away. It would have been enough for the three of you to get away, though... Probably."
"Well, he did say he was friends with the Headmaster of the Academy."
"Nope. He said he was ''on good terms'' with him," Refix corrected her. "Those are two different things."
"Of course. Anyway, that was a bit of a strange encounter. I wouldn''t have guessed that he approached with the intent to recruit. Speaking of." Ameliyn turned to look at her two girls. "Why in the world did you release that sort of Magic right outside the gates of the Magic Academy?! Everyone around here could feel it, and I''m sure more than one instructor on the inside perked their head up, too."
"Sorry, mom," Kailey said sheepishly.
"We were testing out a tracking Spell," Riley supplied.
"We were trying to see if there were any traces of Reivyn nearby."
"But we didn''t get any readings."
Ameliyn''s lips formed a thin line.
"That''s less than encouraging," Ameliyn said.
"Bah, it doesn''t mean anything," Refix said. "He could just be masking his signature, or it might have changed enough that your tool couldn''t track him. Did it take into ount that he might have gotten the local Mana imprint?"
Kailey and Riley shared a look before looking down at the item still in Kailey''s hand. It looked like apass, though when Ameliyn focused on it, she could tell its obvious magical nature. They were getting better at concealing that effect, though, and she wouldn''t have known about it if she didn''t give it her full attention.
"I knew there was something that we were forgetting," Kailey said.
"We should tinker with it, or make a new one." Riley nodded her head.
"That''s all well and good, but I think it''s time that we went back to the teleport circle to find the others," Ameliyn said. "You can mess with your things once we get to the inn we''ll be staying at."
"I''ll escort you guys there," Refix said out loud. "I''ll head to the Adventurer''s Guild after to settle the other things." Refix continued for Ameliyn''s ears only. "The majority of those watching us broke off after our interaction with Rupert, but there''s still a couple. I guess that they''re just keeping an eye on us because we showed up with so many people and we''re probably giving off dangerous vibes."
"That sounds lovely," Ameliyn said. "Don''t take too long on your errand, though. I''m sure the girls would like to go out and explore a bit, and I wouldn''t want to do that without you."
"Yay," Kailey and Riley eximed simultaneously, jumping up and down.
If there was one thing her daughters liked to do, it was investigating the crafting talents of the cities they visited. Where some girls were interested in thetest fashion trends, Kailey and Riley were interested in the different crafting methods they could glean from the works they Observed.
"I''ll be as quick as I can be," Refix said.
He held his arm out to Ameliyn, and she hooked her right arm in his left. Kailey and Riley took up stride on either side of them, and they made their way back to the teleport circle. They were new in town, so the best solution for a meet-up ce was the one ce they had all already been to. It didn''t hurt that it was in the middle of the city, either.
Ameliyn was still frustrated at the situation, but she was now considering things from a different angle.
Should we let the girls enroll here? She thought. Reivyn is a student here. There has to be some reason for it. Do we have to pick him up and drag him back to Quron with us, or would it make more sense to send someone to pick Teilon and the others up and bring them here?
What a fascinating pair of children, Rupert thought to himself as he sat down at his desk. Their Mana signatures were very unique, and the spike in Mana their little device gave off was quite something for some Tier 1''s.
Rupert pulled up the documents waiting for his attention and got to work. While he was always interested in new talents, he wouldn''t let it distract himself when it was time to work. He had time to think about it more when he had a break.
He was busy at work for some little time before there was a knock on his door, and after calling for the person to enter, he looked up to see his confidant, Pi, walk into his office.
"What''s the word?" Rupert asked, not pausing in his work.
"Reivyn has entered the campus," Pi said.
Rupert paused his hand as he was setting a sheet of paper down on a stack ofpleted documents. He looked up at Pi before exaggeratedly scanning the room.
"Well, where is he?" He asked.
Pi followed his gaze around the room before looking back to Rupert.
"He''s not here," Pi said.
Rupert set everything down and rubbed his temples with his fingers, closing his eyes as he sighed.
"I know that he''s not here," Rupert said. "I was implying ''why isn''t he here?''"
"Oh. Because he''s somewhere else."
Rupert mmed his fists down on the desk.
"Pi! You''re doing it on purpose! I know it!" Rupert red at his old friend.
Rupert stayed in his position, fists balled up on the desk, as he stared at Pi. One of these days, I''ll catch him smirking, or something. He has to be messing with me.
"I don''t understand," Pi said. "I did say those words on purpose."
"GAAAAHHHHH!" Rupert screamed, throwing his head back. Just before he did, he caught a faint twinge at the edge of Pi''s lips.
Hah! Got ''em! I''m not crazy.
Rupert took a deep breath. He slowly lowered his head and looked at Pi, much moreposed.
"Where on campus is Reivyn? What is he doing? Who did hee with? Who has he spoken to? What has he done since arriving? What is his purpose? Just tell me everything you know."
"He arrived on campus with Princess Kefira," Pi answered, no longer ying dumb. "He escorted her to her mentor''s office, and then he went to the library. He''s been there ever since."
"I see, thank you," Rupert said.
He steepled his fingers as he thought.
Princess Kefira probably told him to not seek me out right away. She''s not the best at the game, but she''s no newbie. I think I understand his intentions.
Rupert pulled out a nk note and scribbled a hasty message on it.
Imperial Liaison, Lieutenant Reivyn,
I invite you to visit my offices at your earliest convenience. There is still plenty of time before we need to work anything out, so don''t feel any pressure toe today. The Academy and its library are open to you whether you decide to take me up on my offer or not. In fact, I hope you take full advantage of what knowledge we have avable. If it would make you happy, you can bring Princess Kefira along with you, as well.
I look forward to discussing your future and the future of the Academy.
Sincerely,
Arch-Magus Rupert
Headmaster WMA
He folded the note and handed it to Pi.
"See that someone delivers that to Reivyn in the library," Rupert instructed. He didn''t let go right away when Pi tried to take it, and he looked in right in the eye. "Not you."
"Of course." Pi nodded. Rupert nodded in return and let go of the note.
"Did you hear about my little encounter outside the gates, earlier?" Rupert asked conversationally.
"I did," Pi confirmed.
"And?"
"And what?"
Rupert rolled his eyes and pinched his nose.
"And what did you hear about it? What did you think?"
"I heard that they did something with a unique Mana signature. Some spected that it was due to a Magic Item, but that was just conjecture. I thought it was a good idea to approach them, even if it''s not necessarily your job as the Headmaster."
"And who would you have had do it?" Rupert raised a questioning eyebrow.
"A lesser instructor," Pi said straightforwardly.
"And which one would that have been?" Rupert continued to ask. Pi didn''t have an immediate answer. "There wasn''t one. I was the only one there. It would have been a shame to miss the opportunity, so I took it upon myself.
"This is actually a good lesson for you, Pi. Don''t miss a good opportunity just because you feel it''s not ''your job.'' If you see something that should be grasped, and you''re the only person able to do so, don''t hesitate."
"Yes, Headmaster," Pi said. "That makes sense."
"Of course it does! I''m the one who said it.
"Anyway, make sure someone verifies with the guard post that they left a note about the incident. I don''t want a guard to not know about it just because they forgot to pass it along word-of-mouth. When they show back up - when, not if - I want the guards to be ready to send them in."
"Yes, Headmaster."
"Was there anything else?"
"Student Oryin has returned from his Life Experience Expedition," Pi said.
Rupert sat up straight, a look of delight shing across his face.
"Oho! Excellent, excellent. Things are sure to get interesting around here."
Chapter 163: Peonies
Chapter 163: Peonies
Kefira smiled as she descended the steps, spotting Reivyn once again waiting for her. It was the middle of the week, and while they hadn''t been able to spend all day together the previous days, they had walked to and from the Academy. Things were a bit slower-paced, and they had squeezed in a couple of Mana practice sessions as well.
Kefira was in a great mood as she bounded down the steps and hugged Reiyvn.
"Are you going to walk me to the Academy again today?" Kefira asked.
"I''m afraid not," Reivyn said. "I made an appointment to meet with your uncle today, and besides, we''ll have all day for the next four days together. I really need to squeeze in the time to visit with your uncle while I have the time."
"Hmm, I figured that was the case," Kefira said. She was a little disappointed, but she didn''t let it show. "You did tell him you would meet with him sometime, and one needs to be a man of his word."
"My thoughts exactly. Maybe I''ll make my way over to the Academy in the afternoon to walk you home."
The faltering smile on Kefira''s face perked up.
"Great! I''ll see you, then."
Kefira made her way to the Magic Academy with Seri in tow. Reivyn only followed her as far as the main pce, and he broke off to go to an office where Uncle Bellefrent conducted business. The walk to the Academy wasn''t sad and dreary because she wasn''t walking with Reivyn. When he wasn''t around, Seri stepped up and kept in conversation with her.
The two happily chatted as they entered the Academy, and they made their way to Magus Farril''s office. Kefira knocked on the door and entered before anyone could say anything, but she came to an abrupt stop. An additional person was sitting in a chair across from her mentor.
Kefira froze for a moment before she smiled brightly.
"Congrattions, Senior Oryin!" Kefira said enthusiastically. "I''m surprised I didn''t hear any rumors of your return."
Kefira had always had a good rtionship with her senior apprentice. While Kefira was just in a mentor rtionship with the Court Magus, Oryin was a true disciple. He was a few years older than her, and he had helped her out a lot when she had first started taking lessons with the Magus.
Kefira had always been a prodigy with her Mana Skills and Affinities, but she hadn''t been used to her soul being suppressed when she had started her education. Only the upper echelons of the Academy knew the full situation, Farril and Oryin included, but she had still been praised as a genius with the handicap.
"How could you have known?" Oryin replied with a grin. "The only people you talk to on campus are Master Farril and Seri."
"Hmph! I have friends!" Kefira pouted.
Oryin just chuckled.
"I never said you didn''t. I just said you don''t talk to the other students while at the Academy."
"I talk to you!" Kefira pointed out.
Oryin rolled his eyes.
"And how, exactly, am I supposed to tell you the rumors of my return?"
Kefira just stuck her tongue out at her senior. Kefira had long since treated him as an older brother.
"Kefira, I''m afraid that I won''t have time to teach you today," Magus Farril spoke up.
"What?!" Kefira raised her brows at her mentor, a spark in the look she directed at him. "You couldn''t have told me that yesterday?!"
"I''m sorry," Farril said, spreading his hands in helplessness. "I told Oryin to take the week off, but you know him. He showed up unannounced and demanded to get to work right away. You know I can''t say no to my disciple when ites to studying Magic."
"Sorry for the abrupt notice," Oryin said. "But hey, that means I''ll get my progress report out of the way, and we can get crackin'' on practicing that little trick you learned with Space Mana. Master told me about it just now."
"Well, too bad for you, I have ns," Kefira said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "You''ll just have to wait until next week to get a chance to see what I learned on my expedition."
A hint of a frown passed over Oryin''s face, but Kefira wasn''t looking to catch it. He quickly smoothed out his facial expression, though, and adopted a genial smile.
"Yeah, too bad, and now yourst day of instruction has been interrupted by me," he said. "I''ll have to make it up to you some time."
"That won''t be necessary," Kefira denied. "I''ll just take today as a free day and go shopping with Seri or something. Magus." Kefira nodded her head to Magus Farril, he nodded back with a sheepish look on his face. Kefira lifted her chin as she nced at Oryin. "Senior."
She turned on her heels and exited the room, dragging Seri behind her. She looked calm on the surface, but underneath she was incredibly frustrated.
Of all the times! She thought. If I had known, I would have told Reivyn to meet with my uncle yesterday! We could have had a five-day weekend.
"Come on, Seri," Kefira said, linking her arm with Seri''s. "Let''s go shopping."
"You were serious about that?" Seri quirked an eyebrow at her. "I would have guessed you would go to the training ground and demolish a couple of training dummies."
"They''re not my opponent," Kefira dered.
"Well, obviously," Seri snarked.
Kefira pulled away from her friend and looked her up and down, tapping her lip in thought.
"A pink dress," she finally said. Seri frowned in confusion. "With a flower crown." Kefira pped her hands and nodded her head. "Yes! We''ll buy you a pink dress with a flower crown, and that''s all you''ll be allowed to wear for the next week."
"Excuse me?!" Seri was shocked. "You do know I still like girlie things, right?"
"Even when you''re sparring with Reivyn?" Kefira raised an eyebrow at her friend.
"Surely you can''t be serious."
"I am serious," Kefira answered. "I think it''s high time you learned how to fight in a dress. Nothing immodest, of course. Half-way above the knee I think, should suffice."
"But how am I going to maneuver in such a short dress?"
"Very carefully. I don''t think either one of us would like for Reivyn to get an eyeful," Kefira said pointedly.
"Oooh, look at this one," Kailey grabbed a bouquet of flowers. "Look at the arrangement."
"The colors really blend well together," Riley agreed. "I also sense a hint of Mana in them."
"Even regr flowers in a Tier 4 Region can be Mana infused," Kailey said. "But I agree. These have a sort of ''vor'' to them."
"We haven''t experienced enough Affinities, I don''t think," Riley said. "We''ll have to ask mom what it is."
The two girls had spent the previous two days, after getting settled, exploring the different workshops along the roads. They didn''t just explore the ones easily found on the main road in the Inner City, either. One good thing about being an experienced Adventurer, Refix knew the questions to ask to find the true masters. Not all of them were open to the public, but for the ones that were, Kailey and Riley made sure to visit.
They didn''t have their Tier 2 sses yet, but their inherent Tier 1 Epic ss seemed to be geared towards crafting. It wasn''t anything specific, either. Whatever they put their minds to creating, they picked it up quite easily.
They absorbed a lot of knowledge about different ways to craft various types of items, and with their mother''s help, they had even begun to delve into examining the flow of Mana within other people''s crafted Magic Items. Ameliyn didn''t want to hold their hands forever, which was one reason she was constantly trying to push them with little tests, and she let the girls explore the workshops on their own with only minimal supervision.
Minimal supervision meant either she or Refix was nearby and/or a couple of the followers. They didn''t have any trouble convincing the females recruited to follow their parents to apany them for protection, and that was the situation in the flower boutique. Kailey and Riley were feeling a little sorry for their parents for not getting to spend any quality alone time together for several months, so they left them back at the inn.
Their escorts weren''t experts in any type of crafting, nor were they Casters. There wasn''t anything for them to do other than to look out for them, but Kailey and Riley took their orders for little things they wanted to be crafted to try and push thatst little bit toward their Tier 2 sses. Kailey and Riley had pretty much determined that there was no reason they couldn''t just enter the same Magic Academy as their brother under a special admission, but to do that, they would need their next sses.
Just like withbat, crafting granted Experience immediately uponpletion. Unlikebat, crafters got a bit of experience at the end of each step, and the quality of the material, as well as the finished product, could contribute bonus Experience. They weren''t nearly capable enough to handle Tier 4 materials yet, but if they did, a high-quality finished product could them anywhere from five hundred to several thousand Experience.
They didn''t dare to waste any expensive materials, so they were shopping in the flower boutique to return to their roots of crafting. Even though they weren''t getting anything major for their materials, they were still in a Tier 4 Region, and even the mundane flowers had as much Mana in them as a medium treasure from a Tier 2 Region.
Kailey walked up to the counter and got the attention of the attendant.
"Miss, we would like to purchase a couple of these flower bouquets," she said.
The attendant looked at the twins and gave them a charming smile.
"Of course," she responded. "Why don''t you point out the ones you would like?"
Kailey pointed to a couple of bouquets, and Riley added a couple of her own. The attendant quickly and efficiently gathered up the bouquets. The prices were attached to tags on the baskets, and she added them together before turning to the girls.
"That will be seven gold and thirty-two silver," the attendant announced. She had a smile on her face, and she acted like she never doubted whether or not the two girls could pay the price.
Kailey pulled out her pouch and counted out four gold coins. She stopped and looked at her sister, and Riley was already holding four gold coins of her own. Together they turned and ced the money on the counter. The attendant scooped the coins up, counted out the change, and handed it over to Kailey.
"Thank you for your patronage, young misses."
"No. Thank you," the two girls responded together.
Kailey walked to the door and signaled for a couple of the female bodyguards toe inside to get the bouquets. When they noticed the price tags attached to the baskets, they froze in ce.
"You two paid gold for these flowers?" One of them asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "How can they charge gold for some measly flowers?"
"Shhh," Kailey quickly covered the woman''s lips with her finger. "That''s incredibly rude."
"We didn''t pay gold for some measly flowers," Riley said. "Not only do these flowers have a lot of Mana in them, but some of them are even attuned to specific Affinities."
"And the arrangements are done in such a way that there are no shes between any of the different Affinities, and theypliment each other and make the whole more than the sum of its parts."
"We''re not just paying for somemon flowers. These are works of art, and they can be used as inspiration for our own crafts."
"There''s always something to learn from an expert, whether they''re teaching you or not."
The two girls nodded their heads, and they turned to look at the attendant, worried that they might have offended the staff of the shop. They got a sweet smile and an encouraging nod in return.
"Stop stomping!" A voice entered their ears as a pair of girls entered the shop. "You''re a graceful, battle-hardeneddy. You should act the part."
"Who''s stomping?!" The stomping girl in a pink dress asked. She red at her shorterpanion. "And wouldn''t ''battle-hardened'' typically lend someone to assume a stomping action?"
"Not from gracefuldies! We use our elegance as a sharp dagger." The shorter girl with the ruby eyes mimed lunging forward with a weapon, though her hands were empty.
Kailey and Riley were immediately drawn to the disy, sensing a new form of Mana twirling about the ruby-eyed girl. They had just encountered it for the first time moments ago, and they looked back and forth between the girl and one of the bouquets being held by Kailey.
"She has the same Mana," Kailey whispered to her sister.
"It seems to being from these purple-cream-colored flowers," Riley whispered back.
The girl in the pink dress immediately locked her amber eyes on Kailey upon hearing the whispers, and she felt a twinge of cold shoot down her spine. The other girl smacked her on the shoulder.
"Hey, knock it off," she reprimanded herpanion. "They''re just children." She walked over with a graceful step while her friend clomped her feet behind her. They took in the female bodyguards nearby and immediately dismissed them.
Kailey and Riley shared a look.
"I''m sorry if my friend scared you," the girl said. "My name is Fira, and this is my sister Sera."
"Why would you say that?" Kailey asked, tilting her head to the side.
"You''re obviously not sisters," Riley added, identically tilting her head, though in the opposite direction.
"We''re sisters," Kailey gestured between her and Riley.
"I would guess that the two of you are cousins, at best," Riley said, nodding her head sagely.
Fira and Sera were taken aback at the statement, sharing a look. Fira opened her mouth to say something else, but her eyes got snagged on one of the bouquets dominated by blue held in Riley''s hands. She let out a little gasp and pointed at it.
"Sera, those would make a perfect arrangement for your flower crown," she eximed. "The blue is light enough that it won''t sh with your pink dress, and I''m sure we can get someone to arrange it perfectly with a mix ofplimentary colors.
"Littledies, would you be willing to sell your bouquet to us?"
Kailey and Riley shared a look once again.
"Nope," Kailey t-out refused.
Fira frowned at the refusal, but before she could try to persuade them, Riley opened her mouth.
"But we could make the flower crown that you want and sell you that," she said.
Fira and Sera eyed them skeptically. Kailey nodded her head to one of the female bodyguards, and she dutifully pulled out a flower crown that they had made for her from some lesser Mana-infused flowers from the Tier 3 Region they had traveled through a month ago. There was an unmistakable aura of Mana surrounding the flower crown. It was one beyond that of simply having high-end materials.
Fira and Sera''s eyes opened wide as Fira epted the crown.
"This is fascinating," she said. "Did the two of you make this?" Fira looked up at the two young girls.
"Yeah, we made them," Kailey nodded her head. "Well, one of us made it."
"We don''t have to work together on a single item," Riley added. "We just don''t really keep up with who made what unless it''s more important."
"We''ve made hundreds of flower crowns at this point," Kailey concluded.
"I can see that this is expertly made," Fira said, handing the item in question off to Sera for her inspection. "Do you have any other designs avable for us to see?"
Kailey and Riley shared another look.
"Not any ready-made," Kailey said.
"We just had some ideas on a new way to do it," Riley said.
"If you give us just a moment-"
"We''ll have one made right now."
"Up to you, Sera," Fira addressed her friend. "You''re the one that''s going to be wearing it."
"I quite like the way this looks," Sera said with satisfaction. "There might be more ornate ones worn by otherdies, but the simplicity of this one has an elegance all to itself. I dare say my crown will be unique."
"Not so fast," Fira held up her hand. "If I''m not mistaken, I believe I''ve spotted some void flowers in that purple-cream bouquet; am I right?"
"We don''t know what it is," Kailey said.
"But it matches one of your Mana signatures," Riley said.
"If you don''t mind, I would like to buy two flower crowns from you," Fira said, nodding her head. "One from the ice-thorn roses and one from the void flowers." Kefira winked at Sera. "We will have a unique pair of flower crowns."
"I can''t promise that the underlying enchantment will be of satisfactory quality for the void flowers," Kailey warned.
"We''ve never worked with such high-quality materials before," Riley added.
"In fact, we''ve never worked with anything as high-quality as the ice-thorn roses, as you called them."
"And we just extrapted the new method for weaving the flowers together."
"That''s fine," Fira said. "We''re more interested in the aesthetics coupled with the fact that they''re Magic Items at all. It doesn''t matter the quality of the items right now. I can alwaysmission more from you in the future after your Skill increases."
"That''s eptable," Kailey replied.
"If you give us a minute, we''ll have them made for you right away," Riley said.
"Right here?" Fira asked in surprise.
"Sure," Kailey said.
"Why not?" Riley asked.
"I''m looking forward to it."
Fira and Sera stood aside and watched intently as Kailey and Riley plucked the flowers out of their respective bouquets to make the flower crowns. The twin girls mimicked the way the flowers were woven together in the bouquets.
They weren''t perfect, and it was a new method they had just seen without any instruction; however, their efficiency in using the newly derived method noticeably increased as they continued to work. By the time they were finished - it only took a couple of minutes - the final portion of the flower crowns was visibly higher quality.
Kailey and Riley held the two crowns in their hands, inspecting them with frowns on their faces.
"We should have practiced," Kailey said.
"We were too arrogant," Riley agreed.
"It''s fine," Fira stepped forward and took the purplish flower crown from Kailey. "We can hide the imperfections in our hair. We just orient the best-looking part toward the front, and nobody would know any different."
"I''m very satisfied," Sera said, epting her bluish flower crown.
"These crowns aren''t our highest quality work," Kailey admitted.
"Though the new method we used seems to have affected their base stats," Riley said.
"They''re lovely," Fira said with a smile. "How do I go about contacting you for new ones in the future?"
Kailey and Riley once more shared a look before turning back to Fira and smiling.
"Is this a good idea?" Seri leaned forward and whispered into Kefira''s ear. "We don''t know anything about them, and I''ve spotted some non-uniformed militia watching their group."
"That''s standard procedure for high-Level Parties entering the city," Kefira retorted. "Based on their crafting and Mana Skills, I imagine their parents are quite impressive. I doubt they''re some random bait to draw me into a plot. It would require some ridiculous levels of nning and strategizing for something like that."
"I''ll trust your judgment, but I must remind you to be cautious."
"Thank you. It''ll be fine."
Kefira and Seri walked beside the twin girls. They had said that the best method was to simply take them to meet their parents. They would decide if it was appropriate to establish a more than transient rtionship. Kefira approved of the girls'' decision.
They walked with the girls, chatting about the capital and the different Magical weaves found in different Magic Items. Kefira wasn''t an expert, but neither were the two girls. They were quite young, and even though they seemed to know about a lot of different methods, they only had some superficial knowledge.
They''re perfect candidates for further education at the Magic Academy, Kefira mused. But why would I send them there? Heh heh. She chuckled to herself.
The twin girls and their female guards - clearly a band of Adventurers, not a professional outfit - lead them to the highest quality inn at the central square located near the teleport circle. Kefira spotted several other people who were clearly allies of the female troupe, and she spotted several that were clearly at the Level of the Imperial Guards.
She and Seri shared a look, and Seri''s hand twitched at a phantom sword at her hip. She was already wearing her pretty pink dress, so she had put her sword away into her storage pouch. It was still readily avable. It just wasn''t carried on her person directly.
The female guards broke off from escorting the twins to loiter around the outside of the inn with some of theirrades, and the two girls continued to lead Kefira and Seri to their room. They only climbed to the second floor of the establishment. They weren''t staying in the best rooms of the inn, but even the cheapest room in this inn was leagues ahead of the suites of many of the others found in the city.
The twins led them into a room located closest to the stairwell, and Kefira and Seri followed them inside. A young woman was sitting at a table sipping some tea. Kefira froze when she firstid eyes on her. She had the illusion that she was looking at her own mother. They didn''t look alike physically, but their mannerisms were very simr.
She might be as cunning and dangerous as my mother, Kefira thought. She''s obviously a high-ranked noblewoman from somewhere.
She shot a nce to Seri, but she was looking further into the room. Kefira followed her gaze, and a man walked into view. At first nce, he looked a little familiar to Kefira, but the sudden chill of danger the man exuded distracted her. She was unable to continue looking at his face.
She noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, and she realized that Seri had retrieved her sheathed sword from her storage pouch and was in the process of baring its de. Kefira quickly grabbed her forearm to stop her. She turned to the sittingdy with a sheepish look on her face. These two people weren''t purposely pressuring them with their auras, and Kefira didn''t want Seri''s instinctual reaction to offend them.
The presence of the woman washed over her, and she struggled to stay standing upright, gritting her teeth. She seeded after a moment, but it wasn''t easy.
Thedy in question observed Kefira for a moment. Kefira felt like all of her secrets had beenid bare before her, but mercifully she turned her gaze to the twins.
"And who are these two youngdies that you have brought to our room?" She inquired.
I was wrong, Kefira thought. Thisdy is much more dangerous than my mother.
Chapter 164: Meetings
Chapter 164: Meetings
Kefira stood there, panting, as she tried topose herself. The aura that hade over her wasn''t one that she waspletely unfamiliar with. She had obliquely experienced such a thing from her parents when having to resort to certain methods in the past, but she had never been the object of the aura. Not only that, but her parents weren''t Combat ssers.
Thedy in front of her was obviously a powerful Combat ss, and she could feel powerful Affinities mixed into the aura. She didn''t recognize it, but the vor was somewhat familiar. It gave her the sense that the woman was inpletemand and control of everything around her.
Kefira''s heart beat furiously in her chest long after the aura was retracted. Before the woman could have a conversation with her daughters, Kefira decided to simplyy out her n and get out of there.
"Please don''t be upset with your daughters," Kefira said, gulping. "I convinced them to bring me here." The woman turned her attention back to Kefira, but she didn''t release her domineering aura this time. Kefira heaved a silent sigh in relief.
"I encountered your daughters in a flower boutique, and they showed me their talents in crafting these flower crowns," Kefira pulled out the purple flower crown that one of the girls had made for her, and Seri pulled one out from behind as well. Seri was a beat behind Kefira, having a bit of a harder timeposing herself. "These are wonderful creations, but there are some obvious ws. They were trying out a new technique, and I told them I would be interested in purchasing anything they make in the future when they''ve refined their abilities.
"They told me, rightly, that they needed their parent''s permission, and so here we are."
Kefira stepped forward and ced a card on the table next to the tea set.
"Here''s a way you can get in contact with me at the Magic Academy," she said. "I bid you good day."
Kefira grabbed Seri''s hand, and the two of them quickly escaped from the suffocating room. She briefly heard someone calling for her to wait, but she wasn''t in the mood to do so. The two didn''t stop moving until they had exited the inn entirely and turned the corner of the square where it was located. Kefira put her back to the wall of a building and ced her hand over her beating heart. She took several deep breaths.
"My goodness," she finally said. She nced at her friend. "Have you ever experienced such crushing pressure before?"
"No," Seri shook her head. "Even my grandfather has never put forth anything like that. At least not when I''ve been around. It was strange, though. It wasn''t threatening, per se, but it was like I had no defense against it."
"Yeah, it gave me the feeling that that woman hadplete control over my life and well-being while I was in her presence," Kefira agreed. "I didn''t get the feeling that thedy was hostile which is why I was able to summon my courage and continue my n of cooperation. I don''t know what would have happened if she had thought we were after her girls."
"I don''t know, and I don''t want to find out."
"Agreed. Let''s head back to the pce. I''m sure Reivyn is done with his meeting with Uncle by now, and I need a pick-me-up after that."
Kefira grabbed Seri''s hand. Her hand was cold and mmy after, and she could feel the other girl''s still elevated heartbeat. She didn''t let go, though. They both felt a bit offort from each other''s presence.
"Did you get a good look at their father?" Kefira asked after a moment.
"I only caught a glimpse of him before their auras overwhelmed us," Seri said, shaking her head. "He gave me a bit of a familiar feeling, though I can''t quite put my finger on why."
"Hmm, considering he wasn''t really paying attention to us, and we could feel his power, I''m guessing he''s probably even stronger than the mother," Kefira said. "I got the impression that their mother is high Tier 4. I''ll bet their father is at least low Tier 5. I wonder where they came from and what they''re doing in Willowan?"
Kefira didn''t expect Seri to have an answer for her musings. She was surprised that such young girls were able to create the flower crowns out of the mana-rich flowers the way they had, but she still hadn''t expected their parents to be so strong. The girls were obviously going to pursue a Lifestyle ss path in their lives, and she had expected her parents to be the same. It was just another shock to find that her parents were Combat ssers.
It wasn''t an absolute rule, but typically children followed in the same vein as their parents. Combat ssers raised Combat ssers and vice versa. Maybe they had other siblings that were more inclined to fighting. If they hadn''t ruined their first impression by retreating as quickly as possible, they might find out one day. Kefira wasn''t going to let her momentary weakness scare her away from her purpose in nurturing future talents that easily.
---
"Mother!" Kailey eximed
"Why did you do that?" Riley questioned.
"Do what?" Ameliyn asked back.
She was genuinely confused. She had no idea why those two girls had taken off running the way they had. She had tried to call out to them to wait, but they had either not heard her or they had deliberately just not listened. Either way, they had quickly disappeared.
"What do you mean ''what?''" Kailey asked, raising her eyebrows.
"You were releasing your Domain on those nice girls," Riley pointed out.
"Oh. Was I?" Ameliyn tilted her head. "I hadn''t realized. It must have been habit. I seem to do it when I meet pretty young girls without thinking about it."
"Why would you do that? Reivyn''s not even here," Kailey said.
"We wanted to be friends with them, and now they''ll never want toe back."
"If they''re so weak-willed as to be scared off by a little bit of pressure, then you don''t need friends like that," Ameliyn snorted.
"That''s not exactly fair," Refix said, walking up and taking a seat next to his wife. "I mean, it is you we''re talking about here."
"Hey! I''m only High Tier 4," Ameliyn defended herself. "I''m not exactly a ''powerhouse'' in a Tier 4 Region."
"Yeah, but you have to look at the quality of your Tier 4," Refix argued. "Your Tier 4 isn''t exactly the same as amoner''s. Not only that, but your Domain fundamentally encapstes your Sovereign Affinity. I''m sure they felt like you hadplete control over their lives which is why they wanted to get out of here so quickly. Not many people can react appropriately under that sort of pressure."
"I guess," Ameliyn said. Her two daughters just stared back at her with unhappy expressions. "Fine! I''ll apologize to them the next time we meet."
Kailey and Riley''s gloomy expressions evaporated to be reced with bright smiles.
"Thanks, mom," Kailey said.
"You''re the best," Riley dered.
"You were justining that I scared off potential friends, and now you''re trying to butter me up by saying I''m the best?" Ameliyn quirked an eyebrow at them.
"At least they''ll know that our mom is strong," Kailey said, shrugging.
"Better for them to know we''re fierce than to think we''re weak," Riley agreed.
Ameliyn nced at her husband, who was trying to keep a grin off his face.
"Look at the things you''re teaching our daughters," Ameliyn said.
"What? I didn''t hear anything wrong with what they said," Refix replied, unfazed.
"You want their friends to be intimidated by their mother?"
"I don''t want their friends to think they can be taken advantage of without consequences," Refix said with seriousness. "I''ve seen perfectly fine friendships go down the drain when the bnce of power was skewed too much. Even if the parties involved don''t want it to happen, being too weak can invite contempt.
"Our girls are still only Tier 1, almost Tier 2, and we''re in an unfamiliarnd. I doubt those two girls they brought would intend to use them in such a way, but if there was a situation where Kailey and Riley felt like they couldn''t say no, they might end up in a bad rtionship, anyway."
"I know what you mean," Ameliyn replied. "Anyway, what was with those two girls you brought? Tell me about it."
"It was like Fira said," Kailey answered.
"Fira was the one who spoke?" Ameliyn questioned.
"Yup, and Sera was the blonde girl," Riley exined.
"We were shopping for materials to craft items," Kailey said. "We figured that if we want to reach Tier 2 as quickly as possible, we needed to focus on gaining Experience. Even if we''re not able to handle the materials as well as we would be able to with higher Skills in the future, just working with them will give us more Crafting Experience."
"Making things like flower crowns don''t require as much technical proficiency to aplish. It''s not the same thing as a cksmith forging something out of Dark Iron or Cobalt. The only tricky thing is the mana pathways for the materials found in the higher-end boutiques."
"And what was this new technique that Fira mentioned?" Ameliyn asked.
"We Observed how the people in the boutique used the Affinities inherent in the flowers to meld together in how they arranged the flowers," Kailey said.
"We tried to do the same thing when we took the flowers out to make our own crowns," Riley added.
"We weren''t quite able to handle the Affinities perfectly at first, though, so there were some ws in the beginning."
"We should have practiced on something else first, but they had asked us to make them the flower crowns on the spot, so we got a little ahead of ourselves."
"See?" Refix asked. "That''s not exactly the kind of situation I was talking about, but it''s simr enough. If they had known about your power, I''m sure Kailey and Riley would have been morefortable telling them to wait a couple of days to find them to pick them up after they had gotten some practice."
"I''m sure it had nothing to do with the twins wanting to show off," Ameliyn said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, continue."
"Fira noticed the ws right away, but she was still interested in paying for the flower crowns," Kailey said.
"She told us she would like to enter into a longer-term rtionship, but we knew we weren''t in a position to make that decision," Riley said.
"So we brought them here to ask you guys."
"Well, I''m not against the idea," Ameliyn said.
"But?" Kailey questioned.
"But we need to see what''s the deal with your brother first," their mother replied. "If he''s a student here and wants to stay, then we can work something out. I didn''t sense any malice in either of those girls, and they gave me the impression that they were most likely part of the nobility. I don''t know what rank they are, but that doesn''t really matter.
"Having some form of cooperation with them would give us more reason to relocate here, too. It''s not like we have to pack up and leave as soon as we meet with Reivyn again, and that girl said we could meet her through the Magic Academy. She might even know Reivyn, though probably not. There are thousands of students there, after all."
"If she doesn''t know him, she might know someone who does," Refix pointed out. "If we meet a dead end at the admin officeter, we could ask her about it."
"That''s a good idea," Ameliyn agreed. "We''ll have to find out if they have any other motives for forming a rtionship with a couple of young Tier 1 girls, though. Nothing everes for free, especially with nobles. A favor for a favor is how they operate, and giving you the opportunity to sell your flower crowns to them is definitely a favor in their books. How else would you be able to enter the eyes of the little noble girls? You would end up spending all your money on expensive materials only to sell them for a loss to themoners who don''t have as much money to throw around."
"We hadn''t considered that," Kailey said with a thoughtful expression.
"If we can make a profit off of trying to reach Tier 2 faster, then we''d be able to buy even more crafting materials," Riley said.
"Yes, that''s generally how it works," Ameliyn said with a smile. "Maybe Fira can get you a deal on taxes, too."
"Taxes?!" Kailey eximed.
"We have to pay taxes?!" Riley shouted.
"Of course," Ameliyn said with augh. "Wee to the real world."
---
"I know that you''ll be busy over the next couple of months finalizing the training schedule for the military units we''re going to send out as mercenaries and won''t be able to meet with me regrly," Bellefrent said. "What I can do for you is to make sure certain officers get assigned for the next training sessions, and they can meet up with you after the training sessions to help you with what I''veid out for you."
"That''s generous of you," Reivyn replied.
"I don''t always have to be returning favors, you know. And in this particr instance, it''s more about the long-term benefits of the family than it is about doing you, specifically, a favor. In the future, if you do something simr, you don''t have to tell whoever you''re doing a favor for about your goals like I am. That way you can gain a future benefit and immediate remuneration in the form of a favor owed.
"In our case, we can be considered to be on the same side. You don''t have to conspire for maximum benefits every time, especially with your true friends and allies, but it''s never inappropriate to do so for ''just acquaintances.''"
"I''ll keep that in mind," Reivyn said, nodding his head.
Bellefrent observed the young man seated across from him. He had shown up with only a couple of Social Skills, and he only knew a little bit of etiquette. Bellefrent wasn''t sure how many Skills he had unlocked under his morning tutge, but he could tell that even if he didn''t unlock any of them, he was absorbing the lessons quickly enough that it wouldn''t be long.
The young man had spirit. He could see why his niece was so taken with him.
"I know you''re anxious to get out of here and go to Kefira, so we''ll end it here for today," Bellefrent said.
Reivyn tried not to look excited at the announcement, but he still wasn''t able to hide his emotions from the older man. Bellefrent had been in the political ring for decades. He was confident that there weren''t any members of the younger generation that could hide anything from him.
Reivyn stood up from his seat and gave a slight bow.
"Thank you," he said. "I''ll be sure to make some time to meet up with you again next month."
"I look forward to it," Bellefrent said. "I can give you more insight into the different factions in the imperial court and their goals. All you need to know for now is that my family and I are firm supporters of the imperial family, and we have been for generations."
Bellefrent stood up from his seat as Reivyn straightened up, and he shook the young man''s hand. He walked him to the door of his outer chambers, and then he was gone.
He''s young, smart, and driven, and best of all, he''s not ambitious for personal political power, Bellefrent judged. If we can get his edges smoothed out, he''ll be a great help to not just Kefira and her siblings, but to the empire as a whole. We haven''t discussed any future ns, but with Kefira by his side, there''s a spot for Wispan in them.
Bellefrent nodded his head as he sat back down. He still had some time before he needed to return to his duties. He spent most of his time meeting with other nobles in the foyer of the pce, just outside of the petition hall. He had been working for years to curb the selfish interests of the other nobles, and he was finally able to see some hope in retiring.
If it was possible, he would like to move on to the next stage of his life around the same time as his younger sister. He hadn''t been sure if it would be possible until recently, though. It wasn''t that there weren''t any talented individuals in the younger generation, but he hadn''t seen anyone stand out nearly as much as Reivyn. He wasn''t nning to groom Reivyn for his role, but he would be much more secure if Reivyn could assist those that took up his mantle.
The various factions of the nobles and the monarchy had always yed a game of tug-of-war for interests, and if it wasn''t carefully handled, one side would grow too powerful to the detriment of the regr popce of the empire. He served the Wispan Empire first and foremost, and the imperial family was a close second. That meant that he had to sometimes curb the interests of his and the imperial family''s interests. Learning what issues topromise on and how much topromise on was just as important as being able to survive and thrive in the field of politics.
It was always good to recruit some fresh blood without too much of a bias to their side, and Reivyn fit that bill. Politics was aplicated subject, and it wasn''t always ideal for getting everything that one wanted. Sometimes that lesson was forgotten after years of bnce and prosperity, but Bellefrent was confident they wouldn''t have to go through a period of civil strife between the different factions for quite some time.
While empires invading each other was, until recently, unheard of, infighting wasn''t. They didn''t do it with armies, though. They did it through cloak and dagger. Every empire ran the risk of political reshuffling, and Wispan was no different.
In fact, based on the reports I''ve read about the invading armies, I have my suspicions that that''s the end result of one faction gaining too much power, he thought. It fits the bill.
Bellefrent stretched out his muscles as he once more gained his feet. He didn''t rest too long after he met with Reivyn, and it was time for him to get back to work.
"No rest for the weary," hemented.
Chapter 165: Average
Chapter 165: Average
"We have an appointment to meet with the administration," Ameliyn said to the gate guard.
It wasn''t the same person they had run into the other day, but luckily, after checking the appointment book, he nodded his head. He motioned for them to follow him, and he led Ameliyn and Refix into the campus.
Kailey and Riley had stayed home for the meeting. They were interested in gaining enough Experience to reach Tier 2 as quickly as possible, but it had been a sort of esoteric goal when they first started. Now that they had begun making the actual flower crowns with higher TIer materials and recognized the challenge, they were fully engrossed in the project.
It wasn''t just about getting the Experience anymore. Now they were trying their hardest to create new and unique things. It had always been their favorite thing to do, long before they even had their first Tier ss. It was the main reason they were going to Reach Tier 2 while still only 11 years old. Most children, even when actively gaining Experience instead of just the passive Experience gained from the monthly calctions, took nearly the entire three years to reach Tier 2.
It''s not the same as having a Tier 2 ss while still in Tier 1, but Leveling up so fast must be some kind of record, Ameliyn thought, chuckling to herself as she thought about the reason for her daughter''s absence. I told them that if Reivyn was found during the meeting they would be able to meet him quickly, but I don''t think they heard me. They were so focused on their task. They probably think that they''ll have all the time in the world to spend with Reivyn, anyway.
The gate guard led them down the main path. Off to either side was beautiful scenery. There were flowers, nts, walkways, fountains, and all sorts of flowering trees. Ameliyn could feel the Mana oozing off of the nts. Not only the nts, but the paving was full of Mana, as well.
Ameliyn had grown up in such an environment, but years outside of Tier 4 Regions had desensitized her to it. Even the time spent in Quron, the Tier 4 Region that was ultimately over Garoq where Reivyn and the girls had been born, hadn''t been enough to get her used to it again. The wall of Mana floating about in the Atmosphere upon walking across the threshold into the campus hit her in the face.
It wouldn''t have mattered either way, though, as the ambient Mana in Wispan, and especially the campus of the Magic Academy, was so pure. If she didn''t know better, she would have thought that they were on the border of a Tier 5 Region. She had never formally entered the Magic Academy of Vynn, so she didn''t know it was unique to here or if it wasmon for the Magic Academies to be so saturated.
She and Refix didn''t show surprise on their faces, though, and they calmly followed the guard. It only took a couple of moments to walk the length of the main road to the administration building. The most magnificent building in the center of the Academy was where the main offices were located, so they didn''t need to travel all over the campus to find it.
The admin offices rted to student admissions and records were on the first floor. The foyer was arge, open space with statues and busts of famous graduates and instructors. There was a Runic pattern iid into the bricks of the floor, but Ameliyn didn''t know what it was for. She had never received a formal education on Runes, so she only knew a little bit about them.
The walls contained tapestries of amazing feats of Casting, and they seemed to tell a story of an empire building itself up into the prosperous nation it was today. She didn''t let herself get distracted by the mour of the ostentation, but she did take note of it.
The guard led them to an office clearlybeled. After motioning for them to enter with his hand, he stopped and stood next to the door. He was clearly not going to leave them unattended on the campus.
Ameliyn walked up to the counter where a student was manning the position. She gave the young girl a gentle smile.
"Good afternoon," Ameliyn said. "We have an appointment. Ameliyn and Refix."
The young girl pulled out a folder and opened it. After just a couple of seconds, she found the names and returned the gentle smile.
"Of course, ma''am," she said. "The director is waiting for you in his office."
The girl pointed to an open doorway behind the counter. Ameliyn thanked the girl and gave her a small nod before turning to walk around the counter. Many students were working in the admin office, and they were all busy ruffling through paperwork.
Ameliyn stepped into the office. It was well-lit and fully furnished with all sorts of knick-knacks. Well, knick-knacks to me, Ameliyn amended. They might be precious to him. There were bookshelves full of books. Paper was everywhere. They were scattered on the books on the shelves, and on the desk, and there were piles of them littered on the floor as well. It was not a very tidy office, though the man sitting behind the desk was apparently hard at work at whatever he was doing.
He looked up as the two entered, and he set his pen down to indicate for the two of them to take a seat.
"Wee, wee," he said with a genial smile. "Ameliyn and Refix, I presume?" Ameliyn nodded her head. "I''ve been told that this has something to do with a student here. I wasn''t given the full story, just that there was some sort of discrepancy."
"Our son transferred to this Academy from another one several months ago," Ameliyn stated. "The Headmaster of his old school received a System Notification about the transfer, and so we traveled all the way here. It took us well over a month using the portal system between empires, and when we finally get here, his name wasn''t on the student roll at the front gate."
"Hmm, yes, I can see how that would be frustrating," the man said. "Just let me check real quick..."
He pulled out a book from inside his desk and flipped it open.
"What was the name of your son, and what year is he?" He asked.
"Reivyn, and he''s most likely a second-year."
The man paused in his search and looked up quizzically.
"Most likely?" He asked.
"Our son disappeared in a Dungeon three years ago when he was a first-year," Ameliyn rified. "I don''t know if his transfer was one-for-one or if he was advanced a grade or anything."
"I see," the man said. "We''ll just have to check them all, then. It''s not much of an imposition. The names are in alphabetical order and updated every month."
He flipped to the first-year portion of the student roster and scanned the contents. He didn''t find what he was looking for there, so he continued to the next year. He flipped through the entirety of the book, and just like the gate guard a couple of days before, he finished without finding what he was looking for.
"You say the Headmaster of his previous school received a System Notification about his transfer?" The man queried.
"That''s right," Ameliyn answered.
"Ok. Then I''ll take a different tack." He put the roster away and pulled out another folder. "You said it was several months ago?" He asked again. Ameliyn answered in the affirmative. "Alright. I''m going to check the transfer documents."
Just to be safe, he went back five months from what Ameliyn could tell from the title of the folder tab. There weren''t nearly as many pages within the transfer folder as there had been in the roster, so the man moved through them very quickly. Finally, upon reaching the third tab, he stopped and pulled out a sheet of paper.
"Aha!" The man dered. "Reivyn transferred from Garoq Magic Academy to Willowan Magic Academy. Rmendation: Sophia..." The man''s eyes bulged, and he spluttered on the name. "Sophia Willowy - gulp - Approved by Headmaster Rupert."
Headmaster Rupert? Ameliyn thought. Was that the man who tried to recruit the girls the Headmaster? He was strong enough to be. And who''s this Sophia girl? Ameliyn''s hand clenched without her noticing.
"Ahh, there''s a special note here at the bottom," the man said, calming down. "''Will not be added to the student register until he arrives to check in.'' That exins it."
"I''m sorry, what was that? What exins what?" Ameliyn asked.
"It says he won''t be added to the student roll until he gets here. He hasn''t checked in yet, so that''s why he''s not on the roll." The man shrugged his shoulders. "He''s not here yet."
"He''s not here," Ameliyn repeated back in a deadpan voice. Her lips drew a severe line in displeasure. "Then how was he transferred to this Academy if he''s not here?"
"It says right here," the man pointed at the piece of paper. "''Rmendation: Sophia Willowy."
"And who exactly is Sophia Willowy that she can get a student transferred to the Academy without their presence?" Ameliyn continued to ask.
"Willowy is the name of the Imperial Family," the man answered. "So that would be Imperial Princess Sophia Willowy."
"Imperial Princess!" Ameliyn was shocked. What is that boy doing?! We''ve been worried about his well-being, and he''s been out here seducing little girls. Ameliyn grit her teeth. We''ll just have to figure out a way to meet this Sophia.
"Since this involves my son, how do I get an appointment with this Sophia?" Ameliyn asked.
"You don''t," the man answered. Ameliyn quirked an eyebrow at the answer, and he continued. "She''s no longer a student here. This transfer was signed by the Headmaster himself, which means that he was personally involved. The Headmaster isn''t usually the person who approves the transfers. You can meet with him, but you''ll have to wait another couple of days while we schedule you an appointment."
Ameliyn turned to look at her husband. He looked back at her with a gleam in his eye. Ameliyn frowned and elbowed him in the ribs. He just chuckled. This no-good man...
"Oh, right!" Ameliyn suddenly remembered something. She pulled out a card she had received a couple of hours ago and handed it across the desk to the man. "We met a student who gave me this card saying I could use this to meet with her through this. Would it be possible to get into contact with her or one of her teachers to try and speed things up?"
The man nced down at the card, and his eyes once more bulged. He instilled some Mana into the card to verify the im and then choked on his tongue.
"Kefira?" He looked up at Ameliyn with a strange look in his eye. "You met with Kefira?"
"Yes? Is there a problem?" Ameliyn was taken aback at the response.
"Kefira Willowy? The younger sister of Sophia Willowy?"
"What?!" Ameliyn was shocked as well. She had had an inkling that the girl was a member of the nobility, but she hadn''t guessed that she was one of the Imperial Princesses. "Well, if there isn''t another girl named Kefira who''s a student here, then that would be her. Auburn hair with ruby-red eyes?"
"That would be her," the man said, inclining his head. "She doesn''t live on campus, obviously, and if you just met with her, she''s not attending any kind of sses today. I can get you in contact with her mentor, though."
"Let''s do both," Ameliyn answered. "Let''s get an appointment to meet with the Headmaster at the same time. If one doesn''t pan out, the other might."
"I like the way you think," the man said with a smile. He handed the card back to Ameliyn. "Ok. Just give me a few moments to pencil you in, and then I''ll escort you to Magus Farril."
"Thank you," Ameliyn said with a smile. "We really appreciate it."
"No problem, no problem," the man answered back. "Normally, I would get one of the students to take you, but since it involves the Imperial Family... You understand."
"I certainly do," Ameliyn replied. Her smile turned sardonic.
The admin officer quickly made the appointment note for Ameliyn and Refix to meet with the Headmaster. He got up from his desk and motioned for them to follow him. He handed the note to the girl at the counter and told her to make a copy and give it to the receptionist for the Headmaster. If there had to be any changes to the time of the appointment, the receptionist would let him know, and he could tell Ameliyn before they left the campus.
He walked them out of the administration building, dismissing the gate guard on the way, and took them deeper into the campus. There were more buildings all over the ce, each one connected with various walkways. Students roamed about the grounds. They didn''t just walk, though, and Ameliyn witnessed several groups practicing Magic. There wasn''t any offensive Magic being cast; that was all reserved for the official training grounds.
The admin officer led them to a building near the library and headed straight in. Magus Farril, Kefira''s mentor, was on the fourth floor, and they quickly ascended the stairs to arrive in front of his office. The admin officer knocked on the door, and a reply came for them to enter.
"Magus Farril," the admin officer greeted an older man sitting behind a desk. There was a youth around Reivyn''s age, maybe a few years older, sitting in one of the seats.
"Ahh, Mage Caris, what can I do for you?" Magus Farril said.
"Well, not so much for me as these two," Caris motioned toward Ameliyn and Refix. "They''vee here to find their son." Magus Farril assumed a skeptical look at the statement. "I know, I know, but here''s the deal. He was transferred here from a different Magic Academy with Princess Sophia as the sponsor. He''s not actually here yet, and they wanted to meet with her to find out what''s going on."
"I see," Magus Farril said, nodding his head. "And you want me to ask my student Kefira to get them into the pce? Is there any reason she would agree to such a thing?"
Ameliyn handed over the card once more.
"We''ve met her already," she said.
Magus Farril did the same thing that Mage Caris had done. He infused his Mana into the card to verify its authenticity. Once he was satisfied, he handed the card back.
"That certainly makes things easier; however, she''s not on campus today," Magus Farril said. "She was originally supposed to be training with me today, but my disciple came in early after his expedition, so I''ve been dealing with him. I gave her the day off."
"Everything has to beplicated, doesn''t it?" Ameliyn muttered under her breath. Refix noticed her shoulders slumping, so he reached out and gave her hand aforting squeeze.
"That being said, I have an official position in the pce," Magus Farril continued with a smile. "If you''re willing to wait a little while, I can take you there to meet with Sophia."
"You would do that for us?" Ameliyn perked up.
"Certainly... after you subject yourself to a lie detector. Nothing fancy. You just have to state your purpose in the visit in the presence of someone with the Skill at a High Level, and I can let you in."
"Great!" Ameliyn eximed. "We''ll do anything we need to to put your mind at ease in letting us into the pce."
"Master, why don''t we go now?" The young man spoke up for the first time. "We''re basically done here, and I can go meet with Kefira since we weren''t able to spend too much time together today. She''s going to be my fianc¨¦e soon, anyway, so I should really go see her."
"Sure, I don''t see why not." Magus Farril nodded his head with an indulgent smile for his disciple. The two of them got up from their seats.
"Since Magus Farril is going to take you to the pce directly, do you want me to cancel your meeting with the Headmaster?" Mage Caris inquired of Ameliyn.
"Yes, I don''t think it will be necessary now," Ameliyn said. "Thank you so much."
"You''re wee. Since you''re going to be going to the pce with Magus Farril, I''ll let him escort you off campus."
With that, the admin officer took his leave. Ameliyn and Refix filed behind Magus Farril and his disciple and headed toward the exit of the campus.
Magus Farril turned his head and addressed Ameliyn.
"So, out of curiosity, why are you using such a roundabout method to gain entry into the pce?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" Ameliyn was confused.
"Why don''t you just use your diplomatic standing?"
"Diplomatic standing?"
"Well, yes. Aren''t you from an Imperial Family of another empire?" It was Magus Farril''s turn to be confused. His disciple was slightly taken aback and gave her an appraising look.
"Why would you think that?" Ameliyn asked.
"Come now, I''ve been a Court Magus for a long time," he said with a chuckle. "While I don''t recognize the exact Affinity that has so seamlessly fused with your aura, I can tell it''s one of rulership. A quite sophisticated one, at that. Along with your bearing and mannerisms, it isn''t too hard to put the pieces together."
"Well, I don''t see any harm in telling you," Ameliyn said with a shrug. "It''s...plicated. You''ve guessed right. I am from an Imperial Family of another empire, but I don''t have any diplomatic standing. Not here." She paused and looked Magus Farril in the eye. "Not anywhere." She let a little mncholy enter her voice.
"Ahh, I think I understand," Magus Farril said. "I apologize for prying."
"It''s fine," Ameliyn dismissed his concerns. "It happened a long time ago."
Magus Farril led Ameliyn and Refix, along with his disciple, through the streets of the capital toward the pce. They climbed the slope of the tallest hill in the city, and Ameliynid eyes on a familiar yet unfamiliar scene. She hadn''t had much reason to seek out the pce in Quron, so it had been many years since she hadid eyes on an Imperial Pce.
This one was just as magnificent as any she had seen, and it brought forth many memories. Most of them were pleasant and filled her with wistfulness, but some were not so pleasant. It had been many years since she had thought about the evening she and Refix escaped her home. Refix, always the attentive husband, once more sensed her mood and squeezed her hand infort.
They made their way to the front of the pce, where they were stopped by some of the Imperial Guards. The guardsmen''s bodies stiffened when theyid eyes on Refix, but they didn''t reach for their weapons. They could clearly tell that Refix was a significant threat. Magus Farril gave Refix a thoughtful nce before addressing one of the guards.
"Sergeant Lencet, good day," Magus Farril greeted. "I have here a couple who are acquainted with Princess Kefira, and they wish to meet with Princess Sophia about an issue with the Magic Academy. I told them I could arrange it if they simply spoke the truth where someone could tell. If you don''t mind, sir?"
Sergeant Lencet gave a brief nod before focusing his gaze and intent on Ameliyn. The other guard never took his eyes off Refix. I guess they can tell that I''m a threat, too.
"Our son was transferred to the Magic Academy with Princess Sophia''s sponsorship, but he hasn''t arrived yet," Ameliyn simply stated. "We wished to meet with her to find out where he is."
Sergeant Lencet stared at Ameliyn for several seconds before turning to Magus Farril.
"She speaks the truth. Not only that, but there are no hidden motives behind her words," Sergeant Lencet said. "Her focus is almost entirely on her stated task. So much so that if I didn''t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn''t have thought it was possible to be so focused. Everyone usually has something else weighing on their minds, but thisdy does not."
Ameliyn was surprised at the answer. She had expected a simple, "yes, she''s telling the truth." The sergeant had gone into great detail to extinguish any suspicions for her, though. Why would he do that? She didn''t have time to wonder, though, as Magus Farril thanked the man and led them into the foyer.
"Wait here for one moment, please," Magus Farril said to Ameliyn and Refix.
There were several groups of older gentlemen standing around discussing various topics of politics. Magus Farril crossed the foyer and entered the open double doors, where Ameliyn could see even more people before a man and woman sitting on a pair of simple thrones. Magus Farril''s disciple spotted someone he was acquainted with and took his leave, as well.
Ameliyn didn''t have time to look around much more as one of the older gentlemen detached from his group and approached them. He walked up with a smile on his face and gave a short half-bow to the couple.
"Good afternoon," the man said. "I saw that you were escorted by Court Magus Farril. Are you attached to the Magic Academy, or...?"
Ameliyn smiled at the friendly older gentleman.
"No, sir, we are not," she replied. "Count Magus Farril has taken it upon himself to help us with a personal matter."
The older man''s smile slowly turned into a frown as he looked back and forth between Ameliyn and Refix. He didn''t seem like he was getting hostile or annoyed with them, so Ameliyn didn''t press him on his expression.
"The two of you seem awfully familiar for some reason," he said. "My name is Bellefrent. Have we met somewhere before?"
"No, sir, we''ve just arrived in Wispan not long ago. Just a couple of days, in fact," Ameliyn answered.
"I see... I wonder what it is, then?" He tapped his lip in concentration. He didn''t have long to ponder the issue, though, as Magus Farril came back out of the room and approached them.
"They''ll see you now," he said. "Princess Sophia is already in attendance."
"Thank you," Ameliyn said.
"Don''t mention it."
Ameliyn nodded to the older gentleman, who responded with a wave. She and her husband walked across the foyer and entered the petition hall. Many people were standing on either side. Some of them watched the pair approach the thrones, where another youngdy had appeared standing next to the seated woman, but most of them ignored them.
Ameliyn and Refix stopped at an appropriate distance from the seated pair. Ameliyn nced at the younger girl standing next to her mother, for who else would be seated there but the empress? Her brows furrowed before her gaze moved to the empress, and their eyes immediately locked. There was a sense of electricity in the air as they stared at each other.
"Are you the ones looking to meet with my daughter?" The empress asked.
"Yes," Ameliyn answered with a simple nod. "Though looking at her now, she seems... average."
All sound in the room immediately ceased. All eyes were focused on Ameliyn, but she paid it no mind.
"I''m sorry; what did you say?" The empress slowly stood up from her seat. "Did you just say my daughter is... average?"
Chapter 166: Reunion
Chapter 166: Reunion
"Hmm?" Ameliyn looked up at the angry empress. "Are you angry that I called your daughter average? I didn''t mean it as an insult."
"How could you possibly mean it any other way?" The empress asked. Her frown hadn''t receded and she hadn''t taken back her seat.
"As a mother I have to make the right decisions for my son, Reivyn," Ameliyn said.
The silence continued to stretch as the empress and everyone else stared at Ameliyn. Ameliyn noticed recognition in their faces when she named her son, but their reaction was not what she was expecting.
"You''re Reivyn''s mother?" The empress asked.
"Yes," Ameliyn answered.
"If you''re Reivyn''s mother, then why are you looking for Sophia?" The empress asked.
Ameliyn was taken aback.
"Didn''t Sophia sponsor him to transfer to the Magic Academy?" Ameliyn asked.
The empress looked at her daughter. Sophia took a step forward.
"Yes, I was the one that interceded with the Headmaster on his behalf, but I did it at my sister''s request," Sophia exined.
"Your sister? Kefira?" Ameliyn asked.
Things were getting more convoluted in her head. She had already met Kefira, though she had introduced herself as Fira, and she had used that as an excuse to meet with Sophia, the girl who had initiated the transfer for Reivyn. Now she''s finding out that it was Kefira who was responsible to begin with.
"I think maybe we should speak in a more private setting," Ameliyn said.
The empress scanned the crowded room. She noticed that everyone was paying attention to the conversation. She turned back to Ameliyn and nodded her head.
"I agree," she said.
She stepped forward and headed for the exit. Sophia fell in line behind her, but her husband remained where he was seated. He had an amused look on his face. Ameliyn turned with Refix and followed the empress out of the petition hall.
The empress led them deeper into the pce. They weren''t followed by any of the Imperial Guards, but that wasn''t necessary as Ameliyn spotted several of them posted in various locations throughout the building. They finally reached their destination, and the empress led them into a cozy sitting room.
There was already tea on the table, and several maids were in attendance. The empress indicated for Ameliyn and Refix to take a seat, and she followed suit across from them. Sophia took a seat next to her mother.
"Summon Kefira," the empress said to one of the attendants. She turned her head back toward Ameliyn after the maid set off toplete her task. "So you''re Reivyn''s mother? My name is Silfa, and you already know my daughter''s name. How should I address you?"
Silfa picked up a cup and took a leisurely drink. Her eyes never left Ameliyn''s. If it had been anyone else, they might have been intimidated by the gaze of the other woman, but Ameliyn was made of sterner stuff. She simply returned the gaze.
"Oh, my, where are my manners?" She said. "My name is Ameliyn, and this is my husband Refix. To answer your first question, yes, we are Reivyn''s parents. Considering the response, I''m guessing he''s here? Where''s my boy? Why did you summon your other daughter but not my son?"
"I did summon him," Silfa replied. She calmly set the tea cup back down. "He''s most likely with Kefira right now, so if she shows up, so will he."
"Well, that''s eptable," Ameliyn said. Silfa raised an eyebrow at the imperious tone. "Care to exin what''s going on, now?"
"You''ll have to ask Reivyn for the specifics, but I can give you some of the answers," Silfa said. "Sophia, if you would."
"Yes, mother," Sophia said. She smoothed her skirt before looking Ameliyn in the eye. "My sister, Kefira, was in a lower Region for her Life Experience Expedition. We kept in touch more than the rest of our family, and one day she sent me an unusual request. She asked me to set up the paperwork for the transfer of someone she had run into on her adventures.
"She had a good impression of him, and the things she said convinced me to help her. I did what she asked, and the Headmaster took care of the formalities. That wouldn''t have taken care of everything, though, and he would have had to sign a request on his end, as well.
"So while I have a good impression of your son, and we''ve met and conversed on a couple of asions, I don''t really know him all that well."
Ameliyn studied the younger girl for a few moments.
"Are you resentful that I called you average?" She finally asked.
Sophia was slightly taken aback at the straightforward question, her eyebrows rising in surprise.
"Yes," she said, matching the straightforward nature.
"I apologize," Ameliyn said, inclining her head slightly. "I actually didn''t mean to say that out loud, and I wasn''t intending to insult you. I was under the impression that you were involved with my son more than you are, and I have a tendency to judge such youngdies harshly."
"Does that mean you''re going to give my other daughter a hard time?" Silfa spoke up. She had an unreadable expression on her face.
Myck of experience in court ising to bite me in the backside, Ameliynmented. I''ve kept up with my practice as much as I can, but there''s only so much one can do out in the boonies.
"That depends," Ameliyn replied.
"Oh, on what?" Silfa asked.
"On if she''s worthy of my son," Ameliyn answered.
"And what makes you think your son is worthy of my daughter?"
"I know my son."
"Well, I''ll have you know that Kefira is the most talented person our empire has seen for thousands of years."
"That''s a good first step. It really depends on how talented the local people are, though."
"Hmph, you''re awfully arrogant, aren''t you?" Silfa said, narrowing her eyes.
"I have the capital to be," Ameliyn responded.
"In case you didn''t notice, you''re sitting before the empress of a Tier 4 nation, and she just told you that her daughter, one of the Imperial Princesses, is the most talented person ever seen."
"That doesn''t impress me," Ameliyn said, quirking an eyebrow. "I was born and raised in an Imperial Pce, too."
"Of course." Silfa didn''t have any other reaction other than that at Ameliyn''s revtion. Reivyn must have said something about our history.
The twodies were sending out snippets of information to test each other. Ameliyn was a little rusty, but as they conversed, she found herself enjoying the back and forth.
"In fact, Kefira is known to those who know as the Septimus," Silfa threw out a tidbit, her eyes still watching for Ameliyn''s reaction.
"What a cute nickname," Ameliyn replied, deadpan. She gave the other mother a look that said, "I know exactly what you''re talking about, and I''m still not impressed."
"There are literally thousands of talented young men willing to marry my daughter. Not just from the locals, but we''ve even had inquiries from other imperial princes as to marrying into our family. No matter how high of an opinion you have of your son, he still has a lot to prove."
"So you say," Ameliyn replied. "I''ll be the judge whether or not my son should have any connection to your daughter."
"Oh? You think so?" Silfa smirked. "I think you might have been away from your son a little too long."
"What do you mean by that?" Ameliyn frowned.
"Do you know what Reivyn said to me the first time we met?"
"How could I? But I''m sure you''re going to tell me."
"He proposed marriage."
Ameliyn was shocked. Her body locked up momentarily, and she even felt Refix twitch involuntarily next to her.
"Doesn''t your daughter already have a fiance?" Ameliyn asked.
"Who told you that?" Silfa inquired with genuine curiosity, tilting her head to the side.
"That Magus Farril''s disciple. Whats-his-name." Ameliyn waved her hand, dismissing the young man who had apanied them to the pce.
"Hmph," Silfa snorted. "Nothing official."
"So you''re daughter is leading on several different young men? I''m not gaining a lot of confidence in this daughter of yours," Ameliyn said. "Also, I''ve already met her. First impressions are important, and the first thing your daughter did when we met was run away with her tail between her legs."
A noticeable chill permeated the air as Silfa''s eyes narrowed even further. If she squinted any more she would have to close her eyes.
"So a grown woman is in the habit of bullying a child?"
"All I did was look at her," Ameliyn said with a shrug.
"Please. I can feel your aura leaking out. I can see where he gets his undisciplined attitude."
"What need does one have of discipline when you''re so far above everyone else?"
"And you think it''s your son that''s on the pedestal?"
"It''s certainly not the little girl who''s stringing a bunch of men along!"
"My daughter''s personal rtionships are no concern of yours!"
"Exactly! And so I shall retrieve my son and take him with me!"
"And abandon his duties?! You wish. He has obligations!"
"Well, if your daughter wasn''t in the habit of seducing boys, there wouldn''t be any obligations!"
"Watch your mouth! My daughter has always been with herdy-in-waiting. There''s no chance that there''s that kind of thing involved!"
"So you use a double-team to wrap young men around your fingers? You''re the one who said he has ''obligations!''"
"To the crown! He has a debt to repay!"
"It sounds to me like you just can''t let him go! Who''s the one who was trying to say he wasn''t worthy?!"
"Because he isn''t! My girl is the only known person with the Space/Time Affinity ever to be born!"
"That..."
Ameliyn held her finger up to rebuke the other woman, but she finally came up short with a retort. Now that she had a second to think, she finally noticed that she and Silfa had long since stood up from their seats and had been shouting at each other, nose-to-nose.
She turned her head to take in the others in the room as she took a step back. The maids were studiously ignoring the conversation, but Sophia was leaning back in her chair with her eyes as wide as they could go. Refix was grinning from ear to ear, but it cut off as soon as Ameliyn frowned at him.
"What''s going on in here?" A voice reached Ameliyn''s ears. She turned and saw the same young woman who hade to her room with her daughters earlier that day, but her vision was arrested by the figure that followed her into the room. "I could hear shouting from all the way down the hall."
Reivyn strode into the room behind the girl that he towered over. He habitually nced in all directions beforeying his eyes on the inhabitants in the middle of the room. As soon as their eyes met, his went wide with surprise.
"Reivyn!" Ameliyn shouted, joy overriding all of her other emotions at the sight of her son. She turned to face him, and she felt Refix get up from his seat beside her.
"Mom! Dad!" Reivyn shouted. He rushed across the room, careful to sidestep around Kefira lest he identally shove her out of the way.
Ameliyn didn''t have time to fully appraise him after all this time before he scooped her up in a hug. She hugged him back fiercely, followed shortly by Refix joining in. She felt the vibrations in Reivyn''s chest as Refix pounded him on the back.
They stood like that for several minutes, oblivious to the rest of the world. Ameliyn was faintly aware of that Kefira girl walking up to her mother, engaging her in a hushed conversation. Reivyn finally extricated himself from the hug even though she wasn''t quite ready to release him, yet.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, a huge grin on his face as he peered into her eyes. He nced back and forth between her and his father.
"We got word from your previous Academy of a System Notification informing them of your transfer to the Willowan Magic Academy," Ameliyn briefly exined. "It wasn''t much trouble to find the path." She left out the huge number of loyalists they had sent out, as well as the expense involved, to find said path.
"Huh, I had never even considered that," Reivyn said.
"When did you get so tall, boy?" Refix asked from beside her.
Now that they had separated she could see that he had grown immensely in the years they had been apart. He was now a head taller than his father and she had to look up to look him in the eye.
"That requires some exnation," Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I don''t know the exact details, but it''s only been several months for me that we''ve been separated."
"You''ve been missing for years," Ameliyn eximed.
"I know," Reivyn said with a nod. "It came as a great shock to me when I saw that my age had gone from 11 to 14 in what felt like a couple of days."
"Well, you can tell us your tale slowly now that we''ve found you," Ameliyn said. "Quick, pack up your things and let''s go."
"Go?" Reivyn was taken aback. "Go where?"
"Home, of course," Ameliyn said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Because it is the most obvious thing in the world, she thought. What''s wrong with him?
"Home is where my family is," Reivyn replied. "Now that you''re here, this is as good of a home as any."
"Don''t you want to see your sisters again?" Ameliyn asked.
"There''s no way you didn''t bring them with you," Reivyn said with a snort. "In fact, Kefira was just in the middle of telling me a story about a pair of interesting twins she met in the market earlier today." He raised his eyebrows inquisitively at her.
"Fine! You''re right, they''re here with us," Ameliyn conceded. "But what about your other friends? Teilon and Kimberly stayed behind to hold down the fort, and I think Melissa still carries a torch for you. You know what you''re rtionship with her was like. Do you want to abandon that?"
Ameliyn watched Kefira and her mother out of the corner of her eye to gauge their reaction at her words. Silfa''s brows came down slightly, but Kefira smirked after noticing Ameliyn''s attention on her.
This cheeky brat...
"Send for them," Reivyn said with a shrug.
"Even Melissa?" Ameliyn asked, surprised at his response.
"Why not? Send for Larissa, too, while you''re at it."
"Well, Melissa and her sister didn''t go with us to the Tier 4 Region," she admitted. "They were talented... for someone from a Tier 1 Region. They couldn''t quite keep up at the end, though."
"I figured as much," Reivyn said. He seemed to have alreadye to terms with reality before Ameliyn brought it up. His rtionship with Simmon and Will probably had something to do with that. "Friendshipse and go. Only family is forever."
His words, wise beyond his years, confirmed her suspicions.
"Exactly," Ameliyn agreed. "So you should have no probleming back with us to Garoq where we''ve spent years establishing ourselves. This little fling with Kefira can join your other memories of the friends you''ve parted with."
"I don''t think so," Reivyn said, shaking his head. "If you think going back to Garoq is so important, you''ll be going back without me."
"Truly?" Ameliyn searched his eyes for the answer.
She wasn''t actually overly invested in going back to Garoq. Reivyn was right when he said that home was where his family was. It would be just as easy - easier, in fact - to stay here. She just wanted to gauge his determination for the rtionship Silfa had told her he had built with Kefira.
"Truly," Reivyn confirmed. "Besides, I have obligations."
Ameliyn stared at her son for several long seconds. Her stomach dropped and her face turned pale. She mastered her emotions, though, and with a sigh continued the conversation.
"Have you picked a name yet?" She asked.
"A name?" Reivyn was confused.
"For your child. Is it a boy or a girl? Do you know?"
Reivyn''s eyes went wide and he spluttered.
"Are you insane?!" He shouted. Ameliyn stole a nce at Kefira to see that her face had turned beet red. "We''re not so brazen as to have crossed that line...yet." Thatst part was muttered under his breath, but Ameliyn still heard it. Refix apparently heard it, too, because he chuckled beside her. Ameliyn elbowed her husband in the ribs without looking.
"So then what sort of obligations do you have?" Ameliyn asked.
She didn''t mention that she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. With her son''s mention of family and obligations, she had let her imagination run wild. She was happy to learn that she wasn''t going to be a grandmother any time soon. The thought had never crossed her mind before, and she was slightly surprised at her own subdued reaction to her crazy thoughts.
"Kefira helped me force my Tier 3 ss transition," Reivyn answered. "I have a Mythic ss. It would be incredibly ungrateful of me to just drop everything and leave after what she has done to help me."
"A Mythic ss?!" Ameliyn shouted.
"Only Mythic?" Refix teased. "Knowing you, I would have expected a Pseudo-Divine at the very least. You''ve been cking."
"I was close enough to see the options," Reivyn said. "Anyway, why do you think I transferred schools? Kefira took advantage of a loophole to help me ''graduate.''"
"I see," Ameliyn said.
"Come, let''s go meet her," Reivyn said.
He grabbed her hand and led her around the chairs to stand in front of Kefira. Ameliyn knew that Reivyn knew that they had already met. He had just told her that Kefira was telling him about it. She figured he wanted them to get a new start.
Instead of taking his ce next to her and introducing the girl to his mother, Reivyn let go of her hand and walked over to stand next to Kefira. Kefira looped her arm with his before looking back at Ameliyn with a bashful look.
"Hello... mother," Kefira said.
Reivyn nearly choked when he heard the words, and Silfa once more narrowed her eyes behind her daughter. Kefira nced up at Reivyn with a mischievous glint in her eye that didn''t escape Ameliyn''s gaze.
"What did you do, Reivyn?" Ameliyn questioned her son.
"Me?!" Reivyn pointed at himself. "I didn''t do anything! Why would you think that?"
"She''s clearly teasing you more than she''s teasing any of us," Ameliyn pointed out. "You obviously did something."
"I didn''t do anything! Did I?" Reivyn turned a questioning look to Kefira.
"When you met my uncle," she said.
Reivyn stared at Kefira for a moment before recognition dawned on his face.
"Hey now, addressing your uncle as my uncle isn''t the same thing," Reivyn said.
"It isn''t?" Kefira questioned.
"Well, I''m not mad about it. Just surprised."
"Good."
"Does my opinion matter?" Ameliyn asked.
"No," Reivyn replied.
Ameliyn rolled her eyes at her son. She held her hand out to Kefira.
"Come sit with me," she said.
Kefira nced at Reivyn and, after an encouraging nod, she took the hand to sit down next to her. Refix sat on Ameliyn''s other side. Reivyn noticed that there wasn''t room for him to join them on the same seat. He looked around at the open seats before shrugging and sitting down next to Silfa. Silfa snorted and rolled her eyes, but she didn''t say anything about it.
"I feel like we got off on the wrong foot," Ameliyn said.
"It''s alright, I forgive you," Kefira replied with a cheeky grin.
Ameliyn was momentarily at a loss for words until Reivyn barked out augh. She frowned at her son.
"Anyway... tell me about the shenanigans my son has been getting up to since he''s been gone. I''m sure you have a lot to say on the matter."
"Certainly," Kefira perked up.
"And then you''ll have to tell us about your journey here," Reivyn replied. He didn''t seem nervous that Kefira would embarrass him. That''s a good sign.
"Sure," Ameliyn said.
---
The room was silent after Ameliyn and Refix finished their much shorter tale of their journey to Willowan. The other inhabitants of the room had grim expressions on their faces. Ameliyn had been surprised to learn that Reivyn and Kefira had had a run-in with the same group of people that had disrupted their teleport hopping, though they told a story of a much less vicious encounter.
"We already knew that there had been multiple instances of invasions," Silfa finally said. "Though we didn''t know that there were some empires that hadn''t sent out any serious requests before falling. I wonder how many more Regions are in turmoil right now?"
"Do you guys have a n to deal with them?" Refix asked.
"That''s one of Reivyn''s obligations," Silfa replied. "He''s mentioned that fighting people is a lot different than fighting monsters, and he''s been spending his time training our soldiers to adapt to the changes. We''re going to be sending them out as mercenaries to fight against the invaders on someone else''s turf. If they ever show up here, we''ll hopefully have built up enough experience in that type of warfare to not be at a disadantage."
"That seems like a sensible course of action," Refix said. "There''s only so much one can learn through training. Real world experience is the best teacher, and what better way to get it in this situation than fighting on someone else''snd?"
"Our thoughts exactly." Silfa nodded.
"Considering the scope of the invasions, are you even sure that the ones you guys ran into in Drallo are from the same faction?" Ameliyn asked Reivyn.
"Maybe?" Reivyn answered. "I wouldn''t know unless you had information on theirmanders. They might have been from a Tier 5 Region."
"Yeah," Kefira said. "That Jezebel had a ''six'' tattooed on her neck, so we think they were from a Tier 6 faction."
"Tier 6?!" Refix eximed.
"Jezebel?" Ameliyn''s concerns were on apletely different matter that was revealed.
She gave a sharp look to Reivyn.
"Is there a child somewhere out there?!" She questioned.
"There had better not be!" Kefira shouted, directing her own fierce re toward Reivyn.
"No!" Reivyn shouted. "You saw that I was in the middle of fighting for my life when you showed up and rescued us!"
"Yeah, but that wasn''t the first time you had met her," Kefira pointed out.
"The first time I met her she nearly stabbed me in the heart with some sort of death beam," Reivyn said in exasperation. "The second time we met she crushed me with a giant boulder, nearly killing me!"
"You were crushed by a giant boulder?" Ameliyn looked at her son with rm.
"Rx, mom," Reivyn gave her a consoling smile. "Don''t you see that I''m perfectly fine in front of you?"
"We''ll talk about itter," Refix said, patting Ameliyn''s hand infort.
"Ok, but I''m not happy about it."
"And you think I am?"
"You seem awfully nonchnt to me," Ameliyn retorted.
"We have other, more pressing, matters to discuss," Refix kept the conversation on topic. "We need to meet with Kefira''s father, for obvious reasons, but also so that we can give him the information we just supplied."
"He should be done soon," Silfa said. "You can join us for dinner."
"That sounds like a good idea," Ameliyn said, absentmindedly patting Kefira''s hand.
She didn''t understand her own feelings, but she was warming up to this girl that had captured her son''s heart much faster than she had thought possible. She was looking forward to meeting the rest of her family.
Chapter 167: Dinner and Moving
Chapter 167: Dinner and Moving
The atmosphere was harmonious as the two families dined together. Someone had gone and collected the twins, Kailey and Riley, from their diligent work in crafting. They were happily getting along with Kefira''s siblings. They instinctively knew how to pull on the heartstrings as they stole Kefira''s "youngest child" position.
Reivyn had been surprised that his mother had calmed down so quickly. Like Kefira, he had heard the shouting match from down the hall. He hadn''t put two and two together until entering the room, though, as he couldn''t immediately recognize his mother''s voice due to the muffling.
Once she had spotted Reivyn, though, she had calmed down at once. She seemed to take to Kefira just fine, too. Kefira had been worried that she had left a bad impression on her when she had fled the first time they had met, but her banter with his mother had apparently lifted her opinion. Ameliyn was able to converse calmly with Silfa, and Refix was able to hold a conversation with her father quite easily, as well.
Reivyn had been a little apprehensive that his father wouldn''t have much inmon with Kefira''s father, but with the way they were getting along, he needn''t have worried. Reivyn sometimes forgot that his parents were raised in a simr environment as Kefira''s family. It only took a little bit of time to adjust back to the mindset of pce life. The years abroad had only broadened their horizons, not dampened them.
Reivyn felt as if he was finally able to fully rx. He treasured his time with Kefira, but there had always been that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something was missing. Those missing pieces were filled in now, and he was at peace.
Kefira picked up on his change of mood, and she kept smiling up at him, truly happy for his reunion. Neither one of them had ever thought that his parents would arrive out of the blue as they had. If they had known that transferring schools the way he had would trigger a System Notification, they might have been able to predict the oue, especially since Reivyn knew how capable his parents really were.
Ameliyn had brushed it off, but Reivyn understood just how expensive and manpower intensive finding the correct route in the time they had, much less making the actual journey, must have been. It was a testament to their wealth that they were able to drop dozens of gold coins on his sisters'' projects after the trip without batting an eye.
There was no awkward phase of his parents not adapting to the environment in the pce. Even his sisters acted like there was nothing unusual about eating with the reigning monarchs of a Tier 4 empire. They had been happy to learn that their potential friend was their potential future sister-inw, too. They hadn''t worded it as such, but everyone knew the intention.
Reivyn hadn''t dined with Kefira''s entire family on more than a couple of sparse asions, but this time the atmosphere was exceptionally more lively. It sounded like they were in amon mess hall instead of the dining room of the Imperial Family. Loud conversation andughter chorused out from the room, and even the attendants were affected.
"So, mother, what about my proposal now?" Kefira addressed Ameliyn. Ameliyn didn''t even blink at the address anymore. Kefira had taken the opportunity to smoothly turn her joke into how she actually addressed Reivyn''s mom.
"About the girls?" Ameliyn asked. Kefira nodded her head. "I don''t see why anything formal needs to be set up now." Ameliyn shrugged. "You can do whatever you want as long as they agree to it."
"What about housing them in my quarters, so they don''t have to walk back and forth from the pce and wherever you''re staying?"
"You want to take all of my children away from me?" Ameliyn frowned.
"We have guest houses," Kefira said. There was a glint in her eye.
"I''m sure Reivyn''s parents would want a little autonomy, don''t you think?" Silfa interjected.
"But Kailey and Riley are children," Kefira argued. "They''re still only Tier 1. They would need the presence of their parents for a stable life as well as easymunication. They would need permission from their parents for everything, and it just makes sense for them to be close at hand."
"I seem to be missing a vital part of the conversation," Silfa said. "Why are we bringing Reivyn''s sisters into the pce in the first ce?"
"Oh, mother, I didn''t have time to talk to you about it before everything happened," Kefira said. "The reason I met mother-inw was because of the twins. They have a talent for crafting, and I wanted to enter a long-term cooperation with them where we provided training and education outside of the Magic Academy."
"What kind of talent do they have that prompted you to seek them out? Do you have an example of their crafting avable to show me?"
Before Kefira could mention the flower crowns that she hadmissioned earlier in the day, pping andughing came from where the two girls in question were seated. The threedies looked down the table and saw that Trevor, Sophia, and Kayzor were staring at a little white statue on the table. It was a little man with a chef''s hat, and he was holding one of the salt shakers in his hands.
"What...?" Silfa began but cut off in surprise as she Observed the little man.
There was a strange, subtle aura emanating from it. Kefira''s three siblings were fascinated by the appearance of the strange cloth statue, and the five people involved didn''t notice that they had be the center of attention for everyone in the room.
"Darlings, what is that?" Ameliyn called out to her girls.
Kailey and Riley looked up and noticed that everyone at the table was looking at them. They perked up at the ability to show off.
"He''s The Head Chef!" Kailey announced.
"Isn''t he cute?" Riley asked.
Reivyn just sat back and watched Silfa''s expression. He knew that his sisters were unusually talented when it came to creating strange things, but he hadn''t seen them in a long time. He had no idea to what extent they had advanced their Skills. Most of the time, he had been away from them, they had still been too young to unlock their first ss, so there was only so much they could have done.
They hadn''t had the time to interact with each other more than the first double-hug they had tackled him with upon arriving, but they were having a grand time with Kefira''s siblings all on their own. There were plenty of opportunities to spend time together in the future.
"Is that... a napkin?" Silfa asked.
"Yup!" Kailey affirmed.
Looking closer, Reivyn recognized the fabric of the little construct. The girls had taken the cloth and pinched it and tied it in knots to create the shape of a little person. They had appropriated several napkins from those seated around them toplete their little project. Reivyn had no idea how they had managed to create something strong enough to stand and hold a salt shaker out of a couple of napkins.
"What does it do?" Kefira asked. "I can feel... something, but I have no idea what it is."
"It enhances one''s sense of smell and taste as long as they''re within range of it," Riley answered.
"Interesting," Silfa murmured. "Were the dishes not ptable enough for you?"
"Oh, no. They were delicious," Kailey denied.
"That was the inspiration," Riley added.
"They said they wished they could recreate the feelingter whenever they wanted," Trevor said. "They were reluctant to go back to nd meals."
Silfa exchanged a look with Kefira. Kefira just smiled back at her mother.
"I see," Silfa said. "Do what you want."
"Thank you, mother."
The evening meal continued in a lighthearted manner. The twins were a big hit with their excessive cuteness, and the attendants snuck themrger portions of the desert when they thought nobody was looking. It couldn''t escape Reivyn''s Divine Sense, and he imagined they weren''t doing it without permission, anyway, but the act of sneaking some sweets made it that much more fun for the girls.
Kefira and Ameliyn discussed bringing Reivyn''s family into a guest house on the pce grounds. The guest houses were on the opposite side of the pce as the individual residents of the Imperial Family. There were still a lot of small details for Ameliyn and Refix to hash out, but their housing situation was handled. They just needed to find amodation for the people they had brought with them. Having them stay in a hotel was no longer a viable option.
It was looking more and more like Reivyn''s family would be permanently moving to Willowan. They still had a lot of followers back in Garoq, and there were apparently several groups scattered about different neighboring empires, as well. It would take some time to relocate all of their people. The organization that his parents had built wasn''t made up entirely of loyalists from Vynn, though, and Reivyn suspected that many people who didn''t know the full story would choose to stay behind.
I wonder what Teilon and Kimberly will choose? Reivyn thought. Going from their Tier 1 Region all the way to the presiding Tier 4 Region was one thing, but traversing multiple teleports millions of miles away is something else entirely. He would respect whatever decision they made.
The only slightly annoying thing for Reivyn was now that his parents had a ce on the pce grounds, they demanded that he move over there with them. He had been getting away with staying in Kefira''s personal courtyard because all of the security made it impossible for any kind of impropriety to ur, and his position as an Imperial Liaison made him "one of her people."
Now that he had a family living within the pce, some of the excuses for staying with Kefira were now gone. He didn''t really have an argument prepared, and Ameliyn and Silfa both hidughter behind their smiles as they ambushed the pair with the demand. It wasn''t something either one of them had anticipated being an issue.
It wasn''t done out of spite to keep them apart. In the grand scheme of things, it would hardly do that, anyway. It was partly due to Ameliyn''s selfish request to keep her son closer to her for as long as she could, and Reivyn could hardly begrudge that of her after three years apart, and it was partly just the logical thing to do.
"I''ll just have to get up a few minutes earlier to walk over there for the morning training with Seri," Reivyn said with a sigh.
With his Divine Sense, Reivyn noticed his father''s ears twitch. Refix turned his head to stare at his son, a gleam in his eye.
"Did I hear the word ''training?''" He asked. There was a manic light to his face.
"No, absolutely not," Reivyn denied. "You heard wrong."
Kefira gave him a strange look. That was not the response she had expected. Reivyn was one of the most diligent persons she had ever met when it came to training, and he actively sought to increase his training time as much as possible. Denying such a thing to his father was thest thing she had expected.
"Oh, so you admit to your cking?" Refix quirked an eyebrow at his son.
"Uh..." Reivyn didn''t know how to respond.
"He''s been very diligent ever since I''ve known him," Kefira spoke up in his defense. "He''s been helping my cousin Seri to unlock and Level a bunch of weapons Skillstely in an effort to push her beyond Expert Level with her Swords Skill."
"Is that right?" Refix said, stroking his chin. A sly smile formed on his lips. "You know, I have some small experience with that kind of training. Reivyn''s going to be busy with those obligations everyone''s been talking about. How about I help you out? I can be responsible for the training of your courtyard."
"Wait..." Reivyn started, but it was toote.
"That sounds like a great idea!" Kefira agreed happily.
Reivyn put the palm of his hand on his forehead and sighed.
"Excellent, excellent! Then it''s official," Refix said, nodding his head.
Kefira had a happy smile on her face when she noticed Reivyn''s unusual reaction.
"What''s the matter?" She asked.
"Kefira," Reivyn said with a sigh. He gave her a forlorn look with a shake of his head. "You realize you fell into his trap?"
"Trap?" Kefira asked, taken aback. "What trap?"
"You''re part of your courtyard," Reivyn pointed out. "You''ve just agreed to give the responsibility of your training over to my father."
"And?" Kefira still wasn''t getting it.
"Do you think my Skill Levels got so high just because of my natural talent?" Reivyn asked. "There''s a reason I have a habit of always training so hard, and it''s not just because I want to improve. If I don''t keep up with my training, the demon will get me."
"Oh,e now," Kefira said with a chuckle. She brought a ss of fruit wine to her lips to take a sip.
"Do you think you should be drinking that?" Refix''s voice rang out.
Kefira paused, the ss touching her lips. Her eyes darted between Reivyn and his father. Reivyn sighed once more and motioned for one of the attendants as Kefira lowered the ss of wine hesitatingly.
"Water," Reivyn said. "For both of us, please."
Reivyn looked at his father''s predatory smile. His canines were on prominent disy.
Loud yelling startled Kefira awake. She couldn''t tell what words were being shouted, but it didn''t sound frantic or like anyone was angry or in danger. It faintly reminded her of her time with the volunteer army for some reason.
She quickly got out of bed and got dressed for exercise. Reivyn''s father had told her to be prepared to train alongside her subordinates. ording to him, it was right and proper for the master to sweat just as much as the servants, if not more.
It was still dark out the window, but now she was awake. She wouldn''t have been able to go back to sleep with all the racketing from outside, anyway.
Her house was devoid of any maids as she made her way out of her room and down the stairs. She walked out the door and headed toward the back, where her little training field was. Stepping around the corner of her house, she found her staff.
All of the maids were lined up in exercise clothing. They each had an implement of everyday work in their hands, and they were brandishing them like weapons. One maid had a cleaver and was repeatedly chopping it down onto a log that had been brought from who knows where. Another maid was holding a duster and stabbing it out like it was a spear.
"What?" Kefira was surprised as she looked around at the activity.
She spotted Seri chopping away with a hatchet, and Kefira walked over to her. Seri was moving as quickly as she could. Her arm was going up and down in a repeated fashion, striking another log with the de of the hatchet in the same spot over and over again. She was careful to use the same amount of strength for each strike, and she never let the de get stuck in the wood. Despite that, it didn''t seem like the cut was getting any deeper, no matter how many times she struck.
"Where''s Reivyn?" Kefira asked, walking up to her cousin.
Seri nced up at the question. Her eyes were wide and wild, and Kefira felt a sinking sensation in her gut.
"Faster! Faster!" A shout reached her ears, and she turned her head in the direction it came from.
Rounding a corner in her courtyard, Reivyn came running on all fours. There was a harness attached to his chest, and he was pulling a sled behind himself. Refix stood on the sled, brandishing a whip that he would strike out above his son''s head to keep him motivated. There didn''t appear to be anything weighing the sled down, but Kefira could tell that Reivyn was struggling to keep it moving.
"The enemy is at the gates, and you need to get these supplies to the front line!" Refix yelled, cracking the whip. "Move, move, move!"
Kefira could see the sweat pouring off of Reivyn''s forehead as he struggled to keep the sled moving. She expected to see deep ruts behind the sled, but there was no such thing. There was something off about the whole situation.
"You better find something to do before he finds it for you," Seri whispered, going back to her chopping.
"What do you mean?" Kefira asked.
"Hurry," Seri replied, not looking up from her task.
Kefira was bewildered as she looked around at the frantic activity. It seemed like everyone was giving as much effort as possible in whatever task they were doing, and she was the only one standing about. She stood out like a sore thumb.
Reivyn slipped on the cobbled ground, and the sled came to aplete stop. There was no sliding like one would expect from such a vehicle in motion. It was moving one moment, and the next, it was at aplete standstill.
"Ahh! Reivyn''s wounded!" Refix''s voice rang out. "Kefira! Come get your boy and carry him to the healers! Move, move, move! His life depends on you!"
Kefira moved automatically, not having time to think about what was going on. She ran over to Reivyn panting on the ground. She unstrapped him from the sled and picked him up over her shoulders. His weight staggered her. She should have enough Strength Stat despite being a Caster ss to easily carry him, yet she almost copsed to the ground when she hefted him over her shoulders.
Kefira hadn''t fully understood what the implications were for giving responsibility to Reivyn''s dad, but now she finally grasped what Reivyn meant when he had said she had fallen for his trap. She could choose to ignore Refix''s Commands if she really wanted to, but now that he had authority, she was inclined to do as he said as long as it was within the scope of his responsibility.
"Don''t just stand there; run someps!" Refix called out to her.
Kefira took some staggering steps, caught up in the rhythm of Refix''s training. She only took a nce back to see Refix leap out of the sled and approach some of the maids.
"You''ll never clean all the dust that way!" Refix barked at the maid with the duster. "Thrust, thrust! Keep your bnce! Clean that dust!"
"What kind of meal are you preparing?! Even slices! A quarter of an inch apart. How could you possibly have the face to serve something so embarrassing?"
"That firewood isn''t going to chop itself! You still need to get it stacked, and you haven''t even cut one piece yet! Let''s go, go, go!"
"Kefira, pick up the pace! Your man is bleeding out. You don''t want to be responsible for his death, do you?"
Refix continued to shout at all of the members of Kefira''s courtyard. Each person was doing their own thing. All of the tasks seemed to have something to do with the tasks that maids would perform on an everyday basis, and yet it was simultaneously intense weapons training. Kefira struggled to maintain a jogging pace with Reivyn over her shoulders.
"Why are you so heavy?!" She finally gasped.
"Gravity-infused weights," Reivyn replied.
"What?! What''s the purpose of that?" Kefira nearly screamed.
"My dad is a firm believer that one has to be exhausted while training. It''s more efficient that way. At least as long as you already have a foundation built."
"But you''re getting to rest right now?"
"Not really. Even without doing anything, an increase in gravity puts a strain on the body. He''s probably letting me recover just enough to begin training in earnest after you run ap or two."
"It didn''t seem like the others were exhausted," she pointed out.
"He was gauging their abilities, most likely. Also, he just hadn''t gotten to them yet. He was focused on me first, and I imagine Seri is next."
The two stopped talking as Kefira had to focus on her breathing. She didn''t know if the Gravity was tailored for Reivyn or her, but it was enough that both were struggling, and she had just started. She ran an entirep around the outer edge of her courtyard at Reivyn''s indication, and she dropped him off once she made apletep.
There was no time to rest, though, and she immediately joined the rest of her staff in the exercise that Refix had concocted for them. They had scuz brushes on the ground, and they were running back and forth, pushing them ahead of themselves. There weren''t enough weights to go around for everyone, so Refix had toe up with a way to put them in a position that would tire them out as quickly as possible while adhering to the nature of the training.
Having everyone run about in a posture that they weren''t used to activated muscles in ways that they were rarely used. Refix had everyone go through several rounds of calisthenics with variables added in. There wasn''t any exercise that was done in a normal manner that Kefira could see.
Reivyn had begun training with his weapons immediately after she had dropped him off while she and the staff continued to expend their energy. It wasn''t long before Refix determined that everyone was sufficiently "warmed up" before he had them get down to business in earnest, too.
He stalked behind everyone with his rod in hand, and he was liberal with "granting instruction." Everyone present, besides Reivyn, was at least Tier 3, and the strikes from the rod weren''t anything that would cause any kind of damage. It stung, but that was it.
Kefira''s courtyard resembled a recruit training field with a senior instructor prowling about.
"Dust is the greatest enemy of all time for a maid," Refix said. "Stab it! Kill it! Eradicate it from existence!"
"HaaH!" A maid screamed as she assaulted her imaginary foe with her duster.
"Excellent!"
What is happening? Kefira thought for the thousandth time that morning.
Chapter 168: Master vs Transcendent
Chapter 168: Master vs Transcendent
Reivyn stood with his sword at the ready, staring into his father''s eyes. Neither one made a move, assessing the situation and posture of the other person. Dried sweat beaded Reivyn''s brow. He had had time to recover from the exercises earlier. It was the first day his father was back to training with him like the old days, and the n wasn''t to get too heavy right off the bat.
His father wanted to evaluate every aspect of his growth. To that end, he had simply Observed how he trained in his usual manner. He came up with unique ideas to add to the calisthenics simply to keep things fresh. It could get boring, and he was also worried that the other staff members he was going to take under his wing, for the time being, would be put out if it was too tailored forbat.
His guess had been right, and with the mindset his antics had created, everyone had fun practicing in the morning despite it being something they typically never did.
All of that was over now, and it was time for a serious sparring session. Reivyn knew that his dad''s Skill was transcendent, and he was looking forward to seeing what his father was like when he let himself really put in the effort. For years his dad had to hold himself back, but now Reivyn had crossed the Master threshold of his Weapons Master Skill.
Both of thebatants were versed in a huge array of weaponry. Reivyn had his Weapons Master Skill which let him treat everything as a weapon, but his dad had his Weapons Prodigy Skill which let him use every weapon. They were more simr than they were different, though Reivyn''s Skill would apply to literally anything he wanted to use forbat.
Because of their Skills, even though they were standing off against each other with training swords, they had the other weaponsid out on the ground for easy picking.
A cold wind blew across the courtyard. Time seemed to slow as Reivyn focused with his entire concentration on the man in front of him. Without any indication, he moved.
A loud ck sounded out in the courtyard as Refix easily blocked the exploratory strike. Reivyn fluidly moved into the next strike, and Refix easily kept up with him. He didn''t counterattack just yet, allowing his son to maneuver his weapon around in various ways, seeking an opening. There was none.
Refix had a pleased smile on his lips as he fended off his son''s attacks. Some of the strikes were as straightforward as could be, but he also slipped in some unusual movements as well. Nothing he did could escape the cool gaze of Refix, though.
Eventually, Refix concluded his evaluation of his son''s offensive, and heshed back with a quick jab of his sword. Reivyn hadn''t let himself get caught up in his own offensive, though, and he smoothly transitioned into the defensive as Refix pressed him. He knew that his dad was checking everything out, so he also chose not to counterattack at this moment.
Refix was controlling his Stats the same way Kayzor had done so during their sparring session, but his dad was far more proficient at it. Not only was he more precise and seemed to match Reivyn''s Stats exactly, but he also had perfect control over his body, and he never identally let his grasp on his Stats slip.
Refix continued tounch strike after strike against Reivyn, and he easily fended them off. Finally, Refix revealed his transcendent ability, though, and it took Reivyn by surprise.
Refix''s sword came shing in at an angle, and Reivyn moved to parry it like all the previous attacks. Warning bells went off in his head, though, and he glimpsed something with his Divine Sense. It wasn''t anything visible. It was like an intangible force directed at him.
Even though Refix''s sword wasing in with a sh, the momentum behind it seemed to gather at a certain point in front of Reivyn, and with a chill running down his back, he trusted his instincts and adjusted his parry from fending against a sh to fending against a thrust.
Reivyn''s sword met resistance where there didn''t seem to be anything, and he knew that he had guessed right. Somehow his father had turned his shing attack into a piercing one without adjusting the trajectory of the strike at all.
Refix brought his weapon around in a smooth transition into an overhead swing. Warning bells once more alerted Reivyn to the difference, and instead of meeting the strike head-on, he stepped back and to the side. There seemed to be a weight to Refix''s strike, and it was like he had swung a giant hammer at him instead of a sword.
The match looked odd to those viewing from the side, as Reivyn''s actions seemed to make no sense. He would swing his sword about to block the wind, yet it would work. The observers could hear the connections made with the weapons, and they could feel the vibrations in the air.
A strange dance urred in front of everyone, and it took some little time for Reivyn to adjust to the rhythm. His Divine Sense was his saving grace as it was able to pick up the intangible forces his father created when he changed the nature of his attacks.
Finally, Reivyn stopped being so passive, and he counterattacked. He wasn''t able to do the trick that his father pulled off, though he was hopeful for the future. It seemed like the thing his father learned while training him was to mix up his attacks freely, and since he had already figured it out, it was something that Reivyn would be able to learn when the time was right.
The sparring session continued with each of the men attacking, parrying, and dodging in turn. Refix didn''t always alter the force of his attacks, but Reivyn was able to defend against it whenever he did. Refix had been a little surprised that he hadn''t thrown his son off his stride nearly as much as he did, though he had a happy expression because of it. He would only be proud that his son exceeded his expectations.
The match eventually ended when Refix''s superior Skill finally caught up, and he knocked his son''s sword to the side, his own resting against his throat.
"Excellent!" Refix praised.
"That was fun," Reivyn agreed.
"Alright, now with the other weapons," Refix dered.
Reivyn nodded and put his sword on the ground, following his father''s example. They both picked up spears.
A new match quickly ensued. They didn''t spend as much time testing each other out this time, and the fight started in earnest. Instead of focusing entirely on one weapon, the two individuals freely swapped to different weapons as the opportunities presented themselves.
They would strike and defend against each other with spears, then the next moment, one would dash in and switch to a more short-range weapon. Daggers met hatchets. Axes met hammers. Whips met spears. All sorts of weaponbinations yed out on the grounds.
The maids in attendance werepletely bbergasted and watched with open mouths. Kefira had a happy smile on her face to finally witness her man let loose against a truly Skilled opponent, and Seri clenched her fists in anticipation of one day mimicking the feat.
The boutsted several minutes, and even Refix was sweating and a bit winded by the time he clinched a victory once more. There had never been any suspense that he would be the winner, but Reivyn made him work for it.
"I''m proud of you, son," Refix said, pping Reivyn on the shoulder. "You''ve grown far more than I could have hoped for."
"Life and death situations will do that," Reivyn said with a smile.
"That it will. It pains me to know that you''ve had to endure those kinds of situations. It always will as your father, but I have faith in your abilities to get you home safely at the end of the day. I know you were holding back."
"Oh yeah? What makes you say that?" Reivyn asked.
"You didn''t use any magic," Refix said.
"You didn''t use any of your abilities, either," Reivyn pointed out. "I''ve seen your arsenal of incorporeal weapons before."
"Do you want to try your luck against it?" Refix asked with some anticipation. "I would be lying if I said I wasn''t interested in experiencing your fullbat power."
"Sure."
The pair once more faced off against each other. A bevy of translucent weapons sprang forth from Refix''s body. They circled him in a little tornado. Reivyn wasn''t to be outdone, though, and his body exploded with Mana.
He created a shield around himself, and he started the match off with a beam directed at his father. One of the shadow weapons intercepted the beam, and then there was a storm filling the courtyard. The bystanders watching had thought they had seen everything there was to see, but they were shocked at the disy of martial prowess now on the field.
Reivyn used his own Mana Weapon Skill to switch between melee weapons, now, as well asunching Spells at his father at irregr intervals. The arsenal of weapons controlled by Refix surrounded and assaulted Reivyn from all sides at all times, and he had to concentrate with his Divine Sense like never before to be able to defend against them.
Refix didn''t just let his floating weapons do all the work, though, and while the spectral weapons and Spells were thrown about by either party, they simultaneously engaged in fierce hand-to-handbat.
The fightsted a bit longer than the first two matches, but the oue was eventually the same. Refix managed to overwhelm Reivyn''s abilities, and the fight ended with a training sword once more against his throat.
"If my Skill Level with Arsenal was a bit lower, I might not have pulled the victory on that one," Refix said, panting.
"If a bullfrog had wings, it wouldn''t bump its butt every time it jumped," Reivyn replied with a smile. "Is there a limit to how many weapons you can control?"
"Oh, definitely," Refix said, lowering his practice weapon. "The higher my ss Skill, the more I can control. I have better control of them with a better grasp of my Domain, too, so it''s not apletely isted ability."
"Ahh, I see," Reivyn said. "Yeah, if I didn''t have other Skills that were tangential tobat, I wouldn''t have performed nearly as well. Can you do that little trick where you change the force of the strikes with your phantom weapons?"
"Not yet," Refix answered. "It''s something to work on."
"It really threw me for a loop the first couple of times you did it," Reivyn admitted.
"Really? It didn''t seem like it to me."
"Trust me, it did. It was one of those tangential Skills I mentioned that helped me see through it. If it were just Danger Sense, I would have known something wasing, but I wouldn''t have been able to react to it properly."
"So, what was the Skill that you used?"
Reivyn looked around at the bystanders. Kefira noticed his gaze, and she dismissed the maids to go get cleaned up and resume their regr duties. It was just Reivyn, Refix, Kefira, and Seri on the training grounds. Reivyn and Refix began to pick up the training weapons from the ground. They snagged a water skin each and took some sips from it, as well.
"Divine Sense."
Refix spit out the mouthful of water he had just taken. He wiped his mouth as he stared at his son in surprise.
"Divine Sense?!"
"I take it by that reaction that you''ve heard of it?" Reivyn asked with augh.
"Yeah, in those ancient records I learned from about Weapons Master and Prodigy," Refix said. "That''s a Skill that''s not normally obtainable without a Divine ss or reaching close to Ascension. Can you use Divine Mana?"
"Nope," Reivyn said with a shake of his head. "The Skill says it''s normally Tier 7, but because I can''t use Divine Mana, it''s greatly hindered and counts as a Tier 6.5 Skill."
"That''s interesting. I''ve never heard of anyone having the Skill before. Makes sense considering I''ve never known anyone anywhere close to ascending."
"You say it''s something that is usually only obtainable when one is about to ascend? How does that work?" Reivyn asked.
"As far as I know, there are two ways to Ascend: The first way is to initiate it when you''re strong enough, and the second way is to get so strong that the Realm kicks you out.
"When one initiates Ascension, the Divine Poweres down to transform one''s body and soul, altering it on a fundamental level. That change initiates the acquisition of certain Skills, and Divine Sense is one of them. Acquiring the Skill will break the mind if one''s soul isn''t strong enough."
"What about the other method?" Reivyn asked. "You said one can be so powerful that the Realm kicks them out?"
"That happens when one breaks the Level cap at Tier 8," Refix answered. "The end result is the same, but the method is different. One isn''t transformed ahead of time before Ascending. ording to the ancient book I found, the environment of the Divine Realm will also initiate changes to the body and soul by just being there.
"It''s actually harder to Ascend with that method, but the transformation is more easily aplished."
"I thought reaching the maximum Level was the only way to Ascend," Reivyn said.
"It is now because nobody knows how to initiate Ascension anymore. Communicating with Ascended beings doesn''t help, and if they did give the answer, those in contact with them haven''t said what it is."
"Well, I''m sure the answer''s out there somewhere."
"nning on Ascending one day?" Refix asked, eyeing his son sideways.
"Eh, it''s something to think about, though I wouldn''t say it''s a goal, necessarily. I just want to live my life to the maximum ability. I want to be able to do anything I want, and that means being as strong as possible. The world is so huge, and there are so many things to see. I bet the most interesting ces in the world are in the higher Tier Regions."
"That''s true," Refix confirmed. "The rules of the world can get... strange when there''s enough Mana density.
"So, now that morning training is over, what do you have nned for the rest of the day?"
The two had continued to clean up the training grounds as they had conversed, and they quickly got all the weapons put back in ce. One of the maids eventually came back out and started to sweep up the dust and dirt that had been kicked up by the morning workout. Kefira and Seri had gone in ahead of time to do their own cleanup.
"Kefira has the next couple of days off, and then it''s the weekend," Reivyn said. "I have this week off before I need to get back to training with the military units. We''re going to go explore the capital for a bit over the next couple of days."
"I would ask you to bring your mother and me along. We haven''t seen each other in years, after all, but I know that you guys have been nning this for a while. We won''t intrude on your date. That being said, you should definitely let us know about anything interesting that you find out there. I''m sure your sisters would want to see it, too."
"Don''t worry about that," Reivyn said. "I won''t keep all the good things for myself. We''ll also definitely n an outing for all of us next time. It''s not just me that needs to spend some time with my family. You guys need to get to know Kefira more, too."
"I must say I''m impressed with her so far," Refix said. "Her weapons Skills aren''t anything to write home about, but her attitude about it was. She neverined, and she stuck to it with all of her efforts. I know she''s a pure Caster, and the fact that she''s willing to devote time to shore up some weaknesses withoutint is a good sign."
"Yeah, we started training together with weapons way back when we were still involved with the invasion of Drallo," Reivyn said.
"What about that Seri girl? I noticed that she had arge spread between her primary weapon and a lot of secondary ones."
"I started her off with the intent of unlocking Weapons Prodigy like you," Reivyn admitted. "Even without that goal in mind, working on other weapons is a good way to breach thresholds with her primary weapon. She''s solidly at the Expert Mastery, but she''s been stuck there for a while. Not only will it help with her understanding of swords, but it will also help her defend against others that use those other weapons if she has a better grasp of how to use them."
"Exactly," Refix said. "You got a good head on your shoulders, and I don''t mean to intrude and take over what you''re trying to aplish. I''ll be here to advise if you need it, but you handling her training will also help you in the long run, as well."
"Yeah, I remember you saying that training me helped you breach transcendence with your Skill. I''m not there yet, but there''s no harm inying the foundation ahead of time. Who knows, I might not even have a bottleneck when I get to Level 100."
"Look at this cheeky brat," Refix said. He put Reiyvn in a headlock and knuckled his head. "You want to put all of my aplishments to shame by achieving the same things quicker and easier than me?"
"Face it, old man, the world belongs to the next generation."
"Hah! I hope you remember those words when theye to bite you in the butt in the future!"
The twoughed happily as they horsed around. Reivyn was no longer staying in the little house in Kefira''s courtyard, so he followed his father back to the guest house that had been provided for them. He would wash up and get ready for the day there.
"I hope you know that you could only ever make me proud," Refix suddenly said. "I will always be your father."
"I know, dad," Reivyn replied. "I wouldn''t have been able to do half the things I''ve aplished if you hadn''t pioneered them for me, too."
"Come on, there''s something you''ll finally get to see today that I know you''ve been interested in," Kefira said.
She and Reivyn were walking arm in arm, Seri trailing behind them. Reivyn hadn''t wasted any time getting cleaned up and dressed for the day, and he had met back up with the two girls at the entrance to the pce after a quick breakfast.
Silfa had provided staff to take care of their needs while they stayed in the guest house, but Ameliyn wasn''t going to let them take the opportunity to cook breakfast for her son away. Reivyn had devoured the meal with relish and thanked his mother for the delicious meal. It had been so long since he had eaten a home-cooked meal from his mother, and it had been everything he had anticipated.
"Oh, and what''s this thing I''ve been interested in?" Reivyn asked. "Why don''t I know it?"
"You will," Kefira said with a grin. "I''m not going to ruin the surprise, but you''ll agree with me once we get there."
"Fine by me." Reivyn shrugged. "I mean, pretty much anything in yourpany is something that I''m interested in, anyway."
"Sweet talker," Kefira said, sticking her tongue out.
The three made their way to the central part of the inner city. Reivyn no longer nced around in all directions to take everything in as he had been through the area several times. He still marveled at the construction of the amphitheaters where the Arena and Striker''s Guild were located, though.
His expression perked up as he noticed that they were headed to one such building, and he looked over at Kefira with a pleasantly surprised look on his face.
"That''s right," Kefira said with a nod of her head. "We''re going to go watch a bout at the Striker''s Guild. We''re going to the main theater, too. You''ll finally be able to witness what it''s like to have an entire team directing a fight."
"That is something I''ve been interested in," Reivyn acknowledged. "I''ve wondered how it works."
"Well, now you''re going to get to see."
They walked up to the ticket booth and stood in line. It moved quickly, and before he knew it, they were in possession of three tickets to watch the official match. It wasn''t just the one fight, though. There would be a lot of fights leading up to the main event. Reivyn would have plenty of opportunities to see just how a team could influence a fighter.
Scratch that. A Striker.
Chapter 169: Striker
Chapter 169: Striker
Reivyn looked up into the stands after walking through the long tunnel into the amphitheater. The theater was built into a depression in the ground, so they were halfway up the stands when they exited the tunnel. Despite it being during the week, the stands were full of people. The sounds of conversation and cheering washed over him. He scanned the surroundings to find an appropriate location to sit with Kefira and Seri.
The admission into the venue wasn''t for any specific seating. Most people had enough Perception to be able to see everything clearly no matter where they sat, but higher-level people generally sat at a higher altitude. There wasn''t any difference for most people, but simple courtesy had led to the unspoken rule. It wasn''t an absolute rule, though, as some people, like Reivyn, were there more for the entire package than just the fight.
Reivyn didn''t want to go too far away from the arena because he wanted to witness the team in action. There was practically no way he would be able to hear what they were saying over all the noise, but being close enough to watch in better detail was a factor he considered when looking for a seat.
Kefira understood his intentions and led him around to where she had spotted some open seats. Seri just followed behind, keeping an eye out on the other spectators.
"Does the Imperial Family not have a reserved seating area?" Reivyn asked.
"We do, but I figured you wanted the whole experience," Kefira answered. "Ironically, we would be able to hear the interactions of the team better in the booth. There''s a runic connection that filters out some of the background sounds from the crowd and allows for one to hear what''s being said down in the ring."
"Well, how about we just find any ''ole seat for now, then, and we can move to the booth when we get closer to the main event."
"Sounds good to me."
There was already a low-level bout happening between contestants in the ring, but other than having been scouted for their potential, there wasn''t anything special about them. Some people had connections, and some people just got a lucky break to be able to enter the more official venues to work their way up thepetitiondder. Reivyn didn''t know the intricacies involved in how one got the opportunity to fight in the main ring, but it really didn''t matter that much to him.
The more famous Strikers wouldn''te out topete for another hour, at least. In the time between, Reivyn intended to soak up the entire experience that most people would get.
The trio walked up further into the stands and made their way into the interior of a row. They had to bypass other spectators on their way. Most people were having conversations with each other and not paying too much to the action down below, but there were always some that were more interested in the sport and took every aspect seriously.
Reivyn plopped down on a seat next to an older gentleman with a younger man next to him. Reivyn supposed that they were rted, and the older gentleman was pointing out different aspects of the fight to the younger man. The younger man appeared to be just a couple of years older than Reivyn. He was intently listening to the things that his olderpanion was exining with a thoughtful eye on the fight.
"See how he leans just the right amount to avoid that jab?" The older man said to the younger. The young man grunted in affirmation. "Do you think a low Tier 3 Striker is experienced enough to do that so smoothly on his own?"
"Against somebody that he''s fought before, or someone who fights simrly, yeah, I would say so," the younger man said.
"That might be true for a very talented Striker," the older man conceded. "They do have a lot of practice bouts between a wide variety of other Strikers before they have official matches, but that''s not it. Those two down there haven''t been in the business long enough to ingrain that sort of reaction into their bones. I could believe that they could do so with their own abilities, but not to such a perfect extent.
"No, he has a superior Tactician. Look at the men in his corner."
Reivyn followed the older man''s instructions and nced over where there was a group of three people standing near the ring. They weren''t shouting and screaming advice to the Striker in the ring. They were calmly watching what was going on. The other side of the ring, however, was a different scene. There was a group of five people on that side, and one of them was jumping up and down excitedly, yelling something at the top of his lungs.
It didn''t appear to be effective. The opponent of the Striker in question seemed to hesitate at the advice given by the man jumping and hollering. The one who had dodged within a fraction of an inch was able to capitalize on the slight hesitation and countered with his own jab.
The man''s fistnded on his opponent''s chin, and he was further stunned for half a second. That was all it took for him to dash in andy heavily into the man''s body. He quickly disengaged and circled the otherpetitor. It didn''t appear that a lot of damage had been done, but that wasn''t the point of the Striker''s Guild.
Competitors in the Striker''s Guild didn''t normally fight until someone was knocked unconscious. Reivyn had done a little research, and he knew that it was more technical than that. The opponents were graded on their abilities tond and avoid strikes more than on how much damage they could cause. Everyone''s heightened Vitality Stats made it harder for someone to get knocked down in thepetition.
It still happened, of course. There were instances where someone was mismatched with an opponent or someonecked the Skills necessary to withstand certain effects that strikes to the head could cause. Even with 10,000 Health, someone could get hit in just the right way to ring their bell and knock them loopy. It was considered an embarrassment for that to happen to one of thepetitors, though.
"Look, he was anticipating not only the reaction of the Striker, but he was also taking into ount the distraction of the other man''s coach," the older gentleman said. "It seems like the tactical teammates are the real rookies here. Screaming and shouting in the middle of the fight isn''t going to do anything; you have to wait until the round is over.
"Calm, cool, and collected is how to be, not just for the Striker, but the entire team. Look how they just silently watch and take everything in. When the round is over, they''ll take that opportunity to tell their Striker everything they Observed from the opposing team. A good Striker will be able to digest that information and make use of it in the ring. Trying to give directions in the middle of the fight isn''t the way to go about it."
"Excuse me," Reivyn interjected. The older gentleman looked over and nodded his head, indicating for Reivyn to continue. "What sort of members make up the team on the sideline?"
"First time?" The older man asked. Reivyn simply nodded his head. "There are a variety of teammates one could have on their side. The one we''re watching right now only has a Strategist, Tactician, and Observer. His opponentes from a more well-funded organization, and he has a Trainer and a Healer.
"Trainers and Healers aren''t as necessary as having a solid Tactician and Strategist, but they can tip the scales in a close match. All the highest Tierpetitors have a full team."
"So I get what a Healer does, obviously, but what does a Trainer do? At least in the middle of the match?" Reivyn asked.
"The Trainer not only can help the Striker adapt their muscle memory more quickly to the advice given by the Tactician, but they can grant some small physical buffs as well. The one with the Trainer wouldn''t be quite as agile or quick as he is without him, but hisck of experience and distraction from his own Tactician is negating that advantage."
"I see, and why do you say advising in the middle of the match isn''t the way to go? What if somethingpletely unexpected happens and needs an adjustment right now?"
"Have you ever been inbat? Likebatbat, where a leader is giving out instructions in the middle of the fight," the older man asked back. Reivyn nodded his head once more. "Ok, and howplicated were the instructions given?"
Reivyn thought back to the first time he had fought in line when he was conscripted. All of the orders given were things that had been practiced many, many times. There weren''t any deviations from what any of them expected to be ordered to do.
"I think I see where you''re going," Reivyn said. "Things that aren''tplicated aren''t going to need to be shouted to the Striker in the middle of the match, and things that arepletely unexpected are going to be tooplex to direct on the spot."
"Exactly," the older man said. "It''s not the same thing as actualbat, either. There''s a certain mindset when one is in the Striker ring, and the fighters know that they''re not going to be in any real kind of danger. That colors how they act, and so does worrying about winning the match. If there''s a situation that throws everything for a loop, the better course of action would be to defend and wait out the round, regroup, ande up with a counter to the strategy.
"That tactician down there is either a rookie or too excitable. He''s only causing his Striker to make mistakes with his shouting. The other team, on the other hand, is simply watching and waiting. If you look at their expressions, you can see that they''re not surprised by anything that''s going on down there. I would bet that they even took into ount the other Tactician hollering and distracting their man."
"Is it even possible to n that far ahead?" Reivyn asked.
"Sure. They''re not just Observing the Striker. They''re Observing the whole team. If they noticed the personality or inexperience of the Tactician, it''s perfectly reasonable that they took his actions into ount."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said, nodding his head. "Then how about the fact that the one Striker doesn''t have a Trainer? You mentioned that his being able to dodge the jab within a hair''s breadth was due to his team, but that sounds like something the Trainer would influence."
"You''re right, but you''re wrong," the man said. "It depends on the situation. If it''s part of their strategy and tactics to bait the jab, the overall act can be influenced by the Tactician. If it''s not part of the overall strategy, though, a Trainer could aplish the same thing by helping the Striker understand the reach and speed of the opponent in general.
"The Strategist is like the general in charge of the overall situation, the Observer is the scout, and the Tactician makes the ns to match the two. My guess is that the Strategist and Tactician havee up with ns to guide the opponent''s actions subtly so they can make up for theck of a Trainer on their side.
"They seem to be much more experienced than a Striker of this caliber would normally have on their team. There''s a story behind it, I''m sure."
"You seem to be quite knowledgeable about the teams," Reivynmented. "Are you in this line of work or just an enthusiast?"
"I''ve dabbled in the past," the older man said. "My grandson here, Herrick, is interested in thepetitions. Not so much that he wants to select it as his ss and live his life that way, but not all of the Strikers or their teammates have the sses associated with it, anyway. If they want to spend their whole lives this way and make a living through it, then, of course, they would tailor their ss selection towards it. All the highest Tierpetitors and their teams have the right sses.
"If I had to guess, I would say that the one with five people on his team, only the Trainer and Healer are actually ssed for it, and the one with three members, they''re all ssed for it."
"Your words are pretty convincing," Reivyn said, stroking his chin as he observed the match down below. "My name is Reivyn, by the way."
Reivyn held his hand out to shake with the older gentleman.
"Renry," the older man said, grasping Reivyn''s hand. "I''ve already mentioned my grandson''s name." Reivyn shook hands with Herrick, as well.
"These are mypanions, Kefira and Seri," Reivyn said, introducing the two girls.
Everyone shook hands with each other and introduced themselves.
"I see that you don''t need to be a famous Striker to get the girls," Renry chuckled. Herrick eyed the two girls with Reivyn before returning his attention to the match down below. Renry elbowed him in the ribs, causing a blush to creep up the young man''s neck onto his face.
Herrick tried to ignore his grandfather''s teasing, and Reivyn joined him in watching the bout down below. Just because they were in their own world talking about the intricacies of Striker matches didn''t mean thepetition didn''t continue.
As Reivyn expected after the lengthy exnation of the teams involved, the Striker, with only three members on his side, was dered the winner after several more rounds. Each time the Strikers broke apart and started anew, he was able to lead his opponent by the nose. That wasn''t to say that he waspletely unscathed in the fight. He took several hits himself, but it wasn''t anything that threw him off of his strategy.
"You''re going to get hit no matter how good you and your team are," Renrymented. "Unless there''s aplete disparity in Stats or Skills, it''s unavoidable, and that hardly ever happens in the professional matches."
Reivyn looked over at Kefira and motioned with his eyes to the booth that she had pointed out earlier for the exclusive use of the Imperial Family. He leaned in and whispered to her.
"What do you think about bringing them along with us?" Reivyn asked. "They seem harmless, and Renry seems like he would be great at exining what''s going on in the upper Tier matches."
"It''s no problem for me," Kefira replied. "You don''t have to worry about whether or not he''s a danger, either. There are guards on duty whenever the booth is put into use."
Reivyn nodded his head with a smile.
"Hey, Renry," Reivyn addressed the older gentleman again. "We''re going to move to a booth for the higher Tier matches. Do you and your grandson want toe along?"
Renry nced at Herrick, who perked up at the mention of the booth. Reivyn could clearly see hope in the other teenager''s eyes.
"Sure," Renry replied. "We would greatly appreciate that, actually."
"Alright,e on."
Reivyn got up with Kefira and Seri, Renry and Herrick following behind. Kefira led the way up the stands to where they could ess the private booths.
"I''ve never been in one of the booths before," Renry said as they climbed the stairs. "I''ve been ringside, of course, but it''s been many years. I''ve always wondered what it would be like in one of the booths."
There weren''t just private booths for the Imperial Family and nobility. Regr people could spend money to reserve one, too. There were varying levels of luxury associated with them, and it was clear that Renry and Herrick were expecting to move towards one of the smaller, more basic booths. Kefira led them up to the top and turned in the direction of therger booths, though.
Renry frowned as they made the turn, and he nced at Reivyn.
"Are we going the right way?" He asked. "I don''t think..." His jaw dropped, and he froze in ce as Kefira waltzed past some guards and opened the door to the premier booth. "Umm, this is the Imperial Family''s booth..."
"Uh-huh, I know," Reivyn said. "Kefira here is a member of the Imperial Family."
Reivyn grabbed Renry by the arm and dragged him along to the interior of the booth, Herrick tentatively following behind. Seri didn''t show it on her face, but Reivyn could see the satisfaction in her eyes at their reaction.
Renry pulled free from Reivyn''s arm and grabbed the back of his grandson''s head. He shoved his grandson into a bow with him.
"Your Highness, please forgive us if we''ve shown any offense," he said. Reivyn could hear the trepidation in his voice. He wanted to chuckle, but he refrained from making fun of his new friend.
"Oh, rx," Kefira said, taking a seat on a couch. Reivyn followed her and sat next to her, holding her hand. "Lift your head up."
Renry and Herrick straightened out with some small hesitation. They nced around the booth nervously, taking in all the luxury they hadn''t expected to encounter.
"Renry, you don''t have to worry about it," Reivyn said.
"My lord?" Renry said, looking at Reivyn.
"I''m not a lord," Reivyn said with a smile. "Think about how we were acting just a couple of minutes ago. That''s how you should act. This is her personality."
"It''s true," Kefira spoke up. "Right now, we''re just on a date as a man and a woman. I''m not the princess; I''m just a spectator at the event. Just act normally."
"I''m not sure I can do that, Your Highness," Renry said nervously.
"I''m telling you not to worry about it," Kefira said. "Reivyn appreciated your expertise, and so do I. You''ll make this more interesting for us."
"Of course, of course," Renry said. "I''ll do my best to exin everything in the greatest detail."
"No, that''s what we''re saying," Reivyn said. "Just do it the same way you were earlier. Come on, let''s watch the next match."
A new pair of Strikers had already mounted the stage, and their teams were on the sidelines, ready to Observe and Strategize. Renry walked up to a seat with his grandson and started watching the match.
The sounds of the crowd weren''tpletely drowned out by the istion, that was part of the experience, after all, but none of the noise came through from the magic devices transmitting the words of the teams by the ring.
"I''ve seen these Strikers before," Renrymented. "The one in the yellow is a hard hitter, and he likes to corner his opponents and draw the matches out into slug fests. The other guy in blue is more versatile. He''s able to stand his ground in such a fight, but he''s more agile. If the yellow Striker wants to win this match, he''s going to have to trap his opponent. The blue Striker will have to avoid the corners. If he gets caught at the edge, it''s fine as long as it''s not a corner."
"I see," Reivyn said. "So then the teams on either side are going to try and figure out a way to do just that. The yellow team wants to get into a corner, and the blue team wants to stay away from them."
"Exactly," Renry said.
The match started, and it yed out the way Renry anticipated. The two Strikers were both able tond pretty heavy hits, but they were also able to withstand them easily, as well. Renry kept up a litany of exnations as the Strikers moved about in the ring. The blue Striker danced around the one in yellow, asionally exchanging blows with each other, and Renrymented on how the Tacticians on each side were trying toe up with ways to have them move the way each side wanted.
The yellow team proved to have the superior Tactician, though, and he eventually managed to surprise the blue Striker by bodily smashing him in the direction he wanted him to go. Once they were in the corner, the yellow Strikerid into the blue Striker, who was unable to get away. That one round was enough to secure the ultimate victory for the yellow team, as they were evenly matched enough that the blue team couldn''t secure an advantage.
"So if they''re so closely matched, was there any way for the blue team to win in the first ce?" Reivyn asked.
"Of course, if he had managed to stay out of the corner," Renry answered. Reivyn tilted his head in confusion. "The judges take the teams into ount," Renry exined. "If they manage to pull off their strategy, they get points for it. The yellow team managed to get a round in the corner to y on their strengths, so they got points for that. The blue team would have gotten the points for strategy if they had avoided it the entire match."
"I see," Reivyn said, nodding his head. "So the teams are even more important than just the performance of the Strikers in the ring."
"Exactly," Renry said. "Once we get to the level of the champions, we''ll get to see some great shows. This is still considered fairly low-level, and the strategies were quite basic. If this had been a championship match, there would be even more scrutiny on each individual round''s tactics."
"So, did the previous match not get bonus points for each individual round because it was low-level?"
"No, they did," Renry said. "Only because it was so one-sided, though. It''ll be hard to see something like that in the higher matches."
"Well, I''m looking forward to it."
Renry was finally able to rx after he got into the groove of exining the matches and the decisions the teams came up with. Reivyn greatly enjoyed having someone so knowledgeable avable to show him the light, and Kefira enjoyed Reivyn having such a great time. She wasn''t nearly as interested in the matches as Reivyn was, but just the sheer amount of fun Reivyn was having was infectious.
Even Herrick opened up and engaged in conversation with everyone. The atmosphere in the Imperial booth was quite lively, and the day moved on quickly. Before anyone knew it, the final matches of the day were being held in the ring below.
Chapter 170: Plans
Chapter 170: ns
"Now, this isn''t a championship match or anything, but the final contestants today are championship material," Renry exined. "They aren''t Champions yet, though."
"How do the championships work?" Reivyn asked with interest.
"Eligibility for the tournament is determined by these matches here," Renry exined. "Participation, growth, strategy, and tactics are all more important than winning a lot of matches. It''s never happened that I''m aware of, but it is possible to qualify for the tournament while losing every single preliminary match.
"There are two types of champions: Champions and The Monarch. Champions are graded against the ss standard. One has to make it to the final half of the tournament, and then the judges grade each match in extreme detail. If the Striker performs to the standard, he''ll bebeled a Champion for that season, even if he loses the match.
"This is another reason why supporting team members is so important. Take that first match we watched together. That Striker is still low-Level, but if he sticks with the team that he has and picks up a Healer and Trainer, he has a strong possibility of bing a Champion in a couple of years. Team members for someone bing a Champion, as long as they''re members of the team before the tournament starts, also get a Champion designation.
"The Monarch is the Striker who wins the tournament, and they''re always a Champion."
"I see," Reivyn said, stroking his chin as he took the information in. "How many contestants usually be Champions during the tournament? How easy is it?"
"It''s not easy," Renry said, shaking his head. "Out of a couple of thousand initial entries into the tournament, there''s usually only about 20 Champions. There''s no hard rule that prevents there from being more, but meeting the standard is hard, and it''s almost unheard of for someone without the specific Striker ss to achieve it.
"Not only that, but the standard is evolving. This year''s standard is going to be based on the performance ofst year''s, andst year''s was from the previous year''s."
"What are the benefits of bing a Champion?"
"Aside from being able to charge more money for tickets and getting a higher cut, the most important benefit is an increase in Experience gains whilepeting against other Champions. The System grants an Achievement and tracks it. Everyone wants topete against a Champion, even other Champions. Their time bes precious, and they can charge a premium. The Monarch is more so.
"Not onlypeting but getting training from a Champion will also increase Skill Leveling speed as with a talented Teacher. Champions are always incredibly busy, but every Striker lives to be one.
"Thest important benefit is the international tournament. Only Champions are eligible to go. It''s basically the same thing as the local tournament, but at a higher standard. Bing an International Champion improves the System''s benefits. It''s a round-robin tournament where everyone fights everyone, and Strikers participating in the internationalpetition usually gain at least a couple of Levels in a short period of time."
"I take it that the Champions are at least mid-Tier 4?" Reivyn asked.
"Typically," Renry affirmed. "Every now and then, someone in the low-Tier 4 range will make it, but it''s rare. Most people just haven''t had enough time to polish their Skills enough by that point. Mid-Expert Mastery is the bare minimum."
"Shh, shh, here we go," Herrick called over from where he was standing next to the ss.
Reivyn and Renry stopped talking and focused their attention on the ring down below. With his enhanced Perception and the runic connection to the sidelines, it was as if Reivyn was there in the midst of the action.
The twopetitors visibly stood out from the previous Strikers. It wasn''t just that their color schemes were moreplex, having more than one solid color for their outfits, nor was it their bodies which were well proportioned and spoke of a life of intense training. Their entire demeanor was different. There was a bit of swagger even when they were just standing still.
The Striker in the corner closest to Reivyn wore ck and gold with a sort of star pattern. His opponent wore blue and red. The red seemed to bleed into the blue, creating a sort of macabre visual effect.
The two Strikers charged at each other as soon as the match started, not wasting any time. They were very experienced fighters, and there was no need for them to test each other out. The Strikers on stage were a level above even the second-tostpetitors. Their bodies seemed to move and bend in ways that didn''t seem possible.
Fists flew, legs struck, and knees sought ribs. They didn''t avoid all of each other''s attacks, but their movements seemed to take these hits into ount ahead of time. The team members on the side were just as silent as the other professional teams had been. They were staring intently at the opponents shing in the ring.
"Instead of the Strikers testing each other out, the Strategists and Tacticians are doing so," Renry exined. "By having their Fighters go out and just assault the other right off the bat, the team members on the sidelines will be able toe up with an appropriate strategy starting the next round. At a certain level ofpetition, preparing an borate strategy from the very beginning just doesn''t make any sense."
"I can see that," Reivyn said. "It''s the same kind of thinking that any n will onlyst as long as the first arrow is released."
"I''ve never heard that saying before, but it makes sense to me," Renry responded. "Right now, we can expect to see the Strikers just unload on the other, and starting next round, there will be more rhyme and reason to their strikes."
Just like Renry said, the twopetitors alternated between going toe to toe and bouncing around the ring. They disyed a mastery of several different forms of fighting that others had specialized in up to this point, and Reivyn knew that they were just as good, if not better, than most of the previouspetitors that focused on one type of conflict.
There had been little in the way of active Skills up to this point, though there had been a few, now they were on full disy. Reivyn watched as the one in ck and gold appeared to manifest hundreds of fists at once, and they struck at his opponent in an endless barrage. It was impossible to avoid all of those attacks, and thepetitor in blue and red activated a defensive Skill. He ducked into himself, and a sort of barrier appeared around him. The hundreds of fists seemed to slide across the barrier as if it was slicked with oil.
As the multi-fist Skill of the ck and gold Striker ended, the blue and red Striker activated a movement Skill that saw him lunge instantaneously within the guard of the ck and gold Striker. He performed an upper-cut strike, but the ck and gold Striker had anticipated the move. His body bent at a 90-degree angle, and he struck out with his leg, taking advantage of the movements tounch a counterattack of his own.
The first match continued at a frenzied pace with strikes and counter strikes, dodges, and blocks. The number of maneuvers in the first match almost eclipsed all of the previous matchesbined. Higher Levels meant higher Stats and Skills. Not only were their base numbers much higher than the previous Strikers, but their fighting experience was much higher, as well. They were able to move about and strike at a much higher rate than those that hade before.
"And you said that these guys aren''t even Champions fromst season?" Reivyn asked, turning to Renry.
"Nope," Renry said. "These guys didn''t make it past the first half of the tournament, so they weren''t qualified to even be evaluated. Even then, we''d have to see more from their teams before we could guess at whether or not they have a shot at the designation this season."
"How would you gauge their personal abilities?" Reivyn asked.
"They''re at the threshold, there''s no doubt," Renry replied. "Without knowing how well their teams will direct them, nor how well they''ll be able to adhere to that direction, I would say that they''re just at the cusp." Renry looked over at Reivyn with a significant look. "There are over a hundred such individuals each season, but even so, only about twenty make it."
"Wow, I can see why you say it''s hard," Reivyn said with a chuckle.
Reivyn put himself in the shoes of the ck and gold Striker in his head. The Striker was performing moves that he had never attempted, but he could tell that he wasn''t quite at the Master level just yet. With a bit of practice to familiarize himself with his Pugilist Skill rolled into his Weapons Master Skill, he could see himself easily pulling off the moves. He would just need to learn them and practice them a bit for them to be second nature.
He shifted his mental focus and put himself in the other Striker''s shoes, as well. It was the same thing. Other than the specific ss Skills that they disyed, Reivyn didn''t have any trouble imagining himself performing any of the moves he saw in the ring.
With a bit of Mana Reinforcement, I think I would be able to keep up with their pace, too, Reivyn mused. Speaking of...
"I know you said that it was rare for people without the specific Fighter ss to make it to this level, but for someone that doesn''t have that ss, are there any restrictions on using Mana Skills?" Reivyn asked.
"It depends," Renry said. "Offensive abilities are obviously off-limits. Mana Shields are also a no-no. Most Strikers use Stamina to fuel their Skills, so adding another resource element to the matches wouldn''t be fair. That being said, in the rare case that someone is able to internalize their Mana to increase their abilities, they''re allowed to do so.
"The few instances of non-Strikers making it to being a Champion, they''ve all had the ability to cycle their Mana internally to give their Stats a boost. Stats aren''t everything, though, and it''s usually the Skill level that prevents them from making it so far. There aren''t many Adventurers or soldiers that specialize in Pugilism, after all."
"I''ve known a couple, but yeah, they wouldn''t be able topete at this level," Reivyn said.
"Are you thinking aboutpeting?" Kefira asked from where she was seated behind them. Reivyn and Renry turned to look at her. "I know you''re a Master Swordsman and Spearman, but I haven''t seen you fight very much with your fists."
Renry cast an appreciative look at Reivyn at Kefira''s statement. It was very rare for someone so young to achieve Mastery level in a weapon Skill, much less two of them.
"I haven''t practiced the moves that are on disy down there, but my Skill with my fists is almost on par with my Swords Skill," Reivyn said. Renry gave him a shocked look. Herrick quirked his eyebrows with suspicion. "With a bit of dedicated training, I think I could hold my own against someone at the level of thestpetition. I would need to reach Tier 3 and gain several Levels to make up for the Stat difference, though"
"Wait... what?!" Renry eximed. "You''re only tier 2? And you have three Skills at the Master level?"
"My dear Reivyn here is an officer in the Imperial Army," Kefira simply said. She left the statement there. Reivyn had said previously that he wasn''t a lord. Bing an officer in the Imperial Army without the backing of a noble family required one to have extraordinary abilities, so the statement spoke for itself.
"If you saw how his father trained him, you wouldn''t be surprised," Seri spoke up for the first time. "The two of them are insane."
"Are you seriously consideringpeting?" Renry asked after calming down for a moment.
"It''s something to do," Reivyn said with a shrug. "If I can get good enough to fight against a Champion, that would be even better. Without the time to run a couple of Dungeons, my Experience acquisition will be much slower than it has been in the past."
"You''re not the first amateur with such an idea," Renry said. "If you truly have the Skills to back it up, it shouldn''t be much of a stretch for you to be able to do so. If you don''t have mid-Expert level or higher, I wouldn''t rmend wasting your time.
"If you''re telling the truth, though, I can introduce you to a couple of gyms. I was nning on taking Herrick to one tomorrow. He''s not interested in being a Striker, per se, but he wants to explore the entire industry to see if something fits. Every good team member on the sidelines has at least some experience as a Striker in the ring."
"What about you?" Reivyn asked. "You said you dabbled, but you didn''t go into any specifics."
"I''ve participated as everything except a Healer in my day," Renry answered. "I had obligations that prevented me from taking the ss, though, so I never went professional."
There was something about his words that struck Reivyn. He couldn''t put his finger on it, but he suspected that the man wasn''t being fully truthful with how he worded his statement.
"Alright," Reivyn said with a nod. "Then, if you don''t mind, I can trust you to steer me to a good gym with a good team."
"I can do that, no problem," Renry said.
"I have other obligations with the military for the next month, so I won''t be able to dedicate my time to training," Reivyn said. "That being said, I have time in the mornings that I train every day, anyway, and I''ll have some evenings and weekends off."
"If your Skill level is already in the Master range, then you won''t need to do too much more than some specific training on the appropriate moves. You''re not nning on going pro or taking the ss, so it should be fine."
"Alright, let''s set it up."
The two ended their conversation and returned to watching the match. The first round had ended, and now the two Strikers were actingpletely different than they had in the first round. Instead of going all out and putting everything on disy, they seemed to be attempting to lead the other Striker in a certain direction.
With the disy of mastery over the types of fighting, it would be difficult to create too much of a difference. The biggest thing each team tried to do was lead the opponent into a specific style they could counter.
Reivyn could see the machinations of the Tacticians and Trainers at y. There were subtle differences in how the two Strikers fought against each other. Their strikes seemed to be more tailor-made for their opponent, specifically.
Even though the frantic nature of the fight had calmed down a lot, it wasn''t any less exciting. The anticipation of watching and waiting for a strategy to seed was just as fun. Watching one of the Strikers nearly fall for a ploy, only to spring their own trap to counter it, lead to a certain sense of satisfaction. Reivyn, especially with his history of leading soldiers on the battlefield, greatly enjoyed this aspect of the match.
As the rounds continued, though, one team proved to be superior once more. The ck and gold Striker was able to trap his opponent in ploys more often, and he steadily rued more points to his side. It wasn''t just that his team was a step better. Renry pointed out that he was also able to implement the strategy and tactics more easily than his opponent.
After fifteen rounds, the match ended with the ck and gold Striker winning with a decent margin.
Reivyn and those in the booth with him waited for a bit after the final match before leaving. Everyone was streaming out of the venue at the same time, so even if they left early, they would still have to meander in line for quite some time before they got out. None of them were in a particr hurry, anyway.
"So we can meet outside in the square, here," Reivyn said to Renry. "What time were you nning on heading to the gym tomorrow?"
"Probably around nine or so," Renry said. "That''ll give the members of the gym time to get into their training sessions so we won''t interrupt them, and it''ll be early enough that Herrick can get started on a full day."
"Nine sounds fine to me," Reivyn replied. "I don''t n on sticking around all day, though. I only have so many days to spend with Kefira right now."
"I''ll help you exin it to the owner," Renry offered. "If you can show your Mastery level, they''ll be more inclined to let you do what you want, especially since you''re going to be an amateur, anyway."
"Alright. We''ll see you, then."
With that, the group finally left the booth. Renry and Herrick separated to walk out of a different exit, and Reivyn followed Kefira as she led them to an exit that would take them to the other side. The day wasn''t over, and she nned on walking through the city a bit more before heading home.
"I knew you would be interested in watching the matches, but are you sure you want to try it out for yourself?" Kefira asked. "Do you have time for that?"
"Should," Reivyn said. "I don''t n on putting too much time into it. The allure of the Experience gains from fighting a Champion is definitely a huge enticement, but I''m actually more interested in the Strategists and Tacticians. Renry said that every good Strategist and Tactician has experience in the ring as a Striker. I see potential in tranting the Skillset to warfare. Right now, as amander, I''m able to givemands ande up with strategies and tactics, but the Strikers can bring those strategies and tactics into how they operate on a fundamental level. If we can imbue soldiers with that same thing, it could save lives."
"I can see how they''re simr, but they''repletely different things," Kefira said. "For Strikers, it''s multiple teammates affecting one person. For soldiers, it would be one or two people affecting hundreds of people."
"I know," Reivyn said. "That''s one of the reasons I want to get into it. I need to do some research, and what better way than to experience it myself?"
"You don''t always have to be thinking of ways to improve yourself, you know," Kefira said with a wink. "You''re allowed to rx and just enjoy something for itself."
"But this is what I enjoy about these things," Reivyn replied. "Plus, if I weren''t this way, I wouldn''t be me."
"And I love that about you," Kefira said. "I was just teasing."
The two, followed by Seri, made their way out of the Striker''s Guild amphitheater. The matches had taken up most of the day, and the sun was close to the horizon already. It hadn''t seemed like it was that long while they were inside watching the matches. Time had gone by really fast, but looking back on it, Reivyn could see how it took so much time.
There wasn''t much time to do a lot, so they simply strolled through the streets. They watched the people around them and conversed about the different things they could see. Business was still running in themercial districts, and it didn''t seem like it was going to let up any time soon, but Kefira''s family generally liked their children to be back in the pce near the time of sunset. It wasn''t a hard rule, and there were certain things to do that were only avable in the evening, but they weren''t out to do anything like that today.
They just had a leisurely walk through the crowded streets, circling around before heading back in the direction of the pce. There were no ns to have a banquet with the entire family, so Reivyn led Kefira to the guest house where his parents were staying. If Reivyn was going to be staying with them instead of the little house in Kefira''s courtyard, he was going to take advantage of the situation and have as many home-cooked meals from his mother as he possibly could.
That extended to bringing Kefira along. It wasn''t just that he wanted his girlfriend to experience the same great food; it was a good opportunity to continue building a rapport between them.
He also nned on exining his ns to his father.
Who knows? Maybe he''ll have some insights onbining the abilities of the Strategists and Tacticians, and he might be interested in exploring the field, as well. It would be a good source of Experience for his followers between delving Dungeons.
A n for maximizing Experience gains and Skill leveling was forming in his mind.
Chapter 171: Spark
Chapter 171: Spark
The smell of sweat permeated the air as Reivyn stepped into the gym for the first time. He hadn''t known what to expect, but he felt at home in the cozy little space. It wasn''t fancy like some of the interiors he had peeked at on their trek to this location, but everyone was taking their training seriously. That was something Reivyn could appreciate.
Refix stepped up next to him and peered at the different training contraptions in use. Everyone was moving about in concert, and it seemed like a well-oiled machine. Refix''s curiosity flitted from one training location to the next before he returned his gaze to his son. Renry had a smug smile on his face, and Herrick, standing next to him, was like a kid in a candy shop with his eyes wide.
"What''s your first impression?" Refix whispered to Reivyn. It wasn''t loud enough to carry throughout the entire room, even with enhanced Perception, but it was loud enough that Renry could hear it standing next to them.
"My very first impression is one of hardworking people focusing on their tasks," Reivyn said with a nod.
"And then your second?"
"There''s no stress."
"Exactly," Refix eximed. "Everyone is glowing with health. They''re all fat and happy. Nobody is wheezing or doubled over for air. Nobody is dragging their body like they''ve been put through the wringer."
"This is just the morning warm-up," Renry defended.
"Exactly my point," Refix countered. "They should be pushing themselves until they''re tired at each station. They''re so focused on their ''warm-up'' that they''re treating it like the training itself. I think these people have growncent."
Comcent. The deadly word. The bane of Reivyn''s existence. He couldn''t help but frown as he continued to watch the training.
Renry opened his mouth to continue to defend, but arge, burly man naked from the waist up to expose his scar-covered torso rushed over to the group standing near the entrance.
"I see frowns and doubt on faces," the man boomed out. Everyone training paused in their actions to look over at themotion before other staff members shouted at them to continue. "Are you displeased with my training methods?"
"Displeased is a harsh word," Refix responded, unperturbed by the confrontation. "Maybe disappointed?"
The burly man stared at Refix for a moment before throwing his head back and barking out a shortugh.
"Hah! You have a sharp eye," the man eximed. "Most people wouldn''t notice in the first ce, too dazzled by the unfamiliar environment, and the rest would shrink back from my intimidating stance. You looking for work, buddy? You seem like someone who could add some motivation to the ce."
"You can''t afford me," Refix replied with a deadpan expression.
"Hahaha! I guess not," the man wiped a tear away from his eye. He was truly filled with mirth at the interaction. "You guessed right. These people aren''t here to push themselves. But!" The man held up his index finger for emphasis. "These people aren''t Striker material, and they know it. They''re not here to be Strikers. They''re here just to get some experience before they work on bing a Strategist, Tactician, or other team members.
"The ones who have the drive to be a Striker are in the back."
"And you think not experiencing the same harsh training is going to give them the proper experience necessary to understand what it means to be a Striker?" Reivyn questioned.
"They have!" The man replied jovially. "That''s why they know they''re not Striker material. I don''t let anyone join the gym without spending at least a week in the back with the true Strikers. Those that aren''t cut out for that kind of lifestylee out here to continue their training. They help me lure in the unsuspecting novices." The man had a sadistic twinkle in his eye.
"Hah! Now we''re talking!" Refix gave his ownugh, pping the burly man on the shoulder. The man staggered under the casual p, and a look of surprise flitted across his face.
Renry nced back and forth between his old friend and Refix. He stole a nce at Kefira and Seri, and Seri smirked at him. He was beginning to understand what she meant when she mentioned how they trained together.
"So, Renry ''ole pal, is this your grandson you mentioned?" The burly man shifted his attention to Herrick.
"That''s right," Renry replied. "This is Herrick. Herrick, this is Trainer Duston. He''ll be in charge of your training from now on."
Duston vigorously shook Herrick''s hand, but he didn''t crush his hand with his Strength. He didn''t need to intimidate new recruits in such a manner.
"I''ll be sure to take good care of your grandson, Renry," Duston said seriously.
"I know you will," Renry said. "This here is Reivyn. We met at the amphitheater yesterday, and he''s shown some interest. He''s told me some interesting things, and I think you might enjoy having a student such as him in your establishment. He''s not interested in going Pro, though.
"This other gentleman is his father, Refix. We just met this morning."
"I see," Duston said, looking both Reivyn and Refix up and down with a critical eye. "And what about the two youngdies behind you?"
"We''re just spectators," Kefira said. "And we''re not going to get in the way. We''re only apanying Reivyn here today."
"If it''s only for the day, I suppose I can let you in the back when your boy starts his training."
Duston summoned Reivyn and Herrick to follow him over to the wall where words had been painted. He pointed at the words.
"Read our philosophy before we begin."
Reivyn looked up at the words.
"Suffering brings Character.
Character brings Determination.
Determination brings Hope.
Hope brings Laughter.
Laughter brings the Trainer.
The Trainer brings Suffering."
The words tugged at Reivyn''s memories. They had a familiar tint to them. It was the first time his Dreams of the Past had had a resonance in a long time.
"This is our training philosophy," Duston intoned. "We make everyone taste suffering, and through that, they build their foundation. We don''t just breed Strikers here. We build men. Comcency is a killer. I see that you understand," Duston said to Reivyn upon seeing him nod his head. "Thus, once one achieves the point that they''re no longer suffering, we must reintroduce it to build further upon the base.
"There will never be an end to training once you step through these doors. Even those who give up on being Strikers and turn toward being team members have to suffer in their own way."
"Excellent!" Refix approved.
"You ready, Herrick?" Reivyn asked, pping the other teenager on the shoulder. "Remember, pain is weakness leaving the body."
"''Pain is weakness leaving the body,''" Duston repeated. "I like that."
Reivyn stepped through the doors to the back with Herrick in tow. They opened their eyes to apletely different scene than the facade out front.
Kefira sat at the table and watched in amusement. The introduction of Reivyn and Refix into the mix had been like an explosion. They hadn''t done anything overt, but just their sheer intensity had sparked thepetitiveness in the others'' training. The tempo had already been really high when they had first entered the depths of the gym, but now people were literally scraping the barrel.
Kefira looked over and saw one of the Striker trainees have to be pulled out of the barrel of water. His body had copsed on him as he dunked his head into the water, steam boiling out from his high body heat from the training.
"I think this might have been a mistake," Seri whispered. She knew just how powerful Refix''s Perception was. She didn''t want him to overhear what she had to say.
"How so?" Kefira asked. She had an inkling of an idea as to what Seri was getting at.
"Look at him!" Seri gestured toward where Reivyn and Refix were doing their training.
Refix was perched on the back of Reivyn''s shoulders. He hade up with a rope from somewhere, and he had looped it around to tap against Reivyn''s side. That wasn''t the end of it, either. Reivyn also had another one of those sleds strapped to his body. They weren''t using anything fancy like Gravity-infused weights this time. Instead, there was just a huge pile of them on the back of the sled.
"Giddyup!" Refix yelled, pping his son in the side with his rope.
Refix kicked his heels into Reivyn''s sides to encourage him further. Duston stood at the end of the room with his arms crossed. Sweat dripped down from his brow that had nothing to do with the heat of the room.
The rest of the trainees had upped their intensity to match Reivyn''s, but most of them had already fallen out. They simply couldn''t keep up, but Duston didn''t show any expression of discontent. He simplyunched them into sparring matches at a quicker pace.
"I think father likes an audience," Kefira said with a giggle.
"You know he can''t hear you over here," Seri said, rolling her eyes. "You don''t have to keep calling him ''father.''"
"I know," Kefira answered. "It started off as a bit of a joke, but I like it. It makes me feel like our rtionship has gone a step further. I''m doing it for me."
Renry sat with them, bouncing his leg with nervous energy. He had already seen his grandson copse more than once. Herrick hadn''t built up the same amount of tenacity as the others; it was his first true day, after all. He had been thrown into a sparring session immediately, and once he had recovered enough after the short bout, he had once more been tossed into the maelstrom.
This level of hardship hadn''t been what Renry had expected, and he was worried that his grandson would be put off by the whole thing. He hadn''t quit yet, though, and that gave him some hope.
"What manner of demons have you introduced to my gym?" Duston said as he walked up to the sitting trio. "And you said that Reivyn is going to be a part-timer? I guess that''s a good thing because he might kill all of my clients otherwise."
"You''re loving this," Renry retorted. "I can see the glee on your face."
"I can''t deny that," Duston said with a sheepish expression. "Here I was saying thatcency was a killer, and it seems like I had fallen prey to it myself. I hadn''t even noticed that I had fallen into afortable rhythm, so thank you for that."
"Well, Reivyn and his father have led interesting lives, to say the least," Kefira answered Duston''s question. "Reivyn has been fighting in some form or another since before he was even 10. He got conscripted to a small County''s army because of a loophole in the requirements before he had unlocked his Tier 1 ss, and he''s been like this his whole life.
"His father was an Imperial Guard for a fallen empire. I''m sure he''s seen a lot of bad things in his life, and that drives him to push his children as hard as he does."
"He''s got more kids?" Duston had a hopeful look on his face.
"His daughters are crafters," Kefira shot that idea down right away. She couldn''t imagine Kailey and Riley thriving in this kind of environment. "They might be able to make things for your gym, but they''re not going to join it any time soon."
"Eh, two demons are good enough, I suppose," Duston said with a chuckle.
"Seri!" Refix''s voice boomed out to those seated at the table. "We skipped morning training for this. Prepare yourself!"
The rope that Refix had been using to whip his son came sailing out of the blue and snagged Seri in its loop. She was yanked up from her seat and dragged through the air toward Refix.
"NOOOooooooo...." Seri screamed as she was brought before Refix.
Kefira''s face went pale as she watched Refix instruct her to get started on physical training. She made herself as small as she could in her seat to avoid Refix''s gaze, but it was no use.
"Kefira! Do you want to fly, or are you going toe over here yourself?"
Kefira sighed as she nced at Duston and Renry. They simply gave hermiserating smiles at her plight. She stood up and made her way over to Refix, who had dismounted from his son.
Reivyn hadn''tpletely reached the point where he normally would when he was training, so even after his father dismounted from his back, he continued to drag the sled around. Refix took some time to get Kefira and Seri going on their exercise, and then he was standing in front of Reivyn.
Reivyn didn''t have time to think about what was going on when his Danger Sense pinged. He twisted his body and hardened his muscles to dodge and block some strikes that Refix suddenly threw at him.
"You always have to be prepared," Refixmented.
With that quick barrage of fists, Refix disappeared once more to run back to Kefira and Seri.
Reivyn continued exercising his body to deplete his Stamina. It took more and more to burn through his Stamina as his body got used to the hard work once more, but it was inevitable that he would get exhausted. He finally reached a point he deemed appropriate, and he disentangled the harness from his chest.
He jogged over to the sparring ring, not giving his body even a short rest of walking. He mounted the open ring with an instructor waiting inside, and he assumed a fighting stance.
His Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills had been steadily climbing, he could tell. They hadn''t ranked up yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He kept his focus and made sure his body was perfectly stable as he faced off against the instructor.
Theyunched into a furious bout, the instructor not much worse in Skill Level than Reivyn. He had the advantage of not being exhausted, but this was the point of the training. Reivyn used all of his Perception and Divine Sense to focus on his opponent, and he gave just as good as he got. The instructor didn''t pull his punches, and Reivyn could tell that he would have some bruisester if he didn''t use Mana Healing, even with his Regeneration Skill.
The instructor didn''t just fight him with his Pugilist Skill, either. Heunched the Skills that Reivyn had spied the professionals using in the ring the day before. A flurry of blows materialized out of nowhere, and it took everything Reivyn had to avoid and block all of the strikes. He paid careful attention to the man''s body as he released the Skill, trying to pinpoint how it worked.
The Skill was quite different aspared to his Elemental Weapon Skill he had intuited.
I must have gotten very lucky with that Skill, Reivyn idly thought. It was basically tailor-made for someone like me to pick up. Even figuring out how to manually activate Charge was magnitudes easier than trying to figure this Skill out.
Ever since Reivyn had seen Kayzor activate his Spear Skill during their sparring session, he had been interested in trying to replicate it and add it to his ss Skills. Seeing something simr from the Strikers the day before had increased his fervor in wanting to acquire the Skill. Being the target of the Skill was a lot different than being a spectator of it.
He used his Divine Sense to gauge the instructor''s body and Stamina usage. He would have to experiment himself if he was going to figure it all out, but he could get a baseline for how it should be done as long as he kept his senses open.
The instructor didn''t just use the fist barrage Skill, either. He also used the shield Skill Reivyn had seen previously. It was fundamentally different than his own Mana Shield. There wasn''t a speck of Mana in it, and yet it worked very simrly. Reivyn imagined it wouldn''t do anything against a Mana attack or Spell, but it worked very well against a mundane attack. He felt like his fists were striking a slick ball of ice as they were redirected to the side.
The sparring sessionsted quite a bit longer than several of the other trainees'', and even the instructor was beginning to slow down by the time Reivyn called it quits. The instructor ran over to the side where a Healer was waiting, and he switched ces with another staff member. He would need to take a break before he was ready to instruct more trainees after his sparring match with Reivyn.
Reivyn didn''t want to lose the feeling he had gotten from his Divine Sense when it came to the fist barrage Skill, so he immediately made his way over to a punching bag. He focused his mind and body and attempted to recreate the Skill.
He mentally grabbed hold of his Stamina and directed it like he had the Charge Skill all those years ago when he had been desperate. He directed the Stamina to fill his arms, and heunched punch after punch at the punching bag. He adjusted how he used his Stamina after each attack, and he was beginning to get a feel for how it should work.
Something was missing, though, and after several more fruitless tries, he realized that the Stamina shouldn''t just be directed into his arms. His entire body was needed to activate the Skill and pulled even more Stamina out of his reserves to bolster his stance and posture.
He was starting to get the feel for the Skill, but his body finally failed him before he was able to seed. He hadn''t been paying attention to his Stamina usage as it hadn''t been a real issue for a long time. He nced at his Stamina and saw that it was getting dangerously low. If he continued, his body would copse, and he would have to spend hours to recover instead of minutes.
With a sigh, he dropped his arms and walked over to one of the water barrels. There was a steady stream of trainees dunking their heads into the water, and staff members made sure to change the water out with clean water after every usage. There were plenty of barrels avable for everyone that nobody had to wait, though, and Reivyn immediately dunked his entire upper body into the water of one.
Steam rose from the barrel, and he yanked his head out of the water after just a moment. Water went sailing through the air, and his body was already starting to dry from the residual body heat radiating off of it.
"ss Skills aren''t something most people can pick up right away," Refix''s voice reached his ears. He looked over to see his father was also using one of the water barrels.
At some point, Refix had stopped acting as a motivator and had picked up his own exercise. Reivyn had been too engrossed in his own training that he hadn''t noticed, but he nced up to see another instructor had taken a ce with the Healer to recover from a sparring session.
"Don''t get discouraged because you didn''t pick it up right away," Refix continued. "It''ll be more Stamina intensive to figure it out than when you actually use it, so you''re bound to end in failure a couple more times as long as you''re doing it while already tired from all the exercise."
"Yeah, I''m not discouraged," Reivyn said. "If I hadn''t already figured out how to manually use my Stamina to activate a Skill, I might have a lot more trouble figuring this out, but I think it''s only a matter of time. Time and repetition."
"That''s my boy," Refix said, pping Reivyn on the shoulder with a smile. "To be fair, I''ve never seen anyone else pick up a ss Skill for another ss so easily. I can already tell that you''ve made a lot of progress on it."
"I''ve had a lot of time to think about it," Reivyn answered. "I saw Kayzor use a simr Skill with his spear months ago. I''ve been thinking about it since then. Having someone use it on me again with their fists while I was paying attention really helped, too."
"Well, now that we''ve gotten the first bit of training out of the way, let''s head over to the instructor that''s teaching the proper way to use the moves youck," Refix said. "That''s one of the main things you wanted to work on, am I right?"
"Yeah, I''ve noticed that I''ve gotten a bit of tunnel vision from using my sword all the time," Reivyn said as they made their way over to a different part of the training room. "I hadn''t really thought about it too much because my Skill was still improving, but it''s slowed down a bit. I think if I shore up the foundations of the other weapons with specific maneuvers, I should be able to Level up the Skill at a quicker rate once more."
"I don''t know to be proud or depressed at that statement," Refix said. "It took me ten years longer to get to where you are, and you''re talking about increasing your speed even more. Don''t let anyone else know about it, or they might just quit life from the depression."
"I''ve never been one topare myself to others too much," Reivyn said. "I know that my Skill Levels are much higher than my contemporaries, but I''ve never really paid attention to just how much higher. I usually fight against people an entire Tier ahead of me, after all."
"Well, to put things in perspective, Seri just reached Tier 4, right?" Refix asked. Reivyn nodded his head. "And she had just gotten past the Expert Mastery level for Swords before reaching Tier 4. She''s considered to be extremely talented." Refix gave him a serious look. "Most people don''t reach Level 50 in their primary Skills until close to mid-Tier 4. You''re ten Levels away from Tier 3 and already well past Master level.
"It''s unheard of."
"I wonder what would happen if I reach Transcendence before reaching Tier 3?" Reivyn idly mused.
Refix pinched his nose with a sigh.
"Only my son would say something like that seriously," he said. "Most people would be talking about a myth or legend in that context. I''m sure it''ll do wonders for your avable Tier 3 sses, but that''s something to think aboutter. Come on, let''s go learn those Pugilist moves."
Reivyn returned his focus to the present. Refix wasn''t just leading him over to drop him off, he was going to participate as well. He had a different Skill than Reivyn, but it was quite simr. It would do him a lot of good to focus on abat style he wasn''t used to, as well.
Chapter 172: Interlude: The Bored Princess
Chapter 172: Interlude: The Bored Princess
Aerie held the sword up in front of her. She frowned at the shining de before tossing it to the side in disgust. She lifted her hand and sted the group of people who had been sparring with her away. They cartwheeled through the air, blood spraying in their wake.
"Ugh, none of them are good enough," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
She turned and stomped out of the training grounds. She walked into the open air, not even paying attention to the breathtaking scenery around her. She was focused on her journey across the bridges spanning the floating inds. There were crystal clear streams forming waterfalls, falling from one sky ind to another until they ultimatelynded on the ground far below.
The pce she resided in wasn''t a monolithic structure; it was hundreds of buildings built atop the floating inds found in the Tier 6 Region they had built their capital in. The Capital city was down below, but it wasn''t a problem to travel between the pce and the surface. There weren''t just bridges spanning the distance between the inds. There were short-distance teleports that allowed one to travel up and down quickly.
If the pce was built traditionally on the surface like so many of the Tier 4 empires, it could take several hours to traverse the entire grounds. As it was with the ease of movement afforded by the bridges and teleportation circles, one could get to their destination within minutes, no matter where one started or ended.
Rainbows formed in the air where the waterfalls fell to the earth. There was a runic system implemented to keep the streams going in perpetuity. The base design mimicked a simple water fountain, but it incorporated Space Runes to send the water from the ground to the top of the inds in the sky.
The stones were baster and shone in the sun, and the bridges had a clear strip of magically hardened ss in the center to allow for one to appreciate the view. It was also a test of will for those new to the pce. Aerie had grown up in the pce, so she had never known anything different, but some new servants weren''t able to handle standing miles above the ground with seemingly nothing below them. Those individuals were quickly sent back to the surface in shame.
All of the servants and staff members in the pce were natives of the Tier 6 Region, with the "6" branded on their foreheads. Aerie ignored those she passed that got down on all fours to bow to her as she walked by. It was easy to ignore them when she had spent her entire life living with such etiquette. Nobody with a brand would dare to look her in the face.
She stomped across several bridges and through several teleport circles until she reached the apex of the floating inds. Her imperial father didn''t upy the highest point of the pce. That honor was left to the elders, one of which was her master.
She mastered her frustration as she neared the doors to her master''s abode. It wouldn''t do to walk through with an improper attitude. She wasn''t in the mood to add punishment to her already bad mood.
She took a deep breath as she paused in front of the heavy double doors, but a voice called out for her to enter before she could lift her hand to knock. She grabbed a hold of the door and pushed it open.
The interior of her master''s quarters, while made out of grand materials, was bare and sparse. He didn''t believe in surrounding himself with luxuries more than what the building was made out of. That didn''t mean he led the life of an ascetic. He just didn''t allow himself to get distracted from his own mission: constantly improving himself and the talented scions of the empire. All of the gold, silver, and gems dotting the room were nothing more than mere medals and decorations.
He was seated on some cushions in the middle of an open room. They weren''t there for hisfort. They were magically imbued to increase his Mana Absorption and other Mana Skills while Meditating. Aerie gave a steep bow as she entered the room before walking up and taking a seat in front of her master on a mat.
"I can sense your frustration," her master intoned. "Were the sword-ves not up to your standard?"
"Of course not!" Aerie said before she could regain herposure. "Forgive me; I didn''t mean to snap, Master. It''s just been so long, and all of the searching has been fruitless."
"You should just stick to training with the masters," her master said.
"I know that that is the way to improve my Skills the quickest, but improving my Skills as fast as possible isn''t everything," Aerie said. "There''s something inauthentic about it. If I can get someone who''s even within a decade of my age that has the same Skill Level as that boy, I feel like I''ll be able to spur myself on better. Being able topete against someone who''s clearly more talented will ignite the drive that I''mcking.
"I''m getting bored, but I don''t want to stop. It''s a conundrum."
"Why not just take a couple of regiments and bring their empire into the fold?"
"That''s not what I want to do. It would feel cheap. If their empire is subdued naturally, then, of course, I would go and retrieve them, but I don''t want to target their empire just for those two people. There are better things to spend our resources on."
"Anything that makes you improve quicker is a good use of resources," her master replied. "Speaking of, I still need you to bring that girl to me. You said you detected both Space and Time Mana in her Spells. She''s a talent that''s worthy of elevation, and I''m the only one that could teach her."
"I know, Master. If nothing else, I''ll simply go by myself to invite them here for an extended stay. It''s not unheard of, and maybe they''ll even agree to stay on their own ord."
"That''s an option, and it wouldn''t hurt to try. Just be careful that they don''t have some sort of resentment toward you from the actions of your subordinates in that dreadful desert. People from the lower Regions are strangely attached to their perceived freedom."
"I don''t think they have anysting anger toward me," Aerie said after some thought. "I did what I said I would do in freeing the workforce, and I didn''t go out of my way to hurt anyone. I''m sure they''ll see things my way as long as I can exin it properly."
"That being said, how does your training go?"
Aerie sighed.
"My Magic training is still progressing apace, but my Swords Skill is slowing down. Even with the greatest de masters of the empire at my disposal for training, I don''t have the motivation. I''ve stalled out at Level 71."
"Have you considered the other scions?" Her master asked.
"Don''t even mention them," Aerie scoffed. "I''ll be lucky to find any around my age that''s barely above the Expert Level."
"I didn''t mean sparring against them," her master shook his head. "I meant teaching them. It''s well known that when one stalls out, teaching others is a way to spur growth."
"I would have to find someone worthy first," Aerie said. "I''m not going to waste my precious time instructing a lout just for my own Skill growth. They will have to deserve it."
Aerie was the most talented young scion in the empire. She had grown up constantly being extolled about her greatness and her destiny. Even with her arrogant attitude that had been bred from such a lifestyle, she was still mostly amicable. She just didn''t suffer fools, which she considered most of her contemporaries. She got along much better with her older siblings and cousins.
Her oldest brother was over a hundred years her senior, and he had long since reached Transcendence in his Swords Skills and multiple Affinities. He had beenuded as the most talented son in generations until Aerie had been born. He had never shown any resentment towards her talent, and he even took time out to help her train on asion.
The mission of their people didn''t allow them to squabble over something so petty.
There was only so much time, though, and he had his own life to live. Her other siblings weren''t as powerful as he was, but she still got along with the older ones. Getting down to the siblings that were only twenty or so years older than her, though, and she couldn''t be bothered. It wasn''t entirely Aerie''s personality, either. She had thirty siblings, and the ones closest to her in age were allzy, rtively speaking.
At least in Aerie''s eyes.
They could be focused on improving the way she was, and if they hit a bottleneck, they could also do what she had done. She had scoured the Realm for any kind of boost she could acquire, and after years and countless man-hours spent on the ordeal, she had discovered an interesting monster in the depths of a lowly Tier 3 Region.
Subduing the creature wasn''t just to gain a powerful pet. After building up a certain amount of rapport, she would be able tomunicate and delve into the monster''s mind and memories. Tier 7 monsters were almost universally sapient, especially ones that had reached that stage through effort instead of birthright. Being able tomunicate with their minds would open up a whole new avenue of advancement for Aerie.
Her siblings had never even considered the possibility. To them, traveling to a lesser Region was beneath them. Even after Aerie had disyed her Tier 7 monster that she had acquired from such a lowly ce, it hadn''t spurred any ideas in her immediately older siblings.
"I''m sure you can find a few if you look hard enough," her master said. "Isn''t that your thing? If you can''t find someone worthy of your time in the nobility, maybe you could expand your search to the established, non-noble families. Wouldn''t that Reivyn and Kefira fall into that category, anyway. In fact, they would be in a category below that."
"I suppose," Aerie said, twirling her pink hair with her finger. "I''ll have to get my attendants to do the searching. I don''t have the time for it. Maybe they can set up some sort ofpetition."
"That''s not a bad idea," her master said. "Even if you don''t find anyone worthy through the effort, just witnessing such a spectacle might give you the motivation you''re looking for. Witnessing the struggle of others might be what you need. You''re quite sheltered up here in the pce."
"Alright, it''s decided then," Aerie said, standing up. She gave another deep bow. "I''ll have my attendants form apetition for the mortals below while I check out some of the lesser nobility myself, and if all of that still proves fruitless, I''ll go on a journey to meet with Reivyn and Kefira directly."
"Good, I''m d you were able to set your mind at ease with a direction. Go with my blessing."
"Thank you, master."
Aerie left her master''s domain, her spirits lifted. Her master had always been like that. He didn''t force her to do things his way. He listened to what she had to say and led her in a certain direction with conversation and simple suggestions. He was the most honorable elder in the empire and, thus, the greatest master one could find, but he wasn''t the right fit to teach people directly.
Like he had said about Kefira, his specialtyy in Space/Time. It wasn''t nearly as rare in the higher Regions as those in the lesser Regions assumed, though it was still very rare. Her master had lived for several thousand years at this point, and he had only met one other person with the Space/Time Affinity in all those years, and that person had been his master.
He had a lot of apprentices to whom he taught Space and Time individually to, but they weren''t the scions of the empire. They were the teachers of the scions. He only epted a few direct disciples, Aerie being one. He used his connections and status to help her grow more than his own abilities.
That wasn''t to say that he didn''t give her teachings directly from time to time. Those lessons were more on how to live as a person, though, and not focused on the intricacies of Magic. His Level was so far above Aerie''s that it didn''t make sense for him to teach her yet. He would let his apprentices do so until she reached a point where they couldn''t anymore.
Aerie had a pep in her step that had been missing after her Swords training session. She was done with her physical training for the day, so she simply went for a walk within the pce grounds. Eventually, she stumbled across a gathering of other young nobles in a garden.
She walked up with a smile on her face, and all of the other nobles gave her a quick bow at her approach. Each of the young nobles had a "6" tattooed on their hands. The style and cement of the marks were indicative of one''s status in the empire.
The Imperial Family had a bold tattoo on their necks. Rtives of the imperial family had the marks on the backs of both of their hands. Dukes and Marquises had the mark on their right hands, and Counts and Barons had the marks on their left hands. Commoners had the brand mark on their foreheads like everyone from the Tier 5 Regions and below. Even the monarchs of a Tier 5 Region had a brand mark on the forehead, though they were in the habit of outlining it in ink to set them apart from their subjects.
"What''s everybody doing?" Aerie asked in a pleasant tone.
She could see the nervousness on the faces of several of the nobles, and she immediately dismissed them from her mind. If they were too caught up in such things, they weren''t worthy of her. She had approached them, after all, and that should have been enough to put them at ease. She wasn''t bloodthirsty in the sense that she would wantonly destroy the lives of the young nobles for some perceived slight.
"Replying to the Princess, we were simply rxing while watching the flowers," one of the young men said. He met her gaze, and his own didn''t waver.
Her estimation of the young man went up a slight notch, though she still didn''t have any idea who he was.
"What''s so special about the flowers you were watching?" Aerie asked.
"Oh, these ones only bloom once a year," a youngdy piped up. "We don''t have the status to stroll through the more restricted gardens, so this is the rarest spectacle we can see, and it just so happens to be the time for them to bloom.
"I see," Aerie replied. She wasn''t that interested in the subject.
"Does the Princess care to join us?" The first young man asked. He stepped back to make way for Aerie to enter their circle if she so chose. "There are things one can learn from observing nature. Even though these gardens aren''t the most valuable, there is still beauty to behold. Everything has its time and ce."
"''Everything has its time and ce,''" Aerie parroted.
A thought struck her at the young man''s words.
I''ve been so caught up in forcing the issue with my Swords training that I''ve lost the drive to work on it, she thought. There''s a time and ce for it, though, and I should let nature take its course. This young man has given me some unexpected wisdom.
"What''s your name?" Aerie focused her entire attention on the young man.
He wasn''t particrly handsome, in Aerie''s opinion, but her opinion was colored by her impression of Reivyn. The young man was around the same age as her love, but he was much shorter. He had short-cropped ck hair, and his face had no stubble to speak of. She liked a more rugged look on her man, but she wasn''t romantically interested in the scion standing before her.
"Replying to the Princess, this one''s name is Sukai," the teenager responded.
"What''s your Swords Skill?"
"Replying to the Princess, this one''s Swords Skill is 61."
"How old are you?"
"Replying..."
"Hey, stop it," Aerie interrupted him. "Just speak naturally. I''m the one that came to you."
"Is that... is that alright?" Sukai hesitated for the first time.
Aerie rolled her eyes.
"I''m saying it is," she said. "If it makes you feel better, you can use formal speech when any of my siblings or higher-ranked nobles are around, but when it''s just us, you can speak informally."
"Uh..." Sukai nced around at the throng of other youngsters standing around. They were very clearly not "just us" at the moment.
"Don''t worry about them," Aerie dismissed all the other young nobles. "None of them had the balls to speak up when I came to you... Well, except for that youngdy," Aerie nodded her head to the girl that had mentioned the flowers blooming. "She''s alright, I guess. None of the others are worth your time, though."
Aerie nearlyughed at the look of conflict on the young man''s face. He was obviously friends with the lot of them, and Aerie had just said none of them were of any importance. That might be true in her world, but he was their peer. Aerie wasn''t aiming to alienate him from his friends; she was just trying to tweak his mindset for what she had nned.
"Anyway, your age?" Aerie prompted him.
"Oh, right. I''m seventeen," Sukai answered.
"Excellent!" Aerie pped her hands. "We''re the same age. It''s decided then. You''ll follow me after we watch the flowers bloom, and I''ll teach you Swordsmanship. That other girl, what''s your name?" Aerie turned to the other youngdy.
"Macy, Your Highness," she answered.
"That other girl, Macy, cane with us."
"Umm, I don''t use the Sword, Your Highness," Macy hesitantly said.
"What did I say?" Aerie leveled a re at the youngdy.
"That I could go with you?" She asked more than answered.
"Then that''s that. The two of you will follow me from now on."
"Yes, Your Highness," Sukai and Macy both responded with a bow.
He has the backbone necessary, and his Skill Level is higher than his contemporaries, though still quite weak, Aerie thought. I shouldn''t cancel my ns of having my servants host apetition in the capital down below just because I happened to immediately stumble across someone who might be worthy of my time. Maybe teaching more than one could give some added benefit?
She hadn''t necessarily approached the group of youngsters to fulfill her goal right away. She had approached them on a whim because she had just been happy. That being said, when she was focused on a goal, she could and would go after it with all her might.
Aerie stood around without entering the center of the circle of friends. She hung back a bit, closer to Sukai than any of the others, but she didn''t engage in conversation. After a few minutes, the others seemed to forget about her presence and began to talk amongst themselves again.
They didn''t have to wait long for the flowers in question to bloom. It was preceded by an umtion of Mana in the already dense atmosphere. A light surrounded the bulbs, and they slowly unfurled to reveal a rainbow of colors. They were all the same species of flower, but none of them were alike. Some were deep shades of a single color. Some had a smattering of different colors at random. Some had the entire range of the rainbow.
Thick, fat bees seemed to materialize out of nowhere, having sensed the new flowering buds. They flitted from flower to flower, pollinating the nts and feeding on the Mana-dense nectar. Aerie watched the spectacle with an air of indifference, but even she was pleased with the beautiful sight. She just wouldn''t show it on her face.
She let her new followers spend some more time with their friends, extolling the virtues of the flowers. When the conversation deviated from the topic, Aerie finally interrupted the group.
"Is that all, then?" She asked.
Sukai, Macy, and the others paused their conversation and looked back to the forgotten Princess.
"Yes, Your Highness," Sukai answered.
"Good, then let''s be off. We have much more fun things to do than watch some nts and insects."
She strode off toward her own quarters. She didn''t nce back to make sure they followed her instructions. She had already been more than amodating in waiting for them, and they wouldn''t dare to not listen to her.
We''ll see how this goes, Aerie thought. I doubt he''ll make a decent stand-in for Reivyn, but it should be better than the sword-ves. I might have to make that trip to their empire regardless of whether or not I find what I''m looking for.
Chapter 173: Mana Lessons
Chapter 173: Mana Lessons
"You know, I''ve been thinking about this, but what''s the deal with these engagement requests to Kefira?" Ameliyn asked.
Reivyn was seated with his family having an evening meal after a long day. Kefira was present for many of their meals, but she didn''t make it to all of them. She was focused on her own training with her mentor, and her life didn''t revolve solely around Reivyn.
"It started off as a test of my mettle," Reivyn answered. "Her mother wanted to ensure I was the best candidate for Kefira''s spouse, so she deliberately set things up for others to try their hand. The rules are that ''officially'' there''s no stance from the imperial family, but ''unofficially'' they''re on my side.
"After everything that''s already happened, though, I think it''s be more of a game for her mother than anything else. It started with a banquet that insinuated Kefira was looking to be courted, but nothing has happened for a while now. I imagine the next shoe is going to drop any day."
"That''s stupid," Ameliyn said. "You''re clearly the best candidate there is, no matter where they look. They should just announce it and be done with it. Why cause all this unnecessary headache?"
"You''re looking at it with a bias, mom," Reivyn replied. "Plus, I just said it wasn''t real and that it''s a game to entertain Silfa. That first banquet ended up actually being quite an enjoyable experience. I don''t know what she''s going to throw at us next, but I can''t imagine it will be anything serious."
"If you say so," Ameliyn shrugged. "I did meet a young man who imed to be Kefira''s future fianc¨¦."
"Really? You''ve interacted with the young noblemen? When?"
"It wasn''t a young nobleman, as far as I know. He might be from a noble family, but that wasn''t part of the introduction I received," Ameliyn exined. "It was Kefira''s senior apprentice-brother, the direct disciple of her mentor."
"Oh, I know who you''re talking about. His name is Oryin. Kefira''s talked about him a few times, and she views him as a literal brother. He''s no threat."
"I trust your judgment."
The dinner continued with Reivyn and Refix discussing different things about the training they were doing in the Striker gym as well as the concepts Reivyn was trying to impart to the military officers that would take over his job instructing warfare against other humans. Refix, when he wasn''t busy with his own things, apanied Reivyn to the training grounds. He was interested in everything that his son was doing, and he had his own unique ideas to share.
It had been over half a month since they had first attended the Striker gym. Refix never formally joined as one of the members, but he had built a rapport with the trainers and was wee any time. They still paid the fee. It didn''t hurt to be courteous. The boss at the gym had tried to decline the payment and pay Refix instead, but Refix didn''t see it that way. He was mostly there for his son, and any advantage any of the other trainees received was purely incidental.
The twins had begun receiving instruction on different crafting methods, expanding their repertoire of things they could make. They had finally reached their Tier 2 sses, and Reivyn had been shocked to learn that they had Epic Tier 1 sses when it was revealed that their Tier 2 sses were also Epic.
Does that mean I would have had an Epic Tier 1 ss regardless of whether or not I had had a forced ss transition? Would I have had ess to Epic Tier 2 sses if I had been able to select the inherent Epic Tier 1 ss like my sisters? Would I have been able to advance to a Legendary Tier 2 ss if the conscription hade after I had been able to receive my Epic Tier 1 ss?
Reivyn didn''t know, and he was unlikely ever to know. The questions were endless, and with no answers, so he simply threw them to the back of his head. He was genuinely happy for his sisters, but he felt a little strange now that they were technically in the same Tier. It wasn''t the same thing at all, with him being so close to officially advancing to Tier 3, but the technicality made him feel as if he wasgging behind.
He knew deep down that that wasn''t the case. He had been frozen in time for three years, and he had deliberately halted his Level advancement, but he hadn''t really considered the possibility of being around the same Level/Tier as his younger sisters. He knew it would happen eventually, what with how Levels increased per Tier and Experience requirements increased while gains decreased. He had thought they wouldn''t be around the same Tier until he was mid tote Tier 4, though.
The twins had advanced to an Epic Tier 2 ss called Scion of Refinux. Everyone was a bit confused by the name. At first, they thought it was the System making an error on Refix''s name, but that couldn''t have been the case. They just tossed it away as not important. It truly wasn''t. The important thing was that they had such a superior Tier 2 ss without having to jump through all the hoops Reivyn had had to.
Their Tier 2 ss focused on magical crafting, just like they had already been doing, and the ss Skills were nothing to scoff at. They were able to manipte materials with their Mana just as easily as if they had ess to the tools for mundane crafting. Reivyn had watched as they melted some metal at room temperature and melded it into the shape they wanted. Usually, a skill like that wouldn''t be avable to a Crafter ss until Tier 4, even if they had an Epic Tier 3 ss.
The only downside was that their Mana reserves weren''t able to keep up with their ss Skills. They wouldn''t be able to maintain a decent pace of crafting using those Skills until they either Leveled them up significantly or until they had already advanced to their Tier 3 ss. Fully unlocking their Bloodline would work, but their parents were going to follow conventional wisdom in that aspect. The twins were going to have to work without the advantage to gain Life Experience before they were afforded the boost.
"I have one final lesson for your Mana training," Ameliyn spoke up as dinner wound down. "It''s really two exercises, but I''m going to teach you both of them tonight, hence the ''final'' lesson. They''re not thest things you''ll learn, but they''re thest things I have to teach you.
"You know that weaving tapestries within your Spells grant significant boosts, but I don''t think anyone has ever instructed you on how to increase your ability to do so. Come with me, and I''ll show you."
After the family cleaned up the remnants of dinner, they dispersed to their different areas. Reivyn followed his mother into a side room where they would have some privacy.
"There are two aspects to how powerful imaging can be in your Spells," Ameliyn started. "Speed and uracy. uracy doesn''t necessarily mean how realistic your image is. It means how close to the concept you have envisioned your image represents. Naturally, a more realistic image will usually better represent the concept you''re imaging, but not always.
"Speed goes without saying. If you have to waste minutes creating an image that will give a 10% boost to your Spell, then you''ve wasted your time. You could have just cast the Spell multiple times without any kind of image. You need to be able to imprint your image nearly instantaneously, and there are a couple of tricks to aplish that that I''ll exin to youter.
"First, you need to focus on what kind of imaging you''ll be creating. The best method that I know of is to start simple and move your way up to moreplex. The easiest imaging you can do is abstract watercolors.
"Affinities have a range of colors they can manifest as, such as red and orange for fire, and blue and white for water and ice. There is ovep in the colors, though, and they don''t have to be exact until you''ve be a Master. Even I don''t always manage to create perfect images at a reasonable speed, and I''ve been practicing for nearly two decades.
"The first exercise is to build your Spell shell, select the Mana appropriate for the imaging, then m that Mana into the interior of your Spell shell. Just fill it in as quickly as possible. Don''t worry about anything else, to begin with.
"Then, you dissipate your Spell shell and do it again. Dissipate the shell and do it again. Over and over. Each time you m your colors into the Spell shell, make small tweaks to better represent the concept you''re trying to imbue.
"Let''s say you want to increase the explosiveness of a Fire st spell. Obviously, you would choose Fire Mana, but another good Affinity to select topliment the Spell is Air Mana. Air Mana is predominantly green in color, but what makes up green?"
Ameliyn paused for Reivyn to think about what she had said and ponder the question. He had never really gone too in-depth with the imaging aspect of Spell Casting, and even Kefira had focused her more advanced techniques she taught to him on the weaves and knots.
"Green is yellow and blue," Reivyn answered.
"And Fire can be represented by red, orange, and yellow," Ameliyn continued.
She held her hand out and created a Mana ball representing what she was exining. She went step-by-step so that Reivyn could follow along with the logic.
She started with a maelstrom of deep green that slowly shifted into yellow. It was like a mini-tornado. As the color shifted to yellow and expanded ever outward, the colors deepened into orange, though there were still some strands that shifted back to yellow to continue to represent Air. The orange continued to shift in hue until it was a deep red, and Ameliyn was left with a perfect orb. A green tornado filled the interior, and it seamlessly shifted colors until the outer edge was a deep red.
"This is a great watercolor representation of a Fire st Spell," Ameliyn said. "You won''t be able to do this yet. Instead, you should start with this."
Ameliyn held her other hand up and copied the process. This time, she didn''t make any shapes, and she didn''t have the colors meld into each other. At the center of the new orb was a green dot. It was surrounded by a yellow ring, then followed by orange and then red. The colors were distinct, and the image was very simple.
"You might not even be able to get something like this the first several times you try it," Ameliyn said. "Don''t be discouraged. You should probably start with a two-dimensional image, too. Just form your Spell shell, then gather Affinities to fill the imagining, and m it into the interior of the shell."
"That seems easy enough," Reivyn said. Ameliyn gave him a skeptical look. "As an exercise concept," Reivyn hurriedly amended. "I mean that the training seems simple enough."
"For now," Ameliyn agreed. "This is only introducing you to the most basic form of abstract watercolor imaging, though. This is what I would create for my own Fire st Spell."
Ameliyn dissipated the other orbs and instantly formed a new one. The image of a star exploding in great detail appeared above her hand. Reivyn was gobsmacked at the image in front of him. He could feel the power in the image his mother disyed. There weren''t just the concepts of Fire and Air mixed together. He could sense sma, Light, Darkness, and even her Tier 4 Celestial Affinity was in the mix, among others.
"That''s... different," Reivyn finally said. Ameliyn smirked.
"That''s the first part of the final lesson for today," Ameliyn said, the orb winking out of existence. "Thest thing I''m going to teach you is derivative of Mana Cirction.
"Until now, you''ve circted your Mana through your meridians to increase your Affinities. There''s another exercise you can do that will help speed things up. It won''t directly increase your Affinity Levels, but it will increase your progress rate. You might be asking yourself, ''why isn''t that the first thing we learn, then?'' And the answer to that is that it''s not possible until your Affinity Level is around 60.
"You need firm control over the Mana in order to do it safely; otherwise, you could cause irreparable harm to yourself. Do I have your attention?"
Reivyn nodded his head.
"Thest method is to disperse the Affinity into every inch of your body. Fill each and every cell in your body with the Affinity. You want to steep your very being in the Affinity. If you don''t have a firm grasp on your Affinity, you could destroy your cells with the Mana, and when they reform, they will be fundamentally different. They will be built out of that Affinity.
"This would greatly enhance your ability to Level that Affinity, but for that cell, it would be forever locked out of every other Affinity, effectively crippling that part of yourself. If someone was only able to use one Affinity for their entire lives, it would be an eptable thing to do, but people aren''t like that. Life isn''t like that. I have no idea what would happen if someone remolded their entire being into one of one specific Affinity, but I doubt it would be anything good.
"Your meridians are designed to carry Mana, which is why this isn''t a concern when doing your Mana Cirction, but the rest of your body isn''t built that way. I''m sure you''ve noticed that any time you''ve wanted to move your Mana about to a different part of your body, say releasing a Spell from your feet, you actually move the Mana there along the meridian lines and the point of expulsion is also from the meridian."
Reivyn thought back to the many times he had infused his body with Mana. He had done it many times when using his body as a weapon and activating the Elemental Weapon Skill, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized his mother was right. He wasn''t actually infusing every aspect of his body with the Mana; instead, it was radiating out from the meridian lines inside his body. There was a difference between radiating Mana out from the meridians and infusing the cells on a fundamental level with the Mana.
"Another reason why we don''t teach this method first is that it''s painful," Ameliyn continued. "When you infuse Fire Mana into your being, you''ll heat up and feel like you''re on fire. When you infuse Ice, you''ll cool down and feel like you''re frozen. It''s quite ufortable. Imagine what it would feel like to steep your entire being with the shing Affinity. One has to have the necessary willpower to withstand the exercise, and Pain Resistance doesn''t afford any protection."
Thatst statement got Reivyn''s attention. There were very few things that could bypass Pain Resistance. He realized that his Mental Fortitude and Iron Will were about to get another round of advancement in the near future.
"That''s basically it for thest lesson. You''ll feel when your cells are straining, and you need to retract the Mana. Remember, only use the Affinities you''ve reached Level 60 or higher on, or you won''t be able to control them well enough on such a scale.
"Because of the nature of what you''re practicing, you should always do this exercise second tost. Do all of your Mana Skills training first, then when you''re wrapping things up, do this exercise followed by regr Mana Cirction after.
"Don''t try to use Mana Absorption at the same time unless your Affinity is 80 or higher. I know your basic Elements are above 80 at this point, but you need to gain some experience with the exercise before you try toplicate things.
"I''ll leave you in peace to practice for now, but call me before you first attempt thest exercise. I''lle to watch over you, so nothing goes wrong."
"Alright, mom, thanks," Reivyn said.
Ameliyn gave a small smile and kissed Reivyn on the forehead before departing. Now that he was alone, Reivyn got down to business with his new training method.
He formed his Spell Shell and flung his Mana Affinities inside over and over again. His mother was right that he wouldn''t be able to achieve even a basic two-dimensional representation of the Fire st Spell right away. The colors were only in their approximate locations, and he continued to tweak them over and over. After an hour of hard work, he finally had a decent-looking ring of colors.
Am I going to have to do this for every single Spell I know? Reivyn thought with despair. I''m sure after gaining a modicum of expertise in the ability, I''ll be able to shave some of the training time off, but every Spell has its own unique concept. Many Spells have more than one.
Just the Fire st Spell has several. What if I want the explosive force not to contain as much Fire? What if I want the fire to burn more in a condensed space? That''s three different concepts I''ll have to practice, right there.
His parents weren''t lying over the years when they said training was endless. He was finally figuring out what higher Level Casters did all the time.
Chapter 174: Imagine
Chapter 174: Imagine
It was much moreplicated for Reivyn to visualize an image and then try to recreate that mental image with his Mana than he had thought. Even though he was using his mind and not his hands, he had a hard time grasping how to trante what he was seeing in his head into a tangible image.
He sunk into the exercise like he hadn''t done anything in a long time. Every waking moment he was chewing on the problem.
His sisters didn''t help. They didn''t know that they were rubbing it in his face, but every time he looked at them, they had some sort ofplicated creation of some sort or another at the tips of their fingers. He fondly remembered the painting they had done of him and his friends at the dinner table that even managed to shift depending on the perspective you viewed it from.
They weren''t great teachers, either. No matter how he posed the question to them, they didn''t understand how Reivyn wasn''t able to create the works of art that they could. It came so naturally to them that they would be masters without being able to exin the fundamentals of how it worked. They would see a problem, think for a second, and then just give the solution like it was obvious,pletely skipping all of the steps required to arrive at the answer.
Ameliyn just chuckled at his struggle and interaction with the twins.
"You''re thinking about the problem too hard," she said. "I''ve shown you the end goal, but you''re forgetting that I told you you''re working on the simplest of the simple exercises. You need to build a foundation in other things before you increase theplexity of your work.
"What is it that I do every day, and what is it the girls started doing?"
"You weave," Reivyn answered. He didn''t see how that would help him in this situation. He already had the Mana weaves down. "And the girls did the same thing, just with grass and different colored nts they could find."
"You''re seeing the overall picture without delving deeper," Ameliyn chastised. "What is it that I''m weaving? What is it that the girls did with their different colors?"
"Ahh, I feel stupid," Reivyn smacked himself on the forehead. "You''re weaving patterns, and the girls started with simple images before they moved to moreplex ones."
"Exactly," Ameliyn nodded her head. "It''s not just that Casters are more focused on Mental Stats over their physical ones; they also have to develop the appropriate Skills for it, too. You''ve been so far ahead in every other aspect that I sometimes forget that you haven''t dabbled in the arts more."
"I''ve done piano," Reivyn thought for a moment. "Is there any way to trante that Skill toward visualizing images for Casting?"
"At ater time," Ameliyn answered. "You can definitely add moreplex concepts like sounds, even moving images, to your imaging, but you''re not there yet. I really should have had you enroll in an artwork ss when you were at the Academy all those years ago. I just wasn''t thinking because you were so focused on your Martial Skills for so long. There''s a reason other than talent that people don''t spread themselves too thin."
"Yeah, I''ve never had enough time to do all the things that I''ve wanted," Reivyn replied. "Now that I have a direction, though, I think I can make some progress soon."
Reivyn began to carry around a satchel with parchment and pencils. He wasn''t ready to make colorful masterpieces by his own hand, but he did stop to copy images he could see from time to time. He had a lot of pieces of weapons and soldiers standing in formation sitting in his satchel already.
He was rewarded with his hard work, though, and he gained several Skills that would further his ability to image properly.
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Drawing: 23 ->25)
Penmanship (33 ->34)
New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 1:
Shading (0 ->7)
Tracing (0 ->7)
Tier 2:
Color Correction (0 ->1)
All the Drawing had spurred his Skill that he had acquired a while ago to continue improving, and it had even advanced his Penmanship a Level. He hadn''t expected Shading to be a separate Skill, but after seeing the difference in his drawings after having unlocked the Skill, he realized how important it actually was. There was an entire gradient of shades one needed to use to convey the image better, and the Skill helped him gauge exactly the depth he needed to make it pop.
Surprisingly, increasing his Shading Skill hade with the Tier 2 Color Correction Skill, even though he was working exclusively with ck and white drawings. There was a certain sense of gaining the Skill. ck and white could convey just as much meaning as the regr color spectrum if done the right way.
His increased Skills, so far, only marginally helped his mental visualization and Mana imaging, but he did see some progress. He could feel his abilities working towards unlocking a new Skill, but he wasn''t quite there yet.
I''m guessing that the next one will be Visualization itself, Reivyn mused. I honestly don''t see how it couldn''t be a Skill, what with how important it is.
His mother had nevere right out and exined the Skills he would need, but her very words alluded to them. Finding out for himself without being told helped him develop his abilities more naturally. If someone had given him a road map to follow, then there would be no space for experimentation. He would just walk along the path alreadyid before him, and that wouldn''t be him.
Another half a month passed, and it was time for Reivyn to take another break from his duties assigned by Kefira''s father. The training of the others had gone much smoother than he had anticipated. There was no pushback or fighting. There were no egos getting out of control. All of the officers and senior enlisted members who had been assigned to learn from him had been eager to further their own understanding of warfare andbat.
News hade back from the firstpany that had been sent to work as mercenaries. They hadn''t done much yet, as the first month had been spent in regtory hell. A nation backing a mercenarypany was a new thing. Most mercenaries were independent Adventurers signing on to bolster the ranks of a nation needing to purge monsters.
The new war had created a vacuum for professionals to fill. As of yet, only the soldiers trained by Reivyn could loosely fit that definition, but it was only a matter of time before others gained the necessary experience to do it themselves. Having the backing of an empire would allow for much higher quality gear and personnel, but that also came with a premium price.
Reivyn could envision an entire industry of disced Adventurers with experience fighting against other humans forming in the near future. There might even one day be an entire organization that rivaled the Adventurer''s Guild if the conflict spread far enough.
It would have to epass multiple Clusters for something like that to happen, though, Reivyn thought. The Adventurer''s Guild, as far as I''m aware, permeates the entire Realm. There''s not really a necessity for a Mercenary Guild to grow thatrge at this point.
Where would I fit in all of that? I''m basically spearheading the entire thing, and if I''m not off my mark, I''m guessing Ge is going to want me to lead a mercenarypany of my own under Kefira''s banner.
"Captain Cormak is going to be leading hispany to the front lines next week," Kayzor said.
Reivyn snapped out of his musings, called back to the present by Kayzor''s statement. Reivyn had been summoned to the petition hall, where he met with Ge, Garet, and Kayzor to discuss the situation on the other side. His position was a bit special, as his rank and role in the imperial army didn''t qualify him to attend the meeting, but his role as the Imperial Liaison assigned by Kefira did.
"They''ve finally worked out all of the ins and outs of the contract, and they''re going to go into service directly," Kayzor continued. "We''ll keep an eye on them and see how well their month-long training session prepared them for the actual thing."
"It would be best if they''re able to provide a stable example for the others to follow," Reivynmented. "Having a strong line across the front would be better for everyone. Let''s just hope that the alliedmanders have a head on their shoulders and don''t wallow in their old ways of monster fighting."
"That was something that was taken into consideration," Ge said. "We don''t know how well they''re going to operate on therger front, and since we only sent apany so far, I don''t want my soldiers to face undue danger because of ipetence on their part. They''re going to be going to the far reaches where the enemy numbers are much less."
"It''s a double-edged sword, doing it that way, though," Kayzor said with a nod. "They''ll be safer that way, but their example won''t spread to therger forces as quickly."
"I''m not as concerned with their safety as I am with my own troops''," Ge replied.
Reivyn nodded his head at the statement. It was a harsh reality. They all hoped for the best for their allies, and not just because it would make the war effort better for their own people. That being said, they couldn''t prioritize outsiders over their own well-being. In the end, it was more important for their soldiers to contribute where they could, gain the necessary experience, and return home alive for any future incursions they might face one day.
"Right now, there isn''t a whole lot of news other than the impending setting off of thepany," Garet said. "We''ll be holding these meetings as often as the teleport circle rotates to the empire in question. This is just the first meeting, and we wanted everyone to have a clear idea of what''s going on.
"Reivyn, you have one more month in your position as lead trainer. Thisst month, instead of evaluating the troops, your job will be to evaluate the job of the instructors. If all goes well, and we hear positive results back from thepany we''ve already sent, this is definitely something that we want to expand to the entire Imperial Army. You won''t be required to do it, personally, as long as everything works out how we hope."
Reivyn already understood all of that, but there was nothing wrong with receiving a refresher.
"What will my role be after that?" Reivyn asked.
"You''re an officer in the Imperial Army," Ge answered with amusement. "What sort of role do you think you should have?"
"I figured you were going to have me raise a banner in Kefira''s name and lead my own mercenarypany for a time," Reivyn said.
"That''s exactly what we had in mind; however, because of the nature of the mission and your rtionship with Kefira, I''ll leave that as voluntary. I won''t demand that you do such a thing. You have time to discuss it with Kefira and your family, as well."
"Speaking of my family, I''m sure that if I agree to go, my father will want to apany me. Is that feasible?"
"Your path is still one of exploration," Ge replied. "We''re going to be looking to expand the war effort beyond just the standing army. As such, you''ll receive a promotion to Captain and receive a Writ, but you''ll have to raise your own ''private'' force. How you set it up is up to you, so there''s no problem having your father apany you."
"Excellent," Reivyn replied.
With that news, he already had some ideas in his head. He would need to send out some letters. He was sure there were more than a few from his oldpany in Drallo that would jump at the chance to join him again. Not only would they get official entry into a Tier 4 Region, but they would be working together again.
I don''t know about all of the volunteers that served with me, but those in leadership positions will most likelye up. They''re the ones I spent the most time with, after all.
I wonder what they''re all up to? Did they go back to Adventuring with their teams? Did all of their old Party members survive the ordeal?
I''ll also have to discuss this with Dad. He''s used to being in charge. I''m sure we can figure something out. He, his subordinates, and my oldrades together will be able to build the bones of a very powerful force, actually.
Reivyn was excited about the prospect of going off on an "adventure" with his father. He had been anticipating going to the Dungeon Refix had ess to with his high-Level Party soon. He just hadn''t had the necessary time off to do so, and he wasn''t going to spend his one week of off-time in a Dungeon with his dad when he could spend it with Kefira.
"I''m d to see that you''re notpletely against the idea," Ge said after watching Reivyn think for a moment.
"The more I think about it, the more I think it''s a good idea," Reivyn admitted. "I''ll just have to convince Kefira that it''s the right thing to do."
"I''m sure you''ll find a way," Ge said with a slight smirk.
Reivyn narrowed his eyes as he sensed a trap.
This might be abination strike between Ge and Silfa in their little game, Reivyn realized. This might lead to a small conflict between us, and there''s no telling what Silfa might get up to in my absence. I''ll have to handle this delicately.
Reivyn didn''t let the thoughts discourage him. He wasn''t lying when he said the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. He hadn''t beenpletely sold on the idea when it had just been spection on his part. He had expected to take over one of the imperial armypanies, though, and learning that it was another effort to expand their efforts outside of the imperial army and that he could take his father and his crew, he realized that it was the most appropriate step forward for him.
Running Dungeons as they reset was a great way to gain Experience, though the higher Tier Dungeons had a longer time between resets. It wasn''t just Refix''s Dungeon that he had ess to that reset once a month. All of the Tier 4 Dungeons in Wispan had a month-long reset time aspared to the one-week reset time found in Tier 1 Regions.
Leading a military unit and fighting in a war offered almost as much Experience as a good Dungeon run, but it didn''t have any time constraints built into it. If he could utilize his father''s key for his own troops once a month as well as lead them inbat in the field, he could grow a substantial force even when considering the high starting point he was imagining.
That''s another thing I''ll have to consult my father about. I need to know exactly how his ess key and that Dungeon work. Is it the key itself that sets the instance, or is it based on who uses it? If it''s thetter, we could send Parties in one at a time almost constantly when we have downtime, but if it''s the former, we''d have to prioritize an elite team.
The discussion about the mercenarypany and the ns for Reivyn in the future was done. Reivyn wasn''t even paying attention to the meeting anymore at this point. His mind was filled with possibilities and ns for the future.
"Reivyn," a voice intruded on his thoughts.
Reivyn looked up to see Kayzor standing in front of him. He looked around and noticed that the other two members of Kefira''s family had already departed, and he was alone with Kayzor.
"Oh, is it that time already?" Reivyn asked.
Kayzor just smirked.
"Yeah, for about five minutes, now," he replied. "You didn''t respond the first couple of times I called your name. I was about to smack you upside the head to get your attention."
"Ahh, well, just been thinking about the situation," Reivyn said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"It''s not a big deal; I don''t have anywhere to be right now," Kayzor said with a shrug. "I just figured it would be bad taste to leave you here alone. Who knows how long you''d have sat there in contemtion before realizing something was off."
"Hah, thanks, then," Reivyn said, standing up.
The two made their way out of the petition hall.
"So it seems like I won''t be able to be a constant sparring partner for you after all," Reivyn said. "Maybe when I get back. Unless your dad sends you off on a mercenary mission, as well."
"That''s unlikely to happen," Kayzor answered. "The only reason I was dispatched to Drallo is because of Kefira. I''m usually required to be in the capital at all times. Nominally, my uncle is the General of the Army, but he''s got his own things on, and he doesn''t spend much time here. Unless there''s a true emergency, I''m the one running the show."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said. "He''s got to be high enough Level that he basically has to be in a Tier 5 Region to gain enough Experience to continue his growth, and he needs to keep growing to be the final arbiter of defense for the nation."
"Well, I mean, he''s not the only one," Kayzor said. "There are a lot of older family members out there, and there''s also the older members of the noble families and some of the more prominent non-noble families, too. He''s just the one in an official position. One day, I''ll probably take up the mantle and do the exact same thing."
"Until then, I think we can do something about our sparring sessions right now," Reivyn said, looking Kayzor in the eye. "You''ve been a bit busy recently, but I think if you join my father and me for our morning training sessions, you''ll be pleasantly surprised. My dad is much more Skilled than I am, and I guarantee you won''t have to hold back with your Stats when you spar against him."
"I''ve been meaning to ask, but I didn''t want toe across as rude," Kayzor said. "You and I have a rtionship, and he and Kefira have one as well, but I''m just your future brother-inw. It might be a little weird for me to impose on your father for personal reasons."
"I see that you''vee to ept the inevitable," Reivyn said with augh. "It might seem weird to some people, but I don''t see it that way. Our families work in a different way than most people. At least as far asmoners go. The noble and prominent families all keep together as a n for the most part, and our families are the same."
"You got a point, there," Kayzor said. "Sometimes I forget that you''re not actually amoner, yourself. Your situation is just unique. Kind of like a nomadic imperial family."
"Yeah, I would say that''s pretty urate," Reivyn agreed. "I''ll talk to my dad. You''ll just need to show up. Tomorrow morning should be good."
"Aren''t you guys training at the Striker''s Guild right now?" Kayzor asked.
"Not every day," Reivyn said. "Even though I''ve made good progress on my Pugilist Skill, I still have a lot of other weapons that I train with, and I just won''t be able to keep up with them if I exclude everything else to focus on the Striker''s Guild. I go three times a week. I feel like it''s a good bnce for me."
"Alright, sounds like a n. I''ll see you in the morning, then."
"See you," Reivyn said with a parting wave.
Now I just need to wait for Kefira to get home and have that conversation with her.
"Absolutely not!" Kefira put her foot down.
"Well, hold on, you haven''t even listened to my arguments yet," Reivyn said.
"I don''t need to hear it," Kefira responded with a shrug. "You''re just going to tell me all about the benefits you could get, how it''ll be great for your personal growth, and how it''ll do wonders for the trust my parents put into you."
"No, actually, I wasn''t going to mention any of that," Reivyn said, shaking his head.
Kefira raised an eyebrow, skeptical of his assertion.
"You already know all of that," Reivyn replied, seeing an opening. "And your objections were going to be along the lines of us being separated for an unreasonable amount of time just as we''ve really started our rtionship."
Kefira kept staring at Reivyn, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with his words. He continued on.
"My argument is simply: What''s stopping you from going with me?"
Kefira''s eyes widened at the question. She had apparently not even considered it. She had just got back from a Life Experience excursion. The conventional wisdom was to consolidate and build on the experiences one gained in order to advance to the best ss one could unlock. Then they would spend some time getting used to their new ss for quite some time before heading out on another excursion.
It wasn''t typical to leave on an adventure right after having returned from an extended one, at least not for members of the imperial family.
"Is there any reason why you can''t do what you would normally do at home abroad? As far as I know, you''re not really obligated to attend sses at the Academy, and your mentor is more for general Magic at this point. You''ve grown beyond what he can teach you about Space Magic, and your foundation is solid enough that I doubt you need to spend much more time in the Academy."
"Hmm, I hadn''t thought about it that way," Kefira admitted. "The biggest roadblock to this course of action isn''t my studies, though, but my parents. They''re not going to like sending me out right after I came home, especially if my destination is a war zone."
"Heh, I''ve already considered that, too," Reivyn said with a grin. "We''ll just leave the convincing to my mother. Every argument your parents could make to keep you here, my parents could make the same, and then some, against sending me. If they''re in our corner, there''s nothing your parents will be able to do."
"While I agree with the sentiment, you shouldn''t underestimate my mother," Kefira said. "I''m sure she''ll pull something to throw a wrench in our ns."
"I see that you''re referring to it as ''our ns,''" Reivyn teased.
Kefira rolled her eyes.
"I''ll admit, if I''m able to go with you, that''s basically my entire argument thrown out the window. Still, we''ll need to keep on our toes when bringing this up to my parents."
"We''ll deal with it as ites," Reivyn said. "I''m sure they''ll see things our way. Plus, we still have quite some time before anyone goes anywhere. I still have thest month of training to oversee, and then I''ll have to raise and train my own troops. We''ll have to decide which empire we go to, as well. Are we going to join the imperial armypanies already sent out, or are we going to open up a new front? There are pros and cons to both choices.
"I''ve already sent out letters to my oldrades from Drallo, so we''ll also have to wait for them to arrive, too. I''m sure they''ll get here before it''s time to go, but you never know. They might be busy with their own things and have to dy their departure."
"It seems like you''ve got a handle on it already," Kefira said. "I think I might take a hiatus from the academy, either way. It''s not just you that I need to spend time with. I think I''ll spend my days with your mother and sisters."
"That''s a good idea," Reivyn said. "I''m sure there are a lot of things you could learn from my mother, so it''s not like you''ll be abandoning your own training, either."
"That''s the only thing I''m actually worried about," Kefira said with a chuckle. "I know I''ve grown on your mother, but I''ve seen how your parents have trained you over the years, and they love you."
Chapter 175: Multiplicative
Chapter 175: Multiplicative
Reivyn folded his arms as he took a seat on the sidelines of the training grounds. Kefira took a seat next to him, with Seri still standing behind her. They weren''t necessarily going to take a break, but the sparring session between Kayzor and Refix was about to begin. The maid staff from Kefira''s household stood a little ways off, also waiting to watch the session.
Refix had been relentless in his training of everyone present ever since he had joined, though, to be fair, it was mainly ining up with interesting ways to deplete their stamina. The actual training methods were mostly tame, with Refix watching over them with a critical eye as they went through their motions, and the sparring sessions were between people of equal Skill Levels. The staff had grown to enjoy the training sessions despite the torture they went through to get exhausted beforehand.
"Do you want a friendly,petitive match, or do you want to be destroyed?" Refix addressed Kayzor.
Kayzor stood with his spear at the ready, not willing to give his opponent any openings in case he pulled a surprise attack stunt. It wasn''t unheard of, even in friendly sparring sessions, and it wasn''t frowned upon, either. Training to be prepared for an unexpected attack was part and parcel ofbat training, after all.
"I want you to give me everything you got, old man," Kayzor replied.
Refix quirked an eyebrow at the statement. He was standing with his arms at his side with no weapon in sight. He held his hand out, and a training spear flew from the stand where it had rested through the air into his hand. He deftly caught it and brought it into the ready position.
"Hey, now! What was that?" Reivyn called out. "I''ve never seen you do that before."
"Neat trick, huh?" Refix replied with a smirk. "Actually, I just learned how to do it. You''re not the only one who''s constantly improving."
"That''s a fun trick, indeed, but it''s not very practical," Kefiramented. "When are you going to be without a weapon in the midst ofbat?"
"You''d be surprised," Reivyn said with a shrug. "What if your weapon breaks? What if you find a weakness in the enemy, but you need a longer-reaching weapon, and there just happens to be a spear lying on the ground? I can think of a lot of instances where it might be useful."
"Fair point," Kefira replied. "I''m thinking more along the lines of one-on-one duels, and you''re thinking about the battlefield."
The two halted their conversation about the merits of Refix''s new ability and focused on the sparring session. The wind whipped up between the two, standing and staring at each other before either of them even moved. Kayzor was already panting and had sweat dripping from his brow. He was visibly struggling to maintain his proper stance.
Refix didn''t have that problem. He had participated with everyone else in making sure that he was just as tired before the training sessions truly began, but this was how he always trained. His body had long since ingrained in itself always to maintain perfect posture at all times, no matter how he felt. Reivyn suspected that he could have ance through his stomach and daggers in his back and still maintain the perfect fighting stance.
Refix had agreed to relegate his Stats to match Kayzor''s, but it was immediately obvious that he far surpassed Kayzor in Skill the second he moved. Kayzor took a staggering step back as Refix instantly appeared before him, stabbing forth with his spear. The spear seemed to defy all logic, and without wavering in the slightest, it thrust right through all of Kayzor''s attempts to parry it.
Kayzor had to abandon his attempt at blocking, and he rolled on his back, springing to his feet in a guard stance once more. Refix didn''t relent, and he continued that same thrust without pause, moving his body forward to match Kayzor''s retreat. The spear appeared to snake around all of Kayzor''s efforts while simultaneously moving in a straight line, and the tip of the blunted training spear halted against Kayzor''s throat.
The match was over before it had even begun. Kayzor wasn''t able to block one move.
He stared wide-eyed at Refix over the length of the spear, his own spear forgotten in his hands at this side.
"What was that?!" Kayzor shouted.
"You said to give you everything I got," Refix replied with a shrug, lowering the spear. "I took that to mean you wanted to be destroyed."
"I take it back," Kayzor said. "I want to have at least the chance to put up a fight."
"Then you should have said you wanted a friendly,petitive match."
"Well, now I know."
"Now you know," Refix confirmed. "Also, what was it you called me? ''Old man?'' How old are you, Kayzor?"
"Huh?" Kayzor was taken aback. "I''m 26."
"I''m only ten years older than you," Refix said.
Kayzor''s body froze, and he stared at Refix in confusion for a few moments. His mind had gonepletely nk at the statement.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that you''re younger than my oldest brother and sister?"
"I mean, I''m telling you I''m 36. I don''t know how old your siblings are."
"Garet is 41, and Faria is 37," Kayzor said.
"Then yes, I''m younger than them. How old did you think I was?" Refix asked.
"Our parents are in their 70''s. I just assumed you were around the same age as them. It gets hard to tell when people''s Vitality gets to a certain point."
"That''s true, but there are ways. Anyway, why call me ''old man'' at all? I don''t look old."
"I was just taunting you," Kayzor replied with a shrug. "I figured it would make you take the sparring session more seriously. I didn''t know you were going to obliterate me like that."
"You''re ying with fire," Refix answered with augh.
"You didn''t tell them?" Reivyn leaned over and whispered to Kefira.
"About your parents'' age?" Kefira replied. "Why would I?" She tilted her head.
"Fair enough."
Refix and Kayzor resumed their stances across from each other. They both assumed a ready stance once more. They hadn''t particrly spent any of their energy in the short exchange a moment ago, so they were still ready to go.
"A friendly,petitive match, this time," Kayzor called out.
"Sure," Refix smirked.
Once again, a wind whipped up between them. It was decidedly different this time, though. Refix dashed forward at a more "normal" speed. His Stats were equivalent to Kayzor''s, so they were much higher than he had disyed with everyone else. He didn''t use his near teleportation speed this time, though. Reivyn didn''t know if that had been some sort of Skill or if he was just able to utilize his Stats more efficiently, but he was moving at a slower pace now.
Their spears shed through the air. Kayzor was able to deflect the strikes and turn the turning of his spear into counterattacks this time. He was under no illusion that he would be able to defeat Refix anymore, but that didn''t mean he wouldn''t give his best.
Kayzor didn''t just use his Spears Skill. He used everything he had avable to him. He cycled through blocking, dodging, striking, counterattacking, and using his ss Skills. He wasn''t able to gain the initiative even with his ss Skills thrown into the mix, but it did prolong the inevitable.
Reivyn paid particr attention when Kayzor initiated his Thousand Lances Skill. He had been trying to pinpoint the mechanism for activating the Flurry of Fists Skill he had witnessed from the Strikers, and Thousand Lances seemed to follow the same concept.
Reivyn''s body twitched as he envisioned activating the Skill with his own Stamina, and Kefira eyed him suspiciously. Reivyn gave her a reassuring look, and she returned her attention back to the sparring session after a smile to indicate she wasn''t worried. Reivyn''s body continued to spasm as he thought about the Skills.
The sparring session went about the way that Reivyn and everyone else had predicted. Kayzor was constantly on the back foot. He was marshaling all of his Skill, using it to his utmost ability to fend off the relentless attacks that Refix threw at him. It didn''tst, though, and Refix began using his transcendent ability.
Kayzor stumbled in confusion when a spear thrust blew him back like he had been smacked with a hammer. He briefly nced between Refix''s spear and his own, but he didn''t have time to analyze what exactly had happened. Refix was upon him once more.
Refix didn''t alter all of his strikes. He shed and twirled his spear about normally before Kayzor once more dodged back in confusion when his Danger Sense warned him that something was wrong. A strand of hair fluttered to the ground, having been shed when Refix had clearly thrust his spear once more.
"What is happening?" Kayzor asked as he recovered his stance.
"I don''t know what you mean," Refix answered.
He stepped forward and performed an overhead swing. Kayzor met the attack with a block from his spear, but as soon as the two spears made contact, Kayzor''s body curved in a "C" shape as if he had been mmed in the ribs. He staggered to the side before crumpling to his knees.
"I yield. I yield," Kayzor called out. He held his side in obvious difort.
"Sorry about that," Refix dropped his arm holding the spear, and used his other hand to help Kayzor to his feet. "I didn''t mean to hit you so hard. I''ve gotten used to sparring with Reivyn, and he''s able to see through my ability. Truly, sorry."
"It''s fine," Kayzor wheezed, hunching over with his hand on his ribs. "What were you doing?"
"I was using my transcendent ability. I can manipte the nature of the force of my attacks, even alter the direction at will."
"Transcendent ability," Kayzor replied with a deadpan expression. "You''ve achieved the transcendent level, and you''re 36 years old." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yeah," Refix answered with a shrug. "I was stuck at Level 100 for years and years. Training Reivyn over the years when he was a child finally pushed me to Level 101."
Kayzor forgot about the ache in his ribs as he palmed his face with his hand. His body shook, and it took Reivyn a moment to realize he wasughing.
"I know that some of my older family members in the deeper parts of the Tier 5 Region have reached the Transcendent level from my uncle, but they''re all over 200 years old. My uncle was the most Skilled Martial sser I''d ever personally met before, and his primary Skill Level is only about 95 or 96. He''s well over 100 years old, too.
"How in the world have you managed to reach a Transcendent Skill Level at such a young age?"
"I''ve led an interesting life," Refix answered with a serious expression. "I wouldn''t wish the same on anyone else."
"An interesting life, you say," Kayzor said. "I haven''t had much time to learn about it from Reivyn, but maybe one day you''ll share your tale with us."
"Sure." Refix shrugged. "We''re not hiding anything, we just don''t broadcast it everywhere we go."
"I think that''s enough for me this morning," Kayzor said. "Thank you for the lesson in humility... And the sparring session."
"Anytime." Refix chuckled.
Kayzor waved to Reivyn and Kefira. He put his training spear back in its ce and hobbled out of the training grounds. Refix turned to face the spectators. The maid staff had been frozen with wide eyes ever since Refix had summarily defeated Kayzor in their first "match," and it had only gotten more pronounced during the second match.
"What are you all waiting for?" Refix shouted. The maids came back to themselves, looking around at each other. "Let''s get to work."
Kefira, Seri, and the maids all lined up to perform their weapons training under Refix''s instruction. He stalked back and forth with his teaching rod, though he didn''t have to use it nearly as often as he had had to when he first started.
Reivyn didn''t join them in their line, though. He walked up to Refix.
"Howe you didn''t use that ability where your spear avoided all of Kayzor''s attempts to parry it against me?" Reivyn asked.
"I did," Refix replied. "It didn''t work against you." He shrugged. "You''ve mentioned a Skill that helps you perceive the changes I make with my transcendent ability. I imagine that same Skill allows you to notice the truth of my regr strikes, too."
"Well, how exactly did you do that?" Reivyn continued to ask.
"There''s no huge secret behind it. You''re almost able to do it yourself, and I''ve seen the beginnings of such. It''s all about using your opponent''s Perception against them. When your Skill is high enough, you can make them see what you want them to see with your attacks."
"I see. Thanks." Reivyn gave a nod and walked away to the other side of the training grounds, away from the line of people Refix was instructing. Refix watched him go, but he didn''t say anything or demand that he adhere to the same training regimen as the others. He was just here to assist, and Reivyn clearly had something he wanted to do.
Reivyn stood in front of a punching bag that they had installed after they had started training with the Strikers gym. He assumed a boxing stance and performed some exploratory moves. His Stamina coursed through his body, enhancing his strikes as well as stabilizing his body.
Not quite like this, more like this, Reivyn corrected himself. The way I''ve been stabilizing my body would only work if I were practically standing still, but Kayzor didn''t have that problem. He was able to freely move about while activating his Thousand Lances Skill.
Reivyn continued to experiment, adjusting the way he used his Stamina. He hopped around the punching bag until he started to get a better feel for how the Stamina affected his body, and suddenly, his fists blurred as he struck twice at the same time.
New Skill Unlocked!
Martial ss Skill:
Double Punch (0 ->1)
Reivyn nearly stumbled at the sessful activation of the Skill. He stood and looked at the Notification Window with some surprise for a moment before his face broke out in a grin. He immediately pulled up his ss Skills and abandoned Charge to rece it with Double Punch. The System clearlybeled Double Punch as a Martial ss Skill, so he suspected he needed to use it in a Martial ss Skill slot.
His Charge Skill, as well as Cleave Skill, had long since passed the 100 mark, but there hadn''t been a significant change to the Skill like a General Skill would when surpassing 100. He hadn''t focused too much of his effort on being able to activate Cleave manually, but since he could do so with Charge, and he had Leveled it up past his initial goal, he decisively switched it out. He would focus on turning it into a General Skill soon with his ability to use it without System assistance.
Reivyn performed the new Skill multiple times, noting that the Stamina requirement was considerably less than what he had expended in order to learn the Skill. The Skill that he unlocked wasn''t exactly the same as what he had seen with Flurry of Fists and Thousand Lances. Those other Skills were a rain of multiple blows, but his Double Punch Skill performed two attacks simultaneously on the exact same location.
The first thing Reivyn focused on with his new training was to punch two different spots at the same time instead of the same spot. He continued to adjust the way his Stamina coursed through his body when using the Skill, but now that he had the System assistance, he only needed to apply slight alterations instead of using itpletely manually.
It took him thirty minutes and hundreds of Skill activations, but he eventually managed to punch his target on opposite sides at the same time. He continued to perform the maneuver until he was able to freely choose his targets.
Skill Altered!
Martial ss Skill:
Double Punch: The Stamina activation has been permanently altered.
Nice! Reivyn lifted his arms in triumph. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he checked his Stamina usage.
Stamina: 4,013/15,860 Still good, now it''s time for the next step.
Reivyn walked over to the arsenal of training weapons and selected several of them. He carried them with him back to the punching bag, setting all but the training sword down on the ground.
He held his sword at the ready and focused his intent. He attempted to activate the Double Punch Skill with a sword in his hand, but the first couple of attempts ended up with himshing out with the pommel of the sword instead of the de. His body still wanted to perform a punch instead of just an attack. Before he seed in his strike, he switched his weapon.
Reivyn cycled through the various weapons while activating the Skill. Most of the time, he punched while holding the weapon, but if he was using a weapon that was held differently or from further away, nothing happened. When he stood back holding the whip, his Stamina coursed through his body, but he felt strange as it didn''t finish the cycle and dissipated into nothing as his body didn''t move. He was too far away to strike the target, so the System simply failed toplete the Skill for him. Something simr happened when holding two-handed weapons. His body didn''t know which fist he wanted to strike with, so he ended up just standing there doing nothing.
Reivyn moved through all of the weapons and returned to his fists. He decided to tackle the problem he noticed from using two-handed weapons, and he activated the Skill in both of his fists at the same time, but through one activation. It took several minutes before his body got used to it, and he struck out with a Double Punch with both fists at the same time.
He didn''t get another Notification, but he felt the Stamina usage once more adapt to his particr usage. Having seeded in another small goal, he once more picked up the training sword.
He didn''t cycle through all of the weapons before seeding this time. He had just been getting a feel for all of the weapons. He focused his intent on his sword and continued to use the Skill while subtly adjusting the way his Stamina coursed through his body. He started with a thrusting attack, as that was the most like a punch in his mind.
Eventually, he was able to move his body in such a way as to utilize the de of the training sword instead of his fist, and he moved on to the next type of attack. An overhead swing could be seen as a type of haymaker if he thought about it a certain way, and with that mental flip of the switch, he was able to direct the Skill into an overhand swing. He applied the same logic to horizontal shes, and before long, he was able to activate the Skill freely with a sword.
The Skill didn''t alter again just yet, and he switched to another weapon. He didn''t choose a weapon that had a significant difference in how it operated right away. He switched to a training dagger, and he was able to replicate the feat easily.
Next came a hatchet, then arger axe, followed by a warhammer. It was a bit of a struggle when he moved on to a great sword, but he eventually got that down as well. The spear took some time to figure out, but with the sess of all the other weapons, it was eventually conquered, as well.
The way that his Stamina was used with the activation of the Skill continued to change slightly with each permutation, moving closer and closer to perfection in what he was trying to aplish. He grabbed the whip, took several steps back, and activated the Skill. After so much sess with the other weapons, the Skill immediately activated, and twoshes appeared on the punching bag from his single attack.
Skill Updated!
Martial ss Skill:
Double Punch -> Double Strike
Double Strike (1 ->6)
Reivyn didn''t stop once he achieved sess, and he immediatelyunched himself into this next experiment. He dropped the whip and dashed to the punching bag. He unleashed a flurry of Skill activations on the target, altering the Stamina usage once more as he used his entire body instead of just his arms. Punches, kicks, knee strikes, and headbutts joined together.
Reivyn''s Stamina continued to plummet, but he didn''t pay it any mind. He felt like he was on the cusp of sess, and he couldn''t be bothered to hold back now. He didn''t care if he received a bacsh from Stamina expenditure at this time. He could feel the culmination of his efforts coalescing.
Not all of his attacks activated the Skill when he started, but as his Stamina usage continued to shift, a threshold was reached, and heunched an attack that incorporated all of his various types of strikes all at once. The punching bag was malformed as it received 18 attacks all at once. Two headbutts, four elbow strikes, four punches, four knee strikes, and four kicks, all at the same time.
Skill Updated!
Martial ss Skill:
Double Strike -> Multi-Strike
Multi-Strike (6 ->9)
Reivyn immediately activated the Skill with just one fist, and he struck the target 11 times at once. tion filled Reivyn, but the Stamina expenditure finally caught up with him, and he copsed to the ground. He was unable to move on his own, but he felt hands turn him over almost immediately.
Refix, Kefira, and Seri stood over him. He could see the maids waiting in the background as well. Reivyn groaned as his body was flipped over.
"Congrattions!" Refix eximed with a giant grin on his face. "It seems like you seeded. Themotion you were making interfered with our training, but it seems like it was worth it."
Reivyn attempted to reply, but he was so tired that he couldn''t even open his mouth. He pulled up his Stamina to see just how much he had overdone it.
Stamina: 77/15,860 Reivyn''s eyes would have widened at the numbers on his screen, but he was so exhausted, even that was beyond him. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and darkness descended.
Chapter 176: Exhibitionist
Chapter 176: Exhibitionist
"Remember, don''t think about the disadvantages your ss gives you aspared to your opponent," Reivyn gave somest-minute advice to Herrick. "We don''t even know if he''s got the official Striker ss, either. He may be just like you, expanding his horizons to see about picking it up in Tier 4ter down the road. This is an amateur exhibition, after all, so it''s quite likely."
Reivyn had spent over a month training with the Strikers gym, and it wouldn''t be aplete experience if he didn''t participate in an actual Striker match. He, his father, Herrick, and the rest of the team were making their way to one of the lesser arenas that housed amateur Striker matches. Because their gym was located in the inner city, they were afforded the privilege ofpeting in one of the inner city arenas. It didn''t necessarily mean that all thepetitors were better than those from the outer city, but at least they wouldn''t have to travel too far for their match.
Herrick, unlike Reivyn, trained at the Striker gym every day, from morning to evening. Proper rest was understood in the world of professional fighting, but with higher Vitality and Stamina, one could recover much quicker. The champions, if they wished it, were high enough Level with enough Vitality that they could practically train nonstop. Their time was very valuable, though, so they only did such things if they needed money for some reason.
Duston, the head trainer of the gym Reivyn attended, trained both amateurs and professionals. He had a full team avable for the amateurs, but they weren''t dedicated to the individual. The professionals, if they proved their mettle enough to Duston, would have an exclusive team. There were pros and cons for both approaches. The teams that served a wide variety of Strikers had a broad understanding, but those that were exclusive to a specific Striker didn''t need to know as much as long as theyplimented their teammates. There also wasn''t a rule that the specialized teamcked the knowledge and experience of the other teams, either.
Reivyn was headed to an amateur exhibition, so they were with the amateur team. That didn''t mean that the teammates were amateurs. They were professionals hired by Duston, and they received just as much training as everyone else. They either didn''t want to dedicate themselves to a particr Striker, or they felt they needed to experience more before theymitted.
"Honestly, as Reivyn said, there are only a few people in the amateur leagues that have the official Striker ss," Duston spoke up. "It''s one of the main ways to start off in the professional league. Those that are in the amateur league with the ss are typically those that decided at thest minute and haven''t polished their Skills like the others that have had a clear goal from the beginning.
"There''s nothing wrong with that, per se, and it''s kind of what a lot of amateurs seeking to switch to the ss at Tier 4 are doing, too. Just don''t get caught up in winning or losing. This is your first match, and it''s more to test your guts and performance ability than anything. Nobody even cares if you win or lose other than you. And maybe your gramps."
Renry snorted at thement. He acted nonchnt, but Reivyn could see the nervous energy in the man''s steps. Even if he doesn''t care, he''s still going to be rooting for a win. Winning is better than losing, all things being equal, Reivyn thought.
Reivyn wasn''t too concerned about his own match. He was just here for the experience. He had no ideas of living this kind of lifestyle and switching to being a professional entertainment fighter. He felt he would get a better grasp of the entire situation with the teams if he experienced every aspect there was to it. That meant fighting in a match in the ring.
It also meant that he had ns to act as a Strategist, Tactician, and maybe a Trainer if he could figure out the trick to impart muscle memory to someone. There was definitely a ss Skill involved, and with his recent experiments and further understanding of how Stamina worked, he had confidence he could figure it out eventually. It really wasn''t necessary for his goals, and it was one of the team positions, along with Healer, that he could safely skip. His Mana Healing Skill, so far, had resisted being projected out to affect someone other than himself. That might change one day as his Skill Level increased, but he wasn''t there yet.
The group made their way into the arena. They didn''t use the entrance that led to the stands, even Kefira and Seri following behind. They made their way to the side, where there was a set of stairs leading down. Duston showed some sort of identification to the people guarding the door, though they clearly recognized him. They were just going through a formality, and they checked the names of the contestants and team members off of a list.
Herrick and Reivyn were the only neers participating in any matches from Duston''s gym, but matches were going on all day. There were dozens of matches every couple of days, though the amateur league didn''t pull in nearly as many people each time as the professional leagues. Some members that were on the path to getting the official Striker ss at Tier 4 could draw a crowd, but Reivyn and Herrick weren''t expecting anything like that today.
Refix kept quiet for the most part, but he did offer some encouragement to Herrick alongside Reivyn. He knew that his son didn''t need any pep talks, and Reivyn was treating this like any other sparring match. Herrick was a different story, though, as was considering his options for his future. He didn''t have a ferocious attitude like one would expect from a professional fighter, though he never shirked his training. If Reivyn had to guess, he would be middling talent at best in the ring, and he might have an advantage with his grandfather''s experience as one of the team members. He would need to see more from him in that regard before he could make a determination, though. As it was, he didn''t seem like he was going to be a professional Striker.
"Herrick, you''re up first," Duston said. "There''s no reason behind it; it''s just how the opponents were drawn up. There''s no final match or anything like that. Everyone is doing an exhibition match. Don''t let yourself be pressured, and just get up there like it''s any other training session with one of the instructors. I can almost guarantee that your opponent won''t be at the same level as one of my trainers."
"Sure," Herrick said.
Herrick was psyching himself up. They had been wearing theirpetition clothes under their street clothes, so they just had to do a quick change before they were ready. They didn''t have to wrap up their hands or put on any protective gear or anything, either, so until it was time to go out to the ring, they didn''t have anything to prep. They didn''t have anything to do until it was time to go out into the ring.
Kefira and Seri, being members of the opposite sex, weren''t allowed into the male changing room. They had their own waiting area as spectators associated with the group. After taking his street clothes off and giving onest word of encouragement to Herrick, Reivyn simply left the changing room and met up with Kefira and Seri, Refix tagging along.
"You nervous at all?" Kefira asked. It was more to just strike up a conversation than actually worry about Reivyn being nervous. Just one look at him could tell that he wasn''t.
"Maybe for Herrick, a little," Reivyn answered. "No matter how much we try and tell him that the results don''t matter, this is his firstpetition. As far as I know, he hasn''t had much experience fighting before joining the gym, so even if there wasn''t a crowd, he might still have the jitters. We can only hope that he calms down once he''s in the ring."
"Yeah, I hope he does well, but I know that he''s not fully set on his path yet anyway," Kefira responded.
"Losing badly might elerate his decision to switch to a Strategist or Tactician, which might be a good thing if that''s the case," Refix chimed in. "I don''t think he''ll lose badly, though. I''ve seen some grit and determination in him over these past weeks. He''s an unpolished gem. A cheap gem, but a gem nheless."
"That''s high praiseing from you," Kefira gave Refix an appreciative look.
Refix shrugged.
"I don''t really value gems."
Kefira stared at Refix for a moment.
"Now, I don''t know if you''replimenting him or not," she muttered.
"Exactly," Refix smirked.
Reivyn rolled his eyes. He knew that his father was actuallyplimenting the young man, but he wouldn''t give up the opportunity to act like a prankster. He was just teasing Kefira, and she woulde to learn his quirks over time.
Amotion caught their attention, and they noticed their group passing by the open door of the waiting area. Reivyn jerked his head in that direction.
"Looks like it''s our boy''s turn," he said. "Let''s go cheer for him."
They filed out of the room and joined their group again. They made their way down a long alcove that led through stands to the ring in the center of the arena. Reivyn was right that there wasn''t much of a crowd. The arena looked like it could seat a couple of thousand spectators if they squeezed in, and there might be a hundred or so present.
Herrick didn''t waste any time, and he immediately climbed up into the empty ring once they got there. Duston was the overall trainer for the gym, not a member of the team, so he filed off into the viewer''s area at the base of the arena, Reivyn and the rest following. The team members made their way up right to the side of the ring.
Herrick''s opponent was right behind him in mounting the ring, and the referee didn''t waste much time introducing them. He simply stated their names and the gyms they were from, and the match began.
Herrick was definitely a little hesitant at the beginning, and his opponent seemed to be a bit more experienced. His opponent immediately closed the distance and engaged Herrick in a flurry of strikes. Herrick took a bit to get used to it, but once he regained hisposure and blocked all the distractions out, he performed up to his usual standard whilepeting against the trainers at the gym.
Herrick''s Skill Level was a hair below his opponent''s, and he came out of the first round clearly behind in points. He didn''t let that phase him, though, as he got a pep talk from his team and remembered that the first round was usually just exploratory. The team he had wasn''t phenomenal, but they weren''t slouches, either. They came up with a n, and the Trainer imparted some pointers on how to handle some of his opponent''s tells.
It was clear at the start of the next match that the opponent''s team wasn''t as Skilled as Herrick''s. Herrick was able to make up for some of the disadvantages in the first round by taking advantage of some of the bad habits of his opponent, and he followed the instruction of the Tactician to seize the initiative away from his opponent.
The rest of the rounds, only nine considering it was an amateur exhibition, went about the same way. Herrick squeaked out a victory by relying on his superior team members, but he proved that he could at least hang with the other amateurs around the same Skill Level and utilize his team members efficiently. Renry had a proud smile on his face, more impressed with his grandson''s demeanor than the victory.
Duston pped the sweating boy on the back with arge grin, and his opponent came over to shake his hand and exchange some small talk. The two teams conversed briefly before separating to make way for the next batch of contestants and teams, and Reivyn followed them back into the depths of the arena.
The match had only taken about half an hour, and it wasn''t much more exciting than watching a sparring session in the gym. He didn''t let that interfere with congratting the other teenager, though, and Herrick was all smiles as he calmed down from the match. He just needed a few more matches like that to build his confidence, and he might be a solid contender for bing a professional Striker in a few years.
"I''m proud of you, son," Duston said back in the changing room. "Your Skill Level was what we all expected, but your ability to take direction and adapt what your team members devised for you was top-notch. That''s the true hallmark of a good Striker. Otherwise, it''s just fist-fighting with some kicks thrown in."
"Thank you," Herrick said.
"Don''t be too happy, too soon," Duston grinned. "Now that I''ve gotten a good look, I know exactly which direction to take your training in the future. Remember, ''hope brings the trainer, and the trainer brings suffering.''"
Herrick''s face fell for a moment, but the joy of his first sessful match still won out. His smile came back as he discussed the match with Renry.
"You ready for your match?" Duston approached Reivyn.
"As ready as I''ll ever be," Reivyn said with a nod.
"I know you''re not taking this too seriously, but at least try to act like a Striker when you''re in there," Duston said with a sigh.
"What do you mean by that?" Reivyn asked.
"Strikers are entertainers," Duston answered. "I know that with your Skill, you could probably win the match outright by destroying your opponent. Instead of going all out, have apetitive match and try topete with the strategy and tactics your teames up with."
"I got you," Reivyn replied with a nod.
"Good. Put on a good show, will ya?"
Reivyn just replied with a smile.
Reivyn wasn''t too interested in watching the other matches if they were going to be anything like Herrick''s. It was one thing to support his fellow gym mate. It was something else entirely to watch what amounted to sparring sessions from total strangers
It wasn''t long before it was Reivyn''s turn to head to the ring. As they were waiting and conversing down below, it seemed like the ambient soundsing from the stands above were growing over time. Reivyn didn''t pay it any mind at first, but he was shocked when he finally stepped down the alcove to the ring.
Before, when it was Herrick''s turn, there had only been around a hundred or so spectators. Now there were close to half the stands full of people. Reivyn wouldn''t call it deafening, but it was considerably louder than it had been.
"What''s going on?" Reivyn asked Duston.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you," he replied with a grin. "Your opponent is one of those with the official Striker ss, and she''s quite popr in the amateur leagues. She has a good chance of going pro, and soon."
"She?" Reivyn questioned.
"Is that a problem?" Duston quirked an eyebrow.
"Nope."
"Good."
Reivyn, like Herrick, made his way to the ring immediately. He hopped up and over the bands lining the ring, and he made his way to his corner. His teammates met him over there, but they didn''t have anything to advise him on before the match.
Reivyn looked up with the cacophony increased, and he spotted his opponent jump into the ring on the other side. Other than a band covering her chest, she was dressed just like any other Striker. The curves of her body were a clear indication that she was feminine, and her figure was probably one of the reasons she was so popr.
Before Reivyn knew it, he scanned her entire body from top to bottom, appreciating the lithe muscles of someone who trained hard. He felt a chill go down his back, and he turned to look in the stands. Kefira was ring at him in disapproval. Reivyn held his hands up in helplessness. Kefira''s re only intensified.
Reivyn rolled his eyes as he turned to his Strategist.
"Get me a cloth strip, if you would," Reivyn said.
The Strategist gave him a strange look, but he procured one from somewhere. As the referee was announcing thepetitors to the crowd, to loud cheering at the name of his opponent, Reivyn tied the strip around his eyes as a blindfold.
He still had his Divine Sense, and it didn''t affect his vision in the ring at all. It did have the strange effect of making it easier to tune out the crowd, though, as he could now only hear them. It was like a ck wall separated him from them, though. He noticed the re on Kefira''s face turn into a smirk. Her shoulders shook inughter, and Seriughed next to her.
This girl... She''s just pretending to be jealous. Reivyn rolled his eyes under the blindfold.
Before the match started, Reivyn turned to face his opponent. She had a frown on her face, and she could tell that she was angry at his action.
"Before we begin, just know that I''m not trying to insult you," Reivyn called out to her. Her frown only deepened, but there was nothing that he could do about that. "I have the Blind Fight Skill, so there''s no difference for me. My girl is watching, and she was giving me a look, so..." Reivyn shrugged. "My hands are tied."
"If you say so," she replied. "Don''te crying to meter when I hurt you, though."
"You don''t have to worry about that," Reivyn smirked.
The referee announced the start of the match, and Reivyn''s opponent charged across the ring. She immediately began a flurry of blowsing from tricky angles, but Reivyn had no problems dodging and blocking the strikes. He could tell that his opponent''s Stats weren''t quite as high as his, and her Skill, while good, was nowhere near his own. After the first several exchanges, she calmed down, and the frown changed from one of anger to one of concentration.
He didn''tunch into a frantic attack of his own, though. He simply matched her Skill Level and Stats, and the two of them danced around the ring, exchanging blows. The sounds from the crowd, even though they intensified at the start of the round, were pushed to the background. There was only the ring and Reivyn''s opponent.
As they fought, Reivyn got a strange feeling from the girl across from him. He knew that with System enhanced Stats, there wasn''t much of a difference in physical abilities between the genders other than how they looked, but his opponent didn''t move like a girl. She had all the curves in the right ces for the most part, but her hips were a bit narrow. She didn''t sway when she moved about, and Reivyn grew curious.
Thoughts of investigating with his Divine Sense flitted across his mind, but that was something he had never done before. It was a line he wasn''t willing to cross. He didn''t have to invade his opponent''s privacy to notice certain things, though. Her shorts moved in an unexpected way.
If I had to guess, I would say... Reivyn left the thoughts there, focusing back on the match.
There were other things to notice about his opponent that led credence to his conjecture, like when she swallowed and drew his attention to her throat. At the end of the day, though, it wasn''t really important. She had her own life to live, and they were just strangers passing by, all things considered.
The round ended with a tie between them in performance. Reivyn was Skilled enough that he could easily match any opponent in the amateur leagues. He could probably match many of the professionals in the Tier 4 league, too.
He returned to his corner and listened as the Tactician exined what they were going to do. The Trainer didn''t really have much he could impart to Reivyn, though he was able to point out some ws in his opponent''s gait that Reivyn had been too busy to pick up on. Reivyn felt an energy settle in his muscles, and he could tell it would wear off after an hour or two. He figured that''s what it felt like to have his muscle memory altered, and his body would naturally adjust to his opponent''s w. He wasn''t sure if it was necessarily a "w," but her gait shed with her body proportions slightly.
The next round ensued, and Reivyn continued to match his opponent in Skill. It was a novel experience to have his body move in a way that he hadn''t trained previously, but he let himself move with the flow rather than fight against it. He found that he had to work harder to match his opponent''s Skill level while doing so, though.
His opponent had another frown on her face, and Reivyn didn''t immediately understand why. After exchanging several blows, though, he realized what it was. There was zero change in her fighting Skill. It seemed that her Trainer was unable to find anything to use against Reivyn, and she hadn''t been able to improve upon anything for this round.
Reivyn took advantage of the situation and didn''t allow her to seize the initiative with her Tactician''s n despite matching her Skill Level. He applied pressure on her and took charge of thepetition. He didn''t have to show a Level of Skill far above her''s to be able to do so.
The rounds continued, and there weren''t any surprised until close to the final round. His opponent was growing frustrated as each round progressed. Reivyn didn''t allow her Tactician or Trainer to find any ws in his fighting style, and it was starting to grate on her.
The surprise came when Reivyn noticed a glint in her eye and certain set to her posture. His Danger Sense pinged, and he realized what was going on. She had the official Striker ss, after all. Reivyn didn''t have the defensive Skill that the Striker had. He hadn''t had enough time to dissect it and learn it.
His opponent unleashed her Skill, and a barrage of fists appeared out of nowhere and rained down on him. She had to have unleashed at least thirty punches at once. It was more than he could do, though considerably less than he had seen from the higher Level Strikers and Kayzor.
Reivyn unlocked his Skill Level a bit, and taking advantage of his Divine Sense, he avoided and blocked all thirty of the punches. His opponent had a dumbfounded look on her face after the Skill finished, and Reivyn grinned at her as he activated his own Skill.
He hadn''t had a chance to Level it too high, but he could unleash fifteen blows at once now instead of the eleven when he had firstpleted the Skill. The activation of the Skill caught his opponentpletely off guard, and hended twelve of the fifteen punches. She backed up and doubled over in pain from the repeated strikes to her abdomen.
Reivyn didn''t pursue her, though, and the bell sounding the end of the round soon rang out. The crowd was hollering louder than they had the entire time, but he wasn''t paying much attention to it. He didn''t know if it was to encourage his opponent or if he had won some of them over. It didn''t really matter to him either way. There was only one more round, and he was squarely in the lead.
Thest round went as he predicted, and he ended the match with an overwhelming victory. If one only looked at the number of points, it would seem like he barely squeaked by, but those that could read deeper would know that Reivyn had controlled the oue from the very beginning. Being a Master with the proper moves and muscle memory made him a formidable opponent who really shouldn''t have appeared in the amateur league.
Reivyn removed his blindfold and hopped down from the ring. As he approached Kefira and the others, his opponent made her way around the ring to confront him.
"How did you do that?" She asked.
"Do what?" Reivyn asked back, confused.
"My team members said that you matched me perfectly in Skill, so much so that your fighting style was almost identical to mine. My Tactician and Trainer couldn''t find anything to impart to me, at all."
"Oh, well, I''m not really an amateur," Reivyn exined. His opponent frowned at the answer, so he continued. "I''m just here for the experience, so I''m put in the amateur league, but I''m at the Master Skill Level. I just matched my Skill Level to yours." Reivyn shrugged.
"I see," the girl said. "So I guess I won''t get the chance at a rematch?"
"Not likely," Reivyn answered.
"Too bad," she shook her head. "Well, this has been a good lesson for me, so thank you for that. See you around."
The girl waved to Reivyn, and he waved back. He turned back to Kefira, and she was giving him that false re again.
"Like what you saw?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.
"She''s not exactly my type," Reivyn responded. Reivyn held his hands out in front of himself and acted like he was weighing something. "Compared to you, she''scking."
"Is that so?" Kefira folded her arms. "In what way, exactly."
"For starters, she''s not you," Reivyn shrugged. "When I was in the ring with her, I only noticed that she was a hard worker, but I doubt she''s as hard-working as you."
"Is that all that you noticed?" Kefira''s re slipped into a half-smile.
"Yup. Honest."
Chapter 177: Verbal Sparring
Chapter 177: Verbal Sparring
"So I hear you''ve earned yourself a new moniker," Silfa said, addressing Reivyn.
Kefira''s parents hadined that she hadn''t been spending enough time with them now that Reivyn had "stolen" her away, so theypromised and spent lunch together during the time she and Reivyn had scheduled together. Reivyn didn''t mind, as he was going to be spending many years with her and her family, and it was always better to be on better terms than not. Kefira''s parents also had their own unique takes and lessons to teach if one was able to listen well enough.
"A new moniker?" Reivyn asked, confused. He didn''t remember doing anything that would cause people to talk about him too much.
"Well, not you specifically," Silfa rified. "You recently fought in an amateur match against a Striker, correct?" Reivyn nodded his head. "And you blindfolded yourself for some reason?" Reivyn nodded again. "Well, the people in the crowd hadn''t really paid that much attention to you before the match began, so there are only a few rumors that are tying you together with the new gossip, but there''s a new ''Blind Striker'' on everyone''s lips these days."
"I see," Reivyn said. "I hadn''t meant to make any kind of ssh with my performance. It was really just me being silly to y along with Kefira." Reivyn shrugged.
"Considering it was in the amateur leagues, it''s not that big of a topic of gossip, but because you fought against a professional hopeful who''s quite popr, you gained some notoriety."
"If it''s not that big of a gossip topic, how do you know about it?" Reivyn asked.
"Never underestimate the intelligence gathering of the Imperial Pce Staff," Silfa calmly replied. "If there''s something of note, we know about it, and considering we have all the pieces of the puzzle, we''re able to piece things together better than the general poption."
"Noted."
"So you''re saying you were being silly, ying along with my daughter?" Silfa continued.
"Yeah, my opponent was an attractive, er, girl," Reivyn paused as he heard Kefira clear her throat next to him. He nced at her and rolled his eyes, patting her hand. "Nothing like you, of course," he cated. "Anyway, Kefira was pretending to be jealous, so in order to y along with her, I put on a blindfold. I have the Blind Fighting Skill, so it didn''t hinder me at all."
"I see." Silfa took a sip of tea before cing it back down on the table. "I noticed you had a little hup there when mentioning your opponent. I take it you discovered something."
Kefira perked up and nced back and forth between her mother and Reivyn. Reivyn just smiled at her.
"Yeah, after noticing something fishy, if one pays enough attention, it''s easy enough to spot."
"It''s their own personal business," Silfa said, giving Reivyn a significant look.
"I agree. I''m not one for much gossip, anyway."
"What are you two talking about?" Kefira asked. She was clearly confused.
"Nothing, dear," Silfa replied. "Just an observation on one of our subjects."
"Ok, if you say so," Kefira said, shaking her head.
"Don''t worry about it," Reivyn said. "Chances of running into her again are very slim. I''m not going to participate in any more matches before it''s time for us to go, though I do want to try my hand as one of the team members. I''ll have to switch my training up and figure out the technique first, though. Tactician should be the easiest one to jump into for me, considering I have the Skill and all."
"Wait," Silfa said, holding up a hand. "I think you misspoke there. You said, ''before it''s time for "us" to go.'' Please rify."
Reivyn looked between Silfa and Kefira for a moment before focusing on Kefira.
"You haven''t brought it up to them yet? I thought everything was settled already."
"We were going to talk to them together!" Kefira shot back. "What do you mean you thought everything was already settled."
"I thought you were going to tell them that we hade to a decision before bringing me along to discuss it. When you didn''t say anything, I thought you had already worked it out with your parents."
"I thought we were going to talk about it today, right now."
"Well, I guess it''s as good a time as any." Reivyn shrugged.
"What are you two talking about? What decision, what do you need to discuss with us?"
Ge, who had been passively listening to the conversation while he let his wife dictate it perked up and put his focus on the two teenagers. Reivyn looked between Ge and Silfa, expecting Kefira to start the conversation off. When she didn''t say anything, he looked over, only to find her avoiding his gaze as she focused on eating her lunch. He gave a small sigh.
"I''ve decided to ept the mission of leading a mercenarypany of my own in a month''s time. My father is going to go with me, and Kefira is going to go, too."
"No." Silfa shot that idea down right away. There was no room forpromise in her tone of voice.
"I beg your pardon, but we''re not asking your permission," Reivyn said, looking straight into Silfa''s eyes. "We''re simply informing you of our decision."
Silfa calmly took up her teacup again and took a sip. She set it back down and leveled a stern re at Reivyn.
"Is that how you see it? Do I need to remind you that Kefira is my daughter? I don''t believe you have the right to take responsibility for her just yet."
"I understand your concerns, and we''ve already worked everything out," Reivyn replied, dodging the issue Silfa brought up. If they were already married, then Kefira would technically be a member of his household, and it would be perfectly reasonable for him to "take responsibility" for her in the way Silfa was referring to. As they were not yet married, she was a member of their household, and they believed they had the final say.
"My father is going to be going with me, and Kefira isn''t going to be engaging in any kind of behavior that she hasn''t already," Reivyn continued. "I''d be happy to bring my parents over to continue the discussion if you want."
Silfa narrowed her eyes at Reivyn, and Ge barked augh from where he was seated. He had an amused look on his face as he looked on with interest.
"You have some backbone, boy," Ge chuckled. "Daring to stand up to my wife like that."
"Hush, you," Silfa admonished her husband. She turned back to Reivyn. "Is that a threat?"
"I don''t know what you mean," Reivyn replied innocently. "I just figure that my parents would have a unique take on the situation and would be able to ay any and all of your fears. They''ve spent decades outside the confines of a pce, after all. They have a lot of worldly experience."
"Are you implying that we don''t?" Silfa retorted. "I''ll have you know that we''ve all engaged in multiple Life Experience expeditions, and we''re twice the age of your parents."
"Mhm, yes, that''s true," Reivyn said, nodding his head. "You and your husband, while younger, have gone on many adventures to help build your sses, and I wouldn''t be surprised if the total time you spent outside were close to a decade. That being said, my parents have only really gone on one adventure, rtively speaking, but it hassted almost twice as long as yours.
"I''m not insinuating anything here, just that they would be able to help convince you with their unique perspective."
"Mother, myst expedition wasn''t myst one," Kefira joined the conversation. "You and I both know that I will be going on several more trips outside. I don''t see the issue."
"Because you''re willfully blind to it," Silfa rolled her eyes. "It''s not about you going out into the world. It''s about you going to a war zone and going out much sooner than you should be. There''s no reason you need to go right now. You still have time to consolidate your gains."
"And Reivyn doesn''t have to consolidate his?" Kefira fired back. "You said I have no reason, but Reivyn is a pretty big reason. Not only because of our personal rtionship but because he''s my Imperial Liaison. This mercenarypany he''s going to be leading is ostensibly in my name and with a writ from the Imperial Family because of my connection to it. It makes total sense for me to be there.
"Also, it won''t be my first foray into a war zone. I dare say I have more experience on that front than you do at this point. Not only did I participate in Drallo, but I was also actually inmand of the entire battalion for a good portion of the conflict. I won''t be on the front lines, even if I participate in any battles. I''ll be with the mages.
"Considering Reivyn''s abilities, hispany will definitely have a magicponent. It''s only logical." Thatst sentence was the real dagger Kefira hid in her arguments against her mother.
Kefira listed off all the pros to her side without letting her mother get a word in to break her flow. Everything she said was logical and well thought out in advance. She wasing to the argument with facts, while her mother was only concerned with how she felt about it. She intended to use that as a weapon against her mother. Her mother had always chided her children on being logical when it came to making decisions, and she wasn''t going to let her mother escape that fact.
Silfa spluttered as she realized what her daughter was doing. She looked at her husband for support, but he just smiled at her.
"You''re the one that deals with the family affairs," he said. He was having far too much fun watching from the sidelines.
"This issue involves official matters of state," Silfa retorted.
"And I''ve already hashed those out with Reivyn," Ge smirked.
"There will be consequences," Silfa gave her husband a severe look.
"Worth it."
Silfa rolled her eyes as she refocused back on Kefira and Reivyn.
"Fine! I agree that it makes logical sense for you to be associated with the mercenarypany and for you to have interactions with them. It also makes logical sense for you to spend more time consolidating your gains and working on your foundation. You''re about to reach Tier 4. You''re not allowed to travel to another Region until you do so."
"That''s fine," Kefira smiled at her mother. "We still have several months before it''s time to go, anyway. This isn''t apany from the imperial army. Reivyn is tasked with building a mercenarypany out of Adventurers, so he''ll have to train them for longer than just one month, and he won''t even begin assembling thepany until next month, to begin with.
"There''s plenty of time for me to reach Tier 4 before then."
Kefira had a happy expression on her face at having "bested" her mother. They didn''t even have to bring in the cavalry in the form of Reivyn''s mother. She shared a smile with Reivyn. Silfa continued to glower at her daughter.
"Don''t be happy too soon," she said. "While I agreed it made sense for you to have interactions with them, they''re ultimately going to be led by Reivyn in your name. That means you''ll have to at least be a little aloof from their affairs. As such, it''s perfectly logical that you don''t spend the entire time with them. You will be allowed to go with Reivyn, but you have toe back here to focus on your personal growth every other month, and you have to stay for a period of time, as well."
Kefira''s expression turned into a frown after hearing her mother''s words. She sought counsel from Reivyn, but he, too, was a bit stumped. It did make sense for her to focus on herself, and it made sense to do so in the safety of her own home. She wasn''t like Reivyn. Reivyn had built his foundation in both Martial and Magical means through conflict and fighting his entire life. Kefira, while being a powerful Caster, was also a part researcher. The nature of her primary Affinity and the fact that she didn''t have anyone able to guide her properly made it a necessity.
"I think she has a point," Reivyn conceded.
"Hmm, well... Having such a strict time frame for having toe home doesn''t make sense," Kefira argued. "It only makes sense if the mercenarypany isn''t deployed. If they''re sent into conflict, I would be no better than a deserter if I abandoned them toe home to meet a deadline."
"She''s got a point, too," Ge teased his wife. Silfa gave him a sharp look.
"Hmm, I can agree to that. We''ll amend it as such: If the mercenarypany is in garrison, even if it''s not the capital, you have to meet the every other month schedule. If they''re deployed, you have to send a missive to us letting us know, and you''ll have to return immediately uponpleting any mission assigned to thepany."
Kefira was about to agree when Reivyn noticed a particr gleam in Silfa''s eye. He held up his hand to forestall Kefira, causing her to give him a questioning look.
"If the mission is aplished after the month and a half deadline," Reivyn said. "If weplete a mission and that deadline hasn''t arrived yet, Kefira can stay until her appointed regr time."
Kefira gave her mother a sharp re after listening to Reivyn uncover the trap.
"Hahahaha," Ge pped his hand on the table. "It looks like your lessons with Bellefrent haven''t gone to waste!"
Silfa''s mouth drew a line.
"Agreed," she simply said.
"Excellent," Kefira eximed, pping her hands. "Now that that is out of the way..."
"Wait! What do you mean, ''now that that''s out of the way?''" Silfa tilted her head in confusion. "We''ve only said that you can go. Now we have to make the ns surrounding it."
"What do you mean?" Kefira asked. Reivyn had a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Well, you can''t possibly think that Seri is going to be enough of a protective contingent this time," Silfa scoffed. "You''re also going to be visiting in your official capacity, not undercover as just an Adventurer.
"We''ll have to give the target empire sufficient notice, establish diplomatic rtions, n social gatherings to further, ahem, ''our'' rtionship." She nced at Reivyn and smirked. "We''ll have to create a wardrobe and assemble servants and other staff... We have a lot more to discuss before we finalize anything.
"Hahahaha," Ge threw his head back andughed again, this time directed at his daughter.
This is going to be a long lunch, Reivyn thought.
---
"This is going to be much more of a headache than we thought," Kefirained, holding her hand to her forehead. "With all of the ''diplomatic'' duties she''s heaping onto my head, I''ll have hardly any time to spend with you."
Reivyn wrapped his arm over her shoulder and drew her in close as they walked along the path back to Kefira''s courtyard.
"It''s not so bad," Reivyn consoled. "Think about it. She only mentioned your duties, and your father hasn''t said anything about the mercenarypany other than what''s already been stipted. I still hold the official position as your Liaison, so I''ll be able to attend every state function with you."
"What about dereliction of duty? Don''t you think my mother is just waiting to throw something like that in your face?"
Reivyn smirked.
"That''s why the chain ofmand exists," he replied. "My father is going with us, and he''ll be the Vice Captain, the Executive Officer in military terms. I think it makes sense to distinguish some of the positions from the official military equivalent," he said in answer to Kefira''s questioning look. "Anyway, he''ll be the Vice Captain, and after the mercenary members train with us for a while, I highly doubt anyone would be averse to serving under him.
"He''ll takemand in my absence, and I''ll be freed up to go everywhere with you. Officers, especially those inmanding positions, have more duties than justmanding the troops. Even though the mercenarypany will only be loosely affiliated with the military through the writ, I''ll still hold themission of a captain and your Liaison. There isn''t anything anyone will be able to say as long as I cover all the bases."
"That''s a relief," Kefira said with a small sigh. "I think my mother''sck of paying attention to official matters might have given her a blind spot to this issue. I''m notining, mind you. It works in our favor. I think my father noticed the hole in my mother''s n, but I don''t think he''s on board with the whole testing you n as he used to be. I think my mother is just doing it out of habit at this point, too."
"You think so?" Reivyn asked, slightly surprised. "That''s not the impression that I got. Granted, I don''t feel like she''s doing anything malicious, but she still seems like she''s fullymitted to messing with us."
"I didn''t say she wasn''t going to mess with us, just that her attitude about it has shifted," Kefira replied. "Ironically, I think it''s meeting your mother that had the biggest impact. She senses a kindred soul in your mom."
"Yeah, I''ve seen the simrities," Reivyn chuckled. "So you''re saying that seeing that my mother is simr to your mother has increased her opinion of me?"
"Something like that," Kefira said. "Anyway, I imagine my mother is going to try and put her own people in ce with the staff she''s going to assign me. One or two are inevitable, but we need to limit her influence as much as possible, especially for anybody that has any say in my schedule. We need to make sure that I, and I alone, am in charge of my decisions. My mother might have the ability to influence my decisions, but I''m my own person."
"Well said," Reivyn agreed. "Just like with my parents, they strongly influence my life, but they don''t get to tell me what to do."
Reivyn and Kefira turned into Kefira''s courtyard and immediately came to a stop. The blood drained from Reivyn''s face as he came face to face with his mother. She and his father were standing there, apparently having waited for them for some time. Ameliyn just calmly nced at her son.
"Is that what you believe?" Ameliyn asked. Her voice was far too cheerful for Reivyn''sfort. "We don''t get to tell you what to do? Are you a man now? Is that what this is?"
"Uh... no?" Reivyn ventured. He had stuck his foot in his mouth. He knew that his mother knew that he didn''t mean it the way she was taking it, but there was no stopping what was toe.
"We''ll continue this discussionter," Ameliyn dismissed her son. She turned to face Kefira. "We came to spend some more time with you and maybe discuss some magic theory. I know that we''ve talked a bit about it with our visits, but we haven''t had the chance to try any practical application out."
"Oh, certainly," Kefira responded, giving amiserating look to Reivyn as she walked forward to take Ameliyn''s hand.
Refix held his hand out to stop Reivyn as he made to follow them. Reivyn shot his father an inquiring look.
"We can watch them and listen in to their conversation on magicter, but for now, let''s work on something else," Refix said.
He turned and motioned for Reivyn to follow along.
"We''ve already done our regr training, so we don''t need to get ourselves ''warmed up,'' first. It''s not necessary for my idea, anyway."
Refix stopped at the edge of the training field. Ameliyn and Kefira were in the center, facing the training dummies, and Reivyn could already feel their Mana. Ameliyn was going to give some pointers on actual Casting to Kefira. Kefira had learned all the same training tricks that Reivyn had from Ameliyn, and she had her own methods, as well. She had spent far more of her time and effort on such things over the years, so she was much further ahead than Reivyn was on that front.
While Ameliyn had had less time for formal education in the past, the one thing she beat everyone else out on was actual, real-life experience. Before she got pregnant with Reivyn, she had been a core member of Refix''s Adventure Party. She had a lot more she could continue to teach both Reivyn and Kefira outside of the methods to exercise their Skills behind closed doors.
Reivyn put that out of his mind and focused his attention on Refix. Refix noticed his son''s attention and summoned his ethereal arsenal.
"I''m going to try and teach you some of the nuances behind my Skill," Refix said. "It''s a ss Skill, but it''s tailor-made for me. I had the nuggets already built before I gained my Tier 5 ss, and the System took that and fleshed it out for me. That''s one of the benefits of getting a good ss. Since you already have Mana Weapon and Elemental Weapon as Skills, you should be able to replicate this Skill to some extent.
"I''m looking forward to what you can build with it inbination with your Weapons Master Skill."
Chapter 178: Self Torture
Chapter 178: Self Torture
Reivyn''s body felt like it was on fire as moltenva coursed through his very being. It wasn''t isted to his meridians as would usually be the case when he practiced Mana Cirction. Sweat dripped from his brow, and it took all of his concentration to maintain the delicate bnce. It wasn''t a surprise to Reivyn that he was struggling so hard. He was literally channeling the Magma Affinity through his body.
He had recently broken through the threshold of the Level 60 minimum requirement to infuse his body with the Tier 2 Affinities he had avable and worked his way through them in order. He found through experimentation that it didn''t matter if he paired his Affinity infusions to alleviate some of the diforts. Coursing the Water Affinity through his body did nothing to offset the pain from infusing his body with the Fire Affinity.
The pain he experienced was ethereal. It wasn''t real. No amount of preparation could reduce the burden of the exercise. Luckily, the phantom pain disappeared within moments of ending the exercise each time.
The Tier 2 Affinities were an order of magnitude more ufortable than the Tier 1 Elements had been. Where he had felt extremely hot and sunburned when infusing Fire through his body, he felt like he was melting from the inside out with Magma. He dreaded the effects of the Tier 3 Affinities when he got to them one day, much less the Tier 4 Affinities.
I wonder what Veridical will feel like? He thought absentmindedly. It''ll be a long, long time before I find out. I don''t want to run the risk of mutating the fiber of my being unpredictably before I have enough control over the Affinity.
Reivyn didn''t have much ability to form coherent thoughts beyond much of what had just flitted through his mind. He grit his teeth and buckled down to maintain the exercise without slipping up. Even with his Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills, it was a struggle to maintain his focus.
Ameliyn had advised him to take a gradual approach to the exercise. She had warned him that it would be tough and that he shouldn''t try to force himself too much. With the Tier 1 Affinities, he had managed to maintain the infusion for about half an hour for each Element. It took some time to spread the Affinity through his entire body. Likewise, safely retracting the Mana took about the same amount of time. It took about five minutes for each, so that left him with twenty minutes for running the exercise at full capacity.
Ameliyn had said that the purpose was to limate each of his cells to better amodate the Affinities. There was no downside, per se, to not infusing his entire body to the very edges that he could reach, but there wouldn''t be as much of a benefit if he didn''t.
He wasn''t ready to run the Tier 2 Affinities in such a manner yet. It was a struggle just to extend the Mana to the far reaches of his body, and as soon as he reached the very edges of his body, he immediately began to retract the Mana.
The Magma Affinity reached his extremities, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he started the process of pulling the Mana back. The relief was gradual, but just getting over the hump of midway gave him a mental reprieve.
It took longer to push the Tier 2 Affinity through his body, so seven minutester, he finally ended the exercise with the Magma Affinity. He copsed to his bed, sweat covering his body from the strain, and heid still, panting, for several minutes. He didn''t let himself take a full break, though, because if he didn''t push through, he suspected he might not have the ability to keep going.
He sat back up with his legs crossed, entering a state of Meditation, and moved on to the next Affinity. Metal was the next Affinity on his list, and he had no idea what to expect from the sensations such an Affinity would cause. His curiosity abated as soon as he began pushing the Mana away from his core, though, and he groaned in pain as his body protested the action.
It was hard to describe the feeling. It felt like he was getting stabbed without the stab wound. His body was stiffening up, and it felt like internalcerations as his body turned into a metal statue. He knew he wasn''t actually turning into a statue, and his body wasn''t actually even getting stiff. It was all in his mind, but the mind was more powerful than the body. He wasn''t able to twitch a muscle where the Mana reached.
The pain started off fairly dull, but it ramped up as he continued to press. This was another aspect of the exercise that his mother had warned him about during that first session that she had supervised. The longer he maintained the state, the more the pain and difort would increase. The only positive aspect was that it wasn''t exponential. It was linear. Once he reached a certain point, the added pain didn''t do much to negatively affect him. His Mental Fortitude Skill allowed him to keep pace with the ramping pain, if just barely.
That was the case for the Tier 2 Affinities, but his willpower Skills only went so far. They let him keep abreast of the increasing pain, but he knew that there was a ceiling, so he nned his sessions ordingly. For his Tier 1 Affinities, he hadn''t approached the ceiling of his willpower Skills, but he only had so much time in a day. As it was, it took him two hours to cycle through all four of the base Elements.
He could already feel the benefits of the exercise, and the slow down associated with increasing Levels was noticeably reduced. He had already achieved Level 88 in his base Elements, and he could tell that he would reach Level 100 before it was time to go on his mission to another Tier 4 empire. He wasn''t sure if he even needed to do the exercise for his Light and Darkness Affinities, though he would simply have to be apletionist. Those two Tier 3 Affinities had been Leveled up to 95, well above even his Tier 2 Affinities that sat at Level 61.
Reivyn felt like every muscle in his body was cramping at the same time as the Metal Affinity spread through his being. His breathing becamebored as the Mana passed above his chest, through his lungs, and into his throat. His perception of reality seemed to be affected as the Mana continued up his head and through his brain, ending at the top of his skull. He still had a little bit longer to go, though, and the Mana crept along his arms and legs to fill out his fingers and toes.
As soon as the Affinity reached the tips of his fingers and toes, Reivyn began the process of retracting the Mana once more. His mind rxed a bit as the odd Metal perception of reality shifted back to normality, though the pain in his core was continuing to increase. The pain radiated out from the center of his being, but he kept the pace even and steady.
Eventually, the Mana receded back to his core and lost the Metal Affinity. The pain and strange sensations fled his mind, and it became an echo of pain to be remembered. He once more copsed to his back, panting to recover.
I can''t imagine how this is going to go when I start working on my Tier 3 Affinities, Reivyn thought. Not only will the pain be even higher, but I have more of them. I wonder how Kefira will handle infusing her body with the Space/Time Affinity when the dayes.
Reivyn didn''t let himself get distracted from his exercise for too long, and he once more sat up to move on to the next Affinity. Mist was the next Affinity, and he had hopes that it wouldn''t be too bad.
He was wrong. It was much worse than any of the previous Affinities.
How can such a benign-sounding Affinity, Mist, be so sinister?!
It felt like his body was disintegrating, turning into the mist itself. It felt like his body was tearing itself apart at the tiniest level. He had expected a refreshing, moist feeling to spread through his body, but this was the farthest thing from it. The pain was unimaginable.
It was the first time he failed to infuse his entire being all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. He had to give up about three-quarters of the way through.
That was awful, Reivyn thought as heid back on his bed. I don''t know if I want to go on after that. Mud is next. What could that possibly feel like?
He didn''t let himself wallow in pity, and he wasn''t one for giving up. Sure, he hadn''t been able topletely finish his Mist Affinity, but he wasn''t going to chance irreparable harm to his body, and he had realized that his willpower Skills weren''t enough to power through to the end. He didn''t view it as a failure. He had gone as long as he safely could.
He wasn''t worried that his body would be out of bnce in the long run for not reaching every single cell with the Affinity. His mother had exined that to him, as well.
"As long as you reach every cell with the Affinity, your cells will work to reach an equilibrium," Ameliyn had said. "That doesn''t just apply to each individual session. You might think that there will be more effective on your core because it has been infused with the Affinity for the longest, but that''s not the case. As long as you reach each cell in a session, each cell will receive the same benefit.
"Likewise, if you don''t reach every cell in a session, you can slowly make up for it in the future. You won''t immediately reach equilibrium with the next session, but your body will slowly adapt on its own. Don''t feel bad if you can''t do it your first time for certain Affinities. It''ll bnce itself out as long as you''re consistent and make progress with your willpower Skills."
Reivyn hadn''t reached below his elbows or knees with the Mist Affinity, and he could feel that they weren''t quite as attuned as the central part of his body to the Affinity. The difference was minute, but it was there if he concentrated. He would just need to continue to work at it until he was able to power through the exercise.
Reivyn spent the next hour cycling through hisst three Tier 2 Affinities. He didn''t have to stop before reaching the end with the other three, and his sma Affinity wasn''t much different than Magma had been. If he had to put the difference into words, he would describe it as being thinner than the Magma coursing through his body while being a bit sharper and hotter.
The Mana exercises were going about as well as he had hoped, minus the small snag with the Mist Affinity, and he wrapped up his evening session with a refreshing course of regr Mana Cirction.
Jekle surveyed the magnificent city with a critical eye. He led his Party members, along with a gaggle of other Adventurers, into the capital city, Willowan, of the Wispan Empire. He had been ecstatic to receive an invitation from his formermander to bring his friends from the volunteer army up to the next stage. Reivyn hadn''t included all of the details in the missive, but he hadn''t hidden that they would be doing something simr to what they had done with the battalion. There were about forty of the veterans making up the group of Adventurers alongside some of their fresh teammates for a total of fifty-five people.
Returning to normal life had been strange for Jekle. Not just him but all of his Party members had been changed by their experience. The effects of killing other humans while fighting for their own lives hadsting repercussions on how they viewed life.
They were simultaneously less patient with those they considered to be fools and less likely to resort to violence during an altercation. If some other Adventurer Party got out of line and resorted to blows first, they had nopunction in dishing it back, but they hardly ever started the fights. It was typically only the newer Adventurer Parties that acted so immature, though, as many of the Parties active in the area had been fellow volunteers.
The entire atmosphere of the Adventurer''s Guild in Oreck had shifted. Many of the Adventuring Parties had left to travel to other areas to take advantage of the Life Experience boon they had received from the conflict, but Jekle, his Party members, and several other Adventurers had hung around for just the missive that Reivyn eventually sent to them.
They had grown bored with running the Dungeons and receiving requests from the Adventurer''s Guild, and they didn''t think they would find what they were looking for by just simply changing the scenery. The structure and mission of their time in the volunteer army had changed their outlook on life, and Jekle was ecstatic to have the opportunity to be a part of something simr again.
Jekle and his Party weren''t the only ones migrating to the higher Tier Region from Drallo. There weren''t a ton of Parties apanying them on the journey, but he did notice that almost all of them were familiar faces from thepany and toon that Reivyn had been in charge of. Not all of them were familiar faces, though. The fresh faces were Party members that had either been in a differentpany or were new members that had been convinced to leave everything behind for a new kind of adventure.
With his experience as an officer, even though the official ranking was only for a short time, Jekle was able to tell that Reivyn had invited a solid foundation for amand structure. The majority of the Adventurers making the journey hadn''t been leaders by any means in the volunteer army, but all of those that had participated as a leader was part of the group. Jekle recognized the five squad leaders from his toon: Turro, Herrid, Rippo, Ingrid, and Merrith.
Surprisingly, Jek wasn''t among the numbers, but he hadn''t seen him in a long time. He was more carefree, even after the expedition, than the others, though, so it wasn''t too surprising that he might have left for greener pastures earlier.
The sight of the city drew sounds of admiration from the younger Adventurers in the group. Even though it was an amazing sight for everyone present, those that had spent time in the war were more stoic. They had an air of calmness about them that other people just didn''t have. It was noticed by the older soldiers serving as guards as they crossed into the city, but they didn''t make anything of it, considering they had a missive with Reivyn''s Imperial Liaison stamp on it.
They hadn''t even been fully inspected at the gates like many other groups had been, and there was even a contingent of guards summoned to escort them further into the city. Most of the Adventurers only gave it a passing notice, but as the one ostensibly in charge, for the time being, Jekle had to take note of anything unusual. There hadn''t been a vote or anything to decide a pecking order. Jekle was just naturally drawn to take charge, and he had enough of a reputation even from before the invasion that it was natural for the others to let him.
Jekle wasn''t fully aware of the significance of the stamp yet. He knew that Kefira had been more important than just a viscount''s daughter when she had interacted with that General Kayzor. It hadn''t been advertised, but neither had it been kept particrly secret that Kayzor was one of the Imperial Princes. Most of the Adventurers in the group didn''t know much about Kefira, and they hadn''t witnessed her interactions with the man, but Jekle had been in a position to notice.
They hadn''t spent all that much time together with the Imperial Army before they split up to escort the civilians home. Still, that little bit of time was enough for him to pick up on enough hints to realize that Kefira was much more important than anyone had suspected in the beginning.
The outer city quickly passed them by, and with the escort guards serving as a buffer, they were led straight through to the inner city without even having to stop at the gate. Reivyn had sent them the missive through the Adventurer''s Guild, and he had told them to send word ahead the same way to notify him when they were going to arrive. Reivyn had instructed them to meet in one of the hotels in the central square near the teleport circle, something none of the Adventurers could casually afford to use, and he would handle the bill.
Jekle led the group down the path after inquiring about the direction, and they filed into the inn. It was much higher quality than any ce he had stayed before, but he hadn''t particrly been one to seek out such luxury. Most of their money earned through Dungeon Delving and quests were used to bolster their gear and supplies to work toward entering a higher stage one day, but it seemed like they would be getting a helping hand in that regard.
Housing fifty-five people in the hotel would cost a lot of money, and Jekle didn''t think that was the n. It was simply one of the easiest locations to meet up at, being such a prominent location. Jekle, while everyone else was inspecting the grand luxury of the establishment, noticed Reivyn with a couple of other people seated at a table in the distance.
This was an upscale location, and it included a dining area, a bar, and a dance floor, and that was just the open-air floor in the front of the inn. Reivyn was seated at a table that was sort of between the dining and bar areas. Jekle recognized two of the girls with him, namely Kefira and Seri, but there were also a couple of people he didn''t recognize.
They were seated in a way that showed they were intimately familiar with Reivyn, but Jekle wasn''t going to make any assumptions before they were introduced.
Reivyn was seated facing away from the entrance, but he turned his head as soon as Jekle was about forty feet away from him. His eyes immediately locked with his, and he smiled as he waved him over. The other Adventurers had meandered over to the bar area, having noticed that Jekle was going to take care of the formalities.
"Jekle!" Reivyn said, standing up and greeting his former subordinate. "It''s been a long time! How have you been?"
"We''ve been good for the most part," Jekle said with a return smile. The two exchanged a handshake before Reivyn indicated for him to take a seat. Kefira offered him a smile, though Seri kept her vigil about the ce.
Now that Jekle was closer, he could see the resemnce in the other two people seated with Reivyn.
Maybe they''re siblings? He thought. Didn''t Reivyn say that he was transported countless miles away from his home, though? What kind of coincidence would lead to meeting up with them here? He was only shocked for a moment, though, as he quickly recalled the presence of the teleport circle outside. Ahh, someone got word sent much quicker than expected. That, or he wasn''t teleported nearly as far as he had thought.
"These are my parents, Ameliyn and Refix," Reivyn introduced the suspected siblings.
Surprise shed across Jekle''s face as he hesitated while extending a hand toward Refix. He overcame the shock one more, though, and shook hands with his friend''s father.
"It''s a pleasure to meet you," Jekle said. "I''m Jekle, a former subordinate of your son''s."
"Yes, he''s told us a lot about his time in Drallo," Ameliyn replied as he switched to shaking hands with Reivyn''s mother. She had a strong grip for someone of her stature, and he could practically feel the power radiating from the pair even though they weren''t broadcasting their auras.
"I''m d you made the journey," Reivyn said. "I was a little surprised that Jek had disappeared, but we have a solid base for what we have nned."
"And what exactly is that?" Jekle asked. "You only mentioned that we would be doing the same thing as we did in the volunteer army. Everyone here is ready and willing, but we don''t know the specifics about anything going on."
"Of course, of course," Reivyn said. "Today is about getting you guys settled, and we''ll let everyone have some time to go explore the city and have some fun before we get down to business, but I can at least tell you this much.
"There have been multiple instances of invasions across multiple empires since the time of our expedition in Drallo. And I''m not talking about some Tier 6 noble making a jaunt for a personal reason. These are full-blown, true invasions of the Tier 4 empires. Many have already fallen, and more still have asked for help.
"We''re going to be mercenaries."
Jekle''s eyes widened a bit at that. He had not expected the scale of what Reivyn had described, nor had he thought Reivyn would be going into business as a mercenary. He had that official stamp, and Kefira was sitting right there, so surely he had some sort of official post. Why would he need to recruit Adventurers?
Jekle took a moment topose his thoughts. Refix and Reivyn eyed him as he did so, but they didn''t give any of their thoughts away. Ameliyn didn''t seem to care all that much, and she appeared to just be apanying her family. Kefira and Seri were having their own little conversation together, but Jekle was too focused on the matter at hand to glean any information from their words.
"Well..." Jekle said, drawing the word out. "I know that all of the veterans that made the journey with me know what that means, but some of the fresh faces might not. I can say that we''re all willing, though. What would you have me do?"
Reivyn smiled once more as Refix gave him an approving nod.
Chapter 179: Mercenary Formation
Chapter 179: Mercenary Formation
Reivyn walked along the outskirts of the training men, watching all three groups work. His final month was to inspect the instruction of the officers and senior sergeants he had trained the previous month, but they only made up one group of his evaluation. The second obvious group being evaluated was the soldier of thepany that was training to fight against people.
The third and final group was Reivyn''s personal soldiers. He had gotten permission from Garet to allow the Adventurers that were going to make up the backbone of his leadership structure the opportunity to observe the training. They had spent the past several weeks learning from the instructors. They weren''t learning how to fight against other people, though. They were learning how to instruct.
Reivyn wouldn''t be able to train all of the recruits and trainees he would receive who were interested in joining his mercenarypany once it was advertised. He already had a core group of individuals he could trust and who knew the subject matter, so why not have them learn how to teach it themselves?
Not all of them were cut out for it, obviously. Several of the Adventurers gained the Teaching Skill right away, proving their talent in the field. The majority had barely unlocked the Skill, but there were still others that didn''t unlock it at all. Reivyn wasn''t disappointed with those Adventurers, even if they were disappointed in themselves, because they would still be able to have a role to y in training the mercenary soldiers.
There had to be people to give demonstrations of what was being taught, and there had to be opponents for the drills when the time came. They would make excellent tutors, even without the Skill, with theirbat ability and tactics learned from the expedition in Drallo.
Reivyn nced over at Jekle, who was intent on watching all of the Adventurers under his charge. It had been decided that Refix would be the Vice-Captain, but Jekle would be the First toon Leader. He wouldn''t get amission from the Imperial Army, but he would still be afforded the respect an officer deserved while on official duty with the mercenarypany. Those that would employ Reivyn and his group wouldn''t know the difference, anyway, what with the writ they would hold from the Imperial Family and being under the banner of Princess Kefira.
Jekle was one of the individuals who had unlocked the Teaching Skill around the midpoint. It didn''t matter to Reivyn whether the man had the Skill or not, but it could lend some credibility in certain situations in the early days of recruiting and training the mercenary force. Jekle''s role would be to oversee the entire thing when Reivyn wasn''t around, and he knew the man''s natural leadership abilities were a good fit for the task. Having the Skill was just icing on the cake.
The others that joined Jekle on the trip to Wispan would take up the same roles they had before, but there was room for advancement as long as the mercenarypany was sessful and could recruit more people to its ranks. Reivyn didn''t know how popr the idea would be at first, as most people were still under the impression that there existed the army to ward off monster hordes and Adventurers to delve into Dungeons and retrieve scarce resources. The third style ofbat would be something new to most people, though it wasn''t hard to understand.
Working as a soldier purely for money and not for reputation, honor, or to uphold an agreement was something that people weren''t used to. The marypensation was the first thing that Reivyn had hashed out with Jekle and Garet in their first official meeting, and he wanted it to be the main issue going forward. It might seem strange to someone who knew Reivyn, but he was looking at it as the mercenarypanies being resources bought and paid for, and he wanted it to be perfectly clear upfront.
The main source of ie for the Adventurers that chose to be mercenaries wasn''t going to be supplied by Wispan. Garet had agreed topensate them through ess and assets. They would be free to use the training facilities for a certain amount of time each month, and they would have the option to have priority to purchase additional time. They would also supply the first batch of gear to the mercenaries. That included the new recruits who passed the training.
The final piece ofpensation that was the real deal maker for Jekle and the other Adventurers was priority quotas to the Tier 4 Dungeons protected by the imperial army. There was one just outside of the city, up the mountain where the base of the training camps was situated on. That particr Dungeon was technically open to the public, but there were long wait lines and reservation requirements. There were just too many people wanting to ess it to allow it to be a free-for-all. The imperial army had wisely set it up so that there were always some additional slots avable every week so that they could dole out such favors as they arose.
This was perfectly fine with Reivyn. It would allow his mercenaries to transition more smoothly into a different lifestyle. They would be able to hold onto their old ways of delving into Dungeons in Parties before they fully integrated as professional soldiers, and then they would get the opportunity to practice their teamwork together as soldiers in the Dungeons after they had limated.
It was a subtle influence on their frame of mind. They would get to act as Adventurers to deal with the stress of a different lifestyle, but even that very act would slowly transition into further training them as soldiers. The key would be to set the Parties up appropriately, and the best way to do that would be to make sure the squads of the toons were set up properly.
The cap on how many people could be at a Party and still receive Experience yed a part, too. Not every restriction was wholly negative. Some Adventurers might look at that cap and hold it against a tough Dungeon or quest they couldplete if they could just add one or two more people, but that same restriction would force them to grow to ovee the challenge. Reivyn nned to force that growth towards military-Esque teamwork and tactics.
"Do you think you and your men have a handle on the training regimen?" Reivyn asked Jekle.
Jekle continued to watch the soldiers and Adventurers for a moment longer as he gathered his thoughts.
"I think... we should requisition a couple of instructors for the very newest imperial soldiers," Jekle finally admitted, turning to face Reivyn. "We have what it takes, the experience and Skill, to teach this," he gestured at the training going on in the distance, "but we don''t quite have the necessary know-how to turn Adventurers into soldiers."
"Hmm, that''s a good point," Reivyn said, contemting the revtion. "I had been too caught up in changing how the soldiers looked at how to fight, now that the enemy wouldn''t be monsters, that I had forgotten to take into ount that you all had only been soldiers for a short time. None of you have the training of how to train soldiers.
"I''m sure you''ll be able to pick it up quickly, especially those few that gained the Teaching Skill right away. You all know how to be soldiers. You just need to be able to teach that to others."
"Yeah, I''m pretty sure we could figure out how to get them to dress into ranks properly, how to form a shield-wall and maneuver with their spears as a unit, but there are all kinds of little minutiae that I''m afraid we''ll overlook. That mighte back to bite us one day, and none of us want a sore backside."
"Truer words have never been spoken," Refix replied, barking augh.
"Dad, you''re not helping," Reivyn said, rolling his eyes.
"Sure I am!" Refix pped his son on the shoulder. "Even soldiers need a sense of humor. Especially soldiers."
Reivyn just stared at his smirking father, unable to contradict him. The man''s got a point, Reivyn conceded.
"Alright, fair, but we''re trying to have a serious discussion about the future of our mercenarypany here. It''s not the right time," Reivyn argued.
"It''s the perfect time! It''s just the three of us. If we never let ourselves go for fear of losing the respect of our subordinates, then we''d go crazy. We can''t vent to them, so we have to vent to each other."
Reivyn sighed in his heart. Not because his father was a lost cause but because he knew he spoke the truth. His own experiences and the Dreams of the Past let him know it was the truth. He had been too caught up in his own sense of righteousness.
"Thanks," Reivyn said with a smile. "I needed that reminder. That being said, I''ll leave the humor up to you right now. I have important things to discuss."
"As it should be," Refix nodded his head.
Jekle just watched the intery from the side. He could see where Reivyn got his natural charm from. He had only known Refix for a couple of weeks, but the man had a way with people that just drew them to him. If Reivyn wasn''t around, Jekle could see himself easily following his father off on some sort of other shenanigans, and he did not doubt that that would be exactly what it was. Shenanigans.
"Anyway, I think we''ll only need the help for the first month," Jekle continued. "We can pick it up on the job, and once we have all the little details ironed out, we should be able to be fully self-sufficient on the training front.
"How long are we nning on training the recruits until we deem them ready to go, do you think?"
"My natural instinct is to say three months, but I don''t think it will be that long," Reivyn replied. "We don''t have to condition the recruits, so we can throw that entire aspect of the training out. Oh, we''ll still push them mentally and physically, but we won''t have to set aside time specifically for physical fitness. That will cut down on a third of what I have going on up in my head, so we''ll say two months."
"Two months," Jekle repeated. He stopped to think about it for a moment. "That''s still twice as long as the training we received in Drallo."
Reivyn gave him a considering look for a moment.
"Aside from our toon and Jek''s, were the others truly ready?" Reivyn queried. "We did a lot more additional training with tactics than the others did, and we still suffered in the beginning. The rest of the battalion waspletely unprepared.
"The way I''m looking at it, we''ll spend two weeks to turn them into soldiers, or, at least, get them into the mindset. We''ll spend two weeks turning them into a unit. We''ll spend two weeks turning them into a fighting unit, and finally, we''ll spend two weeks practicing tactics. Just like these imperial soldiers, we''ll spend the fullst week in the field without any breaks.
"We have the experience of the imperial soldiers to help us in the first month, and we have the experience of true warfare and this training camp for the second month. We might not be able to produce the premier fighting force in the world in that amount of time, but we''ll have the seeds of one."
"Very good," Jekle said, nodding his head. "I''ll let the others know your intentions, and we''ll craft our n with that in mind."
"You don''t have to reinvent the wheel," Reivyn said, pping Jekle on the shoulder. "I''ll get that requisition for assistance with the military instructors to Garet, and I''ll have them convene with you guys ahead of time to work everything out. I''ll also always be around to assist, but as the nominal ''head honcho,'' it wouldn''t be appropriate for me to directly lead the training.
"In the future, if we have to recruit more people, I won''t be able to, anyway. Might as well set the precedent now. I trust you guys."
"You won''t be disappointed."
The rest of the training and evaluation for the thirdpany waspleted without a hitch, and after another week off that Reivyn spent with his family and Kefira, it was time to get down to business with the new recruits.
They hadn''t just been sitting and waiting for the training to end. Reivyn had already put out feelers and spread the word about the mercenarypany. Reivyn had expected it to take weeks to fill the quota he was looking for to outfit an entirepany of three toons, but he had been surprised.
Word had spread in certain circles about the invasions taking ce in other empires. It wasn''tmon knowledge to the general popce, still, but it wasn''t particrly hidden, either. Word had spread in the Adventurer circles. They were, at the end of the day, people who made their living throughbat, so it made sense that they would seek out other avenues of advancing for the future.
Those that had learned the news the earliest were those that had the means, and they also used that means to learn about the expedition that had happened in Drallo. Two and two were put together, and after hearing testimonials about the Experience gains possible in warfare, some of the Adventurers had grown intrigued.
All of this culminated in a fairly decently Leveled amalgamation of Adventurers ready to try this new "mercenarypany" out when it opened its doors.
Reivyn had thought he would need to temper the training they would receive so as not to run too many people off and not have enough to fill out the numbers. He was met with the opposite problem, though. They would need to intensify the training to weed out the chaff, or they would have too many people. Reivyn wasn''t ready, nor was the infrastructure in ce, tomand a mercenary battalion.
Officer training was one thing. There were always considerably fewer candidates than recruits for enlistment. There just weren''t enough prisoner bands avable to use the same trick of limiting Stats that Reivyn had gone through in Drallo. That left the old-fashioned method of exercising until the recruits were exhausted before any training could begin.
Refix''s eyes lit up like he had received a shiny new toy when Reivyn revealed his intentions, and the training began.
Refix took particr glee ining up with new and interesting ways to ensure everyone was always tired, and Reivyn let him run with a free hand. He had great synergy acting with the imperial instructors and the Drallo veterans. They worked the Adventurers until they were dripping with sweat, and then they instilled discipline in them.
Nobody was allowed to bend over with their hands on their knees to catch their breath. Nobody was allowed to throw their heads back and groan. If anyone broke the rules, they would be subjected to more physical training under the direct supervision of Refix. After the first dozen recruits were sent for his personal tutge, nobody wanted to experience that again.
The number of recruits dropped precipitously after the first week. No contract held them in ce for the first month, and if the Adventurers, who were used to a carefree lifestyle, found that the new way of doing things didn''t mesh with them, Reivyn was happy to send them on their way. It was better for their personnel to be made up of those that were there voluntarily and found they enjoyed the lifestyle rather than of those who felt like they were obligated to put up with it.
Some of thetter still stuck it out, but they had their own personal reasons for doing so. Reivyn didn''t have the time or need to investigate each one in detail, so he just let the numbers adjust naturally.
The first two weeks consisted of personal discipline. The recruits were constantly tired and hungry, and they were forced to always maintain perfect military bearing. Any infraction at any time for any reason was swiftly punished. Even in the middle of the night, when a recruit needed to relieve themselves, they had to maintain proper bearing under the scrutiny of the watching instructors.
After the first two weeks, the focus switched from one of personal discipline to one of group discipline. No longer were individuals punished for infractions. They were punished as a group, sometimes as the entire recruit training unit all together. The first week had some heated moments where tempers red, and resentment flourished, but that only led to harsher disciplinary measures.
At the end of the first month, those that stuck it out were acting like proper military soldiers. They would never need to learn all the pomp and circumstance associated with the official imperial army, but they would need to speak the samenguage. Reivyn was incredibly pleased with the oue.
Reivyn kept to the outskirts for the most part, but he wasn''tpletely absent from the training. The recruits knew who he was, and he made sure that they knew that he was around and watching. Kefira made several appearances, as well, and it was quickly made known that they would be the personal mercenary soldiers of one of the imperial princesses. This knowledge itself, after the transformation into a disciplined unit by the end of the first month, lent a certain amount of pride to those that stuck around.
Individualbat prowess wasn''t nearly as important as being a cohesive fighting unit was, and Reivyn used the veterans to demonstrate this at the beginning of the second month. The base Level of the volunteers found in Willowan was considerably higher than those found in Oreck, but after a short "spar" between the recruit toons and the veterans forming up toons, they learned the truth of the matter.
There were fewer veterans than one entire toon of recruits, and there were three toons of recruits. Reivyn made his first official appearance leading the veterans to basically toy with the recruits. He didn''t hold back, and he maneuvered the veterans around and tore into the recruits with their precision. He didn''t leave the recruitspletely defenseless, either. Jekle and Paul were giving directions to the toons squaring off against the veterans.
The difference wasn''t that Reivyn was so much better than Jekle and Paul at leading a toon. He was, but that wasn''t the point. The main point was that despite recently bing a cohesive unit, the recruits couldn''t fully trante that intobat power. Theycked the ability to follow the directions of Jekle and Paul promptly in the same way that the imperial army toons had first struggled with Reivyn''smands all those weeks ago when he first started.
Learning of the synergy a unit could achieve with proper instructions, the proper ability to actually follow those instructions, and the ability to fight perfectly as a unit only further fueled the recruits'' desire to learn. The first two weeks of the second month were spent on drill, drill, drill.
By the time the first two weeks of the second month were over, each of the recruit toons was just as capable of fighting as a unit as the veterans of Drallo. Higher Levels and Stats weren''t all just for show. It was only when they didn''t know what they were doing that they couldn''t keep up. They still didn''t have the steel in their spine, and the mes in their eyes that the veterans had, but Reivyn was happy with the progress.
Thest two weeks of the second month were spent mostly in the field. The three toons took turns facing off against each other in multiple scenarios, culminating in the week-long exercise that had be a staple of Reivyn''s training style.
Reivyn didn''t spend the entire week with the recruits in the field, that''s what he had subordinates for, but he did spend the majority with them. Reivyn had had a couple of asions to disy hisbat prowess to the recruits, and his willingness to suffer the same extremes that they did out in the field endeared him to them. He had their respect more than just his title and position would dictate, and none of the veterans were surprised.
By the end of the two months of training, Reivyn still had a slight dilemma. There were too many recruits thatpleted the training. Thest several days of the training hadn''t been spent in luxury, though. He had been coordinating with Kefira and some of her friends from the Academy.
Reivyn hadn''t forgotten that he was going to have a Mage Corps associated with his mercenarypany. Kefira had been in charge of that aspect of the training for the second month. The Mages had apanied everyone else during the first month of discipline training, but they had gone off on their own for theirbat training.
Reivyn also didn''t forget about the importance of properbined arms, either. He would just practice that with thepany after everything was finalized.
Reivyn and Kefira had spent thest several days brainstorming what to do with the additional recruits, and they hade up with a partial solution: Mage Guards. Instead of having the Mage Corpspletely separate from the melee unit, they would assign some of them to act as protectors at all times. If something went wrong and people got separated like had happened in Drallo, the Mages would always have at least some melee fighters to be with them at all times.
"That just leaves us with trying to ce about fifty recruits," Reivyn said with a sigh. "I have an idea, but I don''t know how feasible it is."
He gave Kefira a look with a raised eyebrow.
"Let''s hear it," Kefira prompted.
"First, a question," Reivyn replied. "What sort of opportunities do the less fortunate, those not able to make it into the Academies at a young age and have no set family training, have?"
"You mean like orphans?" Kefira asked back.
"Exactly like that, but not necessarily. And I''m talking about nine-year-olds. Those close to getting their first ss but not quite there yet."
"For the most part, they''re left to their own devices. They generally give up on getting abat ss, or they strike a deal with some Adventurers for training." Kefira shrugged. "It''s worked out for society overall, for the most part."
"Well, what if we gave them a more structured opportunity?" Reivyn asked.
"I think I see where you''re going with this, but give me the details."
"Instead of setting up a school or Knight Academy, what if we had a ce where they could go to get the necessary Skills to help those looking to gain abat ss? We wouldn''t teach any theory, and there would be no intricate contribution points or graduation system. It would be a ce purely where the unssed could go to work on their Skills under the supervision of ''experts.''"
"That would greatly reduce the cost," Kefira mused, "but there would still be a cost. Since the main marypensation for the mercenaries is going to be through themission of the target client, how would you pay them? I''m assuming you''re going to put some of the extras into this training school to drain the numbers."
"That was exactly my intention, and I was thinking that Bellefrent could help us on that front," Reivyn said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"I''m not sure how keen the noble council will be to fund such a project, even if we get Bellefrent on board."
"That''s the beauty of my idea," Reivyn said. "I don''t want him to propose it directly to the council. I want to use his connections to get donations. Maybe the way we could get the council involved is by proposing tax breaks for those that donate. We would fund the enterprise through charity, at least at first. In the future, those that used our service could be among the donators."
"That... could work," Kefira said.
"And then we would have just a few additional recruits left over. I''m sure we could find some sort of administrative job we could have them rotate through."
"Sounds like a n. Let''s make it happen."
Short Update
Short Update
The story isn''t actually on hiatus. I had some RL issues going on for a while. I''m not going to get into the nitty-gritty here, but it affected the formatting of the chapters when bringing them over to Royal Road. Several chapters are just an absolute chore to fix, and I didn''t keep up with it. I''m working on it right now to get the chapters transferred over and formatted. The story is up to Chapter 250 on Patreon, so I''ll be catching the story up all the way to Chapter 200 on here (and then to whatever chapter is 50 behind on Patreon depending on how long this process takes) over the next couple of days (hopefully). In the meantime, the chapters that would be avable for free on Royal Road are free on my Patreon Page, up to Chapter 200.
TL;DR - I''m working on getting caught up to chapter 200 on Royal Road, the free chapters can be read on my Patreon Page with zero obligation until then. The link is on the chapter page and the Pre-Chapter Author''s Notes.
Chapter 180: Vairo
Chapter 180: Vairo
Reivyn sifted through the sheaves of paper. Kefira and Jekle were seated next to him, going over their own papers.
"I think Merrith is a good candidate," Jekle said after a moment, showing his paper to Reivyn and Kefira.
They had been trying to reduce the number of people they would need to take with them to the next Tier 4 empire without arbitrarily dismissing some of those who had finished the training session. Reivyn hade up with the idea of leaving some of them behind to train the younger citizens who didn''t have the same opportunities as the others, but it was much more difficult to decide on who to leave than they had thought it would be.
The Adventurers had all joined to get the opportunity to challenge themselves in a new way and gain Life Experience. They hadn''t signed up to babysit children. That being said, there were certain behaviors that Reivyn and the others had noticed in some of the veterans that lent them to believe they may be more suited to training others than fighting on the front lines.
Not all of the veterans that had gained the Teaching Skill easily were among those that had been observed, but most of them were. Reivyn didn''t know if there was a corrtion between talent and what people naturally gravitated toward or not, but this one data point seemed to suggest so.
The next task had been to go over all of the relevant documents about their time on the front lines during the expedition in Drallo. Copies had been sent via the Adventurer''s Guild that maintained the records with their tokens, and Reivyn had requested those copies. They cross-examined the merits the individuals had achieved during the invasion andpared them to their aplishments in Teaching.
It wasn''t as simple as seeing that the people didn''t have a lot of amazing aplishments on paper verse being good at teaching. Not every little detail was recorded, after all. They simply narrowed the selection down to those that, on the surface, were probably more likely to agree to stay behind.
"I think that''s as much as we''re going to get for now," Reivyn concluded, epting the documents from Jekle and adding them to another stack of papers. "We have fifteen names here, not nearly as many as we need to cut back on, but I guess we''ll have to figure something else out there."
"Why do we even need to cut the numbers?" Jekle asked. "It''s not like we need the formations to be perfectly neat and tidy."
"It''s not about that," Reivyn exined. "It''s about the teleportation costs. I know that fifty people, whenpared to the entirepany of three toons, doesn''t seem like that much, but it adds up. Part of our negotiations with those requesting help is for them to bear the costs of the teleportations, but if we can keep those numbers down, they''re more likely to agree to the stiptions in the contract we want."
"I see," Jekle said. "I''m just d I don''t have to worry about that. Sounds like a headache."
"Yeah, it''s a lot more annoying than trekking through the desert. I''m not built for paperwork. Give me a weapon and an enemy to fight, and I''m happy. Give me a pen and a paper to write, not so much."
"That''s why I''m an Adventurer," Jekle chuckled.
"And yet, here the both of you are," Kefira teased with a small smile.
"Don''t rub it in; you''re here with us, too," Reivyn pointed out.
"But I don''t mind nearly as much as you do," Kefira shrugged.
Reivyn nced at Jekle.
"I think she just volunteered," Reivyn said with a smirk. "Is that what it sounded like to you?"
"That''s what I heard," Jekle agreed with a straight face.
Kefira''s smile dropped immediately.
"Wait, wait, wait, that''s not what I said at all!" She protested. "You can''t saddle me with all of this!"
Reivyn burst outughing as he hugged Kefira to himself with one arm.
"You know I''m just teasing. Come one, let''s go interview the selected Adventurers."
Reivyn would and could just order anyone under him, but he wasn''t going to do that if he didn''t have to. There was no reason to seek out that kind of resentment. He was the one that had called his oldpanions all the way from Drallo to Wispan in the first ce. It wouldn''t be right to just one-sidedly decide that they were going to stay in the capital to run a martialbat school.
Reivyn stepped through the open portal into the vast emptiness of the void. He had heard stories from his parents and Kefira, and he had traveled to the space between Realms, but this was the first time he had stepped into the local teleportation path. It wasn''t quite as breathtaking as viewing the River of Souls and the other Realms floating in the distance, but it had its own charm.
Reivyn nced around and paid attention to the Mana that was holding the void corridor together. Kefira was walking beside him, and she was reinforcing the corridor with her own Space/Time Affinity. This was something she had theorized she could do, and upon noticing a bit of sess - she wasn''t immediately Skilled enough to make much of a difference - she continued to bolster the void corridor as they made the trip.
It wasn''t entirely necessary to do so, but because they were bringing more people with them than Reivyn had initially nned on, taking on some of the burdens by reinforcing the Mana from within would reduce the Mana cost on the other side. There was a reason using the teleportation circles was prohibitively expensive, but having a Space/Time Mage could theoretically reduce that cost to almost nothing. It would take a lot of power and personal resources from the Mage, but those were renewable, and the exercise was likely beneficial.
Just having objects move through the space of the void corridor caused stress to the Mana structure, draining it of power. It didn''t matter if it was living or inanimate. It was possible topletely drain the resources set aside to keep the corridors open during transport, but it wasn''t something that ever happened. Even with several hundred people moving through the tunnel with the mercenarypany, there were enough reserves in ce to keep it open safely, and it was extremely unusual to ever have that many people traveling at a time.
Most of the payments made to the empires for the use of the teleport circles went toward the resources, though the governments weren''t altruistic. They charged a tax for their service. If they hadn''t ironed out the agreement that the requesting empire foot the bill for the transportation costs, Reivyn knew they would have made a decent amount of money in exchange for the quick travel.
Reivyn suspected that Kefira was getting quite a bit of benefit from reinforcing the Mana, as she had a wide smile on her face as they walked along the path. Reivyn didn''t want to interrupt her concentration, so he didn''t ask her about it. Instead, he tentatively used his own Traveler Affinity to connect with the Mana in the void corridor.
He could sense theplicated matrix of Space Mana at work, but it was way more than he could parse. It reminded him of the teleportation circle device he had destroyed in Drallo, but that one had actually been moreplicated, if in a different way. He couldn''t quite put his finger on the difference, but he could tell that it was there.
There wasn''t much that he could do with his own Mana, so he simply observed the matrix from within. They weren''t alone, though, and they didn''t have all the time in the world to explore the intricacies of the void corridor magic. The entirepany was following behind, and Reivyn and Kefira didn''t slow down despite their self-imposed task.
Seri had taken up position in her usual spot trailing Kefira to the side, and Refix was walking next to Reivyn. Their mercenarypany wasn''t the only part of the travelers, though. Silfa had promised that she would be sending maids and other helpers along for the journey, and they trailed behind Reivyn''s group just ahead of thepany.
Six maids had been chosen to apany Kefira on her journey to the other empire, and Reivyn and Kefira were only able to secure four of the positions with Kefira''s own people. Kefira knew for a fact that the head maid was loyal only to her mother, but thest maid was a mystery. She didn''t doubt that she was a loyal servant and suspected her of being a spy or anything, but Kefira didn''t recognize her as one of her mothers. Reivyn spected that she was Bellefrent''s, which would make sense considering Silfa''s family background.
"So what''s the difference between this and the Realm bridge?" Refix asked Reivyn as they walked. Reivyn was only observing the Space Mana, so he was able to shift his focus without too muchplication.
"Well, they''re very simr," Reivyn said. "The biggest difference would be what you can see beyond the void corridor. I also wasn''t suspended over nothingness. There was a physical bridge connecting the Realms that looked like threads when not within the confines of the corridor if that makes any sense."
"Not really, but exin it," Refix prodded.
"Well, when I got knocked out of the corridor surrounding the bridge separating it from the outside, the solid bridge seemed to disappear. All that I could perceive was what looked like a thread between the massive orbs of the Realms. Once I was in contact with a bridge, though, it suddenly appeared normal, and I could actually stand on the corridor.
"I could also see trillions upon trillions of what I now know to be souls drifting through the nothingness. There''s nothing like that here, of course. They were like little floating sparks, but they coulde together and be a sentient menace. Kefira and I encountered something simr at the tear in reality in Drallo, and as far as I know, they''re indestructible. I''m guessing because they have no Health value, but that''s just a guess on my part."
"Hmm, interesting," Refix said, stroking his chin. "That actually makes sense. If they''re just souls, then they''re not altered or manipted into being undead. For the undead, it''s actually the magic powering them that we destroy when we kill them. Likewise, inanimate objects have their own durability if you think about it. If there''s nothing to attack, then it makes sense that it can''t be destroyed."
"That''s what I was thinking," Reivyn said with a nod. "Anyway, the two closest Realms were giant orbs floating next to each other, but countless other orbs were floating in the vast expanse of nothingness. There wasn''t anything like the stars or whatever floating outside this void corridor, though. I don''t know what those are. The things that could be seen outside the Realm were just the souls, the other Realms, and the connections between them. The Realms themselves acted like stars, though, and I believe they were the light source that allowed me to see anything at all."
"And the souls," Refix pointed out. "You said they were like sparks, so I imagine they were glowing or something."
"Yeah, or something," Reivyn agreed.
The corridor they were walking through wasn''t endless, and they eventually arrived on the other side. Kefira came back to herself at the end of the void corridor and gave Reivyn a smile and a nod, and Reivyn led the mercenary soldiers in file out the other side. There was a delegation waiting for them. The squad and toon leaders made sure that all of the mercenaries appeared as professional as possible.
They had arrived in a "neighboring" Tier 4 Empire, Vairo, that had sought assistance against an invasion simr to the ones that had been cropping up. It was precisely the kind of ce that Ge had been looking for when he had devised the n with Reivyn and the Adventurers acting as Mercenaries in mind. They were directly connected to Wispan, but they were a neutral empire. They didn''t have too many diplomatic ties between them, and the reports of the invasion were primarily positive in Vairo''s favor. They hadn''t been ransacked all the way to the capital like some of the other empires had been before they had been able to petition for reinforcements.
The veterans had a look in their eyes that bespoke of being capable of violence at any time as they emerged from the corridor. They were ready to fight for their lives even in the heart of the capital city. The newer additions to the mercenarypany didn''t have the dangerous aura about them, but they still maintained proper discipline.
There was no way for Reivyn to guess what the delegates thought of the troops, but Reivyn believed they had put on a good showing for their first impression. There was no difference between his mercenary troop made out of Adventurers and the imperial army soldiers on the surface.
"Princess Kefira, I presume," a well-groomed young man stepped forward and epted Kefira''s hand. He bowed over it but didn''t kiss the back of her hand, Reivyn noticed. "I am Prince Alwin. It''s a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Likewise," Kefira smiled as she retrieved her hand.
"I apologize for the shoddy reception, but everyone is quite busy. You understand," Alwin continued. "My brothers are away leading the troops, and my father is busy with state affairs. I''m afraid you''ll have me to deal with as the point of contact."
"It''s fine," Kefira replied. "We''re here to help you fight off the invaders, not sip tea in the sitting room. Just have your men show my men where to go, and we''ll get started on official business right away."
"Straight to the point, I see," Alwin replied with a smile. "I''ll lead you to your rooms in the pce if you follow me, and my men will take your men to the barracks."
"That won''t be necessary," Kefira said. "Our journey here was literally a couple of hundred yards, at most. We''re ready to depart right now."
Alwin pulled back in surprise. Reivyn smirked at the man''s reaction. He had apparently been under the impression that Kefira would be staying in the capital while the mercenaries did their own thing somewhere else. Silfa hadn''t helped things when she had implied that Kefira was participating in a diplomatic mission to strengthen the ties between the two empires.
Reivyn and Kefira had decided to just take the bull by the horns and have Kefira make it clear from the get-go that she was a member of the mercenarypany. There was no getting out of every social interaction in the future, but lines needed to be drawn right from the start. They weren''t here on a diplomatic mission with the mercenaries as a background event. The mercenaries were the main point.
"Ahem," the head maid, Sefia, cleared her throat to gain Kefira''s attention. Kefira studiously ignored the woman, but she wasn''t going to back down. She just went ahead with her message regardless. "Do you think it''s appropriate not to give the resident monarch face? It''s the polite thing to do. We wouldn''t want to be rude, after all."
"What''s face got to do with it?" Kefira asked without looking at the woman. "We were hired for a job, and they sent the appropriate delegation to meet with us. It''s basically the same thing as meeting with the monarch." Kefira shrugged. "I''m not going to ignore them or anything; they are employing us, but right now isn''t the right time."
Sefia''s mouth formed a line, but she didn''t speak any further. It was her job to make sure things went ording to Silfa''s wishes, but Silfa wasn''t here, and Kefira wasn''t going to bend. The head maid was chosen as the lead for a reason, and she understood when to push and when to back down.
Reivyn had thepany draw up in formation as he waited for Kefira to get the relevant mission details. They had struck a deal with the empire, but the details of where the mercenaries would be sent hadn''t been ironed out right away. This wasn''t because they weren''t going to utilize the soldiers or try to sweep them to the side. They needed the flexibility to know where to send them when they arrived.
If they hade up with a n of action that wasn''t tenable because of the changing circumstances on the battlefield, then they would have had to scramble to find somewhere to send the mercenaries or have them sit and twiddle their thumbs in the capital. Reivyn wasn''t too terribly worried about not having anything to do because they would get paid regardless. If they didn''t get sent to the front lines right away, Reivyn could always simply continue with training.
Having ess to the local Dungeons was also part of the deal they had struck. There was no reason for Reivyn or the others to be worried about not getting the Experience they were expecting when they signed up for the mercenarypany. There were always other ns in case others didn''t pan out.
"I''ll have to consult with the general to determine exactly where they''re going, but that shouldn''t take too long," Alwin said, attempting to once again keep Kefira separate from the mercenarypany with his wording.
"We can March to the outer city while we wait for the news," Kefira replied.
She turned her head and gave Reivyn a slight nod. Reivyn nodded back and turned to Refix. Refix had been paying attention to everything going on as well, and he immediately took charge of thepany, ordering them to begin Marching forward before they even had a destination. There were only so many directions to head from the teleport circle, and the walls separating the inner city from the outer were clearly visible.
Kefira started to walk in the same direction, and Alwin was forced to keep up with her. Reivyn maintained his position where Seri normally walked next to Kefira, assuming his role as Imperial Liaison, and Seri simply walked next to him.
"Are you sure you don''t want to visit the pce and stay for a couple of days?" Alwin asked, walking alongside the trio.
"Why?" Kefira shot back, a look of genuine confusion on her face.
"Why?!" Alwin spluttered. He couldn''t think of a proper response to the question.
"If even you can''t think of a reason to dy our deployment, then there obviously isn''t one," Kefira jumped on the pause as Alwin thought of an answer. "Just send us in the right direction, tell us where we''re needed and what the mission is, and we''ll get to work right away."
Alwin continued to try and think of something to say as the trio walked in front of the mercenarypany toward the outer city. A crowd had formed along the side of the road to watch the procession.
Reivyn noted that the popce didn''t seem to be in a war-ready state, and life didn''t seem to be interrupted in any way for the civilians. He did notice that there seemed to be more guards Marching about, but he didn''t see any worried faces in the crowd. Either the invasion was going really well for the empire, or the popce didn''t understand what was going on.
"What steps are you taking to mobilize the poption for the war effort?" Reivyn suddenly asked.
"Mobilize for the war effort?" Alwin repeated. He turned and looked at Kefira. "Who''s this man?"
Reivyn rolled his eyes at the prince''s ignorance. All of the information about their mercenarypany, including the information about Reivyn being themander, was public knowledge. It wouldn''t have taken any time at all for the other man to acquaint himself with the facts, and yet he had been here to try and whisk Kefira away to the pce.
He doesn''t seem to understand our situation, Reivyn thought, shaking his head.
"He''s my Imperial Liaison," Kefira responded, not even looking at Alwin as she gestured toward Reivyn. "He''s themander of the mercenarypany, and he holds amission as a captain in the Imperial Army as well as a writ from the Imperial Family."
"I see..." Alwin trailed off. "Well, I''m not sure what you mean about mobilizing the poption, but we''ve conscripted a fair amount of Tier 1''s to bolster the ranks of the Imperial Army."
"That''s all well and good," Reivyn said, "but waging a war requires more than just manpower. You''re going to need a lot of supplies, first of all, and it doesn''t seem like there''s any difference in the livelihood of the civilians. Is it just the capital that''s insted from the repercussions of fighting off an invasion, or have you not thought of this?"
"I''m not sure what you''re concern is," Alwin said. "We have very high-level experts in charge of manufacturing and distributing supplies to the military. We''ve been doing this for hundreds of years. I think they know what they''re doing."
"They know how to supply an army fighting monsters," Reivyn pointed out. "They don''t know how to supply an army being besieged by other people. They''re not mindless critters that are just going to throw themselves at your people all the time. They''lle up with strategies to counter your own."
"So you say, but all we''ve seen of them so far are rabid mongrels, practically frothing at the mouth. There''s no subtlety in their fighting at all. We''ll be able to drive them off before next season. We only brought you guys on to make up the numbers, and you''re not the only group that''s arrived to assist."
"Other mercenaries?" Reivyn asked.
"Well, no. We have allies," Alwin rolled his eyes. He smirked at Kefira with a "this guy" kind of attitude. "We have everything perfectly in hand."
"If you say so," Reivyn wasn''t interested in debating the finer points of warfare with the man. Considering he had said that his brothers were busy leading the troops and he was here, he wasn''t an integral part of the military. It would just be wasted breath on the man.
"Jekle," Reivyn motioned for the First toon Commander. Jekle ran over and offered a smart salute that Reivyn returned. "Round up the extras. Have them go and secure additional supplies. We''ll need an extra bit of everything, but have them focus on travel rations.
"Yes, sir!" Jekle turned about and jogged to the group of mercenaries that didn''t fall into any of the toons.
"Don''t trust us?" Alwin said with a frown.
"It''s not about trust," Reivyn countered. "I don''t know you. I don''t know your people. I know war. My people aren''t going to starve because of your overconfidence, and if you''re right and I''m wrong, then we just added to your economy, so there''s no downside." Reivyn shrugged. "I don''t mean any insult; I just don''t want to take chances when I don''t have to."
"Whether you mean to insult or not isn''t up to you," Alwin said, raising his nose to the air. "It''s in the eyes of the beholder. I''ll make sure my father learns of your distrust of our methods."
"Ok~ay," Reivyn said, rolling his eyes.
If his father and brothers arepetent, they''ll agree with me whether they think I need the supplies or not, Reivyn thought. His opinion of Alwin went from optimistically hopeful to viewing him as a useless fop. He didn''t care one wit about Alwin''s opinion of him.
"There''s no reason for hostilities," Kefira tried to ameliorate.
"No reason for hostilities?" Alwin said. "You''ve made it quite clear that you want nothing to do with us, the hosts of your little band of misfits, and you''ve repeatedly ignored any overtures of diplomacy. I dare say there are plenty of reasons for hostilities."
Kefira turned her head and stared the other man in the eye until he looked away.
"I have made it quite clear that I''m not ''ignoring overtures of diplomacy,''" Kefira said. "Right now is just a stupid time to be doing so. You say we were brought on just to make up the numbers, but I don''t see it that way. You''ve hired us for a job, and we''re here to work, not y. If there''s an opportunity in the future, I would be more than happy to ept an invitation, but I''m not going to shirk my responsibilities to appease your feelings."
Alwin seemed like he wanted to say something to that, but before he could, a runner in military attire appeared before them. Even though he had sprinted up to the group in a hurry, he wasn''t out of breath. He calmly handed an envelope over to Alwin.
"Sire, here are the orders for the mercenarypany as assigned by General Wilyem," the runner said, snapping a salute. He didn''t wait for Prince Alwin to return it. "They are to advance four hundred miles to the southeast and link up with Prince Endrew''s forces at Piori."
"Thank you, that will be all," Alwin dismissed the runner. The man snapped another salute and then took off running back the way he hade.
"Do you know anything about this Piori?" Kefira asked as she epted the envelope from Alwin.
"I know a lot about the city," Alwin replied, "but if you''re referring to the military situation, all I know is that it''s technically on the front lines, but it''s not anywhere near the center of the hostilities."
"I see. Thank you," Kefira said with a nod. "And I''m sorry if you''ve taken offense, but we should be focusing on our job right now. If you wish to entertain me in the pce, maybe send an invitation in a couple of months, or I can swing by when I have to return home."
"Yes, well, I may have been a little petnt," Alwin replied. Reivyn had to suppress a snort. "I''ll see about that invitation, and good luck on your journey to Piori."
Alwin rounded up those that had followed him to meet with Kefira and her mercenaries, and he turned around to head back to the pce. There was obviously no hope of persuading Kefira to deviate from her ns, and now that she had the official orders, it definitely wouldn''t look good if he continued to pester her.
Reivyn continued to lead the mercenarypany forward toward the outer walls of the city. Four hundred miles wasn''t short, but with their Stamina and Stats, it wouldn''t be too arduous of a journey.
Chapter 181: Approaching Conflict
Chapter 181: Approaching Conflict
The capital city of Vairo, Vairen, was equal parts simr and different to Willowan. It wasn''t quite as grand, in Reivyn''s opinion, but that didn''t mean it wasn''t prosperous. Reivyn couldn''t see the signs of a nation at war, though, as he had previously pointed out. The people moved about their daily lives like nothing extraordinary was happening in their empire.
Reivyn didn''t pay it any mind, though, as their destination was on the front lines. It didn''t matter to him if the citizens in the capital were mobilized for war as long as he had everything hispany needed. It might cause problems for the military down the road if the same issue persisted in the other cities of the empire, but Reivyn didn''t know for sure that that was the case. It could very well be that it was just the capital that wasn''t affected. The emperor could be trying to keep the morale up by not burdening his people.
The city wasn''t asrge as Willowan. Reivyn didn''t know the reasons behind the disparity, but it was something to take note of. It could be a difference in manpower in the Tier 5 Regions. As far as Reivyn could tell, most of the empires operated simrly, and there wasn''t too huge of a disparity between the talents of the individuals in the empires. Maybe they didn''t have as many or as sessful of expeditions securing them more advanced resources.
Reivyn led thepany through the city. They ignored the stares from the people watching them go by maintaining their professional bearing. It wasn''t as important for them to appear to be as stoic as the local military for the popce, but Reivyn was going to ensure they had a good, professional reputation.
The cohort of extra soldiers sent off to secure additional supplies eventually returned, and Reivyn motioned for Jekle toe over again.
"Make sure a proper inventory is done," Reivyn instructed. "This is our first mission, and most of our funds are provided by the Wispan Imperial Family. We can''t be too loose with our cash, and we definitely can''t allow supplies to be misappropriated when walking into conflict. Have some of those soldiers go and purchase some horses, too. We''re going to need scouts, and I don''t see any reason why we should make them run when they can ride. This isn''t the desert."
"Yes, sir!" Jekle performed a salute and strode off to take care of the task.
By the time the mercenarypany Marched out the gates of the city, they had procured thirty horses. Reivyn wasn''t going to assign that many scouts at a time; they were just onepany of just over 200 people, but the extra mounts were a necessity. In a pinch, they could even cobble together a small cavalry strike force.
Even though there were four hundred miles to the front lines, Reivyn immediately sent the scouts out, and the mercenarypany trundled down the highway at double-time. Everyone had the Stamina to spare, and the forced March might help some of them unlock the valuable Skill even though there wasn''t any kind of emergency.
The orders that they had received so quickly upon arrival weren''t because it was urgent. The general had just been waiting for their arrival and sent the orders over as soon as he knew they were here. Reivyn suspected that Prince Alwin wasn''t actually part of the official delegation considering his overallck of knowledge. He had probably just seen the opportunity to approach Kefira and had taken it. Reivyn could at least give him points for initiative if that were the case.
The weather was pleasant, with scattered clouds in a blue sky, and the topography was very simr to Wispan. The fields were verdant and gold with crops outside the capital city, and Reivyn could see forests in the distance. The direction they were headed had hills in the distance, but there were no mountains visible on the horizon.
Other than moving at double-time, the March was a pleasant affair, and there didn''t seem to be anything to suggest that there was an invasion of the empire. There was still foot traffic that made way for the troops, and life seemed to go on as usual everywhere that Reivyn could see.
They made good time on the mostly t terrain, and the first settlements they passed through wereprised of the farmingmunities surrounding the capital. It was very reminiscent of Reivyn''s time in Magron.
The first true city that they passed through, approximately sixty miles away from the capital city, was more of the same. The people were going about their daily lives without a care in the world. It seemed that the people living near the Vairen were either unaware of the impending threat or they weren''t taking it too seriously. They hadn''t experienced a quick advance from the enemy forces like he had seen reports of in other ces, after all.
It wasn''t until mid-afternoon on the third day when they were about halfway to their destination, that Reivyn saw signs of preparation and worry. The mercenarypany jogged into a vige about the same size as the vige where he had been raised, Haluville, and Reivyn immediately spotted the difference.
There was not a single person walking the streets alone. Not only that but even the obvious Lifestyle ssers were armed everywhere he looked. Gazing down one of the side streets, Reivyn even saw a group of people that were dressed in everyday work clothes and aprons, practicing Marching and wielding spears as a group. A couple of militiamen were standing to the side overseeing the practice.
Reivyn waved down a passing couple of teenagers armed with clubs. They shared a nce and hesitantly approached Reivyn as he stepped away from thepany.
"Hello, I just have a quick question for the two of you, if you don''t mind giving me a moment of your time," Reivyn addressed the two teenage boys. They looked like they were around the same age as Reivyn, but he had apletely different aura about himself after years of military service and active Dungeon delving. The two local boys looked like they didn''t havebat sses, and they still had the air of carefree youth about them.
"Certainly, sir," one of them bobbed his head. "What did you want to know?"
Reivyn gestured down the side street at the group of people practicing their formation.
"Are the Lifestyle ssers being conscripted?" Reivyn asked.
The two boys followed his gesture and turned back to Reivyn with understanding looks.
"Not exactly, no," the first one replied. "There has been a round of conscription, but we haven''t moved on to the Tier 2''s, as of yet, much less the more established Lifestyle ssers. Just because they haven''t been conscripted doesn''t mean they can''t fight, though."
"Yeah, everyone''s been practicing to participate in the militia," the other youth added. "Micah and I are Tier 2''s, almost Tier 3, so we weren''t subjected to the conscription, but we''ve all still participated in the same training. Our Skills won''t grow as fast as those with Combat focused sses, but that doesn''t mean we can''t raise them at all."
"I see," Reivyn nodded his head. "So everyone is gearing up for a fight, then? What about simply evacuating the civilians?"
"That''s n A," the first youth responded. "Obviously, we hope we can all get away, but that doesn''t mean we shouldn''t be prepared to fight to cover other people''s retreat."
Reivyn considered the words of the two youths. He smiled and pped the first one on the shoulder.
"That''s exactly right. You got people like us to hold the line, though, so hopefully, you''ll never have to find out if it''s useful or not."
Reivyn turned and jogged back to his position leading thepany. The two teenagers watched him go for a moment before turning back to their previous destination.
"What was that about?" Kefira asked as he walked up.
"I was just gauging the mentality of the people," Reivyn said. "It''s good to know the mindset of those we''re ostensibly going to be protecting. We won''t find any hidden masters among their numbers, but in a pinch, we can probably expect some of them to step up to fight. Let''s hope it never gets to that point, but it''s good to know."
"Is that your n?" The head maid asked, frowning at Reivyn. She had been walking slightly behind Seri, though thepany protected the other maids in the center of the formation. "You''re going to ce your hopes on the people stepping up to fight with you?"
"That kind of a foolish question doesn''t deserve a response," Reivyn dismissed the girl. She was clearly just acting out, using her status as Silfa''s agent as a shield.
"You''re only here as a mouthpiece for my mother, and your responsibilities have nothing to do with the mercenarypany," Kefira reprimanded the maid. "I don''t want to hear another word, even if it''s praise, about military matters. Do you understand?" Kefira leveled a fierce re at the older woman. She held up under the withering re for a moment before bowing her head.
"Yes, princess."
"And don''t think I''ve forgotten about you contradicting me in front of Prince Alwin. That''s not your ce to interject yourself."
"Yes, princess."
Reivyn gave a sly smile to Kefira. She winked back at him. Everything that she said and did would be reported back to her mother so there was no reason to be particrly antagonistic with the head maid, but that didn''t mean she could let her get away with acting however she wanted. She was used to acting with Silfa''s presence looming in the background, but that protection was absent. Even if Kefira''s actions were ryed to her mother, she wouldn''t be punished for disciplining the head maid. The other woman probably hadn''t realized that fact yet.
The little vige was just a blip on their journey to Piori. After seeing the popce taking the matter of the invasion more seriously outside the influence of the capital city, Reivyn noticed more and more signs of it.
The farmingmunities had skeleton crews manning them, and only the stronger, higher-Level men were there. The women, children, and family members were nowhere to be seen. Reivyn suspected that they had made the journey to the capital or one of the surrounding towns. He hadn''t noticed a glut of poption increase in the closer viges where the civilians had been training as militia. Even in these situations, they were never alone. They worked in pairs and had ample lookouts keeping an eye out.
They made good time, traveling about eighty miles a day, and by the time they were within fifty miles of their destination, they began to run into patrols sent out by themander in Piori. Reivyn inwardly praised themanding officer. He wasn''t solely focused on scouting beyond the lines, but he kept an eye out for anyone infiltrating beyond their lines.
A group of mounted soldiers crested a low hill. They weren''t riding along the main road, but upon seeing the line of mercenaries in formation, they immediately headed toward them. They pulled up at a distance, and one of the riders rode out a few more feet.
"Hello! Identify yourself!" He shouted.
The rest of the patrol remained ready to leave at a moment''s notice. They were only a twenty-man unit, so if Reivyn''spany was hostile, there was nothing they could do being outnumbered ten-to-one. The fact that the mercenarypany didn''t react to them and attack allowed them to converse with them, though.
"We''re the Vynn Mercenary Company, employed by the Imperial Family with orders from the General of the Army to report to Piori," Reivyn hollered back with Commanding Shout.
He had spoken with Kefira at length about the name of thepany, and she had agreed to let him leave a legacy for his fallen homnd by naming it after them. His mother and father had been rather appreciative of the gesture, and it warmed Reivyn''s heart to be able to do something for them, even if it was purely sentimental.
"Do you have proof?" The patrol leader asked back.
Reivyn could see some of the tension leave the shoulders of many of the riders after he announced who they were. It was good that they were vignt, but if he ever ran into theirmander in a more private setting, he might mention it to the man. They were a little too trusting to lower their guard so soon.
Reivyn banished the thoughts from his mind and summoned one of the scouts. Kefira handed over the envelope containing the orders to the man, and he rode out alone to hand it over to the patrol leader. The man verified the contents and gave it back to the scout. He rummaged in his pack for something and handed it over with the envelope.
"Here, attach this pennant to a pole," he called down to Reivyn. "It has a unique Mana imprint on it, and it can be used to verify your identity as one of us. It''s only a spare, so you''ll have to return it to meter after you get your own from themander."
"Thanks!" Reivyn called back up.
The scout returned to Reivyn, handing over the goods, and the patrol leadermanded his men to continue their mission.
"Wasn''t that a little too easy?" Reivyn muttered under his breath. "They were far too trusting. What if we had counterfeit documents?"
"Not really," Kefira replied next to him. "You didn''t really ever look at the orders, but the signature has a unique Mana imprint, as well. I''m sure the patrol leader was checking that."
"That makes sense," Reivyn mused. "It''s much easier to encode little things to increase the speed of verification than having to wait around all the time for a third party to confirm things. I hadn''t thought of that, but seeing as how they have one on a pennant, it seems it''s a widely used strategy."
"Yeah, we have them, too," Kefira said. "You''ve just not been exposed to it before."
"Someone get that attached to a pole," Reivyn said, handing the pennant over to Jekle. "And let''s get moving. We''re almost there."
The surroundings remained pleasant. The weather was good, and the countryside was beautiful. As they got closer and closer to their destination, though, Reivyn started getting a strange sense. He couldn''t quite put his finger on it, but he kept ncing around. He felt like he should be able to spot something different.
"You notice it, too?" Refix asked. Reivyn and Kefira both looked over. Noticing their reaction to each other, Reivyn and Kefira shared a look as well. "I can''t put my finger on it either, but there''s a strange feeling to the atmosphere. It''s not like the Dungeon break forever ago, but it gives me a simr vibe."
"Yeah, it''s like there''s something strange with the ambient Mana, but I can''t tell what it is," Kefira said. "The concentration isn''t different, but it''s like atle poking me in the back of my mind."
The strange atmosphere only continued to increase the closer they got to Piori. Reivyn almost felt like they should be riding through a dead countryside. He kept expecting to look up at a distant forest and only see bare trees, dead with no leaves, but everything was still vibrant. The wind sent chills down Reivyn''s spine, even though it wasn''t particrly cold.
"I''m sure we''ll figure it out before long," Reivyn said. "Or someone will just tell us what it is."
The mercenarypany continued its journey. It must have been because of their sensitivity to the Mana that they were the first to notice anything out of the ordinary. Soon after the initial discovery, the members of the Mage Corps toon began to fidget and shift about. They were also looking around to figure out what was distracting them.
Kefira went over and spoke with their leader, and she was able to get them to calm down. It took some time to adapt to the strange sensation, but everyone was able to do so.
The next group of people to be alerted to the difference were the few Tier 4 individuals who had just unlocked their Mana and Affinities. Their sensitivity was the lowest of those able to use Mana, but they could pick up on the strangeness after being subjected to it long enough.
Finally, even the group of people who made up the majority of the force, the Tier 3''s without Mana or Affinities, began to notice the subtle difference. They were twenty miles away from Piori, and everyone in the mercenarypany was aware that something strange was going on with the ambient Mana.
Reivyn hadn''t expected it to be quite so influential that even those without Mana Skills were able to notice it, and he really wanted to understand what the cause was. There was no difference in his ability to ess his Mana Skills or Affinities, and his Spell casting abilities were unaffected, as well. He could still absorb Mana just fine. There didn''t seem to be anything to worry about, but there was just this nagging sensation in the back of his head that wasing from the ambient Mana.
It must have something to do with the invaders, Reivyn realized. Aerie was there to subjugate that giant spider matriarch. The invaders here must have a purpose as well. They''ve probably discovered what it is that they''re looking for, and they''re already tampering with it. A purely defensive strategy probably isn''t the right call in this situation.
Reivyn was just a mercenary captain this time. He had a say in the tactics during operations nning, but his opinion would most likely be mostly ignored in the overall strategy. He would need to speak with Kefira to figure out a way to leverage her identity if he wanted a voice with the big shots.
He didn''t know for sure they were dealing with a group of people already aplishing their mission, either. He would need to do some more investigation and inquiring to piece things together, and considering that at least a portion of the front-line soldiers was located in a spot where it could be felt by everyone, there was no way themanders didn''t know something was going on.
The best thing that he could do currently would be to simply exin the situation they had encountered in Drallo.
"I think you''re going to need to ry the information about the spider matriarch to the general in Piori," Reivyn turned to Kefira.
"You think they''re doing something simr here?" She asked.
"Yeah. That wasn''t an invasion, ording to Aerie, but it was still an intrusion. We''ve gotten multiple reports of true invasions of other empires, but this one doesn''t look simr to those. They aren''t pushing toward the capital, at least not yet, but they''re probably the cause of the ambient Mana phenomenon.
"It''s not our job to take charge and win the war for them. We''re mainly here as an experiment to expand the acquisition of experience for the people of Wispan, but that doesn''t mean we shouldn''t do our best to have a positive result for our employers."
"I''ll see about getting a private meeting with him after we get settled in. Bringing it up as soon as we get there might not be the best choice, as I''m sure he''s busy. He''ll want to pen in an appointment to discuss it at length without having to worry about messing up his schedule. I know I would appreciate that. It''s not like the information we have is life or death in this situation."
"Sounds good."
The walls of Piori finally came into view in the distance. Despite the sky being blue with just a little overcast, Reivyn had the impression that everything had a gray tinge to it. The only sounds that were carrying on the wind were those of the military stationed in the city, and he didn''t hear the tell-tale sounds of ordinary life like the ringing of a cksmith''s workshop or the hollering of people bartering for goods in the market square. Those sounds, despite the city walls, were usually carried far enough that they could be picked up by Reivyn''s enhanced Perception.
There was a dreary tone to the day as the mercenarypany approached the city gates, and after inspecting the pennant with a tool from a distance, the portcullis was opened for them. Reivyn led the troops inside the city, and he was met with the scene of a military fort. It was like the entire city was one big military instation, and there were hardly any civilians to be seen out and about.
They were there, of course, but they were hurrying along with their heads down. There were no throngs of people in the streets, just orderly patrols of soldiers and guards Marching about.
Reivyn peeled off to the side with Refix and Kefira, Seri still trailing her with the head maid also in attendance, to approach the guard captain at the gates. Kefira handed over the envelope when they approached, and the man perused the contents briefly.
"I''m guessing you want directions?" The man looked up, quirking an eyebrow. Reivyn nodded his head. "Just follow the main road to the administrative buildings in the center of town. Prince Allik has taken up residence there. He''s themanding general."
"Thank you, Captain," Reivyn said with a nod after ncing at the man''s rank insignia.
"No problem. Your men can follow the wall to the left along that road," he pointed off to the side. "There are some empty barracks down that way where they can stay in for now. I''m sure if you tell the admin guys about this, they''ll make it so that it''s their permanent lodging."
Reivyn nodded his head once more and indicated for Jekle to lead the mercenarypany that way. He continued into the city proper with the others in tow.
The city was about the same size as Magron, and in better times, Reivyn could imagine the streets being swarmed with civilians. He could faintly hear the phantom calls of the people as they walked. He nced around everywhere, taking it all in. He didn''t know how many soldiers were stationed here, but they could be seen everywhere. That also didn''t include the fact that there were obviously multiple patrols on either side of the city, as well.
"This is just a corner of the front lines, and there have to be forty or fifty thousand troops stationed here," Reivynmented.
Refix nced around and nodded his head in agreement. Kefira just gave him a curious look. The head maid spoke up, though.
"I''m not doubting you or anything; I''m just curious, but what do you base that assessment on?" She asked.
Reivyn gave her a look and saw that she really wasn''t trying to stir up trouble this time, so he gave her a candid answer.
"Just on what can be seen and what can''t be seen," he replied. "You can''t just look at what''s in front of you. You have to extrapte what it means. We can see dozens of squads on patrol in the streets. It''s unlikely that they''re all on patrol right now, though. Ten squads patrolling indicates there are ten more squads not patrolling. Taking into ount the rotation of duties, we can also extrapte how manypanies there are, and we can guess how many people are in thepanies based on the squad size.
"You also have to consider that there are going to be units training, units out in the field, units manning the walls, and units resting. There''s also the fact that we know they''ve conscripted people from the surroundings, as well, but we haven''t seen any of them yet. If you operate at 100% capacity at all times, then your soldiers will get worn out. I would guess that they''re operating at 20% capacity at any given time."
The head maid gave Reivyn a strange look, processing the information that he had divulged. He knew that his estimation in her books had gone up, but he didn''t really care one way or the other.
The small group eventually arrived in front of the administrative building, and with another check of the orders in the envelope, they were directed to where they could meet themander, Prince Allik.
"Alright, time to find out what we''re going to be doing for the next several months," Reivyn said.
Chapter 182: Settled In
Chapter 182: Settled In
The office of themanding general was mostly bare. There weren''t any creatureforts or features to make it more personal, but that was just the man''s office. For all that Reivyn knew, the man could live in luxury in his personal quarters. It was just a fleeting thought, though, and Reivyn didn''t let what-ifs that had no evidence color his judgment. He could only base his opinion on what he saw, and the man seemed to be a no-nonsensemander so far.
Reivyn could see the simrities to Alwin in themanding general''s face, but his entire demeanor was much more severe. He didn''t get a foppish sense from him.
Prince Allik, themanding general of Piori, quickly perused the orders presented by Kefira. He gave a polite smile and exchanged greetings with the visiting princess, but he kept himself to his professional duties. He had been expecting the arrival of the mercenarypany, though Reivyn could tell they had surprised him with how quickly they had made the journey.
"It''s mostly quiet these days, but there''s the asional skirmish further along the highway," Prince Allik finally said. He kept the original orders and handed back a stamped copy. "We keep a careful watch on all the surroundings, but the enemy forces don''t seem too inclined to spread out too far. We''ll start you off with patrols in the wilderness, and after I''ve had time to gauge yourpetency, we''ll move to send your men to ces they can get some fighting experience."
"That''s reasonable," Reivyn replied. "I don''t know how much information your superiors have divulged to you, but the core of our forces have experience fighting against either these same people or their allies in a different region. The tactics we faced were human-wave attacks. The bulk of the enemy wasn''t even armed. They simply threw themselves on our spears to immobilize the weapons with the hope of receiving healingter. We also encountered soldiers they referred to as ''Deathsworn,'' and they were far more heavily armed, though not any less zealous."
"Hmm..." Prince Allik sat back and stroked his chin as he considered Reivyn''s words. "We haven''t encountered any heavily armed soldiers yet, but the tactics of swarming without weapons are the same. It sounds like they''re the same people.
"Now, I could take your word for it, especially since you prompted the information without being told, but I would prefer to observe and use my own judgment before I thrust you into any real kind of responsibility. You understand."
"Of course," Reivyn agreed, nodding his head. "That''s perfectly understandable. I would make the same decision in your shoes."
"Good. I''m d we''re on the same page. That leads me to believe we''ll have an amicable working rtionship.
"The war has just recently been going on, so we don''t have any kind of rotation schedule set for the troops, so don''t expect to be sent back to the capital any time soon. As far as we''re concerned, Piori is the rear. That being said, I''m sure Princess Kefira will receive invitations from the capital for diplomatic meetings. Since they''ll be officialmunications with a foreign dignitary, we''ll be sure to provide an escort if and when it''s needed.
"Now, I need to be very clear here," Prince Allik gave everyone in the room a severe look in the eye. "Diplomatic meetings are diplomatic meetings. While you''re in Piori, attached to the mercenarypany, you''re under mymand. The chain ofmand must remain unambiguous. If I give an order, I expect it to be carried out and not countermanded or questioned. Is that understood?"
"Perfectly," Kefira answered. "You don''t have to worry about me. I''ve already removed myself frommand of thepany. Captain Reivyn is in charge, and I''m just an erstwhile member of the Mage Corps."
"You have your own Mage Corps?" Allik asked, surprised.
"Well, it''s more like half a toon, but yes, we have our own Mage unit," Reivyn replied.
"Excellent, excellent. In the event that the enemy encroaches on the city, all Mages are to report to the center section of the wall. They''ve alwayse straight from the southeast in the past, but in the event they doe, make sure to listen and send the Mages to the appropriate wall. Just because they haven''t done so yet doesn''t mean they can''t attack the east or west walls. It''s unlikely they''lle from the north, but we never know until it happens."
"Just to rify, I''m a Caster ss, too," Reivyn said. "I don''t want you to think we''re not sending all our Mages to you if you see some Spells gettingunched at the enemy from our position."
"Of course. Your position as themanding officer supersedes your personal ss."
"Do you have a dossier on the enemy forces?" Reivyn asked.
Prince Allik opened a drawer and retrieved a packet from within. He handed it over to Reivyn.
"This has all the information we''vepiled so far. Check it over once you return to your quarters."
"Can I utilize your scribes to make more copies for my other officers?"
"Feel free. Any more questions?"
"Just one. I''m sure it''s in the dossier, but it''s really quick: What''s the highest number brand your men have encountered among the enemy forces?"
"From what we''ve seen, the officers all have ''4''s,'' but one of the scouts got a glimpse of the enemy general. He wasn''t 100% certain, but he said he thought he saw a ''5'' on the man''s forehead. I have no reason to doubt his report at this time, so you should operate with that assumption."
"Very well, thank you."
"Now, I have other things to attend to, and I''m sure you want to get settled. There will be a briefing every morning at 6 am. We don''t give out new orders every morning, we usually n a week in advance, but you are required to attend all of them when you''re in garrison."
"Very good. I''ll be there in the morning."
"All right. You''re dismissed."
Reivyn gave a salute, which Prince Allik returned, and he departed with Kefira. The others had remained outside of the office during the meeting, and they fell in line with the two as they made their way toward the scribes. Reivyn walked in and had his request for copies carried out in only a couple of minutes. Once he left the scribes'' office, he handed a copy to Refix and Kefira.
"So what''s the situation?" Refix asked.
"Based on what I''ve heard and my experience in Drallo, this doesn''t seem like a personal expedition of one of the young nobles like the invasion in Drallo," Reivyn answered. "This is more widespread, more focused on iming territory, despite them being stalled out for now, and the presence of a Tier 5 Brand leading the local army indicates it''s a state-sanctioned action."
"Why do you say that?" Refix inquired.
"In Drallo, despite having hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the enemies didn''t have a single Tier 5 brand leading them. Instead, Aerie had a 6 Tattoo. That makes me think those were her personal soldiers, and if I had to guess, I would say there are multiple Tier 5 brand generals leading this invasion. The scale and makeup, while simr, have some distinct differences."
"And what does this mean?" Refix continued to ask.
"For us, not much," Reivyn said. "We''ll still have to follow orders and perform our mercenary duties, but it can give us some expectations of the future. We don''t know their intentions, but it''s safe to assume it''s not the same as Aerie''s. We can''t expect them to give up the territory and people they''ve already conquered like before. That means if they continue their advance and push us out of Piori, we can expect a new front line to form, and the war will continue.
"I don''t think they''re looking for something specific and will depart once they get their hands on it."
Reivyn walked with the others back through the city. There was the asional pedestrian on the streets, but they didn''t linger and moved about with purpose. The patrols of soldiers and guards didn''t stop anyone to ask questions, so it hadn''t descended into total martialw. People were just staying inside unless they absolutely had to be somewhere.
Reivyn noticed that the shops were still open in themercial district as they moved through the city, but there were very few customers, and the staff in each establishment that he looked into seemed to be a skeleton crew.
"I can''t imagine the war is doing wonders for the local economy," Reivyn said.
"Depends on which sector you''re talking about," Refix replied. "Just because we can''t hear the cksmith shops at work doesn''t mean they''re not working. I''ll bet they''ve been moved to a central location to work for the military. Same with the tailors. There are things still moving under the surface. I don''t see people starving in the streets, either."
"Yeah, but it''ll probably be a while before people can get back to their normal lives. They might be able to still work and tide things over, but they''re not able to do normal things with the threat looming over them. I''m sure they''re all staying close to home in case they need to make a mad dash to get their things before evacuating. Keeping the streets clear for the military is also a huge factor."
It didn''t take long for the small group to make it back to the wall and turn to move toward where thepany had gone. Moving through the city was quick and easy without people blocking the way.
The barracks that the mercenarypany had been sent to seemed to be fairly new. There were traces of tearing down some other buildings to allow for a walledpound to be built where they had previously been. Reivyn didn''t know if people had been disced or what, but they did have a fairly private area for thepany to bunk. They had passed several other simr areas that were in various states of upation by the soldiers. In each barracks they passed, they could see at least a few people in the central area training their weapons or formations.
Reivyn ran a critical eye over thepound they had upied. There was still dust and debris littering the area, further indicating it was recently built. The toons had separated and were busy getting themselves sorted out in the avable open barracks.
Reivyn walked up to the toonmanders that were standing outside waiting for the NCOs to get the mercenary troops settled.
"Have everyone form up in exercise attire after everyone is done getting set up," Reivyn instructed Jekle.
"Yes, sir," Jekle answered.
It didn''t take long as there wasn''t a whole lot for each person to do upon getting their bunk. The barracks were open with bunk beds. The officers had their own quarters separated from the open area, and they had all already unpacked their things. Just moving about in the space and finding bunks for everyone had taken the most amount of time.
Reivyn stood in front of the formed uppany. He didn''t waste any time before addressing them.
"I have a copy of the dossier on the enemy forces for all of the officers. Everyone will get a chance to see it, but the officers and NCOs have priority. While they''re going over the information, the rest of you are going to be cleaning.
"Yes, you heard me right. If you look closely, you can see that this ce is covered in dust and remnants of construction. We''re going to be staying here for several months, maybe even more than a year. We''re professionals, and it doesn''t reflect well on us to live in squalor. We will have a thorough cleaning of the entire barracks every week, starting today.
"Lieutenant Jekle, send some folks to secure cleaning supplies for us. The rest of you, do what you can with what we have before they get back. I expect this ce to be spotless before we''re done. That is all."
Reivyn motioned to the officers and headed to the central building of thepound. It was simr in makeup to the other barracks he had been to, but the administrative building in the center wasn''t some grand building. It looked no different than any of the other buildings; it was just positioned in the central location.
The officers followed him in, and after a brief moment of scouting the floors, Reivyn led them into a conference room. Refix took the dossier copies from Reivyn and handed them out to all of the officers after they had found a seat. Reivyn stood in the front of the room, and Kefira and her two followers, Seri and Sefia, stood off to the side.
"I haven''t gone through the information in detail, so you all have as much information as I do. I did learn that there is possibly a Tier 5 brand enemy general. General Allik mentioned that they follow the same tactics we''ve encountered before in Drallo.
"Go through the information. Keep an eye out for anything unusual, like a difference in tactics or troop makeup. I don''t expect there to be much difference, but we never know. There will be a briefing every morning at 6. I''ll have more information about our mission when I return from it tomorrow. Once you and the NCOs have looked through the intel, make sure it''s avable for all of the other soldiers, as well. Everyone needs to understand what we''re up against.
"Are there any questions at this time?"
The officers shared a look before shaking their heads.
"Very good, get to it."
The officers filed out of the conference room. There hadn''t been a need to have the short conversation in the conference room, but Reivyn wanted to establish some normalities right away. Group discussions with the officers would be held in a formal setting when possible. He was simply setting the precedent.
"Come on, let''s go find our own quarters," Reivyn said, turning to Kefira and Refix.
The central building was two-storied. They hadn''t seen any sleeping quarters on the first floor, so they filed out of the room and headed for the stairs. It wasn''t a grand foyer with a curving staircase and a grand chandelier. It was simple and utilitarian.
The second floor had a couple of rooms that could be used as offices, but as Reivyn had hoped, the rooms at the ends of the hall were living quarters. Reivyn and Refix chose two rooms across from each other on one end of the building, and thedies moved into rooms on the other end.
After getting settled, Reivyn and the others once more headed outside. It was still early afternoon, and the mercenary soldiers were busy getting the ce cleaned up. The officers had retired to their rooms to go over the dossier copies, and the NCOs were busy directing the cleaning efforts of the regr troops.
Reivyn found a bench to sit on and pulled out his own dossier. The others followed suit, and soon everyone was busy reading up on the situation. Sefia didn''t stick around this time as she didn''t need to understand the military situation. She gathered up the other maids, and they began cleaning the central building. Reivyn peeked over his dossier at them entering the building once more.
There are some perks to being the one in charge, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
"Let Sefia know that neither she nor any of the maids are allowed to enter my private room or office after the initial cleaning," Reivyn said to Kefira. "My dad and I will handle our own spaces."
"Is that necessary?" Kefira asked. "Why not take advantage of their specialty while it''s avable?"
"It''s not necessary," Reivyn said, flipping through the pages of the dossier. "I''m just setting a precedent. I do not have an open-door policy. Unless someone is on official business, everyone needs to go through the proper chain ofmand for every instance. I''m not going to have a separate group of people able to move outside of that rule."
"Oh? And does that apply to me, too?" Kefira asked, a teasing tone in her voice.
"Of course not," Reivyn denied. "You''re simultaneously my superior and my direct subordinate, depending on the situation. In either case, your position allows you direct ess to me. The same goes for all of the other officers, too."
"And what about our personal rtionship?"
Reivyn looked up from the pages in front of him and winked at Kefira.
"In that case, it would be me visiting your room."
"Well, let''s keep that to a minimum, shall we?" Refix said, bringing his hand down on Reivyn''s shoulder from his position standing behind him.
"Rx, Dad. Seri will be there as a chaperone. That''s why I said it would be me going to her room and not the other way around."
"Uh-huh, and it has nothing to do with being further away from your dear ''ole dad while sneaking around with your girl?" Refix snorted.
"Hadn''t crossed my mind," Reivyn replied with a deadpan expression.
It didn''t take long for Reivyn to go through all of the information in the dossier. There weren''t any surprises that he could see, though some of the other officers might be able to read more into something. Everyone had their own perspective on things, and Reivyn''s Dreams of the Past didn''t make him infallible in these situations.
The NCOs kept a tight reign on the troops, and after the cleaning supplies - mostly brooms and mops - were delivered, the cleaning was finished in no time. Superhuman Stats weren''t good just forbat or crafting things. With their Perception and Dexterity, everyone was able to see and clean even the tiniest of dust particles floating about.
It was still afternoon, almost evening, by the time they were done, and the NCOs switched out with the officers to look through the intelligence on the enemy. Reivyn had thepany form back up once more as they switched out.
"Good job, everyone. The ce looks liveable now. Tonight, everyone will eat their own rations, but we''ll get an actual cooking crew up and running starting tomorrow. We''ll be operating on the same timetable as the training. Morning chow will be at 5:15 am. Everyone will have a bit of free time immediately after breakfast, and I''ll return with orders after the morning briefing. We''ll iron out the daily schedule after we have more information on what we''re going to be doing.
"Once the NCOs are done looking through the dossiers, I expect everyone to go through the documents. For the rest of the evening, you can do whatever you want. Just make sure you set aside time to go over the dossier.
"That is all. Dismissed!"
The soldiers fell out of formation and made their way back to their bunks. They had to retrieve their rations from their packs, but they quickly filed back out of the barracks and headed to another empty building on the other side, the mess hall. It was taboo to eat anything in the living areas, and with Reivyn''s deration on the importance of cleanliness, nobody was going to risk making a mess.
Reivyn retreated back to the administrative building with Refix, Kefira, and Seri, and they had their meal in the conference room.
"Everything seems normal so far," Refixmented. "Minus the persistent strangeness to the ambient Mana. I wonder how long that''s going tost, though?"
"Forever," Reivyn said, smirking. "We''re all going to get bored before things get exciting. There will be long bouts of boredom followed by short, intense bouts of extreme danger. Our biggest mission, personally, will be to ensure that the men don''t getcent. We''ll have to keep them busy, and they might get a bit resentful of it after a while, but I''m sure they''ll see the wisdom in it when it saves their lives in the future."
"You think that the enemy will take Piori?" Refix asked.
"It''s a possibility. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong, and Allik already told us they''ve attacked the city a couple of times in the past. I don''t know why they''re stalled out where they are for now, but it''s not going to be permanent. Even if they don''t take Piori, we''ll eventually get the orders to attack their position or maneuver to assist another front. We just have to wait and be prepared for either eventuality."
Chapter 183: Scouting
Chapter 183: Scouting
The woods were perfectly normal after reaching them on the southeast side of Piori. Reivyn could see where the forest had historically run all the way up to the city walls, but they had been cleared for about a hundred yards all the way around. There was still that strange sense of gloom permeating over the day, but Reivyn couldn''t identify the culprit.
All of the colors were still vibrant. The woond creatures and birds still moved about, making noise and acting like their usual selves. It was like a gray undertone shown through everything, though.
It just has to be my mental expectations of the "war zone," Reivyn thought.
After traversing through the woods, the toons spread out to cover hundreds of yards across, and Reivyn began to see the tell-tale signs ofbat. At first, it would just be a couple of spots that were clear where there had obviously once been a tree. Sometimes small clearings would appear in their way, but there wasn''t enough undergrowth and too much soil indicating it was recent.
It seems the debris has been cleared up to allow for easier maneuvering through here.
Reivyn''s mercenarypany hadn''t been given any real duties for the first full week that they had been on-site, but after a week, when new major orders were being passed around, they were given the duty of patrolling a swath of forest between Piori and one of the forward outposts closer to the actual line of engagement with the enemy forces.
They didn''t have to use the entirepany to make the trip, but Reivyn was doing aplete sweep for their first outing. It wasn''t just that he wanted to do a thorough job. He was more wanting to get his men out of the walled city to get some practical experience. They weren''t expecting to run into any enemy ambushes on their route, but Reivyn made everyone treat the exercise as if they were under imminent threat at all times.
Most of the newer additions weren''t able to just flip the switch in their minds. There was nothing out here, and there was nothing other than the direction of their superiors to keep their attention, so their focus wandered. Those that had experiencedbat in Drallo werepletely focused on their tasks, and not every one of the new adventurers was distracted, either. Those who had been around longer and had seen seriousbat situations, whether in a Dungeon or otherwise, were much like their veteran counterparts.
Even though Reivyn could perceive theck of focus in his soldiers, he could tell they were giving it a true effort. The NCOs were constantly whispering down the lines to keep everyone''s mind on track, and it was a good experience for them, too.
Overall, Reivyn was pleased with the results. He couldn''t expect people who had never been in any real danger to understand the mentality that came with it. They had all the theory and training they could get, but until they looked death in the eyes, it was a distant concern. It was something to be worried aboutter. Repetition and discipline from the NCOs were the only way to iron that out of the untested mercenaries, and even then, it would palepared to actualbat experience.
After venturing forth for a couple of hours, not moving slowly but not moving particrly quickly, the forest terrain finally shifted. No longer were there empty ces where trees had once been. The downed trees remained in ce.
There was wooden shrapnel and splinters from the destroyed trees still littering the ground, and as they moved closer and closer to the actual frontline, the pockets of destruction continued to increase.
The frontline was extremely noticeable, even from dozens of yards away. At the point of contention, the forest wasn''t one with asional pockets of downed trees. Instead, Reivyn saw a long, straight line of trees covering the floor, exploded trunks and limbs scattered about until there was no ground to step on, and there was the asional standing tree. It waspletely flipped from the forest leading up to the front.
The forward outpost was built just behind the tree line leading to the swathe of destruction, and it had been built to camouge among the rest of the trees. It wasn''t a perfect job, and Reivyn could guess that the people who had built it hadn''t unlocked the Camouge Skill when it was constructed. It at least made it so that one had to actually focus to see it, though it wasn''t particrly hidden.
With a high enough Skill Level, Reivyn had found that Camouge worked against even Mana Sight.
When it''s our turn to upy the outpost, I''ll have the men with the higher Skill Level work on remodeling it. Speaking of, this is really something I''ll need to get the officers to have the men practice going forward.
Reivyn hadn''t neglected teaching the Skill to all mercenaries, but one never knew what exactly to focus on until it was time to move. He had vague memories from his Dreams of the Past of militaries always seeming to train for the previous conflict. With Skills, that was something he was confident he could stamp out with his men and have a more all-around approach.
If Kefira ever gets powerful enough to cast a long-distance teleportation Spell like the fixed ones in the Capital, all sorts of climates will open up for training for us.
Reivyn brought himself back to the present and had the troops take a break inside the tree line. Scouts were positioned to crawl closer to the swatch of destruction to keep a better eye out, but their mission wasn''t to ward off an impending attack. From what Reivyn could see with his enhanced Perception and Mana Sight, there weren''t even any troops present on the other side of the downed trees.
Reivyn walked into the outpost to make contact with themander on the scene. It wasn''t strictly necessary to meet up with him, but Reivyn was giving him the courtesy of reporting what they had seen, even though it was nothing.
Always good to set a professional precedent. I''ve already begun with other mundane things in-house. It doesn''t hurt to extend that to professional courtesy among my peers.
Themander of the outpost was a young lieutenant. He was a few years older than Reivyn, but Reivyn had stopped viewing people based on their age long ago. His Sense Threat Skill let him know the young man was a low Tier 3, which would put him considerably below Reivyn on the power scale.
Unless he also has a powerful, hidden Bloodline, unlikely as that may be.
His Sense Threat Skill wasn''t high enough to gauge nuances. It only fed back to him how the other person''s Level would stack up against his own. There had to have been some sort of System calctions, though, because pretty much only Tier 5''s ever came back as "fatal threats." He didn''t have ess to the information locked within the Skill, but the System must have been able to.
Which makes sense, considering literally everyone is connected to the System, even before their sses are unlocked.
The only thing that made sense was that the System wasparing his Rarity against the others'' Rarity as well as Tier and Level. If not, even the young lieutenant at the outpost, with his low-Tier 3 Level, would have registered as a significant threat instead of negligible.
"Captain Reivyn here to deliver the scouting report," Reivyn announced himself as he walked inside.
The lieutenant wasn''t the most powerful person present, but that wasn''t the main factor when it came to leadership. Being personally strong was a good first step to gaining the trust and confidence of those below oneself, but it wasn''t the main metric to determine a good leader. Reivyn didn''t have interactions with the other man, and he knew nothing about him, but from the way the other more powerful people in the outpost conducted themselves, he could tell he was at least respected by his men.
Nobody was slouching, and nobody was slovenly. They were stationed at the outpost for a week at a time, but everyone appeared to be in high spirits. If the men didn''t respect their leader, or if their leader was poor, Reivyn would expect to see people lounging about, not caring about their appearance. It was a well-run outpost from the first impression that Reivyn got.
"Let me guess... You saw nothing?" The lieutenant joked with a small smile.
Reivyn feigned a shocked expression.
"How did you know?" He broke into a grin and chuckled at the corny joke between the two officers.
"You know, you don''t have to give us a report if there''s nothing to report," the lieutenant said, extending a hand to shake Reivyn''s.
Reivyn epted the handshake, but he shook his head.
"Not going to happen," Reivyn said. "I won''t personally deliver a report - I''m only here because it''s the first excursion, and I''m introducing myself to you - but you will always at least get word that we found nothing. Who knows? Maybe someone will see something small, and it will turn out to be significant. If we ever let ourselves get into the habit of shirking the small things, we could miss the big things."
"Hmm... that makes sense when you put it that way," the lieutenant said with a thoughtful expression.
"Well, as I said, I''m Captain Reivyn. I''m themanding officer of the newly arrived mercenarypany, in case you were unaware. A lot of us already have experience fighting these guys in a different Region. We''re all going to be working together for the foreseeable future, so let''s get along."
"Certainly," the lieutenant agreed. "Not everything is gloom and doom back in Piori. I''ll invite you to a cafe to meet some of the other officers sometime in the future."
"Sounds like a n," Reivyn smiled.
Reivyn stayed inside and conversed with the other officer and the senior sergeants for a time as the mercenarypany took a break. It had taken them about four hours to walk to the outpost at the pace Reivyn had set, and he was going to set a simr pace on the way back. The trip was going to take the majority of their day, and he was allowing the others to get some rest even though the conditions were pretty rough.
The outpost wasn''trge enough to house the entirepany. Since there was already a toon upying it, there wasn''t much room for the patrolling mercenaries in the little outpostpound proper. None of the menined, though, as they were used to roughing it as Adventurers.
The entire line, which traveled in both directions as far as Reivyn could see, was dotted with little outposts. They weren''t designed to hold off an enemy invasion. They were more lookouts than anything else. They would ensure word got back in time to mount a proper response to enemy encroachment.
Based on how long the line was, Reivyn suspected that a good portion of the soldiers on duty was stationed at the outposts. It was a long line to watch, and it could be devastating if the enemy found a missing link to sneak past and approach the city walls unimpeded.
"I guess that''s about it for us today," Reivyn said, standing up from where he had taken a seat. "I thank you for your hospitality. Tomorrow, it''ll just be one toon led by one of my lieutenants, so I''ll see you when you rotate back to Piori."
"All right, you and your men have a safe trip back to the city," the lieutenant said. "Though I doubt you''ll run into any trouble. There aren''t even any wandering high-Level beasts or monsters for miles around, much fewer enemy soldiers sneaking past the line."
Reivyn gave one final nod and exited the small building. He made eye contact with Jekle and the other officers, including Refix. His father, as the Vice-Captain, had obviouslye along with them, but he had remained outside with the other officers. He still needed some time to build a rapport and reputation other than just a crazy training demon with the troops.
The officers immediately spotted Reivyn exiting the building, and they ordered the NCOs to get the soldiers formed up. Walking through the forest wasn''t an act that could be done in formation, but it was the best way to get set up to begin with. After getting formed up, the mercenaries spread out, and they once more made their way back.
The return trip was exactly the same as the journey to the outpost. The NCOs kept up a litany to keep wandering minds focused, but there was no danger or anything of import to take note of. It was just an exercise in mental fortitude for those that hadn''t experienced the horrors of actual warfare. Fighting against monsters was one thing, but fighting against other humans was an entirely different experience. Just the visceral experience of ending another person''s life, over and over again, would change a person.
Thepany formed back up into neat formations once they made it back to the city and exited the forest. They Marched in good order into the city and immediately made their way back to their barracks.
Reivyn didn''t have thepany wait around for a long time. The mission for the day was over, and even if there were still several hours left in the day, they could better spend it on other issues other than standing around in formation.
"Officers, have the senior sergeants take charge of the toons. Follow the remaining order of the day. Join me in the conference room for debriefing."
Reivyn strode off to the main building he upied with Refix, Kefira, and Seri in tow. Sefia and the other maids had obviously stayed behind, and the extras that hade along with them had held down the fort while they were away. In the future, they would only be sending out one or two toons at a time unless otherwise ordered.
Reivyn walked into the admin building and headed straight for the conference room on the first floor. His Divine Sense picked up traces of the maids going about their duties within his sphere of perception, and he frowned as he stood in the front of the conference room.
He looked up at the ceiling out of habit, noticing an intrusion in his office that was coincidentally located directly above the conference room. It hadn''t been done on purpose, but he and Refix had just happened to choose the living quarters on the same end of the building where the conference room on the first floor was located.
"What''s wrong?" Refix asked, immediately picking up on his son''s peculiarity.
Kefira and Seri looked over and noticed as well. They all walked up to him and looked up where he was looking, trying to see what he was seeing.
"One of the maids is in my office," Reivyn said.
Reivyn had made it clear that there was to be nobody in his office other than Kefira, his father, and his direct subordinates at any time, and even then, they were expected to go in only when he was present. He had expressly instructed the maids to keep out after the initial cleaning of the building.
"Let''s go investigate."
Reivyn shared a look with his father, and he nodded in return. Refix exited the building and made his way down the hall to the far end, where another, more narrow, set of staircases was located. Reivyn walked to the main staircase in the center of the building with Kefira and Seri trailing behind.
The four quickly made their way up, Refix blocking any path of escape in the opposite direction, though it hadn''t been necessary as the maid hadn''te out or tried to leave. Reivyn opened his office door, which had been closed, and entered without preamble.
A familiar maid was dusting the mostly empty shelves, and she was startled at the sound of Reivyn entering the office. She didn''t look like she had been caught doing anything wrong, and she quickly made a hasty curtsy and continued cleaning as if nothing was wrong. Reivyn just watched her with a frown on his face.
He focused his attention on everything in the room while keeping his eyes on the maid. He activated his Mana Sight to scan the room, but nothing came up as out of ce. His Divine Sense didn''t pick up anything unusual until he brought his focus back to the maid.
His Divine Sense was always picking up everything in its sphere, but he had long since learned the trick to tune out things or focus his concentration. He would have gone mad if he hadn''t been able to with the sheer amount of information dumped into his brain at all times.
There was something strange about the maid''s face. On the surface, nothing looked out of ce, but his Divine Sense was giving him the impression that her face was like a set of clothes. It was set on top of her skin, not her skin itself.
Reivyn broke free from his examination and strode to the maid with quick steps. The girl didn''t seem to realize that there was anything out of the ordinary.
"What are you doing?" Reivyn asked, looming over the girl.
She had stopped her dusting to turn and face the four people entering the room. Refix remained firmly in the center of the doorway. The maid cowered against the bookshelf, holding the duster to her chest. She looked back and forth between Reivyn and Kefira before she mustered her courage to answer the question.
"I''m not sure what you mean, my lord," she said. "I''m just doing my duties."
"Your duties?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at her. She nodded her head. "Were they assigned by Sefia?"
"Of course, my lord, Lady Sefia oversees everyone''s duties every day."
Reivyn noticed that Kefira''s face had hardened into an emotionless mask, and he could feel Seri''s body go tense. None of the maids had ever addressed Reivyn as "my lord." He was either "sir" or simply "Imperial Liaison." He didn''t technically hold a position of nobility within Wispan.
"Hmm... I wonder..." Reivyn trailed off. He brought his hand up to stroke his chin as he leaned forward toward the maid further.
Without warning, Reivyn''s hand shot forward. His fingers were wrapped in un-aspected Mana, and he dug them into the maid''s face. She screamed in terror and pain, and Reivyn ripped the mask off her face.
It peeled away, little bits still remaining from the haste with which he had removed it. Underneath the skin-mask was an unfamiliar face, and a prominent "3" was branded on the new girl.
Knowing the ruse was up, the girl''s eyes hardened, and the duster seemingly transformed into a dagger. She thrust it at Reivyn''s stomach with a ruthless look, but Reivyn''s Divine Sense missed none of that. He easily captured her wrist and applied pressure. He felt the pop of her wrist bones breaking, but the girl didn''t utter a single noise from the intense pain.
Reivyn felt her body tense and coil, and she attempted tounch herself backward, away from Reivyn, even at the expense of further damage to her wrist. Reivyn didn''t let her go, and she simply lost her bnce, still held in ce by his iron grip. She grit her teeth as she stared at Reivyn with hatred.
Reivyn started to open his mouth, but then his Divine Sense picked up something else. A tooth in her mouth was dislodged, and before he could do anything, she crushed it with her other teeth. Immediately, foam started to bubble out of her mouth, and he felt her life dissipate in mere moments.
"Poison," he said, letting the dead girl drop to the ground. "Pretty powerful, too, if it killed her that fast."
"What is going on here?" A frantic voice interrupted everyone in the room.
All four people turned to see Sefia rush past Refix. He didn''t try to stop the woman. She made a beeline for the dead maid.
"Harriet!" She shouted, running up to cradle the dead maid in her arms.
Sefia was about to lift the girl into her embrace, but she faltered when her gazended on the unfamiliar face.
"One of yours?" Reivyn asked.
"Certainly not!" Sefia denied. She hastily stood back up and backed up a few steps. "I thought she was Harriet, but I don''t recognize that face at all."
Reivyn''s Divine Sense didn''t pick up anything strange about Sefia''s face, so she was most likely just startled and confused when she showed such concern for the dead maid.
"Did you instruct the maids to clean my office while I was away?" Reivyn asked.
Sefia snapped out of her daze and brought her eyes away from the dead spy to meet Reivyn''s.
"I did not," she denied. "I didn''t know she had made her way in here. I only instructed her to be in charge of this side of the building."
"It seems like she wasn''t around when the word was passed not to enter the office under any circumstances," Kefira said. "She didn''t know that she had given herself away before we had everid eyes on her.
"More importantly, where''s the real Harriet?" Kefira turned her head toward Seri. "Begin a search of thepound and the surroundings. If she''s dead, we need to recover her body and pay the proper respects. If she''s alive, she needs rescuing."
"Yes, Princess," Seri said. She immediately departed, Refix following after her.
Reivyn nodded his head at his father''s decision. The mercenary soldiers and the officers respected Seri, but she wasn''t in the chain ofmand. Refix''s presence would give her orders to begin a search legitimacy.
Reivyn picked the dead girl up and carried her with him out of his office.
"What are you doing?" Kefira asked.
"I''m taking her to the conference room," Reivyn replied. "I''m not going to ask one of you to carry her corpse; the officers need to see this. After that, we''ll need to report it to themanding general.
"There are probably spies like this littered all over the city, so we''ll need to keep it under wraps as much as possible. I''ll clean up the remnants of the poison when we''re done. I don''t know what kind of Stats and Skills the maids have, but I wouldn''t want one of them to identally get that poison on them if it''s deadly enough to kill a Tier 3 in seconds."
Reivyn walked into the conference room with the dead body. The lieutenants were already seated and waiting, but they didn''t react to the presence of a corpse in Reivyn''s arms. They were all veterans of the war in Drallo, and this wasn''t their first time seeing a dead body up close.
"We might have a problem in the city," Reivyn said.
Chapter 184: Counter Intelligence
Chapter 184: Counter Intelligence
The search for Harriet didn''t take too long. Seri returned with the unconscious woman within an hour. For whatever reason, the girl had been kept alive, though she was in aa.
"She was left alone in a nearby inn room," Seri said, gently cing the girl on a table. "It seems there wasn''t a person dedicated to keeping tabs on her, or if there was, that person wasn''t anywhere to be found. She doesn''t appear to be in any danger, though she won''t wake up."
"Let''s put some men on surveince to make sure," Reivyn said. "Can anyone here determine the cause of hera?"
Seri hade into the conference room while Reivyn had been going over the incident with the imposter as well as the debriefing. He didn''t want to alert the enemy that they had discovered one of their moles. Seri and Refix understood the need for secrecy, so they hadn''t sent everyone into a frenzy during the search. They had been broken up into several smaller units tob the surroundings, trying to act like they were just out to explore and goof off.
In the same vein, Reivyn had still conducted the meeting with his officers as usual. He had simply added information about the intruder.
None of the officers spoke up to answer the question. While Reivyn could peek at the surface of someone''s Status with his Sense Threat Skill, it didn''t reveal anything other than aparison based on Levels. He would need an entirely different Skill to be able to determine someone''s Status Effects. None of the officers were well versed in the Healing Arts, and all of the mercenaries who had some medical training were restricted to mundane Skills like First Aid.
"We''ll need to contact a Healer, then," Reivyn said after a moment of silence. "Jekle, send some of the auxiliaries out to ''secure some supplies'' and have them stop by the infirmary. Make sure they know not to run their mouths."
"Yes, sir," Jekle saluted and strode out of the conference room.
"We''ll need to contact the general right away," Refixmented. "The girl seems stable for now, so we should focus on the things that we can actually do."
"All right," Reivyn nodded. "I don''t want to go trudging down the main road with a corpse slung over my shoulder, so we''ll have to think of a way to get her there. I don''t have a spatial pouchrge enough to fit her in."
"I can teleport to the general''s office," Kefira spoke up. "Since I''ve already been there, I can find it with my Space Affinity. I can jump myself, Seri, and the corpse over after you get there. I''ll just need you to contact me with one of the short-rangemunication devices when you''re ready."
"Sounds like a n. In the meantime, let''s put together some reports to deliver to the general. Seri, write down everything about the rescue operation. I''ll write down what I know about the interaction with the intruder. The rest of you write down your impressions of the patrol mission.
"These aren''t strictly necessary, but if I have a stack of papers, it can give me an alibi for visiting the general."
Everyone got busy with their task. Jekle returned shortly, and he got to work with the rest after finding out what they were doing. It didn''t take long topile several pages of reports. None of the pages were extremely long and detailed, but all of them added together created the illusion of a thick stack of paper.
Reivyn nodded to the officers and dismissed all of them except Jekle. It would be a little strange to visit the general on official business without an aide or assistant, so he simply took Jekle with him.
Reivyn and Jekle conversed about the patrol and other topics, appearing like two people simply going for a stroll. Reivyn kept his attention on his Divine Sense as well as other senses with his enhanced Perception to make sure nobody was following them or suspicious of their movements. It was inevitable that the enemy would find out that one of their spies had been caught, but Reivyn wanted to prolong it as long as possible. He could spot the skin-masks with his Divine Sense, but it wouldn''t matter if they learned of the danger and aborted their missions.
The walk to the administrative building in the center of the city wasn''t long, but because of their heightened awareness of their surroundings, it felt like the journey dragged on and on. Reivyn didn''t spot any suspicious behavior, so he was confident they had moved quickly enough to keep ahead of the news. He didn''t know how the spies would contact their counterparts, but if it was something that was done infrequently, they might actually have arge window to devise a scheme to find as many infiltrators as possible.
"Captain Reivyn here to see the general on official business," Reivyn announced himself to the guards at the gate. "I don''t have an appointment, but I have important reports that need to get in the general''s hands right away."
"Yes, sir," one of the guards acknowledged. "I''ll just check with the guard captain, and he''ll see about getting you in to see the general."
"Thanks."
The guard left his station to enter the guard house nearby. After a couple of minutes of patiently waiting, the guard returned and held his hand out, indicating for Reivyn to follow him.
"The general happens to have an open slot in his schedule right now, so he''ll see you right away."
Reivyn nodded. He scanned all of the guards on duty within range of his Divine Sense, but he didn''t spot any intruders wearing masks among them. Reivyn kept his focus on scanning everyone he passed by as the guard led him to the familiar office.
"Sir, Captain Reivyn is here to see you," the guard announced outside the door.
He didn''t knock. He simply walked up to the door and started speaking. At their Levels, it wasn''t necessary to announce their presence with a knock. Prince Allik would be able to hear the guard clearly from the other side of the closed door.
"Send him in," the general said.
Reivyn nodded to the guard and opened the door. He strode up to the desk Prince Allik was sitting behind, Jekle trailing behind him, holding the sheaf of papers.
"Good afternoon, sir. Captain Reivyn reporting as ordered!" Reivyn stood at attention and executed a salute.
Even though he wasn''t technically ordered to report to the general, it was the proper etiquette to say such. If one wanted to get into the technical details, it could be argued that the general saying, "send him in," was the order.
Prince Allik set his pen down and leaned back in his chair. He appraised Reivyn for a moment. Reivyn nodded his head toward Jekle, and the other man stepped forward to ce the reports on the general''s desk. Prince Allik nced down at the papers.
"You know, you don''t have to report to me after each of your missions," he said.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn answered. "That''s not what this is about. If you''ll flip to the middle page..."
Reivyn raised his eyebrows as he said so. Prince Allik nodded his head as he lifted the top few pages away to reach the report in question. His face turned into a frown as he read the words, getting deeper and deeper the further he read.
"Are you 100% serious about this?" He asked, giving Reivyn a sharp look.
"Absolutely, Sir. If you allow me to contact Princess Kefira, she can bring the package over."
Prince Allik nodded his head. Reivyn fished out hismunication device. They weren''t nearly as powerful as the ones issued to them in Drallo. They had been given to him by the Wispan Imperial Army, but they had given him a few with the functionality forpanies, not battalions.
"Send it," Reivyn said into the device.
They only had to wait for a short moment before Reivyn detected the ambient Mana getting agitated. Prince Allik noticed it too, and he looked over to where three people suddenly appeared out of thin air: two girls standing, one girl lying on the floor.
Prince Allik got up from his seat and walked around the desk to squat next to the dead body. His mouth formed a line as he inspected the brand on her forehead, and he made note of the traces of poison around her mouth.
"This is very serious," he said, standing up. He walked back over and sat down in his seat, dismissing the corpse for the time being. "How did you notice the mask if nobody else could see it? Your Vice Captain is apparently significantly higher Level than you, but he didn''t notice anything, either?"
Reivyn made a mental note that the prince had noticed his father being much higher Level, but he didn''t say anything about it.
"I have a Skill that lets me see more deeply than others," Reivyn answered. "The skin-mask looked like she was wearing a shirt on her face to my Skill. That''s all I can say about it."
"Hmm... Can it be replicated?"
"Unless they find a way to graft the mask onto their face in ce of their own skin, I''ll be able to notice it within a certain range."
"What''s the range?" Prince Allik asked. He leaned forward, steepling his fingers in front of this mouth.
Reivyn nced at his Skill description quickly before answering. He was slightly surprised as he hadn''t checked in a while.
"Forty yards," he replied. "Anyone within forty yards of me, as long as I have line of sight, will be exposed to the Skill."
Reivyn didn''t need to see them, obviously, but he wasn''t about to reveal everything about one of his most powerful Skills. If Prince Allik learned that he could do the same thing through a wall 39 yards thick, there might be some unintended negative consequences.
"You were at the briefings these past mornings. Is it safe to say that none of my officers have been reced?" Prince Allik asked.
"None of the officers that attended the meetings had anything suspicious about them," Reivyn replied.
"That''s good, at least," Prince Allik rxed a little at the information. "They''re the main core of themand structure. That doesn''t rule out all of the officers, though, just the ones in core positions.
"We need to move on this fast. You mentioned that you found the girl that was being impersonated. I can''t imagine her disappearance will go unnoticed for too long. I''ll summon all of the officers in an all-hands meeting. While I''m setting that up, I think you should go to the admin office and get some of these reports copied. Maybe even get yourself acquainted with the other personnel in the building." Prince Allik gave Reivyn a look.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn replied.
"Good."
Prince Allik lifted an inconspicuous bell off the corner of his table and gave it a ring. Reivyn saw the man in the room next door suddenly get up and make his way to the prince''s office. The man in question wasn''t an imposter, either, and Reivyn pretended like he couldn''t see the man before he entered the office.
The man nced at the four other people in the room, pausing for a second at the sight of the corpse. He took everything in at a nce and then threw it all to the back of his head as he walked up to the prince''s desk.
"What can I do for you, my prince?" The man asked.
The way he addressed Prince Allik led Reivyn to believe the man was a personal retainer of some sort. He wasn''t simply some cog in the machine of the army. Prince Allik plucked the pages that mentioned the spy out of the stack of papers and slid the rest back to the edge. Jekle stepped forward and picked them up.
"Captain Reivyn needs to make a quick stop at the scribe''s office to make some copies," Prince Allik said to his retainer. "After that, you will escort him around the building and introduce him to all of the personnel."
"Yes, my prince," the man said with a bow.
The retainer didn''t ask any questions. He followed the orders without hesitation. Reivyn nodded to the man and then led hispanions out of the office.
He hadn''t particrly paid attention to the scribes that were further away thest time he had been here, but he did so now as he entered to get some copies made. There were no scribes behind walls, so he didn''t have to reveal his ability to see through them, but it didn''t matter anyway. There were no imposters among the scribes.
After the quick stop with the scribes, the retainer led Reivyn from room to room in the admin building, starting on the first floor. There weren''t too many offices he needed to inspect. There were the general administrative soldiers who took up the majority of the personnel in the building, and there was the quartermaster.
The retainer led Reivyn into the offices and simply introduced him to the officers in charge. The rest of the staff gave him curious looks, but nobody said anything. There wasn''t enough time to have any kind of real conversation, so the introductions were brief, and they left the officers scratching their heads in confusion as to why the mercenary captain had been introduced to them by the prince''s retainer. No answers were given, though, and they simply shrugged their shoulders over the oddity.
None of the military personnel on the first floor were imposters. There wasn''t just the military personnel, though, and Reivyn made sure to inspect the civilians they passed as well. His Divine Sense was enough that he could check over most of the building, first and second floor, from just standing in the center foyer, but he had to put up appearances. There were enough people in the building that it took him as long to scan their faces diligently as it did to traverse the floors, anyway.
The second floor was the home of more senior officers. There were officers for several different specialized tasks: Personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics, ns, andmunications. Reivyn was led to each office, and the same introductions were done over and over. None of the staff members in each of these offices was a spy, either.
The retainer led the group back to the prince''s office, and Reivyn suddenly stopped and stepped in front of a young teenager dressed as a manservant. He appeared to be even younger than Reivyn, and if he had to make a guess, he would say he was barely old enough to have advanced to his Tier 2 ss.
"Excuse me, young man," Reivyn addressed the boy. The boy stopped and looked up at Reivyn in surprise. "The prince instructed me to bring some help along when I returned to his office. I''ll need you to apany me for now. It''ll be really quick."
The retainer watched the interaction without saying anything. The young manservant was about to open his mouth to say something, but Reivyn didn''t give him an opportunity. He grabbed the young man by the arm and started to lead him down the hall to the prince''s office. He was somewhat lucky that he had run into the boy so close to the office, but upon thinking about it, it made some sense to him.
Before the boy even had a chance to protest, they were already entering the office of the prince. Reivyn felt the man''s body stiffen when they walked in, and he saw the corpse still lying on the floor. The de of a sword immediately appeared on the neck of the manservant as Jekle understood Reivyn''s intentions.
"Kefira!" Reivyn gave a low shout.
Mana red, and the boy''s body locked up, unable to move a single inch. Reivyn turned and stuck his fingers into the man''s open mouth and forcefully yanked one of the teeth free. He put the tooth in his pocket and drew his own sword with one hand, and he dug the fingers of his other hand into the boy''s face. Kefira didn''t let up on her Space Mana that she was using to lock the imposter in ce.
Reivyn yanked with his free hand, pulling the skin-mask off the manservant''s face. Suddenly, a middle-aged man was standing where a young boy had once been.
"This is the only one I saw," Reivyn said, addressing the still-seated prince. "None of the military personnel were imposters."
The retainer had strategically positioned himself right next to the prince as soon as Jekle had drawn his sword, a hand to his breast pocket. He had a concerned look on his face, though he didn''t appear to be nervous or scared. Reivyn mentally nodded at the man''sposure.
"Good work," Prince Allik said. He stood up and walked around his desk once more to get right in the spy''s face. "Don''t worry, we''ll make sure to take good care of you," he smirked. "Bind him and take him to the underground dungeon."
The retainer let go of the dagger he was sping in his breast pocket and immediately stepped forward. He came up with some binding ropes from somewhere, and he expertly tied the imposter up, cing a gag in his still-open mouth. Kefira had still held himpletely still, and he had been unable to close his jaw. Blood and spittle trickled out of his mouth from where his false tooth had been unceremoniously yanked out of his head.
Once he was securely fastened by the retainer, Kefira finally let up on her Spell. Her shoulders slumped in relief. To those that were able to perceive the Mana fluctuations, they would have seen a fierce contest of wills taking ce between the two until the binding ropes were fastened around the man. It hadn''t taken everything out of Kefira, but it wasn''t a walk in the park, either. The imposter had a "3" branded on his head like the other spy, but he had been quite a few Levels higher than the fake maid.
The retainer dragged the man away, and the prince once more resumed his seat. He looked up at Reivyn and nodded his head in appreciation.
"There are only two examples so far, but I think we should pay more special attention to the servants and civilians," Prince Allik said. "That''s not to say we''re not going to inspect all of the officers and as many of the other military personnel as we can, but maids and manservants are invisible to a lot of people most of the time. It makes sense that they would choose that as an inflection point.
"The other officers have been summoned to the conference room downstairs. It''ll take some time for everyone to get here, but you can go ahead and head there now. I''ll be down shortly."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn once more gave a salute.
The group of four made their way back down to the first floor and entered one of therger offices they hadn''t had a chance to step into before. They each found a chair and took a seat.
"So, how strong was that guy?" Reivyn asked Kefira. "You didn''t break out into a sweat or anything, but you seemed awfully relieved when it was over."
"It wasn''t that he was necessarily strong," Kefira said with a shrug. "He was just slippery. His willpower and Mana Skills weren''t anything amazing, but he seemed to have a unique perspective on how to use them. He could worm his Mana in between the weaves of my Mana, and I suspect he might have been able to unravel some of the knots if I wasn''t paying attention and spotted what he was trying to do."
"Hmm... Considering his job as an infiltrator, he probably had some special training in escape methods. Maybe if he was captured by someone not as strong as you, he might have been able to get out of the magical restraints. The fact that you had Space Mana to enforce your lock on him also yed a factor. If nothing else, maybe we can pry some of their training methods out of him."
"Hah," Kefira chuckled. "Leave it to you to immediately think about the training implications."
"Hey! This could be super useful information for you and me, both."
Kefira rolled her eyes.
"Don''t think that I don''t see the gleam in your eye," she said. "You can''t wait to figure out a new method to train. If you weren''t needed to identify the infiltrators, I imagine you would immediately chase after that retainer to participate in the interrogation."
"Hmm..." Reivyn stroked his chin as he looked off in thought. "I bet Interrogation would be a Skill I could get."
Kefira smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand.
"Be serious!" She shook her head. "Besides, you don''t need that Skill. That''s what subordinates are for. You don''t have to try and get every Skill in existence, you know."
Reivynughed and gave Kefira a one-armed hug.
"I know, I know. You know I was just joking."
The four rxed in the conference room by themselves, but it wasn''t long before others began to arrive. The first several officers to enter the conference room were on the younger side, and several of them were panting and sweating upon their arrival.
Looks like the young lieutenants aren''t willing to make the higher ranking officers wait for them, Reivyn chuckled.
Reivyn and the others nodded to each new person to arrive, and Reivyn made sure to scan their faces with his Divine Sense. None of them were problematic.
The order of arrival was expected, but it was still amusing. Even the lowest-ranked officers from the furthest away locations in the city arrived before their superiors. All of the lieutenants arrived first, followed by the captains and then the majors. Reivyn didn''t know how many officers there were for the army in Piori, but he started to wonder if the conference room they were meeting in would berge enough to hold everyone.
He didn''t have to worry, though, as the new arrivals trickled off and the higher-ranked officers with offices on the second floor finally made their appearance. That was the signal to everyone present that all of the officers in the city that were going to be in attendance at the meeting were present. Shortly after they strode in and took seats at the front of the conference room, the prince arrived with his retainer in tow.
Prince Allik scanned the room as everyone stood up and assumed the position of attention. He waved his hands to indicate for everyone to rx, and then he locked eyes with Reivyn. Reivyn shook his head, and Prince Allik gave a slight nod before he motioned to Kefira, waving her to the front of the conference room. She shared a look with Reivyn, and he simply nodded to her. Kefira got up and walked up to the prince.
"Everyone, this is Princess Kefira of Wispan," Prince Allik said. "I know it''s short notice, and I apologize for that, but I have my reasons. All of you are going to return to your barracks and muster your troops. Princess Kefira is here with her mercenarypany and has indicated an interest in learning about how our imperial army operates.
"We''re going to give her a tour."
Chapter 185: Rooting Out
Chapter 185: Rooting Out
Silence permeated the room as the officers digested the information. It wasn''t pandemonium when the dam finally broke, but the difference between total silence and hurried whispers was enough. The officers weren''t idiots. The Captains gave hurried instructions to the lieutenants, and after only a brief few seconds, there was an exodus of young officers back out through the door.
The prince let everyone leave. He just stood there and patiently waited. The captains conferred with their immediate superiors before casting looks toward Reivyn and Kefira. Not all of them were disgruntled, but a good many were. Some were simply spective.
"Sir, If I may, we could have just used the chain ofmand for this," one of the majors stood up. Reivyn recognized him as the nning Officer he had previously met on his tour of the building. "That''s what it''s there for."
"Major, do I need you to tell me how to do my job?" The Prince leveled a gaze at the man. The major was probably a decade older, at least, but he wilted a bit under the stern re of the prince.
"No, sir," the man immediately denied. "I''m just trying to wrap my head around it."
"Noted. If youe with us on the tour, everything should be made abundantly clear."
"Ah, I have so much work to do..."
The major trailed off as he looked at the prince. Reivyn cocked his head and almost lost his bearing, but he kept his jaw from falling to the floor with utmost willpower. His line of sight intersected with another major sitting nearby. The man saw Reivyn looking over and he rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"I wasn''t asking you, major," the prince said.
"Of course, sir."
After that little back and forth, there were no morements or questions, and the senior officers, along with Reivyn and his crew, joined the prince in a leisurely walk to the closest barracks. Not all of the barracks were located on the edge of the city. The more prestigious units had taken overpounds closer to the center of the city.
Prestigious doesn''t mean capable, Reivyn thought as they entered the firstpound. They''re all neat and tidy, and nice and shiny, but I don''t get a sense of dread from their demeanor.
In the firstpound they entered, the soldiers were already neatly formed up. Reivyn could see several of them puffing with exertion, sweat dripping down the sides of their faces as they scrambled to get into position promptly.
The soldiers were wearing their shiny armor, not a dent to be found anywhere, and they were arrayed in two separatepanies, one in front of the other. There wasn''t room enough in thepound for them to stand side-by-side. There almost wasn''t room for a fullpany to form up. The men were basically shoulder to shoulder with thepound walls on either side, the normal gaps between toons reduced to a sliver.
The prince led the procession of senior officers and Reivyn''s group to the front of the formation, where the captain was standing at attention with his senior sergeant standing behind and to the side of him. The captain of the secondpany was squeezed in behind thest row of soldiers from the firstpany. Reivyn suspected that he was a bit irritated at the setup, but there was nothing they could do about it with such short notice.
"First Battalion, First Company, all present or ounted for, sir!" The captain announced with a salute to the prince.
"Very well, just standby for now," the prince reciprocated with a salute. "On second thought, have your sergeant round up the civilian staff and have them on standby, as well."
The captain turned his head to his sergeant and gave him a nod. The man offered a salute, and it could have been directed to either of them. Reivyn didn''t know and took off running before it could be returned. It wasn''t every day that a sergeant would interact with themanding general, much less a prince, and Reivyn could tell that he had been a bit nervous. He wasn''t wearing a skin-mask, though, so his thoughts didn''t drift into that territory.
"Princess Kefira, do you or your Liaison wish to inspect the troops?" Prince Allik turned to Kefira and asked conversationally.
"I think it would be enough if Captain Reivyn did it himself," Kefira answered. "In these types of situations, it''s my job just to stand back and look pretty."
The crackle of Mana was noticeable to those with the right Skills as Kefira umted Space Mana around herself and spoke the truth of the matter. She was never just there to look pretty. She was one of the most capablebatants in the entire outfit.
"Of course," Prince Allik said with a chuckle. The sly smile on his face indicated that he understood what she was getting at.
The senior officers of his staff were all Tier 4 and had unlocked their Mana Skills. Not all of them were as talented as the others, but a few whispers from those that were gave way to understanding looks.
Reivyn didn''t stick around to listen to the whispered conversations of the senior officers. He made a beeline to the first man in the first row. Thoughts of walking through men dressed in green with strange weapons held at their sides flitted across his mind. He remembered inspecting men with great detail, going so far as to ask obscure questions to test their knowledge and understanding of the most esoteric concepts associated with their jobs.
This wasn''t the time for that, though. Reivyn didn''t ask any questions. Not only did they have to go through the entirepany present, but they had to make their way through the entire city to inspect literally everyone as quickly as possible.
Reivyn gave a cursory nce over the man''s armor and equipment. He could tell that the man was nervous as he was sweating more profusely than the weather could ount for, but Reivyn didn''t make things difficult for the man. He checked him over and moved on.
Reivyn didn''t stop in front of all of the soldiers. He skipped most of them, and he didn''t even go through all of the squads. He quickly made his way through the ranks of the soldiers, and as his Divine Sense encapsted thest man confirming that none of them were spies, he quickened his pace even further. Instead of going through the charade again with the secondpanymander, he simply nodded to the man and walked through the ranks of the secondpany, as well.
In almost no time, Reivyn walked back to the prince and gave a slight shake to his head. Prince Allik nodded in return before turning back to the captain.
"Alright, captain, that will be all," he said. "I''m very pleased with your performance. Let the 2nd Company Commander know, as well. You''re dismissed."
"Yes, sir!"
Prince Allik led the procession over to where the senior sergeant had run off to. Another group of civilians was loitering nearby. Most of them were the maid staff taking care of the premises, but there were a few other civilian staff as well. They weren''t formed up in any military manner. They were just grouped up in a loose mob.
"Ahem, uh, sir, all civilian staff, present or ounted for!" The senior sergeant stuttered.
"Rx," Prince Allik pped the man on the shoulder with a smile. "Are they all present, or are they all present or ounted for?"
"Sir?" The senior sergeant was confused. He had never been asked this question before. Saying that everyone was present or ounted for was just a routine thing they always said.
"Well, is everyone here, or is everyone who can be here, here? Those are two different things." Prince Allik exined.
"Everyone is here, sir."
"Very good." Prince Allik turned to Kefira again. "Do you want to inspect the civilian staff, too?"
Reivyn didn''t wait for an invitation. He immediately spotted an anomaly standing at the edge of the group. He meandered his way through the group of people. They didn''t know what to make of him walking through their group, looking at them intently, but Reivyn didn''t care to exin anything to anyone.
He made his way through the group, finally stopping in front of the young maid who had a skin-mask covering her face. Reivyn reached out and picked something intangible off of her shoulder. It was up to anyone''s imagination whether there had actually been something there or not.
"For a maid in charge of keeping things neat and tidy, your uniform is awfully slovenly," Reivyn said.
He turned his back on her, keeping his focus with his Divine Sense on her, and motioned to the senior sergeant, and the man ran over to him.
"Dismiss everyone else," Reivyn instructed. "Have this maid stay behind for a moment."
The senior sergeant nced at Prince Allik for confirmation, and the man nodded to him. The senior sergeant obeyed themand and ordered the civilian staff to disperse back to their duties, but the maid remained behind. The head maid stood off to the side, wringing her hands nervously as she watched one of hers drawing the ire of the senior military staff. There wasn''t much she could do in this situation, but Reivyn gave a mental nod to her loyalty toward her subordinates.
Reivyn''s eyes met with Prince Allik''s, and he gave a slight nod. Prince Allik turned to his retainer.
"Take this maid aside and giver her some instruction on how to properly care for her appearance and demeanor," he instructed.
The maid didn''t understand the full extent of the danger she was in. The skin-masks had never been seen through as far as she was aware, but Reivyn could tell that she obviously knew something was up. She wasn''t acting as meek and nervous as a panicking maid in her shoes should be. She was looking around, trying to figure out an escape route.
Reivyn moved his position to stand behind her, opposite from the rest of the group. The retainer approached her with a stern, no-nonsense expression on his face, and he lifted his hand to indicate to her to follow him. Prince Allik appeared to move nonchntly, but he also positioned himself to cut off another escape route for the maid.
She wasn''t led to the interior of one of the buildings. Instead, the retainer had her walk to the side of one of the buildings. It was ostensibly for some privacy for the maid.
As soon as they turned the corner, the maid''s body shot forward, trying to use the brief period of time she was out of sight of most of the people to get some distance between her and the others. She didn''t get far, though, as Reivyn used his Mana to trip her up. Just because she was on the other side of the wall didn''t mean he couldn''t see her. Kefira followed his Mana and locked down the space around the maid immediately after.
The senior officers who had been calmly walking behind the procession, mostly confused at what they were doing picking on a maid, stopped and stared at the disy of magic. Even those without much Skill in the area were able to sense the powerful Space Affinity. They looked to Prince Allik to see his reaction, but he was just calmly watching.
The retainer didn''t waste any time either. He produced another set of binding ropes from his storage pouch, and he deftly secured the frozen maid. A rictus scowl was locked on her features as she was held in ce by Kefira''s magic. The retainer, having watched what Reivyn did previously, stuck his hand in her mouth to search for the false tooth. He didn''t have Divine Sense, so he couldn''t just see it, but it was obvious with a little probing. He removed the tooth, and Reivyn finally walked up and removed the skin-mask from her face.
She was bound and gagged, and the retainer pulled her up to her feet. All of this had been done out of sight of the senior staff, so they only knew that the maid had likely been attacked by Reivyn and Kefira''s Mana. The captains of the twopanies and their senior sergeants ran over after having detected the situation, too, and the soldiers of thepany stopped what they were doing at the sight. Several soldiers had their hands on the hilts of their weapons, but nobody was doing anything else without orders.
"Dismiss your men," Prince Allik ordered the captains. "I appreciate your attentiveness, but your men won''t be needed. The fewer people knowing what''s going on right now, the better. Have the lieutenants stay with the troops."
"Yes, sir!" The captains both replied.
"Come on," Prince Allik addressed his senior officers. "I''ll show you all what''s going on."
They all rounded the corner. The retainer had hauled the maid to her feet, and she stood with an angry expression, ring daggers at the man. The retainer ignored her, but he kept a hand on the binding ropes, holding her in ce. The senior officers came to a stop as they immediately spotted the tattered skin-mask and the "3" brand that it had been covering up.
"We''ve been infiltrated by spies," Prince Allik whispered. "We don''t know the extent, and so far, nobody but Captain Reivyn has been able to see through their disguise. The ''tour'' is simply a ploy to let Captain Reivyn get eyes on everyone to root them out."
The senior officers whispered among themselves, casting looks of appreciation toward Reivyn.
"What are we going to do with the captured spies?" The executive officer, a colonel, asked the prince.
"For now, we should confine this one to an out-of-the-way ce in thispound," Prince Allik answered. "We found one in our headquarters building, and we took him to the underground dungeon, but I don''t want to transport any more captured spies through the city until we''ve had time to check all of the units."
"The spy reced the position of one of the staff," Kefira spoke up. "I don''t know how long they''ve been in their position, so there''s no guarantee the true person is still alive or in the city, but we should also check the surroundings for them. The maid that had been reced in ourpany had been in aa in a nearby inn room."
"Get on it," Prince Allik addressed thepanymander. "Try to keep it under wraps as long as you can. It''s not that big of a deal if the soldiers learn the truth, but if you have even one gossipy mouth, word is bound to make it to the un-inspectedpanies and alert the spy. Keep it secret for as long as you can. I doubt the military units are the only ce the spies have infiltrated, but they''re the number one priority to check right now."
The captains departed to form a ndestine search party for the missing true maid, and one of the senior sergeants took control of the captured spy to take her to a secluded room where she could be held.
"Alright, let''s not waste any more time," Prince Allik said.
He led the procession out of thepound and toward the next destination.
---
They spent the rest of the day moving circrly throughout the city. They quickly made their way through each military unitpound, inspecting all of the soldiers and the civilian staff members. All of the spies upied a civilian position in the more prestigious military camps, and it wasn''t until they had made their way closer to the edge of the city where the more battle-hardened soldiers lived that they found their first spy among the soldiers.
The spy hadn''t upied a position of any importance or responsibility. One of the junior soldiers in one of the weaker squads had been reced. There was no spy among the civilian staff. There was only ever one spy among each of the military units, but many military units upied the city.
By mid-afternoon, they had discovered twenty-four spies among thepanies. There were more than twenty-fourpounds to go through, but they didn''t find any more after that. Someone had finally wagged their tongue, and the jig was up.
"Lock the city down," Prince Allikmanded. "Tell the gate guards to let nobody in or out until further notice for any reason. I don''t care who it is or what their excuse is."
"Yes, sir!"
Reivyn followed the prince to continue the inspection, but they didn''t find any more hidden spies. The officers and civilian leaders just shook their heads when they were asked about the missing people. Eachpany was visited without expecting to find any more spies, and search parties were formed to search for the missing individuals.
The spies for the otherpanies had been in ce for much longer than the one found in the mercenarypany. That spy had been discovered almost immediately. There was no telling if the people they had reced were dead or transported out of the city. They would need some additional time to figure everything out.
Reivyn followed the prince back to the headquarters building to finish things up and discuss the next step. The other officers that usually attended the morning briefings were all present, which were all of the captains. The other officers in headquarters that didn''t usually attend such meetings were also present.
"So, I didn''t have time to tell everyone about the situation earlier, for obvious reasons," Prince Allik started. "Captain Reivyn has a unique Skill that allows him to spot the minute differences in the skin-masks, which is why he needed to personally go to everypany. The tour was just an excuse.
"Everyone needs to keep an eye on their people. If anything suspicious happens, it needs to be reported immediately. We''ll try to coordinate with Captain Reivyn to check the situation out whenever it seems appropriate, unless..."
Prince Allik gave Reivyn a suggestive look, raising his eyebrows.
"I have zero confidence in being able to teach the Skill," Reivyn answered. "It''s pretty rare, and I don''t even know exactly how I unlocked it in the first ce. I was unconscious from having a giant boulder dropped on my head when it happened."
"I see. Then we''ll have to bother you each time it happens."
"Understandable. I''m here to help, after all."
"I''m sure the hidden spies have all gotten wind of what''s going on and have disappeared by now, but we should be as thorough as possible," the colonel said. "We need to get Captain Reivyn to move through the city and check each of the important locations. I doubt there would be any worth in having spies in obscure ces if they have the ability to embed them where they had. We can send him to the crafters we''ve requisitioned for the military as well as the Adventurer Guild, at least."
"Good idea," Prince Allik concurred. "We''ll have him head out immediately after the meeting. No reason to dy, and it should be quick. No need for all the song and dance setting it up ahead of time."
Prince Allik stopped and looked each of the captains in the eye before continuing.
"I''m very annoyed that the news got spread before we could check all of the barracks. Do an investigation and figure out who had a loose tongue."
"Yes, sir!" The captains chorused.
"Additionally, send runners out to the outposts to tell them to keep an eye out for the escaping spies, and keep an eye out for any encroachment from the enemy. They might have been so quiet on the front because they knew our every move, and now that we''ve taken that away from them, they might be more aggressive.
"I''ll keep everyone informed of what they need to know after the interrogations. For now, with the exception of keeping an eye out for more infiltrators, everything should continue as normal."
The officers all acknowledged the order. They hadn''t been conducting any kind of secret n, to begin with, so there wasn''t anything that needed to be changed for the most part. Until something changed with the frontline, the only differences were the order in which the soldiers upied the outposts and went on patrols.
"Captain Reivyn, if you would go ahead and head to the Adventurer''s Guild and the crafters'' station..." Prince Allik said after wrapping up the meeting.
The officers got up and filed out. The captains held conversations with each other as they left, and Reivyn and his group were thest ones in the room after a few moments.
"That won''t be a problem," Reivyn nodded his head.
"I''ll have my retainer apany you," Prince Allik said. "He has the binding ropes, and he can lead you to the crafters. And thank you for bringing this to my attention."
"Yes, sir. It''s what I should have done."
Reivyn got up and nodded to the retainer. The day was almost over, and he just needed to check a couple more ces before he could go back and have a good rest. He had been on his feet all day, starting with the patrol to the frontlines, and then he had immediately found the spy in his office, which led to the inspection of the entire city.
"I wonder if I can get a Skill out of this?" Reivyn idly thought out loud.
Kefira smacked him on the shoulder, followed by a chuckle and a shake of her head.
Chapter 186: Next Step
Chapter 186: Next Step
The Adventurer''s Guild had been a bust. There was nothing really new for Reivyn to see there except for a different style of expensive architecture. The retainer had quickly gotten them a meeting with the local branch Guild Master, and after verifying that he himself wasn''t an undercover spy, they had exined the situation to him. It was the fastest way to gain ess to the entire structure. Reivyn was able to map the entire thing before he ever met with the Guild Master, but he was still putting on the show that he needed to have line of sight.
The Adventurer''s Guild had been mostly empty. A few high-Level Adventurers were puttering around inside, waiting for a time they could be called up to arms, but for the most part, all of the Adventurers that didn''t enlist in the military had moved further inward of the Region. The higher-Level Adventurers were in a situation where they couldn''t bepelled to join the military, but they were expected to offer their services in an emergency and receive justpensation for it.
The lower Level Adventurers could get a steady stream of ie from their sry, but they wouldn''t get abat bonus. Conversely, the higher Level Adventurers'' ie was mostly put on hold without ess to quests, but they could get argebat bonus. It all worked out in the end, and the lower Level Adventurers didn''t mind their temporary stint in the military because they got decent Life Experience they otherwise wouldn''t have ess to. It wasn''t like the military just epted anyone and everyone in times of peace.
The Adventurer''s Guild is a strange entity, now that I think about it, Reivyn thought. Thinking about the situation with the individual Adventurers led him to think about the organization as a whole. It''s an independent, outside organization, but it''s made up of the local "insiders" wherever it''s found. Everyone still has allegiance to their kingdom or empire, yet they''re part of an organization that spans pretty much the entirety of the popted Realm.
There was no super Guild Master in charge of the entire thing. There was no council of elders or any kind of overarching overseer. The Guild Master in the Tier 4 Capital City was the head honcho for the entire empire they resided in, and he had the ultimate authority over all of the subordinate Adventurer''s Guild Branches. They had nobody who overlooked their jobs.
There has to be more to it than that. That''s a good way to have significant corruption. I''ll have to ask about it the next time I do something with my identity as an Adventurer in the future.
Reivyn had never nned on being a full-time Adventurer. Likewise, he had never really nned on having a full career as a soldier or mercenary. Things just sort of worked out that way. Having an identity as an Adventurer was more of a bonus to how he had envisioned his lifestyle. The main draw of gaining ranks in the Adventurer''s Guild was the ess it could provide in higher Tier Regions.
If one didn''t have the necessary rank, they wouldn''t even be able to see the higher-end quests and opportunities, much less tackle them. Sure, people could go out on their own, and Reivyn could definitely see himself doing so with his considerably higher power level aspared to his Tier and Level, but most people required the assistance of at least a Party.
And it wasn''t just ess to higher-end quests, either. The Adventurer''s Guild could give their people preferential treatment towards delving into Dungeons. They could skip wait lines and sell their spoils for higher profit.
Reivyn had never really thought about what he was going to do with his life in the next thirty years or so, but just going from one quest to another, one Dungeon to another, constantly putting his life on the line to make a profit, wasn''t what he had imagined. He wasn''t opposed to the adventure and risk, but there was nothing to motivate him to push harder other than personal growth.
Well, I guess with my proclivity for training and increasing my Skills, that would be motivation enough, Reivyn chuckled.
He also didn''t have aspirations of conquering nations with the might of a military behind his back. He didn''t see himself as some hero to lead the armies of an empire to defend against the hordes of monsters, either.
Maybe one day...
Reivyn let his thoughts drift off as he heard the tell-tale sounds of a cksmith enter his ears. He had been lost in thought as he followed the retainer through the city. The retainer had led him away from the central hub of the city toward the northwest corner. The sounds grew louder and louder as they got closer, and suddenly, Reivyn was able to see arge area that had been cleared out with several new cksmith workshops and other crafters'' stations constructed altogether.
Reivyn had gone on his little mission with the retainer by himself. Refix, Kefira, and Seri had gone back to thepany barracks. None of them were worried that things would spiral out of control without their presence or anything. They had simply wanted an end to the day, and Reivyn didn''t see any reason to bring them along. He wasn''t expecting to find any more spies, and even if Kefira wasn''t there to lock down the space around any he did find, they would be able to handle it.
"What was the point of this?" Reivyn idly asked.
"Centralization," The retainer replied. Reivyn was a bit surprised at the response. He had been thinking more out loud than expecting a response. "There are far more cksmiths, tailors, alchemists, and other lifestyle professions than what can fit in the central square of the city. It made sense to gather all of them together in one location, and the prince wasn''t going to give special treatment to those that had upied a position in the most coveted central square.
"Thus, we have a hub of crafters located here. It''s not a big secret or anything. Everyone in the city knows about it."
"I see, thank you," Reivyn said with a nod.
The area wasn''t walled off, and they had easy ess to the location, but there were still patrols making sure people who didn''t belong didn''t wander into the area. The retainer met up with one such patrol leader and simply exined that the prince had ordered Captain Reivyn to do a summary inspection of the area. The retainer was a well-known person, and there was no reason for the patrol leader to doubt his word.
Reivyn epassed the area with his Divine Sense, making sure to pay attention to the faces of each of the individuals within his range. He nodded to the patrolmen before heading deeper into the crafting haven.
The sounds picked up through his Divine Sense were a bit strange. He could still hear everything with his own ears, and the distance and obstructions between the source distorted the sounds like usual; however, his Divine Sense filtered the information a bit differently.
He didn''t hear the sounds with his Divine Sense. There were also no distortions caused by distance or walls. He was able to sense the clear, pure sound of each noise within his range as if he had been ovepping with the source. It didn''t drown out any other noise, though, and it was more like he understood it on a fundamental level. He could tell the exact pitch and timbre of the sound, as well as the decibel level.
It had been easy to adapt to the strange flow of information into his mind when it was just people talking orbat. Thest time he had been in a pitchedbat situation, his Divine Sense had been much lower Level, and the range wasn''trge enough to pick up too much information. Walking into a hub of cksmiths and other crafters really put things into perspective for him, though.
He had to slow his pace down so that he wasn''t overwhelmed by the information flooding his brain. He hadn''t suffered such a situation since he had gotten used to his new Skill way back in the desert of Drallo. The retainer slowed down to match his pace when he noticed the shift, and he gave him a curious look.
"I''m fine," Reivyn said. "My Skill picks up sounds, too, and it''s a little much right now. Just give me a few moments to adapt."
The retainer nodded his head and didn''t press for any further information. They walked along the edge of the hub, letting Reivyn adapt to the sounds before slowly making their way deeper toward the center of the hub. Reivyn could see the frantic activity of the lifestyle crafters making and repairing weapons and gear.
Not everything being made was expressly military, either. There were coopers making barrels, cobblers making footwear, and tailors making things other than clothes, like backpacks and pouches. The list was endless. Everything would have a purpose in a military unit, though.
Reivyn was a little surprised by the number of Tier 1 kids running about. They were the apprentices, and they acted like errand boys and girls for the most part, though Reivyn could also see them taking turns observing their superior''s work. The crafters'' hub was like a little city unto itself, though there was no overtmerce being conducted.
They made their rounds around and through the hub, and Reivyn gave the retainer a shake of his head once they returned to the original position they had approached the area from.
"I didn''t see anything, and I''m certain I inspected everyone," Reivyn said.
"Very well, I''ll let the prince know," the retainer responded.
With that, the retainer gave a slight nod and then briskly strode away. Reivyn watched him go for a second before turning to head toward his own destination. It had been a long day, and he was eager to finally rx.
I''ll get in a couple of sparring sessions with dad, and then Kefira and I can work on our Mana Skills, Reivyn thought.
Some might think his idea of rxing was a little off the mark.
---
"I''m really not sure what can be done about it on your end," Prince Allik said. "Captain Reivyn was the only person in the entire city that I know of that could spot the skin-masks."
An ethereal image of another man who resembled himself was hovering over a long-distancemunication device. Unless it was strictly necessary, they didn''tmunicate such long distances with the magical items. It ate up too much power. This was anything but a routinemunication, though.
"You said Princess Kefira teleported the corpse of the first spy they caught straight into your office?" The other man asked.
He was the second prince, Prince Endrew, in charge of the main defensive line. He was dressed in simple military attire without armor or weapons. The stalemate that existed in Piori existed across the entire front, and they didn''t need to be in full battle regalia at all times.
"That''s right," Prince Allik confirmed.
"Do you know the range of her abilities?" Prince Endrew asked.
"I can find out. There wasn''t really time to get into the nitty, gritty details."
"Do so. If she''s able to, we need to dispatch this Captain Reivyn across all the fronts to root out the tumors. Sooner rather thanter."
"I''ll get on it," Prince Allik said.
"Good. Is there anything else?"
"Not at this time, brother."
"Alright. Notify me when they depart. Have them travel in a straight line across the front. No reason to make thingsplicated. Out."
The magic cut off suddenly without Allik having a chance to respond to thest message. It was typical behavior from his brother during these times, so he wasn''t put off by it. If he considered himself busy with his task of running Piori and the surrounding areas, then his second brother was absolutely swamped. He not only had to oversee his own location, but he was in charge of the overall defensive efforts. General Wilyem was more an advisor to their father than amanding general, and he was one of thest lines of defense with his Tier 6 ss.
There had been many debates about using the abilities of General Wilyem and the other older generation imperials. There was one group in the council that mored to send them out to the front lines to make short work of the enemy forces. They could easily drive them off without any real danger to their lives, and the invasion would be over just like that.
The other faction pointed out that they didn''t have enough information to send them out like that. What if the enemy forces had their own Tier 6 coterie just waiting for them to show up? It could be a trap to cut off their most powerful ssers, and then they would have free ess to the entire empire. They were obviously not operating without information about their empire.
They obviously had intelligence on the Vairo Empire. The enemy forces were arrayed in a way that perfectly matched the defensive capabilities of the locals. They sent their troops out in a strategic manner to take advantage of the terrain, and they didn''t concentrate their forces in incorrect locations. If they knew about that, and they also came from a Tier 4 empire, at minimum, then they had to know about the group of older generation imperials with much higher Levels.
Prince Allik rubbed his temples as he fought to dismiss the thoughts. There was no use in worrying about such a situation, and he could only hope that if or when the enemy Tier 6 ssers showed up, it wasn''t where he or any of his brothers were without backup.
A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts, finally temporarily freeing him of the worry and stress. He looked up as his retainer entered his office.
"Well?" Prince Allik asked.
"Nothing, my prince," the retainer answered.
The older man had been with Prince Allik his entire life. He was part butler, part bodyguard, part adjutant... the list went on. He was immensely capable, and Prince Allik didn''t know what he would do without the man''s help.
Good subordinates are almost more important than one''s own individual strength in these situations, Prince Allik mused.
"That was expected," Allik said. "Send someone to their barracks to meet with Princess Kefira. Inquire about her teleport abilities. Let her know that she doesn''t have to divulge anything specific, and if she wants to keep things even more private, she cane to speak to me directly."
"It will be done, my prince."
"That''s all for now. Have the runner let them know we want the information for the purpose of sending them out to catch more spies in other locations."
"Yes, my prince," the retainer gave a deep bow before exiting the office to carry out his task.
Prince Allik sat in silence for a few moments, staring off in the direction of the enemy line.
What are they doing? He asked himself for the thousandth time.
---
Reivyn''s training sword blurred as he maneuvered it to try and reach past his father''s defense. To anyone watching, they would barely be able to even see the wooden weapon. It was just a shadowy streak constantly assaulting Refix. For Refix''s part, he wasn''t even breaking a sweat as he swatted all of the attempts aside or simply tilted his body to avoid the blow.
Refix''s transcendent Skill with his Weapons Prodigy Skill didn''t just give him a strange ability. It also directly tranted into better usage. It wasn''t like breaking the barrier of Level 100 in the Skill was just a symbolic representation of his aplishment in gaining the new ability.
ording to Refix, there were different degrees of Level 100, as well. Somebody stuck at Level 100 for decades but unable to cross the transcendent barrier would have a significantly higher skill level than someone who just reached the maximum Level. At some point, the Skill Level was no longer a way for the System to assist someone with their Skills, but denoted their mastery; however, Level 100 was a hard line that couldn''t be crossed without transcending the Skill.
There was no number representation for someone in that situation, though, so one could only find out the skill level of an opponent by engaging them. Someone who had gained transcendence might actually be worse with their Skill than someone who had trained for decades without increasing their Level.
Refix had been stuck at Level 100 for nearly a decade, and he was a genius. That wasn''t just Reivyn''s opinion of his father, either. The man was truly a prodigy.
Reivyn backed off from his furious assault. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he observed his father calmly standing at the ready.
"So what is your Skill Level, now?" Reivyn asked.
"I just ticked up to 107," Refix replied. Reivyn was slightly taken aback. "The Level doesn''t match the actual Skill right away. If you want to look at it in terms of absolute ability, my Skill Level would have been around 108 or 109, but I needed to adapt to my transcendent ability before the System would recognize the increase in Skill Level. My Level was already there, though, so the Levels havee rtively quickly."
Reivyn didn''t know how difficult it was to increase one''s Level when they reached beyond 100, but since his father said it had "increased rtively quickly" with an increase of seven Levels over half a decade, he imagined it was pretty hard. Most of the people Reivyn had met in the Tier 4 range had their Skills sitting around the 50-60 range. His father had apparently reached Level 100 before he broke the Tier 5 barrier many years ago.
"What about you? What Skill Level are you sitting at, now?" Refix asked.
They both lowered their training weapons as they transitioned into a discussion. Not all of their training together was done through sparring, and the closer Reivyn got to Level 100, the more time Refix spent talking about the Skill.
Reivyn gave a quick peek at his Skill Level before answering.
"97," he answered.
Refix gave a low whistle at the response.
"Wow. I can hardly wrap my head around it," Refix shook his head. "I was almost a decade older than you are now by the time I reached that Skill Level, and I didn''t do any less training than you."
"What''s the highest Skill Level you''ve ever seen?" Reivyn asked.
Refix got a wistful look on his face as he recalled the past.
"My grandfather had his Swords Skill at Level 150," he answered. Reivyn''s eyes opened wide at the revtion. "His actual Skill Level was actually higher, but 150 is the next threshold for the System. You have to unlock a second transcendent ability to move beyond 150. After Level 100, you have to gain another ability every 50 Levels to have it recognized by the System.
"In some of the ancient scrolls I''ve read over the years, they''ve mentioned people with Skill Levels in the thousands. They were basically unrestricted with what they could do with their Skills. Nowadays, you''ll be lucky to find someone like my grandfather. I haven''t heard of anyone with two or more transcendent abilities. That doesn''t mean they''re not out there, but if they are, it''s incredibly rare."
"What happened?" Reivyn asked.
"Nobody knows for sure. It was probablymon knowledge in the past, and so it wasn''t properly recorded in any of the preserved documents that I''ve uncovered over the years. There''s spection, of course. The main theory is that it has something to do with how difficult it is to Ascend."
"Well, maybe you''ll be the first person to reach Level 200 in thousands of years," Reivyn said with a smile.
"I doubt it," Refix replied, shaking his head. Reivyn frowned as he tilted his head in confusion. "There''s a little monster I know that''s likely to surpass me soon. I''ll be the second person in thousands of years." Refix grinned at his son.
"Maybe," Reivyn replied with a grin of his own.
The two men squared off once more and resumed their sparring. They didn''t immediatelyunch into a crescendo of blows. They ramped it up from the beginning like they always did, though the pace was much faster than most people could handle.
---
Reivyn walked out of his private bath with his towel across his shoulders. He had dressed in the room before heading out, not having to wait for his body to dry with the power of Mana. He didn''t strictly need a towel, either. He simply enjoyed the rxing routine.
He sauntered through the halls of the building, his body rxed from the physical exertion of training followed by the hot bath. He made his way to one of the offices on the second floor and entered without knocking. He sensed the two people on the other side of the door with his Divine Sense, and they were waiting for him.
The office had been cleared of the desk and bookshelves. In their ce were somefortable rugs and cushions. Seri was lounging by the door, and Kefira was seated cross-legged on one of the cushions. They both looked up at Reivyn as he entered the room. She and Reivyn shared a smile.
"A messenger came from Prince Allik while you were in the bath," Kefira said. "They wanted to know about my teleportation abilities so they could have us hop to other defensive positions quickly to root out more spies."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said with a nod. He walked forward and took a seat opposite Kefira. He slung his towel from over his shoulder andid it on the floor behind him. "It''s what I would do in his situation. My dad and the other officers have a good handle on the situation, so it wouldn''t be the end of the world to send me off for a short period of time."
"Yeah, I didn''t give them any specifics about my abilities, but I did tell them that I would be able to move us around fairly quickly. I''ve gotten a better handle on long-distance jumps, and I can bring all three of us along easily enough."
"Sounds good." Reivyn scooted forward so that his knees were touching Kefira''s. They put their palms together forming a four-point circuit between themselves. "When do we leave?"
"The messenger didn''t have that information, but I imagine it''ll be soon. Probably tomorrow morning. You''ll most likely get the orders at the morning briefing."
"Do you want toe along?"
"I probably should."
"Alright. Now that that''s settled, let''s get started."
The two began to cycle their Mana through their meridians. They used their points of contact between their palms and knees to form arger cycle between the two of them, sharing their Mana in an endless loop. They hadn''t breached the final step in their intimacy, but they felt a strong connection with each other every time they performed this exercise.
This was truly the most rxing part of Reivyn''s day.
Chapter 187: Something Stared Back
Chapter 187: Something Stared Back
.ra7157c2c08dd45909817fdff4c2aae20{ disy: none; } The morning briefing was over quickly. There were no new major missions as everything had been updated the day previously. All of the officers in attendance had been in the meeting the day before, where they had learned about the spies, but there had been no updates on the location of those that had been reced.
Prince Allik didn''t dwell on the issue. He only told them to keep looking. Nobody was hopeful of the oue, though. Reivyn''s mercenarypany had been lucky to discover the switch almost as soon as it had happened. Reivyn remembered that there hadn''t been any discrepancies with any of the staff before they had gone on their morning expedition to the front-line outpost.
Prince Allik dismissed the other officers, something he rarely did as he was usually the first one to leave to signal the end of the meeting, and they all filed out. They cast curious nces toward Reivyn, though they could probably figure out why he was staying behind. He was the one to discover the issue, and as far as anyone knew, he was the only one that could spot the skin-masks.
Kefira sat patiently next to Reivyn, Seri standing in her usual position behind her chair. She had been a bit bored with the meeting, but she didn''t let it show on her face. She didn''t want to give a bad impression or cause any kind of distractions. Going over routine reports and instructions just wasn''t her thing.
Prince Allik motioned to his retainer, and the taciturn man stepped forward and ced arge map on the table in front of Reivyn and Kefira. It was a geographical map, and there was a clear line that snaked in arge crescent shape around the capital. Piori was located to the southeast of the capital, but it wasn''t at an endpoint on the line. The line started south south-west of the capital and ended east northeast of it. It wasn''t a full enclosure, but it cut off a significant portion of the Region from the capital.
Every type of terrain was upied and likewise defended. Reivyn noticed that whenever possible, the two forces correctly positioned themselves on the high ground and avoided valleys. Some forests and swamps acted as barriers and concealment. The overall situation was aplicated mess. Reivyn was eager to study the intricacies involved inunching a full-scale assault on either side, but that wasn''t the purpose of the meeting.
"So it''ll be a rtively short jaunt to reach the endpoint to the southwest," Prince Allik said. "The front line, for the most part, is static. There aren''t any indentions or weird situations where either we or the enemy have pushed too far, though there are some cases where it''s close because of advantageous terrain. It would be impractical for you to travel to each individual outpost for each major position, so you''ll only be visiting the major hubs.
"Prince Endrew, my second brother, has issued an emergency order for each camp to only operate a skeleton crew in the outposts for those camps to the west of us. We''ll wait until you get back and report your progress so we can time things more efficiently moving forward before anything is said to the rest of the camps.
"There are only three major hubs and five minor ones that you need to visit. The minor hubs should only take a few minutes based on your speed of inspection yesterday. They''re not nearly asrge as a base like ours in Piori.
"I''ll leave the timing up to you. I don''t know how quickly you''ll be able to make it to these camps, but remember that the individual outposts attached to the camps will be vastly understaffed while they wait for you to aplish your mission. None of themanders know what you''ll be there for, as we don''t know who we can trust until after the mission.
"Any questions?"
"What are the rules of engagement? What do you want me to do with any captured spies?" Reivyn asked.
"Rules of engagement are you have plenary powers to decide any and all actions on the spot. Spies are sentenced to death, and we don''t need the headache of trying to get more information out of more spies. We have enough in our custody here, so for everywhere but the main base where Prince Endrew is located, kill them on sight."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn replied.
He wasn''t too surprised by the order. Kidnapping a person, assuming their identity, and then dressing themselves up as one of them was not the same thing as political espionage. It might seem a bit callous to take such measures without any kind of trial, but this was acting against an enemybatant on the battlefield. Just because it was behind the lines and not on a traditional field didn''t make it any less deadly.
"Good. I''ll see you when you get back. We canmunicate with the rest of the camps to set a schedule."
The retainer grabbed the map and rolled it up. Prince Allik handed a badge to Reivyn and then walked out of the conference room followed by his man, and Reivyn turned to Kefira. The badge bore the insignia of the Imperial Family, specifically Prince Allik''s, and it was a quick and convenient way to gain ess to the camps.
"Ready to go?" He asked.
"Yeah, but what about the map?" Kefira asked back.
"Don''t worry; I already got a copy. It''s smaller and less detailed, but it''ll get the job done. Can you teleport us based on map coordinates now?"
"No way. I haven''t gotten that proficient with it yet. This will be good practice, though."
The trio stepped out of the conference room and left the headquarters building. They didn''t want to perform the teleportation in the middle of the city where just anyone could see it. Telling themanding general and his trusted subordinate wasn''t the same thing as publicizing the information to the world.
Theypletely left the city, leaving from the west gate. The terrain around Piori was mostly ins with some short, rolling hills. The forest was on the south and east side of the city, so they didn''t have any obstruction to their view except for the few short hills. They made their way up one of them and slightly down the other side so that they weren''t visible to the people in the city.
"Here should be good," Reivyn said, scanning the distance. They could see for quite a few miles into the distance. "We''ll have to trek through the woods over there. That will probably be the biggest time sink of our journey, but the map does show some decent-sized hills that we can use to jump over some of them."
"I''m not going to use ''jumps'' this time," Kefira said. "I''m going to try something a bit different. Instead of discing us directly, I''m going to try for a tunnel. It''s not nearly long enough to be an actual tunnel, of course. It''ll be more like a door we step through."
"It looks like you learned quite a bit from our walk through the teleportation circle to Vairo," Reivyn said with a nod. "Let''s hope it works."
"Don''t jinx it," Kefira said, pping Reivyn on the shoulder yfully.
She turned to face the woods in the distance and concentrated for a bit. She had a slight frown on her face as she searched for the proper method tobine what she knew she was capable of with the possibilities she had discovered with her research. Reivyn watched her, the wind gently blowing her clothes and hair about. Seri kept an eye on the surroundings out of habit. She knew that Reivyn could see everything in arge radius, but old habits died hard, and it wasn''t necessarily a bad habit in the first ce. They wouldn''t always be with Reivyn.
After several minutes, a light split the air in front of Kefira. She didn''t react to it as she was still focused on the Mana involved. Her sight was seeing something different. Reivyn inspected the light with curiosity. It grew in size until it was several inches taller than him and reached the ground. With a slight sighing sound, the light expanded into a rent in reality, and Reivyn could see some of the trees from the distant forest right in front of him. He could reach his hand through and run his hands along the bark of the closest tree if he wanted to.
"Let''s go," Reivyn said to Seri. "We don''t know if her stepping through will alter her hold on the Spell or not."
Seri nodded and didn''t argue with him. They took quick steps forward and were suddenly several miles away next to the distant forest. Kefira hade out of her concentrated state after seeding, and she followed after them immediately.
"Is there anything different about holding the Spell once you stepped through?" Reivyn asked.
"A bit," Kefira answered. "It''s hard to exin, but it''s like a shift in perspective. Imagine holding a ball in one hand and looking at it, then switching hands and looking at it from the other side. It''s not any more difficult to hold the ball in the other hand, and switching hands isn''t much of a chore either. It''s not like I had to juggle it to get it over."
"Ok, sounds good."
Kefira let go of the Spell and the trio made their way into the woods. ording to the map, the woods on this side was only a couple of miles across, so they didn''t expect to spend too much time crossing it. on the other side was another in of rolling hills. Once they moved a bit further away, they would be able to teleport up to arger hill, not quite a mountain, and the hope was that Kefira was powerful enough with the new method to move from hill to hill to avoid all the obstacles in the way.
The birds chirped, and the squirrels scurried. There were no monsters or beasts this close to the city of Piori usually, and they had been further dispersed due to the activity of the military in the region. Reivyn didn''t know how the enemies handled the monsters and beasts on their side of the lines, but he assumed it wasn''t much different than how they did it. It was more important to keep any roving bands of monsters away than to exterminate them for Experience. It could be a fatal mistake to be set upon by a horde of monsters while amid pitchedbat.
The journey through the forest was uneventful. Any other time, Reivyn would admire the beauty of the open world, but they were focused on getting to their destination as quickly as possible. The trio exited the treeline and climbed another short hill, and Kefira once more performed her trick of making a doorway to their destination in the distance. She was able to aplish the task several seconds quicker than the first time.
The first destination, one of the minor camps, wasn''t too far away. It was almost like a depot between the major camps, but it had more people than a simple supply depot usually would. There were enough soldiers to hold part of the line andmunicate to the major camps in case of an enemy advance, but because they were so far away from any habitation or decent, defensible terrain, it wasn''t strategically important other than preventing a nking maneuver.
All of the soldiers, aside from a few individuals in the outposts, were present in the small fort that had been constructed. Reivyn guessed that there were a few thousand soldiers. Leaving some at the outpost was a risk they were going to have to take. It was still more important to prevent the enemy from sneaking by than rooting out the spies at this point.
They shed the badge Prince Allik had given them and entered the fort. None of the soldiers knew that they were there for any kind of inspection, not even themanding officer. He wasn''t anywhere to be seen to greet them, but Reivyn didn''t mind. He didn''t need the man''s cooperation to aplish his task. The badge given to them prevented the guards from inquiring too deeply into their business, too.
The three simply walked through the camp. The fort wasn''t huge, and they chose a route that would allow Reivyn to see everyone within the confines of the palisade. He didn''t spot any spies among thepanies, but as soon as he was in range of the headquarters building, he spotted one of the manservants with the tell-tale signs of a skin-mask. He focused his attention to verify the discovery.
He shared a nce with Kefira and Seri to get their attention. He motioned for them to lean over.
"Target spotted," he whispered. He didn''t point. He motioned with his eyes toward the man walking in the distance. "That manservant over there has a skin-mask on. Let''s approach casually, and once I''m in range, I''ll take him out. Be prepared to lock the space down, just in case."
The two girls nodded, and they subtly shifted the direction they were walking to intercept the manservant. Reivyn watched as the man went about his business almostpletely unnoticed by the soldiers around him. It wasn''t a terrible idea to infiltrate the servants. Most of the soldiers and officers ignored them almost entirely, and they wouldn''t have too many interactions with important people to give away their presence.
Reivyn didn''t alter his pace, and their new path led him to walk directly behind the man. He pretended to be just another soldier that was oblivious to the man''s presence. The manservant gave him a look out of the corner of his eye, most likely annoyed that someone was walking so close that he would almost collide with him, but he took one quick step to avoid being run over by Reivyn. Reivyn could see the man roll his eyes.
It was at this moment that he struck. He had been umting his Mana surreptitiously as they walked, and he suddenly condensed it into a dagger in his hand. He imbued the Mana Weapon Skill with several different Affinities: Sharpness, Metal, and a touch of Eternal. He didn''t know what kind of countermeasures the man had, and he didn''t want something to block the Mana dagger from reaching its mark.
He struck lightning quick. He felt a bit of resistance, and the manservant began to leap forward, likely warned by either Danger Sense or a simr Skill. It was too little toote, though, and Reivyn powered through the slight resistance. The dagger plunged through the man''s back and pierced his heart. Reivyn stepped forward and brought his hand around the man''s head to cover his mouth to prevent him from screaming.
The action wasn''t covert to those walking around at all, and an rm immediately went up. Reivyn hadn''t covered the man''s mouth to prevent him from alerting other people to the situation at hand. He was mainly getting his hand in ce to remove the skin-mask as quickly as possible to avoid being used of murdering some random person, and he was partly practicing for a more stealthy attack.
Skill Leveled Up!
Assassination: (1 ->3)
Reivyn dug his fingers deep into the skin-mask and violently ripped it off the man''s face. There was no time for subtlety. A group of armed soldiers was already formed up and rushing to the scene.
Reivyn propped the corpse of the spy up with his hand and turned the man''s head to disy the prominent "3" brand mark on the man''s forehead. The soldiers running up about to scream orders at Reivyn with their weapons drawn came to a halt. It took them a second to understand what they were seeing, but they didn''t immediately back down or put their weapons away.
"Stay here until an officer gets here to question you," the patrol leader ordered Reivyn.
"You have one minute," Reivyn said, once more shing the badge given by Prince Allik. "I''m on official business and have ces to be."
The patrol leader gulped at the disy of the badge, but he didn''t back down. He motioned for one of the soldiers to run off and hurry the officer up. He wasn''t confident he would be able to keep Reivyn and the two girls with him in ce, but Reivyn disyed a cooperative attitude despite the time limit, and he would be able to get at least a few answers from him.
An officer ran up, huffing and puffing with sweat rolling down his face. It wasn''t the act of killing a manservant that had spurred the man into a sprint to get to Reivyn on time, but the presence of an Imperial Family badge.
"What''s the issue?" The officer asked, looking back and forth between Reivyn and the patrolling soldiers.
The patrol officer lifted his hand to indicate the corpse still being held up by Reivyn, and the officer took a closer look at the man''s face, finally noticing the brand mark.
"I''m the prince''s counterintelligence officer," Reivyn said. It wasn''t strictly a lie, either. He was conducting a counterintelligence operation, and he was an officer. He wouldn''t worry about the little details, like an official appointment. "We''ve done a thorough investigation of the camp, and this is the only spy present. I have orders to kill them on sight.
"We don''t know if they''re going to try and rece the spies we''re rooting out. Keep an eye on your people, especially the civilian staff."
"Ok~ay..." The officer said. He was obviously a bit out of his element as he tried to parse all of the information. The badge had the legitimate Mana marker of the Imperial Family, but this was the first time he had encountered a situation like this. "Alright. Bring that dead man with you, and we''re going to report to the campmander."
"No," Reivyn said. He let the dead spy drop to the ground as he turned and started walking off with Kefira and Seri in tow. "I have ces to be. You clean up the mess. I don''t have time to mess with it."
"Now, hold on a second," the officer stepped forward.
Reivyn paused and leveled a severe gaze at the man.
"No, you hold on, lieutenant," Reivyn snapped back. "I''m under direct orders from Prince Allik. You and the other officers stationed here are perfectly capable of further investigating this matter on your own. Nobody is going to be med for the infiltration of these spies, so none of you have to worry about that. Just keep an eye on your people, and handle this on your own. Bye."
Reivyn strode off as the lieutenant spluttered in ce. Reivyn didn''t care about the man or the report he wanted to give the campmander. They turned a corner of a building, and Reivyn gave Kefira a suggestive look. Kefira reached out and grabbed Reivyn and Seri by the wrist, and they jumped out of the fort, back to a ce several hundred yards away where they had approached from.
"Alright, let''s move on to the next camp," Reivyn said, smiling at Kefira.
Kefira gave him a weird look, but she shook her head and turned in the direction they needed to head. Shortly after, the trio was once more stepping through a door in reality several miles away to continue their journey.
Hmm, I''m getting a little too used to taking other people''s lives, Reivyn thought. I wouldn''t have even noticed anything if Kefira hadn''t given me that strange look. This is definitely something to meditate onter.
---
The rest of the journey to the camps was made in the same manner. Kefira would make doors to walk across anywhere from a few to dozens of miles at a time, they would travel through or around any obstacles Kefira couldn''t teleport them past, and then they would approach a fort with the badge for easy ess.
Each of the minor camps held one undercover spy, each. They were always a member of the servant staff, and each assassination of a spy brought in a quick response from the local soldiers. Reivyn had tomend them for their swift response each time. Even though they normallypletely ignored the maids and manservants that were constantly walking about the camps, it wasn''t to the point that they wouldn''t see a tant murder in the midst of them.
They sessfully avoided getting entangled by any of the soldiers or officers, other than giving them a short response about the spies and his mission, and the morning went by quickly.
The major camps were a bit of a different story. They weren''t forts constructed in the wilderness. They were always located in a town or city, though none were asrge as Piori. Most of the time spent on the mission was actually moving about each of the camps to cover the entire area with Reivyn''s Divine Sense.
The major camps had spies located in each of the barracks, and Reivyn spent a little more time exining his purpose to an officer at eachpany to gain unfettered ess to the individual barracks. With the badge and story, Reivyn was able to quickly get in and out to take care of the spies.
It was an hour after noon by the time they wrapped up the final minor camp at the very edge of the front lines. They had enjoyed a quick meal at thest town, so they didn''t need to take a break afterpleting this portion of their mission, though there wouldn''t be enough time to make it to the camps on the other,rger side of the line.
"Well, that didn''t take as long as I feared," Reivyn said, looking at Kefira as they walked at a more leisurely pace through a stretch of forest. "I''ve also been thinking about what you''re worried about."
"Oh? And what am I worried about?" Kefira asked. She brushed some of her hair out of her face behind her ear as she looked at Reivyn.
"You''re worried that I killed those people too easily," Reivyn responded. Kefira didn''t say anything, yet. She kept looking at Reivyn, waiting for him to continue. "Not in the execution of the attacks, of course. You''re worried that I didn''t have any emotional response to it. I think I might have figured some of it out."
"Oh yeah? I''m d you noticed without me having to say anything," Kefira said.
Reivyn cleared his throat in embarrassment.
"Well, to be honest, I only noticed because of the look you gave me. Anyway, I think it has something to do with my time trapped in the space between Realms. I was in aa for most of it, and I experienced several different, brutal lives in my mind. My soul was influenced by the Abyss. I don''t know how, but the System prompted me that I was ''in bnce,'' so I never thought anything about it.
"I think I''ve finally realized some of the after-effects of the influence."
Chapter 188: Murphey
Chapter 188: Murphey
.r53eb616549606979a27d1cd3d8fb3{ disy: none; } The return trip to Piori wasn''t anything special. They just backtracked the route they had taken before, though Reivyn was cognizant enough to keep his senses expanded all around in case there was an unexpected enemy intrusion during their mission. There was no telling if the enemy forces would take notice of the skeleton crews manning the outposts and use that to their advantage or not, but it was better safe than sorry.
They had contemted taking an alternate route on the way back, but aside from some of therger obstacles they had to pass through, Kefira had put forth the idea to use her knowledge of the previous teleports coupled with the map to practice being able to teleport that way. It wasn''t as precise when she first attempted it. She opened a door several feet underground the first time, creating a doorway to a wall of dirt. After the brief hup and a couple of portals opened a bit too high in the air, she got the hang of it, though.
She was still not confident enough to just look at a spot on the map she had never been to before and open a new portal there, but it woulde with practice and repetition.
The trio walked through the gates of Piori as the sun sat low on the horizon. It had taken them most of the day to travel a little over half the distance they would need to cover next and back. Reivyn shed the badge issued to him by Prince Allik and got through the inspection quickly. The level of detail the gate guards gave to everyoneing and going had increased substantially after the spy incident. Not all of the soldiers knew about the incident or understood the orders, but they followed them to the letter. The badge just let them move through the gate at the regr pace they were ustomed to.
"Well, you two can head back to the barracks and get some rest," Reivyn said to Kefira. "I''ll go ahead and report to the prince now and get our schedule for tomorrow. It''ll be a little bit different as we''re going to have to time when we arrive and handle the inspection of the camps."
"I know," Kefira said, nodding her head. "We''ll see you in a little while, then."
The two girls gave a short wave as they parted ways from Reivyn. They peeled off to the side to head back to their barracks, and Reivyn continued straight into the center of the city.
The guards at the headquarters building were expecting him, so they waved him in right away after sending someone to notify the prince of his arrival. None of them had known how long exactly their first trip would take, but they had guessed anywhere from a full day to a day and a half at most. Kefira''s ability to shoot them long distances across the terrain had been an amazing utility for the mission.
Reivyn kept his focus on his Divine Sense as active as he could. If he didn''t particrly pay attention these days, a lot of the things that entered his perception, though they were in perfect rity, blurred past his awareness. He had worked so hard to filter out all of the information when he had first unlocked the Skill. Now he had to focus his attention to get everything he could in the much-expanded range. It was the difference between subconsciously noticing something and actively seeing it in his mind''s eye.
Reivyn strolled through the halls and up the stairs. The enemy had yet to send a new spy into the depths of the headquarters for the prince, but that didn''t mean they wouldn''t try. They might have had no idea how their spies had been discovered, so it might be some time before something new was tried.
Reivyn was escorted to the prince''s office, and the door was open for him. He knocked on the open door to announce himself, and the prince simply waved him in without looking up.
"I gather you had sess?" Prince Allik asked.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn said, standing at attention in front of the desk.
Prince Allik nced up and then motioned to one of the seats.
"Have a seat."
"Thank you, sir," Reivyn said as he sat down. He maintained a rigid posture without rxing into the seat. Even though he was sitting, he gave off the impression that he was still at attention in front of themanding officer.
"What was the damage?" Prince Allik asked, setting aside the documents he had been perusing.
"In the minor camps, there was only one spy per camp," Reivyn said. "Every single one of them was a civilian staff member. The major camps, however, were like here. There was a spy in each of the individual barracks'' and the headquarters building.
"None of them slipped through that I''m aware of," he concluded.
"Good. It seems they haven''t been able to convey the danger to their spies yet. You''ll set out immediately after morning breakfast tomorrow. I''ll contact Prince Endrew and let him know."
Prince Allik''s retainer appeared andid a map across the desk.
"Ok, now we''ll need to figure out the timing for when you''ll be able to arrive at each of these locations."
Reivyn and Prince Allik pored over the map for the next hour or so. Reivyn studied the terrain and approximated the time it would take for them to traverse the obstacles they couldn''t bypass with Kefira''s teleporting, and they came up with a schedule. It wasn''t perfectly precise, but they would hopefully reduce the amount of time the outposts weren''t fully manned to as much of a minimum as they could without having made the journey before.
Prince Allik dismissed Reivyn as he pulled out his long-distancemunication device, and Reivyn quickly left the headquarters. He wasn''t all that tired from the excursion earlier. Even though they had run through all of the forests and up and down hills all day long, it was nothingpared to the training sessions he participated in with his father. They never even pushed themselves to the point of exhaustion they would feel on a regr basis just to practice theirbat Skills.
After a quick sparring session with his father and a quick round of Mana exercises with Kefira, Reivyn retired to his room to rest before theypleted their mission on the other leg of the front lines.
---
Reivyn sighed in annoyance as he drummed his fingers on the tabletop. The atmosphere in the tavern wasn''t as lively as it would have been during normal times, but there were still plenty of patrons. The low murmur of conversation prated the room, but it wasn''t distracting. Reivyn sighed once more as leaned back in his chair, throwing his hands over his face.
"Gah! It''s so annoying!" He muttered.
"These things happen," Kefira said with a shrug. "There was nothing we could have done about it. My skills with using the map aren''t good enough yet to avoid this situation."
"I know, and I''m not ming you," Reivyn said, peeking at Kefira through his fingers. "It''s just rotten luck. Have you heard the saying, ''if something can go wrong, it will go wrong,'' before?"
"I can''t say that I have, but it makes perfect sense," Kefira said with a chuckle.
The day had started off as a disaster. The trio had emerged from the barracks bright-eyed and ready to go. They would get a quick breakfast, stock up on their field rations, and then repeat the previous day''s lightning-quick expedition across the lines. Their hopes for a repeat performance were immediately dashed as they walked outside into a wall of fog.
The weather had turned on them, and they had no prior warning. The humidity had increased tremendously overnight, and with the cool temperatures of the morning, the entire world was a white haze. It was no problem for them with their high Perception Stats in close-range, but Kefira was unable to pierce through the fog with her vision for any kind of teleport to be practical.
They had to run the entire first couple of hours of the morning. They didn''t make any teleports or jumps, and to notpletely screw up the schedule, they couldn''t take it as easy as they had the day before. Reivyn had gloated to himself that they hadn''t even expended the same amount of energy as they did for regr training sessions the day before, but that was no longer the case.
The three of them were huffing and puffing before long, Kefira having it the worst of the three. She had advanced to Tier 4 before making the journey to Vairo as her mother had demanded, but she was still a Caster ss. No amount of Stat bonuses through her Bloodline was going to make up for the differences between her and Seri and Reivyn.
She set the pace they had to run, but she wasn''t a delicate flower. She allowed herself to push her limits, and considering the situation, they made good time for how they had to travel. They were still off their mark by nearly two hours to arrive at the first minor camp, though.
Luckily, there had still been nomunication to the spies entrenched in the camps about their impending doom, and they had quickly dispatched the hidden enemy. They wasted even less time exining themselves this time around, and Reivyn simply shed his badge and shouted, "Official business of the Imperial Family." They made their escape during the slight hesitation that was caused.
Their luck seemed to have turned around after reaching the first camp, and the fog cleared up enough for Kefira to once more ferry them along with her teleportations. It wasn''t tost, though, and as they were hunting the spies down in the first major camp along the lines, lightning streaked across the sky, followed by the boom of thunder.
A torrential downpour took the ce of the morning fog for the obstruction of their visibility. They once more had to move ahead on foot, but this time it was in the pouring rain. The thunderstorm was ferocious, and it didn''t let up for the entire day.
Running through the rain wasn''t that much of a chore. All four of them had ess to their Mana, and they created little bubbles of air for themselves to block the water. There was nothing they could do about the sopping wet ground and the mud, though. Some ces were so drenched, they had to run dozens of additional miles to avoid the sucking mud that threatened to pull them down by their boots. Their enhanced Strength Stat had little to do with the physics of the mud clutching at them, and if they didn''t want to have to run barefoot the rest of the way, they had to avoid those areas as much as possible to keep a decent time.
In all, they had traveled only a third of the front line before it got too dark to continue. Even if there was no rain, which there still was judging by the pitter-patter soundsing from the window of the tavern, they wouldn''t have been able to make the necessary teleports and would have had to continue on foot once more. Reivyn had had enough of that for one day, and they had decided to get a room at a tavern in thest major camp they had visited.
Because they were staying the night, they had taken an hour of their time to exin the situation to the campmander and the other senior officers on the scene. They had already told the lower-ranking lieutenants while they had performed the hunts in the barracks, but there was no escaping giving a detailed exnation to those in charge if they wanted to stay.
"This whole day has been extremely annoying!" Reivyn once more eximed.
"I can''t argue with that," Kefira replied. "On the other hand, we have been just as sessful locating the targets, so that''s a silver lining."
"Yeah, yeah," Reivyn said. He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Let''s just hope that the weather doesn''tst, and we can make a quick journey of it tomorrow."
"Well, now it''s not going to happen," Kefira said, rolling her eyes. "If you say it out loud, you''re just begging for the worst situation to ur."
"Maybe," Reivyn said.
Reivyn suddenly shot his hand out behind him and grabbed a passing man by the forearm. He turned and looked up at the man. He scrutinized him with his Divine Sense, but he didn''t notice anything out of the ordinary.
"Can I help you?" Reivyn asked the man. The man was taken aback. Reivyn had been the one to ost him, and he had the gall to ask if he could help him? Reivyn saw the thoughts in as day on the young man''s face. "You''ve been staring at us. I want to know why."
The man''s expression turned from a frown into one of revtion.
"Oh, that," the man said. "I apologize if I was being rude. I was just trying to ce your faces." The man shrugged his shoulders. He used the motion to try and wrest his arm away from Reivyn''s grip, but Reivyn''s Stats were higher, and he didn''t manage to budge Reivyn''s arm.
"Our faces are here," Reivyn said with a small smile, pointing at his own nose. "Do you know everyone thates into this tavern?"
"Mostly," the man admitted. He took a half-step back to get out of easy range for Reivyn after he had released his hand on the man''s forearm. "It''s usually the same people thate in here night after night. Most people have their own routine, and we don''t get too much variation."
"Ahh, I see," Reivyn said. "Sorry to have bothered you."
"It''s fine," the man said, shaking his head. He hesitated for a second as he turned to leave and addressed Reivyn one more time. "If you don''t mind, what unit are you with?"
Reivyn looked the man up and down before answering.
"Actually, I do mind," he said.
Reivyn turned back to the table, a clear indication that he was done with the conversation. He noticed the shock on the other man''s face with his Divine Sense, but he didn''t press the issue. He simply shrugged and continued to his table. It was likely that he had never had someone actually reply that they did mind answering a question before. It was more of a figure of speech than an actual query for most people.
"What was that about?" Kefira asked.
"He had been staring at us since the moment we walked into the tavern," Reivyn answered. "He''s not a spy, though. There was no skin-mask or anything. Maybe he couldn''t keep his eyes off of your beauty."
"Hmph," Kefira snorted. "Hunting these spies might have you paranoid."
"Hey, it''s perfectly reasonable to ward off anyone not knowing their ce who wants to approach you," Reivyn said. "I''m actually more surprised there haven''t been more people trying their luck, honestly."
"Well, you do put off a certain amount of intimidation even just sitting there."
"What? Intimidation? Me?" Reivyn once more pointed at his own nose. "I''m a big puppy. You won''t find anyone more agreeable than me!"
"Says the man who just ran another man off for looking at us," Kefira said, rolling her eyes.
"He had iting."
"Sure, sure."
The little interlude didn''t interrupt their evening. There wasn''t much to do other than sit and talk over a drink. Reivyn had never been one to visit such establishments regrly, and other than the conversation with Kefira, he didn''t really see the appeal.
The hours dragged on, and it was eventually time to call it a night. They had booked two rooms, and Reivyn bid Kefira and Seri a good night before heading to his own room. None of them were in the mood for additional Mana exercises or training, and they all three simply went straight to sleep.
---
Reivyn''s mouth formed a line as he stepped out of the tavern. The thunderstorm and fog were gone, but the weather wasn''t cleared yet. There was an ever-present misting of light rain still falling, and judging by the clouds in the sky, it wasn''t going to be gone any time soon. He sighed as he stepped out into the muddy street.
"I told you," Kefira smirked.
"I don''t know why you''re happy about it," Reivyn said, ncing at her. "You''re in the same boat as us."
"Oh, I''m definitely not happy about the weather," Kefira retorted. "Just a little smug at being right."
"Alright, no reason to dilly dally."
The trio once more set off on their journey. They were departing at the crack of dawn, and the clouds in the sky made it so that there was no beautiful sunrise in the distance. The darkness of the early morning persisted as they made their way out of the town.
The misting from the drizzle was just enough to have the same effect as the fog and the rain. The visibility was too poor for Kefira to see far enough to make any kind of meaningful teleport possible.
"Fun," Reivyn said as he started to jog into the rain.
---
Reivyn stumbled through the gates of the city, supporting an exhausted Kefira with his arm. She had given it her all, but the distance was too great for her to keep up with the twobat ssers. Reivyn had been required to carry her some of the ways when she had just been too tired to keep going.
Mud caked the bottom half of all three of their clothes. The added weight wasn''t anything to their Strength Stats, but it just added to the overall annoyance. The rain continued to pelt them from above, not letting up for the journey.
The expected one-day journey had turned into a three-day-long slog, and all three of them were mentally exhausted. Reivyn and Seri might have been able to endure the physical aspect of the journey much easier than Kefira, but that didn''t mean it wasn''t an ordeal.
The passing soldiers and pedestrians gave them strange looks as they walked through the city. It was thest major stop on their journey. Only a couple of minor camps existed beyond this point. Prince Endrew was themanding officer of the city of Pallowealth they found themselves in, but they had no intention of meeting with the man. Even if it were necessary, they wouldn''t have been in the mood to do so, and it wasn''t necessary.
"I think I''m fine," Kefira said, extracting herself from Reivyn''s arm to stand on her own. She stopped and stared into space for a moment before a wide smile took over her face.
"What?" Reivyn asked.
"Well, it wasn''t all bad. I somehow managed to gain a point in Vitality through all that."
Reivyn stared at her in wonder for a moment.
"That''s truly amazing," he said after recovering hisposure. "It''s almost impossible to train Stat points at our stage."
"Yeah, I never would have guessed it."
"This bears further investigation," Reivyn said.
Kefira eyed him sideways.
"I can see the wheels turning in your head. You''re already trying to figure out a way to incorporate this into your training somehow, but let me ask you this: Are one or two points in your physical Stats really worth it?"
Reivyn stopped at that and truly considered the issue. He shook his head after a brief moment of self-reflection.
"No, it''s not. This is probably the one time I''ll admit that the training necessary just isn''t worth it. I have nearly a thousand Vitality. One point isn''t going to make or break a situation."
"d to finally see somemon sense out of you."
"Hey!"
Reivyn put on an expression of hurt, but Kefira simply grinned at him and leaned her shoulder into him.
"When talking about training, that is."
"That''s better," Reivyn said, nodding his head. He paused for a second and looked off into space. "Wait... is it?"
Kefiraughed at him, and even Seri joined in with a chuckle.
The three made their way into the city to finish thest bit of hunting for the spies. The second leg of their mission had beenpletely upended by the weather, but they had still rooted out a spy in every ce they expected to find one. Thisst city wasrger than Piori, though, and they didn''t think they would be able to find them all just likest time. Speed was the key, and so they immediately got to work.
Chapter 189: When it Rains it Pours
Chapter 189: When it Rains it Pours
.rdda7c213639a4ab78983fa6f455d7{ disy: none; } The weather was still dreary thest morning of their mission. Reivyn had been correct in assuming they wouldn''t be able to catch all of the spies, but he wasn''t too terribly upset at their sess. Judging by the number of spies verse the number of units in the city, Reivyn estimated that they captured about two-thirds of them.
Reivyn nced at the unrelenting sky and then at Kefira. She just shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Definitely still have to run thest leg of the journey," she said. "I can see a bit further than yesterday, but it''s nowhere near enough to be effective for travelling."
"Alright," Reivyn shrugged. "We''ve already spent three days running through the muck, what''s one more morning?"
The trio once more made their way out of the city gates. The mud and grime from their trek through the rainy weather had been washed off with magical means the day before. It was a waste of time and energy to try and keep it clean during the journey, but there was no reason they couldn''t befortable setting off the next day.
The three took off at a run toward thest two minor camps disyed on the map. The terrain was fairly consistent throughout the journey, and aside from one small swamp they had avoided on the first day, it had been mostly a straight shot. That trend continued, and they didn''t have any ns to deviate from the line they travelled.
Having let the spies escape the previous day meant that there was some elevated risk toward an ambush, but Reivyn didn''t know if the enemy understood the extent to which they were rooting their spies out. They may assume it was just something that happened in the one city if they weren''t able tomunicate with each other, and they had moved rtively quickly.
Reivyn led the group westward a bit to avoid a huge mud pit in the distance.
"Why don''t you use your Earth Affinity to harden the ground and just run through it?" Seri asked.
Reivyn nced at her, and from her expression, he could tell that she had been wondering about that question since the first day. Kefira turned her questioning eyes toward Reivyn as well. She had more Mana than he did, but his Earth Affinity was much higher than hers.
"Two main reasons," Reivyn said, holding up two fingers. "First, I don''t want to unnecessarily use my Mana. Using it to shield us from the rain is magnitudes cheaper than harden the ground. Two, keeping in line with the first reason, the constant rain means that I would have to expend extra effort as the environment would be fighting against me every step of the way.
"If it wasn''t raining, and if I wasn''t worried about a possible ambush, then yeah, I would do so. Then again, if it wasn''t raining, we would just be using Kefira''s teleport abilities."
Seri grunted her understanding of the answer. Reivyn turned his attention back to the surroundings. His Divine Sense was a powerful Skill that allowed him to miss literally nothing within range, but it was a wall of pure ck beyond the range. His other senses still functioned perfectly fine for seeing things much further away.
Movement in the tree line to the west caught his attention, but he dismissed it after noticing it was just a bird.
New Skill Unlocked! Tier 3: Eagle Eye: (0 ->1)
Reivyn nced at the notification and dismissed it.
That was a surprise, he thought. I wonder what other Perception Skills there are at higher Tiers, and does this fall under the umbre of Divine Sense?
It wasn''t a question with a ready answer, especially so far away from anyone he could ask. It begged a further question, though: If it was under the umbre of Divine Sense, why would he still be able to unlock something that was technically a lesser version? Would it get incorporated or enhance his better Skill once Divine Sense reached a Level that it would epass the distance Eagle Eye affected?
More questions that he didn''t have the time to brood over. He dismissed the thoughts from his mind and maintained his focus on his surroundings once more.
The rest of the journey to the first minor camp beyond thest major bastion was uneventful. Either the spies that had fled hadn''t said anything about them, or they hadn''t had time to set up an ambush. It was also possible that their slight shift to the west earlier had caused them to simply miss anyoneying in wait on the straight path.
The trio walked through the gates of the palisade unhindered after disying their badge. Kefira was huffing and puffing more than Reivyn or Seri, but they hadn''t travelled far enough to drain herpletely, yet. The mud on their legs also hadn''t had time to umte more than barely above their ankles.
The minor camp closest to Prince Endrew''s seat of power wasn''t thatrge. It was still in range of a cavalry sortieunched by the main base, so it didn''t have as heavy reserves as some of the more remote locations.
Reivyn had no problems spotting the spy almost immediately upon entering the base. His Divine Sense picked up the disguised man inside the gate guard house, presumable cleaning.
More like snooping for any documents, Reivyn thought. Not sure what he would be able to find at the guard house at the gate. Maybe a list of visitors not documented in the headquarters?
It didn''t matter what the guy was doing. He could have been legitimately cleaning and taking care of the ce like his stolen position dictated, but he was a spy, and he had to go.
Reivyn turned his steps to the guard house and casually stepped in. The target was in the back office, so Reivyn shed his badge to the guard at the desk.
"I have some business in the captain''s office," Reivyn said. He didn''t slow down as he walked around the desk and headed toward the door.
"The captain''s not in..." The guard came half-way out of his seat to try and dissuade Reivyn from barging into his boss''s office without him being present.
Reivyn simply waved him away without slowing.
"That''s not necessary. My business isn''t with the captain."
Reivyn opened the door and strode inside. The disguised man didn''t pay much attention to Reivyn at first, but maybe he had a Danger Sense Skill or something else that pinged his subconscious.
He looked up as Reivyn''s de stabbed into his heart. The amount of damage caused by such a strike wasn''t enough to kill the man instantly, but the drain on his health was. His eyes held a look of surprise and confusion as the light in them dimmed.
Reivyn withdrew his sword and wiped the blood off of it. After sheathing his weapon, he reached down and removed the skin-mask from the man''s face. He carried the mask with him and tossed it on the desk in front of the confused guard.
The guard hadn''t seen what had transpired in the office, but Reivyn had walked in and out in hardly any time at all. He had no idea at all what was going on, and he subconsciously picked up the skin-mask and unfurled it.
He cursed and dropped the mask as the face of the man cleaning in the office greeted him. It was creepy looking with the holes where the man''s eyes, nostrils, and mouth should be. He looked up at Reivyn, and the confusion on his face only deepened.
"You''ll need someone to go in there and take care of the corpse," Reivyn said as he casually walked out of the guard house.
"Wait, corpse!" The guard shouted.
Reivyn didn''t pause as he led Kefira and Seri back out of the gate once more. The guards standing there nodded their heads at their departure, but they didn''t try to stop them.
The three broke out into a run toward their final destination, and they were over a hundred yards away when amotion finally broke out at the gate. Reivyn turned back to witness what looked like an angry ant-hive kicked into activity. Several of the guards looked up at them and pointed in their direction, but Reivyn just turned around and continued running.
If they sent men after them and actually caught up to them, he would exin himself once more, but there was no reason that he saw to wait around for it. He had already shed the badge of Prince Allik to several of the guards, and the corpse had his face with the "3" brand on his forehead revealed.
As it was, nobody gave chase to them.
"I don''t me them," Reivyn muttered.
"What was that?" Kefira asked, shooting him a look out of the corner of her eye.
"Oh, I was just thinking that I didn''t me them for not sending anyone to catch us," Reivyn said, looking up at the clouds still drizzling rain. "Not in this weather, and not with the context of the situation."
"Hmph, they should at least try," Kefira said.
"I don''t disagree," Reivyn shrugged. "I just get it."
Silence once more descended on the three as they continued to run in the rain. The skies were gray, the rain was gray, their mood was gray. Everything was gray and miserable.
Thest minor camp was further away by a fair margin than their first stop had been. It was just past noon by the time the wooden walls of the palisade came into view. They had started their journey at dawn. The mission had taken only a couple of minutes in their first stop, so they had been running for nearly seven hours straight.
Kefira''s breath came in much harsher gasps than after their first stop, though she wasn''t to the point that she needed to be supported by Reivyn just yet. If they had to run for another hour, it might havee to that.
"Thest stop," Reivyn said, slowing to a walk.
"Technically it''s the half-way point," Kefira said. "We still have the return journey to make."
"True, but we won''t be on a time crunch on the way back. We''ll havepleted the mission after this. We can take our time and wait out the weather if we want to."
"Yeah, let''s settle down at the canteen, or whatever, after we find thest spy and deal with the interrogation from the higher-ups."
Seri grunted in agreement. Reivyn nced at her and quirked an eyebrow at here, which she studiously ignored.
It wasn''t that Seri didn''t talk that much. She did. She just only ever really spoke to Kefira when they were alone. Reivyn didn''t get the sense that she didn''t like him or that she was shy or anything. It was just the way she was, and he had gotten used to it.
The spy wasn''t conveniently located at the front entrance of the camp this time. Reivyn had to walk through almost the entire camp before he found thest target, and he was located in the headquarters building where themander was located.
"This will save us some time," Reivyn said. "The target is on the far side of the building, so we can go to themander first and exin why we''re here before we take action. We won''t have to suffer through an extended interrogation afterward and can get to that canteen, or whatever, as you said."
Kefira snorted, but she was happy with the situation as well. She didn''t want to have to waste time anymore than Reivyn or Seri did, and getting the chance to rx while waiting the weather out was a tempting proposition.
"Let''s go," Reivyn said.
They walked up to the front door of the headquarters building. It wasn''t anything grand like the government buildings that had been appropriated in therger cities. There was no wall or gate protecting it, but there was still a couple of guards stationed outside of the doors.
Reivyn once more shed the badge to the two guards.
"We''re here to see themander," Reivyn said.
"Yes, sir!" One of the guards saluted, more to the badge than Reivyn, as he responded with enthusiasm, and the other man darted into the building to notify themander. "Just wait one moment for my partner to return, and he''ll escort you to themander''s office."
Reivyn nodded his head. The wait was only a few seconds, and the other guard gestured for them to follow him. The trio followed the guard inside and immediately understood why the wait had been so short.
The headquarters building wasn''t thatrge to begin with, and themander''s office was the first one on the left. The target was in the far room down the right hallway, so Reivyn still wasn''t concerned that they would spook him.
Reivyn walked in and disyed the badge onest time to themander. Themander came half-way out of his seat and gestured to a chair in front of his desk. Reivyn nodded his head and took a seat with Kefira in the other chair. Seri stood behind her, and themander sat back down as they did.
"What can I do for you?" Themander asked.
"Nothing," Reivyn answered. "We''re here to notify you that we''re about to kill a spy in your camp, and we didn''t want you or anyone else to freak out when we did."
"A spy? In my camp?" Themander asked, confused. "How do you know there''s a spy here?"
"I''m Prince Allik''s counter intelligence officer," Reivyn exined, fibbing a little. "We''ve spent thest several days visiting every single major and minor camp on the font lines, and there''s been at least one spy in all of them. We''ve already located the target, so we don''t need to search for him."
"Ok~ay," themander said, dragging the word out as the thought about the situation. "Well, if you''re here to kill a spy, go ahead. I don''t want those filthy rats dirtying up my camp any longer than necessary."
"Good," Reivyn said, standing up once more. "We''ll notify you once we''ve gotten rid of him."
"Thank you."
Reivyn nodded his head as he strode back out into the hallway with Kefira and Seri. The spy was still in thest room down the other hallway. Reivyn didn''t know what he was doing in there, but like earlier, he didn''t care.
The three of them walked down the hall. They didn''t bother to hide their presence. If they acted sneaky and failed, they would just alert the spy that something unusual was happening. If they acted like everything was normal and they were supposed to be there, the spy wouldn''t think anything was going on.
If you don''t want to alert others to your presence, the best way is to convince them ahead of time that it''s perfectly normal for you to be where you are, doing what you''re doing, Reivyn thought.
They quickly reached the end of the building and walked into thest room on the left-hand side. The room was a storage area, and the man wearing the skin-mask was sorting through some inventory under the supervision of one of the supply officers.
"Can I help you?" The man asked as Reivyn walked through the door. He nced at Kefira and Seri following behind him, but his attention immediately went back to Reivyn.
"Nope," Reivyn said, shaking his head. "We''re just here to grab something for themander real quick."
Reivyn''s de was in and out of the spy''s heart in an instant. It happened so fast that neither the spy nor the supply officer had time to react. The spy copsed to the ground, and Reivyn reached out and ripped the skin-mask off of his face.
"Got it," Reivyn said to the supply officer. He held the skin-mask out to indicate what he was there to grab. "You''ll have to figure out what to do with the body, though."
"Wha..." The supply officer stammered. He looked back and forth between the dead spy that had suddenly turned into a different person and Reivyn. He was stranded in indecision, and he could only watch helplessly as Reivyn sauntered away.
Themander was standing outside of his office in the hallway when they emerged from the storage room. Reivyn walked up and handed the man the skin-mask.
"This is how they infiltrated all of the bases without being detected," Reivyn said. "You probably won''t find him, but you might want to get a search party going for the original person the spy reced."
"Commander!" The supply officer ran up as Reivyn finished speaking. There was panic on his face. "This man just killed a person!"
"I know," themander said. He didn''t look up at the supply officer as he inspected the skin-mask.
"You do?" The supply officer was taken aback.
"Of course. He killed a spy."
"Oh..."
"If that will be all, we really need to be going," Reivyn said.
"Sure, sure," themander waved his hand. "Lieutenant Grage will get someone to dispose of the body."
"Good," Reivyn said.
Themander nodded and lieutenant Grage, the supply officer, stood there with his mouth agape. He didn''t know what to make of the situation, but Reivyn was disinclined to advise the young officer.
The three once more stepped outside of the headquarters building. Reivyn immediately felt that something was different. He looked up into the sky to notice the sun bearing down on them through a hole in the clouds.
The rain had finally stopped.
"Are you serious?" Reivyn eximed.
"So much for rxing before the weather abates," Kefira muttered.
Reivyn stood and stared at the sky, his mouth forming a line of frustration.
"Of course the rain stops as soon as we''re done," he said, shaking his head. "Well, we can still stop for lunch. No need to take off right away and eat field rations."
"Sounds good to me," Kefira agreed.
Lunch was nothing fancy, but at least it was hot aspared to cold rations. There was no reason to dy their journey any further. The rain didn''t look like it wasing back. The clouds dispersed even further while they ate their meal.
The three walked out of the palisade and headed to the closest small hill. The vantage, though short, gave them enough visibility for Kefira to open a portal a considerable distance away.
"At least we don''t have to run the whole way back," Kefira said with a shrug.
It only took a couple of seconds of concentration for the portal door to open. They stepped through and once more began their journey back.
They hopped across the open ins and from hill-top to hill-top, only running when they had to bypass the woods. They ran at the same pace, but it was much more manageable now that they didn''t have to run the entire distance. Kefira never even got the chance to get winded.
They didn''t stop at any of the camps, big or small, and the miles fell away quickly. They made great time as they were finally able to make use of Kefira''s ability once more.
Kefira opened a portal door to the top of a small mountain and they stepped through. The mountain was too tall to really be considered a hill, but it wasn''t anything special. If there had been real mountains around, nobody would consider it one, though it did allow for Kefira to see much further than they had before.
"We can skip right past those woods from here," Kefira said, pointing at the trees that would normally be an obstacle for her.
"Excellent," Reivyn said. "We''ll be back to Piori before we know it, and then we can finally get some real rest."
Kefira opened the portal with ease, and Reivyn stepped through.
The world slowed down and shifted as his body passed through the gate. It felt like his body was yanked to the side, and extreme pain erupted all over his body as he wascerated by Space.
He copsed to his knees, blood dripping down his face. His Divine Sense immediately picked up the surprise attack at the same time his Danger Sense screamed at him.
He didn''t have time to pull his sword to parry the blow, so he simply rolled to the side, ducking under the swing of a sword. He bounced to his feet, sword appearing in his hand in one fluid motion.
Seven heavily armored men stood in a semi-circle around him, and one man in robes holding a strange object stood behind him. Reivyn could feel the Space Mana emanating from the object in the Caster''s hand.
Reivyn''s mouth once more formed a line of annoyance. It wasn''t hard to put the pieces together. Getting yanked away during a portal hop, the Caster with the Space artifact, and theck of Kefira or Seri showing up told him most of everything he needed to know.
The "4''s" on the foreheads of all the men surrounding him that he could see through their helmets with his Divine Sense told him the rest.
Chapter 190: Borrowing Strength
Chapter 190: Borrowing Strength
.r3ec6d3d65d2b43d3bc3e878653d09b9f{ disy: none; } Reivyn bounded to his feet as the seven enemies advanced. They didn''t try topletely surround him. They moved in a formation, and Reivyn could vaguely sense a Mana tether binding them together.
He didn''t have time to delve deeper into what his senses were telling him was there. The enemy''s advance was unrelenting, and they didn''t give him enough time to analyze further.
The first enemy strode forward and shed with his sword without hesitation. Reivyn ducked under the swing and moved into the man''s reach, his own sword thrusting forward to counterattack. His Danger Sense and Divine Sense Skills sent rm bells ringing in his mind, though, and he cancelled the action in time to avoid the trap.
Two swords thrust in where he had been previously standing from either side. Two more of the enemy soldiers further nked him immediately, and he hopped back one more.
The Mana tether between the seven warriors had somehow obfuscated his Divine Sense until thest minute. He had only noticed that they were in the general vicinity, but as soon as theyunched an attack with intent, the mist covering his eyes was cleared and he saw the sword thrusts.
He looked back and forth between all of the soldiers as they continued to advance on him. The Mage in the back was fully concentrated on pouring Mana into the strange device he was holding up. He wasn''t actively engaged in the fight, so Reivyn temporarily put him out of his mind.
He kept a small portion of his awareness on his presence though in case there was a change in the Mana fluctuations.
Reivyn nced behind him to get a feel of thend, trusting his Divine Sense to keep him aware of the opponents. While looking behind himself at the forest he had found himself in, his instincts were true as the enemy''s simultaneously picked up their pace and dashed towards him.
He focused his attention on his Divine Sense. He was a bit confused that they only appeared as vague shadows, but by pressing his willpower into the Skill, he was able to make out their shape and the position of their weapons.
It was only a fraction of a second for the vanguard soldier to advance to a position tounch another attack at Reivyn, and he deliberately acted like he was unaware of their actions. The enemy warrior once more shed with his sword at a slightly different height and angle.
Reivyn wasn''t thrown into confusion, and he empowered himself with the Traveler Affinity. He took a step backward and appeared behind the man''s back with his sword already thrusting forward.
His de bit into the hard leather underneath the metal cuirass protecting the man''s torso, and with a slight effort it prated further to pierce the man''s flesh. Reivyn was unable to strike at the man where it would be an immediate lethal blow, but every tick of damage was worth it.
The enemies reacted supernaturally fast, and almost before Reivyn could react, six swords copsed on his position. Each one was at a different height, and they each had a slightly different trajectory. They came in as shed and stabs, and there was almost no hole in the strike.
Reivyn hadn''t let go of his Traveler Affinity, and he took another step forward. He intended to return to his original position, but he felt a tug from behind. Instead of phasing through the vanguard soldier as he intended, he ended up another four feet backward.
Reivyn didn''t have time to ponder the issue. The soldiers immediately responded and advanced on his position.
It seems like their Mana tether is allowing them to share their Stats and/or Skills, Reivyn thought. It''s like their Perception and Dexterity are way higher than should be possible. That or they have some sort of magical enhancement applied to them, but I don''t sense any kind of Mana fluctuations from their bodies other than the tether.
Reivyn threw out a Sense Threat at one of the soldiers to try and ascertain whether he was right or not.
???: Tier 4 Lvl 70-100 Lethal Threat
Yeah, their Stats shouldn''t be too overwhelming. There''s some sort of shenanigans afoot, here.
The thought process and action of activating the Skill had happened in a sh. No time had passed at all.
Reivyn picked up on the Mage adjusting his position with his Divine Sense Skill as he faced the oing soldiers. He waste to realize that he had wasted a perfect opportunity to pounce on the Caster. He had inadvertently ced himself in a position between the soldiers and the Caster, but they quickly rectified the situation.
So that''s how it is.
Reivyn was done analyzing the situation he was in. Blood continued to drip from various wounds scouring his body from the forceful relocation through space, but none of them were too serious, and his body was already healing itself with his Regeneration Skill. If he needed to, he could amplify that effect with his Mana Healing, but he was holding that in reserve for the time being.
Reivyn red at the advancing enemy in the forefront, though he kept his concentration on his Divine Sense to alleviate the issue of them shrouding his ability to perceive them. It only put a mild strain on his mental powers, though he could tell he wouldn''t be able to keep it up forever.
Reivyn pretended like he had sunk into tunnel vision. He never let his gaze waver from the front-leading enemy. He moved forward to meet the man who acted like he hadn''t just been stabbed in the kidneys.
Mana flooded Reivyn''s body as he used Mana Reinforcement. He didn''t anchor the Skill, opting to use his Multi-Cast Skill to empower his sword with multiple Affinities.
He wasn''t done, yet, either. He summoned another, identical sword made out of pure Mana with his Mana Weapon Skill in his off-hand. He hadn''t had too many opportunities to Level his Ambidextrous Skill in a while, but it was high enough that he could utilize a significant portion of his Weapons Master Skill with both hands at the same time.
Reivyn found himself in the middle of a storm of steel as he didn''t back away from the enemy''s advance. He dodged, parried, blocked, and maneuvered around like a mini tornado.
He was barely able to keep up with the fast-pacedbat, though he didn''t suffer any sessful attacks from the bad guys. Experience with fighting groups of enemies in such a situation was a big help, but it wasn''t what allowed him to operate at such a level.
If he hadn''t been so serious with his father over the past several months, he wouldn''t have been able to handle the coordinated attack of the enemies. His nearly Level 100 in Weapons Master, coupled with the penalty for dual-wielding, was barely enough to keep up.
The enemy soldiers were well-trained, too. He could tell that their Skill Levels were individually around 60, but the Mana tether enhanced their abilities by allowing them to coordinate in a way that synergized perfectly with their attacks. Thebination meant that they were operating closer to Level 80 as a group.
It wasn''t enough for them to overpower him, but he wasn''t finding too many opportunities tounch sessful counterattacks at the enemy, either.
This still wasn''t his full-power, though, and with a split in his concentration even further, he began to fling Spells out of his hands in conjunction with their movements while attacking with his weapons.
The enemy soldiers werepletely unprepared for the first barrage of bolts and beams flung at them from such close range. Reivyn didn''t use anything explosive, as the st would affect him as well.
He managed to knock some of them off bnce, though, and that was all he needed.
He immediately increased the tempo of his whirlwind attacks. He incorporated kicks into his repertoire, and he knocked one of the nking soldiers on his backside.
With two of the soldiers off bnce and one knocked down, their formation attack became meaningless. A headache attempted to st his mind apart as heyered Traveler Affinity further over his weapons, his ability to Multi-Cast being pushed well beyond his normal limits.
His sword shed out into empty space, but a line of red appeared on one of the soldiers a bit further away from him. The man stumbled and fell to one knee.
He looked up at Reivyn, and Reivyn could only see determination in the man''s eyes. There was no fear. There wasn''t even any anger or hatred. He was bound and determined to aplish his mission, and he struggled mightily to regain his feet.
The drop in blood pressure from his sliced throat, though, was too much for him ovee even with the Mana tether. The man tilted forward and copsedpletely to the ground, never to rise again.
The other soldiers never even spared their deadrade a nce. The two soldiers that had been knocked off bnce gained their feet and continued their assault, and the one knocked to the ground simply dashed forward on all-fours to try and tackle Reivyn.
Swords once more came at him from all angles, though the loss of two greatly effected their ability to put pressure on Reivyn. Thest one still on the ground wasn''tpletely out of the fight, however, and his mad dashing from such a low height still posed a threat to Reivyn. If that man managed to collide with him, he would lose his bnce, and then it would be all over for him.
Reivyn released the Traveler Affinity from his sword. He was unable to maintain so many Spells and Affinities at once any longer, and he resumed his fight.
The loss of pressure from the enemy formation being broken allowed Reivyn a moment to think.
I wonder...
A memory from a previous battle flitted across his mind, and he immediately put a new n into action.
He danced back and stopped umting Manas for Spells. He didn''t release the Mana, however. He just repurposed it.
He reached out with his Mana and made contact with the Mana Tether. His will bore down on the Mana connecting the remaining six enemies. They weren''t specialized Casters, so their ability to infuse their Will into their Mana was limited.
Even so, it was like he had smashed head-first into an iron wall. Reivyn grit his teeth and grabbed hold of a sliver of the Mana. He wasn''t trying to wrest control of the Mana away like he had in the past, instead he wrapped himself up in it in a simr was as the enemy was connected.
Immediately he felt a rush of adrenaline as his Stats spiked further, and he felt as if his swords knew on their own exactly where they needed to be. He had sessfully integrated himself in the enemy Mana formation.
A grin split his face as he once more dashed forward. Instead of barely being able to keep up with the enemy, not only did his weapons seem to know where to go with every strike, he also knew in advance where the enemy was going to focus their attacks.
The only downside was that the enemy soldiers also seemed to gain a new awareness and boost to their abilities, but their increase was considerably less than his.
It wasn''t about the Level of their Skills and Stats that was the key factor. It was that Reivyn was only one man with lower Stats while he was siphoning off six other men''s superior Stats.
Their Skill Level gained a significant boost, but their Stats were unable to keep up with it.
Reivyn became a storm of death as he took advantage of the lopsided situation. Six people empowering him quickly turned into three as his his sword swept out to the end the lives of half of the opponents.
Reivyn felt a bit sluggish for a second, and the enemy soldiers all stumbled as their Stats and Skills were adjusted downward. Reivyn had never experienced such a thing before, so he was a fraction of a second behind the other three enemies in limating to the change.
It didn''t matter, though, as they weren''t strong enough to capitalize on their sudden advantage. Reivyn leaned his body out of the way of a fatal attack, and he managed to only suffer a couple of slight nicks against his sides.
The Stat advantage I get from connecting to three of them is still worth it, Reivyn quickly judged. No reason to back out of the tether. I think I might have to once it''s down to two of them, though. Their gain in Skill Level from me will outpace the Stat gains I get from them at that point.
There was a simple solution for the enemy to negate the advantage Reivyn had secured for himself, and that was to cancel the Skill. They didn''t do so, though, and they only had eyes for trying to kill him.
Even with more than half of their numbers taken down, there was no fear or hesitation in their movements. They continued to advance on Reivyn, though it was obvious now that he was going to emerge victorious.
A sound intruded on Reivyn''s thoughts as he fought the three remaining enemies. He had forgotten about the Mage standing in the distance. There had been no significant change in the Mana fluctuations, so he had kept his focus on him relegated to the edge of his awareness.
That suddenly changed.
"... is a monster. We can''t stop him! Send reinforcements, now!" The Mage screamed into amunication device he had pulled out. It operated on simr principles as the space-attuned artifact he was holding, so it hadn''t cause any ripples in the Mana surrounding the Mage.
Got to end this now! Reivyn thought.
Reivyn feinted with a false lunge before jumping back. He cancelled his Mana Reinforcement and the Affinities applied to his weapons. He gathered his Mana and empowered himself with a huge burst of Gravity Mana.
The three soldiers finally showed a slight expression of surprise as they were picked up off the ground andunched toward Reivyn. They didn''t have time to maneuver their weapons around to take advantage of the sudden movement to strike at Reivyn, and Reivyn quickly shed his sword through three unguarded necks.
The Mana tether winked out of existence, and Reivyn was left panting, surrounded by the seven corpses of the men who had ambushed him.
Reivyn looked up and made eye contact with the Mage. The Caster''s body quivered and there was obvious fear in the man''s eyes.
Hmm, he seems a bit different from the others, Reivyn thought. He''s the first enemy I''ve seen show any kind of fear.
The Mage suddenly turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction. He never let up on flooding the artifact with his Mana, though, and Reivyn used that to his advantage.
He had noticed that the Space principles of the artifact acted like Gravity Mana when he used his Traveler Affinity to move. He empowered himself with the Tier 4 Affinity, and he ran after the Mage.
Even without using such a cheat ability, Reivyn''s physical Stats far out-paced the Mage''s. With the added benefit of each one of his steps taking him an additional three-steps forward, he caught up to the man almost instantly.
Reivyn''s de shed once more, and a headless body copsed to the ground. The man''s head stayed within the hood of his robe and tumbled forward, getting entangled in the cloth.
The Mana from the artifact winked out, and immediately a portal opened right next to Reivyn. Seri jumped through, sword at the ready. Kefira followed behind with her hands held up, Mana umted and ready to strike down any opposition.
"Sorry, the party''s over," Reivyn said with a grin.
He had bloodstains all over his body, but he had already stopped bleeding. He had only suffered a couple hundred points of damage from the spacecerations, and then hardly any at all from thebat with the ambushers.
"Sorry, there was something blocking my ability to connect with this ce," Kefira said, scanning the surroundings for threats. Seri bounced on the balls of her feet as she spun around to fight any enemies that decided to suddenly show up, but none did.
"I think these people were from arger group," Reivyn said, sheathing his sword. "The Mage called for reinforcements shortly before I finished them off."
Reivyn ignored the anxious state the twodies were in. He walked over and picked up the Space artifact the Mage had been using. He tossed it to Kefira who deftly caught it out of the air.
Her attention was immediately drawn to the object as soon as itnded in her palm, almost to the point of the exclusion of everything else.
"I''m pretty sure that''s the culprit for why you couldn''t connect with this location," Reivyn said. "Take it and study it, it should provide some benefits to your understanding of Space/Time Mana."
Kefira nodded her head absentmindedly. Seri poked her in the side, and she jumped in startlement. She red at Seri before her expression turned sheepish.
She pocketed the artifact in her space pouch before it could draw her attention again.
"If they have more soldiers ready to attack, I think it''s time we got out of here," Kefira said. "I don''t know about you, but I''m not in the mood to find out if we can fight off a couple hundred enemy soldiers with the ability to lock Space down."
"I agree," Reivyn said. "We don''t know how many enemies there are out there, but we should assume it''s more than the three of us can handle."
Kefira nodded her head again and concentrated on her Mana. A door opened up in front of her, and Reivyn dashed through it. Seri came through right behind him, and it was only after Kefira followed that she sheathed her own weapon.
"I jumped us further west," Kefira said. "I think we should go a bit further away from the front lines with a couple more teleports before we resume our journey. No telling how far they can extend their influence to pluck one of us away through Space."
"Good idea," Reivyn said. "Let''s get to the nearest camp as soon as possible and alert them to the intrusion."
Chapter 191: Implication
Chapter 191: Implication
.r4b425bb3a7b748f28bf939f538ffb0e6{ disy: none; } The three quickly made their way to the next minor camp. Kefira teleported them further away from the front lines so they wouldn''t be near any more ambush points, so they traveled parallel to the route they had previously taken.
The next minor camp was still some distance between arger instation, but at least it wasn''t mostly empty like the one next to Prince Endrew''s camp. There weren''t a whole lot of reinforcements avable at the drop a hat to deal with this situation. They camp system had been designed to defend against an invasion, not infiltration.
Each camp hadmunication devices for emergencies, and they had cavalry and light infantry capable of moving quickly. The problem was that Reivyn had no idea of the strength of the reinforcements the Mage had beenmunicating with was. They could also be spread out all over the ce and specialized in hiding.
The walls of the palisade came into view as they stepped out of thest teleport doorway, and Reivyn immediately dashed toward the gate.
"Ring the rm bell!" Reivyn roared with Commanding Shout.
Not only did Commanding Shout carry his voice a long distance, but it also had a trace of the Command Skill entwined with it. The guards on duty didn''t hesitate to sound the rm.
There was no tower with a bell in it. Instead, there was a magical device that was connected with awork of other, simr magical bells. They were located throughout the camp, and they were even connected to the outposts. The sound of the rm wasn''t loud or intrusive, but it was pervasive.
The camp kicked into activity like an angry ant hill. Reivyn didn''t slow down and rushed through the gates, shing his badge once more as they crossed the line, but he didn''t slow down.
The soldiers were rushing to their positions along the palisade walls, and the officers were spilling out of the various buildings to takemand. The campmander was among them, and he immediately called for a situation report.
Reivyn heard and spotted themander, so he made a beeline for the man.
"Commander," Reivyn pulled up in front of the man. He hadn''t expended enough energy to pant for breath, though he hadn''t had time to wash up, either. He cut a strange appearance: Clothes disheveled,cerations all over them with bloodstains, but he waspletelyposed and didn''t look injured at all.
"We," Reivyn gestured between himself and Kefira and Seri while shing his badge with his other hand, "encountered an ambush on our way back. There were seven heavily armed men with ''4''s'' branded on their heads and one Mage. I dispatched the seven men, and before I could kill the Mage, he used amunication device to call for reinforcements.
"We have no idea the size or make-up of the reinforcements, nor do we know their exact position. If you''ll bring out a map, I''ll be able to show you where we were ambushed."
Themander nced at the badge and calmly listened to the exnation from Reivyn. His Adjutant leaned over and whispered into his ear.
"He''s the ''counter-intelligence'' officer sent by Prince Allik to root out the spies. He''s the one who killed the imposter a couple days ago."
The Adjutant wasn''t trying to necessarily conceal his voice, and everyone around could hear what he said. It was just a matter of procedure that he didn''t want to give off the appearance of interrupting. This was one of the campmanders that Reivyn hadn''t interacted with, but the Adjutant had been someone that had seen him.
"I see," themander replied. He had a serious expression on his face as he snapped his fingers to an enlisted man standing nearby. "Map."
The enlisted soldier snapped a salute and took off running. The soldier was obviously a runner, and he dashed away with incredible speed and precision, weaving his way through the throng of soldiers still running to their posts.
They didn''t have to wait long for the man to return, and he was apanied by a second soldier carrying a portable desk. They set the desk up and rolled the map open, pinning it in ce, before stepping back.
"Show me," themander said.
Reivyn didn''t waste any time. He scanned the map, located their position, and he immediately spotted where he had been snatched away to while on their teleport hops. He pointed to the location in less than a second of the map having opened.
"Right here," Reivyn said. He traced his finger along a line that was parallel to their actual route, but this time closer to the enemy line. "We thought it was a good idea to keep our eyes and ears open for any reaction from eliminating their spies, so we were traveling a bit closer to their lines, and they were waiting in ambush."
"How they knew isn''t an important question to be answered right now," themander said, examining the map. "Just keep it in mind forter. For now, we need to respond to this provocation."
He looked up and indicated to several of his senior officers.
"Get on themunication device and contact the other camp on the other side of the ambush point. Send out the light infantry to rush through the harsher terrain, and send the light cavalry along the open areas. Have some of the Mages apany them. If there was one Mage, there''s likely more. Contact the other camps further along their travel route, too, and have them send out units to scout their surrounding areas. There might be more ambushes set up in case the first ones failed."
"Yes, sir!" A chorus of responses echoed out from several of the officers.
Everyone got busy with their tasks, and the soldiers that had rushed to guard the walls thinking their was an imminent attack formed up to await further orders instead.
"The outposts aren''t prepared to intercept an unknown enemy force, so send word to them to be on high alert and be on standby. They aren''t to engage any enemies they see unless another unit is there to assist them.
"You said the enemies had ''4''s'' branded on their heads?" Themander looked to Reivyn. Reivyn nodded his head. "Were they just brands, or could you tell their strength?"
"Tier 4, Levels'' approximately 70 to 100," Reivyn answered.
There were several sharp intakes of breath from the surrounding officers and men, but they were all professional enough to refrain from outright gasping. Reivyn could see the respect and astonishment in the eyes of those around him with his Divine Sense.
Themander eyed him up and down, nodding his head in approval.
"I can see why you were given such an important task."
"You overpraise me," Reivyn said, waving his hand in dismissal. "I will say, though, that they were using a weird Skill where they were linked together with Mana, and it enhanced their Stats and Skills. I would say their approximate strength was closer to Levels 85 to 115. Killing one doesn''t break the Spell, either, it just weakens it."
"Anything else?" Themander quirked an eyebrow at the information.
"It also lets them to instinctually understand their allies'' actions, allowing for them to utilize more of their Skill Level while fighting together."
"And you beat seven of them linked together? Plus a Mage?"
"The Mage wasn''t really participating. I can''t say that will be the case moving forward, though."
"I see."
Silence descended over the group of officers as they contemted the information. The light infantry and cavalry units were quickly assembled, though, and themander waved the officer over to where the map was stillid out.
"What''s your opinion on the possible positions of any other ambushers?" Themander turned to Reivyn and asked. He wasn''t only asking Reivyn, but he was including him in the discussion.
Reivyn, along with the other officers, scanned the terrain of the map. There were several locations that Reivyn saw that could be possible locations for an ambush, and the other other officers gave their opinions, as well.
Themander pointed to several locations that had been agreed upon by many of the experienced officers.
"Send your men to check out these positions as well as the routes they could take to converge on the original ambush point," he instructed the officers leading the strike force. "If you don''t run into anyone, press toward the enemy line and look for them to be retreating."
"Yes, sir!" They saluted and ran back to their men.
The cavalrymen were the first to thunder out of the camp, followed closely by the light infantry. It was possible for men to raise their Stats to be significantly faster and have higher endurance than low-Level horses, but this wasn''t an elite unit capable of that.
I''m definitely at that point, now, Reivyn thought as he watched them depart. It wouldn''t necessarilye in handy all the time, though, as I would need to stay with my men under normal circumstances.
"Do you want to apany them?" Themander asked Reivyn.
Reivyn didn''t even had to look or use his Divine Sense to understand that Kefira and Seri weren''t in the mood to go traipsing back into the woods to look for more assassins.
"Not this time,mander," Reivyn said, shaking his head. "We''re obviously their targets, so they might stick around if they know that we''re still here. We might catch a few more of them, but they also might send more soldiers after us, too. What happens if we identally escte the situation beyond what we''re ready to handle out here?" Reivyn shrugged.
"That''s a good point," themander said, stroking his chin as he continued to look at the map.
"You seem like you have the situation in hand," Reivyn said. "I still have to report to Prince Allik, and I have my ownpany to take charge of in Piori. I would love to stick around and fight off some more invaders, but that''s not my mission right now."
"Alright, have a safe trip," themander said. He still didn''t look up from the map. He was inmander mode. "Don''t run so close to the enemy line this time."
Reivyn chuckled as he turned and walked away. None of the other officers questioned his decision to not stick around and participate. What would he do? He was an officer without any men tomand. It would be strange, and almost insulting, to ask him to rush out and engage the enemy as an individual. They also had their own pride to handle the response to the invaders.
"Is it really okay to just move on while they''re in the middle of abat situation?" Kefira asked. She didn''t want to stick around any longer, but she was reluctant to put Reivyn into a position where he could be considered to be abandoning his duty.
"Sure," Reivyn said, smiling at Kefira to disarm her concern. "One might argue that our mission is to ''win the war,'' but winning the war requires the pieces in y to be yed appropriately. Our piece isn''t even in y here. It''s just us.
"Plus, we can scan the areas we move through with our Mana to see if we can''t find any Space fluctuations for any other groups lying in wait, and we can report their positions to the other camps. That task probably has more merit to it, as any additional ambushers might not be in directmunication. I don''t know if they''ll have any so far away from the first position, but we don''t know that."
"That''s a good idea," Kefira said, nodding her head. "I''m more sensitive to the Space Affinity than you, so you should focus on our surroundings, and I''ll disperse my Sense Mana as far as I can while we move."
"What''s your Sense Mana Skill Level?" Reivyn asked.
"73."
"Hmm, higher than mine."
"Yeah, if I had been paying attention and actively using it, we wouldn''t have fallen for their trap the first time," Kefira said. There was some rebuke in her voice. "My Sense Mana Skill doesn''t even have to directly reach the Space Mana in use. The Space Mana will send out ripples to the surrounding area, and if we''re close enough, I''ll be able to pick it up. I should have been running it earlier."
"You''re not to me," Reivyn said. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty, after all."
"Huh? What does that mean?" Kefira asked. Seri gave him a strange look, as well.
Reivyn stopped for a second and thought about what he said.
"Umm, I''m not a hundred percent sure where that came from, but it means you can see the past perfectly. Anyway, the point is, we didn''t know, but we do now. The important thing is to not make the same mistake again."
"Ok~ay," Kefira said, still eyeing him with a strange look. "You say the weirdest things, sometimes."
"I''ll tell you more about it some time," Reivyn said. "I kind of know what''s going on, but I don''t have all the answers."
"Ok, I trust you."
They shared a smile before continuing on their way to the tree line on the far side of the camp. They traveled through the small wooded area before cresting a hill and once more continuing their teleport hops back to Piori.
Kefira led them once more further away from the line. They carefully judged the distance they moved away. They didn''t want to move so far away that they couldn''t investigate any unusual Space fluctuations, but they didn''t want to be close enough to be caught up in another snatching incident.
Kefira still had no idea the principles behind the enemy snatching Reivyn through the portal. The teleport portals appeared to be t, but the Space in between the entrance and exit still existed. She could see how a could be cast totch onto whoever passed through, but she would need to study it to understand it fully. They moved through the Space, but it was basically instantaneous.
"They probably have the cast out and waiting, like a fishing," Reivyn spected. "Even though we travel through the Space in a fraction of a second, it''s like our foot gets caught in the trap. Maybe our own momentum causes an automatic bacsh from whatever device they were using, and it yanks us to their location."
"That makes sense," Kefira said. "We secured one of their magic devices, so I''ll be able to study it when we get back to Piori."
Even though they were on alert of their surroundings, that didn''t mean they couldn''t talk about what had happened. They kept up a conversation as they moved, not just about the ambush, but about all kinds of topics.
Most of their concentration was on focusing on their surroundings, so they sometimes answered subconsciously. Not focusing too hard on the topic allowed some interesting ideas to pop out of their mouths from time to time.
"They were sure prepared," Reivyn said, "but how did they know to intercept us with Space? Was it conjecture based on our speed? That can''t be right, though, because we ran most of the way. Maybe..."
Reivyn came to a stop, Kefira and Seri stopping alongside him. They all shared a look as they thought of the same thing.
"We didn''t catch all of the spies," Kefira said.
Chapter 192: See No Evil
Chapter 192: See No Evil
The sun bore down on the trio as they walked through the gates of Piori. After the rain stopped, the weather clearedpletely. There wasn''t a single cloud remaining in the sky, and there was no breeze. The evaporating moisture in the hot sun made the three hot and sticky with sweat, as if they were walking through a sauna.
It wasn''t particrly hot, but the humidity from the lingering moisture amplified the effects. Reivyn swiped the sweat from his brow. It would be possible to use his Mana to create his own, personal little breeze, but he felt it wasn''t necessary. He could gain some marginal points in his Skills, but then he wouldn''t limate himself to the local temperature.
"You and Seri can just head straight back to the barracks," Reivyn said. He eyed Kefira up and down. "I''m sure you want to take a bath and get changed. I know I do."
"Sure," Kefira agreed, nodding her head. "Just be careful."
Reivyn gave her a quick peck on the cheek, but he refrained from giving her a hug. It was too hot and muggy to be sharing body heat. He turned back toward the main road and continued his way toward the headquarters building as Kefira and Seri turned toward their barracks.
Just gotta act normal, Reivyn thought. The prime suspects for the spy who revealed our information are Prince Allik, Prince Endrew, and Prince Allik''s retainer. It could also be abination of the three.
The three of them had brainstormed their ideas on who the culprit could have been based on the context of the situation. Only the two princes and the retainer knew about Kefira''s teleporting abilities. None of the other officers knew, and Reivyn knew through his Divine Sense that there hadn''t been anyone close enough to eavesdrop on their conversations when they had discussed it.
The other possibility was a listening device or intercepting magicalmunications, but nobody had noticed any tell-tale signs of Mana that were usually associated with the operation of such a device.
Unless it has the ability to record without transmitting, Reivyn thought. If it''s just absorbing the sounds passively and needs someone to activate it to transmit itter, it might be able to mask its operation.
That was the hoped for conclusion, but even if it was the case, there was no reason to not treat the three as if they were traitors. For now, that only entailed acting like Reivyn didn''t suspect anything.
The operation to root out the spies had already beenpleted, and they had arrived back in Piori safely. There was no big secret that needed to be kept that Reivyn was aware of, anymore, so it shouldn''t be a problem to just act like normal.
Reivyn didn''t have a whole lot of opportunities to observe the prince or his retainer. He wasn''t part of the inner circle of officers, and his role wasn''t one of strategy. The only reason he interacted with the prince so much recently was all due to the special circumstances involving his ability to discover the spies.
I''ll just have to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity when the enemy finally engages, Reivyn thought.There''s really not a whole lot more I can do right now.
It wasn''t like he could confide his suspicions to anyone, least of all the three prime suspects. It was a problem that those three were the top brass of the military, and if it turned out to be one of them, it could potentially lead to disaster.
Once I get back from this meeting, I''ll have to assemble the officers and start nning our exit strategy.
It wasn''t long before Reivyn arrived at the headquarters building once more. The guards simply waved him through after recognizing him, and he made his way to the second floor.
The retainer was standing guard outside the prince''s office, and his Divine Sense was unable to prate into the office. It was like there was a ck hole inside Reivyn''s perception.
Reivyn stifled a frown as he saw the man in his Divine Sense, but he mastered his facial expression and simply walked up to him. It was unusual for the man to not be stationed at his own desk in the room next door. He had never seen him standing in front of the office.
"My liege is currently in a meeting with his master," the retainer said to Reivyn.
"His ''master?''" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"His tutor, if you will," the retainer shrugged. "The prince is his official disciple, and he teaches and mentors the prince on everything."
"Everything, you say? Like the military situation?"
"Of course. Master Guillin is a trusted subordinate of the crown. He has ess to all of the intelligence any of the princes do. Prince Allik has been conversing with him more and more as the war drags on."
"I see," Reivyn said, nodding his head. "I''ll just wait out here until he''s done."
Great, another suspect, he thought. And this one we know even less about. If Prince Allik has been confiding everything to the man and he has ess to all intelligence, then he''s in a perfect position to be a spy. It doesn''t even have to be his actual mentor if the enemy could intercept themunication devices mid-way.
This new information added another thread in the tangled web of intrigue.
Reivyn patiently waited outside the office. He didn''t slouch or lean up against the wall. He simply stood at ease nearby. He was unable to eavesdrop on the conversation the prince was having through his Divine Sense. It was the first time he had experienced anything able to block his Skill.
There must be some sort of high-Tier device used to block everything outside, Reivyn contemted.If it was just the Skill of the prince, I don''t think he would be strong enough to block my Skill. I imagine as my Skill Level increases in the future, these types of barriers will also be useless in front of me.
Reivyn waited for close to half an hour before the barrier suddenly disappeared. One second there was a gaping hole within the radius of Reivyn''s perception, the next he could see the prince closing a drawer in his desk.
Reivyn didn''t react to the removal of the barrier. If he showed that he had noticed it, it could be assumed that he simply noticed the ambient Mana change, but there was no reason to get anyone''s suspicions up about his abilities.
The retainer''s head snapped up as if he had heard a sound, and he turned and faced Reivyn.
"The prince will see you now," he said.
Reivyn casually strolled through the door the retainer opened for him. He didn''t question how the retainer knew to send him in. He had obviously received a message, but there had been no tell-tale sign of Mana to disclose it.
Forget it. He might just have incredibly high Perception to be able to hear amand from within. Not everything has to be magical.
Reivyn marched up to the desk and stood at attention. He offered a salute.
"Captain Reivyn, reporting as ordered, sir."
"At ease," the prince dismissed the salute. "Have a seat."
"Thank you, sir."
The prince waited for Reivyn to take his seat before getting on with business.
"So, how did it go?"
"About as we expected," Reivyn said. "There was one spy in each of the minor camps, and there were spies attached to each of the individual barracks'' and headquarters buildings in the major camps. A few slipped away like they did here, but overall, I''d say we got 85 to 90%."
"Excellent. It seems that the inclement weather didn''t stall you enough to allow for more of the spies to get away. I got a report that you had been ambushed on your way back, so I had suspected that they may have contacted them ahead of time."
"It''s more likely that we moved so fast that they couldn''t get in ce before we made our way north," Reivyn said. "It makes the most sense that the first batch of spies that left Piori revealed some information, and when they lost contact with the spies to the south and west, they extrapted our n."
"I''m sure it''s something like that," Prince Allik said. "At this point, it doesn''t matter that much. The infestation has been dealt with, and you and Kefira have returned safe and sound."
"Yes, sir. Did you get any reports about the camps looking for more assassins, yet?"
"Not yet," Prince Allik shook his head. "I''ll get them either tonight or early in the morning. I''ll be sure to bring it up at the staff meeting in the morning, so you''ll learn about it then."
"Sounds good," Reivyn said. "I just wanted to know if my information allowed the camps to catch any of the enemy soldiers or not."
"It was a good idea to report it and not go looking for them yourself. Based on the report, I''m sure you could have handled yourself as long as you ran into individual groups, but you never know."
"Plus it gave them something to do," Reivyn said with a chuckle. "We all know what it''s like to just wait around and twiddle our thumbs all day, everyday."
"If that isn''t the truth," Prince Allik snorted. "Alright, I know you''re eager to get back to your men and get some rest. You''re dismissed."
Reivyn stood up, came to attention, and threw another salute.
"Yes, sir!"
He did an about-face and left the office. The retainer was no longer guarding outside the room, and he could see him poring over some paperwork at his desk in the office next door through his Divine Sense.
Reivyn made his way back to the barracks his mercenarypany had upied. He kept his Divine Sense strained as far as he could. He was no longer looking for additional spies with skin-masks, but if one of the three people he suspected was a spy, who was to say there weren''t more without brands or skin-masks?
Everyone was a suspect at this point, and if he could catch someone paying unusual attention to him, then he might be able to find a breakthrough point.
People paying unusual attention...? Reivyn thought. That guy at the tavern the other day! He might be a spy. Crud, I missed an opportunity!
Reivyn mentally kicked himself, but there wasn''t anything he could do about it now. Sure, he could go with Kefira on another jaunt with her abilities, but that would be a crime at this point. He wasn''t allowed to just up and leave his duties, and he couldn''t inform the prince about it, either, lest he was a spy and Reivyn tipped his hand.
What a mess.
Reivyn nodded to the guards at the gate to the barracks, and he immediately summoned the officers to the headquarters building for a meeting. Kefira and Seri were still washing up, and Reivyn had to master his Divine Sense Skill like never before to not intrude on their privacy.
It hadn''t been a problem before because Reivyn hadn''t been specifically paying attention to it. It had gone into his perception and filtered into his subconscious each time previously, so he had never considered the issue. This time he had scanned the surroundings deliberately to find everyone, having assumed Kefira and Seri would have already ben finished with their bath.
Now that he had noticed them, it was like his mind was trying to focus his full attention on them. It was like trying to convince himself not to think about something. The harder he tried not to think about it, the more he thought about it.
Reivyn was sitting down with his head in his hands, sweat pouring down his face as he struggled to keep his mind to himself when his father walked in and patted him on the shoulder.
"What''s wrong, Reivyn?" Refix asked.
Reivyn sprang to his feet, grabbed his father by the hand, and dragged him outside.
"Sparring! Now!" Reivyn shouted.
He sprinted out of the building until he could no longer sense even a fraction of an inch beyond the headquarters building and turned to face his father who had followed after him.
"Don''t you want to take a break and rx, first?" Refix asked, confusion on his face.
"No time! Need to spar!"
Reivyn drew his sword, his real sword, andunched himself at his father. Refix pulled his own sword and summoned his ethereal arsenal after sensing Reivyn''s urgency.
Reivyn infused his body and weapons with his Affinities and created another Mana Weapon in his free-hand. He and Refix met together and a furious assault from both parties ensued.
Reviyn pushed himself harder than he had in a long time, so hard that he literally couldn''t focus on anything other than the match in front of him. Refix rebuffed him as usual, but Reivyn could see that his father was actually beginning to struggle a bit to hold him off.
Even with the ethereal arsenal in y, Reivyn was able to dodge, weave, parry, and counterattack to an extent that Refix was never able to get the initiative. It wasn''t enough to put him on the backfoot, but it was enough that Reivyn wasn''t in danger of getting overwhelmed.
Time seemed to disappear, and the the sounds of furiousbat filled thepound. Reivyn was in a world of his own, unable to allow anything into his focus other than the intimidating man standing opposite him.
The sparring match reached a crescendo, and the two used everything they had to try and overthrow the other. A loud crack filled the yard as Refix''s sword was knocked aside and Reivyn''s Mana Weapon swooped in to rest against his throat.
Reivyn came out of his trance at the sudden end of their bout. He turned his head and looked at the de of the ethereal axe resting against the side of his own neck. He looked back to Refix who had a huge grin on his face.
"I don''t know what inspired such a sparring session, but I''m very proud of you!" Refix said with a heartyugh. "You''ve finally managed to bring me to a draw!"
Reivyn''s Mana Weapon and Refix''s ethereal weapons dissolved into motes of Mana, and the two put their swords away. Reivyn''s perception finally broke through his perception and he finally noticed the crowd surrounding them.
Kefira was the first person he saw, and he heaved a sigh of relief to find her out here, fully clothed. The rest of the mercenaries began to p and cheer as the two ended their sparring session.
"Alright, show''s over," Reivyn called. "All of the officers, meet me in the conference room. We have things to discuss."
Refix pped Reivyn on the shoulder as the two walked to the headquarters building. The rest of the soldiers dispersed to go do their own thing, but Reivyn saw several of them go to the training grounds to attempt to learn some of the maneuvers they had seen in the sparring session. Reivyn nodded his head at that.
The officers broke away from the dispersing soldiers and made their way to the headquarters building. Kefira walked made her way over to walk with Reivyn, Seri trailing behind as usual.
The officers found their seats in the conference room, and Reivyn turned to address them.
"Alright, Kefira, Seri, and I managed to get rid of most of the spies, but we encountered an ambush on the way back," Reivyn started. "They knew to interrupt our teleporting abilities, though, and nobody but a few people should know that we had that ability.
"That means there is a high possibility that there are still spies in the city, and they''re ced very high up."
The officers were disciplined enough to not break out into murmurs over the news. Reivyn let them digest the information, though, before he continued.
"There''s not a lot we can do about it in our current situation, but we need to prepare for betrayal during a dangerous time. We need toe up with an exit strategy for the worst-case scenario."
Chapter 193: Familiar Faces
Chapter 193: Familiar Faces
Life once more settled into a routine. The mercenarypany spent most of their time practicing individual and small-unitbat Skills when a toon wasn''t assigned to a patrol duty. The patrol duties were standard every time, but Reivyn made sure that the officers kept a full report for the outposts and themand structure in Piori every time.
Just because they had settled into a routine, there was no reason to get sloppy.
Aside from sparring sessions with his father and Mana sessions with Kefira, Reivyn spent the majority of his time trying to figure out the Skill-sharing Mana-tether Skill the enemy had used. He had groups of individuals use their shared Mana Shield Skill as the breakthrough point, but he had little luck so far.
The other officers studied tactics and strategy for the most part, but they also had their own little homework assignments to try and get experimental data for Reivyn.
Reivyn continued to bear his focus down as much as possible with his Divine Sense Skill at all times, too. He knew the Skill was important to his future growth, but he hadn''t realized how useful it could actually be. He had taken it for granted as a 360-degree super-Perception Skill, but it could be so much more.
He couldn''t focus his attention down to a microscopic level, nor could he zoom out for a bird''s-eye view. That didn''t matter though, as he perceived everything in his range as if he was standing at the optimal distance to see or hear it.
Slowly, the Divine Sense Skill started to show some other interesting changes as it got closer and closer to Skill Level 25. He started seeing little sparks floating in the air or stuck to an object. He didn''t know exactly what he was seeing at first, but it gradually dawned on him.
His Divine Sense Skill was synergizing with his Sense Mana and Mana Sight Skills. He was seeing the Mana directly through his Divine Sense Skill without having to actively focus on his other Mana-sensory Skills.
He increased his training sessions with his Mana Skills to see if it had a passive effect on his Divine Sense Skill or if it was just the Divine Sense, and after raising the two Skills a couple of Levels, he noticed a tangible difference in the Skill.
It took him a little while to get used to the new sensation of seeing sparks of Mana with his Divine Sense Skill, and it led to a couple of embarrassing situations. More than once, while he was just minding his own business, he would reflexively frantically swat at something in front of his face before he realized it wasn''t a giant wasp trying to sting him in the eyes. Several of the mercenaries gave him some strange looks during those little incidents, but he just shrugged it off.
Reivyn was walking along the edge of the training grounds to a squad of mercenaries that were going to participate in his Mana-tether experiments when something tugged at his awareness. He stopped and looked over at a two of the mercenaries standing next to each other in a toon drill practice.
Reivyn came to a stop and really looked at them. One was fairly tall, maybe even an inch or two taller than Reivyn, and the other one that stood out to his senses next to him was considerably shorter, about Kefira''s height. The shorter one was obviously a girl, and it wasn''t anything unusual. The two standing next to each other was slightly strange as they tried to keep the units in order based on height whenever they could, but that also wasn''t what caught his attention.
There was a veritable swarm of Mana sparks clinging to their faces. Reivyn focused his attention further, delving beyond the Mana sparks to inspect their faces more closely. There was no tell-tale sign of a skin-mask on either of them, but they were extremely suspicious.
Reivyn motioned to a soldier walking by. The soldier walked up and gave a salute.
"Run to the headquarters and get Vice-Captain Refix and Lady Kefira," Reivyn said in a low voice. "Actually, scratch that. Don''t run just get their quickly. Snag any of the other officers nearby, as well."
"Yes, sir!" The soldier gave a crisp salute and then turned to briskly walk away toplete the order.
Reivyn continued to meander closer to the toon. They were performing quite well together, he noticed, but he wasn''t really paying that much attention to it. He made sure to keep from focusing his eyesight directly on the pair, but that was all he was paying attention to with his Divine Sense.
It wasn''t long before Refix, Kefira, Seri, and two other officers came walking over in a casual manner. Reivyn looked at them and signaled for the two officers to make their way to the far-side of the toon to surround them. Refix went to the left, and Kefira and Seri went to the right.
Once everyone was in position, Reivyn walked straight up the middle to the two people in question. He unsheathed his sword as he approached, and the toon came to an abrupt halt at his approach.
Reivyn could see sweat trickle down the sides of the faces of the two people in question, much more than was present on anyone else. They did a good job of remaining calm, but Reivyn''s focus on them with his threatening stance let them know they had been caught.
The two shared a look before throwing their weapons down and raising their hands in the air.
"We''re not spies!" The taller of the pair shouted.
The rest of the soldiers were taken aback, and they hastily distanced themselves from the two. All of the spears came up at the ready, pointed toward them.
Reivyn walked right up to the two. His sword was down at his side, but his muscles were tensed enough that a thought could send it streaking in for the kill at a moment''s notice.
The taller soldier heaved a sigh. The Mana-sparks covering their faces seemed to fall away like oil on water, and two familiar faces stared back at Reivyn.
Reivyn stared back at them in stunned silence for a moment before he startedughing loudly. He sheathed his sword, and the rest of the soldiers warily lowered their weapons as well.
Refix came walking over with a frown on his face, but Kefira stared just as intently at the two individuals as Reivyn had as she walked up.
"So, how''ve the two of you been since thest time we met atop the Dagger''s Peak?" Reivyn asked.
The two no longer sported robes and long, flowing hair, but their faces were undeniably those of the two people who had appeared out of nowhere atop the giant mountain and then walked through the air to descend. They were dressed in the mercenary arms and armor, and their hair was neatly tied up in buns to keep it out of the way.
The two shared another look before tentatively lowering their arms to their sides.
"Umm, good, I guess?" The taller man answered.
"Alright, let''s go to my office for a conversation, shall we?"
"Yes, sir."
---
"We''re just out for Life Experience," the male, Xudrid, answered. "When we''re in the lower Regions, we have to disguise ourselves to look like locals as much as possible. Not many people wear the same attire as us, and we have certain distinguishing features and mannerisms that tell us apart."
"I had noticed," Reivyn said wryly. "It''s not every day you see two Tier 4''s walking in the sky."
"It''s a ss Skill," Xudrid said.
"Walking through the air is a ss Skill?" Reivyn''s eyebrows climbed up to his forehead.
"Yeah, our sses are a bit different than those found in the lower Regions. Wee from a sect, and the disciples have a fairly unified ss progression."
"And you''re just, allowed, to tell us this information? I mean, you guys did go through all that trouble to disguise yourselves."
"Oh, no, that''s for us," Xudrid said. "We''re not disguising ourselves to keep secrets about where we''re from, though that is generally one of the consequences. We just need to try and integrate into society as much as possible for our Life Experience excursions."
"I see," Reiyn said, stroking his chin in thought.
"Yeah, it''s not like you''re going to stumble upon our sect any time soon, anyway. It''s in a Tier 7 Region."
Xudrid and hispanion, Vyria, continued to sit casually as if they hadn''t just dropped a huge piece of information on those present. One could hear a pin drop in the silence. From down the hall.
Refix kept a stoic look on his face, though Reivyn could tell from his subtle bodynguage that he was just as surprised as anyone else. Kefira''s mouth dropped open for a moment before she snapped it back closed, and Seri''s eyebrows actually wiggled a bit before settling down.
"The two of you are from a Tier 7 Region?" Reivyn asked.
"Yes, sir," Xudrid nodded his head.
"Forgive my skepticism, but you two are mid-Tier 4. How did you survive? How could anyone survive?"
"Well, let me ask you a question in return," Xudrid said. He waited until Reivyn nodded his head for him to go on. "Who built all of the teleport circles that connect the Tier 4 capital cities?"
"Space Mages, obviously."
"Uh huh. And what happened to them afterward? They didn''t just disappear."
Reivyn tapped his chin in contemtion as he thought about the question.
I''ve never really considered it before, he thought. It''s just been a fact of life that I''ve taken for granted. The Tier 4 capital cities have teleportation circles connecting them across the Realm. Everyone knows that.
But he has a good point. Was the Space Affinity just that much more prolific in the ancient times? Are these teleportation circles the pinnacle of Space Magic? If not, where did they all go?
Xudrid didn''t let the silence linger for too long.
"They moved to the higher Regions," he said. "And as they gained Levels and proficiency in their Skills and Affinities, they got better and better at Space Magic.
"All of this to say, there are sects in Tier 5 through 8 Regions, and they have what we call secret realms to house the lower Tier poption. The Space Mages made pockets of space, very simr to Dungeons, and that''s where the youth and lower Tier individuals live.
"The core disciples of the sects upy the mountain range on the outside, and there are different Tiers of secret realms for the disciples to train in to gain Levels and Experience. It''s not perfect, though, which is why we still have to travel to the lower Realms to shore up our foundations in Life Experience."
"That makes a lot of sense, actually," Reivyn said. "So there are whole empires of super high-Level people out there?"
"Not exactly," Xudrid shook his head. "Sure, the average Tier and Level is considerably higher, but you''re still not going to find a bunch of Tier 7''s or 8''s running around. The core disciples upying the mountain of our sect are Tier 5. A couple of the ancestors are Tier 7.
"Also, our sect is about twice the size of Willowan in poption. You could think of them more asrge city-states as opposed to empires."
"What about these guys?" Reivyn tilted his head in the direction of the front lines. There was no question who he was referring to.
"We know about them, and we have some small interactions with them, but we generally don''t interfere with each other. I couldn''t tell you a whole lot about them, but I do know that us being here fighting with you guys won''t be seen as some sort of political scandal. Competition is actually encouraged."
"Competition? Fighting and killing is ?"
"Oh, sure. They simply follow a different path."
"A different path? Path to what?" Reivyn asked.
"Ascension," Xudrid replied. His tone of voice made it seem like the answer was obvious.
"Ascension?" Reivyn repeated with a t voice.
"Of course. Isn''t that the end goal for everyone reaching for higher and higher Tiers? The sects focus on individual aplishment to achieve ascension, and the only thing I know about them is that they use the collective to channel their power and resources to a select few to bolster their efforts."
"So it''s all about resources, then?" Reivyn asked.
"Most likely," Xudrid shrugged. "Treasure and people."
"Yeah, that tracks," Reivyn said. He nced at Kefira. "Aerie seemed to treat the people they had abducted asmodities to exploit."
"Don''t mention her," Kefira said, turning her face away with a snort.
Reivyn rolled his eyes before turning back to Xudrid. The two sect disciples were together, but Xudrid did all the talking. He had never heard a single utterance from Vyria. Xudrid had been the one to disclose her name.
"So you guyse from a Tier 7 Region. Your sect is the size of arge city-state, and you protect the youths and lower-Leveled people by having them live inside secret realms. You mentioned that your ss progression is fairly unified?"
"Oh, yeah. Collectively we refer to ourselves as Cultivators. At the end of the day, they''re just sses, though. Our sses follow almost exactly the same rules as everyone else, but they''re also typically superior. A lot of the cultivators are pretty arrogant toward non-Cultivators for this reason."
"How are your sses superior? And what are the differences?" Reivyn asked.
"For one, the minimum rarity of all Cultivator-type sses is Epic," Xudrid answered. "That includes Tier 1 and 2. In the lower Regions, Tier 1 sses are mostlymon with some nobility and royals having Umon or Rare. Our Tier 1 ss is the Epic Body Tempering ss.
"As to the differences, ites down to having to perform certain feats in order to qualify for the next Tier Cultivator ss. Our Tier 2 ss is Qi Refining, and it requires us tobine our Stamina and Mana together into one. The result is Qi."
"Interesting. That actually verifies a question I once had but had never really had the time to ponder before. That begs the question, if you canbine Stamina and Mana, what about Health?"
"That falls into what we call Forbidden Skills," Xudrid replied. "They''re not forbidden in the sense that it''s illegal to use them. It''s just that one needs to know what they''re doing before trying them out. Those types of Skills could kill you if you''re not careful."
"I believe it," Reivyn said, nodding his head. He sat in silent contemtion for a moment. "So what are your intentions, now?"
Xudrid and Vyria shared another look. Xudrid turned back to Reivyn to answer.
"We''re here for Life Experience. We saw the notice for the mercenarypany, and we figured it would be the most unique experience we could have. We would like to continue being part of the mercenarypany, if that''s all right."
"I don''t see why not, now that we''ve rified everything," Reivyn said. He nced between Refix and Kefira, and they nodded their heads in support. "You guys have given us a lot to think about, so go ahead and go back to your units. I''ll call yourmanding officer in here to speak to him about it, and I''ll have someone inform your NCO''s, too. There shouldn''t be any problems."
"Thank you, sir," Xudrid replied. He maintained the proper military discipline even though he was someone from a Tier 7 Region.
"Alright, you guys are dismissed. If you think of anything else to contribute to what you know about the invaders, write it down and pass it up the chain ofmand. I''m sure we''ll also have some other talks in the future, if you''re willing. I would consider these conversations outside of our rtionship asmander and subordinate."
"Certainly, certainly."
Xudrid and Vyria rose from their seats, gave salutes, and departed from the office. Reivyn watched them leave the building with his Divine Sense before turning to the other three remaining in the room.
"Well... that''s a lot to think about, isn''t it," he said.
"I''ll say," Refix replied.
Chapter 194: A Sea of Possibilities
Chapter 194: A Sea of Possibilities
"It''s not that difficult tobine Stamina and Mana together," Xudrid said. "The trick is getting it to stay like that."
Reivyn had continued his talks with Xudrid and Vyria. They spoke about the different exploits they had achieved in their respective adventures over the years. The secret realms kept by the sects weren''t just residential zones, though they didn''t have any authentic Dungeons inside of them. They were regrly stocked with captured beasts and monsters from people traveling the lower Regions to serves as training experiences and Experience for the younger disciples.
The talks had eventually led to the differences in their fundamental nature. Qi, being abination of Stamina and Mana, was not able to be infused with an Affinity. As such, the disciples of the sects didn''t pay nearly as much attention to their Affinity training as non-Cultivator ssers.
"You''re a Tier 2 with a Tier 3 ss, so I don''t know if you can even do it, but there''s a reason why the 2nd Tier ss is called Qi Refining," Xudrid continued. "We literally gather the strands of Stamina and Mana inside of ourselves, weave them together, and then store them in a pool in our core.
"When Qi is formed, it is still ethereal, and it can dissipate. Once it is stored in the core, it bes liquid and it is permanent. That means a permanent loss of Stamina and Mana, and a permanent gain of Qi. It''s also not one-for-one. One Stamina plus one Mana is only one Qi."
"Is Qi more powerful than Stamina or Mana?" Reivyn asked.
Reivyn wasn''t the only one present for their discussions, but he was typically the only one that engaged in the conversation. Refix stood to the side, watching and listening with rapt attention at something new he had never heard of before. Kefira sat next to Reivyn with Seri standing behind, and she interjected from time to time as a participant.
Vyria was always with Xudrid, but she never spoke. That didn''t mean she didn''tmunicate, though. It had taken a bit of time, but Reivyn had picked up on her bodynguage, and her snorts and grunts were almost a fully formednguage all on their own. Xudrid had been with her for years, so he was able to immediately pick up on her moods and what she wanted. Reivyn thought their interactions were fascinating, and Kefira shared his opinion on the matter, though Reivyn had to convince her not to try ande up with her own snort-gruntnguage.
"It''s not that Qi is more powerful," Xudrid exined. "You''ve seen the difference in power from different Mages using the same amount of Mana in their Spells. There are far too many variables to pin it on just one thing being stronger.
"The biggest difference is just that Qi can do different things. It''s not just that it acts as Mana or Stamina as a situation dictates. It''s very hard to exin without showing you, and then it''s harder to grasp looking at it than using it for yourself.
"One quick example would be a Qi Shield. A Mana Shield blocks out Mana and physical attacks. One could also have a ss Skill that uses Stamina to do something simr. A Qi Shield, though, blocks, absorbs, disperses, and reflects, all at once. We don''t need to learn separate Skills for it, nor infuse it with different Affinities to get the effect. It also allows us to breathe underwater, and it protects us from the Astral Wind in the atmosphere. It''s an all-in-one Skill."
"That does sound amazing," Reivyn conceded. "What''s the catch?"
"The biggest catch is that it expends Qi quickly, and getting struck by attacks elerates it a lot. Everyone also has a lower Qi pool than one would have of a Mana or Stamina pool, too.
"That''s only for in the lower Tiers, though. That problem is resolved at Tier 4, Golden Core."
"Oh yea, what''s the difference? How does the problem get resolved?"
"In order to advance to Golden Core, at max Level in Tier 3, we have to put 100% of both Stamina and Mana into our cores, regardless of the bnce, and hold it there while we Level up to Tier 4, Level 1. The Qi bes solid, and then when it is extracted for use from our cores, it can be Stamina, Mana, or Qi at will."
"If you have to put 100% of your Stamina and Mana into your core, permanently sacrificing it, how do you survive?" Kefira asked.
"It''s not easy," Xudrid said, shaking his head. "Not everybody does. There''s a washout at each Tier. A good rule to go by is to take the Tier one is in, multiply it by 10%, and that amount of people will fail to reach the next Cultivator ss. Golden Core is particrly difficult, as those that fail will die, and it''s about 30%."
"Wow, I''m not sure I would have the guts to go down that path," Kefira said.
"Not even all of the Cultivators do, either," Xudrid said. "A significant portion of people in Tier 3, Foundation Building, simply don''t try to form a Golden Core. They choose to keep their Stamina, Mana, and Qi pools how they''ve developed up to that point, and they switch to a non-Cultivator ss. It''s not a big deal. Cultivator sses are, like I said before, just sses at the end of the day."
"So, the names of the sses have to mean something," Refix spoke up. Everyone turned their heads to look at him. "You said Tier 3 is Foundation Building, so I''m guessing it''s necessary to have these specific sses in order to tread down this path? Someone like me, a Tier 5, wouldn''t be able to suddenly switch over to a Cultivator ss?"
"That''s exactly right," Xudrid confirmed. "You could form Qi from your Stamina and Mana. That''s not hard. But because your meridian pathways have developed to such an extent, it is impossible to turn it into a liquid and permanently store it in your core. That means you also wouldn''t be able to shove all of it into a Golden Core. I''m not sure you would want to try that anyway, as you would simply have way too much Stamina and Mana. If someone has tens of thousands of points, their Golden Core is likely to explode from the built-up pressure."
"Is that why you said you didn''t know if I could do it or not?" Reivyn asked. "Because I have the meridian pathways of a Tier 3 ss?"
"Yes. You would have to try and form a Qi pool in your core to know. I''ve never heard of a non-Cultivator Tier 2 doing so, but that''s mostly because they''re too weak. They haven''t built up enough Stamina and Mana reserves to umte enough Qi to qualify for the Tier 3 Foundation Building ss."
"What about someone with a sufficiently powerful Bloodline?" Reivyn asked.
"There typically aren''t any powerful enough Bloodlines in the lower Regions to make up for it. You have to understand that the Cultivators have Bloodlines, too, and because of the nature of where the sects are located, even the lowest Bloodline is going to be superior to what can be found in the lower Regions.
"An imperial Bloodline in the lower Realms will be around twenty thresholds. Those are some of the strongest Bloodlines in the lower Regions. The weakest Bloodline that I''ve heard of in a Tier 7 sect has 30 thresholds. The Patriarchal family of our sect, one of the highest even among Tier 8 sects, has 70 thresholds. Finally, there are some unique constitutions among Bloodlines that give 80.
"Now, couple all of that with our Epic Rarity Tier 1 and 2 sses, and the fact that 20% of those that make it to Qi Refining don''t have enough Qi to qualify for the Tier 3 Cultivator ss, you can see how it would be difficult for someone from the lower Regions to aplish it."
Reivyn had to try very hard to prevent himself from sharing a look with Kefira when Xudrid had mentioned the different thresholds of the Bloodlines. He saw her look at him with his Divine Sense, but he kept his focus on Xudrid.
If 80 thresholds is the pinnacle of someone with a superior Bloodline plus a unique constitution, then what does my 100 threshold Bloodline mean? Reivyn thought.
"Ok, so back to the nature of Qi," Reivyn said. "If you can''t infuse an Affinity into the Qi, does that mean you can''t use Elemental Skills or attacks?"
Xudrid held his hand out, and a me popped up, hovering over his outstretched hand. Reivyn hadn''t noticed any kind of Mana fluctuation prior, and he couldn''t detect any Mana from the little me, either. For that matter, he noticed that he couldn''t see Qi with his Divine Sense or and of his Mana sensory Skills, either.
"It''s not that we can''t do it, it''s just a bitplicated," Xudrid said. "If you decide to umte a pool of Qi, and you do it sessfully, I''ll exin it to you.
"I don''t know the principles behind why Qi can''t hold an Affinity, though. That''s just how it has always been, and nobody questions it beyond doing some shallow experiments when we''re young.
"Every Cultivator, especially the ones with unique sses, thinks they''re the next ancestor of a new Cultivation method. It''s just within grasp. We can see it, feel it, and everybody always thinks they''re just on the verge of breakthrough... and then it slips through our fingers. We''ve all done it."
Reivyn nced at Vyria and noticed her face blush and her body fidget a bit. Xudrid also nced over, a small smile forming on his lips.
I''m guessing she went through a phase where she was convinced she was the "chosen one" or something, Reivyn mentally chuckled.
"Wait, does Vyria have a unique ss?" Kefira asked.
Reivyn looked at Kefira with raised eyebrows before looking back to Xudrid and Vyria. The question lingered in the air until Vyria coughed into her hand.
"She does," Xudrid replied.
Apparently, that cough was some sort of confirmation for him to answer.
"She''s a Sword Cultivator. She was born with a unique constitution, and she has a six-soul talent. She''s the biggest hope for achieving the Divine ss: Sword Immortal that''s appeared in hundreds of thousands of years."
Refix gave out a low whistle as everyone else stared at Vyria in astonishment.
"Wait, Divine ss?" Reivyn asked. "I thought only an Ascended Being could grant a Divine ss to someone."
"You''re 90% correct," Xudrid said. "The ss itself is Divine Rarity, but because we''re in the lower Realms, it won''t be powered by Divine Mana, thus it will be counted as a Pseudo-Divine ss. If she''s able to achieve the ss and Ascend one day, it will get empowered by Divine Mana and it will automatically upgrade to fully Divine Rarity."
Reivyn''s Divine Sense and Perfect Domain Skills shed through his mind.
So it''s not just Skills, but also entire sses that can function under this rule. Interesting.
"I think I''m going to do it," Reivyn said. Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to borate. "I think I''m going to try and form a Qi pool. You never know, the System recognizes my Tier as still Tier 2, so maybe even though I have the pathways of a Tier 3 ss, I can still do it. I don''t know if I''ll be able to unlock the Foundation Building ss, and, frankly, I don''t think I would take it anyway, but there''s no harm in it. I have tons of Stamina and Mana to spare."
"Yeah, you''re situation is unique," Xudrid said. "There are records of people achieving forced ss transitions in Tier 1 and Tier 2 in the ancient records, but I don''t think any of them were as powerful as you are.
"But, if I may, why wouldn''t you take the Foundation Building ss? It has so much potential for your future growth."
"You said Foundation Building is Epic Rarity?" Reivyn asked back. Xudrid nodded his head. "My current ss is a higher Rarity, already. I would be taking a step back if I went with it."
Xudrid, and even Vyria, stopped and stared at Reivyn for several seconds as they processed that information. It wasn''t a secret, but it also wasn''t widely publicized that Reivyn had a Mythic ss. The two Cultivators had assumed he had an upgraded Rare or Epic Rarity ss, not an upgraded Legendary one.
"I see..." Xudrid said, trailing off. Vyria once more coughed into her hand. Reivyn picked up a slight difference in the vibrations of the sound through his Divine Sense. "Yes, I think you''re right. This has endless research possibilities."
Vyria got up from her position sitting next to Xudrid. She walked over and sat down directly in front of Reivyn and looked him in the eye.
"Reivyn, would it be possible for the two of us to continue to follow you for a time, even after this business with the Mercenary Company?" She asked. Her voice was very pleasant, and it reminded Reivyn of the tinkling of wind chimes.
Reivyn shared a look with Kefira and his father. They both nodded their heads. Refix was particrly enthusiastic.
"Oh, the training possibilities!" Refix shout-whispered, pumping his fist in excitement.
Kefira rolled her eyes and smirked at Reivyn. Reivyn just chuckled and shook his head.
"Certainly, that won''t be a problem," Reivyn said. "I''m probably going to be messing with the Mercenary Company even after this particr military action is over, but you''re wee to leave the ranks and join us as friends at that time."
Chapter 195: Refined Skills
Chapter 195: Refined Skills
Reivyn sat in the lotus position. He was deep in Meditation as he considered the little speck of Qi he had generated. He couldn''t pull it out of his body, so it simply sat in his core with the rest of his Mana pool. The Qi speck was almost iprehensively tinypared to his vast reserves of Mana all around it. It was made from only one point of Stamina and Mana.
Okay, so like Xudrid said, creating the Qi was simple, Reivyn contemted. It was almost at the snap of my fingers. Now, how do I turn it into a liquid?
Reivyn observed the speck from all directions. He couldn''t pull it out of himself to manipte it, so he delved his consciousness into his core. He made the Qi speck flit about and perform amusing maneuvers, but nothing was changing the nature of the Qi.
An interesting aspect that Reivyn noted was that there was always a little bubble of separation between the Qi and the Mana. The two never came into physical, or in this case metaphysical, contact with each other.
Well, the process can''t be tooplicated, Reivyn thought. I guess we''ll just try out the usual.
Reivyn brought his willpower down upon the Qi speck and shot it through his meridian pathways. As soon as the Qi speck left his core and entered the beginnings of theplicated and winding paths of his meridian channels, ethereal smoke started to dissipate off of the Qi speck.
Within only a few seconds, the Qi speck disappeared, and his Stamina and Mana pools ticked up by one point.
Reivyn could tell that there were some changes being wrought upon the Qi, but he had so little of it that it disappeared before any of those changes could be made.
Is this what they mean by Qi Refining? He thought.Literally, refining the gaseous Qi into liquid Qi by running it through our meridians?
If one point of Qi isn''t enough, we''ll just have to umte more.
Reivyn once more summoned his Stamina and Mana pools. He extracted ten points from each pool and wove them together. It wasn''t the same thing as weaving Mana for Spells. He wasn''t left with distinct weaves or patterns. Instead, through the process of weaving them together, the two forms of energy melded together until theybined into one.
The Qi speck he was left with was ten timesrger than the first one, though that still meant it was microscopicpared to the Mana sitting in his core. Reivyn mustered his will and once more forced the Qi into his meridian pathway.
The Qi was in a gaseous state and wanted to slip out of his control like any other gas would. He had to keep a constant focus on the Qi he was controlling to keep it together.
The ethereal smoke started bleeding off of it once more, and as the Qi traveled his pathways, the main substance of it began to shrink and condense. He was less than halfway through his channels when the ten points once morepletely dissipated into nothing, and his Stamina and Mana pools once more ticked back up to 100%.
I don''t believe it! If ten points aren''t enough, try one hundred points!
Reivyn drained his resources and formed another Qi speck. He didn''t waste any time observing it and immediately forced it into his meridian channel. The Qi speck this time was a bit more wild and out of control, and it was too big tofortably fit in his meridian channel.
Pain wracked Reivyn''s body wherever the Qi passed through, but no damage was done to the meridians. It seemed like the ethereal smoke dissipating off of the Qi was healing the wear and tear done to the channels as the Qi passed through.
The Qi continued to shrink and condense, but it didn''t give his meridian channels any relief. Reivyn didn''t mind, though, as he recognized that this was a blessing in disguise.
One''s own Mana was gentle to one''s own body, even when infused with deadly Affinities. Just passing the Mana through the meridian channels didn''t have any substantive effect on the channels themselves. It wasmon knowledge that the System upgraded one''s meridian channels when one increased in Tier.
That included moreplex pathways as well as the quality of the meridian channels themselves. That was the only known way to increase one''s meridian channel quality that Reivyn was aware of. That didn''t mean other people didn''t know of another solution, but Reivyn had never heard of it.
The Qi passing through made the Meridians act like a muscle that was being exercised. Small tears umted from the strain of pushing the Qi through, but the smoke instantly repaired the tears instead of having to suffer through muscle soreness.
Passing the Qi through his meridians was a slog. It was much slower than channeling Mana through the pathways. It took Reivyn almost an hour to get the one hundred points of Qi all the way through and back to his core.
By the time the Qi made it back to his core, it had fundamentally changed. No longer was it a gaseous form that he had to constantly corral to keep together. A small trickle of liquid Qi, made up of just five points, sloshed its way into his core, where it settled.
Reivyn nced at his Stamina and Mana pools in his Status, and they had each reduced by five points in the maximum column. A new line was also present in his Status.
Achievement! Refine Qi! Unlock the new resource permanently
Achievement! Refine Qi without a Cultivator ss! All Stats +3
Achievement! Refine Initial Qi with Tier 3 Meridian Pathways! Upgrade the quality of Qi by one whole Tier
Wait, what? Reivyn was dumbfounded at the Achievements. The first one made sense to him, and it was more of a notification than an Achievement. The reward wasn''t something given by the System for the Achievement. Or is it? I mean, which came first? The chicken or the egg?
It wasn''t the first Achievement that stunned him. It wasn''t even the second one that caught him off guard, though it was a pleasant surprise. The third Achievement left him confused and needing answers.
The quality of Qi? He thought. From the context, I''m guessing that the quality of Qi is based on the Tier of meridian channels. Is that why it''s impossible to form Qi in Tier 3 or above for most people? With the rate that the Qi dissipated as it passed through the channels, one would need to have at least a hundred points of Qi just to get five permanent points like I did.
I''m guessing there''s usually a wall that people with no Qi usually can''t pass through. The meridian channels are just too narrow and weak for one hundred points to safely pass through. It''s most likely the fact that my ss is Mythic, so my Tier 3 channels are already sturdy enough to handle it.
That begs another question: What Rarity is the minimum needed in Tier 3 to aplish the task? Is it Mythic, or is it Legendary. From what I gather, Epic isn''t strong enough. That''s probably why it''s hard for Tier 2 non-Cultivators to form a permanent Qi pool, too. Rare Rarity sses just don''t produce strong enough meridians.
Reivyn''s gut told him he had the right answer. With that mystery solved, it was time to get answers about the quality of Qi. Xudrid hadn''t said anything about further refining Qi as they increased in Tier, but that was probably only because he hadn''t gotten to that step yet.
Well, I can hold off on going to find Xudrid right now, Reivyn thought, calming himself down. It''s gettingte. I might as well do a few more passes to increase my Qi pool.
Reivyn had decided to refine a whopping 1,000 points of permanent Qi. If it took an hour to process one hundred points of gaseous Qi into five points of liquid Qi, though, that was going to take a while.
Reivyn gathered up another mass of gaseous Qi and once more sent it through his meridian pathways.
---
"Yeah, you have to refine your Qi every time you upgrade to a new Tier," Xudrid confirmed. "It''s one of the basic requirements. Even Vyria and I have to do it with the Qi in our Golden Cores. Let me tell you, it bes a chore at Golden Core."
Reivyn stared at Xudrid. Xudrid stared back. Neither one of them had an expression on their face.
"Was that on purpose?" Reivyn asked.
"I don''t know what you mean."
The two stared at each other for another moment.
"Anyway, liquid Qi inside your core starts off at Tier 2. Everyone has a minuscule amount of Qi inside their bodies, much like everyone has a minuscule amount of Mana, even if they''re not born with the talent to use it. In fact, that''s why everyone has Qi. Stamina and Mana mix on the micro-scale without anyone trying to do it. The ancient records in the sect say that''s how the first Cultivators learned how to be Cultivators in the first ce."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said, nodding his head. "The first iteration has toe from somewhere, and how would anyone know to try something without first observing it or knowing about it?"
"Yup. Anyway, you''re in Tier 2, but you have Tier 3 meridian channels, so you''re Qi should be Tier 3 to start off with. Not having created Tier 2 Qi, you won''t notice a difference until your first re-refining."
Reivyn left off the part about getting an Achievement that elevated his Qi quality. His Qi was, in fact, Tier 4, but he wasn''t going to reveal that secret for no reason.
"Is it always this inefficient to refine Qi?" Reivyn asked.
"No, not at all," Xudrid shook his head. "It gets worse. For me to refine my Tier 3 Qi into Tier 4 Qi, I have to gather up 500 points to get ten. And it has to be at least 500 points. The efficiency doesn''t scale down. If I gather 499 points of Qi, I won''t get nine points of refined Qi; I''ll get zero and have to start over with 500.
"That being said, Tier 2 Qi Refining Cultivators typically only need to gather 20 points worth of Tier 1 Qi to get two points of Tier 2 Qi. The fact that you needed a hundred points is proof enough your starting quality is Tier 3.
"But, if you n on improving your Qi in the future, don''t fall into the trap ofcency. Eventually, your meridians will adapt to the strain of one hundred points worth of Qi, and you won''t suffer any strain nor gain any benefits. It''s rmended to always use enough Qi to cause at least the same level of strain as the minimum. If you don''t, you''ll have a really hard time when you have to go from one hundred points to five hundred points."
"Upgrading Tiers doesn''t handle that?"
"It has some small effect, but it''s not enough. Plus, your pathways will be longer and moreplex on top of improving in quality."
"I see. So I should aim for being able to handle 500 points of Qi before reaching Tier 4?" Reivyn didn''t know if the increase in quality was done after the fact as a pure reward from the System, or if he would actually have a harder time with having to refine a Tier above himself in the future. Only time would tell, and he wouldn''t find out until he reached Tier 4.
"Of course not," Xudrid denied. "You''ll want to aim for around half-way, so 250 points. There''s nosting benefit to going further, as increasing your meridian quality above that for your current Tier won''t have any benefit, and it''s perfectly fine for preparing for the next Tier. It will also mean that your rate of refining will increase once your meridians adapt to that amount. The Qi will flow as fast and easy as Mana at that point."
"Alright, thanks for the information. Now..."
Reivyn was cut off from asking his next question as a loud boom and shockwave rocked the office they were conversing in. Reivyn searched out with his Divine Sense but didn''t pick anything up. There weren''t even that many people milling about within his range, but the few that were weren''t panicking or anything.
"What was that?" Xurdrid asked, shooting up to his feet.
"I don''t know, but I don''t think it''s an enemy attack," Reivyn replied.
There were no rms going off, and Reivyn didn''t see anyone outside of the building scrambling to take action.
"Let''s go see."
The two left Reivyn''s office and headed out of the headquarters building. Whatever had caused themotion wasn''t within range of his Divine Sense before he stepped out of the building, so he had to investigate the old-fashioned way: with his eyes.
Reivyn immediately spotted the source: His father was sparring with Vyria.
Reivyn came to a stop as he looked up and up and up at the huge, ethereal sword springing up from Vyria. Refix stood with his sword and ethereal arsenal at the ready. Vyria hadn''t even drawn her weapon yet, and she stood hugging her sword to herself as he had first seen atop Dagger Mountain.
A pulse of energy that Reivyn could barely perceive went out with Vyria as the epicenter, and Refixunched himself to the side while parrying with all he had. A giant rent appeared in the ground where he had stood from the force of the energy attack produced by Vyria.
The gash in the ground wasn''t deep. It was only a few inches in depth, but it matched the length of the height of the ethereal sword surrounding her.
Refix immediately dashed in to close the distance between the two, shing his sword as he leapt forward. He wasughing manically as he performed the maneuver, but another energy pulse heralded an ethereal parry from Vyria.
Refix matched his strike to the parry, and he was stopped in ce. He didn''t get pushed back, but it seemed like he was pressing his sword against an invisible wall. If Reivyn could barely perceive the energy from Vyria, he would have no idea what was going on.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment as they stood, locked in position, before Refix powered through andpleted his sword swing. Vyria had a look of surprise on her face as she danced back, finally baring some steel from her sword as she blocked the strike.
She was lifted up off the ground and tossed away like a rag doll from the force of the blow, and Reivyn could see her eyes open wide with even more astonishment. Reivyn could tell from the way she was blown away that Refix had altered the nature of his sh to match a heavy blow from a warhammer.
Vyria deftly gained control of her momentum in the air, and she silently fluttered to the ground. Before her feet touched dirt, though, another pulse preceded another st of energy aimed at Refix.
Refix became a veritable tornado of steel and ethereal weapons as he used the centrifugal force to alter the trajectory of the energy while once more advancing on Vyria.
"You''ll have to do better than that, girl!" Refix shouted.
A clear ringing filled the air, and Reivyn''s own sword at his side seemed to resonate with the sound. He looked down at it, and he could almost feel that the sword wanted to be released from its scabbard.
Vyria had drawn her own swordpletely out of the sheathe, and she took up a stance where she dual-wielded her sword with her scabbard. She matched Refix in intensity as she met his onught, and the two were locked in a deadly dance.
Vyria performed just as well as Refix, matching him blow for blow. Neither one could get the upper hand, and even Refix''s ethereal arsenal was unable to distract her enough for him to get the upper hand in the conflict.
Reivyn watched in awe as Vyria transformed from a meek girl into the definition of a human weapon. He felt like he wasn''t looking at a person wielding a sword but just a sword fighting another person. He didn''t know how to urately describe the sensation, but it was a level of oneness with the sword that he and his father were unable to attain with their Skill Level.
"Wait, has Vyria reached Transcendence with her Swords Skill?" Reivyn asked, turning to Xudrid.
"Of course," Xudrid confirmed, nodding his head. "The patriarch wouldn''t have let here out to experience the wider world without much more supervision than pairing up with me if she hadn''t."
"What''s her Transcendent ability, if it''s not a secret?" Reivyn queried.
"Sword Body," Xudrid said. "She isn''t just one with her sword. She is the sword. It might sound like it''s the same thing, but it''s not. There''s a world of difference, as you can see."
"Yeah, I see it," Reivyn chuckled. Vyria was actually pressing Refix onto the defensive as their match continued. "Was that giant ethereal sword a Qi Skill?"
"That''s right. Though she''s uniquely suited to using the Skill with her unique constitution. It basically costs her no Qi to keep it up and use it indefinitely."
"That seems almost unfair," Reivyn said.
"You''re one to talk," Xudrid snorted. "I''ve seen some of your Magic practice. You can bombard high-Level Spells almost without end, and the variation and utility you bring to it are unheard of. Most Tier 4 Mages and below that I know of only have easy ess to Spell Casting as you do for their ss Spells. They have to actually take some time to formte anything moreplicated."
"Oh, well, I have a secret for you," Reivyn said, ncing at Xudrid out of the corner of his eye. Xudrid turned to look at him, as well. "Those are ss Spells. Almost all of them."
"Wha-?" Xudrid was once more dumbfounded. That revtion was almost too much for him, and it seemed like his brain was about to short-circuit. "I''ve seen you Cast, like, a hundred different variations of your Spells!"
"What can I say?" Reivyn shrugged. "I have a good ss."
"I can see why you''re skeptical of switching to a Cultivator ss," Xudrid said.
Reivyn just smiled. He spotted Kefira and Seri watching the match in the distance, and he gave them a little wave when Kefira looked over at him and Xudrid standing there.
The sparring session was winding down, and it seemed like Vyria was going toe out on top. Refix wasn''t out of the match yet, though, and he still had a few surprises up his sleeve.
A pulse of Mana spread out from Refix, one that Reivyn had never seen his father conjure before, and a barrage of Spells formed above his head andunched themselves at Vyria. They were simple Bolt Spells, but the surprise attack, coupled with Refix''s Skill with his sword and his ethereal arsenal, was enough to catch Vyria off guard. Refix knocked her de away, and his own came to rest with the tip a fraction of an inch away from her throat.
"That was an excellent match," Refix said. "I couldn''t have beat you with my Sword Skill alone."
The surrounds burst out into cheers as Refix lowered his sword. Reivyn and Xudrid joined in on the congrattions. They made their way to the two standing in the sparring pit as the rest of the crowd dispersed to attend to their own duties once more.
"I had no idea you were so aplished with your Sword Skill," Reivyn said to Vyria. "I''ll definitely have to try my hand at a sparring session with you. Maybe we can get a one-verse-one-verse one melee match going with all three of us."
"Now, that sounds like a fantastic idea!" Refix shouted with a grin on his face.
"I can agree to that," Vyria said. "But I would like your help with something else in return."
Reivyn was slightly surprised that she spoke out on her own. He had expected Xudrid to once more do the talking for her.
"Sure, what''s that?"
"Can you help us with our Spear and Shield Skills? Xudrid and I are quite dreadful at them."
Reivyn stared into her eyes for a second before he chuckled.
"After witnessing that disy, it had slipped my mind that you and Xudrid are beginners with those Skills," he said. "Sure, that''s no problem."
"Thank you," Vyria nodded her head once before putting her sword back into its scabbard and hugging it to her chest again.
"Excellent!" Refix pped his hands together. He rubbed them together enthusiastically with a manic grin on his face. "I have just the training regimen for it."
Chapter 196: Timing
Chapter 196: Timing
Reivyn continued to work on his own personal improvement during his free time. He couldn''t dedicate his time specifically toward building his Qi pool. He didn''t let any of his Skills fall by the wayside.
That was only during his personal time, though. His duties throughout the day were mainly to make sure the mercenaries were always doing something productive. That didn''t mean they were constantly training. Keeping morale up by allowing leisure and rest time was an important mission. There was a delicate bnce between driving the men hard enough to constantly improve and be ready at all times and keeping their spirits up.
The amount of alcohol consumed by a unit was a direct corrtion to the level of morale, and Reivyn was pleased that there hadn''t been any incidents fueled by over consumption of the substance.
Alcohol was prohibited from entering the barracks, period, and the officers and NCO''s did a good job keeping it out, but it wasn''t forbidden for the men and women to indulge themselves when they knew they weren''t going to be on duty.
If they weren''t stationed at a wartime camp, the restrictions on alcohol would be lessened, though never removed entirely. It was one thing to tolerate it, but it was another thing entirely to encourage it.
Reivyn wasn''t worried that the mercenary soldiers would be too drunk to perform if the city was unexpectedly attacked, either. With magical means and potions from the alchemists, it was possible to sober up extremely quickly. It wasn''t pleasant, though. It involved the forced expulsion of the poison from their system.
Reivyn wasn''t much of a drinker himself, and he was always on duty as themander, so he never participated. He wasn''t aloof to the other officers throughout the city, either. They had gotten together on multiple asions to build a rapport between each other, but Reivyn opted for drinks that wouldn''t negatively affect him.
Some of the younger officers had thought it would be funny to spike Reivyn''s drink on asion. They weren''t doing it out of malice, and the amount of alcohol they tried to slip him would barely make him tipsy, but none of them had ever seeded. They couldn''t figure out how Reivyn seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and always managed to spot their attempts. It had be a sort of game to see who could pull it off.
Reivyn wasn''t mad about it, either. He recognized they were just trying to blow off steam. He even actively participated in the shenanigans. He would feign to not notice until the veryst moment when the cup reached his lips, but he would always smirk and wink at the person responsible as he sat the drink back down and ordered a new one.
He had endeared himself to the younger officers with his willingness to go along with their fun and not hold a grudge, and he had gained the respect of the older officers with hispetence in running his mercenarypany.
Nobody had seen him fight before, but stories spread as the mercenaries bragged to the other soldiers in the city. Refix had gained quite a bit of notoriety, and Vyria couldn''t leave the barracks without a disguise for fear of being followed by adoring fans. Word of her prowess with the sword had gotten out, and she was a beautiful young girl, too.
Reivyn had to shut down some of the younger officers who asked to be introduced to her a couple times. After outright rejecting all overtures, though, they stopped trying to get him to intercede.
The young officers weren''t looking for a fling with one of Reivyn''s subordinates. They were looking for wives to marry into their families, so Reivyn wasn''t offended. It wasn''t Reivyn''s ce to exin her circumstances to anyone, though, so he just said there was a situation they were unaware of that precluded her from seeking a marriage partner.
Reivyn had ryed this information to the two Cultivators. Xudrid hadughed it off, and Vyria''s face had turned red with embarrassment. Xudrid had exined that she was the daughter of the patriarch of their sect, so he assumed she had never encountered a situation where anyone was so bold as to proim their intentions outright. They thanked Reivyn for his discretion and it was left at that.
Life in the city of Piori went on, but Reivyn never let himself forget that they were technically on the front lines of a war. Everything seemed peaceful on the surface, but there was still that strange undercurrent with the washed out colors and strange sense to the ambient Mana.
The patrols continued, and some of the toons even took turns manning some of the outposts for a turn. So far, it seemed like the invaders were content with whatever they were doing beyond their sight.
---
"Reivyn, do you have a moment?" Kefira knocked on his office door and walked in.
Reivyn immediately put his reports down and stood up as he motioned for Kefira to take a seat across from him.
"I always have a moment for you, you know that," Reivyn said with a smile. Kefira didn''t smile back.
"We''ve been here for three months now..." She said, trailing off.
"I know. Time seems to fly around here," Reivyn nodded his head.
"Yes, but it''s already been three months..." Kefira emphasized the time again.
Reivyn frowned as the tried to figure out what she was alluding to. It only took him a moment to remember, though, and his smile also slipped from his face.
"So you''re heading back, now?" Reivyn asked.
"I''m afraid so," Kefira said with a sigh. "I tried to feign ignorance, but Sefia has been keeping close track of the passage of time. I tried to argue with her that we were stationed on the front lines so it was inappropriate for me to leave right now, but she countered that it only applied if we were in active battle or siege with the enemy."
"Hmm, yes, that is how your mother put it."
"So I have to go, and I can''t dawdle, either. I thought I was pulling a fast one one Sefia, but it looks like my ns backfired. She timed her reminder in such a way that the teleporters won''t immediately be synced up to Wispan, and she ambushed me with an invitation to a ball from Alwin. I can''t ignore it this time, either, and I''ll have to perform my ''diplomatic'' duties before I can leave."
"In that case, I''ll see about getting permission to visit the capital with you," Reivyn said. "I can leave my father in charge. All of the officers arepetent, and everyone respects him and will follow his orders."
"Good. I can wait as long as it takes for you to go speak to prince Allik, but I''ll have to leave soon."
"Then I better hurry, huh?" Reivyn said.
He stood up and walked around the desk. Kefira stood up, and the two shared an embrace before they left. Kefira went to her room where Seri was packing away their things, and Reivyn made his way outside.
Before Reivyn left the barracks, he made his way over to his father who was watching a toon of soldiers drill. Refix turned and faced his son with an expectant look on his face as Reivyn approached.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
"Dad, it''s the appointed time for Kefira to leave to go back to Wispan for a time," he said. "I''m going to go speak to prince Allik and see about apanying her to the capital."
"Alright, son," Refix nodded. He pped Reivyn on the shoulder with a grin on his face. "You have nothing to worry about here. We can hold the fort."
"Thanks, dad."
Reivyn once more made his way through the city to the headquarters building. He wasn''t running through the streets, but he wasn''t wasting any time either. He still kept his Divine Sense on full st. Its range had continued to expand as he gained Levels in the Skill.
The guards on duty outside the headquarters simply waved Reivyn through, and he made his way up to the prince''s office. He hadn''t had much reason to visit the prince outside of the morning briefings for a while, but nothing had changed.
The retainer was still busy with his own job in the side room, and Prince Allik was busy managing the overall situation. Reivyn knocked on the door and waited. He noticed that the retainer lifted his head and seemed to nce at Reivyn''s position from within his closed office for a moment, but he quickly put his attention back to his task.
Hmm, I don''t know if that''s suspicious or not, Reivyn mused. On the one hand, it''s suspicious that he can apparently see me or something. On the other hand, it''s perfectly reasonable that he would be able to keep tabs on whoever approaches the prince''s office.
Reivyn didn''t have to wait long before Prince Allik summoned him.
"Enter," Prince Allik called from behind his closed door.
Reivyn walked into the office and performed a salute to the prince in front of his desk.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Prince Allik asked.
"Sir, Princess Kefira has been recalled to Wispan per her agreement with her mother," Reivyn said. "She has an invitation to a ball from your brother, Prince Alwin, in the capital, and I seek permission to apany her."
"Denied," Prince Allik said. Reivyn fought to keep a frown off of his face, but Prince Allik continued his exnation. "It''s not that I want to keep you here, it''s that I need to keep you here. If there wasn''t that debacle with the spies, it would be easy to let you go, but you''re the only one who can spot them. Until something changes, I''m afraid I can''t let you go."
"I understand, sir," Reivyn said.
"Was there anything else?"
"No, sir."
"Very well. I''m sorry, Captain Reivyn, but it''s just not a good time. I''llpromise with you, though. Calcte when Princess Kefira is to return from Wispan, and if nothing happens from now until then, I''ll let you pick her up in the capital. Does that work?"
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
"Dismissed."
Prince Allik turned back to his reports. Reivyn did an about face and exited the office. There was no use in arguing the point with his superior officer. He wasn''t going to convince him to change his mind, and it would only lower the prince''s opinion of him. Nomander wanted a whiney back-talker.
Reivyn''s spirits were low on his return trip to the barracks, but he didn''t let it show on his face. He made quick time once again, lest Kefira ran out of time waiting for him and had to leave. It could be argued that Kefira could choose her own time of departure, but Sefia would definitely report back to her mother that she was being unreasonable, so there was no reason to do so.
Kefira and her entourage were waiting at the gate of the barracks when Reivyn returned. Two squads from First toon were standing by, waiting to escort her back to the capital. Reivyn nodded his to his father at the sight, and Refix grinned back.
Reivyn walked up and ced his hands on Kefira''s hips. She raised her own hands to rest them on his forearms.
"I''m sorry, Kefira, but Prince Allik didn''t give me permission to go," Reivyn said.
"I see," Kefira replied with a pout.
"He''s going to let me pick you up on your return trip, though, so at least we''ll see each other a couple days sooner."
"I guess," Kefira sighed.
The two hugged, and Reivyn gave her a farewell kiss. Their lips lingered a bit longer than usual, but they didn''t do anything inappropriate in front of such arge crowd. For once, Seri smirked at the public disy of affection. She was gloating at the impatient Sefia, who was tapping her foot and looking around like she couldn''t believe they hadn''t left already.
"I''ll see you soon," Reivyn whispered into Kefira''s ear.
"Not soon enough."
---
Reivyn once more threw himself into his training. This was the first time he and Kefira would be separated for a significant amount of time since they had first met each other. They would be apart for considerably more time than they had been separated during the invasion in Drallo.
Reivyn didn''t let himself get distracted, though. He knew that it wasn''t a permanent separation, and the time for Kefira to return would arrive before he knew it. He still had to make up for the several hours each day that he could no longer practice Mana exercises with her, though.
The nights weren''t lonely, but he missed the time he spent with Kefira. He could still practice his Mana Skills and Affinities, but it wasn''t as enjoyable as it had been.
---
Reivyn was going over some documents at his desk when he picked up someone frantically entering the headquarters building and making their way up to the second floor. He set the papers down and exited the office to wait for the man in the hallway.
"Sir, there''s a situation with the returning patrol," the young man gave a salute before reporting.
"Oh, what''s the situation?" Reivyn asked as he immediately made to descend the stairs. The runner followed closely behind and to the left.
"There are several people injured this time," he answered.
"I see. Go inform the other officers."
"Yes, sir!"
The runner split from following Reivyn as they exited the building. Reivyn immediately spotted the toon just outside of the growing range of his Divine Sense, and he quickly made his way over.
Reivyn did a mental head count as he walked over, and he was mollified to see that there weren''t any missing among their numbers. They were all exhausted, though, and he could see several mercenaries sporting bloody bandages from field dressings.
"Report!" Reivyn barked as he walked up to the toonmander.
"Sir!" The lieutenant saluted and immediatelyunched into his report. "We ran into a skirmish with enemy troops on the way back from the outpost. They weren''t lying in ambush or anything, we just happened to cross paths. A fight broke out, and the enemy soldiers managed to flee."
"Casualties?"
"No wounds that would obstruct anyone from their duties on our side, but we didn''t kill any of their soldiers, either."
"So they weren''t the ones with ''1''s'' branded on their heads?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"No, sir. They were all armed and armored decently. They all had helmets on, though, so we didn''t get a good look at their Number. If I had to guess based on my experience in Drallo, I would say they were at least Number 3 with a Number 4mander."
"I see. You did good to prevent any casualties on our side. As long as none of ours die, it''s a sess in my eyes.
"Have the NCO''s make sure the men are taken care of, and immediatelypile your report. I''ll need to get a copy to the Prince as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir!" The lieutenant saluted.
The other officers had arrived while Reivyn was in the middle of getting the report. He turned to Lieutenant Jeckle.
"Lieutenant Jeckle, send one of the irregrs to run to the Prince and inform him of the situation. Make sure he knows that a written report will immediately be sent over once it''s ready. Meet with us in the conference room once it''s done."
"Yes, sir!" Jeckle saluted and turned to get the task aplished.
"Everyone else, let''s go to the conference room."
The rest of the officers followed him to the small headquarters building. Everyone filed into the conference room and took a seat. Reivyn waited a moment to allow for Jeckle to arrive before he started.
"As far as I know, nothing like this has happened for months," Reivyn said. He looked at each of the officer''s in their eyes as he spoke. "Apparently, it was a regr urrence for the enemy to probe the city when the lines were first established, but they haven''t done so in a long time. This could just be a continuation of that practice, but we can''t assume so. Until further notice, we have to operate as if an enemy attack is eminent. That means no more liberty and no more drinking for the men."
The mercenary officers were too disciplined to show it on their faces, but Reivyn could tell they were worried. They weren''t worried about an impending attack on the city, though. They were worried that their men would sneak out and cause problems if they were cooped up for too long.
"It will be unpopr with the men, but that''s life," Reivyn said. "If anyone is caught sneaking out, they are to be harshly punished. This isn''t the time to be lenient on them."
"How long are we going to be on alert, sir?" One of the lieutenants raised his hand and asked.
"We''ll give it a week for the highest alert level," Reivyn answered. "After that, if the men behave, we can reduce the restrictions a little. It won''t be the same as it was before, though, and the men will have a stricter curfew.
"Now that that''s, out of the way, until the written report is ready for me to take to Prince Allik, let''s review the different scenarios we''ve prepared for an attack on the city."
Reivyn and the officers spent a significant portion of their time doing wargames with the knowledge they had on their own forces and the enemy forces. He wanted everyone to be fresh on the countermeasures they hade up with over the past several months.
Most of the strategy would be in ordance with Prince Allik''s orders, but that wasn''t absolute. It was always good to be prepared for any eventuality, and Reivyn was still concerned about the presence of a possible spy ced in a high position of authority.
The men buckled down to prepare for war.
Chapter 197: Culmination
Chapter 197: Culmination
"These are the points of contact with the enemy over the past week," Prince Allik stood in front of the conference room with all of the officers in attendance and pointed at arge map spread over the wall. "More groups of enemy soldiers have been stopped before crossing beyond the outposts, and our outer patrols have encountered increased enemy activity as well."
Reivyn studied the map as Prince Allik spoke. This wasn''t the first time they had gone over the encounters with the enemy in the past week, but each day more and more points popped up on the map. Nobody had yet to discover any kind of pattern to the enemy movements, and they hadn''tunched a concerted effort to attack the city, yet, either.
"The enemy soldiers that we''ve been fighting with are almostpletely higher numbered than what they threw at us in the past. We''ve met hardly any groups filled with numbers 1 and 2 branded on their foreheads. I don''t know what this means for the future conflict, but it seems they''re preparing to escte the fight, soon."
"I agree, sir," one of the colonels spoke up. "The casualties on both sides have been miniscule. It seems like they''re giving their troops the opportunity to get somebat experience and get used to how we fight and respond. It''s apletely different strategy than the previous one of using hordes of bodies to just throw at the front lines."
"I agree," another colonel spoke up. Several of the other senior officers nodded their heads in agreement, and the lower ranked officers murmured among themselves.
That''s what it seems like to me, Reivyn thought. I don''t have anything else to add to the conversation at this point. It seems like they''re on the right track, in my opinion.
"Well, letting their soldiers getbat experience and figure out how we fight is a double-edged sword for them," Prince Allik said. "In the same vein, our soldiers are also learning how these higher numbered soldiers fight. Has anyone mentioned anything unique about it?"
"My soldiers have only mentioned that they seem like a normal military fighting force," the first colonel answered. "At least, normal aspared to what we''re used to. They employ tactics, and they don''t sacrifice lives for no reason."
"That''s not to say they won''t do so in arger battle," Reivyn spoke up. "We can''t assume that they won''t press forward in a situation where we would normally retreat when they''re finallymitted to action."
"That''s a good point," Prince Allik nodded his head. "We already know that theirmanders are willing to put their men into dangerous situations, and they have a zealous obedience to orders. Past performance is the greatest prediction of future performance."
"Sir, do we know about the other camps? Are they experiencing the same sorts of increased patrol activity from the enemy?" One of the officers inquired.
"I''ve kept in touch with my older brother regrly since the change in enemy operations," Prince Allik replied. "He''s informed me that he''s received the same types of reports from the major camps, but as far as I know, the minor camps are business as usual."
"Does that mean the enemy have concentrated their forces on the major points of defense?" A captain asked. "Could they have spread our forces thin and secretly amassed more personnel at our major points of defense?"
"If so, their current actions don''t make any sense," Reivyn said. "If that was the case, then they''ve given the game away. Let me ask you this, did they have this many higher-numbered soldiers in the previous battles before the lines were set how they are now?"
"As far as I know, they didn''t," the captain responded. "They just used human-wave tactics with their lower numbered soldiers."
"In that case, there might be a few possibilities," Reivyn said. "These soldiers could be the forward troops of reinforcements, and they haven''t had time to disperse away from the major nodes. They could be all of the reinforcements, and they''re just going to hit therger camps harder. They could also just be bored."
"Bored?" Prince Allik asked.
"Yes, sir," Reivyn nodded. "This conflict has been going on for several months, and the lines have been set for a long time. They haven''t done anything significant with the war for a long time, and the higher-numbered soldiers are typically in higher positions than the lower-numbered ones. They might be a caste of warriors that just got bored, and so they''re venting their boredom bying out to fight after so long of doing nothing.
"I''m not saying that''s what''s happening. I''m just pointing out that it''s a possibility that I thought of. One of the most annoying things about war is the boredom from nothing happening for long periods of time. Who''s to say they''re not suffering the same thing?"
"Is that what you think is going on?" Prince Allik asked.
"Not at all," Reivyn answered. "I think that''s the least likely reason for the increased activity, but I would be remiss not to mention it. It''s also more likely that they''re just training their soldiers'' Skills in real life-and-death situations."
"Noted. I think it''s more likely that they''re preparing their main force for an inevitable press forward, soon. That means that their initial forces weren''t their main force, and if they''re still there, they will greatly outnumber us. We need to be prepared to fall back in case a wall of soldierses pouring across the dead-zone."
"We have those rolling hills behind us," Reivyn pointed out. "We can fortify them and man them like the outposts. We can evacuate the city at a moment''s notice, and if they reallye at us with overwhelming numbers, we can leap-frog to those defensive positions as we retreat."
"I agree," the first colonel said. "Preparing for a retreat isn''t the same thing as admitting defeat. We should send out work-parties to build walls and obstacles. We won''t need to man them permanently like the outposts, but we should designate apany to have the responsibility of running back there to prepare at the sight of an enemy attack."
Prince Allik surveyed the room. None of the officers objected to the idea, and he nodded his head.
"Very well, let''s make it happen," he said. "Draw up a n of action, and we''ll get started on it right away.
"Is there anything else of importance, right now?" Prince Allik once more looked at each of the officers in the eye. Nobody said anything, most of the major issues had been discussed multiple times at the daily briefing over the past week. "In that case, you''re all dismissed for the day. Take charge of yourpanies, and carry out the n of the day."
"Yes, sir!" Everyone got to their feet and responded as the prince turned and left, his silent retainer following after him.
The officers waited for the prince to leave before dispersing themselves. Reivyn followed after with some of the other captains.
"So, what do you think?" One of the captains leaned over and asked Reivyn.
"About what?" Reivyn asked.
"About theing fight!"
"I think it''ll be tough. I have experience with both siege warfare and I''ve seen what the invaders can do with arge number of soldiers. nning a path of retreat is the right move."
"So you''re saying you think they''re going to take the city."
"I''m saying being prepared is never a bad thing. We don''t have intelligence on their full strength. We only know about what they fought with before the stalemate, but the presence of these superior forces points to an increase in strength."
"Well, don''t try to lift my spirits, or anything," the captain huffed ruefully. "We couldn''t stop their advance when they were just 1''s and 2''s. If they have an entire army of 3''s and 4''s, what''s the point?"
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"It''s not that bad," Reivyn said. "Just because we can''t stop them in ce doesn''t mean we can''t make them bleed for every inch ofnd they take. Attrition is sometimes the only viable way, and it''s more insidious than you might think. If we can make them pay enough, they''ll run out of funds before they achieve their goal."
"And what''s their goal? We''re not the first Region to be invaded. We all heard the stories before we faced our own invasion. This war has been foughtpletely differently than anything we heard from the other Regions."
"It might be because they''re from a different Region, themselves. Just like how the Tier 4 Empires have multiple Tier 1, 2, and 3 Regions under them, I''m sure there are many Tier 5 Regions under themand of the Tier 6 Empire in charge."
"Wait, what?" The captain stopped in his tracks for, and several of the other officers walking alongside them also stopped to stare at Reivyn. "What Tier 6 Empire? What do you know?"
"You didn''t know? Does nobody know?" Reivyn looked around at the other officers, and they all shook their heads. "What did you think was happening? The forces I fought in Drallo, a Tier 3 subordinate of Wispan, were led by a woman with a ''6'' tattoo. I''ve also learned a thing or two about people living in the inner ring of Regions in the local group. Put two and two together, and it''s clear the invaders are from a higher Region.
"I don''t have an inside scoop on the workings of the enemy. It''s only spection on the evidence that I''ve seen, but it would seem that there are multiple Tier 5 kingdoms doing the invading in different Tier 4 Regions."
"Don''t you think this is information you should pass on to the higher-ups?"
"I''m sure they already know. What good does this information do for us on the front-line? None. It doesn''t matter to us what the overall situation with the wider conflict is in this moment. The only thing that matters is what''s in front of us. Don''t let yourself get distracted.
"Anyway, it''s pretty clear to me that we''re fighting a different group of invaders. Even if we''re not, they apparently have a different mission."
"Yeah, we''ve all been pretty happy so far to not have to deal with the same troubles as the other Regions suffering an invasion, but that doesn''t mean it willst. You''re an outsider to our Region, but these are our people. They''re our families. We can''t retreat forever and keep everyone safe."
Reivyn considered the man''s words for a moment before continuing the conversation.
"I get what you''re saying, but fighting to thest man in Piori isn''t going to win the war. In fact, it would be much worse for everyone else if we did so. We can prolong the conflict and slow them down, bleeding them every step of the way, or we could go out in a ze of glory, do minimal damage to them, and give them a clear shot to the capital."
Reivyn pped the captain on the shoulder.
"It is perfectly reasonable and honorable to sacrifice your own life and die to protect your loved ones, but let''s try and make them sacrifice their lives for their goals, instead."
The other officers nodded their heads, and they all dispersed as they headed in different directions to their ownpanies. The officers hadn''t voiced their opinion on the matter of setting up a retreat n, but there was obviously some doubt.
They''re not bad or ipetent, Reivyn thought. It''s the opposite, actually. They''re just worried about their people. I can look at it with apletely objective standpoint, but they have to live with their decisions that will affect all the people of their home. nning for a retreat might seem like a defeatist attitude to them, and they can''t afford to lose.
---
The minor conflicts continued as the days wore on. There wasn''t any additional esction from the enemy. They continued to send small groups of soldiers across the dead-zone, and there was also increased conflict among the patrols sent into enemy territory, as well.
The patrols from the city to the outposts weren''t the only ones implemented by the prince. Reivyn''spany hadn''t been given the responsibility of going on one of the outer patrols, yet, but the prince didn''t relegate them to only checking on their own territory. It would have been a terrible strategy to close their eyes and ears off to what was going on with the enemy on their side.
The toons sent out from the mercenaries didn''t always encounter an enemy patrol inside their territory, but it was more often than not at this point. Each time there would be some injuries among the troops, but there hadn''t been any fatalities. The number of deaths on both sides was kept to a minimum so far which increased Reivyn''s suspicion that they were using the opportunity to train instead of test.
Rieyvn and Refix asionally apanied the toons sent out. They had yet to get into conflict on their excursions, though. A more suspicious person would have thought that it was deliberate, but there was no way a spy could have ryed the information in time to warn the enemy to either attack or keep their distance when they went out. They always made the decision to go with the toon at thest minute. It was just the luck of the draw that they hadn''t gotten into any fights.
Reivyn rubbed his temples as he reviewed the reports on his desk. He had a slight headache as he read through the documents. The reports weren''t anything annoying, but it seemed like there was more pressure on his mind the longer they stayed in Piori.
Reivyn dropped thest report on the desk and got up to get some fresh air. The headache didn''t go away as he stepped out into the open, though. Reivyn shook his head before he looked up to the clouded sky.
Maybe it''s atmospheric pressure from an iing storm? He thought. It sure looks like rain, soon.
Reivyn tried to dismiss the feeling from his thoughts by concentrating on something else. He looked into the distance at the units performing their drills and practice before heading in that direction.
He took one step when the world shuddered. He paused for a second and looked all around. Not all of the soldiers had reacted to the phenomenon, but many of them had. Most just looked about in confusion, though.
The world shuddered again, and Reivyn got a better handle on it. It wasn''t an earthquake. The ground wasn''t shaking, but it seemed like the whole Region was vibrated. He could feel it in the air and in his feet, though it didn''t seem physical.
The world shuddered once more, and it continued to shudder. The strange feeling he had from the ambient mana spike in intensity, and he felt as if an ethereal wind kicked up.
A high-pitched whine assaulted his ears, and squeezed his eyes shut at the sudden intensity of his headache. Tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes at the pain. He squatted down and covered his ears with his hands, but it didn''t help at all. The whine wasn''t abated, and it continued to increase as he sat there.
His Divine Sense was still active, and he saw the motes of Mana jumping up and down everywhere in his perception. It was like they were dancing in the wind, and their jumps coordinated with the vibrations he was feeling from his surroundings.
He felt a snap in the core of his being, and the pressure suddenly lifted. The pain went away. The Mana motes stopped moving in his Divine Sense. It was like they werepletely frozen in ce.
Reivyn opened his eyes as he stood back up, his hands falling back to his sides. He looked around the camp and noticed the soldiers moving about in a frenzy. There were several people copsed on the ground. Not all of the ones that had noticed the strange sensation had copsed, but all of the ones on the ground were among the few who had looked around in confusion earlier.
A door to one of the barracks mmed open, and the officer in charge of the Mage corps came stumbling out. He was walking on unsteady legs as if he was drunk, and he made a beeline to Reivyn as soon as he spotted him.
Reivyn made to walk toward the man, but he stopped and looked down at his legs after taking only one step. He felt fine on the inside, but that step had been wobbly. He took another unsteady step, and he grit his teeth as he powered through the strange sensation. He felt perfectly fine, but his body was moving in a weird way.
The high-pitched whine suddenly returned without prior notice, but it waspletely different. A huge whooshing sound filled Reivyn''s ears as he noticed all of the Mana motes in the ambient Mana suddenly shoot off in the direction of th enemy line.
Everywhere he looked, he could see a mass of Mana rush off into the distance. It didn''t cause any kind of physical abnormality, and the strange way he was walking suddenly disappeared as soon as the Mana started moving.
"Sir!" The Mage Corps officer shouted at Reivyn as he jogged over. "There''s something strange going on with the Mages."
Reivyn held up his hand to stop the man from continuing. He tilted his head in a meaningful manner toward the drill grounds where the copsed people wereing around and starting to get on their feet. The Mage Corps officer nced at them and nodded.
"Yeah, same thing with the Mages," he said.
"Some sort of phenomenon with the ambient Mana," Reivyn said. "Those more sensitive toward Mana were affected. I need to consider things for a minute. They''re getting back up, so go back to the barracks and see if the Mages are recovering, too."
"Yes, sir!" The Mage Corps officer offered a salute and then rushed back to the barracks.
Reivyn stood in ce. He activated all of his Mana sensing Skills and concentrate on the ambient Mana. It felt like a powerful wind was blowing past him in the direction of the enemy line, but it wasn''t a physical wind. It felt like the Mana in his core was also trying to flee from his control and rush off, as well.
Reivyn focused his willpower onto the Mana in his core, and it settled down. It didn''t take a lot of effort to quell the strange feeling, but there was nothing he could do about the Mana not under his control.
He looked up and saw Refix running toward him. The NCO''s of the toons were taking charge of their men, and the other officers were also running toward where Reivyn was still standing in front of the headquarters building.
Reivyn opened his mouth to instruct everyone to go into the conference room when he felt a discordantnce of Mana streak against the ambient Mana. He looked up to where it was headed, and a bell that was attached to a Manawork from the outposts started to ring.
They were too far away from the otherpany barracks'' to be able to hear if their bells were ringing, too, but Reivyn had noticed more than one streak of Mana going against the flow. He was sure that all of the rm bells were ringing across the city.
Reivyn looked back to the officers. Their eyes were wide as they looked up at the bell.
"To the wall!" Reivyn Commanded.
Chapter 198: Resurgence of Hostilities
Chapter 198: Resurgence of Hostilities
Allik peered over the wall to the distant tree line. The soldiers in the variouspanies had assumed their positions atop the wall in an orderly fashion, and they were ready to engage the enemy forces headed their way.
He stood tall and proud, his hands sped behind his back. He was outfitted in his war regalia, and his retainer was silently standing by his side. His retainer was usually dressed in the livery of the house, but he was also armed and armored for the uing conflict.
Allik and his retainer had wasted no time in rushing to the wall to assumemand of the city defense once the rm bells had sounded. He wasn''t going to sit in his protected office while the soldiers under hismand risked their lives. Not only did his presence inspire confidence and lift morale, but he wouldn''t understand the situation if he couldn''t see it for himself.
The bell system required only a smattering of Mana to operate at the distance they used it. It couldn''t send any other kinds of messages other than to vibrate the bells, so the cost was inherently lower than other types ofmunication devices.
It had only taken less than thirty minutes for everyone to assume their positions, and Prince Allik had already had his direct subordinates already ry the general orders. They just needed to wait for the enemy forces to arrive before he could give any kind of specific instructions. They would need to know the makeup of the attackers before a specific strategy could be implemented.
It wasn''t much longer of a wait until soldiers from the outposts and patrols began running out of the tree line into therge open area before the walls. The forest had been culled for just over a hundred yards so that nobody could sneak up too close. It might have been possible for smaller units to get by the outposts without alerting the city, but the fact that the rm bells had been rung meant the force headed their way was unable to sneakily bypass them.
The captains of thepanies were waiting nearby. The city wasn''trge enough that having them all present for the initial instruction would interfere with theirmand. He could have ryed his orders to his colonels and used the chain ofmand all the way down, but he didn''t feel it was necessary to waste that time beforebat was engaged. The chain ofmand would be utilized when the captains returned to theirpanies.
Allik turned and looked at each of the captains as the outpost and patrol soldiers ran across the open field. He inspected each of the captains. Most were nervous but some were jittery with excitement. They were murmuring among themselves while they waited for further orders. He paused at the sight of the mercenary captain, Reivyn.
The young officer was more reticent than he normally was. He didn''t always seek out conversation with the other officers, but he never shied away from it; however, this time, he was a bit standoffish in the face of the enemy attack. He calmly stood there and simply waited for Allik to address them without interacting with any of the other officers.
Allik ignored the behavior, though. He knew the man was apetentbat leader with a good bit of experience. Everyone had their own rituals and habits before action. Allik just mentally shrugged and chalked it up to him getting in the right mindset.
The forward soldiers finally made it to the wall, and they were systematically let inside. There was no time to send Reivyn down to make sure none of them were spies, but it was highly unlikely that any managed to infiltrate the men while they were rushing back to defend the city. Allik wasn''t worried about it.
The Mages from the variouspanies were standing nearby, as well. He could have kept them all with theirpanies and have scattered firepowerunched at the enemies, but he preferred to have them all together so they couldbine their might forrger bombardments in the beginning. Once meleebat was imminent, he would send them back to theirpanies for close support.
Most of the Mages were suffering from the effects of the ambient Mana going haywire. Allik didn''t have the Mana Sight Skill, but his rudimentary Sense Mana Skill told him that it was still getting sucked toward a specific location in the direction of the enemy forces.
Most of the Mages were struggling to stand up straight, but there were a few exceptions. Most of the more powerful Mages weren''t as affected, and the mercenarypany''s Mage Corps officer was among them. He stood tall and kept his vision trained on the tree line.
Hmm, I haven''t interacted with the lieutenants of the mercenarypany very much, Allik thought. Considering that Mage Corps Lieutenant appears to be in the upper echelons of the Mages, I should speak to Reivyn to remedy that.
It was always a good idea to have a good rtionship with a talented individual. The mercenarypany hadn''t had too many opportunities to showcase their abilities, yet, but if the other officers were anything like the Mage Corps officer, they should be valuable assets to build a rapport with.
The long-awaited emergence of the enemy forces finally appeared after what felt like a couple minor eternities. Bodies emerged from the tree line like ghosts, and they formed up into a long line that could epass the entire width of the city about twenty yards this side of the trees.
From the look of them, Allik could tell that the vanguard was made up of the lower numbered soldiers. He didn''t see any fancy equipment, and most of them didn''t even have any weapons at all. The line of of enemy soldiers was ten rows deep, already significantly more soldiers than were standing atop the walls.
Several other groups of people formed up in their own smaller groups behind the front line. They were outfitted a bit differently from the other soldiers, and Allik''s experience fighting the enemy told him they were groups of Mages. They stood with their backs just at the tree line, but Allik could see with his powerful Perception that there even more soldiers still to emerge from the woods.
"There isn''t much else to say at this point," Allik addressed the captains. "It looks like the opening assault will be a standard attack with their lower-numbered soldiers. They don''t have any siege weapons or cavalry, and it doesn''t look like they''re going to try and surround the city. Go take charge of yourpanies, and if anything unusuales up, orders will be passed down through the chain ofmand."
"Yes, sir!" A chorus of responses greeted Allik''smand. The captains gave a quick salute and took off back to theirpanies.
"Their Mages are spread out, so I don''t anticipate needing a dedicated barrier from our Mages," Allik addressed the Mage officers. "We''ll go down the line,unchingrge salvos at the enemy in turn, blowing holes in their formation.
"We don''t need to focus too heavily on the vanguard, as most of them won''t pose too much of a threat. They''re most likely just going to pave the way for the more heavily armed troops behind them. Once they emerge from the tree line, begin focusing your firepower on them."
"Yes, sir!" Themander of the Mage Corps answered with a salute.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The mercenary lieutenant stroked his chin in thought as he surveyed the enemies, but he didn''t speak up. Allik didn''t know what his thoughts on the matter were, but he was confident the man would follow orders as a professional.
Allik''s Sense Mana caught the the umtion of Mana among the group of Mages nearby. His Mana Skills weren''t the highest, but even he could feel a metaphysical heat as the power built. As the Spell was built and fed by the Mages, though, he could also Sense that a portion was being siphoned off to join the ambient Mana that was rushing off into the distance.
The enemy soldiers weren''t blind to what was happening on the wall, either, and the vanguard immediately began jogging forward at an unheardmand. The first Spell took longer than normal to fully form. A giant sphere of fire grew above the head of themanding officer, streams of Mana from all of the subordinate Mages feeding into it. Once a certain threshold was reached, it finally shot forward at the far end of the enemy vanguard line.
The giant sphere vibrated as it sailed through the air, and it visibly shrunk a little before it reached it''s target. Mana shields sprung up in front of the target area, but it wasn''t enough to stop all of the damage from therge explosion that ensued upon the fiery ball making contact.
Allik could feel the vibrations in the air, and he had to turn his face away from the sh of light. He quickly looked back to see bodies flung through the air and arge crater form in the ground. The fire exploded out and set more of the soldiers in the surrounds on fire, and arge hole appeared in the formation.
The enemy Mages were too far away for Allik to Sense their Mana fluctuations, but an answering volley of Spells quickly followed the first bombardment. Streaks of red, orange, blue, and various other colors representing the Affinities used flew through the air toward the wall.
The defenders utilized their own group-shield Skills, and the walls shook with the explosions of the Spells reaching their targets. The Mage Corps didn''t wait around for results, and they were alreadyunching their second sphere of fire at another location along the enemy vanguard''s line.
Archers on either side loosed arrow volleys, and the sky was filled with projectiles, both magical and mundane. The sounds of orders being given, men screaming, explosions, and air piercing from arrows filled the surroundings. Allik didn''t have anything more to contribute, yet, as the other officers had everything in hand. He continued to wait and watch, though, ready to issue any orders necessary for changing circumstances.
For several minutes, the Mage Corps umted their Spells and tore huge chunks into the vanguard formation, all while continuous streaks of enemy Spells pelted the defenders on the wall. The vanguard picked up their pace as they got closer and closer to the wall, and Allik could see thedders being carried by the groups of soldiers.
The enemy reached the wall, and the firstdder went up. There were braces on the ends of thedders to mp down on the top of the wall to prevent them from being thrown off. The enemy soldiers wasted no time in scaling theirdders, and the defenders poured hot oil down on top of them.
As the vanguard scaled thedders, the next group of soldiers that had been hidden in the tree line finally emerged. They were much more heavily armed and armored than the lower-numbered soldiers, and it was like a wall of steel walked out of the trees.
Spears, shields, and swords were held in the hands of the fully armored legions, and from what Allik could tell, there were just as many of them as there were of the unarmored vanguard soldiers. In the center of the formation was a battering ram with an overhead cover to protect the soldiers pushing it along on wheels.
"Mages, target the armored soldiers in the back!" Allik ordered. He didn''t order the Mages to target the battering ram. There were alreadydders stuck to the walls, and it was only a matter of time until there was a breach atop the walls, and even Allik could Sense the extra magical protection surrounding the battering ram that would prevent them from outright destroying it without having to focus too much attention to it.
Themanding Mage officer didn''t verbally respond, but the next Spell wasunched through the air, over the tops of the heads of the seething mass of men below to target the next group of soldiers emerging from the trees.
Once more, Mana Shields sprang into existence to protect the soldiers, and their own group-shield Skill was implemented as well. Theyered shields protected them much more than the vanguard before them, though there was still a decent chunk blown out of their formation where the Spell struck.
The armored legion took much less damage as they crossed the open ground, though they still suffered casualties. Allik nodded to himself as the battle continued. Everything was going smoothly, for the most part. They were suffering casualties from the enemy Mages and archers, but nowhere near as much as they were inflicting on the enemy.
"Disperse back respectivepanies," Allik ordered the Mage Corpsmander.
The Mana stopped umting after the next fiery sphere, and themander issued themand for the Mages to return to theirpanies. There was still a dedicated Mage Corps for the army as a whole, and they stayed in ce to continueunching Spells, though they were much smaller in scale.
The mercenary officer waved his soldiers back toward theirpany, but he stayed in ce and continued to feed his Mana to the Spells of the Army Mage Corps. Allik didn''t think too much about it. The man would be useful wherever he was on the line, and as long as Reivyn allowed it, it wasn''t anything to worry about.
The vanguard hadn''t seeded in getting to the top of thedders by the time the armored soldiers made it to the walls. They stepped away from thedders to allow the armored soldiers the right of way, and the higher Leveled soldiers began to ascend. More hot oil was poured down on their heads, not all of it having been wasted on the weaker soldiers in front.
Movement caught Allik''s eye, and he once more looked to the tree line. His stomach dropped as another group of armored soldiers emerged from the trees. There were just as many soldiers in this second group of armored legions as the first. They Marched forward and crossed the open field to join the rest of the soldiers, but there was no time for the Mage Corps tounchrge bombardments at them. They werepletely unscathed as they traversed the field.
The first group of enemy soldiers breached the top of the walls further down the line. The first enemy soldiers to arrive on top of the wall were quickly cut down, but more and more soldiers followed in their wake. Moredders had more soldiers breach, and arge crashing sound announced the implementation of the battering ram on the gates.
The defenders formed up in ranks and surrounded the emerging soldiers, but it was too much to keep thempletely off the wall tops. The sounds of metal shing joined the rest of the cacophony of battle. Steel struck steel and flesh. Men died on the battlements, and some were thrown off to fall to their deaths below.
"Ry orders to have the captains prepare to retreat off the walls," Allik turned to his adjutant.
"Yes, sir!" The colonel immediately began giving the orders through the chain ofmand.
Allik looked down to the courtyard below where anotherpany was ready and waiting. He didn''t have to call down for them to get ready. They could hear the sounds of the battering ram mming against the gate, and it was only a matter of time until they engaged in closebat, as well.
Allik looked over the battlefield again, and he saw a third group of armored legions March out of the tree line to join the rest of the soldiers on the field.
"Are you kidding me?!" He eximed to no one in particr. "There must be close to a hundred thousand soldiers attacking us at this point!"
The city of Piori wasn''t small, and the enemy soldiers were lined up to fill the entire length of the city. On top of that, each emerging force was at least ten-men deep, and there was no telling how many more groups of soldiers were traversing through the trees to join the fight.
Arge, splintering crash announced the destruction of the gate, and the screams of soldiers preceded the enemy forces rushing into the interior of the city. This was the first time they had gotten so far in an assault on the city, and based on the continuing increase in enemy numbers, Allik knew that the city would fall.
"Order the retreat off the wall," hemanded.
The adjutant ryed the orders, and thepanies began a fighting retreat off the walls. The entire line of the wall was now filled with enemy soldiers, but the defenders didn''t panic as they retreated down the steps in an orderly fashion.
Thepany on the ground defending against the intruders through the gate were reinforced by the closest descending soldiers. Thepanies further away began streaming through the streets, taking up defensive positions at strategic positions. They had been ordered to retreat from the wall, not the city, so they would continue to fight for every inch they gave the enemy.
The city might be doomed to be lost, but Allik and his soldiers would make sure they bled to upy it.
Chapter 199: Urban Combat
Chapter 199: Urban Combat
Smoke and dust obscured their vision as the mercenary soldiers descended the wide steps from the top of the wall. Spells, arrows, and explosions continued to fly overhead in both directions. Sometimes their group-shield Skill would light up as it dispersed the energy of a stray strand of Mana striking them. Their group-shield Skill, however, only interfered with Mana, and more than one soldier stumbled as an errant arrow descended and struck them in the shoulder or other unarmored part of their body.
Getting struck by an arrow would shave off a chunk of someone''s Health and cause a bleeding effect. As long as the piercing wound wasn''t messed with, the bleeding effect was fairly muted, but once the obstructing object was removed, the numbers would immediately intensify. Unless one was struck in an artery, though, one bleeding effect from an arrow wound wouldn''t be fatal before one''s natural regeneration could take care of it.
Suffering strong blows that were deflected with armor or shields would still remove points from one''s Health pool, but it was never anything serious. It was theoretically possible for a fully armored individual to be pummeled to death, but it would take literal weeks to shave that amount of Health off against one''s natural regeneration.
Blows that caused external bleeding, though, did a percentage of one''s Health in damage. A simple nick that barely bled would do less than a percent of damage, but "death by a thousand cuts" was a real thing. An arrow piercing into someone''s shoulder would typically do around five percent points of damage, and the bleeding effect, over time, could extend it up to twenty-five percent if left untended.
The soldiers just had to deal with the pain and nuisance of having an arrow sticking out of them as they moved, but as soon as they got a moment to rest, the soldiers would help each other remove the projectiles and treat the wounds. Balms made from alchemical substances would bee applied to any open wounds, and it would immediately not only stop the bleeding effect, but it would restore a small percentage of Health points lost to.
Simple bandaging could stop the bleeding effects, but it wouldn''t restore Health immediately. Depending on the appliers First Aid Skill, though, it could drastically increase the local regeneration speed of the wound, and that would also affect the Health points.
Refix calmly watched the soldiers descend the steps in good order. The lowest Leveled officer led the troops forward while Refix and the rest of the officers stayed in the rear to cover their retreat. One of the toons was still engaged inbat with the invaders, though, and the officers wouldn''t have to step forward personally until thest moment.
Refix could have thrown his might around and created window for everyone to simply flee from the wall in peace, but just having the intention to do so caused his Danger Sense to re. There was someone in the enemy ranks watching to make sure there were no high-Level individuals who would decimate their numbers. It was the same for their side, as well. Refix himself was a hidden card to make sure the enemy didn''t employ the same tactic.
There was no agreed upon stiption beforehand. There were no treaties orws governing war between nations, but it naturally happened just based on how the world worked. Conflicts between supposedly allied nations in the same empire operated under their own rules, and it wasn''t necessarily considered warfare when they engaged inbat. One of the main tenants of such battles was to reduce fatal casualties as much as possible, but no such rule existed against the invaders.
If the enemy army consisted entirely of high-Leveled people, it wouldn''t have been an issue. They could have simply steam-rolled any obstacles. Such a situation might exist somewhere in the Realm, but it was not something subordinate nations would ever experience.
It could be argued that the current invader army,pared to a Tier 1 kingdom, would be considered an army entirely of high-Leveled people, but there had been no news of the invaders targeting any Regions below Tier 4 aside from the one exception that Reivyn had been involved with. That hadn''t been as much of an invasion as a military action, though. The enemy hade, subjugated local poptions, aplished their goal, and left. That didn''t seem to be the situation with the current wars erupting across multiple Regions, now, though.
The toon bringing up the rear slowly backed away until it was their turn to turn and descend the steps one squad at a time. The enemy soldiers continued to press hard against them, but they were unable to route the mercenary soldiers. Morale was still high among the soldiers as everyone knew there were multiple other fortifications ready for them to retreat to, and they weren''t being overwhelmed by the quality of the enemy. It was only the endless numbers that forced them to retreat.
Refix looked up into the distance and noticed yet another line of armored legions stepping out of the tree-line. The enemy forces seemed endless. If he didn''t know any better, he would think an entire Tier 5 empire and their subordinate forces had left their homespletely empty for all of them to participate in this conflict.
If Tier 5 empires were structured the same way as the Tier 4 empires, though, with multiple Tier 4 subordinate empires under them, it made sense that they had so many soldiers to throw at them. How could one Tier 4 empire hope to field the same numbers as a Tier 5 empire apanied by four or more Tier 4 armies of their own?
Thest squad of the covering toon made it to the stairs, and Refix and the other officers drew their swords and stepped forward. Refix reined in his abilities and fought with noting but his normal weapons Skill. He didn''t even utilize his transcendent ability for fear that the hidden monster in the enemy ranks would zero in on their position.
Refix didn''t fear for his own life or worry that the enemy ace would be able to overpower him, but it would create an unnecessary headache that would interfere with their good-order retreat if such a fight broke out. The shockwaves alone would potentially knock his subordinates down and prevent them from fleeing, putting them in perfectly avoidable danger.
The fight was quick and painless as the officers employed their superior Stats and Skills to ward off the enemy soldiers for their fleeing troops. The officers broke off one by one to follow in their foot steps until Refix was thest one on the wall.
He looked off to the side where the Mages were still engaged in a Magical struggle with the enemy before turning and jumping down from the wall. The height of the wall was high enough that most of the soldiers on both sides who were in mid-Tier 3 would suffer significant damage from the impact, but it wasn''t much to a high-Tier 5 like Refix. Hended and absorbed the impact with his Stats and Acrobatics Skill. He managed to arrive at the bottom before thest of the officers had arrived down the steps.
"Double-time through the street," Refix pointed toward one of the side roads that had been established as the retreat path beforehand.
The first officer down had made sure there was enough room for everyone to form up, but he had waited for the order from the Vice Captain before ordering further retreat.
The mercenarypany immediately broke into a jog through the street. Refix stood to the side observing the battle as it continued to rage all around. The enemy had broken through across the entirety of the walls spanning the city, and the main gate had been breached as well. The enemy soldiers engaging the forces on the ground around the gate were now between the mercenarypany and themanders of the army, but Refix wasn''t worried.
As the mercenaries ran into the streets, Refix watched the battle with a critical eye. The enemy forces were careful to not kill as many people as they could, he noticed, only delivering fatal blows in the midst of heatedbat. Once they began to overwhelm the defenders, though, they stopped delivering killing strikes and quickly disarmed and secured prisoners.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
Refix didn''t stick around to witness the fate of the prisoners, but base on the fact that they were avoiding killing to begin with, he guessed they had other ns aside from mass ughter.
Once most of the mercenarypany was through the side street, Refix turned and joined them in their flight. The sounds ofbat became muted as the buildings surrounding them blocked the sounds, but the asional ming Spell was still visible overhead. The corner of a building exploded in the distance ahead as a Spell struck it, and more dust filled the street.
Refix''s Perception Stat allowed him to easily see through the obscuring dust, but it still made it harder to see, even for him. The regr soldiers had to trust theirrades that they weren''t going to be led into the side of a wall as they ran through the floating dust.
Fire began to spread from where the building had been struck, but the heat was rising and Refix wasn''t worried about the few bits of fire that fell down to the street. With nothing to feed them, the falling bits of ming debris sputtered and winked out.
The dust cloud wasn''t huge, and the mercenarypany quickly passed through into the clear air once again. They had chosen this side street as their retreat path because it was a straight shot through the city. It wasn''t a main thoroughfare, but the city was mostly well-nned. They crossedrger streets in their flight, and in those brief moments Refix was able to see other streams of soldiers from the otherpanies also running to the their next position.
They weren''t immediately fleeing the city upon losing the walls. There were other fortifications inside the city for them to fall behind, and after only a minute or so of running, the mercenarypany arrived at the first barricade.
A simple palisade had been constructed in the street, and there was even fortifications constructed on top of the roofs of the nearby buildings. They once more set up to defend against the enemy invaders. In the brief moment of respite, the mercenary soldiers set about tending to their wounds.
Grunts and moans apanied the low conversations among the soldiers as they removed arrows and patched upcerations. Nobody in the mercenarypany had died as of yet, and Refix was intent on keeping it that way. Unless they got into a real pinch, the most wounded of the soldiers would remain as a reserve force.
"Make sure the men resupply from the prepared stockpiles," Refix ordered the officers who had congregated around him. "There should be barrels of arrows, bandages, and other necessities stored behind the palisade. Get those with archery Skills up on the buildings and ready to engage the enemy forces as they make their way down the streets."
"Yes, sir!" The officers chorused.
Refix watched the officers get to it, particrly paying attention to Jeckle. He was the most trusted subordinate of his son Refix, and he was given the most responsibilities. He had removed the rudimentary skin-mask he had worn earlier, and Refix nodded his head at the man''s professionalism.
There wasn''t much time to prepare further before a line of invaders Marched into view through the dust obstructing the street. Arrows from the soldiers atop the buildings to to either side began to rain down on them, and they raised their shields to defend against the projectiles. The soldiers in the front row maintained their shields in front of themselves, though, trusting theirrades to cover them from behind.
The arrows were more a nuisance than an actual deterrent against the attackers, but more than one enemy soldier fell to a well-ced shot. The invaders quickly arrived at the palisade and the mercenaries once more engaged in meleebat with them with their spears. There were gaps in the walls where they could thrust their spears through, and the front row stood on a little tform to attack from a higher angle.
The invaders were stopped in ce as the contended with the mercenary soldiers, but it was only a matter of time before they would be able to press forward with the weight of their numbers. Soldiers scaled the walls of the buildings and formed up on the rooftops to engage the defenders above, too. The arrows stopped raining down as they were forced to wield their spears in meleebat.
Refix once more stood in the back as he observed the fighting. The toonmanders and NCO''s had everything well in hand, and the battle hadn''t degenerated into a mess that he would need to try and fix. He only gave the general orders of what thepany should be focused on, and he let the men carry out the strategy and tactics the best way they could without micromanaging them.
Killing the enemy soldiers advancing on their position was a double-edged sword. It lessened the number of enemies each time one of them fell, but a wall of bodies was being built under the feet of the invaders. They didn''t flinch from the death all around them either, and they simply stepped on the bodies of their fallenrades to continue pressing the defenders.
The mercenary soldiers fought methodically, reserving their strength for emergencies and calmly switching out with the other soldiers lined up behind them when their Stamina fell below a certain threshold. There wasn''t much difference in the way thebat unfolded to the skirmishes between counties innd ims, but the results werepletely different.
Blood began to flow along the ground in all directions. The advancing soldiers avoided the slippery mess by walking on top of the bodies of their allies, using their Bnce Skill to keep steady, but the blood seeped through the gaps in the palisade and made the ground slick for the defenders.
Blood itself was pretty viscous, though, and it wasn''t like they were fighting on ice. The real issue was the presence of the blood at all. It began to cake the boots and leggings of the defenders, and it could lead to demoralization if left unchecked.
Everyone understood that the blood belonged to the fallen enemy soldiers, but human death was human death. There was only so much that could be done to alleviate the psychological impact of so much killing, and the blood was a constant reminder. There was no Euphoria associated with killing another human. Thankfully there was no Misery associated with killing an enemybatant, either.
"Sir, a runner from Command has ryed that all forces are engaged at the secondary defensive positions," Jeckle came up to Refix and reported. "They said get ready for the re signal."
"Noted," Refix answered. Jeckle turned and jogged back to his toon as Refix raised his voice: "Standby for the signal re!"
Nobody made any movements or acknowledged the order, but the defense of the city had beenid out well in advance. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do.
The fighting continued for several more minutes. Refix assumed it was to ensure the runners were able to touch base with all of the soldiers at their secondary defensive locations, but time continued to tick.
Eventually, arge explosion of Mana designed simply to be visible and audible across the entire city lit up in the sky overhead. Spells were still raining down on the city from both sides, but the signal re drowned out everything else high up in the sky.
"Defend!" Refix shouted as he squatted down and covered his head. All of the soldiers, even though engaged inbat on the front line performed the same maneuver. Refix Sensed the Mana pulse travel through the ground even with his eyes closed.
Loud explosions rang out all across the city as the buildings lining the streets the soldiers were demolished. The Mana pulse through the city had lit Magical fuses attached to explosive oil hidden in the foundations of the buildings.
They had used the minimum resources necessary to turn the buildings themselves into weapons, and the tons and tons of bricks and beams fell on the heads of the enemy soldiers lining the streets. The soldiers that had climbed up top to engage the defenders up above fell into the destruction as the buildings under foot copsed beneath them.
For a moment, there was silence in the city as a huge swathe of the city crumbled and created a mini-dead zone. Enemy soldiers on the far side that hadn''t been caught up in the trap continued to March forward, undeterred by the event, and the rubble shifted as survivors dug themselves out.
Spells no longer had to be lobbed overhead, though, now that there was a huge open space between the attackers and defenders, and Spells once more began to be flung at each line. Hundreds of lines of fire and ice and other Affinities were exchanged over the heads of the soldiers, and many of the Spells pelted the soldiers attempting to crawl out of the rubble.
Arrows once more apanied the Spells as there was a moment of respite for the defenders. Arms, legs, helmets, and other pieces of gear could be seen sticking up all throughout the rubble, but more and more soldiers picked themselves up and once more formed up in lines to continue the attack.
It seemed like there was nothing that could be done to deter the attackers. None of the enemy soldiers had expressions of fear on their faces. The loss of so many allied soldiers did nothing to dissuade them from continuing the attack. More and more soldiers poured forth from the far side of the city, though, and Refix realized that only a tiny fraction of the enemy soldiers had been affected by the trap.
"Continue to fight!" Refix Commanded. "We haven''t lost the city, yet. Make them pay for piece of rubble they''re going to inherit once this is all done."
Chapter 200: Hard Choices
Chapter 200: Hard Choices
Combining Mana together to cast offensive Spells was much moreplicated than Reivyn had assumed it would be. He had tons of practice sharing his Mana with Kefira in their exercises, but that was always to work on their Mana Skills. They had never stepped out to practice group Spells, alone or with the assistance of other Mages. Reivyn had witnessed the feat many times, but this was the first time he had participated.
It wasn''t as simple as just feeding his Mana into the Spells like he had originally thought. It could work, and he had seen some Mages do just that in Drallo, but that wasn''t what they were doing here. They were pre-attuning their Mana to match the Spells and merging them into an already formedSpell matrix. If they gathered the Mana together before the Spell was shaped by the lead Caster, it would be simple to end it there, but because the Spell was already forming, those in the group had to take cues from the lead caster to make their own weaves as well.
The weaves didn''t have to match perfectly to be integrated into the Spell, but they couldn''t be too dissimr, either. If Reivyn used anything tooplicated or too simple, it would cause a hup in the Spell matrix, possibly causing it to drastically lose power or not function properly. The lead Caster was familiar with most of those in the group. Only the mercenaries, including Reivyn, hadn''t practiced too much with them.
They were told to simply observed at first before contributing. Luckily, arge variety of Spells wasn''t necessary in warfare when something worked. If the enemy started to counter their siege Spells with opposing attuned Magic, that would be one thing, but the enemypletely ignored defense for more offense of their own.
The lead Caster wasn''t doing anything beyond Reivyn''s or his mercenary mages'' capabilities, and after a while they were all confident to take part in the Spell formations. After figuring out exactly what Affinitybination and weaves he could use to integrate into the Spell, Reivyn''s attention was mainly on his immediate surroundings. He only gave a passing nce to thebat going on all around him. He didn''t need to see where to Cast the Spell, nor did he need to know what was going on everywhere all at once.
His goal was to ward against the suspicion of more deeply hidden spies that could turn an obvious well-ordered retreat from the city into a catastrophic defeat. There was no getting around casualties and prisoners of war in a losing battle, but it was one thing to lose hundreds, maybe thousands, and losing multiple tens of thousands.
Reivn kept his main attention on the prince and his retainer that were positioned close to the Mage Corps. The Prince was a goodbat leader in Reivyn''s estimation. He gave overall direction and had faith in his subordinates to carry out his orders and let them do it without micromanaging their actions. He remained calm in the face of the heated battle, and everything was going smoothly in their retreat across the city.
Reivyn had been worried about the enemy nking the city and taking them off guard if they lingered within the walls for too long, but from what he could gather, the enemy focused all of their forces on a straight, up-front assault on the city. Reivyn didn''t understand the decision, but he didn''t have to know the reasoning behind it to know that it was giving them enough time to bleed the enemy further.
"Order the retreat to the next defensive positions," Prince Allik ordered.
Reivyn heard the order from the prince, but that wasn''t to his unit. He and the Mages might know what wasing because of their proximity, but the actual order to retreat hadn''t been passed down the chain ofmand, yet. They continued to merge their Mana into the siege Spells at the advancing legions while they waited for their immediate superior to order the movement.
The destruction of a long line of buildings had opened up the battlefield from one of street-fighting to open field once more, so the Mages continued to mostly contribute to therge-scale Spells being lobbed at the enemy. Once they had retreated to the first defensive position within the city, though, a quarter of their numbers had bled off from the group to disperse among the line. Reivyn had sent several of the mercenary Mages back to his father, but he had continued to remain behind.
"Mages, file down the street to the next position!" The Mage Commander finally ordered.
Reivyn wiped the sweat from his brow as he motioned for the mercenary Mages to follow behind him. The feel of the rudimentary skin-mask he was wearing to disguise himself from potential spies still felt weird under his touch. The skin-mask adhered to his face without any ws, but it didn''t pass sensations along with it. He could only roughly feel the pressure from where his hand pressed against the mask.
He didn''t use any Mana or Magic to assist with the Skin Mask as there were just too many people around who could spot such a thing. He didn''t know if anyone was an actual spy or not, but if someone was, it could lead all of his efforts to waste. He didn''t know the capabilities of everyone present, but they were all either Mages or Tier 4 with the ability to use Mana.
The troupe of Mages made their way ahead of the melee soldiers down the street to at a jog. Their physical Stats weren''t as high as their counterparts in the army, but that didn''t mean they were slouches. The pace was neither slow nor fast, and they reached the next set of fortifications within only a couple of minutes. The melee soldiers soon followed on their heels and once more took up positions to thwart the enemy advance.
The buildings were still intact in this part of the city, so the Mages didn''t immediately begin to merge their Mana once more. There was no point in all of them flinging Spells at the oing soldiers, though, in such a tight space. They worked on a rotation to allow for a couple of Mages to Cast Spells at the enemy while the rest used the meager moments of rest to recover as much Mana as possible.
Some of the Mages swigged some alchemical concoctions to assist with their recovery, but Reivyn hadn''t expended enough of his Mana to need it. From what he could observe, the other Mages needed to use considerably more Mana to aplish what he could do with a fraction of what they used.
Must be because of my ss Spells, Reivyn thought. Most Mages have a limited number of Spells they can use with System assistance, but the System seems to assist with the creation of just about any kind of Spell for me. The description does include all of the basic types of offensive Spells one would normally see a Mage use, and it''s not limited to an Affinity.
Only the lead Caster was actually Casting a Spell. Everyone else was basically participating in a Mana weaving exercise with attuned Mana, and not all of them were specialized in the Affinity they were using. The lead Caster didn''t appear to need any help in recovering his Mana despite apparently carrying the heaviest burden, but if his Spell matrix was being assisted by the System, he actually had the least burden of all those present, Reivyn being an exception.
There were enough Mages present that Reivyn had some time before it was his turn to Cast a Spell at the enemy soldiers that were still inexorably advancing on the line of defenders. He appeared to be watching the soldiers fighting, but he was keeping his focus on his Divine Sense. The prince and his staff were within range of his Skill, so he didn''t need to go out of his way to observe them.
The fundamental Level of the soldiers involved in this battle were higher than the ones in the invasion of Drallo. As such, the Health, Stamina, and Mana pools of all those involved were higher. The battle for the city had been going on for several hours by the time they took up positions at the second interior defensive position, and Reivyn could tell that the Stamina of the front-line soldiers was beginning to reach a tipping point.
One of the main ts of this kind of battle was to maintain as much Stamina as possible, but once it dipped below a certain point, not only would the individual perform at a lower rate than their peak performance, but the expenditure would elerate at the same time the recovery rate slowed.
Because Reivyn had always trained while being exhausted and made sure his own subordinates did the same, their bodies were used to it enough that their performance wouldn''t drop until they were extremely low on Stamina. That was not the case for the soldiers of the army being led by Prince Allik.
The superficial wounds suffered by nicks and cuts increased as the battle continued. It was the first sign that the soldiers were gging enough that it was negatively affecting their ability to fight.
If I had to guess, I would say the average Stamina pool is around 60% at this point, Reivyn surmised. Without specifically training to perform under such conditions regrly, I would give the soldiers another half an hour before their Stamina is too low to be safe.
Is this why the enemymander didn''t bother to nk the city? If Prince Allik and the other leaders don''t pay enough attention, they''ll use too much of their men''s Stamina and they won''t be able to flee.
Reivyn was a little worried that Prince Allik wouldn''t notice the issue with the Stamina, but unless they reached a point that he needed to absolutely be reminded or suffer much worse casualties for not retreating quickly enough, Reivyn would ce his trust in the man and not expose his identity. He hadn''t shown any ipetence with his leadership so far, so he would give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Prepare the charges," Prince Allik once more issued amand.
Runners were sent out to once again inform themanders of the impending demolition of the buildings in front of them. The Mages perked up at the order and once more congregated together in anticipation of once more merging their Mana. It didn''t matter if they telegraphed their intentions to the enemy soldiers. It was toote for them to retreat out of the st zone, and Reivyn doubted if they would even if they could. He saw no fear or hesitation on their faces.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Another issue with the enemies willingness to throw their lives away at taking every step was that their Stamina wasn''t gging. They were constantly getting fresh soldiers on the front lines that hadn''t used up all of their energy, and none of them were suffering from the little injuries umted over time.
It wouldn''t have been an issue in a situation where those involved weren''t fighting to the death and willing to throw their lives away, as both sides would suffer the same fatigue. The sheer number of bodies in the midst ofbat would have also been a hindrance toward effectively moving fresh troops to the front.
The only thing preventing the invaders from overwhelming the defenders, now, was the preparation of the fortifications inside the city. They were able to calmly and efficiently move between different sets of palisades and supply depots to keep the fight going.
One of the Mages received a signal from the officer in charge of the runners, and he sent a signal re high up into the sky. Reivyn joined everyone in ducking down below the walls as another massive explosion rang out. The buildings confining the enemy soldiers to the narrow streets came down on top of their heads once more.
Before the enemy could form up once more, the Mages and archers opened up with everything they had. The archers aimed for the rear ranks where more fresh soldiers were continuing to March forward, and the Mages sent their explosive Spells to decimate the survivors buried in the rubble.
Only a couple of minutes passed before the enemy ranks were once more formed up and ready to attack. Reivyn joined the other Mages in weaving his attuned Mana and feeding it to the Spell matrix controlled by the lead Caster.
Almost by rote, Reivyn fed Mana into Spell after Spell. Even though everyone could see the destruction they wrought upon the masses of enemy soldiers, it did nothing to to lessen the pressure on the front line soldiers.
There were just too many invaders. There was no end in sight. One row of soldiers would go down, and they would be reced with two more.
Reivyn didn''t have to focus too hard on the task, so he was able to pick up the conversations being held by the Prince and the other higher-ranked officers.
"What''s the situation with the Stamina consumption among thepanies?" Prince Allik asked one of the colonels.
"I just received a report that they''re still holding strong," the colonel replied. "Maybe another hour and a half or so before they reach dangerous levels."
Reivyn frowned at the answer. He could see the signs of impending disaster right in front of him. His Divine Sense gave him an advantage, though, and he could see the state of everyone with crystal rity everywhere within the range of his Skill. The officers had to use their own two eyes and the word of their NCO''s to gauge the troops'' Stamina levels, though.
"Very well," Prince Allik said. "Let''s not take any chances, though. I want to be out of the city and headed toward the fortifications in the hills in less than an hour. Mark the time."
"Yes, sir!" The officers responded.
Prince Allik continued to observe what he could in front of himself as the other officers received status reports from runners. Prince Allik couldn''t hear or pay attention to everything that was going on around him like Reivyn could, but he could still get a feel for the overall situation through what reports the officers deemed important enough to pass along to him.
Time continued to tick on as the fighting never stopped. Reivyn kept an eye on the time counter in his Status as he continued to merge his Mana and pay attention to his Divine Sense. The intense headaches he had suffered for weeks in the desert of Drallo, and all the practice with his Skill ever since, had done wonders for his multi-tasking abilities.
There might be a Skill that assisted directly with mentally paying attention to other things, but Reivyn suspected it might be a subordinate Skill that fell under his Divine Sense to begin with. He had other Skills, like Ambidexterity and Multi-Cast, that functioned simrly, and if there was such a Skill, it didn''t makes sense for him not to have unlocked it by this point.
The fact that he had increasingly less trouble splitting his mind to pay attention to many different things at once was evidence enough for him that he was receiving the effects of such a Skill even if he didn''t have it in his Status screen.
"Move the troops back to thest line," Prince Allik eventually ordered.
Once more, the orders were passed down the chain ofmand, and the soldiers retreated across the city in an orderly fashion. There was only one more line of fortifications prepared for the defense of the city.
Well, what''s left of the city, Reivyn mused. Not much left but the walls and a pile of rubble at this point.
Not all of the buildings across the city had been destroyed, but most of them had. Before they retreated to thest line of defense, Reivyn could see clear to the city walls that they had started on. There was a sea of people continuing to March through the city, more and more entering the walls the entire time the fight raged.
Once more, the defenders used the narrow streets to funnel the enemy soldiers into smaller points of contact before bringing the buildings down around them. The Mages used their individual Spells before the enemy ranks formed back up in range for theirrge-scale Spells, and the archers pelted those entering the fray for the first time. Reivyn couldn''t even Sense any sweat on the newest, freshest soldiers arriving at the front line to engage in hand-to-handbat.
"What''s the time?" Prince Allik asked the colonel.
"We have about ten minutes left for the hour, as you said," the colonel replied.
Before Prince Allik could order for the soldiers to prepare to leave the city, his retainer leaned forward and whispered into his ear. The sound was low enough that the other officers nearby wouldn''t be able to hear it over the din ofbat, but Reivyn''s Divine Sensepletely ignored the obstacles of interfering sounds and distance. He heard the words perfectly clear is if they were whispered directly into his ear.
"I think the colonel is trying to mitigate the timing by shaving off a few minutes," the retainer whispered. "You know how they are: ''fifteen minutes early to fifteen minutes early.'' By my clock, we''re twenty minutes from the hour mark. The soldiers seem like they have a bit more fight left in them before we need to make our escape. We can''t let the enemy push us out of the city without paying the appropriate price."
Prince Allik nced at his retainer and quirked an eyebrow at him. He considered the situation for a moment. It was clear to Reivyn that the man had been to preupied with other things to keep track of the timing of his order on his own. Reivyn''s clock matched that of the colonel.
This might be it, Reivyn thought. I''ve caught the man in a lie. There''s no way he doesn''t know the correct timing. If he can drag thebat out another ten minutes, and maybe throw in some more coincidental dys, he could possibly annihte the entire army. By that time, it won''t matter if his lie is revealed or not.
Reivyn began to inch his way closer to themand staff. He didn''t have to stand next to the lead Caster in order to supply him with Mana.
"Sir? What are your orders?" The colonel prompted.
Prince Allik nced back and forth between the officer and his retainer.
"Let''s give the men another ten minutes. We can''t let them get away so easily," he replied.
Prince Allik trusts his retainer more, Reivyn thought. And he yed with his desire to squeeze everyst drop out of the enemy before retreating. Clever. It''s not that he distrusts the colonel. He''s letting himself get persuaded.
The question now: Do I expose him and myself now, or do I wait a little longer to see if the retainer has any other tricks up his sleeve?
Reivyn didn''t immediately act. He continued to adjust his position closer and closer to the Prince, though.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" A voice cut through Reivyn''s concentration.
He zeroed his focus on a bloodied man that had arrived just at the edge of his Divine Sense. He was bent over, panting for breath. Blood stains covered his body and dripped down his face. He quickly gasped for air before straightening up to address the officer who had challenged him.
"Sir! There''s a breach in the line!" He shouted.
Heads snapped in his direction as the shout caught everyone''s attention. The retainer nced at the man and frowned. As everyone was looking at the bloodied soldier, one of the runners that Reivyn had seen several times before entered the range of his Divine Sense. The runner and the retainer exchanged at nce.
I see! Reivyn had an epiphany. The runners are in league with the retainer! They don''t have to subvert all of themanders and soldiers as long as they control the lines ofmunication. That report earlier about the status of the soldiers'' Stamina must have been false!
rm bells went off in Reivyn''s mind, and he could see the same expression of understanding the situatione over the Prince''s face.
"Order the retreat! Now!" Prince Allik shouted.
"Don''t be too hasty," the retainer said. "The situation isn''t as dire as all that. It''s just one breach. We still have time on the other side to keep fighting."
"I don''t care. We''ve done enough damage."
The retainer shook his head behind Prince Allik''s back. He reached into the pouch at his side, and he pulled out a set of ropes familiar to Reivyn. They were the same ropes he had used to restrain the spies from being able to use their Skills and Spells, but Reivyn could sense that these were an upgraded version of them. The amount of Mana he could sense in them made the other ropes look like toys.
Nobody was paying attention to the trusted retainer except for Reivyn. Prince Allik was overseeing the officers issue the orders of retreat to the runners, but Reivyn suspected those orders would never reach the ears of thepanymanders. As he was preupied with seeing to the overall situation, the retainer lunged forward with his rope.
Reivyn infused his body with the Traveler Affinity and dashed toward the Prince. He flung himself in between the retainer and the Prince, sting the retainer away with a built-up st Spell to knock him back from his target.
"Wha-?" Prince Allik turned in surprise. His eyebrows climbed even higher as he watched his retainer get up from where he had been flung with the ropes still in his hands.
The retainer brushed the dust off of himself and nced at Reivyn. The rest of the officers paused in what they were doing at the sudden actions of the two men. Several of the runners nced back and forth between the retainer and the officers giving them orders in apparent hesitation with what to do.
"Ahh, there you are," the retainer said, standing up straight. "I suspected you might have concealed yourself among the mercenary Mages when I noticed the odd behavior of the person standing in for you. Though, I didn''t think you would take the most prominent spot."
"The best ce to hide a letter is on the mantlepiece," Reivyn replied.
"What?" The retainer cocked his head in confusion.
"Never mind."
"Anyway, the battle is almost over. Thest step of securing the Prince is all that''s left, but you had to step in and try to save him. You''re an even bigger prize than the Prince. Your abilities will do wonders for our cause."
"Your cause?" Prince Allik asked. "What are you talking about?"
"He''s with them," Reivyn answered. He never took his eyes off the retainer as he drew his sword and assumed a ready stance. "The runners are in cahoots with him, too. You can''t trust them with your orders or reports."
Prince Allik stared at Reivyn for a moment in iprehension. He had been with the retainer for almost his entire life. It was a huge blow to learn someone so close to him was a traitor. He didn''t have time to be dumbfounded, though. Reivyn watched his face through his Divine Sense as he mastered his emotions and forced himself toe to grips with the reality in front of himself.
"What did they offer you to betray your country?" Prince Allik asked.
"Hahaha," the retainer chuckled. "You seem to be under a misconception. I haven''t betrayed my country. I was one of them from the beginning.
"Now, give up your useless struggle. It would have been easier if we had spent a little more time to ensure everyone''s thorough exhaustion, but this is good enough. There''s no escape. We can do this the easy way," the retainer brought his hands forward and brandished the rope, "or the hard way."
Chapter 201: Spooky Action
Chapter 201: Spooky Action
There was nor warning from Reivyn''s Danger Sense, but he picked up on the subtle movements in the retainer''s muscles that warned of an impending attack. The golden, shiny rope being held in front of the retainer''s chest was like a snake as it suddenly whipped forward and thrust toward Reivyn''s face. If he hadn''t picked up on the tiniest of movement in the man''s muscles with his Divine Sense, Reivyn would have suspected that the weapon had a mind of its own.
Reivyn leaned his head to the side to avoid the swift strike, but Danger Sense did warn him this time. There was no minute shift in muscles to pick up, and there wasn''t anything foreshadowing the change in momentum, but the rope end hooked around Reivyn''s neck and tried form a noose. Reivyn''s reactions were immediate, and as soon as he felt the tingle from his Skill, he ducked his body down to avoid the secondary attack.
I haven''t improved my senses enough to detect when someone uses their Stamina, but that was definitely a Skill, Reivyn thought. Now that I think about it, why haven''t I tried to form a Skill to sense stamina usage in someone else? Just because there isn''t ambient stamina in the environment? But the Mana I can detect others using is their own, not ambient. Seems like a pretty significant oversight.
The thoughts shed through Reivyn''s mind in an instant. They didn''t distract him from the fight being initiated. Getting taken almost byplete surprise had inspired an epiphany.
Sometimes having too much of something could cloud what was missing, and the sheer amount of sensory information Reivyn processed at all times had created a sort of blind spot in his thinking. It was also something that he hadn''t heard anyone else mention being a thing before, but that was something to ponderter.
Reivyn leaped back and to the side as the rope retracted into the retainer''s hand, a manic grin, an expression Reivyn had never seen on the otherwise stoic man''s face before, stered his features. Reivyn suspected that if he had charged forward, the rope end that was being retracted would have been up to more shenanigans, and he felt a slight threat from the other end of the rope, as well.
Reivyn thrust his off-hand toward the retainer, channeling his Mana into his finger-tips, andunched another st Spell at the man. Sure enough, as one end of the rope retracted, the other sprung up in a whirlwind fashion and snuffed out the Spell. Everywhere the rope contacted the Mana making up the Spell, the matrix that formed the Spell dissipated. It was as if it were being dissolved in water.
Reivyn calmly evaluated the scene. It wasn''t anything he had encountered before. He had assumed the ropes the retainer used to bind people functioned in a simr way to the prisoner shackles he had experience with, but that wasn''t the case.
The end result was simr, but the method waspletely different. It was like the rope was an antithesis to ordered Mana. The Mana didn''t go away, it just lost all form and function,zily floating about before getting caught up in the unnatural suction from far behind the enemy lines. The prisoner shackles worked more to prevent one from gaining control of their abilities to muster them in the first ce.
Reivyn frowned as he quickly formted a response to the enemy''s weapon. He would need more information before he fully understood what he was up against, but he had an instinctive hunch that the rope would affect everything it came into contact, including his sword and body.
Considering the spies were so soundly restrained, I imagine it has a simr affect on Stamina, Reivyn thought. If I get bound by the rope, it''ll drain all my Mana and Stamina out until I won''t be able to put up a fight.
Closebat would be tricky, but the rope was simr to a whip in that it was a medium to long range weapon. Reivyn was confident that he could avoid getting trapped with his Divine Sense and Danger Sense Skills, and using Spells to attack the man seemed like the more futile option. If he could wear the man''s Stamina out, thus reducing his reaction speed, it might be a viable option.
He wasn''t willing to overload a Spell to test the limits of the rope, just yet. He had a suspicion that this particr rope could handle thousands of points of Mana at a time, but if push came to shove and that was the only option to attempt, he would do it that way.
The others surrounding the fight breaking out between Reivyn and the retainer weren''t sitting still, either. Reivyn quickly made his decision and charged in to melee-range with the retainer, and while heunched himself forward,bat broke out between the officers and the runners that were sided with the retainer.
Reivyn could feel the pulse of energy as everyone around him released their auras in one way or another. Not everything was regted by a Skill, either. Some gathered Mana, creating a sort of pseudo-aura. Others seemed to charge up Skills requiring Stamina, and their overall bearing gave off a presence. They weren''t trying to hide their intentions like the retainer had, which made it more obvious to Reivyn.
I''ve noticed these types of auras around people for a long time, even if I haven''t been able to properly articte what I''m noticing, Reivyn realized. How have I never put two and two together?!
A small number of officers did have aura Skills, though none of them were anything like Reivyn''s advanced Skill. Most of them were inspiration-focused Auras, but two of them had Skills focused on demoralizing the enemy.
The officers weren''t to be outdone, though, and Reivyn was surprised to see that the runners that had previously been obediently following the orders of the supposedly higher-leveled superiors erupted auras of their own that were in no way inferior to the officers''. Sounds of metal shing and Spells erupting broke out all over the smallmand center. The runner''s faces turned from meek to ruthless at the drop of a hat.
The one soldier that had brought word to the failing Stamina of thepanies stood in ce, dumbfounded. He was still covered in blood and panting, but his mind was taking a moment to process what had just happened. Everything had been perfectly fine just a moment ago, and now everyone was fighting everyone.
Reivyn saw him shake his head and turn to run away. Reivyn saw determination rather than fear on the man''s face, though, so he assumed he was going to inform the closestpanymander of the goings-on and request reinforcements for the prince.
Speaking of the prince... Reivyn thought.
Reivyn reached striking distance of the retainer, and he had to immediately dodge back and to the side again to avoid the ropeshing out at him. He spun around, perfectly content to present his back to the enemy in the middle of fighting because of his Divine Sense Skill, and turned the dodge into a sweeping strike from his sword.
As he initiated the first attack on the retainer, he noticed the prince with his Divine Sense. Themanding general didn''t engage inbat with the rest of his men, but he wasn''t jus standing around doing nothing. He pulled out his long-distancemunication device and injected copious amounts of Mana into it, far more than he normally would.
Reivyn didn''t know the mechanisms behind it, but overloading it with Mana might have some sort of function of forcing a connection or initiating some sort of emergency protocol. Whatever it did, he contacted his brother who was in charge of the overall situation immediately.
An apparition of his brother sprang into being above themunication device. He was fully armed and armored, and he looked quite exhausted.
"No time!" The older prince chastised Prince Allik. "The enemy are throwing everything they got at me!"
"The runners!" Prince Allik shouted, ignoring his brother''sints. "They''re targeting our lines ofmunication!"
It was testament to how much his brother trusted him, but Prince Endrew immediately turned to address one of his officers.
"Rece these men, now!" He barked.
Reivyn wasn''t privy to the rest of the conversation, and his attention was zeroed in on the retainer in front of him, anyway. He could have eavesdropped on the conversation between the twomanders, but there wasn''t a point in doing so, and it would be an unnecessary risk.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The retainer didn''t do anything special to avoid the strike from Reivyn. He wasn''t wearing any visible armor that Reivyn could see, but his Divine Sense picked up on the slight shifting of his clothes that indicated something worn underneath. The retainer smirked as he simply shrugged his shoulders up, and Reivyn''s sword bounced off of the hidden armor underneath.
The retainer didn''t even stagger from the blow, and it wasn''t something that was hastily put together without much thought. Reivyn had put his entire center of gravity into the swing, using the centrifugal force of twisting his body to empower the blow.
It didn''t matter, though, and the retainer''s smirk only deepened at the surprised look on Reivyn''s face.
Reivyn didn''t hesitate to retract his de, but he still wasn''t quite fast enough. The rope looped down and sprung up from an odd angle to wrap around his de. He immediately felt a draining sensation as energy, both Stamina and Mana, were sucked out of his body through the hand holding the hilt of the sword.
Reivyn didn''t have time to try and man-handle the sword away from the binding as the other end of the rope pounced toward him. He had to make a decision, and he reluctantly let go of the mana sword that had followed him for years. It was the first time he had allowed himself to be disarmed in a real fight, and he felt a sense of loss over the small defeat.
The rope seemingly unwound itself from the sword on its own, and the de ttered to the ground. The two ends of the rope simultaneously shot toward Reivyn from different angles, forcing him further back as the retainer took a step forward.
Reivyn once danced away from the attack and once more thrust his hands forward. He pumped as much Mana as he could into his hands until it almost hurt. It felt like his hands were going to explode from the pressure, though there was really nothing physically happening. He released a barrage of Spells at the man, forcing him to redirect the trajectory of the ropes to deal with the ordered-Mana.
The ropes formed two whirlwinds, and nothing was able to get past them toward the retainer. Even before the Spells were disintegrated by the ropes, Reivyn could see Mana bleeding off of the Spells as it was sucked toward the phenomenon happening miles away. Having so much Mana in his Spell made him acutely aware of the situation happening with the Mana.
That''s my Mana! Reivyn grit his teeth.
Reivyn once more gathered his Mana in his hands before the Retainer couldunch another strike. He didn''t do anything fancy with the Affinities, he simply used all four of the basic Elements to flood as much Mana as he could, directing it into the ground. He crouched down and mmed his hands onto the ground.
Reivyn had a grimace on his face as he red at the retainer. He used the ground to bypass the ropes the man was using as a shield, and he felt a momentary sense of aplishment as the Mana bypassed the ropes.
The sense of victory was short lived, though, and the smirk on the retainer''s face never left.
The ropes simply shed down onto the ground, and a pulse of disruption severed Reivyn''s link to the Mana he was controlling. Instead of wiping out all of the ordered-Mana sent his way, the retainer had simply snipped the link connecting them to Reivyn.
Without anyone controlling the Mana, it wouldn''t be long before the Spells once more dissipated into nothingness.
Reivyn was unwilling, though. He mustered his ss Skills and bore down on the Mana with all of his Willpower.
Obey!
Reivyn dug deep into himself as he reached out with his will. It was paradoxical to try and control distant Mana by being introspective, but he was operating off of instinct. He had long since reached the Level cap of 100 for his basic Elements, and he felt like he was pushing himself against an invisible barrier as he tried to regain control of the Spell without being directly connected to it with his Mana tether.
The world seemed to spin a bit and his perception changed slightly as he felt a click in his mind. He felt much more intimate with all of the Ambient Mana in the atmosphere, and he felt a new connection with his structured-Mana that had been cut off.
He gripped his fist and ordered the Mana to erupt, and it obeyed.
The retainer''s eyes widened in astonishment a fraction of a second before the Spell exploded upward. It was the most Mana Reivyn had ever channeled into a single act of casting Spells before, and the effect was astounding.
The ground imploded and exploded at the same time. The Elements were used in their pure form, and they mixed and matched and caused all sorts of weird phenomenon as they struck at the retainer. Reivyn only had an instant in time to see what happened before the man wasunched into the air.
Bits of frayed fibers drifted in the air from where the rope had exploded in ces. The retainer wasunched out of Reivyn''s Divine Sense''s range, but he could still see him with his eyes. The ends of the rope were syed and scorched, and it had somehow been torn in half from the explosion.
Reivyn didn''t understand why it turned out that way, but he didn''t care about the why. Unless the rope retained all of its functions and was now two ropes that could bind him, it was a good thing, and from the emanations, orck thereof, from the rope, he suspected it had been disabled.
Reivyn didn''t dilly dally. He ignored the new pulsing in the corner of his vision indicating a System Notification, and he sprung forward to pick up his sword. He avoided the fierce fighting between the runners and the officers as he chased after the retainer that was still soaring through the air. He came to a halt, though, as the retainer wasunched beyond thebat line between the troops.
Reivyn watched helplessly as the retainer crashed into a row of soldiers beyond his reach. The men apparently recognized him, as they helped him regain his feet before continuing their March forward. The retainer spit out a was of blood before looking up and meeting Reivyn''s eyes.
There was steel in the man''s gaze, but he broke contact to look down at the two ends of rope he was still holding in his hands. He examined them closely before shrugging his shoulders and simply tossing them away. He looked back up at Reivyn and shed a bloody grin at him. He turned away from the front lines and limped his way to the back.
Reivyn frowned in frustration, but he didn''t have time to worry about the man getting away. He turned back toward themand center and sprinted back to the fierce sounds of fighting.
Reivyn cocked his head and looked up into the sky where he could still see all the Mana rushing toward the distant destination, but he felt a slight pull from them that had been absent previously. He flexed his will, and the motes of Mana that made up the four basic Elements froze in ce in a wide berth around him.
Without creating a link to himself and the ambient Mana, he took control of all the Mana, including the new motes that came screaming in from the distance, and gathered them in ce. He wove them into a Spell up in the sky, and he didn''t notice any difference in how he was able to manipte the Mana without the direct connection, though it was only relegated to the four basic Elements so far.
He constructed the re Spell, and three explosions in session rang out in the sky. It was the signal for retreat whenmunication wasn''t possible, and Reivyn was confident in his choice to do so because the Prince had already technically ordered the retreat.
Reivyn had been too preupied with his own conflict, and he had been out of range with his Divine Sense, so he didn''t know why none of the other Mages hadn''t cast the Spell, but he was sure he would find out.
The prince had finally engaged inbat with the runners, and he and the other officers were mopping up the remnants of the enemy infiltrators as Reivyn returned. The prince was much more powerful than Reivyn had given him credit for, and he easily single-handedly tipped the bnce of power in their favor.
The runners fought with the same conviction as the enemy Deathsworn, though, and none of them gave up or retreated. Prince Allik stabbed a runner through the heart as heunched a series of Blot Spells from his free-hand at another nearby enemy. The runner never flinched, even when they were unable to properly react to the attacks from the prince.
The bloodied man that had taken off as the fighting started ran back to themand center at the same time that Reivyn returned, and he was followed by a couple lieutenants. The lieutenants nced up at the re spells going off in session in the sky, but they didn''t pause in following their subordinate to join the fray. A squad of soldiers with grim faces followed in their wake.
The runners had outnumbered the officers in the beginning, and they had inflicted some casualties on themand staff, but it hadn''t been enough to win the fight. Now that the prince and the other men joined the fight, they were quickly dispatched before Reivyn could help.
Prince Allik spotted Reivyn jogging up. He frowned as he addressed him.
"My man?"
"Escaped," Reivyn answered.
Thest of the runners was dispatched as Prince Allik took the information in. He stared at Reivyn for a moment, his face masking any emotions coursing through him.
"Pity," he said after a few seconds. "Return to yourpany, Captain Reivyn, and take charge of their retreat. I''ll invite you to my quarterster for a proper conversation and a thank you."
Reivyn didn''t snap to attention, and he didn''t salute. It wasn''t appropriate to do so on the battlefield, though he imagined there was no doubt to everyone on either side that the other man was themander, so it wasn''t like he was going to give the man away.
"Yes, sir!" Reivyn replied.
The front line soldiers were already streaming by as they executed their retreat protocols once more, and Prince Allik gathered up hismand staff and reasserted his control over the army. Reivyn sheathed his sword and jogged along the streets in a direction that would lead him to meet up with hispany before they exited the city.
I wonder how my men handled the battle? Reivyn thought. I''m confident in the officers and NCO''s, and I definitely have nothing to worry about with my father, but this was the first real action of this sort most of them have seen. The little skirmishes in the forest don''t reallypare.
Reivyn was both torn by the bloodshed and death that surrounded them and excited about the growth of his mercenarypany at the same time. War was always aplicated thing that evoked a range of weird emotionalbinations, but Reivyn would channel everything he had into taking care of his subordinates.
Chapter 202: Zero
Chapter 202: Zero
Reivyn ran through the streets, picking up the pace from a simple jog as his blood pumped through his veins. He could feel and hear his heart pounding with the excitement and adrenaline coursing through him. He wasn''t afraid for his life or anything, but something in his gut told him he needed to get back to his men.
My gut instincts are rarely wrong, Reivyn thought. It doesn''t always manifest in the most obvious way, but that doesn''t make it inurate. I might just be anxious from being away from my post for all I know.
He hadplete confidence that his father, the officers and NCO''s, and if push came to shove, the two cultivators, would be able to solve any dire situations thepany found itself in. That didn''t lessen the slow creep of anxiety he felt as his feet pounded on the pavement.
He badly wanted to open his Notification Window to see what the blinking was all about, especially after his perception of Mana had taken that weird shift earlier, but even though he had Divine Sense and was able to focus on a lot of different things at once, he didn''t want to take the chance that he would stumble into something dangerous if he focused too much attention away from his task. He was pretty confident that the whatever was hidden in the Notification Window right now would take up a lot of his mental capacity, whatever it was.
The weird shift in his perception of Mana persisted the entire time, so it wasn''t something that he had to activate. He only thought of it as a weird shift because he had gotten so used to the constant view he had of ambient Mana that any kind of difference would be a deviation of the norm no matter what form it took, but he also couldn''t quite put his finger on what the exact difference was. He was perceiving the difference, but at the same time, it was more of an instinctual feeling that arose from his sense. The ambient Mana felt more intimate to him.
The feeling was restricted to a bubble surrounding himself. It wasn''t infinite off into the horizon, but the bubble was an oddbination of the limits of his different Mana Skills and Divine Sense. Without diving into specifics, he couldn''t tell if there was any concrete form or corrtion, but the bubble of intimate ambient Mana was definitely tied to the other ranges.
His Mana Sight and Sense Mana weren''t absolutes. At a certain distance, the Mana motes turned into fuzzy impressions that got more and more indistinct until he couldn''t see or sense anything at all. It wasn''t the same as the wall of darkness of the absolute edge to his Divine Sense range, but there was a definite limit that he could see with the naked eye.
His new intimacy sat somewhere between those limits and the range of his Divine Sense, though it was closer to thetter.
He didn''t really have the time to think about it too much, and he definitely couldn''t stop what he was doing to do any experiments. The thoughts about his new sensation were in the back of his mind, though, not taking up any of his concentration.
Reivyn continued to angle further and further away from the centralmand center as he ran along the streets, most of them devoid of any other people. The civilians had been evacuated as soon as the rm bells had sounded, and they were most likely miles and miles down the road by now. Reivyn also didn''t sense any stragglers staying behind in their homes for whatever reason, but that wasn''t to say that there weren''t foolish people elsewhere in the city who had ignored the warnings. Reivyn just hoped there hadn''t been any in the huge portion of the city they had destroyed to create obstacles for the enemy.
Off in the distance, as Reivyn ran out of a narrow alley onto a more broad street running perpendicr to his path, he saw soldiers engaged in fiercebat as they attempted to disengage the enemy soldiers with everything they had. The wounded soldier who had warned them of the deceit of the runners had mentioned breaches in the line, and not everypany had a smooth time of trying to reach the exit. It didn''t seem like there were any other nearby soldiers who were inclined to intercede on their behalf, either.
Reivyn muttered under his breath about responsibility and foolishness, but he grit his teeth as he sprinted toward the sights and sounds ofbat.
The enemy soldiers weren''t going for the kills. Reivyn''s allies were clearly exhausted, and they could barely put up a concerted resistance, though they continued to fight valiantly. Those that ran out of Stamina and copsed to the ground, however, were quickly swarmed by the enemy soldiers.
Reivyn watched in horror as one enemy soldier trussed up a downed soldier as another brought out a branding iron from somewhere and unceremoniously thrust it against the downed man''s head.
The smell of burning flesh was in his head, but the screams of torment were very real.
It was happening all over the street, and as the enemy soldiers made more and more headway, those that had been left behind by the initial captors were hauled away toward the enemy front, never to be seen again.
Reivyn reached out with his new ability and gained control of the basic Mana in the vicinity of the fighting. He gathered the Mana together on the far side of where he was charging them from, and several soldiers on either side immediately jerked their heads up to see where the sense of Mana gathering wasing from. All of them paused in confusion, though, when they didn''t spot anything.
Everyone knew that gathering Mana tounch a Spell was done within one''s body, and it was nigh impossible to do so without giving one''s self away to those sensitive enough to the Mana. Reivyn didn''t even have a Skill that would help him obscure his own Mana signature when he was Casting, and he didn''t know anyone who did. That didn''t mean it didn''t exist, and Reivyn''s experience lent him to believe it did.
Reivyn kept an eye on his dwindling pool of Mana points. Just because he was manipting Mana outside of his direct control didn''t mean it was free. He noticed that it didn''t put a strain on his Mana pool, though, either. It was a one-to-one ratio for Casting Spells, though he instinctually knew that if he didn''t detonate the Spell he was weaving and let it dissipate like he would with his own Spells, the cost wouldn''t be realized.
A weak memory of a phrase about something about somew conserving energy flitted across his mind.
He was able to weave and knot the Mana just as expertly as he could with his own reserves residing in his body, but there was a fatal weakness to what he could aplish with this ability. He could only work with what Mana was there.
If he was in a lower Tiered Region, this ability would be almost useless aside from some niche utility Spells. As it was, he was in a unique situation where he could freeze the ambient Mana in ce with his Will, and there was a constant stream of more Mana entering his range due to the circumstances suspected to have been caused by the invaders.
The soldiers on both sides of the fighting that could sense the Mana could tell that it was culminating into something, and they warned theirpatriots to be prepared. Neither side knew who was conjuring the phantom Spell, so a brief standstill urred in the fighting as everyone braced for the fallout.
Reivyn didn''t slow his steps down, though he did activate his Silent Steps Skill in order to draw less attention to himself now that it had grown more silent. It wasn''t a Skill he had dedicated a lot of time to, but it did audibly muffle the noise he had been making.
The Mana grew to a crescendo, and he flexed his Will to release the Spell he had woven. Soldiers on both sides activated their group Shield Skills and raised actual shields to protect themselves, though the invader''s defenses were noticeably more potent.
Stolen novel; please report.
It didn''t matter, though, and a molten ball of fire appeared out of thin air and rotated in the air slightly above everyone''s heads, though it was below the roofs of the second story buildings.
It was a Spell he had used many times to great affect before, the first time in a simr situation of fending off an invading force.
Lances of super-heated sma and Fire began to rain down on the enemy forces, and Reivyn could see tension visibly leave the shoulders of his allies.
Reivyn wasn''t done, either. He activated his Multi-Cast Skill andunched even more fierynces from his fingers, trapping the enemy in a pincer attack single-handedly, taking them by surprise.
The defensive measures the enemy soldiers erected in front had a tangible affect on his limited Spell Cast from a distance, though the ones punching into their backs wasn''t defended against at all. There were too many of his own side''s soldiers in every which way, though, so he wasn''t able to achieve a perfect barrage against their side.
The distance between him and the enemy never slowed, either, and he charged right into their midst,ying about himself with his Mana Sword enhanced with multiple Affinities. He was finally beginning to run low on Mana, having spent arge portion in his attacks against the retainer, but he didn''t anticipate he would need to keep it up for long.
His allies cheered as they witnessed the magical and martial carnage Reivyn wrought just by himself, and most of them turned and began jogging away again. Those still closest to the enemy soldiers continued to cover their friends'' retreat, though, and Reivyn mentally nodded his head at their bravery.
Spears and swords shed and stabbed at Reivyn as he danced through the enemy lines, though he was moving about so much and so quickly, they only ever touched his shadow. He continued to take opportunities tounch Spells at more distant enemies, and soon the street was clear of enemies.
More were on their way down the alley they hade from before spilling out onto the main thoroughfare, but Reivyn kept them at bay with st Spells for a moment as he assisted some of the captured soldiers that hadn''t been taken away, yet.
With his Will empowering his Mana, he was able to sever the ropes binding the men, though he wasn''t sure if it was even necessary. None of the binding instruments used by the regr soldiers gleamed with the same light as the one the retainer had used, and he didn''t get any kind of feeling of danger from them.
He was confident he would have been able to break through the retainer''s rope with his Veridical Affinity, but it had been annoying to deal with without resorting to such a thing.
Reivyn began helping the downed soldiers up from the ground, and several others raced forward to help. They were all panting, covered in sweat and blood, but they didn''t shirk their responsibilities and leave their own behind.
Reivyn had seen it with his Divine Sense, but he got a good look with his own two eyes as he helped the would-be captured soldiers to their feet.
The brands on their foreheads were "0''s."
I''m not sure what that implies, Reivyn thought with a grim expression, but it can''t be anything good.
The enemy soldiers with "1''s" branded on their heads had been used as canon fodder, willingly rushing to their deaths. They weren''t easy deaths either, as they intentionally impaled themselves on spears and other weapons to weigh them down with their bodies.
If "1''s" are treated like that, I can only imagine what that means for "0''s."
"Get these men out of here," Reivynmanded the soldiers as thest was helped to his feet. "I''ll cover you for a time."
"Yes, sir!" One of the soldiers noticed the rank insignia of Reivyn''s armor.
The enemy soldiers being held back by the explosions of Mana didn''t have fear on their faces as they hunkered down in the alley. They didn''t have rage or any other kind of emotion on their faces, either. They were just being pragmatic when they noticed they weren''t able to get closer to Reivyn and the other soldiers temporarily, so they decided to wait. Reivyn wouldn''t be able to keep it up forever, and even if he could, he wouldn''t as he would want to retreat at some point, too.
Reivyn kept an eye on the invaders he was holding back as he scanned the road on both sides. Everywhere he looked, he could see soldiers running through the streets. Most of them were orderly and not being hounded by the enemy soldiers, but he could see pockets of fierce fighting in the distance on either side.
More and more allied soldiers were taken down and branded, and there wasn''t anything Reivyn could do about it. He knew he wouldn''t be able to affect every part of the battle just by himself intellectually, but knowing that he could if he was close enough didn''t help with the sinking feeling in his gut.
This is why they didn''t nk the city, Reivyn realized. With the runner disruptingmunications and rying false information, their n was to wear us down in the city where we would be confident in our preparations in order to capture as many of us as possible. If they had left it up to a nking maneuver to gain the upper hand, we wouldn''t have been as tired, and the casualty rate would be higher.
It seems like they care more about our lives than their own. I guess it makes sense when they call themselves the "Deathsworn." There''s some sort of fanaticism in their eyes while they fight, and Xudrid had mentioned that they considered people as a resource. Wouldn''t want to harm the merchandise.
Reivyn chuckled at the dark humor. He didn''t necessarily find it funny, but one learned to deal with stress in dark ways.
Reivyn couldn''t see around all the bends in the alley the soldiers fled down, but he kept a focus on them with his Divine Sense. He started counting down in his head after thest one disappeared beyond his range. He needed to give them a head start to converge with more soldiers. There would be protection in numbers, and the city walls weren''t that far away anymore. Soon, they would be running across the open fields to their secondary fortifications outside the city, and hopefully that would allow them a breather to regain their Stamina.
With how close this fight has gotten, I don''t see it as viable to use the fallback position to continue the engagement as originally nned, Reivyn thought. Best to use it to catch our breath before retreating further. They can''t chase us forever. I''ll have to wait and see what Prince Allik thinks about it, though.
Reivyn reached an arbitrary number he had set for himself, gave onest nce at the enemy soldiers hunkered down in the alley, and turned and sprinted after the retreating soldiers. The invaders immediately streamed out of their protective position in the alley after him, and Reivyn lobbed a few more Spells their way over his shoulder. He didn''t need to look back to take aim, and he took out the first couple of rows of men that had chased after him.
Their eyes permanently reflected astonishment where theyy on the ground.
The brief skirmish to help those in need escape their pursuers hadn''t taken that much time, and it was in the direction he was headed, anyway. He didn''t lose much ground considering he had sprinted such a distance to close with the enemy. He didn''t continue to follow the soldiers he had saved. He continued taking turns down various main streets and alleys to angle toward the direction he would find his ownpany.
They had trained extensively with climbing and using ropes, so they weren''t nning on getting bogged down waiting at one of the gates. They were simply going to go straight up and over the walls to escape the city, so Reivyn knew exactly where to go to meet up with them. He just had to line up the proper position on the back wall with where hispany had been ced earlier in the battle, and they would converge with each other.
Reivyn wasn''t running along empty streets anymore, though. More and more soldiers filled the alleys and streets as he ran toward his destination, but they were much more orderly than the pocket of soldiers he had rescued. Most of thepanies were retreating in good order under supervision of their officers. The ones he had rescued had either been a dying force that had volunteered to cover one of thesepanies, or they had lost their leadership in the breach, because there hadn''t been anyone in apparent charge that Reivyn had seen.
None of that mattered to Reivyn, though, and the wall kept getting closer and closer. He didn''t run into any more situations where he felt obligated to get himself involved, and he made a beeline for where his men would be.
Reivyn was anticipating reuniting with his father and men when a towering aura shot up into the sky just ahead, directly in his path. Another, slightly smaller, aura rose up to meet it. Reivyn recognized the signature of the slightly smaller aura. It was his father.
Reivyn''s lips formed a line as he realized some old monster had stepped forward to confront his father. Reivyn didn''t know anything about the other person''s capabilities, but the aura he was giving off indicated that he was at least a higher Level than Refix.
The two auras shed in an invisible struggle that could only be perceived and not seen, and Reivyn picked up his pace. He could feel thumps in his chest indicative of the shes between the two strong warriors, and he could hear the sounds of metal ringing even through all the building still obstructing his view.
Reivyn burst through the final line of buildings between him and the walls, and he almost came to a stop at the carnage the two behemoths were wreaking as they engaged in an intense battle.
Chapter 203: Bloody Battle
Chapter 203: Bloody Battle
Refix surveyed the fighting with a critical eye. Even with always training to the extreme topensate for fighting while exhausted, there was only so much one could do. There was no way someone could maintain 100% effectiveness for hours on end. Even if everything was done perfectly to allow the troops to keep their Stamina above 90% the entire time, the mental toll was something that couldn''t bepletely circumvented.
Refix was noticing more and more mistakes being made by the soldiers on the front lines. Everyone was covered in sweat, and small wounds were umting at an increased pace.
Something has to be wrong, Refix thought. Considering I know the other regr troops don''t train the same way we do, we should have received the order to retreat half an hour ago based on the performance of our soldiers.
Refix stepped forward as he drew his sword. He needed to give the men a breather, but he needed to be careful while doing so. That feeling in the back of his mind was constant, and if he let loose to ughter the invaders, he would invite trouble. He needed to thread a needle.
"Officers! Forward!" Refix Commanded. "Take over as much as you can from your men to let them catch their breath!"
The officers followed suit in drawing their weapons, and they made their way to the front of the line. They weren''t superior to the soldiers in the same way Refix was, but they were the highest Leveled individuals in thepany, and they were also the freshest at this point.
Refix took up his position in the center of the line and dashed forward to meet the enemy soldiers before they reached the palisade. He was capable enough to hold of the invaders for a time without having to use his Skills or go all out. The officers grouped up on either side and did the same thing, forming little groups to cover each other''s nks while doing so.
Refix was an ind in the middle of a raging river. The water broke along his shore. The groups of officers were a lesser version, though they were effective enough to allow for their men to get some much needed rest in the middle of the fight.
Refix could have called for Xudrid and Vyria to step forward to assist them, but they were employed as regr mercenaries and they had made it clear that they wanted to act as normal as possible for their Life Experience. They would step in if things got too serious, they assured him, but things hadn''t reached that point, yet. Refix was perfectly happy to let them maintain their identities as regr mercenary soldiers in the current situation.
Refix and the other officers didn''t have to keep up their defense for too long. They only needed to hold off the invaders for a minute or two. It wouldn''t be enough to give anyone a substantial rest, but those quick couple of minutes could make a major difference down the road if they had to flee in less than ideal circumstances.
Refix''s Stats and Skills ensured that he could handle whatever the enemy could throw at him, and he singlehandedly took care of most of the line. The officers didn''t have nearly as high Stats or Skills as he did, but the small unit tactics they had drilled in endless hours made up for it. Reivyn hadn''t been able to pass along the Skill for sharing Stats and Skills he had encountered from the enemy ambush, but that wasn''t too big of a deal in the current circumstances.
Three fiery bangs exploded in the sky where themand center was located. Refix was steady enough that he didn''t deviate his concentration, but that wasn''t true for all the officers. One of the lower-Leveled officers couldn''t help it and took a quick nce up at the sky. One of the invaders took the opportunity to lunge forward and tackle the man to the ground.
Without thinking about it, Refix sent out an ethereal club to knock the invader off of the downed officer. The others next to him quickly helped him back to his feet.
"Retreat by numbers!" Refix called out. "We''ll hold first since we''re already up here!"
Refix had a sinking feeling in his gut and a grim expression on his face. He had messed up and he knew it. It hadn''t been such a dire situation that he needed to use his ss Skill, but he had reacted before his brain could keep up. He didn''t let his slip up affect his responsibilities with the men.
Nobody else noticed, but Refix definitely felt a strong presence focus on him as soon as he released his Skill. Even if they hadn''t received the signal re, it was time to go.
Refix didn''t get a sense of impending doom or anything right away, so he stayed with the officers for a while longer to give the soldiers time to move away and set up another defensive line to leap frog their way to the wall. After enough time passed, Refix signaled to the other officers.
"Time to go! You go first and I''ll be right behind you!"
Nobody said anything as they turned and ran. Refix backed up to the palisade, jumping over it without looking as he reached it. After clearing the short wall, he turned and chased after the rest of thepany.
His heart was pounding more than it had the entire time they had been fighting as the focus of the distant presence stayed locked on his position. It was almost a physical feeling. He wasn''t worried that he wouldn''t be able to fight whoever it was off. He was just worried about the coteral damage caused by a confrontation with such a powerful foe.
The mercenaries were well trained and conditioned to operate in adverse conditions. They quickly increased the distance between themselves and the invaders, not even having to use the leap frog method to buy time for their retreat. They still employed the method, but the first group never engaged with the enemy before they, too, continued their retreat.
"When we get to the wall, don''t stop for anything," Refix Commanded. "Just go straight up and over without hesitation."
"What about Captain Reivyn?" Jekle asked.
"Don''t worry about Captain Reivyn," Refix replied. "He knows where and what to do."
"Yes, sir!"
Refix didn''t exin further, but his Danger Sense was beginning to tingle in the back of his mind. Someone wasing for him.
The race through the streets was uneventful, and before long, the wall was looming in front of them. Refix''s Danger Sense got more and more intense as time went on, and he stood back, away from the soldiers of thepany, as he watched them ascend the wall.
Something piqued his attention, and he turned around to see a giant of a man step out of the shadows of the alley.
The man was wearing full te mail adorned with spikes. His helmet had a "T" shaped opening with curved horns on the top, and a tabard that looked like it was made of steel hanging almost to the ground.
He stood half again as tall as Refix, and he held arge, thick staff with a spiked ball and chain attached to one end.
The man stood with his legs shoulder-width apart, his weapon held in both hands across his waist, as he scanned the retreating soldiers. He quickly dismissed them and focused his gaze on Refix. A wide, manic grin split his face beneath his helmet.
A towering aura shot up to the sky as the man''s fighting intent rocketed upward. Strangely, Refix didn''t feel any killing intent in the man''s aura. It was like he was simply excited for a challenging fight.
Refix wasn''t one to back down, and he released his own fighting intent, though his was a bit darker with his intent indicating he was ready to kill. Refix''s aura was slightly muted beside the giant''s, but he wasn''t too concerned about it. ???: Tier 5 Level 101-199
Significant Threat
He''s most likely a battle junky with a lot of experience, Refix sized the man up, throwing out a Sense Threat. His Stats are probably slightly higher, but his actual Skill Levels aren''t necessarily as high as mine. Numbers aren''t everything, but things are different if he hasn''t transcended a Skill.
The subtle shifting in the man''s muscles gave the man''s intent away, and he charged across the open ground toward Refix. He twisted his body and used his entire center of gravity to swing the spiked ball at Refix''s head.
Refix didn''t hold any of his tricks back. He released his arsenal of ethereal weapons andunched them in a whirlwind of death as he leapt forward to mee the man''s charge. Each weapon had an unpredictable attack-type infused into it through his transcendent Skill. Some of his blunt weapons would act like shes or stabs, and some of his ded weapons would act like bludgeons. It was as random as he could make it.
Royal Road''s content has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He didn''t shy away or leap back from the spiked ball. Refix closed the distance and entered inside the range of the iling weapon to avoid the spiked ball. That meant he was in range of the staff portion of the weapon, but he had plenty of experience fighting against staves and other long, two-handed weapons.
Refix''s sword came down on the staff, sparks flying like the giant''s weapon was made of metal rather than wood. The man grinned down at Refix with a ferocious glint to his eyes. At this distance, Refix could tell that the man''s face was covered in a full beard. He gave off the vibes of a bloodthirsty bandit.
The spiked ball continued it''s trajectory, but before it could wrap around with centrifugal force and be a threat to the wielder, the chain detached itself from the staff, and the giant shoved Refix away while swiping the staff upward to try and smash it into his chin.
Refix bent his body back ny degrees to avoid the strike, taking the opportunity tosh out with a kick. His foot met the armored shin of the giant, though, and the force wasn''t enough to pass through.
Despite the giant''s size, he was incredibly quick and agile. Before the spike ball and chain could sail off, he twirled his staff around, and it somehow reattached itself to the other end of the staff. The man smoothly turned the whirl into another wide sh at Refix''s other side.
Refix rolled his body around so his chest was facing down instead of his back, and heunched himself backwards, toward the giant once more, while he twisted in air to leverage his own body-weight into his attack.
A visible shockwave emanated out from the sh of the two weapons, and the ball and chain once more detached itself.
Refix''s ethereal arsenal wasn''t doing nothing, though. He had been pelting the man with attacks that he simply stood and took. He had correctly guessed that the strikes would only be able to utilize a fraction of Refix''s Stats, and they weren''t strong enough to bypass his armor. The vibrations, reverberations, and bludgeon damage managed to pass some of the damage through the armor, though. Refix didn''t have a good reference for how much damage it did, though, as the man waspletely unfazed and didn''t even flinch.
Refix redirected some of his ethereal weapons to intercept the spiked ball and chain, and he batted it out and away from their conflict, but his sense of victory was short lived. The giant''s grin turned into a smirk, and with a gesture, the spiked ball and chain arrested themselves in midair before returning to the man at a quicker speed than they had been knocked away.
Refix twirled away from the flying spiked ball, the giant taking the opportunity to swipe at his legs with his staff. Refix turned his twirling maneuver into a spinning cartwheel that avoided both strikes.
He came back up at the ready, facing the man once more. The giant continued to grin at him.
"Is that all you got, little man?" The giant taunted. "Weak! Why are you all so weak?!"
The man took a giant step, lifting his leg high into the air before smashing it down on the ground. The earth shook and cracked as it caused Refix to lose his bnce and stumble a bit. To Refix it felt like a massive earthquake had hit, but the Skill was localized as evidenced by zero damage caused to even the closest buildings.
The giant yanked his hands apart, and his staff turned into two smaller weapons. Another spiked ball and chain appeared from somewhere, and the two attached themselves to the end of either shorter staff.
The man roared withughter as he charged forward once more, swinging his weapons with wild abandon and using his greater size and reach to maximum advantage.
Refix found himself on the back foot, unable to regain the initiative temporarily, but he wasn''t panicked. The man was wild and unpredictable, but Refix could tell his conjecture was right about him not being quite as Skilled as him with his weapon. It wouldn''t have been as bad if his ethereal arsenal was more effective against the giant. This was the first time he had encountered an opponent who could practicallypletely ignore his Skill.
Refix moved his body, contorting it in every which way as he dodged and danced around the multiple strikes flying at him from all directions. Even with the hectic strategy employed by the giant, he wasn''t losing out so bad that he couldn''t get the asional counterattack in. His sword snaked through the whirling staves, chains, and spiked balls to sh at weaker parts of the man''s armor. There were no chinks or openings to take advantage of, but even metal could be eroded over time with enough Stats and precision strikes. All of Refix''s attacksnded on the exact same positions where he would whittle down the other man as he looked for other opportunities.
The best opportunity he could hope for would be for the man''s open faced to get in range of one of his thrusts, but he would have to lead the man into it. Refix didn''t have the initiative, but he could still influence the flow of the battle with his fighting experience, and that''s what he was aiming for. He was simultaneously carrying out two wars of attrition: one to try and break through the armor and the other to umte damage with attacks that could somewhat bypass the armor, and a deadly dance to eventually lead the giant man into a trap.
All the time that Refix was scheming his strategies, though, he had to be hyper aware to not fall for any schemes of the enemy. With the battle lust and fighting spirit the giant man was giving off, there was no way his form of fighting was as simple as simply swinging erratically until hended a solid blow. Refix had fought berserkers before, and the tactics used by the giant felt a bit off aspared to the pure berserkers he had faced in the past.
Blood began to seep out of the giant man''s mouth as he continued to press Refix, but the presence of the blood only excited the giant man more. Suddenly, he disengaged without warning and stood atplete ease a short distance away from Refix.
"Ha! Fun!" The man yelled out cheerfully. "But now, the real thing is about to begin."
The grin left the man''s face, and all cheer disappeared as if flying ash. The man''s face turned grim, and Refix noticed a deep, dark red color seep up the man''s face,pletely covering every inch of skin. The man spat out a glob of blood, but instead of falling the ground, it stopped in the air and hovered in ce for a moment before floating to the man''s back where it began to spin.
Refix had a bad feeling in his gut, and it only got worse as he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye.
Streams of maroon liquid came flying through the air at high speeds and converged with the glob of blood floating behind the man. More and more blood arrived to join the first, and they merged with the man''s own blood as the little orb grew bigger and bigger.
The giant didn''t wait for the Skill, or whatever it was he was doing, to finish before he once more charged forward. His attacks came just as fast and fierce as before, but gone was theplete randomness. Refix''s heart sank further as he noticed that their was a methodical method to the strikes the man was now delivering.
All thoughts of subtly leading the giant into a trap left Refix''s mind. Shockwaves continued to expand out around them from when Refix parried the man''s attacks. Refix still counterattacked and continued to rain blows upon the man with his ethereal arsenal, but the more damage he did to the man with his armor-prating attacks, the deeper the shell of blood covering his skin grew. The darker the blood covering the man''s body grew, the stronger and faster he became.
Soon, Refix was no longer able tounch any counterattacks at the man. He called off the the ethereal arsenal as it was just making his enemy stronger. The giant would get strong enough to overpower him long before the attrition of damage threatened his life, so there was no point.
The giant man suddenly stopped pressing forward. His arms bent at his sides, holding his staves upward as he threw his head back as he screamed.
"Rivers of Blood!"
Without him noticing, the little glob of blood floating where it had initially settled had grown into a veritableke of blood swirling in ce. Refix spotted Reivyne out from behind some buildings just as the blood exploded out in three long rivers andpletely submerged Refix.
Blinding pain assaulted him as everywhere the blood touched, it felt like searing-hot iron needles stabbed into him. His Health pool dropped by several percentage points per second, and it didn''t seem like the Skill was going to end any time soon. The floating bloodke had been much more heavilypressed than he had imagined, and it contained literal rivers of blood within it.
Refix''s body was carried away by the swiftly moving blood. He tumbled end over end as he was caught in a powerful current that he couldn''t fight against. There was no danger of him drowning in the blood. He could hold his breath for over an hour at this point, but the damage being done to him by the Skill was astounding. This was the most dangerous predicament he had encountered in many years.
He still didn''t despair, though. He could feel that the Skill was losing momentum, and it wouldn''t be enough to kill him. He just had to wait it out and hope that the Skill took almost as much out of the giant as it did him.
"Tides of Blood!"
The sound of the giant man''s voice reached Refix''s ears perfectly clearly through the blood submerging him. He grit his teeth as he felt more energy disperse through the blood, and he could tell that somethingrger than the simple drowning with blood was taking shape.
A shining light came shing down from the wall without warning, though, and the blood lost all connection with the giant man. Refix heard the man grunt in pain. He was unceremoniously dropped to ground, and heid there panting for a moment.
His entire body waspletely covered in the thick liquid, and he could feel the bile rising in his throat. He forced it back down, however, and slowly regained his feet. He looked around and saw that the entire open area between the buildings and the wall waspletely red with blood. It was the most gruesome sight he had ever seen.
The giant man was down on one knee, sping his chest with one hand as the other propped himself up with one of his staves. He looked up at the wall, and his gaze immediately focused on two people standing at the top.
Xudrid and Zyria were standing proud, looking down on the giant man. Zyria''s sword was out of its sheath and held aloft in the direction of the enemy.
"Cultivator brat!" The giant man spit. "Just because we can''t brand you doesn''t mean we can''t kill you!"
Reivyn ran up from behind the giant man at that moment. His sword was at the ready as well, and Refix could feel the powerful emanations of Mana fluctuating through his body. From the look and feel of it, though, Refix could tell Reivyn was reaching the end of his reserves.
Steely determination filled his eyes, and all four of them watched the giant man as he regained his feet and held his weapons up once more. He stood at an angle so that he could affect a strike in all three different directions at the four people surrounding him. The grin was back on his face.
"We just need to kill the boss, here, and we''ll be able to get away," Reivyn said, standing ready to fight at a moment''s notice.
"He''s not the boss," Refix said, shaking his head. The giant man just watched the four of them with his manic look. He didn''t respond to the words being said.
"He''s not the boss?" Reivyn asked, shooting a confused look at Refix.
Refix looked back the way they hade, to the presence that was still focused on him. The giant man that had arrived to confront him and the presence that had locked onto him from so far away weren''t the same person.
"No. There''s someone stronger, still, watching from the shadows."
Chapter 204: Sanguine Duel
Chapter 204: Sanguine Duel
Reivyn''s grip on his sword tightened at his father''s words. The giant man grinned fiercely at them as he stood ready to sh once more. He showed absolutely zero fear in being surrounded by four people.
Reivyn wasn''t sure if the opponent had an ability to judge threats like he did, but he was assuming he did, considering he had sought his father out for personalbat. If that was the case, Reviyn knew that he was probably giving off some pretty weak vibes right about now. His Mana was a huge part of his prowess, and his reserves were nearly exhausted.
His Skills granted him finesse, technique, and made him dangerous to most people in Tier 4 and below, but his Mana is what gave his abilities "oomph." He wasn''t confident he would be able to bypass the giant''s armor without the added bonus of powerful Affinities empowering his strikes. He would need to conserve his Mana for strategic use.
Even with him feeling drained and literally being the absolutely lowest Leveled individual on the scene, he didn''t sense any contempt from the big man. The giant kept his focus on all four of them in equal measure. This didn''t cause Reivyn''s ego to get a boost or make him feel ttered, though. It made him feel dread. This was a man who wasn''t going to fall victim tocency.
They were going to have to defeat him with real ability.
The giant man didn''t wait for Reivyn and his allies to make the first move. The link between him and the blood he had summoned had mostly been severed, but mostly wasn''t entirely. The initial orb from within himself was still floating behind him, and it was still connected with arge amount of blood swirling around it.
The giant shed out with his weapon in arge, 180-degree arc. It started from Refix, traveled up and around in front of Xudrid and Vyria, and ended shing across Reivyn. If he had just randomly been swinging the weapon in his hand, one might assume he was just showing off bravado, but a giant manifestation of his weapon created from the blood formed behind him and mimicked the trajectory of the swing.
Reivyn''s Danger Sense warned him not to try and block the humongous blood-weapon bearing down on him, and he sacrificed some of his remaining Mana to empower himself with the Traveler Affinity. Instead of leaping backwardpletely out of range of the weapon, he dashed forward to get under the staff portion.
The deadliest affect of the Skill the giant man disyed was the perfect synchronization between the blood manifestation and the weapon held in his hand. It perfectly mimicked not only the trajectory, but the speed. There was a huge difference between a seven-foot pole making a 180-degree arc and a seventy-foot pole doing the same.
The blood-formed spiked ball continued swinging after thepletion of the strike and collided with the building Reivyn had been standing near. The building disintegrated from the impact. A huge sound apanied arge shockwave and plume of dust and debris from the collision.
Each of the four people confronting the giant man had mad the same judgement. Refix had dashed forward before the giant had even fully started his swing. Xudrid and Vyria had calmly walked through the air like there were steps and alighted on the ground, well under the strike range of the blood manifestation.
The blood manifestation dissolved after the strike, but the blood was still there. The giant man once more separated his weapons into two as Reivyn and the others descended on him, and the blood swirled around as a tornado surrounding the giant at the epicenter.
"AAAAaaahhhhh!" The giant man threw his head back and bellowed.
Half of the blood was absorbed into his body, and not only the skin underneath, but the armor he was wearing took on a deep maroon coloration. The metal encapsting his body took on a gruesome luster. The other half of the blood split up and mimicked Refix''s ability to summon an ethereal arsenal, though all of them were copies of the two staves with spiked balls and chains.
Reivyn continued to dash forward with his Traveler-enhanced steps, and he quickly arrived within the maelstrom of bloody weapons before the giant recovered his fighting stance. Reivyn sacrificed another portion of his Mana as he dismissed the Traveler Affinity and instead infused his weapon with Mass.
He didn''t have enough Mana to use aplicatedbination of Affinities to attempt to bypass the man''s armor. If he waspletely fresh, he was sure he could infuse a multitude of properties to nullify the defense of the man''s armor. He had caught a glimpse of the fight between his father an the giant man, and he knew that attacks that impacted through the armor was the best method, and Mass was the most appropriate Affinity for him to use to achieve the desired result.
The giant man showed a bit of surprise in his eyes through the manic grin on his face at Reivyn practically teleporting to his side through the maelstrom, but it quickly slid off his face as he wasn''t worried about the attack levied at him.
The look of surprise returned, however, as soon as the sword made contact with his side. Reivyn once more fully utilized his body weight and momentum from the Traveler steps behind his swing, and the giant man grunted in pain as his body contorted into a "C" shape from the blow. His feet left the ground, and he was shot through the air toward Refix.
The bloody weapons didn''t follow along with the giant getting propelled away, though, and they immediately descended on Reivyn. Reivyn had plenty of experience fending off his father''s ethereal arsenal, though, and he quickly dismissed the Mass Affinity to dance, dodge, and parry the iing strikes from all around.
It wasn''t a perfect defense, though. The blood-weapons were empowered by the Stats and Skills of a high-Tier 5 sser. Without being able to fully use his Mana to empower himself in order to maintain a reserve for strategic use, there was no way Reivyn was able to avoid all the blows.
His own armor and Stats, coupled with his Skills to prevent any blowsnding on vital points, protected himself enough that it was more painful and annoying than dangerous. If the battlested for an extended amount of time, the damage umted could eventually wear him down, but Reivyn suspected they wouldn''t be here that long.
To confirm his suspicion, Refix took advantage of the giant flying through the air toward him, and he expertly thrust with his sword, connecting with the top of the giant''s helmeted head. It sounded like a bell was rung when the sword made contact, and Reivyn knew his father had used his ability to change the nature of his weapon''s attack tond a solid bludgeon blow to the giant''s head. Reivyn could see the minute vibrations in the metal from where the force traveled through the metal to impact the man''s skull beneath with his Divine Sense.
A golden light shot up to the heavens as another Qi-empowered sword shed quickly followed behind the devastating blow. Reivyn was surprised to see that the Qipletely bypassed the armor of the man, and he could see a wound appear on the man''s body from his left shoulder to his left hip in a vertical line.
The new wound wasn''t deep, but it wasn''t superficial, either. Blood seeped out of the wound, but instead of dripping down inside the man''s armor, it traveled across his body to merge with the rest of the blood covering his body. The wound didn''t heal, but the newyer of blood covering the man immediately re-sealed therge scar, and the bleeding stopped almost as soon as it had started.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
The giant finally stopped flying through the air, and in a surprising disy of agility, he turned the crash into a graceful tumble,ing to his feet as if nothing had happened to him. He bellowed with bloodlust as he once moreunched into a whirlwind of strikes upon Refix.
The giant''s speed was noticeably faster. The blows hended contained much more power behind them, and even Reivyn could feel the increase in pressure from the blood-weapons assaulting him. Their power was directly tied to the giant man, and as he increased in power, so too did his weapon manifestations.
Vyria once more summoned a golden beam of sword Qi, but the giant man, now that he was on his feet, easily dodged the long-range strike. A scar from the Qi-strike formed on the street where is shed into the ground, but the giant man waspletely unfazed.
Vyria frowned at the missed attack, and she charged forward to engage the man in meleebat alongside Refix. She pulled up short, though, as more blood-weapons formed and descended upon her. She easily dodged and parried the attacks, but her momentum toward the giant man halted. Her lips drew into a line of annoyance.
Both Reivyn and Vyria werepletely preupied with the fending off the barrage of strikes from the unpredictable weapons, though they were still able to slowly advance their position closer and closer to the giant man.
Reivyn didn''t know what kind of movement Skills other than being able to walk through the air Vyria and Xudrid possessed, but he was biding his time for when he could once more empower himself with the Traveler Affinity. He had to get the timing just right. Moving too soon and he would lose the element of surprise by virtue of simply having too far to travel. Moving toote could cost him an opportunity for a well-ced strike.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" The giant manughed maniacally. He was enjoying the conflict.
"You seem to have forgotten about me," Xudrid''s voice carried over the battlefield.
The giant man didn''t make the rookie mistake of pausing his attacks on Refix to look at the source of the voice, but Reivyn could tell that the man''s attention slightly shifted toward the other Cultivator.
Xudrid raised his hand and pointed at the giant man. Reivyn, like before, didn''t feel the umtion of Qi or Mana, but he definitely felt the effects of whatever maneuver the Cultivator performed.
He wasn''t personally affected, but he could feel a great weight descend over the battlefield. The blood-weapons crashed to the ground causing hundreds of small cracks in the paved street where thended. Reivyn and Vyria immediately took the opportunity to dash past the fallen weapons and converged on the giant man.
The effect on the giant was even more pronounced. His body sunk a solid three feet down as arge crater formed from the increased weight bearing down on the man. He couldn''t maintain his feet, and he copsed to a knee. His knee impacting the ground caused another small crater within the first, and a tremor ran through the ground from the two impacts in quick session.
The giant''s body tried to copse further to the ground, but he mustered his strength and willpower to fight against it. He slowly lifted his head to look up at Refix, Reivyn, and Vyria as the three surrounded him,pletely unaffected by the increased gravity.
His bloody grin was still on his face, and his eyes shown with excitement rather than fear.
"It was fun," he said.
Three swords moved at lightning speed and pierced through the miniscule space between the giant''s helmet and armor. The three swords ran through the giant''s neck, causing devastating damage. The man fiercely red at the three for another two full seconds before his body went limp and copsed to the ground.
All the blood that the man had controlled was released, and the color of his skin and armor returned to normal as the blood joined the rest covering the ground. Reivyn, Refix, and Vyria all slumped slightly in relief as the giant died and shared a look between each other.
Reivyn opened his mouth to say something, but movement at the edge of his Divine Sense caught his attention. Five people dressed exactly the same as the giant, though normal in stature, stepped into the range of his Skill. His eyes grew wide and he changed what he was going to say.
"Run!" He yelled.
Refix and Vyria didn''t wait to rify what he meant. They had seen the change in expression on his face, and they knew he had supernatural perception. Vyria quickly dashed toward Xudrid, and the two of them sprinted through the air to the top of the wall. Refix and Reivyn ran to where there were still ropes dangling from the top of the wall, and they practically ran vertically up the wall with their Stats and Skills.
The four nced behind themselves as they reached the top of the wall. Refix quickly severed the reaming ropes as they looked to see what had spooked Reivyn.
Five people in gleaming te mail armor adorned in spikes, horned helmets, and metallic tabards stepped into the open ground. They nced at the giant man lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of a crater before shifting their attention to the top of the wall.
Reivyn and the others didn''t stick around to find out how they would respond, and they hopped off the other side of the wall. Xudrid and Vyria gracefully walked through the air, but Reivyn and Refix dropped like rocks. They used their superior Stats to absorb the impact of the fall, though, and the four quickly sprinted away from the city toward the secondary defenses in the hills nearby.
---
"He got what he always wanted," Royrik said, looking down at their giantpanion. "A glorious death from a glorious battle. Too bad it wasn''t a one-on-one match."
"He never cared for such things," Lorily, the only woman among the six - now five - remarked. "He wouldn''t have cared if it had been him verse a thousand. He might have even thought it was a better fight."
"True," Ulvid said. "All that matters is that he died in service to the lord. His soul has been collected, and paradise awaits."
"Is paradise really paradise for a battle maniac like Sverid?" Kulman snorted. "He might find it incredibly boring."
The fifthpanion remained silent as he stared after the four who fled.
"Do we know which Sect those two Cultivators are from?" Royrik asked.
"Not yet, but it shouldn''t be too hard to find out," Lorily answered.
"They appeared to be two youths on their Life Experience expedition," Ulvid said.
"A gravity sorceror and one with a Sword Soul," Kulman added.
"We''ll have someone back home make some inquiries, and once they find out where they''re from, we''ll be sure to make contact," Royrik said. "Competition with the Cultivators is usually encouraged, but a diplomatic crises from killing such talented individuals isn''t something we need on our hands right now."
"From the evidence, it looks like they''re not intending on interfering with the war efforts overall," Lorily said. "They look like they''re members of that mercenarypany led by the anomalies. They probably just didn''t want their own experience interfered with."
"Speaking of, I didn''t see the Space/Time Mage with them," Ulvid said. "Do we have any word from the spies on her whereabouts?"
"The deep nts were all exposed in this city and killed," Kulman answered. "Only Ytorik survived, and he''s in the infirmary. He lost more than half his Health against Captain Reivyn, and most of it was from one attack. You know what that does to a person''s recovery ability."
The fifthpanion turned around and began walking back the way they hade. The other four all shared a look before falling in behind him.
"We''ll get the answer soon," Royrik said. "I''m sure Ytorik is alreadypiling a report for themander."
"He better word his report carefully," Lorily chuckled. "He''s in trouble for letting Reivyn and the Prince get away so easily."
"In his defense, who would have known he had the ability to get around the Supreme Ropes of Binding?" Ulvid asked. "Even we wouldn''t be able to do much against them."
"He must have gotten lucky," Kulman snorted. "None of the intelligence suggested he had that ability, and we dug pretty deep."
"Not deep enough, obviously," Royrik retorted. "We still haven''t gotten word back on his exploits from Wispan, only that he''s from there."
"We should have that information, soon," Lorily said. "And when we do, we''ll be able to counter him and bring him into the fold. I''m pretty interested in that Vice Captain, too. He hadn''t stood out until now, but he showed some strong fighting abilities."
"Did anyone else notice the simrities between Reivyn and his Vice Captain?" Ulvid asked. "They could be brothers."
"Or father and son," Kulman said. "We might be able to make use of their rtionship. Catch one, get one free, eh?" The other three chuckled.
The four continued to chat as they followed their silent fifthpanion back through the ranks of soldiers coursing through the city. They hadn''t achievedplete victory as they had hoped, but it was a decent start to the campaign. The locals only had so far they could go before they were cornered and rounded up.
Chapter 205: Leading the Charge
Chapter 205: Leading the Charge
Reivyn ran with the other three across the open in. The rolling hills didn''t start for some distance. Thend waspletely t for about half a mile outside the city gates. Countless soldiers from all across the city were running across the open ground to reach the safety of the secondary defenses. More and more soldiers streamed out of the city gates or over the walls as time dragged on.
Reivyn could see the mercenarypany as they reached the palisade walls of the next line of defense, so they made a beeline toward them. The fortifications set up to fall back to weren''t nearly as extensive as the city walls they were fleeing. It would be much easier to envelope the position, especially considering the sheer number of troops the invaders fielded for the battle. It was just one more reason to only use it as a temporary resting spot to springboard their retreat from.
There were soldiers stationed at the simple gates waving people through, ensuring that the entrance didn''t get clogged up with people stopping without know where to go. A toon of soldiers had been dispatched at the start of the battle to prepare the way for the eventual retreat, and they had everythingid out for the fleeing soldiers to quickly find a ce to rest.
Reivyn and the others quickly caught up with the mercenarypany as they were entering through one of the gates. Jeckle had taken up the leading position in the front of thepany, but the other officers were waiting at the rear for Reivyn and the others.
Reivyn shared a look with Xudrid and Vyria, nodding his head in appreciation toward them, and they made their way back to their toon. He and Refix walked over to the waiting lieutenants.
"As soon as we get to our temporary berth, immediately conduct a head count," Reivyn ordered. "We need to bepletely ountable to all of our personnel, and we need to know our casualties. Leaving one single person behind is uneptable."
"Yes, sir!" The toonmanders responded.
Reivyn and Refix didn''t stick around at the rear of thepany to wait for everyone to get inside the palisade. They moved along the edge to get to the front and then met up with Jeckle.
"Good job standing in for me," Reivyn said to Jeckle with a smile. There was more meaning to his words than just him taking charge of thepany while they brought up the rear. "I''ve eptedmand, once more. Take charge of your toon."
"Yes, sir!" Jeckle offered a salute and hurried off to his men.
Thepany followed the directions of the soldiers dispatched to prepare the palisade without causing any dys to those behind them and immediately began the head count.
The soldiers formed up in their toons, and at the direction of the NCOs'' counted themselves off. As one soldier shouted out his number, he would drop to a knee, indicating for the person standing next to them to follow with the next count. With all of the toons performing their counts simultaneously, it only took a couple minutes to get the full count of soldiers.
"We lost twenty-three, sir," Jeckle reported. "There are fifty-four severely wounded, and another hundred with minor injuries. There are zero missing or unounted for."
"Very well," Reivyn said.
He looked to the area behind the toons where several bodies had beenid with cloth covering them. They hadn''t left any of the deceased or wounded behind, a practice that Reivyn had drilled into their heads over and over again. He had witnessed the otherpanies leave their dead behind, but he had stressed to his men that it was absolutely imperative that no man, dead or alive, ever get left behind. They were all one family in their time together, and they would be taken care of and honored as they should.
"I don''t know how long we have to rest," Reivyn addressed all of the officers. "We need to make the best use of the time, though. Have a minimum crew standing guard, and try to only select those that have the highest Stamina. I''ll go and convene with the othermanders to get the Prince''s orders."
"Yes, sir!" The officers chorused.
Reivyn nodded to them onest time before departing, once more leaving his father in temporarymand of thepany. He made his way back through the interior paths to themand center. The little fort had been designed with many open areas cordoned off for each of thepanies to have a space to rest, but there wasn''t anything more than that. These defenses weren''t designed to be upied for an extended period of time.
Everywhere he looked as he made his way to themand center Reivyn saw exhausted soldiers practically copsed in their designated areas. There were hardly any soldiers still on their feet, other than the supervising officers. He shook his head. They hadn''t taken their training serious enough, in his opinion, and they weren''t able to operate at nearly the necessary capacity with low Stamina.
In many of thepanies, Reivyn could seerge holes in the formations where it was obvious that they had suffered either severe casualties, or they had left people behind. He had personally witnessed the fate of soldiers that fell behind theirrades, and while he was hopeful they were still alive, he didn''t know if it was preferable considering what was known about how they treated the numbered brands.
A crew of healers was going about each of thepanies, and they were hard at work in stabilizing the severely wounded that had managed to escape. Reivyn''s mercenarypany had their own dedicated healers attached to each toon, and they were already working on their own wounded.
It wasn''tmon practice to have the healers embedded in the fighting unit, but Reivyn''s memories and logic told him it made sense to have those able to apply first aid immediately. They didn''t have anyone with a powerful healing ss, but those that had the Skills and auxiliary focus with their ss would be able to stabilize injuries to stave off an emergency until they could seek help from the more dedicated healers.
The strategy had paid off, in Reivyn''s opinion, considering those that had been severely wounded weren''t in any danger and were waiting asfortably as they could for the healing corps to make it to theirpany.
There were still many spacespletely devoid of any soldiers, and Reivyn hoped that it was because the designatedpanies hadn''t made it inside the palisade, yet, and not because they were wiped out. Only time would tell, but that time would be short.
The temporary fort was small andpact, so it didn''t take Reivyn long to reach themand center. Prince Allik was issuing orders to officers as they came instead of waiting for everyone and convening an all-hands meeting. Reivyn patiently waited in line with some of the other captains for Prince Allik to shift his focus to them.
He seems to be taking it well that his retainer was a traitor, so far, Reivyn thought. It might only be surface level, but that''s what''s needed right now: a calmmander.
Prince Allik didn''t take long getting through the orders for each of thepanymanders. Most of the orders had to do with timing when they would leave the confines of the fort to continue their retreat. The reports from thepanymanders about their casualties was given to one of the Majors in themand staff.
He could have left it to the chain ofmand to issue the orders, but he was killing two birds with one stone with doing it personally. He was showing that he wasn''t panicked and that he was still fully in control of the situation.
"Captain Reivyn," Prince Allik eventually addressed Reivyn. "I''ve noticed that your soldiers seem to be the freshest of everyone. I''ll have you stay behind to thest to cover the retreat of the more exhausted soldiers."
"Sir, may I have a word?" Reivyn indicated with his eyes to an empty spot a bit of a ways away. Prince Allik quirked an eyebrow at him, but he nodded his head and the two made their way over where they could have some privacy.
The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Do you disagree with my orders?" Prince Allik asked.
"Yes, sir, but not for the reason you think," Reivyn answered. Prince Allik maintained a neutral expression as he waited for the exnation. "My soldiers aren''t less exhausted than anyone else. The difference is that we''ve trained specifically to maintain ourbat effectiveness for longer with lower Stamina. I would bet that the average Stamina pool of my soldiers is actually lower than the average of the rest of thepanies."
"I see," Prince Allik said. "And so you think you''re men aren''t up to covering the retreat? You just said they''re trained tost longer, and if what you say about their Stamina is true, then they should be able to aplish the mission."
"That''s not it, sir," Reivyn shook his head. "That was an exnation for why they don''t seem as tired and for what I rmend. The reason I don''t think we should stay behind is because we''re being stared at by some high-Tier 5 enemy soldiers. We fought with one that followed the Vice Captain to the walls, and it took four of us to beat him. My Vice Captain himself is a high-Tier 5, and the other two and I are capable of holding our own against low-Tier 5 ssers.
"I fear that if we''re the ones to stay behind, they''ll intervene in the fighting to get to us and breach our defenses too soon."
"That''s a valid concern," Prince Allik frowned. "And what''s your rmendation?"
"All of my soldiers have the Forced March Skill," Reivyn answered. "With that Skill on top of their training tost longer with less Stamina, I think we should leave with the first batch to push forward to secure the next defensive position and set up the fortifications."
"I had nned on sending the cavalry ahead to take care of it," Prince Allik said.
"Instead of sending them ahead on that mission, you could use them as reconnaissance in force and a strike team. They can keep an eye on the enemy movements and break up any attacks on the retreatingpanies."
"Hmm," Prince Allik rubbed his chin in thought. "Let''s do it that way, then. There''s a river about a four hour march down the road. Rush ahead when it''s time to go, build a defensive position on the other side of the river, and rig the bridge to be destroyed at a moment''s notice.
"You''ll have half an hour for yourpany to rest before it''s time to go, hopefully. I can''t guarantee that time, though. It depends on what the invaders do and how quickly they move on beyond the city walls to press the attack.
"And Captain Reivyn, thank you."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn responded with a salute.
Reivyn turned and made his way out of the busymand center as Prince Allik returned to his position to continue giving out orders. Reivyn knew that Prince Allik wasn''t thanking him for the rmendation, but for doing so in a way that didn''t undermine his authority by openly questioning him. Now was the worst possible time to sow doubt and discord.
Reivyn quickly returned to his mercenarypany. As he had ordered, there was a squad standing guard around the resting men, and he could see that they weren''t quite as tired looking as the majority of the men. He made his way over to the officers that were waiting for his return.
"We have half an hour, at most," Reivyn began without preamble. "In fifteen minutes, switch out the sentries so that everyone has an opportunity to get some rest. Have the men eat their field rations now, even if they''re not hungry. We have a long March ahead of us, and we''ll most likely have to dig deep with Forced March to get to our destination on time.
"We''re heading straight to the next defensive position without stopping, and we''re going to build the palisade and rig the bridge ahead of the rest of the soldiers."
"Yes, sir!"
Reivyn followed his own orders and sat down right there to pull out his own rations. He didn''t have an appetite, but he knew he would need the energy. He also needed to set the precedent for his own orders. Refix sat down next to him and ate his own rations, and they were quickly followed by the other officers after they ryed the orders to the NCO''s.
Now was as good a time as any to check his Notifications, so he focused his attention on the blinking light in the corner of his vision. He dismissed the report about the Experience he gained from the battle that the System deemed over for now. He was siphoning his Experience into his Bloodline at the moment, and because he had such a huge hole to sink his Experience into, it didn''t matter how much he had earned.
He wasn''t trying to unlock his next Bloodline Level before advancing to his Tier 3 ss, though. He had halted his progress temporarily to try and reach Transcendence with some of his Skills and Affinities. His Notification window would tell him in just a moment whether he had made some progress on that goal. Achievement!
Exceed Level 100 with any Affinity!
+10 Mental Stats Achievement!
Reach Transcendence with any Skill or Affinity with a Tier 2 ss!
+20 All Stats. Bonus Skill/Affinity Experience while in Tier 2 Legendary Feat!
Be the first person to achieve Transcendence in a Skill or Affinity with a Tier 2 ss!
Increased System assistance in breaking the Transcendence wall
Reivyn''s eyebrows climbed to the top of his head and threatened to integrate with his hairline.
That... is unexpected, Reivyn thought. I''ve never heard of a Legendary Feat. If it takes being the first person in history to get a specific Achievement, though, it makes sense that there aren''t very many opportunities to get one.
It makes sense, too. I have extremely unique circumstances with my Experience Siphon ability. All of the supreme talents since the dawn of history have had to fight against Leveling speed. If I think about it,bat and other situations that reward Experience are the best ways to gain Skill Levels. Without being able to halt Leveling, it''s nearly impossible to reach a Skill or Affinity Level of 100, much less Transcendence, at Tier 2.
The reward for the Legendary Feat is overpowered, to say the least, Reivyn chuckled. Not only the official Legendary Feat, but the reward from the underlying Achievement is the most I''ve ever seen, too. He dismissed his thoughts and concentrated on the next message. Achievement!
Reach Transcendence with all four Basic Elements!
Increased effectiveness of Mana Skills Transcendence: Obedience
Tier 1:
Air, Earth, Fire, Water
Ability: Command the Affinities within your influence, and they will obey
Helpful Hint: It will be easier to reach Transcendence with the same ability with other Affinities, though it might stunt gaining additional Transcendence Abilities in the future
Reivyn read thest message in his Notifications several times.
It''s been a long time since I''ve received a helpful hint from the Akashic Record, Reivyn thought. This warning is probably the best hint it''s ever given me, too.
Reivyn instinctually felt that he would be able to advance his other Affinities in a simr way, and his Darkness and Light Affinities were ready for the next step. The warning came at the perfect time, though. He wondered what the consequences would have been if he hadn''t gotten the message and had immediately added the two higher Tier Affinities to his established Transcendence rank.
It didn''t take long to read through his Notifications. Even with reading the helpful hint several times to make sure he fully grasped its significance, he only spent a couple of minutes on the task. He dismissed the Notification windows and looked up.
"There he is," Refix said, pping him on the shoulder. "You had quite the range of emotions on your face, just now. Get an interesting Notification?"
"You could say that," Reivyn said with a grin. "I''ll tell you some other time."
Jeckle ced his hand over his heart and gasped.
"You don''t trust us, sir?!" He asked.
Reivyn snorted.
"About as far as I can throw you," he replied.
Jeckle stared at him with a deadpan expression for a moment.
"I bet you could throw me all the way back to the city walls." The other officers chuckled.
"Yeah, but in the grand scheme of things, that''s not that far," Reivyn said with a smile.
The other officers continued with some light-hearted banter. Reivyn eyed Jeckle out of the corner of his eye, nodding to himself in approval. Jeckle wasn''t normally one to joke around so much. He was more the stoic type. The men all around had a somber atmosphere about them, though, and Jeckle''s little bit of banter had broken the gloomy feeling up. The men loosened up a bit upon seeing their officersugh an joke with one another.
He''s really growing as a leader, Reivyn thought. He was a Party Leader before the war in Drallo to begin with, but being a Party Leader and an officer in a military unit are two different things.
Reivyn hadn''t put too much thought into the future of the mercenarypany, but Jeckle was giving him some ideas as to the direction it could go. With anotherpetentmander, he would be able to expand the size and scope of the mercenaries and add morepanies, turning the outfit into a mercenary battalion.
Those ns weren''t a priority right now, though. Reivyn tossed them to the back of his mind, but he did keep note of being able to assign more responsibility to his friend in the near future.
Time waits for no one, and the clock kept ticking. Reivyn didn''t know what the enemy soldiers were doing, but they allowed him and hispany the full thirty minutes of rest. The sentries were switched out, and everyone ate some rations to refill their energy, whether they were hungry or not.
"Alright," Reivyn said as he stood up. The officers followed suit. "It''s time to get going. I wish we had more time for everyone to rest, but we don''t have that luxury. All the hellish training we''ve put everyone through is about to bear fruit."
Chapter 206: Hurry Up and Wait
Chapter 206: Hurry Up and Wait
Reivyn Marched in front of thepany setting the pace. He could see the first toon perfectly clear with his Divine Sense, and for the first half of the March, he used their condition to gauge how hard to push them. Just the first toon wasn''t everyone, though, so he had the officers order the NCO''s to closely monitor everyone and keep him apprised of how everyone was doing. He didn''t want anyone falling out of the formation and left behind. He pushed them just as hard as he could to get them where they needed to be as fast as possible.
The road was clear ahead. The civilians and Adventurers not participating in the conflict hadn''t stopped. They would keep fleeing until they reached the next city. The terrain was mostly t with a bit of rolling hills and woods, but there were no significant defensive features until the river that the Prince had directed them to.
Using the river as the next line of defense was a double-edged sword. It had great potential for slowing the invaders down and bleeding them some more, but they had to make it there in the first ce. There were thousands and thousands of invaders in the advancing army that werepletely fresh. They hadn''t taken part in any part of the conflict. The Prince had to to time things perfectly in order to retreat in time that they would have a fighting chance after they had expended so much Stamina.
If they hadn''t been lied to about the Stamina expenditure of the soldiers, they would have been able to rest for thirty minutes before sending everyone. As it was, they would most likely have to leap-frog their entire way to the river, always bncing the Stamina for retreating and covering the retreat. Reivyn was sure that switching hispany out with the cavalry unit to March ahead and prepare the fortifications would help alleviate a lot of the pressure.
Reivyn kept the focus of his Divine Sense on the soldiers behind him, but he continuously scanned the edges of the woods, hills, and horizon where he could see it to make sure there weren''t any hidden dangers that had snuck around them while they were fighting in the city. Based on the objective and strategy employed by the invaders, he didn''t think it was likely, but that was no reason not to check. He didn''t have his usual scouts avable, but Refix, Xudrid, and Vyria were taking turns running out and inspecting further than they could see to cover for the inadequacy.
Sweat poured down the faces of the soldiers behind him. He could see, hear, and feel their physical stress as they gasped for breath. Pride warmed his heart, though, as nobody gave up. Nobody quit. They dug deep and squeezed every ounce out of their Forced March Skills. They maintained their military bearing as well as they could, too. No heads were drooping, and all of their bodies were straight.
It was easy to give in to the temptation of loosening their posture, but that was a trap. If they loosened up their muscles, they might feel temporary relief, but their bodies would sway much more than maintaining their posture would allow. All that extra movement equaled a whole lot more physical exertion over time.
Reivyn was proud and happy that they were pushing so hard. He wouldn''t let it go to waste. He would make sure they made it to their destination with enough time to aplish their mission, and he would ensure they got the rest they needed before employing them in the building of the fortifications.
Time seemed to crawl as they Marched in silence. There was no cadence or morale-boosting singing. Everyone had their full concentration on putting one foot in front of the other, even the officers and senior NCO''s who were higher-Leveled. Unless there was arge discrepancy in ss or Bloodline, twenty or so Levels inte Tier 3, early Tier 4 didn''t trante to a much higher Stamina pool.
All of the soldiers, besides the two Cultivators in disguise for their Life Experience expedition, were regr Adventurers. Before they seized the opportunity to join the Mercenary Company for a change of pace and Life Experience, they were all on track for middling careers.
Even Jeckle, before the Drallo Campaign, was barely poised to go beyond Tier 4 because of the rarity restrictions of the higher Tiers unless something extraordinary happened. Reivyn believed that him stepping up and eventually receiving a battlefieldmission had already propelled him to eventually advancing to Tier 5, but if he continued to grow, Reivyn could see Tier 6 in his future, as well. He was one of the cream of the crop with the mercenarypany, but he wasn''t an extreme outlier.
These types of situations, where they were going to the extremes to aplish their goals and survive, were awful in the moment, but they allowed those that endured the opportunity to reap their just rewards in the future. If these mercenaries had stayed as regr Adventurers, they never would have pushed themselves the way they are now. They never would have experienced the things they saw today. These scenarios of Life Experience were just the thing they needed to be more powerful in the future.
And wasn''t that exactly what Reivyn had promised them? On some level they must have realized they were going to need to earn the grand prize from this new experience, and Reivyn was gratified to see that none of them were backing down from the challenge.
"River''s just up ahead," Refix came running back to thepany after another hour and a half of Marching.
They had made good time, saving a full thirty minutes on the expected four hours of Marching to reach their destination. Reivyn had pressed them with his pace to make sure they arrived in time to construct a defensible position.
Reivyn nodded his head, but he didn''t alter the pace they were Marching. He also didn''t announce the end was in sight. It was only a matter of minutes now, and they would get their break once they crossed the bridge.
Nobody hooted or hollered when the river and the bridge came into view. Nobody had the energy to spare. They continued to trudge along, and Reivyn led them over the bridge and to an open space just beyond. There were woods to the left and open grasnd to the right.
"Everyone rest where you are," Reivyn ordered the men formed up and waiting. They stood panting, but they stood straight. "Eat some rations and drink some water. If you need to refill your water skins, just use the river. It''s running water, so it''s fine."
With Vitality Stats as high as they had, it would be unusual to get any kind of mdy from drinking sitting water... in a lower Tier Region. The microscopic things that could survive in a Tier 4 Region had adjusted to the ambient Mana and could still do a number on one''s stomach if not anything fatal to anyone above Tier 3.
The men sat down where they were. There were groans and sighs of exhaustion as they barely prevented themselves from copsing where they were, but nobody did. Reivyn strode to the woods to the left and unsheathed his sword.
He would let the men rest and recover their Stamina, and in the meantime, he would collect the lumber. He had mainly expended his Mana in the fighting in the city, and his Stamina pool was no less than anyone else''s.
His Mana hadn''t fully recovered, yet, and it had gotten quite low so his regeneration was slower than usual. He used a simply Affinitybination of Metal and Sharpness to protect his sword''s durability as heid into the trees withrge swings.
His empowered sword was just as powerful as that of a seasoned Forester or Lumberjack wielding an axe, and it only took one swing to fell a tree each. Even though it was a Tier 4 Region and the flora had adapted as such, it didn''t deter his ability to chop the trees. Any one of the logs he felled here would be considered a treasure in his hometown, even without it being a specific magical nt.
Refix and Vyria joined him in his endeavors. Xudrid stayed behind for now, as he wasn''t much of a weapon''s expert. He was the equivalent of a Caster ss among the Cultivators, but Reivyn was sure he would lend his Gravity abilities when it was time to transport the logs.
With the three of them causing devastation to the local poption of trees, it didn''t take long until they had amassed quite a bit of building materials. Xudrid came over and reduced the gravitational burden on an entire area allowing the three to simply pick the logs up with their high Strength stats and move them where they needed to be.
Reivyn didn''t know the exact time the nextpany would arrive behind them. He doubted they all had Forced March before the retreat started, but that might change by the time they made it to rtive safety in the little fort they would build. They would most likely require multiple stops to catch their breath, or they would run the risk of having their men copse with extreme Stamina expenditure.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
They weren''t so unphysically fit that it would cause health problems, but if someone who was a Caster of Lifestyle ss dropped their Stamina to zero, there was a real chance of death or other permanent ailments that could be tricky to solve in the future. Dropping from too much Stamina usage in this scenario most likely meant more soldiers being captured by the invaders.
Reivyn didn''t order the mercenaries to help him cut trees, and he left it to the officers and NCO''s to make the determination when the men were rested enough to start constructing the palisade. They weren''t going to build anything fancy, but building a small fort was something that they had extensive practice with, and the added barrier of the river and the bridge would add additional protections all on their own.
Reivyn, Refix, Xudrid, and Vyria chopped and transported logs at a considerable speed for nearly forty-five minutes before the officers roused the troops to get to work.
Hand-axes came out, and the men got busy trimming the downed trees. Nothing went to waste, either. Therger branches pruned from the logs were set aside for further alteration into pikes, and the smaller branches would be used for fires.
Everyone worked and nobodyined. They had seen the death and destruction wrought by the invaders. They hadn''t seen the fate of those being captured like Reivyn had, but that information wouldn''t be withheld for long. Reivyn wanted them all to understand the danger awaiting them if they surrendered. There were certain situations where information wasn''t necessary to be passed down to every soldier, but this wasn''t one of them.
The palisade quickly took shape after the entirepany got working on it, and eventually more soldiers had to enter the forest to chop trees to keep up with the demand of the rest of thepany. Even though it was a quick and dirty job, they took it seriously, and the palisade walls were constructed with precision. They would be able to stand up to some minor punishment from enemy Mages, though there wasn''t anything they could do in such a short period of time to create anything worthy of a sustained siege.
"Send some troops down to weaken the supports of the bridge," Reivyn ordered, wiping sweat from his brow. He sheathed his sword and walked back to the nearly finished little fort with an NCO attending to him in case he needed to issue orders. "They need to make sure it''s still sturdy enough for the troops to cross, but it needs to be weak enough to pull out from under the invaders from a distance at a moment''s notice. We can''t count on a Mage being able to direct their Spells away from the enemy in an emergency, though that''s the n for dealing with the bridge."
"Yes, sir!" The NCO saluted and ran off to find a work party.
Reivyn exined so much of the n so that the men would understand his intent. Amander''s intent was almost more important than the actual orders being issued. If one understood what the objective was, they would be able to alter their ns on the fly and choose the best course of action for the mission.
It was finally Reivyn''s turn to get some rest. He hadn''t stopped since they had arrived on location, and the constant felling of trees had eventually taken its toll on him. His Stamina and Mana pools were dangerously low for any sudden conflict, but he was confident he would be up to snuff with some Meditation.
"If anyone needs anything, direct their queries to Vice Captain Refix unless it''s an emergency," Reivyn called out to one of the officers as he walked to a seclude location in the shade. The officer acknowledged the order, but there was nothing that needed attention at the moment, from him or his father either one.
Reivyn plopped down in the lotus position with a sigh and entered his Meditation. Starting the Skill was easy with how tired he was, but keeping it up instead of falling asleep actually took a bit of concentration. He pulled out a vial containing a blue liquid from his storage without dropping his state of mind, uncorked it, and downed the contents.
A warm, smooth sensation flowed down his throat and settled in his stomach. He could immediately feel the effects of the Mana Potion he imbibed. Having lived in a Tier 4 Region for quite some time now, he had stocked up on a few provisions that were unavable to him in the lower Tier Regions.
sses like Alchemist were virtually unheard of in Tier 1 Regions, and they were still quite rare in Tier 2 Regions. Tier 4 Regions had nock of Mana-infused nts and treasures, and thus the ss opportunities avable to the masses were much broader than the lower Regions.
He wanted to conserve as much of his resources as possible, so he didn''t take any additional potions. He wasn''t worried about the cost, but there was literally nowhere to acquire more until they reached another city. And there was no telling whether or not an alchemist wouldn''t have fled by the time they were pushed that far back by the invaders. Reivyn spected that word of the continued hostilities had already been transmitted back to the capital.
Being a mere mercenary captain attached to one of the princes, Reivyn wasn''t privy to therger, overall strategy. He didn''t know if reinforcements were on the way or if more mercenary groups like his had arrived to take advantage of the situation.
Reivyn''s and Wispan''s idea of selling their military force wasn''t unique to them. Reivyn had no doubt that others would have the same ideas. He was only confident that they were receiving more valuable training with their preparations for dealing with human enemies instead of monsters. Even then, more bodies would be greatly appreciated now that he had gotten a glimpse of just how many enemy soldiers there were.
One had to remember that they were only one point on the long line of the front, and they weren''t even the main stage. Prince Endrew was at the most concentrated position in both local poption and enemy forces. Reivyn had to remind himself that the presence he had felt watching their battle with the giant blood-knight was only one of several submanders in the invasion. There was still the overallmander in charge.
That didn''t mean that the head honcho of the enemy forces was the highest-Leveled person among the invaders. He knew from his experiences facing off against Aerie that there was a noble caste, but even if themanding general wasn''t the highest-Leveled individual among the enemy, chances were high that he or she had a high-Leveled bodyguard.
Hopefully it wasn''t something crazy like the person Aerie had addressed as Master. That person had been truly horrifying. His presence alone had brought everyone to their knees, and was obviously over a hundred Levels into Tier 6 at minimum.
If they had to fight someone of that caliber, their only chance of sess was holding off long enough for some of the old monsters in the Tier 5 plus Regions to make it back. The conflict had been going on for quite some time before Reivyn and his crew had arrived, though, so there was a good possibility that they weren''t too far away.
I wonder what a battle between two mid or high-Tier 6 ssers would look like, Reivyn absentmindedly thought. I thought what my parents and their Party had done in Magron was impressive. I can''t imagine what such a high-Level conflict would look like.
Time continued to tick by, and Reivyn''s Stamina and Mana pools slowly recharged. He hadn''t pushed himself so far physically that his Stamina regeneration was hindered, and the Mana potion had kick-started his Mana regeneration, so he was quickly recovering. If he had another couple of hours, he was confident that he could get to full strength, but he didn''t have that luxury.
Once his Stamina and Mana reached 70%, he canceled his Meditation and stood up once more. The sun was setting in the horizon, but he only spared it a passing nce. He strode away from his secluded spot to inspect thepany and the little fort they had built.
The first thing Reivyn noticed was the addition of unfamiliar soldiers taking a rest off to the side. He was surprised to see that there were already soldiers arriving, and he took a quick nce at his System clock. He was once more shocked to see that almost three hours had passed since he had started Meditating.
There was no furniture or office spaces for anyone to lounge in. Reivyn spotted Refix sitting on the ground with the other officers, and they noticed him approaching at almost the same time. Reivyn waved them off from standing up. Well, he waved everyone but Refix off. That was his father, and he wasn''t going to stand up for his son if he didn''t have to. It was much like he never referred to Reivyn as "sir." It was perfectly natural, though, and Reivyn didn''t care.
"I see that we already have at least onepany that''s arrived," Reivyn said, ncing in the direction of the resting soldiers. "What''s the situation?"
"We''ve sent out some scouts, and they''ve informed us that the rest of the army seems to be retreating in good order," Refix answered. "From what we''ve gathered, the enemy soldiers never really pressed their advantage too hard. That isn''t to say they stayed in the city. They just didn''t chase after us with everything they had."
Reivyn frowned at the information.
"That seems weird," He said after a moment. "Their entire strategy had been designed to wear us down as much as possible so they could capture as many people as possible, but now they let us rest and recuperate so we could get away?"
"What isn''t weird about them?" Refix replied with a snort. "They''re perfectly willing to sacrifice ten times the number they''re able to capture, and the captives aren''t going to bolster their forces any time soon. Even with the numbers they''re throwing at us, they shouldn''t be so callous about the life and death of their soldiers."
"Hmmm, we know they refer to themselves as Deathsworn," Reivyn pondered. "There must be a clue in that. I''ve only seen fanaticism and determination in the eyes of the enemy. Maybe they''re some sort of religious cult?"
"Beats me, but that guess is as good as any. There were some small skirmishes along the way, but the cavalry acting as a strike force managed to shield the slowestpanies from anymore heavy engagements."
"That''s good," Reivyn nodded. "I''m d my rmendation worked out. How long do we have until they arrive?"
"We probably have another two hours before thestpany gets here, and the enemy soldiers should be right behind them. They still have a lot of fresh troops, and I would bet anything they''re going tounch a night assault."
"I agree. Let''s make sure we have enough fires going to light up the battlefield. We don''t need to waste Mana from the Mages as much as possible."
Chapter 207: Battle at the Bridge
Chapter 207: Battle at the Bridge
The sun had set long before thest remnants of the army stumbled across the bridge. In that time, Reivyn had employed some of the soldiers who had higher Skill Levels and experience with building fortifications to make their little fort sturdier. His mercenarypany would one day be able to rival any regr army soldier in the anciry tasks that came along with soldier life, but they had only been soldiers for several months as opposed to years of training.
The modifications to make the walls more sturdy had beenpleted almost an hour before thestpany of soldiers arrived. Reivyn nodded his head in approval when he saw Prince Allik cross the thresholdst.
Leading from the front didn''t necessarily mean for the officer in charge to be the first in line to meet the enemy, and Reivyn suspected Prince Allik wasn''t at the forefront of the skirmishes that hounded the army''s retreat. He was being specially targeted, after all. That being said, being thest one to cross made a statement. He was ensuring all of his men made it to safety, and he was willing to put himself at risk to make it so.
The gates went down behind the Prince, but he didn''t let his soldiers stop to rest right at the entrance. He made sure the officers directed the men further into the fortification. They would be allowed to rest during the first encounter with the enemy if it was as close behind them as everyone spected.
The night was dark. There were no visible stars in the sky as the clouds obscured all celestial light. Bonfires lined the roads, though, as well as the edges of the river and the palisade walls.
The soldiers that had already recovered their Stamina were standing on a little shelf designed to allow them the ability tounch attacks across the river. They waited with baited breath as they peered into the darkness. There was no chatter among the men, and only their breathing could be heard by those standing guard along the walls.
The river wasn''t gigantic, but it was decently sized at approximately fifty yards across. Most of the soldiers were hand-to-hand experts, but they were all capable of drawing a bow.
The Mages didn''t group up this time, either. The size of the fort was big enough that it wasn''t too cramped, but there wasn''t a lot of extra space. It''s size was only a fraction of the line they had to cover in the city.
The biggest obstacle the defenders would have to face was a nking maneuver from upstream. If a sizeable enough force crossed the river to threaten envelopment, that would be the sign to continue the retreat. Reivyn didn''t know if the enemy would employ such a tactic based on their previous strategy, but considering their spies had been rooted out and killed, he assumed it was only a matter of time.
Reivyn heard the footsteps in the distance long before he saw anyone. It wasn''t just his enhanced Perception that allowed him to pick up the noise, either. The legions were Marching in step, and the sound of thousands upon thousands of feet striking the ground in unison carried for miles. There was something about the night that enhanced the effect of sound carrying. Add that to the dark atmosphere with intermittent flickering lights, the effect was spooky and threatened to drain the morale of the soldiers.
Even though the army had been pushed out of the city, it was an expected oue that they knew wasing. Their job was to bleed the enemy as much as they could while they waited for the true heavy hitters to get back to the Region from their expeditions in the higher-Tier Regions. To that end, morale was still rtively high.
Reivyn identified the location of the Prince in hismand center. He wasn''t hiding behind the walls and operating off of what others could tell him. He was up front with the rest of them, eyes front and peeled for the emergence of the legions out of the darkness.
Reivyn created a Mana tether between himself and the Prince.
"The soldiers are getting a bit antsy," Reivyn subvocalized through the tether.
The Prince jerked his head and looked around for a second before settling down. He nodded his head as if to nobody before drawing in a deep breath.
"Men! I am proud to stand among you as we defend our homnd from these vile intruders," he orated. "They threw everything they had at us before, and we killed hundreds more of them than they did of us. They would be nothing without their endless numbers!
"We stand here not to stop their advance, but to bleed them dry as they encroach on our hearnd. Will we let them waltz in uninvited?"
"No!" A chorus of yells answered.
"The grass will turn red with the blood of our enemies. We all knew we would be pressed from our previous position. That doesn''t mean our strategy isn''t working! We''ll make them shed their mortal bodies by the hundreds for every inch ofnd they take, and by the time they can see the shining walls of our capital in the distance, they''ll be nothing more than a desated corpse shambling along!
"That will be our time to strike back! For now, teach them a lesson in blood and grief that ournds are not theirs to walk upon without paying a price!"
"Yeeeaahhh!"
The soldiers perked up, lifting their weapons above their heads as they cheered. The men standing below thrust their spears into the air, and the soldiers along the wall stabbed the sky with their arrows. The sound of their rallying cheers drowned out the sound of the footsteps for a moment.
The men weren''t able to keep their cheers up forever, however, and once silence prevailed again, the sound of marching continued to beat in their ears. Reivyn noticed that the anxious looks on their faces didn''t return, however. They were pumped up and ready to defend theirnd and their people.
The waiting continued. The soldiers gripped their weapons with sweaty palms, but their hearts didn''t waiver. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they waited for the enemy.
The first body came into view like a spectre emerging from the shadows. He was quickly followed by men Marching alongside him and behind him. The rows of soldiers continued to pour forth from the unknown shrouding the road.
Reivyn gathered his Mana in his hands as he felt hundreds of Mages along the wall do the same. He threw his hands up and gathered the Mana into his signature fiery ball above his head. Different colored shapes of Mana apanied his own all along the wall, but the same phenomenon mirrored them from the enemy forces.
Behind the curtain of darkness, hundreds of different Spells formed and waited to be released. The soldiers never stopped Marching forward, and the men with bows and arrows waited for the order to loose their ammunition.
"Ready!" Prince Allik yelled. Everyone tensed up. "Mages! Fire!"
Countless Spells shot into the air in a parab beforeing down to rain destruction among the Marching legions. Reivyn''s ball of sma halted in midair before churning outnce afternce into the ranks of the enemies. The enemy Mages answered the call with their own Spells.
The defenders weren''t just cing their hope in the sturdiness of the quickly assembled palisade. Sure it was made from logs harvested from a Tier 4 Region. They were incredibly sturdy and dense with their own Mana. That didn''t mean they weren''t much more vulnerable than a stone wall made from materials sourced from the same Region.
A contingent of Mages threw their Mana into the walls instead of at the enemy soldiers. The walls lit up in Reivyn''s vision as the interior Mana worked with the external stimtion to form a much more formidable barrier.
The enemy spells rained down on the defenders. Most of them exploded against the walls, leaving scorch marks and splinters behind, but the wall held. Only a few of the Spells flew over the walls to crash among the defenders. They used their group-shield Skills as well as Mana Shields from Mages to mitigate the damage.
"Archers! Loose!" Prince Allik Commanded.
The waiting bowmen loosed their arrows and more death and destruction rained down on the advancing soldiers. It was harder to see the effectiveness of the Spells and arrows in the dark, but there were enough soldiers falling down in the light of the bonfires to let the defenders know their efforts weren''t in vain.
Reivyn ignored everything else as he continued to Cast the same Spell. He could use other Spells to disrupt the ground, but being on this side of the river made it prohibitively difficult. He couldn''t summon enough ambient Mana to his will in the distance to affect arge enough Spell to do much damage, either. His area-of-effect smance Spell worked just fine in the situation.
He threw another ball of sma over the heads of the enemy soldiers before his first one had dispersed. Two ming orbs rained down fiery death upon the Marching enemies at once, and Reivyn conjured yet another to add to the maelstrom.
The sight of the Spells, arrows, and soldiers Marching in the dark was surreal. Most of the invaders were shrouded in darkness, but more and more emerged every second. shes of light illuminated the battlefield to give the defenders a brief view of what was threatening them. It reminded Reivyn of an ant colony flooding out of the ground after being disturbed.
Arrows from the enemy forces soon joined the rest of the deadly projectiles filling the air. Spells zipped through the air in both directions. They crashed into the ground, flinging bodies every which way as still others smashed into the palisade walls, chipping away at the durability of the fort.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition.
The invaders made it to the bridge and didn''t hesitate to step onto it to continue their advance. A group of poorly armed and armored soldiers came sprinting from the rear, though, and theyunched themselves directly into the water. They began to frantically swim across the river, long lines held in their hands leading back to the shore.
Reivyn tossed one of his sma balls over the water tonce into the swimming men who were obviously from lower Tiered Regions than the heavily armed legions. They didn''t balk in the face of drowning, Spells, or arrows. More and more of them emerged from the darkness and dove straight into the water.
The defenders couldn''t concentrate their fire on one group of soldiers. If they focused everything on the legions Marching across the bridge, then the enemy in the water would be able to cross easily and attach their lines to the palisade walls. If they concentrated on the swimmers, there wouldn''t be enough pressure on the lead legionnaires.
Prince Allik didn''t order the men to focus their fire. The Mages and archers attacked those that were in front of them, slowing both groups down. They were never going to stop the enemy advance, and they all knew it.
Bodies began floating with the current as swimmers were decimated by the Spells and arrows pelting them. Most of the lines lost from the lead swimmers were picked up by those following behind, but a few got snagged enough that they were abandoned.
The Marching men and the swimmers got closer and closer to the walls under a sky lit up with streaking lights. Close to the walls, there was enough light that it almost seemed like they were fighting in the daytime.
The first swimmers emerged from the water well before the legions made it across the bridge. They weren''t Marching in a formation, and their Stats and Swimming Skills allowed them to traverse the waters quickly. More and more bodies were swept away in the current, and the waters were turning red, but there were still hundreds and hundreds who made it to shore.
The defenders below the tforms stepped forward and thrust their spears through the small gaps left behind for this purpose. Archers and Mages were firing almost straight down into the tide of men scrambling up the shore.
The low-numbered soldiers were relentless and fearless, though. They managed to stab implements into the walls to secure the ropes in ce, and the Mana defending the walls from the enemy Spells became a double-edged sword as they enveloped the intruding tools and extended their protection. They weren''t going to be easily dislodged.
Reivyn no longer summonedrge orbs tounch over the heads of the enemy soldiers. He held his two hands together, one on top of the other, and formed a much smaller ball in the space between his two palms. He delegated drawing the Mana from his core to his left hand while he wove the Spell with his right.
He thrust his arms over the battlements, and dozens of smances shot out every second in a concentrated ring that he swept across the line. The sight of the fierynces kindled a memory of something simr being ejected out of a long, metal pipe from his Dreams. They both wrought simr destruction.
His smances pierced right through the bodies of the low-numbered soldiers below. Sometimes they ran right through two or more. His Spell was enough to cause instant death to the weaker foes. The same couldn''t be said for when they struck the armored legions.
His Spell was still deadly, but the armor and the group-Shield Spells, as well as the asional Mana Shield, meant it usually took two or threences per kill. It was the exact opposite with the swimmers.
Reivyn looked across the river as he continued to sweep the enemy line with his Spell. At some point, an entire fleet of rafts had been ced in the water, and legionnaires stood upon the rafts as they used the lines to drag themselves across the water.
"Prince Allik! Rafts!" Reivyn hadn''t dismissed the Mana tether connecting him to the Prince. There was too much noise for his voice to be heard in the conventional way.
Prince Allik looked up from the frothing waters below to spy what Reivyn had warned him about. He bent his head down to a couple of the new runners and pointed across the river, giving him instructions.
They didn''t hesitate as they dispersed across the line. They didn''t go all the way to the end. They didn''t even make it to Reivyn. They did instruct several of the Mages to abandon attacking the swimmers below them to instead target the rafts.
The low-numbered soldiers weren''t just sitting still after aplishing their primary mission, though. They began climbing the walls, sometimes over the corpses of their fellow low-numbered soldiers, and they threw themselves at the archers as soon as they scrambled to the top.
Reivyn did what he could to lessen the burden, but there was only so far he could reach and so much he could do. The archers and Mages around him, though, saw what some of the other Mages were attacking andunched their own Spells at the rafts in the distance. Reivyn''s Spells were able to hold the enemy soldiers off enough that they had the breathing room to do so.
A loud crashing sound caught Reivyn''s attention, and he looked up to see that the gate had been easily breached within moments of the legionnaires arrival. The defenders charged forward to engage in hand-to-handbat, but the press of bodies from the enemy forced them to continue to back up.
Reivyn felt a vibration on his Mana tether, and he looked up to make eye contact with Prince Allik.
"Bridge," was all the prince said.
Reivyn nodded his head and stoppedunching thences from his small ball of fire. He gathered more and more Mana into like before, and heunched it out toward the bridge. He directed it to fall almost to the water, and then the fierynces spat out and mmed into the supports holding the bridge up.
In only seconds, the bridge copsed. Thousands of armored legionnaires fell into the water. Most of them didn''t resurface, and many of them were swept away by the current along with the corpses of some of the swimmers.
The enemy forces never faltered, though, and more rafts were simply ced in the water where the bridge used to be. They were loaded up with soldiers, and they once more advanced on the fortified position with stoic faces.
A horn red in the distance, and Reivyn looked up to see the cavalry take off from the backside of the fort. The enemy soldiers had crossed the river upstream, and they were moving to nk them.
The first of the rafts madendfall. Theypletely ignored those in the water still swimming across the river, bowling over them in their haste to reach the shore. Not all of the swimmers were killed by such callous actions, but more bodies than not emerged to float down the current from beneath the rafts.
The Spells pelting the wall stopped as soon as the armored soldiers reached it. They instead adjusted their trajectory to arc over the walls into the soldiers down below. Runners came by and shouted for the defenders to hop off the wall as the armored soldiers used axes and other ded weapons to punch through it instead of climbing over.
Reivyn jumped down with his own soldiers. They ran to where theirpany was lined up and ready to engage in meleebat. Reivyn quickly checked his Status page and saw that his Mana pool was just over 40%. It was enough to cover their further retreat.
The wall had taken enough damage that the Mana reinforcement wasn''t enough to sustain them anymore, and breach after breach appeared along the wall as enemy soldiers poured through.
The defenders hacked and shed as they emerged from the holes in the walls, but there were just too many of them. More and more rafts were thrown into the water until there was practically a makeshift bridge erected on the water''s surface. They were able to simply March across the water at this point.
"Hold the line!" Reivyn Commanded his men with Commanding Shout. His voice carried over to those nearby, as well, and his Heroic Aura inspired confidence in those that could see and hear him.
The invaders met a wall of spears and shields. Their advance came to a stop for a moment, but they were high enough Level and armored well enough that they weren''t taken down right away. The press of their bodies eventually overwhelmed the defenders, and they were forced to take steps back as they continued their attack.
Reivyn had drilled such maneuvers into the men over and over again, but it was clear that the other soldiers didn''t have as much training with this particr problem. Soldier''s feet got tangled up, and as one tripped, more lost their bnce.
"Push!" Reivyn Commanded.
His mercenarypany took several quick steps back. The absence of resistance resulted in the invaders lurching forward unexpectedly, and then the mercenaries immediately followed it up with a heavy press forward. The temporary retreat resulted in them pressing the enemy soldiers back into their own ranks and it created a small disparity in the line.
"Extend!"
The squads from behind on the edges leaped forward and out, striking into the opened nk of the enemy soldiers. They caused a bit of confusion and discordance among the invaders. It was short lived, but it was enough.
"Reserves! Assist!"
The toon in reserve split in two. They had been ready for the order as soon as Reivyn had Commanded the Push, and they darted forward to help their tangled allies regain their feet.
"Recover!"
Reivyn didn''t let them get overextended or linger. The mercenary soldiers did their job and then rushed back into their proper formation. One of the lieutenants to Reivyn''s left cast him a sheepish look.
"Thanks," he said.
"Have your men open their ranks if it''s going to be a problem," Reivyn replied. He didn''t have time for anything else. Even if he wasn''t needed tomand every action every second, he didn''t want his attention to wander just to be a bit more polite.
The officer took his advice and ordered his men to create a bit more space between the rows. There was a bit less force to go against the pressure, but they were able to make up for it by not tripping over themselves.
"Retreat by numbers!" A runner ran by without stopping.
Reivyn didn''t immediately do anything. They had already determined the order of the retreat, and the mercenarypany was going to be one of thest. They weren''t going to be the veryst for the same reason they had been the first to leave initially, but they were the most well-restedpany in the army at this point. The n was to assist with the leap-frog retreat until they could break away.
The little fort they had constructed had been built in a triangle shape. The walls funneled from either side to the center in the rear, which would hopefully prevent the invaders from swarming around them as they retreated.
To alleviate the same downside from affecting their army, Prince Allik had already ordered the more tiredpanies to pass through before it was time to retreat. The small space allowed for fewer men to hold the line while they filed out in rtive safety. Spells and arrows still came down deeper into the fort, but the Mages were on pure defensive duty at this point, and it didn''t do too much damage.
The mercenary soldiers rotated their positions just like normal as the entire army was steadily pressed back. Thepanies used the funnel as their cue for when to peel off and depart. They hadn''t engaged the enemy soldiers for too long in hand-to-handbat, but there were still casualties. It wasn''t enough to sap their Stamina like before, though, and morale was still high as they trickled out of the wooden fort.
One of thepanies didn''t immediately depart once they left. They Marched over and formed up to defend against any enemy soldiers reaching their nk. The cavalry was still out and about, though, doing their job to disrupt the advance of those on this side of the river.
Thepany to Reivyn''s left eventually peeled off and made their way to the exit. They joined the long line ofpanies along the road. There was no other defensible position between the river and the next city, though. They were going to have to March through the night before they would be able to stop.
It was finally Reivyn''s turn to order his men to disengage. They calmly filed away from the frontline with the palisade wall defending their nk. The sounds ofbat were muted not only by the wall as they passed through, but also because fewer and fewer men were actively engaged in fighting.
"Perform a head count as we March," Reivyn ordered Jeckle. "Also, have the men eat their rations and drink their water. We still have a long night ahead of us."
Chapter 208: Advancing in a Different Direction
Chapter 208: Advancing in a Different Direction
The mood of the soldiers as they Marched along the road was much more upbeat than it had been before. Their Stamina and physical strength was much higher than it had been in the first leg. There had been zero casualties among the mercenarypany. Despite how intense the fighting had been, they hadn''t been engaged all that long, all things considered. The time they had spent in actual hand-to-handbat had been pretty short, and most of the Spells had only caused damage, not fatalities.
Reivyn knew it couldn''tst forever, though. Mental fatigue was a real thing. Even though their Vitality and Stamina were all in the hundreds and they didn''t need as much sleep as lower Leveled individuals did, that wasn''t an absolute. There was a huge difference between staying awake in thefort of your home for three days straight and fighting to the death for several hours.
Most of the soldiers under hismand suffered from a tradeoff. The physical soldiers had high Stamina and could move their bodies physically for hours on end, but the mental stress would weigh more heavily upon them. They also had far more physical soldiers than mental ones. The Casters couldn''t keep up with their physical counterparts, but the mental stress took longer to burrow into their psyche.
Reivyn was a bit unique with his mostly even spread of Physical and Mental Stats. His Mental Stats had surpassed his Physical ones by quite a bit with his powerful Tier 2/3 ss, but he had a huge jumpstart from his Fighter ss as well as his Mythic ss granting a decent amount of Physical and Free Stat points per Level anyway.
Reivyn himself could feel the drag of the mental stress. He had much more responsibilities than the soldiers underneath him, even the other officers, and that was a factor for his mental strain. But if he was already feeling the effects of thebat stress, he could imagine what it was like for his troops.
They didn''t show it on their faces, and their military bearing was still strong, but the look in their eyes couldn''t escape his Divine Sense. Their pupils were more dted than they should be, even in the darkness, and there was a slightly wild look to their expression.
Hopefully their n isn''t to never stop with an endless stream of fresh troops, Reivyn thought. I wouldn''t put it past them. As soon as we make it to the next city, no matter what, I have to start a rotation for the men to get some sleep. That''s the best remedy in this situation.
Reivyn couldn''t wrap his head around the enemy strategy. He thought he had figured it out earlier, but there had been no reason to press the battle and get so many of their own people killed in the battle at the bridge.
There has to be something more to it, Reivyn contemted. If we can figure out their motivation, we might be able to bait them into traps more easily. If we can get them focused on chasing shadows all over the countryside, it''ll slow their progress down immensely, even with their ridiculous numbers.
In the grand scheme of things, it didn''t matter too much to Reivyn why they were throwing their lives away so easily and in suchrge numbers, but in the short-term context of the war, it might lead to a potent strategy.
Reivyn kept his vision scanning the darkness as far as he could see. Even with no light from the heavens shining down to illuminate the countryside, his high Perception Stat enabled him to see much further in the Darkness than normally possible. He still had perfect vision within his sphere of Divine Sense, and he could tell it had slowly expanded, inch by inch, ever since he had gotten the big Achievement. It already had a tangible affect on his highest-Tier Skill.
I might have to stay in Tier 2 just a little bit longer to take advantage of this bonus even after achieving my original goal of getting at least one Affinity and Weapons Master to Transcendence.
Even while pondering multiple issues, he still maintained his vignce. Now that they were retreating with much higher Stamina pools, he also had the usual scouts out and about.
They Marched for half an hour before Reivyn ordered the men to halt. They had been in a long column of manypanies taking up over a mile in length on the road, but now he had his men step out of the column. There was still anotherpany behind them, but they would take the next opportunity to set up a defensive position to cover those still further behind.
Reivyn nodded to thepanymander of thepany that passed by them and received one in return. He could see the exhaustion on the faces of their men much more pronounced than his own, and he knew that the decision to stop before them was the right one.
"Form up along the road facing the way we just came," Reivyn ordered the officers. "First and Second toon in front, Third and Fourth toon in reserve and slightly to the side to cover the nks if need be."
"Yes, sir!" The officers chorused.
"What are you thinking about so hard?" Refix stepped up and asked in a low voice.
"Just trying to figure out their mindset," Reivyn answered. "If we know what makes them tick, we can use it to our advantage."
"Yeah, I know as much as you do, but consider everything we know about them," Refix said. "What was it Xudrid said about them?"
"He said that the fundamental difference between the empire and sects was their philosophy on how to achieve Ascendence," Reivyn answered. "They view everything, including human lives, as a resource to be funneled to the few at the top so they can advance further, faster."
"And how does this fit in with that philosophy?" Refix prodded.
"I don''t know," Reivyn shook his head. "At first I thought they were wearing us down to capture more human resources without having to fight as hard, but the more death they suffer, the more I don''t think that''s exactly right. I saw them branding zeros on the foreheads of those they captured. They''re not exactly going to bolster their strength with forced conscription. It seems like - using their mindset, not mine - that they''re just wasting their resources for little gain."
"If we can figure out what they''re hoping to gain, then we should be able to solve the mystery," Refix nodded his head. "So focus on that, and I''ll do the same."
"Thanks, dad."
"That''s what I''m here for. I''m always willing to listen and give advice on any subject. Speaking of, have you considered your options for your Tier 3 Advancement?"
"I have," Reivyn responded. "I feel like there''s a ss I need just out of my grasp, though. The Cultivator sses, despite converting Stamina and Mana into Qi, arepletely locked out to me. The - ahem - ''hint'' tells me that without taking the first Tier 1 option in the path, it''s impossible to move into the Cultivator sses."
"That''s to be expected," Refix said. "Such powerful sses have to have some drawbacks. This also affects those with the Cultivator sses like Xudrid said, too. Those that don''t have the ability to advance their Cultivator ss to the next Tier are forever locked out of them if they choose a different ss."
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"I did notice a distinctck of the mention of forming a Core, though," Reivyn said, giving his father a look. "If a Core can act as Qi, Stamina, or Mana at will, I think it''s definitely something to consider attempting to form whether I can choose a Cultivator ss or not."
"Possibly," Refix nodded his head along with his son. "Just take it slow and steady. We don''t know what will happen to someone with a Core who''s not a Cultivator. And by ''we,'' I mean Xudrid and Vyria won''t be able to help."
"If only I could see the affects of a Core as a non-cultivator before Imit," Reivyn sighed.
"Why can''t you?" Refix asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why not take what Qi you have converted, turn it into a Core, see how it acts for you, and then dissolve it to start over if it works the way it should."
"Didn''t Xudrid mention something about a Core being immensely important to a Cultivator? He said if a Core is destroyed, it was basically a death sentence."
"Maybe, but they''re forming their Cores with 100% of their Qi, and their Qi is 100% of their Stamina and Mana. At least it is after they''ve formed their Core. If you suddenly lost 100% of your Stamina and Mana, yeah, that would definitely kill you, but you''re only going to use a fraction of your pools.
"It might be hard, and it might be painful, but I don''t think it would be life threatening for you. You can also have an alchemist turn the appropriate natural treasures into something that can help you either not lose your Stamina and Mana, or regain some that you might lose. It''s something to think about."
"Hmmm, that''s a good idea. It will require preparation, though. Luckily, forming the Core is something that''s done at the end of Tier 3, so I have time to think about it and make the arrangements."
"Exactly," Refix encouraged. "So if you''re locked out of the Cultivator sses, what are you looking at going forward?"
"Like I said, I can feel that there''s something just out of my grasp. It''s not showing up as grayed out like some sses that I''m close to unlocking, but my gut is telling me it''s there. There''s also a few more sses on my list I want to look at, first. I just haven''t had the time to really look at them and consider them, yet.
"If I have a Transcendent Affinity, a Transcendent main Skill, and Qi to go with my Stamina and Mana, I feel like that''s the sturdiest foundation that could possibly exist. I think even reaching Transcendence with a higher Tier Skill won''t be as important as reaching it with the main Skill, and my main Skill is already Mythic. Once I reach 101 in Weapons Master, I feel like I''ll get to see the penultimate ss, based on my expertise, that is."
"That makes sense," Refix agreed. He smiled and pped Reivyn on the shoulder. "I''m proud of you. I don''t think you understand how gratifying it is for me to see you aplish all the things you have. My life and your mother''s was interrupted by tragedy, but we made due the best we could. Having kids surpass us so thoroughly is the only thing more we could ask for.
"Now, here''s the real question, and I want you to seriously consider it: Do you think Kefira can keep up with you in the future. You just said you think you''ll achieve the penultimate ss. Your growth is going to be unprecedented. I''m not as much of a stickler as your mother for seeking apanion who can match you, but you have to think long-term. You''re Vitality is going to be tremendous, which means your life-span is going to be hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. What will happen if your wife can''t keep up and she dies of old age while you''re still in your prime?"
Refix had a serious expression on his face, and Reivyn matched it with his own as he contemted the issue.
"As things stand right now, with what I know about Kefira and her potential, I believe she will be able to keep up with me," Reivyn answered honestly. It was his true feelings on the issue, and not just wishful thinking. "There are some things you don''t know about her, and I feel that with my progress we''ll be able to take advantage of more opportunities to dig out her maximum potential."
"I see," Refix said, stroking his chin. "So your n is to leverage your own abilities to help carry her beyond what she could aplish without you. I''m assuming that means you n on braving the dangers of a Tier 5 Region before you both reach Tier 4?
"Now, what do you think will happen to her potential if she''s riding your coattails? How do you think she''ll feel if you ''hand'' it to her?" Refix raised his eyebrows at his son.
Reivyn stopped and considered the issue.
"The System won''t recognize my efforts as hers..." Reivyn realized. "Sure, she''ll get a boost just because of what she''s doing, but it won''t be entirely hers."
"And she might resent you for it," Refix pointed out. "It''s a bncing act. You''ll have to learn to support her in this endeavor instead of lead her. There''s nothing wrong with being a strong leader, but sometimes you have to take a step back and let her do it. From what you''ve told me about her, and from what I''ve seen on my own, she should be perfectly capable of doing so."
"Thanks for the reminder, dad," Reivyn said soberly. "Even when considering the options for helping her, I was still being a bit selfish, wasn''t I?"
"No, don''t think like that," Refix denied. "Wanting the best for your significant other, even if it benefits yourself, is never selfish. There are no true altruistic people or motives. Everyone gets something for the things they do, or they wouldn''t do them without coercion. You weren''t being selfish, you were just being a bit short-sighted."
"Got it. I still have a lot to learn from you."
"Of course you do! Who am I?" Refix struck a pose.
Reivyn rolled his eyes and yfully shoved his father''s shoulder. They both broke out intoughter. Their congenial attitude didn''t negatively affect the mercenary soldiers. Showing such a rxed manner actually had the affect of keeping the men rxed, too.
The officers stayed with their toons, and Reivyn and Refix stayed a bit back, separate from the others. He didn''t need to be standing in the front to catch the first glimpse of either allied or enemy soldiers with the scouts out.
They stood in their position for about twenty minutes before one of the scouts came by to announce thest alliedpany approaching their position. Reivyn acknowledged the report and sent the man back out to resume his duties. They didn''t have to wait much longer before thestpany came into view.
They weren''t Marching at consistent, steady pace. Thepany was jogging in double-time, but Reivyn could see that it wasn''t too much for them to handle from his position.
"Make way!" Reivyn ordered.
The officersmanded their toons to step to the side so the soldiers could pass along the road without interference. Thepanymander split off from the troops as they passed, and they stopped jogging to resume a normal Marching pace.
"Probably about ten minutes behind us," the other captain informed Reivyn. "They''reing, but like before, they''re not really pressing the attack."
"I see," Reivyn said. "Thanks for the information. We''ll make sure you and your men can have a safe journey from here on out."
"Thanks. See you at the city in a few hours."
The captain returned to his position leading his men. Reivyn watched them pass for a moment. He could see that they were tired and covered in sweat, but they weren''t exhausted like everyone had been earlier. Stopping at the river had really recharged everyone''s energy. If they hadn''t had a good spot to stop and rest, they might have eventually been overrun by the advancing invaders. As it was, they had a good chance of getting away, for now.
"All right," Reivyn called the officers over. "The captain said they''re about ten minutes away and not really pushing to catch up. We''ll sit tight for six or seven minutes, then start are own leap-frog down the road. There''s no reason to wait for them to catch up to us if we don''t have to.
"First and Second toons will turn and March half a mile down the road before setting up another position, then Third and Fourth toons will follow. We''ll keep that up for an hour or so, and if we don''t see the enemy by that time, we''ll pack it up and head straight to the city."
"Yes, sir!" The officers responded.
Fighting battles is a great way to get Experience, but this battle should be over, Reivyn thought. If we don''t have to fight, we won''t. Getting everyone''s mind straight and reset should be the priority.
The men waited patiently just in case the information wasn''t urate or if the enemy for some reason decided to pick their pace up. After the awaited time, Reivyn ordered the troops to start moving. With their Physical Stats, they could cover half a mile, even in formation while Marching and not running or jogging at double-time, in just a couple minutes. They would be cutting it close, but Reivyn was confident they wouldn''t have to engage the enemy.
Once First and Second toon reached their next position, it would be a never-ending leap-frog that wouldn''t cost them any time, and if the enemy wasn''t pressing forward, it was only a matter of time before they left them behind.
Chapter 209: Interlude: Breath of the Realm
Chapter 209: Interlude: Breath of the Realm
Tenrik breathed in deep, held it for several seconds, and expelled the breath across the sparse room. His powerful lungs created a visible wind-stream that broke apart upon striking the far room.
The room had no furnishings whatsoever. It was made of powerful, mana-enhanced bricks from a source of stone traded from one of the premiere Tier 8 Sects. Despite the in appearance, the work put into and the source of the materials making up the room made it one of the most valuable ces in his entire pce. The riches and opulence found in the lower reaches were for the visitors, not the upants. The lesser nobility who wallowed in such extravagance were doomed to never ascend to the levels where the true power resided.
There was only one entrance into the sanctum. Lighting was provided from the tall windows and reflective surfacesprising the tower that extended into the heavens above. The top of the tower, as far as Tenrik was aware, was the highest point in the entire Realm. The base of the structure, where Tenrik was sitting in repose, was already thousands of feet above ground-level.
It wasn''t hubris or arrogance that led Tenrik to construct the impossibly high tower. There was a function to everything he did, but it wasn''t time. Not yet.
Tenrik was seated in the lotus position. He only wore a pair offortable pants, leaving his feet and torso bare. He was proud of the sculpted muscles he had worked so hard to form, but their beauty was marred by the dark streaks that coursed and pulsed along his skin.
The dark lines covering his body like a tangled web didn''t follow any rhyme or reason. They didn''t trace hisplicated meridian pathways or blood veins. They were apletely chaotic jumbled mess.
Tenrik held still with his breath expelled for long moments. The dark lines crisscrossing his body red as they fought against his actions. A bit of their corruption was expelled with each of his breathes, and he needed a moment to gather himself for the next expulsion.
A crystal floated in front of him, and as Tenrik took the next deep breath, the tremendouslypressed Mana held within the crystal as well as a hint of the Essence of the Realm itself flowed into his body. He held his breath as the Mana and Essence circted through his body, dispersing into every nook and cranny, rooting out the corruption.
Bits and pieces of the vile darkness attached itself to the Mana and Essence, following along back to his core. He used his own Mana to gather the corruption up as quickly as possible, lest it disperse back into his body, and directed it into his lungs where he expelled it with his breathe.
A dark patch permanently scarred the distant bricks from the countless impacts of corruption. Tenrik had been been at this task countless times even beyond his most recent seclusion. A tipping point had been reached at the start of this seclusion, though, and he had initiated one of thest stretches of his grand n.
Time ticked on as Tenrik epted the Mana and Essence of the Realm itself into his being to cleanse it. After several hours, he took in a breath but noticed no movement from the crystal floating in front of himself.
He opened his eyes to spy thepletely inert crystal. With a thought, it flew behind him tond in a pile of simr inert crystals. He reached into his subspace to retrieve the next crystal, but there was nothing there.
At first, Tenrik frowned as he searched within the cordoned off area for the next crystal, but then he smiled as he realized the truth. He simply switched his attention to the nextpartment within his subspace and extracted another crystal. He took a moment to bring up his ignored Notification Window. Achievement!
Incorporate the Breath of the Realm into your very being: Tier 1
+500 All Stats. Lowest-Tier Providence achieved
Tenrik''s smile turned into a grin and a heartyugh from deep within his lungs bellowed out, echoing against the walls. The dark lines across his body faded from sight as he paused his exercise.
"Finally!" He cheered. "It won''t be long now."
Tenrik had been at his task of expelling the foul corruption he had leaned heavily on in his youth for centuries. He had despaired that he would neverpletely be rid of the stench of his crutch, but he was nothing if not determined. He had persevered, forcing the Essence of the Realm into his body where it''s battle scorched his insides and nearly broke his mind with the pain it brought.
Even his thrice Transcendent Pain Resistance was no match for the weight of the world itself.
Out of that perseverance he had discovered that the effects were exponential. It was slow to start, but it elerated over time. The start had been excruciatingly slow, though. Almost 90% of his time fighting against the corruption had been on the lowest rungs of the struggle. He had sensed the final turning point just at the start of this round of seclusion.
The world was a fractal. Repeating patterns endlessly. With this fundamental truth, he had spected that the task of absorbing the higher Tier providence would also elerate. He didn''t know how much time would be saved versus a linear progression, but if it was a fractal pattern, he had already surpassed the 90% threshold. He would know in, hopefully, in a few years whether it followed the fractal pattern or linear progression.
The new crystal was a bitrger than thest. The lines and edges within the crystalline structure were slightly more perfect, and the Mana and Realm Essencepressed within were significantly higher. Not only was there more Mana and Essence contained within the crystal, but it was more pure, as well. The different colors of the rainbow radiated out from the center of the crystal instead of just reflecting from the crystalline structure like the Tier 1 crystals.
Tenrik braced himself and took in a deep breath. The Mana and Realm Essence flowed into his being. He had mentally prepared himself, but the pain was an entire magnitude higher than when he had started with the Tier 1 crystals. His body locked up and his muscles spasmed visibly through his skin. The dark lines reappeared, and their pulsing was more intense as they fought to prevent even a miniscule fraction from being siphoned away by the Essence of the Realm.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition.
Tenrik had to maintain his focus on the task at hand, even as he felt the creeping tendrils of unconsciousness seep into his mind. He hadn''t risked unconsciousness from pain alone for almost a millennia. He bore his willpower down on his own psyche, holding the shroud of darkness and the bliss it promised at bay. His teeth ground together as he circted the Mana and Essence while keeping his breath.
Eventually, after what felt like weeks of torture but was no more than a moment, he gathered the corruption in his lungs and expelled it with a relieved sigh. The amount of impurities and corruption caught with the next Tier Essence was ten times the amount filtered from the Tier 1 Essence.
The dark, viscous liquid slowly dripped down the wall on the scar before it solidified and added anotheryer of gunk. Steam rose from the liquid, and if the room hadn''t been built from reinforced Tier 8 materials, Tenrik suspected it would have melted the bricks.
Tenrik didn''t immediatelyunch into his next cirction. He panted for breath, recovering from the ordeal, as he thought about the implications.
My Pain Resistance might not be high enough, still, he contemted. I''ve spent a small amount of time over the years to bring it up to Level 180 and a fourth Transcendence. I either need to gain an ability to directly fight against the pain brought by the Realm Essence, or I''ll need to reach at least Level 201 before I can safely move on to Tier 3. Arrangements need to be made.
With that thought out of the way, he didn''t hesitate any longer and took in another deep breath. A lesser man would have given up long before he had reached this point. The bodies of the lesser menid at Tenrik''s feet, though. Literally and metaphorically.
Tenrik continued his cirction. He suffered devastation over and over again. If he had attempted to absorb the Essence of the Realm at a lower Level, it would have melted his body from the inside out. As it was, it was just the most excruciating pain he had ever experienced, and that was saying a lot. The Tier 3 and 4 crystals in his subspace whispered promises of more. He didn''t allow the dark thoughts to prevent his path forward, though. Always forward.
"Master," a soft chime intruded on his thoughts as he panted for breath, readying himself for another round. He stopped and looked up. "Your daughter requests an audience."
"Send her away," Tenrik dismissed the intrusion. He gathered his thoughts back to the crystal, but then hesitated. "Wait. Which one?"
"Aerie, Master," came the reply.
"Have her wait a moment," Tenrik revised his order.
"As you will, Master."
Tenrik stood up and nced down at his body. The dark lines had once again disappeared, but he had a sheen of sweat and blood covering his body. The battle raging within his body had caused his muscles to clench so hard that they micro-bled. The bleeding then seeped out of his pores along with his sweat.
With a thought, the liquids were banished. He removed his pants, burning them to nothingness in the process, and redressed himself in a severe ck robe from his subspace. The robe had gold lining more for the appearance for others than his own vanity, but the materials it was made out of, like everything for his personal use, was of Mana-enhanced Tier 8 materials.
He left the crystal floating in ce and strode out of his tower. He stepped out into the open air onto the floating tform that held his sanctum at the apex of the pce. He stepped onto a teleportation circle and zipped across the open air to the only other teleportation circle linked to his sanctum. He descended the stairs to his personal chambers.
His daughter, Aerie, was seated on a couch in the sitting room, back straight and eyes forward. She nced up at her father as Tenrik descended the spiral staircase at the edge of the room. He smiled as he Inspected his daughter, pleased with the gains she had made in the time they hadn''t seen each other. The little spider hiding in the cor of her robe couldn''t escape his attention, and it cowered in fear at his gaze.
Tenrik took a seat at a couch opposite his daughter, and a servant stepped forward to hand him a ss of spirit wine. Aerie held one of her own, but she had waited to drink from it. He nodded to his daughter with a smile.
"What brings you here, dear?" He asked.
"I request permission to descend to a Tier 4 Region once again," Aerie replied without preamble.
"Straight to the point," Tenrik said, mirth in his voice.
"I know I''m interrupting your seclusion," Aerie said. "I don''t wish to take up any more of your precious time. I''ve already gone through all the other channels."
That goes without saying, Tenrik snorted. If she hadn''t, the seneschal wouldn''t have brought her presence to my attention in the first ce.
"If it had been one of the others, they wouldn''t have even seen me," Tenrik said. "Just know that I always have time for you."
"Thank you, Divine Lord T-"
"Ah ah ah ah ah," Tenrik interrupted her. He gave her an expectant look. She took a breath andposed herself, smiling sweetly at her father.
"Thank you... Dad."
"That''s better. Leave the formalities to those of lesser standing. So, to what purpose do you request to descend to the barbards once again?" Tenrik asked, taking a sip of his spirit wine.
"I go to snatch a husband."
The spirit wine came back up, spraying across the room as Tenrik leaned forward, coughing. He looked up at his daughter with wide eyes. Utter surprise was quickly reced by fury in his eyes.
"What did you say?" He asked, steel in his voice. "I didn''t quite catch that."
Aerie snapped her head around, flinging her hair tied up in a ponytail behind her shoulder. She took a sip of her diluted wine, looking over the rim of the ss at her father with amusement dancing in her eyes.
"I have found someone worthy of standing beside me," she replied, delicately cing the half-drunk spirit wine on the table in front of her.
"A barbarian... Worthy of standing by your side..." They were more statement than question. "And what makes you think that? Don''t let someone''s rugged good looks cloud your judgement."
"He might be handsome," Aerie said, looking down and to the left. "I didn''t really pay attention to that." The blush on her cheeks further convinced Tenrik she was lying. She looked back up at him. "It wasn''t his looks that caught my attention, though. He''s a better swordsman than I am, despite being a Tier 2 Caster. I had to face him with all of my Stats unlocked."
"Now you''re just messing with me!" Tenrik eximed, throwing his hands in the air.
"If you hadn''t been in seclusion, you would have seen my report," Aerie said, trying hard to mask augh. "I brought a copy with the relevant information."
She leaned forward and extended a sheaf of papers across the table. Tenrik epted the papers and leafed through them quickly. He only had to nce at them to gather and process their full content.
"Leave it to my daughter to fall for a man she couldn''t crush like a bug with a heavy rock," he chuckled. He tapped his lips in thought as he idly stared at the papers held in his hand. He looked up at his daughter with a sharp look. "There''s something missing from these reports. Exin ''snatch'' a husband to me."
"I knew I couldn''t hide it from you," Aerieughed. "He has a woman already."
Tenrik waited for more.
"And? That''s it?" Tenrik finally asked. "Who could possibly match up to you that he would deny your offer?"
"She''s talented in Space and Time," Aerie answered.
Tenrik stared at her for several moments.
"Bring them to me," hemanded. "I''ll decide if he''s worthy, and she would definitely better serve here than in thends of the barbarians."
"As youmand," Aerie inclined her head.
"Ok, enough of that," Tenrik waved his hands. "Come, show me your progress and let''s y some games of chess. I''ve already interrupted my seclusion, so we might as well make the most of it."
"Of course," Aerie smiled as she stood up from the couch. She drew her sword as she made her way to a room off to the side designed for some light sparring. "I''ve met one of the lesser nobility who barely meets my standards for training. I feel like I''ve made a lot of progress recently."
"Excellent, excellent," Tenrik enthusiastically followed his daughter.
She reminded him of the other reasons besides a hunger for power and improvement for all the stress and pain he put his body through.
Chapter 210: Comprehensive Analysis
Chapter 210: Comprehensive Analysis
Status Name: Reivyn
ss: Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Lvl 60
Fighter Age: 14 (20) Health: 9,180/9,180 (+310) Stamina: 17,670/17,670 (+410) Mana: 11,735/11,735 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 849 (+10) INT: 1024 (+4) VIT: 918 (+31) MAG: 1,323 (+6) DEX: 848 (+10) CLA: 861 (+1) CHA: 222 (+1) PER: 860 (+1) LUK: 200 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 227,822/10,000,000,000 Experience: 6,377/15,000 Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (46), Athleticism (61), Bnce (51), Dancing (29), Drawing (23), Drill (24), Drive (7), Haman (20 MAX), Heavy Armor (29), Hiding (35), Horsemanship (24), Light Armor (24), Map Making (29), Map Reading (26), Mathematics (18), Marching (41), Medium Armor (40), Memorization {Social} (22), Mining (22), Observation (59), Penmanship (37), Piano (16), Ride (24), Running (53), Rhythm (28), Shading (7), Shields (49), Sneaking (32), Stealing (9), Swimming (12), Tracing (7), Tutor (11), Woodworking (17)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (28), Alcohol Tolerance (11), Ambidexterity (24), Backstab (9), Camouge (22), Color Correction (1), Eavesdropping (33), Evasion (60), Forced March (25), Gab (20), Linguistics (11), Mana Absorption (60), Mana Cirction (49), Meditation (49), Numbers Concepts (10), Pain Resistance (54), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (74), Silent Step (23), Stealth (28), Strategy (31), Tactics (44), Teach (19), Tracking (10)
Tier 3:
Ambush (13), Battlefield Awareness (49), Blind Fighting (33), Command (51), Commanding Shout (33), Danger Sense (44), Decipher (1), Detect Lies/Truth (17), Eagle Eye (3), Identify {All} (24), Infiltration (3), Inspire (51), Mana Conjuration (51), Mana Maniption (58), Mana Shield (41), Mana Sight (63), Mental Fortitude (49), Night Vision (34), Poison Resistance (3), Sense Threat (19), Silver Tongue (12), Sure Step (20)
Tier 4:
Assassination (3), Charm (2), Dreams of the Past (17), Dual Casting (49), Iron Will (24), Mana Weapon (41), Runes (1), Spatial Awareness (62)
Tier 5:
Aura {Bloodlust, Heroism} (4), Heroic Bearing (22), Mana Drain (6), Mana Healing (5), Mana Reinforcement (17), Multi-Casting (24)
Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (100), Regeneration (10)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (14), Perfect Domain (9) Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (101), Earth (101), Fire (101), Water (101)
Tier 2:
Ice (88), Lightning (86), Magma (90), Metal (90), Mist (88), Mud (88), sma (93), Wood (87)
Tier 3:
Bludgeon (54), Darkness (100), Durability (59), Friction (52), Gravity (49), Kic (61), Light (100), Mass (52), Piercing (62), Sharpness (62), Weight (53)
Tier 4:
Eternal (17), Traveler (17)
Tier 5:
Abyss (1), Veridical (1)
Transcendence: Obedience
Tier 1:
Air, Earth, Fire, Water
Ability: Command the Affinities within your influence, and they will obey ss Skills: Magic Spells (188): Level 1 2MP, Level 2 10MP, Level 3 20MP, Level 4 50MP, Level 5 100MP, Level 6 500MP, Level 7 1,000MP
Deconstruct (99): Pick apart Spells to their base Elements. Bonus to understanding Weaves, Knots, and Patterns. Bonus to Mana Maniption +99%
Will of the Realm (90): Your Will is True
Impart (1): Impart your understanding of Spell Matrices and Affinities to a student
Mana Well (46): Increase your Mana regeneration by 31% {(31.50) (1 Lvl = 0.25%)}
Avable: Enforce (22), True Mana
Cleave (111): Reset stance at an elerated rate of 253%
Multi-Strike (48): Attack multiple times with anything, up to 19 times at once.
Elemental Weapon (118): Coat your weapon in an Element. Able to extend the length of the Elemental Weapon with additional mana]
Avable: Charge (117), Devastating Strike (99), Intermediate Light Spells (0), Intimidate (0), Power Swing (0), True Illusion (0), Quick-Draw (81)
Reivyn perused his Status Page more intently than he had done in months. He had gained a lot of Skill Levels in that time, and he had maxed out his Level in Tier 2. He wanted to reach Transcendence with his Weapons Master Skill before he pierced the barrier to the next Tier, though, so he had once more turned his Experience Siphon Ability on. He had gained nearly 100,000 Experience from the battles since, but it was just a drop in the ocean to the amount of Experience he needed to advance to the next Level in his Bloodline.
The army had sessfully retreated from the battle with the invaders, and the enemy hadn''t continued to press their advance. Remnants from the other camps scattered across the front line had converged in the city with them, but there were considerably fewer than Reivyn had seen on his trek to root out the spies. The number of captured soldiers and casualties had averaged around 70% for the other camps. Prince Allik''s troops had been lucky.
Not all of the surrounding outposts had met up with Prince Allik''s army, either. Word had been spread from the other major camps that they had reached various other cities, forming a new front line against the enemy invasion. Several of themanders hadn''t made it, one way or another, but Prince Endrew had evaded all attempts to capture him and he remained in overallmand of the defense of the Region.
Most of the civilians had already evacuated the city once the civilians from Piori had arrived. They had told a tale of a never ending horde, and the locals had packed up and headed closer to the capital city right away. There were still a few who stuck around, and there were the Adventurers who had arrived to take part in the conflict - not all of them were indifferent to the plight of their home Region.
Reivyn had conversed with Prince Allik and themand staff to get his men set up in a new barracks area along the inner wall, and aside from being on high alert, still, things had mostly returned to how things had been before the resumption of hostilities. Reivyn was taking time out to check his Status Page after a long time of being a bit too busy to keep up with it consistently.
The only real solution to upgrading my Bloodline is using natural treasures from the higher Tier Regions, Reivyn thought. The power differential between putting that Experience into Levels verse the gain from upgrading my Bloodline just doesn''t make sense. The Experience is just a numerical representation, anyway. I watched the numbers tick up when my parents helped me consume the natural treasures to fully unlock it.
Reivyn dismissed his musings on his Bloodline and focused on his Weapons Master Skill. He had put most of his effort into training the Skill, and fighting for his life multiple times against the assassination squad and that Tier 5 giant had really pushed his Skill along. He was actually a bit surprised that he had already reached Level 100 with the Skill. He had expected to hover around 95 to 99 for quite some time.
It''s probably something to do with the nature of the Skill. It''s always acted as if it was several Levels higher in effectiveness verse other weapons Skills, it must have reached the threshold some time ago, and the System recognized that the incremental improvements I''ve made since being equivalent to 100 with other Skills was enough to warrant an increase. Either way, I just need some inspiration to reach my goal.
Speaking of waiting to advance to my next ss...
Reivyn pulled up another page from his Status that was only avable once he reached within ten Levels of the maximum. Tier 3 sses Avable Common:
Expert Dancer
Expert Hunter
Expert Laborer
Expert Mason
Expert Miner
Expert Performer
Expert Story Teller
Expert Tracker
Expert Woodsman
Fortune Teller Umon:
Cataphract
Charming Dancer
Charming Performer
Expert Hunter *Wood
Expert Laborer *Earth
Expert Mason *Earth
Expert Miner *Earth
Expert Miner *Metal
Expert Tracker *Wood
Expert Woodsman *Wood
Marksman
Politician
Recon
Soldier
Soldier of Fortune
Wizard Rare:
Arcanist
Assassin
Chevalier
Elemental Swordsman
Magic Swordsman*
Mystic
Siege Engineer
Shade
Sharpshooter
Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water
Veteran
Wizard *Air/Earth/Fire/Water Epic:
Arcane Elementalist
Battlemaster
Champion
Death Knight
Foundation Establishment
Juggernaut
Sorceror *Dark/Light
Warlord
War Wizard Legendary:
Edge of Duality
Embodiment of Elements
Grand Arcanist
Justicar
Master
Perfect Foundation
Royal Commander Mythic:
Carnage
Incarnation of Darkness
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.Incarnation of Light
Lost Soul
Pir of Truth
Soul of Duality
He nced over the options avable to him. They were mostly the same, especially in the lower Rarities, as to what had been avable when he had forced his ss Transition, but there were some notable differences. There was the inclusion of the locked Cultivator sses, and there were a few more worrisome sses avable, as well.
Carnage might be a Mythic ss, but I''m not sure I like the sound of it, Reivyn chuckled to himself. It''s definitely one of those granted because of my connection to the Abyss. I''ll still look at it, of course, but I''m not going to pick such an ominous sounding ss. I also notice that the Imperial Liaison designation is missing from all of the entries.
From context, I''m guessing Pir of Truth is the ultimate Cultivator ss. If that''s the case, then the one ss I can feel just out of reach but not on the list isn''t below the Cultivator sses. I forgot an important truth Xudrid told me: Cultivators are just another ss. I wonder what it is?
Reivyn would find out when it was finally revealed. He instinctively knew that it wouldn''t appear until it was fully unlocked, unlike the other ones that appeared when he was close. It gave him hope that it was special. There were differences in potency between sses in the same Rarity, and one that required more than what Reivyn already had was definitely something that would stand at the top.
Out of curiosity, he focused his attention on a few of the new options to see what they were all about. Battlemaster You live for the battlefield. You can wield a variety of weapons and use the right tool for the job. This extends to yourmand of the battelfield as a whole. With a sweep of your spear you can clear the field of enemies, and your presence alone is like a ma for change. Where you direct your fury, the battle swings in your favor.
Battlemasters can use all implements of war, be they personal weapons or siege. They are not necessarily a leadership ss, but they can inspire morale and dread in equal measure.
That''s an interesting ss, Reivyn stroked his chin in thought. It would definitely be worthwhile to cultivate some of the mercenaries towards this ss in the future. Not all of them can stand out, but the few who do could form a powerful secondary force.
Reivyn''s mind focused on the next ss that caught his interest. Foundation Establishment Take the true first steps of being a Cultivator. Gather the wisps of your Qi and build your Foundation for future growth to have a solid base to stand upon.
Foundation Establishment Cultivators are still novices in the Cultivator society, though it is an important step that can dictate the heights one can reach in the future.
That''s about what I expected. ording to Xudrid, there''s not a terriblyrge difference between Qi Gathering in Tier 2 and Foundation Establishment in Tier 3 other than potency. The true differences start in Core Formation in Tier 4. The ability to walk through the air with ease is a clear sign, Reivyn chuckled. Edge of Duality The core of your being is one of Duality. Use the edge between pr opposites to sever all that opposes you. You have mastered the ability to harness the thin line between twopletely different aspects to your will. You are not a master of one or the other aspect, but you instead turn your focus to the phenomenon created when they are brought together.
The Edge of Duality can use any juxtaposition between pr opposites theymand. They are a master of none of them, but their mastery of the conflict between them makes them much more of a versatile threat.
That, honestly, looks amazing. Especially for me. I have so many different Affinities and abilities that could be harnessed by this ss. If it was a Mythic ss, there would be almost no contest. There has to be a reason it''s one step below. Embodiment of Elements You represent the Affinities themselves. Any Affinity you have sufficient control over can be fully expressed by your very being. Take on the aspect of the Elements and bend them to your purpose.
The Embodiment of Elements perfectly integrates the aspect of the Affinities into their body, Not only can they weave Spells perfectly and without thought when they embody an Element, their very nature takes on the inherent characteristics of the Affinity.
That seems like an improved version of my trick of flooding my body with an Affinity. I imagine it opens up a lot of other utilities with ease I would otherwise have to spend countless hours practicing. Justicar You are thew. You wield authority not only over subjects, but of limited reality itself. Judge, jury, and executioner, use your influence to stamp your will onto the world.
The Justicar is typically one with authority unto themselves, but they can also borrow authority from a recognized patron. The limits to affecting reality are severe, however, and can only be exercised in one''s own domain.
Even though I can see why I''ve unlocked this ss, that doesn''t seem like anything I would ever be interested in. I can see some other people - Renes to mind - who would jump at being able to wield authority directly through the System like that, though. Master You have mastered your body. Perfectly use your body exactly how you intend to in every situation. The dimensions to your body are no barrier to your will, either. You can freely alter your skeletal structure.
The Master is a perfect martial artist. They can learn and master martial Skills with ease, and they can fit their body to their needs at will.
If I was born without ess to my Mana Skills, that sounds like it would be right up my alley. It has some interesting side-abilities as well. I bet a Master would be excellent at infiltration. In fact, I wouldn''t put it past the invaders to employ a couple as their spymasters. It would make sense, and these sses are still Tier 3. They''re not exclusive to me.
Reivyn skipped over the Perfect Foundation. It wasn''t avable to him, and the only difference in wording between it and regr Foundation Establishment was about a taller building being able to stand on a firmer foundation. Royal Commander The blood of royalty courses through you. Even if you aren''t in line to seed the throne, you can harness your inherent nature tomand those around you. Not just a master battle tactician and strategist, you can alsomand respect among the masses.
The Royal Commander is typically one who is not in line to inherit the throne. They don''t care, though, and they use their bloodline to inspire and suppress in equal measure.
That ss seems a little strange, to be perfectly honest. The way it''s worded makes it seem like it''s not suitable to someonepeting for the throne. It''s more like they could care less about the actual chain ofmand within the royal or imperial family. Just looking at the name, I would have thought it was more line with Battlemaster or Warlord, but that doesn''t seem to be the case, entirely. Either way, not interested. Incarnation of Darkness The Darkness lives within you.
The Incarnation of Darkness is the Darkness. Literally and metaphorically.
That... leaves a lot to be spected. "Literally and metaphorically" leads me to believe it''s not just about the physical aspects of Darkness, but the concepts as well. I''m not sure what to think about such a ss. It obviously has some influence from my connection to the Abyss. Incarnation of Light The Light illuminates all.
The Incarnation of Light is the Light. Literally and metaphorically.
The wording is almost exactly the same as the other. I doubt this has anything to do with my connection to the Abyss, though. I would be more inclined to pick this one than the other if I had to, but there''s a lot to contemte about this ss. Lost Soul You''ve been disced out of Space and Time. Your soul remembers, though.
The Lost Soul isn''t bound to a specific reality. They can harness the powers surrounding them, wherever they are, and they can draw upon past experiences from other Realms of existence.
The avability of this ss actually answers some questions. I''ve never thought too deeply about my Dreams of the Past, but this pretty much makes it obvious. My soul has traveled through the River of Souls but still remembers. Those Dreams really are memories. Skill Leveled Up!
Tier 4
Dreams of the Past (17) ->(24)
Wow! That''s a big jump! Reivyn was momentarily shocked. It actually makes sense, though. I''ve been resisting the truth of the matter for so long, and finallying to terms with it has probably just pushed it to the Level it was supposed to be. Soul of Duality The very fabric of your being is one of Duality. You are a master of all opposites as well as the interactions between the two. You were born of two opposing aspects, and you''ve only nurtured their opposing natures as you''ve grown.
The Soul of Duality is a paradox. They are the opposing aspects and they''re each individually. Wherever there are pr opposites, the Soul of Duality flourishes.
That exins why Edge of Duality is Legendary. This is the upgraded version, and it''s not limited to just the interaction between the two pr opposites. I can see why the other is a step below in Rarity, now. If my gut feeling about the ss still hidden from me turns out to be untrue, this is definitely the number one contender for my next ss.
Let''s take a look at the ultimate Tier 3 Cultivator ss. Pir of Truth Your foundations are eternal. They''re better than perfect. They are built upon the very fabric of the Realm itself.
The Pir of Truth can ascend the heights of Cultivation with ease. The work has been put in up front, and the door to true perfection has been opened to them.
Ah, I see. It seems that the best of the best Cultivator sses can''t be reached without attaining this ss. There will always be a moat barring one from achieving the best in Tier Cultivator ss to those who don''t take this version of the Foundation Establishment, even if they have the necessary Stats and Life Experience to otherwise unlock it.
The wording also implies it''s based on the Realm. If I was in the Abyss Realm using their System, would it be Pir of the Abyss?
Let''s look at that Abyss ss, now. Carnage Revel in the blood of your enemies. Who are your enemies? Who aren''t? There are no allies, onlypetitors.
Carnage lives for blood. They reap all opposition before them, even if those opponents aren''t currently even standing in the way.
Yeah, definitely not taking that ss. It screams murder-hobo, and that is definitely not me. Reivyn paused for a second. Where did the term "murder-hobo"e from? It must''vee from my Dreams of the Past Skill that I''ve finally fully epted, Reivyn shrugged.
Reivyn dismissed the ss Page. There were a lot of underwhelming sses, even in the higher Rarities, but that could just be because of theck of information associated with it. Less description might not mean less powerful. They were Mystic sses, after all, and the words that were used implied a lot of utility. He wasn''t really interested in those, either way.
The Soul of Duality was the clear frontrunner. Aside from the characteristics of Battlemaster and Master, it fit him almost perfectly. Battlemaster and Master were great for him because of how he''d lived his life, but Soul of Duality was a perfect match for his very nature, down to his bnced soul. If the Masked Man hadn''t done whatever he did to bnce out his soul, he didn''t know if the ss would be avable to him.
Reivyn stood up from his lotus position on his bed and strode out of his room. He made his way down to the first floor and stepped out into the sunlight. Refix was standing there, arms crossed and one foot against the wall as he leaned against it, watching the mercenaries drill.
"Done with your introspection?" Refix asked, ncing at his son from the corner of his eye.
"Yeah," Reivyn nodded his head. "I have a frontrunner ss selected if reaching Transcendence with Weapons Master doesn''t unlock another one, and I''ve gotten a sort of confirmation about some things." Reivyn paused and looked at his father. "I also have some new questions."
"Uh huh. So what ss did you choose?"
"It''s called Soul of Duality, and it has something to do with some of the questions I have. For you."
Refix tilted his head to the side.
"A ss option prompted questions for me? What questions?"
"Why is my soul, the very center of who I am, made up of two opposing forces?"
Refix stood up straight and dusted himself off before turning to face Reivyn with a serious expression.
"I know some of the answer to that, but not everything," he answered. "A lot has been lost to time, but enough has remained. We''ll talk about it tonight in your room, but I will answer your question to the best of my ability. Now, what was the other thing? The confirmation."
Reivyn eyed his father for a moment before sighing and epting the suggestion. He obviously wanted answers now, but it wouldn''t be appropriate to talk about it right out in the open like this.
"I''m definitely a reincarnated soul. My ''Dreams'' are memories of my past life, for sure."
"And? Your mother and I pretty much knew that already."
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"That doesn''t strike you as strange?"
"Not really?" Refix replied. "I mean, it''s not necessarilymon knowledge or epted belief, but reincarnation is a fairly universal concept. Considering your stories about the sparks between Realms and what they obviously represent, it makes sense. I would argue that it''s probably more rare for someone alive to not be a reincarnated soul. I mean, those souls had to start somewhere. We just don''t remember our past lives.
"It changes nothing about our rtionship together. So what if you can remember some snippets of another life. In this one, I am your father and Ameliyn is your mother. Nothing can change that."
There was a moment of silence as Reivyn processed what his father said. He felt a bit of moisture in his eyes when he finally responded.
"Thanks, dad. I feel the same way."
"Of course you do! Who''s son are you?" Refix thumped his chest. Reivyn chuckled and yfully shoved his father''s shoulder. "Now, tell me about the other ss options you had avable to you. I''m really curious what the System has deemed fit to offer you."
"Sure," Reivyn said with a smile.
Chapter 211: Shadows of the Past
Chapter 211: Shadows of the Past
Reivyn stood to the side of the road as he watched the procession March past. They had been at the city he didn''t even know the name of for a couple of months. The invaders hadn''t attacked the city in force again, but they kept regr pressure on them. Every day, without fail, several enemypanies would assault the walls.
They didn''t line up in endless ranks, and they didn''t have dedicated Mage Corpsunching an endless barrage of Spells at them, either. They formed up in theirpanies, had Mana Shields to protect them from the defenders'' Spells, they Marched up to the walls, and after trying and failing to scale it, they retreated.
The practice had puzzled Prince Allik and hismanders, but Reivyn and his father were beginning to suspect their tactics. Putting everything together, including their total disregard for the sanctity of life, it seemed like they were training their soldiers. The thought was troubling, in more ways than one.
Today, Reivyn found himself watching a new division March into the city. They had finally received reinforcements, but upon closer inspection of the soldiers, Reivyn was disappointed. There were hardly any battle-hardened veterans among the bunch, and looking closely with his Divine Sense Skill, he could even see many of the soldiers attempting to suppress the shivering that tried to take over their bodies. They were terrified to be here on the front lines, but they were the only ones avable to be sent.
Other than the NCO''s and officers, Reivyn saw a sea of fresh faces. Their gear was nothing to be written home about, either. Other than a steel helmet, they were all wearing nothing more than a gambeson, shield, spear, and a short sword as a sidearm. It brought back memories of his first journey away from home, and Reivyn realized the truth. The entire outfit wasprised of young Conscripts.
Reivyn watched for a while longer, but when nothing new or unexpected Marched through the gates, he turned around and headed back to hispany.
---
Reivyn stood on top of the wall separating his barracks from the one next to his. It had been empty until earlier in the day, and he was unsurprised to find that it had been upied by a Conscriptpany. He, his dad, and the other officers were silent as they watched the goings on inside their neighboringpound. It had been almost a week since the reinforcements had arrived, and they had done the same thing every day.
"I can''t believe this," Refix spat to the side. Reivyn looked at his father with wide eyes. He had never seen the man spit. Not once in his life. It was a testament to how upset he was."Dad, I don''t think they''re ready for you," Reivyn chuckled. He turned to Jekle. "Do we have any gambesons in our supplies?"
"Yes, sir," Jekle answered. "We prepared a toon''s worth just in case we ran out of spare sets of armor."
"Good, good. Have someone fetch us some. Just bring them right up here on the wall."
"Yes, sir," Jekle answered with a salute.
Reivyn turned back to watching the Conscripts. What had him, the other officers, and especially his father so dumbfounded and irritated was the fact that they were just lying about doing absolutely nothing. There was no training of any kind going on, whatsoever. The NCO''s and couple of officers had disappeared into their quarters, and they left the Conscriptspletely to themselves. There was no supervision, and they weren''t taking matters into their own hands to improve themselves.
The Conscripts broke themselves up by squad and toon after setting up their bivouac, and then they simply sat around doing nothing. There didn''t appear to be any clear cliques established among them, but they were definitely segregated to a worrying degree from Reivyn''s perspective. There didn''t seem to be any interaction between the different toons at all, and even the squads seemed reluctant to act as a whole with the rest of their toons.
"What''s your n?" Refix asked.
"I''m still young enough that I look just like them if I put a gambeson on," Reivyn replied, not taking his eyes off the travesty before him. "I''m going to hop on over there and have a conversation with them. Figure out what the deal is and why nobody is doing anything. I''ll send Jekle over there to talk to their officers under the guise of getting along with our neighbors, too."
"I see," Refix said. "And then what?"
"And then? We try to motivate them to save their own lives. We can''t be responsible for everyone, and we can''t take charge of them, either. We can, however, at least try to make sure they try it themselves."
"Yeah, that''s probably the best we can do," Refix heaved a sigh in frustration.
Reivyn could understand where his father wasing from. They had obviously talked about his exploits and the journey they had taken to meet up with Reivyn. He knew that his father took people under his wing to support them and help them grow. It must be maddening to see an entirepany just wasting away, especially considering they could face a life or death battle any day.
Jekle quickly returned with a man in tow. He walked up and began pulling several sets of gambesons out of arge storage pouch. Reivyn wasn''t wearing his armor at the moment, so he simply started putting the gambeson on with his father''s help.
"I''m going to sneak over there and integrate myself into their ranks," Reivyn addressed the officers. "Jekle, I want you to go around and go through the front gate. Meet with their officers and find out what the deal is with them."
"Yes, sir."
"What about us, sir?" One of the other officers asked. Reivyn looked them over and contemted their options for a moment.
"Just standby for now."
"Yes, sir."
Reivyn ducked behind the edge of the wall and made his way to the corner. He activated his Mana and infused it with the Light Affinity. He wrapped himself in a bubble of Mana, hiding himself from view to anyone who couldn''t see or sense the Mana, and dropped down to the ground below. The ambient Mana was still getting sucked away in the same direction, but the distance muted the effect considerably. Instead of rushing off and being agitated, the Mana acted like it was in a slow moving current of a stream.
Reivyn deactivated the Mana and strolled out of the shadow of the wall like he belonged there. He walked up to one of the toons, and he squatted down next to one of the squads. They were all startled that someone took the initiative toe over, and they all looked up at Reivyn in confusion. Reivyn could see the youth in their faces. They all had a bit of fear still in their expressions.
"So?" Reivyn asked.
The young Conscripts shared a look between each other before they turned back to Reivyn.
"So... what?" One of them finally asked.
"So what do you all think? About this ce? Our situation?" Reivyn asked.
"What do you mean? Don''t we all feel the same way?" The same boy answered. "They''ve abandoned us, sent us off to die to stall for time so the rich and the nobles can escape."
"Is that how you really feel?" Reivyn asked with a frown.
"Of course. You don''t see any of their kids here, do you?"
Reivyn looked at each of them in turn. He nced around the toon making note of the faces of all of the young Conscripts. He couldn''t tell a thing simply by their faces, though.
"Really? Do you know who''s in charge of the defense of this city?" Reivyn shot back, looking the one who had spoken up in the eye.
"Some general," the boy shrugged.
"Prince Allik," Reivyn said. He let that sink in for a second. "He''s about as ''noble'' as noblese, wouldn''t you say? Isn''t the Crown Prince in the same position? Prince Endrew is the head of the army. He''s off somewhere else on the front lines."
"Be that as it may-"
"And I bet the other affluent families and nobles'' kids aren''t among the Conscripts because they''re already here, with the regr troops. Did that thought ever cross your mind?" Reivyn pressed.
The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Are you defending them?" The boy pulled back, suspicion written on his face.
"Nah," Reivyn shook his head in denial. "I''m just trying to paint a different picture. Think about it. Not only do they have an obligation to the nation, but many of them also view this war as an opportunity."
"An opportunity?" There was still skepticism on the boy''s face, but he was at least engaging in the conversation.
"Right. An opportunity. What kind of Life Experience do you think everyone who participates in the war sessfully will get? Everyone who fights will have a tremendous boost to their ss options in the future. Guaranteed."
"But we don''te from Combat sses," another boy spoke up. Reivyn focused his attention on the new boy. He wilted slightly under Reivyn''s intense gaze, but he quickly mastered himself and continued. "My parents are bakers. What good will this Life Experience do for me?"
"Are you serious?" Reivyn asked. He put on an expression of incredulity. "I can think of a million ways this could be an opportunity for you! First off, you have ess to considerably more Stat gains while still in Tier 1 aspared to your contemporaries. Those Stats aren''t for nothing. You''ll be able to unlock higher Rarity versions of your ss in the future. And don''t worry about advancing to a ''useless'' Tier 1 Combat ss. As long as you don''t gain too many Levels, you can always visit a church and purge it from your System.
"For you, I can see a path opening up for you to increase your production abilities. Just imagine if you take this opportunity to bake for the entirepany? Combine that with your Conscript Life Experience, and you might unlock a Rare ss that allows you to create vastly more products than you would normally be able to manage. Imagine what that could do for your family business in the future."
"That''s all well and good, but what if we do gain too many Levels in a Tier 2 ss? What then?" The youngster shot back.
"Even better," Reivyn smiled. "Everyone knows that Tier 1 through 3 sses are foundational. So what if you have a couple odd sses out? You can still work on your Skills to unlock the appropriate Tier 3 ss in the future. I doubt you''ll reach Tier 3 while still in the army."
"You never know. How long are we going to be tied up by this invasion?"
"You''re right about that. We don''t know how long it''ll be. That being said, as Conscripts, we''re not exactly the mainbat force. We''ll be off to the side for the most part, shoring things up. We''ll get negligiblebat Experience for our roles, and the Monthly Calctions won''t be enough to get us to Tier 3. Sure, we might be given more responsibilities once we reach Tier 2, but we''re still a rtively untrained forcepared to the rest of the army."
"What do you mean ''rtively?''" The first boy snorted. "Did you forget? They taught us Marching, Shields, Spears, and Swords and then they''ve left us alone to our own devices since. We''re not ''rtively'' untrained. We''re just untrained."
"Then why don''t we change that?" Reivyn asked back.
"What do you mean?"
"What''s stopping us from working on those Skills ourselves? The opportunity this presents is predicated on us surviving. We can''t speed up our Experience acquisition, but we can train our Skills." Reivyn looked back and forth between each of the squad members. They seemed eager for something to do. "These Skills might seem useless for the future path we might take, but not necessarily. Not only is it the key to surviving today and tomorrow, but maybe we can gain some unexpected Skills and synergies from it for our chosen paths. We won''t know if we don''t try,"
"Who''s going to teach us?" Another boy asked.
"We don''t need teachers," Reivyn answered. "We have the Skills unlocked already. We just have to pay attention to the assistance the System gives us and make it our own. Our Skills will naturally increase with practice."
"What about the other stuff? Like fighting together?"
Reivyn shrugged his shoulders.
"We could go ask our neighbors. Have you seen what they''re up to?"
"Nah, I''m too scared to go up there," the first boy said. "You can practically feel the contempt in the gaze of those guys up on the wall."
Reivyn followed the boy''s line of sight to his officers and father. From the perspective of the Conscripts down below, the clear frowns on their faces was a bit intimidating and looked like they were looking down on them.
"Nah, they''re professional soldiers," Reivyn replied, looking back at the other boys. "Why would they look down on us with contempt. They know the score. I bet they''re more upset with the officers in charge." Reivyn smacked one of them on the shoulder and pointed toward the front gate. "Look, there''s one of them now."
They all watched as Jekle entered thepound. He nced around at the other kids, but he didn''t slow his step or focus his attention on Reivyn. He quickly made his way to the building where the officers had disappeared.
"See, I bet he''s here to grill those guys," Reivyn said. "Also, I''ve been up on that wall when they''re not up there. I''ve peeked to their side. Let me tell you, unless they''re taking a break, those guys never stop. They train all day."
"Really? Like what do they do?"
"They break it up into sections," Reivyn exined. "They take turns working on their individual Skills, they group up as squads, they group up as toons, and they do a bunch of other stuff that doesn''t seem like it would be necessary for fighting. Like they have a rope that they climb while in full gear with their weapons. We could do the same thing, you know."
"Yeah, but without somebody in charge, it would be a jumbled mess," the first boy said.
"Then we have to pick our own people in charge," Reivyn said like it was the obvious solution. "You seem to be the most outspoken one for this squad, so you can direct them. I''ll go around and speak to the others and find other guys who are naturally inclined to take charge. No problem."
"May~be," the first boy seemed a little reluctant to assume a position of authority. He nced at the other kids, and they all nodded back to him.
"I don''t see a problem with that," one of them spoke up.
"Yeah, Krey, you''ve always made sure to take care of us, anyway," someone else said.
"We won''t resent you for telling us what to do."
"There," Reivyn said. "Problem solved."
"Are we just going to spar with each other and work on forms? What about training dummies and other equipment?" Krey asked.
"What about all the otherpanies in the army?" Reivyn asked back. "Do you think eachpany is lugging those things around on their own, or do you think they might have been provided for them? Has anyone checked out the storage room? I''ll bet we can find what we need in there."
The other kids looked at each other again before settling their gazes on Krey.
"C''mon, let''s go check it out," Krey said.
"That''s the spirit," Reivyn said with a smile. "I''ll go talk to some of the others."
The squad of Conscripts, led by Krey, jumped up and made their way to the storage room off to the side of the officers'' quarters. Reivyn shifted over and struck up conversation with a new group of youngsters. The other squads had noticed themotion, and instead of Reivyn having to speak to each of them one at a time, they all gravitated towards him to figure out what he was up to.
Krey and his squad quickly returned from their exploration of the storage locker toting target dummies. They quickly set them up as the rest of the toon watched as they listened to Reivyn''s conversation. Some of the Conscripts in the other toons had their curiosity sparked, and soon the entirepany was buzzing with activity. More and more boys ran to the storage locker to bring training equipment out to set up, and pretty soon everyone had taken up to training their weapons Skills.
Reivyn nonchntly extracted himself from the group, and after making it to the shadow of the wall, he once more activated his Light bubble. He climbed up the wall and rejoined the officers on the wall. Jekle wasn''t far behind him walking out of the officers'' quarters.
"Remarkable," Refix said, looking at the Conscripts busy at training. "What did you say to them?"
"Not much, honestly," Reivyn replied. "I just pointed out how this was could be an opportunity and how they weren''t being abandoned, and they practically convinced themselves. They just needed a little push and for someone to take that first step. I imagine being bored out of their minds had something to do with it, too." They all chuckled.
Jekle made his way back to the group and everyone turned to him.
"What''s the verdict?" Reivyn asked.
"Those officers are the rejects of the army," Jekle spat to the side. "They didn''t say it in so many words, but it was obvious. They got their positions through nepotism, and they were expecting to ride out a short career as an army officer to pad their prospects. They didn''t do much other than whine andin the whole time I was over there, bemoaning the fact that the invaders had interrupted their perfect little lives by indefinitely extending their stay in the army."
"I figured it would be something like that," Reivyn sighed. "Those kids deserve better. Especially the ones that are interested in possibly having a Combat ss in the future, they should be nurtured as much as possible. They have the opportunity to all have great sses in the future with their bonus Stats and Life Experience from getting Conscripted officially through the System."
"Not everybody views it like that," Refix said. "That''s exactly the reason you had to go give them a little push in the first ce."
"I''ll have a talk with Prince Allik," Reivyn said. "We''re on the wall tomorrow, though. Everyone ready go?" Reivyn looked to his officers. They all nodded their heads. "Then the day after tomorrow, I''ll head over to the headquarters and have a word with him."
"What are you going to say?" Refix asked.
"I''m not going to try and supersede the other officers'' authority. That''s a good way to build resentment. But surely the prince has some men he can spare to act as trainers and mentors for the Conscripts. I''ll even suggest assigning some mentors to theirmanders so they don''t make ridiculous blunders when lives are on the line."
"That seems like a fine idea, to me," Refix said. "I feel a little left out as your father," he chuckled. "I want to give you advice, but you always seem to have everything covered."
"What are you talking about?!" Reivyn looked at his father in surprise. "You give me great advice all the time. I''m just pretty squared away when ites to military issues and the chain ofmand, and we both know why that is. Just the other day you pulled my head out of my backside with regards to the future and Kefira."
"That''s right! And don''t you forget it," Refix gave Reivyn a stern look.
"Wha-? I''m not the one who forgot..." Reivyn trailed off.
"Hmm? What was that? Were you talking?"
"Nope."
The other officers snickered until Reivyn gave them a sharp look. They cleared their throats and everyone''s attention refocused on the Conscripts in the neighboringpound. They weren''t a well organized unit with their training, and some of them were still lounging about not doing anything, but it was a good first step. They would work the kinks out themselves, and if Reivyn could get them some experienced soldiers to supervise them, their chances of survival and turning this invasion into an opportunity would greatly increase.
"Speaking of Conscripts, I wonder how Teilon and Kimberly are doing these days?" Reivyn turned to his father once again. "Do you think they''ve made it to Wispan, yet?"
"If not yet, then not too much longer," Refix nodded his head. "We sent some people back to get them before we came here. Who knows, maybe they''lle along with Kefira the next time she''s able to get away from her mother."
"I hope so," Reivyn said. "It''s been a long time."
"You''ll be shocked once you see them again," Refix said with a smile. "Those two had some serious drive in them after the debacle with your disappearance. I won''t ruin the surprise, but I bet they could put up a decent fight against you." Refix looked Reivyn up and down. "Well, maybe while working together."
Chapter 212: Dark Truths
Chapter 212: Dark Truths
Reivyn swung his sword, attempting to identify that elusive feeling his father talked about. Refix had warned him that it had taken him years of training and additional inspiration when instructing Reivyn to gain the Weapons Master Skill to finally figure it out. There was a major difference between him and his father, though. Reivyn had already seen his father use the Transcendent ability, and Refix had been operating blindly. With a mentor to guide him, Reivyn was confident it wouldn''t take years to reach Level 101 in Weapons Master.
Reivyn''s actions were rote, and he let his mind wander. He wasn''t beingx with his concentration on his sword swings, however. It was deliberate. Refix had mentioned that it may be a subconscious awakening, so Reivyn alternated between intense concentration on even the most miniscule muscle movement and letting his body just do it''s thing without supervision.
This training session was thetter.
Many things that he thought he had figured out but wasn''t a hundred percent certain of finally made sense. Pieces of the puzzle that made up his life were falling into ce. Some of the interactions with others that he had thought he had figured out turned out to be a bit different than he had expected. He had assumed it was his Abyss Affinity that Galwit had picked up on, but thinking about their conversation and what his father had told him made him realize the truth.
Reivyn thought back to the conversation about his Bloodline that he had with his father.
"Our lineage, both your mother''s and mine, are ancient," Refix said. "We can trace them back hundreds of thousands of years. That might seem like a huge span of time to us, considering we''re so young, but when you take into ount the lifespan of Tier 6, 7, even 8 individuals, it''s not as many generations as you might think."
"We have Tier 8 ancestors?" Reivyn asked in surprise.
"Many of them, though not for a long time," Refix nodded his head.
"But wait, that shouldn''t affect our Bloodline unless they were already Tier 8 when they had their children.""Yes, that''s true, but we know for a fact that the founding ancestor of the Vynn line was Tier 8 before he had any children. My side of the family assumes our founding ancestor was the same, but we''re not entirely sure. Most of the specifics of our history were deliberately lost over time, and after discovering some truths along your mother''s and my journey, I understand why."
"How does one deliberately lose history?" Reivyn asked.
"They didn''t write it down, and they didn''t pass it on word of mouth," Refix shrugged. "That''s not important. Don''t focus on the wrong part of the story."
"Sorry," Reivyn sheepishly replied.
"Anyway, my ancestors and your mother''s ancestors stood on opposite sides of a grand conflict hundreds of thousands of years ago. Nobody knows the reasons for the conflict or who the other side was. All we know is that they were driven off and they abandoned my ancestors. It''s not clear if my ancestors had already switched sides or if they surrendered out of necessity, but they ended up swearing allegiance to the Vynn family.
"You might think that our families have been intermarried ever since. Marriage is a useful tool for ns and nobility to garner support and loyalty. That isn''t the case. My family had capitted, and they were seen as mere servants. This part of history wasn''t nearly as important to the Vynn family as it is to mine, so they didn''t keep detailed records of our circumstances. It eventually just became something taken for granted until another one of my ancestors was eventually elevated to nobility through meritorious deeds.
"That happened about 15,000 years ago, and we''ve been working on elevating our status slowly over time ever since. We eventually became one of the most trusted branches of nobility in the Vynndin Empire, reaching the rank of Marquis. That''s the highest rank nobility could achieve without blood ties to the imperial family. For whatever reason, our families still never intermarried.
"There has been no union between our families until your mother and I, and that wouldn''t have happened without the tragedy that struck. I was a ceremonial bodyguard to your mother, and one of the purposes was for us to interact and see if there was a rapport that could be nurtured, but there was nothing that really brought us together before we fled for our lives.
"I''ll be honest, and I''ll throttle your neck if you ever betray me in this, but your mother was a bit of a spoiled brat."
Reivyn''s eyes widened. He sat back, pursed his lips, and mimed sealing them shut with his fingers.
"Your secret opinion of mom is safe with me," he said.
Refix smacked him in the shoulder. They both chuckled after a moment.
"Wait... that reminds me of something," Reivyn said, tapping his chin in thought. "The Masked Man said that he was responsible for everything I had aplished. I had dismissed what he said as trying to get into my head, but what if that''s what he meant?"
"Hmm? What if what was what he meant?" Refix was confused.
"He imed he orchestrated the Dungeon Breaks, which led to you and mom getting together, which led to me being born. Maybe he was saying that without him, I wouldn''t even exist, and thus, he was responsible for everything I aplished. The way he spoke was... weird to say the least. He sounded like a narcissist."
"Yeah, I can kind of follow that logic. It''s definitely the thinking of a narcissist, though, for sure."
"Anyway, continue," Reivyn waved his arms at his father.
"Yes, well, it''s a decent segue, anyway," Refix cleared his throat. "So, to understand the full picture, it needs to be said that not everyone in ancient times capitted to the Vynns. There were other families and even branch families that didn''t agree. They scattered to the wind, seeking survival on their own. One of the main driving factors for the split was refusing to lose our heritage. My ancestors decided to throw inpletely and forget our past. The others weren''t willing to do that.
"So, the Masked Man appears, as we know now, and caused the Dungeons that were usually the lifeblood of the Imperial Capital to Break and turn into its doom. The perpetrator left some clues behind, and that''s how we discovered his existence and started chasing him.
"Now, I''ve never told your mother this, but the clues he left behind were rted to the branch families that splintered off from mine all those years ago. I told your mother that I dispatched some subordinates to research their origins, but I knew what they were from the beginning. Your mother had a burning desire for revenge and closure, and I felt the weight of responsibility. It was possible that a distant rtive of ours had destroyed the Vynn Imperial Capital and their family."
"You sure have kept a lot of secrets from mom," Reivyn snorted.
"You have to understand. Your mother and I weren''t together in those days, and those facts were mostly immaterial. Why would I reveal something to her that truly had no bearing on us, but could sow the seeds of doubt in her mind anyway? It was better to keep the truth hidden. Now it''s been so long, there''s no reason to bring it up again."
"I was just teasing you, dad," Reivyn said with a smile. "I agree. It would have justplicated matters if you had said, ''this might have been caused by one of my ten-thousandths cousins.'' You said the splinter happened hundreds of thousands of years ago. There''s no rtionship remaining."
"d you see it that way, and it''s the truth. Anyway, the clues had been set, but they weren''t like a trail or anything we could follow. For that I had to use my knowledge of my family''s past to find other clues left by those that had left pointing to where they had gone."
"There were clues to where they had gone thatsted hundreds of thousands of years?" Reivyn was skeptical.
"You''d be surprised. They were bread crumbs deliberately left and preserved with magic. They left them in the hopes of one of us seeking them out and joining them, though I imagine their existence was forgotten over time. The only reason I discovered them was because I had some records and knowledge and I was deliberately seeking them out personally and with our subordinates'' help.
This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"We followed the trail over the years. Often times we would lose it and have to spend a year or more looking for the next thread, but it eventually led us to Garoq. We didn''t arrive in Haluville out of chance."
Reivyn''s eyes opened wide in realization.
"The Dungeon in the mountains and the cult," he said. "Are you saying the Abyssal Cult is our distant branch that splintered in the past?"
"No, the royal family of Eldiar are the descendants of the branch family," Refix denied. "Putting together what we discovered with what I knew, the cult was likely descended from an extremist faction that left with the branch family. Finding out the Abyssal connection from the royal family of Eldiar and the cult finally revealed the truth of our heritage and why it was deliberately lost.
"My ancestors were from the Abyss Realm, and they fought against the Vynns in a Realm invasion. For whatever reason, they were left behind in a Realm they weren''tpatible with, and they chose to surrender and fully integrate into this Realm. The branch family didn''t want to lose their ties to their home Realm, so they left, but they didn''t have the backing of a powerful imperial family. They would have been pushed out of the better Regions wherever they went, and they eventually declined to where they''re now the lords of a Tier 2 Region."
"That makes what Galwit said to me make more sense," Reivyn admitted. "He mentioned he noticed a Bloodline resonance, and I just assumed it was my Affinity. But why would there be a Bloodline resonance after so many years?"
"So, you know the basics of how Bloodlines work, but there are other unusual factors that can affect them, as well. For instance, we believe you are an atavism because of thebination of two powerful Bloodlines. Over the years, our Bloodlines have diminished for various reasons. One of the main reasons is having children before reaching a sufficiently high Tier, something that happens all too often to many families, even in their prime.
"I was Tier 5 and your mother was Tier 4 when we had you. That''s the minimum threshold for maintaining the strength of a present Bloodline, but it''s not a guarantee. Me being Tier 5 - I think, I don''t know for sure - was probably the minimum for the chance at atavism. Basically, because we were strong enough and we had strong, ancient Bloodlines originating from Tier 8 ancestors, you won the lottery and returned to your roots.
"But it''s even more than that. Tier 8 Bloodlines have a maximum of 90 thresholds, and you have 100. Thebination of two Tier 8 Bloodlines from two separate Realms joining together must have boosted you to exceed the previously believed maximum. I can confidently say that you''re the only person in the entire Realm with a 100 threshold Bloodline."
"What about Kailey and Riley?" Reivyn pointed out his two sisters.
"We''ve helped them unlock their Bloodlines, and they''re not atavisms. Their Bloodline is only 50 thresholds. Still more than your mother and I, but not the apex."
"How many thresholds do you and mom have in your Bloodlines?"
"Forty, but we''ve also unlocked Level 2 of our Bloodlines. There''s a third Level, but we don''t know of anyone who''s ever unlocked it. The treasures required to unlock Level 2 of our Bloodline included Tier 6 materials, already. Unlocking Level 3 might require Divine treasures for all we know. You have another advantage with your ability to siphon Experience towards your Bloodline, but I imagine the requirement will be prohibitive to say the least."
"That''s for sure," Reivyn said bitterly. "Level 2 says it needs ten billion Experience. That''s enough to get me through most of Tier 8!"
"And you have a higher requirement for your Bloodline than we do. If you didn''t have ess to an Experience siphon, you would probably need Tier 8 materials. I bet the rewards for Leveling up your Bloodline will be immense, though. You''ll get it one day."
"Yeah, one day."
"Speaking of atavism, I suspect Vyria is also an atavism," Refix said. "She''s mid Tier 4, and her Sword Soul that Xudrid mentioned isn''t enough to ount for her Stats. Her soul strength would only affect her Skills, but she''s got some monstrous Stats. I didn''t have to seal nearly as much of my Stats when fighting against her as I did you. You should definitely continue to nurture a rtionship with them. It would help a lot to have friends in high ces when you go to explore the higher Tier Regions in the future."
"That''s not the only reason I would befriend them, dad," Reivyn rebuked.
"Do I look like that kind of person?!" Refix was taken aback at the usation in Reivyn''s voice. "I''m just being pragmatic and reminding you not to get so caught up in this war and your own training that you forget about them."
"Right. Sorry."
"No problem. Speaking of training," Refix rubbed his hands together with a gleam in his eye.
Reivyn came back to the present, swinging his sword. He had allowed himself to get so caught up in his memory that he hadpletely zoned out. There wasn''t a miracle, though. His sword shes were still just regr shes. He still had a long way to go until he breached Transcendence, though his bonus from the Legendary Feat would help out.
He continued to swing his sword as he let his mind wander once again. The mention of Vyria''s Sword Soul affecting only her Skills as well as the revtions about his Bloodline and ancient ancestors led him to ponder about his interaction with the Masked Man some more.
The more Reivyn thought about it, the more Reivyn realized the man had been putting on a facade. He acted as if he was ying a viinous character. He rambled on about how he was responsible for Reivyn''s aplishments and how he was going to be a hero to his people. He had grand ns for consuming the essence of their Realm, and he said he was only allowing Reivyn to live and grow so he would be a whetstone to his generals.
Then he went and gave him a huge gift of natural treasures that bnced his soul under the guise of punishing him for disrespect.
None of it made sense, especially with the revtion of the existence of Sects and a Tier 6 empire. The Masked Man, if he was as powerful as he seemed and imed, would absolutely know about the stronger people who existed in the Realm. Why would he need to nurture some kid in a Tier 1 Region into a whetstone when better, easier options already existed?
And the things he said hinted that Reivyn''s existence had been deliberate. The man knew about Refix''s ancient history, maybe even better than Refix did at the time. He knew where to find the cultists that had ancient ties to his ancestors, and he spoke of influencing fate, directly and indirectly.
There was still a lot of missing context for Reivyn to fully understand what was going on, but he realized that it was much moreplicated than he had initially assumed. He couldn''t for the life of him think of a possible reason the man would have orchestrated things to bring about his birth if that had been one of the man''s goals.
Hmph, I might be falling into a bit of narcissism, myself, Reivyn snorted. Everyone''s the main character of their own story. I might be inting my own importance simply because I''m me. I might have just been a happy ident, tangential to that guy''s ns, for all I know.
---
Reivyn peered down at the Conscripts busy at their training. Prince Allik had been receptive to his suggestion, and he had sent proper instructors over to supervise the youngsters. Now, with proper military orders, even those that had been reluctant to join in previously were busy with drills.
Reivyn often found himself wandering up to the wall to watch the Conscripts when he had a free moment. Watching them brought him back to his earlier days in Magron, and he reminisced about his time with his friends.
I wonder what Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand are up to these days, Reivyn idly wondered. I hope these conflicts don''t reach them. Tier 1 Regions are not prepared for a conflict like this. These Tier 4 empires aren''t ready, much less the lower-Tier poption in the subordinate kingdoms.
Thinking of them, I wonder if Josn will get recruited to one of these war-zones. The Church of Light isn''t the only church in the Realm, but they do span multiple local groups as far as I know. I don''t know what sort of stance they''ll take, or if the invaders will mess with the various churches or not, but if they are dragged into the conflict, he has proven to be apetent battlemander. Maybe I''ll run into him again some day.
There''s very little chance I''ll ever see Melissa or Larissa again. They were talented, but from what my parents said, it wasn''t enough to keep up and make it all the way to the Tier 4 Academy. They''ll be focused on bringing their family up with them to the Tier 3 Region, surpassing the main family their branch is from one day.
Lin and Ren are likewise are unlikely to ever meet up with me again. I could care less about Ren, but Lin wasn''t so bad. Maybe a bit aggressive, but that''s fine.
I hope I don''t run into any of them in a future war-zone, other than Josn, as that would mean something catastrophic happened. Even if they don''t get disced from Garoq by an invading force of their own, if they''re called up to fight somewhere, then things have really gone bad.
Like with Will and Simmon, Reivyn understood that he wouldn''t be friends with everyone forever. The memories evoked from watching the Conscripts drill brought a lot of his past rtionships to mind, but he understood that they were from different worlds, now. Not every friend or acquaintance was meant to be kept forever, and that wasn''t a bad thing. Everyone had their own lives to live.
Teilon and Kimberly were a bit different. They had been taken under the wing of his parents, and they had apparently stepped up to the challenge and performed above expectation. Reivyn was eagerly awaiting the day he would reunite with his two oldest friends. He didn''t know if they would be interested in joining him in the mercenarypany, but if they weren''t, they could probably lead part of the training division.
Running Dungeons was one of the main ways to improve stagnate Skills and gain quick Levels. He would need to set something up for his own people. The groundwork had already beenid with the agreement for ess granted by Kefira''s dad, but he would need to set up the logistics for it, too. From what Refix said, Teilon and Kimberly were quite experienced when it came to Dungeon delving, now.
His mercenaries were made up of Adventurers with their own Dungeon delving experience, so they wouldn''t need to be held by the hand. They would still need oversight and leadership, though, and his current officers already had enough responsibilities.
The more he thought about it, the more he like the direction his mind was going with it. He would have to get their opinion, of course, but from what he could remember, they weren''t super into the military lifestyle despite their time as Conscripts themselves.
Reivyn found himself smiling as he watched the Conscripts drill below. Maybe he would send some of his own people over to give them some instruction on small-unit tactics. Even though he wasn''t directly involved, he was beginning to better understand his father''s feelings about recruiting people and helping them develop themselves. It was quite rewarding to see others strive for and reach their potential.
Chapter 213: Whetstone
Chapter 213: Whetstone
Reivyn walked back and forth along the walls, inspecting the soldiers arrayed in front of him to repel the next attack from the invaders. Their attacks had been like clockwork, rain or shine. Every day, around noon, they would line up and assault the walls. They were always easily driven off, though, and it had be one of the daily routines of their lives.
Reivyn typically didn''t participate at all. The Experience gains for the soldiers involved in the actual fighting was meagre at best. For those on the cusp of or already in Tier 4, it was basically nothing. It was different for the leaders, though, as they got a decent bonus for being in charge. If Reivyn participated, as one of the higher ranked individuals involved in the fighting, he would siphon off a chunk of that Experience. Instead, the officers took turns acting as the overallmander in order to gain the bonus Experience and propel their ss Levels higher at a quicker pace.
Jekle had been mid-Tier 4 when he had first joined Reivyn in Wispan, and he was close to reaching Tier 5 from all the bonus Experience he had raked in from his responsibilities during the fighting. The other officers hadn''t been quite as high-Level, and they didn''t have as much time with greater responsibilities, but they were all past mid-Tier 4 by this point.
The main force of the mercenaries were also slowly reaching Tier 4 where they stalled out like everyone else. Only during the huge battles that had pushed them out of Piori and the bridge did they umte any decent Experience gains. By the time the next major assault happened, Reivyn spected that everyone would have gained their Tier 4 ss.
Everyone but me, he chuckled to himself.
After several weeks of intense training from people who actually cared, the Conscripts were deemed fit enough to participate in the defense of the walls on a limited basis. They weren''t lined up with theirpanies. They were dispersed as squads among the various other veterans who took them under their wings. For the times they actually got to participate in actual fighting, they quickly gained Levels as they were all Tier 1 Conscripts with a few advancing to Tier 2 sses.
Reivyn kept up with some of the Conscripts from his neighboring yard, and he found that because they had the forced Tier 2 sses, they were all able to gain a Rare Rarity Tier 2 ss. Most of them had expected to get an Umon ss before they were Conscripted, and even though their Tier 2 ss ended up being a Martial ss as opposed to a Lifestyle ss they had geared their life towards, they were all hopeful to turn it around with superior Tier 3 sses they hadn''t even considered possible before.
Reivyn stood back and watched the soldiers nervously shift about in their formation. Standing in formation in preparation tobat wasn''t like Marching in a parade. The NCO''s didn''t scold the soldiers for fidgeting. Reivyn''s mercenaries were usually pretty good about keeping their bearing, but despite their past battles, they weren''t yet the hardened veterans that could stare death in the eye without twitching. They still tried to keep up appearances as much as they could for the Conscripts attached to them.
Reivyn broke from his usual norm of not being on the wall during the assaults because he had noticed a strange feeling ever since he had woken up. The air was energized in a way that he couldn''t quite put his finger on. It wasn''t the same as a ping from his Danger Sense, but he felt like the feeling was tangential to the Skill in some way. Instead of being nervous without knowing what was going on, he had decided to watch the wall assault.He frowned as he looked out across the open fields to the tree line in the distance. The strange energy in the air seemed to increase with each passing moment the closer it got to noon, and as soon as he saw the first signs of movement among the trees, he finally understood what was going on with his strange premonition.
In all the battles before, the enemy soldiers had advanced with an air of religious fervor. They showed no signs of fear, and they were almost indifferent to their plight.
The soldiers advancing into the clearing, even without seeing their faces, were different. A wall of bloodlust seemed to permeate off of them as they emerged from the trees. Reivyn could immediately tell that there was something different about them.
The bloodlust was only noticeable because every single one of the soldiers was exuding the aura. If Reivyn focused on an individual, the spark of bloodlust really wasn''t much. It was as if it was still forming and not fully whole, yet.
Reivyn waved the officer in charge for today''s battle over to him. The officer had been keeping half an eye on Reivyn the whole time, so he immediately noticed and ran over, offering a salute.
"Have someone run back to the barracks and get another toon to act as reserve," Reivyn instructed. "There seems to be something different about these invaders, and I don''t want to take any chance."
"Yes, sir!" The lieutenant saluted and turned to carry out the order. Reivyn caught his arm to stop him.
"Send a few more to the captains of the otherpanies to inform them what we''re doing, too."
The lieutenant nodded and Reivyn released him to follow the orders. Reivyn and his mercenaries had built up some credibility with the other officers and their men with their performances in the previous battles. They were a mercenary group made up of Adventurers, not professional soldiers, so the other officers had been receptive, yet skeptical. Their professionalism, discipline, and effectiveness in actualbat had earned them a good reputation. If Reivyn was spreading word that he was reinforcing his position with more reserve troops, the other officers would pay attention and probably copy his actions.
The enemy soldiers didn''t waste any time as they were already formed up and Marching toward the walls. Like all the previous assaults, they didn''t apany this attack with a Mage Corps bombarding the walls, though they did have some Mages dispersed in the ranks to provide Mana Shields. Reivyn observed their defenses and noted that they appeared more solid than he was used to seeing among the invaders.
Time was paramount to bring the additional toons to the wall, so the runners took off at top speed and dispersed towards their various locations. The defending Magesunched their Spells at the threepanies of enemy troops advancing on them, and Reivyn noted that the damage to the troops was considerable less than against previous enemy formations. Their Mana Shields and group-shield Skills were able to take more damage, and they appeared to disperse the force more easily.
Another group of threepanies formed up along the tree line, but Reivyn wasn''t worried about them. Unless something different happened, he understood that the next group of soldiers were poised to assist the survivors in retreating.
These are definitely veteran troops, Reivyn surmised. I don''t know if they''re veterans of different conflicts, or if they''re survivors picked from the other assaults, though.
Arrows rained down on the advancing soldiers. They lifted their shields and shrugged off the ranged attacks with practiced ease. There wasn''t a single soldier on the ground by the time they made it to the walls. A far cry from the previous experiences of downing anywhere from a third to half the assaulting force in the same time frame.
The reserve toon for Reivyn''s mercenarypany arrived at the same time the enemy reached the walls, and Reivyn could see other toons marching at double-time through the streets as well. He heaved a sigh of relief that the otherpanymanders had reacted so quickly to his vague spection.
Ladders were thrown up the wall, and they mped down on the edge so that they couldn''t easily be pushed off. The invaders began to climb thedders at much faster speeds than they were used to, and Reivyn could see the first man to breach the top had a feral grin on his face. Even as he was stabbed in the throat by the closest defending mercenary, the grin never left his face.
The invading soldier behind him grabbed the toppling man''s body by the ankle and tossed him aside so he wouldn''t get in the way, but he never slowed his own ascent to do so. Quickly, more and more invaders breached the top of the wall, and hand-to-hand fighting began in earnest. Far more enemy soldiers participated in the fighting than any had previously.
Many of the enemy soldiers quickly fell, and their bodies were tossed over the edge of the wall so they wouldn''t impede the other invaders. Reivyn was dismayed to see, however, that more than half of the soldiers tossed to the ground stood back up. They were bloody and limping, but they weren''t dead. Reivyn grit his teeth expecting them to join their allies in the assault once more, but they acted in a way that Reivynpletely didn''t expect.
The enemy soldiers who had been tossed aside picked up their deadpatriots, and they retreated from the conflict. The other threepanies advanced forward and used their Mana and group-shield Skills as well as their actual Shields to defend the injured from being cut down by arrows or Spellsunched by the defenders. They were focused on defending and not advancing, so their defenses were even more solid than the preceding threepanies.
Reivyn breathed another sigh of relief. He watched as the Conscripts were allowed to participate in the fighting, but the ferocity of these attackers had been noted and the youngsters were only ever allowed to advance to the second row where they could engage with their spears. They weren''t ready to handle the front line with sword and shield against such fierce opponents.
This novel is published on a different tform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
The reserve toons ascended the walls, but they simply stood and watched the fighting with grim faces. It wasn''t their job to rush forward and help repel the invaders. If theymitted all of their troops, something unlikely might happen with the attackers and the reserve troops wouldn''t be capable of responding. The fighting was still well in hand, so there was no reason to rush the inevitable victory of driving the invaders away.
Because the invaders breached the walls with considerably more troops and they were much fiercer than the previous soldiers, the noon battlested much longer than any other had before. Reivyn didn''t participate in any capacity other than the first warning, and he watched the time tick by as the fighting continued.
Casualties were inevitable on their own side, but thankfully, none of them were fatalities. The fighting didn''t go on long enough to drain everyone of their Stamina, but the Skill Levels of the invaders was a step above what they were used to. Errant strikes caused injuries too severe to remain in the fight, but they weren''t life-threatening.
By the time thest invader was pushed off the wall, almost 30% of the mercenaries were injured in some fashion, though most weren''t that bad. Some of the Conscripts, despite being relegated to the second row, suffered their first battle injuries, as well.
Reivyn watched the invaders slink away, but there was no cheering from the defenders. They had long since stopped cheering every time they drove the invaders away, but this time there was a particr silence that nketed the field.
Reivyn tore his eyes away from the retreating invaders and focused his attention on his Divine Sense. He looked into the eyes of his soldiers and noticed a weariness that hadn''t been there before. Some of the Conscripts had wide, wild-eyes, too. This was something new to them. They hadn''t experienced the endless hordes that couldn''t be held back and had gotten used to a token assault on the walls.
"Get the men back to the barracks," Reivyn ordered his lieutenant. "Have the Conscripts check in with theirpany, but then have theme over, too."
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant saluted.
Reivyn turned and jumped off the wall. He was lost in thought as he walked back to the barracks.
---
"What was that all about?" Refix asked as Reivyn stepped into the conference room. The other officers who hadn''t participated in the routingbat were already waiting, as well. They all sat in silence as Refix posed the question on all their minds.
"I had a strange feeling all morning," Reivyn exined. "And then I saw the enemy force. They were different from what we''ve experienced so far."
"Like the giant guy we all fought in Piori?" Refix asked, sitting up a bit straighter in his chair. The other officers shared grim expressions with each other before focusing back on Reivyn.
"Not like that," Reivyn shook his head. "Though, maybe a prototype? They weren''t necessarily higher-Level than the other enemy soldiers, but their Skills were more refined, and they had a bloodlust aura about them."
"A bloodlust aura?" Refix asked, rxing back in his chair a bit.
"They weren''t just indifferent to death," Reivyn answered. "They were eager to fight. They were excited to put their lives on the line. Each one, individually, wasn''t anything special, but all together... it was like a wall of dread followed them. I could see it in the eyes of our own soldiers. They were afraid."
"Hmm," Refix crossed his arms and dipped his head in thought.
The other officers whispered among each other, and the lieutenant who had been in charge of thebat for the day soon entered the conference room to join the others. Refix lifted his head with a spark of understanding in his eyes.
"I think I get it," he said. "They''re burning the chaff."
"What do you mean?" Reivyn asked.
"They''re taking all their men and just throwing them into the meat grinder," Refix exined. "They lined up hundreds of thousands of soldiers to push us out of Piori. They probably had 80,000 deaths, easy, and many tens of thousands more injured. What do you think happens to those that survive that?"
Reivyn stopped and thought about it for a moment. He corrted the bloodlust he sensed from the veterans to the previous battles.
"They gain Levels, Skill Levels, new Skills, and possibly nurture their fighting spirit," he answered.
"They gain Achievements," Refix said with a pointed look. "Imagine how strong an Achievement for ''survive a battle where 50,000 of your friends die,'' or some such, would be. And they didn''t just survive that battle. They won it."
"They''re forcefully increasing their Life Experience to get them better sses. All of thatbined: the increased Skills, the bloodlust aura, and the Achievements; they''ll nurture incredibly powerful future soldiers."
"And maybe not even that far in the future. I would bet that each one of those soldiers that attacked today were survivors of the Battle of Piori. They haven''t gone hard on us and just rolled over us because they''re treating us as a whetstone for their soldiers. By the time they reach the capital, they''ll have an entirepany worth of those powerful ssers we saw at the end of the battle in Piori. An entirepany like that would be able to put up a fight against the old veterans the empire calls back from the Tier 5 Region, much less the even strongermanders."
Everyone''s faces paled at the statement, including Reivyn''s.
"Is there any way to counter it?" Reivyn asked, wracking his brain for solutions.
"The only thing I can think of is to leave no survivors," Refix said with a grim expression. "When theye at us next time with an entire legion of troops of these veterans, we have to go all out to kill as many of them as we can."
"That''s a double-edged sword, though," Reivyn pointed out. "The more we kill of them, the stronger the survivors will be, but we can''t not kill any of them, because their numbers...
"I don''t see a way to win," Reivyn said, slumping his shoulders.
"To be honest, after that first battle in Piori, I kind of expected us not to," Refix admitted. "Our job isn''t to win the war at all costs. We''re mercenaries in a foreignnd. We''re just here to help them as much as we can. It sounds bad, but this isn''t our fight."
"It could be."
"And that''s why we''re here. Aren''t we kind of doing the same things as them, just without forcing it as fast as possible? The Wispan Imperial Army is sending its soldiers to wars all across the local group to participate in the battles. By the time they all go home to Wispan, they''ll have achieved simr results, but I would bet there will be far more survivors."
"Yeah, that''s the long-term n. When we devised it, we thought we were being clever and taking advantage of them spreading out so many war-fronts. Turns out we''re still a step behind. The potency of the Achievements and polishing of Skills won''t be as powerful as our opponents''."
"Don''t let the realization of what they''re doing give you a defeatist mindset," Refix said, standing up to ce a hand on Reivyn''s shoulder. "I know you''re worried about the future, and I know it''s demoralizing to realize we''re probably not going to win this particr fight. We can''t let it affect us."
"You''re right," Reivyn nodded his head. "We still have to do everything we can for as long as we can. We have to figure out a way to turn their tactics against them for our own benefit." Reivyn looked up and addressed all the officers. "That''s what we''re going to be trying to figure out from now on."
Everyone nodded their heads as they started to brainstorm a way to turn the situation into an advantage.
---
"You all got your first experience of what terror war can be today," Reivyn addressed the Conscripts that had participated in the earlier fighting. He had initially only called for the Conscripts from the neighboringpany toe over, but word had spread and all the Conscripts across all thepanies that had fought had shown up.
"This was only a small taste, too," he continued. "You didn''t have to experience your friends dying next to you as the casualties were rtively light. No war can go on forever without grief, though. Some day, some of you won''te back from a battle. It''s a hard truth toe to grips with, I know."
Reivyn walked back and forth in front of the crowd of youngsters with his arms behind his back. He was wearing his full armor with his rank insignia so there was no confusion about who he was, but the front row of Conscripts from the neighboringpany stared at him with wide eyes. Reivyn spotted Krey amongst them, jaw hanging open as he realized who it was that had been encouraging them over the past several weeks.
"I hope this instills the importance of the training you''ve all been doing. We don''t train just to see our numbers go up. We train to see tomorrow. I know that this isn''t the life most of you aspired to, but it''s reality. Life isn''t fair, but what we do with the twists and turns thrown at us define who we are.
"I was like you, many years ago," Reivyn stopped and looked into the eye of each individual Conscript in turn. "I was Conscripted to fight in a petty dispute when I was a child. I wasn''t even 10 years old, yet, but due to a quirk in the System, I was eligible for Conscription. I know what it''s like to have your life turned upside down and thrust into something you''re not prepared for.
"My experiences were a little different than yours, though we still had our fair share of life or death battles against monsters and beast tides. There''s a reason I push my soldiers to train so much all the time, and there''s a reason they don''t shirk their responsibility. All of us have experienced war and seen friends bleed and die. Trust in your training and you will survive.
"We''re all in this together. You can trust us to have your back on the battlefield, and we''ll give you our knowledge and wisdom in garrison. If you or any of the other Conscripts have questions, ask your mentors first. If they don''t have the answers, you cane to us.
"Good job out there, today. Keep up your training, trust your brothers and sisters next to you, and we''ll keep seeing the sunrise tomorrow."
Reivyn nodded his head to the Conscripts, turned, and strode off back to hispany office. The Conscripts were silent behind him as they watched him go, but he heard their voices pick up as he got further away. The other officers watched from the sidelines, but the NCO''s mingled with the kids to see if anyone had any questions or concerns.
The day''s battle had been a step up in intensity for them. Most of the enemy soldiers never even made it to the top of the walls beforehand, and this time they had an extended battle where they felt the true emotions associated with a life or death struggle for the first time. It had still been a bit abstract to them until today. Many of them had felt their spears piercing flesh for the first time, and they would need time to adapt.
Training and watching the fighting werepletely different than delivering a killing blow in the midst ofbat, personally. They were all just kids, and there was no Euphoria to mask the emotions of killing another living being. Fighting monsters afforded the protection of the System. Without the System intervening to protect people''s minds from the stress of killing, there would be far fewer Adventurers and Combat ssers. No such protection existed for conflicts between humans.
Reivyn could already see the stress umting in his mercenaries, and they were all adults with years of adventuring experience under their belts. Throw a bunch of Tier 1 kids intobat without a safeguard to protect their young minds, and the consequences could be severe. He wasn''t just extending an invitation to train and teach the kids. They were also there to keep them from falling apart, mentally.
That''s another advantage the invaders have on us, Reivyn realized. They don''t need Euphoria to protect their minds when they have such blind faith. We need to find something other than protecting their homnd for these kids to believe in.
Chapter 214: Perfect Foundation
Chapter 214: Perfect Foundation
Reivyn held one of the war hammers from a specialized squad in one hand and his sword in the other. He hefted them each, weighing them and feeling the difference between them. He swept out with the sword, paying attention to how it cut through the air and the whistling sound it created. He followed it up with an identical sweep with the war hammer. He noted the differences in how it moved through the atmosphere.
He continued to wave the weapons about, focusing his full attention and utilizing his Divine Sense to get every minute difference he could perceive. He put his sword aside and grabbed a battle axe to perform the same exercises. He moved through differentbinations of weapons forming a baseline for each as well as their differences.
Once he was satisfied with many differentbinations of weapons, he moved to a training dummy. He performed the same exact maneuvers while striking the training dummy over and over again. He used his Divine Sense to focus on the impacts on the dummy. He ingrained the effects each weapon type had on the training dummy. He was building an extensive mental library of all the intricacies of all the weapons he couldmand. With is experience fighting monsters and people, he extrapted the damage to the training dummy to a body of flesh and blood. He wasn''t going to indiscriminately mutte even a monster for his training even if he had ess to one, but he didn''t have to.
"Hmm..." Reivyn out the weapons aside and sat down cross-legged to contemte over everything. He unconsciously entered a state of Meditation.
His father had told him that with constant training between the different weapons, he would naturally get a feel for them. He had long since gained a natural affinity to all the weapons he could use with his Skill. There wasn''t anything he couldn''t pick up and know exactly how to use it as an effective weapon. Some things, like a leaf, required additional Skills like Mana Maniption and Mana Affinities to bolster its durability, but the way his Skill worked was that it gave him a natural understanding of how to do so. If there were any applications even without additional bolstering, he could perform those actions as well, though reality limited what was possible.
My Weapons Master Skill and my father''s Weapons Prodigy Skill are different, Reivyn thought. He is limited to actual weapons, while my Skill makes anything I can think as a weapon a weapon. Maybe instead of trying to replicate my dad''s ability to make any weapon function as any other weapon, I should instead be focusing on making any mundane item work as a weapon even without the additional bolstering. I could work on making a floppy de of grass an actual sword instead of an imitation of a sword...
Reivyn had been focusing on shoring up his natural instincts and understandings granted through the Skill with actual, concrete examples. He felt he had fully grasped the nuances of all of his weapons, but that was only half of his Skill. If he wanted to breach Level 100 with the Skill, he couldn''t ignore an entire aspect of the Skill.
There had been no need for him to be able to pluck anything from the environment and use it as a weapon as he was always armed. Even when he didn''t have a physical weapon on his person, he could always manifest one with his Mana. He had beenpletely ignoring half of his Skill.
Reivyn exited his Meditation and stood up once more. He looked around for something to experiment with, but he was in apound without even any grass growing nearby. He could take the time to go gather some resources to use, but if he wanted to embrace "everything is a weapon," he needed to get even further out of his mindset.Instead of going off to find a stick, some grass, or some leaves, Reivyn bent down and scooped up a handful of loose dirt and gravel. He swished it around in his palm as he looked at it for a moment. He looked up at the training dummy and threw the dirt at the dummy. He didn''t activate his Skill for the first throw, and the dirt just dispersed in the air.
Reivyn nodded to himself as he inspected how the dirt projectile worked. He bent down and grabbed another handful. He mentally flipped a switch, and once more threw his hand out. Instead of dispersing in a cloud of dust in the air, the individual specks of dirt and pebbles flew straight and true, but they simply ttered harmlessly off the training dummy.
Ok, so first step, imitate a throwing knife, Reivyn mentally checked off a box. Now I just need to get it to actually pierce the training dummy and be a throwing knife.
Just dirt won''t be enough, though.
Reivyn signaled to a passing mercenary.
"Yes, sir?" The man asked respectfully.
"Gather a working party and gather up some sticks, leaves, and grass," Reivyn said to the growing confusion of the mercenary. "Quality doesn''t matter. I just need a lot of them."
"Yes, sir..." The confused man offered a salute and ran off to carry out the order.
Reivyn had plenty of dirt, dust, and gravel to work with, so he spent the next hour throwing the dirt at the training dummy. He ignored all the strange looks directed his way by the mercenaries training nearby. They all only knew that he was unusually good with a very high number of different types of weapons, but they didn''t know about his Skill.
Reivyn had a mental picture of walking up to a huge, steel door. It was a metaphorical representation of his Skill and the barrier of reaching Transcendence. He had assumed he was already knocking at the door by reaching Skill Level 100, but he felt he was only at the metaphorical door-step. He still had a couple more steps to take, and as he refined his dirt-knives, he felt himself inching closer and closer to the door.
The working party he had ordered worked quickly, and he had a pile of sticks and leaves and such nearby. When he reached a point where he felt he wasn''t making as much progress, he picked up a stick and advanced on the training dummy. He used it as a sword without applying any kind reinforcements. He could easily swing it around like a sword, and he could even use it as such against an unskilled or weak opponent, but if he was to face off against his father with the stick as a sword, it would shatter on first contact.
He needed the stick to be a sword. He continued his practice for some time. He wasn''t holding back and used his full Strength to swing the stick. The first couple dozen sticks couldn''t withstand the strength of the blows and instantly shattered into saw dust, but as he struck more and more, the shattering grew less and less until he only cracked a stick with his first blow.
Reivyn nodded to himself and tossed the cracked stick aside like the rest. He picked up another, but the stick was no longer a sword. It was a war hammer. It shattered upon impacting the training dummy''s head.
He continued his practice. The sticks continued to shatter, but there were less of them until he reached the point of only cracking one. He switched up his weapon again, and picking up a slightly longer stick, he used it as a battle axe.
Reivyn continued destroying the sticks, and he went through all the basic types of weapons one would normally see someone use. He didn''t delve into all the exotic differences weapons could take. He used a sword, a war hammer, a battle axe, a hand axe, a dagger, a spear, a staff, throwing knives, and he even used them as arrows in a bow.
By the time he finally rotated back to using a sword, he swung out with his full might and the training dummy shattered. He looked down at the undamaged stick in his hand and nodded. He looked inward, and the metaphorical steel gate was another step closer.
Reivyn switched out the sticks for some grass and leaves. He ran into the same problem, initially, but it took a fraction of the time to keep his chosen weapons from shredding from the force of his strikes. His Skill amplified his ability to incorporate the natural ckness of the impromptu weapons in his favor.
He was another step closer to the steel door.
Reivyn looked down at the pile. There wasn''t anything else for him to do with them, so he scooped up another handful of dirt. He immediately tossed the dirt at the training dummy, and the dirt, dust, and gravel pierced directly through the obstacle as if they were sharp metal instruments. Reivyn bent over and picked up a sizeable rock from the ground and tossed it up and down in his palm. Without thinking about it too much, he threw it past the training dummy.
Boomerang! He mentally shouted.
Reivyn watched as the rock sailed past the training dummy, curved in the air all on its own, and returned to strike the dummy in the back of the head. It also pierced through like it was a knife instead of a rock.
Two-in-one! Reivyn threw his hands up in triumph.
He looked inward once more, and his mental self had his hand on the steel door, but he hadn''t walked through it. Reivyn stood there in thought for a moment before once more sitting down in the lotus position and entering Meditation.
So I''ve fully transformed being able to use any object into any weapon. So much so, that it can be multiple different types of weapons at the same time... But I''m still only at the door. I haven''t stepped through it, yet. Hmmm...
Reivyn stood up and went looking for his father. He needed to spar. Just performing the actions in a controlled environment wasn''t enough. He needed to be able to freely adapt to different situation as they came at him, and the best way to do that was to put himself under stress.
It didn''t take long for him to find his father. He was doing his own training off by himself. He had his shirt off while going through the motions of his weapons forms. Sweat dripped from his face and torso indicating just how serious his father was taking his current training session.
Reivyn thought he was performing his sword forms as he was using a sword, but with his own understanding from his earlier training, he realized his father was performing staff forms with the sword. He wasn''t gripping it any differently, but the motions, trajectories, and even air resistance all matched what Reivyn understood from using a staff.
Reivyn waited for his father to finish his current set before speaking out.
"Dad," Reivyn called out. Refix immediately looked up and smiled at his son. "I feel I''m on the cusp of advancing, but I need a sparring partner."
"Excellent!" Refix immediately agreed excitedly. "Let''s get to it!"
Reivyn smiled at his dad''s enthusiasm as the two moved back to Reivyn''s pile. He bent down and picked up a fairly flimsy stick. It wasn''t anything special, but it wasn''t on the opposite spectrum of being brittle or droopy. Refix quirked an eyebrow at him as Reivyn assumed a ready stance, but he didn''t say anything, He was the one person in the camp that knew about his Skill. He was the one who had set up the conditions for Reivyn to get it, after all.
Everything is a weapon. Everything is a weapon. Everything is a weapon... Reivyn chanted in his mind. He entered a mindset where the frail stick in his hand was a solid metal sword.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Without preamble, the two men advanced on each other. Reivyn was fully focused on his mantra for his weapon, but he wasn''t at a disadvantage because he had his Divine Sense. Not only the Skill itself was a big help in informing him of his father''s every move, but having the Skill at all had greatly increased his ability to focus on multiple things at once. Others might be distracted to the point of not being able to keep up properly if they were fully invested in maintaining their mental grip on their stick-sword, but Reivyn didn''t have that problem.
The two danced around their training area, the mercenaries forming an impromptu crowd around them. They all paused their own training to watch the strange spectacle: Their Captain was using a stick to spar with their Vice Captain, a man they finally realized was a high-Tier 5 sser. They had all known he was powerful, but they hadn''t realized just how powerful, but he was almost looked up to more than Reivyn was. Those in the know understood that Reivyn''s ability to put up any kind of fight against his father was proof enough of his prowess and worthiness of being someone to aspire to.
Everything is a weapon. Everything is a weapon...
The sparring intensified, and the stick held up. As the fight went on, though, Reivyn wasn''t just able to make it perfectly match a sword. He was slowly utilizing its natural properties a the same time. The stick could bend and whip like it normally could as a wooden stick, but it fended off the strikes from Refix just the same.
Everything is a weapon...
Reivyn''s eyes shed with intent, and Refix subconsciously shied back. He lifted his sword to parry the strike directed at him, but the wind-force from the stick whistling through the air continue on and felt like knives shing into his skin. Refix''s eyes opened wide in surprise, but a grin formed on his mouth while looking at the deep concentration on his son''s face.
Why am I limiting myself to the stick in my hand? An errant thought intruded on his mantra. Everything is a weapon!
Reivyn dashed forward, his body twisting and turning about like an acrobat. The stickshed out and struck his father in the ribs. Refix attempted for another parry, but Reivyn reached out with his empty hand and swatted it away. His hand was a sword, after all. The sticknded another strike.
Refix backed up to regain control. Reivyn continued to press him. If Refix unlocked all of his Stats, he would be able to out maneuver Reivyn with no problems at all, but he was in perfect control of his physical being. He perfectly matched Reivyn''s Stats, and for the first time, he was the one unable to keep up with his son''s onught.
Reivyn''s vision seemed to light up with paths his body and stick-sword could take to bypass Refix''s defenses. Blow after blownded on the older man''s body. Torso, legs, arms. Everything was struck. Refix wasn''t a Legendary ss for nothing, though. He eventually caught up to the new rhythm of his son, and his sword once more intercepted the attacks sent his way.
Everything is a weapon!
Even Refix''s own sword was Reivyn''s weapon! Reivyn''s stick struck Refix''s sword, and Refix flinched like he had been smacked in the arm. A look of confusion crossed his face, but he quickly moved to intercept another strike. His confusion turned to astonishment as no matter what he did, his sword could not find a way to parry Reivyn''s stick.
Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Reivyn''s mantra had shifted at some point.
Blows rained down on Refix. He was unable to block a single one, and he looked like a toddler floundering about with a stick against an adult with a sword. Theplete opposite of the truth. The crowd of mercenaries around them waspletely silent. Nobody cheered. They all had ck jaws as they witnessed the beating.
Reivyn was in a world of his own. His father had disappeared from his mind''s eye, and there was just him, his stick, and his opponent. Paths he had never noticed before opened up to him. His body moved naturally to take advantage of every miniscule alteration. The stick could not be stopped, and hit flesh over and over and over.
"op... top...STOP!"
Reivyn came to a halt, his hand held high, stick ready to smash down on his father whoid on the ground, hand out in entreaty toward him. Reivyn''s eyes went wide and he tossed the stick aside. He grabbed his father''s hand and helped him to his feet.
"Are you alright?!" Reivyn asked, nearly panicking at the realization of what he had done. "I didn''t mean to."
"I''m fine. I''m fine," Refix waved it away. He stood and dusted himself off. He actually was perfectly fine. "You must have subconsciously still used your stick as a stick, because none of your strikes did more than a single point of damage to my Health, but man! That hurt! I''m going to be covered in bruises tomorrow."
"Again, I''m sorry, dad," Reivyn hung his head in shame. "I don''t know what came over me."
"Look at me," Refixmanded. Reivyn peeked his eyes up and looked into his father''s face. There was nothing but undisguised joy. Reivyn was a little confused at first. "You breached the threshold of Transcendence. You were in the midst of an epiphany, and I tried to let you bask in it as long as you could, but I could only take so much." He chuckled.
"Right... Let me check - AAAaaahhhh!"
Reivyn had still been a bit out of it at the distress of seeing his father like that, but as soon as he focused his attention on the madly blinking Notifications, his body locked up and he was assaulted by pain. His muscles spasmed, and his head felt like it was going to burst. He could vaguely hear and feel the concern of others as they grabbed his body to keep him from copsing, but all he could do was scream. His Pain Resistance did nothing to stop it.
After what felt like hours, the pain slowly faded away, and he was finally able to pay attention to his surroundings again. Now, he was the one on the floor, and his father was holding him against himself to protect him from his own thrashing.
"You better, now?" Refix leaned back and looked at Reivyn with concern in his eyes. "What happened?"
"I don''t know," Reivyn shook his head. His father helped him stand up once again. "Let me check..." Reivyn grimaced as he pulled up his Notification window, but nothing happened this time. He scrolled through the contents with wide eyes.
Skill Leveled Up!
Tier 6
Weapons Master (100) ->(101)
Achievement!
Exceed Level 100 with any Skill!
+10 Physical Stats
Transcendence: True Strike
Tier 6
Weapons Master
Ability: Your strikes cannot be Blocked, Dodged, or Parried. You see all paths to strike true, and if there aren''t any, you make one.
"That''s not what I was aiming for... but, wow!" Reivyn subconsciously spoke allowed. "This is probably better."
"What''s that?" Refix inquired. Reivyn looked up at his father. He formed a Mana-tether to him so as not to reveal anything to anyone else.
"My Transcendence ability is True Strike," he subvocalized. "I can''t be blocked, dodged, or parried."
Refix gave a low whistle.
"That exins what you did to me, but what happened to you?"
"Haven''t gotten that far, yet," Reivyn replied. He turned back to his Notification window. Achievement!
Unlock the Perfect Foundation!
+100 All Stats
Reivyn pulled up his Status Page after seeing the Notification. Status Name: Reivyn
ss: Imperial Liaison: Grand Arcanist Lvl 60
Fighter Age: 14 (20) Health: 10,280/10,280 (+310) Stamina: 19,870/19,870 (+410) Mana: 12,735/12,735 (+50) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 959 (+10) INT: 1,124 (+4) VIT: 1,028 (+31) MAG: 1,423 (+6) DEX: 958 (+10) CLA: 961 (+1) CHA: 322 (+1) PER: 960 (+1) LUK: 302 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000 Experience: 6,377/15,000
Ahh, I see what happened, Reivyn thought. The only other time I''ve suffered that kind of pain was when I was in the alchemical bath. It appears that not all of that pain was from absorbing the contents of the soup, but the massive increase in Stats I gained. I usually just feel a tingle when I get a Stat boost from an Achievement, but I just gained 900 Stat points all at once. It would be weird if it didn''t hurt.
"I figured it out," Reivyn subvocalized once more. "I got a Stat boost."
"I see," Refix nodded his head. He froze and gave a double-take to his son. "That was from a Stat boost?"
Reivyn nodded his head. Refix gave him a knowing look.
"I have one more thing to check out," Reivyn said out loud.
The Achievement said he had unlocked the perfect foundation. Everyone knew that the first three Tiers of sses were the foundational sses. He must have finally unlocked the ultimate ss. He quickly pulled up his ss Selection Page.
Tier 3 sses Avable
Common
Expert Dancer
Expert Hunter
Expert Laborer
Expert Mason
Expert Miner
Expert Performer
Expert Story Teller
Expert Tracker
Expert Woodsman
Fortune Teller
Umon
Cataphract
Charming Dancer
Charming Performer
Expert Hunter *Wood
Expert Laborer *Earth
Expert Mason *Earth
Expert Miner *Earth
Expert Miner *Metal
Expert Tracker *Wood
Expert Woodsman *Wood
Marksman
Politician
Recon
Soldier
Soldier of Fortune
Wizard
Rare
Arcanist
Assassin
Chevalier
Elemental Swordsman
Magic Swordsman*
Mystic
Siege Engineer
Shade
Sharpshooter
Sorcerer *Air/Earth/Fire/Water
Veteran
Wizard *Air/Earth/Fire/Water
Epic
Arcane Elementalist
Battlemaster
Champion
Death Knight
Foundation Establishment
Juggernaut
Sorceror *Dark/Light
Warlord
War Wizard
Legendary
Edge of Duality
Embodiment of Elements
Grand Arcanist
Justicar
Master
Perfect Foundation
Royal Commander
Mythic
Carnage
Incarnation of Darkness
Incarnation of Light
Lost Soul
Pir of Truth
Soul of Duality
Hero
Reivyn stared at the screen for a moment. He finally looked up at his father.
"It''s time," he said. "I have my ss."
Chapter 215: Interlude: Drawing Near
Chapter 215: Interlude: Drawing Near
Kefira nodded her head as she fought to keep the polite smile on her face. She had been listening to these tails nonstop for almost the entire time she had been back. She resisted the urge to check her System clock to see how much more time remained before she could be free. She was counting down the days to when she could go back to Reivyn, but every second seemed like an eternity.
"And bam! I used my Mana to smash the kobold into the ground, tripping hispanions up," Oryin said, once again. "Remember, it''s imperative to always use your surroundings in your favor, even if those surroundings are the foes themselves."
Oryin had told the tales of his excursion multiple times. Each time he added a bit more embellishment or told it in a different way so as to emphasise a different aspect about himself. Kefira could retell each of his stories from memory all on her own, by now, but she kept the smile on her face as she nodded along in the appropriate ces.
Oryin had caught the eye of his parents as one "in need of social training," as they said. He wasn''t the first person with lower standing to be thrown into the mix of the upper nobility children to sink or swim, but her parents paid more attention to him than any of the others. Kefira assumed it was because of who his master was. He was the only direct disciple of Court Magus Farril, and that made him Kefira''s older "apprentice brother."
Kefira wasn''t a direct disciple herself. She wasn''t even an in-name disciple. Court Magus Farril was just her mentor, and that was only because of his official position in the imperial court. There were no Mages who could extend their teachings to Kefira''s specialty. She had already exhausted what the other Mages could teach her, especially after the leaps and bounds in Space/Time Affinity she had made ever since she had teamed up with Reivyn. A couple of adventures with him had given her more insight into her Affinities than a couple of years of training with the Mages.
Oryin wasn''t a bad sort. He was earnest and took his responsibilities as Kefira''s senior seriously, at least in his mind. Court Magus Farril had pointed out that it made logical sense for him to apany Kefira for his social training as they already had an understanding of each other, Silfa had been quick to ept the suggestion.
That had led to Kefira having to spend more time on social interactions than she had originally nned on, and Oryin was with her every time. She had wanted to devote more time to her own training with the space magical device they had stolen from the invaders and Meditate more on the advances she had made with Space on the trip. She was still able to investigate the magical device and her inspirations to a satisfactory level, but she wanted more.
Her mother had other ns, though.
Silfa didn''t want her friendships with the other noble children to suffer because she locked herself away the entire time. She didn''t have any opportunities to interact with her contemporaries while she was away with Reivyn fighting as a mercenary, so her mother had crammed as much as she could into what little time she had avable.The only saving grace was that Seri was also her constantpanion, as always. She met Seri''s eyes and noticed a twinge in the other girl''s eye. She was fighting the urge to roll her eyes at the "life lessons" one could learn through their excursions that Oryin was trying to impart.
Oryin was basically bragging about single handedly taking on a cabal of four high-Tier 3 Kobolds by himself, and he was using the tale as an opportunity to try and teach Kefira. If he had seen the things she and Seri had done with Reivyn, he would probably go into aa out of embarrassment. She didn''t want to burst his bubble, though, as that would be rude, so she let him finish his story.
"That''s valuable insight," Kefira said with a smile once Oryin was done. "I''ll be sure to keep it in mind."
"You never know what will save your life one day," Oryin shrugged, but he had a slight grin on his face.
"I had no idea you were so aplished with your Mana Skills," another girl sitting at the table reached out and touched Oryin''s arm as she eximed. "Maybe you can give me-" another girl elbowed her in the side and she continued as if nothing had happened - "us a demonstration of your... prowess."
Kefira leaned back slightly and finally did roll her eyes.
These girls are way too forward, she thought.
They were attending a luncheon hosted by one of the Marquis in the capital. Kefira hadn''t had the time or desire to attend these events when she was with Reivyn, but now it was one of her main "duties" each day. Breakfast was still held in the privacy of her own courtyard, and dinner was with her family, but lunch was conducted at a different noble''s estate each day.
Oryin positively glowed from the praise. Kefira eyed him a bit suspiciously, but the youth didn''t seem to pick up on the nuance of the statement.
Social Training indeed, Kefira snorted to herself.
A twinge in the back of her head and the shing of a Notification window momentarily distracted her. Oryin and the other girls at the table continued their conversation as Kefira focused her attention on her Notification. Change in Status
Your Imperial Liaison has changed his ss:
Reivyn Sa''Vynn
Hero
Kefira was frozen for a moment as she read the Notification. There were two major differences that she had never seen before: One, she had never seen a surname attached to Reivyn''s Status as her subordinate. Two he had advanced to Tier 3, and it was a ss she didn''t think was possible.
Isn''t Hero just a prefix for a ss? She thought. I''ve never heard of it being a ss unto itself. What has he been doing?
Seri noticed her attention had shifted, and she leaned forward from her ce standing behind her.
"What''s up?" She asked.
Kefira looked up at her friend, breaking her concentration on her thoughts about the ss.
"Have you heard of the Hero ss?" Kefira asked in a whisper.
"Sure. Everyone has," Seri shrugged. "It''s basically a myth, though, no pun intended."
Kefira shook her head.
"No, I''m not talking about ''Hero of something.'' I''m talking about just Hero."
Seri frowned as she thought about it.
"No. I''ve never heard of that. I can ask my elders if they have, though,ter. I''m guessing it has something to do with Reivyn?"
Kefira nodded.
"He''s apparently advanced to Tier 3. I got a Notification that his status had changed, though he''s still apparently recognized by the System as my Imperial Liaison despite losing that designation in his ss."
"Is something the matter?" Oryin''s voice cut into their conversation. Kefira looked up and found the young man smiling at them.
"No. Nothing''s the matter," Kefira denied. "Sorry about that. Please, continue."
"It''s totally fine," Oryin waved it off. "If you need to go or something, just let us know. Don''t let us stop you."
"No, no, everything''s fine, like I said."
"All right," Oryin quirked an eyebrow before turning back to address the rest of the table.
Kefira internally sighed as their conversation started up once more. The other girls at the table weren''t at all the luncheons she attended, and if they were, they weren''t always seated with her. That meant that almost all of them were fresh ears for Oryin to regale with his tales of his excursion. Kefira controlled her facial expression as she nodded along to the story.
Just a few more days...
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
---
Teilon eyed the surroundings as he, Kimberly, and the rest of the crew that had stayed behind in Quron stepped through the portal. The view inside the teleportation path and the various Tier 4 capital cities had long since lost their appeal. It was just another grand city on their long journey to Wispan. Teilon threw his hands to the back of his head as he confidently walked out of the teleportation circle. He was the epitome of nonchnce.
Kimberly rolled her eyes next to him.
"You don''t have to prove to all these people that you''re not impressed with the surroundings," Kimberly snickered.
"I don''t know what you mean," Teilon retorted. "This is a rxing way to walk." He still lowered his hands back to his sides.
"Sure, sure," Kimberly chuckled.
Teilon reached over and grabbed her hand, a twinkle in his eye.
"Ok, but this is definitely afortable way to walk."
Kimberly blushed a little, but she didn''t pull her hand back. The two walked in front of the rest of Refix''s subordinates into the city proper. They stopped just outside of the teleportation circle and inspected a board that had the schedule for the portals listed on it. It didn''t take long for them to find Wispan, their next destination.
"Three more days," Teilon muttered. "Just three more days, and we''ll be there. I wonder what mischief Reivyn''s been up to, eh?"
"You''re the one that''s always up to no good," Kimberly snorted.
"And I have you there to keep me in line," Teilon grinned. "Well, let''s see about finding some amodation for the next couple of days."
He strode off once more, Kimberly''s hand still held in his, with the others following behind. Being the central location where the teleportation circle was housed, most of the surrounding buildings were high-ss inns. There were other shops avable, as well, selling the local specialties to those that passed through on their journeys. Teilon ignored those for now, though Kimberly eyed them as they walked toward a fancy looking inn.
Refix had said they could use whatever funds they wanted to purchase their rooms for the journey, and they could use some of it for their food, as well. They had their own money to pay for anything they wanted to pick up at one of the local shops, though. They had saved up a decent amount of coin running Tier 4 Dungeons and the specialty Dungeon Refix had ess to. Luckily, currency was universal as far as they were aware.
"Do you notice something strange?" Teilon asked Kimberly, looking around the square. It was in actuality a circle around the teleportation circle building, but that didn''t stop people from naming it a square for whatever reason.
"Too many people," Kimberly answered, taking her eyes away from the shops to scan the surroundings.
There was considerably more people in this particr city square than they had seen at any of the others along their long journey to Wispan. There was always a decent crowd wherever they went in each of the Tier 4 Capital Cities, but this was something else.
There were thousands of people milling about.
That wasn''t the only thing, either. They were all clearly Adventurers. City citizens would wear normal clothing when they were walking about their home city, but these people were all decked out in armor and weapons like they were about to head on some sort of expedition, and there clearly multiple groups forming Parties everywhere they looked.
"I hope there''s enough room at one of these establishments," Teilon said with a note of worry.
It wouldn''t be a big deal if they couldn''t find anything nearby, but if the entire city was like this, they might have to get creative. Teilon wasn''t someone who would mind having to shack up in a stable for an evening, but there were more people in his group than just him and Kimberly. He didn''t think Refix''s subordinates wouldin too much, but he didn''t want to put them through something like that.
As they walked forward, the crowd shifted about, blocking off an easy path to the closest inn. Teilon frowned as he looked for a way through the throng, but every path that opened up through the people steered them further and further away from his intended target. He mentally shrugged, though, and simply aimed their steps at the next inn.
The mass of people almost seemed to direct them to a particr destination, but Teilon shook that thought off. There was no way so many people who obviously didn''t know each other could coordinate something like that.
I guess the Luck Stat works in mysterious ways, he chuckled to himself.
They quickly arrived at an inn and Teilon noticed a signboard by the door.
"Amodations for Parties! If you''re Solo, or don''t have a minimum of 4 Party Members, please seek out another establishment."
"Huh, that''s convenient," Teilon said, sharing a look with Kimberly.
They weren''t technically in an official Party, but there they had enough people in their entourage to fill one out. They stepped through the doors, followed by another smaller group of people. The others walked off and took seats in the lobby, though they kept an eye on Teilon''s group.
"Wonder what that''s all about?" Teilon whispered to Kimberly. "I don''t get the feeling that they''re going to rob us in broad daylight, but they''re obviously here for us."
"We''ll find out after we secure some rooms," Kimberly answered, though she also kept ncing at the three individuals who had followed them in.
"Are you all together as a Party?" The receptionist, a young woman, asked Teilon as they approached the counter.
"Yup, all ten of us," Teilon replied.
"Ten?" The receptionist raised an eyebrow. "Aren''t Parties capped at eight?"
"Yeah, but we have a couple reserves," Teilon said. "You know how it is."
"Sure, but our rooms are designed to hold four people, and we can''t give out a room for less than four people," the girl exined. "You''ll have to squeeze five people into a room..." she nced at the gender make-up of the party, "or six in one room, in your case."
"That''s fine," Teilon nodded his head. "Doesn''t seem like there are too many other options open out there right now, anyway."
"That''s true, what with the wars and all," the receptionist said as she started the booking process.
"The wars?" Teilon asked.
"Yeah, the invasions urring in the various empires across the local group. You haven''t heard of the wars?!"
"No, no. We have. I just don''t understand what that has to do with this?" Teilon gestured to the front doors to indicate the throng of people outside.
"Ahem," someone cleared their throat behind Teilon. He turned to see one of the people who had followed them inside. "I can answer your questions about that, if you don''t mind?"
Teilon looked the young man up and down. He was wearing armor just like all the other adventurers, and it reminded him of the armor he and the others had worn when they first started their Dungeon delves before entering the Academies. It was te over leather, but upon closer scrutiny, Teilon could tell it was high-quality and had a hum of Mana about it.
Teilon nced at the other two, another young man and a youngdy, and noticed that they were likewise in high-quality gear.
Either these guys aren''t novices, or theye from decent backgrounds to be kitted out like that, Teilon thought.
"Sure," Teilon said, nodding to the young man. "Just let us finish up with getting our rooms sorted. Don''t you guys need to find a room, too?"
"We already have rooms, here," the young man said.
"What a coincidence," Teilon''s eyebrow went up.
"Yeah. Lucky coincidence," the young man smiled.
Well if that isn''t a hint... Teilon mentally chuckled.
He turned back to the receptionist who handed him two keys.
"Rooms 303 and 305," she said. "They''ll be on the right side of the hall as you step out of the stairway."
"Thank you," Teilon said, pocketing the keys. "What''s the damage?"
"Four gold coins per day," she answered with a smile.
Teilon gave out a low whistle, but he fished into his storage pouch and retrieved the gold for three days. He had thought the other tier 4 Capital cities had been expensive, but he guessed supply and demand forced the prices up eight times here.
Teilon handed the keys to two of the others, a boy and a girl.
"I''ll find out what these friends have to say, and then we''ll join you guys before making a n for the next couple days."
The others nodded their heads and headed to the stairs. Because everyone had storage pouches, nobody was openly carrying any luggage. Teilon and Kimberly turned back to the young man who had approached them and followed him over to his friends. They took a seat before the young man introduced himself.
"My name is Gully, these two are Rorin and Ruby," Gully gestured to his two friends. "Ruby''s the girl," he smirked.
"Oh, is that right?" Teilon feigned astonishment as everyone exchanged hand-shakes. "I''m Teilon and this is Kimberly. So, what''s this about the wars?"
"All right, first off, to assuage any doubts you might have, we overheard you mention someone by the name of Reivyn," Gully started. "Are you perhaps referring to the same Reivyn who started a mercenarypany in Wispan?"
"Ye~ah," Teilon said, narrowing his eyes. "But how do you know that name?"
The three people shared a look with each other and nodded.
"Well, I wouldn''t say he''s necessarily famous or anything, but he did put out a call for recruits to his mercenarypany through the Adventurer''s Guild," Gully exined. "I''m sure he meant it to be local, but word spreads. There are several Tier 4 branches sending Adventurers to Wispan at the chance to join hispany."
"Really?" Teilon was taken aback a bit. "Why doesn''t someone just form another one closer to home?"
"Experience," Gully shrugged. "Most Adventurers haven''t served in a military, and they certainly haven''t fought in an organized war. Every now and then there will be people who were once Conscripts, but they''re few and far between, and it''s not exactly the same. In order to convince people to join hispany, Reivyn made his military exploits public information for any Adventurer who was willing to pay a small fee.
"He''s not the only one acting as a mercenary, if that was your question. The only thing is, the other ''mercenaries'' are the local imperial armies, and they don''t ept Adventurer recruits."
"I think I see where this is going," Teilon nodded. "You were lucky enough to overhear me mention Reivyn''s name, and you took the chance that we were talking about the same person because you want to join the mercenarypany. There are way too many people here with the same idea as you, and you figured getting in with someone who personally knows him would give you a better chance at getting in."
"Exactly," Gully smiled and nodded. "I''m just shameless enough to attach my Party to another for a way in. Don''t get me wrong, we''re no slouches. We''ll pass any test they throw at us, but we just want to guarantee the opportunity to even take any tests."
"And you figured answering some questions about the war would be enough to convince us to let you hitch a ride?" Teilon raised an eyebrow once again.
Gully reached into his own storage pouch with a twinkle in his eye.
"I noticed you paid for three days'' amodation for two rooms. Here''s six days'' worth for the trouble."
Teilon had only been teasing the other young man, but being the rogue that he was, he wasn''t going to turn down a bribe.
Ahem, assistance, Teilon mentally corrected himself. I won''t turn down a little free assistance.
Teilon pocketed the coins and smiled at Gully and his friends.
"All right. I do believe you were about to fill us in on the situation with the wars in the local group."
Chapter 216: More Questions
Chapter 216: More Questions
"Ahh," Teilon took a deep breath as he stepped out into the streets of Willowan for the first time.
Despite the cities being fairly dense poption centers, there were no bad smells among the Tier 4 cities. Most of the Tier 3 cities and a few of the Tier 2 cities were like that as well.
"It smells so fresh and crisp," Teilon furthermented.
"It''s the ambient Mana," Gulley said, looking around the open square. His twopanions followed close behind him.
Gulley wasn''t necessarily talkative, but among the small Party of four - there had been one waiting in their room when Teilon and Kimberly ran into them - he was their mouthpiece. The other three talked if they were spoken to, but for the most part, they kept to themselves.
Teilon didn''t mind, but he figured that kind of attitude wouldn''tst long if they were going to be joining Reivyn''s mercenarypany. They might not even get to stick together in the same toon, much less the same squad. He figured that might be one of the issues they were going to work on while they were searching for Life Experience. Judging by their equipment and overall demeanor, Teilon didn''t have them pegged as just some arbitrary Adventurers.
"What do you mean?" Teilon inquired.
"The Mana here, even whenpared to other Tier 4 Regions, is very pure," Gulley exined. "It''s quite refreshing. It''s like we''ve stepped out of a pressurized area out into the open. Impure Mana can bog down your channels before you refine it."
"I don''t know too much about Mana," Teilon admitted. "I''ve only been working on my Mana Skills for the past year or so since advancing to Tier 4. We," he indicated himself and Kimberly, "weren''t born with our Mana Skills unlocked. Like some crazy people," he muttered thatst part under his breath.Gulley gave him a strange look, but didn''tment on hisst statement.
"I would guess that Wispan - maybe Willowan specifically, I don''t know - is in the upper range of Tier 4 Regions. I don''t know much about Tier 5 Regions personally, but from what I''ve heard, this ce is probably as close as you can get without actually advancing to the next Tier, but we''re in the outer rings of the Local Group, so it''s not possible."
"You just said a whole lot of stuff that doesn''t mean anything to me," Teilon quipped. "Don''t worry about it. I''m not the bookish type," he shrugged. "I''ll figure it out hands-on."
Gulley had an amused look on his face as he nced at Teilon.
"Yeah, I figured, but your - ahem, girlfriend? - girlfriend, might like the information."
Teilon nced at Kimberly and she just shrugged.
"Not everyone ignores the theory, you know," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah. Remind me when it''s life or death," Teilon retorted.
"So what''s your n?" Gulley asked.
"I figure we''ll get something to eat, explore the sights and sounds for an hour or two, and then make contact with Ms. Ameliyn," Teilon answered, looking around at the various establishments.
Despite the crowded state of the neighboring Region''s capital, the poption density was considerably less in Willowan. If Teilon didn''t know better, he would guess that their previous city was where all the Adventurers were flocking to, not here. It wasn''t high on his priority list to figure out though, as his stomach rumbled from having skipped breakfast.
"That''s what you get for sleeping in," Kimberly smirked.
"Hey, a man''s gotta have his beauty sleep," Teilon defended himself.
Kimberly rolled her eyes.
"Well, mypanions and I aren''t part of your crew, officially, so we''ll not be going to the Imperial Pce with you, but we do need to keep in contact if you''re going to help us get in good with the mercenarypany," Gulley said.
"Sure, we can talk about it over lunch."
Teilon led the group off to a random restaurant in the square. He had no frame of reference, but that wouldn''t stop him from trying new things.
If I don''t know any better, might as well pick one and stick with it, Teilon mentally shrugged.
The entire crew, plus Gulley''s Party, marched their way inside one of therger restaurants. There was plenty of room inside for all of them, though they wouldn''t be able to all sit at the same table in themon room. Teilon snagged the attention of a waitress.
"Can you show us to a private room? We have quite therge party," Teilon said.
The waitress eyed them all up and down, taking not of the quality of the gear and clothes everyone had on. She nodded her head.
"This way," she said, leading them to the stairs.
Quickly, they had all taken a seat inside a rather nice room. Teilon didn''t really care about the furnishings, though, and he buried his face in the menu the waitress provided. Looking out of the corner of his eye, he noted that Gulley and his teammates also didn''t pay any attention to the luxurious state of the private room. Their disregard seemed natural, though.
Definitely some rich kids, Teilon confirmed to himself.
Kimberly sat next to Teilon, and Gulley sat across from him. Gulley''s Party members were seated on the far end, but Teilon''s crew kept them upied with light banter and conversation.
Despite being a private room, the walls weren''t sound proof and there was even a small window they could open to hear the conversations of themon room. It was a neat design that Teilon hadn''t experienced before, though he had to admit that he usually just kept to themon rooms, anyway.
Without looking up from the menu, Teilon cracked the window to let some of the ambience reach their room. It wasn''t overpowering. There was just a slight drone of conversation from down below, but if he concentrated just a little bit, he could use his Perception to pick out specific words and who said them. He didn''t so so, though, as he was far too busy taking care of much more important matters: His appetite.
"So, I guess we''ll just get a room nearby while you and your friends go ''explore the sights and sounds,''" Gulley said.
"Sure," Teilon absentmindedly nodded. "We can just meet up by the fountain in a couple hours after lunch."
"Okay," Gulley said. "I''ll give you the details in case you need to contact us."
"Yeah. I''ll go by the mercenary headquarters, or whatever they have set up, after meeting with my friend''s mom and tell them about you all, too. That way, if for some reason we can''t get in touch, we''ll have honored our side of the agreement."
"Thanks, I appreciate that."
"No problem. And don''t think that I''m doing this just because you gave us some gold and told us some information," Teilon looked Gulley in the eye over the menu. "I''ve been watching you guys and gauging your character and possible expertise. If you guys had appeared to be some kids ying dress-up in some fancy gear, I wouldn''t have thought twice about taking your money and teaching you a lesson."
"Then I''m all the more grateful," Gulley replied with a smile.
"That''s right. Give me all the appreciation," Teilon smirked. "Oof," until Kimberly elbowed him in the ribs.
It didn''t take long before Teilon found what he wanted, and when the waitress arrived, they all ordered a decent spread. It was going to take a small hit on their funds, but Teilon was flush after his recent... business dealings.
Teilon tucked into his food with gusto. He kept an ear to the soundsing from down below as well as keeping up with the conversations around the entire table. Teilon was nothing if not sociable.
"... yeah, and her fiance is apparently some sort of magical prodigy..."
"...direct disciple of the Court Magus..."
"...announce the wedding..."
Bits and pieces of conversation from down below flitted in one ear and out the other. Teilon wasn''t trying to glean any specific information. He was just basking in the overall sense of the experience.
What''s the point of eating out if you don''t immerse yourself? Teilon quietly chuckled.
Teilon went to take another bite, but he froze with his fork half-way to his mouth. He quirked an eyebrow at Gulley who was sitting still with a scowl on his face.
"What''s the matter with you?" Teilon prodded.
Gulley shook himself and focused his attention back on Teilon.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Nothing. Just thinking about something," Gulley shook his head. "Sorry. Don''t worry about me."
Teilon shrugged when Gulley smiled and started eating again. Whatever had been on his mind was apparently not that important. He kept up with the rest of them with downing the food and contributing to the conversation around the table.
Lunch was a pleasant experience. The food was fantastic and the conversation was fun.
Teilon paid the fare with a decent tip to the waitress. He patted his stomach and stifled a burp as they all exited the restaurant.
"See you in a couple hours," Teilon waved to Gulley and his Party members.
Gulley nodded his head and strode off to find amodation.
"Alright," Teilon stretched as he turned to face Kimberly. "Where to, now? Anything you want to check out specifically?"
"I hadn''t put much thought into it," Kimberly said, ncing around the various shops in the square. "There''s a dress shop over there. That will be the first one. A shoe shop. Hey, there''s a nice looking flower shop. We can pick something up for the twins. You know how they are."
"I do indeed, but I thought we were going to look at the sights and sounds of the city..." Teilon quirked an eyebrow.
"Haha, you''re funny," Kimberly yfully pped him on the shoulder. "That''s what we''re doing, silly."
"Right. Of course," Teilon shook his head as he headed to the first store Kimberly had pointed to. He turned his head to address the rest of the crew. "Since we have to meet up here in two hours anyway, you guys can go about and do whatever you want. If you decide to go searching for yourpanions who already came ahead of us, just have one of you meet up with us to let us know."
The others nodded their head and stopped to talk about what they were going to do. Teilon and Kimberly kept walking.
Teilon suddenly stopped with a frown on his face.
"You know, I''m not sure I ever mentioned that Ms. Ameliyn was staying in the Imperial Pce," he said. He shared a look with Kimberly who had a thoughtful expression on her face. He shrugged. "Eh, it''s probably public knowledge."
---
Reivyn sat in the lotus position as he examined his Status Page. He had participated in a couple of fights against the more grizzled enemy veterans over the past couple of days, and he had quickly surpassed the requirement for advancing to Tier 3. In fact, with his leadership bonus to Experience and his deadliness on the battlefield, he had gained several Levels from the skirmishes. Status Name: Reivyn ss: Hero Lvl 6
Grand Arcanist
Fighter Age: 15 (21) Health: 11,480/11,480 (+310) Stamina: 21,720/21,720 (+410) Mana: 12,935/12,935 (+50) Qi: 1,000 (T4/Li) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 1,153 (+10) INT: 1,244 (+4) VIT: 1,148 (+31) MAG: 1,543 (+6) DEX: 1,154 (+10) CLA: 1,081 (+1) CHA: 352 (+1) PER: 1,050 (+1) LUK: 313 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000 Experience: 1,714/16,800
His Stats had already received a tremendous boost from just six Levels. He had been surprised about the amount of Stats he gained from his Hero ss, as they were more than what he had assumed from the progression of Stat gains he had extrapted. His previous ss had been Legendary, and it had only provided one Stat with +14 per Level. The Hero ss was +20 for each of the main Stats with Perceptiongging behind at +15.
He once more reviewed his ss description. Hero You are a Hero. You''ve achieved a perfect foundation, honed many Skills, and been referred to as such by many. You are a true champion.
The Hero is not some person on a quest to save the world. There''s no Demon Lord to fight or damsels in distress to save. There''s no great quest calling the Hero. The Hero can do everything everyone else can, just better. Hero +9 (10)
STR: +20 INT: +20
VIT: +20 MAG: +20
DEX: +20 CLA: +20
CHA: +5 PER: +15
LUK: +2
Charisma and Luck were still low, but it was still more than he had expected.
The "+9 (10)" per Level free Stat Points were also a surprise. The phenomenon Reivyn had invoked had caused quite a stir on the battlefield when he had Leveled up to Tier 3, and he suspected the enemymanders were still trying to figure out exactly what had happened. Only his father, other than Reivyn himself, knew the truth of the matter.
The wording had always been important with ss descriptions. This one was no different, and Reivyn imagined there was some truth when it said he could "do everything everyone else could." He imagined that referred to Skills, Affinities, Magic, and Qi. He would find out for sure soon, though.
He reflected on the events and Notification he had received upon selecting his Tier 3 ss.
Reivyn was flinging sma bolts at the oing legionaries. Everything had gone smoothly upon Reivyn assumingmand, but the enemy forces were surprised at the fury with which they were being rebuffed. It wasn''t just the defenders who had gotten used to the every day assaults on the city. The enemy forces seemed to have grown a bitcent about how things would go, as well.
The battle saw more casualties among the enemy veterans than any of their previous assaults, and it was more in-line with the casualty rate of the rookies, as Reivyn considered them. They had still pressed on to breach the walls, but they weren''t able to maintain their attack for a prolonged period of time if they didn''t want to suffer devastating fatalities. These soldiers were more valuable than the rookies, so they quickly retreated from the field.
As soon as the enemy forces were outside the range of the defenders, the Battle Report Notification appeared, and Reivyn was finally able to select his ss. He didn''t hesitate to choose Hero from the list.
That''s when everything went crazy.
The world seemed to freeze. Time didn''t stop or anything like that, but all the people did. An enormous weight descended from the heavens. The pressure was so great that nobody could move a muscle, and even the ambient Mana stopped getting sucked toward their distant destination.
Nobody knew what was going on as everyone stood frozen in the position they had been in when the pressure arrived. Nobody but Reivyn.
A tremendous force suffused his body. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, and he didn''t understand exactly what it was at first. It felt like the local ambient Mana, but there was more to it. There was a spark of something else.
Looking inward, Reivyn saw the energy coalesce around his core until itpressed into a miniscule, almost microscopic, point of golden light in the center of his being. He felt power rush through his body. It traveled through his meridians and blood veins alike.
Once the power stopped coursing through his body, Reivyn slumped against the parapets, gasping for breath.
As soon as he moved, the rest of the world resumed motion. The fleeing enemies stumbled and almost tripped over each other as they picked up the pace to flee at top speed. The defenders sagged against each other and looked around with wild eyes.
Reivyn mastered himself and pulled up the furiously blinking Notification window. Legendary Feat!
Be the first person to achieve the Hero ss!
Divine Spark granted
Helpful Hint: The Divine Spark grants an additional +1 Free Stat Point per Level. It is retroactive
Reivyn came back to the present as he perused his Status. He had figured out a portion of what had transpired on that day, but he didn''t know why it had been done that way.
The System itself had descended and gathered up the providence and ambient Mana of the Region, converting it into a miniscule spark of Divine Mana. It wasn''t enough to power any of his Divine Skills and transform them to Tier 7, but it had granted a the "small" benefit of an additional Stat Point per Level.
It basically made it so that all of my sses going forward will be treated as if it''s one whole Tier higher, like a perpetual extension of forcing a ss transition, Reivyn thought. Other than that, I don''t know what else this tiny spark will do for me in the future.
He highly doubted it would grant him the ability to select a Divine Rarity ss in the future. His understanding was that it required all of his Mana to be Divine in order to fuel it. That''s not what this was. It was just a seed. Potential.
He had obviously shared the news with his father, but other than thinking of ways to train to tease something out of the Divine Spark, Refix didn''t have any idea about it, either. Reivyn wasn''t disappointed. They were just in uncharted territory, and he was confident everything would be made known, eventually.
Reivyn moved past his Status Page and peeked at his ss Skills. It was another thing that had him slightly stumped. ss Skills:
Hero (2): You''re a Hero
Heroic Skills (2): You''re Skills are better than everyone else
Heroic Magic (2): You''re Magic is better than everyone else
Avable: Heroic Will, Heroic Insight, Heroic Qi
Magic Spells (202): Level 1 2MP, Level 2 10MP, Level 3 20MP, Level 4 50MP, Level 5 100MP, Level 6 500MP, Level 7 1,000MP
Deconstruct (101): Pick apart Spells to their base Elements. Bonus to understanding Weaves, Knots, and Patterns. Bonus to Mana Maniption +100%]
Will of the Realm (90): Your Will is True
Multi-Strike (51): Attack multiple times with anything, up to 19 times at once
Elemental Weapon (120): Coat your weapon in an Element. Able to extend the length of the Elemental Weapon with additional mana
Avable: Charge (117), Cleave (118), Devastating Strike (99), Enforce (22), Impart (8), Intermediate Light Spells (0), Intimidate (0), Mana Well (51), Power Swing (0), True Illusion (0), True Mana (0), Quick-Draw (81)
Reivyn had no idea what his ss Skills meant at all. He wasn''t able to choose his new ss Skills. They came pre-loaded. He intuitively understood that he would be able to select from the three avable Skills once he reached the Levels in his new Tier to unlock his next Skills, though.
There was a lot of experimentation that was going to have to happen, soon. Refix was practically bouncing off the walls with glee at the training possibilities. Reivyn was actually quite excited to figure out what they did, as well.
There had been onest thing that he had gained, though there had been no Notification associated with it. After thinking about it, Reivyn wasn''t surprised, as he never received Notifications about it.
His Veridical and Abyss Affinities had finally Leveled up to 2.
He could understand why Veridical Leveled up. The System had forced the providence of a Region into his body. He didn''t know why Abyss had Leveled up with it, though. He suspected it had something to do with his soul, and he even suspected that if he didn''t have a connection to the Abyss, his Veridical Affinity would have seen greater gains.
He shrugged it off. He was perfectly happy with gaining a point in his Tier 5 Affinities, regardless of how it hade about.
"Alright, Hero! Are you finally ready to see what you''re made of?" Refix'' voice brought Reivyn out of his rumination.
"Coming!" Reivyn called out.
He dismissed his System windows and got up from the lotus position. He smiled to himself as he grabbed his weapon and headed out for an intense training session with his father.
Chapter 217: Plans
Chapter 217: ns
Sol''Ran leaned over therge map of the Region disyed before him. He was surrounded by the top brass of the local geographical area. Themanders of some of the other divisions as well as themanders of the other war departments, like Logistics. The tent wasrge and amodating, but he still felt a bit stifled with all the people present peering at the map.
The map wasn''t some mundane contraption with ink on paper. It was a Mana-forged map created by a master Cartographer. It was rare for someone to Transcend their Map Making Skill, but when one was sponsored by the Divine Lord, miracles tended to happen.
The map was real-time. It showed the actual situation of the Region, and not just the forces of the two armies facing off against each other. Civilian poptions were clearly marked, as well as congregations of Adventurers. There were multiple styles avable as well: One could input Mana into the input and switch between Ambient Mana Flows, Ley-Lines, Water Sources, Miasma, and any other number of useful options.
For the moment, they were focused on the poption, surveying the progress of the campaign.
"With this set back, we''re going to have to pull reduce the training exercises of the soldiers," one of the other generals, a bald man with a thick mustache named General Piyk,mented. "We might run out of seeds if we keep up the pace, especially with the recent increase in casualty rates."
"The casualty rates will only make those seeds that survive that much sturdier," another general retorted. The second general wore his full military attire, medals and all. General Stuvin was a stickler for military discipline. Sol''Ran was unsure if the man slept at the position of attention or not. "That aside, I do agree we should slow down. Now that we''vepleted half our goal, we don''t have a reason topletely pause our operations again."
"Half our goal?" Sol''Ran snorted. "We''re back to about 5% of our goal."
"The crystal is still intact, though, right?" General Piyk questioned. Sol''Ran simply nodded the affirmative. "Then most of the legwork is still done. The rest of the campaign, other than defending the crystal, is incidental."
"I''m not sure Lord-General Yuiro would agree," General Stuvin replied sarcastically. "When he sets a schedule, he intends for it to be kept.""This was a ''hand of god'' incident," Sol''Ran said. "There was literally nothing anyone could have done to prevent it. I''ll concede that our time is only dyed, so let''s focus our attention on how to handle the training and advancement of the troops."
The officers broke apart into theirmand structures to brainstorm ideas among themselves. The tried and true system, when urgency wasn''t called for, was for different groups with different experiences and outlooks toe up with their own ideas before pooling them together. Then those ideas would be pared down to the most promising few as conceded by the top generals before being passed up the chain ofmand further.
Most of the time, one of their ideas was selected for use and the orders came back down to carry it out. Whatever order came down, though, whether it was one of their rmendations or not, was absolute. Lord-General Yuiro''s word wasw.
Everyone was busy going over their own ns when a wave of Mana passed through the tent. Everybody went still and silent simultaneously. Sol''Ran shared a look with his fellow generals before, like all of their subordinates, their eyes turned to the entrance of the tent.
The tent p was flung open, and a man stepped through the barrier. Each step was like a small earthquake that created ripples in Sol''Ran''s heart. He looked down instinctively, unable to meet the eyes of the man who now graced their presence. It was like his body was not his own, and he had to stand there and wait until the other man deigned to free him from his subconscious prison.
The Lord-General is here in person! Sol''Ran frantically thought. It was never a good thing. He must have an Aura Skill close to Level 20 for that kind of affect! He''s never let it out so much when we''ve met with him in the past.
Lord-General Yuiro casually walked to the map, every step causing another shudder in everyone present, and peered down at the map. He quickly dismissed it from his attention and turned to Sol''Ran. Sol''Ran felt his head involuntarily left and his eyes met the Lord-Generals. Without speaking a word, the other man''s intense gaze gave Sol''Ran an infallible order.
Exin.
"It was the System, Lord-General," Sol''Ran stammered. There was no flowery words or small talk. He went straight to the most key issue. "We don''t know what initiated it, but the System itself plucked the umted Mana and Providence from the crystal."
The Lord-General remained silent, but his eyes flicked to the position on the map where the casualty rates had recently spiked. Sol''Ran knew that the Lord-General had at least the exact same map as they had, if not a better one, but he didn''t necessarily have all of the details of they "why" to certain situations.
"An unusually strong mercenarypany, much morepetent than the others spread across the lines, is stationed there. Should be unrted to the System incident."
The Lord-General nced around the room for a moment before once more settling his gaze on Sol''Ran.
"The schedule will be pushed back two weeks," he Commanded.
There was no room for negotiation. What he said would be.
"Yes, Lord-General," a chorus of voices called out.
Lord-General Yuiro turned and walked out of themand tent. Each of his steps still sent a ripple through Sol''Ran''s heart, but it was like a mighty beast had just walked past him in the Wilderness. Once the tent p was secured once more after the Lord-General stepped through, the effect became muted before disappearing. The wave of Mana, the man''s subconscious aura, once more swept over everyone, and it became much easier to breathe.
It''s easier to think! Sol''Ran thought, panting to catch his breath.
He straightened his back, taking a small bit of pride noticing that he was the first, as he looked at the others again. The meeting had gone considerably better than he had thought in his wildest dreams. They had all hoped that they would get away with an exnation through long-distancemunication, but that had been an optimistic dream at best.
"Well, with that instruction in mind, let''s continue our deliberations on how to aplish the task."
---
Reivyn looked through his modified Mana-Lens to see across the open fields to the distant tree line. The attacks had slowed down after he had taken his ss, though they still happened. Nobody knew why the attacks had slowed down, but Reivyn was almost entirely certain it had something to do with the phenomenon he had caused when epting his ss.
Reivyn ascended the walls everyday. Most days, like today, nothing happened. There had been some spection among the men about a mighty figure focusing his attention on their conflict and it had scared them, though nobody really took that theory seriously. Vairo was pretty average when it came to Tier 4 Empires. They had their own squads in the Tier 5 zones, but from what Reivyn understood, they were nothing out of the ordinary. If he had topare them to Wispan, they would be considerably weaker.
Reivyn had experienced something simr when in Drallo, so it was understandable that many people would mistake the System interference with the presence of a high-Tier sser. In fact, Reivyn encouraged his veterans to spread the story about their encounter with Aerie''s Master who was presumably in the mid to high Tier 6. Even his presence hadn''t caused the same stir as what the System did, but it was good misdirection away from himself.
No telling what would happen if others found out it was because of me, Reivyn thought ruefully. One of the high mucky-mucks might think to cate the enemy by offering me to them on a tter. That wouldn''t do anyone any good, least of all me.
No, Reivyn kept quiet about the System reaching down like the hand of God to directly interfere. He had never heard of such a thing, and when asked, his father had mentioned there had never been any mention of anything simr in the ancient texts he had managed to peruse over the years.
Reivyn pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind as he continued to watch the tree line while keeping a mental check on the System clock.
"That''s time," Reivyn said to Jekle standing by his side. "If they haven''t shown up by now, they''re likely not going to. Go ahead and stick around with a couple squads for another half an hour, though, just in case today is the day they changed it up."
"Yes, sir," Jekle saluted and turned to take charge of the toon on the wall.
Reivyn hopped off the wall and headed back to the barracks. He quickly met with his father and a couple of the other officers before heading out to the headquarters building Prince Allik had appropriated.
The daily briefings had been reduced to every three days. The main reason was to keep thepanymanders focused on their troops, but there was also a lot less going on than when they were stationed at Piori. They didn''t have any established forward observations posts, and they didn''t send out too many patrols other than the cavalry.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere.
Reivyn was waved into the government building that housed the previous city administration. They had fled with the civilians, which made sense. The job of the local lord was to protect his citizens. If there were no citizens left in his city, then why would he stay? He wasn''t a Combat ss as far as Reivyn knew, so his presence would have been redundant. His rank as the Baron of the city was negligible in the face of Prince Allik, anyway.
The luxury found inside the city center was about equal to what was found in Piori. The city, to which Reivyn still didn''t know the name of, that they found themselves in was around the same poption. The only difference between it and Piori was that it was marginally closer to the capital; however, rtively, it wasn''t that much of a difference. It was only a couple of days closer to those who weren''t empowered by a high Tier ss, but the capital city was still over a week away even for someone like Refix.
In the grand scheme of things, both of these cities were only minor blips on the map of Vairo. They weren''t even governed by Counts. Cities this size back in Garoq would have been governed by Dukes at least and rivalled the capital city, but in a Tier 4 Empire, it was rtively equal to Reivyn''s hometown of Haluville.
Reivyn ignored the chandeliers, statues, and artwork on the walls. He had seen them many times, and they weren''t anything outstanding to begin with.
The twins might have a different perspective, Reivyn mused as he made his way to the conference room. While they might not be impressed with the qualitypared to what they''ve seen in the various capital cities they''ve been to, I''m sure they could tease out some good and bad points to critique. I''ll leave such things to them, though.
Reivyn chuckled to himself as he remembered the picture they had drawn of him and his friends that shifted based on how one looked at it. They had perfectly captured the essence of their group with that one picture. He was beginning to miss them again, evidenced by the fact that he was thinking about how they would respond to the local artwork. He still had another year and a half or so left on the contract. If the capital was still standing, that is.
Reivyn walked into the conference room and noted that he was one of thest to arrive. Not all of thepanymanders went up to the wall every day, though they did keep theirmunication open for quick response. Reivyn found his traditional seat and sat down with a sigh.
He had a few minutes before Prince Allik would show up for the briefing, so he went over his recent Skill gains from training with his father. Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (46 ->47)
Athleticism (61 ->63)
Bnce (51 ->54)
Dancing (29 -> 33)
Heavy Armor (29 ->30)
Light Armor (24 ->30)
Observation (59 ->60)
Rhythm (28 ->30)
Shields (49 ->50)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (28 ->30)
Ambidexterity (24 ->25)
Evasion (60 ->65)
Mana Absorption (60 ->61)
Mana Cirction 49 ->50)
Pain Resistance (54 ->60)
Sense Mana (74 ->80)
Silent Step (23 ->24)
Tactics (44 ->46)
Tier 3:
Blind Fighting (33 ->38)
Danger Sense (44 ->49)
Inspire (51 ->60)
Mana Conjuration (51 ->55)
Mana Maniption (58 ->65)
Mana Shield (41 ->44)
Mana Sight (63 ->71)
Night Vision (34 ->40)
Poison Resistance (3 ->5)
Sense Threat (19 ->20)
Sure Step (20 ->21)
Tier 4:
Dual Casting (49 ->50)
Iron Will (24 ->25)
Mana Weapon (41 ->55)
Spatial Awareness (62 ->68)
Tier 5:
Aura (4 ->20)
Heroic Bearing (22 ->38)
Mana Healing (5 ->10)
Mana Reinforcement (17 ->20)
Multi-Casting (25 ->28)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (101 ->102)
Regeneration (10 ->18)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (14 ->15)
Perfect Domain (9 ->13)
Reivyn was surprised at several of his Skills'' growth. It had only been a few days since hisstprehensive analysis, and yet he had already seen explosive growth in many of his Skills. Many of those Skills were also quite high-Tier, which added extra surprise. He noted that there was an obvious trend.
All of my Mana Skills have grown, but especially my Mana Sensory Skills, he thought to himself. That makes sense considering almost all ambient Mana is made up of the four base Elements and I''ve since reached Transcendence in those Affinities.
I also notice that anything rted to Hero has gone up quite a lot, especially my Aura. That''s something that I don''t personally notice, so I''ll have to get some feedback from the others on how it affects them. Inspire can be tied to my Hero ss in that it''s a lesser version of Heroic Bearing in some ways.
It all makes sense, but I''m surprised that reaching Transcendence in the base Elements and one Skill, plus advancing to my Tier 3 ss, have had such a drastic affect on my other Skills. A lot of them had slowed down recently, but now they''re advancing like I''m a Novice first exploring what they have to offer.
Some of it might be my ss, specifically. It does say I can do literally everything better, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
Refix had also greatly intensified his training regime, though he didn''t have time to ruminate on the actual training he and his father had done before Prince Allik waltzed through the door. There were still a couple of captains absent, but based on Prince Allik''s presence, Reivyn figured they were staying on the wall just in case.
"It seems that receiving an attack sporadically is the new norm," Prince Allik immediatelyunched into the main point of the meeting. "Since the conflict has slowed down once more, we''re going to startunching patrols. We''re not going to establish any permanent forward bases this time, however. With their continued attacks on the wall, I don''t want to risk anyone unduly out in the open. Hopefully the patrols will be early warning enough for when theyunch another mass assault."
Prince Allik didn''t dilly dally on niceties. He had an agenda to cover, and he went down the list methodically. He went over everything from the patrol schedule to the supplies of toilet paper in eachpany. Without his retainer acting as his aide de camp, he was a little too thorough. None of the officers pointed this out, though, as it was still a touchy subject.
"So that''s everything," Prince Allik wrapped the meeting up. "The patrol schedule will be disseminated to thepanies by the end of the day. Captain Reivyn, follow me to my office."
Everyone stood at attention as Prince Allik stepped away from the podium in front of the conference room and made his way to the door. Reivyn only paused at attention for a moment before following the man out. He noticed the rest of the officers trickle out in their typical order with his Divine Sense as he walked behind Prince Allik to his office on the second floor.
Is it me, or are the others paying more attention to my presence than they did in the past? Reivyn thought.
He hadn''t really been paying attention when he had first arrived, but when he left, he noted that everyone''s gaze was more on him than the prince. He had gotten a simr feeling over the past couple of days from the other soldiers throughout the city whenever he passed by, as well.
He mentally shrugged and followed Prince Allik into his office. Prince Allik didn''t make him stand at attention in front of his desk, indicating for Reivyn to immediately take a seat.
"I have this strange tugging sensation telling me to give you more responsibilities," Prince Allik started right away. "If I didn''t know better, I would say I''m being manipted by something. Exin."
He didn''t mince words andunched right into the topic. Reivyn had to give him credit. From what he was saying, he was resisting whatever pull he was receiving and questioning it instead of just subconsciously giving in.
"I think I might know what it is, but I''m not entirely sure," Reivyn said. Prince Allik waved for him to continue. "I recently advanced my ss, and it has some - let''s say, unusual - characteristics and ss Skills. I have one ss Skill that literally just says I am my ss. I have no idea what it does, but I''m beginning to suspect."
"Oh, and what is your new ss, if I may ask?" Prince Allik steepled his hands together.
Reivyn had thought about keeping it secret from everybody but his father, but that was impractical in a war-time situation. He didn''t have to go around announcing it to everyone, but he definitely couldn''t keep it from his direct superior.
"Hero," Reivyn admitted.
"Hero of what?" Prince Allik frowned. "Wait a minute. Aren''t Hero sses Tier 4?"
"It''s not Hero of anything," Reivyn shook his head. "Just ''Hero.'' It''s definitely Tier 3. I don''t want to reveal everything about it, but the System has heavily implied that it''s the best Tier 3 ss there is. Except for whatever equivalent Crafter ss exists, of course."
"Of course," Prince Allik absentmindedly echoed. He stared at Reivyn for a few minutes before continuing the conversation. "Sooo... Are you no longer a Caster ss?"
Reivyn, in turn, stared back at Prince Allik for a moment before breaking out intoughter.
"I''m sorry, sir, but out of all the questions I expected, that wasn''t one of them," Reivyn said. "My ss is definitely hybrid, but I would say each part is equivalent to a full Combat or Caster ss." He deliberately left off any mention of Qi. He didn''t know whether Prince Allik even knew of its existence. As far as he knew, Cultivator sses and Qi wasn''tmon knowledge even among the imperial families of the Tier 4 empires.
"Fascinating. And you say there''s a ss Skill that says you are a Hero? That''s all it says?"
"Yes, sir, and I imagine that''s what''s drawing you toward giving me more responsibilities. I just noticed the other officers paying unusual attention to me and put it together with the other soldiers doing the same over the past couple of days. I think my ss Skill subtly directs me toward fulfilling what a Hero does."
"Hmm... That actually makes sense when you think about it," Prince Allik said. "Alright, I''ll bite. I''m going to have you and yourpany, however you want to set it up, lead the first new patrol. We need to have some intel on why the invaders are slowing down their assaults. There will be a couple of other patrols sent out at the same time as yours, but you have the main mission: Recon their base if possible and try and see what they''re up to. Any information is better than no information."
"Yes, sir, I understand," Reivyn nodded his head.
"I won''t share your details with anyone else," Prince Allik said to Reivyn''s relief. "I understand that sses, especially incredibly rare ones, are personal. If you have anything else you want to add...?"
"Honestly, the description basically says that I''m an all-rounder without the drawbacks. You can assign me any kind of mission without having to worry."
"I see." Prince Allik leaned back in his chair and looked up to the ceiling for a moment. "I wish we had more people like you. Not just in this conflict, but among the citizens of my empire. Oh well, no time to dwell on that right now. You have your orders, and you''ve given me the answers I sought. You''re dismissed."
"Yes, sir!" Reivyn stood up and offered a salute. Upon receiving a return salute, Reivyn turned about and left the office.
He didn''t have to divulge even the little that he did. He would have been perfectly within his rights as a hired hand to keep more secrets, but he had great respect for Prince Allik. He had witnessed first hand how he governed his soldiers and put his own life on the line when it counted. The man''s surprise at his retainer''s betrayal had been authentic, and Reivyn had put to rest any suspicion he had of the man.
I''ll need to call a meeting of the other officers when I get back, Reivyn thought to himself. Jekle has been doing a great jobing into his own as amander, so I think I''ll have him lead the patrol and just follow along as a back stop. I''ve already received a lot of amazing opportunities. With a little push, some of the others might be able to unlock some amazing sses of their own.
Reivyn went over the roster of officers and NCO''s in his mind as he made his way back to the barracks. He would take a page out of his father''s book and nurture those around him. He couldn''t just take and take and take without giving back. That would make him ungrateful. He had a smile on his face and a pep in his step as he walked along the streets.
Chapter 218: Round 2
Chapter 218: Round 2
Reivyn watched his men as as they formed up. The NCO''s walked up and down the lines making sure everyone had all their gear and were prepared for the patrol. The officers and NCO''s had everything in hand. They verified everyone had everything and moved on to touching up the camouge over everyone''s armor. Even though everyone had the Skill, the camouge was hard to distinguish in the pre-dawn darkness on one''s own.
"Nothing shiny, nothing bright," Reivyn could hear one of the senior NCO''s extoll for the fifth time. "Tie down your straps and anything else that can make noise. Limit what the enemy can perceive with their Stats as much as possible. If we''re going to get into a fight out there, we want to have the initiative."
Reivyn wasn''t too surprised the camouge hispany used wasn''t spreading to the other regr soldiers. They took too much pride in how they looked, and they weren''t willing to cover it up. Reivyn had no such qualms about not showing off his armor, and he made sure his men didn''t, either. If they wanted to show off, they could get a non-service uniform like he had worn in Magron. If they were showing off, it would be to impress their friends and allies, anyway. Their lethality inbat was all he needed to impress his enemies.
Two toons were going to go on the patrol. One of the toons was off and the other would stand guard on the wall, just in case. They knew from the cavalry scouts that the enemy line wasn''t too terribly far away. They were out of range of dedicated siege Spells, but they were close enough that it wouldn''t take too long to get there and back. They were hoping to get eyes on the enemy camp shortly after the sun came up and be back long before the regr time of an enemy assault.
Reivyn frowned as he looked at his troops. There was something nagging at the back of his consciousness, but he couldn''t quite ce his finger on it. He carefully inspected everyone with his Divine Sense until the issue popped into focus.
Everyone''s internal Mana acted differently than the ambient Mana. When he finally put his finger on the problem, it stood out like night and day. Even with all the camouge in the world, the change in Mana would stand out to anyone with a sufficiently high Sense Mana or Mana Sight Skill.
Reivyn inspected everyone''s internal Mana. It waspact inside everyone''s bodies, mostly concentrated at a core in their abdomen. Not all of it was stationary, though, and everyone had their own unique channels that at least a small portion constantly flowed through even without them actively using their Mana Cirction Skills. The ambient Mana, despite being pulled to the East, was more saturated.
Reivyn thought about it and looked inside himself. His Mana was equallypact, though he didn''t have a Skill to sense Qi, yet. He knew it was there, but he couldn''t detect it. Likewise, Xudrid and Vyria didn''t have apact core of Mana in their abdomens, though their bodies still contained trace amounts of Mana.
Reivyn wasn''t going to experiment on his soldiers, so he reached within himself with his will. He needed a solution that he could replicate with the others, and he knew that almost everyone under hismand didn''t have the type of Mana Maniption Skill Level that he did. Instead of using his internal control of his Mana, he reached out and ordered the Mana inside his body to disperse throughout his body and mimic the surrounding ambient Mana.He felt a tingle inside of himself. It was like a small jolt of electricity, but it quickly passed as his body limated to the feeling. He continued to order the Mana about while inspecting it until it behaved in a manner he was happy with. Just to be sure, he summoned his Mana into the palm of his hand, and he hadn''t lost any functionality. When he let go of the Mana, it returned to behaving like the rest and floated about inside him like a cloud.
It wasn''t perfect, but there was no longer such a jarring difference between himself and the ambient Mana.
Reivyn kept an eye on it as the to soldiers in the two toons finished their preparations. The NCO''s returned to their positions, and the officers in turn looked to Reivyn for the next orders.
"Simple patrol mission," Reivyn called out. He didn''t raise his voice, but he still infused it with Commanding Shout. It didn''t reverberate off the walls, but everyone could clearly hear him speak. "The actual scouting of the camp will be done by just one squad, but we''re going to move in force. We haven''t been doing regr patrols for a while, so we don''t know what might be between us and them. Keep your heads on a swivel when we get out there."
Reivyn kept it short and to the point. The officers faced their men and gave them their facing orders to March out of the barracks. Jekle took the lead, setting the pace, in the first toon, Reivyn took his position in the center, and the second toonmander took his ce at the front of his toon. The other soldiers who were remaining behind watched them go with solemn expressions. There was no cheering or shouting.
The March through the city to the walls was uneventful, and they were quickly outside the protection of the fortifications for the first time in what felt like forever. Reivyn looked off the the north and south and could make out the shapes of other toons from otherpanies also setting out for their own patrol missions.
There wasn''t much to see until they reached the tree line. They had all stared at the ground for many hours over the days as they repelled enemy assaults. Once they reached the trees, though, they shifted their column formation to theirbat formation. The trees made it so that they asionally had to slightly split their ranks as they moved forward, but the forest wasn''t so dense that it was a problem. Reivyn could tell that some of it had been thinned out by the invaders over time, as well, to facilitate easier travel through the trees.
Normally, Reivyn wouldn''t march hispany through the wilderness like this on a simple patrol mission. The soldiers would spread out to get a wider vantage, but they would remain close enough together that they could copse into a proper formation if they contacted the enemy. This time, however, they moved as if they were expecting contact with the enemy at any time.
Over the course of months of patrolling in the woods near Piori, the mercenary soldiers had developed the Sure Step and Silent Step Skills. It hadn''te naturally to them like it had for Reivyn in the desert, but after tripping over roots and branches and trying to walk quietly through leaves for months, it would have been more of an aplishment not to have unlocked the Skills.
The mercenaries moved silently through the forest. The light of the dawn sun began to cast shadows through the canopy, and the movements spotted out of the corner of the eyes of the men had everyone on edge. They had all fought against the veteran soldiers, and they were prepared to face a tough enemy at a moment''s notice.
The forest wasn''t huge, though, and they after only walking through the trees for half an hour, they emerged at the opposite tree line. Stumps of trees could be seen stretching into the distance before palisade walls blocked off their vision. The sun was fully peeking over the horizon by the time they made it to the other side of the trees, and they could easily see the enemy camp.
It was massive. Reivyn could tell there were multiple camps, and they stretched to the nort and south considerably further than the city walls they had upied. There was no telling how deep the encampments went, either.
Reivyn softly called for the men to halt, and he had the toons form up side by side fifty yards inside the tree line. He could see watch towers constructed along the palisade walls in the distance, and he feared that if they moved any closer, the enemy would see the movement and alert to their presence. Reivyn waved Jekle and the other officer over to himself.
"Have your fourth squads convene on me," Reivyn whispered.
The two nodded their heads and walked over to the squad leaders in question. Thest squad of each toon peeled themselves away from the rest of their toons and made a semi circle around Reivyn. The third and fourth squads were specialty squads geared for unusual circumstances, and they had been equipped for the ndestine scouting mission. They still had armor and weapons, of course, but they had been adjusted for ease of movement, concealment, and silence more so than the rest of the toons.
"Everyone knows their mission," Reivyn began. "Spread out, move slowly, and worm your way across the field to see if you can''t get close enough to see or hear anything else. We''ve already verified the size of their camp and their basic fortifications, so anything else is a bonus. I don''t want anyone unduly risking their lives, here. If you hear an rm sound, or you get suspicious, get back to the toons."
Nobody answered verbally, but they all nodded their heads.
"Onest thing. Everyone hold still for a moment. I''m going to do something to your internal Mana to help you blend into the ambient Mana even further. You''ll feel a slight tingle, but I''ve personally tested it out and there won''t be anything else. Don''t put up any resistance."
None of the soldiers batted an eye. They all trusted Reivyn with their lives.
Reivyn didn''t need to close his eyes to concentrate or anything. Reaching out tomand the base Elements was second nature, though he did have to press harder to grasp their internal Mana within his control. It felt incredibly slippery and not at all like it had for his own body. He could sort of grasp it for a fraction of a second, but try as hard as he could, he couldn''tmand it like free Mana or his own.
Reivyn was about to give up when a thought urred to him. Instead of trying tomand the others'' Mana, Reivyn instead gave it a nudge. A suggestion.
"Rx your hold on your internal Mana," Reivyn subconsciously whispered.
It the mercenaries a few moments to figure it out, but with the feeling they were getting from Reivyn nudging their Mana, they each, in turn, rxed their instinctive hold on their Mana. Suddenly, it was like Reivyn had smashed a group of balls that were tightly packed together, briefly reminding him of another past-life memory, and the internal Mana within his soldiers scattered within their bodies.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The velocity they moved was just as noticeable as a solid core, though, and Reivyn had to fight to continue to suggest to their Mana to act more like the ambient Mana. After almost half an hour from start to finish, the two squad of soldiers'' were concealed both in and out as much as could be aplished.
Reivyn''s attention came back to him and he sat back, panting. There was sweat dripping down his forehead, and a quick nce at his Status told him he had spent almost half his Mana simply coaxing the internal Mana of a couple dozen subordinates who were actively trying to help him.
It''s not going to be a viable strategy to disrupt someone''s internal Mana in a fight for a long time, Reivyn mused. I''ll have to stick with wrestling for control of an already established Spell in that case.
"Alright, you''re good to go," Reivyn said. "I have no idea how long it willst for all of you. My own Mana when I tested it on myself remained scattered for almost an hour."
The two squads of men nodded their heads and immediately turned to go. Reivyn watched them go, and while he could still perceive them in his Divine Sense, they seemingly disappeared from his normal vision a few steps away as they activated their Stealth Skills. If Reivyn actively used his Observation Skill, he was confident he would be able to break through their Skills, but he hadn''t developed it to a point where it was subconscious, yet.
Now we wait.
Reivyn didn''t move further forward to try and observe the men he sent out. There would be no point to it, and he might give them away. He hadn''t exactly kept up with his own Stealth Skills over the years. It hadn''t been nearly as a high a priority as all his other Skills, but sinceying a perfect foundation and getting a lot of the necessary Skills to the required thresholds for his ss advancement, he might be able to find some more time for a lot of his other Skills again in the future.
Time slowly ticked by as they all waited. Every second felt like a full minute to Reivyn. He was simultaneously confident in his men and worried about their safety. A conundrum any leader who cared about his people faced. They heard no sounds of an rm being raised, though, so Reivyn kept an optimistic mindset.
Reivyn kept abreast of the time passing, which was probably the main reason it seemed to take so long. After about twenty minutes of waiting inside the tree line, a powerful thrum reverberated in his heart, and his Danger Sense exploded in his mind.
"GET DOWN!" Reivyn screamed.
He followed his own advice and threw himself to the floor while also erecting a giant Mana Shield around himself and his men. He pushed as much Mana as he could into the Skill, but there was no time for fancy weaves or knots. He wasn''t even able to infuse it with any kind of Affinity. The amount of Mana he was able to force through himself at a moment''s notice, however, was considerably more than he had ever been able to do while still in Tier 2.
With his Divine Sense, he saw all of his men instantly obey his orders without question. It filled him with a spike of pride for a fraction of a second until a tremendous force crossed from one end of his Divine Sense to the other so quickly he almost didn''t even register it with his half-Divine Skill.
A tremendous roar soon followed the force, and the entire swathe of forest they were hunkered down in was torn asunder. All the trees were ripped from their roots in the ground and tossed through the air. Many of the trees simply disintegrated into ash while flying through the air. Hundreds of splinters rained down on the prone mercenaries, but they were deflected by the Mana Shield hastily erected by Reivyn.
After thest splinter collided with his shield, Reivyn looked up in the direction the force hade from. There, standing on a branch almost at the very top of a tree as if it were tnd, a man in a ck cloak stood with a bow in one hand. He casually surveyed the damage he had wrought before reaching behind himself to draw another arrow out of his quiver.
"RUN!" Reivyn ordered. He infused hismand with Commanding Shout.
All of his soldiers lept to their feet and took off sprinting back toward their city. Reivyn umted Mana in either hand and infused one hand with Eternal and the other with sma. He had transcended the four base Elements, but even with their Level and special Ability, it wasn''t as powerful as his sma Affinity, which wasn''t too far behind in Level.
Reivyn stood his ground as the cloaked man drew his arrow back, aimed for a split second, and released. Reivyn''s Danger Sense screamed at him again, though considerably less intense than thest time. He threw up another barrier with his Mana covering himself and his fleeing soldiers. Even with their elevated Stats, they simply hadn''t had enough time to get very far away, so he didn''t have to strain too hard to cover them. The Eternal Affinity added a bit more confidence to Reivyn as he shielded everyone once again.
This time, there wasn''t a supersonic single arrow. Instead, the arrow flew out a few dozen yards before exploding into a thousand projectiles. There were no more trees to block the archer''s area of effect attack, and the projectiles crossed the distance in a sh. Thousands of impacts struck Reivyn''s shield. Almost all of them simply bounced off, but with each one, the shield faded just a little bit until it winked out of existence.
Less than a hundred projectiles made it through the Mana Shield, and most of those didn''t strike anyone. Some did, though, and that''s all that mattered.
The projectiles pierced straight through the armor of the mercenaries. They continued through their bodies and pierced through the front of their armor as well. Twenty men dropped to the ground from the strike, though Reivyn was relieved to see that none of them were fatally wounded. Their mates nearby instantly reached down and helped them back to their feet, and gritting their teeth, they continued to flee.
A couple of projectiles also made their way toward Reivyn, but he was able to erect a much smaller, more Mana-efficient, Mana Shield to block them. The force of the impact, though, still knocked him a step back.
Reivyn didn''t think. He just acted. He threw his other hand out and a giantnce of concentrated sma flew through the sky to the cloaked man. The opponent didn''t try to take the hit or block it. He turned and casually leaped thirty yards away to another tree.
Reivyn felt a surge of rightness as he turned to face the danger as his men fled. He felt slightly empowered by his own actions, both mentally and physically. A fleeting thought swept through his brain.
"Hero (2): You''re a Hero." So that''s what that means.
Reivyn felt like he finally understood his foremost ss Skill. Acting as a Hero came naturally to him, and when he did, he would be empowered.
The sma Lance skewered right throw the top of the tree where the man had stood. The treetop exploded in splinters and fire as the Spell continued flying through the sky unabated. The tree was knocked back almost half way to the ground before it whipped forward again with tremendous force. Fiery splinters and molten sma apanied the movement of the tree, and the forest was showered by ming debris on either side. The heat and dryness were a terriblebination, and Reivyn noted that multiple fires instantly broke out.
Reivyn had no time to worry about that, though, as the cloaked man already had another arrow knocked. He released another shot, and Reivyn dove to the side while putting up yet another Mana Shield. He didn''t have to cover his entire toon this time, though, so he was able to save on expenditure. Even so, his Mana pool was already getting dangerously low.
People entered his Divine Sense range from the direction of the enemy camp, and he was relieved to see it was his own men. They had been alerted by the explosions and given up all pretense of hiding. A horn sounded within the camp, and Reivyn nced over for a split second as he stood up to see the gates opening up with a legion of soldiers already lined up and Marching forth.
"Go, go, go!" Reivyn shouted to his men as he waved them past him.
Doing something familiar yet foreign, something he had done a hundred times but never before, Reivyn infused his body with his Qi. He didn''t think about what he was doing. He didn''t actively reach for his Qi instead of his Mana. It had just happened naturally.
He felt empowered like he never had before. Time slowed down for him. His running soldiers seemed to moving at half speed, and the archer flying through the sky in another jump seemed to move in slow motion. None of Reivyn''s movements were slowed, though. He was still moving as if time was moving at the normal pace.
He took a quick peek at his Status and noticed that his Qi was draining at an rming rate. It had only been activated for less than two seconds real time, and it had already drained by 50 points. If he continued to spend Qi at that rate, he only had forty seconds of real time before he reached zero.
Without hesitation Reivyn zeroed his focus on the archer descending to another branch on a different tree. He subconsciously calcted the timing and threw himself forward in the fastest sprint he had ever achieved. He coupled his tremendous speed with the Traveler Affinity, and he crossed the hundreds of yards to his destination in one real-time second.
He leaped into the air. The power of his jump carried him to the top of the tree just as the archer was reaching the branch. The cloaked archer slowly turned his head and Reivyn could see the shock and fear in the man''s eyes as he realized that Reivyn was already upon him. Reivyn channeled even more Qi into his sword.
Pathways for where and how to strike the man lit up in his vision. There was almost no spot where Reivyn could execute his attack and miss considering the archer was helpless falling in the air. Reivyn instantly decided upon a strike andshed out with his sword.
The Qi empowered sword struck the man in the throat and exploded. Fragments of metal went showering everywhere, most of them embedding themselves in the man''s skin. Reivyn was still moving in augmented time, though, and he was able to see that his strike had not decapitated his enemy. Instead, remnants of a shattered Mana Shield entered Reivyn''s vision as a thin line of blood appeared on the man''s neck.
The force of the strike couldn''t be fully stopped, however, and the man''s body wasunched into the woods as Reivyn mmed into the top of the tree. The tree groaned and shook as it bent enough for Reivyn to fall off the other side toward the ground. He thrust out his off hand andunched a powerful gust of Wind-attuned Mana at the ground, slowing his descent.
Hended on the ground and allowed his legs to give way as he rolled onto his hip to absorb the fall into more of his body. It wasn''t a devastating fall for someone with his Stats, but it was enough that he could have suffered a slight injury if he didn''t take it seriously. Any kind of mobility impairment in this situation could prove lethal.
Reivyn didn''t wait around and turned on his heels to sprint back to his men, only turning of his Qi empowerment as he caught back up with his men. They had stopped for a moment to let the other squad members catch up to them, and once they were all together, they took off running back to the city once again.
Reivyn looked down into his hand where he still held the hilt of his Mana Sword that had followed him for years. It had never even needed much maintenance over the time he had used it, but now the only thing remaining was the hilt in his hand. He suppressed the sense of loss and stowed it away in his storage pouch.
Reivyn looked up to the surrounding mercenary soldiers as they ran through the trees, and he noticed that the ones closest to him were staring at him with wide eyes and ck jaws. One man even ran face-first into a tree before he came out of his astonishment.
"Pay attention to where you''re going!" Reivyn reminded them.
They all closed their mouths and turned their heads back to the front.
Moving at a sprint, the distance back to the city wasn''t long. Behind them the sounds of war horns filled the air and the sky was already filling with the smoke of the fire from Reivyn''s counter attack. Reivyn felt relief as heid eyes on the city wall, but his vision began to grow dark around the edges.
Reivyn had experienced this before, but he was confused as to what could have caused it. He knew that he was losing consciousness, but he couldn''t figure out why. He hadn''t bottomed out on his Qi, and his Mana was still at safe levels.
He checked his Status. Health: 4,766/11,480 (+310) Stamina: 17,082/22,020 (+410) Mana: 3,884/12,935 (+50)
Qi: 112/1,000 (T4/Li)
Reivyn was momentarily confused at the huge drop in Health. A spike of pain pulled his attention to his stomach, though. An arrow was embedded in his side and poking clean through his body.
"Huh, where did thate from?" Reivyn muttered as the world went ck.
Chapter 219: Follow the Rules
Chapter 219: Follow the Rules
Reivyn jolted awake suddenly. Coming out of unconsciousness with his Divine Sense Skill wasn''t the same as when he went to sleep and woke up properly. He had spent days trying to figure out how to shut his brain off enough to fall asleep in the deserts of Drallo, and it had been a couple of weeks until he had it reliably down. As he intended to go to sleep, his brain would slowly fade out the sensations he received from his Skill. Likewise, they would slowly fade in after he had a moment to wake up.
This was not that. One moment there was nothing but darkness, then all of reality seemed to explode into existence all at once. Reivyn still hadn''t opened his eyes and he was a bit confused, still, but the Divine Sense Skill kicking in instantaneously immediately brought him to full focus.
He had beenid down on top of the city walls, his father standing over him. The entire mercenarypany was formed up on the walls and ready for battle. Before Reivyn opened his eyes, he took his surroundings in as he assessed himself and checked his Status. Health: 5,225/11,480 (+310) Stamina: 17,341/22,020 (+410) Mana: 34,012/12,935 (+50)
Qi: 188/1,000 (T4/Li)
What? I''ve barely recovered! Reivyn''s first instinct was to assume that there had been something wrong with his recovery abilities, but everything seemed in order with a quick scan of his body. He was subtle with his Mana usage in checking over his body, but it was enough to draw Refix''s attention, so Reivyn opened his eyes and met his father''s gaze.
"Look at you sleeping on the job," Refix shook his head. "I thought I taught you better than that." He sighed dramatically.
"Wait, what''s going on?" Reivyn asked with a frown as he stood up. His bnce was perfectly fine, and he didn''t feel weak or dizzy. "Why did I pass out at all? I didn''t lose that much Health... Rtively."
Refix shrugged his shoulders.
"You were in shock," he replied. "Not much can be done about it. You suffered a dramatic decrease in blood pressure. No amount of Stats can save you from the consequences of that, though some Skills will. It looks like you have a couple working in your favor for your speedy recovery."Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at his father.
"Speedy recovery?"
"Yeah, you were unconscious for less than a minute. Your men just set you down at my feet. You''re fine. Walk it off."
Reivyn rolled his eyes at his father, but other than a slight ache in his sides - which were neatly bandaged up, stopping the bleeding - he did feel fine. Reivyn turned his attention to the open field in the distance where everyone was anxiously awaiting an enemy assault.
They had apparently kicked the beehive, and a swift reprisal was expected.
Reivyn looked up and down the lines of the wall, and he frowned as he noticed several noticeable gaps from some of the otherpanies. Refix noticed the direction of his gaze.
"Yeah, not everyone was as lucky as you guys," Refix said solemnly. "Most of the patrols at least had some survivors make it back to the walls, but at least one waspletely wiped out. Or captured. We don''t know."
Reivyn felt a slight pang of sorrow at that. His Danger Sense, likely empowered by his Hero ss, had warned him just in time of the devastating sneak attack. It would have been a moot issue if his men weren''t trained for instant obedience to orders, though. Reivyn still felt a bit of pride for his men at how far they hade, and he had a bit of pride in himself at their implicit trust in him.
"What''s the situation with the enemy attack? Do we know anything about that, or are we just waiting?" Reivyn asked.
"Just waiting for now," Refix answered. "There was a moment there where there was a cacophony of war horns ring in the distance, but they''ve gone quiet. I don''t know if that''s because the attack is imminent or if it was called off. Either way, we gotta stay here and be ready."
Reivyn stopped asking questions. The silence permeated over the entire city, and Reivyn realized how anxious everyone was. Nothing happened for a long time, though.
Eventually, there was movement from the distant tree line. It wasn''t a horde of legions emerging from the trees, though. In Reivyn''s estimation, it was worse.
A dozen cloaked men stepped forth. They were evenly spaced across the distance the city walls covered. The man who stepped out in front of Reivyn''spany was disheveled and walked with a limp. He was also holding one hand to his neck, and Reivyn felt like he could feel the man''s piercing gaze zero directly on him.
Reivyn knew something bad was about to happen.
"Full power shields!" Reivyn bellowed at the top of his lungs. He infused it with every bit of willpower his Commanding Shout could infuse into his voice. His own soldiers immediately erected their Group Shield Skills, and his Mage Squad supplemented it with their ownbined Mana Shield.
Reivyn didn''t waste his energy creating his own shield. Instead, he simply tapped into the Mages'' shield and infused his Eternal Affinity into it. It had seeded all on its own against the enemy archer, so having ayered shield without him supplying all the power would likely survive, as well. Refix copied his actions, though he joined the physicalbatants in their Group Shield. Reivyn was confident that theyers of magical and physical would be enough to withstand the storm that was about to rain on them.
The soldiers in the otherpanies closest to him automatically reacted to hismand. Many individual shields sprang up sporadically all on their own all across the arrayed defenders, though most of them were those that were closest. All of the Conscripts nearby all erected their Group Shields - Likely because their trust in me - but it still needed work. Luckily, they were already dispersed with more experienced soldiers, so they could integrate their Skill with theirs.
The Commanders of the otherpanies also had great faith in Reivyn, and so did Prince Allik. His order wasn''t questioned, and they all immediately repeated the orders all up and down the line. Their faith in Reivyn''s judgement was all that saved them from the judgement of the enemy.
The cloaked men all brandished their personal weapons andunched a ranged Skill at the city walls. It was clear to Reivyn that some of the ones who were more focused on closebat had been umting energy for some time before they made their appearance. He didn''t know if they were waiting for the defenders to react to them, or not, but the short dy between their emergence and their actions allowed the defenders to put up their Skills in time.
Most of the Skills moved to quick to see, including the arrowunched by the archer straight in front of Reivyn''spany. Sonic booms echoed out one after another across the battlefield, and the entire city shook from the impact of the Skills and Spells directed at them.
Some of the Skills reminded Reivyn of his father''s ss Skill. They were like ethereal projections of melee weapons that traveled across the distance of the open field. Some of the enemies used ranged weapons like the archer, but they weren''t all bows and arrows. Reivyn was pretty sure he spotted a javelin in the distance, but it was so quick that he wasn''t entirely sure.
A couple of the cloaked figures weren''t physicalbatants. Reivyn felt the might of the Mana umtion all the way from his vantage position. Beams of energy, bolts of lightning, and projectiles the size ofrge boulders arced through the sky toward the city walls.
A tremendous force sted into the Mana and Group Shields of the mercenarypany. Instead of using the Skill where the archer''s arrow burst into thousands of projectiles, he had released the same Skill that had devastated the trees where they had been hiding. Smoke and dust exploded out of the walls from the impact obscuring everyone''s vision momentarily, but the shields had protected the people as well as the integrity of the wall. If they hadn''t been so in sync with their defensive Skills, Reivyn suspected the archer could have brought a huge portion of the wall down all on his own from that one arrow alone.
Refix waved the smoke and dust away from his face as he coughed for a second before looking at his son.
"That''s the guy who ambushed you in the woods?" His eyes were wide as he stared at Reivyn.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Yeah," Reivyn answered simply, nodding his head.
"And you closed the distance on him and knocked him out of a tree in an instant?" Refix stood in stunned silence for a moment. "I can safely guarantee that guy is considerably more powerful than the giant we fought together in Piori. You guys are lucky you made it back in one piece."
"Well, we all made it back, but it wasn''t all in one piece," Reivyn retorted. Refix snorted at the reply. "We had two things going for us," Reivyn continued. "One, it was the first time I used Qi, and I''m pretty sure everything about me, including my Qi infusion, was empowered by my ss Skill. It feels like that''s what happened, at least. Without either of those, I wouldn''t have been able to close the distance at the speed I did and he would have been able to get a lot more attacks in on us as we retreated."
"We''ll explore thoseter," Refix said.
The smoke and dust was clearing fairly quickly, and Reivyn noted that there were giant tears in the walls in many ces. Bodies were strewn about on the wall and inside the city where they had been sted. Most of the soldiers survived the attack, but if Reivyn had to guess, he would estimate that over 10% of the entire force had perished.
Reivyn quickly looked to the closestpanies and scanned their ranks for the Conscripts. He felt a pain in his heart as he noticed several of the bodies were a fair bit younger than the rest and only wore the gambesons of the newer recruits. A couple dozen of the young Conscripts had lost their lives to the attacks.
Reivyn didn''t have to personally inspect his own troops. His Divine Sense told him that nobody had died, though he could see several - including the ones that had previously been wounded by the archer - were out ofmission.
Reivyn clenched his fists as he looked across the field to the cloaked figures, waiting for the next hammer to drop.
The cloaked figures simply stood there for a minute before they all turned and stepped back into the tree line, leaving the field. Reivyn watched them go with both confusion and relief.
"Tend to the wounded!" Reivynmanded his men. "Make sure they''re stabilized and get them back to the barracks. Everyone else, split up and check on the otherpanies nearby."
Reivyn shared a look with Refix. His father gave him a nod and turned south to supervise the rescue efforts leading away from Prince Allik''smand. Reivyn turned north, though he quickly delegated supervising the mercenaries to Jekle. He made his way straight to where Prince Allik had been standing.
The devastation along the wall was terrible. There were some ces where there simply wasn''t any wall left. The enemy forces would be able to just March straight through those gaps if they weren''t plugged. Most of the damage wasn''t so severe, though, and simply reduced portions of the top to ugly rubble. Gone was the pristine look of the walls that promised protection from outsiders. The damage extended as far as Reivyn could see, his position being the least damaged.
Reivyn quickly made his way toward Prince Allik''s position. He couldn''t stop to help everyone. That wasn''t his mission. He did stop a few times to get some of the more seriously wounded soldiers to a position where simr triage efforts were being conducted all along the wall. Reivyn wasn''t a healer and he hadn''t spent any time developing any significant First Aid Skills, so there wasn''t much he could add other than his physical strength to move people where they needed to be.
Yet another oversight I need to take care of, Reivyn grumbled to himself. I really need to unlock the Affinity that can let me do some Magical healing without having to use Holy Mana like priests or pdins.
He still remembered the one Party member he had delved the Revenant Dungeon with. He knew it was possible to use Mana to heal others outside of being devoted to a religion. He had just never been in a position where he would have been required to give the aid.
I should have at least worked on it a little! Reivyn berated himself. Shoulda-woulda-coulda! When would I have had the time?! My days have been filled to the brim with nothing but training! I''ll have to devote a significant portion of time while in Tier 3 shoring up these gaps.
Reivyn hadn''t lost his rational thought. He understood that it was impractical to have expected him to cover every eventuality. He still scolded himself for a moment before he let his logic prevail, and he wouldn''t let a failure in his past prevent him from addressing it in the future.
Reivyn quickly made it to themand center. He was relieved to see that it was mostly intact. Prince Allik was coughing, down on one knee, but he seemed unharmed. The senior military staff were various states of disarray, but there were no fatally injured that Reivyn could see.
Good, the chain ofmand won''t get confusing, at least.
Reivyn noted several otherpany captains jog up beside him. Some were only slightly injured while others had blood running down their faces or staining their armor. There were fewer than Reivyn expected. He turned to one of the Captains that was from apany further down the line from him.
"Captain Jorm?" Reivyn asked.
The other man just closed his eyes and shook his head. Reivyn surveyed the rest of the officers and did a mental calction.
Seven. We''re missing sevenpanymanders, he thought. I hope they didn''t all perish.
"Report!" Prince Allik ordered after he got his coughing fit under control. He slowly climbed to his feet and looked at each of the officers surrounding him.
"Sir, the enemy has retreated," one of the majors answered the most pressing issue.
"Casualties?" Allik asked.
"Too soon to tell, but we''re missing seven captains," another officer of his staff supplied.
"Damage to the walls?"
"Extensive."
Prince Allik closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He remained like that only for a moment before mastering himself, though. Reivyn subtly nodded his head in admiration. There was a time and ce to mourn the fallen under one''smand, and it was usually after everything was settled.
"What was the meaning of this attack? They bring forth that group of monsters,unch their attack which decimates our forces and defenses, and just... walk away?"
"I think..." a tentative voice started. All eyes turned to the captain in question, and he stuttered to a stop with the intense gaze many of the senior officers leveled at him.
"What do you think, captain?" Prince Allik''s tone was firm, yet gentle. He expressed genuine interest in what his subordinate had to say.
"Sir, I think they were sending us a message," he squared his shoulders and confidently answered.
"A message? What message?" Prince Allik frowned.
"That we need to y by their rules," the captain borated. "They''re happy with us sitting here blocking their way and providing and obstacle for them to chip away at, but if we start getting ideas of our own outside of their parameters, they''ll punish us."
Reivyn nodded his head at the answer. It made sense to him with what he understood of the purpose of the enemy assaults.
"They never did anything like this before when we were at Piori," Prince Allik countered. "Why now?"
One of the senior colone''s cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself.
"We did just note that there seemed to be a change in their behavior, sir," he said. "Maybe they don''t want us finding out what it is, or maybe whatever it is changed their style. Maybe a bit of both."
"Hmm, that makes sense," Prince Allik stared off into the distance at the tree line as he thought. "Well, get back to yourpanies and tend to your men. That takes priority right now. Get a head count of the casualties, too. We need to properly identify them all and make preparations to amodate the bereaved families."
"Yes, sir," all the officers replied in unison, including Reivyn.
Reivyn''s journey back to his men along the wall was slower than his rush to themand center. It would have been bem if the Prince had been killed, and order would have had to have been quickly established in that case. Now, with thepetency of his subordinates, Reivyn didn''t need to rush.
He allowed himself to take in the death toll suffered from the enemy strike. He let himself face the reality of war. It had been so long where the enemy had gone out of their way to avoid killing that many of the soldiers had forgotten or ignored the possibility. This was still war, and death was still a very real possibility.
Reivyn was under no illusion that his own mercenary soldiers were superior to all the regr soldiers. If he and his father weren''t able to supplement their Shield Skills with their own, they too would have suffered the same fate. Reivyn and Refix - Xudrid and Vyria for that matter, too - wouldn''t always be present with their men in a conflict.
There would be times when they suffered real tragedy in the future, and Reivyn was not looking forward to it. They weren''t going to stick around in Vairo forever. Setting up their mercenarypany also implied they would sell their services on other fronts as well. From the stories his father had told him when they had their teleportation suddenly cut off, Reivyn knew that not all the invading forces were so merciful to the locals as these particr invaders.
Reivyn paid special attention to the deceased Conscripts he walked past. He stopped to speak to the survivors who all had the same look of shock on their faces. He gave a sympathetic word where he could and tried his best to not let them fall into despair. He paused in his walk when he spotted a familiar face among the deceased youths.
Krey, the young man who had shown such leadership among his peers,y almost peacefully among a short row of other deceased soldiers. His squad mates were hunkered down near his body, not knowing what to do. Reivyn felt a particr sense of grief over discovering the young man hadn''t made it. He was someone he could have possibly been friends with in different circumstances. Their age difference wasn''t too terribly great, especially with Reivyn mentally losing several years.
He walked up to the grieving Conscripts and stood silently with them for a moment.
"I know I spoke to all of you about turning this situation into an opportunity," Reivyn quietly addressed them. "But this," he gestured to the fallen soldiers, "is why we train so much. Death is a part of life, and it shouldn''t be taken from us so soon. But this is the real world we live in. Nobody can anticipate what will happen in the future. If you don''t want to mourn the loss of more of your friends, you have to face reality head-on.
"Don''t lock your emotions away. Mourn for your friends, but don''t let it consume you. He wouldn''t want that. If any of you need someone to talk to, you know where to find me."
Reivyn didn''t overstay his wee or try to preach to the young Conscripts. They weren''t in a mental ce to process everything he could tell them now, and even if they were, they probably wouldn''t appreciate it. He gave his advice and let them know he was someone they coulde to, and he left it at that. He couldn''t be the moral support for everyone in the army, but he could reach out his hand to the most vulnerable, at the very least.
Reivyn met up with Jekle and his soldiers. They were busy helping thepanies around them tend to their wounded and fallen. Reivyn could see the same grief reflected in their eyes as his own held, but they were professionals, and they did what had to be done.
They still had a long day ahead of them.
Chapter 220: Changing of the Guard
Chapter 220: Changing of the Guard
Prince Allik held his head in his hands. The faces of the deceased shed through his mind over and over, one after another. The faces of the young Conscripts bore more heavily on his mind than those of the professional soldiers, though he felt a pang of sadness for all of them.
We had been toocent, treating it like a game, almost, he sighed. This was a wake up call.
He sat in the silent darkness of his office for several more minutes, contemting the events of the morning. He waited until he felt he had finally mastered his emotions before reaching for themunication device.
"What is it?" His older brother answered with a tired expression momentster.
"There was an incident today," Prince Allik said.
"An incident?" Endrew quirked an eyebrow.
"We suffered about 10% fatal casualties in an attack this morning," Allik choked out.
Prince Endrew sat and stared for a moment as he process that information.
"Did they push you out of your city again? Another endless wave of legions but they weren''t looking for prisoners this time?""No."
"No?"
Prince Allik shook his head.
"We''re still in the city. The walls still stand... mostly. We can get that patched up, though I don''t really see the point any longer." Allik took a deep breath. "They attacked us with twelve people, and it was only one attack from each of them."
"Twelve people? One attack each?" Endrew paused for a moment as he tried to wrap his head around what his younger brother was telling him. "Did they group up and just concentrate their power on one position? But no, you said 10% casualties..."
"They were spread out," Allik confirmed. "How far out are the elders? Can we get a message to them to hurry up?"
"The elders are still months out. You know they have to cross the wilderness, and getting a message to them in that confusing ce isn''t exactly easy. Do you think the decisive push wille before they can make it back?"
"Something''sing," Allik said.
"What precipitated them attacking you so ruthlessly? They''ve never done that before."
"They had scaled back their operations to a crawl after that weird incident where everyone in the Realm was frozen in ce by that powerful aura. I wanted to get a read on them, so I just sent a patrol out to scout their lines. They chased the patrols back to the city, what was left of them, andunched the attack immediately after.
"One of my captains spected that it was a warning that we had to y by their rules, and trying to figure out what they were doing was out of bounds."
"Hmm... I''ve received reports that the slow down in activity is across the entire line, though not as severe everywhere as you describe. Whatever it is that caused them to change their activities, it has something to do with their goal for invading us, obviously, and they didn''t want us interfering with that."
"Isn''t their goal subjugation?" Allik queried.
"I don''t think so," Endrew shook his head. "I think it''s more opportunistic than what they''re actually here for. Think about it. If they just wanted to conquer us, why sit in ce for months on end? Especially when they have the manpower they do. They have to have fifty times the number of soldiers we do. They could have just marched toward the capital without stopping day one if they wanted to.
"No, their continued aggression happened shortly after the ambient Mana went haywire. They''re up to something, and that something is more important than the rest of the war. And if I had to guess further, I would guess that whatever it is is located near your location. The othermanders have continued patrol operations in less dense areas, and there''s been no retaliation against them."
"That doesn''t help us, though. I don''t have anyone who could possibly go against the power they casually revealed today. Sure, the mercenarypany was able to kill someone simr to those who unleashed those attacks on us, but from the reports, it took four of them to take down one, and they almost didn''t make it. The Vice Captain of the mercenarypany is also high Tier 5.
"We''re fooling ourselves in thinking we can stop them."
Prince Endrew''s mouth screwed up like he wanted to contradict his brother, but he let it go with a sigh.
"You may be right. In that case, our job isn''t to preserve thend, anymore. We need to think about our people. I''ll issue the orders for evacuating the popce through the teleportation circle. How they go about seeing to it is a problem for our father and his council. In the meantime, gather up the Conscripts and send them back to the capital."
"The Conscripts?" Allik asked.
"Yeah. When we Conscripted the youngsters and sent them to the battlefield, we were still acting like it would be a great opportunity for them. Kill two birds with one stone: bolster our numbers in the face of the invader''s numbers and give a little boost to the next generation about toe of age. If we''re going to literally get decimated by the enemy, there''s no reason to keep them here.
"I''ll draft up orders to give them all a new mission. They''ll be the ones, with somepetent officers and NCO''s, to escort the fleeing citizens. We''ll send the mercenarypanies along with them. The mercenaries can escort the Conscripts to the capital, and the Conscripts can escort the civilians away. There''s no reason to hold the mercenaries to fight to the death. I don''t even n on fighting to the death over ournd. We just need to get as many people out as possible."
"Alright. That sounds like a n. I''ll go ahead and get them ready for the impending orders."
---
Reivyn stood on the practice field, sword at the ready. In the heat of the moment, there had been no problems infusing his body with Qi, but he was unable to get into the right head-space to do so ever since. It wasn''t the same as Mana or Stamina, and thinking of it as a simplebination of the two was a gross understatement as to its true nature.
It wasn''t as simple as two plus two equals four. After much trial and error, and some consultation with Xudrid and Vyria, Reivyn was attempting to get into the mindset of it being two plus two equals hexagon. A hexagon didn''t even have four sides!
Reivyn knew that he could do it. He had done it, but it had been instinctual in the heat of a life or death battle. So, he alternated between sparring, weapon forms, and meditation, trying to tip his mindset in the right direction to use the new energy source.
He had just finished a sparring session with his dad, the only one who could keep up with him other than Vyria these days, and was about to begin practicing his forms. He was about to begin his training when he noticed someone with an earnest look on their face approach him with his Divine Sense. He hesitated and turned to face the neer.
The man, one of the runners manning the gate to the barracks, strode up to Reivyn and offered a salute. Reivyn returned the salute and indicated for the man to speak.
"Sir, Prince Allik is calling for you," the runner said. "The messenger said it wasn''t urgent, but to head to the headquarters building straight away."
"I see, thank you," Reivyn acknowledged. "Dismissed."
Stolen from its rightful ce, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The runner offered another salute before facing about and jogging back to the gate. Reivyn looked over where his father was watching some other mercenaries drill. Refix turned to meet his eye. He wasn''t so far away that he wouldn''t have been able to hear the conversation. They hadn''t been whispering, either. Refix simply nodded his head at his son.
Reivyn nodded back and sheathed his sword. He didn''t need to grab anything or change, so he simply followed after the runner, albeit at a brisk walk instead of a jog.
Reivyn didn''t know what the prince could want. It had only been a day since the devastating attack, but it wasn''t time for a full briefing of all the officers. He mentally shrugged and simply made his way through the streets to the government administration building where Prince Allik was holed up.
The guards at the gate simply nodded to Reivyn as he walked into the grounds. Before he made it to the doorway of the building, though, it opened and a stream of officers came walking out with frustrated looks on their faces.
"...ridiculous..."
"...not our fault..."
"...have to stay here..."
Reivyn wasn''t too interested in what the other had to say, and he let most of it go through one ear and out the other. He did recognize a few of the officers, though, from the neighboring Conscriptpany. He spected that all of the officers were those in charge of Conscripts from different outfits.
The guard at the door perked up when he saw Reivyn. Reivyn noticed that the man didn''t simply recognize him and give him a friendly face. With his Divine Sense he could tell that the man stood straighter and puffed his chest out. The look in his eyes was almost as if...
Is he seeking approval from me? Reivyn thought.
Reivyn paused his entrance to the building and turned to p the guard on the shoulder with a smile on his face.
"You''re doing good work. Keep it up."
"Yes, sir!" The man beamed.
Reivyn shook his head after entering the building. He had been noticing more and more of the soldiers and officers of the otherpanies paying more attention to him when he was around. This was the first time he had noticed such an earnest look of seeking approval before, though.
The soldiers at the front gates didn''t act like that, though they did keep an eye on me as I walked past, Reivyn mused. And there hadn''t been any suspicion or anything in their gaze, either. I wonder what''s going on?
Reivyn knew where Prince Allik''s office was, and seeing that he had been ordered to report to him, he simply walked straight there. He could already perceive the man furiously at work at some documents through his Divine Sense as he walked up the stairs.
The door was open, so Reivyn gave it a simple knock as he entered the office. Prince Allik looked up, and after noticing who it was, gestured to one of the seats in front of his desk.
"Ahh, Captain Reivyn. Have a seat," Prince Allik said. "Just let me finish this up real quick... And done." Prince Allik ced his pen down and gave his full attention to Reivyn. "I''m sure you''re wondering what I called you all the way here for."
"Yes, sir," Reivyn nodded. It had been more of a statement than a question, but Reivyn answered anyway.
"Well, I''ve spoken with Prince Endrew, and he''s sent orders for the Conscripts to return to the capital."
"The Conscripts, sir?" Reivyn questioned. He put two and two together quickly and realized why those departing officers had been grumbling so much.
Heh, they don''t get to stay with the Conscripts as they leave the front lines, Reivyn mentally chuckled. I bet they got switched out with some of the other officers, and now they''ll have to do some actual work.
"Yes, the Conscripts. In light of the recent... revtions... of the enemy''s true prowess, it was decided that there was no safe opportunity to be had here for them."
"I can see that," Reivyn said. "I agree. It''s one thing to round up a bunch of youths and have them handle a im dispute, but it''s something entirely different to throw them into a meat grinder."
"Yes, an apt description. Anyway, I called you here because you''re going to be escorting them to the capital."
"Me?" Reivyn asked, pointing at himself. "Personally?"
"Yes, you, and your entirepany," Prince Allik answered. "I''m not sending you to take charge of them while your men stay here. This is it. The war has been deemed unwinnable, and we''re sending the mercenary forces home. We''re going to use you until the very end, though, hence the escort mission for the Conscripts."
"I see..." Reivyn let the information wash over him. He looked up at Prince Allik. "In that case, don''t do anything stupid after I''m gone. It''s been a pleasure to serve under you. You''re apetent guy in a tough spot."
"Competent, huh? High praise from you," Prince Allik chuckled. "I hate to see you go, and I wish all of my men were as professional and Skilled a you and yours. But this isn''t your fight, and your contract clearly states that if the war is deemed unwinnable, you''ll be released from your obligation and allowed to retreat home safely."
"Yeah, my father and brother-inw really hashed out a good contract for me. I wish I could have done more."
"I don''t think anybody did as much as you. I hate to think what could have happened if you and yourdy hadn''t rooted out all of those spies. I know there were still some deep nts, but it could have been much worse if they still had their entire spywork in ce."
Prince Allik stood up and walked around the desk. Reivyn stood up and the two shook hands.
"We''ll miss you around here. Recently you''ve been a pir of support for everyone. Morale is only still as high as it is because of your presence."
"You know, I''ve noticed something like that recently. Do you know what''s going on?" Reivyn asked.
"Wait, you mean you''re not doing it? I thought you were using some sort of Skill or something."
"If I am, it''s passive," Reivyn shrugged. "I haven''t done anything differently recently than I''ve done the entire time I''ve been here, except... Hmm, maybe that''s it?"
"You''ve thought of something? I won''t pry, but I will say that after noticing your nameing up more and more often among the other officers, I finally just asked them. They said you have this bearing - this... aura - about you that instills confidence in them. When they see you, they feel like things are going to be alright, and many of them have expressed that they want to be like you."
Reivyn''s mind shed to his Skills for a moment.
"I think I know what''s going on."
"Alright. Well, the Conscripts have the rest of the day to get all of their affairs and gear in order. You''ll be heading out with them first thing in the morning."
"Yes, sir!" Reivyn offered a salute. Upon receiving a return salute, he faced about and strode out of the office. He noticed Prince Allik stare after him with his Divine Sense for a moment before returning to his desk to once again work on the ever-present mountain of paperwork.
My ss must be synergizing with and empowering my Hero Skills, Reivyn realized. They hadn''t had too much of an affect on people outside of my own subordinates, before, but now it seems to work on all of my allies, too?
To test his theory, Reivyn kept an eye on the guards at the gate as he approached. They were already standing at attention, but he slightly shifted his bearing to match the Skill as he actively pulsed his Heroic Bearing Skill. His posture and gait seemed to align perfectly with his intentions, and the gate guards visibly stood taller.
That must be it, Reivyn nodded to himself.
The walk back to the barracks was quick and uneventful. He noticed a hustle and bustle among the few Conscriptpanies he passed by, and he understood that it was them preparing to depart the next day. Reivyn needed to get the orders passed to his own men, though they didn''t have a whole lot to pack up. They all had their own storage pouches, even if most of them were the minimum size. They also had theirpany storage pouches with the designated logistics personnel.
Reivyn strode through the gates and waved one of ther runners over. It was a different man from the one who had given him the orders to go see the prince.
"Round up all the officers and have them meet me in the conference room as soon as possible," Reivyn ordered.
"Yes, sir!" The man saluted and sprinted away toplete his mission.
Reivyn spotted his father still watching over some of the drills, and he indicated the conference room with his eyes as he never stopped moving toward it. Refix waved to some of the NCO''s to continue what they were doing as he jogged over to join his son.
"Got news?" He asked.
"We''re leaving tomorrow," Reivyn said. "They''ve finally realized they can''t win, and they''re sending us with the Conscripts back to the capital."
"They''re just going to let us go like that?" Refix asked, surprised. "I would think they would want to keep us to the veryst moment, considering."
Reivyn shrugged.
"It''s in our contract," he simply said.
"Really, now?" Refix scratched his head. "That''s a good contract."
"You didn''t read it?" Reivyn asked incredulously.
"Meh, I''m more of an action sort of guy. Your mother usually handles that aspect of things, and this time, I had you. I trusted you not to screw us over."
Reivyn ced the palm of his hand on his face as he sighed.
"You should really familiarize yourself with the next one we sign," Reivyn said. "It might be important. Better yet, I''ll just have mom read it to you."
"Now you''re thinking with your head," Refix said as he tapped his own forehead.
Reivyn just chuckled as he shook his head.
The two walked into the conference room to find that there was already a couple of the officers waiting for them. Reivyn nodded to them as he strode up to the front of the room while Refix took up position leaning against the wall. They didn''t have to wait long for the rest of the leadership to file into the room.
"The Commanding General, Prince Endrew, has deemed the war unwinnable," Reivyn said. There was no surprised gasps or expressions from the officers. They had been expecting it. "I''m sure you all know what that means." The officers all nodded their heads. Reivyn looked over to his father. "I see that you all read the contract."
"Hey, hey, we''ve already been over this," Refix shook his hand as if to dismiss an annoying fly. "New topic."
"Anyway," Reivyn said, turning his attention back to the other lieutenants. "Prince Allik has given us one final task. We''re going to be escorting the Conscripts back to the capital. They''re not going to be keeping them out here any longer in light of the enemy''s recent actions. They feel the cost doesn''t match the benefit for their youth."
"I''m d to see they have a conscience," Jekle said. The others nodded along with him.
"Me, too. We don''t have to concern ourselves with them after we get to the capital. They''re going to go do their thing, and we just have to wait for the connection to Wispan to open. Our time here is pretty much done, and the next chapter for our mercenarypany will start soon. I''ll save all the flowery praise for when we''re safely back in Wispan.
"Now, get your NCO''s to pass the message along to the rest. Have everyone get a good night''s sleep, and we''ll be leaving first thing in the morning."
Chapter 221: Together Again
Chapter 221: Together Again
Reivyn stood to the side and watched the stream of Conscripts March by. Their ability to keep step and pace properly was much improved from when they had first arrived in the city, though Reivyn wasn''t sure whether or not any of them had had the opportunity to unlock Forced March, yet. He wasn''t nning to push them so hard that they would, either.
Only one of the mercenary toons led the way in front. There was one toon in the center and the remaining two were in the rear. If they ran into any trouble, it was likely toe from a nking action or from behind. Reivyn wasn''t expecting to run into any trouble, but that was no reason not to array his troops in the most appropriate fashion.
For most observers, there wasn''t a noticeable difference in the ranks of the Conscripts. For Reivyn, with his Divine Sense which provided him far more subconscious information than simply looking with his eyes, he could clearly discern the loss of 10% of their poption. He had already grieved for the fallen and offered sce to those who sought it in the hours after. Now he maintained a hard face and demeanor. He projected an air of no-nonsense. He couldn''t have the youngsters assuming that his friendliness from before was reason enough not to take his orders seriously.
He hoped that his mercenaries'' attitude of instant obedience to orders would rub off on them. It would be a disaster if the Conscripts allowed themselves to rx and they really did run into a random roving band of invaders this side of the lines. Considering their numbers and mobility, it wasn''tpletely outside the realm of possibility.
It wasn''t just a desire to have his orders adhered to instantly and to the letter. He also hoped that the attitude would rub off on them, as well. With proper role models, the Conscripts could learn a lot about their role as members of the military. Prince Allik hadn''t gone into details about what the Conscripts would be doing, but he had implied they would continue with another mission. If he had nned on releasing them, then he would most likely have something about escorting them home instead of to the capital. The distinction was faint, but it was there.
Reivyn wasn''t too concerned with whatever mission they would be receiving in the capital, but felt a sense of camaraderie out of shared experience with the younger Conscripts so he wanted to do what he could to improve their chances of sess with whatever they did. If he could instill some additional professionalism into them with simple demonstration, there was no reason not to.
Prince Allik and the othermand staff stood off to the side watching the procession as well. The otherpanies didn''t form up to see them off, but there were many soldiers standing to the side calling out well-wishes and encouragement. They had earned the respect of the soldiers with their willingness to train and stand their ground during the times they integrated with the others on the wall. They had all shared in the tragedy of losing 10% of their force as well, and nothing solidified brotherhood quite like shared suffering.
It was a sad truth, but one that often led to eventual good oues. Reivyn had no doubt that the survivors of this campaign would one day go further than they would have otherwise, as long as they were able to safely retreat from the conflict in the future. He didn''t know what was in store for those that had been captured, and there was no way to know how many more would sumb to such a fate in the future, but he hoped it wasn''t as bad as he assumed. He had never seen any of the cannon fodder soldiers have a zero branded on their foreheads, so they were probably going to be relegated to some sort of civilian workforce if his understanding of their society held true.
"Good luck out there," Prince Allik said to Reivyn."You, too, sir," Reivyn replied. He looked over at the prince and hismanders. The officers subtly shifted their stances to stand a bit taller under his scrutiny.
Reivyn offered a final salute to the prince, and after receiving one in return, he Marched off to integrate himself into the central toon among the long line of soldiers. Marching in step allowedrge forces to move much quicker than if they were in a simple mob, and so it wasn''t long before they exited through the rear gates onto the highway headed to the capital.
The procession Marched on tirelessly for several hours, eating up the miles. Even the Conscripts, with their additional Stats from their Tier 2 sses as Tier 1''s, had enough Stats to maintain a steady pace and March for a long time before they needed to stop and rest. Instead of resting a bit for each hour, Reivyn had his officers and NCO''s keep an eye on their Stamina levels as best they could, and he devised a routine where they stopped for a quarter of an hour every three hours.
Chow was constant in the field, so they didn''t stop specifically for lunch. Everyone just munched on their rations as they walked. They weren''t performing in a parade, so they didn''t have to March with perfect bearing in lockstep. He had his scouts out surrounding the procession, and he operated the entire force exactly the same as he would for an individual toon orpany.
There was no official chain ofmand as Reivyn was not an official soldier, but he had been given plenary powers as an acting Battalion Commander. The officers attached to the Conscriptpanies had all been switched out and werepetent veterans under Prince Allik. They had all witnessed Reivyn and his mercenaries in action. Thatbined with Reivyn''s Heroic Skills ensured that they were all more thanfortable falling under hismand.
He was still nominally thepanymander of the mercenarypany, but they had been in enough situations where it was easy for Reivyn to assume the role of the higher rank with Jekle taking on the main responsibilities as themander of thepany. Refix didn''t take charge as themander, not because he didn''t want to or wasn''t able to, but he assumed the role of the battalion XO alongside Reivyn.
Reivyn had drilled his officers and NCO''s with the importance of being able to assume the role of ranks up to three levels above them. He wouldn''t require his men to be able to do something he himself was unable to do. Transitioning over tomanding a battalion, in this situation, wasn''t too dissimr to being in charge of onepany. As thepanymander, he filtered his orders to the men through the toonmanders. As themander of a battalion, he did the same thing, but now it was to thepanymanders.
Everything went smoothly, and there was no sight of any enemy forces. They still had a long way to go, though. Reivyn expected it would take them a little over a week to reach the capital at the pace they set. There was still plenty of time for things to go wrong, but Reivyn was optimistic. The further they Marched away from the front lines, the less likely it was that there would be any kind of enemy action. From previous experience, Reivyn knew that it wasn''t standard for the enemy to send patrols of any kind deep into their territory. They preferred to fight straight on.
As evening approached, Reivyn indicated for Jekle to find a suitable location to stop for the evening. There weren''t too many ces in the local terrain that stood out, so they ended up choosing a small hill near some forest to set up camp. Jekle led the procession off the road a short ways and took them most of the way up the hill, but they didn''t crest it and stop at the very top.
Work parties were sent out and Reivyn could see confusion on the faces of most of the Conscripts. The regr officers and NCO''s didn''t bat an eye, though, at the orders. A simple palisade and moat was quickly built and sentries posted. Come of the Conscripts were taken along to do the work and showed what to do and why, and word quickly spread, alleviating their confusion.
I guess their previousmanders just had them pitch tents without building proper fortifications for the evening, Reivyn thought. Lazy and ipetent.
Reivyn had no respect for the officers that had shown up with the Conscripts. Everything about them screamed their unwillingness to do even the bare minimum effort. They could have gotten a lot of people killed with their attitude, and Reivyn assumed Prince Allik was going to put a boot up their backsides where he kept them on the front lines. Theirck of professionalism would be more hindrance than help in whatever mission the Conscripts undertook in the future.
The days passed uneventfully. There was no time for additional training for the Conscripts, and there weren''t any random monsters roaming about for them to get some Experience off of. lt was moremon in the lower tier Regions to run into bands of goblins in the countryside and such. The higher tier Regions were home to stronger base monsters, but they were also a bit smarter and tended to stay further away from civilization.
The Conscripts only opportunity for learning came from observing the mercenaries and interacting with them when they stopped for the evening. The mercenaries were more than happy to show them the ropes and exin in great detail all the questions they had. They could possibly learn more from the NCO''s and officers, but it was a bit intimidating to speak to the leaders so casually. That didn''t mean it didn''t happen, but only those who showed a bit more tendencies towards leadership sought advice from the higher ranked soldiers.
If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
It was just like any other day on the road. They were making good time and were a bit over half way to the capital. Reivyn was engaging in idle conversation with some of the other captains as they Marched, the pace much too slow to pose any kind of strain on their physical Stats. Reivyn sensed the scout approaching with his slowly, but steadily increasing range of Divine Sense. He held up a hand to forestall the conversation and looked up in the direction the man wasing from, waiting for his arrival.
The scout approached Reivyn from the front of the formation, thest ce Reivyn would expect news of enemy encroachment. From theck of halting the procession from the first toon up ahead andck of urgency in the man''s movements, Reivyn assumed the scout wasn''t reporting an imminent sh with the invaders.
"Sir, a group of soldiers bearing the mark of the Imperial Family is approaching along the highway," the scout announced. The man didn''t offer a salute as they were in the field. Reivyn waited for the man to continue, knowing that wasn''t the end of the report. "Lady Kefira is with them. It looks like a contingent of the Imperial Bodyguards were dispatched to escort her to the front lines."
Reivyn''s eyes lit up with excitement over the news. It had been many months since they hadst seen each other. If they were meeting here, it made sense that they hadn''t received word of Reivyn and the Conscripts returning to the capital. The ns had been made and orders issued, but news probably hadn''t circted throughout the military and capital before they left.
"Excellent," Reivyn said. "Thank you for bringing me the news. Dismissed."
The scout nodded his head and turned to jog back to his assignment. Reivyn didn''t order the soldiers to do anything different, but he did excuse himself from the other captains and made his way to the front of the procession. Jekle had apparently received word from the scout as he wasn''t surprised in the least to see Reivyn show up alongside him at the very front of the line.
Reivyn looked ahead, activating his Eagle Eye Skill to see further down the road, and the line of cavalry with streamers indicating the Imperial Family came into focus. They were still a ways away, and he noticed that they were moving to the side of the road. They apparently had their own reconnaissance methods and had gotten word that they were approaching.
"Have the men take a break up," Reivyn ordered Jekle. Now was as good a time as any to take a break, and the approach of the other group gave plenty of reasons to call a halt.
"Yes, sir," Jekle responded. He ordered one of the NCO''s to pass word back to the otherpanies about the impending halt.
Reivyn didn''t stride ahead in front of the soldiers. He stayed with them and they moved to the side of the road when they approached the other group. It was finally at this time they he stepped forward, and he saw Kefira and Seri step away from their escort. There were a few others with her, and he subconsciously noticed them with his Divine Sense, but his eyes and mind were all focused on Kefira.
They didn''t run into each other''s arms in dramatic fashion, but they did immediately embrace in a hug. Seri had a strange, smug look on her face that Reivyn didn''t understand, but he didn''t pay it any mind.
"I missed you," Reivyn whispered.
"I missed you, too," Kefira replied. "It seems like we came back a little toote. Are you heading back to Wispan already?"
"After escorting these Conscripts to the capital, our contract is over," Reivyn confirmed.
Kefira had obviously read the contract as the nominal leader of the mercenaries, so she quickly grasped the meaning behind the words.
"Is it that bad?" She asked.
"Yes and no," Reivyn replied. "We can talk about itter."
The two separated and stood back from each other.
"Can you believe this guy?" A familiar voice entered Reivyn''s ears. "We let him out of our sight for just a couple of years, and hepletely forgets about us!"
Reivyn looked up at the teasing voice and saw a face he hadn''t seen in years. It had matured from what he remembered, but it was unmistakable. He had noticed him and hispanion with his Divine Sense, but he had focused entirely on Kefira to pay any attention to the others.
"Teilon!" Reivyn eximed with a grin.
He stepped past Kefira and embraced his best friend in a firm, manly hug. They patted each other on the back andughed at their reunion.
"Kimberly," Reivyn pulled back from Teilon and gave Kimberly a brief hug, as well.
"Reivyn, it''s good to see you again," Kimberly said with a smile.
Reivyn assessed his friends and noticed a subtle aura about them. The way they held themselves and the distinct air of Mana contained in their core told Reivyn that they had already achieved their fourth Tier sses.
Reivyn stepped back and his hand automatically searched out Kefira''s, grasping it in his. There were a few others present, and one young man among their group frowned slightly upon witnessing Reivyn''s casual action. Reivyn turned with Kefira to bring them along back to the formation he was leading.
"How dare a mere liaison..." The frowning young man stepped forward to berate Reivyn, but that was all he managed to get out before spluttering to a stop.
Reivyn didn''t pay the kid any mind. He simply put his hand up and thrust his palm into the other boy''s face as he walked past,pletely ignoring him otherwise. He wasn''t going to let some noble from Wispan who didn''t know the facts interfere with his actions. Kefira, Teilon, and Kimberly barely seemed to even notice the interaction as they all walked towards the resting soldiers.
With his Divine Sense, Reivyn picked up Seri smirking at the other young man.
"All that work you''ve done, gone in an instant," she snickered before following behind Kefira.
The young man''s frown turned into a glower as he stared at Reivyn''s departing back. Reivyn mentally snorted in amusement, but that was all the attention he paid to the boy.
"Come on, I''ll introduce you the friends andpanions I''ve made since I''ve been gone," Reivyn said to Teilon and Kimberly.
---
Royrik frowned as he watched the assault from the concealment of the trees. He had gotten in the habit of watching the daily assaults on the defenders after having made note of the unusually strong mercenaries, and his obsession with them had only intensified after he had been literally smacked like a bug by the youngmander. Many of the others among his rank would have taken it as an insult, but it only spurred his desire to capture the other young man and add him to their cause further.
He had suffered more damage from that one strike that had barely bypassed his defenses than he could remember receiving from a single blow in a long time. The fact that his Inspection Skill notified him the young man was only Tier 3 only intensified his curiosity.
He knew that the youngmander didn''t normally participate in the daily defense of the city, but he had been present more often than not recently. At first, his absence hadn''t been much cause for concern, but as the days wore on and he failed to appear, Royrik began paying more attention to the actions of the rest of the defenders.
"Something isn''t right, here," he said after a while.
"What''s not right?" Lorily asked, ncing over at herpanion.
"Their resistance isn''t right," Royrik rified. "Their not putting up as much of a fight as they should be."
"Of course they''re not," Ulvid snorted. "We just put them in their ce. Their morale has to be rock bottom at this point."
"No, it''s more than that," Royrik shook his head. "It''s like if you cut off someone''s finger, but the next time you fought them, they only used one arm. Losing a finger and losing an arm are twopletely different situations."
"What are you trying to say?" Kulman asked.
"The mercenaries... Where is the mercenarypany?" Royrik asked.
He had only been paying attention to a select few among their numbers, not the mercenarypany as a whole. His blind desire to only focus on a few individuals hade back to bite him, and he was only now realizing the entirepany waspletely missing.
"What does that matter?" Lorily asked.
"The four people we had scouted were part of the mercenarypany," Royrik said. "The only other person worth wasting our time on is Prince Allik, but the regr soldiers can handle that.
"Wait here a moment, I''m going to go speak to Sol''Ran."
The others murmured assent as Royrik took off toward themander. Their fifthpanion remained stoically quiet like always. Royrik had long since recovered from the wounds he had received from his short exchange with the young mercenarymander. The limp hade more from his uncontrolled fall through the forest than what the young man had been able to inflict on him, but it was a consequence of his strike, so he had counted it.
He quickly strode through the army. They were lined up and ready to push through the city fortifications at a moment''s notice. It wasn''t anything out of the ordinary, though. They always brought a force capable of defeating the defenders every time day. They just didn''t do it.
The change in schedule had only affected them for a while, and they were about to elerate their operations to catch back up to where they were supposed to be. If they hadn''t suffered the setback caused by the System - something that had never happened before that any of them were aware of - they would have already pressed past this city and been headed toward the next defensive stronghold.
Royrik didn''t concern himself with any of that. He wasn''t an officer in the military proper. He and hispanions were more powerful than the generals, but they stood outside of the chain ofmand. They had to curtail their actions to amodate the localmanders as much as possible under normal circumstances. Only the Lord-General could actuallymand them.
Royrik brushed past the guards protecting themand tent. They were used to his and hispanion''s way of doing things, so they didn''t even twitch. Royrik ducked into the tent and zeroed in on General Sol''Ran. He walked over, immediately catching the other man''s attention.
"The mercenarypany is absent," Royrik said without preamble.
"Hmm, that makes sense," Sol''Ran said. He and hismanders had obviously noticed the difference, too.
"Theirmanders have been scouted for priority recruitment," Royrik continued. It wasn''t entirely true, but he had discretion in these matters. "I''m going to take some of mypanions and go after them. It would be a great loss to the cause if they''re allowed to get away."
"Sure," General Sol''Ran easily agreed. There wasn''t much he could do otherwise, anyway.
Royrik nodded his head once and turned to exit the tent. He quickly made his way back to the others he was grouped with.
"Who''s up for a chase?" He asked with a smile.
Chapter 222: Double Time
Chapter 222: Double Time
Laughter filled the air as Reivyn caught up with Teilon and Kimberly. He didn''t leave Kefira out of the conversation, but she was just as interested in learning about her man''s best friends, too. Teilon regaled them with tales of his exploits over the years, wing his way up to an Epic Tier 4 ss as a kid who started off in the lowest of the low tier Regions.
The procession didn''t normally officially stop for lunch, but Reivyn made an exception. They took the opportunity of meeting up to have an extended break, and he ordered the officers to let everyone know they could break out some of their food other than travel rations and enjoy a meal. The group sat around an impromptu campfire as they conversed and ate their fill.
Teilon''s stories of how they had trained and delved Dungeons across Tier 2, 3, and 4 Regions started off fairly tame. He was cognizant of Refix''s presence, and he often nced at the man while telling his tale. When Refix didn''t say anything but only smiled and nodded, he slowly got more and more exaggerated in his retelling of their exploits. At one point, even Kimberly rolled her eyes at him.
"There we were, facing off against several of ogres in thebyrinth. Kimberly and I had been cautiously advancing around the maze, hoping to avoid getting entangled with more than one or two at a time. Sometimes luck just isn''t with you, though, ya know? We turned the corner and four of them just happened to be standing there at the same time. We didn''t despair, though. We had killed dozens of ogres already.
"We squared off against them, Kimberly getting their attention with her spear dancing, and I flitted through the openings to dish out some damage. We were in for a long battle of attrition where one misstep could lead to serious injury for either of us. We had been preparing for this for years, though, and we didn''t back down.
"Everything was going well, and we were slowly whittling them down, when all of a sudden, the screeches and scampering of those little blue devils intruded on our senses. A horde of those enhanced goblins came screaming around the corner. Did we falter, though?"
"You did," Kimberly interjected at the perfect time.
Reivyn snorted at Teilon''s offended look as he sat back and brought a hand up to his chest.
"Wha-?""You stuttered your step and almost got brained by one of the ogres," Refix pointed out, grinning at Teilon. His sharp canines seemed to give his smile the look of a predator pouncing on its prey. "I had to step in to block the follow-up blow, and the rest of the team took care of the goblins, anyway. I guess you forgot that I was there for that one." Refix chuckled.
"Oh,e on!" Teilon looked up to the sky and sighed. "Can''t I have a little glory? It was a minor misstep that we almost immediately recovered from and turned into victory."
"Sure, sure, you did well," Refix agreed. "I don''t deny that, but it wasn''t all rainbows and roses."
"Any way," Teilon punctuated the word, "We managed to press on to the eighth floor of The Descent for the first time on that delve. Without Refix and the main members of the team, though, we''ve only gone down to the fifth floor consistently over the past couple of months."
"The eighth floor, you say?" Reivyn asked. "How many floors does The Descent have?"
"Your mother and I have made it to the twentieth floor," Refix answered the question for Teilon. "There were records avable at the Adventurers Guild in the city we found that Dungeon. Some of the papers talk about magical analysis done on the Dungeon, and their hypothesis is that there are a couple hundred floors. Another paper is the record of a Tier 7 retired Imperial delving as deep as he could onest time before he got too old to continue adventuring, and he made it to floor sixty. That''s the deepest delve on record."
"This is the Dungeon you have the key to?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow. "When were you nning on telling me about it?"
"You never asked," Refix shrugged his shoulders. "We would have exined it to you before you went on your first delve with us into the Dungeon, though."
"The interesting thing about The Descent is it''s like a Dungeon within a Dungeon," Teilon said animatedly. Reivyn found that he was always excited when he talked about Dungeons. "Your father''s key leads directly to the floor of the Dungeon where the entrance to The Descent is located. It''s actually tied to The Descent and not the other Dungeon.
"There''s evidence to suggest that The Descent itself exists in multiple Dungeons across multiple Regions. We might be able to encounter a different entrance to the same Dungeon in one of these other Tier 4 Regions."
"Ok, but, why?" Reivyn questioned his friend. "We have a key."
"I''m just saying," Teilon rolled his eyes. "Don''t you find that interesting? A Dungeon in a Dungeon, possibly connected to yet more Dungeons? Seems like it''s something that would interest you."
"It is interesting, and coupled with my experiences and things I know about Dungeons, I can see how it could work. Can one use The Descent to travel between different Regions, you think?"
"I don''t think so," Teilon shook his head. "There seems to be some sort of way the Dungeon keeps track of where you enter from, and there aren''t any records of other exits deeper in the Dungeon. I guess it''s theoretically possible, but I wouldn''t know how it would work."
"What do you think?" Reivyn turned to Kefira.
"I might be able to figure something out if I go down there and analyze the Mana signature of the Dungeon with my Space Affinity," Kefira nodded her head. "I can''t guarantee I''ll be able to do so, though, and even if I can, my Skills might not be high enough, yet. Tinkering with natural Dungeons would require some high-Level Space Affinity."
"You''ll get the chance, soon," Refix said. "We might as well take the time to do some Dungeon Delves after we get back to Wispan. The rest of the mercenaries will also require some time to run the Dungeons near the capital to fulfill that end of the bargain they received when signing up for the mercenarypany."
"Yeah, and you guys got a nother batch of potential mercenaries training and hopeful for a spot in thepany right now," Teilon added.
"Oh? There''s more recruits training in Willowan?" That was news to Reivyn. He had set up the school to train youngsters in the capital city, but he hadn''t left any orders to train additional recruits for thepany itself.
"Seems like a good idea, actually," Refix said. "Think about it. I bet a lot of the mercenaries we have right now will consider this expedition enough for their Life Experience. They''re Adventurers. Most of them aren''t going to want to be mercenaries for the rest of their lives. A good portion of them are going to get their pay, run their Dungeons, and then go back to what they''re used to."
"And we''ll need to rece them with more mercenaries before we can take on anothermission," Reivyn realized. "Huh, I really messed up. I didn''t n far enough in advance to take that into ount. Luckily, someone in Wispan has their head on their shoulders right and took care of the issue before it became a problem."
"They had to," Teilon said. "Word of your mercenarypany has spread and Adventurers from all across different Regions are teleporting into Wispan for a chance to join. If they didn''t at least set up the training regimen, there might have been a mutiny on their hands."
"Do you know anything about it?" Reivyn asked Kefira.
"Your mother set it up," Kefira confirmed. "I''ve been keeping tabs on the ones that stayed behind, and when it started getting a little out of hand I brought it up to your mother. She just told me she would take care of it. It was a way for her to feel close to you and your father, and since I''m actuallying with you, I let her do it."
"Are you going to be able to afford it? What''s your remuneration for thismission look like?" Teilon asked.
"I paid the costs out of pocket, but the payment we''ll get forpleting this contract is definitely going to be enough," Kefira said. "It''s in escrow with the Adventurer''s Guild just in case something unexpected happens. We can withdraw it from any branch at any time after the contract is over."
"Escorting these Conscripts to the capital is thest official order on the contract," Reivyn said. "Once they get there, the contract will be consideredplete."
"Do you have to check-in with someone to verify?" Kimberly asked.
"Nope," Reivyn shook his head. "The contract is System enforced. It''s a good contract."
The group continued tough and joke around as they finished their meal. Reivyn suddenly got a strange feeling in his chest. It felt like a dull thrumming of his Danger Sense, but it was incredibly faint and felt slightly off. He looked around, inspecting the distant tree lines, but he didn''t get any other direction from the strange feeling. It felt off somehow, but Reivyn couldn''t put his finger on it.
He nced around at hispanions. They were all stillughing and smiling, but Reivyn''s face shifted into a frown. Looking at them each in turn, he got a slightly different feeling thrum in his chest. It was strongest when looking at Kefira and only slightly less intense when looking at his father. Refix noticed him frowning while looking at him, and the smile on his face instantly fell off.
"What''s the matter?" Refix asked, concerned.
"I don''t know," Reivyn shook his head. "I don''t know how to describe it. Anyway, lunch is over."
Reivyn stood up suddenly, surprising the others who hadn''t noticed the shift in his demeanor.
"It''s time to go. Right now," he said. "Let''s clean up and get back on the road."
Nobody asked any further questions after looking at his face. They all stood up and began to tidy up. One of Reivyn''s biggest stiptions for everyone in the mercenarypany, his ownpanions included, was to leave the environment as close to as how they found it as possible. He had the men even break down the palisades and fill the moats in the mornings after camping for an evening.
Word was passed to the officers, and the entire procession was on their feet and ready to move within minutes. The Imperial Bodyguards were tasked with protecting Kefira on the road, and since they were still technically on the road, they fell in under Reivyn''smand quite easily. They weren''t going to be his personal cavalry unit for the procession, but they would do what he said in regards to their mission.
"Tell the officers to move the men at double-time," Reivyn instructed the runners.
The mercenaries took off to the front, middle, and rear of the procession to inform the officers. In a couple of moments, the call to move at double-time reverberated across the long line of soldiers. The Conscripts and mercenaries began to jog at double their previous pace, maintaining their March Skill. It was a little stressful for the Conscripts who didn''t have as much experience and Skill Levels as the mercenaries, but they would quickly gain Levels in the Skill and adapt.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
They might even unlock Forced March from this, Reivyn thought. He hadn''t nned on pushing them enough to unlock the Skill, but he felt it was necessary after getting that strange feeling.
Immediately after getting everyone to move down the road a quicker pace, the thrumming in his chest reduced by almost 90%.
There''s definitely somethinging our way, Reivyn thought.
"Dad, I had some sort of weird Danger Sense thrumming in my chest," Reivyn turned to Refix to exin. "It doesn''t feel like it normally does, though, so that''s why I had a hard time articting it. Once we started jogging, the sensation reduced to almost nothing. I think there''s somethinging our way, so we need to be prepared and on the lookout for it."
"Sure," Refix said. He didn''t question his son''s premonition at all. He trusted his son''s instincts, and he was more thankful than skeptical.
Even if nothing happens, dad will just chalk it up to a good training experience, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
Kefira, Seri, Teilon, and Kimberly had all fallen in next to Reivyn and Refix. They had arrived on horseback, but they had the Stats to move at their current pace for a long time. Even if their physical Stats couldn''t match Reivyn or Refix''s, their Stats were considerably higher than the Conscripts''. The Imperial Bodyguards didn''t question Reivyn''s decision, and they just matched the pace alongside the procession nearby.
They weren''t the only new additions to the crew, though. Kefira had showed up with her maids and a couple of others who were dressed like Casters. The boy who had tried to get in Reivyn''s face for speaking to Kefira in a familiar tone earlier was one of them. He had gotten back on his horse and brought it over to the group with Kefira''s head maid trailing behind.
"What''s the meaning of this?" He demanded, ring at Reivyn. "You''re going to run your men ragged, and we were promised the opportunity of participating inbat when we came along. We''re just going to turn around and head back to the capital?"
"Who''s this chuckle-head?" Reivyn ignored the young man and turned to Kefira.
"That''s Oryin," she replied. She tried to give a warning look to the young man, but he deliberately didn''t notice it. "He''s the direct Disciple of the Court Magus and the son of a baron. He has a certain status in the Imperial Court."
"I see," Reivyn said. He turned to look at the young man in the face for the first time. "This is a military operation. l''m inmand. You being a part of Lady Kefira''s entourage means you''re now under mymand, as well. Do what I say, and don''t question my authority again. Don''t think for a minute I won''t charge you with insubordination."
Oryin puffed up, his face turning red.
"I''m under your love to see you try anything against me."
Oryin''s body crackled with power as he drew on his Mana in a way Reivyn assumed the man thought was intimidating.
Reivyn ignored it.
Using his own Mana, Reivyn channeled a Mana Whip into existence andshed it out at the young man on horseback. It whipped through the air at incredible speed and wrapped around the boy''s neck. Reivyn used his willpower to easily suppress the Mana in Oryin''s body, preventing him from bringing it forth any further than his impotent disy.
Oryin started to raise his hands to his neck to grasp at the Mana whip, but Reivyn didn''t give him the opportunity. He pulled, physically and with his Mana, on the whip. Oryin''s eyes went wide and he iled about with his arms as he was yanked through the air directly to Reivyn. Reivyn dismissed the Mana whip and reced it with his hand around the boy''s throat.
He stared into Oryin''s eyes as he released a little of his Bloodlust Aura. Oryin''s face went white as a sheet, his fingers grasping at Reivyn''s hand that was like an iron vice. He didn''t choke the young man, but he did suppress him ruthlessly.
"Do. Not. Question. Me. Again." Reivyn punctuated each word. "I don''t care who you are or what you''re capable of. You''re nothing to me. If I tell you to do something, you do it. If you fail to do it, or you throw another childish tantrum, I''ll have you strung up and flogged. Do you understand?"
Reivyn had never stopped jogging during the entiremotion. He was still moving along with the procession while holding onto Oryin with one hand. The boy was being dragged along the road as Reivyn warned him.
Oryin continued to scrabble ineffectually at Reivyn''s hand. He didn''t speak up, but Reivyn was preventing him from speaking with his grip. He wasn''t actually choking the arrogant young man.
Reivyn shook his hand, rattling Oryin''s body back and forth.
"I''m talking to you!" Reivyn said.
"I understand!" Oryin finally replied.
Reivyn released his grip and Oryin copsed to the ground. He was quickly left behind where heid, the Conscripts looking at him with wide eyes as they jogged past. He was till within Reivyn''s range of Divine Sense, so he saw him stand up and dust himself off. He red daggers at Reivyn''s back, but he didn''t do anything about his indignation. He quickly jogged forward to catch up with his horse and get back in the saddle. He didn''t stick around near Reivyn any longer and rejoined the other Mages that hade along with Kefira.
The head maid didn''t go with him. She stayed near Kefira in case she had need of calling upon her. She did give Reivyn a disapproving look, though, which Reivyn promptly ignored.
"Heh, heh," Seri chuckled.
"What are youughing at?" Kefira asked. She didn''t give Reivyn a disapproving look, but she wasn''t as amused by the situation as Seri apparently was.
"He called him a chuckle-head," Seri snorted. "I can''t think of a better description for him, and he finally put him in his ce."
"Put him in his ce? I understand he was out of line with questioning Reivyn like that, but you seem to have a different meaning behind your words."
"You remember those rumors?" Seri asked.
Kefira scrunched up her face in thought. After a moment, she got a look of revtion on her face.
"Yeah. It seems like he''s let those rumors go to his head, and even he''s starting to believe them, now. You''ve been so focused on Reivyn that you haven''t noticed."
"Really? Are you sure?"
Seri just rolled her eyes.
"What''s this now?" Reivyn perked up at their conversation. "What rumors are these?"
Seri looked at him then nced at Kefira. She was clearly indicating for Kefira to exin on her own. Kefira sighed as she faced Reivyn.
"A bunch of themoners have started rumors that he and I are engaged," she said. Reivyn didn''t explode with outrage or anything. He continued to look at Kefira calmly, waiting for her to continue. "I''ve been required to go to a bunch of social events with him, and I guess seeing us together often has caused some misunderstandings. Seri is saying he''s begun to believe he''s an actual contender for my hand and views you as a rival."
"I see," Reivyn simply said.
"You don''t seem too concerned," Kefira said with a smile.
"The kid''s a clown," Reivyn rolled his eyes.
He wasn''t keeping his voice down, but Oryin and the other Mages were too far away to hear their conversation. He wouldn''t have cared either way.
"If I want someone to perform some parlor tricks at our wedding, maybe I''ll pay attention to him," Reivyn said.
Kefiraughed and Seri snorted.
"That guy thinks he canpete with Reivyn?" Teilon spoke up. "Does he know anything about him?"
"Just that he''s a liaison for Kefira," Seri said.
"Oh, I can''t wait until we get back to Wispan," Teilon chuckled.
"Why''s that?" Reivyn asked.
"Guaranteed that guy challenges you to a duel or something," Teilon snickered. "Right now, you''ve convinced him he''s under your military authority. Once we get back to Wispan, that goes away. You''ve ruffled his feathers, and he apparently thinks too highly of himself. This is gonna be fun."
Reivyn chuckled along with his friend. If there was one thing he wasn''t worried about, it was a duel from someone in his own age range.
The conversation lulled after that, and the procession continued moving along the road at a jog. If the Conscripts hadn''t been given the opportunity to participate in several battles and umte Experience and Levels, they would have never had the Stats to keep up with their pace. The speed they were moving at now would have been closer to a sprint for them before they had changed sses.
Reivyn reminded the officers to keep an eye on their Stamina levels, but he pushed them further than he did when they were just Marching regrly. Each time they stopped for a quick ten minute break, the Conscripts had to catch their breath. The mercenaries were still fine, as well as Reivyn''s group and those on horseback.
The hours went by and evening eventually came. Reivyn pushed the men longer than he had the previous days, and it was almostpletely dark when he finally called a halt for the evening. Instead of letting the mercenaries teach the Conscripts Woodcraft and participate in erecting the fortifications, Reivyn and the others simply participated with their magic to get the job done as quickly as they could. There wasn''t a need to get set up so quickly, necessarily, but it allowed the troops just a little bit extra time to rest.
They kept the pace up for the remainder of the journey back to the capital. Reivyn never let his guard down, and neither did Refix. The others weren''t able to maintain their vignce perfectly for such an extended period of time, but they wouldn''t be caughtpletely unawares. Even with knowing one had to keep a look out, it was hard without thebat experience etching the lessons in blood into oneself.
They had been over half-way to the capital when they met up with Kefira and her group, and it only took another three days to reach the capital. The thrumming in Reivyn''s chest continued to slowly increase as time moved on, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the walls to the distant capital finally came into view. There was still a couple of miles to go in the open country to reach the rtive safety of the capital, but it seemed like they were going to make it without much incident.
The thrumming in Reivyn''s chest shifted to the sharp pinging of Danger Sense, though, and he nced behind himself. An almost equal distance away in the opposite direction, Reivyn spotted four dots against the horizon. He zeroed in with his Eagle Eye Skill, and he saw that they were some of the same cloaked figures they had previously run into from the invaders.
"Run! Run, run!" Reivyn used Commanding Shout. "Get these men into the city!"
Chapter 223: Give Some Space
Chapter 223: Give Some Space
"Run, run, run," Reivyn shouted.
The Conscripts didn''t hesitate. They had enough experience with how Reivyn operated not to doubt him or the tone of his voice. The jogging pace everyone had been keeping for hours on end turned into an all-out sprint. Any semnce of keeping step to maintain the March Skill disappeared, but nobody cared.
The mercenaries did not follow. Reivyn had given them a different order. He had called to "get those men to the city." The lead toon, led by Jekle, stepped to the side. The middle toon did so as well as they continued to jog forward. They both waited to meet up with the rear toons to form up their entirepany across the highway.
The Conscripts continued to sprint to the city, but the Imperial Bodyguards stayed with Kefira. Kefira and everyone who hade with her stayed behind with Reivyn. Kefira motioned to the group of Mages to converge on their position.
"What''s the big deal?" A voice Reivyn was beginning to associate with annoyance reached his ears. "It''s just four people."
Oryin had a look of disdain on his face as he looked at Reivyn. The leader of the Imperial Bodyguards shared the same sentiment and had a skeptical look on his face.
"I''m sure he has a reasonable exnation for why he''s taking those four people seriously," Kefira said. "He''s the one with the experience, after all."
"Seems like he''s making a big deal out of nothing, to me., I guess it''s impressive that the invaders managed to slip some of their people this far behind the lines, but that just means they''re good at infiltrating."
"I don''t have time to exin things to a fool," Reivyn snapped. He turned his attention to the mercenaries. "Don''t stop until you have to. We''ll try other methods to stall them from reaching the city other than confronting them head on."The mercenaries all had looks of fear on their faces, but it was apanied by determination. Reivyn could almost feel their relief at his order to continue moving down the road. The officers turned them and put them back into a jog toward the city wall keeping themselves behind the Conscripts to carry out their mission of escorting them properly.
"I have an idea of how to stall them a bit, but I don''t know how effective it will be or how long it willst," Reivyn said to Kefira. Reivyn and the others had continued jogging after the mercenarypany as well, though he kept an eye on the progress of the four approaching enemies. The Mages and Imperial Bodyguards kept their horses apace, as well.
"What''s your idea?" Kefira asked.
"So, you''ve been focusing your attention on shortening Space and punching through it with your experiments. Do you think you could do the opposite? Make a corridor on the road that is packed with more Space than is actually there?"
Kefira frowned as she thought about it.
"I believe so," she answered. "I haven''t spent too much time on it, and it''s not exactly purely the opposite of what I''ve been researching. I think I can apply some of the things I''ve figured out and the System assistance to aplish something, though."
"I''ll assist you," Reivyn said. "I have a lot of Mana and a ss Skill that affects it in a weird way. It should be able to help."
"Alright, let''s link up." Kefira turned to themander of the bodyguards. "Bring my horse over."
Her horse was led over, and she and Reivyn sprung up into it. Seri, Teilon, and Kimberly retrieved their own horses, as well, and Refix hopped up to join Teilon on his. The other mercenaries were still on foot, but they were steadily moving closer and closer to the city.
Reivyn looked up as he ced his hands on Kefira''s back. The four cloaked figures were closing in on them fast, and Reivyn injected his Mana into Kefira''s core. He didn''t hold anything back and dumped thousands of Mana into her core. Kefira grit her teeth and grabbed the ne, pulling it off and stowing it away into her storage pouch. Reivyn felt her aura rocket up and solidify, reminding him of the time she hade to his rescue in the desert of Drallo.
"Is that necessary?" Reivyn asked.
"Absolutely," Kefira said. "I couldn''t handle the Mana you put into my core without unlocking my soul. Don''t worry. After reaching Tier 4, my body has grown stronger and it''s much more capable of handling the strain. I imagine reaching Tier 5 or the next level of my Bloodline will fully cure my situation."
"Ok. Just focus on the task at hand and use as much of my Mana as you need."
"I can''t believe this," Oryin said, shaking his head. "You''re really going all out for four people? Just have the bodyguards charge them with a little backup from us. Bam. Problem solved."
"Shut your mouth, brat!" Refixmanded with a steely gaze. Oryin''s body went stiff involuntarily. "You know nothing. Each one of those guys is a High Tier 5, possibly with Legendary sses. The leader of the bodyguards is barely Tier 5 himself, and you''re barely Tier 4. Even if there were a thousand more of you, you''d get annihted in an instant. A certain level of quality can''t be ovee with quantity.
"Stop adding to the problem and let them concentrate!"
Oryin sat in his saddle with a pale face. Refix''s angry attention had put more strain on him than anything Reivyn had done to him over the past couple of days. The other Mages shifted about, sharing nervous nces with each other. Themander of the Imperial Bodyguards simply had a thoughtful look on his face and nodded at Refix''s words.
At least he''s professional and understands dad was giving an honest assessment and not insulting him, Reivyn thought. He didn''t have to concentrate too much on his task. He was just pushing his Mana into Kefira''s core. Kefira was the one who had to have her total focus on the task at hand.
The four enemies continued to close the distance, but it wasn''t long before Reivyn noticed a shift in the ambient Mana. 99.99% of the ambient Mana was made of the four base Elements, but even they were getting affected by the influx of Space Mana into the area. Reivyn didn''t understand the mechanism behind what Kefira was doing, and she probably didn''t fully understand what the System was doing to assist her fully, either. The basic Elements were forming intoplex chains of patterns, fusing with Kefira''s Space Mana as she executed her Magic.
The Mana spread to epass the entire width of the highway, extending several yards to either side to cover the areapletely. The starting point of her Magic was anchored in ce, and they continued to get further and further away as the horses carried them along, but Reivyn could still see and feel the field she was erecting expand toward the approaching enemies.
Either they didn''t notice it, or they didn''t think too much about what the purpose of the Mana was, assured in their own power, as they didn''t alter their trajectory at all. Theplex chains and Space Mana began to pull in more and more of the ambient Mana. The affects of whatever was pulling all the ambient Mana toward a central position behind the enemy lines had grown muted as they moved further away, but it was still there.
Kefira''s Magic easily overpowered the pull of the ambient Mana and drew as much into itself as it could from all directions. Not only the ambient Mana in the Realm, but Reivyn could also sense that more and more Mana was being dragged from another source upying a different Space. The curtain surrounding the Realm, isting it from the outside universe, was supplying additional Space Mana.
The corridor Kefira created reached close to a hundred yards in length by the time the four cloaked figures ran into it. Their hubris caused them to get caught in the trap. They didn''t slow down their movements at all, but now it looked like they were running in ce.
They didn''t do anything different for several moments, not realizing right away that Reivyn and his crew were now getting further away from than rather than closer. Once they did notice, though, Reivyn saw that their movements increased in speed dramatically. If they had moved at the pace that it looked like they were currently moving, Reivyn knew that they would have been able to close the gap within moments instead of minutes.
It didn''t help them, though. They moved like they were caught in msses. They were no longer running in ce, but their advancement was like they were walking at a leisurely pace instead of the all-out run that they were obviously engaged in. The juxtaposition between their movements and pace was almost enough for Reivyn to crack a smile.
Kefira was panting, sweat streaming down her forehead as she maintained the elongated Space corridor.
"I can hold it for another couple minutes, at best," Kefira said between gritted teeth.
"That should be enough," Reivyn said. He turned to Refix. "Dad, get thepany to run all out to the city. We should have enough time now. We''ll follow right behind with a gallop."
Refix nodded and Teilon urged the horse forward to get closer to the mercenaries. Very quickly, the mercenaries went from a double-time jog to an all-out sprint like the Conscripts. They were mostly high-Tier 3 and low-Tier 4 ssers, though, so their Stats easily eclipsed anything the any of the Conscripts had. Their speed was magnitudes faster.
There had been enough time, though, for the Conscripts to get a decent enough lead that they would reach the gates of the city before the mercenaries did. Reivyn and the others urged their horses into a gallop, following behind the mercenaries. The speed of the mercenaries in an all-out sprint, not caring for the Stamina expenditure, was actually slightly faster than the galloping horses, but it wasn''t enough that they pulled significantly away.
The Conscripts reached the gates, and the officers apparently said something to the guards. The main gates were opened wide. The Conscripts and the waiting civilians were all ushered into the city without any problems. The mercenarypany quickly caught up, and the gates began to swing shut as Reivyn and the others rode their horses beyond the wall.
Kefira gave out a gasp as she copsed forward on the horse. Reivyn could tell she lost her connection to the Space corridor she had built. It shouldst a few moments longer even without her actively holding it, but it wouldn''t be for much longer. She panted for breath as Reivyn supported her from falling off the saddle.
"You did well," Reivyn said. "That was exactly what we needed."
"Hmph," Oryin simply snorted with derision.
Where does this guy get his confidence from? Reivyn wondered as he eyed the arrogant teenager. He quickly put him out of his thoughts, though. Now wasn''t the time. They weren''t out of danger, yet.
"Conscripts, head off to the barracks'' immediately," Reivyn called out. "Our escort mission isplete. Those guys are still out there, though. You can find safety with the other soldiers.
"Mercenaries! We''re done here. Rush to the teleport circle."
The officers in charge of the Conscripts didn''t hesitate and immediately directed the Conscriptpanies down the side road by the wall. Jekle took charge of the mercenarypany and had them double-time through the main streets of the capital city.
He didn''t pay any mind to the pedestrians in the way. It was get out of the way, or get knocked aside. It only took a couple of civilians getting knocked to the ground and unceremoniously dumped to the side for everyone to get he picture. The streets cleared in front of the rushing soldiers.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
"The right corridor won''t be up," Refix advised. They continued to follow behind the mercenarypany on horseback.
"I''m aware, dad, but I''m pretty sure those guys are here for us," Reivyn replied. "The city might be able to fend them off, but I''m not sure they can stop them."
As if to punctuate the point, Reivyn felt a tremendous gathering of Mana shortly before the world seemed to light up with an orange glow. A great explosion rang out, and Reivyn turned to look back at the gate where a tremendous sma Beam had melted the steel gates and continued to devastate the buildings immediately following.
Reivyn frowned as he saw that dozens of soldiers were incinerated in the super-heated beam, and a few civilians unlucky enough to be walking by at that exact moment didn''t survive, either.
"Run, run! Don''t stop," Reivyn shouted to the mercenaries.
Screams from the people sounded from all around. Pandemonium broke out as people fled every which way to get away from the attack. Soldiers rushed to the gate despite seeing theirpanions torched right before their eyes. Reivyn admired their courage.
"Can''t you do something with your Qi?" Refix asked.
Reivyn shook his head.
"That was luck," he replied. "I haven''t figured out how to actively use it properly, yet, and I''m afraid the damage will be done before my instincts kick in. I have it as an emergency, but it''s not something I can call forth at will."
"Fair enough."
"REIVYN!" A booming voice cut through all the sound. "Where are you going, Reivyn? I see that you''re little girlfriend is back. She has an open invitation, too. Come with us. We just want to... talk."
Another explosion entuated the voice. Reivyn rolled his eyes before turning to face themander of the Imperial Guards.
"Get Lady Kefira to the teleport circle," Reivyn Commanded. "Your mission will beplete once she''s safely there."
"What? No!" Kefira shouted, turning in the saddle to look at Reivyn.
"Listen," Reivyn leaned forward and looked directly into her eyes. "Your abilities are going to be needed inside the Space corridor if we''re going to get away. We''re all counting on you. We can''t have you wasting your Mana on helping the rest of us just get there only to get caught inside the corridor. I''m not sending you ahead to avoid the danger. You''r job is the most important one, but it has to be in the right ce."
Kefira searched Reivyn''s face for any trace of subterfuge. After not finding any, she leaned forward and ced a quick kiss on his lips.
"Alright."
Reivyn hopped off his horse and drew the sword he had acquired from thepany supplies. It wasn''t a Mana Sword, so it wasn''t specifically designed to facilitate Mana, but it was much higher quality material and make than his old sword. There wasn''t a noticeable difference between the two. There was just ack of sentimentality to using it.
Refix joined his son on the ground, and Reivyn was surprised to see Xudrid and Vyria enter his Divine Sense as they fell out of the formation to face the danger with them again. Teilon and Kimberly shared a look. They nodded to each other. Teilon hopped off of his horse, and Kimberly guided her''s to join Kefira and Seri as they raced ahead under the escort of the Imperial Bodyguards.
The five people shared a look between each other before turning to face the direction of the city gates. The four cloaked individuals were casually strolling through the streets toward them. The corpses of the soldiers who rushed to confront them and defend their cityid sprawled across the ground behind them. Fires licked the walls and surrounding buildings. The road was partially destroyed, and rubble had been tossed about everywhere.
Reivyn and the others brandished their weapons, Xudrid eschewing his spear and shield for simply holding his hands up. Reivyn wasn''t concerned by hisck of weapons as he remembered what he had done with Gravity back in Piori.
"We admire your tenacity," one of the cloaked figures said, a smile visible under his hood. "One of the reasons you''ve been marked for priority education."
"Education?" Reivyn called out, raising an eyebrow.
The cloaked figure spread his arms wide.
"Come now. You don''t think we''re here for no reason, do you?" The man chuckled. "We have a grand undertaking. We''re doing this for the benefit of all mankind in the Realm."
"Yeah, everyone but the local poptions of the Regions your destroying," Reivyn replied sarcastically.
"Now that''s where you''re wrong," the cloaked figure shook a finger at Reivyn. "Even those that have been sacrificed for the greater good will benefit from our mission. It''s not just the living flesh bags of the people we''re liberating. The very souls of everyone will be freed. Alive... or dead."
The man spoke with passion. Reivyn knew that the man truly believed what he was saying. Reivyn adjusted his grip on his sword hilt, not faltering or being swayed by the man''s words.
"I see you''re skeptical. That''s fine. Most people are before they know the truth. Come. Come with us and liberate your mind. We''ll teach you the truths of the universe, and you''ll willingly join our cause."
"Sorry, but I don''t see what''s so liberating about destroying the lives of countless millions of people," Reivyn retorted.
The cloaked figure shook his head.
"So short-sighted..."
"All right," the voice of another cloaked figure interrupted the first. Arge, burly man stepped forward. He wasn''t nearly asrge as the giant they had first encountered, but he was still a full head and shoulders taller than Reivyn while being twice as wide. "We''ve tried your way. Now it''s time to try mine."
The man punched his gauntleted fists together before suddenly sprinting forward. He lowered his shoulder and barreled into Reivyn, knocking him aside. Reivyn had properly defended himself against the sudden tackle, but there was just too much of a difference in Stats and mass. Reivyn''s body mmed into Teilon standing next to him, and Refix''s sword followed after, shing into the man''s back as he passed by.
The sword bounced off the man''s back with a loud metallic ng. With his Divine Sense, Reivyn could see that the man was just as armored as the giant had been. The metal was a dark gray and blue with the colors fluidly shifting back and forth as he moved. The man had no weapons other than his metal-enclosed fists.
The burly man halted his forward momentum instantly and sprang back to the group. Reivyn and Teilon had been sted to the side, so they were now behind the man as he confronted Refix and Vyria, Xudrid standing a little behind the two with his hands raised. Reivyn gained his feet and moved in to attack the man from behind, but his Danger Sense warned him away.
The other figures were just outside of his Divine Sense range, so he didn''t see who cast the Spell, but Reivyn halted his steps at the warning only for a sma Beam to sh past where he would have stood. It was considerably toned down from when it had destroyed the city gates, but it would have been enough to overpower his defenses if he had tried to take it.
In the short pause that Reivyn halted himself and the sma Beam shed by, Teilon took the opportunity to dash forward, hunched over to present a smaller target. His daggers shed as he struck at where he expected seams in the enemies armor as he used his fists and Pugilist Skill to evenly fight against Refix and Vyria with their swords.
Reivyn was momentarily in awe of the man''s fighting prowess. He could admit the man''s mastery of the craft even though he was the opposition. The man moved with a fluid grace that belied the heavy armor he was wearing. He never overextended himself, and Reivyn couldn''t see any openings presented to not only Refix and Vyria, but to Teilon as well, now that he had joined the fray.
There were no openings open to the three of them, but Reivyn was able to see somethingpletely different.
Everything is a weapon.
Lines, circles,plex shapes and patterns all swam in his vision on the man''s back. He instinctively understood what they all meant, and Reivyn acted on one immediately.
He used his obedience over Air Mana to remotely nudge Teilon''s foot as he maneuvered around for another stab at a possible seam. Teilon tripped and crashed into the man''s side from behind. The burly man had obviously been paying attention to Teilon''s movements, and the unexpected tackle that even Teilon was unable to anticipate managed to throw the man off his stride. His arm involuntarily came up over Teilon''s head, and Vyria''s sword stabbed into the underside in that quick sh.
The sword didn''t pierce too deeply into the man, but it was enough. He threw his head back and screamed in frustration and pain, not having expected it. He wasn''t mentally prepared to get stabbed just below his armpit into his ribs. Refix took advantage of the man''s distraction to smack him upside the head with his de, ringing his bell.
The burly man copsed to the ground from the blow, but Reivyn could tell he wasn''t nearly down for the count. An arrow came screaming through the air at the others, preventing them fromnding more blows, and a rush of sma Bolts peppered them, forcing them to activate their Mana and Qi Shield Skills. Teilon was the least aplished with Mana, and the Bolts immediately melted through his Shield, but he had a solution to that. His body sunk into the ground, avoiding the rest of the projectiles.
Refix intercepted the arrow with his ethereal weapons, and Xudrid threw his hands out, crushing the fourth cloaked figure who had dashed forward with a wide scimitar to the ground. Reivyn quickly assessed the situation. They had gotten lucky with the pugilist engaging on his own, but now that all four of them were going to being for them, there was little hope that they would be able to prevail.
That wasn''t the objective, though. They just needed to stall for time to allow Kefira and the rest to get to the teleport circle before disengaging and joining them.
Reivyn formed a link with the other four with his Mana. He was able to "see" Teilon underground with his Divine Sense as his friend repositioned to spring back up to the surface.
"Disperse!" He subvocalized. "Dad, you and the other two rush off that way. They want to capture you just as much as they want to capture me. Teilon, youe with me. We''ll split up and divide their numbers. Maybe we''ll get lucky and they''ll split up in a way we can take advantage of. Lead them through the city for a bit before heading to the teleport circle."
"All right," Refix replied with his own subvocalization. "You be safe out there."
"Will do."
Refix, Vyria, and Xudrid turned and sprinted down an alley to the side of the main road.
"Come back here!" The burly man shouted as he sprang to his feet and chased after them.
"Wait, idiot!" The first cloaked man, the archer, called out. The burly man ignored him as he disappeared behind the walls of the buildings. The archer paused for a second as he looked up at the sky. Reivyn could hear him sigh in exasperation with his Divine Sense.
"Come on!" Reivyn reached down into the ground, grabbing Teilon under his arm and hauled him back up to the surface. The two turned and sprinted off in the other direction.
They moved through the alley at breakneck speeds, and thest Reivyn saw of the other three cloaked figures in his Divine Sense showed them hesitating on which group to follow.
That should buy us at least a little time.
Chapter 224: Cat and Mouse
Chapter 224: Cat and Mouse
"Stop!" The faint sound of the archer reached Reivyn''s ears as he and Teilon dashed down the alleyway. His voice was muffled by distance and the buildings between them.
Like I''m going to stop and let myself get captured, Reivyn mentally rolled his eyes. These guys are just as zealous as the Deathsworn if just in a different way. What could they possibly say to convince me and others to join them willingly?
Religion was apletely voluntary thing that brought tangible benefits to the believers. One could join the ranks of a religion and receive numerous opportunities such as exclusive sses and Skills, much less the support of a nearly Realm-wide organization. There were smaller religions that only existed within some local areas, but some were just as expansive as the Adventurer''s Guild. The Church of Light was one such organization.
Speaking of, I still have that token in my pouch that needs to be appraised. I just haven''t had the time, and I''ve let it slip from my mind. I can get that taken care of once I get back to Willowan. Maybe I''ll send a letter to Josn and see what he''s been up to while I''m at it.
A Realm-wide organization like the Church of Light would obviously havemunication abilities between Regions. Wouldn''t be much of an expansive unit if they were allpletely independent of each other.
Reivyn felt his Danger Sense ping, and he reached over and grabbed Teilon by the cor to yank him to the side of the alley. They ducked down and an arrow passed overhead, mming through the wall at the end of the alley. A huge hole appeared in the building, and Reivyn could see people scrambling for cover inside before he was in range with his Divine Sense.
Themotion caused panic in everyone inside the surrounding buildings that Reivyn could sense, and they were all running to exit the buildings on the other side. With their enhanced Stats, it only took another couple of seconds for Reivyn and Teilon to reach the end of the alley. They quickly turned to their right, moving in the direction further into the city, at the fork and kept running.
Clothes were hung on lines between the buildings above their heads, and trash and other obstacles were on the ground. Reivyn just barreled through everything, and if something was toorge to just charge through, he would quickly slide to the side while Teilon just phased through it.
With Teilon''s ability to just run straight through everything, he easily kept up with Reivyn. His ss also probably heavily focused on Dexterity. He might even have more Dexterity than Reivyn depending on his Level. Reivyn hadn''t scanned his friend with Sense Threat. He could just ask, but now wasn''t the time."Just like old times, eh?" Teilon nced over at Reivyn and grinned.
"I wouldn''t say just like old times," Reivyn chuckled. "We don''t have a stolen pie, for one thing."
"I can fix that," Teilon said, eyeing an open window to one side. Sadly, there were no pies sitting on the sill cooling.
"Maybe some other time," Reivyn said, careening around another corner. "I know you used to work on unlocking and Leveling the Cooking Skill. How about you whip one up and show me what you got when we get out of here."
"That''s not as fun, though."
"Sure it is. At least for me. I just sit back and then there''s a whole pie to eat. What''s not fun about that?"
"Which one of us is the glutton, again?"
"Come on, stop this useless struggle!" The archer''s voice reached them from above.
The tops of the buildings they were within range of Reivyn''s Divine Sense, but his range was a three-dimensional sphere. Reivyn looked up and back and saw the archer jumping from roof to roof, catching up to them from above.
Reivyn threw his hand out, timing it so that a sma Beam intersected with the archer''s path as he flew through the air in one of his jumps. The archer activated a Mana Shield Skill and effortlessly blocked the impromptu Spell. Reivyn hadn''t umted enough Mana to bypass the man''s defenses, but he wasn''t going to run like a scared rabbit without retaliating at all.
Reivyn and Teilon turned another corner, closing in on an exit to arger street on the other side of the blocks of buildings. Reivyn''s Danger Sense pinged again, and he grabbed Teilon to pull both of them to the ground. A sh of light passed overhead, and Teilon took the opportunity to roll into the wall next to them, disappearing from visual sight.
Reivyn sprung up to his feet and saw the cloaked man with the scimitar standing before him. Lines crossed through the building he was standing next to, indicating where his sword has shed right through the building like butter.
The cloaked swordsman performed an overhead sh, and Reivyn danced to the side. The man''s scimitar sunk into the ground easily, but it didn''t get stuck and hinder him. He simply pulled it back up and assumed a ready stance.
Reivyn drew his sword and enforced it with his Eternal Affinity. He selected the Affinity for its durability, assessing that the man had supreme cutting abilities. Reivyn engaged the man in swordy, searching for a way to trip him up and slip past him. Every strike from the man sent shivers through Reivyn''s Mana and drained his points significantly.
The cloaked man had a surprised expression on his face at the start of their exchange, but it quickly morphed into one of concentration. Reivyn heard the man mutter under his breath.
"Everything cuts."
That sounds familiar, a thought flickered through Reivyn''s mind. Sounds like my mantra. His Swords Skill is high enough to have achieved Transcendence. Maybe his ability is to cut anything and everything.
Reivyn''s conjecture was spot on as he witnessed the man easily sh through obstacles that would normally stop one''s swing. Reivyn danced around the man trying to use the environment as an extra way to parry the man''s wild swings. Normally one would be moreposed in their strikes, especially with a high Skill Level, but the man''s Transcendent ability allowed him to be more wanton. He didn''t have to worry about rebounding off of the walls and risk losing his bnce as his sword just passed right through it.
The man''s ability to be more unrestrained in his style put pressure on Reivyn''s own Weapons Master Skill. The cloaked man wasn''t better than him with the technicals of swordy, but he was able to put more force into his attacks in the enclosed environment without opening himself up. The speed he moved had Reivyn on the back foot, looking for an opportunity to counter attack.
If I can just steer the confrontation in a way to get a chance to strike back, my own Transcendent Skill shoulde into y.
Reivyn was concentrating on the sword fight, but thinking of the mantra, he had a slight epiphany. Why was he relegating himself to waiting for an opportunity to strike back with his sword? With his mindset shift, lines and patterns appeared on the man, and after a wild swing that ended with both their bodies twisted in a way that they couldn''t easily bring their swords to bear quickly, Reivyn abandoned thoughts on striking with his sword and simply mmed the man with his shoulder.
His Danger Sense pinged once more as the swordsman lost his bnce getting thrown into the wall and Reivyn turned his over-extension into a roll. He sprang to his feet and continued to dive forward and to the side of the off-bnce swordsman as an arrow pierced into the ground where he had just stood exposed to the archer.
Reivyn used the wall to arrest his momentum and sprang up with his back now in the direction he wanted to go. All he needed to do was disengage from the swordsman, and the chase could continue.
The swordsman regained his bnce and took one step forward, both hands holding the scimitar at the ready in front of himself. Hand suddenly sprang out of the wall behind him, and Reivyn could see that a Danger Sense Skill was activated and warning the swordsman of the danger, so he thrust forward with his sword at the man''s face to keep his focus centered on Reivyn.
Teilon''s upper body appeared out of the wall, and in one swift motion as the man parried Reivyn''s strike while slightly leaning back to avoid the sword that was strangely not thrown off-course by the parry, Teilon grabbed the man''s head, tilting it back, as his dagger drew a line of blood across his throat.
The scimitar copsed to the ground as the man clutched his throat, surprise and pain reflected in his eyes. Reivyn didn''t hesitate and adjusted the trajectory of his sword down to stab straight into the man''s heart.
A throat-sh and heart-stabbo would have done tens of thousands of points of damage to the man. With a high enough Vitality Stat, he would be able to survive the initial blow, but without someone administering emergency healing to him, the blood loss and hole in his heart would steadily shave off his Health in massive percentages every second.
The man copsed in a pool of blood as Teilon stepped over his body. The man clutched his throat as he writhed on the ground, his ck cloak steadily turning red as he bled out. Reivyn and Teilon shared a look before resuming their sprint down the alley. Reivyn saw the archer enter his Divine Sense as he jumped to the ground, but he only witnessed him reach into a pouch under his cloak as he took a knee next to the swordsman before they sprinted beyond his ability to see him.
They rushed out of the alley into a busy street of people. Reivyn was surprised there were still so many people out and about considering themotion at the gates, but it made sense when he thought about it for a second.
It really hasn''t been all that long since the cloaked figures entered the city after us. Reivyn nced at his System clock. It''s been less than five minutes, and we''ve run pretty far from the initial confrontation location. Word hasn''t had time to get here to warn them of the danger.
"Enemy attack!" Reivyn shouted, infusing his voice with Commanding Shout. "Get of the streets and get to safety!"
This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Reivyn felt his Heroic Bearing and Heroic Aura interact with his Commanding Shout. Normally, people would think he was a lunatic trying to cause trouble, but with the synergy of his Skills, his words were seen as instantly credibly by the lower-Level civilians in the vicinity.
Reivyn''s Heroic Aura also helped to keep the people rtively calm. People didn''t begin screaming and rushing about like chickens with their heads cut off. Everyone simply picked up their pace and began running toward a safe location they knew of.
The street quickly cleared of pedestrians in front of Reivyn and Teilon as they sprinted toward the inner city. toons of soldiers could be seen in the distance rushing toward their location. City guards were attached to the military units, guiding them in the right direction.
Word must have spread among the defenders about the cloaked figures taking off after us, at least.
Reivyn could see that the roads were clear beyond where the soldiers wereing from, so he surmised they had been spreading word for everyone to seek shelter, as well.
"Good, looks like we''ll have a clear shot to the inner city this way," Reivyn said as they picked up the pace. "Good job with that Sneak Attack. The timing was perfect."
"Remember those exact words when we''re retelling it to Kimberly," Teilon said.
"Sure thing buddy," Reivyn nced at his friend out of the corner of his eye, his mouth turning up in a sideways smile.
"I see that twinkle in your eye," Teilon used. "You don''t have to say anything other than, ''at the perfect time, Teilon struck a sessful Sneak Attack, saving my life and allowing us to escape our pursuers.'' You know, just the honest truth."
Reivyn rolled his eyes.
The two sprinted through the streets passed the soldiers running toward danger. Reivyn nodded to theirmander with respect in his eyes, and the man''s back straightened under Reivyn''s gaze. Reivyn cracked a smile as they ran past.
It was a straight shot to the gate leading to the inner city, and Reivyn could see a wall of pikes formed up in front of the closed gate. Archers and Mages stood on the wall, ready to rain death and destruction down on anyone trying to force their way into the inner city. Reivyn felt the eyes of the defenders concentrate on him and Teilon as they neared the heavily defended choke-point.
The two slowed to a jog as Reivyn pulled out his contract. The Imperial Seal adorned the front of it, and he hoped it would be enough to prove his affiliation to allow them ess to the inner city. The teleport circle was beyond these walls, and their ns could run into a significant road block if they didn''t let them pass.
"Halt!" Amanding voice hollered from the line of pikes.
Reivyn and Teilon stopped in ce. Reivyn held forth the contract.
"I''m with the Imperial Army," he said, waving it up and down. "We need ess to the inner city."
A man with captain''s insignia stepped forward and epted the paper. He nced at the Imperial Seal on the front and raised his eyes to meet Reivyn''s.
"How do we know you''re not with the insurgents?" The man asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"The seal on the document is legitimate. I know you can tell," Reivyn answered. "Also, the invaders are pretty distinctive in appearance. They''re all wearing heavy ck cloaks over powerful armor. We put one down, possibly killing him, back in that alley," Reivyn jerked his head in the location they hade from. "There''s two of them back there, still. The other three chased after my otherpanions in the opposite direction. Two men and a woman. They''ll need ess to the inner city, as well, when they get here."
"And I''m just supposed to let everyone pass through this military check-point, willy-nilly?" The captain questioned, unconvinced. "We''ll verify the authenticity of these papers after the crises is over."
The captain rolled up the contract and held it in his hand in a manner indicating he wasn''t going to be giving it back any time soon. Reivyn sighed.
"Did you see the Imperial Bodyguardse through here moments ago? They were escorting the princess of an ally Empire. We''re part of her entourage, and we stayed back to buy them time to get to the teleport circle in the inner city. They can''t leave without us. Are you going to be responsible for the diplomatic incident caused by keeping an allied princess held captive in the city? Do you think your career can survive such a mistake?"
Reivyn heavily leaned on his Heroic Bearing and Aura Skills. He took a lecturing tone with the captain. He could see the thoughts churning in the other man''s mind.
"All you have to do is infuse Mana into the seal to authenticate it," Reivyn pointed out. "You could have already done it."
The man didn''t waver. Reivyn could see determination in his eyes as he remained stoic.
"I have orders not to let anyone pass until further notice. I can''t let you through until the current crises is averted," The captain remained unpersuaded, crossing his arms.
Trantion: I have orders to give me, specifically, a hard time, Reivyn thought.
"You know, Prince Allik signed my orders himself," Reivyn continued in a conversational tone. He stopped leaning on his Heroic Skills and switched over to using Gab and Silver Tongue. "He and I grew pretty close over the campaign. Do you think General Allik is going to care about whoever it was who gave you those orders when he finds out you were giving his friend a hard time in a dangerous situation?"
The captain once more wavered. He uncrossed his arms and opened his mouth to speak.
Suddenly, Teilon was standing next to the captain waving the contract in his face. He subtly tilted his head for Reivyn to follow him.
"We''ll be sure to let the chain ofmand know how helpful you were, Captain," Teilon said, stepping past the man.
Reivyn fought a smile as he walked past the man who was now looking down at his empty hands with confusion. They walked up to the wall of pikes, not slowing their steps.
"Let them through," the captain''s voice came from behind as they stepped within range of the pikemen.
The soldiers guarding the gate stepped aside, making a path for Reivyn and Teilon to pass through. Reivyn noticed his Notification window blinking at him, but he ignored it for now. He and Teilon nodded to the soldiers on either side as they made their way to a door set in the side of the portcullis for individuals to pass through when the gates were closed.
They stepped through the open door and Reivyn felt the umtion of Mana and Qi in the distance. Loud booms followed the sensation, and he paused in the threshold of the door to look in the direction his father and the others would being from. The amount of Mana being slung about indicated the enemy Mage had taken off after them and they were still in hot pursuit of Refix and the others.
The soldiers all tensed up and looked in the direction of the explosions. A group of three people rushed out of a side street, turning to face the charge of another individual throwing his fists about in wild abandon. Refix and Vyria fended him off with their swords as continued his assault. Xudrid threw his hands up, and Reivyn could see and feel Gravity warp in the air around them, sending a ming projectile off course, mming into the wall.
"Those are mypanions," Reivyn called out to the captain and surrounding soldiers. "The two cloaked figures are your targets. The other three can be let through."
Reivyn felt more Mana umte above him as the Mages on the wall prepared tounch a salvo of Spells at the enemies. Refix maneuvered the burly man into passing by as he attempted a body m, and he and the two cultivators took the chance to turn and race toward the gate. At the separation between them and the burly cloaked man, the Mages standing above Reivyn released their Spells.
Beams, Bolts, and Arrows flew through the air as the cloaked Mage stepped out of the side street into view. The enemy Mage waved his hand and the iing projectiles veered off to the side, bypassing them harmlessly. He quickly retaliated with his own Spell, and a thick beam of smaunched at the defenders.
"Shields!" The captain screamed.
The thick Beam swept across the top of the wall and looped around to include the defenders below. The Shield Skills of the defenders held for a moment before sputtering out under the intense heat of the sma Beam. Screams and the smell of scorched flesh reached Reivyn. He held his hand up andunched his own Beam back at the cloaked Mage.
The Cloaked Mage lifted a hand and Reivyn''s Beam was sshed harmlessly against the man''s Mana Shield. Groans of pain and cries for help came from the soldiers previously standing in front of the gates. Not all of them were dead, but everyone was at least injured. The captain crawled to his knees as he surveyed the destruction of his men.
"These guys are too high Level for you, Captain," Reivyn called out. "Don''t get in their way and let the higher-Leveled defenders in the inner city take care of them." Reivyn turned his attention to his father, cupping his hands to shout. "Just go over the wall! Meet at the teleport circle!"
Just seeing his father and the two cultivators still keeping out of the two cloaked figures'' reach was good enough for Reivyn for now. There was no reason they had to converge with their goal so close, now. He and Teilon turned and rushed into the inner city, leaving the defending soldiers to their own devices.
It would be counter productive for them to stick around to render aid. They were the targets of the cloaked figures, so running away would actually give the defenders more of a chance to survive. Reivyn could have also warned the captain and his men not to try and engage the enemies, but they wouldn''t have listened. It would have also been an insult to their determination and duty. Getting as far away from them as he could as quickly as possible was the best possible thing he could do for them under these circumstances.
Reivyn still felt a pang of guilt over how everything had gone down, but there wasn''t much he could have done to change things. The cloaked figures were always going to easily overpower the lower-Leveled defenders. The way it happened might have actually reduced their casualties than if they had been able to put up more of a fight.
"You can''t get away!" The archer''s voice once more reached Reivyn''s ears. He nced back and saw the man flying through the air toward the top of the wall from one of the nearby buildings. "Oh, and mypanion is fine, so don''t worry about him. He might give you a hard time in the future as you limate to our society, but you did almost kill him."
Reivyn shook his head at the man''s continued confidence that Reivyn would willingly join them. He didn''t bother to reply to the man as he and Teilon picked up the pace and continued to rush toward the teleport circle. They could almost see it at this point.
The density of the city was much less than the outer city. There were no convenient alleyways they could duck into on their way to the teleport circle from their current location, so they werepletely exposed to the archer as they raced ahead. Reivyn kept his hand on Teilon''s shoulder, pushing and pulling his friend with him as he used his Danger Sense to dodge the iing arrows. None of them wereunched with lethal intent, but if they got struck by one, it could possibly mean game over to their little cat and mouse game.
"Let''s sit down and talk about this," the archer called out. Reivyn could hear a trace of frustration finally entering the man''s voice. "We''ll just follow you into the teleport circle and keep chasing you until we catch you. Don''t put more lives in danger."
Reivyn''s conviction was strong enough to ignore the implication in the man''s words. The archer and hispanions were the ones putting lives in danger as they struck at Reivyn and hispanions. Reivyn wouldn''t let the man shift responsibility for his actions onto him.
Reivyn and Teilon reached the intersection leading to the square holding the massive teleport circle. They quickly turned onto the street and finally saw their destination. The Imperial Bodyguards were lined up on horseback outside the circle, and Reivyn could see several additions to their ranks. He didn''t assess them with Sense Threat, but he could tell that they were at least Tier 5 with the aura of power surrounding them.
"Quite the wee party, eh?" Teilon quipped.
"They can probably hold off one or two of the cloaked figures," Reivyn replied. "I don''t know about if all four of them converge, though. That Mage can cover a wide area with his Spells."
"Look on the bright side," Teilon shrugged. "Every second they stall those crazy people is every second we can separate further from them."
Reivyn nodded his head as they booked it down the street. Very quickly they passed the waiting Bodyguards, themander waving the new additions away from blocking their path. Refix, Vyria, and Xudrid rushed out of side street to finally join back up with them as they entered the walls surrounding the circle.
Kefira and the rest were waiting anxiously in front of the open teleportation corridor. Reivyn simply waved his arms to indicate for everyone to just start going. Oryin was among the first to run into the corridor with the other Mages, even before the head maid and her staff. Kefira waited until Reivyn got closer to join them.
Mana exploded outside the walls, and the sounds of yelling andbat entered his ears as they all rushed into the corridor. Reivyn turned to the others as they ran.
"Sounds like all four of the cloaked figures are together again. They''ll get through the defenders with theirbined firepower, so don''t slow down." He faced Kefira. "Have you recovered enough Mana?"
"I should be good," Kefira answered. She looked a little pale, still, but Reivyn could see the determination in her eyes.
"I''ll assist again," Reivyn said. "We''ll need something to interrupt the space corridor without copsing it."
"Don''t worry. I''ve got this."
Chapter 225: Snapped Under Pressure
Chapter 225: Snapped Under Pressure
Oryin grumbled as the upstart forced everyone into the city at a breakneck speed. He had no empathy for those under hismand, pushing them until they were on the brink of copse. Then, as soon as they made it inside the city, he dismissed the untrained youths from his responsibility as fast as he possibly could. It was a shameful disy.
Oryin ground his teeth at the dismissal of his idea to swiftly and efficiently disperse the enemies. How dangerous could they be? There was only four of them.
I have no idea what that girl sees in a coward like him, Oryin snorted. What kind of a militarymander flees from four people with an entire battalion at their back? He also had ess to our Mage Academy Honor Graduates. Then he had the audacity to order the princess about like she was somemon underling.
I just have to bide my time until we get to Wispan. Then that fool won''t have a leg to stand on with his "under mymand" nonsense. We''ll see who has thestugh.
Oryin smirked as he thought about the humiliation he was going to return to the fop. He was clearly in his position due to nepotism or something. He hadn''t shown a speck of leadership or tactical proficiency whatsoever.
"So, umm.. Ory... What''s going on with the princess and that mercenary?" One of the Mages eyed him sideways as they rode on their horses. "She looks mighty chummy sitting on that horse with him at the moment."
Oryin nced at the Mage and rolled his eyes.
"It''s politics above your level," Oryinmented. "Word is that he''s some sort of envoy from another Imperial Family trying to make connections with our Septimus. He stalked her on her Life Experience excursion and pulled the wool over her eyes. I can''t afford to offend a scion of an Imperial Family face to face, so I have to y the long game."
Oryin patted himself on the back foring up with this story over the past several months'' investigation into the background of Reivyn. There were far too many peculiarities behind him, and he knew he was on the right track working to uncover his deception. He seriously doubted he was some prince of another empire, but he definitely had some connections.The presence of his bodyguard, the man known as Refix, all but confirmed Oryin''s suspicions. There was no way that somebody without a powerful background had ess to a personal bodyguard of that Level. Not even the crown prince of Wispan had a personal bodyguard at high-Tier 5. One would have to search the ranks of the Elders to even find someone of mid-Tier 5.
The umtion of a tremendous amount of Mana arrested Oryin''s attention. He and all the other Mages simultaneously looked back at the city gate where the Mana was being gathered. Oryin had a frown on his face and was about to open his mouth toment on the strange phenomenon.
Suddenly, a huge explosion knocked the city gatespletely off the wall. The reinforced steel was partially melted from the brief impact of the heat of a giant sma Beam slicing through the wall into the city. Soldiers and civilians alike were torched into a crisp instantly, hundreds losing their lives in a sh.
Oryin''s eyes widened, but his body froze. He sat in the saddle in terror. He had never seen such a disy of destruction from a single Spell before. The deaths of so many and the overwhelming might of the one Spell allowed a dread to settle over him that he couldn''t shake off.
"What was that?!" One of the other Mages screamed in terror.
"We have to escape!" Another one shouted.
The Mages were looking around with wild eyes, not knowing what course of action to take. Several eyes settled on Oryin, seeking his counsel. He sat frozen, though, uprehending of the situation.
Suddenly, Princess Kefira was galloping past the Mages with two female attendants close to her side. The Imperial bodyguards were moving to protect her.
"Follow the princess!" One of the Mages shouted.
Oryin sat still on his saddle in a daze. He finally came out of his stupor as he felt his cor get grabbed in a tight grip, yanking his face away from the carnage.
"Come on!" The same Mage who questioned him earlier screamed in his face.
Oryin shook himself from his fog and cast onest nce behind him. Thest thing he saw before turning to flee was Reivyn, Refix, and two unknown mercenaries standing between them and the four demons, ready to engage them inbat alone
Hahahahaha, the fool''s going to get killed, and I won''t have to lift a finger, Oryin shouted to himself in his mind. He had a manic grin on his face as he kicked his horse into a gallop.
The group charged through the city, only asionally slowing down to allow for the civilian foot traffic further in the city who didn''t know what was going on a chance to get out of the way unharmed by the galloping horses. Oryin rolled his eyes at the people of this city just casually strolling through the streets at a time like this, much less in front of a huge crowd of mounted soldiers and Mages.
It never urred to him that the vast majority of people were still either below Tier 4 or too low Level within the Tier to have mastered enough about Mana to have sensed the Spell. This far into the city, the ambient noise cancelled out the sound of the explosion, and those that could have sounded the rm were dead. He only red ahead at the slow moving traffic, willing them to move faster so he wouldn''t be left behind.
I need to get up there with the princess in her protective bubble, he thought to himself. They''ve obviously somehow learned of my exploits and that I''ve arrived in this backwater empire to help put a stop to their tyranny. Why else would they show up out of nowhere right when I got here?
I bet it was that cowardly Reivyn, selling secrets to the enemy for profit. He might even be one of them! Why else would he appear so calm when facing those demons?! They''re in this together!
Oryin''s mind was filled with thoughts of the utter betrayal from someone who supposedly sought the hand of their princess. From the rumors on the street, the entire idea ofing to these war-torn hellholes had been his idea in the first ce.
Didn''t the princess have a run-in with a simr situation in Drallo? That''s way too many coincidences! That duplicitous chatan was never after Kefira''s hand! He led the entire empire by the nose, step by step, to this point where their Septimus and most promising young wizard could be captured in one fell swoop, thus snipping the most major opposition to their plundering before they ever set foot in Wispan!
So convinced of his conjecture, Oryin never even considered that it made no sense that two low Level Tier 4''s would be in any way considered strategic targets. Even his Master, the Court Magus, the person most responsible for Oryin''s current status, never entered his mind as someone who would definitely be targeted before he was.
Oryin stewed in his own imagination as they raced through the city toward the teleport circle. They were too far away to hear the sounds of fighting, but he could definitely feel the powerful Spells being wielded by that lunatic demon in the distance. The trajectory of where the Mana wasing from indicated that he was running through the city somewhere off to the side, but he wasn''t chasing directly after them, and that was all Oryin cared about.
It looks like at least one of them is useful for something, Oryin thought. The longer they lead them through the city, the higher chance Kefira and I have of getting away... But wait, what if it''s part of their ruse? We can''t trust them. If they show up at the teleport circle, it''ll be definitive proof of their guilt.
Oryin rationalized his own internal usations. Never mind the fact that the n was for them to meet up at the teleport circle so they could all escape together. That didn''t matter. As long as Reivyn and his dastardly allies brought the demons with them, that was all Oryin needed to see.
They raced through the gate leading to the inner city, the Imperial bodyguards getting the local captain to wave them through with no questions. Oryin though he spotted a familiar face talking to the captain as they rushed by, but he didn''t get a good look at the man. He seemed to have been someone among the delegation that had met them when they arrived, but he couldn''t ce his finger on who.
No time! We have to get out of here!
The Spells were already getting to close to the inner city for Oryin''sfort as they rounded the bend that would lead them to the teleport circle. Luckily, they made it to the familiar square without Reivyn and his traitors cutting them off, and there were several more high-Level Imperial bodyguards waiting for their arrival.
Oryin didn''t pay attention to what Kefira said to one of the mercenary lieutenants, but the man ordered the rest of thepany to continue into the teleport corridor ahead of them. Oryin was upset at first as arge portion of those who could assist them in their defense seemingly abandoned them, but then he remembered who they were.
Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred tform. Support original creators!
Does Kefira suspect Reivyn, too? He thought, hope blooming in his chest. Is that why she''s sending his soldiers away? This is the perfect chance!
Oryin kicked his horse into trotting over to where the princess was inspecting the teleport circle. She was lost in deep concentration, but that didn''t stop him from approaching. If he didn''t tell her now, then it would be toote. Already he could feel the other Mana signature of another demon closing in on them from the way they had juste.
"Brilliant move with sending the mercenaries ahead of us," Oryin opened up with praise. "They won''t be in a position to hear Reivyn''s orders, but we''ll have to quickly follow them if we''re to escape that traitor."
Kefira''s attention was pulled away from the teleport corridor to focus on Oryin. He felt a tingle run through his spine as her ruby eyes met with his. He could never get over the feeling after all these years'' interaction with her.
"What?" She asked, perplexed.
"We have to escape that traitor!" Oryin repeated. "He''s obviously one of them! The signs are so clear."
"Are you talking about Reivyn?" Kefira was taken aback, too lost in the web of lies that man had her wrapped in to see the truth.
"Who else? Think about it! He''s led us all here by the nose. Some unknown person with an unknown affiliation infiltrates the Imperial Court, convinces them to disperse their military across multiple fronts, gets in close with their most talented daughter so that she''ll follow him into danger, and everywhere he goes, these invaders keep popping up! What more evidence do you need?"
Kefira just stared at him for several long seconds. Suddenly, Seri burst outughing. She bent over double in her saddle, gasping for air. Kefira nced at her maid - someone she was far too lenient with in Oryin''s opinion - before looking back to him.
"You don''t have to worry about that," she said, full of false confidence. "I know exactly who Reivyn is."
Oryin shook his head. Aside from his burning love and passion for the woman, he felt pity for her as well.
"He''s got you all wrapped around his finger. You don''t even question all of the suspicious points."
The other maid, a girl he had never seen before who was d in medium armor with a spear, gave him a strange look.
"Did your mother drop you on your head as a child?" She questioned.
Oryin frowned and was about to reprimand the girl who didn''t know her ce, but Kefira held up her hand to silence everyone.
"Enough!" She Commanded. "I need to focus. That means you, Oryin, need to go back over to the other Mages. You all should go ahead of us and make your way to the other side. There''s no reason for you to linger here."
Oryin''s mouth drew into a line.
Just wait until I''ve made you my wife, he thought as he turned his horse around. We''ll see if you talk back to me, then.
Oryin shook his head as joined the other Mages and indicated for them all to cross the teleport corridor. He had miscalcted. Kefira was still caught up in Reivyn''s web. He needed to let the spider bare his fangs before he rescued her, or she would never know the true danger she was in.
He took his rightful position at the head of the Mages, leading them. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was the position furthest away from the pursuing demons. He was a leader.
---
Kefira put the idiot out of her mind. She could vaguely hear Seri and Kimberly whispering and scoffing at the ludicrous statement the Mage had made. She couldn''t focus on that, though, as she put all of her concentration into the teleport corridor.
There had been something with Reivyn''s Mana that had allowed her to easily ess the System assistance when she had flooded the highway with more Space. He had told her that it would be there, but she hadn''t understood exactly what he had meant at the time. She was having a hard time getting back to a simr state where the Space Mana seemed to jump to obey her every wish.
Now that she didn''t have ess to nearly as much System assistance - if that is what it was - Kefira found that she didn''t have as muchmand over the Affinity as she had thought. She concentrated on inspecting the Mana infused into the teleport Spell like she had done many times before, but she was looking at it from apletely different angle.
It seemed so simple in theory: Traveling with Space Mana was cutting a hole through Space and using it as a shortcut, and impeding with Space Mana was just adding more Space. How hard could it be?
Apparently, it was really hard.
The additional Space,pacted andpressed into a smaller geographical space, had toe from somewhere. She had assumed it was just from her immediate surroundings, but that hadn''t been the case. The ambient Mana in the area had reacted to what she and Reivyn had done, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a reaction to the Mana Maniption and not the cause of the phenomenon.
Some of that Space was pulled from the veil, Kefira thought. It looks like what''s surrounding the Space corridor on the inside is the outside of the Realm, but it''s not. That is the veil... It was an epiphany.
Long hours researching more efficient ways to use her Space Mana and with prating the veil itself had finally opened her eyes to the truth. It looked like it did - empty Space - because that''s what it was. Kefira frowned and shook her head at the thought.
No, that''s not right, either, she thought. It''s not empty Space. It''s pure Space. Of course it would visually represent the Affinity.
With that new understanding, Kefira inspected the edge between the corridor and the nothingness beyond. She seeped her Mana into the barrier, and the deeper she went, the more sure she was of her conjecture.
It wasn''t a big empty space of nothingness on the other side of the Space corridor, it was a wall of Pure Space Mana that seemed to go on infinitely.
She already knew from her experiments with prating the veil that it wasn''t the case. The nature of the Space Affinity only made it appear so when one was within the veil. She felt like she could poke a whole through the partition to the outside of the Realm if she so wished, but that''s not what she was trying to aplish.
Maybe one day.
She was only vaguely aware of a body leaping up onto the horse behind her and spurring it on. She was so engrossed in the Space Affinity all around them that she didn''t realize she and her group were already galloping down the corridor. She felt the ripples of Mana from powerful Spells behind them, but she paid it no heed.
I need to impede this end of the corridor without cutting it off, she thought to herself. If I just flood the entire radius of the corridor with more Space Affinity, it might cause a bacsh and do just that... What if I just... pinch it?
She put thought to action. She sent out her Mana to anchor into the walls of the Space corridor all around them. She was slightly surprised that it seemed to move further away from her on its own, but her subconscious didn''t warn her that it was out of the ordinary, so she ignored it.
She anchored the Mana to the veil and grabbed a firm hold on the partition. Just pulled as hard as she could, trying to pinch the corridor down to an impassable size, but it seemed as heavy as a mountain. It actively resisted her interference. She pumped more Mana into it, but she only saw marginal sess.
She was about to rethink her approach when she was flooded with foreign Mana once more. She once again felt that closer connection to the System Assistance, and the Space Mana seemed to want to aid her instead of resist her all of a sudden.
Without warning, the Space corridor behind them copsed until only a tiny pinprick remain open to keep the connection open. It was far more than she had intended.
The surprise of the foreign Mana, the shift in the Space Mana, and the overpensation of her desirebined with the warmth of a body pressing against her back with an arm around her waist causing Kefira to lose her concentration for a split second.
She opened her eyes and looked up and back into Reivyn''s face.
"Reivyn!" She eximed in surprise.
It was all she had time for before all hell broke loose.
The loss of her concentration caused her Mana anchors to lose their grip on the veil. As soon as the pressure she was exerting on the partition disappeared, the edges snapped back in ce, but it was like a rubber band. On top of that, when a bottleneck is created, pressure builds up. This was something Kefira might have made note of if she hadn''t been so absorbed in the pure Space affinity all around her, but it was overlooked in her experiment.
The corridor hadn''t been pinched for very long, but one must not underestimate the amount of energy flowing between the two end points of the teleport corridor. Keeping it open wasn''t just about manipting the veil to create the corridor, but pressure had to be supplied to keep it steady. That pressure had been disrupted in a magnificent way.
These realizations shed through her mind, and Kefira only had time to see the corridor''s edge expand much further than it had any right to before it snapped. One of the cloaked figures had been trying to force his way through the pinch, and his body had been half-way through, reaching forward like he could grasp the fleeing people.
That had been a fatal mistake.
It wasn''t just the Space inside the corridor that waspressed into the tiny pinprick. Everything inside of it waspressed as well. The cloaked figure had reached inside of it after it had been formed, though, so it didn''t have an initial impact on him. Once the Space upying the area violently expanded, though, he was now part of it.
His body expanded with the Space corridor to fill the same rtive area. The cloaked figure exploded into a blood mist.
That wasn''t the end of it. It wasn''t just the perimeter of the corridor that acted like a rubber band stretched too far. When the partition snapped, the corridor flung its upants violently in the opposite direction. Kefira didn''t see what happened to the other three cloaked figures, but she did turn to see what happened to their people.
The mercenaries had raced ahead of everyone else and had almost reached the other side. When the corridor snapped, they were flung forward andunched through the open end of the teleport circle at a tremendous speed. The Mages between the mercenaries and Kefira''s group had been pretty close to the mercenarypany. They had chased after them on horseback whereas the mercenaries had been on foot. They quickly followed the mercenaries and were flung safely, if violently, out of the corridor.
Kefira, though, felt despair as the partition began to dissolve all around them as they wereunched forward at the fastest speed of anyone inside. The corridor, though, disappeared faster, and moments before they would have been flung out of teleport corridor, the opening winked out of existence.
They tumbled through the Pure Space Mana of the veil separating the Realm from the rest of the universe. Kefira''s body rolled end-over-end, and she could vaguely sense that the others shared a simr fate.
A rope of strong, dense Mana enveloped her, and she Sensed it do the same with everyone else, including the horses. She didn''t have to look to see that it was Reivyn, and he managed to anchor everyone in their group together. With how Space worked in a Pure Space environment, if they were allowed to separate for even a few seconds more, there was no telling how far apart they would actually end up.
"Please tell me you have a solution to this," Teilon said. Kefira looked over expecting to see Reivyn''s friend either frightened or panicked, but he just had an amused look on his face as he took in their situation.
"She''s a Space/Time Esper... or, well, she was," Reivyn answered. "That was her Tier 3 ss. She''s advanced to Tier 4, so I''m sure she does." She looked down at her where they she was impossibly still wrapped in his embrace. "Right?"
"Honestly?" She looked at everyone in turn. "I was literally just thinking I felt like I could easily pierce a hole in the veil if I wanted to."
"See? No big deal," Reivyn said. Everyone rxed a little at the words.
"Yeah, there''s just one problem," Kefira said. Everyone once more looked to her. "Which way leads to the Realm, and which way leads Outside?"
Chapter 226: Lateral Move
Chapter 226: Lateral Move
"Flip a coin," Teilon said.
"What?" Reivyn asked, shifting his focus over to his friend.
"There''s only so many directions we can choose," Teilon exined. "If we don''t know the right way, just pick one at random." Teilon shrugged. Reivyn quirked an eyebrow. "You have the highest Luck Stat out of all of us, so it would make sense for you to do it."
"That''s not how the Luck Stat works," Kefira rolled her eyes. "Sure, it has an influence on random chance, sometimes, but you''re just as likely to not initiate any kind of influence from the Stat at all."
"Yeah, yeah," Teilon waved his hand dismissively. "We''ll just have everybody do it, then. Whichever side gets the most tosses, especially if it''s consistent among those with higher Luck, that''s the winner."
"I guess that makes sense," Reivyn said.
"Exactly. What could go wrong?"
"What could go wrong, he says," Reivyn gave Teilon a deadpan look. "You''re right. The Outside isn''t all that dangerous. There''s just no atmosphere or gravity, but that can be ovee with our Stats, Skills, and Magic. The only real danger - just a tiny, teensy, itty-bitty danger - is if we attract an invulnerable, immortal, soul consuming monster." Reivyn shrugged his shoulders nonchntly. "Hardly any danger at all, if you think about it."
Teilon stared at Reivyn for a moment, waiting for him to crack a smile at his joke."Wait. Are you serious?" Teilon asked with a little less confidence.
"Oh sure," Reivyn nodded his head. "I''ve encountered a couple of them. Made it through without a scratch."
Teilon gulped.
"Ok, maybe let''s think about it a little more," Teilon said. "What if we try and float in a direction and see if there''s any change in how the veil feels?"
Kefira shook her head.
"It might seem like that would work, but the veil extends infinitely in every direction," Kefira said.
"How does that work? Isn''t the veil like a membrane surrounding the Realm?" Teilon asked, confused. "If I remember correctly, aren''t Dungeons bubbles that exist kind of on the outside of the Realm, attached to the perimeter? How do we cross an infinite distance every time we enter a Dungeon? Also, didn''t you just say that you felt like you could pierce the veil easily?"
"That''s a good question," Kefira said. "The difference is that we''re inside the veil. The environment is made up of pure Space Mana. Sure, I could pierce the veil anytime I want using my own Space Mana, but piercing the veil and traveling inside here are two different things.
"The veil is like an infinite point. A point is a one-dimensional object, but there''s an infinite number of fractions within the point. What''s half of one?"
"Point five," Teilon replied.
"And half of point five is point two-five. We could go on and on and on forever, dividing up the point. On paper, they''re fractions. It''s a real number; however, inside the veil, those real number fractions are natural numbers to all of us while we''re inside the veil."
Teilon shook his head and waved his hand.
"You lost me at point two-five," Teilon said. "I''m not a thinker. I''m a doer."
"It''s a good thing you have all of us to do the thinking for you," Kimberly nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.
"Exactly," Teilon said, throwing his arm around Kimberly''s shoulder. "All of you do the thinking."
"You''re the one who asked," Reivyn pointed out.
"Aha! And there lies my genius. I asked to get all of you to think about it. Giving me an exnation just crystallizes your thoughts."
Reivyn narrowed his eyes at his friend, but he couldn''t think of a proper rebuttal to his statement.
"Any~way," Reviyn turned his focus back to Kefira and motioned for her to continue.
"Yes, well, when we''re inside the point, traveling is a manifestation of the infinite fractions. We can float forward for a million years and never get any closer to our destination."
"But wait, that doesn''t make any sense, either," Teilon interjected. "We use the teleport corridors all the time to move great distances. That contradicts what you just said."
"No, it doesn''t," Kefira shook her head. "When we use a teleport corridor or teleportation, we''re tethered to the Realm. It turns the point into a line, and we just travel along the line. Without a tether, we''re just inside the point."
"Ok~ay. I guess that makes sense?" Teilon scratched his head. "Sooo... we still have to flip a coin?"
Reivyn looked at everyone in turn. Nobody else seemed to have any other ideas, including Kefira. He shrugged once again.
"Looks like it," he said. "Let''s just hope we get the right side."
Reivyn pulled a coin out from his pouch. He gestured for everyone else to pull out their own coin, as well. He showed one side, and everyone matched his facing.
"This is heads. If itnds on this, we''ll..." Reivyn stopped and looked all around. "Wait, how do we know which way to even choose? We have up and down, left and right, front and back, and everything in between. Which way leads to out of the veil in either direction?"
"Doesn''t matter," Kefira said. "Think of it like we''re inside the edge of a piece of paper. We would have to pierce exactly, perfectly along the horizontal line to not pierce through one side or the other, and I can kind of sense where that is. Anything deviating even the smallest amount will pierce through to the other side. Just pick a direction for one side of the coin, and we''ll go with the exact opposite direction for the other side."
"Good enough for me. Just for simplicity, Heads will be straight up, and Tails will be straight down. One, two, three, flip!"
Reivyn tossed his coin up, keeping a careful eye on the coin as it flipped end over end. It would be annoying to miss catching it... and just as he thought that, he noticed Teilon miss his coin out of the corner of his eye. Reivyn caught his and turned to his friend, eyebrows raised. Teilon scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile on his face.
"I got distracted," he said. He pulled another coin out and flipped it, catching it easily as everyone else watched.
"Ok... I got tails," Reivyn announced.
"Heads," Teilon said.
"Tails," Refix said.
"Tails," Kefira answered.
"Tails," Kimberly concurred.
There was silence for a moment as everyone turned to look at Seri. Her mouth turned into a line as she nced at her coin again.
"...Heads," she finally said with an exasperated sigh.
Kefira looked back and forth between Seri and Teilon, a small smile forming on her lips.
"I wonder what this says about you," she snickered.
"Hey, now! What''s that supposed to mean?" Teilon said, hands on hips with an offended look on his face. He turned to Seri as everyone else chuckled. "Don''t listen to them. We''re just the ''head'' of the Party."
Reivyn guffawed.
"Sure, let''s assign the rogue and the girl who never talks as ''heads'' of the Party," Reivyn rolled his eyes.
"I talk!" Seri defended herself.
"To Kefira."
"That''s talking!"
"Sure. By the way, Teilon... ''head'' of the Party? That was a terrible pun."
"I didn''t have much to work with," Teilon shrugged.
"Alright, everyone ready?" Kefira asked.
"I''m good," Teilon said
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Kimberly nodded her head, still standing with Teilon''s arm over her shoulder. Kefira looked around to the others, and everyone nodded their heads.
"Ok, here we go."
Kefira built up the Mana within her and concentrated. Reivyn watched the Mana shift to Space Mana within her control, but something was tickling the back of his mind. He couldn''t quite put his finger on it, though.
Reivyn frowned as Kefira pulled the Space-attuned Mana out and began to manipte it.
Wait a second... a thought coalesced in Reivyn''s mind.
"Wait!"
But it was toote. Kefira drilled her Mana into the "ground" beneath their feet. A portal immediately formed and widened, but nobody had time to look through it to see what was on the other side, and Reivyn didn''t have time to parse what his Divine Sense was telling him. A tremendous force dragged all of them through the portal at high speed, catching everyone by surprise.
Reivyn found himself immediately submerged in water. His Divine Sense showed him that everyone had been dragged through the tear in reality just fine, but the shock of suddenly being underwater must have broken Kefira''s concentration. The portal winked out of existence, and Reivyn connected to everyone with a Mana thread.
"Everyone calm down," he subvocalized. "We''re only about twenty feet under the surface. Just follow me."
He kicked his feet andunched himself upward. It took a short moment for everyone to recognize what he said, but they all stopped iling around and followed him up. Reivyn broke the surface and took in a breath shortly followed by everyone else.
Reivyn looked all around. The edges of wherever they had ended up was outside his Divinse Sense range, so he had to visually inspect. The area was very dark with a familiar ethereal glow slightly illuminating the surroundings. He inspected all around and realized they were in some sort of cave.
"First off, we''re in a Dungeon," Reivyn announced. He kept his mind focused on his Divine Sense in case any monster encroached on their position from either underwater or from above, but so far there was nothing. "Secondly, we''re in an underground cave. Let''s find solid ground first, then we''lle up with a n."
"Sounds good," Teilon said.
"Before that," Kefira interjected, "what were you going to say earlier? I thought I heard you yell ''wait'' before we got sucked into this Dungeon."
"Oh yeah. It just urred to me that we didn''t have to guess at all. You could have just pierced both sides at the same time, and we could have inspected either side." Reivyn shrugged. "It would have also probably stabilize the pressure, and we wouldn''t have been sucked into this Dungeon unexpectedly."
Kefira just stared at him for a moment.
"Why didn''t I think of that?" She frowned and started mumbling to herself as she contemted the issue.
"I''ll keep my Mana thread attached to everyone so we canmunicate from a distance. Let''s split up so we can find that ground as quick as possible."
Everyone nodded and then turned around, separating into various directions. Reivyn swam in a random direction at an angle between Refix and Kefira. Seri was on the other side of Kefira, followed by Kimberly with Teilon nearby. Vyria and Xudrid stayed together between Refix and Teilon.
Reivyn used his Eagle Eye Skill to see further in the distance, but the Skill hadn''t been Leveled up very far. He couldn''t tell at this distance if he was looking at more darkness or the cavern wall. He kept swimming, keeping his head on a swivel to see as much of an area in front of him as he could.
His Divine Sense gave him a crystal clear picture within his range, but there were no walls or bottom of the undergroundke in his perception. He nced down with his Eagle Eye Skill, but he ran into the same problem as looking into the distance. He couldn''t tell if he was seeing the bottom or just more darkness. He couldn''t tell how deep or wide the cave was.
Reivyn''s Swimming Skill was nothing impressive, but his Stats made up for it a bit. He traveled at a pretty fast speed, but even after several minutes of swimming, there was no end in sight.
"I got some light over here," Kimberly''s voice came through on his Mana thread.
Reivyn was attached to everyone, but everyone else wasn''t attached to everyone else, so he would have to ry the information.
"Kimberly''s got something," Reivyn said across all of the Mana threads. "If you can''t find her, just use your Sense Mana Skill to follow my Mana thread to me, and we''ll go together."
Teilon and Seri were closest to Kimberly, and Reivyn wasn''t worried about Refix, Vyria, Xudrid, or Kefira. Vyria and Xudrid could just hop out of the water and walk there if they wanted to. He was confident everyone would be able to find their way to Kimberly''s position without any trouble, but it was always good to have a contingency n in ce.
"Keep your eyes peeled for any monsters," Reivyn continued. "I haven''t seen anything, yet, but that doesn''t mean there aren''t any."
The underground cave was incredibly monotonous. There was no change in the environment except for variation in the cave ceiling. After another several minutes of swimming in the direction that Kimberly had swam off to, Reivyn spotted the light she was referring to in the distance with his Eagle Eye.
At first, it was just a slight glow that was barely more powerful than the ambient lighting, but as he drew closer, he noticed the shift in color. The light in the distance was definitely sunlight, so Reivyn assumed they had either found the exit to the Dungeon, or at least the way to the exit. It was possible the exit of the cavern would lead them further into the Dungeon, but Reivyn didn''t think so.
Kimberly was treading water with Refix, Teilon, and Seri next to her as Reivyn swam up. Vyria and Xudrid were in the water, but they didn''t have to tread to stay afloat. I need to learn how to do that, Reivyn thought to himself. He could tell from his Mana thread that Kefira was still several minutes away, though. She had much less physical Stats, and she had been going almost the opposite direction as Kimberly. Reivyn nodded to the others as he began to tread water as well with an unspoken agreement to wait for Kefira until they explored further.
"So what have we got?" They didn''t have to wait long for Kefira to rendezvous with the group.
"Looks like a way to the surface," Reivyn jerked his head in the direction of the light.
Kefira had already spotted the light in the distance, so she didn''t need to crane her neck to get a look. She just nodded her head and epted the hypothesis.
"What''re we waiting for?" Teilon spoke up.
With that, everyone turned and started swimming to the light. It wasn''t a race. Nobody pulled ahead and tried to get there before everyone else. They swam as a group. With their Stats, they would need to swim in the water vigorously for hours on end to get tired. They had only been at it for several minutes, and none of them were straining themselves.
The light got brighter and brighter as they got closer, and it became obvious that it was indeed sunlight streaming through an opening in the cave wall. Reivyn zoomed in with his Eagle Eye once more, and he noticed that there was a bit ofnd above the water at the exit. There were lumps on the ground, but he couldn''t make it out right away. He kept his vision on it, while keeping a focus below them with his Divine Sense, as they moved closer and closer.
"Those are dead monsters," Reivyn said as he was finally able to identify the lumps. "Either it''s part of the scenarios of the Dungeon, or we''ve intruded on someone else''s Dungeon."
"It could be an open Dungeon," Teilon supplied. The concept of an open Dungeon was one where it wasn''t separated into infinite instances, but everyone shared the same instance that would reset at fixed intervals.
"As far as I know, open Dungeons are only theoretical," Reivyn replied. "That doesn''t mean it isn''t one, but I wouldn''t count on it."
"Just saying."
The group slowed their pace so they could analyze their surroundings as they approached the clear evidence of conflict. Reivyn didn''t recognize any of the monster bodies on the shore. He didn''t have any experience with aquatic enemies, though, so he wasn''t surprised that he didn''t know what they were. He recognized that some of them were sharks, eels, and a couple squids - mainly from his Dreams - but that didn''t help him with gauging their strength.
They were in apletely unknown Dungeon. The ambient Mana hadn''t changed enough from the Tier 4 Region they had just been in to determine the level of Region the Dungeon resided in, and if the light was the exit, the ambient Mana being equal to a Tier 4 Region could mean they were in a Tier 4 Region or it could be even higher with the main concentration of the increased ambient Mana in the Dungeon congregating on a deeper floor.
"I don''t sense anything," Reivyn said, "and I don''t see anything, either. We have a couple of options, here: One, we could wait and see if anyone returns to im these bodies. Two, we could just leave and not worry about it. We try and figure things out from the outside. Three - and I''m only listing it because it is an option that exists, but I have no idea why we would do it - we could delve further into the Dungeon to locate the cause of these monster deaths.
"Personally, I vote option two."
"Until something pops up that is clearly above your capabilities, I''ll let you run the show," Refix replied for the first time in a while. "Less interference from me means more for your Life Experience, and don''t worry about mine. Just being here, even without taking charge, gives me some points, too. If we see a horde of Tier 5 nuisance monsters, though, I''m taking charge."
"That''s fine with me, dad," Reivyn said with a smile. "Technically, you saying that is still me following your wishes."
Refix rolled his eyes, but he cracked a small smile as well.
"Option two sounds good," Kefira nodded her head.
"Come on, where''s your sense of adventure?!" Teilon queried. "Let''s go with option three."
Reivyn stared at him for a moment.
"I''ll pretend you said option two."
"Man, I never get to have fun," Teilon said. Reivyn believed that if they had been standing onnd, Teilon would have put his hands in his pockets and kicked a rock. Treading water wasn''t as conducive to acting like a kid, though.
"I agree with Teilon," Kimberly said. Everyone looked at her with mild shock. "Option two."
Reivynughed and nced at his friend out of the corner of his eye. Teilon was looking at Kimberly like she had betrayed him until she stuck her tongue out at him.
"You know what I''ll say," Seri said. She would obviously defer to Kefira.
"Alright, let''s get out of here, then," Reivyn said.
With that, they picked up their pace, but they still maintained their vignce lest something popped up at thest moment. They got closer and closer until the lumps of dead flesh finally entered the range of Reivyn''s Divine Sense. He immediately held up a hand and pinged the Mana tether he hadn''t dismissed, yet. He subvocalized along the lines to everyone.
"There''s a kid hiding behind one of the corpses," he said. "I say kid, but he''s just a scrawny teenager. He''s definitely old enough to bet Tier 2 or higher. He''s armed with a harpoon."
"Does he look threatening?" Kefira asked.
"Aside from being armed with a weapon designed to attack things in the water and us being in the water, no," Reivyn replied. "He looks scared more than anything."
"I say we announce ourselves," Kefira said with a shrug. "If he''s hiding with a scared look on his face, then he''s obviously already spotted us anyway."
"Good point," Reivyn nodded his head. He turned his attention to the shore. "Hello! We''re not monsters!"
"That''s what sirens would say!" Came the reply.
Reivyn shared a look with the others. Everyone was just as confused as he was.
"What''s a siren?" He called back.
"They would say that, too! You can''t fool me, siren!"
The young man didn''te out of hiding, but he did readjust the grip on his harpoon. Reivyn pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he thought of something to say to ease the worry of they youngster. He turned to face Vyria and Xudrid.
"Do you think the two of you could step up into the air and show him that we''re just people?" He asked.
"Sure," Xudrid agreed.
The two of them floated up until their feet were just on the surface of the water, then they began walking like they were taking some invisible stairs. Reivyn watched the reaction of the kid hunkered down behind a dead shark, and he saw the kid''s eyes go wide as saucers.
"Aaaah! Siren Sorcerors!" He screamed.
The kid threw his harpoon aside and scrambled back on all fours. He couldn''t take his eyes off of the two cultivators until he bumped up against another dead aquatic monster. He screamed again at the unexpected contact, but it pulled him out of his stupor. He scrambled to his feet and charged out of the exit of the Dungeon, screaming about Siren Sorcerors at the top of his lungs.
"Well..." Reivyn said, drawing the word out as he watched the youth run away, "That could have gone better."
Chapter 227: The Eye
Chapter 227: The Eye
"We should really follow that young man outside," Refix said, catching everyone''s attention.
Reivyn looked at his dad for a moment before it urred to him.
"Because monsters can''t exit Dungeons," he said. Refix nodded his head. "We''ll have a lot less exining to do with less overall stress if we confront the situation head on."
Everyone else nodded their heads at the remarks. Xudrid and Vyria went ahead and walked thest distance to the shore while the rest continued to swim. The two cultivators were examining the bodies of the dead aquatic monsters.
"These things are fascinating," Xudrid said, straightening up when the others arrived. "I''ve never seen ocean beasts before, but I''ve heard of them from our lessons and other cultivators who did their excursions in coastal regions." Xudrid turned to face Reivyn. "Have you ever experienced anything like these before?"
Reivyn was the only one who didn''t appraise the monsters with a look of surprise and exmation, but he didn''t want to get into the whole deal of him having memories from another life. The monsters only resembled what he had vague memories of, anyway. There were mutations and way too many teeth, even for a shark. The squids had some sort of grasping w on the end of each of their tentacles, too, which was very creepy.
"I have not encountered anything like these, no," Reivyn shrugged. "We can examine them some other time. We don''t know how close another group of people would be to the entrance for that boy to find and lead back here."
"Good point," Xudrid said. They turned and headed to the exit at a brisk walk. "You know, everything inside of a Dungeon is considered a monster, even the beasts," he continued. "There''s something about the Dungeons that warps the bodies of the beasts. If we found simr species of beasts outside in the real world, they wouldn''t have these weird mutations."
"Hmm," Reivyn contemted the statement for a moment. For the most part, the things he had encountered inside Dungeons had always been humanoid or already monsters to begin with. "Now that I think about it, the one prominent beast I encountered in a Dungeon was a giant spider. It''s legs were basically knives, but the ones on the outside that I ran into weren''t like that. At the time, I had thought it was because it was a different variation.""You talking about the echo of that Tier 7 spider in the desert?" Kefira asked.
Xudrid, Vyria, Teilon, and Kimberly all came to a sudden stop. Reivyn looked up and saw looks of astonishment on their faces. Teilon''s eyes were as wide as they could go and his eyebrows were trying to connect with his hairline. Reivyn chuckled.
"Oh yeah, we haven''t told you guys about that," he said. "It''s not as big of a deal as it sounds. At least not yet."
"Not that big of a deal..." Teilon repeated. He shook himself and focused on Reivyn. "Wait, what do you mean, ''not yet?'' That things still out there?"
"Kind of?" Reivyn answered. "We''ll sit down and talk specificster, but it was basically captured by a crazy woman-"
"Jezebel," Kefira whispered.
"-who took it with her," Reivyn continued, shooting an amused nce at Kefira. "We were fighting against a horde of invaders who were obviously associated with the same ones we were just fighting, but it turned out their mission was to infiltrate and capture that spider for some high ranking girl probably from a Tier 6 empire."
"Tier 6?!" Teilon nearly shouted.
"Yeah, didn''t you know?" Reivyn asked.
"No, I just knew there was a war that you''d gotten yourself involved in somehow. Haven''t had time to delve into the specifics."
"Well, that''s what we''re up against. What we''ve seen so far appear to only be the subordinate Tier 5 empires under them."
"So we haven''t even made it to the actual bad guys, and they already have people that terrifying?" Teilon eximed.
"Yup."
"Excuse me," Xudrid interjected. "Do you happen to know the name of that person? Did you say Jezebel?"
"She''s not Jezebel," Kefira shook her head before a ruthless gleam filled her eyes. "She''s a jezebel."
"I... don''t know what that means," Xudrid admitted.
"Don''t worry about her," Reivyn said, patting Kefira''s shoulder. "Her name was Aerie."
"Ahh, I see," Xudrid said. He remained silent for a moment before looking up to see everyone''s expectant gaze on him. "We''ve never met her, but she''s known to us. She''s the youngest daughter of the emperor."
"Hey, just like you, Kefira," Teilon said, a smile on his face.
"She''s nothing like me!" If a look could kill, Teilon would have been a smoldering corpse.
"Ok, ok!" Teilon backpedalled with his hands out in front. "Jeez, bite my head off, why don''t you."
Reivynughed and pped Teilon on the shoulder.
"Best not to mention anything like that again, buddy," Reivyn said.
Their banter cut off as they approached the exit of the Dungeon. They didn''t hesitate and just walked straight out into the sunlight. Reivyn only took a couple of steps before he halted in ce,pletely bbergasted by the sight before him.
They walked out onto a rocky outcropping near a beach. The waters were crystal clear with a slight shade of blue, and the waves were gentle and rhythmic. The small hill that the Dungeon was located on oversaw a coastal vige where many people could be seen wandering the streets in colorful clothes. There was an outpost of some sort attached to the cave that created a t tform for people to stand on when heading into or out of the Dungeon, but there were no people on the tform at this time.
The scenery was beautiful and picturesque, and even without being able to see behind the hill the cave was in, Reivyn gleaned hints that there was more habitation further ind, as well.
None of that was what arrested his attention, though.
In the distance, there was a wall of storm clouds from sea level all the way to the sky. Purple lightning bolts continuously shed inside the storm, and the winds raged almost horizontally. Peering around, Reivyn could see that the storm was a perfect circle encapsting their location, which he was beginning to suspect was an ind, and it continued around beyond where he could see it.
The rest of the Party came to a halt as they witnessed the phenomenon as well. Reivyn switched to his Mana Sight and saw huge amounts of ambient Mana swirling within the storm wall, some of leaking into their environment. Reivyn finally paid attention to the local ambient Mana and found that they were definitely in a Tier 4 Region, but the continued encroachment of Mana from the storm put them on the cusp of Tier 5.
"Ahh! The Siren sorcerors have escaped the Dungeon!" A familiar voice brought Reivyn out of his revery. "It''s a Dungeon Break!"
Reivyn turned to the sound of the voice and witnessed a contingent of armed men with wicked looking harpoons rushing toward them. Their armor gleamed in the sunlight, and Reivyn could see that it wasprised of segmented scales of some sort. He could feel the Mana contained withing and knew that the armor was enchanted.
I wonder if that''s constructed or Dungeon loot, Reivyn idly thought. Either way, I need to secure a sample for Kailey and Riley.
The squad of armed men came to a halt a few dozen yards away, the boy from the Dungeon hiding behind the biggest man in front. He peeked out from behind the man''s shoulder at Reivyn and his friends.
The big man lowered his harpoon, followed by the others, and he snagged the boy from behind and pulled him out in the open.
"What''s the matter with you?!" He yelled. "You''re going to cause a panic, shouting about Dungeon Breaks and whatnot. If there was a Dungeon Break, there''d be hundreds, if not thousands, of them.
"Now look at them," he pointed at Reivyn but kept his gaze on the youngster. "Have you ever seen sirens walk on two legs? Have you ever seen sirens wear armor and weapons?"
This novel is published on a different tform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
The boy peered over at Reivyn and the others and finally took a good, close look at them. He sheepishly looked back up at the big man.
"They was trying to entice me, though, dad," he said. "Two of them floated right up out of the water. I didn''t get a good look at them ''cause I was so frightened."
"Entice you, you say?" The man''s father asked, scrutinizing his son''s face. "What exactly did they say?"
The youngster tilted his head and touched his finger to his chin as he recalled the conversation in the cave.
"They said, ''we''re not monsters'' and then ''what''s a siren?'' Something like that."
The big man pinched the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes tight.
"Boy, I swear..."
"It''s his first time in the Cave, Kahl," one of the others called out sympathetically. "He''s bound to be a bit jittery."
Kahl sighed as he calmed himself down.
"Bahli, what is it that we always tell everyone that sirens say?"
"''Come into the water,'' or e join us,''" Bahli immediately said. It took him a second, but he finally got it and tried to defend himself. "But they was trying to disarm my suspicion by sayin'' they weren''t monsters or sirens. Sounds like siren talk to me."
"''Sounds like siren talk...'' Boy! You just told me what they say!" Kahl shook his head. "We''ll talk about thister."
Kahl left his son standing where he was surrounded by several other armed men. The other men in scaled-armorforted the youngster as Kahl approached Reivyn and his friends.
"Ho, strangers! The name''s Kahl," he raised an empty hand in greeting. "Sorry about the confusion. The boy''s head is filled with the stories his uncles have spun to him over the years. Granted, it is a bit strange for a bunch of strangers to appear in someone else''s Dungeon. Care to exin that?"
"It''s quite alright," Reivyn dismissed the confusion. "That''s why we immediately followed the boy out of the Dungeon. And we ended up here due to a simple misapplication of Space Magic. My name''s Reivyn. This is my father Refix, and these are Kefira, Seri, Teilon, Kimberly, Xudrid, and Vyria." Reivyn went down the line introducing everyone in turn. Kahl nodded his head along with the introductions.
"Simple misapplication of Space Magic..." Kahl repeated with a quirked eyebrow.
"Yeah, we were in a teleport corridor when... let''s just say a catastrophic failure urred, and we wereunched into the veil," Reivyn exined. "Luckily, we have a talented Space Mage with us, but none of us had ever encountered such a problem before, and our solution was less than ideal."
"Ok~ay... I guess I can see how that would get into a Dungeon, but how did you get into someone else''s Dungeon? That''s what I don''t understand."
"Beats me," Reivyn turned and looked at hispanions. Everyone else shook their heads. "Just a quirk of the System, maybe? Listen, before we go any further, are we safe here?" Reivyn gestured to the storm wall. Kahl turned and looked at what he was indicating.
"Oh, that. It''s fine. It''s been like this for over a thousand years."
Reivyn was taken aback.
"A thousand years? That''s a long time for a storm tost."
"Yeah, well, we''re a Tier 4 ind Region surrounded by Tier 8 oceans. The differential in the ambient Mana causes the storm, and it''s permanent, so it never goes away. But you don''t have to worry about that, the weather inside the Region is perfectly normal, though sometimes intense."
"That''s surprising, though I guess when Mana is involved I can wrap my head around a lot of different things," Reivyn replied. "If this ind is surrounded on all sides by Tier 8 ocean Regions, how did you guys get here?"
"It wasn''t always like this," Kahl exined. "The oceans are a lot like the wilderness with their shifting ambient Mana. If the wilderness is like air, though, the ocean is like msses. It''s slow moving. This setup will probablyst another couple thousand years before there''s any significant change."
"How does an isted ind know about the wilderness on the continents?" Reivyn asked. "Do you just have, like, records or something?"
"Oh, no," Kahl shook his head. "We''re not isted. We''re a transition point between local groups. We have a teleport circle and everything. We only have the two destinations, though, so the time between the portals being open is twenty days. Forty days total for each individual destination. We don''t get a lot of traffic, but it''s enough to keep in touch with the outside world, and we visit the mainds for Life Experience, too."
"Whew, that really lifts a load off our backs," Reivyn said. "I was worried that there wouldn''t be an easy solution for us to get back to our homes and families."
"Shouldn''t be an issue. Which Local Group are you from?"
Reivyn stopped and stared for a second, stumped by the question. He turned to look at hispanions.
"Terran Three," Refix answered.
Reivyn stopped and stared at his father with wide eyes for a long moment. His father had just said something that he recognized from his past life memories. The words that he spoke were English, and he understood them, though they didn''t mean anything in Haman. It was just a name like any other town, city, or Region. Refix gave him a confused look as Reivyn continued to stare.
"What?" Refix asked.
Reivyn shook himself out of the slightly disassociated state he had fallen into.
"Later," he replied. Refix nodded his head. Kefira looked at him with a bit of concern in her expression, but he just smiled to reassure her.
"You''re in luck," Kahl said, ignoring the byy with tact. "Terran Three is one of the destinations of our teleport circle, so it looks like you didn''t get tossed around too far. The only minor problem is that it was just open five days ago, so you''ll have to wait just over a month before you can take the next hop."
"Is there an Adventurer''s Guild on the ind we can send a message through?" Reivyn asked.
"There''s always an Adventurer''s Guild," Kahl chuckled. "Hell, you might be able to find a branch or two in the wilderness it''s so pervasive."
"You''re probably right, actually," Reivyn chuckled with the man.
"The Adventurer''s Guild can also set you up with a ce to stay while you''re here. We don''t get enough visitors for an inn to be a profitable venture, so they handle the rooms for visitors."
"If there are no inns, where does everybody hang out and unwind?" Teilon asked.
"Hey now, I never said anything about there being no taverns!" Kahlughed. "We have plenty of those. They just don''te with rooms."
"Excellent," Teilon said, rubbing his hands together. Kimberly rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs.
"Well, now that we''ve got that misunderstanding settled, let me be the first to wee you to Theyiah," Kahl held out a hand to Reivyn. The two shook.
"Theyaih... almost sounds like-"
"The Eye, yeah," Kahl said. "Nobody remembers what our little slice of paradise used to be called. Once the storm formed, everyone just called it The Eye, and over time it just became Theyaih." Kahl shrugged. "Onest thing, though, before you head off to the Adventurer''s Guild, I would kindly ask you guys not to go back into the Dungeon for the next four days before it resets. It''s tagged by one of our Parties, you see. Once it resets, it''s open for all if you want to delve it."
"Sure, that won''t be a problem," Reivyn nodded his head. "With what we''ve been through recently, I doubt anyone''s interested in delving a Dungeon immediately."
"Speak for yourself," Teilon said. "You''re the one that''s been having all the fun. We just got there when you turned us around and headed back. That fight in the city wasn''t enough to dampen my spirits."
"Sure, and we can definitely delve the Dungeon," Reivyn replied.
"You guys were fighting in a city? And I''m guessing a Tier 4 capital city at that?" Kahl questioned.
"Yeah, there''s a lot going on back where we''re from. You haven''t heard anything about it?"
"Like I said, we don''t get too many visitors. Thest group that came through was eight months ago, and they didn''t say anything. The Local Groups are big, they probably didn''t know anything."
"Maybe," Reivyn said. "The news is big enough, though, that I would be surprised if someone from a Tier 4 Region from Terran Three didn''t know what was going on."
"Really? That''s surprising. What''s going on?"
"War."
"War?"
"Yeah. Tell you what, after we get situated, we can meet up at a tavern you choose and we can give you guys the news, and you can tell us about the Dungeon, the local life, and the other Local Group. Sound like a n?"
"You don''t have to give me a reason to visit my favorite tavern," Kahlughed.
"What about your wife? I''m assuming considering you called that youth over there your son."
"She''ll being with!"
"Right on!" Teilon eximed.
Reivyn just rolled his eyes and shook his head. It wasn''t anything different than his and Teilon''s rtionships, though. Reivyn had never actually been to a tavern without Kefira, now that he thought about it. Restaurants didn''t count. They had things to drink, but they were designed to apany the vor of the meals. Taverns specialized in getting high Level ssers tipsy or drunk.
"There''s a ce down by the shore called The Shifty Eye," Kahl said. "We''ll meet up at sundown if that''s fine with you."
"Sounds like a n," Reivyn agreed.
"Alright, well, we won''t get in your hair any longer. Until then."
Kahl walked back to his squad of waiting men. He put one hand on Bahli''s shoulder and spoke to him in a hushed tone really quick. Bahli lowered his head and listened before perking up at the end. He nodded his head and ran up to the group.
"Mr. Reivyn, sir, I apologize for the inconvenience my hasty actions have brought," Bahli said. He said the words like he was rehearsing exactly what he had been told to say.
"It''s not problem, Bahli," Reivyn waved him off. "Hardly an inconvenience, either. It actually made it a lot easier on us to figure things out, so thank you."
"Ugh... Well, I have to get back to work, then," Bahli didn''t seem to know how to handle the situation. It obviously went off of whatever script his father had helped hime up with on the spot.
"Sure," Reivyn nodded. "And nice to meet you."
"Yeah, ugh, you, too," Bahli waved as he ran back to the Dungeon.
Reivyn turned to face his group. Kahl and his entourage marched off to where they hade from. Reivyn could see that there was some sort of guard shack half-way between the Dungeon and the settlement.
Interesting, Reivyn thought. They knew about Dungeon Breaks and weren''t too surprised about it, and the cement of the guard shack seems strange. It makes more sense if they''re taking measures against monsters suddenly pouring out of the Dungeon, though. I''ll have to ask him about that tonight.
"So we got some time to kill," Reivyn said. "No pun intended," he said, giving Teilon''s smirking face a nce. "Just over a month in this ''slice of paradise'' as Kahl called it."
"Doesn''t seem so bad, to me," Teilon said. "You guys might actually be able to glean something from the interaction between Tier 8 ambient Mana and this Tier 4 one''s."
Reivyn stared at Teilon for a second.
"Is Teilon actually suggesting we conduct some experimentation and, dare I say it, training?" Reivyn raised his eyebrows.
"What? I train!" Teilon defended.
Reivyn nced at his father.
"I think you''re rubbing off on him."
"It was only a matter of time," Refix replied with a smile. "We''ll make a proper Adventurer out of you, yet."
"I do pretty well for myself, already. Thank you very much," Teilon said.
"Sure."
"Alright," Reivyn brought everyone''s attention back to himself. "So, let''s head to the Adventurer''s Guild, get the message sent, get our rooms situated, and then we can all go about doing whatever for the rest of the day. I''m going to meet up with Kahl this evening. You all don''t have toe, but you''re wee to all the same."
"No way you''re going with me," Teilon said. Kimberly nudged him in the ribs again. "Us." Kimberly nodded her head.
"Me, too," Kefira said, looking up at Reivyn. "We can look at the storm wall some other time. Today will be about getting set up and exploring the town."
"Yes, ma''am," Reivyn nodded his head.
Chapter 228: Tropical Vacation
Chapter 228: Tropical Vacation
It wasn''tplicated getting to the Adventurer''s Guild. Theyaih was segmented between coastal and ind, but it was one decently sized city. If Reivyn had to guess, he would bet it was slightlyrger than Magron. The portion of the city they could see on the coast from the Dungeon was only about ten percent of the size of the settlement.
Everywhere they walked, they were greeted by locals dressed in colorful clothing. Not only their clothing, but the buildings themselves were a wide array of vibrant colors. Most buildings were in other than their tile shingles, but the shingles represented every color of the rainbow and all the various shades in between. Reivyn kept his head on a swivel taking the view in.
The flora of the ind was equally as colorful. There were vibrant flowers everywhere. The tropic trees and grass were all green, but it was overshadowed by everything else. Reivyn assumed the presence of the colorful nt life to be not only the inspiration for the cloth, but the source, as well.
None of that really mattered to him, though Kefira and Kimberly did "ooh" and "ahh" every ten steps. Seri and Vyria were much more silent in their appreciation of the surroundings, but Reivyn caught them staring more than once with his Divine Sense. He didn''t say anything, though, and he was sure they would have denied it even if they were caught red handed.
Teilon casually plucked a flower and made an borate gesture of sticking it into Kimberly''s hair. Kefira eyed Reivyn sideways with an air of expectation. Not willing to fall behind his best buddy, Reivyn surreptitiously snipped a red flower that perfectlyplimented Kefira''s eyes with a little bit of Air Mana and deposited it above her ear with his magic. The little disy, while discreet, didn''t go unnoticed from the others, and Kefira beamed a beautiful smile as she strutted down the street.
The ind was muchrger than could be seen from the entrance of the Dungeon with the majority of thendmass on the other side of the hill. Even so, it didn''t take the Party very long to arrive at the gates of the Adventurer''s Guild.
"You go on ahead," Teilon said, leaning against the decorative wall surrounding the building. "I don''t have anyone to send a message to, and I''d rather not stand in line when I can lean out here."
"That''s fine," Reivyn said. "It''ll only take a moment to get everything squared away."
Reivyn left the group behind to head inside, but Kefira hopped to keep pace with him after a short exchange with Seri. Reivyn looked down at her, quirking an eyebrow."We''ve been apart for months," Kefira said, looping her arm in his. "Even just standing in a line, I''d rather be by your side."
Reivyn smiled and patted her hand as they walked into the building. It wasn''t nearly as opulent as some of the other branches Reivyn had visited, but it wasn''t run down or anything. There was a hall leading straight ahead from the entrance that presumably led to offices, and the reception area was off to the right.
The interior was empty aside from one receptionist leaning with his face against his hand, elbow on the desk. He looked supremely bored, and Reivyn couldn''t fault him. There was nobody here.
"Looks like there won''t be any lines," Reivyn chuckled.
"Yeah, without too many visitors and just the one Dungeon, that we know of, it makes sense that there aren''t too many people in here," Kefira concurred.
Their voices carried across the hall, and the receptionist immediately perked up and looked at the new arrivals. He shed a smile at Reivyn and Kefira as he straightened his outfit.
"How can I help you, today?" He asked.
"We need to secure four rooms and send a message," Reivyn exined.
"Certainly," the receptionist answered as he pulled out a dusty tome from under his desk. "Each roomes standard with two beds. Just show me your Adventurer''s Badge and I can get you annotated."
Reivyn fished in his pouch for his Adventurer''s Badge and handed it over. The receptionist used his standard magical device to scan the badge. He reviewed the contents as he transcribed the information to the tome. He paused after entering Reivyn''s name.
"I see that you''re a member of a defunct Party. Are you here with the other members, or..."
"Two of them," Reivyn nodded. "Teilon and Kimberly are still in the Party, but the others have since gone their own way. We have some new additions to rece them, though."
Kefira handed over two badges before the receptionist could prompt them. He simply nodded his head and scanned the badges while using the device to remove the other members from the roster of the Party. Reivyn nced at Kefira with a question in his eyes.
"I grabbed Seri''s badge," Kefira exined. "You didn''t see that?"
Reivyn shook his head.
"Unless I actively push, I only see the outline of your hand," he answered. "I don''t typically invade others'' privacy unless they''re an enemy, and I would say you are about the furthest thing from one as can be."
"One final question about the rooms before we move on to the message," the receptionist politely waited for them to end their short conversation. "Ms. Kefira, are you going by your alias or your real name?"
"Real name," Kefira said. "Same with Seri."
"Very good. I have you all set up. Here are your keys. The rooms are on the second floor, and you can find the stairs at the end of the hall." The receptionist pointed down the hall leading in the opposite direction they hade from the entrance. "I see that you''re eligible for a promotion, Mr. Reivyn. You have the aplishments for several more promotions, actually, you just require the time in grade before you''re eligible. I''ll go ahead and take care of that real quick for you.
"Now, what message would you like to send, which branch to send it to, and to whom will it be delivered?"
"Delivered?" Reivyn asked. "I thought messages were sent and held until someone came looking for one."
"That''s only for the lower level ranks in the Guild," the receptionist exined. "Now that you''re ranked up a couple of times, you''re afforded more options. You can have a runner send it to the person in question once the message arrives at the closest branch. It''s a small fee of two silver."
"That sounds great," Reivyn nodded his head. "The message will be sent to Ameliyn and Silfa at the Imperial Pce in Willowan, Wispan."
"I have to remind you that our runners won''t be able to hand the message over directly to someone in a guarded dwelling like an Imperial Pce," the young man interjected. "They''ll have to hand it off to a gate guard, but the official seal of the Adventurer''s Guild should get it inside to the people you want to notify."
"That''s fine."
"Ok. I''m ready for the message."
"One will be from me, addressed to Ameliyn, and one will be from her, addressed to Silfa," Reivyn quickly exined. The receptionist nodded.
"Dear mother," Reivyn said, clearing his throat as he thought of a delicate way to put it. "We''re perfectly safe and sound. Nobody''s hurt or missing. We had a minor, um, ident, in the teleportation corridor. We ended up way out in the transition hub between our Local Group and - " Reivyn looked up at the receptionist. "What''s the name of the other Local Group?"
"Orion Six."
"-Orion Six. We''re stuck here for just over a month as we wait for the teleport destination to line up with our Local Group again, but then it shouldn''t be too much longer before we arrive back in Willowan. We''ll send another message once we''re enroute."
"Is that it?" The receptionist looked up from where he was entering the information.
"Love you and miss you, mom," Kefira added. She pointed between herself and Reivyn. "You can add it to the end of both of them. You love your mother, right?" Kefira looked up at Reivyn expectantly.
"Of course!" Reivyn said. "What kind of a question is that?"
"Well, thedies in your life like to hear it every now and then," Kefira said, flipping her hair back.
If that''s not a hint, I don''t know what is, Reivyn thought. He leaned down until his mouth was almost touching Kefira''s ear. He could see it turn a shade of red with his Divine Sense as he got closer and she felt his breath.
"I love you, too," he whispered.
"Mhmm," Kefira nodded her head in satisfaction.
"Alright!" The receptionist eximed, drawing their attention back to the third person in the room. "Unless you want to pay out of pocket, I''ll just withdraw it from your Party fund."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"The Party fund is still active?" Reivyn asked, his eyebrows shooting up.
"Oh sure, it''s still getting regr deposits of a couple silver a week," the receptionist answered. "You still have a valid copyright for a Dungeon strategy on the books, and people are still buying it regrly. There''s been a couple of withdrawals over the years - from your other Party members before your Party entered inactive status - but there''s still a couple hundred gold''s worth sitting in there. Do you want to make a withdrawal?"
"That won''t be necessary," Reivyn shook his head. He had plenty of coin on his person. He might as well leave it in there and forget about it until and unless he ran into an emergency.
"Very well. Was there anything else I could help you with today?"
"Nope, that''s everything," Reivyn shook his head. "Thank you. You were very helpful."
"No, thank you," the receptionist countered. "This is the most I''ve got to do in the past several weeks. I''ve been bored out of my mind."
Reivyn chuckled.
"Tell you what, we''lle back in a couple of days to purchase the relevant dossiers on the local Dungeon. Give you some more busy work."
"Certainly," the man nodded. "I look forward to assisting you."
Reivyn and Kefira gave the young man a little wave as they turned and left the building. The others were in various states of rxation as they stepped out, but they all perked up when they noticed Reivyn and Kefira return.
"That was fast," Teilon said.
"We were the only ones there," Reivyn shrugged. "I went ahead and updated our Party, by the way. The others are out. Kefira and Seri are in." Reivyn looked over at Xudrid and Vyria. "I assumed you two didn''t want to officially join our Adventurer''s Party."
"Oh yeah, we''re only provisional members, anyway," Xudrid replied. "We can make use of basic services like sending messages and getting lodging, but we''re not affiliated."
"Are you guys not allowed to be?" Reivyn asked.
"No, it''s not that. We can change our status if we want to, but our purpose in gaining Life Experience this time around isn''t centered around Adventuring, so we never saw the need."
"That makes sense. Alright, well, here are your keys," Reivyn handed out a key to each pair. Teilon and Kimberly, Xudrid and Vyria, Kefira and Seri, and he and his father were all paired up. "There aren''t too many ces we can go while we''re here, so let''s just make sure we''re all here on the day the teleport circle connects to our Local Group."
"Sounds good," Xudrid said.
"We''ll probably spend a lot of time together, anyway," Teilon said.
Reivyn nodded his head at that.
"I''m going to go wander around while you kids spend some time together," Refix said. "Let''s say... three day vacation?"
Reivyn tilted his head as he looked at his father.
"Three day vacation? What''s after that?"
Refix''s eyes gleamed in excitement.
"Why, training, boy!" He held his arms out wide with a grin on his face. "This is the perfect opportunity to practice some amphibiousbat. It would be a shame to let it go to waste."
Reivyn rolled his eyes, but he secretly agreed with his father.
"Umm, do you expect me to be there?" Seri spoke up, her voice quivering slightly.
"All hands," Refix replied with a serious expression. Seri gulped before nodding her head. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
"What about us?" Xudrid raised his hand.
Refix narrowed his eyes at the cultivator.
"Are your names on the roster of the mercenarypany?" He asked back.
"Yes, sir," Xudrid subconsciously stood at attention. Refix continued to stare at him. "Right."
Refix nodded his head.
"Then it''s settled. We''ll meet out here at dawn in four days."
With that, Refix turned about and strolled into the city. Teilon shared a look with Kimberly before turning to Reivyn.
"We''re gonna go ahead and go do our own thing today," he said. "We''ll meet up with you at the tavern tonight, and we can go get a meal or something tomorrow, all of us together."
"Sounds like a n," Reivyn nodded.
Teilon and Kimberly followed after Refix, hand in hand. Xudrid simply waved to Reivyn as he and Vyria wandered off to go explore the city on their own. Reivyn turned to look at Kefira. She pped her hands and bounced in excitement.
"Come on,e on. I''m just dying to get some of the local outfits I saw on the way here."
She grabbed Reivyn by the arms and practically dragged him along to the fate that awaited him.
---
Reivyn had resigned himself to a dull day of shopping. It just wasn''t his thing, and whenever he got dragged along, it was like a hole opened up in his heel and drained all of the energy out of him. He didn''t want to disappoint Kefira, though, so he put a brave face on it. He knew there was no fighting the excruciating day ahead of him.
He changed his mind real quick, though, when Kefira sought his "expert" opinion on how the various outfits looked on her. That plugged the hole in his heel right up. He had a pep in his step and a smile on his face.
The day was quite enjoyable.
---
The Shifty Eye was a respectable establishment, but it got loud and rowdy just like any other watering hole. Reivyn scanned the building with his Divine Sense as he and his friends approached. He quickly found Kahl with presumably his wife and a couple of the others that had been with him during the day. Reivyn inspected the rest of the people inside the tavern and saw that they looked mostly like they were part of the local militia. They all at least looked like they hadbat sses.
Reivyn strode through the open door and nodded to a surprised waitress. He shifted his eyes in the direction of Kahl. No pun intended with the gesture, he mentally chuckled. The waitress followed his eyes and nodded back. Reivyn wove his way through the crowd with the others following on his heels. Xudrid and Vyria had opted out of the meeting, but everyone else was present. Refix looked eager to finally unwind after months on the front lines.
Kahl spotted theming and stood up to shake hands with Reivyn and the others as they approached.
"Good, you made it!" Kahl said with a wide grin. He and his wife already had near empty tankards in front of them. His wife was a petitedy, but it looked like she could hold her own with the alcohol. "This is my wife, Scherry. Wife, these are the travelers I told you about." Kahl introduced everyone to his wife.
He must have a social Skill for memorizing faces, Reivyn thought. I know I wouldn''t have been able to remember everyone''s names after only hearing them once before I acquired the Skill.
"It''s a pleasure to meet you all," Scherry said. Kefira stepped forward and exchanged a dainty handshake with the woman. "I hope our son didn''t cause you too much trouble with his antics."
"It was no trouble at all," Reivyn waved her concerns away. "He actually helped us by bringing Kahl to us to give us so much needed information."
"As long as it all turned out alright. I hate to think what could have happened if a rookie squad had been on duty."
"Eh, if it was a rookie squad, they probably wouldn''t have been able to hurt us, and we wouldn''t have hurt them. Don''t worry about it."
"Alright, alright. Enough of that," Kahl interjected. "We''re not here to ruminate on ''what-ifs,'' we''re here to drink!" Scherry just smiled at her husband as she sat back down and took a sip from her own tankard. "Waitress! Bring a round for my new friends!"
Reivyn sat down next to Kahl opposite from his wife. Kefira sat next to Reivyn, and the table wasn''t sorge that the others wouldn''t be able to hear the conversation. With everyone''s increased Perception Stat, the ambient noise would have to be a lot higher to prevent them from engaging in the conversation.
The waitress brought tankards of the same thing Kahl and Scherry were drinking. Reivyn epted his and took a tentative sip. It was slightly bitter but tasty, and he could tell that the enhanced alcohol was only enough to bite if he paid attention. He took another,rger sip, and set the tankard down with a nod.
"They got the best brew on the ind, here," Kahl said, raising his eyebrows like he was sharing a secret. "And if you want something a little harder, they got that, too."
"This will be fine, thank you," Reivyn said. "I want to be able to keep my wits about me, tonight."
"What little wits he has," Kefira said with a chuckle. "You should see him when he gets really drunk. He''s fun."
"I''m sure he is," Kahlughed. "But you''re right. We dide here to exchange information. It would be a shame if we did all that talking and couldn''t remember the next day."
"Right, right," Reivyn nodded his head. "Well, first of all, the news of Terran Three. We don''t have the full picture, but what we do know is pretty dire. A suspected Tier 6 empire is waging war on many of the Tier 4 empires. Last I heard there were fourteen active invasions."
"Twenty," Kefira interjected. "Several of them were over before anyone knew what was happening and they either moved on or more forces joined the war."
Reivyn and Kahl both nced at Kefira in surprise.
"Well, twenty fronts," Reivyn corrected himself. "I don''t know about all the other Regions, but we''re part of a mercenary group to help bolster the numbers. We were in a ce called Vairo, and they were doing something to meddle with the local ambient Mana. It was going haywire and getting sucked to a location behind their lines.
"They fielded so many soldiers that they were intentionally throwing their men into the meat grinder to force Achievements on the survivors - at least, that''s the spection - and we thought we were doing a decent job of holding them back for a while." Reivyn took a deep breath. "We were wrong. They sent twelve high-Level soldiers out when we did something they didn''t want us to do, and they took out 10% of our forces with one strike.
"They could have rolled over us at any time, and that''s happening in twenty different Regions right now."
Kahl took a long pull from his tankard before setting it down with a somber expression.
"Vairo, you say? I''ve actually been there, once." Reivyn gave him a questioning look. "It''s only a couple jumps away," Kahl exined. "All of usbat ssers go adventuring on the maind a couple of times, just like everybody else does."
Reivyn nodded his head at that.
"Well then, it looks like it won''t be all that long for us to make it back to Wispan, after all," he said. "It was directly connected to Vairo. Though, I imagine we''ll have to add some additional jumps to circumvent Vairo. No telling what thendscape will look like by the time we can get back there. Best to just avoid it and go around."
"Yeah, I don''t envy you trying to find your way back in that mess," Kahl shook his head. "If they''re in a ce directly connected to your empire, I can''t imagine you all feel safe."
"None of the fronts have been geographically connected, yet," Kefira replied. "There''s a pattern to how they choose their targets, but we haven''t figured it out fully, just yet. We assume we''re safe for a little while longer, but ns are already being put into ce in case we suffer the same fate."
"Well, at least there''s that," Kahl nodded. "Alright, you told me about the news from the maind - and it''s pretty big news, at that. I''ll be able to save a lot of people a lot of headache and heartache with that information - so it''s only fair I reciprocate.
"You wanted to know about the other Local Group we''re attached to. It''s called Orion Six, but it''s not as interesting as the Dungeon. It''s mostly the same as on your side, so I''ll start with the Dungeon.
"It''s four floors deep, and the biggest thing you have to know is that, other than the top floor, it''spletely underwater." Kahl paused for the exmations of surprise. "There are a few out of the way rest areas with pockets of air on each floor, but all the fighting will be done in the water. If you haven''t practiced three-dimensionalbat and/or waterbat, I would suggest sticking to the top two floors until you''refortable. Fighting against things that cane at you from literally all directions is apletely different dynamic than fighting on drynd."
"I have a bit of experience keeping an eye out above and below me," Reivyn replied.
"That''s a good start," Kahl said. "You''ll need to instill it in yourpanions, though, too. I''ll only give you the gist of what to expect. If you want more detailed information, you''ll need to purchase the packet from the Adventurer''s Guild. It wouldn''t be right to step on their toes, after all."
"That''s fair."
"d you see it that way. Not everybody does. Anyway, here''s the broad strokes of what you can expect..."
Chapter 229: Not Ready
Chapter 229: Not Ready
Reivyn and Kefira walked arm in arm through the evening streets of the coastal city. Reivyn had paid attention to his alcohol consumption and didn''t let himself go too far. Once he reached a certain amount of drinks, regardless of how he felt, he stopped having any more. It had been the right decision, as the feeling of being tipsy doesn''t hit all at once right after drinking. He was feeling just on the other side of tipsy by the time they called it a night.
Kefira wasn''t much of a drinker either way. She only had a couple and the pair werefortably enjoying each other''spany as they made their way back to the rooms provided by the guild. Refix had stayed behind to talk a bit more with Kahl. Reivyn suspected that the main topic, despite them both being a bit further gone than Reivyn, was going to be about potential training opportunities they could take advantage of while on staying on the ind.
That''s not to say that dad can''t loosen up and have fun, Reivyn mused. He was just as boisterous as anyone while sharing war stories. He just genuinely enjoys training. It would be like asking an artist to not speak about their paintings. The training sessions dades up with are his works of art.
Kahl had promised to lend them some of his and his squadron''s time for training purposes over the next couple of weeks. Reivyn was grateful. Personal power was always the number one thing to focus one, but he was the captain of a mercenarypany. They would be spending their time with the squadron practicing unit exercises andmand. The performance of the ind guardians wasn''t a concern for Reivyn, but Kahl was able to see the benefits of his people after the stories they had shared of battles betweenrge groups of organized people.
"The stars are awfully bright, tonight," Kefira remarked.
Reivyn nodded his head as he nced up at the stars. He frowned as he looked at them, though.
"What?" Kefira asked, picking up on his mood without having to see the frown.
"All of the stars and constetions look the same as they do elsewhere," Reivynmented. "I never really paid attention before, but shouldn''t they look different depending on where we are in the Realm?"
"Why would they look different?" Kefira asked, puzzled."Because we''re looking up at them from a different angle," Reivyn pointed out. "Those stars are actually up there, so when we change our starting perspective, shouldn''t they look different?"
"That makes sense, but at the same time, I think I know the reason," Kefira said. Reivyn looked down at her for her exnation. "As someone intimately familiar with the Space Affinity as well as research into the veil, I can confidently say that the stars are outside of the Realm. Our Realm is nigh on infinite in size, but the Realm itself, when viewed from the outside, is finite and in a fixed location. The difference in our position rtive to the size of the Realm and how it rtes to outside of the Realm is basically no difference."
"Ok, I can see that," Reivyn said. "So if we were to look at our position here and the position of Wispan from outside the Realm, they''re so close together as to be basically the same spot."
"Exactly," Kefira nodded. "We would have to travel through multiple local groups before we saw a difference in the stars, and even then it would be tiny." Kefira peered up at Reivyn. "You sounded like you had experienced the change in perspective of the stars, personally. Sometimes you say the weirdest things."
"It''s because I remember my past life," Reivyn casually said.
Reivyn was dragged to a halt as he took another step forward, but Kefira had stopped walking next to him. He turned and looked at her. She was staring at him with wide eyes. She nced back at Seri who was following a couple steps behind. Seri looked back and forth between Reivyn and Kefira before shrugging her shoulders like she didn''t care.
"This is one thing you''re not allowed to report to anyone, Seri," Kefira said, a serious expression on her face. "I''m not joking. Reivyn is either a little more inebriated than he thought, or he trusts you. This is his secret, and you''re not going to break his trust."
"Don''t worry," Seri answered. "My only interest, and the interests of your parents, are only in things that concern you and your well-being. Reivyn being able to remember his past life doesn''t change who he is or cause you any danger as far as I know."
"Good," Kefira nodded her head once. She turned back to Reivyn. "So... you remember your past life?"
"Only snippets," Reivyn answered, shaking his head. "They''re Dreams, and it''s like remembering dreams, too. Not everything is clear, and it''s not all there. The things I remember are mostly centered around two things: Being in the military and..." he nced at Kefira, "having a wife and two kids."
Kefira frowned at his answer.
"So am I some sort of substitute for your past-life wife or something?" She asked dangerously.
"No, no. Nothing of the sort," Reivyn quickly denied. "I admit that my attraction to you was inrge part because you reminded me of her, but at that time I hadn''te to fully ept that my dreams were of a real past life. I just thought that you were literally the woman of my dreams."
Kefira''s frowned turned into a small smile as they began walking arm in arm once more.
"Go on," she encouraged.
Reivyn kept a straight face, but internally he sighed.
What do you mean, "go on?" He mentally rolled his eyes. That was it. What more am I supposed to say to apany "you''re the woman of my dreams?"
"Nobody else could ever gain my attention, and my dreams of the past-life wife only ounted for my initial attraction to you. Everything else has been all you."
"That''s right, and don''t you forget it," Kefira said with a smug smile. "So what else do you remember of your past life?"
---
Kefira sighed as she flopped back onto the bed. The day had started off interesting enough with them fleeing for their lives across a space corridor, getting flung to the very edge of their local group,nding inside someone else''s Dungeon, and then finding a coastal paradise to explore. None of that hadpared to the revtion that Reivyn had casually dropped on them, though.
Convenient that he has such a neat excuse for being immediately attracted to me, she thought. My excuse is much less exciting. He was just a handsome, powerful man who showed interest in me as a person and not for my position. Even the grime of weeks being underground without a proper bath when I first saw him didn''t hinder his natural charisma much, and I''m not talking about his Stat.
She didn''t know when she realized she had developed feelings for Reivyn, but it had been early. She couldn''t remember not feeling for him how she did now.
He wasn''t lying when he said he only remembered snippets like from a dream. The stories he told had been interesting, but also very confusing. He said he couldn''t see the types of weapons they used in his past life, just that everything was ranged and hand-to-hand fighting had been very sparse. He said it was like sticks that shot magic without magic. It made no sense.
She had been more interested in what he remembered of his wife, but he only really knew about meeting her specifically and generally having a rtionship and kids with her. There was something about getting news of an ident, but the memory was sealed or something. He mentioned how he had a vivid dream of getting the news and how his mind didn''t want toprehend it. He didn''t have the same hangup as his past-life counterpart, though, and he was able to calmly analyze the memory. He spected that he had lost his wife and kids in an ident and the influence from his past-life didn''t want to remember it.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
"I wouldn''t worry about it too much," Seri said from her own bed. Reivyn was staying in a room with his father. "I don''t think it will change your rtionship."
"Oh, I''m not worried about that," Kefira said, rolling over to face her friend. "It''s just that literally everything about him is unique and exciting. I''m worried I''m a bit too mundane."
Seri snorted.
"Thising from the only Space/Time Mage anyone''s heard of in generations who just happens to be an imperial princess," Seri said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, he was interested in you long before he learned any of those things. I don''t think he cares. You could be the most normal vige girl in the Realm and it wouldn''t change his opinion of who you are."
"I know," Kefira flopped back down on her back. "I know that, up here." She pointed at her head. "It doesn''t stop the feelings of inadequacy sometimes. And it''s not even that. I''m not worried that he''ll think less of me or anything. I just... I don''t know. It''s ''young-girl-in-love-problems,'' Ok? I don''t expect you to understand."
Kefira waited for a quip from her friend, but after waiting for several moments with nothing, Kefira rolled back over on her side. She looked at Seri, but the other girl refused to meet her eye.
"No way!" Kefira practically squealed, her eyes going wide. "Who is it?"
"No one."
"Ohe on," Kefira rolled her eyes. "My romance is on disy for your viewing pleasure. The least you could do is drop a hint."
"No. There''s nothing there."
"There is! There''s something there!"
"It''s not romantic feelings," Seri finally said, sighing. "It''s simple admiration, and even if it wasn''t, it would be impossible. That being said, I can just understand where you''reing from, Ok? There''s really nothing there."
"If you say so," Kefira said, unconvinced. She raised an eyebrow in skepticism, but she rolled back over onto her back once more. "At least give me a name. A hint. Something."
"No."
"You''re no fun," Kefira pouted.
"This is something I will take to the grave with me," Seri said, dead serious. "Not because it''s some big secret or anything. I just know that you don''t believe me when I say it''s simple admiration. I don''t want you making a big deal out of something where there''s really nothing."
"Fine! Whatever." Kefira sighed once more. "I miss him."
"Really?" Seri snorted again. "We~ll... when Iid down and closed my eyes to go to sleep, there was only you and me in the room."
Kefira propped herself up on her elbow as she looked over at Seri. Seri wasying down under the covers, her eyes closed.
"What do you mean?" Kefira asked.
"I can''t hear you," Seri said, eyes still closed. "I''m asleep."
Kefira grinned at her friend as she hopped up from the bed.
"Careful not to wake me," Seri said.
Kefira stopped her dash to the door and resumed at a much more sedate speed. She pretended to tip-toe around the room to the door. She quickly left the room and turned down the hall toward Reivyn''s room. The Adventurer''s Guild hadn''t provided them with exclusive courtyards. The rooms were just on the second floor of the branch headquarters building. There wasn''t a lot of extra real estate on an isted ind to justify a bunch of mostly unused courtyards.
She walked up to Reivyn''s room and paused as she heard voices from the other side of the door. Refix had obviouslye back from his extended conversation with Kahl. She had second thoughts about intruding, but she steeled her resolve and knocked on the door. The voices cut off and she only had to wait a few short moments for the door to open. Reivyn spotted her and his confused expression lit up into a bright smile.
"Back so soon?" Reivyn asked.
"Who is it?" Refix called out.
"It''s Kefira," Reivyn said over his shoulder.
"Well, what does she want?"
"I don''t know, I haven''t had a chance to ask her, yet."
Reivyn looked at Kefira expectantly. She didn''t really know what to say now that she was face-to-face with Reivyn with his dad in the background.
"Umm... Seri''s asleep," she said,mely.
Reivyn continued to look at her, waiting for more. His eyes widened in understanding when she gave him a pointed look.
"Oh, oohhh," he said. "Dad, I''m going to go with Kefira."
"Sure. Just remember one thing." Both Kefira and Reivyn turned to look at Refix as he stepped into view. "Your mother and I aren''t ready to be grandparents, yet."
Kefira could feel her face heat up, and she was certain it was the color of crimson if she could see her reflection right now. Even Reivyn''s ears turned red at the statement. Refix just burst outughing as he watched both of them.
"We''ll keep that in mind, dad," Reivyn said dryly.
Refix just continued to chuckle as Reivyn stepped out and closed the door. He smiled down at Kefira and they turned to head back to her room.
"I''m not..." Kefira turned to Reivyn and tried to exin, but she was too embarrassed to get the right words.
"I know, I know," Reivyn said, grasping her hand. "You just wanted to snuggle and spend more time together."
"Yes, exactly," Kefira nodded her head emphatically. She would be lying if she said the other things didn''t enter her mind, but she would never admit it. There was plenty of time to wait to do things the right way.
---
Reivyn flipped through the booklet containing the information on the Dungeon. The more he read, the more he frowned.
He ced the booklet down on the table of the cafe they had all congregated together for breakfast. Other than sleeping next to his beloved, the evening had ended without anything else out of the ordinary. When they had all woken up in the morning, Seri had simply said that it had just been Kefira and Seri in the room when she got out of bed for the day. Reivyn had taken the hint and left before she swung her feet over the bed.
"This Dungeon looks like it''s going to be annoying," he said with a sigh.
"Really? I would have thought you would be interested in a new type of Dungeon," Kefira said.
"Oh, sure, on the surface it looks exciting. The problemes with trying to clear the Hard Mode."
"What''s the problem," Teilon asked around a mouthful of bacon.
"In order to activate the Hard Mode, we have to make it to the boss on one breath. Once we go below the surface of the water for the first time, we''re not allowed to go back up or use any of the pockets strewn about the Dungeon to allow for us to catch our breath and prepare for going deeper into the Dungeon. Everyone has to go under water at about the same time, and everyone has to make it through the whole thing, down and back, on the one breath. You can''t just sit at the entrance and leech off of the team that goes down, and there are five floors."
"Hmm... well, that sounds more like a you problem to me," Teilon said, gesturing at Reivyn with his fork. "You''re the one obsessed with being apletionist. I would be perfectly happy to not evenplete the Dungeon all the way, much less doing the Hard Mode."
"Well, yeah, but that''s what gives the best rewards," Reivyn answered.
"That''s all well and good, but we''re not so far behind that we have to squeeze out everyst Experience Point we possibly can while we''re here," Teilon argued. "There''s no reason to stress ourselves out over it when we can just take our time and enjoy it."
"What''s not to enjoy about pushing yourself?" Refix chimed in.
"I never said there isn''t a sense of aplishment for pushing ourselves," Teilon answered. "Just that we''re on vacation. We can take it easy for a bit while we''re here."
"Yeah, and I thought I made it pretty clear that the vacation was three days," Refix smirked. "Long before the Dungeon resets."
"I thought you just meant until we started training again..." Teilon trailed off, fork paused over his te.
"And what do you think pushing yourself in the Dungeon is? Hmm? It''s just another sort of training, if you look at it from a certain point of view."
"A certain point of view? I didn''t realize fighting in life or death fights was ''training.''"
"Then you haven''t been paying attention enough," Refix said. "How long have you been with me, now? Four years? And you still think you''re not constantly training? Besides, what were you doing before you joined us in Vairo?" Teilon spluttered while trying to form a coherent answer that didn''t involve doing a whole lot of nothing. "That''s what I thought. It''s time for you to get back into practice. You are still technically employed by me, after all."
"I thought that was an honorary position?" Teilon tilted his head.
"It was," Refix confirmed. "But now you''re Tier 4, and you can seriously contribute. It''s official."
"You''re the Scout Commander," Reivyn nodded his head. "Wee to thepany, Lieutenant Teilon."
Teilon sat a little straighter after hearing the title. He was never too big on military discipline, but that wouldn''t matter as a scoutmander. His job wasn''t to look pretty in a parade, and Reivyn was confident his father had groomed him, and would continue to groom him, to fit the role perfectly. Being acknowledged as someone with an important role had seemed to fill even Teilon with a bit of pride and expectation for the military nature of the mercenarypany.
"And since it''s official, it''s also mandatory that you clear the Hard Mode of the local Dungeon," Refix dered. Teilon groaned but didn''t argue the point any further. "If you can''tplete this simple task, how can we entrust the lives of others into your care?"
"That''s a fair point," Teilon sighed. "Alright, you can count on me. Since I''m determined to do it, you''ll get one hundred percent out of me. You don''t have to worry about that."
"Good man," Reivyn reached over and pped him on the shoulder.
"I should have known better..." Teilon mumbled to himself as he tucked back into his breakfast.
"You really should have," Refix grinned at him.
"I wouldn''t worry about it too much," Kefira said. "We''ll spend the first week figuring the Dungeon out. We''ll do a practice run and test some things out the next week, and the final week we can really push to get it done. And who said we have to do everything the way it appears on paper? Don''t forget, I have ess to the Space Affinity. We could probably just teleport to the boss room if we want to, get it cleared on a technicality, and then fight through the Dungeon backwards."
"Huh, I hadn''t even thought of that," Reivyn said, ncing at Kefira. "I say we try to clear it the regr way the second week, and whether we do it or not, we can just teleport after that. No reason to handicap ourselves further than need be, but we would be hindering our growth if we just took the easy way out every time."
"Agreed," Kefira said, pushing out from the table to stand up. "But now, we have a date with the beach."
Reivyn grabbed a couplest bites before he scooted his chair back as well.
"Don''t you mean date at the beach?" He asked, holding his arm out for her to hook her own in.
"Oh, is that what I meant?"
Reivyn just rolled his eyes as she beamed a smile at him.
Chapter 230: Beach Party
Chapter 230: Beach Party
"Yeah, get in it!" Refix joyfully shouted. "The sand is your friend. Embrace the sand. Be one with the sand."
Reivyn, Kefira, Teilon, and the others were on the beach in fullbat gear. Refix stood over them as they rolled back and forth in the dry sand. Reivyn gritted his teeth as he felt the grains migrate all across the inside of his gear, lodging themselves against his skin and his armor. Refix walked back and forth "encouraging" them to get more and more sand inside their clothes. asionally he would kick up some sand into someone''s face. Reivyn spat out sand from his mouth on more than one asion.
"Why is it just us rolling in the dirt?" Teilonined. "You''re just basking in our misery at this point."
"Alright, hold up!" Refix held a hand out. "Eyes!"
Everyone instinctively snapped their vision onto Refix standing over them. Refix waited until he had everyone''s attention on himself. He shook his body vigorously, and Reivyn and the others watched as sand and other dust particles created a cloud around him as they were shook out from within his own gear.
"I came down here over an hour before all of you and already did everything you''re doing," Refix revealed. "And I''ve been walking, jumping, and leaping about this whole time with this sand and grit inside my armor. I''m not going to ask you to do anything I''m not willing to do myself."
Reivyn nodded his head to himself, but Teilon just groaned.
"That doesn''t make it better," he whined. "Now I just feel bad aboutining, but I don''t want to stopining."
"Hey, you know what they say: ''Aining soldier is a happy soldier,''" Reivyn said."How does that make sense?" Kefira eyed him from her spot in the sand.
"It means he''s not dying," Reivyn said, "If he has time toin, then things aren''t going horribly wrong."
"Oh."
"Alright, let''s get back to it!" Refix gleefully called. "Just a few more minutes and then we can get started."
"You mean we haven''t started, yet?" Teilon asked.
"This is just preparation."
Reivyn questioned his life choices for the hundredth time as he began rolling in the sand once again. This exercise was decidedly different than his time spent on the beach with Kefira the day before. They had gone from wearing fashionable swimwear, bathing in the sun, and frolicking in the waves amidst joy andughter to wearing hot, sweaty armor, literally bathing in the sand, and rolling around amidst agony and groans.
"Alrightdies, are you ready to get going for real?" Refix crowed. "Get up and run to those boulders in the sand. You''ll find some ropes conveniently tied around them. Grab a rope corresponding to your weight ss and get dragging!"
Reivyn jumped up with the others to sprint across the beach. He knew that if they lolly gagged on their way to the boulders his father would juste up with something else in the near future to get back at them for not putting forth enough effort. His father could be quite imaginative, and Reivyn didn''t want to find out what he could be hiding in his back pocket considering the start of their morning.
They stayed on the loose, dry sand. Reivyn had the corresponding Sure Step Skill to help with moving on the loose sand. He was fairly certain Kefira and Seri also had the Skill from what the things they''d said when he first met them in the deste sands of Drallo, but he didn''t know if Teilon and the others did or not. If they didn''t, they would probably unlock it pretty soon.
The boulder that his father had rolled into ce that Reivyn recognized was put there for him made him groan as he grabbed the rope. It was justrge enough that it wouldn''t be a struggle to get started, but it wasn''t round and would drag instead of roll as he pulled it across the sand. The friction and weight was sure to be a headache quick.
Reivyn''s premonition turned out to be true. After getting the boulder moving, it didn''t get any easier. Whenever he had done simr training in the past with a weight that could roll, he could just apply constant pressure below the threshold needed to start to keep it moving. That was not the case with the boulder on the beach. He had to strain and apply just as much, sometimes more, pressure just to keep the boulder froming to aplete stop.
"Let''s go, boy!" Refix''s voice rang out. Reivyn looked over to see Refix pushing Teilon''s boulder from behind to help him get started. Teilon had a look of relief on his face as he got going, but it quickly morphed into one of horror. Refix didn''t help him get rolling out of kindness. Once Teilon got going, he leaped up and sat on the boulder where he could keep up the "encouragement." Even though Refix didn''t weigh all that much, especially rtive to the weight of the stone, the sudden drop in assistance plus the unexpected added wight almost yanked Teilon to a halt. He groaned as Refix pointed ahead.
"Charge!"
Reivyn tuned out the rest of what was going on around him. He needed to focus every part of his being on moving one step in front of another with the weight of the boulder a constant drag. His father had a good eye and had selected the perfect stone to challenge Reivyn.
The sand inside his armor moved about and scratched against his skin. It was a thousand tiny distractions, and Reivyn had to lean on his Mental Fortitude Skill to help push through it. The world faded away and it was just Reivyn, the sand, and the boulder.
There was no increase in Stats. His Stats were far too high to gain any benefit from physical exercise. On the outside, it would seem like such struggle waspletely pointless, and there was a reason very few people did it. Almost all people focused entirely on exercising their Skills exclusively. It was no surprise that the soldiers of Vairo hadn''t been prepared to fight through exhaustion.
There were many benefits to hard physical struggle, though, if one was only willing to look deeper than the surface. Skill gains came the easiest during life or death situations, and they came the slowest during generic training by oneself. Reivyn had learned long ago that training while exhausted not only increased his efficiency with low Stamina, but it was the fastest way toward Skill growth outside of life or death situations. It was even better than practical application such as solving a problem in the field. The best thing about it, though, was that it wasn''t mutually exclusive to practical application. There was a reason Reivyn and his mercenaries drove themselves to exhaustion before every training exercise, though they didn''t do it so much when there was the chance of actualbat which lead to much less physical exercise for the mercenarypany during their stay in Vairo.
The sand inside the armor didn''t make anything actually more physically difficult, but it did cause a new level of distress for everyone. Once Refix determined that enough Stamina had been spent and everyone was sucking air, he finally moved on to the next round.
"Next, sparring," Refix announced. "Everyone here is already conveniently paired up. Teilon and Kimberly, Xudrid and Vyria, Kefira and Seri, and I''ll go with Reivyn. The point of the exercise isn''t to push our Skills further. Well, not specifically, anyway. We''re focused on fighting on uneven, unpredictable ground. We''ll start with just t sand today. Then we''ll move on to ''lumpy'' sand, then the sand banks, and finally, we''ll have the Casters create a scenario where the ground is shifting beneath us. We''ll be spending multiple days on each area.
"Let''s get to it."
Reivyn and Refix paired up and used some training weapons that were sitting in their storage pouches. Reivyn still hadn''t found a permanent recement for his Mana Sword, but he had heard good things from Kahl the other night, so he was keen to go looking in the market for something that might catch his eye. Not everything sold was crafted, either. A lot of the higher end goods were drops from the Dungeon, and he was sure to get something that was superior to a Mana Sword forged in a Tier 1 Region if he could find anything even close to what he was looking for.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition.
Reivyn and Refix didn''t immediately go all out. They tested the waters, so to say, with their initial exchange. ording to Refix''s instruction, they both maintained enhanced focus on their footwork as they struck, parried, and dodged each other. They slowly ramped up their attacks over time, and the world once again fell away. Reivyn was still able to "see" everything around them with his Divine Sense, but he was getting better and better at relegating it to the peripheral of his consciousness as time went on. He needed as much focus as as he could against his father, as his father had stopped matching his Stats to Reivyn''s after Reivyn had bested him in pure Skill.
It also wasn''t exactly fair to say that Reivyn was more Skilled than his father, either. He had leaned on his True Strike Transcendent ability to bypass his father''s defenses. He learned that using the ability didn''t actually further his understanding of it or increase his Skill Level, though. Instead, not using it as a crutch increased his awareness of avenues he could approach to strike true inbat. Using the ability directly negated any kind of challenge, and so it wasn''t beneficial.
Not all Transcendent abilities were like that, though. In fact, most probably weren''t. It was just Reivyn''s luck that the first ability he unlocked was one that he had to deliberately ignore in order to advance.
All of the pairings were used to sparring with each other, but they all kept Refix''s admonition in mind and they paid special attention to their footwork. Even though Kefira wasn''t much of a physicalbatant and had not spent nearly as much time on her Swords Skill as the others had on their respective physical Skills, she had made great leaps over the time she had spent training with Reivyn. Seri waspetent enough to effectively match her strength and Skill to Kefira''s while still getting something out of it as well. If it had been just regr sparring on a t, stable surface, it wouldn''t have done anything for her, but she was able to really focus on her steps, so the point of the training was most effectively aplished for her.
The two Cultivators could walk through the air, so it was highly unlikely they would ever find themselves handicapped by unstable footing, but that was no reason they couldn''t learn. They might be able to glean unexpected benefits from it in the future for all they knew, but they were at least willing to try. Teilon and Kimberly both had sses that were built around movement, so it was doubly important for them to learn how to maneuver under any kind of condition.
Reivyn and Refix switched freely between weapons in their sparring match. They didn''t always choose the same weapon, either. Sometimes one would be wielding an axe against a spear. Sometimes it would be a whip against a dagger. There was a multitude ofbinations of weaponry used against each other, and they were equally Skilled with each.
After close to an hour of intense sparring, both of them were finally seeing the bottom of their Stamina. Reivyn could feel that he had gained multiple Levels with his Sure Step Skill, and he was eager to view his Notification Page when they were done. They finally came to an end of their sparring session, and once the world returned around Reivyn''s conscious perception, he noticed a group of local defenders standing a little ways off watching them. He could see wide-eyed looks from many of them.
Kahl was standing in the front, and as soon as he noticed that Reivyn and Refix were done, he motioned with his head and stepped forward with his men.
"That was quite the spectacle," Kahl said. "I''m sure my men and I could get some useful instruction from the two of you if you''re willing."
"Sure," Refix easily agreed. "How about a trade?"
"A trade?" Kahl was intrigued.
"Yeah. We mentioned that we''remanders of a mercenarypany, so practicing our personalbat abilities is just one aspect. We need to practice Command, too."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Amphibious assaults," Refix said. Reivyn nodded his head along with his father. "We get some boats, load them up with people, have some ''defenders'' on the beach, and then we practice assaulting the beach. I''llmand the defenders while Reivyn assaults the beach, and we''ll switch from time to time."
"What about me?" Teilon asked, walking up.
"You''re in charge of scouts, so you''ll have to practice infiltration instead of assault, though you should get some practice participating in the assaults, too."
"That sounds like a n," Kahl said. "Though, I do have to warn you. When we''re out on the water in the boats, absolutely do not get in the water. Not for any reason. If you somehow identally get knocked off into the water, you do everything in your power to get back on the boat as soon as possible."
"Really?" Refix asked, quirking any eyebrow. "I would think that getting in the water on this ind was done all the time. I mean, I see people in the water right now." He nodded his head to the shore where people could be seen ying in the shallow water. Kahl followed with his gaze.
"Oh, sure. In the shallows it''s fine. As soon as you get about eighty to a hundred yards off shore, though, the seafloor drastically drops off. That''s where I''m talking about."
"Ok, but, why?"
"Here be monsters."
---
Reivyn stood with his head down allowing the water to flow over his body from top to bottom. There was a system built for everyone to shower and wash the sand off of their bodies just off of the beach, and they were taking advantage of it to the fullest. Reivyn had waited until everyone else had already finished, standing outside of his Divine Sense range out of respect for thedies'' privacy. He was pretty sure Kefira wouldn''t have minded, but she absolutely would have minded, as well as the other girls in question, at him being able to see the otherspletely exposed.
He could technically use his Divine Sense to prate levels of clothing and armor at any time, but the way his Skill worked, it wasn''t automatic. Having them showering without anything covering their skin directly, though, would have been automatically in his sight. The others had taken their time, but after getting under the water himself, he didn''t fault them for their choice.
Reivyn used the same shower to scour his armor free of any residual sand that might be hitching a ride, and he used his Divine Sense to inspect every inch to make sure everything was removed. He would extend his ability to everyone else when he was done to make sure they were as sand-free as possible. There was no reason he couldn''t extend the courtesy that would only take a few minutes of his time.
While he was letting the water wash away the residue of their training session, Reivyn nced through his Notification Window. Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Athleticism (63 ->64)
Bnce (54 ->55)
Heavy Armor (30 ->31)
Running (53 ->54)
Tier 2:
Pain Resistance (60 ->61)
Tier 3:
Sure Step (21 ->24)
He noticed that Mental Fortitude hadn''t Leveled up, but he could feel that he had made significant progress. It had been bogged down ever since he had reached Level 49. Most of his Skills hadn''t taken too long to cross the thresholds every 25 Levels, but Mental Fortitude hadn''t budged since achieving its current Level. Having the sand constantly intruding on his thoughts while causing immense difort had finally given his mentality the boost it needed to move toward the next Level.
Reivyn didn''t have to worry about running out of hot water. If the water started to lose its heat, he would just channel some Fire Mana into it to bring it back up in temperature, but the fact that it was losing steam meant it was about time for him to wrap things up. He could see with his Divine Sense that the others were waiting for him, and it would be rude for him to take longer than they had.
He turned the water off and simply used his Mana to whisk the water off of his body and dry his hair. They had all brought some regr clothes with them aside from their armor, so he donned his before stepping back out into the open. The others were engaged in conversation ranging from the training they had just done to what they nned on doing for the rest of the day. Just because their "vacation" was over didn''t mean they had to spend the entire day training. There also wasn''t the paperwork or logistics associated with running the mercenarypany to take up their time, either.
Reivyn quickly scanned everyone''s armor, removing errant grains of sand whenever he found any, and everyone nodded their heads in thanks.
"Alright, that''s it for today," Refix addressed everyone. "We''ll be doing more of the same tomorrow, same time. I''ll be getting together with Kahl to go over joint exercises with him and his men, so expect a shakeup in the next couple of days. I think it''ll be fun, though."
"You think running while carrying a rock over your head is fun," Teilon retorted.
"Because it is," Refix replied with a deadpan expression. "It''s not my problem that you can''t recognize the intricacies and profound truths contained within repetitive movements under pressure. Anyway, that''s all I have for you at this time, so feel free to spend the rest of the day however you want."
"Yes! Come on, Kimberly, now that we''ve perused all the shops, it''s time to go check out some of the sights."
Teilon and Kimberly walked off with smiles on their faces, talking about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. Reivyn looked at Kefira, Seri standing stoically behind her. He shrugged his shoulders.
"Other than looking for a new sword, I''m game to go sightseeing, too," he said.
The ind wasn''t just the coastal town and Dungeon. When they had gone to the Adventurer''s Guild, they had seen from the road that the ind had multiplemunities and there was even a short mountain in the distance. They had talked about what the storm in the distance would look like from atop the mountain, and it was definitely something on their itinerary.
"Alright, let''s go," Kefira nodded.
Chapter 231: Armed in Arm
Chapter 231: Armed in Arm
Reivyn strolled through the open market. He hade with the purpose of inspecting the weapons closely and possibly getting a feel for them, but he found that with his Divine Sense, coupled with his Mana Sensing Skills, he was able to get a good grasp of the properties of everything he wished to quite easily. He didn''t need to pick up a weapon and check its weight and bnce every step of the way. He still needed to, of course, but with his ability to inspect things supernaturally closely from a distance, it eradicated a whole lot of options that caught his eye.
Like always, he wasn''t alone. Kefira trailed along after him, but her inspections were of apletely different sort. There was very little possibility of running into anything in this environment that would aid her magical abilities, so she perused the more mundane things. There were a lot of well crafted pieces of jewelry sourced either from the Dungeon or the shore. Reivyn suspected that there was a lot of wealth washing up on their shore drifting in from the Tier 8 Region nearby. He didn''t recognize most of it, but that didn''t mean it wasn''t pretty.
Surprisingly, it was Seri that made for a better partner in searching for a new arming sword. Reivyn could toss out all the weapons that appeared fine on the surface but had some internal imperfections at will, and he knew better than anyone else what kind of weight and bnce would work best for him, but that didn''t lessen the importance of the insight Seri could give him.
He had bypassed a lot of formal education in his strange journey through life. Most people who found themselves in a leadership position, even through being a noble, had a lot more formal education under their belt than Reivyn did. Seri was able to make up for that deficiency by identifying a lot of the metals and forging techniques used in the weapons Reivyn deemed worthy of inspecting.
So far, there were three candidates that had caught his eye, but he wasn''t going to purchase the very first thing that met his minimum requirements. Most of the weapons discarded out of hand by Reivyn had actually been sourced from the Dungeon. The three currently on his short list were hand-crafted by master smiths using materials from the Dungeon and the local area. Reivyn''s hope was to stumble upon a well-crafted weapon forged mainly from metals washed up from the Tier 8 Region, but considering the level of Skill necessary to even work such metals, it was practically an impossible dream.
One day, he promised himself. One day I''ll have all of my gear crafted by the peak masters made from the peak resources. Even with all of my strength, I''m still lingering in the Tier 4 Regions which is only the middle level of the continent. Most people aspire to only be able to get their gear from artisans from a Fourth Tier Region, but for me, it''s basically my starting point.
Currency across the Realm was pretty universal, Reivyn had learned. There were different denominations and weights between local groups, but even those differences were miniscule and mostly aesthetic. There was something about the situation that tickled the back of his mind, but most people gave credit to the Realm spanning Adventurer''s Guild and many churches.
Reivyn had sometimes wondered about intion and the problems that could arise from getting silver and gold from Dungeons infinitely, but he hadn''t noticed anything detrimental to any of the local economies one could expect from such a situation. A lot of the gold flowed out of the lower Regions to the higher kingdoms and empires, as well as silver to a lesser extent. Kefira had informed him that the precious metals were used by higher Tier Mages and Rune Masters. A lot of the resources were destroyed, turned into pure energy, in the process.
Makes sense why we never heard anything about anyone rounding up a whole lot of higher-Tier metals from the giant Rune inscribed in the desert that Aerie had her people build. It turned into the energy that fueled the Rune, so there was nothing to recover.Reivyn casually picked up a sword that his Divine Sense told him had no major ws. He held it up and stood in various poses, gauging the feel of the sword in his hand. He shook his head an put it back,pletely ignoring the extolling of the person trying to persuade him to make the purchase.
He could have gone to the smiths directly, or a store front associated with them, but that wasn''t necessary. He didn''t know if it was cultural or environmental, but a lot of the wares in the open street markets were the wares that could be found in the stores. The people here just enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the outdoors more than the other cities Reivyn had previously been to. The other cities had their fair share of open markets, but they were usually associated with found items or lesser quality gear. That wasn''t the case in the coastal city.
"That sword would have been entirely too light for you," Seri said, nodding her head. "The primary metal used to forge it was Tier 2, maybe low Tier 3 depending on the Mana content."
"The workmanship was really good, so I thought I''d give it a try," Reivyn answered with a shrug. "But you''re right. It''s not a good fit."
The three continued their journey through the markets until Reivyn noticed something at the edge of his Divine Sense that finally piqued his interest. The three contenders he had in mind previously had just been swords that had met his minimum requirements, but the weapon he was seeing with his Skill was something different this time. It wasn''t something forged from Tier 8 materials, but it was definitely a step above anything else he had seen.
He made a beeline down the street to the stall where the weapon was resting. It wasn''t a hidden gem by any means. It was on prominent disy behind the stall merchant. It held the seat of honor. Reivyn casually scanned all of the other swords and weapons on disy and noticed that they were all of simr quality. Every single one of them met his minimum requirements for further inspection.
"What''s the deal with these weapons?" Reivyn asked the young man sitting behind a short, portable counter. The teenager had a bored look on his face, and even Reivyn''s interest in the weapons didn''t change his attitude. The young man did look up and answer his question, though.
"These weapons were all crafter by my father," the young man said. "The best Grandmaster Metal Smith on the ind."
"Hmm... the best, you say?" Reivyn stroked his chin in thought as he nced back and forth among the weapons on disy. "Well, on the surface, I can definitely see how he could im such a thing."
"He doesn''t just im it. He''s recognized."
"Recognized? By who?"
"All the other smiths," the teenager shrugged. "Plus the Adventurer''s Guild." The young man gave Reivyn a level look. "Not just the local branch, either. He''s got a que and everything."
Reivyn thought the young man was trying to boost the prices of the weapons that were for sale, but he quickly abandoned that idea. The young man still had the air of boredom about him, and he didn''t really seem to care about driving for a higher price. The way he mentioned his father being the best on the ind came off more a statement of simple fact than anything else.
"I see. Well, these are all fine pieces of hardware, but I''m looking for something... a little more. What''s the story with the sword hanging above you?" Reivyn indicated the sword with a nod.
"That''s dad''s masterpiece," the youth exined. "He got his hands on a small bit of Tier 6 metal from the sea a long time ago, too little to make anything other than a knife or dagger, but, ording to dad, he had a grand vision. He held on to that little piece of metal for decades until he finally found something he could pair it with. Something so grand in a Tier 4 Region deserved to be something more than a knife. Dad decided to wait until he could incorporate it into the king of weapons: the sword."
"Some people would argue that the spear is the king of weapons," Reivyn pointed out.
"Yeah, and some people would be wrong." The youth noticed Reivyn quirk an eyebrow at his deration. "Listen, when you imagine a noble, heroic warrior standing against the darkness, does he have a spear or does he have a sword?"
Reivyn thought about it for a moment. The kid had a point. When he imagined someone as described by the youngster, he had a sword in his hand. Reivyn subconsciously nodded his head, and the cksmith''s son immediately spotted the concession.
"Exactly. He has a sword. Anyway, ideally, he would have liked to spread the metal very thin and coat a masterwork sword in the higher-Tier metal, but there was a huge problem with this n: this Tier 6 metal was soft. Softer than gold. A child could leave a mark on it by squeezing too hard. Luckily, my dad is a Grandmaster Metal Smith, so he was still able to figure out how to use it properly.
"The core of this sword isposed of the Tier 6 metal. It was enveloped in increasingly harder metal from inside to outside. I won''t go into the specifics of how it was done, but my dad was able to use the hardest possible metal on the outside of the weapon. It took him years to design the forging method as well as the smelting method. I would bet everything I own that you won''t find a better sword honestly crafted in a Tier 4 Region in the Realm."
This narrative has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
The young man slowly stood up and unveiled a giant block of reinforced Tier 4 steel nearby. He grabbed the sword, unsheathed it, and looked Reivyn in the eye.
"Two people with a Strength Stat of over ten thousand could spar every day with this sword and you wouldn''t need to do routine maintenance on it for a year."
The youth raised the sword up high and then brought it down on the reinforced steel as hard as he could. There was no reverberation of metal vibrating. The sword sliced an inch into the reinforced steel and held steady. The youth retracted the sword and held it up for Reivyn to inspect. Reivyn didn''t have to look with his eyes. His Divine Sense already told him that there wasn''t even a miniscule nick on the de.
"Impressive," Reivyn said, leaning over to look like he was inspecting the de closely. "So what''s the catch?" He asked, straightening up. "Why hasn''t it been sold? Is your father just too proud to let it go? But then why would even be on disy in that case? Is it too expensive?"
The young man re-sheathed the weapon and returned it to its position before sitting back down. He shook his head.
"My father said that this master sword has to go with a master warrior. He hasn''t exined exactly what that means to me, but he insists on any potential buyers showing him their Weapons Skill. Most people aren''t willing to do that, and those that have been haven''t met the standard."
"Hmm, ok. So I just have to meet with your dad and show him my Skill and he''ll sell me the sword?"
The youth eyed Reivyn up and down. To the teenager''s eye, Reivyn didn''t appear to be much older than him. Reivyn could tell that he was skeptical, but he just sighed before answering.
"Yeah. You can find him in the shop at the end of the road," the youth pointed to an obvious smith''s workshop that could be seen from where they were standing. "He''s always willing to look at someone''s Skill if they''re willing to show it," the youth once more looked Reivyn up and down, "even if they''re woefully unqualified."
Reivyn just smiled at the other boy.
"I''ll be right back."
Reivyn turned to head toward the smith workshop pointed out. Seri had listened to the entire story, and even Kefira had heard almost all of it while she flitted about looking at mundane goods. They followed closely on his heels.
"Are you really going to show your Skill to aplete stranger?" Kefira asked. "Isn''t it like some sort of super secret that you shouldn''t reveal?"
"That was before," Reivyn shook his head. "Now, I''m strong enough that I don''t have to worry about it. I can''t live my life like there''s a hidden, super high-Tier sser lurking in the shadows ready to kidnap me upon learning about my Skill. I really only had to worry about it before I entered Wispan with you."
"That makes sense," Kefira conceded.
"And it''s not like I''m going to be shouting it from the rooftops. It''s just the one guy, and even if he says anything, other people might not even believe him."
Reivyn was confident that there wouldn''t be any problems, and he quickly convinced the two girls as well. I should probably tell my dad I did this, just in case, though, Reivyn thought.
It didn''t take long for them to arrive at their destination. The trio walked through the door and were met with a smiling woman standing behind a counter. Her facial features matched very closely with the youth at the street stall, so Reivyn assumed she was either his older sister or mother. Considering his father was a Grandmaster Metal Smith, thedy he was married to was highly likely to be a higher Level as well, and Reivyn knew firsthand how young his own parents looked. Refix had been mistaken for his older brother on more than one asion.
"How can I help you, today?" Thedy asked kindly.
"I''m here to buy the sword," Reivyn said. His emphasis on "the" sword left no doubt to what he was referring to.
The smile on thedy''s face never wavered, but here eyebrows did go up. She gave Reivyn an appraising look before half turning.
"I''ll go get my husband," she said before opening a door leading to the back.
Well, that answers that question, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
A huge st of heat and loud banging sounds immediately filled the room as the door opened. Thedy didn''t actually step through the door, but she simply leaned forward and called for her husband toe to the front about the sword. Not all of the ringing ceased, but the loudest sounds did, and it wasn''t long before arge man stepped through the doors.
He scanned the room very quickly and immediatelytched his gaze onto Reivyn and Seri. He didn''t know which one was here about the sword, but Reivyn''s stance seemed to say something and he approached the trio while wiping his hands on a cloth. He held out one hand to Reivyn as he stepped in front of him.
"Boldir," the stout man said. Reivyn grasped his hand.
"Reivyn."
"So I hear you''re interested in the sword, eh? Well, do you know the rule?"
"I believe so," Reivyn nodded his head.
Boldir didn''t say anything else and just patiently waited. He didn''t have a skeptical look on his face like his son, but he didn''t have an air of expectation, either. It was clear that he didn''t have too high hope for Reivyn meeting his standard, but he wasn''t going to ridicule him if he turned out to have a terrible Skill Level.
Reivyn had never shared his Status screen with anyone else before. He did have practice truncating information and editing what could be seen, and his parents had exined to him how to do so. He wasn''t going to be sharing his entire Status with the man, so it wasn''t going to pop up in his vision like a personal Status screen would or like his parents'' had when they had shared with Reivyn.
Reivyn held his hand out, palm facing Boldir, and willed a Status Screen to disy his Weapons Master Skill to the man. Boldir looked at the screen that popped up, and he just stared at it for several long moments. Finally, his eyes went wide and he hunched over, covering Reivyn''s hand with his own.
"Are you crazy?! Just popping that out here where anyone could see?!" Boldir looked left and right to reassure himself that nobody else was around.
Hmm, maybe it''s still a bit bigger of a deal than I thought, Reivyn admitted to himself. Though, probably only to those who understand what they''re seeing.
Reivyn dismissed the screen and lowered his hand. It was only after doubly verifying that the screen in question was nowhere to be seen that Boldir stood up straight once more. He turned his head and nodded to his wife. Her eyes got wide and after a short hesitation, she exited the shop.
"Lyril will go fetch the sword for you," Boldir exined.
Reivyn was taken aback.
"We haven''t even discussed price, yet," Reivyn said.
"Tell you what. From one master of his craft to another, you give me what you think the sword is worth, and she''s yours."
Reivyn stared at the man for a moment. He pulled out his storage pouch and stuck his hand in. The contents of such pouches were intuitive, and he quickly withdrew an amount of gold that could have paid for half the weapons in the shop, even at their level of incredible craftsmanship. Reivyn thought about it for a moment and snagged another item from the pouch as he withdrew his hand.
He held his hand out and handed the currency over to the other man. Boldir didn''t count the coins, but he nodded his head in satisfaction. Reivyn held up the triniket he had pulled out along with the money so Boldir could see it.
"This is a little something my sisters made," Reivyn said. "It''s not much, they were only Tier 2 when they made it, but I think you might appreciate it."
Reivyn ced a little toy soldier in the bigger man''s hand. The figure was very detailed and depicted an armored man in a stance holding the hilt of his sword, about to draw it from its sheathe. Toy Soldier
Wearing this as an essory increases one''s courage.
Much like most things his sisters crafted, its uses were quite esoteric. The magic items Reivyn had seen from within Dungeons or crafted by others usually had Stat gains and straightforward bonuses. Increasing one''s courage seemed fairly straight forward, but it wasn''t something he had seen on any other piece of gear before.
To emphasize Reivyn''s thoughts on the matter, Boldir''s eyes widened as he obviously used an Inspect Skill on the trinket. He nced back and forth between Reivyn and the toy soldier several times before closing his fist around the item and beaming a smile at Reivyn.
"This was a good trade," Boldir said.
Reivyn nodded his head.
"Alright, well, just wait here for a moment for Lyril to return with the sword," Boldir said. "I should be getting back to work, if there''s nothing else..." There was a fervor in his eyes that bespoke of inspiration from looking at the toy soldier.
"I did have one final question," Reivyn said. Boldir nodded his head for Reivyn to continue. He was obviously itching to get back to his work, but he stayed behind to hear Reivyn out. "I was just curious as to why you had the sword disyed where you did. Weren''t you worried someone would steal it? Why not have it in the shop directly?"
Boldir chuckled at the question.
"Well, to answer your second question first, it was pure vanity," Boldir said with augh. "I was showing off. Far more people walk past that little street stall than step into the store. A lot of people know about the sword, so even though its kept in its sheathe, it still sees plenty of sunlight from people asking about it. Those that don''t know about the sword can catch a glimpse of it, and people who know swords don''t have to see it to understand what it is.
"As to your first question, I wasn''t worried about theft at all. That sword, until it''s firmly in the possession of the buyer, is guaranteed by the Adventurer''s Association." Reivyn just gave the man a nk stare. "Ah. You don''t know what that means. Well, if anyone stole that sword, the Adventurer''s Guild would issue a Realm-wide bounty on the thief. They would be chased to the ends of the Realm for eternity. Nobody''s reckless enough to do that. And to answer your unasked question, it was magically monitored. It''smon knowledge among the circles that have people who would have the Skills necessary to steal it."
"I see. Thank you for clearing that up for me."
"No problem. Anything else?" When Reivyn shook his head, Boldir nodded once more and went back to his workshop.
It wasn''t long until Lyril came back with the sword in her arms. She beamed a bright smile at the trio as she walked towards them. She gingerly handed the sheathed weapon over to Reivyn who took it with his own smile.
"Thank you very much," Reivyn said. "I''ve been looking everywhere for a suitable recement ever since myst Mana sword shattered."
"Oh, well you couldn''t have picked a better recement," Lyril said. "One of the reasons the Tier 6 metal core is so soft is because it''s actually a Mana conduit. It''s meant for channeling Mana, not stabbing or shing things. You''ll find that this sword is probably better at channeling your Mana than yourst sword was."
"Excellent," Reivyn said, his eyebrows going up in surprise. This sword just kept getting better and better. "Well, have a nice day. Maybe we''lle back one day and see what other masterpieces Grandmaster Boldir hase up with."
"You''re wee back any time."
Reivyn nodded to Kefira and Seri and exited the shop. Reivyn felt a hundred times better as he hugged his new sword to his chest as they walked down the streets. He hadn''t realized how much he had missed having his previous sword always at his hip. Now that he was properly armed once more, he could fully focus on other important things.
Chapter 232: Amphibious Training
Chapter 232: Amphibious Training
"So, do you care to borate on what you said about monsters in the water the other day?" Reivyn asked Kahl.
Reivyn was busy tightening straps and ensuring all of his gear was ounted for and properly secured. It would be a disaster for something toe loose and fall into the open water, especially if it was impossible to dive down to try and save it. All around, over a hundred other people were likewise seeing to their gear.
Kahl had coordinated with a couple of other groups of local guardians to put this entire thing together. Reivyn didn''t know what kind of deals he had struck with the others, but they were still only responsible for including Kahl and his own contingent among their training sessions. Reivyn found himself focusing less on his personal Skills and more on instructing others, but he didn''t mind too much. One could easily gain insights they otherwise wouldn''t have from instructing others, so it wasn''t a loss of his time, either.
The n was to split the groups in two. Refix wouldmand the defenders, and Reivyn wouldmand the attackers. There were six long boats beached on the shore that they would use to transport everyone back and forth. There wasn''t much in the way of preventing someone from falling over the edge of the boat, either, which was one reason Reivyn was so concerned about making sure everything was as tight and secure as possible.
"Well, there''s really not any danger in the local waters," Kahl admitted. "There isn''t anything that''s going to pose a threat to your person unless you just get super unlucky and happen to get tangled up with more than one octopus or squid and they drag you deep into the water. Even then a high enough Stamina will see you through theck of oxygen while you fight your way free.
"No, the real dangeres from seeing too much. I say don''t go into the water under any circumstances mainly to avoid the possibility. There are things down there that will break your mind. I''ve seen seasoned veterans turn nearly catatonic. Mild cases give someone the shakes for a couple weeks. Bad cases make a man invalid."
"Seeing too much will break your mind?" Reivyn asked, quirking an eyebrow skeptically. Kahl just gave him a deadpan look.
"Those are Tier 8 monsters out there,d. None of us are ready to face something like that."
"You have a point there. Still, it''s hard to believe someone will lose their mind from just looking at one. I''ll take your word for it, though. You''re the expert. It might be some sort of Skill for all we know," Reivyn nodded his head."Yeah, there''s been a lot of spection on it. It might be a Skill, but it could just as easily be raw, primal fear. Best to just avoid it all together."
"Alright, well, let''s make sure nobody does anything stupid while we''re out on the water, then. The defenders have instructions to not actually aim their projectiles at us. They''ll just be flinging spells and missiles all around us to simteing in hot. We''llpensate the owners for any damage done to the boats, but it shouldn''t be a problem."
They had already gone over the n multiple times. Reivyn was just repeating things for the benefit of those standing around and to reiterate. It was never a bad idea to be 100% certain of what was going on. The spells and missiles that would be flying about were all going to be the minimum levels and wouldn''t cause any dangerous damage to anyone participating.
"It''s all good," Kahl said with a grin. "We''re all excited about this little training exercise. We''ve never really had a reason to do something like this before. Even though it''s for training, this might give some of theds the boost to their Life Experience they''ve been waiting for."
"Hey, win-win situations are the best. Alright, let''s get loaded up!"
At Reivyn''s call, everyone quickly finished their final checks and headed to the boats. The half of the people who were going to defend the beach headed to the embankment. They were already hard at work digging holes and building fortifications to Refix''s specifications. Reivyn deliberately didn''t look at what his father was up to. It wasn''t a big deal, but he was going to try and make the assault as realistic as possible. He usually wouldn''t have knowledge of the exactyout of the defenses prior to making thending in such an attack.
Reivyn was one of the first to get onboard his own boat. He would be standing in the back of the boat, one of thest to get off, but he would have a better view of what was going on while they made their assault. The local guardians quickly boarded the boats. Teilon and Kimberly were with Reivyn, but they were on their own separate boats. They wouldn''t normally be together during abat situation in the future with Teilon being inmand of the scouts, so Reivyn didn''t want them to get too used to leaning on their familiarity with each other.
The boatsunched out to sea. The man controlling the boat wasn''t one of the local guardians. He was a fisherman who spent a lot of time on the water, and he had the Skills necessary to propel the boat all on his own at quite a fast clip, even with all of the added weight of the bodies onboard. They spent several minutes shooting toward the distant storm wall, but they didn''t get anywhere close to it. The wall looked like it was just right there, but it was actually several dozen miles away.
"This should be far enough," Reivyn said to the man in control of the boat. He turned his head so his voice would carry to the side. "Turn about!" He infused Commanding Shout into his voice.
The defenses that were being thrown up were mainly aesthetic, but even then, with high Stats, they were able to be erected quickly. Reivyn didn''t need to give his dad any additional time to prepare, so as soon as all of the boats were facing the shore oe more, Reivyn ordered the helmsman to head back to shore.
Reivyn looked at the distant beach. There were walls, holes, and obstacles erected all along the beach, and he could see people moving about behind the hastily built fortifications. His sight bobbed up and down along with the waves, and almost immediately Reivyn sensed the Mana of the iing Spells.
Dozens of bolts flew toward them and crashed into the sea all around them. asionally, arger Spell would impact nearby causing a small explosion and huge st of water into the air. The water rained down on everyone''s head as they hunkered down trying to present as small a target as possible. Even knowing that the Spells were almost entirely harmless to them as well as the fact that they were aimed at the water, the sheer amount of Spells did the trick of simting a hostile environment. It seemed real.
A stray,rge bolt smashed into the water right next to Reivyn''s boat, and the world shifted as the the boat was lifted and tilted to the side. One of the local guardians iled his arms for a second as his center of gravity tried to drag him over the side, but his quick thinkingpanions grabbed ahold of him and kept him on the boat. They shared a look with each other and chuckled nervously. Being natives to the area and having seen the effects of those that had seen the Tier 8 monsters in the distance first hand, they were all well aware of the danger.
I''ll need to have a word with the Casters after this, Reivyn thought. That was entirely too close. Someone needs to get a handle on their aim.
Reivyn suspected someone was getting chewed out by Refix as he could see his dad in the distance pop up near a group of the Casters. He couldn''t see or hear what was said or done, but the sudden slow down of Spells indicated the Casters had their attention shifted away from the approaching boats, at least for a moment. The Spells quickly resumed, but there was a noticeable shift in the targeting of therger Bolts. The smaller bolts still flung about so close that several even actually impacted some of the boats, but therger Spells that caused the explosions and sshes were much further away, now.
This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The approach to the beach seemed to take considerably longer than the ride out to the open water, but a nce at his System clock informed Reivyn that it was the virtually the same amount of time. The beach got closer and closer, and it grew in Reivyn''s vision every second.
"Shields up!" Reivyn Commanded.
His voice carried well over the water, even over the sound of the Spells. They were close enough now that blunted arrows apanied the Magic flying through the air. The guardians coordinated their Group Shield Skills, and the front couple of rows lifted actual shields to further block their front.
The boats were just regr long boats, so there wasn''t a convenient hatch to lower for everyone to storm onto the beach. The boats glided onto the sand, and the front rows immediately lept out of the sides, raising their shields once more. The others waited for a heartbeat before they followed, and they grouped up behind the shield-bearers and started running ashore.,
Reivyn leaped out among the men and surveyed the other boats along the way. Everyone was moving ording to the instructions that had been given during nning, and there wasn''t a real need to adjust anything at this point. They hadn''t thrown in any surprises for the first run, though Reivyn was sure they would graduate to that in the near future.
Therger Bolts ceased as soon as the boats hit the sand, but the lesser Bolts and the blunted arrows still rained down around them. Some of the guardians were struck by errant Spells, but there wasn''t the same level of danger as getting spilled into the ocean. Their Group Shield Skills red and protected them. There wasn''t enough behind the Spells to even get close to breaking the shields, much less cause actual damage to the people.
"Move! Move! Move! Get off the beach!" Reivyn yelled. His yelling was more for himself than the others at this point. Nobody was bogged down, and everything was moving ording to n. This was one of the bigger downfalls of structured training. It was hard to train for unforeseen circumstances. They would think of ways to get around that inter exercises, though.
The guardians ran up the beach to the first trenches. The opposing guardians put up a token resistance, only going so far as to casually spar with the attacking force. They exchanged some moves, and then the defendersid down as if they had been defeated. Three of the attackers likewiseid down, and the two groups began tough and joke with each other about what they''d just been through. Reivyn didn''t pay it any mind. They were only simting casualties at this point.
"Converge with the next group," Reivyn ordered his group of guardians. "We''llbine our strength and punch through the next line."
Reivyn whistled toward the group closest to him. When they looked up, he waved to them and the two groups changed their course to meet up before hitting the next wall that had been erected.
The next obstacle was much like thest one. The defenders struck at them from their position above and behind the wall, and the guardians had to climb over the obstacle while fending off the attacks. Reivyn, and probably most of the guardians, could have blown right through the wall, but that wasn''t the point of the exercise. Reivyn parried several spear thrusts as he waited for his turn, and when a space opened up, he fully used his Acrobatics Skill to quickly vault over the short wall.
Again, the defendersid down and several of the attackers sat down next to them. Reivyn grouped up with the remainders and surveyed the final obstacle: the embankment with holes dug throughout and a wall on top.
"Alright, we''re going to head straight to the wall above the short hill," Reivyn exined his n. "Take out the defenders in the fox holes, but we''re not going to storm the wall. Instead, we''ll turn and charge along it to the next group down and reinforce them. This will put us out of the range of their Spells and arrows, but we''ll have to be vignt for anyone paying attention and sticking a spear through one of the gaps or over the wall. Hopefully this maneuver will catch them off guard, and we can get up and over with the other group in a solid position before they can react and reinforce on their own side."
Reivyn was hoping that he hadnded in a spot where his father wasn''t overseeing things. It wasn''t that others couldn''t figure out what was going on and react quickly enough, but they had it set up that Refix was really the only real leadership role on the other side. If they had more people to work with, they could have expanded the oppositions officer pool, but, again, that wasn''t the point of the exercise. Most of the conventional units they would be fighting against, especially those from the invaders, had more limited leadership roles than how Reivyn had structured his own units.
They didn''t have anything to wait for, so Reivyn led the charge up the hill. Defenders popped up out of the holes dug into the side of the hill, and they were quickly "dispatched." They reached the wall, and just like Reivyn had said, he turned and led them running along the top of the hill with the wall now acting more to conceal and cover their movements than that of the defenders. Nobody seemed to react to the change in their direction, and they quickly made it to the next group of defenders.
They coordinated their assault, and they quickly got up and over the wall. More defenders and attackersid down, and Reivyn charged ahead to the designated area that would signal the end of the exercise. There was a little g pole erected about thirty yards beyond the makeshift wall, and Reivyn let out a lout shout as he lifted it up and swung it about.
The sparring sessions all along the wall ceased and everyone turned to see Reivyn "conquering" the objective. Refix appeared with a smile on his face and pped his son on the shoulder. Kahl was close behind him as the others ambled their way over.
"That was fun!" Kahl eximed, face flush with excitement. He wiped at the sweat beading his brow, but other than that he seemed ready to keep going.
"Yeah, other than that little incident at the beginning where one of the boats almost capsized, I''d say it was a sess," Refix said, nodding his head. He wasn''t even a little out of breath. His face and posture were calm and sweat free.
"Yeah, I was on that boat," Reivyn said, chuckling. "Luckily, the guardians were paying attention and snagged the one guy who almost lost his bnce. Speaking of that incident, though, do you know what happened?"
"One of the Mages got distracted," Refix rolled his eyes. "How do you get distracted whileunching a siege Spell at an impending invasion? Anyway, he looked away from his target just as he cast it for whatever reason, and it went a bit wide. I chewed him a new one, though, and I don''t think it''ll be a problem again."
"Yeah, we don''t have to have everyone pull back on their siege Spells. Just get with the Mages and figure out which ones were the most urate and responsible, and have them continue like they had before. I think moving through the water with the explosions and water sshes was effective in building the right kind of environment."
"From what I''ve seen, everyone loved it," Kahl said again. Many of the guardians congregating around nodded their heads with smiles on their faces. "Those running the attack had it better, but even the defenders had fun."
"Alright, but it''s time to spice things up a bit," Reivyn said. "This time, each boat will designate two people as ''wounded.'' They won''t be out of the fight, but they''ll have to be carried up the beach. Once they get to the first obstacle, they can participate in the sparring. We''ll go a little harder with the spars, too, and if an someone gets tapped three or more times during the time sparring, they''re out. We''ll designate a minute of sparring for the initial fox holes, five minutes for the wall, and ten minutes for the final obstacle. If everyone gets tapped out, it''s a failed invasion."
"Sounds good to me," Refix agreed. "I''ll try and switch some things up on my end, too, try and throw some surprises at you."
"Not anything too borate for the second round," Reivyn said. "We don''t want to lose sight of the point of the training."
"Sure, sure. I''m not going to activate my Skills and take out an entire boat, if that''s what you''re worried about," Refixughed.
"Alright!" Reivyn turned to address the crowd. Everyone had made it over to the end point by this time. "Thirty minute break, then we go again. The team leaders will exin the changes this time around to each boat. Good job on the exercise this time, everyone. Let''s keep it up."
There wasn''t much more to say, so Reivyn didn''t say it. There had been a person designated as the team leader for each boat, but it was more to handle misceneous things than to take charge. They had all been present for when they had decided to add the changes to the n, so Reivyn let them disseminate the news.
Teilon and Kimberly were standing nearby talking with Kefira and Seri. Kefira and Seri were among the defenders. Xudrid and Vyria were off to the side talking to each other. They had been split up for the exercise with Xudrid being with the attackers and Vyria among the defenders. Reivyn and Refix walked over to the group and pulled out some simple rations.
"Eat up while we have the chance," he said. "No telling how long each new iteration of the assault will take. No reason to be hungry."
Kefira broke away from speaking with Kimberly and walked over to Reivyn''s side. She pulled out her own rations, and everyone sat in a loose semi-circle. Reivyn was busy thinking about the next exercise and what other things he could implement to change things up, but the others happily chatted and joked with each other about the experience. Kefira was content to just sit next to him while she ate her own food and listened to the others.
Reivyn quickly munched through his rations and let himself rx while waiting for the time. All too soon, the thirty minute break was over, and he leaped to his feet.
"Alright. Once more into the beach."
Nobody else caught his little joke, but he still chuckled to himself.
Chapter 233: Week in Review
Chapter 233: Week in Review
Reivyn and his friends settled into a routine. In the morning, they would train under harsh circumstances under Refix¡¯s critical and creative eye. There was no end to the things he could do to cause them minor suffering that could roll into mind-bending difort. The sand inside the armor was just the first example. Reivyn¡¯s least favorite tactic was doing physical exercise in the water.
Just because they had massive Stats did not suddenly thrown physics out the window. Even though the weight of the water was made negligible by his superhuman Strength Stat, the mass of the ocean still existed. Reivyn¡¯s confidence that he wouldn¡¯t struggle in the waters was shattered quite quickly.
There were Skills and other things Reivyn could do to bypass the immense mass of the ocean waters, but Refix specifically forbade anyone from using them. The point of the exercises was to get exhausted in the first ce. It wouldn¡¯t make sense to sneak around the stiptions, and if they did, they would only be hurting themselves.
Teilon was a master grumbler, so much so that Reivyn suspected he had unlocked some sort of Skill around the practice, but he never cut corners. He was in the water with the rest of them, shouldering the mass of the waters like everyone else.
After their ¡°warm-up,¡± as Refix lovingly called it, they would perform individualized sparring sessions ording to their Skill Level for about an hour. Once they were done with that, Kahl and his troops would saunter over and receive instruction from both Refix and Reivyn on a myriad of different weaponry.
Kahl had just assumed that Reivyn and Refix were masters of a couple base weapons and proficient with many others. He and his men were all bbergasted after the first couple of sessions where the father and son duo disyed an understanding and ability far surpassing anyone with any weapon that could be produced.
It had be a sort of game for the guardians to show up with an obscure weapon type and seek guidance on its use. It came to an end when Reivyn picked up a piece of seaweed and used expertly used it as a whip. Even without using his Mana abilities, the seaweed-whip didn¡¯t suffer any damage while still producing the whip-crack proving the force with which it was wielded.
Reivyn didn¡¯t want to break their mindspletely, though, so he left off the fact that he could pick up a handful of sand and use it as an effective throwing weapon. It probably wouldn¡¯t have been able to do any substantial damage in a real life or death fight, but it could still cause more problems than simply getting in the opponent¡¯s eyes.
After the instruction of the guardians was a short break as the rest of the squads made their way over to the beach. It wasn¡¯t the same faces every day, and even Kahl and his group weren¡¯t present for one session, because they all took turns being on duty at certain times. They had specifically altered their schedules to allow everyone the maximum amount of time participating in the war games, too.Reivyn and Refix came up with different ways to simte an amphibiousbat assault on the beach. The first change-up of stipting that someone was out after three taps during a spar had fueled thepetitive nature of the guardians, and the second assault had been far more intense than the first.
The ind was a Tier 4 Region, and it was surrounded not only by a wall of Tier 8 energy that would sometimes leak energy and treasures into the area, but there were infrequent visitors and regr excursions by the locals. They weren¡¯t an isted vige in a Tier 1 Region far removed from power.
The average Level of the guardians was low-Tier 4. The veterans were anywhere from mid to high-Tier 4, and the candidates and recruits were anywhere from mid to high-Tier 3. If one only looked at the Level, even Reivyn wouldn¡¯t be qualified to join their ranks.
Nobody thought to actually question Reivyn¡¯s Level, though, after they witnessed his prowess with weapons and ability to Command.
Some of the scenarios they set up were situations that they might never experience, but they wanted to practice it anyway, just in case. Theyunched staggered assaults in waves. They had the defenders charge the beach as they madendfall. There was one time when Refix had all the defenders huddle around the g signaling a sessful assault and they just used their mass of bodies to prevent the attackers from reaching the g in a timely manner.
Thatst one might have seemed foolish to some on the surface, but it made perfect sense to Reivyn and Refix. An attack might not always be about driving the enemy away. They might have specific objectives to aplish,and the defenders might know exactly what that objective was. In this case, acquiring the g was technically the objective.
Reivyn didn¡¯t spend every exercise leading the assault, either. Every other day, he and his father would switch off. They not only figured out how to aplish their goals on the fly through the practice and experimentation, but they fed off of each other and learned twice as fast with half the effort.
The teams were randomized each day, too. Reivyn tried to always have Kefira and Seri on the defense. He argued that the danger posed by falling into the deep water was an unnecessary risk for her to take, but she argued that she was going to be fighting by Reivyn¡¯s side in the future during hisbat missions, anyway. What was a little danger during training if not to bolster their confidence for when it was more apparent.
His argument didn¡¯t hold up, though, when there were no more close calls with the siege Spells like the first time they were almost capsized. Kefira and Seri only had to stew on the shore for a couple of days before they got their way.
They went pretty hard during the week. They still got most of the afternoons off, but they didn¡¯t hold anything back during their training. Kahl and the other guardians were curious about the pace they were setting, and Reivyn¡¯s non-understanding of what they meant threw them all for another loop.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the vition.
Reivyn had spent pretty much his entire life constantly training at the speed and intensity they were on the ind. He had just assumed that most sessful high-ssers lived the same way. Kahl had told him in no uncertain terms that Reivyn¡¯s way of life was unusual to say the least. Reivyn had just shrugged and said he enjoyed it, so it never seemed like a burden.
¡°Probably one of the reasons you¡¯re such a monster at your age,¡± Kahl muttered under his breath.
Reivyn heard him perfectly fine, but he had enough tact not to pierce the man¡¯s bubble.
Reivyn and Refix were both pleased with the results of their training. Sure, the progress of the guardians was nice to see, but they were happier with the different tactics and strategies they had devised throughing up with all kinds of different scenarios. The main point of the training for them was formand and understanding reasons.
Reivyn didn¡¯t foresee them using what they learned in actual amphibious assaults any time soon, but not only was it good to expand their repertoire of abilities, the things they learned weren¡¯t exclusive to amphibious assaults. Teilon seemed to learn a lot, as well. Reivyn was confident he could hand the scouts over to his friend and he would do a good job with them.
After almost an entire week of training, the Dungeon was finally about to reset. They called a halt to the next week¡¯s training sessions so they could explore the Dungeon. They nned on delving at a leisurely pace the first week and figure everything out without unduly stressing themselves out. The information packet they purchased only did so much to teach them what they were going to be facing.
Reivyn sat on his bed in the room he shared with his father. It had be a nightly ritual to wait until Refix and Seri were ¡°asleep¡± before they met up to sleep in the same bed. They never allowed themselves to cross the line, but the added intimacy, especially after having been apart for several months, was needed.
Reivyn sat in the lotus position, Meditating. He was performing his Mana Cirction and still probing for the most beneficial route to take for his ss, but he was only doing so subconsciously. He was taking the time to review his Skill gains over the past week. Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Aim (47 ->49)
Athleticism (64 ->73)
Bnce (55 ->61)
Dancing (33 ->35)
Heavy Armor (31 ->39)
Hiding (35 ->37)
Observation (60 ->62)
Ride (24 ->25)
Running (54 ->62)
Rhythm (30 ->32)
Shields (50 ->53)
Tutor (11 ->24)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (30 ->33)
Ambidexterity (25 ->27)
Backstab (9 ->10)
Camouge (22 ->24)
Eavesdropping (33 ->35)
Evasion (65 ->70)
Gab (20 ->23)
Mana Absorption (61 ->63)
Mana Cirction (50 ->52)
Meditation (49 ->50)
Pain Resistance (61 ->63)
Sense Mana (80 ->81)
Silent Step (24 ->26)
Stealth (28 ->32)
Strategy (31 ->38)
Tactics (46 ->49)
Teach (19 ->24)
Tracking (10 ->12)
Tier 3:
Ambush (13 ->15)
Battlefield Awareness (49 ->50)
Blind Fighting (38 ->40)
Command (51 ->57)
Commanding Shout (33 ->40)
Detect Lies/Truth (17 ->18)
Eagle Eye (3 ->9)
Infiltration (3 ->4)
Inspire (60 ->64)
Mana Conjuration (55 ->58)
Mana Maniption (65 ->68)
Mana Shield (44 ->50)
Mana Sight (71 ->74)
Mental Fortitude (49 ->51)
Night Vision (40 ->49)
Sense Threat (20 ->22)
Silver Tongue (12 ->14)
Sure Step (24 ->29)
Tier 4:
Charm (2 ->3)
Dual Casting (50 ->51)
Iron Will (25 ->29)
Spatial Awareness (68 ->70)
Tier 5:
Multi-Casting (28 ->30)
Tier 6:
Weapons Master (102 ->103)
Tier 6.5)
Divine Sense (15 ->18)
Perfect Domain (13 ->14)
Every Skill increase was a story unto itself. Reivyn could picture most of what had spurred his Skill gains on, but some were a little obscure to him. He didn¡¯t fully understand how he Leveled his Stealth and other sneaky Skills so much, but he had a suspicion it had to do with the nightly visits with Kefira.
They weren¡¯t exactly hiding it, but they were still going through the motions. It probably had more to do with trying to be sneaky around Refix who was much higher Level than they were. Skills grew in adversity, even if one didn¡¯t seed, and they definitely didn¡¯t seed in hiding anything from Refix.
His Mental Fortitude Skill had finally pierced the second threshold, and he could remember every grain of sand and wave of the ocean that contributed to the breakthrough. His Iron Will Skill, though¡ He had a hunch it had more to do with keeping his hands to himself than training on the beach. He would have to ask Kefira if she had a simr Skill.
His Meditation Skill finally reached Level 50 after having stalled out at Level 49 for a long time. The very act of him focusing on his Notification Page and thinking about it while simultaneously in a state of Meditation and circting his Mana was what had finally tipped him over the edge. Before, he wasn¡¯t able to split his focus so much while Meditating or he would pop out of the Skill. His Divine Sense and how it forced him to be able to focus on multiple things at the same time was probably arge help in that regard.
Some of his Skill increases werepletely incidental. Fighting in the loose sand necessitated closing one¡¯s eyes every now and then to prevent sand and grit from getting in said eyes, hence the increase in Blind fighting. Randomly tapping an opponent in the back andying in wait as a defender increased Backstab and Ambush.
Some of the Skill gainspletely baffled Reivyn. He had no idea how Charm and his other Social Skills increased. He thought that Charm would go through the roof with his interactions with Kefira, but it seemed that her feelings for him being cemented before gaining the Skill prevented it from being a major contributor. If that was the case, he didn¡¯t know whom he had Charmed in order to have the System recognize a Skill Level. He could at least assume his Gab and Silver Tongue abilities went up from their time talking to the locals in the marketce and other areas.
It really wasn¡¯t that big of deal, though, so he simply threw it to the back of his mind. He wouldn¡¯t ignore the Skills, but he didn¡¯t have a whole lot of immediate use for them.
All in all, a good week, Reivyn thought. Considering the Skill gains and my new ss, I wonder what my next Monthly Experience Calctions will look like. Speaking of Experience, I wonder what new Achievements I¡¯ll get from the Dungeon and what the clearing Experience will look like. The data packets don¡¯t contain that information, just on how to best go about getting them. It makes sense, though, considering it would be highly likely that an Adventurer would already have the corresponding Achievements.
They would begin their week of delving the Dungeon the next day, and Reivyn was very excited. He wasn¡¯t too excited about the prospect of holding his breath for basically an entire week, but challenges meant rewards, so he wouldn¡¯t balk.
Reivyn put the errant thoughts to rest and fully focused his attention on his Meditation and Mana Cirction. There would be time to think about the Dungeon and the rewards associated with it tomorrow.
Chapter 234: Whiplash
Chapter 234: Whish
Reivyn twirled the harpoon in his hands as he walked to the front of the Dungeon. There were several other Parties taking turns entering the Dungeon on the first day it was reset for everyone. Reivyn had ess to several types of weapons, his new sword proudly strapped to his hip, but he had chosen to open with the harpoon after witnessing most of the local guardians sporting the weapon.
There had to be a reason for their choice, after all. The harpoon he armed himself with was basically just a streamlined spear with a wicked hook on the end. Reivyn had tested it against the waters of the ocean and found that it was quite easy to cut through the water. It was mainly a stabbing weapon, and the hook on the end promised to do some real damage, but he could use it like a regr spear at any time.
That wasn¡¯t to say that his other weapons couldn¡¯t cut through the waters. Swords were particrly good at it, but it was a close-range weapon, and from what Reivyn could remember of the bodies of the Dungeon monsters, they were very agile and fast moving. At least that¡¯s what he inferred from their bodies. He hadn¡¯t actually seen any in action, yet.
Refix was obviously also able to expertly wield a harpoon, and Kimberly had snagged one of her own. She was mainly a spear wielder to begin with, so she could fall back on her main weapons Skill. Teilon was convinced to arm himself with one as well. He had the prerequisite Skill to use it half-way decently, and he still had his daggers readily avable.
Xudrid, like always when not participating as a member of a squad, didn¡¯t have any discernible weapon on him. He was a Sorceror type Cultivator. ording to Xudrid and Vyria, the Cultivators still distinguished between martial and Caster sses, it just wasn¡¯t as obvious. Vyria would hear nothing about using anything other than her sword. Like her senior brother, she only used the spear when acting as a member of the squad they were in. Reivyn wasn¡¯t too worried about her effectiveness in aquaticbat, though. He had seen the reach of her sword, and it was anything but exclusively close-range.
¡°Have we got everything we need?¡± Reivyn asked the group.
¡°Pretty sure,¡± Teilon answered. ¡°I¡¯ve read and re-read that data packet a hundred times, too. I wouldn¡¯t worry too much. This isn¡¯t our first Delve.¡±
¡°Yeah, I know,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°You¡¯re actually more experienced than me when ites to Dungeons, now.¡±
¡°That¡¯s your own fault. You shouldn¡¯t have gotten trapped in a space crack for several years.¡± Teilon shrugged nonchntly.¡°You do seem to have an unusual affinity with the Outside,¡± Xudrid noticed with a smile.
¡°Yeah, you¡¯d think it would be Kefira,¡± Teilon said.
¡°I¡¯m just special,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°What can I say?¡±
¡°Uh huh, keep telling yourself that,¡± Teilon chuckled.
¡°We¡¯ll be fine,¡± Refix pped Reivyn on the shoulder. ¡°We¡¯ve prepared as much as we possibly can, and there¡¯s nothing left but to get actual experience in the Dungeon. We¡¯ve all done this many times before, so there¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡± Refix nced at Xudrid and Vyria. ¡°At least, I think we¡¯ve all done this multiple times before. What¡¯s your two¡¯s experience with Dungeons?¡±
¡°We have multiple Tier Dungeons avable to us in our Sect,¡± Xudrid confirmed. ¡°We have Dungeons all the way from Tier 1 to Tier 7, though not even the Patriarch and Elders routinely delve the Tier 7 Dungeon.¡±
¡°Really? I¡¯d think that would be their main source of safe Experience,¡± Reivyn questioned.
¡°Nah, it¡¯s too hard,¡± Xudrid said. ¡°As far as I know, the first boss has never been cleared. There¡¯s only so much Experience one can gain from the regr monsters on the first floor. There¡¯s more Experience from fully clearing the Tier 6 Dungeon. One of the quirks of the System, it doesn¡¯t limit the Experience gains from out-Leveling monsters the same way as in the wild. It¡¯s calcted as an aggregate.¡±
¡°Oh, there¡¯s no diminishing returns from running lower Tier Dungeons at higher Levels?¡± Reivyn¡¯s eyes brightened.
¡°I didn¡¯t say that,¡± Xudrid shook his head. ¡°I just said it was handled differently. There¡¯s still a reduction in Experience, but you¡¯re not going to find a situation where you don¡¯t get any Experience at all from a Tier below your Level. I don¡¯t know the actual calctions, and it changes as one advances in Level and Tiers, but it¡¯s basically a 50% reduction per Tier below your own.
¡°That doesn¡¯t level off above 0%, though. Someone that¡¯s Tier 7 won¡¯t get any Experience in a Tier 4 Dungeon.¡±
¡°Still, that begs the question: Why aren¡¯t there more Tier 8 ssers?¡± Reivyn asked, puzzled. ¡°If you can get 25% of the Experience from running a Dungeon two Tiers below your Level, shouldn¡¯t there be enough time to just grind to max Level?¡±
¡°Dungeons Tier 5 and up don¡¯t reset every week, and there are other ways the System enforces diminishing returns,¡± Xudrid answered. ¡°Again, I haven¡¯t touched that Level, yet, so I don¡¯t kinow the specifics, but I do know that the elders in the Sect spend a lot of time between Dungeon delves. It¡¯s spected that the System wants people topete against actual denizens of the Realm to reach the very top, not just shadows. They¡¯re more a supplement to one¡¯s journey at the higher Levels than the main avenue of Experience.¡±
¡°Hmm, that¡¯s something to keep in mind going forward in the future.¡±
The next group ahead of Reivyn¡¯s finally entered the Dungeon. The guardians on duty nodded to them with familiarity as they waited for the time between groups heading in. It was universal that there was a short wait period between different groups entering a single Dungeon. They only had to wait for about a minute before it was finally their turn.
Reivyn took the lead and stepped into the Dungeon. Everything looked the same as when they had first found themselves on the ind, minus the corpses of the various monsters lurking in the water.
¡°The data pack says that everyone has to get into the water before we engage the first group of monsters,¡± Reivyn said as everyone walked to the edge of the water. ¡°It doesn¡¯t count even if there¡¯s one person waiting on shore. We¡¯re not aiming for Hard Mode this time, obviously, but I don¡¯t see a reason we should do what we saw the other Party do and draw everything to thend to kill them. We¡¯re going to have to fight them in the water anyway, so we would only be hurting ourselves in the long run.¡±
¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± Teilon said. ¡°If we work on clearing the Dungeon, too, we¡¯re going to end up fighting in the water, anyway. Might as well jump in feet first. No pun intended.¡±
Everyone else nodded, and so Reivyn once more took the lead and led them into the water. The water was just colder than lukewarm. It wasn¡¯t unpleasant, and it didn¡¯t cause any difort. It took a moment to get used to the feeling of the water soaking through the cloth on Reivyn¡¯s body and cling to his body, but after just a few short moments, the feeling was relegated to the back of his mind.
Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense was always active. It was a true sphere, though it usually didn¡¯t show him what was below the ground when it was solid. He could force the issue by concentrating, but there was hardly ever any reason to do so. He was using it passively right now, and it automatically expanded in his perception downward as he moved away from the edge of the shore. There weren¡¯t any monsters within the immediate vicinity showing up in his perception.
Makes sense, he thought. Every Dungeon I¡¯ve been in so far has had at least some space that¡¯s safe from enemies. No reason for things to be different, here.
Reivyn nodded to the others and swam out toward the center of the giant cavern.
¡°No reason to go below until we reach where the monsters are going to be,¡± Reivyn said to murmurs of agreement.
Reivyn led them forward at a normal pace for about a minute before the first monster came into his sight below them. It wasn¡¯t directly under them, but his Divine Sense didn¡¯t reach the floor of the water. It was possible there was still more lurking further below, but the data packet had mentioned that there weren¡¯t any ambushing groups of monsters on the first floor.
¡°First monster spotted,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Down and in front. Alright, let¡¯s get to it.¡±
Reivyn took a deep breath and pushed himself below the surface of the water. The monster hadn¡¯t spotted them, yet, but that was about to change with them heading directly for it.
The first monster was just one of a small group. They looked like little sharks on the outside, about the length of an average person¡¯s height, but Reivyn remembered the razor-sharp multiple rows of teeth within its mouth.
Like Reivyn suspected, it wasn¡¯t long before the monsters sensed their presence. Reivyn didn¡¯t know how they perceived the surroundings, but from his own eyesight he could tell that the ambient lightning found within all subterranean Dungeons was present even under the water. He could see quite a ways clearly through the water with just his eyes.
He had enough practice between his different senses that he was able to easily parse the difference between what he was seeing with his eyes, hearing with his ears, feeling with his skin, and what was fed to him through his Divine Sense. That parsing had tremendously elerated his other Perception Skills, like Night Vision, and he assumed they would eventually be incorporated into his Divine Sense somehow.
Reivyn brought his group down level to the sharks as they ascended to meet them. The monster sharks moved very quickly through the water. Their bodies were built for it, after all. Reivyn brandished his harpoon and waited for the first shark to arrive.
They pounced like a rabid pack of goblins. There was no subtlety or tactics involved in the attack. They didn¡¯t move so fast that Reivyn and the others couldn¡¯t keep up with them, but Reivyn tossed a Sense Threat their way, anyway, as they engaged inbat.
FreshWater Mon-Shark
Tier 3: Level 85
Moderate Threat
The Skill still mainly based its assessment of threat based on the Levels. Reivyn had noticed, though, that as his Skill Level increased, there was a slight increase in the uracy of the assumed threat levels. The Skill didn¡¯t just improve how much he could assess of the enemy¡¯s Level.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t worried about a Tier 3 monster, even if it was very close to max Level for the Tier. In fact, Reivyn was the only person in the Party who wasn¡¯t Tier 4, and it could be argued that he was one of the strongest members. Refix still far outssed him in terms of pure Stats, and Vyria¡¯s Sword Soul ability was still enough for her topete on equal footing with him if not a slight bit stronger, though Reivyn was confident that the closer he got to matching her Level, the less impact her unique ability would be able to affect him.
Reivyn gauged the movements of the sharks and expertly stabbed his harpoon down the open maw of the lead shark. Like he had suspected, the wicked hook on the end of the harpoon added a terribleceration to the inside of the shark other than just the piercing wound.
Blood gushed out of the mouth of the shark as its movement was arrested. Its own dash forward had contributed to the amount of damage it suffered from the strike. Reivyn hadn¡¯t even used any kind of Mana infusion into the weapon. He wanted to see how much damage he could do with just the mundane strength of the harpoon.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
He had not been disappointed.
The strike didn¡¯t kill the shark, though, it was just momentarily stunned. Reivyn ripped the harpoon back out of the shark¡¯s mouth, though, and even more blood billowed out into the water from the devastating internal wound. The eyeballs of the shark swam around in pain before focusing once more on Reivyn. Reivyn could feel the feral hate in its gaze.
A shadow flitted across Reivyn¡¯s perception, and Teilon was suddenly right above the shark. He had already tossed aside his harpoon into his storage pouch, and he stabbed down on either side of it with his daggers. The sharks¡¯ body shook for a moment before turning upside down and floating up to the surface.
Reivyn noticed something was wrong with Teilon after he made his strikes, though, and he fumbled about in the water for a moment. He seemed disoriented, not able to react to the next shark dashing forward to try and take a bite out of his leg. Reivyn dashed forward and pierced the next shark through the gills. The weight of his strike drove the shark beyond the range of being able to nip Teilon.
Reivyn yanked the harpoon out, leaving a huge open wound in the side of the shark¡¯s face, before he stabbed it once more. The two strikes were enough to deal enough damage to the next shark to dispatch its life, as well.
Reivyn looked at his friend with concern, but Teilon shook his head and regained his focus. He looked at Reivyn a bit wide-eyed before he gave a sheepish smile and shrugged his shoulders. He nced at his two daggers before stowing them away and pulling his own harpoon out once more.
Reivyn and Teilon turned to engage thest of the monsters, but the rest of their Party members had mopped up the remainder on their own. Reivyn looked at them and nodded his head. He indicated a direction to head toward for the next group of monsters.
He would speak to Teilon about what had happened the next time they surfaced for air. They had agreed beforehand to reduce their surfacing as much as possible to get used to the sensation of holding their breath for long periods of time.
The floors below didn¡¯t have a surface they could conveniently swim to to catch their breaths. There were multiple ces along the walls and hidden alcoves on the floor where they could enter a pressurized bubble of air, though. That was what was usually used for regr runs for everyone else.
Reivyn led them to the next group of Mon-Sharks. The first several groups of monsters consisted of anywhere from six to twelve sharks. The other types of monsters they had seen previously didn¡¯t make an immediate appearance, but Reivyn kept an eye out for them.
The data pack mentioned that they would need to clear all of the monsters on the first floor before engaging with the boss leading to the next floor. The boss would let out a wail that would attract all of the surviving monsters to join it in the fight.
Surprisingly, despite the obvious implication, there wasn¡¯t any benefit to going straight to the boss and fighting the whole floor together. It wasn¡¯t part of the Hard Mode or any other hidden Achievements or anything.
However, it begs the question: What if someone managed to get to the Dungeon Boss on thest floor without killing anything on the way? Reivyn thought. The first floor sets the precedent. Will the other bosses flock to the final boss on thest floor? Will that have an Achievement or lead to a Super-Hard Mode or something? We¡¯ll probably find out if we use Kefira¡¯s teleport Spells to reach straight to the final floor.
The thought filled Reivyn with anticipation. There was no guarantee that Hard Mode was the most difficult version of a Dungeon. He hadn¡¯t been in any Dungeons difficult orplex enough to have the possibility of something harder, but the possibility was there.
Reivyn once more focused on the task at hand. They cleared several groups of the sharks. They decided to surface for a short break after Reivyn notified them through hand gestures and nods that there were no longer any shark groups close by.
¡°What happened back there?¡± Reivyn asked after breaching the surface and sucking down arge gasp of air.
¡°It was my ss Skill: Phase,¡± Teilon answered. ¡°I¡¯ve never used it in the water before. It usually lets me walk through walls or sink into the ground. I figured I¡¯d try it out and see what it did in the water.
¡°It was very strange. I didn¡¯t phase through the water. I phased into it. I became one with it. It let me move through the water super fast, but it was extremely disorienting. My perception was all off, and I wasn¡¯t used to moving so quickly. Luckily, my body reacted automatically when I first popped out of it, or I wouldn¡¯t have been sessful with my sneak attack.¡±
¡°Hmm, does that mean you won¡¯t be able to use your main ss Skill in this Dungeon?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Nah, I¡¯ll practice some outside ofbat if you¡¯ll give me the chance from time to time,¡± Teilon said. ¡°I think I can get a handle on it, and then it¡¯ll be of great use for me to be able to move back and forth in the water quickly.¡±
Reivyn looked around to get everyone else¡¯s response on the matter. They all either nodded their heads or shrugged, but nobody was opposed to spending a little time waiting for Teilon to try and master his Skill in the water.
¡°Alright, here¡¯s what we¡¯ll do,¡± Reivyn turned back to Teilon. ¡°We¡¯ll give you ten minutes right now, and then we¡¯ll give you a couple minutes to y around after each encounter with the monsters. You just signal to us before you think you¡¯re ready to try it inbat again, though, so we¡¯re prepared to step in and help if you need it.¡±
¡°Sounds good to me.¡±
With that, the group tread water as Teilon sank below the surface once more. His body became ethereal to Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense as he activated his Skill. He could perceive the movement with his Skill but not with his eyes. It seemed like Teilon truly integrated himself fully into the water when he used the Skill.
Teilon spent several minutes rushing back and forth. Reivyn could tell by Teilon¡¯s reaction whenever he popped out of it that he wasn¡¯t always ending up where he had initially nned, and the disorientation was still a problem. Reivyn was hopeful that Teilon would be able to figure it out eventually, though. It didn¡¯t matter if he didn¡¯t even do so on this Delve. This ability with his ss Skill could alsoe in handy outside the Dungeon in the future, too, so it was in everyone¡¯s interest to let Teilon work on it.
Teilon didn¡¯t spend the full ten minutes dashing about. He left some time for himself to join the others to catch his breath before they continued further into the Dungeon. After the ten minutes were up, Reivyn motioned for everyone to head back into the water. He kept the spoken instructions to a minimum in anticipation of tackling the Hard Mode.
The group spent about an hour clearing the first floor of monsters. The shark numbers tapered off soon after their first break, and other types of aquatic monsters made an appearance. There were several types that hadn¡¯t been among the corpses they had originally seen, too.
There were octopi the size of people, variations of different sharks, some crabs, and there were a couple individual crocodiles. The crocodiles were apparently the elite monsters on the floor as they were all huge and above Tier 4 Level 40. Most of the monsters fell into the upper Tier 3 or lower Tier 4 range. ording to the data pack, the boss monster was a muchrger octopus sitting over the hole leading to the second floor, and it was Tier 4 Level 60.
The Dungeon was four floors deep, and the average Level of the monsters slowly climbed until the monsters at the end of the bottom floor were mostly Tier 4 Level 100. The final boss was Tier 4 Level 130. It wasn¡¯t quite the max Level for Tier 4, but it was close. It onlycked twenty Levels to reach the maximum Level for the Tier.
Reivyn had no idea how it would be possible to clear all four floors with one single breath. It had taken them an hour to clear the regr monsters on the first floor. With their Stamina, it would have been possible to do it with one breath, but that didn¡¯t mean they wouldn¡¯t be nearing the end of their ability to hold their breaths by the time they finished dealing with the boss.
There¡¯s got to be some sort of trick to it, Reivyn thought. We can clear the monsters on this floor a lot faster than we did, but that doesn¡¯t solve the problem. There are three more floors below this one, and they¡¯re all approximately the same size with the same number of monsters.
We¡¯ll have to brainstorm this when we¡¯re done with the Dungeon for the week. The method of aplishing the feat wasn¡¯t listed in the dossier.
The dossier was written andpiled by the Adventurers who had discovered the method of unlocking the Hard Mode. They weren¡¯t obligated to provide every single detail on how to replicate their aplishment, and the Adventurer¡¯s Guild wasn¡¯t going to add to or remove from one¡¯s dossier.
Whatever, we¡¯ll figure it out.
Reivyn nodded to the others after they slew thest crocodile in the water. They had been through the entire length and breadth of the first floor, and he could even see the boss within the range of his Divine Sense in the distance. They had confirmed that the crocodile was thest monster before the boss, and they weren¡¯t going to take a breather before engaging thest monster on the floor.
Reivyn led the Party to the creature. It spotted theming, but it didn¡¯t move. It was protecting the descent to the deeper floors, and it wasn¡¯t going to budge. The trick to the first floor boss monster was either avoiding the tentacles and striking at its body, or destroying the tentacles before engaging the center mass.
There were pros and cons to both approaches. The monster had ess to Water Affinity Mana, and it could create some powerful whirlpools that could do substantial damage, but it used it sparingly when it had ess to all its tentacles and could reach the intruders with them. The frequency of the monster using its Water Mana was proportional to the amount of tentacles remaining.
On top of slowly changing the way the monster fought while destroying the tentacles, the tentacles themselves were more durable than the main body. It would take just as much effort destroying enough tentacles as it would to finally kill the octopus, and damage to the tentacles didn¡¯t seem to do any damage to the monster. It was like it had nine separate Health pools. One for the main body and one for each tentacle..
It wasn¡¯t something Reivyn had ever encountered before, but he could believe such a thing would be more frequent as they Delved increasingly higher Tier Dungeons in the future. It might have a special constitution provided by the System because it was a boss in a Tier 4 Dungeon, but there was nothing saying even regr monsters in higher Tier Dungeons, or even in the wilderness of the higher Tiers in general, couldn¡¯t have the same constitution.
Reivyn used his Traveler Affinity to quickly close the distance on the octopus. He jabbed his harpoon into the soft flesh of its main body several times as it screamed through the water in outrage and pain before bringing several tentacles to bear on Reivyn¡¯s position. Reivyn dashed away with three tentacles in hot pursuit.
He didn¡¯t leave the range of the octopus fully. If hepletely left the range, he would be subject to the boss¡¯s Casting abilities as if it had lost the three tentacles that were chasing after him.
The rest of the Party also entered the range of the tentacles, making sure they were all engaged. Reivyn turned about and used his harpoon and Swimming to parry and dodge the iling strikes of the octopus. It wasn¡¯t just having separate Health pools that made the tentacles dangerous. They all seemed to have a mind of their own, and the octopus could operate at 100% efficiency with each tentacle as it engaged the Party members.
Reivyn¡¯s Party consisted of eight members. There was a reason he had dashed forward to enrage the octopus and draw the ire of three of the tentacles. The nning had ounted for anywhere from two to four tentacles, so three was perfectly fine for their purposes.
Teilon was the next to dash toward the main body and strike with his harpoon. They had talked about it thest time they had surfaced. He had enough control over his ability that he was confident he could dash in, strike a couple times, and dash away before the disorientation incapacitated him. Being the second person to make the dash also ensured he would only have one tentacle chasing after him.
Luckily, it worked the way they had hoped. Teilon pierced the flesh of the main body after materializing above it. He wasn¡¯t super precise with his movements, yet, but the target wasrge enough that he only had to aim for above the main body to get close enough to strike it. Teilon yanked his harpoon out and stabbed it once more, but Reivyn could tell the disorientation was going to be a problem, soon.
Teilon noticed it, too, though, and he once more yanked it out before shing away. The quirk with his ability phasing him into the water meant the tentacle chasing after him couldn¡¯t find him immediately, though, and he had enough time to recover after reappearing once more. The tentacle found him almost instantly, but he had wrestled the disorientation away by the time it was close enough to attack him.
Kimberly was the next up. She waited a moment to make sure Teilon was handling his tentacle fine before dashing down and forward. She repeated the same maneuver, striking it twice before dashing away. She wasn¡¯t as fast as Reivyn or Teilon, though, but that had also been taken into ount.
Casting Spells underwater wasn¡¯t nearly as difficult as one might assume. It only required one to wrap their Spell in a bubble of pure Mana to protect it from interacting with the water. Kefiraunched some Space des at the tentacle bearing down on Kimberly. She sliced through the flesh of the tentacles and caused it to recoil in pain, giving Kimberly enough room to regain her stance to defend against the strikes of the appendage.
Vyria was next in line. She only dashed half the distance as the others, though, and her Sword Qi erupted from within her and shed down through the water as if there was no barrier at all. A deep gash erupted in blood from the wound, and she quickly backed away once more.
The fight was short but intense, and it was already entering the final moments. It helped that they were a full Party of eight. The fight would be much moreplicated and messy if they had fewer people, but Reivyn was confident they would have been able to kill the beast quite easily even with half the numbers.
Refix was the second tost act. He dashed in, summoning his ethereal arsenal of weapons. He pierced the flesh of the monster with his harpoon, and his multitude of weapons became an underwater tornado that ravaged the flesh of the octopus. He only stayed within range for a few moments before also kicking off and dashing away.
Kefira was thest act. The monster was on itsst legs, and Kefira had been building up her Mana since after assisting Kimberly get into position. She unleashed a barrage of siege-Level Spells upon the decimated body of the octopus. The flesh had been repeatedly torn apart, and it was even less protective after Refix was done. The Spells pierced straight into the very being of the monster, and it cried a final, defiant cry before the tentacles went ck and the monster died.
Reivyn floated in ce, grinning as he shared a look of triumph with all of his Party members.
Chapter 235: Clammy
Chapter 235: mmy
¡°That went as well as it possibly could,¡± Teilonmented.
Immediately below the boss monster was a hole about half the size of the creature. Once the boss was killed, its body shriveled up and floated away, revealing the passage. Reivyn led the team into the opening.
A short tunnel angling mostly down greeted them, and there was a small corridor off to the side that was pressurized in a way that kept the air in a pocket for people to take a break.
This would never work in the real world, Reivyn noted. Sure, a pressurized bubble of air could happen, but just sitting here is the issue. It would escape through this opening and make its way to the surface. I don¡¯t need to be worried about that, though. System shenanigans and all that.
Since they weren¡¯t anywhere close to pushing for the Hard Mode of the Dungeon, they had decided to take a short break before continuing on.
¡°Well, you have to keep in mind that these aren¡¯t even real monsters,¡± Refix said. ¡°They¡¯re only shadows of real monsters. We might not even be able to find true equivalents to match these creatures on the outside.¡±
¡°Well, we know it¡¯s possible these Dungeons capture a true event in the past, so these monsters might be extinct or something on the outside,¡± Reivyn answered with a shrug. ¡°It could also be abination of System alterations and extinction or whatever.¡±
¡°Yeah, there¡¯s a lot of schrly studies on the topic,¡± Kefira replied. ¡°It¡¯s something my siblings and I had to be educated on before we were allowed to leave on our first Life Experience expedition. More so than the average Academy student.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t me your parents for that,¡± Refix said with a smile. ¡°If we had ess to the same amount of academic material, I¡¯m pretty sure Ameliyn and I would have done the same for Reivyn. We don¡¯t really have to worry about it for the girls, though. They seem perfectly content to stay within the safe confines of a city for their entire lives.¡±¡°That¡¯s no fun,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, dad, I¡¯ll fix that.¡±
Refix quirked an eyebrow at his son.
¡°I¡¯m not sure if I should feel gratified or scared about that statement.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not saying I¡¯m going to take them down into the deepest, darkest Dungeons I can find. I just think it¡¯s a sad thing to miss out on the beauty one can find out there in the wilderness.¡±
¡°That¡¡± Refix held up his index finger and paused for a second. ¡°That¡¯s actually a good point. We¡¯ll make the first couple of trips a family thing. Your mother isn¡¯t going to want to be left behind.¡±
¡°For sure,¡± Reivyn agreed. ¡°But yeah, that fight went exactly as nned.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m saying,¡± Teilon said. ¡°I know the monsters follow a very strict pattern in boss fights. I was more saying that our teamwork was amazing, especially for the first time we¡¯ve really coordinated together like this.¡±
¡°True,¡± Reivyn nodded his head.
¡°We¡¯re all professionals,¡± Refix said. ¡°Well, sort of. I¡¯m not saying we¡¯re literally professionals at this kind of Dungeon Delving, but this is what we do and what our sses are for.¡±
¡°Alright, well, let¡¯s rest for another five minutes,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Then let¡¯s get going to the next floor. The second floor is mostly the same as the first, just a different variety of monsters and boss. The n will be the same. We¡¯ll locate the pockets of air, clear the surroundings of monsters, then move on until the whole floor is cleared before tackling the boss. Any questions?¡±
Everybody shook their heads. They had all read the information they had purchased, and after having spent a couple hours clearing the first floor, they all felt like they had a handle on how the Dungeon worked.
The main difference between the first floor and the second floor was the monster types and Levels. The monsters on the first floor were at the peak of Tier 3, and the monsters on the second floor were low Tier 4.
There were also different kinds of monsters. The first floor had some small octopi, sharks, and crocodiles. The second floor hadrger octopi,rger sharks, and serpents instead of crocodiles. There was also the possibility of ambushers in the sand of the floor, and they would have tob through it if they didn¡¯t want any strays to join the boss fight.
The break was over before anyone knew it. Time simultaneously seemed to stretch and stretch, and yet it was over far too quickly. Reivyn nodded to everyone and they stood up to file back toward the exit of the pressurized air bubble. The exit just required them to simply walk straight out into the tunnel.
Reivyn led the Party deeper into the Dungeon, angling ever further down. The ambient lighting in the Dungeon was still present in the depths, but the darkness on the other side of the phenomenon was darker than on the first floor. There was absolutely no source of natural light anywhere on this floor where there had been at least a little from the exit on the first floor. It caused a stifling, oppressive feeling in Reivyn¡¯s chest.
Reivyn tried his best to ignore the feeling, but he could feel his heart rate elerate due to it. He was still able to see perfectly within the sphere of his Divine Sense Skill, and the ambient light surrounding them was the same size as any other Dungeon he had been in, but it was like a wall of darkness separated him from the rest of the Dungeon. It was even more tangible than the Revenant Dungeon filled with undead.
The information packet they had purchased didn¡¯t give exact locations of the air pockets that could be found on the lower floors, but it did give an exnation on how to find them. They followed a set pattern. All of the air pockets could be found in little alcoves in the ceiling, simting rising to the surface to catch a breath. The first order of business Reivyn led the Party to do was locate the closest air pockets.
The exit of the tunnel was like a hole in the ground. If they weren¡¯t in the water, they would need to secure a rope and rappel down to move any further. It made the first step of exploring the floor easier, though. Reivyn just slightly lowered his body and then immediately started moving along the ceiling.
Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense made finding the air pockets a negligible exercise. His perception was much further than what the ambient lighting allowed for the others. Having a narrow band of perception would necessitate having to make more passes along the ceiling to find all the avable air pockets. Reivyn¡¯s senses allowed for him to see more than double what the others could see, so the would have to make less than half the normal amount of passes if they wanted to find all the safe air pockets.
That was never the n to begin with, though. There was no need to find every air pocket. Reivyn simply led them in a direction until he ran into the first one, noted its location rtive to the mental map he was constructing in his head, and led the Party to find the next one. The direction and closeness of the next air pocket would determine their strategy for clearing the floor.
With Reivyn¡¯s enhanced perception distance, it took them less than ten minutes to find two air pockets. Reivyn and the Party popped their heads up into the air of the second air bubble for a moment.
¡°Based on the distance between the two pockets and the entrance tunnel, I think we can safely ignore that first air pocket and clear out arge swath from this one,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°If all the air pockets are equally spaced, then we can expect to use only every other one. Anyone have any other opinions?¡±
¡°Nah, you¡¯re running the show just fine for my taste,¡± Teilon said with a smile. ¡°In fact, I appreciate you seeking our opinions on each matter, but you can be more assertive. I say that unless someone makes aint known, just make the decision and we¡¯ll follow.¡±
Reivyn looked to each of the other Party members and received nods of agreement.
¡°Ok. That¡¯s fine, but don¡¯t hesitate to make your opinion known if you disagree with something or have a better idea. In that case, let¡¯s get started on clearing the floor.¡±
Reivyn led the Party back down into the depths. The second floor was seemingly deeper than the first floor, but it was an illusion. If they first floor had water all the way to the ceiling, then they would be the same size, but there was a quarter of the height of the first floor taken up by air. That extra quarter of height submerged on the second floor, though, was a considerable amount when taken all together.
There was more distance to cover, and there were more monsters filling the space. Not only were there more groups of monsters, but each group of monsters was alsorger by one or two on averagepared to their counterparts on the first floor.
Therger octopi and sharks were almost identical to the ones on the first floor. The only difference was their size, Level, and Stats. They didn¡¯t pose any kind of real threat to the Party, though, and they had fully adapted to three-dimensionalbat in the water. Reivyn found transitioning from two-dimensional to three-dimensional especially easy with his sphere of perception.
There others didn¡¯t necessarily struggle to adapt, but it took them most of the first floor until they were fullyfortable. Unsurprisingly, the two Cultivators, other than Refix who Reivyn realized probably had experience with aquatic Dungeons in the past, were the two to adapt the quickest. It made sense to Reivyn that the two that could walk through the air and already approachbat in a three-dimensional method were able to adjust to waterbat quite easily.
The closest groups of monsters to the second floor entrance, like the first floor, were groups of sharks. They were easily dealt with, and the Party didn¡¯t have to use the air pocket all that often. Reivyn led them in a circr motion while slowly spiraling downward to clear arge section of the floor centered around their first air pocket.
Not being able to banter with his Party members while underwater really turned the clearing of the floor monotonous. None of the monsters posed any challenge to their group, and they were just swimming and killing.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Even the addition of the new type of monster, the serpents, didn¡¯t change things up. Their method of fighting waspletely different than any of the other monsters, but it was easy to figure out and deal with. The serpents were equivalent to the crocodiles on the first floor. They were the highest Level creatures on the floor other than the boss, and they were mostly solitary, though there was asionally a pair for the Party to take care of.
The serpents¡¯ main form ofbat was attempting to close the distance quickly and constrict around one of the members. The Party member in question just had to pay attention and lead the serpent on a chase as it mindlessly chased after them while the rest of the Party pelted it with attacks until it died. The fact that they were single-minded in who they chose to pursue was what made them the easiest fights so far in the Dungeon. If they were able to use moreplicated tactics like feinting who they were going after, it might have been different, but like Refix had said, they were only shadows of real monsters. Unless they were designed to specifically fight in such a manner by the System, they wouldn¡¯t do so.
The extra quarter of space to clear plus the higher Health Pools andrger number of monsters turned the clearing of the second floor into an ordeal. Reivyn simply turned the time it was taking out. He was mechanical in his movements and just led the Party to kill the monsters as quickly as possible.
Finally, after close to four hours, the Party slew thest of the regr creatures on the second floor. The ambush monsters in the sand were abination of octopi that could alter their appearance to blend into their surroundings and serpents that hid just under ayer of sand. Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense was instrumental in finding them and killing them without a single problem. It didn¡¯t add to theplexity of clearing the floor like it would for a Party that didn¡¯t have his advantage.
Reivyn led them to the tunnel leading to the next floor. The boss creature on the second floor was not what Reivyn would have expected if anyone had asked him. It was a giant m. Upon reading that, at first, Reivyn had been skeptical how a m could put up any kind of challenge. He changed his mind after reading the notes regarding the boss.
The outer shell of the m was basically imprable. Kefira would be able to pierce it quite easily with her Space Mana as long as she could overwhelm the inherent defense against intrusive Mana that everything naturally had. It was just that this particr m boss had not only a high resistance to physical attacks, but it was very resistant to Spells and Mana in general.
The m¡¯s main attack method was magical, too. It would just sit there, shell closed, as it shot waternces and other water intrinsic Spells at the intruders. The mechanic of this boss was simting hoarding water to fuel its Spells. It wouldunch a barrage of Spells while sitting with its nigh-indestructible defense until it had used enough Spells. Once a threshold had been reached, its shell would pop open as it ¡°umted¡± more water for its Spells. That was the opportunity Parties had to wait for. It was vulnerable to attack at this time, and the bonus was that it wouldn¡¯t retaliate at all while charging.
The difficulty lied in the window of opportunity. As it umted more damage, it would be more efficient with its ¡°fuel.¡± It wouldunch more Spells rtive to the amount of water it absorbed, it would absorb water faster, and it would passively, slowly heal as its shell was closed.
If a Party didn¡¯t have enough damage dealing capabilities, it could be literally impossible to kill this boss. Some Parties ran into situations where they would reach an equilibrium in the amount of damage they could cause and the healing the m would do while its shell was closed.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t worried about their damage capabilities, though. He was confident they would even be able to prate its shell-defense and hurt it even during its offensive phase.
Reivyn looked to each of the Party members to see if everyone was ready, and he was met with affirmative nods. He led the Party to engage the m. All they had to do was get within range, and it immediately startedunching Spells at random targets.
Reivyn and hispanions spread out around the m. The Water Affinity Spells the m used were nearly invisible in the water. If one didn¡¯t have a decent enough Sense Mana or Mana Sight, they wouldn¡¯t be able to see the actual Spells. Reivyn¡¯sbination of his Mana Sensing Skill and Divine Sense once more made the issue negligible for him.
Kefira umted a decent amount of Mana in her hands. Reivyn was actively dodging the Spells from the m, but his Danger Sense suddenly screamed at him. He trusted his instcincts and the Skill, and he shed away using his Traveler Affinity. Just as he moved away, Kefira¡¯s Space de Spellunched at the m, but it just ricocheted off the shell and shed right through where Reivyn had previously been floating.
Everyone paused for a second and looked at Kefira in surprise, but they didn¡¯t let it stop them for long. They still had to continue dodging the asional Spell tossed their way from the m. Kefira shook her head to herself and umted Mana once again. She put twice as much Mana into her Spell the second time. She looked around at the others to make sure everyone was paying attention to her this time, though, before letting it loose.
The Spell once more zipped toward the m. It once more bounced off the shell, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as cleanly repelled as the first time. A fist-sized chunk was actually torn off the m¡¯s shell this time.
The m was huge. It was easilyrger than the octopus boss they had fought on the first floor. Most of it was the shell protecting the vulnerable interior. Kefira¡¯s powerful, overdrawn Space de Spell had basically scratched it. Kefira made eye contact with Reivyn and shook her head. Reivyn simply shrugged his shoulders.
Looks like we¡¯ll have to do this the traditional way, he thought.
They waited and dodged for another minute before the m exhausted its supply of ¡°fuel.¡± The Spells didn¡¯t gradually slow down. There was no indication before it happened. The m simply stopped casting Spells, and the shell popped open to expose the interior of the m.
It looked just like a normal m. If one could scale it down to normal size, it would literally just be a regr m. There was even a pearl sitting in the middle of it that was rtively sized for the m.
The pearl was huge, and it was an actual treasure. Reivyn looked over and could see the happy gleam in Teilon¡¯s eye at seeing the pearl sitting there. It didn¡¯t add to the capabilities of the m at all. It was purely a spoil of war they could im after killing the m, and there was only a 5% chance that it would spawn on any Dungeon Delve.
Looks like our Party¡¯s aggregate Luck Stat is quite overpowered, Reivyn chuckled to himself. He obviously realized his own Luck Stat was most likely carrying most of the weight for the Party. When it came to Dungeons and their loot and other random variables, individual Luck Stats paid much less of a role than the average Luck of the Party. It was still possible to get the favorable random chances Dungeons provided with a Party that literally had 0 Luck, but it was far less probable.
The Party members each immediately attacked the meaty interior of the m. The melee fighters dashed in and started hacking and shing away at the giant blob of meat. Kefira and Vyria stood at a distance and attacked from range. Kefira used her Spells and Vyria used her Sword Qi.
Reivyn didn¡¯t have a Skill that let him see another¡¯s Status other than their Level and threat, but he could tell visually that they were causing devastating damage to the m. Huge chunks were ripped from the undting meat ball, and blood streamed away in multiple ces.
Depending on how much health it can recover while its shell is closed, we might only need one more opportunity to kill this thing, Reivyn thought. The information packet mentioned that a Party of 8 with an average of Tier 4 Level 20 would need five, maybe four if they were lucky, passes to y the m.
Reiyvn mentally nodded to himself at his Party¡¯s prowess.They weren¡¯t just better at coordinating and maneuvering than the average Adventurer Party. They were proving that they were far more deadly with straight up destruction, too.
With how quickly we¡¯re dealing with the bosses, it begs the question of how any Party managed to figure out how to unlock Hard Mode. Did they all just have superhuman lung capacity or something?
Now was not the time to contemte the issue with Hard Mode. The shell snapped closed and the m went into a frenzy of Spell casting. Not only was the m more efficient as the fight went on, capable of casting more Spells than earlier phases, but it also Cast the Spells much more quickly. The total time between each phase of Casting and gathering ¡°fuel¡± was always the same. The m could just fire off a lot more Spells in that time-span.
The amount of Spells being flung about actually caused the Party members to have to focus all of their concentration on dodging the attacks. Reivyn still had it rtively easy with his ability to see the attacks before and during their Casting, but the others couldn¡¯t perceive the m¡¯s offense nearly as urately as he could. Teilon, especially, would need to focus on his Mana Sensing Skills in the future.
Kefira didn¡¯t even try to attack the m while it was in offensive mode this time. Reivyn didn¡¯t me her. He would have made the same decision. The Party members were constantly moving as they swam back and forth and up and down to avoid the Spellsunched at random Party members in quick session.
After another minute of dodging all of the attacks, the m once more ceased Casting Spells to recharge. The lid popped open, and the Party members dashed in to wreck devastation once more.
Reivyn was once again proven right in his conjecture. Just before Reivyn sensed it was time for the shell to m up once more - No pun intended, Reivyn snorted to himself - the m let out a soundless wail as its flesh fiercely vibrated before going still, dead.
Teilon immediately dashed in and grabbed the pearl. If someone had attempted to take it during the fight, they would have found that it was protected by some sort of invisible barrier from the System. While the m was alive, it was impossible to steal the pearl from its perch. Taking the pearl was further proof that the fight was over.
Teilon held the pearl above his head in a victory pose, a beaming smile on his face. Reivyn rolled his eyes at his friend, but Teilon didn¡¯t care. He simply stashed the pearl away in his storage pouch.
The m didn¡¯t shrivel up and float away to reveal a tunnel like the first boss. The way to the third floor was actually inside the m shell, behind the meat. It was more System shenanigans. There was no way such a thing would be possible on the outside of a Dungeon.
The Party once more followed Reivyn into the tunnel leading to the next floor, and they stopped at another pressurized side room on the way down.
¡°Well, that was interesting,¡± Reivyn said once they were all inside. ¡°I never would have guessed that the m¡¯s shell was that tough. We even proved just how much damage we can cause by killing it in less than half the time most other Parties around our Level take.¡±
¡°Yeah, if my ethereal arsenal didn¡¯t do physical damage, I would have taken a stab at it,¡± Refix said. Teilon sniggered at thement. Refix just gave a short chuckle after realizing how he had worded the statement.
¡°I was definitely surprised,¡± Kefira agreed. ¡°Especially considering the nature of Space Affinity Spells. They typically shear right through defense, even Mana defense.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not really that big of a deal,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°We¡¯ll just have to keep it in mind when we try for the Hard Mode in the future. If our strategy is to blitz through the Dungeon, having to spend multiple minutes on the m no matter what will be a real headache.¡±
¡°I still haven¡¯t figured out how anyone managed to get to the final boss and kill it on a single breath,¡± Teilon said, shaking his head. ¡°There has to be some sort of trick to it that we¡¯re not seeing.¡±
¡°I think I have an idea, but I want to wait and see if anyone else thinks the same thing before I reveal it,¡± Refix said. ¡°It¡¯s a good problem-solving opportunity for you all, and just giving you the answer would rob you of the chance to critically think about it.¡±
¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯ve not really thought too hard about it, yet, only in passing. If we can¡¯t figure it out before it¡¯s time for thest Delve before leaving, we¡¯ll ask.¡±
¡°Sure, no reason to prevent you from making the attempt trying to let you figure it out for yourselves,¡± Refix agreed. ¡°That would do more harm than good.¡±
¡°Alright, then,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Twenty minute break before moving on to the next floor. The next one is thebyrinth. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll pose too much of a problem for us with our unique advantages, but I can see how it could be annoying for most other groups. It apparently takes the most time to clear, especially for first-timers. After that, thest floor is basically just a boss room and we¡¯re done.¡±
The others nodded their heads before rxing to catch their breath and calm down after the boss fight. They were nearly done with their first Delve, and then they could focus on figuring out how to do it with only one breath, a task that maybe only Refix had figured out just yet.
Chapter 236: Water Maze
Chapter 236: Water Maze
Once more, the group descended to a new floor. There was no difference in the lighting as before, but the oppressive feeling Reivyn sensed from the darkness beyond his senses grew more oppressive. The tunnel leading to the third floor led straight into more tunnels.
The true start of the third floor was an intersection with multiple openings leading every which way but up. Reivyn could see more, smaller intersections further down, though, that did have multiple avenues leading upward.
I have a phenomenal advantage on this floor with my Divine Sense, but it¡¯s not nearly as beneficial as one might initially think, Reivyn thought to himself as he surveyed the various options. I actually can¡¯t see far enough into the maze to immediately make the correct decision, and as far as I know, there¡¯s more than one exit leading to the fourth floor.
No, the real advantage I have on this floor is my insistence to Level up Map Making. My mental map provides an urate enough representation that it would be impossible to get lost. My Divine Sense just helps me fill out the mental map without having to travel down all of the tunnels. We¡¯ll just have to travel a certain distance in order to find the main path leading to the exit.
Too bad for the others we¡¯re not doing that, though, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
They all obviously knew about the third floor from the information packet. They all also knew about Reivyn¡¯s inherent advantage when it came toplicated mazes. They had a discussion about the third floor before starting their delve, and considering they were here for the experience of the Dungeon and not to push for the Hard Mode or a fast time, they all agreed to have Reivyn take a back seat on their first delve on the third floor.
Don¡¯t want to mess up all the fun. The Dungeon never recreates the same maze twice, or at least there¡¯s enough variation between them that it appears that way, so there¡¯s no point in memorizing a path.
There was a time limit, though. If they didn¡¯t find their way to the fourth floor within two hours, Reivyn would take charge and lead them there the straightest way possible.
As far as Reivyn knew, he was the only person with a Map Making Skill nearly as high as his own. He didn¡¯t even know if any of the others had even unlocked the Skill. He had certainly never seen any of them making any or doodling. That wasn¡¯t his problem, though. Maybe this floor would be a wake up call to the others that they might need to expand their repertoire a bit more.Reivyn nodded to Teilon and the other man smiled as he took the lead. Teilon didn¡¯t hesitate and immediately shifted them to the left. The tunnel Teilon chose to explore wasn¡¯t one of the ones that immediately went down. Reivyn¡¯s mental map filled out in his mind as he observed the surroundings as they moved through the tunnel.
Teilon had been the obvious next best choice for leading everyone through thebyrinth. With his ability to phase through walls, he could check every now and then their progress more urately than the rest of the Party members.
Kefira might be able to do something with her Space Magic, but she would need time to hone such a Spell. Making maps wasn¡¯t something that had urred to her as an application of her Affinity. If she could break into that aspect of it, though, Reivyn could see infinite use in the real world where she could map vast amounts ofnd quick and easy without having to actually go there.
It might be a good idea toe down here while we wait for it to reset with the express purpose of just letting her do such a thing. I¡¯ll talk to her about it when we¡¯re topside.
This was something they probably could have thought about before starting their delve, but not every idea was always obvious. Sometimes people were too close to the problem and they didn¡¯t see it until it was right on top of them. Reivyn just shrugged his shoulders. It wasn¡¯t an emergency situation they had to handle on the fly, so they would just take it as it came.
Reivyn noticed a shadow darting along a tunnel parallel to their path. He could see in his perception that the two tunnels would eventually bend toward each other and connect at an intersection in the distance. The shadow was the first humanoid monster Reivyn saw in the Dungeon.
The third and fourth floors of the Dungeon moved away from oceanic monsters to sentient beings. Reivyn didn¡¯t know if there was a sapient version of them somewhere out in the ocean, but he assumed there was at least somewhere. That seemed to be the case with many higher-Tier humanoid monsters he¡¯d encountered. If it was true, though, they would most likely be cousins to these creatures.
The humanoids on the third floor were known as Sahuagin. They mostly armed themselves with long-reach weapons like harpoons and tridents, but that wasn¡¯t always the case. It was rare to see them wielding a ded weapon like a sword or dagger, but it wasn¡¯t unheard of.
They were typically the same average size as people, but they looked simr to the lizard folks Reivyn had previously encountered. The major difference, though, was the webbing on their hands and feet. They were still dexterous enough to handle weapons easily enough, but they could also swim quite powerfully due to their webbing.
The single shadow that Reivyn spotted swimming parallel to them was armed with a traditional three-pronged harpoon. It looked dull and rusty, but it was a weapon in a Tier 4 Dungeon, so there was very little chance it would break apart upon use.
Reivyn didn¡¯t alert the others to the presence of the monster. They had also agreed that he wouldn¡¯t warn anyone of an ambush ahead of time unless he detected something that would potentially very dangerous. They based their assessment on what constituted very dangerous based on what Refix and Vyria would be able to easily pick up and handle on short notice.
That had eventuallye out to fifteen enemies.
If Reivyn spotted ambushers, he would keep silent unless he spotted fifteen or more. He would obviously be part of defending against the ambushers, he wasn¡¯t out of the equation, but he wasn¡¯t used in gauging the difficulty of an encounter because it was literally impossible to surprise him.
They had all pored through the information packet multiple times. It was possible to run into multiple groups of Sahaguins converging on one intersection at a time on the third floor. It was unlikely to happen, but not impossible.
Most of the Sahuagin groups were small, only consisting of one to three. At least at the top of the maze. As a Party ventured deeper into the tunnels, the groups would growrger in size until they capped out at around eight.
That was one of the main methods for ascertaining whether a Party was headed in the right direction or not. If they were making progress toward the exit, the enemy encounters would increase in scale. If they backtracked down a wrong path, the enemy resistance would grow lighter.
Reivyn tracked the shadow as it kept pace with the group. He didn¡¯t know what the creature thought it could aplish on its own, but it was a Dungeon monster without much intelligence. They were all aggressive andcked critical thinking due to their nature of simply being a shadow of a real thing.
The Sahuagin, based on keeping pace with the group, obviously had some way to track the Party. That wasn¡¯t something that was in the information packet. Reivyn didn¡¯t know if it was because others were never able to see them outside of encountering them in an ambush, or if it was just left off as a test for the Parties.
Reivyn leaned toward the former. Other than not spelling out how to aplish activating the Hard Mode, the information packet didn¡¯tck information on the enemies and what to expect. This was something he could potentially add to the information packet for the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, though he didn¡¯t know if anyone would be able to capitalize on the information or not.
That part wasn¡¯t his consideration, though. Just providing the information was enough.
The tunnel eventually started to slowly shift direction, and before long, the Sahuagin popped up, trident first, in front of the group. Teilon activated his shifting Skill and shed to the side as Kimberly took the split second opportunity of the monster losing its goal to dash forward and jab her spear into the amphibious humanoid¡¯s throat.
The Sahuagin dropped its trident and clutched its throat as its legs iled. Blood streamed from between its fingers as it struggled. Even though it was just a shadow of a real creature, something created by the Dungeon, there was no reason to let it suffer. Kimberly followed up the throat jab with another stab to the heart.
The two fatal woundspounded with each other and did enough damage to end the creature¡¯s life. Reivyn nodded his head at the quick thinking of the duo. It hadn¡¯t gone to waste that they had spent years working together doing Dungeon delves under the supervision of his father. Reivyn just hoped that he could extrapte that expertise to the mercenarypany.
It wasn¡¯t a huge deal if nothing spectacr came of having them take leadership roles among the mercenaries, but it was something that they were probably going to be participating in for the foreseeable future. Nobody had any idea how long or how many invasions there were going to be, but the scale they had seen so far indicated something that would take years, possibly decades. It wouldn¡¯t make sense not to try and squeeze something out of his friends for the benefit of the other mercenaries.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
All of the other mercenaries themselves were mostly professional Adventurers and had lots of experience in Dungeons. The difference between them and Reivyn¡¯s friends, though, was that they were mostly from those that were stuck in the lower rung of difficulty in Tier 4 Dungeons, and they hadn¡¯t been trained by Refix.
Reivyn had seen the capabilities of all of the Adventurers-turned-mercenary before they were officially added to the roster. There had been very few that could rival the disy he had seen from his childhood friends.
Teilon took the opportunity to halt their progress and phase through the walls. Reivyn watched him through his Divine Sense. He didn¡¯t get the same type of interference in his perception of his friend¡¯s movements through solid matter as he did through the water. It was easy to track him.
In order for Teilon to not get disoriented, he only phased in two directions at a time. He went through a wall and then immediately reversed toe back. It would be a disaster if he didn¡¯t pay attention and ended up phasing through multiple walls and got disoriented. Reivyn would be able to easily find him, but there was no reason to waste all that time in having to look for him, so he just eliminated that possibility.
There wasn¡¯t enough information for Teilon to make an urate depiction of where they were just yet, and even Reivyn¡¯s mental map was still inadequate. Teilon nced at Reivyn when he was done to see if he could glean anything from his face. Reivyn just stared back at his friend with a small smile.
Teilon rolled his eyes and led the Party down the tunnel again the Sahuagin hade from. It led deeper into the maze, though it would only marginally increase Reivyn¡¯s own mental map until they passed their initial location.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t worried about it.
The Party continued moving through tunnels, meeting ambushes that mostly progressively got more difficult. The few times they encountered smaller groups of enemies, Teilon would make some sort of adjustment that only he understood, and the Party would once more be on track.
Every now and then, there was a small depression in the wall with some pressurized air bubbles they could take advantage of. Another difficulty of this floor was the possibility of choosing paths that incidentally didn¡¯t have any air pockets. It was very possible for a Party to get into a fatal situation where they would sumb to drowning on this floor.
The third floor was a watershed for this Dungeon. Most of the younger delvers weren¡¯t confident enough to make it to the end of the maze, so they would stop after killing the second floor boss. Once they were able to no longer struggle on the first two floors, it was customary to have one of the older delvers go with them to introduce them to the third floor maze.
Most of the people devling the Dungeon on the ind were locals. They weren¡¯t just going to feed them to the wolves, so to say. Even outside Adventurers knew to hire a guide before tackling the third floor.
Reivyn¡¯s Party was an anomaly.
He must have either a Skill for navigating Dungeons, or he¡¯s just naturally inclined to it, Reivyn thought. I don¡¯t think I could have done any better, even with my advantages. I would still need to flesh out the map in my head, but Teilon seems to be able to instinctually find the right way to go.
The Sahuagin were at the upper end of low-Tier 4. Their weapons and armor posed no danger to the group, and they weren¡¯t exactly masters ofbat. Their maneuverability in the water aspared to humans who weren¡¯t designed to live in the water was their main advantage, but Reivyn¡¯s Party wasn¡¯t too hindered from moving about in the water.
They didn¡¯t employ any kind of group tactics to take advantage of their variety of weapons. If they had been able to more effectively set ambushes and use their weapons how they were designed, it would have been much more difficult. As it was, each battle was just a melee as the Sahuagin charged in just like Tier 1 goblins.
Even though Teilon was leading them at a quick speed through thebyrinth, it was just a really big maze. It took about ny minutes, half an hour less than the agreed upon two hour limit, for Teilon to lead the group into a muchrger room that signaled the end of the floor.
Reivyn could see multiple tunnels leading back up into the maze, but it looked like they were on a brand new floor. They had a solid ceiling above their heads and arge open area below them. It was an illusion, though. They were still on the third floor.
The boss of the floor waited below.
Now that they were out of the maze, Teilon shed everyone a cheeky grin before bowing and dramatically offering the leadership back to Reivyn. Reivyn just patted his friend on the shoulder with a smile of his own before floating out in the lead position.
They still needed to locate their horizontal position on the floor. There were many different ways to reach the boss room, apparently, and they couldn¡¯t just expect the boss to be right there. There were no longer any more monster groups other than the boss below the maze, though, and because of the nature of the floor, the monsters that weren¡¯t killed in the maze didn¡¯t flock to the boss.
It only took another couple of minutes to find the final encounter of the floor. There was no mistaking it. For one, there were no other monster groups remaining on the floor. For two, the boss was a giant Sahuagin. He was twice asrge as any of the other creatures.
There was a small army of mundane Sahuagin arrayed before the boss. They reminded Reivyn of the Imperial Guard.
There were twenty of them, and their gear was much less rusty than the ambushers in the maze. They were also uniform in their weaponry and armor. They had full kits of armor, including helmets, and they all had tridents.
Contrary to expectation, the Sahuagin boss didn¡¯t have a giant trident. He was armored just like the other monsters, but he had two discs loosely hovering around each of his hands.
Reivyn frowned as he saw the weapons.
Two discs? I¡¯m not sure I¡¯ve ever considered a weapon like that before. Maybe I can experiment in the future depending on how those things work.
Reivyn could sense Mana tethering the weapons to the giant Sahuagin¡¯s hands. If he had to guess, he would bet that they were ranged weapons that the Sahuagin could recall back to himself like a guided boomerang.
Reivyn nced at his Party members and nodded his head in the direction of the small Sahuagin army. Only Reivyn had spotted them so far. The others were still relegated to the distance imposed by the System¡¯s ambient lighting.
The others nodded their heads back as they hefted their weapons.
Reivyn dove straight at the lined up Sahuagins. He elerated to pick up speed and close the distance as quickly as possible. He didn¡¯t want the enemies to have enough time to organize themselves. This was a boss fight, so they could expect some level of coordination between the monsters dictated by the System.
Reivyn used his Traveler Affinity and crashed into the midst of the Sahuagins before they had the chance to react to their approach. Refix was right behind him and tore into the group a short distance away. The two pierced through the group, but they didn¡¯t immediately head to the boss Sahuagin.
They gained the attention of the little ones, engaged them for a brief moment, and then swam away in two different directions. They pulled the cohesive Sahuagin apart at the middle, separating them into two different groups. Kefira, Seri, and Teilon waited just out of range near Reivyn, and Vyria, Xudrid, and Kimberly waited near Refix.
Reivyn¡¯s Danger Sense screamed at him, and he banked hard to the right without hesitation. It moved faster than he was able to perceive it perfectly with his Divine Sense, but the lingering Mana attached to the force that blew past him, pushing him off course with the force of the water disced by the fast moving object, informed Reivyn that it had been one of the discs.
Reivyn could see with his Divine Sense that the boss Sahuagin had targets both him and his father at the same time. Refix had easily avoided the attack. He was incredibly over-Leveled for this Dungeon. He could have probably taken the whole boss encounter on by himself ande out unscathed.
That would have defeated the purpose, though.
Reivyn kept his focus as he drew closer to the waiting Party members. He didn¡¯t want to get too close to them, though, in case the bossunched another attack and the disc identally tore through his friends.
The others had noticed the attack and what Reivyn was doing, so they approached from an angle. Kefira stayed back and started pelting the lesser Sahuagin with her Spells as Seri and Teilon dashed in. Teilon activated his ability to quickly pass through them and engage them in a pincer attack as Seri tanked them from the front. Reivynunched a couple of attacks at the nk before peeling off.
He and his father brought the lesser creatures away from the boss, and now it was time for them to converge on him again. They would take him together.
If they left the boss alone to his own devices without being engaged, he would begin to randomly target Party members. It wouldn¡¯t have been too big of a deal if he was armed with a more conventional weapon, but the two ranged discs could pose a real problem for them, especially if he could attack consistently with the same speed and force as before.
The two discs screamed back to the boss as Reivyn dodged to the side to avoid it again. The boss was clearly able to manipte it at a great distance, and he had tried to catch Reivyn in the back once more.
Reivyn dashed forward and arrived at the giant Sahuagin at almost the exact same time his father did as well. The two discs being manipted by the Sahuagin rotated around either of his hands as the giant looked back and forth between the two smaller men.
Without any indication, the giant Sahuaginunched his weapons to engage both of them at the same time again. They didn¡¯t scream at them at an unbelievable pace like before, though. The two discs seemed like separate entities entirely as they circled about the two men as they attacked from all directions.
The boss didn¡¯t stand still, either. He was capable of manipting the weapons in two different fronts at the same time and physically engage both of them at once, too.
A fierce fight, much tougher than Reivyn had expected, erupted between the three of them. Reivyn was momentarily reminded of the time they had fought the giant man in Piori. The Sahuagin¡¯s armor wasn¡¯t nearly as effective in stopping their attacks, but the sheer ferocity and ability of the boss reminded him of thatrge berserker.
Reivyn lost himself in the fight. It was the most exhrating part of the Dungeon so far. He had to constantly be aware of the location of both discs. The Sahuagin was able tounch attacks at either of them with either disc at any time. It also shed with the ws on its hands, kicked, and bit at both of them.
Reivyn and Refix were small whirlpools of destruction, though, and they whittled down the boss over time. Their weapons found purchase in gaps in the armor and cleaved through the metal in some situations. The boss gradually slowed down in its physical movements, though the discs never slowed.
Eventually, the boss couldn¡¯t keep up with the damage inflicted on it. A threshold was reached, and the damage Reivyn and Refix caused exponentially increased, and the giant boss Sahuagin died. The two discs lost their connection to the giant and crashed to the seafloor.
Reivyn checked over himself and found that he was surprisingly cut in many different ces. None of the wounds were serious, but he hadn¡¯t suffered a single injury all the way until this fight in the entire Dungeon.
He shared a look with his father and the two smiled at each other. Unsurprisingly, Refix didn¡¯t have any injuries on his body. Reivyn turned and found the rest of the Party members floating nearby. Reivyn indicated to the seafloor with his head, and the Party headed down.
The exit to the next floor was nearby where the boss Sahuagin had been hovering in the water, and the group made their way to the final rest area before exploring thest floor of the Dungeon.
Chapter 237: Sirens Song
Chapter 237: Siren''s Song
Reivyn looked around the room in confusion. He recognized the faces surrounding him, but not the circumstances of his arrival. There was also a disconnect in his perception, screaming for his attention, but his thinking wasing a bit sluggish.
Lin, a familiar face he hadn¡¯t seen for years, bounded toward him with a happy expression on her face. She hadn¡¯t changed at all, but Reivyn now looked down on her due to his increased height. She seemed like a much younger woman to him, now, though he knew she was several years older than him.
She grabbed his hand and turned to drag him out into the ballroom. He looked around, searching for hispanions he knew should be around. He spotted Teilon and Kimberly chatting a short distance away, and he rxed for a moment.
Rxing, though, immediately caused his mind to scream at him that there was something wrong. Now was not the time to be rxing and taking everything for granted. The spike in rm caused him to focus on his Divine Sense, but he couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of what his Skill was telling him.
Right in front of his eyes was an borate ballroom filled with people enjoying a banquet and dancing, but his Divine Sense told a different story. It was shrouded and hazy, like there was some sort of mental interference. The main takeaway for Reivyn, though, was that he could tell there was absolutely no ballroom filled with people.
Reivyn dug his heels into the ground. Lin turned to look at him with a questioning look on her face, but she never spoke. In fact, the murmur of conversation, upon closer inspection by Reivyn, came back as mostly gibberish. There was one underlying message among the voices, though.
¡°Rx,¡± they whispered. ¡°Come with us. Join us.¡±
Reivyn pulled on his hand held by Lin. Lin¡¯s questioning look turned into a frown, and her grip turned into a vice on his wrist. It wasn¡¯t enough to cause any pain, but if Reivyn¡¯s Stats were the same as when he had first met Lin, he would likely have been crippled by the amount of force contained in her grip.
That¡¯s not right, Reivyn momentarily thought. Lin was from a Tier 1 Region. She wasn¡¯t strong enough to cause crippling damage from a simple grip.Reivyn shook his head violently. There was so much wrong with the situation, but his thoughts weren¡¯ting to him coherently, and anytime he started to get a grip on the situation, the whispers would interfere and start lulling him into rxation once more, starting the cycle anew.
There was one thought that kept trying to make its way to the forefront, but it kept getting washed away by the interference. Reivyn buckled down on forcing the thought to the front of his mind, and he felt a pulse from his Mental Fortitude Skill as it breached.
Where is Kefira?!
The thought brought him uppletely short. He looked around and immediately spotted her floating next to him. She had her eyes closed, hair gently floating in the water as one of their new friends wrapped its arms and legs around her.
Wait¡ what?
Reivyn¡¯s own wrist was being held by one of their beautiful new friends. She smiled at him with the face of Lin as she tried to drag him away from his Party, but Reivyn instinctively resisted the pull.
The face of the creature morphed into fury. A terrifying visage covered the vaguely human features and a powerful pulse of mental energy assaulted Reivyn.
¡°AAAaaaahhhhhh!¡± Reivyn screamed.
He pulled his Stamina, Mana, and Qi all together, using them all to fuel his Mental Resistance, and a powerful pulse of his own repelled the intruding energy. The whispers muted and Reivyn fully came back to himself floating on the fourth floor of the Dungeon.
Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense Skill came back fully to his perception. They were surrounded by the Sirens that made the fourth floor their home. Each one of his Party Members had an individual siren wrapping their body around them, sucking their Health away slowly, one tick at a time.
Reivyn¡¯s mental resistance had been stronger than theirs because of his mental resistance Skills, so he hadn¡¯t fully fallen to the enemy yet. Even Refix was caught and had a siren starting to feed on his life force.
The situation they were in shed through Reivyn¡¯s mind in an instant. Rage, fury, and terror filled him as he flooded his body instinctively with his Qi. The world slowed down around him.
His sword was in its sheath one moment, the next it was drawing an arc away from the furious siren¡¯s neck, quickly followed by the severed head shooting away with ck blood billowing out of the siren¡¯s neck.
¡°Wake up!¡± Reivyn screamed, once more pulsing his Mental Fortitude Skill.
He empowered it with his Qi and used it in a way he never had before. Instead of just passively resisting and letting him push through tough situations, the Skill actively left his body and covered hispanions.
Reivyn¡¯s shout, plus the added Mental Fortitude Skill covering them, shook hispanions out of their stupor. They didn¡¯t immediately wake up, though, and the sirens surrounding them plus the ones wrapped around their bodies tried to put them back into an illusion.
Reivyn, though, was having none of it. He immediatelyunched a torrent of Magic at the sirens surrounding them in a sphere. Lightning protected from discharging in the water with a protective Mana cover ripped into their ranks. They were all inherently weak to the element, and it paralyzed their bodies and minds.
Reivyn¡¯s sword shed once more. A hole appeared in the forehead of the siren holding onto Kefira. Reivyn¡¯s sword shed again and again. Each time he stabbed, another siren within the Party was in with a hole in their head.
In less than a second of real time, Reivyn had immobilized and stunned the entire small army of sirens putting pressure on them with their illusions and killed all the ones actively draining the life of his Party members. With the world slowed down all around him, it felt like almost a full minute to Reivyn, but his System clock showed it was incredibly brief.
The sirens that had wrapped themselves around hispanions slowly loosened their arms as they began to float away. The Party members¡¯, despite the active illusion casting being broken, were still struggling to break free and wake up, but they woulde around in a few seconds.
Reivyn didn¡¯t wait for them, though. He was still empowered by his Qi, a state he hadn¡¯t intentionally entered for since the first time fighting against the robed archer. He wanted to get as much insight into the state as he could while itsted. Heunched himself at the paralyzed sirens.
There were still sparks of electricity coursing through the bodies of the sirens. Reivyn didn¡¯t continue using his Mana to attack them. He simply tore into them with his sword. Not only were they paralyzed and unable to react, Reivyn was moving at such incredible speeds that even if they had been able to, it wouldn¡¯t have mattered.
The sirens looked like a cross between humans and fish. Their top half was that of a human, but they had tails instead of feet. Their upper bodies were bare, and they had no clothing or gear of any kind. They didn¡¯t even have any weapons.
Reivyn paid no attention to the female sirens. He was simply butchering monsters. The resemnce to human females didn¡¯t elicit any kind of attraction in him at all. Blood quickly filled the waters, obscuring the bodies from sight, but Reivyn could still perfectly perceive with his Divine Sense.
It was over in a matter of what seemed like minutes, but it only took Reivyn twenty seconds to kill all of the enemies. His Divine Sense told him there were forty-two sirens including the ones that had approached his Party members.
That doesn¡¯t match with what the dossier says, Reivyn frowned. There should have only been the boss and its entourage. A total of four sirens. This wasn¡¯t even the group of sirens attached to the boss and there were ten times as many as expected.
Reivyn let the Qi recede to his core. He paid attention to the way it felt as it was flooding his body and as it retreated into his core to get a better understanding of it. He felt like he learned quite a bit from the process, but he would have to experiment with itter before he fully figured out how to actively use it at will.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Reivyn used his Mana to wrap up his Party members and drag them back up to the tunnel leading to the third floor. He led them all into the air pocket room. They moved mechanically under his direction, so he wasn¡¯t hindered by them being stuck in an illusion.
¡°What happened?¡± Refix was the first toe out of the illusion he had been trapped in.
He looked around and noticed they were in the break room to the fourth floor.. He looked at the other Party members and noticed them simrly beginning toe out of their stupors. Kefira was the next to recover.
Most likely due to her increased Mental Stats because of her ss, Reivyn guessed. He walked over to her to inspect her to see if she was alright. There were no visible injuries on her person, but he would have to ask her about the energy he clearly felt being drained away.
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± She asked Reivyn.
¡°Let¡¯s wait for everyone else to fullye to,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°It¡¯ll only take a moment.¡±
Just like Reivyn said, the others quickly recovered. Vyria and Xudrid were the next to recover. Teilon, Kimberly, and Seri all snapped out of it at about the same time, though nobody really took too long to escape the illusions after Reivyn broke the sirens¡¯ active attacks.
¡°We were toocent,¡± Reivyn said once everyone was looking at him. ¡°We thought we didn¡¯t have anything to worry about, so we were toox on our entrance to the fourth floor.
¡°I don¡¯t know why, but the boss floor waspletely different than what was in the dossier. Instead of just the boss encounter with a few extra monsters, there was an entire army of sirens waiting in ambush for us.
¡°I can¡¯t remember how we got trapped, though. Anyone else?¡± Reivyn looked at each of his friends in turn. They all shook their heads.
¡°Thest thing I remember is heading toward the exit of the third floor,¡± Kefira said after a second. The others nodded their heads in agreement.
¡°Me, too,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°And we wouldn¡¯t have bypassed the waiting room between the third and fourth floors, so we¡¯re missing at least fifteen minutes of memories prior to getting caught. What about you, dad?¡±
¡°I¡¯m the same,¡± Refix answered. ¡°Nothing between the third boss and waking up. I barely even remember the illusion I was under. In retrospect, it was a strange choice the sirens used to trap us with. The only thing I really remember is that it wasn¡¯t really anything I was all that interested in.¡±
¡°Yeah, I had an illusion of a past event,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°It was the feast after defeating the demon and revenants that crawled out of the hole by the Revenant Dungeon.¡±
¡°I was attending a luncheon with some nobles,¡± Kefira admitted.
Each of the Party members recounted an event pulled from their memories, but it wasn¡¯t anything particrly captivating for them.
¡°It seems strange,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I believe it¡¯s probably Dungeon shenanigans. It was giving us an illusion of something adjacent to something we¡¯re interested in, but not the actual thing. Probably giving us a way to fight it off.
¡°If I didn¡¯t have a Skill that enabled me to interrupt their hold on me, I imagine we all would have eventually been able to figure out something was wrong and fight free. The other anomaly is the number of sirens.¡±
¡°I think I know the reason for that,¡± Refix held up his hand. ¡°It¡¯s my presence.¡± Everyone looked at him with a bit of surprise. ¡°Think about it. The dossier mentions this room is the boss plus a few extras. The main encounter is fighting off illusions, but I¡¯m well into Tier 5. The System probably messed with the makeup of the floor in order to be able to trap me in an illusion.¡±
¡°That makes sense,¡± Reivyn said, nodding his head. ¡°Though I haven¡¯t heard of a Dungeon being dynamic like that before.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not unheard of,¡± Refix shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s not really the Dungeon itself being dynamic. It¡¯s the encounter. This encounter is one of fighting off illusions. They needed the power to capture our Party, so the whole floor was altered ording to the System to make it happen.¡±
¡°Everyone should check their Health and Stamina,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°They were draining energy from everyone while we were trapped in the illusion. This will give us a gauge of how much danger we were actually in.¡±
Everyone¡¯s eyes focused on an invisible screen in front of them for a second. Reivyn waited for them all to focus their attention back on each other.
¡°I only lost about a percent of Health and Stamina,¡± Kefira answered first.
¡°Same,¡± Teilon nodded his head. He looked at Kimberly and she nodded her head in agreement.
¡°What about the two of you?¡± Reivyn asked the two Cultivators.
¡°Same. About one percent,¡± Xudrid answered.
¡°I only lost a couple points,¡± Refix said. ¡°Not anywhere even close to even one percent.¡±
¡°Yeah, it looked like they had just started on you when I broke free from the illusion,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how long it had been for everyone else, but based on what everyone¡¯s said, it sounds like a couple points per second for both Health and Stamina.¡±
¡°That would give us practically forever to break free,¡± Teilon said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound very dangerous at all, especially for a fourth floor.¡±
¡°I imagine that¡¯s only supposed to be the opening of the fight,¡± Refix said wryly. ¡°I would bet the encounter is supposed to be us getting trapped and fighting it off, then followed by being disoriented as we get free which will allow them to engage us inbat where we¡¯re at a disadvantage, and then once we¡¯re fully in control again, we¡¯ll have to fight to regain the initiative.
¡°Wonder Boy over here broke the paradigm. He moved so fast, phase two and three were never an option for the monsters.¡±
Everyone chuckled at that. Reivyn simply smiled and scratched the back of his head.
¡°Yeah, I managed to enter the state where I was infused with Qi again, so I took advantage of it. I was able to fight off one of the robed assants by myself under that condition. These guys were nothingpared to them.
¡°Anyway, let¡¯s take a short break before heading back down, again. We still have the boss to kill and then we¡¯re done.¡±
¡°Sounds good,¡± Teilon said.
They didn¡¯t take too long to recover. Aside from losing a bit of their Health and Stamina, they hadn¡¯t really suffered anything. There were nosting effects from being caught in the sirens¡¯ ambush.
¡°Let¡¯s be a bit more careful, this time,¡± Reivyn said as they once more descended to the fourth floor.
They moved a bit more cautiously. Reivyn wrapped his mind in a cocoon with his Mental Fortitude Skill. He felt like he had made a breakthrough with his utilization of the Skill. He would have to check his Notifications after they got out of the Dungeon. He wanted to wait and see everything all at once instead of piecemeal, so he didn¡¯t check whenever they had time while still in the Dungeon.
Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense radiated out. It had grown by a couple of yards in radius since even the start of the Dungeon delve. It¡¯s growth wasn¡¯t sudden per each uptick in Skill Level, and that aspect of the Skill was more pronounced the higher his Skill Level grew. Each new Skill Level covered more ground than the one before it. It was an exponential growth rate, too.
I can¡¯t imagine how far the Skill will reach by the time I reach Level 100 with it, Reivyn thought. It¡¯s going to be insane, though. That being said, I have no idea how the sirens managed to sneak up on me like that. There had to have been something projected toward us that my Skill couldn¡¯t detect.
There were no other surprises on the fourth floor. Reivyn led them around in a ring to scout the area, but there were no other groups of sirens waiting for them. He looked at the other Party Members and nodded to signal they were moving to the final boss encounter.
The boss came into his Skill¡¯s perception. Reivyn halted andbed through the waters with his Divine Sense, attempting to figure out if there was anything that could help him figure out how the other group had gotten the drop on them.
There were no Mana signatures in the water that he could detect. There also wasn¡¯t any kind of energy resembling what he understood to represent Stamina, either.
He strained and felt like there was something on the periphery, but it was hazy and indistinct. If he wasn¡¯t looking for it, he would have never noticed it.
What is that?
He couldn¡¯t figure it out. It wasn¡¯t Mana. It wasn¡¯t Stamina. It wasn¡¯t Qi. He had no idea what it was, but it was definitely subtle and well hidden.
Reivyn projected his Mental Fortitude outward once more as he began to descend again. His Skill met with the strange energy hiding in the water, and an intense reaction suddenly exploded out in a fierce battle of opposing energy.
At first the energies seemed to be equal in strength. Reivyn bore down with his will and applied his Iron Will Skill to his Mental Fortitude. The opposing energy could only retreat in the face of the empowered Skill.
The boss immediately noticed something was wrong. It looked up and made direct eye contact with Reivyn. Reivyn felt like there was a spark of awareness in the monster¡¯s eyes for a brief second, but it quickly disappeared. It happened so fast that he didn¡¯t know if he had actually seen it or not.
The boss wasn¡¯trger than the three apanying sirens like the sahuagin boss had been. Instead, the boss was distinguishable by its pearl and shell ne. Fierce Mana signatures emanated off of the essory.
Kailey and Riley would be interested in checking that thing out, Reivyn idly thought. Hopefully its a drop, otherwise I¡¯ll just have to remember as much about it as I can and tell them about it.
Reivyn dashed ahead. The Party followed in his wake. They were unhindered by illusions this time as Reivyn had suppressed the sirens¡¯ ability to affect them. The Party quickly engaged the sirens in meleebat with Kefira and Vyria hanging back tounch ranged attacks at them.
The sirens, even the boss, weren¡¯t very impressive when they had no ess to their opening gambit. They had no weapons, and their bodies weren¡¯t designed forbat. It was their mental powers that made them so dangerous.
Wait! Mental powers! Reivyn had an epiphany. That¡¯s what was in the waters! Wait, so does that mean there¡¯s an entire other form of energy I need to learn to manipte?
Reivyn felt the urge to roll his eyes. He had too many things to train already. A whole new subsection wouldn¡¯t have any ce on his te at the moment.
Maybe there¡¯s something else. The System did mention I already had the perfect foundation, so it doesn¡¯t make sense that Ipletely missed out on something. This requires further investigation.
Now wasn¡¯t the time to worry about it. Even if he did figure it out, he didn¡¯t n on devoting any time to training a new method any time soon.
The fight was over very quickly. The sirens, robbed of their main form ofbat, weren¡¯t able to put up much of a fight. They tried to initiate illusions a couple more times in desperation, but Reivyn kept a bubble around himself and the others with his Mental Fortitude Skill. They were unable tond a foothold in their psyches. The Party members destroyed the fourth floor boss encounter in short order.
Reivyn felt a swirl of power a short distance away as the siren boss sumbed to its injuries and perished. He looked up and saw a chest sitting on the sand of the seabed where before there had been nothing.
They all shared a look and smiled at each other as Reivyn swam down to inspect the spoils of their victory.
Chapter 238: Spoiled
Chapter 238: Spoiled
Reivyn flipped the lid to the spawned chest. The others waited a short distance away for him to pull whatever he found out from inside. They weren¡¯t so impatient that they crowded around him. A soft glow entered Reivyn¡¯s eyes as the lid opened and he reached in to grab the contents.
There were a couple items inside the chest, but there was nothing spectacr that stood out to Reivyn. The first item he pulled out was a serrated dagger. The material used looked to be standard Tier 4 metal, and the jagged edges were reminiscent of the teeth of the sharks found throughout the Dungeon.
Reivyn threw an Identify at the weapon. Shark Bite
STR +30
DEX +80
VIT +50
A sharp Dagger embodying the essence of the sea predator
Reivyn was a little surprised at the high Stat gains attached to the weapon. He hadn¡¯t done too much research into higher-Tier magical gear as his own equipment had been more than enough for him until recently.
It¡¯s definitely time to update my gear, he thought. Right now, the Stat bonuses are a mere fraction of a percent. They basically do nothing for me. If I had seven pieces of gear to rece my armor with Stats like this, though, it would actually make a difference.The features of the dagger were considerably higher than anything Reivyn had, but he wasn¡¯t interested in recing his new sword. He showed it to Teilon. Teilon took it briefly, inspected the attributes of the weapon, but he shook his head and handed it back, patting his own dagger equipped at his side. Reivyn understood Teilon was telling him his own weapons were already better.
Maybe I can see if the twins can enchant my new sword, Reivyn considered. I don¡¯t know how enchanting already forged gear works, or even if it¡¯s possible. It must be, though. I know that not all magical geares from within the Dungeons. I¡¯ll just have to ask.
Weapons and gear didn¡¯t expressly indicate how much damage they could cause or prevent. It was far moreplicated than listing a range of numbers. An individual''s Skills, Stats, uracy, and target were all major factions.
Weapons of certain Tiers definitely had an impact on how much damage they could cause, as well as armors being able to withstand more. A Tier 1 metal was never going to be as effective as a Tier 4 metal, after all.
There was also a major difference in Stats on higher Tier gear. Even though the Revenant Dungeon was technically Tier 3 because of the monsters inside, it was in a Tier 1 Region. That and the fact it was mainly a resource Dungeon yed a huge factor in the gear one could find inside.
Reivyn¡¯s armor from inside the Dungeon was pseudo-Tier 2, and the set bonuses and protections from evil made up the difference between them and Tier 1 gear. The material was equivalent to Tier 2, but the Stats still reflected the Dungeon¡¯s status as a Tier 1 Dungeon.
One had to have the necessary Stats and Skills to draw out the potential of higher-Tier gear, though. Equipping a Tier 4 weapon with a Tier 2 ss wasn¡¯t going to suddenly make the person much stronger. Likewise, a Crafter ss was likely to not be able to draw out the potential ofbat gear, either, even if they had the necessary Stats.
There was a reason the cksmith Boldir didn¡¯t sell his masterpiece to just anyone. It was more a limiting factor of having subpar gear at higher Levels than enhancing oneself at a lower Level.
Reivyn found that out the hard way when he and hispanions were unable to contend with the armor of the giant man in Piori, andter his weapon shattered from his own power. It had been a gift for meritorious deeds and had some sentimental value to Reivyn, but the Mana sword had been crafted from merely Tier 1 materials. There was only so much even a grandmaster could do with lesser materials.
Reivyn hadn¡¯t paid too much attention to the quality of his gear as it had gotten him by just fine for a long time, but he was seriously motivated to upgrade his and his mercenaries¡¯ gear at this point. The regr soldiers of the invaders had barely any gear to speak of for the most part, and even the elites¡¯ gear wasn¡¯t anything special, but that only pertained to the basic foot soldiers of the invaders.
The true elites, the robed men and women, were outfitted with what Reivyn suspected to be Tier 5 gear. Considering the scale of the enemy forces, they likely had extremely capable craftsmen making it, as well. There was no way just using basic gear would be enough in the long run.
He wouldn¡¯t need to equip the basic soldier of his mercenarypany with Tier 5 gear, though. They wouldn¡¯t be able to fully utilize even Tier 4 gear at their current Level. Not paying too much attention to the finer details, though, was no longer eptable.
He would need to consult with the officers and his family, including Kefira, toe up with the proper policy, but he had an outline already formed in his mind. They would provide basic Tier 3 chest and head armor for the basic mercenary, and everything else would be Tier 2. They would be allowed to supplement their gear with their own, though.
I should probably make some allowances for rank and grade, too, Reivyn thought as he ced the serrated dagger in his storage pouch. It can go in ascending order: Squad Leaders, toon Sergeants, Company Sergeants, toon Commanders, Company Commanders. They should have something to distinguish them and give them a sense of aplishment, too. Little things like that surprisingly go a long way to improving morale.
The next object Reivyn removed from the chest was a pearl ne. He used his Identify Skill once more. Ne of the Soothing Waves
Int +65
CLA +65
VIT +30
Provides a soothing pulse that calms the mind. Moderate Resistance to Illusions
This one was actually very interesting. It would be effective for anyone, especially locals who were able to reach the fourth floor of this Dungeon consistently. There weren¡¯t any Dungeons in Wispan that had monsters that could cast illusions, though, so Reivyn would consult with the others about selling it before they left. Kahl would definitely be interested in obtaining it for himself, his men, or his son.
Only one ne worn could have its effects active, though, so if anyone had ess to another essory, they would have to make a decision on which one to use. One couldn¡¯t just hang a dozen nes around their neck and stack the Stats and effects.
We already have the ability to benefit from Stats and effects on numerous gear pieces. If we were able to just stack dozens or hundreds for each individual piece, that would be absolutely broken. The System also takes effort into effect. If someone who¡¯s Tier 2 had the Stats and abilities of someone in Tier 4 but they were given, not earned, they would only harm their own progress.
Magical enhancements to Stats and effects were possible with lower Tier gear, but it was very rare. People didn¡¯t seek out such gear until they had already firmly established themselves, anyway. Reivyn had been an exception in wearing magically enhanced armor from the Revenant Dungeon in not only being one of the few to find some, but he was one of the few established enough at such a low Level that it wouldn¡¯t negatively affect his future path.
Not everyone is trying to achieve their peak potential, though, Reivyn thought as he handed the ne over to Kefira for everyone else to get a look at it. The vast majority of people are just looking to earn a living. They¡¯re not seeking Ascension, so it doesn¡¯t matter if they get the best possible ss. I and those around me are the weird ones if you think about it.
Reivyn chuckled to himself. Most people didn¡¯t train nearly as much as he and his father did. They definitely didn¡¯t do all of the physical activities necessary to exhaust themselves. If his mercenaries hadn¡¯t joined hispany, they would definitely not be doing so.
Whether they continued to do so after leaving the mercenarypany in the future, though, was up for debate. They had seen the difference in efficiency aspared to soldiers who didn¡¯t train their Stamina as rigorously as they did. Having the ability to go stronger for longer could open up more possibilities once they returned to Adventuring just as much as it improved their survival rate on the battlefield.
Many of them still won¡¯t, though. They¡¯refortable enough in what they¡¯ve already aplished for their life goals. There wasn¡¯t a change in behavior among the Vairo soldiers after seeing us able to easily oust them in battle, either. If they¡¯re able to evacuate enough people, Prince Allik might be able to affect a policy change in the future, but most people just don¡¯t see the need.
Reivyn waited for the others to inspect the ne he handed over before pulling thest item out. Kefira handed the ne off to each of them, and after everyone had a turn, Kefira handed it back to Reivyn with a nod. They would speak about who would wear itter once they exited the Dungeon and it wasn¡¯t such a chore tomunicate.
Thest item in the chest was wrapped in water resistance cloth. Reivyn pulled it out and flipped the top of the fabric away. Underneath was a handful of shiny, silver scales. They reminded Reivyn of the armor the local guardians wore.
This must be the source of the materials for their gear, he thought. Makes sense. After years of delving into the Dungeon, they¡¯re bound to umte these scales inrge numbers. I might have to speak with Boldir about what to do with these. He mainly had weapons on disy in his shop, so he might be specialized as a weaponsmith, but even if he¡¯s not confident in making anything great with these scales, he¡¯ll know who to point me to.
Reivyn turned and showed the scales to the others. After they got a good look at thest item from the chest, Reivyn flipped the fabric back over and pocketed the package in his storage pouch with the rest of the spoils.
They had nothing else to do in the Dungeon, so the Party made their way back up to the exit. The Dungeon was quiterge, but now that they weren¡¯t having to traverse the entirety of each floor, it didn¡¯t take nearly as long to get back to the exit. There was still the possibility of running into roving sahuagins on the third floor, but Reivyn used his Divine Sense to lead them back the exact way they hade and avoid any entanglements.
They didn¡¯t stop at any of the break rooms between floors or any of the pockets of air located on the floors until they reached the first floor. Reivyn was still trying to figure out the mechanism for reaching the final floor without teleporting, and if they had to suffer a little difort to do so, that was the small price they would pay. The others didn¡¯tin or signal for him to stop, either.
After about forty-five minutes of swimming, they finally breached the surface of the water on the first floor. Everyone expelled their held air and sucked in a deep, fresh breath.
¡°Ahh, that¡¯s not something I¡¯m going to miss,¡± Teilon said.
¡°Yeah, it was quite annoying,¡± Kefira echoed. ¡°I don¡¯t have as high a Vitality as the rest of you. I could feel my heart pounding in my head and my blood coursing through my veins almost the entire time. If it had been just a little longer, I would have demanded we stop for a break.¡±
Reivyn stroked his chin as he thought about what Kefira said. He didn¡¯t feel anything like that while he was holding his breath, but it was probably due to his increased Vitality. He was still thinking about the problem and trying to couple it with information he recalled from his Dreams of the Past.
People not enhanced by the System are able to hold their breath for a minute or two, not close to an hour. Is it just Vitality that¡¯s the issue? Stamina? Abination of both?
¡°How does drowning kill you?¡± He suddenly asked, turning to face his dad.
¡°What do you mean?¡± Refix asked back.
¡°Well, I remember a conversation we had a long time ago about damage from being stabbed in the heart or getting decapitated. How does drowning deal damage?¡±
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
¡°It¡¯s percentage based,¡± Refix replied. ¡°You¡¯re good until you start getting that sucking feeling in your chest. Once you start feeling like there¡¯s a void in your chest demanding for a breath to fill it up, you¡¯re fine. Cross that threshold, and you start taking percentage damage per second.
¡°There are factors that mitigate the percentage and the time between ticks of damage, but that¡¯s the gist of it. The real danger to high Level people like us is that it doesn¡¯t matter what your Stats are like at that point. Once you start taking damage, you¡¯re on the clock until you pass out from deprivation. Lost 50% of your Health due to oxygen deprivation, and you lose consciousness.
¡°If you¡¯re alone, that¡¯s a death sentence most of the time. If you¡¯re in a Party like ours, you better hope at least one person has the Skills and Stats to mitigate the percentage damage and time factor, otherwise everyone is basically going to lose consciousness at the same time.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°What mitigates the damage and the time factor?¡±
¡°Well, obviously the Vitality Stat ys a role, but it¡¯s not as important as you might think,¡± Refix answered. ¡°Someone with 1,000 Vitality is going tost a decent amount of time longer than someone with 500, but there¡¯s not much of a significant difference between someone with 10,000 and 5,000. Does that make sense?¡±
¡°Yeah, I think so. It¡¯s diminishing returns.¡±
¡°Exactly,¡± Refix nodded. ¡°There are probably several Skills that will have an effect, too, but the one I¡¯m familiar with is Breath Control. It will increase the amount of Health you can lose before you lose consciousness, among other things.¡±
¡°Do you have that Skill?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°No, but I know how to get it,¡± Refix said. ¡°It¡¯s never been an issue before, and before you ask, no, that¡¯s not the solution I¡¯ve thought of for making it to the final boss with one breath. Extending the time you have before passing out isn¡¯t going to solve the problem. Even if you reached Level 100 in the Skill, you would still reach 0% Health before making it to the end of the Dungeon.¡±
¡°Still, working on the Skill is probably a step in the right direction,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°We¡¯ll have to all work on it this week.¡±
¡°Oh joy,¡± Teilon said, throwing his hands up and rolling his eyes dramatically. ¡°I just said I¡¯m not going to miss the feeling of having to hold my breath for long periods of time, and you don¡¯t even want to give us a break.¡± He nced at Refix. ¡°Let me guess: This is going to involve some borate training, isn¡¯t it? Are you going to have us carry boulders underwater this time? Hmm?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± Refix said with an innocent expression. He and Teilon stared at each other for several seconds. Right as Teilon was about to look away, Refix opened his mouth again. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be underwater to hold your breath.¡± He shed a wicked grin at the younger man.
Teilon sighed as he ced his hand on his forehead.
¡°Of course you don¡¯t,¡± he muttered.
¡°I¡¯ll have a schedule made up by tonight,¡± Refix said, turning back to Reivyn.
¡°Excellent. I can always count on you, dad,¡± Reviyn said.
¡°Yeah, I spoil you,¡± Refix grinned.
¡°Wha-? Spoiled! SPOILED!¡± Teilon shouted. ¡°You call that spoiling?¡±
Refix calmly looked at Teilon.
¡°Well¡ yeah. Who else takes such good care of you all?¡±
Teilon just spluttered, unable toe up with any words. The others just looked at him with sympathy as Reivyn and Refixughed at him.
¡°Alright, so who¡¯s getting the ne?¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°And do we want to sell it to the locals before we leave?¡±
The others exchanged looks. Refix was the first to give his opinion.
¡°I think it should go to one of the ranged members,¡± Refix said. ¡°Either Kefira or Vyria. Kefira would likely get the most benefit out of it due to the Stats, but it¡¯s good for anyone, really.¡±
¡°While I wouldn¡¯t be adverse to receiving the ne,¡± Vyria uncharacteristically spoke up, ¡°I think it would be better served with Kefira. I don¡¯t get much out of Intelligence or rity for my main methods ofbat.¡±
Nobody else said anything. Reivyn looked back and forth between everyone.
¡°Anyone else?¡± He waited for a moment longer. ¡°Alright, then we¡¯ll give it to Kefira. We don¡¯t have to decide if we¡¯re going to sell it or not right now. I will suggest that Kefira wait to use it on the fourth floor of the Dungeon next week, though. I want everyone to try unlocking a mental resistance type Skill first.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a great idea!¡± Refix¡¯s eyes lit up. Teilon rolled his.
¡°That sounds fine,¡± Kefira nodded as she epted the ne.
Kefira went ahead and put the ne on with a smile. It was wide enough that it just slipped over her head, but after settling on her shoulders, it automatically shrunk until there was no ck. To take it off, she would just need to concentrate on removing it as she gripped it, and the ne would revert to its original size.
¡°So are we done here?¡± Teilon asked. ¡°I don¡¯t mind thepany, or anything, but I¡¯m really ready to get out of this water.¡±
¡°Yeah, we¡¯re done,¡± Reivyn confirmed. ¡°Let¡¯s take a couple days off before getting back together again. How does that sound?¡±
¡°What about the n your dad¡¯sing up with tonight?¡±
¡°Having a n ready and implementing the n are two different things. We can afford to rest a couple days.¡±
¡°Awesome!¡± Teilon pumped his fist in the air. He turned to Kimberly. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡±
They were all still in the Dungeon, so even though Teilon said it in a way that he and Kimberly were taking off, everyone just swam to the exit. Reivyn was still primarily focused on the issue of the Hard Mode, and Kefira recognized that he was preupied, so they mostly swam in silence. There was a bit ofughter and banter, but not too much. Everyone was starting to get tired, anyway.
In only a couple minutes, they were once more standing on the shore with the light of the exit shining in from the exit. Teilon and Kimberly left hand in hand. Reivyn turned to Kefira and the others.
¡°I¡¯m going to go ahead and head back to my room,¡± he said. ¡°Come get me if you want to go get dinner or something.¡±
The sun was still up as they left, though it was starting to gette in the afternoon. It wasn¡¯t quite evening, yet, but there were restaurants and other establishments open for another several hours, so he had time to go wind down and review the day in peace.
¡°Ok. How about I just get something and bring it to you?¡± Kefira asked.
¡°You know me so well,¡± Reivyn said with a smile. They shared a quick hug and a peck on the lips before Reivyn hurried back to his room at the Adventurers Guild Branch.
Reivyn had used his Mana to dry himself off immediately after leaving the waters of the Dungeon, but he still changed into more rxing clothing before sitting on his bed.
Before I continue thinking about the issue of the Hard Mode, let¡¯s go ahead and check the Notifications first, he thought. He pulled up his Notifications window. New Skills Unlocked!
Tier 4:
Psionic (0 ->6)
Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Athleticism (73 ->74)
Swimming (17 ->22)
Tier 3:
Battlefield Awareness (50 ->51)
Identify {All} (24 ->25)
Mental Fortitude: (51 ->54)
Tier 4:
Iron Will: (29 ->30)
Exiting Dungeon
Calcting...
First Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +4,000
Boss Defeated: Exp +5,000
First Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5000
Calcting...
Second Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +5,000
Boss Defeated: Exp +6,000
Second Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000
Calcting¡
Third Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: Exp +6,000
Boss Defeated: Exp +7,500
Third Floor Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000
Calcting...
Fourth Floor: Complete
Combat Experience: +8,000
Boss Defeated: +8,000
Dungeon Completion Bonus: Exp +5,000
Total Experience: 69,500
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Experience 2,214/18,000
Nice! I gained four Levels from that delve. He quickly distributed his free Stats to Strength and Dexterity.
Hmm¡ If I¡¯m reading this right, what those sirens were using wasn¡¯t a new form of energy, but simply a Skill. Let me check it out real quick.
Reivyn focused his attention on the Skill
Tier 4:
Psionic (6)
Helpful Hint: Psionic is a secondary Skill. It allows one to project another Mental Skill outward. It ispletely useless on its own.
Yep, that confirms it. They were just much more Skilled. There might be ways to affect an Illusion Skill with Mana and Affinities, but I¡¯m guessing it was more like a Racial Skill, kind of like ss Skills, but for monsters.
I¡¯m going to go ahead and check my Status real quick, then I¡¯ll get back to brainstorming.
Reivyn brought up his Status Page. Status Name: Reivyn ss: Hero Lvl 10
Grand Arcanist
Fighter Age: 16 (21) Health: 12,280/12,280 (+310) Stamina: 24,620/24,620 (+410) Mana: 14,735/14,735 (+50) Qi: 1,000 (T4/Li) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 1,254 (+10) INT: 1,324 (+4) VIT: 1,228 (+31) MAG: 1,623 (+6) DEX: 1,253 (+10) CLA: 1,161 (+1) CHA: 372 (+1) PER: 1,110 (+1) LUK: 321 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000 Experience: 2,214/18,000 Skills:
Tier 1:
Aim (49), Athleticism (74), Bnce (61), Dancing (35), Drawing (23), Drill (24), Drive (7), Haman (20 MAX), Heavy Armor (39), Hiding (35), Horsemanship (24), Light Armor (30), Map Making (29), Map Reading (26), Mathematics (18), Marching (41), Medium Armor (40), Memorization {Social} (22), Mining (22), Observation (62), Penmanship (37), Piano (16), Ride (25), Running (62), Rhythm (32), Shading (7), Shields (53), Sneaking (32), Stealing (9), Swimming (22), Tracing (7), Tutor (24), Woodworking (17)
Tier 2:
Acrobatics (33), Alcohol Tolerance (11), Ambidexterity (27), Backstab (10), Camouge (24), Color Correction (1), Eavesdropping (35), Evasion (70), Forced March (25), Gab (23), Linguistics (11), Mana Absorption (63), Mana Cirction (52), Meditation (50), Numbers Concepts (10), Pain Resistance (63), Pickpocket (6), Sense Mana (81), Silent Step (26), Stealth (32), Strategy (38), Tactics (49), Teach (24), Tracking (12)
Tier 3:
Ambush (15), Battlefield Awareness (51), Blind Fighting (40), Command (57), Commanding Shout (40), Danger Sense (49), Decipher (1), Detect Lies/Truth (18), Eagle Eye (9), Identify {All} (25), Infiltration (4), Inspire (64), Mana Conjuration (58), Mana Maniption (68), Mana Shield (50), Mana Sight (74), Mental Fortitude (54), Night Vision (49), Poison Resistance (5), Sense Threat (22), Silver Tongue (14), Sure Step (29)
Tier 4:
Assassination (3), Charm (3), Dreams of the Past (24), Dual Casting (51), Iron Will (30), Mana Weapon (55), Psionic (6) Runes (1), Spatial Awareness (70)
Tier 5:
Aura {Bloodlust, Heroism} (20), Heroic Bearing (38), Mana Drain (6), Mana Healing (10), Mana Reinforcement (20), Multi-Casting (30)
Tier 6:
Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (103), Regeneration (18)
Tier 6.5
Divine Sense (18), Perfect Domain (14) Transcendent Ability
True Strike: Weapons Master
Cannot be Blocked, Dodged, or Parried Affinities:
Tier 1:
Air (102), Earth (102), Fire (102), Water (102)
Tier 2:
Ice (99), Lightning (95), Magma (100), Metal (100), Mist (99), Mud (99), sma (100), Wood (98)
Tier 3:
Bludgeon (61), Darkness (100), Durability (63), Friction (54), Gravity (50), Kic (66), Light (100), Mass (54), Piercing (66), Sharpness (66), Weight (58)
Tier 4:
Eternal (18), Traveler (18)
Tier 5:
Abyss (1), Veridical (1) Transcendent Ability
Obedience: Air, Earth, Fire, Water
Command the ambient Elements within your range of control ss Skills:
-Hero (8): You''re a Hero
-Heroic Skills (8): You''re Skills are better than everyone else
-Heroic Magic (8): You''re Magic is better than everyone else
-
-
-Avable: Heroic Will, Heroic Insight, Heroic Qi
-Magic Spells (202): Level 1 2MP, Level 2 10MP, Level 3 20MP, Level 4 50MP, Level 5 100MP, Level 6 500MP, Level 7 1,000MP
-Deconstruct (101): Pick apart Spells to their base Elements. Bonus to understanding Weaves, Knots, and Patterns. Bonus to Mana Maniption +100%
-Will of the Realm (90): Your Will is True
-Multi-Strike (54): Attack multiple times with anything, up to 19 times at once
-Elemental Weapon (120): Coat your weapon in an Element. Able to extend the length of the Elemental Weapon with additional mana
Avable: Charge (117), Cleave (118), Devastating Strike (99), Enforce (22), Impart (8), Intermediate Light Spells (0), Intimidate (0), Mana Well (51), Power Swing (0), True Illusion (0), True Mana (0), Quick-Draw (81)
My full Status Page is a little ridiculous at this point, Reivyn noted. Maybe it¡¯s time to consolidate some of these Skills. Since it was possible tobine all my Weapons Skills into one, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s possible. I¡¯ll have to talk to dad about it.
I''m unlikely to get a Tier 6 Skill out of it since I¡¯m doing so after having attained my first ss this time, but there¡¯s bound to be some Tier 5¡¯s. I don¡¯t know if allbined Skills will be that high, but I¡¯m guessing it will cause some major changes to my Status Page.
Reivyn nodded to himself after perusing his Status page. It was time to get back to thinking about the issue of the Hard Mode. He would try his hardest to figure it out on his own, but if he really couldn¡¯t put his finger on it, he¡¯d have to consult his father or maybe even Kahl.
Chapter 239: Implications
Chapter 239: Implications
Ok, so let¡¯s think about this in order, Reivyn rxed and settled in for some contemtion. Drowning and/or suffocation drains Health based on percentages and across a period of time. It exponentially increases the longer the time goes on, and one will lose consciousness upon losing 50% of their Health.
Ok, that all makes sense. So what are contributing factors? Vitality increases the duration before one reaches the point of losing Health that one can hold their breath. Vitality directly affects Health and works with Strength to determine Stamina. So far so good.
Vitality affects the time intervals that one loses Health, but it¡¯s marginal ording to dad. Health percentage loss is the same for everyone. So all things equal, someone with a higher Vitality will take longer to reach the point of suffocation and the time intervals will be slightlyrger, but they¡¯ll still lose Health at the same percentage per time interval.
It¡¯s possible to mitigate these factors with Skills. Breath Control affects the time intervals. There¡¯s probably another Skill that reduces the percentage loss of Health per interval, too.
So now, let¡¯s ignore the superhuman aspects of Stats and Skills: What leads to suffocation or drowning? Loss of oxygen. It¡¯s possible to train to hold one¡¯s breath outside of Stats and Skills, based on my past life¡¯s memories, but even the best in the world can only do so for a rtively short period of time.
So what do Stats and Skills do? Vitality obviously takes the ce of mundane training. It increases the efficiency of one¡¯s body, but it doesn¡¯t rece oxygen. Skill can amplify that in multiple ways.
Reivyn used logic to work through the problem, firstying out everything he understood about the problem and extrapting obvious information from the known facts. He sat and thought about the differences between life with Stats and Skills versus life without.
What do people without a System use to prolong their time underwater? Outside of reaching the peak physical capacity of their bodies, they use diving equipment. So, what is diving equipment? It¡¯s a portable oxygen tank.
Ok. I think I¡¯m onto something here¡ What is oxygen at its fundamental level? It¡¯s a resource. What resources are avable to us with a System other than Stats and Skills? Obviously our Health, Stamina, Mana, and Qi pools.Ok. Ok. I think I see where this is going. Drowning and suffocating directly affect the Health Pool. Where does Staminae into y? Swimming and Breath Control are obviously physical activities, so I would think Stamina would y a role in there somewhere. Does it just determine for how long we can do a physical activity? But holding one¡¯s breath doesn¡¯t seem to be in there¡
That¡¯s not how Stamina works. I know for a fact that Stamina can be used manually to activate Skills.
Reivyn felt like he¡¯d been struck by lightning. Thinking about Stamina and manually using it to activate Skills seemed to open the world in front of him.
So Stamina is obviously an under-utilized resource. What happens if I manually use my Stamina to keep myself going? It¡¯s like we¡¯re diving with an oxygen tank on our backs but we¡¯re not breathing from it. We have this huge resource avable to us, but we¡¯re not using it.
So first, have to figure out how to use Stamina as a proper resource.
Reivyn felt like he had figured out the crux of the issue. Now he just needed to experiment with how to get it to work. He already had experience manually using his Stamina to activate a Skill. He had done so the first time while fighting the Duhan in the Revenant Dungeon solo.
It seems like figuring out how to actively use one¡¯s Stamina is actually the first step in learning how to manually activate Skills. If that¡¯s the case, it seems like I skipped a step.
Reivyn chuckled to himself over the thought of jumping ahead, but he suddenly stopped and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
Wait a second¡ Dad told me that people generally don¡¯t even try to figure out how to manually use their Skills until they¡¯re around the fourth Tier for the most part, and this Dungeon is a Tier 4 Dungeon¡
The Illusions cast by the Sirens are also suspect. They weren¡¯t things we would all get caught up in. Instead, they were tangential to something we desire. If we ran into real, thinking Sirens in the real world, there¡¯s no way they wouldn¡¯t try to show us an Illusion that isn¡¯t exactly what we desire¡
But that¡¯s not what the Dungeons are. They¡¯re just shadows of the monsters in the real world. It¡¯s controlled by the System¡
Reivyn¡¯s eyes widened inprehension.
Are these Dungeons designed to teach us? Dungeons are fatal to those who aren¡¯t properly prepared or don¡¯t take it seriously, but they¡¯re not death traps. The encounter with the Sirens was enough to provide an appropriate challenge. If the System altered the encounter with the intent to defeat us, it would have been much more difficult.
The timing of the challenge of the Hard Mode is also around the time people start experimenting with their Stamina and Skill control. Are there other Dungeons that subtly introduce the Delvers to concepts instead of just existing in a vacuum?
This deserves further investigation. There might be literature on the subject somewhere, too. I¡¯ll have to talk to my dad and see if he¡¯s run across any written theories. He found out about the Weapons Prodigy Skill through an ancient text, after all. What else has he read?
If it¡¯s true that Dungeons are designed and altered by the System with intent¡ That opens up an entirely new view on the System as a whole. Everyone just believes the System is a representation of our growth and experiences, but if it takes an active role in affecting people¡
What is The System? And if it¡¯s not just a representation of ourselves¡ Where did ite from? I don¡¯t think anyone¡¯s actually even seriously asked that question, or if they have, it¡¯s not widely known.
Reivyn had more questions now than when he had begun, though they weren¡¯t rted to his initial query. He still felt like he had figured out the right direction to go for activating Hard Mode. Now he just needed to experiment and see if he had a way to prolong his breath through manually using his Stamina.
If it worked, though, it would mean the implications of his thought process could also be true. He didn¡¯t know what to think about the System being much more involved than anyone thought.
At that time, his door opened and Refix walked in. At first, Refix tried to be quiet, not wanting to disturb his son, but he looked up and found Reivyn watching him, so he stopped being cautious and just walked over to his bed.
¡°Something the matter, son?¡± Refix asked.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences.
¡°Dad, what is the System?¡± Reivyn asked.
Refix was taken aback. He had clearly not expected that question, especially since he knew Reivyn¡¯s intention was to think about finding a way to reach the fourth floor with a single breath.
¡°Well¡ it¡¯s basically a representation of the denizens of the Realm,¡± Refix answered. ¡°It¡¯s even been argued that monsters and other creatures have ess to the System, too. We know for a fact that other sapient races have ess to the System, so why wouldn¡¯t they?¡±
¡°So it¡¯s just a representation of us?¡± Reivyn frowned.
¡°No,¡± Refix shook his head. ¡°We know it¡¯s not. It¡¯s also a gatekeeper. Think about it. Tiers one through three all receive a monthly summary of your activities and provide you Experience Points toward your Level. What are Experience Points? It¡¯s a form of energy. So where does that energye from during a monthly evaluation? Hmm?¡±
Reivyn tilted his head to the side as he thought about the question. He nodded his head as he understood what his father was getting at.
¡°The System is the gatekeeper to Experience. Experience is energy. Therefore, the System has the ability to manipte energy as well as provide us with our Status.¡±
¡°Ok, but that only makes the question moreplicated,¡± Reivyn argued. ¡°We just saw the System actively adjust a Dungeon in real time to cater to our strength and provide us a challenge. So that means the System can make decisions, not just arbitrarily provide us information and energy.
¡°So is the System sentient? Is it controlled by someone or something? I also know for a fact that the System associated with the Abyss Realm ispletely different. That¡¯s evidence that each Realm has their own, separate System.¡±
¡°Son, I have no idea,¡± Refix held his hands out helplessly. ¡°This is way above my pay grade.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve read ancient texts about Skills and whatnot. Have you evere across anything on the System itself?¡±
¡°There weren¡¯t any in the ones I read. I¡¯m sure they exist, but I didn¡¯t exactly have the time to peruse everything avable to me at the time. My research was abruptly cut short.¡±
¡°Hmm, speaking of ancient texts and Dungeons, we know that some Dungeons represent a time period from the past. Do you think a Dungeon exists with a library containing ancient text somewhere in the Realm?¡±
¡°More than likely,¡± Refix nodded his head. ¡°It¡¯s almost an absolute certainty, actually. We¡¯d just have to find it.¡±
¡°When we get back to Wispan, I would appreciate it if you sent your subordinates out to investigate the question,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯m sure there will be information avable through the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡±
¡°Sure, but what¡¯s with the sudden interest in the System itself? I thought you were thinking about how to activate the Hard Mode of the Dungeon?¡±
¡°Well, yeah, but I¡¯m pretty sure I figured that out,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure we just have to manually use our Stamina as a resource to rece oxygen.¡±
Refix smiled at his son.
¡°That¡¯s exactly what I thought,¡± Refix said. ¡°So how did that lead you onto your current quest?¡±
¡°I was thinking about the Siren encounter and how the System changed it to provide us a challenge but didn¡¯t outright decimate us. Think about it. Would a Siren encountered in the real world hit us with illusions that are only close to what we desire, or would they give us visions of exactly what we desire?¡±
¡°It would be thetter. They¡¯re not going to hold back in trying to kill us.¡±
¡°Exactly,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°You also have told me that ambitious Adventurers don¡¯t experiment with manual control of their Skills until Tier 4. This is a Tier 4 Dungeon, and activating Hard Mode requires us to manually use our Stamina. That¡¯s the first step in manually activating a Skill.
¡°The activation method for Hard Mode, the timing of it rtive to the Tier of the Dungeon and the Tier of the Delvers, plus the meddling of the System all led me to the question: What is the System?¡±
¡°Hmm, I can see how that could lead you there,¡± Refix said.
¡°I have another one for you, then,¡± Reivyn said. Refix indicated for his son to proceed. ¡°Where did the Systeme from?¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± Refix frowned. ¡°It¡¯s always been there.¡±
¡°Has it? How do you know?¡±
¡°Its very existence and the fact that its always been around for as long as we can see.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. His eyes dropped to the bed his father was sitting on. ¡°Where did that bede from? All the evidence we have on hand is that it¡¯s always been there. I mean, as soon as we got the room, it was here. As much as we know, it¡¯s always been there.¡±
¡°I see your point,¡± Refix said, stroking his chin. ¡°That¡¯s another question without an answer, and we¡¯d have to go back as far as history allows, basically, to find out.¡±
¡°Hence the question about finding a Dungeon with a library,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°If there¡¯s a library that has ancient texts rtive to the Dungeon itself, and the Dungeon is also ancient, then we might be able to get a clue.¡±
¡°Alright, you¡¯ve convinced me,¡± Refix chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ll send a team out to investigate when we get back. You have to keep in mind, though, that there¡¯s no centralized headquarters to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. They¡¯re all decentralized and independent.
¡°That being said, you might also be able to leverage The Church of Light with your status as a Friend of the Church. They probably have ess to some pretty ancient records, and they actually do have a centralized headquarters. All the major religions do, though I don¡¯t know where it is. I¡¯m sure the local priests will be able to tell you.¡±
¡°That sounds like a good idea,¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t said anything, I might have forgotten about them. Speaking of, I still have an amulet from the Revenant Dungeon in my storage pouch that I need them to appraise. It¡¯s probably nothing because it¡¯s Dungeon Loot, but it might provide information on what the Revenant Dungeon is a shadow of from the real world.¡±
¡°Sounds good. Now, do you need help in figuring out how to manually use your Stamina? I cane up with a training program for you.¡± Refix had a gleam in his eye talking about training.
Reivyn justughed and shook his head.
¡°No, I want to try and figure this out on my own, first,¡± he said. ¡°In fact, I¡¯ve already manually activated a Skill before, so I think I already have a handle on it. I just need some practice and to see if it really will act as an alternate resource to oxygen.¡±
A sudden knock on the door brought the conversation to an end. They had basically said everything they needed to, anyway, so Reivyn stood up and answered the door. He already knew that Kefira stood on the other side with Seri standing behind her. She had a tter of food held in her hands.
¡°I hope I¡¯m not interrupting,¡± Kefira said after Reivyn opened the door. ¡°I was on my way back to my room when I heard voices, so I assumed you were done with your thinking.¡±
¡°Yes, I think I have it figured out for now,¡± Reivyn nodded. He stepped aside and held his hand up, indicating for Kefira and Seri to enter. ¡°Come on in. It looks like you brought enough food for all four of us.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± Kefira shed a smile. ¡°I couldn¡¯t ignore my future father-inw, after all. It would be terribly rude to eat in front of him without offering him anything.¡±
¡°That¡¯s sweet of you,¡± Refix said with a smile. He looked at Reivyn. ¡°I know I said I wasn¡¯t ready to be a grandparent, but when¡¯s the wedding, already? You can¡¯t let this one get away.¡±
¡°Dad!¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes as Kefira¡¯s face went scarlet. ¡°Do you have to word it in the most embarrassing way?¡±
¡°Of course! I¡¯m your father. That¡¯s my job.¡± Refix winked. ¡°What kind of a world is it where a father can¡¯t even embarrass his own son and future daughter-inw? I don¡¯t want to live in such a world.¡±
¡°Anyway,¡± Kefira studiously ignored Refix¡¯s words as she marched into the room and set the tter down.
¡°Anyway¡ what?¡± Refix asked, still smiling at Kefira and Reivyn¡¯s difort.
¡°I was just trying to politely move the conversation on,¡± Kefira said.
¡°Why? I¡¯m emotionally invested in the topic,¡± Refix said. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about it. How many kids do you want? Boys or girls?¡±
¡°How ever many I¡¯m blessed with,¡± Kefira said.
¡°Ooh, good answer,¡± Refix chuckled.
¡°As to boys or girls, I don¡¯t really have a preference. Preferably at least one of each.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head in agreement.
¡°That would be ideal, but it¡¯s fine if it doesn¡¯t turn out that way.¡±
¡°Have you thought about names?¡± Refix continued to ask as he sat down and served himself from the tter. ¡°You can¡¯t ask me to honestly believe you don¡¯t have a list of names already. That was one of the first things Ameliyn hounded me about back in the day. She had dozens of potential names picked out already.¡±
¡°There may or may not be a list, but I think this is a bit early for this conversation,¡± Kefira rebuffed him.
Refixughed while trying to politely keep his mouth closed around a bit of grilled fish. The main ingredients for most meals in the coastal town were obviously sourced from the sea.
¡°Alright, alright. I¡¯ll stop teasing you,¡± Refix relented. ¡°Thanks for the meal. Feel free to take Reivyn with you when you¡¯re done. You kids can do what you want while Ie up with the training regimen.¡±
¡°You¡¯re wee,¡± Kefira graciously nodded her head to Refix.
The meal was enjoyable, and the groupughed and joked with each other for several minutes as they enjoyed the seafood. Once they were done and tidied up, Kefira grabbed Reivyn¡¯s hand and dragged him to the door.
¡°Come on,¡± Kefira said. ¡°Let¡¯s go for a walk. We can also figure out what we¡¯re going to do over the next couple of days while we rest and rx.¡±
Chapter 240: Here Be Monsters
Chapter 240: Here Be Monsters
Reivyn walked hand in hand with Kefira through the streets of the coastal town. She wanted to spend time on the beach, but Reivyn wanted to experiment with his ideas for Stamina utilization. Kefira pointed out that he could do that on the beach. He didn¡¯t need to go into the Dungeon to use the cave water,
Going into the cave would give Reivyn some privacy and peace, but he didn¡¯t need that now that he had already worked through his thoughts on the matter. He wouldn¡¯t be using his Stamina in a peaceful environment anyway if they were going to use it to reach Hard Mode in the Dungeon. The entire point was that they were going to be inbat, much less just a noisy beach.
Reivyn didn¡¯t put up much of a fight to begin with. He just mentioned that he wanted to spend some time working through the mechanics, so they agreed they would spend the day at the beach and he would take some time to see about his idea.
It didn¡¯t take long for them to arrive at the familiar beach. Kefira led them to an open spot on the beach and she and Seri removed some towels from their storage pouches toy on the sand. They were already dressed in their attire for swimming underneath the clothes they walked through the streets in. They simply removed their outer garments and sat down on the towels.
¡°Go ahead and do some of your experiments first,¡± Kefira said to Reivyn. ¡°We¡¯lle join you in the water here in a little bit.¡±
¡°Sounds good,¡± Reivyn said.
He removed his shirt and sandals, cing them next to his own towel beside Kefira¡¯s. The two girls basked in the sun, conversing with each other, as Reivyn made his way to the water.
Kahl had mentioned that it wasn¡¯t safe in the deeper parts of the ocean, but that was hundreds of yards from the shore. The shallows had plenty of people wading and swimming in them.
There wasn¡¯t really a ce devoid of others on the beach. It wasn¡¯t crowded, so there was nobody in his immediate vicinity, but there was also nowhere he could go where he would be absolutely alone. He had already resigned himself to the inevitable situation where someone might bump into him and disturb his practice, but he wasn¡¯t too worried about it.There were no consequences for being disturbed. It wasn¡¯t like he was going to somehow lose control of his Stamina all together and have his body lock up on him or something. If his control slipped through his fingers, it would just revert to automatically running, just like breathing.
Reivyn waded through the waves of the ocean until he reached a point where the water was just above his waist. The water was quitefortable. The atmosphere of the ind was a bit warmer than what Reivyn was used to on the maind, and the water was a little colder than lukewarm.
The weather on the ind was a bit strange. There were no sustained storms due to the constant pressure differential from the surrounding Tier 8 Region, but there were still frequent pop-up showers. Some days there would be nothing but sunny skies, but other days Reivyn had seen three separate showers descend on the ind out of nowhere in one afternoon.
They had each been caught out in the open during a sudden downpour more than once, and they had only been here for just over a week. The locals didn¡¯t pay it any mind. They were used to the weather as it was simply a way of life on the ind.
The sun was bearing down on Reivyn as he looked around. The waters were fresh and clear, and the temperature was perfect. The air wasn¡¯t too warm, but the rays of the sun could heat one up if left out in the open for too long. The cooling waters were the perfect remedy to the sun¡¯s heat in this situation.
Reivyn stopped dilly dallying and concentrated on the task at hand. He felt his heartbeat and the blood flowing in his veins. He focused his attention on his Stamina as he expelled all the air in his lungs and submerged himself in the water.
If he took a deep breath, he could stay underwater for over an hour. He didn¡¯t have time for that. The entire purpose of the experiment was to figure out how to use Stamina as an alternative resource to oxygen, and what better way to do that than topletely get rid of all the oxygen first?
Reivyn¡¯s lungs immediately began vying for his attention, telling him they needed air to fill them. His Vitality was high enough that he could survive on no stored oxygen for several minutes before it became a problem, though, and the feeling wasn¡¯t painful or desperate.
He would most likely need to wait until his lungs were screaming at him and he was close to losing some of his Health, but that didn¡¯t mean he had to wait before trying to figure out what to do. The desperation would fuel his abilities much like a life or death struggle would, but it wasn¡¯t necessarily required.
Reivyn pulled on his experience with manually activating a Skill. The biggest difference between this and activating a Skill, though, was that he didn¡¯t have an end goal with which to direct the Stamina. That was the main thing he needed to figure out.
I can grab ahold of my Stamina just fine, Reivyn thought. To prove his point, he manipted his Stamina and flooded various body parts with it. He settled with concentrating his Stamina in his lungs, but that didn¡¯t suddenly fill his oxygen needs on its own. The question is: what do I do with it?
The Stamina itself was like a fuel source to activate muscles in certain ways. It provided energy for doing strenuous activities over a long period of time, too. There had to be a way tobine those effects: fuel an activation of energy.
If it¡¯s a fuel source¡ do I ¡°burn¡± it?
Reivyn felt like he was on the right track, but how did he do that? Using the Stamina to activate a Skill came naturally to him. Here, he would need to activate nothing. Not not activating something, but activating literally nothingness.
What does it feel like when I activate a Skill?
Reivyn determined a direction to explore and started shadow boxing in the water. He used his Multi-Strike Skill every now and then while paying attention to what his Stamina was doing. He had never manually activated the Skill, so his first step was to do so.
He had to surface several times as he explored exactly what Stamina activation felt like. He wasn¡¯t ready to make himself desperate and lose Health just yet, but he let himself get close to that point with his vision darkening around the edges slightly beforeing up for a break each time.
He lost track of time with his experiment, but he was on the verge of manually activating his Multi-Strike Skill when he sensed Kefira and Seri swim toward him. The water was shallow enough that they could wade, but why walk when they could swim?
¡°Alright, I¡¯ve given you an hour to mess around,¡± Kefira said to the surprise of Reivyn. ¡°It¡¯s time to have some fun.¡±
Reivyn just smiled and shook his head. He had all day to figure things out, and even if he didn¡¯t, he still had the next day, too, before they resumed their training with Refix. He wouldn¡¯t be upset if he couldn¡¯t pin it down before then, but he wanted to be able to share his method with the others so they could start practicing as well during their training sessions.
Reivyn spent his time swimming about and sshing each other with Kefira and Seri for a time. He let himself forget about his other purpose and just enjoyed his time in the water. The trio spent a little over an hour in the water.
¡°Alright, before your mind starts wandering and you stop paying attention to me, Seri and I are going to take a break,¡± Kefira finally said. ¡°You can join us on the beach or go back to your experiments.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll probably take a break next time,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯m not tired or anything, and I really want to figure this out. We can grab a bit to eat then, too.¡±
¡°Sounds good.¡±
The two girls swam back to shore. Reivyn idly noticed that they had to go a bit further than he expected. They had apparently drifted further out into the water while they yed, but they were still nowhere close to the danger zone.
Reivyn simply expelled his breath and descended into the water where he was. He resumed his underwater shadow boxing while activating his Skill.
He had already made decent progress on figuring out the manual activation of the Skill, so it only took a couple minutes to get back into the groove. He quickly grasped the feeling once more.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition.
Reivyn had never attempted to activate his Charge Skill in the water, but he decided to do so now. He firmly stood on the ocean sand and manually activated the Skill. His body didn¡¯t move nearly as fast as it did onnd, but it still worked approximately the same way. Hepared the feeling of his Stamina to how it felt while using Multi-Strike.
After dashing about several times, Reivyn stood in ce with his eyes closed as he thought about his Stamina. With determination in his eyes, he assumed a boxing stance, threw out a punch, and summoned his Stamina.
Without relying on the Skill itself, his fist produced 19 afterimages as he sessfully performed the Skill manually. He pumped his fist in the air in triumph.
¡°Alright, step one,¡± Reivyn said to himself. ¡°The purpose of the training isn¡¯t to activate my Skills manually. That¡¯s just to get a baseline for how the Stamina feels.¡±
He could have just used his Charge Skill manual activation, but he felt it would be better to have two different Skills so he could separate the pure feeling of the Stamina usage. The two Skills used his Stamina inpletely different muscles, activating two Skills that had nothing inmon with each other.
He performed the manual activation of both Skills several more times and was able to finally pinpoint the feeling of the Stamina being used.
¡°Ok. Here goes nothing.¡±
Reivyn submerged himself in the water once more after expelling his breath. He gathered the Stamina in his lungs and mentally flexed. His Stamina burned and he felt relief in his lungs as if he had just taken a deep breath, ¡°filling¡± his lungs with oxygen.
Sess!
Reivyn was thrilled that his idea was correct. Now he needed to figure out how tomunicate how to do it so the others could follow suit.
With this ability, I won¡¯t need to get the Breath Control Skill, Reivyn thought. That being said, most people would get that Skill before working on their manual usage of Stamina, and it might grant some unexpected benefits if I¡¯m able to train it to Transcendence. There¡¯s no reason not to work on the Skill when I have a chance.
Thoughts of different abilities for reaching Transcendence with Breath Control filled his mind as Reivyn stayed underwater. ,He still needed to verify that his lungs were actually using his Stamina as an alternate resource to oxygen and not just feeling like he had a full breath.
If he just felt like his lungs were full, it would actually be extremely dangerous. It would be like someone not being able to feel pain. It might seem like a boon at first, but then his body wouldn¡¯t be able to send the proper signals to his brain to warn him of something doing damage. If he couldn¡¯t feel pain, he might identally permanently scar or cripple himself.
The same thing applied to drowning. If he didn¡¯t feel like he was drowning when he really was, he would lose consciousness and risk death. He kept an eye on his Health as the time ticked by to make sure it wasn¡¯t going down.
I¡¯ll give myself twenty minutes underwater, he determined. It¡¯s been long enough that an additional twenty minutes should be around the time necessary for the first tick of Health damage.
With nothing else to do other than float in the water just beneath the surface, Reivyn inspected the underwater ocean around himself. The waters were very clear, and he could see colorful fish swimming about and seashells littering the ocean floor. With his enhanced perception, he could even see the tiny shark teeth that inevitably made their way to the beaches jutting out of the sand.
I¡¯ve drifted a bit closer to the deeper water, but I¡¯m still quite a bit away from it. I wonder what¡¯s so dangerous about the deeper waters? Why would it be more dangerous over there than over here?
Reivyn looked into the distance. His vision was unimpeded in the crystal clear water, and he could see all the way beyond the storm wall. The water grew considerably darker as the storm wall blocked out the sunlight, but he could still see quite a ways.
He frowned as he saw andform jutting up out of the water just a short ways into the Tier 8 region.
Is it not an ocean over there? He thought. Considering the steep dropoff of the seafloor, it doesn¡¯t make sense that there would be an ind right there. Surely the locals would know that there was another ind just on the other side of the border.
Thendmass Reivyn spotted was quite steep. It could be a volcanic ind or something for all he knew, but it jutted out suddenly from the deep waters all the way to the surface.
Reivyn frowned deeper as he continued to inspect the strangendmass. Even from this distance, he could see movement shifting about on the surface of thendmass.
Reivyn activated his Eagle Eye Skill and his vision zoomed in. It was like looking through a looking ss. His vision wasn¡¯t improved, but his perception of his vision seemed to zoom in on what he was looking at.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn¡¯t that there were creatures moving about on thendmass like Reivyn had first thought. Instead, there were long ridges and chasms shifting about. Reivyn couldn¡¯t figure out what he was looking at.
Suddenly, a giant tentacle appeared in his vision from the deep between him and thendmass. The size of the tentacle was mind-boggling. Reivyn couldn¡¯t see the end of it as it disappeared into the dark waters below the dropoff of the seafloor in the distance.
Just from the size of what he could see, the tentacle had to be dozens of miles long. The suckers littering the length of the appendage could be anywhere from house-sized to stadium-sized.
The moving of the ridges and chasms suddenly sped up tremendously. The entirendmass shifted in ce.
A giant, horizontal crack appeared in Reivn¡¯s vision. It suddenly shot apart, and a giant eye revealed itself. The pupil shifted about in all directions before settling on Reivyn.
That¡¯s not andmass! Reivyn frantically thought as pure terror seized his body. That¡¯s a kraken!
The word for the giant squid came to his mind from his memories. From his past life, he knew that it was a mythical sea creature, but it was a real thing in this world.
The giant squid continued to shift until two eyes were now fully focused on Reivyn. He was unable to move his body under the intense stare of the massive sea creature. All thoughts fled his mind as he floated motionlessly in the water.
The tentacle snapped forward andunched toward him at lightning speed. It was so fast that he could only see a blur of motion even with his enhanced Perception and rity.
Reivyn¡¯s Danger Sense didn¡¯t trigger, but the situation finally brought Reivyn out of his terror-induced paralysis. He madly dashed for the surface, his limbs iling. He was so disturbed and frantic that his movements didn¡¯t even trigger his Swimming Skill, and his speed was greatly reduced.
In his panic to reach the surface, Reivyn had forgotten he was just barely underwater and could easily stand with his head, shoulders, and chest above the water. He broke the surface and gasped frantically for air as he tried to rush to the shore as fast as possible.
His own panic was working against him, though, and he moved at a fraction of the speed that he normally could traverse through the water. He was unable to think about anything other than escaping.
He was so caught up in his frantic movements that it eluded his notice that no tentacle ever appeared to snatch him to the depths.
His panicked movements didn¡¯t go unnoticed, though. Other swimmers nearby didn¡¯t wait to try and find out what the danger was, they all just turned and rushed for the shore along with him. They quickly outdistanced Reivyn, and seeing them all swim past him at much faster speeds, he finally realized the futility of his movements.
His heart was still pounding in his chest, but he was finally able to calm down enough to get his movements in sync with his Swimming Skill. He shot forward toward the shore, but he quickly saw that Kefira and Seri had noticed something was wrong and they were rushing to the water.
¡°No! Go Back!¡± Reivyn screamed, infusing his voice with Commanding Shout so that it would carry.
Kefira and Seri came to a stop with their ankles in the water, but that didn¡¯t mean they were done. Reivyn saw and felt the Mana umte around Kefira, and with a crack in reality, she was suddenly next to him in the water.
¡°What are you doing?!¡± Reivyn shouted in panic. He was sure that the monster would get a hold of him and drag him into its waiting maw any second.
Kefira ignored him as she spluttered at suddenly being submerged in the ocean water. She didn¡¯t try to reorient herself, though, and she simply grabbed Reivyn and once more activated her Jump Spell.
Reivyn found himself on the dry shore with Kefira hanging around his neck. He didn¡¯t have time to appreciate her body pressed up against his as he copsed to his hands and knees and gasped for breath.
Relief at being the survivor of a disaster flooded his adrenaline-fueled body. His heart still hammered in his chest, but he was able to slowly calm down and assess the situation. Before he coulde to terms with the situation, though, a foreign presence intruded in his mind.
Ha Ha Ha, an amused chuckle reverberated through his mind before the foreign presence receded from his mind.
Reivyn rolled over to a sitting position and stared out at the storm wall with wide eyes. He felt his Mental Fortitude and Iron Will Skills activate with a force they never had before, and he was able to shake himself free. He came to himself and noticed that Kefira had her hands around his face, peering into his eyes with concern.
¡°...the matter? Talk to me!¡± She pleaded.
Reivyn lifted his own hand to rest on one of hers as he took a deep, steadying breath.
¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Sorry for scaring you.¡±
¡°What was that? What happened?¡± Kefira asked. She kept her hands on his face as she sat in hisp,forting him the best way she knew how.
¡°A monster,¡± Reivyn answered, ncing back at the storm wall. ¡°An honest, real monster.¡±
Other ocean-goers surrounded them, waiting for the exnation of what had spooked him so bad. Upon hearing the answer, many of them murmured inprehension.
A hole was made as several bystanders stepped aside for a patrol of guardians toe investigate the disturbance. The squad leader took one look at Reivyn and saw where he was looking.
¡°You looked, didn¡¯t you?¡± The man asked.
Reivyn looked up at the man and silently nodded. The guardian took a deep breath and sighed.
¡°What¡¯s up with that?¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°Does that¡ creature, just sit out there?¡±
¡°Nah, there¡¯s a bunch of them,¡± the guardian shook his head. ¡°Man, we warned you. Kahl said it: Here be monsters. You¡¯re lucky. Most people who see the truth of what¡¯s waiting on the other side of the storm wall go crazy. You must have a strong Mental Resistance Skill.¡±
Reivyn simply nodded his head.
¡°Alright, folks! There¡¯s no problem here. Just someone getting too curious for their own good. You know the drill.¡±
The bystanders drifted apart, going back to what they were doing. Reivyn heard snippets of conversation from the locals. They took the whole situation in stride, and many of them even immediately went back out into the water.
It wasn¡¯t the first time they had experienced someone looking beyond the veil, and it wouldn¡¯t be thest.
Reivyn shakily got to his feet with Kefira¡¯s help. She kept a steadying hand on him. He looked down at her and gave a strained smile.
¡°I think I¡¯m done with the ocean for today.¡±
Chapter 241: Breathless
Chapter 241: Breathless
¡°I gotta say, you¡¯re even crazier than I thought,¡± Kahl eximed before pping Reivyn on the back and guffawing.
After the incident on the beach, Kahl came and found Reivyn walking back to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. He had heard that a crazy foreigner had swam into the depths, so he came to see if his new friend was alright.
After a brief exnation that Reivyn hadn¡¯t actually dived into the depths but had just looked while underwater, Kahl shook his head and dragged the trio to his favorite establishment. The Shifty Eye wasn¡¯t just a bar. It was a normal restaurant. It was just a regr ce for Kahl¡¯s group to go to unwind.
Kahl kept a careful eye on Reivyn as they walked to the restaurant and ordered him a drink after they sat down. Reivyn had already recovered from the ordeal, and he didn¡¯t feel any lingering effects, but he wasn¡¯t going to turn down a free drink.
¡°So what exactly did you see?¡± Kahl asked, finally unable to contain his curiosity.
¡°It was a kraken,¡± Reivyn replied simply.
Kahl stared at him, not understanding the word. Reivyn gave him an inquisitive look.
¡°I don¡¯t know what that is, kid,¡± Kahl said with a chuckle.
¡°Oh. It was a giant squid. It was way beyond the deep end, well into the Tier 8 border, but its body still went from sea level to beneath where I could see it. It had tentacles that were at least dozens of miles long.¡±¡°Ahh,¡± Kahl nodded his head in understanding. ¡°So you saw a little guy.¡±
¡°A little guy?!¡± Reivyn sat back in his chair. Kefira just sat with her chin in hands, ncing back and forth between the two. Seri stood behind her with a stoic expression.
¡°Sure,¡± Kahl confirmed. ¡°The true behemoths aren¡¯trge enough to get that close to our Region. I, personally, have never seen any, but we have the ounts from those that didn¡¯t gopletely crazy. More than one said they could see beasts hundreds of miles away sorge that they looked like they were regr sized creatures.
¡°If the bottom part of this ¡®kraken¡¯ was extending below the view of the seafloor before it dropped off, then it was a lot closer than hundreds of miles away.
¡°So¡ did it do anything else? Some other ounts have mentioned getting feelings of intense malice from the gazes of the creatures they¡¯ve seen. It¡¯s probably one of the main reasons for them going crazy.¡±
¡°Well, yes, but it was weird,¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°Weird, how?¡±
¡°It acted like it was going to snatch me up with one of its tentacles - that¡¯s when I freaked out and started rushing back to the shore - but then nothing came of it. Once I was on shore, I felt a mental connection with it, and itughed at me.¡±
Kahl stared at Reivyn for a few seconds before he threw his head back andughed. He pped the tabletop as he immersed himself in his mirth. After several long seconds ofughing at the top of his lungs, Kahl wiped a tear from his eye before looking back at a nonplussed Reivyn.
¡°Haha. It was messing with you!¡± Kahl said. ¡°It was basically flexing on you, like when someone jerks their shoulders with a provocative attitude.. You know what I mean?¡±
Reivyn thought back to what happened and nodded his head.
¡°Yeah, I can see what you mean,¡± he said.
¡°Haha. I didn¡¯t realize a Tier 8 monster would have a yful side to it,¡± Kahl said, still chuckling.
¡°You call that yful?¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at Kahl.
¡°Of course. It did it purely to amuse itself. That means those monsters have a certain level of intelligence. I wonder what Tier monsters start having more self-awareness? We only have the example of this one Tier 8 monster. That leaves a huge hole between Tiers 5 through 7.¡±
¡°Yeah, but you also pointed out that the other creatures others saw only got a sense of extreme malice,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°That sounds like typical monster behavior as opposed to what this giant squid did.¡±
¡°Maybe there¡¯s just a higher chance that an individual monster can awaken, or whatever, at a higher Tier?¡± Kahl spected. ¡°No idea, and it¡¯s not really that big of a deal. Just an idle thought.¡±
Reivyn stroked his chin in thought before shrugging.
¡°Eh, we¡¯ll find out one day or we won¡¯t.¡±
¡°Cheers to that!¡± Kahl lifted his mug and clinked it with Reivyn¡¯s. ¡°Take every day as ites. That¡¯s my motto!¡±
Reivyn shook his head and smiled. He took a sip of his drink before turning to Kefira.
¡°What do you think?¡± He asked.
Kefira didn¡¯t shift from her position of resting her chin in her hands. She just flicked her gaze to meet Reivyn¡¯s as she shrugged.
¡°I don¡¯t know of any stories from our family elders in the inner Regions mentioning anything about higher chances of sapient monsters,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s either not a significant difference among Tier 5 monsters, or it¡¯s something else.¡±
¡°Speaking of,¡± Reivyn said, ¡°What are your thoughts on making a trip to the Tier 5 outpost your family holds?¡±
¡°Of course I have ns to go some day,¡± Kefira answered. She looked at Reivyn for a couple of seconds. ¡°Wait. Do you mean right when we get back?¡±
¡°Well, not right when we get back,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Maybe in a few months.¡±
¡°Do you think we¡¯re ready for that? You just reached Tier 3.¡±
Kahl was in the middle of taking a swig when Kefira said that. He immediately jerked forward and sprayed the mouthful of liquid out in astonishment. He stared at Reivyn wide-eyed for a moment.
¡°You just hit Tier 3?¡± He asked. His mouth worked, but no sounds came out. He finally got himself under control. ¡°How long ago are we talking? What Level are you?¡±
¡°I just hit Level 10 after clearing the Dungeon,¡± Reivyn answered.
Kahl leaned forward and rubbed his forehead in consternation. He held a hand up to Reivyn to forestall him.
¡°Give me a minute,¡± he said. He took several deep breaths before sitting back up, facing Reivyn once more. ¡°So you mean to tell me the kid who¡¯s better at any weapon you could think of than all of the guardians on the ind is an actual kid who just reached Tier 3?¡±
¡°Well¡ kind of?¡± Reivyn answered nomittally. ¡°I mean, I purposely held off on advancing in Level for a good long time to shore up my foundations. It took a while to reach Transcendence with my weapons Skill and my Tier 1 Affinities.¡±
Kahl just nkly stared at Reivyn. The two sat facing each other, nothing being said, for an extended period of time.
¡°I think you broke him,¡± Kefira finally spoke up, giggling behind her hand.
¡°¡®It took a while,¡¯¡± Kahl repeated. He shook his head vigorously to clear his thoughts. ¡°Boy, you¡¯re even more of a monster than that supposed kraken you mentioned. ¡®It took a while,¡¯ ha! The highest Skilled guardian on the ind is low-Tier 5, and his highest Skill is 95.
¡°What about your dad? I noticed he¡¯s pretty handy with a variety of weapons, too.¡±
¡°Last he told me, he was sitting at Level 110 for his weapons Skill,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Just fifteen Levels higher than that other guardian.¡±
¡°Fifteen Levels! Ha! Level 100 to 101 is basically another hundred Levels right there. I can¡¯t even imagine what it takes to keep going higher. Just fifteen Levels higher.¡±
¡°Well, I¡¯ll grant that reaching Transcendence is its own difficulty, but Leveling the Skill after that doesn¡¯t require that much effort. It¡¯s not like you have to achieve Transcendence for every Level above 101. Do you not know the rules regarding Transcendent Skills?¡±
¡°Nope,¡± Kahl shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s so rare out here, nobody¡¯s bothered to find out unless they actually achieve it, and it¡¯s been a long time since anyone has. Life is pretty peaceful out here.¡±
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
¡°Pretty peaceful,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Yeah, except for the horde of cmities just a couple dozen miles offshore.¡±
¡°Nah, they won¡¯te down to this Region,¡± Kahl shook his head. ¡°Not enough Mana density for them, for one. Anyway, don¡¯t try to change the subject!¡±
Reivyn chuckled.
¡°There¡¯s a bottleneck every fifty Levels after achieving Transcendence,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°You have to achieve a new Transcendent ability to go higher, but it can be discovered at any time, unlike the initial ability, which I believe requires a Skill Level of 100.¡±
¡°I mean, I guess that¡¯s good to know,¡± Kahl said, slightly shaking his head. ¡°Your s¨¦ attitude about these topics is¡ Well, anyway, what¡¯s your Soul Strength?¡±
Reivyn was taken aback at the sudden question.
¡°My Soul Strength?¡± Reivyn asked back.
¡°Yeah. Is it some sort of secret, or something?¡± Kahl asked. ¡°I could understand with the amount of talent you¡¯ve shown, but it¡¯s typically not a secret, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not a secret, per se,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯ve just never had it tested. I have no idea what my Soul Strength is.¡± He tilted his head in Kefira¡¯s direction, ncing at her for approval to reveal her information. She gave a subtle nod. ¡°Her Soul Strength is seven.¡±
Kahl let out a low whistle.
¡°Well, technically,¡± Kefira qualified. Reivyn gave her a curious look. Kefira nced down and back up quickly. Reivyn followed the motion and remembered the amulet she wore around her neck.
Oh yeah, her Soul Strength is halved, Reivyn realized. So her Soul Strength is actually 14! If geniuses have a Soul Strength of three, it really makes sense that her soul is too strong for her body.
Wait, how is she wearing the pearl ne gear if she already has a ne on? Did she turn its suppressive effect off? I¡¯ll have to ask herter.
¡°You guys are insane,¡± Kahl shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m going to make myself dizzy with all this head shaking I¡¯m doing.¡±
The three continued their conversation, Seri a silent spectator, for a bit longer. Kahl¡¯s goal of ensuring Reivyn was fine after the debacle was aplished, so they didn¡¯t stick around after the one drink.
He pped Reivyn on the shoulder as he stood up.
¡°I¡¯m d to see you¡¯re alright,¡± he said. ¡°It could have been worse, though it might not have been with your Mental Resistance Skill. That trinket from the Dungeon that provides some protection really only works against the Sirens¡¯ illusions.¡±
¡°Thanks for your concern, Kahl,¡± Reivyn said, also standing up.
Kahl just nodded.
¡°The drink¡¯s on me, but now I have to get back to my men. I¡¯m still technically on duty even though we¡¯re not on patrol.¡±
¡°All right. We¡¯ll catch youter.¡±
Kahl smiled and walked out of the restaurant. Reivyn sat back down at the table. They were already here and it was close to lunch time. There was no reason to go back to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild to only have to leave again to find something to eat.
Seri sat down at Kefira¡¯s insistence now that they were alone, and the trio enjoyed a nice lunch.
¡ª
The next day, Reivyn returned to the beach with Kefira and Seri. He didn¡¯t practice his Stamina control, though. He and Kefira just stayed in the waist-deep water level, and Reivyn kept his head above water.
They did leave the beach a little early to go to the Dungeon so Reivyn could get some practice in. He really didn¡¯t want to take the chance of identally looking where he shouldn¡¯t, so they had all agreed to conduct all underwater training and experiments inside the Dungeon.
It didn¡¯t take any extra effort to remember the trigger to freely control his Stamina and use it as a substitute resource. Reivyn simply confirmed he could do it and got a baseline for how long he could extend his breath per Stamina Point expenditure.
It wasn¡¯t exact, but Reivyn found that approximately 5% of his Stamina Pool resulted in a ¡°full breath.¡± He was satisfied with that information.
They didn¡¯t linger in the Dungeon after that. Kefira and Seri didn¡¯t have anything to do, and Reivyn needed to contemte how toe up with a training program for the others. He couldn¡¯t put into words how he felt on the spot. The best he could do is vaguely point them in the right direction, but he wanted to do more than that.
He spent the rest of the evening, aside from eating dinner with Kefira and his father, contemting how to devise a training regimen for his friends.
¡ª
Reivyn found himself back in the Dungeon the next morning. He had told Refix about his encounter in the ocean, and his father wisely chose not to tempt fate for their breath control training.
¡°I know I said we didn¡¯t need water to hold our breaths and work on the Breath Control Skill, but it will help with unlocking the Skill,¡± Refix exined, mainly to Teilon. ¡°We¡¯ll use the Skill during normal training after everyone¡¯s unlocked the Skill, so we¡¯re only going to be in here for as long as that takes.
¡°Reivyn has discovered and verified the crux of the issue for activating the Hard Mode,¡± Refix continued. ¡°It¡¯s a bit moreplicated than simply unlocking a new Skill, though, and the Breath Control Skill might actually help you all learn the method.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the method?¡± Teilon asked, holding his hand up slightly.
¡°Stamina can be used as a direct substitute for oxygen,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°Directing Stamina to your lungs and burning it will re-energize you with a full breath.¡±
¡°Oh, is that all?¡± Teilon said, rolling his eyes. ¡°Couldn¡¯t be simpler. Just manhandle our Stamina, direct it to our lungs, and burn it. Why didn¡¯t I think of that?¡±
¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll admit it¡¯s a bit tricky at first, and I had an advantage in that I had manually activated a Skill before. I¡¯m pretty sure this is a training method leading to that goal, and I had skipped this step entirely. The good thing, though, is that I can help you all figure it out with my experience, and once you get it, it¡¯s super easy to replicate.¡±
¡°Alright, enough wasting time,¡± Refix cut it. ¡°We¡¯re going to unlock the Skill, Level it up during routine training, and then we¡¯ll see about learning to control our Stamina directly. We might be able to piggy-back off of this Skill to help direct our Stamina to the right location if you¡¯re having a hard time with it.
¡°Ok, everyone in the water.¡±
Everyone, including Refix, jumped into the water and swam a little ways out.
¡°So what¡¯s the n?¡± Teilon asked.
¡°It¡¯s simple, really,¡± Refix answered. ¡°Expel your breathpletely, go underwater for as long as you can, surface, take a deep breath, immediately expel it, go back underwater, rinse and repeat until you unlock the Skill.¡±
¡°Oh, joy,¡± Teilon said, sighing. ¡°I can just imagine how exhausting this is going to be, especiallyter when we¡¯re doing this in the middle of other training.¡±
¡°It¡¯s good for you.¡±
¡°I know, I know. It just wouldn¡¯t feel right if I didn¡¯tin at least a little bit.¡±
Everyone chuckled.
They didn¡¯t waste anymore time, though, and everyone expelled their breath and got to work. It wasn¡¯t too much of a strain on them at first, and Reivyn had already done something simr while working on his Stamina workaround. The first time down, everyonested close to ten minutes. Kefira was the only exception as she had the lowest Vitatliy, but she still managed almost nine minutes.
The morning was spent bobbing up and down in the water. They would take a deep breath, expel it, then go underwater. There wasn¡¯t much else to do, and it was a very repetitive form of training.
Slowly, the amount of time they could stay underwater got less and less. By the time Reivyn was surfacing every five minutes, his vision was beginning to go dark around the edges. Even without drowning, he was beginning to experience the side effects.
Reivyn didn¡¯t lose any Health, but his vision slowly got more and more tunnel-vision. His Divine Sense Skill negated the effect for the most part, but even then, if he didn¡¯t pay attention his perception would narrow considerably.
The time limit continued to shrink. Reivyn didn¡¯t pay attention to anyone else¡¯s progress. He was fully focused on the task at hand. His vision got more and more narrow until eventually he felt a pulse centered on his lungs, and his vision once more widened considerably.
The blinking Notification in the corner of his eye caused him to return to the surface to check it out.
New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 3:
Breath Control (0 ->1)
Reivyn nodded his head in satisfaction. He finally looked around to see everyone else¡¯s progress, but he was the only one done with the task. Even Refix hadn¡¯t unlocked the Skill previously, and he was still working at it.
Well, no reason to rest on myurels, he thought.
He took another breath, expelled it, and rejoined the others in their training.
¡ª
¡°That sucked!¡± Teilon gasped as heid on the floor at the entrance to the Dungeon.
It had taken another couple of hours for everyone to unlock the Skill. Kefira had been the second to seed. Refix and Vyria had been next, almost unlocking the Skill at the same time. Reivyn assumed his dad and Vyria were around the same talent level. All the other evidence, aside from anything to do with a sword, corroborated the idea.
¡°I¡¯m really not looking forward to doing this while training,¡± Teilon said.
Kimberly sat next to him and patted him on the back. She nodded her head in agreement at the statement. She was usually a bit more stoic than Teilon, but she was in full agreement this time.
Everyone had suffered to unlock this Skill. The training method basically amounted to all of them feeling like they were on the edge of losing their breath for several hours, straight. The one deep breath followed immediately by expelling the breath and going back down only prolonged when drowning would kick in. After a couple of cycles, the side effects of drowning, including the sucking feeling in the lungs, persisted.
¡°Well, you¡¯re in luck,¡± Refix said. For once, he didn¡¯t chuckle at his student¡¯sining. ¡°For one, it took a lot longer than I thought to unlock the Skill, so no more training today.¡±
¡°Yes!¡± Teilon sat up and pumped his fist in the air.
¡°Or maybe we should,¡± Refix said skeptically.
¡°I mean¡ cough, cough,¡± Teilon flopped back down on the ground.
Kimberly just rolled her eyes.
¡°Anyway, the second good thing is that now that you have the Skill Unlocked, the side effects of holding your breath for an extended period of time will lessen. It will take longer to manifest, and the time intervals will extend. It will only get better as you Level up the Skill.¡±
¡°Yeah, but then we have to strain the Skill more and more to Level it up further,¡± Teilon pointed out.
¡°I never said it was perfect,¡± Refix shrugged. ¡°Anyway, we¡¯ll meet back up on the beach tomorrow morning. We¡¯ll try and Level the Skill up to ten or so while Reivyn figures out how to teach us how to use our Stamina manually.¡±
¡°Wait, you don¡¯t know how to do it?¡± Reivyn asked. He had always assumed his father already knew how to do it.
¡°No,¡± Refix shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve been fairly traditional with my advancement. By the time it was appropriate for me to start learning the Skill, I had you and the girls. I had other things to concern myself with, so I¡¯m actually a little behind in this aspect.¡±
¡°Oh¡ that actually makes me feel better,¡± Reivyn said. Refix quirked an eyebrow at him. Reivyn hastily exined himself. ¡°What I mean is, I get to help you figure it out. I feel like I¡¯m getting to pay you back for all the guidance you¡¯ve given me over the years.¡±
¡°You know you don¡¯t have to pay me back for any of that.¡±
¡°I know. It still makes me feel good, though,¡± Reivyn smiled.
¡°Alright, we have time for thatter,¡± Teilon said, hopping to his feet. ¡°I need to catch my breath.¡±
Reivyn and the others chuckled. Kimberlyced her fingers in Teilons, and the two walked out of the Dungeon. Kefira looked up at Reivyn with a smile and sparkle in her eye. Reivyn smiled back, and the two followed suit,cing their fingers together, as they exited behind Teilon.
Chapter 242: Shoring Up
Chapter 242: Shoring Up
The rest of the week was a mix between being just as awful as Teilon feared and not being quite so bad as Refix reassured the group.
Just like when they all worked to unlock the Breath Control Skill, it wasn¡¯t so bad at the beginning. Refix¡¯s training n simply had them holding their breath the same way they had while underwater after expelling their lungs while they did their normal training. The suffering came once they approached their typical physical exhaustion.
It took longer for the side effects of drowning/suffocation to kick in, and as Reivyn worked to exhaust himself, he could feel each time the Skill increased in potency. At first, the Skill Leveled up quickly, and the gains were distinct with each Level Up.
An unexpected benefit was that their Stamina efficiency improved alongside their Skill Level. It seemed to have an active and passive effect. When they actively held their breath, the Skill increased the time they could hold it. Alongside the active usage, it seemed to improve their bodies¡¯ usage of their Stamina Points.
It didn¡¯t really have an effect on extending how long it took them to reach the point of tiredness they trained at because they simultaneously increased their Stamina usage through training the Skill.
Holding one¡¯s breath while running around and carrying heavy loads was a new experience for Reivyn and the others. The beginning was easy, but as they got close and closer to their goal, the pain in their lungs became significant. Refix had created the rule that they would train their Breath Control Skill until the end of their training session with no breaks, so there was no relief upon transitioning to working on forms and sparring.
Reivyn gained seven Levels in his Skill the first day. He had reached Level three in the Skill while waiting for everyone to unlock it the previous day, so he ended the first day of training already at Skill Level 10. It was one of the fastest leveling Skills he had, but it was also one of the most intensive training styles he had done.
Training a Skill under stress was guaranteed to increase the Leveling speed, and the very nature of the Skill meant it was stressful if they weren¡¯t doing it while simply sitting or resting.
The leveling rate declined over the next few days of the week, but it was still quick. Even Teilon and Kimberly, objectively the two with the lowest natural talent of the group, reached Level 15 by the third day.Reivyn introduced his training regimen on the fourth day, one day before the Dungeon reset. He wasn¡¯t worried that the group wouldn¡¯t figure out the trick to using their Stamina as an alternate oxygen resource before tackling the Dungeon again. They would have the opportunity to run the Dungeon a third time before the teleport circle connected with their local group, so they still had a whole other week to work on it. There was no reason not to go ahead and get started, though, as they had surpassed the minimum threshold they had set for themselves with the Breath Control Skill.
¡°There¡¯s really no easy shortcut for figuring out how to manually control your Stamina,¡± Reivyn addressed the Party. ¡°Personally, I had the advantage of already manually activating one of my ss Skills previously. I kind of did things backward in that respect.
¡°That being said, the method to get control of your Stamina is repetition of a familiar active Skill and contemtion. Select one of your ss Skills your most familiar with, and just use it over and over again. Pay attention to how your muscles work. Pay attention to the feeling of energy coursing through your body as it activates.
¡°It might take a hundred repetitions to pick the thread, but this is just as much mental work as it is physical. Take some time to meditate on it every now and then. You don¡¯t have to go so far as figuring out how to manually activate the Skill, yet, though. You just need to be able to track how your Stamina is used.
¡°Once you get a feel for it, you can switch to a different Skill andpare and contrast how the Stamina courses through your body. This is how I was able to figure it out. Iste the Stamina usage and you¡¯ll be able to grasp control of the energy.¡±
¡°Question,¡± Teilon raised his hand. Reivyn indicated for him to ask his question. ¡°Do we need to continue with the Breath Control training while doing so?¡±
Reivyn looked to his father for his opinion.
¡°It¡¯s up to you,¡± Refix shrugged.
¡°I think we can skip training the Breath Control Skill training,¡± Reivyn started. Teilon whooped for joy and threw his hands in the air. ¡°You didn¡¯t let me finish,¡± Reivyn smirked. Teilon put his hands down and narrowed his eyes at Reivyn. ¡°We can skip the Skill training at first. Once you move on to the second active Skill topare and contrast, you should continue with the training.
¡°You never know. It might elerate your ability to grasp your Stamina.¡±
¡°It could also slow us down,¡± Teilon rebutted.
¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°But you¡¯re also gaining valuable Skill Levels. Every increase in the Skill increases the efficiency of your Stamina usage, so there¡¯s no reason to not do so.¡±
¡°Fine,¡± Teilon sighed.
Reivyn had tested it already with a Breath Control Skill of Level 20. Before he unlocked the Skill, approximately 5% of his Stamina pool functioned as a full breath. With his Skill at Level 20, he could tell that it had marginally improved. He guessed that it was closer to 4.9% of his Stamina pool for the same effect.
That didn¡¯t seem like too big of an improvement at first, but the increase in efficiency was exponentialpared to the Skill Level. The benefits were barely noticeable at the lower Levels, but it became more noticeable the higher the Level. It was a lot like his Divine Sense Skill. He could feel his Skill improving more between each Skill Up.
He also hadn¡¯t even reached the first threshold at Level 25, yet.
By the time I reach the Master Level with the Skill, it might only cost around 1% or so of my Stamina Pool, Reivyn thought. There are many different ways a Transcendent ability for the Skill could go, but I¡¯m also guessing that Stamina efficiency is probably one of them. It will probably be specific to breathing and holding one¡¯s breath, though. The Skill name is Breath Control.
The Party members took Reivyn¡¯s training suggestion and got to work. Kefira walked up to him with a sheepish expression on her face.
¡°What about me?¡± She asked. ¡°I don¡¯t have any active Skills that use Stamina. All of mine use Mana.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve thought about this,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°It¡¯s just going to be a bit harder for you. You¡¯ll have to use a General Skill to figure it out, but you also have your Mana control topare it to.
¡°Mana and Stamina are twopletely different things, but at the same time, they¡¯re fundamentally the same: they¡¯re both a form of internal energy. The benefit you gain from your Mana control should offset the handicap of not having an active Skill.¡±
¡°Ok, but what Skill should I use?¡±
¡°You once mentioned that you have Sure Step, right?¡± Reivyn asked. Kefira nodded her head. ¡°Then, if I were you, I would simply use Running and Sure Step. I would alternate between walking on solid ground, running on solid ground, walking on loose sand, and running on loose sand.
¡°Try to pay attention to how your Stamina affects you in each situation. It¡¯s not the same as how Mana works, but it should be simr enough for you to grasp it in time. Once you can see the flow of your Stamina, you should be able to gain control of that flow.¡±
¡°Alright, thanks,¡± Kefira smiled. She brushed a strand of hair behind her air absently. ¡°I¡¯ll get started right away.¡±
Kefira took off jogging to the edge of the beach where the sand turned into solid ground. The others performed their Skills as if they were training theirbat forms, but they spent more time in careful consideration between uses. Reivyn nodded his head at their dedication.
This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Reivyn had already figured out how topletely control his own Stamina, so he didn¡¯t need to participate. Instead, he chose to continue working on his Breath Control Skill. The unexpected benefits of the Skill were actually way better than the ability to hold his breath longer, the original reason for unlocking the Skill.
With his ability to burn his Stamina to regain a full breath made the Breath Control Skill redundant on its face. Decreasing the Stamina percentage to gain a full breath, however, was a potential huge improvement. If he could reduce it to 1% like he hoped one day, it would increase the number of times he could use it as an oxygen resource from about twenty times to almost a hundred.
That was only theoretical, of course. There was no way he would actually take his Stamina all the way to 0%. Bottoming out on Stamina while underwater would guarantee drowning, after all. He wouldn¡¯t be able to get another breath after, and he wouldn¡¯t be able to move to swim to safety. He didn¡¯t n on ever putting himself in such a dangerous situation, though.
We never know what¡¯s going to happen in the future, though, he thought. It¡¯s better to be able to use the ability with less burden on my Stamina exactly for the unexpected situations.
While the others continuously activated their Skills, Reivyn got to work with his routine training while using the Breath Control Skill. The others hadn¡¯t worked themselves to exhaustion ahead of time for this training. It wouldn¡¯t make sense to significantly reduce their Stamina points when the entire idea was to figure out how those points worked exactly.
¡ª
The Party worked on their training until around noon. Just like the other days, they restricted their intense training for the morning only. Even though they hadn¡¯t burned through their Stamina before starting their training, everyone was still sweaty and tired by the end of it.
¡°It¡¯s a different kind of exhaustion,¡± Teilon said, bending over and gasping for air. ¡°It¡¯s localized in the muscles used for the Skill, and it¡¯s sharper, less dull. That¡¯s the only way I know to describe it. The rest of my body feels fine, for the most part, though there¡¯s still the background exhaustion affecting everything. It¡¯s just not as all-epassing.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head at his friend¡¯s exnation. He had never actually used a Skill over and over to achieve the same results as physical exertion, so he had to take Teilon at his word. The others seemed to agree with him, too.
The Party dispersed to do their own thing for the rest of the day. They all chose to rest, though, as the Dungeon resetting meant they were headed back in for another round of training.
The Party had a new goal for running the Dungeon this time. They actively worked on their Breath Control Skill while fighting on the upper floors, but they didn¡¯t try for the Hard Mode this time. Nobody had fully grasped control of their Stamina to use it to refuel their breath, anyway.
They blew through the top three floors at a much faster pace than previously, though. They had to stop for air less frequently, and they had their prior delve¡¯s experience to guide their hunting.
Teilon wasn¡¯t the one to lead the Party through thebyrinth on the third floor this time. Kefira stepped up and used her Space Affinity to map out a path to guide them through the maze. It was marginally quicker than Teilon¡¯s guidance, which actually spoke more to Teilon¡¯s ability to navigate the maze than it did Kefira¡¯s.
The Party quickly dispatched the Sahuagins of the third floor and entered the rest area between floors.
¡°Alright, it¡¯s time for the real objective,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯m going to hang back as the rest of you descend to the fourth floor. I still don¡¯t know how I got trapped by the waiting sirens, but it shouldn¡¯t affect our n. You all will go down, trigger the illusion ambush, and I¡¯ll give you a few moments to fight it off before I disrupt them.
¡°Once everyone breaks free from the illusions, we¡¯ll retreat back to here to reset the encounter. I¡¯ll try hard not to kill any of the sirens, too.¡±
The Party exited the rest area and descended to the fourth floor. Refix was still with them, so they were expecting another group to ambush them likest time. Reivyn paid particr attention to his surroundings with his Psionic Skill to verify if that¡¯s what had gotten him trappedst time. There hadn¡¯t been too much experimentation with the Skill since unlocking it, though, so it was still at Level 1.
Sure enough, he noticed the unique frequency of the mental energy starting right at the entrance to the fourth floor. Reivyn nodded to the others, and they went ahead.
Reivyn watched his Party members move onto the fourth floor. Everything seemed fine at first. They slowly descended into the affected waters like nothing was out of the ordinary, but that didn¡¯tst. They started moving slower and slower. If he didn¡¯t know any better, he would assume they were just being overly cautious, but they eventually came to aplete stop.
The Party had moved out of visual range, but they were still well within his Divine Sense. He saw the sirens approach and surround them. It was the same asst time. Most of them hovered around them in a sphere, and an individual detached from the group to slowly approach one of the Party members one by one.
Each person was affected by the illusions at a different rate. The sirens seemed to be able to gauge how affected each Party member was. They approached at different speeds, the one moving toward Refix moving the slowest.
Reivyn knew that none of them had the Mental Fortitude Skill, and they had all acknowledged that they didn¡¯t have any other kind of mental resistance Skill, either. Even so, it wasn¡¯t just their Levels that determined how quickly they sumbed to the illusions.
Kefira was the next slowest to be fully immersed in her illusion. Xudrid was only slightly behind Kefira, and the two of them were much better off than thest four Party members. There was a clear divide between them and the others.
It makes sense, Reivyn thought. Kefira is a Caster, and Xudrid has said he¡¯s basically the equivalent of a Cultivator Caster. Their Mental Stats are going to be higher than the others¡¯. I¡¯m surprised Vyria¡¯s Soul Strength doesn¡¯t seem to be a factor, though. I¡¯m guessing the siren¡¯s illusions have nothing to do with Soul Strenght, then.
Reivyn didn¡¯t know all the intricacies of Soul Strength. He had assumed it would have an effect on mental powers somehow, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. The only thing he knew about Soul Strength was that it directly affected how quickly one was able to unlock and Level Up Skills.
It seemed logical to assume the soul would affect the mind more than the body, but that was apparently a logical facy.
I should have realized considering the entire issue with Kefira¡¯s body being too weak to house her powerful soul. It isn¡¯t just an abstract thing that affects one¡¯s mind. It directly affects the body, too.
Thinking about it deeper, that makes sense, too. Most of my Skills are physical in nature, and my Soul Strength still elerates my Skill Leveling Speed. If it just affected mental aspects, one would see a clear distinction in Skill growth.
There¡¯s still a particr bend to one¡¯s talent, obviously, but it¡¯s not exclusive to mental Skills.
Reivyn allowed his Party members to be trapped by the sirens. He stood by and gave them as much time as possible to fight off the illusions on their own. The point of letting them go through this was to unlock Mental Fortitude, or at least some type of mental resistance Skill. Mental Fortitude, besides Iron Will, was just the one Reivyn knew about.
Reivyn didn¡¯t know how bad the draining affect was from the Siren¡¯s, but he did have ess to his Party members¡¯ diagnostics through the System. It didn¡¯t tell him their Health values, or anything, but it did provide clues.
The System notified him that they were all in ¡°Good Health,¡± so he wasn¡¯t worried. If there were any changes, he would immediately swoop in and interfere. As it was, he still waited to give them time to work through the problem on their own.
After several minutes, Reivyn finally saw signs that his friends were stirring out of their stupor. Refix was the first to shake free from the grasp of the sirens¡¯ songs. He slowly became aware of his surroundings, but he was expecting what he saw. He simply shook the one siren feeding on his Health pool free from his body and took up a defensive stance.
Contrary to expectations, the sirens didn¡¯t immediately descend into chaos andunch an attack on Refix or the group. Refix could have forced the issue by engaging, but the sirens seemed perfectly happy to wait for the others as long as Refix allowed them.
As anticipated, Kefira and Xudrid were the next to recover. Refix helped them separate themselves from the sirens wrapped around their bodies, and the three continued to wait for their otherpanions. Xudrid seemed like he was torn between intervening immediately for Vyria and waiting to allow her to work toward her Mental Resistance Skill. Logic won out in the end, and he waited.
As soon as the other four began to stir, Reivyn finally wrapped himself in a cocoon of Psionic-enhanced Mental Fortitude. He descended into the waters still being influenced by the sirens, but he was able to rebuff their attempts to pull him into an illusion. He swam directly to the closest group of sirens waiting nearby, but he didn¡¯t engage them inbat.
He simply swam into the group, attracting their attention, and kept going. The sirens seemed offended that he wasn¡¯t put under their spell at all, and they chased after him. Teilon, Kimberly, Seri, and Vyria all eventually shook free from their personal illusions by the time Reivyn had picked up half of the nearby sirens.
Refix quickly organized the rest of the Party after dispelling the leaching sirens, and the Party swam back up to the third floor transition area. Reivyn kept some of his awareness on the others, and once they fled to unaffected waters, Reivyn turned and followed.
Despite being designed for moving about in the water, Reivyn was able to keep ahead of the chasing sirens. When he wasn¡¯t iling his arms about in panic, thebination of his Stats and Swimming Skill allowed him to move through the water quite rapidly. He wasn¡¯t as dextrous as the aquatic monsters, but his top speed could easily match theirs.
The mental tendrils of the sirens didn¡¯t extend beyond the absolute entrance to the fourth floor. .The System heavily influenced how things worked inside the Dungeons, and this was key to their strategy in training their Mental Resistance Skill.
Reivyn met back up with the Party members in the waiting area. He noticed the sirens disperse shortly after entering the tunnel leading to the third floor, seemingly forgetting about the Party¡¯s presence entirely. He stepped into the air and surveyed the others.
Nobody seemed too negatively affected by the ordeal. They each confirmed they had only lost a couple percentage points of their Health, but some simple rest and grabbing a bite to eat for lunch would solve that issue.
¡°Alright, it seems to be going just as nned,¡± Reivyn said with a smile. ¡°So after a short break, let¡¯s do it again.¡±
Chapter 243: Interlude: Prince of Darkness
Chapter 243: Interlude: Prince of Darkness
Galwit trudged behind the tall figure. They had been moving mostly nonstop since arriving at this infernal ce, but that didn¡¯t mean they hadn¡¯t done nothing.
Galwit had been put through his paces and taught many different things normally outside of the range of someone from a Tier 2 Kingdom. Some of the lessons he had learned he was sure were more profound than could be found in the entire empire he was part of, but without having a reference, he wasn¡¯t sure.
All he knew was that his foundations had been shored up more than he had imagined possible.
The tall Masked Man wasn¡¯t much for small talk for all that he taught Galwit. He was methodical in his lessons, and oftentimes there was immediate practical application for said lessons, but Galwit still knew nothing about the man other than he was very powerful and driven.
At first, Galwit had been too preupied with learning new things and the new environment to pay attention to their surroundings too much. The different vor to the Mana was more subtle than he had expected. With a name like the Abyss, he had assumed everything would have a brutal tinge to it.
That hadn¡¯t really been the case, though. Other than what Galwit referred to as a crimson streak permeating just beneath the surface level of the ambient Mana, there wasn¡¯t too much of a difference between the Veridical and Abyss Realms.
Eventually, he hade to grips with his situation and caught up enough on his foundations that he was able to pay better attention. It had seemed like the Masked Man was taking a meandering, random route, but after years of traveling and fighting Abyssal monsters, it would have been strange if Galwit hadn¡¯t realized they had a consistent direction of travel.
The Masked Man would sometimes go entire Regions out of his way in the path, but it always inevitably led back to the same main path. Galwit had obviously asked about it, but hispanion had only told him it was the appropriate way to get to their destination.
Galwit understood that he meant it was the optimal path for Galwit¡¯s progress. Their route led them to multiple Dungeons in each Region, and it was always just within Galwit¡¯s capabilities to sessfully solo.He wouldn¡¯t have been able to aplish half of the delves he did without the training from the Masked Man, and he was infinitely grateful for the opportunity. He didn¡¯t understand why the Masked Man was treating him so well, though, and he wouldn¡¯t speak on the subject other than he had promised to change his fate.
Galwit didn¡¯t entirely believe the mysterious figure, though. He had practically been kidnapped from everything he knew and thrust into apletely unfamiliar Realm. There had to be more to it, but, again, the man was silent on the subject.
Not everything was rainbows and roses, though. Every now and then, the Masked Man would call a halt to their journey, and he would be wracked by painful, bloody coughs for days, unable to do anything other than hunker down and wait for the fit to pass.
The first time it had happened, Galwit had been scared that he would be forever lost in this unfamiliar Realm. He didn¡¯t know what was happening, and the only warning he¡¯d had was to watch over him for a while. That wasn¡¯t exactly insightful instructions.
It had be amon enough urrence, though, that Galwit just took it in stride. From the context of their very first conversation several years ago, Galwit assumed the man had suffered grievous internal injuries for his meddling with the strands of fate. The man had said there was always a price to be paid.
The climate of the Regions in the Abyss Realm were almost identical to those in the Veridical Realm. The underlying nature of the Mana made the monsters and beasts more aggressive and ferocious, but it didn¡¯t strengthen thempared to their Veridical counterparts.
There were also different types of mundane monsters and creatures to be found in the wild. Imps and packs of hellhounds reced goblins and orcs. The hellhounds weren¡¯t smarter than the imps like orcs were to goblins, but they were much more dangerous, and they were extremely well coordinated among their packs.
The Masked Man mostly kept them to Tier 1 and 2 Regions the first year Galwit followed him, but as he grew in strength and knowledge, the man steadily increased the level of the zones they traversed.
In recent months, they had been traveling exclusively in Tier 3 Regions. They skirted major hubs of civilization for the most part, but they weren¡¯tpletely istionist. Sometimes the Masked Man even had them travel with convoys.
The nature of the citizens of the Realm was naturally a bit more violent than found in the Veridical Realm, but Galwit quickly adapted. Anytime they entered a town or joined a group of any kind, be it a caravan or traveling Party, the first thing Galwit would have to do is stand up to a challenge.
The posturing wasn¡¯t for any reason of jockeying for leadership or to win the favor of a girl or something. It was purely because the people in the Abyss Realm grew up with a more violent streak. Even after putting down a challenge, Galwit would still often find himself in a confrontation with others over the smallest issues.
There had even been one instance where a shopkeeper wouldn¡¯t sell him any supplies until they had punched each other in the face. The man hadn¡¯t outright told Galwit to fight him. He had just been snide, insulting, and refused to talk business with Galwit at all. Galwit had been around long enough to understand the culture, though, so he didn¡¯t feel bad sucker punching the man in the face.
They had knocked over several disys and made aplete mess of the man¡¯s shop, but the shopkeeper had ended the fight with a grin from ear to ear. He couldn¡¯t have been happier.
Even after living in the Abyss Realm for several years, the casual attitude towards violence was still foreign to Galwit.
Galwit knew it wasn¡¯t because of the ambient Mana. He had been immersed in it just as much as anyone else, and it hadn¡¯t affected his personality. The culture was just different. Galwit didn¡¯t know what to make of that information, though, and he didn¡¯t know if he even needed to figure it out.
From what the Masked Man had told him, he assumed he wasn¡¯t going to live the remainder of his days in the Abyss Realm. He just didn¡¯t know when or where they would move back to his home Realm. Even though he was descended from warriors from the Abyss, that didn¡¯t mean he had any interest in permanently migrating back to his ancestral Realm. All of his friends and family were still in the Veridical Realm, after all, and their goal was to fully integrate into the Veridical Realm while maintaining their heritage.
After months of traveling through various Tier 3 Regions, asionally stopping to Delve some of the rtively weaker Dungeons, the Masked Man finally led them into a Tier 4 Region. Another thing Galwit had learned about the Abyss Realm was that the Region makeup was almost identical to the Veridical Realm.
The Masked Man had idly let slip that he was even more knowledgeable than that when he revealed that there were a couple of neighboring Realms that had vastly different systems regting the ambient Mana, but he hadn¡¯t gone into details. Galwit had wondered just how many Realms the mysterious figure had traversed.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
In all their time together, he had never seen the man take action. He only knew he was powerful for two reasons. First, and most obvious, as the subtle aura emanating from the man. The second reason was more subtle but simultaneously more profound. Nothing tried to bother the man.
The Masked Man hadn¡¯t had to deal with so much as a single rudement from any of the locals, and none of the monsters Galwit had been pitted against had given the man a second nce. Galwit had even seen more powerful monsters turn tail and flee in the distance. They had obviously been the more intelligent variants, and they didn¡¯t want anything to do with either of them, though Galwit knew it had nothing to do with his own prowess.
They mostly traveled straight through the wilderness of the Regions, but upon entering the Tier 4 Region, the Masked Man steered them to the main highway leading to the capital. Galwit was curious about the change, but he was just told it led to their destination when he asked.
Galwit assumed they were heading to the capital city of the Tier 4 Region, but that turned out to not be the case. After several days of walking on the highway, the Masked Man turned off onto a less traveled road. There were weeds and other signs of neglect along the roadway.
Eventually, the battered road led them to a small, walled city. A banner sporting a crimson dragon on a ck background fluttered in the wind from the center of the city.
The city wasn¡¯t among thergest Galwit had seen, but it was definitely more than a town. A pair of heavily armored soldiers stood guard in front of the city gates, more guards patrolled the ramparts.
There was no line of people waiting to get inside.
Galwit looked around curiously as they approached the city. The guards didn¡¯t try to stop them, and they simply saluted the Masked Man as they were allowed entry.
¡°Rex!¡± They called out in greeting.
The Masked Man was obviously well known to these men. Galwit nced at the tall figure, wondering at the way the guards had addressed him. ¡°Rex¡± was most likely not his name, as the level of respect in their voices led him to believe they wouldn¡¯t just shout his name in greeting, but ¡°Rex¡± was an unfamiliar title to him.
The Masked Man led them straight to the central administrative building. Along the way were multiple squads of heavily armored soldiers. They gave off a baleful aura, but it wasn¡¯t tinged with the familiar Abyssal fluctuations.
¡°Rex!¡± People all around stopped and bowed to the tall man as they passed. Everyone without exception greeted him when they saw him pass, even if they were further away than Galwit would assume warranted an actual greeting.
The Masked Man was apparently extremely well respected in this city.
The Masked Man led Galwit to the central fortress. The guards allowed the man immediate entry, and Galwit was led to the main petition chamber. A man only several years older than Galwit sat upon a simple throne. It wasn¡¯t impressive enough to raise any eyebrows from the local rulers, but it made a statement: This man was a noble, and this was hisnd.
¡°Ahh, Benefactor!¡± The man¡¯s eyes lit up at the sight of the Masked Man. He stood up and gave a short bow after approaching the pair. The rest of the conversation in the room stilled as everyone turned and bowed to the Masked Man.
¡°Is it finally time?¡± The noble excitedly asked. He was practically bouncing on his feet.
The Masked Man shook his head.
¡°Sadly, no,¡± he replied. ¡°The time isn¡¯t quite right, but I did pick up a stray.¡± The Masked Man gestured to Galwit.
He was surprised to be referred to as a stray, but he kept a neutral face. He was a prince himself, so he gave a slightly deeper bow to the man than he had proffered to the Masked Man.
¡°He¡¯s actually one of yours,¡± the Masked Man continued. Both the noble and Galwit looked at him in surprise. ¡°His ancestors once served your ancestors, millenia ago.¡±
¡°Really? Are you sure?¡± The noble asked skeptically.
¡°Do not forget my specialty,¡± the Masked Man retorted. ¡°Even now I can sense the faintest of connections between the two of you. He will make an excellent guide and advisor for you in the future.¡±
¡°Then he¡¯s¡¡± The noble looked at Galwit with surprise and¡ anticipation? Galwit was confused about the man¡¯s reaction.
¡°Yes,¡± was the simple reply.
¡°Excellent, excellent,¡± the noble man eximed. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±
¡°Galwit, my lord,¡± Galwit replied.
¡°A pleasure to meet you, Galwit. My name is Malylin, and I wee you to our humble home.¡±
¡°Thank you, my lord,¡± Galwit gave another short bow. He nced curiously at the masked man, but he wasn¡¯t paying attention to Galwit, so he couldn¡¯t glean the man¡¯s intentions, yet.
¡°We must prepare a feast in honor of your visit, Benefactor!¡± Malylin eximed.
¡°That won¡¯t be necessary,¡± the Masked Man shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m on a tight schedule, and I have ces to be. I can¡¯t stay.¡±
¡°Not even for one night?¡±
¡°No, I must be off immediately. Once this conversation is over, I¡¯m leaving.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Malylin said, wilting slightly. ¡°It is as it must be, though. One of these days you¡¯ll have to let me hold a proper celebration in your honor.¡±
Even though the Masked Man hadn¡¯t shared any personal information with Galwit, they had been together constantly for several years. Galwit had learned to pick up on the slight mannerisms of the man to gauge his mood.
He was distinctly ufortable at the mention of being properly honored. Galwit had no idea what that was about, but it wasn¡¯t his ce to pry.
The Masked Man finally turned to Galwit and looked at him properly. Galwit could see the weight hidden in the man¡¯s eyes. The Masked Man ced arge hand on Galwit¡¯s shoulder. His handpletely engulfed Galwit¡¯s shoulder.
¡°You¡¯ll be treated well here,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve taught you what you need to know and introduced to you what you needed to be introduced to. Everything else will rely on your own hard work and dedication.¡±
¡°Wait, I¡¯m staying here?¡± Galwit finally put the pieces together.
¡°Of course. Why do you think we¡¯re here? The entire meandering journey we¡¯ve taken has been to deliver you here with your current foundation. These are ancient allies of your ancestors, and they¡¯ll be able to help you get what you want.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Galwit said. He hesitated for a moment before giving a deep bow to therge man. ¡°I thank you for the opportunity you¡¯ve given me. It was a bit unorthodox, and I resented you for a long time, but I see that this journey was necessary for me to achieve my family¡¯s goals.
¡°I will forever be in your debt.¡±
¡°None of that, now,¡± the Masked Man waved his gratitude away. ¡°I¡¯ve only upheld my end of the bargain for basically kidnapping you. I have my own selfish reasons for doing what I¡¯ve done, and with this, we¡¯re even. There is no debt between the two of us.¡±
Galwit straightened up and stared at therge man for a few seconds before nodding.
¡°As you wish,¡± he said. ¡°There is no debt.¡±
There was a palpable release of tension Galwit hadn¡¯t known had existed between the two of them. The Masked Man didn¡¯t move or make any sound, but Galwit could have sworn the man had sighed in relief upon hearing the words. There seemed to be just a little less weight held in the man¡¯s eyes.
¡°So that¡¯s that, then?¡± Malylin asked.
The Masked Man nced back at the noble and nodded his head.
¡°I must continue my journey. There¡¯s still much to be done, and the time for getting it done is getting less and less.¡±
Galwit¡¯s eyes widened in realization.
This man has important business to be about, and he wasted years just to train me and get me here, he thought.
The Masked Man seemed to notice the change in Galwit¡¯s demeanor. He once more looked at him and shook his head.
¡°You haven¡¯t dyed me,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s all part of the calction.
¡°That being said, I cannot linger even a moment longer. Good day.¡±
With that, the Masked Man inclined his head to the room in general, turned about, and left.
Galwit felt a wide range of emotions course through his being as he watched the man depart. It was true that he had snatched Galwit up on this journey without even asking, but he had grown to rely on the man. Even if he was mostly self-sufficient after shoring up his foundations, the Masked Man had always been an invisible strength he knew he could rely on in an emergency.
Just like that, years of what he had be ustomed to was turned on its head. He looked back at Malylin, appraising the young nobleman. The nobleman in turn faced Galwit after the Masked Man left the room.
He pped Galwit on the shoulder with a smile on his face.
¡°Fear not,¡± he said. ¡°If the Benefactor said we¡¯re ancient allies, then we¡¯re ancient allies. We¡¯ll do as he said and take care of you.
¡°Before we figure all of that out, though, let¡¯s get you settled. You¡¯re going to be staying here for a while, so you¡¯ll need to get acquainted with everyone and how we do things. We¡¯ll speak more tonight. Just because the Benefactor couldn¡¯t stay for a celebratory feast doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t have one on our own, anyway.¡±
The noblemanughed and Galwit found himself chuckling along with him. The man had a certain charisma about him that had nothing to do with the Stat.
It¡¯s just another abrupt change to my entire way of life, Galwith thought. No big deal. It¡¯s not the first time it¡¯s happened.
Chapter 244: Headed Home
Chapter 244: Headed Home
The Hard Mode of the Dungeon had been a little disappointing to Reivyn. None of the encounters were altered at all, and the enhanced final boss fight due to Refix¡¯s presence was actually more of a challenge once they figured out the trick.
That being said, figuring out and then training the method of unlocking the Hard Mode was the challenge, and trying to do it without learning the trick was nigh on impossible, so it could be argued that the feat was incredibly hard.
The main difference between this Dungeon¡¯s Hard Mode and the other one¡¯s Reivyn had unlocked was the rewards. There was no change in the amount of Experience gained from the delve. It just increased the quality of the items found in the loot chest.
Reivyn had been correct that Boldir was specialized in weaponsmithing, though he waspetent with all forms of cksmithing. He made the suggestion to wait until the Party returned to Wispan to do anything with their materials, though.
His argument was twofold: One, the locals would be better suited to match the styles Reivyn and the others would want, and two, they would give their local craftsmen the opportunity to work with new materials. It was very unlikely they had ever worked with aquatic-based metals before, so it would be doing their local economy and craftsmen a favor by holding off.
They didn¡¯t need to upgrade their gear right away, either. They were perfectly capable of clearing the Dungeon on Hard Mode with their current equipment, so Reivyn had epted the advice. He would save some of the metals for his sisters, too. He didn¡¯t know what they were going to want to focus on with their future crafting expertise, but so far they were more enchanters that dabbled in a little bit of everything.
He did secure some more exotic materials sourced from the sea from the proceeds made from the delves, though, a small portion reserved for the twins. One delve didn¡¯t return enough money to pay for all of the materials he purchased, but that was mostly because of the fair split of the loot and coins. If they had kept the pool of loot together, they would have been able to still make a profit from a run, but then there would be the question of who had the ownership of the purchased materials. To keep things simple, they just decided to have everyone make their own decisions on what to sell, keep, or purchase after splitting the rewards.
The gear drops from the final boss, aside from the pearl ne, had been more tailor-made for waterbat. They had found tridents, gloves and footwear with webbing, and an essory further extending one¡¯s efficiency in holding their breath among some crafting materials.
The scales weren¡¯t the only thing avable in the chests. They also received a roll of silky fabric apparently made from some underwater nts of some sort.Kefira and the other girls had gone all moon-eyed over the fabric. It was a cyan color, and it had the strange property of feeling so smooth it was almost wet when one ran their hands along it. Kefira had half-jokingly suggested they stay for another teleportation cycle so they could have more chances of securing the fabric so each girl could have a garment made of the material.
Reivyn offered a more practical solution: they just purchased some. It was a very expensive material, it turned out. It wasn¡¯t because it inherently had amazing properties aspared to the other crafting materials, though it was a Tier 4 fabric. It was in extremely high demand for its use in making everyday clothing of all things.
Even Reivyn and the other men of the Party wanted to get a shirt or two made from the fabric after feeling the soft sensation for themselves.
All in all, the Party dropped several gold coins each to get their hand on some. It was the sole reason none of them were going to leave the ind with a profit from their Dungeon delves, though it wasn¡¯t anything too significant. They were all individually fairly wealthy, anyway. The Dungeon delves were more about the experience.
Considering the purpose of their delves, their impromptu trip to the coastal town had been a rousing sess. Reivyn had gained several more Levels and progressed many of his Skills in the short time they were on the ind.
He had earned another 139,000 Experience from the two Dungeon delves. Now that Reivyn had a perfect foundation and the ultimate ss for Tier 3, he was no longer concerned with holding himself back. He would be able to advance all the way to Tier 5 without having to worry about shoring up any Skills or Life Experiences, the main bottleneck for people gaining Levels as fast as possible.
All of the effort in holding back his Leveling and focusing so much time and attention to constantly training was about to finally pay off. He didn¡¯t know how long he would be in Wispan before he was needed to go on another expedition, but hopefully it would be long enough that he could at least get to Tier 4.
There was only the one Dungeon near the capital city. Traveling to the next closest Dungeon would take too long to make it worth it with the round-trip involved. He would have to almostpletely forego sleep and rxation in order to maximize the Experience gain from running two Dungeons a week instead of one.
The workaround to that problem was simple for Reivyn, though. He would simply solo the Dungeon and receive 100% of the Experience reward without sharing it with a Party - after running the Dungeon with a Party at least once, of course.
Having multiple Dungeons within the capital city was one of the main reasons Ameliyn and Refix¡¯s homnd was as powerful as it was, and it was the reason its subordinate kingdoms had coveted their position instead of seeking to help them reim the territory.
Hitting Tier 5 would normally necessitate one move to a Tier 5 Region to continue advancing quickly. The only reason Refix was as high a Level as he was while living in the lower Tier Regions was because of his ess key to the unique endless Dungeon. If they hadn¡¯t procured such a key, he would havenguished in the lower Levels of Tier 5 to this day.
For the vast majority of people, being locked out of Tier 5 and above was the main factor for not seeking to continuously improve in ever higher-Tiered Regions. It was worse in the lower Tier Regions with theirck of opportunity to get the necessary Life Experience to unlock higher-Rarity sses, but even in Tier 4 empires, less than half of the poption were able to exceed Tier 4. Most of those people were nonbatants, too, so they had a harder time taking advantage of the Experience gains one could gain from a Dungeon.
It wasn¡¯t all bad, though. The Combat sses had a symbiotic rtionship with the Crafters. The better the Combat ssers did in clearing Dungeons and acquiring resources, the more opportunities for working with exotic materials and gaining lots of Experience Crafter ssers had.
Reivyn was a prime example. He secured several exotic materials for his sisters to experiment with. Not only were they of a kind they were unlikely to get in Wispan, but they were high quality. The fact that they were most likely still too high quality for the twins to work with was the main reason he was only getting them samples.
Although they were leaving the ind with a little less coin than they had arrived with, each of the Party members was loaded down with goods, Skill gains, Level Ups, and an Achievement to show for it, not to mention the friendships they had made. Everyone was happy with their little idental discement.
Reivyn reviewed his Status and Skill gains onest time as they waited for the teleportation circle to activate. Skills Leveled Up!
Tier 1:
Athleticism (74 ->75)
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred tform and support their work!Heavy Armor (39 ->44)
Map Making (29 ->30)
Observation (62 ->64)
Swimming (22 ->30)
Tutor (24 ->27)
Tier 2:
Evasion (70 ->72)
Gab (23 ->24)
Mana Absorption (63 ->64)
Mana Cirction (52 ->54)
Meditation (50 ->53)
Pain Resistance (63 ->67)
Strategy (38 ->40)
Tier 3:
Ambush (15 ->18)
Battlefield Awareness (51 ->52)
Breath Control (1 ->25)
Command (57 ->58)
Commanding Shout (40 ->43)
Eagle Eye (9 ->14)
Infiltration (4 ->5)
Inspire (64 ->65)
Night Vision (49 ->50)
Sense Threat (22 ->24)
Silver Tongue (14 ->16)
Tier 4:
Charm (3 ->4)
Iron Will (30 ->34)
Spatial Awareness (70 ->73)
Psionic (6 ->16)
Tier 5:
Aura (20 ->21)
Heroic Bearing (38 ->40)
Mana Healing (10 ->15)
Mana Reinforcement (20 ->21)
Multi-Casting (30 ->33)
Tier 6:
Regeneration (18 ->20)
Tier 6.5:
Divine Sense (18 ->19)
Achievement!
Tier 4 Dungeon: Theyaih, Hard Mode Complete
+50 Physical and Mental Stats
Reivyn¡¯s Mental Fortitude and Iron Will had once more started advancing rapidly, but it wasn¡¯t because of his resistance to the Sirens¡¯ illusions. Only his Psionic Skill benefitted from his encounters in the Dungeon, as that was the only Skill that was getting any pressure applied to it.
If his underlying Skills associated with Psionic weren¡¯t as high as they were, though, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to sustain the effect and Level it up nearly as quickly. It was ying catch-up. Reivyn knew it would slow down considerably once it got closer to Mental Fortitude
His Mental Fortitude, Iron Will, and Pain Resistance Skills made leaps and bounds in thest couple of weeks because he had once more started working on his Affinities in the advanced manner of flooding his cells. The pain was excruciating, and keeping his mental focus during the endeavor paid more than just in rapid Affinity advancement.
He had halted this particr training after they had been pushed out of Piori in the conflict with the invaders. He didn¡¯t want to be too mentally or emotionally drained from enduring the pain when an attack could ur at any time. That had led to a noticeable decrease in Skill and Affinity gains, though his Affinities still went up decently over the long period of time.
Another couple of Skills that finally saw some attention were his Mana Healing and Regeneration. Reivyn was against self harm in order to Level these Skills, but an idea had struck him while working on his Breath Control Skill.
Instead of holding his breath to the threshold of suffocation, Reivyn simply let himself go beyond for a couple intervals. He held his breath until he lost approximately 10% of his Health Pool, and then he would slowly use his Mana Healing and passive Regeneration to heal back to full over time. Once he was in tip top shape again, he would repeat the process.
The method had done wonders for his Breath Control, and he had advanced the Tier 3 Skill from 1 all the way to breaking through the first bottleneck at 25 in the short time they had all been practicing it. His other Skills he hadn¡¯t had too many opportunities to work on also finally had a reliable method.
None of the others joined him in going so far, and he wouldn¡¯t have rmended they did so, even if they had wanted to. He was the only one in the Party who had a healing-type Skill, much less two of them. He also wouldn¡¯t rmend anyone try to replicate the way he had unlocked them, either. Nearly getting killed wasn¡¯t a viable training option, and there was no guarantee one would unlock the Skill in the process.
Reivyn dismissed his Skill Ups and pulled up his Status Page. Status Name: Reivyn ss: Hero Lvl 17
Grand Arcanist
Fighter Age: 16 (21) Health: 14,180/14,180 (+310) Stamina: 27,970/27,970 (+410) Mana: 15,635/15,635 (+50) Qi: 1,000 (T4/Li) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 1,479 (+10) INT: 1,514 (+4) VIT: 1,418 (+31) MAG: 1,813 (+6) DEX: 1,478 (+10) CLA: 1,351 (+1) CHA: 407 (+1) PER: 1,265 (+1) LUK: 335 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000 Experience: 4,486/20,100
It seems like I¡¯m Leveling up really fast in the Dungeons, now that I¡¯ve let loose, Reivyn contemted. And that¡¯s with a Party. The Experience is shared. If I go solo, I¡¯ll get considerably more than that.
I don¡¯t know how much Experience is rewarded in the Wispan Dungeon, but let¡¯s just say 120,000, Solo. That would get me five Levels, and most of the sixth. It would also mean more than one Level per delve in Tier 3. There are 90 Levels in Tier 3, and I¡¯m Level 17, now, so I would need approximately twenty weeks, or so.
There are 70 weeks in a year, so a little under a third of a year to reach Tier 4. I could earn a lot more as amander of an army, as long as we consistently fought battles, but I would run into the same problem of diminishing returns, eventually.
I should have the time to reach Tier 4 before the next deployment. Less than half a year¡¯s break time isn¡¯t enough for the morale of the unit, so if they suggest we go before then, unless it¡¯s extremely dire, I¡¯ll argue against it.
We¡¯ll really need to move to a Tier 5 Region after the next deployment if we want to continue our pace. I know dad has ess to that Dungeon, but that¡¯s only good for Levels and asionally some gear. Not everyone is like me and can convert natural treasures to raw Bloodline Experience. They need specific natural treasures to Level up their Bloodlines, and Level 2 requires a couple treasures only found in Tier 5 and 6 Regions.
Kefira needs her body unlocked so she can unshackle her soul as quickly as possible. She would get there eventually through Tiering up, but, again, it would take forever without going to a higher Tier Region, and that whole time she¡¯ll be handicapped.
We can ess dad¡¯s Dungeon from anywhere in the world, so why wouldn¡¯t we go looking for a Tier 5 Region with a couple of Dungeons close to each other. We can double dip while we explore for natural treasures.
Reivyn nodded to himself as he decided on an overall direction to achieve his goals. He wasn¡¯t necessarily interested in Ascending, but he loved the feeling of growing more powerful. He also knew there were still threats out there, and he intended to be strong enough to face them head on.
He had no idea how powerful the ruler of the Tier 6 Empire in charge of the invasions was, but from the glimpse of Arie¡¯s master and context clues from the elites of the Tier 5 empire invading Vairo, he knew it had to be up there.
At least Tier 7, he spected. And the power gap between Tiers only growsrger andrger as the Tiers go up. There are so many more Levels in the higher Tiers, and even reaching those Tiers necessitates one to have a high Rarity ss.
My advantage in ss rarity and Stats will quickly normalize in the upper echelons of power. What¡¯s an additional 1,000 Strength when everyone has over 100,000? I don¡¯t know if the numbers will be that high, but it¡¯s the same concept.
Even understanding that truth, Reivyn wasn¡¯t discouraged. He was confident in his own abilities, and the abilities of his friends and allies. If they had the time to grow, Reivyn knew he could get there.
That was the main problem, though. Nobody knew the end goal of the invaders, or their time frame. They needed to get stronger before they destroyed all the lower Tier Regions in the Realm.
They didn¡¯t have to wait much longer before the teleport circle finally lit up with power. They had already gone through all of the procedures and paid the fee, so they patiently waited for the magic.
The light intensified, and a crack appeared in the air in the very center of the circle. It slowly expanded in height, and once it reached a certain height, it appeared to rotate open, revealing the long corridor beyond.
¡°Alright,¡± Reivyn said, turning to his friends. ¡°We¡¯re finally on our way back to Wispan. This isn¡¯t the end of the trip, though. There are still six more stops along the way, and we¡¯ll have to wait for the right connection at each stop.
¡°We¡¯ll be back in Willowan within ten days, though. Come on.¡±
Reivyn jerked his head toward the corridor before turning toward it. Kefira sidled up next to him and gripped his hand, intecing her fingers in his. Reivyn looked down at her, and she smiled back up at him.
¡°No idents this time,¡± she said.
As they stepped through the threshold, Kefira unleashed a steady trickle of Space Mana into the corridor walls. She wasn¡¯t researching her Space Affinity this time, though. She was reinforcing the stability of the spell.
Their trip to Theyaih had been fun and rewarding, but it was time to get back to their families.
Chapter 245: Home Sweet Home
Chapter 245: Home Sweet Home
Reivyn took hisst step through the portal into Wispan. Kefira next to him took in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. He nced at her and saw the big smile on her face. The joy was contagious and he smiled back.
Reivyn looked around and took a deep breath of his own. His awareness of ambient Mana was just that much higher that he could feel the subtle difference between Regions, and there was something about the Mana in Wispan that was just a bit fresher than the other empires they had traveled through.
If I had to put it to words, it would be more pure, Reivyn thought. The difference is marginal, but I¡¯m sure an extended period of time in it would evoke a difference.
Now that he thought about it, the Imperial Guards in Wispan were a step higher in quality than the others he had seen in other Regions. He didn¡¯t know if that had anything to do with the difference in environments, but he would guess that it at least had a small effect.
¡°It;s good to be back home,¡± Kefira said.
¡°You weren¡¯t even gone all that long,¡± Reivyn pointed out.
¡°Irrelevant,¡± Kefira retorted. ¡°There¡¯s just something abouting home. It feels like a small burden has been lifted from my shoulders and I can rx just a bit more.¡±
¡°More than on our beach vacation?¡±
Kefira gave Reivyn a deadpan look.¡°I think we need to talk about your definition of ¡®vacation.¡¯ In the month we were there, we had less than a week''s worth of free time. In fact, I think we worked harder while on ¡®vacation¡¯ than any other time, including with your crazy dad driving us in our training.¡±
¡°His what dad?¡± Refix asked, walking up behind them.
¡°His ¡®lovely¡¯ dad,¡± Kefira said without missing a beat. ¡°I was just saying to Reiyn how much we all appreciate you being there to guide us in our growth.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Refix chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m just d to help.¡±
¡°Sure,¡± Kefira said with a sweet smile.
¡°Anyway, I¡¯m going to rush back to the pce and find your mother,¡± Refix addressed Reivyn. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t dally too much behind me. There will be no hope for you if we dy seeing her too long.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have any other ns,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°The mercenaries can wait. I¡¯m sure Jekle cane to the pce to give me an update on thepany. Speaking of,¡± he turned to Xudrid and Vyria stepping through the portal. ¡°Are you two headed back to the barracks?¡±
¡°Yeah, we don¡¯t see any reason to dy,¡± Xudrid nodded his head. ¡°You want us to tell them to send Jekle to the pce?¡±
¡°If you would,¡± Reivyn nodded.
¡°It¡¯s no problem,¡± Xudrid nodded his head. ¡°But now that we¡¯re talking about it, it¡¯s a good time to inform you that we¡¯re going to be resigning from our positions and returning home to the Sect. We¡¯ve aplished more than we ever set out to do for our Life Experience. It¡¯s time to fine-tune our Skills and prepare for the next Tier.¡±
¡°That seems pretty short,¡± Reivyn replied, a bit surprised. ¡°Are you sure?¡±
¡°Yeah. It¡¯s more about quality than quantity. We trained with an organization, participated in field exercises, fought in a war, traveled through the veil directly, cleared the Hard Mode of a Tier 4 Dungeon, visited the ocean, saw a Tier 8 Region¡ And those are just the major aplishments. The Sect has everything else we need to gain Experience and train our Skills in preparation for the next Tier.¡±
¡°When you put it like that, it¡¯s hard to argue,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°However, there¡¯s still the Dungeon here in Willowan. I¡¯ve secured a spot with the military for preferential entry. It would be a shame for you all to leave before you had a chance to delve into the local Dungeon.¡±
Xudrid exchanged a quick look with Vyria. She nodded her head.
¡°Sure, that¡¯s a good idea. You want us to join your Party?¡±
¡°Yeah, that works. My dad won¡¯t being with us this time, though. He has his own things to do, and he probably wants to spend some time with my mom and sisters.¡±
¡°Sounds good. He might make it too trivial if he came with us,¡± Xudrid chuckled.
¡°Alright, well, we¡¯ll go in the next couple of days so we don¡¯t keep you guys away from home any longer than necessary.¡±
¡°We appreciate that. Just send word to the barracks when and where to meet you.¡±
¡°Will do,¡± Reivyn said.
Reivyn sped hands with Xudrid and nodded to Vyria,. Vyria nodded back with her typical cold expression, but she couldn¡¯t keep up appearances when Kefira suddenly embraced the young woman in a hug. Kimberly snuck up and hugged her from the other side. Seri just gave a small smile as she watched from the side.
Vyria seemed a little lost at first, but her expression softened and she embraced the two girls in return. They separated and Vyria nodded to everyone.
¡°You two stay safe,¡± Kefira said.
¡°We¡¯re going to see them again in a couple days,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes.
¡°What do you know?¡± Kefira poked him in the ribs after returning to his side. ¡°This is technically the farewell. It¡¯s the appropriate time. When we get done with the Dungeon delve, we can just wave and avoid all the tearful goodbyes, now.¡±
¡°Sure, sure,¡± Reivyn said, holding his hands up.
Teilon and Refix shook hands with Xudrid as the girls did their own thing. Once everyone had said goodbye, Xudrid and Vyria simply went off on their own toward the barracks. Refix waved at the others and hurried toward the pce.
¡°Well,¡± Reivyn shrugged as he looked around at everyone else.
Nothing more was said and they all stepped out of the teleport circle to follow Refix back to the pce.
The first thing to strike Reivyn was the sheer number of people walking about. There were far more people present than had been in the city when he left. It was a mix if Adventurers and soldiers marching about in formation. The odd nonbatant was actually rare to spot in the crowd around the city center holding the teleport circle.
¡°What¡¯s with all the people?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Teilon retorted, giving him a sideways look.
¡°Why would I know?¡± Reivyn asked back.
¡°Well, the Adventurers are all here for you,¡± Teilon answered.
¡°For me? Why?¡±
¡°They¡¯ve all heard about your mercenarypany, and they want to join,¡± Teilon shrugged. ¡°At least that¡¯s what I heard the empire over. I thought there were a lot of people waiting to use the teleport circle over there. I did tell you, but this is crazy.¡±
It was hard to walk through the crowd because there were so many people. Reivyn had an advantage with his Divine Sense as he could see beyond what most others could. He could clearly see the ebb and flow of the movement of the crowd, and he steered hispanions that way.
¡°I can¡¯t amodate this many people!¡± Reivyn eximed.
¡°Of course you can¡¯t. That doesn¡¯t stop them all from trying, though. Plus, as far as I know, your mercenarypany was hiring quite a bit of people.¡±
¡°Why would they do that? I never gave any orders to aggressively expand.¡±
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
¡°All your mother told me was that she would handle it,¡± Kefira shrugged. ¡°I guess it got a bit more out of hand while we were gone.¡±
¡°A bit more out of hand?¡± Reivyn asked with a crooked smile.
¡°Well¡¡± Kefira just gestured at the dense crowd.
Reivyn shook his head ruefully.
¡°I¡¯ll never admit this to anyone but you guys, but I¡¯m not ready tomand more than apany,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°I could do it, but it wouldn¡¯t be the best. I need more experience, not just for myself, but also for my reputation.¡±
¡°Well, Daddy sent some military officers to assist with the organization and logistics of the training, that much I know,¡± Kefira replied. ¡°They¡¯re following your and your mercenaries¡¯ training ns, but they¡¯re facilitating more of it getting done at a time.¡±
¡°That¡¯s one problem taken care of,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°I¡¯ll think of something. It¡¯ll work out.¡±
¡°That¡¯s the spirit,¡± Teilon said with a smile, pping Reivyn on the back. ¡°I was worried there for a second. I¡¯ve never seen you anything but utterly confident in your own abilities before.¡±
¡°That¡¯s because I¡¯ve never been presented with something I wasn¡¯t confident in aplishing,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°Well, there were a few instances back in Magron I can think of, but those were in-the-moment situations that I couldn¡¯t back down from.¡±
¡°Really? I never noticed.¡±
¡°Hah, that time the demon crawled up out of the ground with all those Revenants was one of them. Most of the soldiers were incapacitated, so I¡¯m not surprised you didn¡¯t see. I was terrified in that first fight with a Revenant. I had no idea how to hurt it, and I just got lucky from iling around with my Mana.¡±
¡°Meh, learning experience,¡± Teilon waved it off like it was no big deal. ¡°You were fine. Plus I do distinctly remember Knight-Captain Reifold raining holy wrath upon the heads of that demon and undead. You were probably never in any real danger unless you just couldn¡¯t hold your own long enough.
¡°Speaking of, Knight-Captain Reifold was particrly powerful for a Tier 3. I¡¯m pretty sure he was only an Epic ss.¡±
¡°His ss was associated with the Sun Church, if you¡¯ll recall,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°His Mana was like that of a Priest: it was infused with a hint of divinity, and it was particrly effective against Abyssal demons and undead. Everything else we saw him take action against were Tier 2 or lower.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a good point. I wonder if I could take him, now.¡±
¡°Maybe?¡± Reivyn was skeptical. ¡°Like you said, he had an Epic ss, and the main thing holding people back in Tier 1 Kingdoms is ack of opportunities to unlock higher-Rarity sses and Dungeons that provide enough Experience. With the appearance of the Revenant Dungeon, Knight-Captain Reifold should have all the opportunity and Experience he needs to continue advancing.
¡°Magron can¡¯t hold a person like him for long. If I had to guess, he¡¯s already moved on from his position, and he might even still be a higher Level than you, and I would bet his Tier 4 ss is also at least Epic. He might have gotten a Life Experience boost fighting against Abyssal demons and the Dungeon Break wave to push for a Legendary, though probably not before he¡¯s ready to advance to Tier 5, if I¡¯m being honest.¡±
¡°Good point,¡± Teilon said, adopting a thoughtful expression.
¡°Hmm, something seems to be happening up ahead,¡± Reivyn said, leading his group off to the side.
He could see a toon of soldiers dressed a bit differently than the rest making their way toward the teleport circle. The crowd actively got out of their way as opposed to mostly ignoring them like the other patrols, so Reivyn assumed there was something special about them. He wasn¡¯t overly familiar with all of the designations within the military, though, so he didn¡¯t know what it would be.
Despite leading the others off the path, the soldiers unerringly followed his direction and continued to advance towards them. Reivyn frowned but decided to go ahead and stop and wait to see.
Eventually, the crowd parted like a curtain in front of the oing soldiers, and the leader walked right up to Reivyn. His helmet had a red plume that all the other soldiers Reivyn saw in the areacked. He carried an intricate baton in one hand and a rolled up scroll in the other.
Kefira noticed the man and the other soldiers behind him and frowned.
¡°Are you Reivyn,¡± the man asked, marching right up to Reivyn.
¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Reivyn didn¡¯t deny it.
The man ced his baton under his arm so he could unfurl the scroll with both hands before reading from it.
¡°Under the authorization of Magistrate Fowleu, Adventurer Reivyn hereby under arrest for the charges of insulting a noble, assaulting a noble, and conduct unbing.¡±
The man rolled the scroll back up, secured it, retrieved his baton from under his arm, and nodded to the men behind him all at once. Reivyn noted a distinction in the way the man addressed him as simply being an Adventurer.
Two soldiers stepped forward. They didn¡¯t draw their weapons, but from what Reivyn could tell, they were prepared to. One held a familiar pair of shackles in his hands. Reivyn took it all in and simply held his hands out, not putting up any resistance or trying to argue. These men weren¡¯t the ones going after him, so it wouldn¡¯t make any sense to argue with them.
¡°Hold on. Excuse me!¡± Kefira stepped in front of Reivyn, shielding him from the oing soldiers. ¡°What is the meaning of this? Exin yourself.¡±
¡°Bystanders will remain to the side,¡± the man with the baton said impassively.
¡°Bystanders?¡± Kefira repeated. ¡°Bystanders?! Do you know who I am?!¡±
The man didn¡¯t so much as nce at Kefira.
¡°Girl, if you knew how many times I heard that, or a variation of it,¡± he rolled his eyes and sighed. ¡°Get out of the way. Stop interfering in official business.¡±
¡°Oh? And what if I don¡¯t?¡± Kefira stood her ground and crossed her arms. She raised her head to look down her nose on the men with an imperious air.
The man ced his baton on Kefira¡¯s shoulder and looked at her for the first time. Reivyn saw no recognition in the man¡¯s eyes. He truly didn¡¯t know who she was. Seri unsheathed her de and held it at her side, ready to strike. The man wielding the baton nced at her but didn¡¯t lower his baton.
¡°I know you young nobles love to try and throw your weight around, but I¡¯m on official Constable duty. When you see this baton, it¡¯s the same as seeing Magistrate Fowleu himself, and as a Noble Magistrate, his rank when exercising his authority is equivalent to a member of the Council of Lords.¡±
Kefira reached up and brushed the baton off of her shoulder nonchntly.
¡°Noble Magistrate Fowleu would not dare speak to me in that tone of voice, much less one of hisckeys.¡±
¡°Uh huh. Girl, you¡¯ve tested my patience enough. You¡¯ve gone from bystander to aplice.¡± The Constable jerked his head toward several other soldiers. ¡°In fact, go ahead and ce all of them under arrest.¡±
Several other soldiers detached themselves from their neat rows and produced more shackles from their storage pouches. Seri made to raise her sword and engage, but Kefira motioned for her to put her sword away and stand down. She held her own wrists out like Reivyn and waited to be shackled.
¡°Hahahaha, my father is going to love hearing about this,¡± Kefira said. She sounded genuinely amused at the situation.
¡°I¡¯m sure he will,¡± the Constable snorted. ¡°If you are actually of the nobility, you have certain rights. Someone will be dispatched to your residence to inform your family of your arrest, but they¡¯ll have to wait until trial like all the rest before you can be released to their custody.¡±
¡°Oh, we¡¯ll see about that,¡± Kefira smirked. ¡°Enjoypleting your ¡®official duty.¡¯ It¡¯s likely to be yourst.¡±
The Constable shook his head and looked at one of the soldiers under hismand.
¡°These noble brats all think they¡¯re above thew.¡±
The soldiers didn¡¯t waste any time and pped the entire group in chains. With Reivyn and Kefira not putting up any kind of resistance, and after Kefira told Seri to stand down, they all let themselves be ced in the magical hand irons. Teilon had an amused look on his face as he nced down at the restraints.
¡°I know I¡¯m a bit of a rogue, but I never imagined it would one daye to this,¡± he said. ¡°And because of something Reivyn of all people did. Hah! Wait until I tell Kailey and Riley that it turned out it was their brother who was the mischief maker all this time!¡±
Teilon was quite pleased with himself. Kimberly just rolled her eyes at his antics.
¡°Come along,¡± the Constable said, turning and walking off.
Two soldiers grabbed each person on either side and escorted them with the rest of their squad. The pedestrians all watched the goings-on with interest, but they stayed out of the way and didn¡¯tment too loudly one way or the other. That didn¡¯t stop Reivyn from hearing everything said within his Divine Sense range, though.
Most of thements were assumptions that Reiyn and his friends were some guilty brigands apprehended by the justw enforcers. Several of the people seemed to be a bit knowledgeable on thew and madements on the procedure.
The interpretations were varied, but arresting Teilon and Kimberly was almost universally condemned as overreach. Most people figured it was justified to take Seri into custody because she had brandished a weapon at the Constable and his men.
Even more people were just confused about the whole situation. It had been many years since insulting a noble had been prosecuted, and most people had forgotten it was even technically illegal to do so. They also couldn¡¯t imagine a circumstance where someone could assault a noble without the noble¡¯s guards intervening in the first ce.
All in all, it was a confusing, yet entertaining, event for the people near the teleportation circle.
Reivyn didn¡¯t bother himself with the thoughts of the true bystanders. His mind was already racing, trying to figure out the situation and a counter to it.
¡°The only person I can think of that fits the bill of the charges is Oryin,¡± Reivyn said to Kefira.
¡°Oryin Fowleu,¡± Kefira responded. ¡°The Magistrate is probably one of his uncles.¡±
¡°Ahh, I see,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°We¡¯ve been gone for a month. Plenty of time to cook up some false charges. Add a little false witness testimony, and you¡¯ve got yourself a case.¡±
¡°Well, to be fair, you did kind of humiliate him,¡± Kefira chuckled.
¡°Kind of?¡± Teilon eximed. ¡°You dragged the poor boy down the road by his throat while running without missing a step!¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s still false testimony because he was under mymand in a battlefield situation,¡± Reivyn defended himself. He looked at Kefira. ¡°He was under mymand, right?¡±
¡°Absolutely,¡± Kefira confirmed. ¡°I know he denied it at the time, but all of them were explicitly informed before they were allowed to go that they would be in the chain ofmand just like anyone else. You were second inmand, thus, they were within your right to order and discipline.¡±
¡°Good. I already have an idea on how to handle this.¡±
¡°Why?¡± Kefira asked. ¡°Once my father finds out what happened, it won¡¯t matter.¡±
¡°That only solves the issue of our arrest,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m talking about handling Oryin as a whole. You get yourself and the others released as soon as possible, and try to hold your father back fromshing out until I¡¯ve enacted my n.¡±
¡°Alright, I trust you,¡± Kefira smiled.
Reivyn smiled back, and not just because he was looking at Kefira. He was already envisioning the eventual fallout of Oryin¡¯s little ploy.
Chapter 246: Five Star Accomodations
Chapter 246: Five Star Aodations
The fivepanions marched through the streets of Willowan with their escort. Kefira walked with her head held high as if she was just going for a stroll. Shepletely ignored the people on the street as well as the armed escort.
Reivyn, Teilon, and Kimberly took their cue from Kefira, and they maintained theirposure. Seri, on the other hand, stared right back at everyone that stared at them. There were more than a few faces that nched in front of her re.
¡°Soo¡ I understand why the Constable arrested Reivyn and snatched us up as aplices,¡± Teilon whispered. ¡°Well, not entirely, but that¡¯s beside the point. Anyway, you have an emblem of the Imperial Family on you, don¡¯t you Kefira?¡±
¡°Sure do,¡± Kefira nodded with a smile.
¡°Then why didn¡¯t you show it to the man? We could have avoided all of this.¡±
¡°He never asked,¡± Kefira answered.
Teilon stared at the back of her head for a moment as they walked in silence.
¡°He never asked,¡± he repeated in a deadpan voice. ¡°The entire reason you¡¯re allowing yourself to be arrested is because he didn¡¯t ask for your identity?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous,¡± Kefira denied, shaking her head. ¡°That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t produce the emblem. I allowed myself to be arrested for maximum damage to our opponent¡¯s cause. How else are we going to make their scheme blow up in their face in spectacr fashion?¡±¡°Oh, I see,¡± Teilon was enlightened. ¡°Letting yourself get arrested is a trap.¡±
¡°Exactly. Plus, I don¡¯t have anywhere urgent to be,¡± Kefira shrugged. ¡°This will probably only take a couple of hours. The worry our families have over our unexined absence will only make their reaction to the truth that much more vtile.¡±
¡°Oohh, you¡¯re devious,¡± Teilon gave her a thumbs-up.
The way the shackles worked, it didn¡¯t matter if they were ced in the front or back. They restricted one¡¯s Stats and ability to call upon their Skills and Mana, so they were all handcuffed in the front.
¡°Only against other schemers,¡± Kefira narrowed her eyes. ¡°If you want to y games with me, I¡¯ll dly apany you.¡±
¡°Technically, this game was aimed at me,¡± Reivyn pointed out.
¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± Kefira asked, tilting her head as she gave Reivyn a confused look.
¡°Fair enough,¡± Reivyn chuckled.
¡°The Detainees will be silent,¡± the Constable called back. ¡°I¡¯ve been lenient with you so far, but you¡¯ll stop talking from now until we finish getting you acquainted with your new amodations.¡±
Reivyn just shrugged and kept walking. Soon, they were led to a military style building. It was one that Reivyn hadn¡¯t seen before, and it was a bit away from the main thoroughfare of traffic in the inner city.
This must be the jail, Reivyn thought, eyeing the building up and down. He would scan the entire building with his Divine Sense as soon as they were in range, but his vision worked just fine to get a first impression.
The building wasn¡¯t anything special. It was simrly styled to the other military buildings Reivyn had been to in Willowan, but it had arge wall around the entire building whereas the real military buildings were mostly open. He could sense some cells beneath their feet as they got closer and his Divine Sense gradually got in range.
Reivyn didn¡¯t even need to channel his Veridical Affinity to get his Divine Sense to work. The shackles had absolutely no effect on the Skill.
I wonder if that¡¯s because it¡¯s technically a Divine Skill? If that¡¯s true, maybe my Perfect Domain Skill is also active. There isn¡¯t anyone attacking me or threatening me in any way, so it doesn¡¯t look like I¡¯ll find out any time soon, though.
Reivyn sensed the sprawlingplex beneath their feet as they moved closer to the building. There was ayer of rock surrounding the entire undergroundplex like a sheath that Reivyn couldn¡¯t identify, but it stuck out like a beacon in the night. Reivyn suspected it was an additional measure against activating Skills or Mana.
It would seem this ce is muchrger than it would appear on the outside.
¡°Do you guys jail a lot of people?¡± Reivyn leaned in and whispered to Kefira.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Kefira whispered back. ¡°My older siblings handle the affairs of the capital. Being nominally in charge of the mercenarypany is technically my first official duty.¡±
¡°I see.¡±
Most of the armed soldiers escorting them peeled off as they walked through the outer walls of thepound, leaving only one person holding each of the detainedpanions by an arm.
The Constable stopped on the steps leading to the interior of the building and addressed one of the other soldiers.
¡°I have to report to the Magistrate thepletion of my duty,¡± he told the man. ¡°See to it that they¡¯re each processed properly. We can¡¯t have anything amiss with their detention.¡±
Reivyn managed to hold his tongue, but Teilon barked out augh. He quickly turned it into a cough as the Constable turned to stare at him. Reivyn rolled his eyes as the Constable walked off back through the outer gates.
¡°This way,¡± the lead soldier guided Reivyn and the others into the building.
They were led around the front desk and down a side hall. At the end of the hall, there was a spiral staircase leading down into the depths. Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense told him that the building was mostly office spaces above ground, but the detention center was fully underground. There were people moving about their business all throughout the building, and Reivyn could see that the first couple rows of cells were upied.
After only a short trip down the stairs, they arrived in front of another desk. The soldiers were outfitted differently than the ones escorting them. Thergest difference was that they weren¡¯t armed. There wasn¡¯t a single weapon to be found among the several soldiers in the staging area, and Reivyn spied a sign that said, ¡°No weapons beyond this point.¡±
Reivyn didn¡¯t have a lot of experience with jails or prisons in either life, but he seemed to recall from his fragmented past-life memories that it was standard practice to keep any weapons away from prisoners. It made more sense to go unarmed than to allow for an inmate to get their hands on a weapon.
Reivyn simply noted it and dismissed it from his mind. He wasn¡¯t nning on an armed breakout, and he didn¡¯t need a physical weapon to do so, anyway.
The staging area they were led to had one main desk with several detention officers stationed behind it, but there were several benches and rooms for privacy off to the side. The way into the cells proper was barred with a thick, iron door with lots of intimidating looking bars.
Reivyn was led to one of the detention officers at the main desk. Kefira, Seri, Teilon, and Kimberly were each led to their own, the three girls being sent to the end of the desk where a female detention officer was stationed.
¡°What do you have for us, today?¡± The man at the desk in front of Reivyn addressed the soldier escorting Reivyn.
¡°Warrants from the Magistrate,¡± the soldier replied. ¡°Adventurer Reivyn: Insulting and Assaulting a noble and Conduct Unbing. With this, I transfer custody to you.¡±
¡°I ept custody. See youter tonight.¡±
¡°Sure,¡± the soldier waved to the corrections officer as he made his way back to the stairs. Each of the armed soldiers dropped off their detainees and departed, seemingly leaving Reivyn and the others unguarded. Reivyn could sense that there were armed guards waiting in a room nearby, though, and he assumed they would be ready to storm in at a moment¡¯s notice.
The detention officer pulled out arge notebook with several entries recorded in it already. He produced an ink stick and looked up at Reivyn.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
¡°Adventurer Reivyn, is that the proper way to address you?¡± The man held his ink stick over the notebook, waiting for Reivyn¡¯s reply.
¡°Captain Reivyn,¡± Reivyn answered.
The man raised an eyebrow at the statement, but he didn¡¯t seem overly surprised.
¡°Are you the Party Leader, then, of your Adventuring Party?¡± He asked, scribbling down the response. To Reivyn¡¯s surprise, the man actually wrote ¡°Captain¡± without further investigation into what exactly Reivyn meant.
¡°Technically, yes, but no, that¡¯s not what I meant,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°Captain Reivyn with the Imperial Army, Liaison to Imperial Princess Kefira.¡±
The man¡¯s pen froze and he looked up at Reivyn swiftly.
¡°Do you have identification proving your rank and position?¡±
Reivyn channeled his Veridical Affinity and casually removed one of his hands from the restraints. He pulled out his official badge from his storage pouch with the Imperial Family¡¯s insignia upon it. After tossing it onto the desk in front of the man booking him into the jail, he casually put his free hand back in the restraints.
The correction officer watched the entire thing with a nk expression. He stared at Reivyn¡¯s hands for several moments before shaking his head and looking at the badge. He picked it up and injected his Mana into it to test its authenticity.
The detention officer took a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh, rubbing his forehead with his fingers as he did so.
¡°These idiots¡¡± he muttered. He looked back up at Reivyn. ¡°Alright, well, there was an official warrant issued by a Magistrate, and you¡¯re not contesting your identity as the subject in question, so I can¡¯t just let you go. We¡¯ll put you up in the Special Quarters as a courtesy until a representative of the army cane to collect you.¡±
¡°If it¡¯s all the same to you, I would rather stay here,¡± Reivyn said.
The man was momentarily surprised, but he schooled his features quickly.
¡°Sorry, but that¡¯s not up to me, or you for that matter,¡± the detention officer held his hands out helplessly. ¡°I have an official warrant, you have a rank and position in the army¡ These things are rare, but they do happen. We have procedures in ce for these situations.
¡°I don¡¯t make the rules.¡±
¡°I understand,¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sure it can be arranged, though.¡±
¡°Well, considering your¡ credentials, I don¡¯t doubt it. I just can¡¯t make that decision. So, do you want us to inform the barracks or have someone notify Princess Kefira of your detainment?¡±
¡°That won¡¯t be necessary,¡± Reivyn cracked a sly smile. He tilted his head toward the three girls. ¡°She¡¯s over there.¡±
The detention officer stared at Reivyn for a moment, notprehending what he heard. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his face paled so fast Reivyn was surprised the man didn¡¯t faint. He slowly turned his head toward the three girls.
Kefira stood out from the other two girls wearing shackles. She stared down at the female detention officer imperiously, as if she was the one booking the other into jail and not the other way around.
The detention officer snapped his head back around to look at Reivyn with a face of utter panic. Reivyn bared his teeth in what could be considered a smile. The man shot up from his seat and dashed over to the female detention officer who was busy arguing with Kefira.
Reivyn had clearly heard every word of the conversation, but he was relishing witnessing theing meltdown.
¡°Stop, stop, stop!¡± Reivyn¡¯s detention officer shouted, waving his hands in the air as he sprinted to the other end of the desk. ¡°Release that Lady, at once!¡±
The female detention officer sat back in surprise and nced at the other man. The rest of the corrections officers on duty looked over in surprise, as well.
¡°Release her?¡± The female detention officer asked. ¡°Why? I haven¡¯t even fully recorded her name down yet.¡±
¡°And thank everything that is holy for that! In fact, scratch out everything you do have written down.¡± He looked at one of the other guards standing nearby on the other side of the desk. ¡°What are you waiting for! Release her, now!¡±
¡°Yes, sir!¡± The guard said.
He gave a quick shake of his head, but he followed the orders, removing Kefira¡¯s shackles from her wrists. Kefira rubbed her wrists and looked over at Reivyn. Reivyn winked at her.
¡°Tch, you¡¯re no fun,¡± Kefira said. ¡°We were just about to get to the good part, too.¡±
The two detention officers booking Reivyn and Kefira into the jail leaned their heads together.
¡°What¡¯s going on? Why are you releasing her?¡± The female guard asked.
¡°That¡¯s Imperial Princess Kefira!¡± The man fiercely whispered. ¡°If we followed through with the Magistrate¡¯s orders, we would quickly find ourselves behind bars with them. Actually, scratch that. They would be let go, and we would be on the hook for treason!¡±
The female guard¡¯s eyes widened and she looked back and forth between her colleague and Kefira. The blood simrly drained from her face in record time. They both turned to face Kefira and bowed.
¡°Apologies, Your Highness,¡± they said in unison.
The rest of the guards were stunned for a second, but they quickly turned and bowed to her, as well. They all chorused their apologies to Kefira.
¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Kefira waved their concerns away. ¡°I understand you¡¯re all just doing your job, so you wouldn¡¯t have been punished, either way. That being said, do you mind releasing mypanions?¡± She gave a pointed look at the rest of the group still in chains.
¡°At once, Your Highness!¡±
The guards scrambled to release the magical shackles from everyone. As a guard approached Reivyn to release him, Kefira stopped him.
¡°Not that one,¡± she said.
¡°Do you wish to take custody of him, Your Highness?¡± The first detention officer asked, nervously shuffling back and forth from foot to foot.
Kefira rolled her eyes and sighed.
¡°No, that won¡¯t be necessary,¡± she said. ¡°For some inexplicable reason, he wishes to remain here. Something about his counter-scheme. Anyway, he will be remaining here for now. But!¡±
She paused to look each guard in the eye before continuing.
¡°He is a guest here, not a prisoner. Do you all understand?¡±
¡°Of course, Your Highness,¡± the first officer responded. ¡°There¡¯s precedent for such a situation, after all.¡±
Kefira gave him a sharp look. The man panicked and quickly waved his hands in front of himself.
¡°Not anytime recently, of course!¡± He exined. ¡°But we¡¯re all taught the history and made aware of the possibilities during our training.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Kefira said, calming down. ¡°That¡¯s good to know - that it hasn¡¯t happened recently, that is.¡±
¡°Of course, Your Highness, but if he¡¯s a guest, what about his shackles?¡±
Kefira just nodded her head toward Reivyn. The guards turned to look at him. Reivyn smiled as he handed the magical shackles to the closest guard,pletely unrestrained.
¡°Oh. Right,¡± the first detention officer said.
Kefira walked over to Reivyn, the guards scrambling to get out of the way.
¡°You ruined my ns of having my father learn about my detention,¡± Kefira pouted.
Reivyn just chuckled as he shook his head.
¡°I appreciate the intention, but there¡¯s no reason you should stay here,¡± he said.
¡°There¡¯s no reason you should stay here!¡± Kefira retorted.
¡°There is a reason, and it¡¯s going to be great,¡± Reivyn smiled.
¡°If you say so,¡± Kefira shook her head.
¡°Anyway, go ahead and head back to the pce. Inform your parents about what¡¯s going on, but tell them I¡¯ll handle it.¡±
¡°Oh, you¡¯ll handle it? From inside a jail cell? And exactly how do you n on doing that?¡±
Reivyn smiled.
¡°As my immediatemanding officer, andmander overall, I am officially informing you that I¡¯m initiating a war-time tribunal against one Oryin.¡±
Kefira¡¯s eyes widened and a smile crept onto her face.
¡°Oh, I see where you¡¯re going. What are the charges you n to level against him?¡±
¡°Insubordination, Disrespect to a Superior Officer, and Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy,¡± Reivyn replied.
The smile left Kefira¡¯s face as she studied Reivyn¡¯s face very intently.
¡°Thatst one is a serious charge,¡± she said quietly. ¡°Are you sure about that?¡±
Reivyn adopted an equally serious expression.
¡°That¡¯s the way to end Oryin once and for all,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°The other two charges will repel this attack, but thest one will win the war. Besides, it¡¯s true, and you know it.¡±
¡°That I do,¡± Kefira nodded her head. ¡°He abandoned everyone once the portal was open in his mad dash to get away.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll need some help with the technicalities,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Send Jeckle to me with the relevant militaryw books. You can¡¯t do it yourself as that would be a conflict of interest.¡±
¡°A conflict of interest?¡± Kefira chuckled. ¡°I was there. I¡¯m a witness.¡±
¡°But you¡¯re not being called as one,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°That¡¯s a distinction.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t possibly be an impartial arbiter of justice,¡± Kefira pointed out.
¡°That sounds like a personal problem for Oryin,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°While it would be ideal, it¡¯s understood that it¡¯s not always the case that amander can be. That¡¯s why it¡¯s not a requirement for military trials.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve done your homework, it seems,¡± Kefira said with a small smile. ¡°Were you anticipating having to litigate a legal case while attached to the Imperial Army?¡±
¡°The thought had crossed my mind,¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°We never knew what your mother was nning to throw at me in the way of a test.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t think this has anything to do with her, do you?¡± Kefira¡¯s eyes widened.
¡°Of course not!¡± Reivyn denied. ¡°This is far too sloppy for something she cooked up. It is the consequence of her actions letting Oryin y around, though. You can¡¯t tell me that your mother didn¡¯t know his intentions for one second.¡±
¡°Yeah, I can see that.¡±
Seri snorted in the background. Kefira looked at her and frowned.
¡°What does that mean?¡± She asked.
¡°Everyone in the capital knew Oryin¡¯s intentions¡ everyone but you,¡± Seri smirked.
¡°I thought he was just being a friendly senior apprentice,¡± Kefira huffed.
¡°Uh huh.¡±
¡°Any way,¡± Kefira pointedly looked away from Seri back to Reivyn. ¡°I¡¯ll send word to Jeckle and have him bring thew books for you. Is that all you need from me?¡±
¡°Go appease my parents, especially my mother,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Oh no,¡± Kefira shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re not making me handle that for you. You have to face your mother¡¯s wrath all on your own. You could simply go back to the Imperial Pce and hold the military tribunal at an appropriate location. Any annoyance she has with you is purely your doing.¡±
¡°Fine,¡± Reivyn sighed. ¡°At least go spend some time with them.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± Kefira said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. ¡°I would do that even if you didn¡¯t ask.¡±
¡°Thanks,¡± Reivyn said, cing his hands on Kefira¡¯s hips.
Kefira ced her hands on Reivyn¡¯s forearms as she stepped into his embrace.
¡°What¡¯s this ¡®thanks¡¯ between us? You know you don¡¯t have to thank me.¡±
¡°I know.¡±
The two hugged and shared a quick peck. When Reivyn stood back up straight, everyone in the jail staging area was conspicuously looking away. Everyone but Teilon who was openly grinning at Reivyn. He gave his best buddy a surreptitious thumbs-up.
Reivyn rolled his eyes and bid his friends farewell. The others filed out of the room, and Reivyn tracked their departure with his Divine Sense. One of the guards led the way to forestall anyone from asking questions they didn¡¯t need an answer to.
¡°Well, then,¡± Reivyn said, turning back to the man who had started booking him in. ¡°Shall we?¡±
Chapter 247: Convictions
Chapter 247: Convictions
Oryin rxed back into the exquisite leather seat. The leather was furnished from the Tier 5 region where the Wispan empire had a foothold. Oryin¡¯s family was old enough and well-enough connected to have a couple of elders exploring the Region. Even though it was impossible for them to establish a firm, permanent foothold in the Tier 5 Region, there was still a significant operation in the Region. Generations upon generations ensured there was a safe way for the elders retiring from public life in Wispan had an easy entry into the higher-Tier zone.
Oryin sipped from his tea and let out a contented sigh. He only had to wait for the good news of his machinationsing to fruition. Some of his family¡¯s servants had spotted that trash, Reivyn, emerging from the teleport circle, finally, and he was about to suffer the consequences of going against him.
How dare a mere peasant get in between me and my beloved! He fumed. He quickly calmed himself down, though, with the thoughts of the soon-to-be-heard good news. Just like a country bumpkin from a lesser Region. I doubt he knows any of thews governing our empire, and once Kefira sees his ipetence in defending himself and my masterful stroke in putting him against the wall, she¡¯ll naturallye back to me.
Oryin was secure in his delusions. He swirled the tea in his ss as he listened to the chatter of his brothers and cousins seated about the room. His uncle who had helped orchestrate the finishing move against his foe wasughing and joking with his father.
Everyone in their family was on good terms. Oryin¡¯s father was the firstborn of his generation, so he naturally inherited the title. He was only an unded Count, but it was a hereditary title granted to their family several generations ago. His uncle didn¡¯t fight for power or position within the family, but he had instead elected to continue to secure power for the family by pursuing other avenues of power outside of it.
Like his uncle, Oryin was not the firstborn of his generation. Also like his uncle, he had pursued power outside of the family to assist his elder brother.
Well, initially¡
Oryin had been found to be extremely proficient in magic, and his hard work and dedication - plus a little nepotism, he begrudgingly admitted - hadnded him the position as the direct disciple of the Court Magus. His position as an apprentice didn¡¯t afford him his own noble title, yet, but it promised future power far surpassing that of an unded noble. The biggest difference would be that it wouldn¡¯t be hereditary.
Oryin was fine with that. He was all for helping the family, but the taste of personal prestige had awoken a hunger in him that he hadn¡¯t previously been allowed to cultivate. He had known all his life his position in the world, but finding himself along a different avenue had awoken his long-dormant ambition.Oryin looked across the room at the smiling faces. His elder brother sat next to his older cousin, a stern-faced youngdy, and they bantered back and forth. She had cultivated the appearance of a judge under the influence of her father, but she could jest and jape with the best of them. A startling juxtaposition for anyone who didn¡¯t know her.
His younger brother was locked in a heated debate with his other cousin. They were fanatics about the Strikers, and they were discussing their favored Champions. Oryin had no interest in such a mundane activity. There was no magic involved. Literally.
His father and uncle were a bit more tame in their conversation, though theyughed just as loud as the rest of them on asion. They were discussing the boring topic of politics. It was something Oryin didn¡¯t have much interest in, but he understood he would need to enter the depths and learn soon if he was to further his ambition. Currently, pursuing his magical talents was the best thing he could do both in terms of personal and political power.
He still stewed over how helpless he had felt in front of Reivyn when he had been dragged out of his saddle on the road. He had to consciously concentrate to ease the grip on his ss of tea.
That little punk caught me by surprise, is all, Oryin mentally defended himself. Plus it wouldn¡¯t have done anyone any good to disy my magical might and put him in his ce in that very specific situation.
Oryin had conveniently forgotten about how he had immediately fled in the face of the enemy elites while Reivyn had stood firm against them. Even if he had remembered, he would have justified it somehow. He had previously tried to convince himself he was in cahoots with the enemy, but that was too far even for him to believe for more than a few minutes.
His brothers and cousins asionally tried to include him in their conversations, but he simply smiled and declined to join. He was too preupied waiting for the good news to spare any mental capacity trying to keep up with a conversation at the moment.
A servant in their family¡¯s livery entered the room and quickly walked to his father to whisper something in his ear. He wasn¡¯t rushing, just moving briskly, but Oryin perked up nheless. His father nodded, and the servant turned and headed back whence he hade.
A few short momentster, the Constable who worked directly under his uncle entered the sitting room. As an experiencedwman who had gained his position from the ground up, he subconsciously scanned the entire room as he made his way to his father and uncle.
He¡¯s only amoner, but he has a decent head on his shoulders, Oryin thought as anticipation filled him. He¡¯s smart enough to hitch his fortune to another, and he was shrewd enough to choose my uncle to follow.
¡°Lord Fowleu,¡± The Constable dipped his head to his father briefly before turning toward his uncle. ¡°Lord Magistrate.¡± He held out a rolled up scroll for my uncle to take.
¡°It¡¯s done, then?¡± Oryin¡¯s Uncle, Magistrate Olifr Fowleu, asked as he epted the scroll.
Oryin wanted to leap up and interrogate the man himself, but he held himself in check. The man didn¡¯t even know that Oryin was the one who had orchestrated the whole thing, informing his uncle of Reivyn¡¯s crimes. His position didn¡¯t allow him to interfere in the matter at all, despite not truly being a bystander.
That will change, soon, Oryin thought to himself. Not only is my apprenticeshiping to an end, but I¡¯ll soon have the hand of one of the Imperial Princesses. I¡¯ll be one of the most powerful people in the entire empire by that point. Nobody would dare scold me for interjecting myself into the arrest of a mere Adventurer, then.
Oryin almost burst outughing at the thought of his future prospects, but he reigned himself in. Instead, he simply sat forward to listen intently to what the Constable had to say.
¡°Yes, Lord Magistrate, it is done,¡± The Constable nodded. ¡°He had quite a few loyalpatriots, too. Normally I would apud their loyalty, but to back a criminal¡¡± The Constable shook his head and clucked his tongue. ¡°They need to choose betterpanions.
¡°Hopefully this little lesson will teach them,¡± The Constable cracked a smile.
Oryin felt the pit of his stomach drop with a terrible premonition.
¡°Oh?¡± His uncle asked, quirking an eyebrow. ¡°What happened?¡±
¡°Nothing to concern yourself with, sir,¡± The Constable waved it away. ¡°His friends simply tried to interfere with mywful duty, so I locked them up with their friend. They didn¡¯t actually interfere in my duties, though, so it¡¯s more of a scare tactic to put them on the straight and narrow in the future. They¡¯lle before you in a couple of days, I¡¯m sure.¡±
¡°Excellent work,¡± his Uncle smiled. Oryin was beginning to sweat, waiting for the ax to drop. ¡°I¡¯ll be able to boost my reputation by upholding justice in letting them go with a stern warning.¡±
¡°And the one girl seems like she was a noble,¡± The Constable continued. ¡°With how she was going on and on about how her father would intervene, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to squeeze out a favor from one of the other nobles by being lenient with her.¡±
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
¡°It won¡¯t be the first time,¡± Olifr chuckled. ¡°Most of the nobles understand what¡¯s really going on. Thepetent ones do, at least, and yet, they still have to give me face as if I had actually done them a huge favor. It wouldn¡¯t do to have an ungrateful reputation.¡±
¡°Excuse me,¡± Oryin could no longer sit still. He tentatively raised his hand to get the attention of the Constable and his uncle. His uncle frowned at the interruption, but he quickly reced it with a smile and nodded for him to continue.
The Constable turned to face him with an inquisitive look on his face.
¡°How may I help you, young sir?¡± He asked.
Oryin¡¯s reputation was well-known, especially among those who were close to his family. He might not have personal power now, but he had potential.
¡°Did you say you arrested all of the criminal¡¯s friends?¡± Oryin inquired.
¡°I sure did,¡± The Constable nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not that big of a deal for hispanions, all things considered. They¡¯ll get a p on the wrist, the girl¡¯s father will owe your uncle a minor favor¡¡± The Constable shrugged his shoulders. ¡°Normal, everyday urrence.¡±
¡°Just to rify,¡± Oryin continued, sweat dripping down his brow, ¡°the young nobledy, did she have ruby red eyes?¡±
The Constable frowned as he sensed something amiss, but he nodded his head.
¡°She did. Do you know her?¡±
¡°Know her?!¡± Oryin pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to calm himself down. ¡°That was the Imperial Princess, Kefira, you BUFFOON!¡± Oryin leapt to his feet. He wasn¡¯t as calm as he had thought. ¡°And you ARRESTED her!¡±
The Constable¡¯s frown deepend, and another frown apanied his on his uncle¡¯s face.
¡°Wait, why would an Imperial Princess be in thepany of a mere Adventurer?¡± Olifr asked. ¡°Are you keeping something from me?¡±
The Constable¡¯s head snapped in the Magistrate¡¯s direction.
¡°What do you mean, Lord Magistrate?¡± He asked.
Olifr waved his concern away and answered without looking at him.
¡°My nephew is the reporting victim,¡± he said.
¡°Your nephew was the victim? And he came to you?¡± The Constable asked.
Olifr broke his gaze from Oryin and leveled a re at the Constable.
¡°Calm yourself, Constable,¡± he said.
The Constable¡¯s lips formed a line.
¡°I am¡ ufortable¡ with this information.¡±
¡°Noted.¡± Olifr turned his gaze back to Oryin. ¡°Exin.¡±
Oryin gulped at his uncle¡¯s gaze.
¡°Well, I told you Reivyn was the Adventurermander of that Adventuring Mercenary Company, right?¡± Olifr nodded and motioned for him to continue. ¡°Well, technically, the mercenarypany belongs to Kefira.¡±
¡°Princess Kefira,¡± his father interjected for the first time with a stern voice.
Oryin nced at his father and licked his lips.
¡°Junior Sister, Kefira,¡± he amended. His father rolled his eyes but let it slide.
¡°So they had a prior rtionship, or he wouldn¡¯t have been put in charge,¡± Olifr extrapted. ¡°And you were nning on telling me this¡ when?¡±
¡°I had already implied it, uncle,¡± Oryin defended himself. ¡°It¡¯s not a secret that the mercenarypany is actually headed by the princess. I figured you would understand.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t quibble with me!¡± Olifr shouted. ¡°This was important information! How were you nning on exacting justice against the criminal with such a powerful background supporting him?!¡± Olifr nced at the Constable. ¡°You¡¯re still here? Quickly! Go and escort the princess home!¡±
The Constable nodded his head and rushed to the entrance as quickly as he could.
¡°As far as I know, Reivyn doesn¡¯t have any actual support from the Imperial Family,¡± Oryin exined. ¡°Junior Sister is just temporarily muddled by his exotic nature as a foreigner from outside the empire, and she doesn¡¯t have an official post.
¡°She would need to beg her parents to intervene, and while they¡¯re upied with that, we can secure our jurisdiction over the matter.¡±
¡°Yes, but now, instead of gaining a favor, I¡¯m going to have to call in a few,¡± Olifr grit his teeth. ¡°And for what? Punishing a mere Adventurer?¡±
¡°An Adventurer with the Princess¡¯s ear,¡± Oryin pointed out. ¡°It will lower his prestige in the eyes of the public and the princess, and we¡¯ll be rid of an annoyingpetitor.¡±
¡°We?¡± His father once again interjected. ¡°Or you?¡±
¡°Both,¡± Oryin didn¡¯t dare lie at this point. ¡°I¡¯ll be rid of a romantic rival, and the family will be one step closer to a better rtionship with the Imperial Family.¡±
¡°You think Princess Kefira will appreciate you doing this?¡± His father asked.
¡°She would have, if that idiot hadn¡¯t screwed everything up,¡± Oryin said with a frown. ¡°I¡¯ve known Junior Sister Kefira for years. She¡¯s not one to let emotions cloud her judgment. This move will wake her up, and she¡¯ll eventuallye around to see what a masterful stroke it was.¡±
His father and uncle shared a look.
¡°You don¡¯t know women, son,¡± his father said. ¡°We¡¯re going to have toe up with a fall guy to take the me, or she¡¯ll resent you forever.¡±
Oryin bared his teeth in what resembled a smile.
¡°Already taken care of,¡± he answered. ¡°As the victim, of course my name has to be on the document, but I wasn¡¯t the one to actually bring the initialint.¡±
His uncle¡¯s eyes lit up in recognition.
¡°Of course! That¡¯s why you had your friend, Riddin Horace, do all the talking.¡±
¡°Yes, uncle,¡± Oryin nodded.
Riddin¡¯s older brother, Remfort, had a grudge against Reivyn. Oryin had learned of it early on, and he had simply manipted the young man¡¯s feelings to his benefit.
Over the course of several days, Oryin hadmented that there was nothing that could be done against the cur Reivyn who had trampled on his honor. A few reminders of his uncle being a Magistrateter, and he simply had to follow the young man to his uncle¡¯s office where he lodged theint for him.
¡°Other than the debacle with the Constable arresting the princess, this is feasible,¡± his uncle nodded, finally calming down. ¡°We cany the me at the feet of the Constable in front of the emperor and make it up to him at ater date.¡±
¡°He¡¯s just amoner, uncle,¡± Oryin said. ¡°He should be happy to take the me. It was his own actions under his own judgment, after all.¡±
¡°And here I thought you were a natural when it came to politics,¡± his father shook his head. ¡°Even though it was his own error, it was bred fromck of information from us. This will lead to resentment.
¡°Even if it wasn¡¯t, as a subordinate, we should always make at least a minimum effort to have his back in a difficult time. Support isn¡¯t a one-way street. If we offered nothing in return but indifference, it wouldn¡¯t be long before we can¡¯t recruit anyone to our side.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll take care of it,¡± Olifr said. ¡°I¡¯ll have him take credit for breaking some cases in line with the hard-nosed reputation he¡¯s sure to get from this incident. It will turn this ck mark into an amusing anecdote of someone a bit too eager and inexperienced. In the long run, it might actually help his career.¡±
His father nodded and looked Oryin in the eyes.
¡°See there, son? Minimal effort for maximum benefit. We move some hands and feet in the background, the Constable gets rewarded, and nobody else but us knows.¡±
¡°I see, father,¡± Oryin nodded. ¡°Thank you for the lesson.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fine. You¡¯re still young, and you have much to learn. Your magical apprenticeship is about toe to an end, but you still have your political apprenticeship under the Court Magus. Keep your head up and observe everything around you. With your own observations, the instruction of your Master, my perspective, and your uncle¡¯s work in the judiciary, you¡¯re set up to be a powerful icon in the future.¡±
¡°Yes, father,¡± Oryin smiled.
A powerful icon? Oryin internally scoffed. That¡¯s a given. If I y my cards right, though, I can be so much more. Maybe even one day¡ the emperor.
Oryin¡¯s eyes shed with ambition.
¡ª
¡°This has gone on long enough,¡± Kefira said. She stared unwaveringly in her mother¡¯s eyes.
¡°He said he would handle it, no?¡± Silfa calmly asked, setting her teacup down.
Kefira was meeting with her parents in a private setting. She had only spent a few minutes in the jail, but word of her incarceration had already reached her parents¡¯ ears long before she arrived home.
Her father had been in the process of summoning the entire Imperial Guard to storm the jail and put the fear of the Heavens in thew enforcers. Her abrupt arrival had dispelled most of her father¡¯s ire, and she had been whisked away to the back sitting room with her parents.
Seri had been snatched up by her grandfather, and Teilon and Kimberly had been escorted to Refix and Ameliyn¡¯s courtyard.
¡°That¡¯s not the point,¡± Kefira said. She wasn¡¯t backing down. ¡°It¡¯s yourissez faire attitude and refusal to acknowledge our rtionship publicly that has let this happen in the first ce. I¡¯m tired of it.¡±
¡°He has passed all of our little tests,¡± Ge said to his wife. ¡°I don¡¯t have any other questions about hispetency or morals.¡±
¡°Hmm, yes,¡± Silfa said, nodding her head. ¡°Then, we¡¯ll consider this thest test.¡± Silfa held up her hand to stop Kefira from interrupting. ¡°He¡¯s already said he would handle it, and I believe he will. If he cane out of thispletely unscathed without any support from us, I¡¯ll call an end to the games.¡±
¡°I¡¯m d you at least admit it,¡± Kefira muttered.
¡°Admit what?¡± Silfa tilted her head.
¡°That these ¡®tests¡¯ were nothing more than games.¡±
Silfa smiled.
¡°Of course they were,¡± Silfa said. ¡°I¡¯ve never actually cared about Reivyn¡¯s performance in any of his tests. I was just giving the two of you the time you needed to bepletely sure of your feelings for one another.
¡°Adrenaline and other chemicals from living through the events you and he did together could cloud your judgment. I was just giving your body time to flush all of those external emotions from your system so you could judge him with clear eyes.
¡°It¡¯s always been about what you wanted. If your love wasn¡¯t true, you would have realized by now, and you would be the one calling the rtionship off.¡±
Kefira stared at her mother with an open mouth for several seconds. She had never even considered the possibility that her mother was in fact testing her. It was hard to remain upset with her mother after the revtion, but she still frowned.
¡°Then thisst test?¡± She asked.
¡°It wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to make an announcement until he¡¯s navigated himself out of these muddy waters,¡± Silfa exined. ¡°And he, himself, is the one who set the conditions. Now we just have to sit back and enjoy the show of this final game.¡±
Silfa smiled sweetly at her daughter.
Chapter 248: Convicted
Chapter 248: Convicted
Reivyn read through the tome, a frown on his face. He flipped through the pages, but what stared back at him didn¡¯t seem to satisfy him.
I feel like there¡¯s something missing, he thought. It¡¯s just out of my reach, though. There¡¯s a ring hole in thews, but it¡¯s eluding me.
After bing a ¡°guest¡± at the jail, Reivyn had quickly been connected with Jekle. The man had proven invaluable in acquiring the various documents, books, and scrolls he needed to make sure his case was what he thought it was.
Reivyn was seated on one of the cots in a single jail cell. The gate to his cell was left open, though. He coulde and go as he pleased, and the jailers didn¡¯t interfere in his activities.
They still had a job to do, though, so all of the interactions with Jekle were held through the main gate at the processing room. If they needed to have some privacy or meet more directly, the jailers would simply open the gate and let Reivyn exit to use one of the side rooms.
Jekle was his number two officer with the mercenarypany, so while he did everything through the man, he wasn¡¯t the one who did all the running around. There was an entire squad made up of NCO¡¯s seeing to the tasks Jekle sent them through Reivyn.
The chain ofmand was important to keep intact. If Reivyn let it slip up while in garrison or even for these unusual circumstances, the order he had cultivated with his mercenarypany over time would slowly erode. It didn¡¯t seem like such a big deal on the surface, but it could lead to disciplinary problems in the future.
Reivyn flipped through the tome again, cross-referencing the pages he read with a separate book that wasposed entirely of an appendix on variousws and other legal matters.
I¡¯ve been through the Imperial Military Code backwards and forwards. It definitely says I can bring the charges I n on Oryin, but it isn¡¯t the coup de grace I initially thought it was. It should be, though. That¡¯s what¡¯s missing.I know it should be here, but I can¡¯t find it. Continuing to stare at the same pages for hours on end isn¡¯t going to get me anywhere, either. Let¡¯s think about this in a different way. I¡¯ll start with listing out the facts of the case.
Reivyn put aside his own personal opinions on the matter and began writing down all of the relevant facts surrounding the incidents. He listed such things as being in a militarypany attached to the Imperial Army through his connection with Kefira. They were in abat situation, and Reivyn was themander.
He listed all of the surrounding facts to the case before focusing his attention on Oryin.
So far, I¡¯ve only been focused on his actual actions. There are other facts to consider, though.
One of the documents Reivyn had requisitioned was a manifest of thended and unded nobles in the Imperial Capital. He had quickly found the Fowleu family way down the list as an unded baron family.
The main thing they had going for them was that it was a hereditary title. Many of the nobles who outranked their family were temporary positions of power. As such, they enjoyed a certain level of influence above their apparent grade.
Reivyn had followed the trails of the family and discovered what they had their hands in. The only thing significant to his case was Oryin being a disciple of the Court Magus and his uncle being a Lord Magistrate.
Reivyn listed down the relevant information.
Oryin: Second son of a Hereditary Unded Baron. Disciple of Court Magus Farril. On assignment to the Vairo frontlines under Princess Kefira. Confirmed a member of the military outfit under mymand.
Ok, this all checks out. I already knew he was under mymand. Kefira told me herself. What am I looking for¡
Reivyn tapped his chin in thought. He nced back and forth between the IMC and his notes.
Hmm¡ The only thing listed that isn¡¯t taken into ount is his status as a member of a noble family. The IMC is pretty distinct in that it doesn¡¯t address anything other than one¡¯s status as a member of the Imperial Army. There has to be something tying to the nobility. Most of the officers are nobles in one way or another.
Reivyn didn¡¯t find anything in the chapters relevant to his case about dealing with nobility. He flipped back to the front of the tome to inspect the table of contents to see if there was anything he had missed.
He opened the front of the book and scanned the various titles and chapters listed. He flipped the pages, not finding what he was looking for, until the table of contents came to an end.
Reivyn scratched his head. Thinking there might be something else he was missing, he turned one more page. He began reading the contents of the page and his frown turned into a smile.
¡°...Must be cross-referenced with the Code of Nobility,¡± he read out loud with a triumphant grin.
He leaped up from his position on his cot, ced the tome and notes aside, and made his way to the front of the jail.
Most of the cells in the front were left empty. Reivyn¡¯s position wasn¡¯t right at the front of the jail as he didn¡¯t want to have to constantly hear the jailers in the processing area, but it wasn¡¯t so deep that he had to deal with the noises caused by the prisoners located further in.
There were multipleyers to the jail that Reivyn could easily perceive with his Divine Sense, and he had finally gotten enough control and Skill Level over his Skill that he could relegate what he didn¡¯t want to intrude in his thoughts to his subconscious.
It was akin to hearing someone speak without listening to them. One could think about their own things and not really hear the information being conveyed to them, but certain keywords would still bypass into one¡¯s conscious thought and bring the sounds to the forefront.
To go with the multiple floors of the jail descending into the ground, there were also multiple guard stations. The most coveted position was the processing station on the first floor. It had the least amount of headaches dealing with problematic prisoners, and it was close to the surface. It was a mix of experienced jailers. The other floors were typically manned based on the jailer¡¯s Level,petency, and experience, with the older, more seasoned jailers guarding the lower floors.
Reivyn quickly walked to the front of the jail. The jailers immediately spotted him walking through the hall, but Reivyn shook his head to indicate he didn¡¯t need anything from them. Jekle was seated at a table nearby that had been set up for him, and he also spotted Reivyn right away.
Jekle got up and walked to the bars.
¡°Yes, sir?¡± Jekle asked.
¡°I need you to get me a copy of the Code of Nobility,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Umm,¡± one of the jailers lifted his hand in the background. Reivyn and Jekle both noticed and turned to the man. He shrank a little at the looks directed at him, but he quickly squared his shoulders.
¡°There¡¯s actually a copy of it in the Captain¡¯s office upstairs,¡± the man said. ¡°We don¡¯t usually deal with military personnel, but we all have to be familiar with the various minor nobility and how to treat them.¡±
Reivyn looked back at Jekle. Jekle simply nodded his head and motioned for one of the NCO¡¯s to take care of it. There was a group of them sitting off on their own, and they had perked up as soon as Reivyn had arrived, though they knew better than to intrude on the conversation.
¡°Also, have the items I requested from the Supply Officer arrived at the barracks?¡± Reivyn continued.
¡°Yes, sir,¡± Jekle answered. ¡°We¡¯ve already outfitted the First toon with the gear and they¡¯re ready to move at any time.¡±
¡°We still have some time before they need to make their move,¡± Reivyn replied. ¡°My arraignment isn¡¯t for another couple of days at nine in the morning. Order the men to make their move at seven.¡±
¡°Yes, sir.¡±
¡°That will be all for now. I¡¯lle back up in fifteen or twenty minutes to get that copy of the Code of Nobility.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head and walked back to his open cell. He still had a couple days before everything yed out. If the Code of Nobility held what he thought it did, then he was as ready as he could be to end Oryin¡¯s whole life and career.
Reivyn had a small smile on his face as he sat down to do some Meditation.
¡ª
The sun was still fairly low in the sky, having only risen a little under an hour ago, as Jekle led First toon through the streets of the inner city. The mercenary soldiers usually wore their own gear that was mostly simr to each other, but today they worepletely matching sets of armor. Each of the soldiers also had an armband tied to their biceps.
They didn¡¯t wield their typical armaments as they walked through the streets. They were only armed with their sidearms, but they still gave off an imposing figure as they Marched with military discipline.
Jekle marched the toon through the streets. They ignored the stares of the civilians walking along and gawking at them. In addition to wearing matching armor sets, Jekle carried a familiar baton and scroll in his arms.
They had scouted out the routes to take to and from their destination, so they quickly arrived at the House Fowleu. A pair of guards stood in front of the gates leading into the manorpound. They perked up as they saw the military procession approach them.
Jekle marched right up to the two guards.
¡°Halt! What business do you have here?¡± One of the guards eximed. He attempted to sound confident, but Jekle could see the sweat beading his brow.
Jekle shed a token which caused the faces of the two guards to pale before partially unfurling the scroll in his arms.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
¡°Official Imperial Army business,¡± Jekle intoned. ¡°Under the authority of Imperial Army Captain Reivyn, his subordinate, Mage Oryin, is to be escorted to the Military Tribunal to stand trial for his crimes.¡± Jekle let the scroll roll back up and looked at the guard who had spoken in the eye. ¡°Open the gates, now, or the entire Fowleupound will be surrounded and held ountable.¡±
The seneschal came hurrying out of the main door to the gate. He ignored Jekle and the soldiers lined up behind him.
¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this,¡± the seneschal addressed the guard at the gate.
¡°Sir, they have orders to bring Young Lord Oryin to a military tribunal,¡± the guard answered. His back straightened with the apparent source of authority there to support him.
The seneschal sneered as he looked up at Jekle. Before he could speak, though, the guard cleared his throat.
¡°He has the token of the Imperial Family in his possession, sir.¡±
The seneschal stopped with his mouth open. His eyes widened in surprise.
¡°I told you to open the gate,¡± Jekle growled. He made a gesture with his baton and all of the soldiers of First toon drew their arming swords in unison. They held them against their shoulders, but there was no mistake that they were ready to do violence at a moment¡¯s notice.
¡°If this gate isn¡¯t opened by the time I count to three,¡± Jekle looked each of them in the eye, ¡°you will die, and I¡¯ll still get through the gate. One.¡±
¡°Open the gate!¡± The seneschal shouted.
¡°Two.¡±
The first guard scrambled to open the gate as quickly as he could.
¡°Go inform the Lord Magistrate,¡± the seneschal turned to the other guard as he turned around to run back to the manor.
¡°Three,¡± Jekle said. He looked the open gates up and down before ncing at the guard. He pointed to the side. ¡°Stand over there.¡±
Without looking back, Jekle led the armed soldiers through the gate and marched right up to the manor door. As he ascended the steps, the door once more opened and a distinguished looking man stepped out. The seneschal was right behind him.
¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± The man asked. He held his head high and attempted to give off an imperious air.
Jekle had spent months in the presence of Reivyn and his Heroic Aura. He wasn¡¯t fazed in the least. He simply unfurled the scroll once more.
¡°Under the authority of Imperial Army Captain Reivyn, his subordinate, Mage Oryin, is to be escorted to the Military Tribunal to stand trial for his crimes,¡± Jekle repeated. ¡°This baton represents the authority of Imperial Army General Kayzor, the Third Imperial Prince. Disobeying the orders of this summons is disobeying the orders of the Imperial Family.¡±
Jekle read a little more from the scroll before letting it roll back up again. He looked up at the man standing at the top of the steps. He had deted from his imperious attitude earlier.
¡°Summon Oryin,¡± he turned his head to the seneschal. He spoke quietly in a defeated voice. He turned back to Jekle. ¡°Since when has this Adventurer Reivyn been an Imperial Army Captain?¡±
Jekle smiled tightly at the older gentleman.
¡°He¡¯s beenmissioned as an Imperial Army Officer for well over a year, at this point,¡± he answered. ¡°The mercenarypany he leads is legally designated as an Imperial Auxiliary Unit. We¡¯re officially part of the Imperial Army.¡±
The older man grit his teeth. Jekle could see that the news waspletely unexpected, and he guessed he had been told a different tale by his son.
Oryin was quickly brought to the front of the manor.
¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?!¡± He screamed in a shrill voice. ¡°I have rights! As a citizen and as a noble!¡±
Jekle shed forward and ced his baton on Oryin¡¯s shoulder. He gave the young man a hard look.
¡°Silence, prisoner!¡± He ordered. ¡°Your rights are limited in this situation. It will be exined to you at the Tribunal. For now, keep your mouth shut, and follow me. Any resistance will be dealt with quickly and harshly.¡±
Two of the NCO¡¯s stepped forward and ced Oryin in simr shackles that had been worn by Reivyn and the others a couple of days previously. Oryin stared open-mouthed down at his wrists before he was jolted forward by a hand grasping his arm.
Jekle turned to Oryin¡¯s father, the Lord Fowleu.
¡°The results of the Military Tribunal will be made public immediately after,¡± he said. ¡°It is not open to the public. Someone will inform you when it¡¯s over.¡±
With that, Jekle turned and led the First toon toward the jail.
¡ª
Reivyn stood in his cell. He wore his military uniform that had been picked up by one of the NCO¡¯s acting as errand runners. There was a small, individual desk to his side with the relevant documentsid before him. Everything had already been prepared beforehand, and only the actual trial needed to take ce.
He wasn¡¯t alone in his jail cell, either.
Kefira sat upon his cot. Seri stood to the side, though she wasn¡¯t armed. One of the jailers was seated at the end of the cell with a recording magical device.
Even the Imperial Family¡¯s bodyguards had to leave their weapons in the processing room on this side of the bars. The authority was derived directly from the emperor to curtail anyone trying to im exception to the rules.
They had already had a pleasant breakfast with each other and gone over the documents, so they were just waiting patiently for the guest of honor to arrive.
Amotion from the processing room reached their ears, and Reivyn saw Oryin being escorted in hand-irons through his Divine Sense.
¡°Here hees,¡± Reivyn said to Kefira with a smile.
¡°Finally,¡± Kefira said, rolling her eyes. ¡°You¡¯re in for a world of hurt from your mother once this is all over. She has not been pleased that her son has been ¡®locked up in jail¡¯ for several days.
¡°A word of advice: Tell her straight away that you weren¡¯t actually locked up in here. It will make her angry in the short-term, but if she finds outter and you didn¡¯t tell her, things will be much worse.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m going to tell my parents everything.¡±
¡°Good.¡±
Jekle walked into the room at the end of their conversation with Oryin in tow. There was a seat on the other side of Reivyn¡¯s desk, and Jekle plopped Oryin down in the seat.
Oryin tried to leap back up to his feet, but Jekle¡¯s hand held him in ce. He briefly looked up at Jekle with a murderous expression before facing Reivyn.
¡°Tell your goon to unhand me!¡± He shouted. ¡°You better be ready to face the consequences of this little scheme. You¡¯re head¡¯s already on the chopping block, and once my uncle learns of this, the de will surelye down.¡±
Reivyn didn¡¯t say anything. He just nced at Jekle. Jekle smacked Oryin in the back of the head.
¡°Silence, prisoner!¡± Jekle calmly said.
Oryin looked around at everyone in the cell in disbelief. He started to open his mouth again, but Jekle simply smacked him a second time. He grit his teeth and faced Kefira.
Kefira looked back at him with a deadpan look. She turned to Reivyn.
¡°Captain Reivyn, you may proceed,¡± she said.
¡°Thank you, Your Highness,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. He turned to Oryin. ¡°First, this is a Military Tribunal held for an incident that happened during abat situation during war time. As such, your rights are limited.
¡°You do not have the right to legal counsel. You do not have the right to discovery. You do not have the right to prepare a case at all. Thew is clear: A Military Tribunal covering abat situation during war time is held at themander¡¯s leisure, and it will be conducted forthwith.
¡°The same limitations are applied to the prosecutingmander. Themander is not allowed to assign the case to a legal representative. Themander is not allowed topile additional evidence other than what he himself has witnessed or what was originally provided by whomever is leveling the charges.
¡°The case will consist simply of the facts. The defendant is allowed to dispute any facts. Immediately after, themander¡¯s immediate superior will render judgment based entirely on their own interpretation of the facts and will issue a sentence based on the IMC and CoN.
¡°Do you understand?¡±
Oryin frowned.
¡°That¡¯s it?¡± He asked.
Reivyn turned to Kefira. Kefira nodded her head and turned to face the jailer recording the Tribunal.
¡°Let the record show that the defendant''s question indicates understanding,¡± she said.
¡°Wait, what?¡± Oryin asked, looking around at everyone present.
¡°Captain Reivyn, you may proceed,¡± Kefira said, ignoring Oryin.
Reivyn simplyid out the events that took ce in Vairo. Everyone in the room except for the jailer had been present, so there was no surprise on anyone¡¯s face other than the jailer. The jailer¡¯s eyes opened wide in disbelief as he stared at Oryin. He was only there to make sure the recording magical device was working, so he was free to observe everything at will.
None of the jailers had known exactly what was going on with all of the back and forth, but none of them had expected to hear such lunacy perpetrated by an esteemed disciple of the Court Magus.
After Reiynid out the facts of the case, Kefira held up her hand, forestalling Oryin from speaking.
¡°I was present for all of the incidents,¡± Kefira said. ¡°As such, none of the facts are in dispute. I will render a verdict.¡±
She looked at Oryin who was reeling with confusion and dismay.
¡°Mage Oryin, on the count of Insubordination, I find you guilty. On the count of Disrespect to a Superior Officer, I find you guilty. On the count of Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy, I find you guilty.
¡°Your sentencing will be based solely on the rules outlined in the IMC and CoN. For the count of Insubordination, you will be docked one month¡¯s pay. The pay will be set as the rank of a Second Lieutenant.
¡°For the count of Disrespect to a Superior Officer, you will be jailed for one month.
¡°For the count of Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy, you will be publicly flogged thirty times.¡±
¡°What?!¡± Oryin screamed. ¡°Jailed?! FLOGGED?!¡±
Jekl cuffed him in the back of the head once more.
¡°Are there any questions?¡± Kefira asked after Oryin had been silenced. ¡°Other than an emotional outburst?¡±
¡°Actually, there¡¯s a discrepancy in the sentencing,¡± Reivyn stepped forward.
Kefira frowned. Reivyn had not told her anything about there being a discrepancy beforehand.
¡°Are you sure?¡± She asked. She flipped to the relevant page in the IMC. ¡°It states right here, in as day, the offense of Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy will result in a public flogging of no more than fifty times.¡± She looked up at Reivyn. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m being too lenient?¡±
¡°Yes, Your Highness,¡± Reivyn nodded. Oryin red daggers at Reivyn, but Reivyn just ignored him. ¡°It¡¯s not because I believe the defendant deserves more strikes in the flogging, though. It¡¯s because there¡¯s an addendum regarding this matter in the Code of Nobility.
¡°I have the relevant passage marked for your perusal.¡±
Reivyn handed over the book containing the rules nobility were bound to uphold. Kefira epted the book and looked down at the marked passage. She read it outloud.
¡°¡®In the case of Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy, there are extenuating circumstances for the nobility,¡¯¡± she read. ¡°¡® If the infraction urs in the presence of their liege lord, the guilty noble shall receive double the punishment. If the infraction urs in the presence of a member of the Imperial Family, the guilty noble shall be sentenced to death.¡¯¡±
Silence took over the jail cell. Oryin¡¯s eyes nearly bugged out of his face. He spluttered, and it took him several seconds before he found his voice.
¡°I¡¯m to be sentenced to DEATH?!¡± He screamed. ¡°No! No, Noooooo!!¡±
He began to thrash, but he was bound by the magical shackles and his Stats and Skills were sealed. Jekle had no trouble holding him in ce.
Reivyn cleared his throat.
¡°There is onest stiption,¡± Reivyn said. Everyone looked at him. ¡°The Imperial Family can vacate a death sentence of a noble; however, the noble in question and three generations of his family shall be stripped of all official rank, title, and position. As Oryin is a member of thest generation, only his and his father¡¯s generation shall be affected.¡±
Kefira looked back to Oryin.
¡°Do you wish to vacate your death sentence¡¡± Kefira began.
¡°YES!¡± Oryin screamed, straining against Jekle¡¯s grip. ¡°Yes, vacate the death sentence.¡±
¡°Very well,¡± Kefira nodded. She turned to Seri. ¡°Go inform the jailers to locate Lord Magistrate Fowleu and have him attend to me. Send a military unit to the Fowleu manor and confiscate it, too.¡±
Seri nodded her head and stepped out of the cell to send the messages. Kefira turned to the jailer keeping the record.
¡°The Tribunal has concluded. Process the prisoner for his sentence.¡±
¡°Wait, what?¡± Oryin was thoroughly confused. He had been on the backfoot for quite some time and wasn¡¯t able to keep up with how quickly everything was proceeding.
Kefira shook her head.
¡°Only your death sentence was vacated. You still have to serve a month in jail as well as pay back a month¡¯s sry based on a Second Lieutenant¡¯s pay.¡±
Jekle hauled Oryin to his feet. The jailer packed up the magical recording device and stepped out into the hall. Jekle dragged a screaming Oryin behind the jailer.
Seri quickly returned to the cell. Reivyn, Kefira, and Seri didn¡¯t have to wait long before Lord Magistrate Fowleu was brought to them. He wasn¡¯t brought alone. Another one of the local magistrates followed him into the cell.
The unfamiliar magistrate nced at the three people waiting for them curiously. Kefira didn¡¯t wait for Lord Magistrate Fowleu to speak before she opened her mouth.
¡°Lord Magistrate. Your nephew was found guilty of Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy in the presence of a member of the Imperial Family. He was sentenced to death.¡±
Both magistrates¡¯ eyes opened wide in shock. Before they either could say anything, though, Kefira held up her hand and continued.
¡°The prisoner chose to plead for his sentence to be vacated. As such, in ordance with the Code of Nobility, he shall be spared at the expense of his three generations losing all official rank, title, and position. You are hereby stripped of your position as a Lord Magistrate. All of your cases shall be vacated to your colleagues.¡±
Before either of them could respond, Reivyn stepped forward and handed the other magistrate a piece of paper.
¡°I submit a motion to vacate the jurisdiction of my case to the military,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°As the alleged infraction urred during a military operation, you are only allowed to grant the motion per the IMC. My immediate superior shall take over the case.¡±
Reivyn nced at Kefira with a smile. She nodded.
¡°The case against Captain Reivyn is dismissed due tock of evidence,¡± she said.
Reivyn nced at the former Lord Magistrate who was standingpletely still, bewildered by what had just happened. Reivyn pped him on the shoulder and smiled at him.
¡°Have a pleasant morning, Mr. Fowleu.¡±
Chapter 249: Familial Love
Chapter 249: Familial Love
Reivyn stopped and looked up at the gates of the Imperial Pce. Kefira stopped next to him and looked up at him with a curious expression on her face.
¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± She asked.
¡°I have an ominous feeling,¡± Reivyn muttered. He tore his gaze away from the gates and gave Kefira a reassuring smile. ¡°I¡¯m just being silly. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s fine.¡±
¡°Mhm,¡± Kefira smirked. She knew exactly what he was talking about. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll be there with you.¡±
¡°Thanks.¡±
Reivyn took a deep breath and continued walking forward. The Imperial Guards at the gate saluted Kefira as they breached the gates. Everything was the same as he remembered it thest time he had been there.
Despite that, Reivyn could feel his heart hammering in his chest.
Kefira turned and indicated to Seri that she should go ahead and go about her day. She didn¡¯t need her shadow protecting her in her own home. Seri was always stoic in the presence of others, but that didn¡¯t mean she didn¡¯t have her own life and family. She nodded and happily waltzed away.
It was just Reivyn and Kefira.¡°So what have Teilon and Kimberly been up to these past couple of days?¡± Reivyn asked as they bypassed the main chambers located in the front of the pce. Kefira didn¡¯t need to report to her parents right away, so they moved straight toward the back where they could follow the path to where Refix and Ameliyn stayed.
¡°They¡¯ve been spending their time with the mercenary officers,¡± Kefira said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about them, they¡¯re in good hands. Just take some deep breaths and let¡¯s get this over with.¡±
Reivyn gave a tight smile and squeezed Kefira¡¯s hand. They walked hand-in-hand through the cultivated path leading to the guest courtyards.
Time marches on, and everything has to be faced eventually. In no time, Reivyn found himself walking through the doors to his parents¡¯ abode.
¡°Refix, dear, who¡¯s at the door?¡± Ameliyn called somewhere in the main house. ¡°I know it couldn¡¯t possibly be our son. He¡¯s got far too much important things to do than to spend a little time with his dear old mom.¡±
Refix looked up at Reivyn as he entered the building and gave him a wide grin.
¡°I don¡¯t know, honey,¡± he called back. ¡°Some stranger has graced us with his presence.¡± He turned to Reivyn and said in a much lower voice. ¡°Good luck.¡±
With that, Refix got up and bounded out the still open door.
¡°Wait, dad!¡± Reivyn turned and called after Refix, his hand extended toward his father. Refix didn¡¯t even slow down, and he disappeared out of sight.
Ameliyn came walking out of the hallway and stopped when she spotted Reivyn and Kefira standing in the open doorway.
¡°Kefira, dear, who¡¯s this that you¡¯ve brought to my home?¡± Ameliyn addressed Kefira. She didn¡¯t even spare a nce for Reivyn.
Reivyn took a deep breath and sighed. Kefira nced back and forth between Reivyn and his mother.
¡°You know who this is, mother,¡± Kefira answered in a weak voice.
Reivyn looked at Kefira in a bit of surprise. He had expected her to go along with his mother if out of nothing more than a little bit of fear, but she didn¡¯t back down. Granted, she didn¡¯t shout her support from the rooftops or anything, but that hardly mattered.
Ameliyn folded her arms and gave Kefira a stern look.
¡°Are you going to defend him, then?¡± She inquired.
¡°I will always stand by his side,¡± Kefira said, standing up straight.
Ameliyn stared at Kefira for a couple of seconds before breaking out into a warm smile.
¡°I knew I liked you,¡± she said. The smile dropped from her face as she finally looked at Reivyn. ¡°Well?¡±
¡°Hello, mother,¡± Reivyn said. He gave a quick bow with his words.
¡°Mother? Who¡¯s mother am I? Am I your mother?¡± Ameliyn demanded.
¡°Of course you¡¯re my mother!¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Really? I would think that any child of mine would have at least attempted to keep in contact with me while he was gone for months on end.¡±
¡°I wrote letters!¡± Reivyn defended himself.
¡°You call those letters?¡± Ameliyn barked a shortugh. ¡°They read more like tactical reports:
¡°They enemy have pushed us out of Piori. Their numbers are endless, and they don¡¯t seem to care for their own casualties.
¡°We fought a defensive action against them at the river. We held for as long as we could before we had to fight a tactical retreat and march further down the road.
¡°They send a sortie against us everyday. The fatigue is building up. I don¡¯t know how long we can sustain our position despite the Experience and Skill gains we¡¯re umting.¡±
Ameliyn tapped her finger against her arm as she stared Reivyn down. It had been a while since Reivyn had written those letters, but he was fairly positive those were exact quotes. There had been more to them than that, of course, but he didn¡¯t have much of an argument in his favor.
¡°Not once in any of those letters did you tell me that you were Okay,¡± Ameliyn added.
¡°I thought the letters themselves would imply that I was,¡± Reivyn answered sheepishly.
Ameliyn threw her arms up in the air.
¡°They only told me you weren¡¯t dead! I don¡¯t care about the military reports or how the war is going. I care about my baby! The only reason I kept my sanity was the letters your father wrote me. He knew better than to give me the details of the battles but leave out the details of how you all were living.¡±
Reivyn was distracted by the muffled chucklinging from beside him. He turned to see Kefira holding a hand over her mouth to prevent herself fromughing. She was failing.
¡°What?¡± Reivyn asked, furrowing his brow.
¡°You did not write your mother battle reports,¡± she said.
¡°He did,¡± Ameliyn confirmed.
¡°Well, what was I supposed to write?!¡± Reivyn threw his own hand up in the air. ¡°I figured what I wrote contained all the information needed to alleviate your worry. I told you about the progress of the fighting, and it implied I was doing fine and well.¡±
¡°I would have preferred to hear about your daily life,¡± Ameliyn said, her tone softening. ¡°I want to know what you¡¯re thinking. What you¡¯re feeling. Leave the details of the war to yourmanders. I want to know that you¡¯re not only physically safe, but mentally, emotionally, as well.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry, mother,¡± Reivyn hung his head.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Listening to the care and warmth in his mother¡¯s voice despite how mad she was at him made him realize just how lucky he was to have Ameliyn as his mother. He had only considered what he himself would have been interested in hearing, and he failed to give his mother thefort she needed.
¡°Come,¡± Ameliyn held her arms out.
Reivyn walked forward and embraced his mother.
¡°I¡¯m d you¡¯re back,¡± Ameliyn said into his ear. She pulled away and led him to the couch. ¡°Come. Sit. Talk.¡±
Reivyn nodded and sat down next to his mother. Kefira took a seat opposite them.
Ameliyn had already heard everything there was to hear from Refix and Kefira, but she demanded Reivyn retell it in his own words. Over the course of an hour, Reivyn told the story of his adventures in Vairo and Theyaih. Ameliyn managed to coax his emotions and state of mind out of him during each of the major incidents he faced.
He told of the exhaustion and drudgery involved with hunting down the spies in the terrible weather. Ameliyn dragged out of him the fact that he was worried he was growing too callous in how he handled human life, something Kefira had alluded to during the operation. He hadn¡¯t noticed it at the time, but Kefira had seen the signs and had been worried about him.
I have the nature of the Abyss in my soul and body, Reivyn thought. I need to keep a handle on it.
He exined how he had felt terror and despair upon fighting the huge, cloaked man in the Battle of Piori. He had been worried about his father¡¯s safety above all else, especially with more of the hooded figures standing just out of range of the fight.
Ameliyn had chuckled at hearing that.
¡°That¡¯s exactly what your father told me,¡± she said. ¡°Well, not exactly. He was worried about you, not himself.¡±
Reivyn cracked a smile at the words.
Reivyn described his feelings toward the young conscripts and how he felt it was his duty to guide and support them as much as he could. He hadn¡¯t been able to think about it too much as it happened, but he got a little choked up and tears threatened to spill out of the corners of his eyes as he thought about the dead conscripts.
Ameliyn reached out and hugged him. She rubbed his back andforted him.
¡°Shhh, there¡¯s only so much you could have done,¡± she whispered. ¡°You did everything you could. You were a light in the darkness for them for as long as you could be. You can¡¯t dwell on what more you could have done, but should instead focus on how many of them you were able to save by your actions.
¡°It¡¯s not that you didn¡¯t do enough. It¡¯s that it would have been a hundred times worse if you hadn¡¯t taken responsibility.¡±
¡°I understand that, logically,¡± Reivyn said, a small hitch in his voice. ¡°It doesn¡¯t change how I feel in my heart. They were just kids.¡±
¡°Reivyn, you¡¯re just a kid,¡± Ameliyn retorted. ¡°I don¡¯t care what experiences you¡¯ve had, or what memories you have from your dreams. You¡¯re still a teenager.¡±
¡°You and dad were teenagers when you fled Vynndin,¡± Reivyn pointed out.
¡°Yeah, but neither of us had to lead a war of children against a bloodthirsty adversary. All of our subordinates were much older and more experienced than us. We had people to lean on, not the other way around. And even then, I wouldn¡¯t wish that experience on anyone else.¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like we have a choice,¡± Reivyn sighed, pulling back from his mother. ¡°You and dad had your ordeal to deal with, and I¡¯ve had mine ever since going through that portal in the Revenant Dungeon. Come to think of it, both of those incidents were orchestrated by the same person¡¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. Your father and I haven¡¯t forgotten about him. He might be in an entirely different Realm than us right now, but we¡¯ll find him one day.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t doubt it,¡± Reivynughed.
¡°Ok, now tell me about your little vacation ind,¡± Ameliyn prodded.
Ameliyn was gravely concerned about the incident where Reivyn had seen the Tier 8 monster floating in the ocean. She continually asked if he had any lingering fears over it, but Reivyn reassured her that he was fine. It hadn¡¯t affected him over time.
Surprisingly, at least to Reivyn, he felt much better after delving into his own psyche and divulging how he had felt in each of the incidents. His mother¡¯sfort over the fallen conscripts had seemed to lift a weight from his shoulders that he hadn¡¯t noticed he¡¯d been carrying around.
¡°And now we get to the final crux of the matter,¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°Why in the world would you stay in that jail cell and note home to me right away?¡±
¡°I was still only thinking about myself,¡± Reivyn admitted. ¡°I assumed dad and Kefira telling you what was going on would be good enough. I¡¯ll do better in the future.¡±
¡°If I let you go,¡± Ameliyn muttered.
¡°What was that?¡± Reivyn asked. Reivyn had heard his mother clearly, but he yed along, anyway.
¡°Nothing,¡± Ameliyn replied with a smile. ¡°So¡¡± She motioned for Reivyn to continue his reasoning.
¡°Oryin had been a pain on multiple asions already,¡± Reivyn articted his thoughts. ¡°I knew that only total destruction would send him away for good, but that wasn¡¯t the entirety of my decision.
¡°Kefira¡¯s mother seems determined to keep ying games, and I don¡¯t know how many others are going toe out of the woodwork to scheme for Kefira¡¯s hand. Staying in the jail was sending a message to everyone else: ¡®I will take your n, fight it on your turf, and still turn it against you.¡¯
¡°It was a strategy to prepare for whatever future shenanigans Kefira¡¯s mother allows.¡±
Kefira cleared her throat, interrupting the conversation for the first time. Both Reivyn and Ameliyn nced over at her. Kefira had her head down and she fidgeted with her hands in herp.
¡°Umm, about that¡¡± Kefira said. She looked up at Reivyn with an apologetic look. ¡°There won¡¯t be any more games from my parents. My mother exined to me, in no uncertain terms, that the whole thing had just been to give us some time to verify our feelings for each other. She¡¯s willing to move forward and announce our rtionship publicly, now.¡±
Reivyn and Ameliyn stared at Kefira for a couple of seconds.
¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, it waspletely unnecessary for Reivyn to stay in that jail cell?¡± Ameliyn asked, quirking an eyebrow. Reivyn had a bad feeling. ¡°He could havee home at any time, and it wouldn¡¯t have affected his ns, at all?¡±
¡°Umm¡ yes?¡± Kefira said. It was more of a question than a statement.
Ameliyn leveled her gaze at her son. Reivyn pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut.
All of that progress¡
It was still going to be a long time before their conversation was over.
¡ª
Reivyn was put under house arrest.
He coulde and go freely, but he had to have a maternal escort for the foreseeable future. Ameliyn had spent years apart from her eldest son, and then he had almost immediately taken off to fight in some distant war as a mercenary.
Reivynpletely understood his mother. It would have been hard not to after she had talked his ears off about it.
It wasn¡¯t just his mother, either. His sisters had shown up shortly after, and he had to y the same song and dance again to regain their favor. They had missed their brother, and they didn¡¯t let him off lightly.
As it stood, if Reivyn wanted to go anywhere, he would have a trail of five women with him at all times: His mother, his twin sisters, Kefira, and Seri.
Kefira had her own things to do, but there wasn¡¯t much for Reivyn to do other than spend time with her, anyway, if he wanted to go out. He had been strictly barred from going to the mercenary barracks in the short term. They were perfectly capable of handling themselves without him for a while.
Vyria and Xudrid had sent a letter expressing their condolences that they wouldn¡¯t be able to apany him on onest Dungeon delve. They weren¡¯t about to get in between a mother and her son. They simply Partied up with some of the officers from the mercenarypany for their Dungeon delve before returning to their Sect.
Jekyl kept in touch about the matters going on in the barracks, but Ameliyn screened everything and didn¡¯t let Reivyn dwell on it. It was time for him to be with his family, not his work.
Reivyn didn¡¯tin, either. It had been a long time since he had just spent time with his family like this. Even before he had been whisked away across the Realm, he had been spending less and less time with his family. It was a good reminder for him, and he appreciated every moment of it.
Reivyn didn¡¯t waste his time with his personal growth during this time, either. He still did his evening practices with Kefira, and he contemted on his path forward. The two of them even shored up some of Ameliyn¡¯s foundations. She had neverpleted her formal training, and some of the exercises Kefira introduced let her advance at a rate she hadn¡¯t seen in a long time.
Reivyn was happy for his mother. Refix had been pulling away from her in terms of Level and Skill for some time after he and his sisters had been born, but from what Reivyn could see, his mother was actually a bit more talented than his father.
It might have been because his father was already over Skill Level 100 in his main Skill and closing in on Tier 6, but he had no doubts that his mother would eventually catch up to his father again.
He still remembered how devastating her Spells had been on the battlefield in Magron. She had been the lowest Leveled of all those that hade to their rescue, and yet she had done more for the battle than anyone else.
It made him re-evaluate his own progress with his magic.
¡°It¡¯s a matter of experience,¡± Ameliyn answered. ¡°I haven¡¯t achieved Transcendence in any of my Affinities like you have, yet, and I would guess your technical skills are probably as good or better than mine at this point.
¡°None of that matters, though, when I¡¯ve been using these Spells and magics for far longer than you at a higher Level. Of course you¡¯re going to outss someone who¡¯s spent decades in Tier 2 and 3 from the lower Regions. I¡¯ve actually had to fight above my weight ss consistently, though, for almost my entire adult life.
¡°You also have to consider the fact that I¡¯m mostly using my Tier 4 Affinities with all of my Spells. You¡¯re still building your foundation and focusing more on the lower Tier Affinities. Eventually, the difference in potency will be apparent.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t worry about it too much. Just keep going how you¡¯re going, and refine your Skills and Spells over time. Pretty soon, you¡¯ll be on par with me.¡±
Reivyn had nodded his head, reassured, and continued his training. He had a clear idea on what he wanted to work on while in Tier 3. He didn¡¯t have a mapid out for him on how to achieve the pinnacle Tier 4 ss, but he hadn¡¯t had a map for his Tier 3 ss, either.
Reivyn was confident he would continue his path with the strongest sses in the future. With that confidence in mind and his n of action determined, he looked at his bloated Status Page.
It¡¯s time to figure out how to consolidate you.
Chapter 250: Prodigy
Chapter 250: Prodigy
¡°So what was it you wanted to talk about?¡± Ameliyn asked, sitting down between Kailey and Riley.
Refix stood behind the three girls as Reivyn took a seat across from them.
¡°Well, I already exined it to dad, but I wanted to let you know before Ipletely forgot about it,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°It has to do with my past life.¡±
¡°Uh huh,¡± Ameliyn nodded and motioned for him to continue.
¡°Wait!¡± Kailey sat up straight, holding her hand out.
¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Riley mimicked her sister¡¯s movements on the other side of her mother.
Ameliyn nced at the two girls in confusion for a second beforeprehension came over her face.
¡°Oh yeah, you don¡¯t know about your brother¡¯s memories,¡± she said.
¡°Memories?¡± Kailey asked.¡°Of a past life?¡± Riley said.
¡°Well, more like dreams,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°There¡¯s a Skill and everything. It¡¯s called Dreams of the Past.¡± He gave a little shrug.
¡°You¡¯re going to have to do better than that,¡± Kailey said, rolling her eyes.
¡°How long have you two known about this?¡± Riley looked at her parents suspiciously.
¡°I don¡¯t know. A couple of years?¡± Ameliyn looked back at Refix for confirmation.
¡°We¡¯ve always known that something was up with Reivyn,¡± Refix reminisced. ¡°He¡¯s always been just a bit too mature. Just a bit too knowing for his age. But we didn¡¯t know for sure what exactly it was until not that long ago.¡± Kailey and Riley gave him a deadpan look. ¡°Rtively,¡± he amended.
¡°I¡¯ve had snippets of dreams all my life,¡± Reivyn rified. ¡°They were strange and I didn¡¯t fully understand them for a long time. I didn¡¯te to grips with the truth myself until recently, epting them for what they are.
¡°Basically, I have vague recollections of my life as a different person in a different world. I had a wife and kids and everything.¡±
¡°Does Kefira know about that?¡± Kailey asked with a slight smirk.
¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯s thrilled about that,¡± Riley added.
¡°She does know,¡± Reivyn nodded his head.
¡°So what? You were just not going to tell us?¡± Kailey crossed her arms and red at her brother.
¡°So we¡¯re thest ones to know? Who doesn¡¯t know at this point?¡± Riley threw her arms in the air.
¡°You¡¯re not thest ones to know,¡± Reivyn tried to calm his sisters down. ¡°Just our parents and Kefira. Well, Seri probably knows, but that¡¯s just because she never leaves Kefira¡¯s side.¡± Reivyn waved his arms in front of himself. ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter.
¡°We weren¡¯t intentionally keeping it from you. For a long time, the two of you were too young to have this conversation, and there hasn¡¯t really been a good opportunity to have it since you¡¯ve been old enough. I guess we kind of forgot that you didn¡¯t know.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t fret, sweeties,¡± Ameliyn patted her girls¡¯ hands infort. ¡°Your brother is still your brother. He¡¯s not some other person wearing his body.¡±
A slight tension left Reivyn¡¯s sisters shoulders. Reivyn¡¯s eyes widened in understanding and he quickly rified for the two of them.
¡°It¡¯s not a possession,¡± he said. ¡°As far as I know, it¡¯s reincarnation. We already know that the sparks floating outside the Realms are souls. Usually, the memories of one¡¯s past life are wiped out before being born again. We don¡¯t know why, but for some reason, some of them simply lingered for me.
¡°I¡¯m still me.¡±
¡°Better be,¡± Kailey muttered.
¡°Good,¡± Riley echoed.
¡°Anyway,¡± Ameliyn nced back at Reivyn. ¡°What is it about your past life you wanted to share?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not really about my past life,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s tangential. I discovered an interesting thing while we were in Theyaih. Honestly, I should have realized it sooner, but I had never thought to ask about the name of our Local Group before.¡±
¡°It¡¯s Terran Three,¡± Kailey piped up.
¡°Even we know that,¡± Riley snickered.
¡°Yes, well,¡± Reivyn coughed into his hand to hide his embarrassment. ¡°Anyway, that alone might not have been enough to trigger anything, though it likely would have, but hearing the name of the adjacent Local Group connected through Theyaih really hit the nail on the head.
¡°The other Local Group is called Orion Six.¡±
The three girls just looked at Reivyn, waiting for him to reveal the mystery. Refix just smiled.
¡°Is that it?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°Do those words mean anything to you?¡± Reivyn asked back.
¡°No,¡± Kailey shook her head.
¡°They¡¯re just sounds, like any other city name,¡± Riley shrugged.
¡°Wrong,¡± Reivyn shook his own head. ¡°Terran means Earth, and three is the number three. Orion was the name of a constetion, and six is the number six. Those words are English, which is thenguage my past self spoke.¡±
¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, you¡¯re not the only one who remembers their past life?¡± Ameliyn quirked an eyebrow at Reivyn.
Reivyn shook his head.
¡°That¡¯s not it at all,¡± he said. ¡°Think about it. How long have people been living in these Local Groups?¡±
¡°Millions of years,¡± Ameliyn said.
¡°And in all that time, it¡¯s been named Terran Three, right?¡±
¡°I think I¡¯m starting to see what you¡¯re getting at,¡± Ameliyn nodded.
¡°What?¡± Kailey/Riley asked, looking back and forth between Reivyn and Ameliyn.
¡°Not only that, but it wouldn¡¯t have just been one person naming the Local Groups,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°It would have been agreed upon by everyone. There had to have been a huge number of people who all spoke the samenguage.¡±
¡°So you¡¯re saying there was a gathering of people who all remembered their past lives?¡± Key asked, tilting her head.
¡°That must have been difficult for them all toe together,¡± Riley said.
¡°Not unless they all came together,¡± Reivyn said. The two girls frowned, not understanding what he meant. ¡°I¡¯m saying they weren¡¯t born here with their memories. They came here from Earth.¡±
¡°Oooh, I see,¡± Kailey nodded her head. ¡°But¡¡±
¡°So what?¡± Riley asked.
Reivyn was taken aback.
¡°Excuse me?¡±
¡°Why does it matter?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°Are you nning on finding a way back to your past life¡¯s home?¡± Riley added.
¡°Well¡ no,¡± Reivyn admitted.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
¡°Does this information solve some sort of problem?¡± Kailey continued.
¡°Is it important?¡± Riley added.
¡°I just thought it was interesting?¡± Reivyn nced back and forth between the two girls. He looked at his mother, but she just had an amused expression on her face. Refix was openly grinning at him.
¡°Look, I just wanted to share the information with you all,¡± Reivyn said in exasperation. ¡°And you needed to know about my past life for the context. It may or may not be important, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m not looking for a way back or anything, and even if I found one, I wouldn¡¯t go. There might not be an easy way to get back, after all.
¡°It¡¯s just an interesting piece of information that might have a bearing on the truth of our past.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure the events of millions of years ago will have much bearing on today,¡± Kailey was unimpressed.
¡°The war with the Abyss was only several hundred thousand years ago,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°There might have been reasons from even earlier that were the cause. It might have relevance.
¡°Plus, the instigator of the Vynn Dungeon Breaks told me straight up that he ns on starting another war between our Realms.¡±
Kailey and Riley stared at Reivyn with wide eyes for several seconds.
¡°You go on and on about this connection to your past life¡¯s world, but you didn¡¯t think to inform us about this?!¡± Kailey asked.
¡°What are we doing? Don¡¯t we need to prepare for something like this?¡± Riley asked. ¡°Have you told anyone else about this?¡±
¡°That¡¯s one of the reasons I decided to start the mercenarypany,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°And the reason I suggested Wispan involve themselves so heavily in the wars. In the short-term, it will help prepare them in case the local enemies decide to invade. In the long-term, it will prepare us for any future Realm wars.
¡°I don¡¯t have the power or reputation to do more than that.¡±
¡°Did it ever ur to you that¡¯s what the invaders are doing?¡± Kailey asked.
Reivyn opened his mouth and raised a finger to reply. He stopped and closed his mouth as the thought fully circted in his mind. He looked up at Refix who had a surprised expression on his face.
¡°Wow,¡± he eximed. ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought of that.¡±
¡°Hmm, it¡¯s possible,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Though considering their actions and some of the other things going on in the Region, if they are doing that, it¡¯s only for themselves. They¡¯re not helping us build up our own strength.¡±
¡°Still,¡± Kailey shrugged.
¡°It¡¯s something to consider,¡± Riley ended.
¡°Yeah, it is,¡± Reivyn agreed. ¡°I¡¯ll have to ry that idea to Kefira and her family. I¡¯m not sure what else we can do at this point.
¡°Anyway,¡± Reivyn sat back and looked at his family, ¡°I just wanted to share that little snippet of information with everyone.¡±
¡°Thank you, Reivyn,¡± Ameliyn said with a smile. ¡°It mighte in handy one day to have that knowledge in the back of our minds. Do you have anything else nned for the rest of the day?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not nning on going out, if that¡¯s what you mean,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Yay!¡± Kailey jumped up.
¡°Time to y!¡± Riley followed her sister.
The two of them ran out of the house in short order. Reivyn chuckled.
¡°I still have a bit of thinking and meditating on my n to consolidate my Skills, but I think I¡¯m getting close,¡± Reivyn continued. ¡°I¡¯ll need dad¡¯s help with some of it when I¡¯m ready.¡±
¡°I¡¯m avable whenever you need me,¡± Refix said.
¡°Okay. Well, we won¡¯t keep you,¡± Ameliyn smiled at her son.
Reivyn smiled as he stood up. He walked over and gave his mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He waved to his dad as he made his way to the stairs to go to his room. He still had a spot in one of the guest houses in Kefira¡¯se courtyard, but he was spending his time with his family.
It had been a long time since his mother had as much influence over his life and schedule, but he had volunteered for it. He didn¡¯t feel suffocated or anything like that. He knew it was only temporary and he would resume his post as the head of his mercenarypany soon. In the meantime, he willingly shackled himself to just his identity as his mother¡¯s son and his sisters¡¯ brother.
He loved his family, and they deserved to have some of his uninterrupted time.
Reivyn made his way to his room and sat on his bed. He entered a Meditative state and once again contemted his path to consolidating his Skills.
¡ª
Reivyn stood across from his father in the training area of their courtyard. He was wearing his heavy armor with his shield, and he held his sword at the ready. Refix held his own sword at the ready in front of him.
¡°Are you sure you need a sword for this?¡± Refix quirked an eyebrow at his son.
¡°If everything can be a weapon, why can¡¯t everything be a shield?¡± Reivyn asked back. ¡°Parrying is a thing.¡±
Refix shrugged his shoulders, conceding the point.
Without further ado, heunched himself at his son. Reivyn sunk into the rhythm of the fight. He only focused on defending himself, though.
The first step Reivyn hade up with was treating his heavy armor like it was medium or even light armor. His incredible Physical Stats were both a boon and a hindrance in this. He had long grown strong enough that the heavy armor didn¡¯t put any strain on his body, but that made it difficult to envision it as the different type of armor.
To that end, he had borrowed a pair of the prisoner shackles to restrict his Stats. Refix was likewise shackled, and they two were focusing purely on their Skills. Even with their Stats and active Skills restricted, their sparring match was a sight to behold.
Their Transcendence abilities with their weapons bled over to their entire being when they fought. It wasn¡¯t just how well they were able to use their weapons, but how they moved and anticipated the flow of the battle.
Reivyn¡¯s Meditation Skill wasn¡¯t high enough that he could use it while fighting, but he had made enough strides in the Skill and being more active while using it that he could sink into a quasi state. He was able to focus his attention on a specific task and drown out everything else. Tunnel-vision was often a bad thing, but in this specific circumstance, it was exactly what he wanted.
Reivyn tried to incorporate his ideal that everything was a weapon into everything was armor. The function of his armor was to protect himself from harm. Likewise, dodging, evading, parrying, and blocking were all forms of protecting himself from harm. He sunk into a state where even his breathing was used in his dance to avoid his father¡¯s strikes.
Refix thrust forward with his sword and Reivyn spun aside in his intricate movements. The sword brushed against his stomach as Reivyn breathed in, bringing his chest up and stomach back as he took a deep breath, causing the sword to miss him by a hair¡¯s breadth. If he hadn¡¯t timed his breath perfectly, the sword would have sliced a long line across his midsection.
Reivyn batted his father¡¯s weapon aside with his own, parrying the strike away. His father was slightly overextended, and it would have been a great opportunity for a counter-attack, but that wasn¡¯t the point of the sparring session.
The two of them reset their stances and continued the match. Reivyn fell more and more into the rhythm with his Dancing Skill incorporated into this style. His mind was hyper-focused, but his body also seemed to aid him on its own.
Drawing inspiration from something he had done with Teilon previously, Reivyn danced them around the yard and actively used the terrain in an attempt to obstruct his father¡¯s attacks. Little pebbles and indentations in the ground were used to slightly alter the trajectory of Refix¡¯s attacks. His father was far too Skilled to allow himself to be tripped up, but the little tricks did cause slight variations in the height and positioning of his strikes that Reivyn took advantage of.
Everything is a shield, Reivyn repeated in his mind.
Even the terrain itself was something to be used in his favor.
A moment of epiphany struck Reivyn as his father once more slightly overextended. Instead of parrying the strike away after dodging, Reivyn bullied his body up against his father¡¯s and twirled around him. Refix was surprised by the sudden maneuver, and he ended up getting his own feet tangled together.
It didn¡¯t cause Refix to trip or fall, and the dy in recovering his stance was only a fraction of a second, but it was significant in the context of their spar. Such a blunder in an actual fight could have been fatal.
The culmination of Reivyn¡¯s maneuvers and understanding of how to defend himself using all of the methods avable to him coalesced together. He felt the ambient Mana gather. A part of his soul could feel the System descend.
A loud, resounding bell sounded in his mind. Achievement! You have learned to defend yourself using a wide variety of means. It doesn¡¯t matter what form of protection it is as long as it serves the purpose of preventing harm. It is you yourself that is important.
Skills Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields, Evasion, and Danger Sense have merged. Skills synergized with Athletics, Bnce, Dancing, Acrobatics, Ambidexterity, Pain Resistance, Battlefield Awareness, Blind Fighting, Mana Shield, Poison Resistance, and Spatial Awareness.
The Path has already been set. New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 5:
Protection Prodigy (68)
Further Synergy has been detected between Skills.
Insufficient Skill/Enlightenment.
Refix stood to the side watching Reivyn. He had immediately stopped the sparring session as soon as he noticed his son¡¯s concentration get pulled from the match. He was obviously focused on a System Notification. He waited until Reivyn seemed to dismiss the notice with a slight frown.
¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Refix inquired. ¡°Did it not work out the way you hoped?¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s not that,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°It just seems too¡ simple? It¡¯s also the first time I¡¯ve seen the term ¡®enlightenment¡¯ in the System. I¡¯m trying to figure out what it means in context.¡±
¡°Well, I could guess what the System means by ¡®enlightenment,¡¯ but considering you mentioned the context of it, we¡¯ll have to talk about that further.
¡°And simple?¡± Refix quirked an eyebrow in confusion. ¡°The process of sessfullybining your defensive Skills together was too simple? I mean, if you seeded so quickly, I can see how you would think that, but you had a very deep foundation to begin with.¡±
¡°No, no, no,¡± Reivyn waved his hands in denial. ¡°Not that. The name of the Skill seems too simple. All of my Skillsbined, and they synergized together with a whole bunch of others to form a Skill called Protection Prodigy. What¡¯s that? Protection Prodigy?¡±
Refix burst outughing.
¡°Son, of course it¡¯s simple!¡± He chuckled. ¡°What¡¯s the name of your other Skill?¡±
¡°Weapons Master.¡±
¡°Exactly. What could be more simple than that. It¡¯s a return to form. Tooplicated of a Skill name would be too specific. A consolidated Skill epasses a huge range. Protection seems about right to me.¡±
¡°Yeah, I guess. It just feels a tad anti-climactic.¡±
¡°Look at this kid. Not satisfied with the naming sense of the System documenting his aplishments. You realized you¡¯ve gone a step further than me, now? I haven¡¯t merged my defensive Skills, yet.¡±
¡°Reall?¡± Reivyn looked at his father in surprise. ¡°Why not? Knowing you and what you know, it seems like something you would have done a long time ago.¡±
¡°Eh, I was too focused on merging my offensive Skills, then I was too proud of myself for doing so, then I didn¡¯t have the time.¡±
¡°Well, what¡¯s stopping you now?¡±
Refix smiled at his son and reset his stance.
¡°Nothing.¡±
Reivyn grinned as he tossed his shield aside, getting into a ready stance himself.
Chapter 251: Super Secret
Chapter 251: Super Secret
Reivyn carefully set one foot in front of the other. He leverage every muscle in his body to ensure that not only was his step silent, but that it was as steady as possible. The ground was quite soft, but he didn¡¯t sink down into the dirt as he made his way across the open field.
The moon and stars illuminated the surroundings as Reivyn skulked through the tall grass. He moved with purpose, but he didn¡¯t rush. If he moved too quickly, not only would the rustle of the grass possibly give him away, but even the movement of the stalks would be noticeable to anyone paying careful attention.
He was dressed in a new outfit that his sisters had graciously provided for him for the excursion.
More like forced on me, Reivyn mentally chuckled.
They had insisted that he participate in their endeavors during his time away from his own work. He had only ever really seen their finished products before, so it was a new experience for him to witness the creation of their crafts.
Even though it was the middle of the night, the clothes that he was wearing weren''t just straight ck. He didn¡¯t understand how his sisters had done it, but his outfit was a masterpiece that tapped into his Camouge Skill. He nced down briefly and made note of the imperceptibly shifting patterns designed to break up the outline of a human body.
The Super Secret Sneak Snug, as dubbed by his sisters - Reivyn rolled his eyes at their naming sense - wasposed of geometric shapes and patterns that could slowly be moved about ording to the wearer¡¯s will. One¡¯s own Camouge Skill determined how well one could utilize the function, and it could even slowly change color over a long period of time.
It wouldn¡¯t make him invisible or instantly blend into his environment. It wasn¡¯t invisibility or even a chameleon effect. It simply had great utility in that it could adapt to any environment with proper preparation.
The default coloring had been designed for the local fauna, so he didn¡¯t have to worry about waiting for it to adapt, anyway.Reivyn crouched with his eyesight just above the top of the tall grass and inspected his destination. A pair of guards stood vigntly in front of his goal. There was a long building housing his objective. Two guards stood at either entrance, and there were two other guards walking about on random patrol.
The two patrolling guards weren¡¯t strictly on guard duty, though. asionally, they would stop and take care of a small issue that they identified. Their purpose was more multifaceted than simply being extra eyes at night.
Another individual walked down the path leading to the long hut and the two guards snapped to attention. They were just outside of his Divine Sense, and they spoke quietly enough that he couldn¡¯t make out the words, but Reivyn didn¡¯t need to hear it to know what it was. One of the guards was reporting their post to a superior.
A soft crashing sound next to him brought him out of his observation of the distant guards. His head was poking above the grass, so any swift movements had the possibility of giving his position away, so he slowly turned his head and stared at the offender with an incredulous stare.
Kailey picked herself up next to Reivyn with Riley¡¯s assistance. They moved fairly slowly as they assumed a crouch next to him, but they were still extremely loud to Reivyn¡¯s senses.
The pair of twins were likewise dressed in their own Super Secret Sneak Snugs, and Reivyn had taught them how to apply pattern-breaking shade to their faces. ck, brown, and dark green streaks marred their faces. Even with their own budding Camouge Skill and sneaky clothing, nothing could hide from his Divine Sense. His Skill was simply overpowered.
¡°Way to go Kailey,¡± Riley snarked, whispering to her sister. ¡°Why not just announce ourselves?¡±
Reivyn¡¯s eyes shifted from Kailey to her sister and red at her. Kailey and Riley didn¡¯t notice the baleful look Reivyn directed at them right away.
¡°Like you¡¯re any better,¡± Kailey huffed. ¡°I only fell over because you tripped into me!¡±
¡°Did not!¡±
¡°And I felt like I was on the verge of unlocking a Skill, too¡±
¡°Don¡¯t me your shortfall on me,¡± Riley crossed her arms and turned her head. She happened to turn in the direction of Reivyn and froze upon seeing the look on his face.
¡°That wasn¡¯t my point,¡± Kailey shook her head. She paused as she noticed her sister¡¯s unusual behavior. She turned in the direction her sister was looking and subsequently froze as well. The two girls, as if by some unseen signal, sped their hands over their mouths.
It wasn¡¯t just the twins insisting on Reivyn joining them in their own ss training. They demanded he bring them along on his exercise in trying tobine his Stealth Skills together. He was still on his ¡°vacation,¡± after all.
Reivyn stared at his sisters for another couple of seconds before slowly turning his gaze back to the sentries. The supervising sergeant had moved on by that time, but it appeared their own conversation had prevented them from hearing the whispers of the girls.
Reivyn observed the two sentries standing in front of the hut as well as the two randomly walking around the area. He contemted on how he was going to get not only himself but his sisters inside their goal
This is going to be a problem, he thought, not for the first time.
He slowly turned his head back to look at his sisters as he contemted the situation. He wracked his brain for any solution he could think to ovee the problem.
They just don¡¯t have the Skills or the Stats, Reivyn thought. A light seemed to go off in his head as he put the root of the problem into words. Skills and Stats! Of course. Why didn¡¯t I think of it sooner?
Reivyn had nearly forgotten about the technique he had stolen from the invading assassins months ago. He hadn¡¯t been practicing it, and there was no Skill associated with it. That didn¡¯t mean he wouldn¡¯t be able to use it, though.
Reivyn closed his eyes as he recalled the sensation and workings of the Mana tether that hadbined the group¡¯s Stats and Skills together to make them more formidable. It was simr to how a group-Shield Skill worked, but it was more focused. If a group-Shield was everyone expelling their Mana into a wide sheet in front of themselves, the link was a conduit that reinforced one¡¯s being.
He visualized and weaved his Mana. Applying knots, weaves, and patterns to his Mana was second-nature to Reivyn. He figured that his ability to do so was still not on the same level as his mother¡¯s from the context of their conversation on the matter, but he could do an adequate job instantly.
He extended a tendril of Mana toward both sisters and connected his own core to theirs. He wasn¡¯t finished with just connecting himself, though, and he coaxed their Mana out of their cores and guided it together to create a third link in the group. A triangle of Mana connected the three of them together.
Kailey and Riley¡¯s eyes opened wide, and they both jerked back simultaneously. The movement was orders of magnitude faster and more forceful than anything they were used to, but Reivyn had been prepared for just such a reaction.
Air Mana sprang up behind them and cushioned them. It not only protected them from themselves, but it also prevented them from jerking away too far, risking getting caught by the vignt sentries.
Reivyn knew the girls would need to limate to their enhanced Stats. This was really something he should have thought of before they attempted to infiltrate a secure location, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
He continued the Air Mana and created a small bubble around themselves. He didn¡¯t want to use too much Mana in case someone in the hut, either the sentries or anyone else, had Mana Sight and could see the sudden outburst of Mana.
It had the intended effect, though, as it prevented sound from carrying. The ambient sounds they had grown used to quieted down until they were in their own little bubble of silence.
The two girls had Sense Mana at least. Reivyn wasn¡¯t sure if they had unlocked Mana Sight yet or not, but they still immediately noticed the bubble of Air Mana surrounding them.
¡°What is this?!¡± Kailey asked, eyes wide.
¡°I feel like I could run a thousand miles in a day!¡± Riley echoed.
The two girls went about inspecting themselves and moving their bodies around to feel the difference.
¡°It¡¯s not your own strength,¡± Reivyn quietly exined. ¡°We¡¯ve shared our Stats and Skill together to bring you up to apetent level, but you¡¯ll need time to get used to it. I¡¯ve also never used this ability on anyone with such a drastic difference in Stats before. I¡¯m afraid it might have negative side-effects on your bodies if you strain too much or for too long.¡±
Kailey and Riley stopped their movements and gave their brother a thoughtful look.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition.
¡°We¡¯re not going to do any kind of stressful movements until we understand the consequences better,¡± Reivyn continued. ¡°I¡¯ve only brought you up a bit so that you can follow me to the destination. We¡¯ll be walking at the same speed and trying to be as sneaky as possible.
¡°If we get spotted by the sentries, don¡¯t try to escape. Just give yourselves up like you were told at the beginning.¡±
¡°We understand,¡± Kailey nodded.
¡°We still have the same mission and rules,¡± Riley echoed.
¡°Good,¡± Reivyn was satisfied. ¡°Take a couple of minutes to get used to the feeling of your enhanced Stats. Kailey said she felt like she was on the verge of unlocking a Skill, so you can also take the time to feel it out and try to unlock it for yourselves as well. I don¡¯t know how well sharing a Skill you don¡¯t have will work for you, but it should provide at least some sort of change.¡±
The two girls nodded and got to work. They didn¡¯t want to hold their brother back too much despite insisting oning when they knew they didn¡¯t have the prerequisite Skillset to keep up with him. The rule that they weren¡¯t to try and escape but simply give up if they were spotted had been set exactly because nobody expected them to seed. The regr soldiers didn¡¯t know who they were, but the officers did. Reivyn didn¡¯t want to endanger his sisters with overzealous sentries if they tried to flee. If they were spotted, they were to simply wait for one of the higher-ranked soldiers to arrive on scene and identify them.
The trio were trying to sneak into one of the field barracks of the mercenary trainees. Reivyn had informed Jeckle of his intentions, and the other officers and staff NCO¡¯s knew that Reivyn was going to be working on his Stealth Skills, but none of the NCO¡¯s or trainees knew about it. It would have defeated the purpose if they weren¡¯t acting exactly like they normally would.
Reivyn waited as his sisters duck-walked around in circles and moved their arms and fingers about to get used to their increased Physical Stats. They moved about for about ten minutes, and Reivyn was about to remind them they needed to get going when they both stopped and shared a grin between each other. They both looked at Reivyn.
¡°I unlocked two new Skills!¡± Kailey eximed.
¡°Silent Step and Sure Step!¡± Riley confirmed.
Reivyn smiled back at his sisters.
¡°Great job!¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°Now it¡¯s time to move ahead with the n.¡±
Reivyn dispelled the Air Mana bubble and took another peek at the sentries. Nothing had changed with them, so he squatted back down below the grass line. The three of them slowly made their way toward the nearby hut.
The location Reivyn had decided to infiltrate was one of the barracks¡¯ the mercenaries and trainees used while performing field exercises. They didn¡¯t always camp out in tents while in the field. In fact, it was more likely than not that they would have some sort of permanent structure to base out of whenever they deployed. Setting up camps and bivouacs was still an important skill, but it wasn¡¯t stressed as heavily as thebat functions.
There were three long huts, but there were only sentries assigned to one of them. The mercenarypany wasn¡¯trge enough that they needed more. There was currently only one toon of trainees practicing their field exercises at the moment.
The toon of trainees hadpleted their initial recruit training and assessment, but they didn¡¯t have any actual experience, yet. Reivyn and the other officers had determined to refer to the mercenaries in each stage differently.
Those performing their recruit training and assessment were called Recruits. Graduates who hadn¡¯t deployed were called Trainees. Only those that had a deployment under their belt were officially referred to as Mercenaries. That included during the deployment, so as soon as a Trainee left for their first deployment, they were considered an official Mercenary in theirpany.
The naming structure wasn¡¯t designed solely to separate each group. It had an actual function. When discussing the groups of soldiers under theirmand, one could identify the level of experience immediately upon their designation.
All of the Adventurers who had participated in the Drallo Campaign were automatically deemed as Mercenaries. They had already performed as a military unit. They had earned it. It was important to make that designation as several of them had stayed behind to continue running thepany and conduct training while the mainpany had been deployed to Vairo.
The three duck-walked through the tall grass until they reached the dirt path leading to the front of the long hut. They were off to the side a little ways, and they would need to cross the short open ground where they were exposed. Reivyn could have moved them further away where the chances of being spotted were negligible, but the entire purpose was to sneak around without getting caught. The process was the goal, not actually getting inside the hut.
There was literally nothing for them to do inside the hut. They were simply trying to get past the sentries and gain entry before leaving the way they hade.
Reivyn was able to see the interior of the hut with his Divine Sense. The toon was asleep except for the six standing watch. Two sentries on either end plus the two roamers. It was referred to as Fire Watch, and they would take turns spending an hour at a time standing watch. There were enough Trainees that not everyone had Fire Watch every night, so everyone had the chance for a full-night¡¯s sleep every couple of days.
Reivyn didn¡¯t notice anything out of the ordinary within the hut as they low-crawled across the dirt path. Reivyn led his sisters to the side of the hut where they were out of line-of-sight of the sentries before standing back up. There were a couple of NCO¡¯s still awake inside the small office at the front of the hut, but other than that, nobody but the roaming Fire Watch moved inside the hut.
Reivyn and the twins leaned up against the wall of the hut as they made their way back to the front. The sentries were standing a few feet away from the actual hut, so there was room for them to maneuver behind them. They would have to make absolutely zero noise in order to not be caught, but Reivyn was confident they could do it if they were careful.
With his Skills supplementing his sisters¡¯, they were able to move around with steady and silent steps. If they had been moving on loose gravel, Reivyn wouldn¡¯t have been as confident, but it was simply dirt and grass.
I¡¯ll need to talk to the officers about making sure any tall grass is trimmed around our bases in the future, Reivyn idly thought. It¡¯s the same principle as cutting the trees around a city. We were able to sneak up way too close in waist-high grass.
Reivyn carefully moved his body around the corner of the hut, focusing on the two sentries who had their attention out in the surroundings. Kailey and Riley followed his example exactly. They ced their feet exactly where and how he ced his, and they maintained the same center of gravity.
Reivyn reached for the door-knob leading into the hut, but he suddenly froze. His tense body rxed as he sagged and hung his head down, shaking it slightly. His Divine Sense picked up one of the NCO¡¯s leaving the office and heading to the door. After just a second of waiting, the door opened on it¡¯s own and the NCO jumped back in surprise.
¡°HALT! Identify yourselves!¡± The NCO yelled.
The two sentries turned their heads at the unexpected shouting and nearly jumped out of their skin as the presence of three strangers right at their backs. They took a couple of steps away and drew their swords.
¡°Wait¡¡± The NCO leaned forward and squinted in the dark. ¡°Captain Reivyn?¡± The man frowned before recognition lit up his face and he performed a salute. ¡°Good evening, sir!¡±
The two sentries shared a confused look, but they maintained their ready stance. The NCO nced at them.
¡°Put your weapons away,¡± hemanded. ¡°This is Captain Reivyn.¡±
¡°I thought for sure we were going to seed,¡± Reivyn muttered as he sighed.
¡°What was that, sir?¡± The NCO asked.
¡°Nevermind,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°Good job, sergeant. I was just making an impromptu inspection of the situation with Trainees. You¡¯re running a tight outfit. Keep up the good work.¡± Reivyn turned to Kailey and Riley who were frozen in ce, eyes wide and shifting about. ¡°Come on.¡±
Reivyn simply turned and walked away down the dirt path. Kailey and Riley quickly followed.
¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°We¡¯re done?¡± Riley asked.
¡°Yeah, we¡¯re done,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°We aplished as much of our goals as we could. I think we did a pretty good job, honestly. We just got unlucky there at the end. If I had been by myself, I probably could have figured a way out, but you two don¡¯t have the Skills or experience necessary.¡±
Reivyn continued walking in silence as Kailey and Riley whispered to each other. They talked about how fun the experience had been and about their two new Skills. Reivyn evaluated his own Skills, and he could feel a sort of pressure building. The entire time, he had been working onbining all of his Skills together for every move and action he took, but it hadn¡¯t been quite enough. He could feel he was close, but there was still something missing.
Reivyn dismissed the Mana tether holding them together. He immediately noticed the fluid movements of his sisters return to normal with his Divine Sense. Their bodies not only didn¡¯t move quite as quickly, but they also lost some of their coordination. The two girls slightly stumbled at first and red daggers at Reivyn¡¯s back, but he was too preupied thinking about what else he needed to do tobine his Stealth Skills.
The exercise hadn¡¯t been aplete waste of time. He had been practicingbining his Stealth Skills at home with his family, but he felt he needed more practical application of the Skills to push it further. He could tell he had taken a significant step, but there was one final step he needed to take.
He had an idea, and he would try it out in the next few days.
¡ª
Lencet reviewed his cards with a critical eye. The three other sergeants apanying him for an evening of friendly gambling did likewise. The coins on the table were stacked high, but they shone with only copper. The money wasn¡¯t the point of the night of gambling. Camaraderie was the true focus.
The Imperial Guards were encouraged to form strong bonds with each other. Lencet, like the other sergeants, hade up through the ranks like all the other NCO¡¯s, and they had a lot of history with each other. After attaining ranks of leadership, though, they found themselves no longer sharing duties with each other. These frequent sessions were how they maintained their friendship over the years.
¡°It¡¯s not going to get any better, Lencet,¡± the sergeant on his left joked with a smirk. ¡°Just fold if you don¡¯t have confidence in your hand.¡±
Lencet eyed his friend for a second before deliberately grabbing a few coins and tossing them out into the center of the table. His friend inclined his head.
¡°Sure, sure, give me all your coins. I don¡¯t mind.¡±
Lencet grunted. They were best of friends when they weren¡¯tpeting, but even a game over some coopers brought out theirpetitive streaks. None of them would ever be able to resign and sustain themselves off card-ying, but they all knew how to get under each others¡¯ skin. Lencet was a cautious yer, so his friends would often goad him by trying to y on his insecurity with his hand.
It was a carefully crafted facade he had built up over the years. Although he was a cautious yer in fact, it was never due to insecurity. He had learned to gauge his friends¡¯ hand¡¯s strength by how boisterous they were in attempting to lure him into betting or folding.
The others nced at their cards and made their bets all around the table. Lencet continued to sell his deceit as he stared at his cards, patiently waiting for the others. The fifth man directly to Lencet¡¯s right finally made his bet, calling the hands to be shown. The others ced their cards on the table, and Lencet smirked to himself as heid the winning hand on the table.
The others groaned and snickered at each other. The fifth man to Lencet¡¯s right, though, shouted in excitement.
¡°Yes!¡±
Lencet was taken slightly aback and verified that his hand was, in fact, the winning hand. After verifying he had truly won, he scooped up the coins and stacked them neatly in front of himself.
After everyone had gotten situated, Lencet grabbed the cards, shuffled them, and began to deal them out. He passed them to his three friends and himself until they all had their full hands. He paused for a moment and looked to the empty seat to his right. He looked back up at his friends.
¡°Wasn¡¯t there another person sitting here just a moment ago?¡± He asked, confused.
The three others shared looks before looking back to him.
¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± one of his friends answered.
Lencet shook his head and put it out of his mind. He almost immediately forgot about the fifth member that had joined them for a hand, and the four friends continued their game.
Chapter 252: The Paintocalypse
Chapter 252: The Paintocalypse
Achievement!
You have learned to skulk and deceive with the very fiber of your being. Your mastery of misdirection has manifested where you can make others doubt your very existence.
Skills Sneaking, Stealing, Backstab, Camouge, Eavesdropping, Pickpocket, Silent Step, Stealth, Tracking, Ambush, Detect Lies/Truth, Infiltration, Poison Resistance, Sure Step, and Assassination have merged.
The Path has already been set. New Skill Unlocked!
Tier 5:
ndestine Prodigy (38)
Further Synergy has been detected between Skills
Insufficient Skill/Enlightenment
Reivyn reviewed the System Notification as he walked back to his home. He had only had to make his way to the barracks located on the Imperial Pce grounds, so it had been a quick trip.He had worn his unarmored uniform for the excursion, and his familiar face and actively using his Stealth Skills - I guess it would be more urate to refer to them as ndestine Skills, now - had allowed the guards to simply ignore him. He had easily gained ess to the barracks.
He didn¡¯t know what he was going to do when he first arrived. He simply wandered around and observed the off-duty Imperial Guards. Many groups were formed of men and women engaging in activities or simple conversation, and Reivyn had simply slipped in among them to participate.
He never stayed long enough for anyone to question who he was or his presence, and his contributions to whatever activity or conversation was going on had been minimal. He flitted around from group to group and eventually made his way to amon area where the NCO¡¯s hung out.
Even though he was amissioned officer, he didn¡¯t wear his rank insignia for this exercise. He had spotted an acquaintance, Imperial Guard Sergeant Lencet, and knowing the man and his character had emboldened his decision to join their card game.
The deck of cards had been set aside, forgotten, next to Lencet¡¯s elbow, and Reivyn had simply skimmed the top cards from the top and ¡°yed¡± them in one hand. He imagined it was the difficulty involved in pulling off his stunt sessfully that had finally pushed him beyond his limits. He quickly left the table after being unable to contain his excitement when the Notification popped up.
He had spent a couple of days trying to figure out exactly what he needed to merge his ndestine Skills together. He had been so focused on simply avoiding detection he had forgotten the other aspect of being stealthy.
In conversation with his father about the subject, Refix had reminded him that ¡°the safest ce to hide the envelope was on the mantle.¡± He had an epiphany and realized that he didn¡¯t need to justpletely avoid detection, but he needed to be able to blend in, as well.
That was how he came up with the idea of infiltrating the Imperial Guard barracks. With all of his Skills active and at the forefront of his mind, he not only managed to convince everyone he came into contact with that he was supposed to be there, but from thement from Lencet as he made his exit, he even managed to convince people he hadn¡¯t been there at all.
He had no misgivings that he would have been able to walk into any situation and seed in making others believe he belonged there. He had heavily stacked the odds in his favor. He chose the exact scenario where highly Skilled individuals in detection would have their guards down, and he was a known resident of the Imperial Pce. He even personally knew a few of the guards and had interacted with a lot of them in one situation or another over the months he had been in Wispan.
If he had decided to walk into a smuggler¡¯s den, there was no way he would have even made it through the door.
That didn¡¯t mean he hadn¡¯t aplished a brilliant feat. He was still quite proud of himself.
I¡¯m still not done, though, he thought as he entered his parents¡¯ house. Next I¡¯ll work onbining my Mana Skills together.
When thinking about all the different Skills he couldbine, he had also briefly considered whether the same thing could be done with his Affinities. He quickly abandoned that idea, though, as he realized they were fundamentally different. The four basic Elements already made up 99% of reality, and if he didbine it together, what would it be? The obvious answer was Veridical, but he already had that.
There was strong evidence that it was impossible tobine Affinities in the same way hebined his Skills. Not just the fact that he simultaneously had Veridical and the basic Elements, but also because he had alreadybined Affinities to form other Affinities, but it wasn¡¯t nearly in the same way thatbining his Skills had worked.
For one, they didn¡¯t permanently merge. Another aspect was that the new Affinities weren¡¯t actualbinations of the other Affinities, but they instead had their own, separate properties.
He was further convinced of his idea with the confirmation from his mother and Kefira that there wasn¡¯t higher-Tier Affinities that incorporated the lesser Tiers in the same way his Skills did.
¡°Brother!¡± Kailey yelled down at him from their room upstairs as he entered the house.
¡°Come join us!¡± Riley echoed.
¡°You promised!¡±
Reivyn shook his head and dismissed his thoughts about his Mana Skills. He had promised to spend some time with them today once he was done with his exercise in merging his ndestine Skills. He had just aplished his goal much quicker than he had anticipated.
They were either waiting and listening for me, or I swear they have the Divine Sense Skill, too, Reivyn chuckled to himself.
He made his way upstairs. He paused for a second as he sensed and saw all the Mana his sisters were manipting on the other side of the door. He was used to it by now, but it was still quite the sight.
They didn¡¯t even fully realize the extent at which they manipted their Mana when they were working on their creative projects. They weren¡¯t exactly studious, and they only gave cursory attention to learning the underlying aspects of their abilities. It came naturally to them, so they didn¡¯t feel like they needed all the academics associated with it.
That¡¯s their argument, at least. I have to admit, it has some merit to it.
They had been manipting Mana for years, long before Reivyn had even gotten Skilled enough to pick up on the miniscule amounts. They had been subconscious masters of Mana Maniption at a younger age than Reivyn had been. He could even admit that they were better at it than he was.
That didn¡¯t mean he thought they had a higher Skill Level in the Skills than he did, though it was possible. He didn¡¯t know what their Skill Levels were, and they didn¡¯t have a three year stint where they were unable to work on their Skills. He had also been let into the loop that they had Epic Tier 1 sses.
That particr revtion had made Reivyn question his entire time as a Conscript. He had viewed it with rose-tinted sses because of the obvious advantage it had granted him with his Epic ss, but if there was something special about their Bloodline in particr - and all evidence pointed to that being the case - he might not have needed to go through such an ordeal at such a young age to have basically the same advantages.
Reivyn dismissed the thoughts from his mind and entered the twins¡¯ bedroom after a soft knock. They knew he wasing, so he was just announcing his immediate presence before stepping into their room.
The room was an absolute mess. There was parchment literally flying all around the room with the two girls seated in front of each other in the middle of the room. Various shades of paint also flew around the room and asionally spattered on some parchments. The girls were covered from head to toe in a hodge-podge of colors from all the paint.
¡°What in the world is going on in here?!¡± Reivyn was dumbstruck.
The two girls nced at him and giggled.
¡°We¡¯re exercising our Skills,¡± Kailey replied.
¡°You call this exercising your Skills?¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at the duo.
¡°Yeah,¡± Riley answered. ¡°Sometimes you just gotta feel it, you know?¡±
¡°No. I don¡¯t know,¡± Reivyn answered tly.
¡°Come, join us,¡± Kailey pointed to an empty spot on the floor where there were a couple of untouched cans of paint avable.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition.
¡°One of us. One of us,¡± Riley chanted, bouncing slightly where she was seated.
¡°Umm¡ sure?¡± Reivyn walked over, half-dazedly, to the indicated empty spot and took a seat. He looked back up at his grinning sisters. ¡°Does mom know about this?¡± He waved his hand at the flying parchments and paint.
The girls only smiled wider.
¡°Of course!¡± Kailey said.
¡°Mother encourages us to experiment any way we can,¡± Riley added.
¡°Okay, then.¡±
Reivyn shook his head and eyed the couple of parchments sitting on the ground next to the paint cans. There was a noticeableck of any brushes or other instruments to make use of the paint.
¡°What are you waiting for?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°Get started,¡± Riley encouraged.
Reivyn took a deep breath and reached for the paint with his Mana.
¡°Nu uh. Not like that,¡± Kailey chided him.
¡°You have to feel it, first,¡± Riley said.
Reivyn looked at his sisters with a confused expression.
¡°Use your hands,¡± Kailey said.
Riley just bobbed her head up and down enthusiastically.
Reivyn grit his teeth, but he had no reason to refuse. He had never seen his sisters have even the tiniest blemish of paint on their persons outside of their bedroom, and if this was a frequent urrence, then it meant they were obviously able to remove the mess from themselves.
Reivyn grabbed a parchment and dipped his other hand into the open paint can. He could sense the faintest trace of Mana suffusing the paint set aside for himself. It was nothingpared to the Mana his sisters were using with their own, though.
The girls watched him critically. They grinned and continued their own artistic expressions as soon as Reivyn joined in.
Reivyn drew his hand out, dripping with a vibrant blue liquid, and thought about what he wanted to do. He was never much of an artist despite being able to draw meticulous maps and deal with camouge and other aspects of different types of coloring.
He shrugged his shoulders and simply pped his hand against the parchment, smearing it across the thick paper. Several droplets of the paint flew in multiple directions as he flung his hand. It immediatelynded on his uniform. Some droplets even managed to defy physics somehow and flew back, striking him in the face.
Reivyn sat there stunned for a second. He looked at the aftermath of his actions. It wasn¡¯t anything catastrophic, but he had definitely not intended to get paint on his uniform or face. He shrugged his shoulders and dipped his hand in a different can of paint. He chose red for his next color.
The girls had apparently been apprehensive that he would freak out and quit on them. As soon as they saw him shrug and continue painting, they breathed out in relief and continued with their own painting.
Parchment and paint flew all around the girls. They didn¡¯t seem like they were doing anything specific. ,Colors were just being flung about randomly, and it was anyone¡¯s guess as to what would be added to any of the parchment papers flying about.
Reivyn watched the whole scene with his Divine Sense as he paid attention to his own work. Oftentimes, paint would fly through the air and hit multiple pieces of paper as they flew about randomly. The girls managed to somehow create interesting andplicated color patterns through their random application.
Reivyn didn¡¯t pay attention to the products themselves. He only watched the process and the joy the girls gained from the activity. He threw away his own caution and delved into the activity with gusto.
¡°Use your other hand!¡± Kailey called out to him.
¡°You¡¯d be surprised at the difference your coordination can cause,¡± Riley said.
Reivyn had Ambidexterity, but it wasn¡¯t perfect. He had great coordination with his off-hand, especially when he wasn¡¯t using both hands at the same time, but it was different than his main hand. He shrugged and did as they suggested.
Other colors found their way onto his parchment. He also didn¡¯t limit himself to putting everything on one piece of paper. He went a bit wild for a while, applying random colors to random pieces of paper, just like the girls were doing.
Well, sort of, Reivyn wryly thought.
¡°I think I¡¯m ready for the next step,¡± he said.
The girls looked over at him as Reivyn grabbed the parchments with his Mana. He still used his hands to manipte the paint, but he now had his own little tornado of paper flying about himself. The girls cheered and continued their own work.
More and more paint covered not only the papers, but Reivyn¡¯s uniform and exposed skin. He sometimes forgot he had paint covering his hands, and he wiped at his face to get rid of an imaginary itch or to fix his hair. He was aplete mess, and there was almost no spot on him that didn¡¯t have at least a little bit of paint on him.
He looked just like his sisters. They had zero care in the world for where the paint flew. Whether it was on the paper, their bodies, or simply flung across the room. There was even paint on their bed covers and sheets.
Reivyn let all of his worries go and just enjoyed the craziness with his sisters. None of his papers were going to turn out as any kind of exquisite work, much less a masterpiece, but that wasn¡¯t the point. His sisters didn¡¯t seem to care what they were making, either, and they were obviously having a st.
The longer the session went on, the more joy his sisters seemed to get from the silly activity. They were practically falling over each other withughter.
¡°Okay, okay,¡± Kailey said, catching her breath.
¡°I think we¡¯re done,¡± Riley said, equally out of breath.
They stood and assumed a pose. The stood shoulder to shoulder, hands outstretched in front of themselves.
¡°Combine!¡± They shouted together.
Reivyn thought the verbalmand was wholly unnecessary, but he wasn¡¯t going to say anything. They were having fun.
The flying parchment papers elerated and began truly spinning as a paper tornado around the girls. Reivyn watched with his eyes and his sensed. The Mana in the room coalesced and seemed to mimic the random patterns of paint the girls had created, but there was some sort of order to the chaos.
The papers spun so fast that it appeared to be a solid cone around the girls. A sh of power blinded Reivyn¡¯s eyes, but it didn¡¯t stop him from witnessing the entire ordeal with his Divine Sense.
The papers literallybined into arge tapestry. Painted upon it was the exact scene of the three of them in the room performing the exact exercise that led to the tapestry. It had exquisite detail. If Reivyn hadn¡¯t watched the girls create it in person, he would have assumed they had spent hours meticulously getting every single tiny point perfect with a fine brush.
Reivyn¡¯s jaw dropped as he witnessed the artistic miracle happening in front of him. His own paper and paint still floated about himself. He hadn¡¯t fully lost control of himself, but they weren¡¯t spinning and adding to the mix anymore.
¡°What the f-¡± Reivyn started.
Right at that time, the door opened and Ameliyn popped her head in. Her eyes immediately found Reivyn¡¯s, and it was clear she had heard what he was about to say.
¡°I had a sudden intense premonition that something was about to ur that needed my attention,¡± Ameliyn said. She fully stepped into the room and gave Reivyn a stern re. ¡°Care to exin?¡±
Reivyn spluttered for a second. His sisters were shaking like leaves in a storm, but he didn¡¯t have the time to worry about them right now.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, mother, I was just so surprise,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have lost control of my tongue like that.¡± He lowered his head in shame.
Reivyn never used badnguage, and he especially didn¡¯t do so in front of his sisters. They were in their teens, now, and growing into adulthood.
They were only three years younger than him, and he had fully matured a long time ago. They still acted a bit immature, but it was mainly their love of pranks. If Reivyn looked at them with an objective eye, he could see that they were turning into little women in front of his eyes.
He didn¡¯t know how he felt about that. The loss of three years still messed with his expectations sometimes.
¡°You¡¯re an adult, Reivyn,¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°And your sisters are old enough that it¡¯s not like they haven¡¯t heard worse before. I¡¯m not talking about you almost using colorfulnguage. I¡¯m talking about your other colorful presentation.¡± She gestured at Reivyn.
Reivyn looked down at himself and took in his appearance. He had been so caught up in the painting session that he had forgotten all about his own appearance. He frowned, though, and looked back up at Ameliyn.
He was confused as to why she would point it out when she apparently let the girls do this all the time.
Suddenly, an incongruence made it¡¯s way to the forefront of his mind. He had been so shocked by the appearance of the wonderful painting appearing out of such chaos and then distracted by his mother¡¯s intrusion that he had failed to notice a very significant detail.
Reivyn practically sat in a puddle of paint. He was colored from head to toe and even had paint dripping from his hair like sweat.
That wasn¡¯t the incongruence, though. That was as he expected. He looked around with his own eyes at the room.
The pristine, spotless room.
There was not so much as a smudge of paint on anything outside of his little circle other than the twins¡¯ painting. They had absolutely zeros paint on themselves, too. He also noticed theck of Mana suffusing the entire room.
He looked at the girls¡¯ eyes in turn, and he saw the mischief dancing in them.
¡°You¡¡± Reivyn started.
The girls bolted from the room,ughing hysterically. Ameliyn was confused and simply let them run past her. They could hear themughing as they ran out of the house and down the path leading toward Kefira¡¯s residence.
They hadn¡¯t been shaking out of fear or nervousness, Reivyn realized. They were holding in theirughter.
¡°What was that about?¡± Ameliyn asked.
Reivyn¡¯s mouth formed a thin line as he looked at his mother.
¡°I¡¯ve been tricked,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Oh? How so?¡± Ameliyn asked. She seemed incredibly interested in the topic of the girls getting one over on him. She walked over and took a seat on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed.
Reivyn gestured to himself.
¡°The way I look now is how the girls looked to me when I first arrived,¡± Reivyn exined. ¡°They told me it was fine and that they did it all the time with your permission. They convinced me to participate, one step at a time.
¡°First it was convincing me it was fine, then they got me to use one hand to directly paint with, then my other hand. It escted after that, slowly but surely, until you see the result before you.
¡°I had gotten so used to them expertly using Mana in everything that they did with their artistry that I dismissed it out of hand. The entire time, the whole thing was simply an illusion. They used my own abilities and understanding against me.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t sound too upset,¡± Ameliyn pointed out.
¡°To be perfectly honest, I am a bit upset,¡± Reivyn responded. ¡°But more than that, I¡¯m proud.¡±
Ameliyn gave Reivyn a surprised look.
¡°They formted a n using their own strengths and turned my strengths against me,¡± Reivyn said, a bit of admiration in his voice. ¡°And they executed their tactics wlessly. I¡¯m half considering having the girls give lessons on nning and tactics to my soldiers.¡± Reivyn chuckled.
¡°Yes, well, I¡¯m not sure they intended to impress you with their military acumen,¡± Ameliyn smiled wryly.
¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°Anyway, get this mess cleaned up.¡±
Ameliyn promptly got to her feet and walked out of the room, leaving Reivyn alone in his paint puddle.
Reivyn shook his head and grabbed a hold of the paint with his Mana. As soon as he intended to draw the paint away from himself, his Mana interacted with the miniscule amount of Mana still invading the Mana that he had since forgotten about.
The paint worked loose from his grasp on its own and floated to the center of the room. All of the paint. Not a drop was left anywhere on his body or around him. The papers that he had been usingbined together in a smallerbination aspared to his sisters¡¯ work.
The paint mixed together and formed a picture on the parchment paper. It was a snapshot of Reivyn¡¯s astonished face as he realized what had happened to him. His mouth was open and he had a look of bewilderment.
Underneath was a final message:
¡°Sorry, but you should have seen your face.¡±
Chapter 253: Too Good to be True
Chapter 253: Too Good to be True
Skill Leveled Up! Tier 3:
Mana Maniption (69 ->70)
Reivyn frowned at the Notification, letting the Mana in his control slip back into his body to nestle in his core once more.
The Notification was just more proof that he wasn¡¯t quite grasping the concept necessary tobine his Mana Skills. He had been attempting it for several days since the painting incident with his sisters, but he had only seeded in increasing his individual Skill Levels.
He had finally determined that he was suffering from an unusual deterrence tobining his Skills: He was too Skilled with each individual Skill.
There was no catalyst. He could aplish any goal he could think of without having to figure out how to do it without any problems. There was no epiphany to be had. He could just do it, regardless of what he thought of.
He triedbining different practice exercises together. His first attempt wasbining his Affinity Infusion exercise with Mana Maniption while simultaneously viewing the whole process with both Sense Mana and Mana Sight.
While the exercises had been sessful for their actual intended purposes, it had been a spectacr failure for his goal. His mind had simply partitioned each Skill and dutifully carried out the tasks with zero resistance. Not only that, but his Pain Resistance Skill being subsumed into his Protection Prodigy Skill had finally somehow enabled it to dull the pain from his Affinity training.
I guess that¡¯s one silver lining, at least, Reivyn huffed.He maintained his posture in the lotus position, sitting on his bed, as he rested his chin on his hand to think about the problem.
I need a challenge. An unusual challenge. Ironically, my talent with my Mana Skills actually makes it harder than simply a change in perspective could bring. But what sort of challenge?
That was the real conundrum.
Just sitting here thinking about it isn¡¯t getting me anywhere, Reivyn concluded. I need outside stimuli. I¡¯ve already attempted all the things I could think of on my own. I¡¯ll take a break to clear my mind, and then I¡¯ll go searching for inspiration.
Reivyn hopped off his bed and headed down the stairs to the living room. His parents and sisters were casually lounging in the living room. Each of them was immersed in their own little projects, but they maintained a smattering of conversation between them.
Reivyn felt a little sheepish at the realization that he had once again sequestered himself from his family once he had started earnestly training his Skills. He had already made the promise to spend more time with his family, but he had already forgotten it in his pursuit of refining his abilities.
He walked into the room with a smile on his face and determination to keep his promise. His mother looked up and noted his smiling face. She added one of her own.
¡°There he is!¡± Ameliyn proimed. Everyone else nced up and gave their own little greeting as Reivyn waved to them. ¡°So did you finally seed?¡±
¡°Nope,¡± Reivyn shook his head and plopped down on one of the open seats perpendicr to his parents and sisters who sat facing each other.
¡°Really? And yet you grace us with your presence?¡± Ameliyn asked with mock surprise.
¡°I figured a little break wouldn¡¯t hurt,¡± Reivyn admitted.
¡°A little rest and rxation goes a long way toward breakthroughs,¡± Refix provided his own wisdom. ¡°You can¡¯t go 100% at all times and expect endless progress.¡±
¡°I haven¡¯t really noticed a problem with it until now,¡± Reivyn countered.
¡°Yeah, but you also had other responsibilities that took up your time,¡± Refix said, looking up at Reivyn and holding eye contact. ¡°When you were with the Conscripts, you had your military duty. When you were at the Academy, you had your sses and friends. When you were with the military in Drallo, you had the long bouts of Marching and looking after your subordinates. Same with the mercenary deployment.
¡°Except when you were a child training your Weapons Master Skill, you¡¯ve had plenty of distractions to let your mind rest and digest your training and understanding of your Skills. And even then, the physical training and spread of different Skill training had a hand in it, as well.¡±
Reivyn seriously thought about the examples his father had given. He realized there was more to it than even the surface level his father mentioned. He had never bore down on his Skills in the same way with something soplex asbining an entire genre of Skills together before.
He had always trained hard, but like his father said, there was always that little bit of distraction or change of pace that let his subconscious incorporate what he had learned. He was also partly right with his own argument, too. He had never really encountered a bottleneck that he couldn¡¯t quickly break through with concerted effort.
¡°So what¡¯s the problem you''re facing?¡± Ameliyn asked out of curiosity. ¡°Maybe some outside perspective can help.¡±
¡°That¡¯s actually exactly what I was thinking,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°Everything I¡¯ve thought of on my own hasn¡¯t worked. Well, it¡¯s worked, just not the way I want it to.
¡°The problem is that I¡¯m too good.¡±
Ameliyn and Refix watched Reivyn, waiting for him to borate. After a couple of seconds of just staring at each other, Ameliyn finally rolled her eyes.
¡°Well, don¡¯t brag too much in front of us lowly mortals!¡±
¡°I¡¯m not bragging,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s really the issue. There¡¯s no challenge for me to ovee. Everything I¡¯ve thought of, I¡¯m able to aplish with how my Skills are set now. My foundations are also pretty deep when ites to Magical Theory after the tutoring I¡¯ve received from you and Kefira. My individual Skills can handle any task I can think of, even when I¡¯m using four or more at a time.¡±
A sh of subtle Mana distracted Reivyn. He nced over at his sisters as they pped andughed in glee. They had apparently finished a small personal project they had been working on. Ameliyn looked over with a smile and love in her eyes as the girls celebrated.
Reivyn frowned as something pulled at his consciousness, but it was gone before he could grasp what it was. He simply smiled at his sisters.
There was a little y figure sitting on the coffee table in front of them. It was of a man and woman dancing. The figure was intricately carved, and the colors blended perfectly.
If Reivyn didn¡¯t know better, he would assume it was a little statue crafter by a master, but the fading wisps of Mana dispersing into the Ambient Mana all around reminded him it was anything but ordinary.
¡°Watch,¡± Kailey and Riley said at the same time, gesturing together at their little figurine.
Without any noticeable activation from the twins, the pair of dancers started to dance around the table. The male dancer twirled the female, and her dress even red out as if it was truly made of cloth.
The dancing couple only made one circuit around the table beforeing to a stop in the same position they had started.
You have witnessed the Court Dance of the Loving Couple!
Your mind is refreshed and you¡¯ll resist anxiety and mental stress for the next two hours.
¡°Girls!¡± Ameliyn eximed, sounding scandalized. ¡°How could you create something with such an effect?¡±
Reivyn looked over at his mother in surprise. She had one hand held to her chest, and her face was slightly flushed. Refix sat next to her with a wide grin on his face. He looked back over at the twins.
¡°We didn¡¯t make it with any specific effect in mind,¡± Kailey said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
¡°We just let the Mana do what it wanted,¡± Riley said.
¡°Why?¡±
¡°What did it do?¡±
¡°Ahem,¡± Ameliyn looked up as she thought about the right words to use.
¡°It just improved our mood,¡± Refix answered for her, still grinning. ¡°That¡¯s all.¡±
The twins looked back and forth between their parents suspiciously.
¡°Anyway, I think it¡¯s time for you to take a break,¡± Ameliyn said, standing up. ¡°Go out and y now. You too, Reivyn. Go find your little girlfriend.¡± She paused and gave Reivyn an appraising look. ¡°On second thought, don¡¯t go see her just yet.¡±
Reivyn gave his parents a smirk. Refix just winked back.
¡°All it did was refresh my mind and prevent mental stress,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°In that case, go see Kefira. Shoo, shoo.¡±
Ameliyn stepped around the coffee table and rushed the two girls who weren¡¯t moving nearly as fast as she wanted them to. Refix slowly stood up and stretched his arms over his head. Reivyn got up and headed to the door ahead of the twins. He turned his head back on his way out.
¡°Have fun rxing.¡±
¡°Oh, you know it!¡± Refix agreed. Ameliyn swatted him in the shoulder as she rounded the coffee table to stand next to her husband. Refix was undeterred and kept grinning. ¡°It¡¯s one of my favorite pastimes.¡±
Kailey and Riley followed Reivyn out the door. Reivyn saw Ameliyn grab Refix¡¯s hand and lead him to the back of the house with his Divine Sense. He picked up his pace to get out of range with his Skill.
¡°Since when has rxing been one of dad¡¯s favorite things?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°I thought he only loved everything that didn¡¯t involve rxing,¡± Riley added.
¡°I¡¯ve never seen him happy about something that wasn¡¯t physical exercise.¡±
¡°Who said there wasn¡¯t going to be any physical exercise?¡± Reivyn called back. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry and give them some privacy.¡±
¡°You¡¯re acting weird, too,¡± Kailey used.
¡°You¡¯re hiding something,¡± Riley echoed.
Reivyn rolled his eyes.
¡°The two of you are almost adults now. No need to act like children.¡±
¡°We¡¯re the babies of the family,¡± Kailey said.
¡°It¡¯s our job to act like children.¡±
¡°Maybe for now,¡± Reivyn smirked. ¡°That might change.¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°Has mom and dad seriously not told you about what married couples do and where babiese from?¡± Reivyn stopped and looked at the twin girls incredulously.
¡°Of course they have!¡± Kailey defended herself.
¡°We know all about it!¡± Riley said.
Reivyn gave them a meaningful look. Their eyes widened inprehension.
¡°Ooohhh,¡± they said together. ¡°Eww.¡±
Reivynughed and shook his head.
¡°Come on. Let¡¯s give them some alone time.¡±
¡ª
Reivyn watched the tea as it poured into his cup. The young maid who saw to the needs of the guests was familiar to Reivyn in so much as he could recall her face among those that had trained under his father. He didn¡¯t know her name or anything else about her, though. She wasn¡¯t his maid, so he didn¡¯t feel the need to learn, either. An unusual interest, even one of pure curiosity, might send the wrong signals to another party.
Kefira¡¯s never shown any inclinations towards jealousy, but that doesn¡¯t mean I should give her a reason to, Reivyn internally chuckled.
After his tea was poured, the maid continued to pour two more cups. Reivyn stifled a sigh as he looked up at the other guests sitting with him in the room.
¡°And why did you two follow me here?¡± Reivyn inquired of his twin sisters.
¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± Kailey asked back.
¡°It¡¯s obvious,¡± Riley stated.
¡°And what¡¯s obvious?¡± Reivyn asked, quirking an eyebrow.
Kailey and Riley shared a look where they rolled their eyes.
¡°You need a chaperone,¡± Kailey said.
¡°Mom was quite clear about what watching our little dancers did,¡± Riley added.
¡°We must protect Kefira from your beastly ws.¡±
¡°And didn¡¯t I say that all it did was refresh my mind?¡± Reivyn also rolled his eyes.
¡°Who can trust the words of a beast?¡± Kailey shot back.
¡°You can¡¯t be trusted,¡± Riley said.
¡°When have I ever lied to either of you?¡±
Kailey and Riley stopped and thought about the question before looking at each other again. They appeared to conduct some sort of silentmunication that Reivyn couldn¡¯t pick up, but they quickly turned back to him.
¡°That¡¯s exactly what a deceitful beast would say,¡± Kailey imed.
¡°There¡¯s a first time for everything,¡± Riley continued.
¡°Wouldn¡¯t this be the perfect opportunity?¡±
¡°Building trust over years with petty truths only to spring the lie when it actually mattered.¡±
¡°You do know that Kefira and I are to be engaged, right?¡± Reivyn said.
¡°To be,¡± Kailey said.
¡°Hasn¡¯t happened yet,¡± Riley said.
¡°And an engagement isn¡¯t a marriage.¡±
¡°Double hasn¡¯t happened yet.¡±
The door opened and Kefira strode into the room with a wide smile on her face. Seri trailed in behind her with her usual stoic look.
¡°Sister-inw!¡± Kailey and Riley eximed excitedly.
The twins leaped from their seats and practically lunged across the room to embrace Kefira in a hug from either side. Kefira was stunned for a second, her smile frozen on her face, before she hugged the two girls back.
¡°Wait a second,¡± Reivyn protested. ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say ¡®hasn¡¯t happened yet?¡¯ And here you are calling her your sister-inw.¡±
¡°Those rules don¡¯t apply to us,¡± Kailey said, sticking her tongue out at her brother.
¡°We¡¯re not the beasts trying to dig his dastardly ws into our pure, innocent sister-inw,¡± Riley added.
Kefira was smiling at the banter between the siblings until a snort from behind her caused her expression to stiffen. She carefully turned her head to re at Seri. Seri looked straight ahead as if she had never made a sound. If Reivyn hadn¡¯t seen the woman snort at the statement, he would have sworn the sound obviously couldn¡¯t havee from her.
Kefira turned her attention to the sisters and squeezed them each with an arm before extricating herself. She indicated for the two girls to sit back down, and she followed suit and sat in her own seat. Her tea had already been poured from her, and all four of those seated at the table took a sip.
¡°To what do I owe the honor of this rare visit?¡± Kefira asked, narrowing her eyes at Reivyn. She sounded suspiciously like Ameliyn.
Reivyn rolled his entire head around his neck. He lifted his arms up in a helpless shrug.
¡°It¡¯s only been a couple of days!¡± He said.
¡°I¡¯ve made time to visit your courtyard everyday,¡± Kefira said. ¡°And your sisters visit me everyday, too.¡±
Reivyn nced at the twins in surprise.
¡°Really?¡±
¡°Mhm.¡±
¡°It¡¯s true.¡±
¡°Well¡¡± Reivyn set his teacup down and sat back. ¡°You¡¯re right. I should make more time to visit everyday. I apologize.¡±
It was Kefira¡¯s turn to be taken aback. She sat back and shared a look with the twins.
¡°That easy?¡± She asked. ¡°I was only half joking.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯ve already epted fault and determined to do better. There¡¯s no reason for me not to acknowledge when I¡¯ve been wrong. I get too caught up in my training and experimentation with my Skills.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t take it so seriously,¡± Kefira mollified. ¡°I know this is important to you. I¡¯m mature enough to recognize that you¡¯re busy and focused on a goal.
¡°Besides, I¡¯m going to make you help me achieve the same thing just like you did with your father.¡±
¡°Absolutely,¡± Reivyn nodded, smiling. ¡°There was never any question. I¡¯m just taking a break before I seek inspiration. The things I¡¯ve been thinking up on my own haven¡¯t been what I need.¡±
¡°So that¡¯s why you¡¯re here?¡± Kefira raised an eyebrow. ¡°And here I thought you came to see me because you loved me.¡±
Reivyn snorted.
¡°I¡¯m here right now because my parents¡¡±
¡°La,¡± Kailey closed her eyes and covered her ears.
¡°I don¡¯t want to think about it!¡± Riley covered her eyes with her hands.
Reivyn gestured to his sisters.
¡°You get the idea,¡± Reivyn smirked. Kefira observed the two girls and nodded sagely. ¡°But that¡¯s only the reason I¡¯m here at this time. Neither is the reason I came to see you. I just wanted to see you.¡±
¡°I know. I was just teasing,¡± Kefira smiled. ¡°I¡¯m also not sure I¡¯d be able to give you the inspiration you need. I¡¯ve already taught you everything I know that you didn¡¯t already. There¡¯s not much more to dig out that could help you.¡±
¡°You should paint with us!¡± Kailey said, lowering her hands.
¡°I¡¯m sure we could give you a challenge!¡± Riley said, opening her eyes.
Reivyn gave the two a weary look.
¡°Likest time? I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s the type of challenge I¡¯m looking for.¡±
¡°Nope. Last time was a prank.¡±
¡°This time we¡¯re being serious.¡±
The two girls nodded. Reivyn shared a look with Kefira. Kefira looked over her shoulder to the maid who had retreated to the back of the room.
¡°Would you go grab the supplies they left here?¡± Kefira inquired.
The maid bobbed a quick curtsey and left the room. In only a few moments, she returned with another couple of maids. They were all carrying various art supplies and paints. A couple of easels were set up and all the maids except the one who had originally stayed behind left.
¡°Perfect!¡± Kailey pped excitedly.
¡°Let¡¯s paint!¡± Riley jumped up from her seat and rushed to an open easel.
The two girls gathered their Mana together and began infusing the paint and tools. Reivyn just shook his head as he slowly got up from his seat.
That same feeling that had momentarily arrested his attention earlier came back in full force. It didn¡¯t go away immediately this time, though, and he searched for the cause of the interference. He looked all around until his gaze settled on the Mana being manipted by the girls.
He walked over and reached out to the Mana coursing along as a thick braid into the paint. He lifted it with his hand and observed it. He was able to Manipte the weave in a non-intrusive manner by lifting it up. He could wrest control away from the girls if he wanted to with his superior Skills and Stats, but that¡¯s not what he was trying to do.
He didn¡¯t really need to bring it closer for his inspection with his ability to perceive it with his Divine Sense, but he wasn¡¯t getting a clear picture of what he was looking at. He brought it up to inspect visually while digging into it with his Divine Sense.
He looked back up at the two girls with a confused expression on his face, still holding the weave in his outstretched hand.
¡°What is this?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°What do you mean?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°It¡¯s our Mana,¡± Riley replied.
¡°I¡¯m talking about the Affinity,¡± Reivyn rified. ¡°One second it¡¯s Air, then it¡¯s Fire, then it¡¯s some other higher-Tier Affinity I¡¯m not familiar with, but then it¡¯s none of them and all of them all at once.¡±
¡°Well, yeah,¡± Kailey said.
¡°We put our Affinities into the weave,¡± Riley added.
¡°All of your Affinities?¡± Reivyn continued to ask.
¡°Of course.¡±
¡°What else would we do?¡±
Kefira walked over with an equally confused expression. She peered down at the weave held in Reivyn¡¯s hands and carefully inspected it.
¡°Fascinating,¡± she whispered.
¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Kailey said.
¡°Isn¡¯t infusing your Affinities into your weaves basic?¡± Riley asked.
¡°Not like this!¡± Reivyn eximed. ¡°I infuse one Affinity into each thread. I weave multiple threads with their own individual Affinity together for the weaves.¡±
¡°You guys have managed to infuse each thread with all of your Affinities at once,¡± Kefira pointed out. ¡°Not only that, but it can be anybination of them at any time, or none of them at all as pure Mana.¡±
¡°How do you do that?¡± Reivyn asked.
The two girls shared a look before looking back at Reivyn with smiles.
¡°Looks like you¡¯ve found your challenge,¡± Kailey said.
Chapter 254: Second Fiddle
Chapter 254: Second Fiddle
¡°This is so frustrating!¡± Reivyn threw his head back and sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t get it.¡±
Reivyn leaned back and threw his forearm over his face, covering his eyes. The twins were working enthusiastically on their own easel nearby, and Kefira was watching them with interest. The three girls turned to appraise Reivyn.
¡°What don¡¯t you get?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°It¡¯s not hard,¡± Riley said.
¡°I don¡¯t get how you maintain control!¡± Reivyn said, sitting back up straight. ¡°Every time I try to infuse an additional Affinity into a single thread, the other Affinity disappears.
¡°Don¡¯t talk about infusing all of my Affinities into a single thread. I can¡¯t manage two.¡±
¡°There are a couple things wrong with what you said,¡± Kailey patiently exined.
¡°At least two,¡± Riley nodded.
¡°Teach me, oh wise masters,¡± Reivyn pleaded.¡°The first issue, we don¡¯t gradually increase our Affinity infusions,¡± Kailey answered.
¡°It¡¯s all at once,¡± Riley confirmed.
Reivyn frowned in thought.
¡°Ok~ay,¡± he said.
His frown only deepened as he thought about the answer the girls gave.
¡°And secondly, who said we were in control?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°The Mana¡¯s in control.¡±
¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Reivyn perked up. That was a concept he had never encountered before.
Kailey and Riley shared a look before looking back at Reivyn. Kailey just shrugged.
¡°I don¡¯t know how else to exin it,¡± Kailey said.
¡°We don¡¯t control the Mana. We let it do what it wants,¡± Riley said.
¡°I thought we already exined that.¡±
¡°We did mention how we didn¡¯t choose the effect of our dancing couple.¡±
¡°And that little piece had multiple effects,¡± Reivyn said. He was starting to grasp something important.
¡°You mean like how their Mana simultaneously hold multiplebinations of Affinities?¡± Kefira asked.
Reivyn looked at Kefira in surprise.
¡°Exactly like that!¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I think I¡¯m beginning to glimpse what I need to do.¡±
Reivyn looked at his own amateur work of art. The painting wasn¡¯t the important part of the exercise. At least, that¡¯s what Reivyn told himself. He tapped his chin in thought as he considered the medium his sisters chose to teach their unique take on using Mana Affinities.
¡°By the way, I¡¯ve never heard of such a technique before,¡± Kefira asked the two girls. ¡°How did youe by it?¡±
Kailey flipped her hair around.
¡°It¡¯s what we¡¯ve always done,¡± she said.
Riley mirrored her sister''s actions on the opposite side.
¡°Ites naturally.¡±
¡°What about the flower crowns,¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°You made those before you had unlocked any Mana Skills or Affinities.¡±
¡°Like we said,¡± Kailey replied.
¡°We let the Mana do what it wanted,¡± Riley finished.
¡°Soo¡ you¡¯re saying you just created the flower crowns and let the Mana pull from the surroundings and your intent to add the magical effect?¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°Like, we were out in the wilderness surrounded by wildlife, so the Mana naturally took on that aspect?¡±
Kailey and Riley shared another look before looking back at Reivyn. Riley shrugged.
¡°I guess,¡± she said.
¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Reivyn pressed.
¡°We¡¯re not academics,¡± Kailey shook her head.
¡°Again, we just let the Mana do what it wanted.¡±
¡°Ok. I think that¡¯s enough for me to work with for now,¡± Reivyn said.
The two girls went back to their own project. Kefira watched them and asionally asked them questions. Reivyn drowned them out as he concentrated on his own core of Mana.
He was getting better and better at using his Divine Sense. If he wanted, he could rey their entire conversation back in his mind while paying zero attention to it in the moment.
Reivyn sunk his consciousness to the center of his being and intently watched the Mana within his core. He reached out with his will and grasped some of it, drawing it out along his meridians. He concentrated on letting the Mana determine for itself what Affinities it would epass.
He drew the Mana to his hand and watched in anticipation as it formed in his hand. A ball of Mana quickly formed just above his outstretched hand.
It was just a ball of pure Mana. There were zero Affinities in it at all.
Reivyn frowned as he drew the Mana back into his core. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, readying himself for round two. He tried to rx his intent as he grabbed control of the Mana¡
He froze.
I have to not control the Mana¡ Reivyn thought. Then how do I bring it out?
Reivyn rxed his control over his Mana and watched it sit in his core. He imagined giving it the freedom to express itself the way it wanted while opening himself up for it to travel to his hand. It was the only thing he could think of to bring it out while not controlling it.
It just sat in his core. It didn¡¯t budge.
After several minutes of trying to will the Mana to do something without willing it to do something, he threw his hands up in frustration once more.
¡°Gah! This is a paradox!¡± Reivyn eximed, startling the three girls. ¡°How am I supposed to get it to do something without controlling it? It doesn¡¯t make any sense!¡±
He sat back down once more.
¡°We never said you didn¡¯t control the Mana at all,¡± Kailey rolled her eyes.
¡°You still have to direct it,¡± Riley pointed out.
¡°Ok, but that still doesn¡¯t exin how you get it to take on your Affinities,¡± Reivyn retorted. ¡°When I do what you¡¯re saying, it justes out as unaspected, pure Mana.¡±
¡°Hmm, maybe you need to look at it from a different perspective,¡± Kailey said, tapping her lips in thought.
¡°How about this?¡± Riley spread her arm out in a wide arc. ¡°Look all around you. What do you see?¡±
Reivyn understood Riley was talking about looking with more than just his eyes. He activated his Mana Sight Skill and viewed the ambient Mana dancing all around them. It was quite thick in the Tier 4 Region.
¡°What do you see?¡± Riley asked.
¡°I see a bunch of ambient Mana,¡± Reivyn answered, still looking through his Skill.
¡°And how much of it is unaspected, pure Mana?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°Almost none of it,¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°Did someone enforce their will on that Mana to turn the motes into the Affinities they are?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°Hmm, that¡¯s a good point,¡± Reivyn conceded. ¡°I still don¡¯t see how that applies to my own Mana, though. It¡¯s inert, in its pure form, inside my core.¡±
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
¡°Is it?¡± Riley asked, quirking an eyebrow at Reivyn.
Reivyn was surprised at that. He frowned as once again delved his consciousness into his core. He really dove deep to inspect the Mana in his core.
On the surface, the ball of Mana inside him was just pure Mana, but the deeper he dived, the more he could see traces of all the Affinities he had unlocked.
The lower-Tier Affinities were more numerous and easier to detect. He had to dive all the way to the very center of his core as deep as he could possibly go to see a hint of the Veridical and Abyss Affinities sitting there.
That¡¯s not an entirely urate way of depicting it, Reivyn thought. The Affinities aren¡¯t just floating about inside my core. It¡¯s more like the potential of the Affinities are there.
Reivyn felt like he was getting closer and closer to the answer. He took a break from trying to figure out how to coax the potential out of his core and into the Mana itself without controlling it and just spent some time observing the phenomenon in his core.
He came back to himself after several minutes and looked over at his sisters.
¡°Do you mind if I inspect your Mana cores?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Sure,¡± Kailey answered immediately.
¡°It¡¯s no problem,¡± Riley echoed.
¡°Wait, you haven¡¯t inspected their cores?¡± Kefira asked, confused. ¡°Don¡¯t you have a Skill that let¡¯s you see it even if you don¡¯t want to?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve trained myself to ignore things,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°Unless I rx my hold on the Skill, I only view things on the surface. Plus, I respect their privacy, so I would never look without permission.¡±
¡°That makes sense,¡± Kefira nodded her head, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Reivyn rxed his self-imposed restrictions and let his Divine Sense dive into his sisters¡¯ Mana cores. He also opened his eyes wide and focused with his Mana Sight. It wasn¡¯t as easy to bypass into things with his Mana Sight as it was for his Divine Sense, but he was Skilled enough that it was just a mental switch.
He was immediately struck dumb by what he observed.
¡°Wait,¡± Reivyn said, losing his concentration on looking at their cores. He looked up at their faces with wide eyes. ¡°Your Mana cores look nothing like mine!¡±
His own Mana core was like a ball of pure Mana epassing the potential of his Affinities within the center.
His sisters¡¯ Mana was already infused with all of the Affinities as it sat in their cores.
¡°Of course your Mana holds all of your Affinities when you drag it out without enforcing an Affinity on it. It already holds those properties!¡±
¡°Mhm,¡± Kailey simply acknowledged the fact.
Reivyn closed his eyes and ced his palm on his forehead. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. He slowly lowered his arm and opened his eyes.
¡°So we¡¯re back to square one, then,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to do this in a fundamentally different way than the two of you. Now I have absolutely no idea how to proceed from here.¡±
¡°I have an idea,¡± Kefira said. Three pairs of eyes focused on her. She smiled. ¡°How about you watch Kailey and Riley Absorb and Circte their Mana? There¡¯s obviously something in the process before the Mana settles in their core, and you¡¯re uniquely qualified to observe it.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head.
¡°That¡¯s an excellent idea,¡± he said.
¡°You¡¯re just too close to the problem,¡± Kefira said, resting her hand on his forearm. ¡°You probably would have thought of it¡ eventually.¡±
¡°Maybe. Either way, this will save a lot of time and headache.¡± He turned to his sisters. ¡°You two don¡¯t mind, do you?¡±
The girls were already in the process of sitting down in the lotus position.
¡°Sure,¡± Kailey said.
¡°Observe away,¡± Riley said.
Reivyn waited patiently for the two girls to getfortable and enter a Meditative state. He opened his senses, Mana Skill and Divine, wide to watch the Mana all around.
He watched as the Ambient Mana was agitated and drawn toward the two girls. It didn¡¯t move nearly as fast as it did for him when he used his Skills, but it wasn¡¯t slow, either. Little vortexes of Mana formed centered on the girls.
He watched the Mana as it entered into their meridians and began moving along the channels. The Mana shifted from its ambient Affinity to the conglomerate of Affinities his sisters had unlocked simultaneously too subtly and too swiftly for him to catch the transition.
He focused his will. Like when observing his own core, his consciousness delved deeper into the Mana flowing into and through his sisters¡¯ meridian channels. He was still unable to grasp the change.
He focused even deeper. In the center of his sisters¡¯ beings, a faint outline of the two slowly became visible. It wasn¡¯t located in their core. It was true center. The outlines mimicked the posture of the two girls and appeared to be sitting in the lotus position.
The faint outlines became more corporeal to Reivyn¡¯s senses the more he focused on them. They consisted of the full spectrum of colors from one end to the other, clearer than he could observe in the natural world even with his Divine Sense.
He could tell that there was more to discover deeper within the little outlines, but he realized he didn¡¯t need to search deeper for his purposes. He wasn¡¯t trying to figure out the outlines, but he had a guess as to what they were.
Those are their souls, Reivyn thought. And they themselves hold all of their Affinities within them.
He observed further as the different functions Reivyn recognized as Mana Skills connected to the soul apparitions. The girls¡¯ souls didn¡¯t just connect all the processes together. Theybined them.
The different aspects of the Mana Skills were brought together, blended into one, and dispersed throughout their bodies.
Without realizing it, Reivyn also assumed the lotus position. His eyes closed, but he was still focused on the two girls with his Divine Sense. He didn¡¯t even know that he was doing anything.
Slowly, he began to attempt to mimic the two girls.
The first thing he had to do, though, was disperse all of the Mana from his core. He took control of the entire core and willed the Mana out of his body.
¡°Wow,¡± he faintly heard someone whisper.
He didn¡¯t lose control of his Mana. He simply sent it outside of his body. It formed a sphere around himself, waiting for him to direct it back into his being.
He subconsciously focused on his Affinities, his Mana Skills, and his own Soul. He tied all of his Mana Skills more tightly together within his Soul and infused the entire thing with all of his Affinities.
He wasn¡¯t just dealing with the potential of the Affinities like they had sat within his Mana Core. They were all there, together, all at once in their true form.
He slowly started pulling his Mana back into himself, running it through the different processes like the girls, but many of the functions of each process were now shared with each other.
At first, he kept the Manapletely away from his core. He brought it into his body in a trickle and ran it through his meridian channels. Slowly but surely, the Mana in his channels took on the same multi-colored aspect of his Affinities the same way his sisters¡¯ did. Once he was sure the Mana was saturated, he ran it through one more full cycle before depositing it in his core.
It was a slow process at first, but it gradually picked up speed. Reivyn waspletely unaware of the passage of time.
At some point, his Divine Sense had quit observing his sisters, and he was fully focused on his own task. He didn¡¯t even know when that had happened, but he was so engrossed in the task, he didn¡¯t even realize he didn¡¯t know.
Eventually, thest of his Mana re-entered his body and cycled through the process of taking on all of his Affinities. Once thest drop was nestled within his core, he reached for more and was surprised to find there wasn¡¯t any.
Theck of more Mana to filter brought him out of his epiphany. He channeled his Mana into his hand and a wide grin split his face as he observed the multi-colored Mana sitting in his hand. He brought it back within himself.
He intuitively applied an internal filter, and a weave of pure Fire Affinity formed in his hand. The process reminded him of running light through a prism. He could still dictate which Affinity he used, but he could now mix and match them at will within individual threads.
He pulled the Mana back into his core again and looked up with a grin still on his face. His grin faltered as he saw that his sisters were no longer present. Only Kefira and Seri, plus a different maid, were still in the room. They were seated at the table and engaged in a hushed conversation.
Reivyn looked out the window and saw that the sun had long since set beyond the horizon.
The suddenck of Mana fluctuations finally caught the attention of the two girls, and Kefira rose from her seat to approach Reivyn with a smile on her face.
¡°Finally done?¡± She asked.
Reivyn smiled and nodded.
¡°Yup.¡±
He once more disyed his Mana within his hand. Kefira gave an appreciative murmur of excitement at the sight of all the different Affinities represented in the Mana. Reivyn noticed the blinking Notification in the corner of his vision as he let go of the Mana once more.
¡°Give me one second,¡± Reivyn said, focusing on the Notification. ¡°I think that¡¯s all it took.¡±
He opened the Notification window. Achievement! You have be the embodiment of Mana itself. The secrets of the Realm open up to you.
Skills Mana Absorption, Mana Cirction, Sense Mana, Mana Conjuration, Mana Maniption, Mana Shield, Mana Sight, Dual Casting, Mana Weapon, Mana Drain, Mana Healing, Mana Reinforcement, and Multi-Casting have merged.
The Path has already been set. New Skill Unlocked!
Bonus for merging multiple Tier 5 Skills
Tier 5:
Magic Prodigy (88)
Veridical Affinity +1
Further synergy has been detected between Skills
Insufficient Skill/Enlightenment
Reivyn pumped his fist in excitement.
¡°Yes!¡± He shouted.
¡°So I take it you seeded?¡± Kefira quirked an eyebrow.
¡°Yep! It was as simple as that!¡±
¡°You call what you did simple?!¡± Kefira reeled back, eyes opening wide. ¡°That was anything but simple! The things you say sometimes, I swear¡¡± Kefira shook her head.
¡°What?¡± Reivyn asked, frowning in confusion. ¡°After seeing how it worked, it was simpler than I thought.¡±
¡°Reivyn¡ nobody but you can see it,¡± Kefira rolled her eyes.
¡°Well, lucky for you, I can just show you,¡± Reivyn said with a smug expression.
¡°And then I¡¯ll have to figure out how to do it. The things I sensed going on with my Sense Mana were pretty intense. I¡¯m not sure I could even maintain control of all of my Mana outside of my body, much less while doing whatever it is you did.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll figure it out together,¡± Reivyn grasped one of her hands and smiled.
The door opened and the twins walked into the room. Reivyn had expected them to enter sooner, having spied them with his Divine Sense, but they had apparently been waiting for a lull in the conversation to make their entrance.
Reivyn frowned as he focused on the two girls.
¡°What I don¡¯t understand is how the two of you haven¡¯tbined your Mana Skills together already,¡± he said.
¡°Who said we haven¡¯t?¡± Kailey shot back.
¡°We merged our Skills forever ago,¡± Riley added.
It was Reivyn¡¯s turn to reel back in surprise.
¡°You have Magic Prodigy unlocked?¡± He asked.
¡°Nope!¡± Kailey shook her head.
¡°We did it before advancing to our Tier 1 sses,¡± Riley exined.
¡°We have Magic Master.¡±
Reivyn slowly sat back down. His thoughts were a jumbled mess at the revtion. His gaze once more sharpened as he narrowed his eyes.
¡°And you didn¡¯t think to tell anyone?¡± He asked.
¡°Of course not!¡± Kailey denied.
¡°We told mom,¡± Riley said.
¡°What?! Mom¡¯s known this whole time?!¡± Reivyn sat back in consternation. ¡°:And where was I when all this happened?¡±
¡°You were gone,¡± Kailey shrugged.
¡°And then you were busy,¡± Riley added.
¡°And then we didn¡¯t want to interfere in your experiments.¡±
¡°Plus we didn¡¯t really remember how we did it.¡±
¡°Like we said.¡±
¡°It just came naturally.¡±
The two girls flipped their hair at the same time in opposite directions, smug grins on their faces. Reivyn rolled his eyes and shook his head as Kefiraughed.
Chapter 255: Engaging Conversation
Chapter 255: Engaging Conversation
Status Name: Reivyn ss: Hero Lvl 17
Grand Arcanist
Fighter Age: 16 (21) Health: 14,530/14,530 (+310) Stamina: 28,670/28,670 (+410) Mana: 15,985/15,985 (+50) Qi: 1,000 (T4/Li) Physical Stats Mental Stats STR: 1,514 (+10) INT: 1,549 (+4) VIT: 1,453 (+31) MAG: 1,848 (+6) DEX: 1,513 (+10) CLA: 1,386 (+1) CHA: 414 (+1) PER: 1,300 (+1) LUK: 342 (+1) Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000 Experience: 4,486/20,100 Skills
[Tier 1:]
[Aim (49), Athleticism (75), Bnce (61), Dancing (35), Drawing (23), Drill (24), Drive (7), Haman (20 MAX), Hiding (35), Horsemanship (24), Map Making (30), Map Reading (26), Mathematics (18), Marching (41), Memorization {Social} (22), Mining (22), Observation (64), Penmanship (37), Piano (16), Ride (25), Running (62), Rhythm (32), Shading (7), Swimming (30), Tracing (7), Tutor (27), Woodworking (17)]
[Tier 2:]
[Acrobatics (33), Alcohol Tolerance (11), Ambidexterity (27), Color Correction (1), Forced March (25), Gab (24), Linguistics (11), Meditation (53), Numbers Concepts (10), Pain Resistance (67), Strategy (40), Tactics (49), Teach (26)]
[Tier 3:]
[Battlefield Awareness (52), Blind Fighting (40), Breath Control (25), Command (58), Commanding Shout (43), Decipher (1), Eagle Eye (14), Identify {All} (25), Inspire (65), Mental Fortitude (59), Night Vision (50), Sense Threat (24), Silver Tongue (16)][Tier 4:]
[Charm (4), Dreams of the Past (24), Iron Will (34), Psionic (16) Runes (1), Spatial Awareness (73)]
[Tier 5:]
[Aura {Bloodlust, Heroism} (21), ndestine Prodigy (38), Heroic Bearing (40), Magic Prodigy (88), Protection Prodigy (68)]
[Tier 6:]
[Akashic Record (1), Weapons Master (103), Regeneration (20)]
[Tier 6.5]
[Divine Sense (19), Perfect Domain (14)] Transcendent Ability True Strike: Weapons Master
Cannot be Blocked, Dodged, or Parried
Reivyn perused his Status after sessfully merging his Mana Skills.
There are still a lot of Skills cluttering up my Status, Reivyn noted. Most of these aren¡¯t something I can easily merge into another one, though. It would probably take years to gain enough additional Skills and Levels in those Skills, much less the effort tobine them, with something like painting and other arts. It¡¯s just not my wheelhouse.
There are also some other Skills here that the System mentioned had synergy with the merged Skills, but it also mentioned Icked Skill and/or Enlightenment for further merging. This leads me to believe a couple of things:
One, multiple individual Skills can be used to merge multiple differentbined Skills. The System pretty heavily implied this was the case, and it makes a lot of sense.
Two, there¡¯s a threshold above Tier 6, the Master Tier. Tier 7 is Divine, and Tier 6.5 Skills are Divine Skills not fueled by Divine Mana. I canpletely agree that Ick the necessary enlightenment to create abination Skill of the Divine Tier. It took an extraordinary set of circumstances, including almost dying, to unlock my Divine Sense and Perfect Domain Skills, and those are individual Skills, not merged Skills.
It looks like this is as much as I can clean up my Skills page for the moment.
But speaking of Divine, what¡¯s going on with this Divine Spark?
Reivyn hadn¡¯t seen the Divine Spark since it had been created and submerged into his being. He didn¡¯t know what it did, though he did notice he gained an additional free Stat point per Level up after acquiring it.
He had delved his consciousness into his body multiple times since gaining it, but he had never seen it. He didn¡¯t know where it was, and he didn¡¯t find it when he delved as deep as he could into his Mana Core, either.
Seeing his sisters¡¯ Soul apparition, though, had given him an idea. He had concentrated his focus the same way upon his own being with his Divine Sense until he could slowly make out his own Soul apparition. He couldn¡¯t see the strength of his Soul, but, like with his sisters, he felt he could if he explored deeper. He could sense a tiny orb centered within the Soul apparition in the exact same manner that the Soul apparition was centered within his own being.
He would definitely dedicate some time to exploring the situation, soon, but finally finding the Divine Spark halted any thoughts of exploring any further.
On the forehead of his Soul apparition, a little golden gem glowed with Divine light. It pulsed asionally, and a faint illumination of Divine energy would suffuse the Soul apparition from head to toe and back again before settling within the Divine Spark gem once more.
The pulse happened at regr intervals at once per minute. There was no obvious change or benefit to his Soul apparition, but after watching it happen a couple dozen times, Reivyn spotted an infinitesimally small increase in the luster of the Divine Spark¡¯s brilliance.
It reminds me of Mana Cirction, though it doesn¡¯t follow any meridian channels. It just passes through the whole body and back.
If it continues at a steady rate on its own, I imagine it would take about a year and a half to increase the brightness of the Divine Spark by a single lumen.
I wonder if there is such a thing as a Soul-Meridian Channel? Can this Divine Spark be manually cultivated in a manner tailor-made for my soul?
Reivyn had no idea the functions or properties of the Divine Spark outside of the obvious additional Stat point, and he didn¡¯t know how the brightness would affect it. He had already had the Divine Spark for close to half a year, so he would just have to wait for another one to pass to see if there was any noticeable change.
Reivyn briefly attempted to interact with the Divine Spark as gently as he could, but he had no idea how to interact with his own soul, much less the Divine Spark. His Divine Sense let him observe his Soul apparition after entering the right state of focus, but his Divine Sense had no interactive capabilities.
Maybe my Perfect Domain Skill will help in the future. Right now, I don¡¯t have an actual Domain for the Skill to power. It just takes subconscious control of my body in certain circumstances.
Despite not figuring out anything concrete about his Divine Spark other than its location and the pulse, Reivyn was quite pleased with his progress. He had set the goal to merge several of his Skill Sets into more powerful, individual Skills, and he had aplished it with three different types.
The fact that his new Skills were the same Prodigy designation as his father¡¯s Weapons Prodigy and the hint from the System that his ¡°Path had already been set¡± pretty much confirmed their spection that unlocking the Master-Tier of the Skills had to be done prior to attaining a Tier 1 ss. His sisters having Magic Master also reinforced the idea.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition.
At first, Reivyn was a bit jealous of his sisters. He wasn¡¯t jealous that they had unlocked Magic Master while he had to settle for Magic Prodigy. He was confounded that they seemed to have done so with little or no effort.
He brought up his confusion on the topic to Kefira after the twins had left, but she had pointed out something he hadn¡¯t considered.
¡°How do you know they¡¯re not putting in any effort?¡± Kefira asked, quirking an eyebrow. ¡°They have their entire lives they live outside of your supervision. What is it they do all day?¡±
¡°Well, I know that they have their training sessions with various Crafter sses that both our mothers have set up for them, but when they were younger, they just fooled around with their arts and crafts all day,¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°The same arts and crafts that they manipte and infuse with their Mana?¡± Kefira asked. ¡°The same arts and crafts that have unusual, random magical properties? The ones they¡¯ve been making before they had even fully unlocked the relevant Mana Skills for? Those arts and crafts?¡±
¡°Ye~ah,¡± Reivyn dragged the word out.
¡°And they did so all day, every day?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°And they merged their Mana Skills after you had disappeared in the Dungeon?¡±
¡°I think I see where you¡¯re going with this.¡±
¡°Mhm. It¡¯s not that it actually came naturally to them,¡± Kefira dered. ¡°They had just been using their Skills in unique ways for hours a day, everyday, for years. It makes sense that all that effort you so casually dismiss as ¡®fooling around¡¯ would eventually cascade into a merging of their Skills.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°I¡¯ve been so focused on my own training that I dismissed what they were doing as simply ying around. It¡¯spletely different from what I do, but then again, so are their Skills. They¡¯re notbat Skills at all. It would be strange if they had to swing a sword around to advance their Painting Skills.
¡°Though, now that I think about it, all it would need is some Paint for it to work¡ Hmm, this deserves further consideration.¡±
¡°I recognize that gleam in your eyes,¡± Kefira said, sitting back and grinning at Reivyn. ¡°What sort of scheme are you cooking up?¡±
¡°I was just thinking, my sisters have zerobat Skills that I¡¯m aware of - or at least, none that are high enough Skill Levels to actually count for anything. I know my dad has trained them with daggers and knives, at least.
¡°Anyway, I was thinking I could introduce them to working on their arts and crafts with weapons. Like carving a statue using sword or axe swings instead of carving tools. They could paint with a whip or a fan instead of a brush.
¡°There might be some synergy with their Painting and Carving Skills that it could actually trante to better control of said weapons if the System recognized their actions as actually Painting and Carving.
¡°Think of the possibilities! I doubt either one of them would ever be interested enough to indulge in a wide array of weapons or focus on gaining the Weapons Prodigy Skill, but not only could they potentially increase a Skill for self-defense purposes, but it might also help them improve their Crafting Skills at an elerated rate with the unusual nature of practicing them.¡±
¡°It¡¯s good to see you so focused on thinking of ways to help your sisters, but you could do the same thing, no?¡± Kefira pointed out. ¡°You could participate in your sisters¡¯ painting and other crafting sessions with weapons as your implements. I think the results would be interesting.
¡°I know you¡¯re not necessarily interested in furthering your artistic Skills, but it would be a way to bond with your sisters. It could be fun.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea. I hadn¡¯t even thought to include myself in it. We could make it a family bonding time. If we can figure out a way to work up a sweat, I¡¯m sure my dad would be enthusiastic about it, too.¡±
¡°Family bonding time, huh?¡± Kefira teased, yfully shoving Reivyn in the shoulder. ¡°Speaking of, my mother told me she¡¯s prepared to hold an engagement party for us soon.¡±
¡°Finally,¡± Reivyn sighed. ¡°How long do engagements usuallyst in Wispan?¡±
¡°It depends,¡± Kefira shrugged. ¡°My oldest brother, Garet, has been engaged to his fiancee for a decade.¡±
¡°A decade?!¡±
Kefira giggled at Reivyn¡¯s outburst.
¡°It¡¯s a special circumstance, though,¡± she quickly rified. ¡°She¡¯s a princess of another allied empire. She¡¯s focusing on building a proper foundation for her future role as empress. That means a lot of political training and scheming specifically set up to further her Skills. Garet meets with her in her empire for a few days a year, and she visits us for a few days a year.¡±
¡°Just a few days a year? I¡¯m not sure I could handle such an arrangement.¡±
¡°Yeah, well, they¡¯re training to be the rulers of an empire, not just part of the Imperial Family. Plus they write letters to each other, so it¡¯s not like there¡¯s nomunication outside of their brief visits.¡±
¡°Why is your brother marrying someone from a distant empire? Isn¡¯t your mother from a local noble family?¡±
¡°That¡¯s the exception, not the rule,¡± Kefira exined. ¡°For the most part, the heir to the throne will marry someone of equal status from a different empire. We have four other empires we¡¯re on friendly terms with in the Tier 5 Region we¡¯re adjacent to. We use our rtionship forged in the upper Regions to determine our alliances.
¡°There are also another three empires we¡¯re inpetition with and a few that are neutral.
¡°Anyway, to keep from stagnating the Bloodlines of the Imperial families, there are stiptions set in ce to rotate marriage connections between empires, local nobles, and talented individuals from lower Tier Regions. Thetter being the rarest for direct heirs, though it does happen.¡±
Preventing the Bloodline from stagnating was just the politically correct way of saying preventing inbreeding. Both Reivyn and Kefira understood the truth, but neither felt the need to bring it up.
¡°That¡¯s all well and good, but what does it mean for us?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Well, you¡¯re quite the unique case,¡± Kefira tapped her chin in thought. ¡°You¡¯re technically a new Imperial ally and a talent from a lower Region rolled together. I¡¯m very far removed from the session, and my responsibilities will be the least of my siblings, so it¡¯s perfectly reasonable for me to marry purely for love.¡± Kefira shrugged. ¡°So basically, the engagement canst however long or short we want it to.¡±
¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, we should just go ahead and elope after the engagement party?¡± Reivyn waggled his eyebrows at Kefira.
Kefiraughed and swatted Reivyn on the shoulder again.
¡°While I¡¯m not opposed to it, our parents would kill us if we did that.¡±
¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not sure that would go over too well with our mothers in particr,¡± Reivyn shivered at the thought of Ameliyn¡¯s reaction. ¡°I propose we meet with our mothers, n the wedding, and simply decide on the date based on how long it will take to get everything set up.¡±
¡°That sounds like as good a n as any,¡± Kefira replied.
¡°So, a week?¡± Reivyn asked.
Kefira snorted.
¡°You¡¯re out of your mind if you think it¡¯s only going to take a week. The nning is going to be dynamic. We can set a timeframe and date for the wedding, but we¡¯ll be making and adjusting ns throughout the whole process.
¡°On top of that, the biggest time sink is going to be sending out the invitations, waiting for the RSVPs, and then waiting for the guests themselves to arrive.
¡°We won¡¯t get away with only hosting the nobles in the capital. I¡¯m an Imperial Princess, and you¡¯re technically an Imperial Prince. We¡¯re going to have to invite all of those other allies I mentioned earlier, prominent nobles from their nations, as well as many of the important nobles and prominent figures within our empire and the subordinate Regions below us. Then they all have to get ready and prepare wedding gifts, and on and on¡
¡°We¡¯re looking at another year or so, twelve months if we¡¯re lucky.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not so bad,¡± Reivyn replied. ¡°You¡¯re worth the wait.¡±
Kefira smiled at the cheesyment. It might have been cheesy, but it still made her happy.
¡°So when¡¯s the engagement party?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°In three days,¡± Kefira answered.
Reivyn had only spent a few more minutes with Kefira before Seri cleared her throat, indicating it was time for them to part ways for the day. It had been getting a bitte at that point.
Reivyn came back from his musings and closed his Status Page as he approached the house his family upied in the Imperial Pce grounds. He could see and hear his family once again happily chatting in the living room with his Divine Sense.
He opened the door and entered with a smile for his family.
¡°Ahh, there he is!¡± Ameliyn immediately spotted her son. ¡°Your sisters already told us you finally merged your Skills. Congrattions!¡±
¡°Yup, it was interesting to say the least,¡± Reivyn said, idly ncing at his Affinity-infused Mana Core with his consciousness. He sat down in his preferred seat. ¡°Howe you and the girls never told me they had already merged their Mana Skills?¡± Reivyn inquired.
Ameliyn shared a look with Refix and the girls in question before once more facing Reivyn.
¡°The main reason is that we didn¡¯t have aprehensive n devised from their experience,¡± Ameliyn answered. ¡°We didn¡¯t know how to trante their aplishment to any kind of practice that would help you.
¡°The other reason is we didn¡¯t want to distract you. If you knew that your sisters had already aplished it but didn¡¯t know how to help you, you would have wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how they did it without much sess.
¡°Believe me, I already grilled them enough to try and figure it out for myself,¡± Ameliyn sighed.
¡°Instead, we let you just jump into it in your own way,¡± Ameliyn shrugged. ¡°It seems like you managed to figure it out with their help anyway, but that was borne out of your and Kefira¡¯s own inquiries. You might have been too hung up on a particr thing to figure it out if you knew ahead of time.¡±
¡°That makes sense,¡± Reivyn replied. ¡°I¡¯m still annoyed, but I understand.¡±
¡°Well, get used to it. That¡¯s life,¡± Ameliyn chuckled.
¡°Yeah, yeah. You don¡¯t have to remind me. So have either Kefira or Silva informed you of the engagement party in three days?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve known for a week,¡± Ameliyn replied. She giggled as Reivyn rolled his eyes at his mother. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to spoil the surprise. It was Kefira¡¯s news to tell you.¡± Ameliyn pped her hands together excitedly. ¡°I have just the cutest outfits for Kailey and Riley.¡±
The two girls looked up from their own private conversation at the mention of their names.
¡°Wait, what?¡± Kailey asked.
¡°We have to go?¡± Riley pouted.
¡°Girls! How could you say something like that?¡± Ameliyn frowned. ¡°It¡¯s your brother¡¯s engagement party. Of course you have to go. Besides, don¡¯t you want to dress up all cute?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not that we don¡¯t want to go,¡± Kailey quickly exined.
¡°And we definitely like dressing up,¡± Riley added.
Ameliyn folded her arms and tapped one of her fingers on her forearm as she waited for the girls to exin their reason for their trepidation.
¡°Well?¡± She finally asked when they dragged on too long.
Kailey and Riley shared a look before facing their mother again.
¡°We¡¯re going to have to¡¡± Kailey began.
Riley took a deep breath and sighed.
¡°Act our age,¡± she finished.
The other three members of the family stared at the two youngest for several seconds. They finally broke intoughter as the two girls pouted.
Chapter 256: Combat Carving
Chapter 256: Combat Carving
Sweat dripped down the side of his face as Reivyn pondered over the wooden stump in front of him. The sounds of others practicing and sparring with each other was flung to the back of his mind. He held a sword in the ready position trying to visualize exactly what he wanted to aplish.
He delved deep into his Transcendent ability, ovepping the lines of attack he could perceive with his goal. He shed out with his sword. Huge swathes of wood carved away, revealing the lighter color beneath the bark as wood shavings flew through the air.
Reivyn concentrated on his task, whittling away the exterior of the wood to reveal his idea underneath. The shape of a person started to form, but it was just a clumsy lump. His sword was wielded perfectly. It sliced through the wood regardless of the grain exactly as he intended.
Despite his sword striking exactly where he wanted and only where he wanted, his visualization of his goal wasn¡¯t perfect. Before he could start to improve on the lump, huge chunks of the wood caught with the others and tore away, marring the aesthetic.
Reivyn frowned as he paused in his endeavor. He inspected his work, but he quickly shrugged and continued.
This is my first attempt, and nobody expects me to be any kind of artist, Reivyn thought to himself. It¡¯s better to finish my first attempt all the way and reflect on what caused the problem than to quit half-way.
He continued carving the piece of wood with his sword, all other thoughts relegated to the back of his mind. After about twenty minutes, a little statue, much smaller than he had originally intended, was beginning to take shape.
It was rough, without any actual features, but it was indisputably the image of a person. It wasn¡¯t striking any kind of heroic pose. It didn¡¯t have a legendary weapon in its grasp. It was just the shape of a man standing with his hands by his sides. It was about as simple as it could be.
The little statue also suffered from many nicks and chunks tore out of it in many ces. One arm was shorter than the other, and it stood at an angle instead of perfectly vertically.Reivyn stroked his chin as inspected his work.
¡°What is that?¡± A discordant voice intruded on Reivyn¡¯s concentration.
¡°Is it supposed to be a troll?¡± Another, identical voice, followed the first.
Reivyn looked up to see Kailey and Riley walking toward him. They were both bleary-eyed, and they mirrored each other as they yawned and wiped the sleep from their eyes. They were dressed in clothes meant for physical activity, and they each had a sword belted to their side.
It was an appearance he had never seen from either of them before, but the swords didn¡¯t look out of ce on the training field. All around, young women were dressed and armed simrly.
Now that Reivyn had finished temporarilybining his Skills together, he had resumed his normal training sessions in Kefira¡¯s courtyard. All of her staff were once more practicing under the supervision of Refix.
Kefira and Seri were sparring together, but they slowed down as they cast nces in Kailey and Riley¡¯s direction.
¡°You call that a piece of art?¡± Kailey continued to ask.
Reivyn snorted and shook his head.
¡°I call that a first attempt,¡± he retorted, unashamed. Nobody would confuse Reivyn for the artist of the family, and he had no intention of pursuing such a goal.
Riley bent over the two-foot tall mangled statue and gave it a thorough inspection.
¡°Youpletely ignored the grain of the wood,¡± she said, pointing to a point where some jagged pieces had been torn out.
¡°If you don¡¯t want the wood to splinter like this, you have to work with what you have,¡± Kailey continued.
¡°You can¡¯t force it. Don¡¯t work against the wood.¡±
¡°Work with it.¡±
¡°Hmm, yes, I can see what you mean,¡± Reivyn replied, looking closely at the position indicated. ¡°I was concentrated more on the visualization of my own shes than on how those shes would affect the wood.¡±
¡°This is also a piece of Tier 4 wood,¡± Kailey said. She pointed at some of the nicks and cuts that were out of ce.
¡°Like the physical grain, these higher-Tier pieces also have Mana grains,¡± Riley supplied.
¡°These nicks and cuts are formed out of the stump¡¯s Mana interacting with your own.¡±
¡°Little pieces of Mana were super-charged and melded with the Mana from your sword and caused these additional cuts as they escaped the confines of the Mana grains.¡±
Reivyn frowned.
¡°So even these trees have their own Mana channels?¡± It wasn¡¯t something he had ever considered before, but upon hearing it, it made perfect sense.
¡°You can think of it that way,¡± Kailey nodded.
¡°Though, as far as we know, nts and other inanimate materials don¡¯t actively channel their Mana.¡±
¡°It¡¯s more like a road that¡¯s inherently built within the wood than a person¡¯s meridian.¡±
¡°It¡¯s just there, but facilitates third-party traffic.¡±
¡°Hmm, that makes sense,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. He looked up at the two girls. ¡°But we¡¯re not here to inspect my work. I was just trying out the training method I have nned for you two.¡± Reivyn gestured to two wooden stumps sitting on the ground next to his statue. ¡°Show me what you got.¡±
The two girls smirked as they drew their swords in front of a wooden stump each. They wasted no time in shing out with their ¡°carving tools.¡± Reivyn stood to the side with his arms crossed as he watched over them.
He had to fight to maintain his bearing and not put his face in his hands. Kailey¡¯s first sword-sh simply bounced off the wood, having struck with the de at an angle. Riley¡¯s sword sunk two inches into the wood, but she had put her foot against it to yank the metal away from the wood.
The two girls simultaneously nced at Reivyn with a sheepish expression. Reivyn simply quirked an eyebrow, but he didn¡¯t say anything else. He nodded toward the wooden stumps, indicating for them to continue.
The two girls spent the next thirty minutes hacking away at the wood. With his Divine Sense, Reivyn could pinpoint the exact positions they were attempting to carve the wood, but their Skill with the sword wasn¡¯t enough for them to hit their intended target in the way they wanted.
When they did seed in hitting the proper mark, they often had to pull their sword out of the wood like Riley had on her first attempt. Their Strength and Skill wasn¡¯t high enough to slice through the Tier-4 wood effortlessly.
Part of the problem was they were using mundane swords that could barely even be considered Tier 1. They had also been forbidden from using their Mana in any capacity. The purpose of the training was to improve their weapon Skills.
Once they were able to properly carve through the wood, they would begin to train their actual Carving Skills simultaneously. Their art Skills, though, vastly outstripped their weapon Skills at the moment, so they were going to have to narrow that imbnce first.
Finally, the two girls stopped. They wiped the sweat from their brow as they rested with their swords on the ground. Reivyn was of a mind to scold them for treating their swords so poorly, but these weapons were specifically designed to be used in a punishing manner. It could also unintentionally contribute to the girls¡¯ weapon Skills if they had to fight through a dull edge to achieve their goals.
¡°Not as easy as it looks, is it?¡± Reivyn finally taunted.
Kailey huffed, blowing some hair out of her face.
¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± she said.
¡°We could easily cut through this wood with a carving knife,¡± Riley said.
¡°Even if it wasn¡¯t as sharp as these swords.¡±
Reivyn shrugged.
¡°But you¡¯re not Carving the wood,¡± he pointed out. ¡°You both do have the Sword Skill, right?¡±
¡°Of course,¡± Kailey said, standing up straight.
¡°Dad wouldn¡¯t let us quit until we had it up to 10,¡± Riley added.
¡°Well, mine¡¯s at 11, now,¡± Kailey said. She had a far-off look to her eyes that informed Reivyn she was looking at her Notification Page.
¡°Huh, you¡¯re right,¡± Riley confirmed. ¡°My Skill went up a point already.¡±
¡°Your Skills are too low and you¡¯re not in the right mindset tobine it with your Carving Skill just yet,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°That being said, I¡¯m sure the System recognizes what you¡¯re attempting to do, which is probably one reason you gained a Level in the Skill so quickly.¡±
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
¡°That makes sense,¡± Kailey replied. ¡°We¡¯re not fighters. It took us months to raise our Skill to 10 the traditional way.¡±
¡°We¡¯re artists,¡± Riley continued. ¡°So it makes sense that using the weapon for art, aligning with our talents, would increase our Skill.¡±
¡°And that Skill will trante to fighting, once you¡¯re good enough,¡± Reivyn ended, nodding his head. ¡°Now that the introduction is done, let¡¯s get on with the actual exercise.¡±
The two girls frowned at his back as Reivyn walked off to arge pile of wooden logs set aside. He inspected the concentration of Mana in each of the logs until he found what he was looking for and retrieved two pieces. He carried them back over to the two girls and set one down next to each of the Tier-4 stumps they had been working on.
The two girls¡¯ jaws dropped as they looked back and forth between Reivyn and the new pieces of wood. Kailey raised an usatory finger and pointed it at Reivyn.
¡°You, you, you¡¡± she stammered.
¡°You had these Tier-1 logs the whole time!¡± Riley eximed.
¡°And you made us look like fools with those Tier-4 pieces?¡± Kailey managed.
Reivyn grinned at the two girls.
¡°That¡¯s because I knew exactly what kind of attitude you were both going to have when we started,¡± he said, smirking. ¡°And you didn¡¯t disappoint. You found two ways to criticize my work right off the bat.¡±
¡°We were just teasing you!¡± Kailey said.
¡°Plus, we had a point,¡± Riley shrugged.
Reivyn nodded his head in agreement.
¡°I don¡¯t deny that,¡± he said. ¡°I agree with everything you said, and it has given me a lot to think about for my own training.
¡°That being said, my little stunt also had a point.¡± He stopped and looked each of them in the eye to convey his seriousness. ¡°You¡¯re not ready to do things with a sword you normally do. You have to start at the beginning and work on your foundation.¡±
A hand pped on Reivyn¡¯s shoulder. He didn¡¯t flinch as he had already seen his father approaching with his Divine Sense.
¡°Your brother is right,¡± Refix said. ¡°There¡¯s no shortcut bypassing a solid foundation. The both of you already have the foundation set for your Carving Skills, but you need to catch up with it with your Sword Skills.¡±
¡°And axes, and hammers, and polearms, and whips¡¡± Reivyn listed off several other weapons with a smile.
Kailey held her two hands up in front of herself.
¡°Woah, woah, woah. Slow down,¡± she said.
¡°We¡¯re not going to be working on Weapons Prodigy,¡± Riley pouted. ¡°Are we?¡±
Reivyn shook his head.
¡°No, but it does make sense to have you work on the weapon you''re most suited to,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ll train until you have several past the first threshold, and then you can decide for yourself which weapon best suits you and focus on that one going forward.¡±
Kailey and Riley both got a thoughtful look on their faces as they contemted the n.
¡°We hadn¡¯t thought that far ahead,¡± Kailey admitted.
¡°We had just assumed we were going to be training the Swords Skill,¡± Riley said.
¡°But how are we going to use a hammer?¡± Kailey gestured at the wooden logs.
¡°Wouldn¡¯t that just dent or obliterate the wood?¡± Riley asked.
¡°Who said we have to use wood?¡± Reivyn asked back. ¡°We have ess to marble and other stones. Do you want to try carving a stone statue with a sword? I¡¯m sure we could arrange that.¡± Reivyn shrugged with a half-smile.
¡°And who says a hammer has to do blunt damage?¡± Refix asked.
Kailey and Riley looked at their father in confusion. Refix smirked as he summoned an ethereal hammer. He struck an overhead blow at the stump that Kailey had been working on. The hammer mmed into the top, but sharp sliver was carved off the side as if he had chopped it with an axe.
Kailey and Riley both rolled their eyes.
¡°Da~ad, that¡¯s not fair!¡± Kaileyined.
¡°That¡¯s your Transcendent ability!¡± Riley echoed.
Refix shrugged, undeterred.
¡°Well, maybe you¡¯ll gain a simr Transcendent ability in the future,¡± Refix said. ¡°Maybe an equivalent ability from a different source, even. It¡¯s something to think about with your Carving Skill, at least. The utility of being able to achieve any kind of effect regardless of the tool you use would be a powerful ability for your craft.¡±
¡°Anyway, enough stalling,¡± Reivyn said, pointing at the Tier-1 logs. ¡°It should be a lot easier this time around. Just focus on striking where and how you actually want to strike. Don¡¯t worry about the final product.¡±
¡°Even if we can¡¯t hit where we want¡¡± Kailey started.
¡°I¡¯m sure whatever we make will be better than yours,¡± Riley stuck her tongue out.
Reivyn shrugged.
¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡±
Reivyn and Refix took several steps back, giving the two girls room to work. They watched the iling of their weapons for a while with amused expressions.
Reivyn turned to his father.
¡°Going forward, I¡¯m not going to participate in the morning exercises,¡± Reivyn informed his father. ¡°I¡¯ll juste to help the girls out and do a little of my own artwork. Fine tune my attacks, if you will.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Refix replied simply. ¡°What do you n on doing, otherwise?¡±
¡°They System informed me I built the perfect foundation in Tier 2,¡± Reivyn exined. ¡°So now I need to focus on building off of that base. First, Ibined a lot of my Skills together. That didn¡¯t just condense my Status Page, it was building off of everything I had done up to that point.¡±
Refix nodded his head and motioned for Reivyn to continue.
¡°Further building off of my base entails three more things in preparation for advancing to Tier 4: My Affinities, actualbat and Life Experience, and Qi.
¡°Xudrid mentionedbining Qi and Affinities the same way one does with Mana isn¡¯t possible, but my most recent acquisition of abined Skill has made me think: What if my Qi wasbined with my Mana that inherently has my Affinities imbued in it instead of pure Mana?
¡°I highly doubt any of the Cultivators have spent their time building up Mana Skills tobine before creating their own Qi. That means their Qi is built from pure Mana. It makes sense they can¡¯t infuse their Affinities directly into their Qi.
¡°But what if their Qi already has the Affinities in it when it¡¯s formed? I would just need to parse out the Affinities I want to use instead of trying to infuse something from the outside. It¡¯s apletely different take on the exercise that pure Cultivators simply aren¡¯t capable of trying.¡±
¡°Huh, that makes a lot of sense,¡± Refix nodded along with Reivyn¡¯s thoughts. ¡°What are you going to do about the Qi you already have, though?¡±
¡°I¡¯m going to have to disperse it,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve thought about it, though. I don¡¯t have my Qi Core formed yet. If I introduce new Qi at the same rate I disperse the old Qi, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems. It¡¯ll just take extra time, but I would have had to spend that time, anyway.
¡°I¡¯m going to be focusing on substituting and forming a Qi Core for the foreseeable future, and I think that will go hand-in-hand with my Affinities, too. If I¡¯m right, and this works, I think it will also allow me to introduce new Affinities I gain directly into my Qi if I¡¯m able to form a perfect core: 100% Mana conversion.¡±
Refix nced at Reivyn out of the corner of his eye.
¡°I know you don¡¯t ever do things by half-measures, and I¡¯ve always expected your goal to be a perfect core as soon as we learned about it, but don¡¯t do anything dangerous without first telling us and getting everything set up properly. There¡¯s no reason you should try something without the proper failsafes in ce.
¡°Your mother and I, and Kefira¡¯s family as well, can scour the Realm for natural treasures to protect you through the process. I¡¯m sure the Cultivators know what natural treasures will be needed. Xudrid and Vyria left us a way to contact them, so be sure to do so before it gets too far along.¡±
¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Reivyn replied. ¡°I¡¯ve also thought about that, too. I n on making a trek through the Wilderness and into the Tier 5 Region for mybat and Life Experience. I¡¯m not sure I¡¯ll be able to find a proper challenge, other than fighting the invaders, under Tier 5.¡±
¡°We still have the Dungeon Key,¡± Refix pointed out. ¡°I can take you in there before you head off to augment yourbat experience. Going through the Wilderness and exploring the Tier 5 Region will be good Life Experience regardless.
¡°I know you probably want to go into the Dungeon in a Party with Teilon and your other friends, and I encourage you to do so, but you and I should go in their just the two of us, too. Maybe we¡¯ll bring your mother along if she wants, too. She¡¯s started Adventuring with me again now that the girls don¡¯t need as much supervision.¡±
¡°That sounds like a n.¡±
After informing his father of his ns for the future, Reivyn turned his attention back to his sisters. Refix walked off to continue supervising the others training in the courtyard as well.
Reivyn let his sisters do their own thing without any input for their first wooden statue. Their swords actually carved through the wood when they managed to strike properly, though they still needed to focus more on the execution of their swings than the little statues they were trying to make.
Reivyn had to admit that the nascent form of their statues was definitely better than his own, despite their handicap of not being able to strike with perfect efficiency. They knew their way around carving wood, and they didn¡¯t make the mistake of ignoring the wood and Mana grains of their logs.
After inspecting their handiwork and praising their statues, Reivyn retrieved another set of logs and set about properly instructing them on their Sword Skills.
Despite the disparity in Skill Levels, Reivyn found that he was able to work on his own Transcendent ability through the strikes of his sisters. He could see exactly where they intended to strike even when they failed miserably.
Continuing to watch their training, Reivyn was able to condense a picture in his mind of what they were attempting to do and extrapte what their statues would look like in advance.
At first, he was only able to see bits and pieces of what they were trying to do. As he continued to instruct and correct them on their stances and swings, he was also able to fine-tune his own ability and extraption of the final result.
Using his Transcendent ability coupled with his Divine Sense, he could see the forms his sisters were trying to bring out from the logs. With his ability to prate the logs and see deeper inside, he began to offer advice on where to strike for the desired result for his sisters.
They were skeptical at first, but after seeing the results with their own eyes, they began to trust his judgment. The three of them coordinated together throughout the morning, lost to time in their own worlds.
By the time Kailey and Riley had a dozen little statues carved out of their logs, the three siblings were the only ones still in the courtyard. The others had finished their training and left to attend to their own duties. Kefira and Seri were waiting for the trio to finish, but they didn¡¯t intrude. They simply found something to do to pass the time.
Reivyn stood with his sisters as they looked over the yard littered with the starting forms of statues and wood shavings.
¡°That¡¯s a good start,¡± Reivyn finally said. ¡°I don¡¯t expect you to be able to add proper details to the statues with your Sword Skills anytime soon. That being said, you have a choice moving forward.
¡°You can leave them as is, and we put them away in temporary storage until your Skills Level Up; or, you can switch to a dagger and try to lean into your Carving Skill more, but wielding the dagger as a weapon instead of a tool.¡±
The two girls shared a look. They held a silent conversation with each other before turning back to face Reivyn.
¡°We might as well split the difference,¡± Kailey answered.
¡°We¡¯ll pick up tomorrow with a dagger and try to add some details with half of them,¡± Riley added.
¡°And we¡¯ll save the rest forter.¡±
¡°Okay,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Let¡¯s get this courtyard cleaned up, and then you two can go wash up. I know Kefira has maids that can take care of this, but this is our training mess, so we should be responsible for it. I¡¯ll carry the statues back to their ce, you two sweep up these wood shavings.¡±
Kailey and Riley nodded their heads. Even though they were living in the Imperial Pce and interacted with the maids on a daily basis, they were still used to taking care of their own messes. They happily skipped to a utility shed to retrieve the brooms and get to work.
Kefira stepped out of her house now that the sounds of training had ceased and approached Reivyn carrying the little statues off to the side.
¡°After you get washed up, my parents want to talk to us,¡± she said with a smile.
¡°Oh yeah? What about?¡± Reivyn asked. He continued to move the statues as they conversed.
¡°I think my mother wants to start the wedding nning,¡± Kefira said. ¡°I¡¯m sure your mother will be there, too, so don¡¯t take too long.¡±
Reivyn bent over and kissed Kefira on the cheek.
¡°Sure. I¡¯ll be done with this quickly. Go ahead and wait for me over there.¡±
Kefira acted like she was going to give Reivyn a hug, but after wrinkling her nose at his sweat-soaked clothes, she settled on squeezing his hand before walking away. Reivyn chuckled to himself as he continued to tidy up the courtyard.
Chapter 257: Mapping the Future
Chapter 257: Mapping the Future
Reivyn stepped through the open doors into the waiting room. The room was well-lit from the natural sunlight streaming in through the tall windows. The drapes were tied back to provide a view to the gardens below.
Ameliyn and Silfa were conversing with each other on one end of the couches centered in the room. Their conversation was sprinkled with chuckles and lightughter. Reivyn could have eavesdropped on the conversation, but ironically, he had gotten better at tuning things out with his Divine Sense after obtaining his ndestine Prodigy Skill. Eavesdropping was one of the Skills incorporated in the union, and he found he was better at turning it on and off.
Kefira sat and listened politely for the most part across from Ameliyn with Silfa sitting at the end of a long coffee table. Seri was ever present, standing behind her chair.
I¡¯ve never thought about it before, but why is Kefira the only family member that has a permanent guard wherever she goes? Reivyn idly thought as he strode into the room. I¡¯ve never seen any of her siblings with a bodyguard following them outside, much less within the grounds of the Imperial Pce. It¡¯s probably something simple, like friendship, but I¡¯ll just ask herter.
Reivyn nodded to those present as they looked up at his appearance. Reivyn didn¡¯t spot any of the male members of their families, but he didn¡¯t really think anything of it. A couple of maids stood at attention near the windows, but they didn¡¯t block the light filtering in.
¡°I didn¡¯t think you would be interested in this,¡± Ameliyn said as Reivyn sat next to Kefira. Kefira reached her hand out, and Reivyn grasped it in his own before looking up to his mother.
¡°What do you mean?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°The topic of conversation isn¡¯t something a young man like you is usually interested in, as far as I know,¡± Ameliyn continued. ¡°At least with your father, he made it pretty clear that he would just do whatever I wanted, even if none of it ended uping to pass.¡±
Reivyn raised an eyebrow in confusion.¡°I was just told that you and Silfa wanted to talk to us,¡± Reivyn replied. ¡°I don¡¯t even know what it¡¯s supposed to be about.¡±
¡°Ahh, I see,¡± Ameliyn nodded her head. ¡°Well, we¡¯re talking about wedding and engagement party preparations.¡±
¡°Oh, I see. Well, I can sit and add some input.¡±
Ameliyn gave him a knowing look before turning back to Silfa.
Reivyn quickly understood the look his mother gave him. The two mothers were engrossed in their nning, so much so that they had to remind themselves to include Kefira in the conversation. Kefira didn¡¯t seem to mind. She just looked at Reivyn and rolled her eyes.
Reivyn leaned close to whisper in her ear.
¡°Are you not more interested in your own wedding?¡± He asked.
¡°It¡¯s going to be a State Wedding, so there¡¯s really not much I can do about it,¡± Kefira replied. ¡°I¡¯ve known since little that this was how it was going to be.¡±
Reivyn frowned.
¡°If that¡¯s the case, then why are they nning so much to begin with?¡±
Kefira gave him a look like he had gone crazy.
¡°Because they¡¯re our mothers,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I also imagine it¡¯s pretty fun for them. They get to dote on their children in a once-in-a-lifetime way.¡± Kefira held her hands before Reivyn could retort. ¡°I know, I know. You have two sisters and I have several other siblings, but it¡¯s once-in-a-lifetime for us, specifically.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head.
He tried to listen. He really did, but there was just so much attention he could give. He tried to supply some input here and there, but he was universally replied with. ¡°Yes, dear,¡± and he quickly gave up.
Reivyn¡¯s mind was drifting and he was seriously contemting excusing himself. He enjoyed sitting together with Kefira, but they were basically just quietly listening to their mothers gush over the nning for the weddings. They weren¡¯t interacting with each other very much.
Finally, a savior appeared to release him from the boredom-hell he had found himself in.
Trevor knocked on the door and walked a few steps into the room.
¡°Mother, Misses Ameliyn, sister,¡± Trevor nodded his head to the three prominent women in the room.
¡°Yes, dear?¡± Silfa looked up from her conversation with Ameliyn.
¡°Father has asked me to fetch Reivyn,¡± he simply replied.
Yes! Reivyn yelled internally. Outwardly, he was as calm as he always was.
Reivyn lifted Kefira¡¯s hand and ced a kiss on the back of it before standing. He turned to their mothers.
¡°Mother, Silfa,¡± Reivyn nodded to them. There was a glint in Silfa¡¯s eye at Reivyn addressing her by name, but she didn¡¯t say anything. The twodies nodded back.
Reivyn retrieved his hand and gave a little wave to Kefira. He looked up behind Kefira to Seri to include her in the farewell. She also simply nodded back.
¡°I¡¯ll see youter this evening,¡± he said to Kefira.
¡°Certainly,¡± Kefira replied with a smile.
The two mothers were already back in conversation before Reivyn even took his first step. He walked up to Trevor and pped in on the shoulder, leaning in to speak with a lowered voice.
¡°Thank goodness you¡¯re here to rescue me,¡± he said. ¡°You will forever be my brother!¡±
Trevor snorted in amusement, turning to lead the way out into the hallway.
¡°Come on, our fathers and my brothers are upstairs in the war room,¡± Trevor said.
¡°Ahh,¡± Reivyn¡¯s interest was immediately piqued.
The two young men traversed the interior of the pce halls toward the steps leading up to the next floor.
¡°So what have you been up to these days?¡± Reivyn asked.
It wasn¡¯t very often that Reivyn spent much time with Kefira¡¯s siblings. Now that his parents were here, he ate his meals with his own family for the most part. The other asions were just him and Kefira. Sometimes they were apanied by the twins.
¡°I¡¯ve been running the Dungeon to increase my Level, mostly,¡± Trevor replied. ¡°I¡¯ve been allowed to take things slow because of my older siblings. There hasn¡¯t been much responsibilities that I¡¯ve been needed to take over until now.
¡°With the invasions increasing across the Local Group, though, my father has ns for me to take a militarymission like Kayzor. I probably won¡¯t ever be a general like him, but if I do well, I couldmand a battalion or regiment one day.¡±
¡°Your father and eldest brother are really leaning into the whole mercenary idea, huh?¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°Aside from the invaders winning in each of the conflicts we¡¯ve participated in, it¡¯s actually been a huge sess,¡± Trevor said. ¡°As you know, most people, even in Tier 4 Regions, don¡¯t have the necessary rarity of ss to advance beyond Tier 4.
¡°The Imperial Guards are an exception, of course. They¡¯re the elite of the elite, but even they are mostly doomed to not ever surpassing Tier 5.
¡°The nobles and Imperial Family members have the chance to advancing to Tier 6 one day, but by that time, they¡¯ve long since retired from the empire and spend their time in the Tier 5 Region.
¡°With the advent of the invasions, our soldiers have seen a universal upgrade in their ss Rarity options. The vast majority of those that deploy before Tier 4 have all risen in Rarity and will have the option of reaching Tier 5, now.
¡°That¡¯s not all, either. Many crafter, even those that haven¡¯t gone with the military deployments, are seeing an increase in their prospects. With the need to outfit our army better, we¡¯ve increased our acquisition and distribution of higher-Tier materials. Their profits, in-turn, allow them to spend their money on other luxuries.
¡°This whole business has been good for the strength of the empire as a whole. It will still be some time before we see the tangible benefits, but the road is being paved.¡±
Reivyn thought back to his spection on the tactics of the invaders in Vairo.
If we¡¯re seeing such an increase in potential with our conservative methods, I wonder just how powerful the invaders are going to be in the future. They¡¯ve already demonstrated that they don¡¯t need numbers to overwhelm us, what with those cloaked monsters.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Reivyn was happy for the potential of Willowan, but that didn¡¯t abate his worry over the invaders. He didn¡¯t know the methods for targeting the Regions they invaded, but it was going to be a race to see who could grow the fastest if they ever set their sights on Willowan.
The two young men quickly made their way to the war room. It was a destination Reivyn had never been to in the Imperial Pce. They walked through the open doors past a couple of Imperial Guards standing at attention.
The center of the room was dominated by arge table with a map on it. Ge and Refix were standing together on the far side with Garet and Kayzor standing next to them on one side. High-ranking officers of the Imperial Army stood on the other side. There were chairs lining the edge of the room all the way around, and most of them were filled with lower-ranking officers who were paying close attention to the conversation of the emperor and his subordinates.
¡°Ahh, there he is!¡± Ge paused in speaking to the Commanding General of the Imperial Army as Trevor and Reivyn stepped into the room. Reivyn felt all the eyes in the room turn and focus on him.
I¡¯m pretty sure I was supposed to be here already, Reivyn felt his stomach drop at the realization.
¡°I apologize for my tardiness,¡± Reivyn gave a shallow bow.
Ge barked augh.
¡°Hah! You¡¯re not in trouble, my boy,¡± he replied. ¡°You¡¯ve been on vacation. We didn¡¯t tell you about the meeting, but after your father wandered over we snatched him up and he told us you were in the pce with meeting with our wives.
¡°I¡¯m sure you would rather be here than there, so I sent Trevor to get you.¡±
Relief flooded Reivyn. He was technically amissioned officer in the Imperial Army, so it would have been a tremendous breach of duty if he hadn¡¯t been where he was supposed to be. Luckily, that wasn¡¯t the case.
¡°I appreciate it, sir,¡± Reivyn replied.
Ge waved it away as Reivyn made his way around the table toward Kayzor and Garet. He inspected the map with his Divine Sense.
The table wasrger than any he had seen before. It was at least twice the length of the long table Kefira and her family had their meals at, and it was circr, not rectangr. The map spread across the entire table from edge to edge.
Most of thendmass on the map was nk. The outer edges were filled in with basic details like forests and mountain ranges, but little else.
Reivyn furrowed his brow over such a sparsely detailed map. What purpose could there be in this, and what exactly am I even looking at?
He didn¡¯t recognize the shape of thendmass. From what he could tell, it was some sort of ind as it waspletely surrounded by water around the edges, but he couldn¡¯t figure out where it depicted or why it would be on disy.
The map was checkered with faint little shapes mostly the size of a coin, though they were each irregr in shape. About a hundred of these shapes were colored in eitherpletely with red or with red stripes. There was also a ring outlined around the nk part of the interior of the map.
Reivyn walked up to Kayzor and leaned in to whisper.
¡°What¡¯s this?¡± He gestured with his eyes to the map.
Kayzor briefly nced at the map before looking at Reivyn.
¡°That¡¯s the Local Group,¡± he replied. ¡°We borrowed it from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡± Kayzor subtly pointed at an older, distinguished looking man standing at the tail-end of the generals. ¡°That¡¯s the Guild Master of the Willowan Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡±
Reivyn¡¯s eyes widened at the revtion. He looked closer at the map, but he couldn¡¯t identify anything that looked familiar. Kayzor saw him looking intently, and he pointed at one of the coin-sized shapes outlined with blue ink near the interior ring.
¡°That¡¯s Willowan,¡± he said. ¡°The Regions with the red stripes are those that are currently suffering an invasion, and those that are filled-in with red are those that have already fallen.¡±
Reivyn re-evaluated the map. There were red and red-striped Regions littered across the entire map. He could find no pattern to their distribution, and it appeared as if it waspletely random.
One thing he did notice, though, was that there weren¡¯t any invasions concentrated in a localized area. They weren¡¯t uniformly spread evenly, but there was arge distance between each Region.
There were also no regions touching the interior ring that Reivyn now recognized as the Wilderness. Not all Tier 4 Regions bordered the Wilderness, but Reivyn didn¡¯t understand exactly how the Mana density worked across the entire Local Group.
He was surprised to see just howrge the interior Tier 5 and up Regions was. He hadn¡¯t ever really thought about it before, but seeing it made him realize his owns thoughts had been far from encapsting just howrge the higher-Tiered Regions were. The scale of the Local Group was just to a point that it was hard for the human mind to grasp.
¡°We don¡¯t usually have a reason to look at a map of the entire Local Group,¡± Kayzor continued. ¡°Until now, we¡¯ve only been concerned with our own Region and our subordinate Regions. The Adventurer Guild only has this map out of curiosity to begin with.¡±
¡°Does the Adventurer Guild have a map of each Local Group?¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°What about the Clusters?¡±
¡°I doubt any Adventurer Guild in our Local Group has a map of a different Local Group,¡± Kayzor replied. ¡°What would be the point? That being said, I¡¯m sure the information could be transmitted between Local Groups.
¡°They do have a map of the Clusters, but nothing on this scale. There¡¯s little reason to include such details aside from the basic shape and position of the Local Groups on such a grand scale. It would take up the whole city!¡±
Reivyn briefly thought back to his lesson on the Local Groups and Clusters. He had known that the Realm was truly humongous, but seeing the one Local Group with the Regions outlined in such tiny proportions really put things into perspective. He just couldn¡¯t wrap his head around howrge the world was.
¡°Anyway, that¡¯s not the purpose of the meeting,¡± Kayzor said, amusement in his gaze.
¡°Then what is the point?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°We¡¯re trying, and failing, to figure out a pattern to the invasions,¡± Kayzor replied. ¡°So far, all we¡¯ve been able to determine is that we¡¯re unlikely to be invaded any time soon.
¡°There¡¯s spection that these invasions are going to happen in waves, though. If that¡¯s the case, we¡¯ll probably have to wait until the next round of invasions to add to the map. The leading theory is that the invasions are starting from Regions more distant from the interior and will eventually move closer in.¡±
¡°And is there a reason to think such a thing?¡±
¡°Mana purity,¡± Kayzor answered. ¡°The Regions closer to the Wilderness have a purer ambient Mana than those further out. It¡¯s not just a difference in density. For the most part, Regions closer to the interior have a higher density, but there are pockets of higher-Tier Regions that don¡¯t follow that trend.
¡°So far, the invasions have been exclusively to the more distant pockets, but that¡¯s the only pattern we¡¯ve been able to figure out. And we wouldn¡¯t have realized it without the help of the Adventurers Guild. We just don¡¯t have the information, nor the reason to have it, about the different Regions scattered across the Local Group.¡±
¡°Hmm, that makes sense,¡± Reivyn said, ¡°There was that phenomenon where all the ambient Mana went crazy and started getting dragged toward the enemy lines when we were in Vairo. Have any of the other expeditions reported something simr?¡±
¡°Every one of them,¡± Kayzor confirmed.
A throat clearing interrupted Reivyn¡¯s whispered conversation with Kayzor. He looked up to see Ge and the generals looking at him.
¡°So, Reivyn, what do you think?¡± Ge gestured to the map.
¡°I think¡¡± Reivyn drug the word out as he inspected the map again. ¡°That we need more information.¡± He shrugged. ¡°The hypothesis that the invaders will send out more invasions in waves has some merit to it considering the fact they seem to be doing something with the local Mana.
¡°Whether or not our Region is going to be targeted in the future isn¡¯t something we can know with what little information we have right now. That doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t prepare, of course, but I think we¡¯re already doing that.¡±
¡°Go on,¡± Ge encouraged.
¡°Yes, sir. Trevor informed me that the soldiers and crafters are increasing their potential with the efforts we¡¯ve been making with sending military aid to those being invaded.¡± Reivyn nodded toward Trevor. ¡°Has my father exined to you our thoughts on the enemy tactics?¡±
Ge shared a look with Refix and nodded his head in confirmation.
¡°They¡¯re far more brutal than we are, and they¡¯re more willing to sacrifice the lives of their troops. Not only that, but from what we¡¯ve seen, they can afford to.
¡°Whipping the civilian poption into a frenzy now wouldn¡¯t be the right move. People would panic, and even if we are targeted in the future, it might not be for a long, long time. People will growcent and forget our warning by the time something does happen.
¡°However, I think we need to increase our deployments. We don¡¯t have to adjust our tactics for more radical, dangerous means, but we need to get as many bodies the necessarybat and Life Experience for higher Tier ss options. Dungeon runs to increase Experience to capitalize on the increased potential should also be expanded.
¡°We can¡¯t have the army burnout, though. Instead of sending the same soldiers on endless deployments and Dungeon delves, we¡¯ll probably need to dramatically increase the size of the military.
¡°The mercenary deployments will be able to help out with the finances, but it won¡¯t cover everything. Raising a military is expensive. Have you thought about recruiting more Adventurers from the vassal kingdoms?¡±
Ge gestured to the Guild Master.
¡°That¡¯s one of the other reasons Master Huildare is here.¡±
The Guild Master, Master Huildare, nodded to Reivyn. He was aware of the mercenarypany Reivyn had put together, and Reivyn was sure he had seen reports of the Adventurers returning from Vairo that chose to leave the mercenarypany after the one deployment.
¡°That was another thing I was going to discuss with you after your vacation,¡± Ge said, a gleam in his eye. ¡°We already have the organization set up, so Princess Kefira will nominally remain in charge of the Adventurer Mercenaries with you in actualmand.
¡°We¡¯ve already started, but we¡¯re expanding the program to increase the size from apany to a regiment. I¡¯m promoting you to the rank of Major, and General Kayzor is going to be in charge of the domestic administration. Trevor is going to be training for another year or two as a Lieutenant, but he¡¯ll eventually be Kayzor¡¯s aide with the idea of having him take over one day.¡±
Many thoughts and implications raced through Reivyn¡¯s mind at this news.
¡°What is the chain ofmand going to look like?¡± He asked. It was the most important, immediate question he had.
¡°Princess Kefira is in charge overall, on paper, at least. General Kayzor is in charge of the training and administration. You, Reivyn, are the fieldmander. Even though Kayzor is a general and technically outranks you, your position is equivalent to his while in garrison here in Willowan. In the field, you are the absolutemander.¡±
¡°What about my own officers?¡± Reivyn continued to ask.
¡°The officers you choose will be givenmissions in the Imperial Army,¡± Ge asked. ¡°It will work the same way your ownmission works. You will all technically be officers in the Imperial Army, but you¡¯re chain ofmand is parallel up to me through Kefira.
¡°Only the officers will be considered members of the Imperial Army. The officers will be professional soldiers, but the enlisted, even the highest ranking sergeants, will still just be auxiliaries.
¡°While they won¡¯t have the benefits of being members of the Imperial Army, they will have other advantages. For instance, they¡¯ll be able to leave the mercenary corps more easily. They won¡¯t have to devote years of service, and they won¡¯t have to participate in anything outside of what your require of them.
¡°The selection andmissioning of officers will be left to you, Kefira, and Kayzor.¡±
Reivyn shared a look with Kayzor before looking back to Ge.
¡°Good. Kayzor, Kefira, and I will iron everything out in the near future,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Excellent,¡± Ge pped his hands together. ¡°Put everything together and let me know if you need anything. Master Huildare has also volunteered to assist, so don¡¯t leave his expertise and resources on the table.¡±
Ge turned back to his generals. Reivyn and Kayzor shared a look.
¡°Looks like we¡¯ll be working a lot closer together from now on,¡± Reivyn said with a smile.
¡°Yep!¡± Kayzor returned the smile with a grin of his own. ¡°This will also give us more opportunities to train and spar together.¡±
¡°Haha, don¡¯t let my dad hear you.¡±
¡°Hmm? What do you mean?¡±
Reivyn just grinned at Kayzor. Kayzor frowned as he felt a gaze on the back of his neck. He looked up to see Refix staring at the two of them, a predatory look on his face.
¡°Toote,¡± Reivyn said.
Chapter 258: Organizing
Chapter 258: Organizing
The rest of the meeting was pretty boring for Reivyn. It wasn¡¯t the mind-numbing boredom that he experienced listening to his mother and Silfa in their discussion of his uing wedding, but he was likewise unable to add further input. He and Kayzor had a lot to coordinate, but that would have to wait for their own time.
The generals and higher-ups involved in the military already had all of the reports that he and the othermanders had provided. Reivyn was there if they needed some kind of rification on an issue, but the topic wasn¡¯t so specific that it was necessary.
They were discussing the overall nning for not only preparing for a future invasion of themselves, but also sending as many soldiers to battle as possible to raise their Levels and potential.
Increasing the number of mercenaries sponsored by the Imperial Family was only one aspect that they were increasing in their war effort. Recruitment of the regr military was also kicked into overdrive. That included young men with dreams and aspirations of serving as an honorable soldier as well as the civilian manufacturers that would supply them.
One of the biggest limiting factors was one of raw materials. They had ess to a lot of Tier 4 materials from the infrastructure of their empire, plus all the lower-Tier materials needed for training apprentices and journeymen. What theycked for the masters, though, was a reliable source of Tier 5 materials.
With the increase in potential for the civilians, they would need to shift the majority of their work to materials that simply couldn¡¯t be found in their Tier 4 Region if they wanted to go even further on their path.
The greatest craftsmen of the empire were already locked into their potential, but their disciples, apprentices, and subordinates had hope of going further. There was no way they would limit their posterity to mediocrity now that they had the chance to attain a higher Rarity ss.
The meeting continued to discuss everything from building new fortifications throughout the realm to sponsoring expeditions to the Tier 5 Region beyond the Wilderness. Reivyn listened intently, but he was anxious to get back to work with his own project. Reivyn could have probably gotten away with excusing himself, but he needed to coordinate with Kayzor, and his future brother-inw would definitely not be allowed to leave early.
Eventually, though, the meeting wound down to a point Ge no longer needed the military brass. His next biggest task would be to convince the nobles to increase their rate of exploration of the Tier 5 Region to send back the needed resources. That was apletely different type of conversation. Militarymanders listened and obeyed, but nobles had to be convinced.¡°Ahh, finally out of there,¡± Kayzor said, stretching dramatically as they walked down the hall.
Trevor had trailed behind Reivyn and Kayzor as they walked side-by-side. Knowing the intention of Ge, neither said anything to shoe the young man away to attend to his own duties.
Trevor, despite being a couple years older than Reivyn, had led a mostly idle life, at least by Reivyn¡¯s standards. He had just started his journey in the military, so he wasn¡¯t quite ready to jump into the duties he would one day be assigned, but that didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t listen in now.
¡°I would have thought you would have more to input, considering you¡¯re a general,¡± Reivyn pointed out to Kayzor.
¡°Nah. I might be a general, but I¡¯m at the lowest rung,¡± Kayzor dismissed. ¡°Anything I would have to add would have already been ounted for by the older guys, and I¡¯m not in the chain ofmand that has the deployed units. I¡¯ve read all the reports, of course, but that just means I know the minimum of what the others know.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Reivyn responded. ¡°Well, that won¡¯t be true for much longer, what with the added duties of overseeing the domestic affairs of the mercenary unit. Are you beingpletely transferred over, or are you just adding to your te?¡±
¡°Just adding to my te,¡± Kayzor answered. ¡°It¡¯s not much of a burden, though. Most everything on my end can be run by my subordinates without much input from me. I¡¯m also not foolish enough to try and do everything myself, either. I¡¯ll definitely be roping in those that are already running the show. No need to reinvent the wheel.
¡°You don¡¯t mind, do you? I¡¯m not trying to poach your men, but they¡¯re already there¡¡±
¡°Of course,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t brought it up, I was going to suggest it. It just makes sense. Many of them are going to want to go on the next deployment, of course, but there are some that I¡¯m sure enjoy their position as trainers, and some of the veterans of thest expedition are going to want to stay behind.
¡°I hadn¡¯t fully considered what I was going to do with the veterans, but now that your father wants to expand the mercenarypany to an entire regiment, I think the best thing would be to split the four toons up to form the backbone of four newpanies.
¡°Have you already had a chance to look at what¡¯s been going on with the recruitment since I¡¯ve been gone?¡±
¡°A little,¡± Kayzor said. ¡°My father only told me of his ns a couple days ago. Probably because he only decided a couple days ago. That being said, as far as I know, there are already enough recruits to form two morepanies.¡±
¡°I haven¡¯t looked into it in further detail,¡± Reivyn replied. ¡°My family wanted my full attention, so I gave it to them. It¡¯s about time to get back to work, though.
¡°First things first, we¡¯ll need to promote my current officers,mission new ones, and fill in enlisted leadership roles. We¡¯ll get the infrastructure worked out first before we start sliding whole toons around.
¡°I already know who I want as the newpanymanders, but for the new officers, you can decide based on Imperial Army standards. We¡¯ll have to give them additional training, of course, but we already have enough veteran officers to form at least one fully functionalpany regardless of how we split things up.¡±
As the two walked toward the exit of the Imperial Pce, Master Huildare caught up to them. Reivyn and Kayzor paused to wait for him, and Trevor gave a little wave as he finally peeled off to go see about his own duties as a junior officer.
¡°General Kayzor, Major Reivyn,¡± Guildmaster Huildare nodded to the two men. Reivyn and Kayzor nodded back. ¡°The Adventurer¡¯s Guild maintains information on every Adventurer within the empire. I know that a lot of Adventurers have journeyed from other Tier 4 Regions, though, and we¡¯ve already begun working to gather their information. I¡¯ll have my secretarypile a list.¡±
Reivyn gave the guildmaster a puzzled look.
¡°Don¡¯t the Guild Tokens contain all of the information?¡± He asked.
¡°Those are like cliff notes,¡± Huildare responded. ¡°It records notable achievements and activity, but it doesn¡¯t include things like personality or background information. It is a key to that information, though, so our workers can find the relevant files quickly.
¡°That being said, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild maintains moreplete records than can be essed directly through the token. I overheard you talking about appointing new officers. Normally, a Guild Token would be enough for you to screen regr recruits, but for officers and others being ced in more delicate positions, I imagine you would want the full record.¡±
¡°That would be a big help,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°I appreciate the help.¡±
Huildare waved the appreciation aside.
¡°No need,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s the least we could do for you. The fact you¡¯ve created such a sessful mercenary group has brought in a lot of Adventurers to our Region. Sure, it¡¯s increased our workload, but that¡¯s nothing a few new hires can¡¯tpensate for.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
¡°The new Adventurers who don¡¯t make it through the recruitment process, though, end up Adventuring and Dungeon delving around here, and that¡¯s really brought in a lot more revenue and prestige. It¡¯s a win-win.¡±
¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t realize there was such a thing,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Do the Adventurer Guild branchespete with each other?¡±
¡°Sort of,¡± Guildmaster Huildare rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish expression. ¡°It¡¯s really just us old fogeys bragging to each other. You know there¡¯s no centralization of the guild, and Tier 4 Regions are as high as we go. There¡¯s not much else to do than to brag to each other after a certain point.¡±
¡°You guys don¡¯t have a presence in the Tier 5 Regions?¡± Reivyn asked, genuinely curious.
¡°We do, but we¡¯re mainly there to support the nobles and Imperial families. We help process materials and setup convoys for the most part.
¡°You have to understand: most Adventurers don¡¯te from a privileged ce. The vast majority will never exceed Tier 4, much less Tier 5, and those that do attach themselves to the noble families directly. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild acts mostly as a merchant enterprise in Tier 5 Regions, what with our most powerful members having split off from us.¡±
The guildmaster leaned in to whisper to Reivyn.
¡°As an Adventurer yourself, I don¡¯t mind sharing this news: It¡¯s not just the military and craftsmen that are getting a boost to their potential. The Adventurers who join your unit are seeing the biggest boost, but even some that don¡¯t are improving, as well.
¡°One day soon, we might be able to establish a true presence in the Tier 5 Regions.¡±
¡°And let me guess: Your branch is likely going to be one of, if not the, first?¡±
Guildmaster Huildare winked at Reivyn. Reivyn justughed.
¡°Well, good luck.¡±
¡°You, too.¡±
The guildmaster nodded once again to the two men and continued on his way back to the headquarters of the Adventurers Guild. Reivyn and Kayzor shared a look, Kayzor rolling his eyes.
The two followed in Huildare¡¯s footsteps for a minute before turning and heading toward the drill grounds the mercenaries were housed in. They had been provided space from the Imperial Army. It didn¡¯t make sense to have Reivyn find amodations away from the seat of military power in the city, especially since they were officially sponsored by the Imperial Family, anyway.
Upon arriving at the barracks, Reivyn noted new construction in the empty lots nearby. It seemed Ge had nned from the beginning to expand the mercenarypany, though he probably waited to make the final decision until he received the positive reports.
Soldiers in simple attire were Marching about in formation all around. Other groups were formed and practicing their Spear and Shield Skills. Nobody was doing any individual training at the moment, but that was to be expected. None of the recruits were anything like the Tier 2 Conscripts who had never held a weapon before. They were all experiencedbatants already, they just needed to learn to work together in an organized unit.
¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to ask, but why do you have the mercenaries devote so much time to simple drill?¡± Kayzor asked as they made their way to the headquarters building. ¡°I understand having them train Marching, but they¡¯re never going to have to do any kind of parades or ceremonies.¡±
¡°The simple reason is discipline,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°A more nuanced exnation would be it instills a habit of obeying orders. For those conducting the drills, it gives them experience in giving orders.
¡°Drill is about as simple as you can get. Even so, it will trante in the field to instant obedience to orders, which is crucial in the middle of a fight.¡± Reivyn gave Kayzor a sideways nce. ¡°Come on now, you¡¯re a general. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t understand this?¡±
¡°Hah!¡± Kayzor chuckled. ¡°We have to train drill for so many other reasons other thanbat that I¡¯ve never really thought too deeply about it. It makes sense, though.¡±
The two made their way to the central building and stepped through the doors. The interior was the same as all the other military headquarters buildings Reivyn had been in. A youngdy wearing the mercenary¡¯s nonbat uniform with sergeant¡¯s stripes was sitting behind a desk as they entered. She stood at the appearance of the two non-uniformed men.
¡°Can I help you gentlemen?¡± She asked.
She was polite, but Reivyn could tell she didn¡¯t know who either of them was. Reivyn couldn¡¯t hold that against her, though. As the overallmander, he didn¡¯t recognize her, either.
¡°I¡¯m Major Reivyn, and this is General Kayzor,¡± Reiyn introduced. The young sergeant¡¯s eyes went wide in rm, and her body stiffened to attention. Reivyn waved her concerns aside with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong.
¡°Anyway, can you direct me to Lieutenant Jekle¡¯s office?¡±
¡°Yes, sir!¡± The sergeant hurriedly walked around the desk toward the hall on the right side of the building. ¡°Right this way, gentlemen.¡±
Reivyn could have used his Divine Sense to find his way to Jekle¡¯s office. In fact, he could already see the man busy at reading through some reports down the hall. He decided to follow normal protocol, though. It would appear strange if he could find his way unerringly the first time he ever stepped foot in the building.
Reivyn and Kayzor followed the sergeant down the hall. She led them to the third door on the left and knocked. A voice called out for them to enter, and the sergeant opened the door.
¡°Sir, Major Reivyn and General Kayzor are here to see you,¡± the sergeant announced, stepping aside to let Reivyn and Kayzor enter the office.
Jekle leapt to his feet from where he had been going over some paperwork and stood at attention.
¡°At Ease,¡± Reivynmanded.
Jekle sat back down, ncing back and forth between Reivyn and Kayzor.
¡°That will be all, Sergeant,¡± Jekle called to the young woman. She closed the door behind her.
Reivyn and Kayzor took a seat across from Jekle.
¡°Jekle, how do you like your time in the mercenarypany so far?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Honestly? I love it,¡± Jekle responded. ¡°I¡¯ve always enjoyed leading a Party, but this has opened my eyes to a whole new world. If I hadn¡¯t volunteered all that time ago in Drallo, I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d be doing with myself now.¡±
¡°And that leads me to my next question: You¡¯re officially a citizen of Drallo, but how would you feel about changing citizenship directly to Willowan and receiving an official Commission?¡±
Jekle frowned as he thought about the question.
¡°You want me to leave the mercenarypany and join the official Imperial Army?¡± He asked.
Reivyn shook his head.
¡°No,¡± he answered. ¡°From now on, allmissioned officers in the mercenarypany will receive officialmissions in the Imperial Army, but we¡¯re going to be in a parallel chain ofmand through Kefira. Commissioned officers have to be citizens of Willowan, though.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Jekle trailed off for a short moment. ¡°That¡¯s fine with me. It¡¯s actually well-known that many people always aspire for better, and bing a citizen of Willowan was always a goal I¡¯ve had, anyway. I was just thinking of doing it as an Adventurer before now.¡±
¡°Excellent!¡± Reivyn eximed. Reivyn looked over to Kayzor. ¡°This man has been my right hand, and he¡¯ll make an excellentpanymander. What do you think?¡±
Jekle had perked up as soon as he heard panymander.¡± Kayzor gave him an appraising look.
¡°I¡¯ve read your reports,¡± he finally said. ¡°I understand what you meant when you said you already had an idea for the newpanymanders. I agree.
¡°You¡¯ll have to have some additional training,¡± Kayzor said to Jekle. ¡°Even though you¡¯ll be in a parallel chain ofmand, you¡¯re still going to have to know how to do all the other things all the othermissioned officers know.¡±
¡°That won¡¯t be a problem,¡± Jekle quickly replied.
¡°Good. Then let me congratte you, Captain Jekle. I¡¯ll have the new rank insignia sent over shortly.¡±
¡°Thank you, sir.¡±
¡°Hmm, even I don¡¯t know all the ins and outs of being an official officer in the Imperial Family,¡± Reivyn spoke up. ¡°Do I need to attend this special training?¡±
Kayzor rolled his eyes.
¡°You¡¯re a special case. As a Liaison and future inw of the Imperial Family, you¡¯re afforded certain privileges.¡±
¡°Hooray, nepotism,¡± Reivyn raised an imaginary toast.
The three men chuckled.
¡°Alright, Kayzor¡¯s going to be in charge here at home, so he¡¯ll need to meet with the rest of the staff and officers,¡± Reivyn turned serious again. ¡°Go ahead and get someone on coordinating a meeting with him and his people.¡±
¡°Yes, sir,¡± Jekle said. ¡°Sir, some of the other lieutenants have already expressed an interest in resigning theirmissions. I thought I should go ahead and inform you in case you had nned on retaining and promoting each of them.¡±
Reivyn frowned. He had intended on promoting each of the lieutenants from there deployment to Vairo. They had all shown excellent leadership and ability inbat, but being part of the mercenary unit and not the official military granted them the ability to leave more easily. If they epted an officialmission, though, they would be bound for a longer term.
¡°I see. Thank you for telling me. That being said, you and the other officers get with the training staff andpile a list of potentials formission. We¡¯re expanding quite a bit, and we¡¯ll need to fill a lot of leadership positions quickly.¡±
¡°Yes, sir.¡±
Reivyn and Kayzor stood up. Reivyn reached over and shook Jekle¡¯s hand, followed by Kayzor.
¡°Congrattions, once more,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Thank you, sir. I won¡¯t let you down.¡±
¡°I know you won¡¯t,¡± Reivyn smiled.
He and Kayzor left Jekle¡¯s office and headed toward the central stairs leading up. The sergeant stood at attention once more as the two men walked by. Reivyn waved for her to sit back down and ignore them.
¡°I¡¯ve never actually been to my official office before,¡± Reivyn chuckled. ¡°Let¡¯s hope it¡¯s not full of unread reports.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure said reports are sitting in someone else¡¯s office,¡± Kayzor replied with a grin. ¡°But don¡¯t worry. They¡¯ll find their way to your desk soon enough.¡±
¡°Lucky me,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes.
Reivyn used his Divine Sense to find his name card next to an office. He should have known it wouldn¡¯t be necessary, though, as it was the first office on the left-hand side after ascending the stairs. He spied ¡°General Kayzor¡± already pinned to the office on the right-hand side.
¡°Your office is already set up over there, in case you didn¡¯t know,¡± Reivyn pointed as he headed to his own office. ¡°But let¡¯s go ahead and get started sorting through what we have already. No time like the present.¡±
Chapter 259: Pass in Review
Chapter 259: Pass in Review
The sunlight glinted off the armor of the arranged mercenaries as they marched in neat rows through the open drill field. The recruits had finished their training, and the veterans who stayed on had dispersed through the muchrger organization to make up the backbone of the newly formed Battalion.
Not all of the veterans were elevated to a leadership role. There just weren¡¯t enough of them to go around, and not all of the previous leaders had decided to leave after the one tour. Even so, the newly integrated recruits still held a certain reverence for the ones who had seen actualbat in the previous deployment.
The many toons marched in lock-step. They had been training long enough that their Marching Skill could ensure they were in-step at all times, but this was a ceremonial asion. As such, there was an added squad of soldiers who had specialized in acoustic Affinities or Skills in the center of the entire outfight beating out a rhythm on drums with an apanying instrumental tune.
The left foot of each troop fell on the beat of the bass as they Marched into position.
It was quite the sight to behold. They weren¡¯t ¡°professional¡± soldiers like the Imperial Army. They didn¡¯t have fancy gilding on their armor, but they were at least wearing matching sets. The uniformity and precision lent its own grandeur that was aesthetically pleasing.
The first deployment had seen the mercenaries equip themselves for the most part. The logistics department had included spare weapons and armor in the supplies, but they were mostly generic and inferior goodspared to what the adventurers had been able to procure for themselves over the years.
That had changed after thepany had returned. The payout they had received after all expenses were taken care of had been enough for themanders to consider it a beneficial to supply uniform armor to the entire contingent. While the new recruits were training, they had not received anything special, but once they had graduated and been incorporated into the battalion, that had changed.
Instead of buying entire new sets of gear for every individual, though, they had mainly selected amon theme and everyone had had their gear, if they had it, altered to match the look. Nobody was wearing light armor, but not everyone was in medium armor. Some of the adventurers were more focused on heavy in-fighting and wore the heavy variant. One would not be able to tell at a nce, though.
It had been cheaper overall to alter the gear that already existed. Even with the profit from the first mercenary action, they might not have been able to afford an entire battalion¡¯s worth of brand new armor. The alterations necessitated repairs, though, so it was almost the same thing.The mercenaries came to a halt in their positions on the parade field and faced the front where a bevy of senior military personnel and nobility were watching the procession. The mercenary soldiers listened to themands of their toon Commanders and executed their movements with sharp precision.
Gulley stood proud in his position as First Squad Squad Leader in one of the toons. The majority of the squad leader positions were filled with veterans. Only a few had gone to new recruits, and none but Gulley were in the First Squad. He wasn¡¯t in the First toon, but that wasn¡¯t necessarily the ultimate toon to aspire to. Some organizations were set up where the more experienced soldiers matricted up as they gained experience until the First toon of the First Company was the foremost toon in the entire battalion, with the same concept extrapted up the organizational chain.
That was not the case for the mercenarypany. Gulley assumed it was because of the longevity of the members, it¡¯s what made the most sense, but either way, the mercenarypany had evenly spread out their experienced troops across the entire battalion.
Gulley had lived his life in a leadership role from the very beginning, but none of his previous responsibilities had given him as much pride as his role as a squad leader in the mercenary battalion. This was the first leadership role he had earned instead of being given. It had apletely different vor to it.
Not everyone shared his enthusiasm, though. He heard some grumblingsing from down the line in his squad. Now was not the time tosh out. There wasn¡¯t arge audience fixated on their position, but any sudden movements would be sure to draw the eye, and not in a good way. He would need to speak to the offender after the ceremony was over.
That didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t nothing he could do about it now, though.
Very slowly, so slowly that the movement couldn¡¯t be perceived, Gulley turned his neck until he could make eye contact with one of his entourage that had followed him into the mercenary unit standing behind where theints wereing from. The man sensed something and shifted his eyes to meet Gulleys. An unspokenmand was given.
The mercenary follower was positioned in the second row, so he had a little more leeway with movements. Still moving slowly so as not to draw unwanted attention, the man shifted his bnce until his weight was on one foot, and he inched his other foot up into the air. When it was only a couple of inches away from making contact with the rear of the grumbling mercenary, he activated a Skill to swiftly cross the remaining inches tond a swift-kick to the rear of theiner.
It wasn¡¯t powerful enough to inflict any pain, much less damage, and it was a testament to their training that the offender didn¡¯t lose his bearing and jump at the intrusion. It did get the message across, though, and the grumblings stopped.
Gulley imperceptibly nodded his head to his follower, and the man slowly lowered his leg back to position of attention. Nobody in the audience was the wiser to petty action that had taken ce right in front of them during a military parade.
Even this little bit of internal disciplining without causing a scene swelled the pride Gulley felt in his chest.
There were no more incidents within Gulley¡¯s toon for the duration of the ceremony. There was a short speech given by the overallmander, Major Reivyn, and he personally inspected several squads at random before returning to the podium. They didn¡¯t drag the whole thing out and inspect every individual soldier in the entire battalion.
In Gulley¡¯s estimation, he would consider it to have been short but sweet. There was just enough pomp and circumstance without dragging everything out until everyone was bored.
Major Reivynmended the trainers who had stayed behind from the first deployment for a job well-done, and then he simply dismissed them. He didn¡¯t walk off like some of the other senior military members and nobility, though. He stood at attention and watched the entire procession as they marched past.
The toons looped around so they Marched across the podium¡¯s field of view onest time on their way out to the beat of the drums once more.
¡°Eyes! Right!¡±
Gulley, and everyone else in his toon, snapped their heads to the right as they Marched directly in front of the podium. The toon Commander performed a salute with his sword which Major Reivyn returned. Once thest member of the toon Marched past the podium, the toon Commander¡¯s perfectly timedmand came through once more.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°Ready! Front!¡±
And with that, the toon followed the rest of theirpany off of the parade grounds where they could be dismissed out of line of sight from the formal ceremony.
¡°First Squad! Stay behind,¡± Gulley immediatelymanded after the toon Commander dismissed the toon.
There were a few snickers directed toward one of the mercenaries who had attempted to bolt away as soon as themand had been issued, but Gulley¡¯s aura of authority covered him and froze him in his tracks. nces from other squads¡¯ members were thrown his way, but nobody was surprised.
Gulley stood with his hands behind his back and waited for the rest of the toon to disperse. His squad members formed a half-circle facing him and waited in silence with him. The mercenary follower of his in the second squad didn¡¯t wait with them.
He had encouraged his followers to disperse among the variouspanies and toons to truly integrate. He wouldn¡¯t have leveraged his status if it hadn¡¯t been an anomalous situation to begin with, instead choosing tomand one of his new squad members.
As such, there was only one other person from his group in his squad: the girl who had been present when he had tracked down Teilon to initiate a rapport to guarantee a chance at recruitment. She wasn¡¯t anything special in her performance, and she wasn¡¯t his assistant squad leader. She kept to herself for the most part, but he was secretly d to have her in his squad. The chances had been quite slim for her to be ced where she had been, and as far as he knew, there had been no favoritism or machinations at y in her cement.
Even though Gulley was d to have her in his squad, he didn¡¯t y favorites or pay her any special attention. He didn¡¯t even nod to her in a familiar way when their eyes briefly met. He stoically waited in silence for the other mercenaries to clear some distance between them.
Once Gulley deemed there was enough space between his squad and the other mercenaries, he finally turned his gaze on the grumbling offender. The mercenary winced slightly under the steely gaze.
¡°Vuroiq¡What. In. The. HELL. Was that?!¡± Gulley barked.
The man, Vuroiq, once more winced at the tone in Gulley¡¯s voice. The man nced around for support, but didn¡¯t find any among the faces of any of the other mercenaries. Despite being all on his own, he eventually squared his shoulders and stood tall to answer his squad leader.
¡°Corporal, we were specifically promised not to have to participate in military parades,¡± he stated with vehemence. ¡°If I had wanted to March around and look all pretty all the time, I would have enlisted in the Imperial Army. I thought we were here to fight, not,¡± he gestured back towards the parade grounds, ¡°prance around to make the higher-ups feel good about themselves.¡±
Gulley felt the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, but he maintained his bearing and simply stared at Vuroiq for a few seconds. The man wilted a little under the stare, but he didn¡¯t back down from his position. Gulley broke eye contact with the man and nced at the other squad members.
¡°Does anyone else want to exin the obvious to him?¡± He asked.
The man standing next to Vuroiq smacked the man in the back of the head before opening his mouth.
¡°This wasn¡¯t a military parade,¡± he growled. ¡°Sure it looked like one, but it wasn¡¯t. We had no audience other than our chain ofmand and a few of their friends who were interested.
¡°This was an internal graduation ceremony, and it was to make us feel good about ourselves. It was a significant experience, elevating us from mere Recruits to Mercenaries.¡±
The man looked at Gulley to see if he had gotten it right. Gulley nodded his head slightly.
¡°Mostly,¡± Gulley answered. ¡°It was more than that, though. Let me ask you a question, Vuroiq. Have you ever seen or heard from Major Reivyn? Have you ever thought about the makeup of the other toons orpanies since you were assigned your position?¡±
¡°Ugh¡ no?¡± Vuroiq answered back hesitantly.
¡°¡®No¡¯ to which question?¡± Gulley pressed.
¡°No, Corporal, I had not seen or heard from Major Reivyn. I had not considered the otherpanies or toons.¡±
¡°At this point, I¡¯m not singling you out, Vuroiq. I imagine 99% of the mercenaries haven¡¯t really considered these two things.
¡°Before this ceremony, Major Reivyn was just a faceless name ced at the top of an organizational chart. Until this ceremony, you were just a name ced in a slot in that same chart.
¡°Now, though, we¡¯ve all seen and heard from themander. We¡¯ve all participated as an entire organization. You might not know where very single person is located in the machine, but you¡¯ve seen them. You¡¯ve Marched beside them.
¡°You¡¯re no longer just a name in a slot. You¡¯re no longer even just a member of our squad and toon. We¡¯re all finally, fully members of the Mercenary Battalion. It¡¯s no longer just on paper. It¡¯s a reality.
¡°It might have seemed like a simple parade to ¡®make the higher-ups feel good about themselves¡¯ to you, but it was so much more. Do you understand?¡±
¡°Umm, I think so,¡± Vuroiq answered, ncing down at the ground.
¡°That¡¯s good enough,¡± Gulley nodded.
A short silence fell over the squad. Vuroiq looked back up at Gulley.
¡°Is that all, Corporal?¡± He asked.
Gulley arched an eyebrow at him.
¡°Are you out of your mind? That was just an exnation for why you were wrong about the parade. I haven¡¯t addressed your gross breach of discipline, yet.¡± Gulley stifled a smirk to maintain his bearing.
¡°Form up!¡± Hemanded
The members of the squad immediately rushed to form up, the assistant squad leader taking their position in the front.
¡°Vuroiq¡¯s breach of discipline isn¡¯t just a personal matter,¡± Gulley said. ¡°It was a failing of First Squad. It was a failing of the First Squad Leader. As such, instead of enjoying liberty for the rest of the day, we¡¯re going to train. We¡¯re going to sweat.
¡°Right! Face!¡±
The squad sharply turned to the right.
¡°Forward! March! Double! Time!¡±
Gulley immediately set the squad to jogging across the field. Double Time was technically a jog, but it was also a run. It was technically double the pace of regr Marching, but it was also themand given when a unit ran for exercise. As such, Gulley jogged his way to the front position once more, and then he picked up the pace.
¡ª
Reivyn held his salute as thest mercenary passed by in front of him. He held it for just a moment longer before lowering his hand. He wasn¡¯t technically in a formation or anything himself and there were no lower ranked soldiers from the battalion present any longer, but he still maintained his professional bearing.
He turned about with a sharp movement, but he let himself give Kayzor a knowing look before he Marched forward to take a seat.
And with that, I¡¯m ¡°officially¡± done, he thought. So, I guess, dismissed?
Reivyn shrugged and chuckled to himself.
¡°What¡¯re you giggling about to yourself?¡± Kayzor asked.
¡°Just silly military protocol,¡± Reivyn brushed it aside.
¡°So now that you¡¯ve seen the troops, what¡¯s the next step?¡± Kayzor asked again.
¡°Well, we have the information on their mock battles, and we know approximately their capabilities from their information from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and self reporting, but I think we should do onestbat evaluation. A real one.¡±
¡°Ok, and where are you going to have them engage in actualbat?¡±
¡°The Dungeon,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°We have an agreement with your family to allow us preferred ess, and we haven¡¯t really had a chance to take advantage of it yet. I also missed my appointment with Xudrid and Vyria, the two Cultivators I told you about, because of that stupid legal situation.¡±
¡°So, what? You¡¯re going to personally go in with the teams? That would tie everyone you Party with to your instance of the Dungeon, and it would take forever.¡±
¡°I was thinking more along the lines of officers as evaluators. Not just ours, either. I would need to borrow somemissioned officers from the Imperial Army if you¡¯re amenable to helping me out with that.¡±
¡°Yeah, one week of losing an instance shouldn¡¯t be too bad, plus they don¡¯t go in every week anyway. How were you thinking of organizing it?¡±
¡°By squad,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Each squad will be a Party, and they¡¯ll have to advance in the Dungeon as in formation. This will also allow us to see who¡¯s able to break their habits of Adventuring in a looser Party formation.¡±
¡°Alright, it¡¯ll take a couple of days to get everything set up with the additional officers to act as invigtors, but it should be doable within the week.¡±
¡°Thanks, I appreciate it,¡± Reivyn said, standing up. Kayzor followed suit. They were thest two at the podium, all the other officers and nobility having already left. ¡°Now I think I¡¯ll swing by to see Kefira and get ready for the engagement party in a few hours.¡±
¡°Woah, hold on there, buddy!¡± Kayzor said, grabbing Reivyn¡¯s sleeve. ¡°Don¡¯t you know it¡¯s bad luck to see your fiance before the party?¡±
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow before rolling his eyes.
¡°I think you¡¯re confused,¡± he chuckled. ¡°That only applies to seeing the bride in her wedding dress before the ceremony. I don¡¯t think Kefira even has a dress, yet.¡±
¡°You¡¯d be surprised,¡± Kayzor chuckled in turn. ¡°Especially with my mother and her older sisters. She at least has options already.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t doubt it.¡±
The two stepped off the raised tform. Reivyn gave onest wave as he turned to head in a different direction than his future brother-inw.
¡°See you tonight at the shindig.¡±
Reivyn turned and walked off. Kayzor was slightly taken aback for a moment before also walking off to start on finding spare officers for the final evaluation.
¡°Shindig?¡± He shook his head.
Chapter 260: Engaging Speech
Chapter 260: Engaging Speech
Reivyn stood next to Kefira in the same hall they had held her ball in almost a year ago. It was a subtle difference, but many of the guests in attendance made note that Reivyn was standing next to Kefira. Previously, Reivyn had been positioned such that it could be construed that he was just nearby. There was no confusing the two with their proximity this evening.
¡°So d of you to join us,¡± Kefira smiled and held her hand out to another young nobleman.
Reivyn offered his own hand and shook the other man¡¯s with a smile on his face. The young man had a look of consideration on his face as he walked by to make room for the next guest.
They had not told anyone in advance that this was an engagement party. All anyone knew was that Kefira was holding yet another ball. Enough time had passed since thest one that it wasn¡¯t too unusual, but Kefira had never been one to be known for the parties she threw.
Reivyn and Kefira basked in the gazes of confusion and spection. Reivyn could tell that Kefira was having a lot of fun with the suspense.
The adult chaperones, like previously, made their way to the upper floor so as to be out of the way. Reivyn caught more than a few nces from the noble wives with an expectation of snagging another dance with himter. Even Lady Cylia gave him an expectant nce.
Looks like her son¡¯s animosity and ambition to get with Kefira isn¡¯t enough for her, Reivyn chuckled to himself. It would be a good idea to give a little bit of attention to the matrons in attendance, but I¡¯ll have to bnce that with the time I spend with Kefira. I¡¯ll have to ask her opinion on the matter, though. She¡¯s not one to get jealous, but this is a special day for both of us.
¡°Her Imperial Highness, Sovereign Ameliyn of Vynn!¡± The Majordomo called.
The room went silent and everyone turned to witness the person called by the Majordomo. It wasn¡¯t everyday that someone was introduced as an Imperial Sovereign. Reivyn looked up in surprise as his mother glided into the room. All eyes were on her, and she epted the attention with grace.Almost everyone in attendance, even the older adults on the second floor, didn¡¯t know who Ameliyn was. Their interest was piqued at her introduction, and everyone strained to hear what she would have to say while greeting Kefira.
Everyone was shocked, however, when Reivyn was the one to step forward and utter an unbelievable sentence.
¡°Good evening, mother,¡± Reivyn said. He bowed slightly and kissed the back of Ameliyn¡¯s hand in a familial way.
A pin drop could be heard, and Reivyn could have sworn he heard a collective gasp reverberate through the hall.
Reivyn was a well-known individual at this point. Everyone had done their research on him and how he hade into the employ of Kefira. The fact that he was an Adventurer-turned-soldier-turned-Liaison was a well-known fact. To discover he was an Imperial Prince of all things was almost too much for some people to handle.
Remfort, the ring-leader of many of the young nobles who tried to get between Reivyn and Kefira, leapt to his feet. His jaw stayed on the table, however, and he stammered as he pointed at Reivyn with astonishment written across his face.
At a different table, Petre likewise lost hisposure. His astonishment was of a different sort, though, as he was on friendly terms with Reivyn. To learn that the young man he had befriended despite his upbringing was, in fact, of higher peerage than him momentarily stunned him; however, he took it in a different light than Remfort and his coterie.
After a brief moment of silence, a wide grin split his face and he turned to the others seated next to him.
¡°See! See!:¡± He eximed. ¡°That¡¯s my friend!¡±
The others at the table were of the same basic faction as Petre¡¯s family, though, so they weren¡¯t as impressed. They were on friendly terms with Reivyn, too, through their rtionship with Kefira.
¡°Well, it looks like I stole a bit of your thunder, son,¡± Ameliyn said with a slight smile. ¡°Sorry about that.¡±
¡°Haha, I don¡¯t think you did, actually,¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°I¡¯ll see you in a bit, hon.¡±
¡°Sure thing, mom¡±
Ameliyn turned and headed to the steps to join the rest of the adults on the second floor. Silfa weed her with open arms. She and her husband had been there since the beginning to entertain the older guests as they arrived.
Refix had stood back to allow his wife to garner all of the attention, a habit formed from their time as teenagers, but he stepped forward and followed his wife up the stairs.
Riley and Kailey entered the ball room after their parents and skipped over to Reivyn and Kefira.
¡°The Imperial Princesses of Vynn, Riley and Kailey,¡± The Majordomo intoned.
They had gone a little off script by bouncing over to their brother and future sister-inw so quickly, but nobody had anything to say about it. They were still stunned by the continuous revtions of status.
Reivyn turned to survey the crowed to catch their reactions. He frowned when he noticed a thoughtful expression take over Remfort¡¯s face.
That little weasel, Reivyn gripped his fist. He quickly rxed his involuntary reaction, though. Hah! Like he¡¯s got a chance with either of them. I¡¯ll just keep an eye out to make sure he and his goons don¡¯t do anything inappropriate. Heaven help him survive the wrath of our mother if he does, though.
He knew that his sisters weren¡¯t Combat ssers, but that wouldn¡¯t stop them running circles around anyone trying to ost them. They were able to implement their Skills in unique ways that even he had a hard time guarding against.
It¡¯s probably the fact that they aren¡¯t Reivyn mused. That begs an interesting question, but I should think about itter.
Reivyn returned his focus to the guests continuing to stream in through the doors. Riley and Kailey had skipped away after their brief greeting to sit at the main table where a ce was set for them.
Reivyn noted that Petre and his friends engaged them in friendly conversation immediately. He had never seen his sisters in a social interaction before, so he didn¡¯t know if they were going to be shy or anything, but they seemed to be adapting like ducks in water from what he could observe.
Eventually, the trickle of guests dwindled. Almost all of the nobility, or at least their younger generation, from the capital and a few closer cities were represented in the crowd. There were also the well-to-do families: wealthy merchants, high-end crafters, and powerful Adventuring ns.
They didn¡¯t open the doors for foreign dignitaries for the engagement party, though. That would have taken way too long and too much coordination simply for the announcement. They would send out the invitations for the wedding ceremony, only. That also included the lesser lords anddies from further duchies and counties within the Tier 4 Region and their subordinate nobles from the lower Tiered Regions that were part of the Willowan Empire.
The guests were introduced and seated, and the room was filled with the low buzz of conversation. It halted in turn as Reivyn and Kefira made their way to their seats, arm in arm. For those that hadn¡¯t had a clue up until now, what with the revtion of Reivyn¡¯s true status and the way he escorted Kefira and sat next to her, everyone was finally aware of their rtionship.
This book is hosted on another tform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
The crowd was allowed to simmer and converse among each other for several minutes before Ge finally made his way down the steps from the second floor to the main event. He walked to a podium conspicuously ced behind the table where Reivyn and Kefira were seated.
Ge held up his wine ss and tapped it with his spoon. The hall wasrge enough that one would expect the sound wouldn¡¯t reach; however, Ge must have employed some sort of Skill.
Probably a Social Skill of some sort, Reivyn thought.
The sound was clear and sonorous throughout the entire venue. Everyone heard it as if they were sitting next to Ge. The conversation quickly dwindled away until there was once more silence.
¡°Esteemed friends,¡± Ge began, addressing the youth on the first floor. It was a calcted move to give them face and let them feel more important, even though their chaperones were present for the event. ¡°Thank you all for gathering with us on this momentous asion.
¡°I know many of you are wondering as to the purpose of this gathering, as we have not announced ahead of time what it is. I will quickly dispel any doubts anyone has.¡±
Ge held out his hand to Kefira with a smile.
¡°Dear,e join me.¡±
He waited patiently as Kefira gathered herself and mounted the short podium to stand beside her father. The two of them faced the crowd.
¡°As everyone is aware, we had announced nearly a year ago that our lovely daughter was seeking suitors. We have watched as many of you have jockeyed for position and employed various tactics to gain my daughters attention.
¡°For this, I must apologize.¡±
Ge stopped and bowed his head to the young crowd for a couple of seconds. He didn¡¯t drag it out, though, and he quickly lifted his head to continue.
¡°What we didn¡¯t tell you is that she had already found her suitor.¡±
Ge was used to giving speeches, and it showed in his perfect timing for a short breath of air to allow those in the crowd to erupt in muted conversation. Everyone wasn¡¯t stupid. They had seen that some things just weren¡¯t right, but they also had their own ingrained biases. Nobody, until this very evening, had ever considered Reivyn to be a true contender for Kefira¡¯s affections. He was just a subordinate, after all.
Now, all eyes swiveled to him. He remained calm under the scrutiny and simply looked up to Kefira and her father standing on the podium.
¡°I see that most of you have put two and two together,¡± Ge chuckled. ¡°Yes, young Reivyn, Prince of Vynn, is the very suitor I mentioned.
¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all wondering how my beloved daughter could have fallen for one of her subordinates, but that¡¯s only the surface. Their courtship started before he became her liaison.
¡°It isn¡¯t that Kefira fell in love with one of her subordinate, but rather that she secured a prestigious position for the one she loved.¡±
More conversation was struck up on the reveal of the details. Ge let the youngsters talk amongst themselves for a few moments before continuing once more.
¡°I know, I know,¡± Ge said. ¡°This doesn¡¯t seem any better than the other way around. It sounds like she was giving special favors to those close to her.
¡°To that, I have two things to say:
¡°Number one: It was System sanctioned. Reivyn would not have been able to take on the position if he wasn¡¯t qualified. He has all of the qualifications necessary, and then some, to hold the position that he does. The System has judged him worthy. I won¡¯t hear any gossip on how he got the position through the backdoor.
¡°Number two: So what if he did?¡± Ge smirked at the shocked expressions on the youths in the crowd. ¡°Kefira is an Imperial Princess! She has the discretion to make her own decisions, and there¡¯s nothing in the rules preventing her from appointing her loved one to the position he has.
¡°Even if he wasn¡¯t qualified for the position, it is not your turn to criticize my daughter¡¯s decision.¡±
Ge switched from a friendly elder facade to a ferocious father backing his daughter at all costs at the flip of a switch. His demeanor morphed into one of deadly certainty at the end of his exmation. He swept the crowd with a stern expression.
More than one throat moved as the owner gulped their saliva in nervousness.
Just as quickly as the ferocious look hade, it was gone. Once again, Ge was the epitome of the friendly uncle.
Many backs were soaked with sweat, but everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
¡°Now, that was just an appetizer to the true intentions of the gathering.¡±
Ge held out his hand once more, this time to Reivyn. Reivyn smiled as his eyes remained locked on Kefira¡¯s. He stood up and crossed the short distance to stand beside her. He grasped her hand and turned to face the crowd with her.
¡°It is with great joy that we, my wife and I, announce the engagement of Princess Kefira to Prince Reivyn.¡±
There was a sort of inflection in Ge¡¯s voice, and Reivyn wondered if not a little Skill, that called out to the seated crowd to cheer. It was like an avnche. It was inevitable.
First, the crowd of youngsters with the best rtionship with Kefira and no designs on getting attached to the Imperial Family began to p. As others were drawn in by the energy, the pping reached a crescendo, and many youngsters whooped and put their fingers together to give out loud whistles.
The apuse went on for several moments. Reivyn noticed there wasn¡¯t as much enthusiasm equally amongst those gathered. Remfort and his cronies only gave a half-hearted few ps before sulking in their seats.
Reivyn could see the defeat in Remfort¡¯s eyes, though several of his underlings had apparently not realized the whole situation. Some of them leaned forward and appeared to offer eitherfort or ideas for Remfort to consider, but he simply brushed them aside and continued to sulk.
Reivyn hid a smirk, marshaling his military bearing to maintain a simple smile on his face.
¡°The wedding date is still undetermined,¡± Ge continued as the apuse finally abated. ¡°Know that everyone will receive an invitation for such a grand event, of course. It will be one of the finest weddings in all the Region.¡±
Ge turned to face Kefira for a brief moment.
¡°Sorry dear, but I can¡¯t let you show up your older brother.¡±
Kefira smiled sweetly at her father and simply chuckled. She knew it was a more imiportant state event when the future emperor finally got married, and he would have the full backing of two Tier 4 Empiries. Reivyn¡¯s title was real, but it was also only a technicality at this point.
¡°Finally, this is an engagement party,¡± Ge eximed. ¡°Everyone eat, drink, and dance. Have a good time. It is a joyous asion.¡±
He stepped down, followed by Reivyn and Kefira. The first table where the two had been seated erupted as everyone scrambled out of their seats to mob the couple. Ge used his extensive knowledge and experience to quietly dodge the spectacle and make his way back to the second floor.
His wife Silfa must be basking in all the attention as the older participants surrounded her to question her about the engagement, but there was only so much even she could handle.
Reivyn and Kefira didn¡¯t even make it half-way back to the table before Petre and several of Kefira¡¯s closer friends rushed to them. Reivyn was slightly surprised to finally notice that Seri was actually one of the girls wearing a dress in attendance.
I should have realized. She did wear a dress to thest ball, if I recall correctly. I was just soser-focused on Kefira and what was happening that I didn¡¯t even notice with my Divine Sense.
Hmm, am I getting better or worse at that Skill?
Reivyn dismissed the thought. It was tongue-in-cheek anyway, as he knew it was his prowess with the Skill that allowed him to ignore the flood of information it constantly bombarded his brain with.
¡°The two of you were together even during the first ball when Kefira returned from her excursion?¡± Petre immediatelyunched into an interrogation as he rushed up to Reivyn.
¡°Of course,¡± Reivyn confirmed.
¡°But, Empress Silfa announced Kefira was seeking suitors, and you spent the entire evening dancing with everydy present except Kefira,¡± Petre sputtered.
¡°Yes? I don¡¯t see the problem here,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°We already knew her mother was going to do what she did. She told us ahead of time. It was a game to her, and we were the pieces on the board. What could we do but participate.
¡°And dancing with all the mothers of those present was a strategic decision that I informed Kefira about ahead of time. And believe me, it worked.¡± Reivyn winked at Petre.
¡°Hah! Yeah, I remember the look on Remfort¡¯s face when you swept by with his own mother in your arms. I bet a lot of the Ladies are going to be disappointed the you¡¯re off the table, now.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll see about that,¡± Reivyn said.
Petre froze and stared at Reivyn for a second.
¡°You can¡¯t be serious! You have public obligations to Kefira, now.¡±
¡°I¡¯m dead serious,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Remember: strategic decision. The main battles have been won, but the war isn¡¯t over. I still need to gain eptance from all of the nobility, and what better way than to charm the matrons in attendance? They have wants and needs, too, and I¡¯m simply going to give them what they want.
¡°You say I have public obligations to Kefira, but nobody said anything about the marrieddies dancing with mest time. It¡¯s just dancing.¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°In fact¡¡±
Reivyn waggled his eyebrows at Petre.
¡°You should really join me. Do you have any youngdy you want to woo?¡±
Petre¡¯s face turned a shade redder as he rubbed the back of his neck.
¡°Aha! You do!¡± Reivyn pointed at Petre. ¡°What better way than to dance with all of her friends and their mothers? They¡¯ll put in a good word for you if you show them a good time and a gentlemanly demeanor.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll consider it,¡± Petre said with a thoughtful expression.
¡°Speaking of, though, I really do need to run it by Kefira first. I told youst time that I had informed her of the strategy ahead of timest time, but I haven¡¯t done so today. She¡¯s the one who will ultimately decide.¡±
¡°Yeah, that makes sense,¡± Petre nodded along to the exnation.
¡°But that doesn¡¯t apply to you. There¡¯s no excuses for you. Even if I don¡¯t dance a single time other than with Kefira, I¡¯ll be sure to round up some Ladies for you to entertain. So I suggest you go sit back down and fill your belly. You¡¯ve got a long night ahead of you.¡±
Petre once more stopped and stared at Reivyn to see if he was joking. Reivyn simply grinned and winked at him before turning to stand with Kefira again.
Chapter 261: Prepping for the Dungeon Runs
Chapter 261: Prepping for the Dungeon Runs
Reivyn leaned back in his chair, sighing to the air. Detailed reports of each individual mercenaryid scattered on his desk. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he let himself dpress. He had spent several days going over all of the information avable on every single mercenary.
As the overallmander, he was in a paradoxical situation. The chain ofmand existed in a way that he only dealt with the officers and their senior enlisted advisors when applicable. Their mercenary organization was young enough that it wasn¡¯t the case, yet, but it would be one day.
However, that being said, he was still responsible for everyone under hismand. He believed it was his duty to have a full grasp of his people¡¯s capabilities. There wasn¡¯t anyone to cover for him if he miscalcted. That was his job to do for his subordinates.
Thus, he had spent several days familiarizing himself with all of the workings of the mercenary battalion. He didn¡¯t just go over the personnel files, they were just the ones currently on his desk.
The supply situation, finance, intelligence¡ Everything was given scrutiny.
With his Divine Sense, he could instantly scan all of the words written on paper in all of the reports, but he didn¡¯t feel that was good enough. His Divine Sense put that information in his head, but he still had to make that knowledge his.
Previously, the way the Skill worked, it force-fed that information into his consciousness. It was overwhelming to such a degree, it was necessary for him to go blindfold and limit as much sensory information as possible for months after first attaining the Skill.
Now, with being more proficient in the Skill, it worked in a fundamentally different way. It put the information in his brain, but he had to focus on it and summon it to the forefront of his consciousness to ¡°make it his.¡±
Considering he used to be able to have all of the information at the tips of his fingers instantly but now needed to search within his own mind for it, he assumed with increased Skill and mental attributes, he would one day return to being able to instantly ess all of the information as soon as he acquired it.Skill evolved over time. It seemed his Divine Sense Skill had devolved in order to protect his psyche, but that was just how things worked.
There was always an opportunity cost, and frankly, Reivyn had attained the Skill way before he was ready. The Skill was pseudo-Divine, so it made perfect sense to him that it would progress in a way that appeared on its face to be a backtrack.
One day¡
Until that day, though, he would need to focus on the information to use it properly. The papers strewn about his desk weren¡¯t strictly necessary. He had them there for two reasons:
First, almost nobody knew about his Skill, so he was hiding it. He had no real reason to believe there were spies among his mercenaries or the imperial army, but there was no reason to expose his cards if he didn¡¯t have to. It was a simple thing to put up a facade with the paperwork.
Second, it acted as a focus to keep his mind from wandering. His Divine Sense Skill didn¡¯t just nt information in his brain periodically and then lie dormant. It was on at all times. He constantly had more information passing through his mind. He just let his subconscious handle it like the rest of his sensory input. Most of it was discarded, but sometimes things slipped through to the front of his mind without him being aware of it.
Not only the overload of information from the Skill sometimes leaking, but he was always considering new ways to advance his Skills and Affinities. There was no telling when a stray thought that intrigued him would pop into his brain, but there was a time and ce. Once he thought it, he could relegate it to the back of his mind until he was ready to consider it, but without the focus, his mind didn¡¯t always listen and he would find himself daydreaming about some little experiment he could run.
Reivyn surveyed the papers on his desk and checked his internal clock. He sighed once more at the amount of time that had been wasted on this endeavor.
Despite his mind working overtime and providing himself a focus tobat it, Reivyn himself wasn¡¯t the actual reason the task had taken so long and been such a chore. Going over paperwork wasn¡¯t really something that bothered Reivyn too much.
He would prefer to be in the field. He was a man of action and always had been, but the little details involved in the administrative work wasn¡¯t a tall hurdle for him to clear.
That wasn¡¯t true of everyone, though.
¡°Are you not done, yet?¡± Kayzor cried for the thirtieth time in the past thirty minutes.
Reivyn sat at his desk, but he wasn¡¯t alone in his office. Kazyor was lying across one of the plush chairs in front of Reivyn¡¯s desk with a totalck of any kind of military bearing.
At first, Kayzor had always been as professional as possible in front of Reivyn, but his true personality slowly bled into his actions as they became closer over time. Not only did Kayzor get closer as a natural consequence of asionally dining with Reivyn during a family meal with Kefira, but they had be genuine friends on their own through their mutual love of sparring and their positions in the military.
¡°You know you don¡¯t have to wait for me,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sure there¡¯s plenty of things you can find to do all on your own.¡±
¡°But it¡¯s so boring,¡± Kayzorined. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you can sit behind a desk for hours on end with nothing but paper and ink in front of you. A man needs steel in his hands, not quills.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t use a quill, thank you very much,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°And neither do you,e to think of it.¡±
¡°It wouldn¡¯t make any sense to say a man needs steel when the pen we use is also made of steel,¡± Kayzor admitted. ¡°It was the only thing I could think of to not sound like aplete fool.¡±
¡°Just an iplete one, then?¡± Reivyn chuckled.
¡°Hah! Kick me while I¡¯m down, why don¡¯t you.¡± Kayzor sighed dramatically once more. ¡°But . Are you not done, yet?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been done for ten minutes,¡± Reivyn said, sitting straight in his chair and looking intently at his future brother-inw.
Kayzor¡¯s body froze for a moment before he slowly sat up and red at Reivyn.
¡°You mean to tell me, you¡¯ve just been sitting there doing nothing for ten minutes, while I¡¯ve been asking you every minute whether you¡¯re finished or not?¡±
¡°I haven¡¯t been doing nothing,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been enjoying watching you squirm. You¡¯ve made me suffer for days, so what¡¯s an extra ten minutes for you?¡±
¡°But, but¡ we could have been doing something for the past ten minutes. Like sparring in the training yard.¡±
¡°It¡¯s lunch time,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°The yard will be full of people streaming in and out of the mess hall with a lot of foot traffic in the yard.¡±
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition.
¡°Alright, but then we could have been eating for the past ten minutes,¡± Kayzor argued.
¡°No, the mess hall opened just now. It¡¯s just now lunch time. Ten minutes wouldn¡¯t have been enough to get any kind of serious sparring in, and then we would have been interrupted. Then you would have been frustrated at being interrupted and lost your appetite, storming off to who knows where.¡±
¡°So you¡¯ve really just been waiting out the time before lunch was ready,¡± Kayzor narrowed his eyes. ¡°Then what was all this nonsense about watching me squirm?¡±
Reivynughed.
¡°You¡¯re fun to tease,¡± he answered. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go get some lunch. Then once the yard clear out, we can have that spar, and then you can go do whatever it is you do in the afternoon.¡±
¡°Alright,¡± Kayzor said, leaping to his feet. ¡°I was getting hungry anyway.¡±
The two officers made their way to the mess hall. There was a long line for the enlisted mercenaries on one end of the hall. Reivyn and Kayzor didn¡¯t go to that line. They circled around to another entrance reserved for themissioned officers.
Even though the kitchen was on ce, there were three separate ces for the troops to get their meals. The regr enlisted had the longest line. The next spot over was for the NCO¡¯s and Staff NCO¡¯s. Finally, on the other end of the room was for the officers.
The mess hall itself was also cordoned off in a simr fashion. The officers ate together, the SNCO¡¯s and NCO¡¯s ate together, and the regr enlisted ate together. There was no mixing. It wasn¡¯t just Reivyn¡¯s sensibilities of eliminating fraternization, either. It wasmon practice in the imperial army, and Reivyn assumed Willowan wasn¡¯t the only one.
Reivyn remembered the story of Kefira disciplining his former Captain with a whipping for fraternizing with the soldiers, so he assumed it was amon practice in the more diligent military organizations across the Realm.
No sooner had Reivyn and Kayzor ced their own trays down on their secluded table than a third on joined them. Reivyn had already noticed his friend approaching with his Divine Sense, but Kayzor looked up in surprise at the intrusion.
¡°Wel, well, well. Look who¡¯s finally shown up,¡± Reivyn leaned back in his seat and looked up at the interloper.
¡°What do you mean, ¡®look who¡¯s finally shown up?¡¯¡± Teilon rolled his eyes as he took a seat. ¡°You told me to do my own thing until you called, and you just called. It can be argued that I¡¯m early. I dide right away.¡±
Kayzor raised an eyebrow at Teilon¡¯s words and turned an inquisitive gaze toward Reivyn.
¡°Ahh, you two haven¡¯t been introduced, yet,¡± Reivyn said, smacking his fist into his open palm. ¡°Kayzor, this is Teilon, my best friend from my hometown. Teilon, this is Kayzor, general of the imperial army and older brother of Kefira.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve heard so much about you,¡± Teilon and Kayzor said to each other at the same time. Reivyn suppressed a chuckle.
The first time Teilon and Kimberly had arrived in Willowan, they had spent most of their time out and about in the city. They mostly interacted with their own band that was part of Refix¡¯s crew, but they also asionally interacted with the mercenaries. They had been introduced to Kefira through Ameliyn, but they hand¡¯t interacted at all with Kefira¡¯s family members. Their social circle was just different at the time.
That didn¡¯t mean they hadn¡¯t learned about Kefira¡¯s family. Of course Ameliyn talked about her future inws, and Kefira definitely had a thing or two to tell them about her family.
The same thing could be said in the other direction, as well. Reivyn had spoken of his friends from time to time at family dinners with Kefira before he had deployed, but Kayzor and the others had truly learned what little they knew of Reivyn¡¯s friends from Kefira talking about them after having met them herself.
Kayzor knew that Teilon was a bit of a rascal, but he was also a reliable man who had spent time in the military. He ran an Adventuring crew with discipline learned from Refix, too. He had respect for the younger man.
Teilon knew that Reivyn was friends with Kayzor independent of his rtionship with Kefira, and that was good enough for him.
¡°A pleasure,¡± Kayzor extended a hand.
Teilon grasped it firmly and the two shook with smiles.
¡°Likewise.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head as the two looked to him.
¡°Kayzor, Teilon is going to be in charge of intelligence,¡± he exined. ¡°It¡¯s a secondary role, though, and not a public one. On paper, he¡¯s a ¡®morale¡¯ officer. This will give him cover for his subordinate to run counter-intelligence among our own people, too.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve heard of you unique skill-set in infiltration,¡± Kayzor said to Teilon. ¡°I would definitely like to see that in action some time. Maybe we could even have a spar in a setting where you have ess to it, like in a building of some sort.¡±
¡°Sure, that sounds like a n,¡± Teilon nodded along. ¡°I¡¯ll be upfront, though. It is a huge advantage in the right circumstances. The quality of the material I can phase through isn¡¯t nearly as restricted as it is in proportion to how much you¡¯ll be able to plow through it with your Martial Skills and abilities.¡±
¡°It¡¯ll be a good learning experience, either way, for both of us,¡± Kayzor grinned.
Teilon leveled a suspicious gaze at Kayzor before looking to Reivyn. He indicated Kayzor with his thumb.
¡°Is this another training-lunatic like your father?¡± He asked.
Reivyn shook his head with a smile.
¡°No, he¡¯s just a battle maniac,¡± Reivyn exined.
¡°Hey! I¡¯m not a maniac,¡± Kayzor held his hand to his chest like he had been offended.
¡°Hah! Says the man who wanted to squeeze in a serious spar ten minutes before the chow hall opened,¡± Reivyn retorted.
Kayzor just shrugged.
¡°Teilon, I called you at this time as I figured you would make a good observer for the Dungeon runs we¡¯re going to be conducting,¡± Reivyn exined.
¡°Are you going to have me test out potential members of the ¡®morale office?¡¯¡± Teilon asked, tucking into his food.
¡°Not this time,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll let youe up with the tests for that. This is just going to be a regr inspection. Even though your forte is infiltration and intelligence, you have the necessary background and experience to judge the fledglings.¡±
¡°Sure, sure. Do you have a squad in mind, or can I choose my own?¡±
¡°Up to you,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°I can randomly assign you one, or you can pick your own. I don¡¯t mind either way.¡±
¡°Alright, I have a squad in mind already,¡± Teilon replied.
Reivyn was taken aback a bit. He quirked an eyebrow at his friend.
¡°I thought you were staying away from the battalion this entire time,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Have you been secretly keeping abreast of the mercenaries?¡±
Teilon shook his head with his fork still in his mouth.
¡°Nah, nothing as responsible as that,¡± He replied after swallowing his bite. ¡°I just met some people a while back who helped me out at the cost of a rmendation to getting into the mercenary training. I heard he made squad leader as a newbie, so I wanted to see for myself if he¡¯s the real deal or not.¡±
¡°Yeah, I¡¯d heard that you¡¯d done something like that,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°You did?¡± Teilon nced at Reivyn in surprise. ¡°From who?¡±
¡°Kefira told me.¡±
Teilon rolled his eyes in exasperation.
¡°And how did she know?¡±
¡°Kimberly.¡±
¡°Ahh, of course. You¡¯re not mad, are you?¡± Teilon asked.
¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine. We still conducted a background check on every applicant regardless of where they came from or who they were rmended by. It just goes to show that this guy was lucky and resourceful to get what he wanted. I doubt there are any nefarious actors within our organization.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t think some of these empires have sent out people with fake stories to infiltrate the ranks of the various militaries they¡¯ll be facing across the Realm?¡± Kayzor chimed in.
¡°That¡¯s not what I said,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°I said I doubt there are any ¡®nefarious¡¯ actors. I don¡¯t doubt there are people from some of the enemy Regions, or even the empire in charge where Aerie¡¯s from, amongst us. That doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re necessarily here to sabotage us or feed information to our enemies.¡±
¡°What other possible reason could they have?¡± Kayzor asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Reivyn shrugged.
¡°You don¡¯t really seem to be taking the potential threat too seriously,¡± Kayzor pointed at Reivyn usingly with his fork.
Reivyn shrugged.
¡°We¡¯ve done what we can upfront. We¡¯ll just have to keep an eye on anyone and everyone to make sure while moving forward. Plus, we have some advantages against them, like Teilon and his ¡®morale office¡¯ among other things.¡±
¡°Alright, if you say so,¡± Kayzor returned his focus to his meal.
¡°Wait a minute,¡± Teilon said, cing his own fork down. His te had already been cleared. ¡°Am I missing something? Who¡¯s Aerie?¡±
Kayzor gave Teilon a serious look.
¡°A crazy person,¡± he replied. ¡°One who¡¯s apparently from a Tier 6 Empire and obsessed with our boy, Reivyn, here.¡±
¡°Obsessed with Reivyn? Like, she has it out for him or something? Wait, why? Where could you have possibly run into someone from the empire in charge, and how did you manage to piss her off?¡±
Kayzor threw his head back andughed. Reivyn gave Teilon an incredulous look.
¡°We¡¯ve exined this to you,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°Have you not been paying attention? Am I making a mistake in cing you in charge of intelligence?¡±
Teilon looked back and forth between Reivyn and Kayzor. Kayzor finally stoppedughing and addressed Teilon again.
¡°She¡¯s not trying to kill Reivyn,¡± he said. ¡°She wants to force him into marriage or something.¡±
¡°Ooohhh, are you talking about that girl Kefira calls Jezebel?¡± Teilon¡¯s expression brightened as he finally put it together. ¡°Sorry, sorry. Kefira always interrupts and calls her Jezebel whenever she¡¯s mentioned. In my head, they weren¡¯t the same person. It didn¡¯t¡ click¡ right away¡
¡°I¡¯ll go ahead figure out which squad this Gulley character was assigned to and let you know,¡± Teilon scooped up his tray and made a beeline to the exit.
Reivyn just rolled his eyes and chuckled.
Chapter 262: Terrifying Dungeon
Chapter 262: Terrifying Dungeon
Gulley stood in front of the entrance to the Dungeon with his squad lined up behind him. The Dungeon runs were going to take all morning just to get all of the squads through the entrance, so they were patiently waiting their turn. He had been only a little surprised to find that Teilon was the one who had been assigned to inspect their performance inside the Dungeon.
They weren¡¯t in an official formation, so Gulley let his gaze roam. He looked over the edge of the cliff to the city sprawled below. There was a rivering from the north that split and formed arge ind where the city had been built on. The edge of the river ran right up to the cliff leading to where the Dungeon was located at the top.
It was a good, solid drop down the sheer side of the cliff. It made for an amazing view, but Gulley imagined that someone would need the Vitality of a Tier 5 sser to survive a fall from the top, even if one fell into the waters of the river.
Part of the evaluation was not only showcasing their ability to fight as a military unit but also to disy their ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. This particr Dungeon was exclusive property of the Imperial Family and the Imperial Army. It wasn¡¯t unheard of for Adventurers to gain ess to a Dungeon Run with this Dungeon, but it wasn¡¯tmon, either.
It was tradition for the military for their members to always go in blind, so not providing the information about what they would find inside for the evaluation wasn¡¯t much of a surprise. It was possible to find out what was inside from various sources on the outside, but it was very difficult.
The soldiers took pride in their tradition, so they were very unlikely to be a source of information. Likewise, the Adventurers Guild had a good rtionship with the Imperial Family and Army, so they didn¡¯t publicize the information to outsiders. Gulley was sure the info packet existed, but they probably had to show some sort of proof that they had already been inside at least once before they could purchase it.
The line continued to shorten steadily, nearing the time for Gulley and his squad to enter. He nced at his assistant squad leader. The man took the hint and initiated a final double-check of everyone¡¯s gear. They hadid everything out before leaving the barracks in the morning, but sometimes things could get lost in transit.
Luckily, nothing was identally misced on the way here. Everything was good to go. There was just one thing that kept Gulley a little on edge.
¡°Where is Teilon?¡± He muttered under his breath.It was a rhetorical question. None of his men knew anything he didn¡¯t know, but the ones standing next to him still perked up like they could sniff something out. He just shook his head and they rxed.
It was eventually their turn to step forward. Gulley nced around, but he still didn¡¯t see Teilon anywhere. The guard in charge of monitoring the entrance motioned for them to proceed, growing a bit impatient as they hesitated.
¡°Maybe we should let the next squad go first?¡± Gulley asked the monitor. ¡°Our inspector isn¡¯t here, yet.¡±
The monitor gave Gulley a deadpan stare. He simply raised his hand and pointed. Gulley turned his neck to look beside him only to find Teilon standing right next to him.
What¡? Gulley flinched at finding the man standing there grinning at him.
¡°How long have you been there?¡± Gulley asked incredulously.
¡°Since the monitor started waving you forward,¡± Teilon shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been moving about watching the other squads until it was close to time for us to head in.¡±
This man is dangerous¡ Gulley suppressed a frown. He took a quick peek at his onepanion that had joined him in his squad. She noticed his look, but she just gave a slight shake of her head, indicating she hadn¡¯t noticed anything, either.
¡°Squad! Advance!¡± Gulley didn¡¯t hesitate any longer.
The members marched forward through two marble pirs nking a disturbance floating in the air. It wasn¡¯t the first time Gulley had entered a ¡°portal¡± Dungeon, but he did notice Teilon eyeing it skeptically. It looked like a faint rainbow light-ball with the colors randomly swirling about in ce. It didn¡¯t actually emit any light, nor did it cause any kind of shadow.
Other than the obvious visual representation that there was something amiss, the only way to detect such Dungeon portals was through Mana Sense. It was quite obvious when one had a high enough Skill and knew what to look for.
From what Gulley understood of Teilon, the other man didn¡¯t have experience with a wide variety of Dungeon types. That was typical, especially for people moving up in Regions instead ofteral or down. There were just not as many exploratory opportunities when one had to advance ahead in a linear path.
¡°Since you¡¯re the inspector, were you given special dispensation and told what¡¯s on the other side?¡± Gulley asked Teilon.
¡°Nope!¡± Teilon replied cheerfully. ¡°I¡¯m going in just as blind as you all. I have absolutely no idea what we¡¯re about to get into.¡±
They crossed through the center of the pirs. If there was no visual representation of the or pirs indicating they had passed through a portal, it would be easy to not even realize it. There was no obvious change in the surroundings after having passed through, and for a moment, Gulley had no idea what the Dungeon was even going to entail.
Looking forward after passing through, there didn¡¯t seem to be anything different at all. It was like they hadn¡¯t entered a sub-space attached to the Realm.
It didn¡¯t take long for Gulley to realize something was amiss, though. After a few steps forward, his intuition told him to look back the way they hade.
Gulley ordered the squad to halt with a simple hand gesture before turning to face the opposite direction. He was honestly surprised by what greeted him around the edges of the portal.
Just on the other side of the portal, where the ground fell away as a steep cliff to the river below in reality, there was no sign of the cliff. At all. Instead, Gulley intuitively understood they were atop a grand teau. It stretched for miles in the distance.
That wasn¡¯t the thing that surprised Gulley, though. Their squad wasn¡¯t alone.
Atop the grand teau, a huge army of tens of thousands of soldiers was arrayed in front of them. They were facing the opposite direction, though, and the few shadow-people who spotted the squad didn¡¯t raise any kind of rm. Gulley¡¯s intuition told him they weren¡¯t a hostile force.
A heavily armed and armored man strode up to Gulley with purposeful steps.
¡°What are you doing out of formation?!¡± He eximed with clear exasperation in his voice and face.
Gulley was intrigued by the level of emotion disyed by the shadow person. It wasn¡¯t something that was normally seen inside a Dungeon. For the most part, shadow-people were just pale representations of long-forgotten people who had actually once existed. It wasn¡¯t unheard of for them to have personality, and it wasmon knowledge that the higher Tier Dungeons could represent the shadow-people¡¯s original personality better.
It was unusual for such an expressive, interactive shadow-person to exist in a Tier 4 Dungeon, though. Technically, Tier 4 was still in the bottom half of the power scale. When one took into consideration the exponential nature of Mana Density and ss Tier power, though, Tier 4 didn¡¯t even breach 10% of the power possible found just two Tiers higher, much less the absolute power that could be found in a Tier 8 Region or Dungeon.
¡°Hurry, the battle could start any moment!¡± The shadow-person said. He grunted in disgust before turning and storming off somewhere else.
As soon as the man turned around, a System Message appeared in front of Gulley¡¯s eyes. Unlike calling upon his own Notifications or System Pages, it appeared unprompted, and Gulley was unable to dismiss it.
It had a simple message, though the implications were anything but. Gulley quickly scanned the System Message.
Spectator Mode: Fall into formation with the ¡°Hero¡¯s¡± Companions.
There are no rewards.
Easy Mode: Fall into formation among the General¡¯s Entourage.
Rewards are reduced to 25% of Standard.
Standard Mode: Fall into formation in the center of the army.
100% Rewards.
Hard Mode: Fall into formation in the Vanguard.
400% Rewards plus additional guaranteed Tier 5 Magical Items.
Epic Mode: ????
???? Rewards.
¡°Epic Mode?¡± Gulley heard Teilon whisper to himself.
Gulley was also surprised by the content of the System Message. Even he had never heard of an ¡°Epic Mode¡± before. He thought Hard Mode was as difficult as it could get, and there were some Dungeons he knew of where the Hard Mode was downright impossible to survive.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
If impossible odds are still ¡°Hard Mode,¡± then what does this ¡°Epic Mode¡± mean? Gulley idly thought.
He quickly dismissed his musings and made a decision based on the context of what he knew about the Dungeon, even though it was almost nothing.
He selected ¡°Standard Mode¡± before ordering the rest of the squad to do the same.
¡°This is simple enough and quite convenient for me,¡± Teilon said with a chuckle. ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to get any rewards due to not participating anyway, so looks like I¡¯ll be heading over to this ¡®Hero¡¯s¡¯ Party, wherever that¡¡±
Teilon stopped and looked about in surprise for a second.
¡°Nevermind, it¡¯s double easy.¡±
Gulley instantly understood what he meant. There were ethereal line directing Gulley where he needed to go in order to join the center of the army. There were no indications from any of his Skills, so he understood it was tied to the System Message on a fundamental level. No amount of poking or prodding would allow him to meddle or alter the glowing lines in any way.
¡°Alright, Teilon, we¡¯ll see you when this is over,¡± Gulley said.
¡°Sure. Good luck.¡±
Teilon sauntered off to the back of the army. Gulley spied the direction he was headed and saw a group of individuals in clearly different attire than the rest of the army. It was a group of seven people, three men and four women, and their gear was clearly several steps above the gear of the army.
And that was saying a lot, actually.
Upon closer inspection, Gulley made note that the thousands upon thousands of soldiers were uniformly decked out in exclusively Tier 4 Heavy Armor from head to toe. Their weapons were of equal caliber.
Gulley had never seen such a disy of raw power that the gear alone invoked. It must also be understood that in order for one to properly use the full abilities of one¡¯s gear, their ss Tier must match or exceed it.
From the flows of Mana Gulley was feeling from the army, they were all at least Tier 4 or higher. He couldn¡¯t tell what the ¡°Hero¡¯s¡± Party consisted of, but he could guess it was at least Tier 6.
So we¡¯re going to participate in some sort ofrge-scale battle, Gulley analyzed as he began following his own System arrows. But¡ where¡¯s the enemy?
He looked out across therge, open teau, but he couldn¡¯t see anything other than the army they had suddenly joined. No matter where he looked, no matter how hard he strained his eyes, he couldn¡¯t see any kind of adversary.
Strange, that first shadow-person said the battle could begin any moment¡
Gulley once more shook off the thoughts and concentrated on his squad. They followed his lead as they jogged to the center of the army. The System arrows led them to the rear squad of a random toon situated in the center.
The make-up of the toons was different than what Gulley was used to. The consisted of ten rows of thirty soldiers. The toon they were directed to only had nine rows.
Gulley positioned himself in the Squad Leader location, and as his squad took up their own positions, more shadow-people materialized out of nowhere to fill in the rest of the missing positions of their squad.
Hmm, it seems like we¡¯re taking on the roles of people who were actually there, Gulley thought. If I came in solo, I¡¯m guessing 29 other shadow-people would materialize, and I would bet that if, for some strange reason, we broke the rules and showed up with as many people as are in this toon, there would have just been a huge empty space for us to upy.
As soon as Gulley and his squad were in position and the other shadow-people filled in the slots, the ambient Mana instantly changed. The wind picked up and began to slowly increase in intensity. It didn¡¯t blow from just one direction, though, and it constantly changed speed and direction.
Another System Message appeared before him.
Objective:
SURVIVE
Gulley could feel the Ambient Mana increase in density as they stood there in silence. It continued to ramp up unabated until he could see the Mana flows materialize to his naked eye even without the use of his Mana Sight Skill.
He felt a nervous energy from the depths of his being, and even the shadow-people decked out in their uniform Tier 4 army began fidgeting.
Finally, way in the distance, Gulley spotted what he assumed was going to be their adversary. In the sky, a great bird slowly materialized as it flew closer and closer to the army.
Is that some kind of Giant Eagle? He thought with a slight frown that he couldn¡¯t contain.
The avian creature continued to erge as it got closer and closer. Gulley felt the shadow-soldiers in each of the giant toons activate their Group Shield Skills. It was slightly different than any Group Shield Skill he had ever experienced, but it wasn¡¯t so different that he couldn¡¯t mimic it with his own and join with his squad and shadow-toon.
Group Shield Skills weren¡¯t omnipotent. There was a hard limit to how many people could join one. This variation of the Skill seemed to be able to hold the entirety of the 300-man squads, an amount muchrger than he had ever seen in any contemporary armies. Typically, a powerful Group Shield Skill could hold 60 people before it simply refused to allow anymore people to join.
These Shields were holding five times that amount.
It wasn¡¯t just that the Group Shield Skills were clearly superior to any he had ever seen, either. The toons ahead of his location were even more potent. He surmised that the vanguard was made up of the grizzled veterans, even rtive to the army he was witnessing.
The avian creature continued to growrger.
Gulley didn¡¯t have a good frame of reference for how far away the flying creature was. He couldn¡¯t tell howrge it was going to be when it finally arrived where the army was located. Upon closer look, though, he noticed that the features of the flying creature were more reptilian than giant bird.
Is it some sort of Great Wyvern?
He still didn¡¯t know what they were going to be facing.
The creature continued to getrger andrger.
No, wyverns have two legs¡ That thing has four.
The name of a creature flitted across Gulley¡¯s mind, but he was too shocked to ept it as reality. Everyone knew they were mythical beings that didn¡¯t actually exist. The greatest schrs had never confirmed their existence in any time or ce in the Realm. He didn¡¯t even know how their mythology had even been created.
The creature continued to getrger andrger. Gulley was beginning to gain a frame of reference for the scale of the humongous being flying towards them.
It can¡¯t be¡
The creature was nowrge enough that Gulley could clearly make out what it was, though it was still incredibly far away. It was just sorge, that even miles away, it took up a huge portion of the sky.
There was no denying what was in front of his eyes.
A Dragon?!
The mighty beast opened its maw and huge bellow escaped from its lungs. Gulley could see the shockwave of the roar race towards the waiting army. It was much faster than any sound had a right to be. The speed of sound was a well-known factor, but this was clearly some sort of Skill or Magic. It defied the normalws of reality.
The sound of the bellow hit the army like an avnche. The Group Shields suppressed the power, but it couldn¡¯t diminish the sound level.
It was louder than anything Gulley thought could even exist. There was no sound other than the roar. Confirming his thoughts that it was Magical in nature, though, it didn¡¯t blow out his eardrums.
There was no sound other than the roar. It epassed his mind, and his legs began to shake from uncontroble terror gripping him. Sweat poured down his back, and he had to muster every fiber of his being to not copse on the spot.
The sensation of dread eventually passed, though notpletely. He was still terrified of the creature looming towards them. There was nothing he could do about it at the moment, though, and none of the shadow-people had broken from the sound or aura emanating from the beast.
Gulley looked to his squad and found that he, other than the shadow-soldiers filling in the ranks, was the only member still standing on his feet. ,The others had copsed to the ground and were twitching and shaking uncontrobly. Gulley spotted drool leaking from their open mouths, their eyes not registering any sights in front of them.
He frowned slightly as he looked to hispanion who had also fallen. Her gaze suddenly focused, though, and as their eyes met, she winked at him before continuing to act as if she had been ovee by the terror.
Gulley didn¡¯t waste any more time, and he kicked his assistant squad leader, hard. The man was brought out of his terror-induced seizure, and he quickly realized he was on the ground. He leapt to his feet and began following Gulley¡¯s example by kicking the other down squad members.
A little bit of pain, a shock to their system, was enough to bring them out of their stupor now that they weren¡¯t actively being assaulted by the Dragon¡¯s aura and roar. They climbed to their feet and once more contributed to the Group Shield Skill.
The Dragon continued to getrger andrger as it got closer. All Gulley could see in the sky in front of him now was the Dragon. The roar had been timed impably to its speed. At the end of the tremendous roar, a terrifying energy appeared and quickly breached any threshold of power Gulley had ever experienced.
A tremendous bout of me escaped from its mouth and inundated the first three rows of toons across the entire width of the army. Screams of agony rose from the shadow-people caught in the inferno before quickly going silent once more.
Flesh and metal alike melted into pools of sma within seconds. There were still another two rows of toons in front of the toon his squad had joined. Gulley could feel the heat of the mes even through the distance and the Group Shield Skill.
Like that, almost a quarter of the tens of thousands of soldiers in the army were instantly incinerated.
So much for Hard Mode, Gulley thought, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. More like Suicide Mode.
¡°Protect the Hero!¡± A defiant cry emerged from somewhere in the army. Gulley recognized the voice of the shadow-man who had addressed him and his squad.
A mighty roar emerged from the army as they struck out with their spears. Ethereal images of their weapons materialized and shot forward. It looked like an arrow-rain made of spears as the projectiles arced through the air toward the Dragon that was almost now upon them.
Gulley and his squad members weren¡¯t able to duplicate the action, so they had to simply stand and watch. He had never felt so utterly powerless in his life.
He had some Magical Skills he could employ if he needed to, but there was nothing he could personally do to affect the battle against the Dragon at all. There was no reason to expose the cards in his hand in this situation, so he and his squad members simply stood there and watched.
The ethereal spears seemed less than tiny toothpicks against the dragon, and Gulley winced slightly as they all simply bounced off the scales of the Dragon. He quickly schooled his features, though, as he noticed that the barrage hadn¡¯t been ineffectual.
Hundreds of scales followed the ethereal spears to the ground, though they had a shape and size that didn¡¯t really make sense to Gulley considering the size of the massive Dragon.
A pulse of energy distracted Gulley from observing the falling scales and spears, though. A ripple of golden power rushed ahead to toward the Dragon from somewhere in the rear of the army formation. It was equally as powerful as the aura of the Dragon, and Gulley felt thest vestiges of terror escape him. He was filled with warmth and hope.
¡°AAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!¡±
A golden meteor shot over the heads of the soldiers at an iprehensible speed and collided with the Dragon,pletely arresting its movements. Its magical nature ensured that it didn¡¯t fall out of the sky, though. The golden meteor, likewise, didn¡¯t fall out of the sky or disappear.
It suddenly morphed and took on the shape of a giant man,rger than any Gulley had ever seen or heard of. He was still miniscule in the face of the Dragon, but his aura was just as powerful.
The golden light surrounding the man prevented Gulley from making out any fine details, but he did note that he was wielding a greatsword. He was floating in the air, and after having initially rebuked the Dragon¡¯s momentum, he once more shot forward to do battle in the sky.
Gulley felt his intuition once more grab his attention. He looked toward one of the falling dragon scales as it plummeted to the ground. It suddenly sprouted wings, arms, and legs, however, and took on the form arge humanoid-dragonling.
Ahh, I see, Gulley thought as he prepared to engage inbat. The Dragon didn¡¯t actually lose any scales. It was carrying another force upon its back.
It looks like those are what we¡¯re actually supposed to be fighting in this Dungeon.
Chapter 263: Victory?
Chapter 263: Victory?
The Dragon didn¡¯t take the provocation well. It roared once more, but since it hadn¡¯t had time to build up its power, there wasn¡¯t the Magical aspect infused into it. It was just an angry response from the Dragon.
The Hero didn¡¯t back down, either. He flew through the air and once more collided with the Dragon, battering it more than shing it with his greatsword. The collision created a shockwave, but the Dragon was barely repulsed from his position in the sky.
It took a swipe at the Hero. Despite the Dragon being hundreds of times the size of the Hero, it moved too quickly for the man to dodge the strike. He blocked it with his greatsword, and he was thrown back in the air. He only flew for half a second before stopping himself, but he was knocked back over a hundred yards in that sh of time.
Gulley couldn¡¯t spare any more thoughts to the fight in the sky. Orders were being called to the toons and they were maneuvering on the battlefield. The dragonlings were located in a singr position, and there were no reinforcements on their way as far as Gulley could tell. If there was another Dragon with a simr horde of dragonlings on its back, it would be well outside the scope of a Tier 4 Dungeon.
The difficulty and the things being done inside this Dungeon already stretched incredulity. Gulley was quite experienced when it came to Dungeons, and he had never heard of anything nearly as difficult as what he had already seen. Even the vast majority of Hard Modes couldn¡¯tpare.
The first toon of shadow-soldiers engaged the dragonlings as the battle in the sky continued. While the dragonlings were falling to the ground, they didn¡¯t seem anything special, but now that Gulley could see them next to the humans, he could see that they towered over everyone else on the field.
They were at minimum twice the height of the tallest human in the army, and some of them were nearing three times the size. They didn¡¯t carry any fancy gear or weapons. Their scales and ws were natural armor and weapons, better even than the Tier 4 gear the shadow-military sported.
The shadow-soldiers tossed their spears like javelins at the charging dragonlings. Most of them hit the scales at bad angles and slid off, ineffectually. Some, though, pierced some spaces between the scales. Even with the spears sticking out of the bodies of the dragonlings, they didn¡¯t slow their charge.
The shadow-soldiers in the front lines drew their swords and assumed a shield wall. The dragonlings charged in throwingrge, sweeping strikes with their ws. The force of their blows knocked shields aside, their razor-sharp wscerating the Tier 4 metal. They wouldn¡¯t hold up for an extended sh.The shadow-soldiers didn¡¯t stand still, though. Even while they were being knocked around in the first row, they maneuvered their shields and swung their swords, preventing the dragonlings from doing any critical damage in a short period of time. The back rows, like most modern military organizations, used their spears to stab forward through the gaps between the front-row soldiers.
I wonder if the originals of these remnants developed this tactic or if they adapted it from even further back in history, Gulley idly thought as he followed his own toon as they nked around the enemy. There¡¯s no telling how far back in history this event took ce. As far as I know, though I¡¯m no expert, the capital city of Wispan was founded when the cliff and river already ran through this area.
Gulley and his squad steadily marched with their shadow-toon around the dragonlings. The toon that had stood in front of them between the new vanguard and the dragonlings marched ahead topletely circle the monsters while the toons behind them stayed in ce to act as reserve troops.
The Hero and the Dragon continued to fly about in the air all over the ce, exchanging blows and Magical attacks. The Dragon could cast Spells, strike with its ws, swipe with its tail, and spew Dragon Breath all at the same time while also actively dodging and parrying the attacks from the Hero.
Despite how dangerous the Dragon appeared in the sky, it actually only served to amplify just how amazing the Hero was. With all of that going on, the Hero waspletely unfazed while simultaneously covering any stray magic or Breath attacks toward the army below. There wasn¡¯t even a hint of wind from the shockwaves reaching the troops below.
Gulley made note of the fact but didn¡¯t dwell on it for too long. His toon was in position to engage the dragonlings on the nk. They were in the back row so it would be some time before his squad would make its way up to the front to personally participate, but there could always be an anomaly with the situation. Things tended to get out of control in the heat of fierce battle.
The dragonlings were vastly outnumbered, yet they were holding their own. Gulley tried to imagine the scenario being set up here for the Dungeon Party. It wouldn¡¯t make any sense to have them go through all of this just for the shadow-soldiers to y all the dragonlings, and by the looks of it, the shadow-soldiers were slightly more superior individually than his average subordinate.
What¡¯s the trick, here? Gulley thought. No matter how he analyzed the situation, he just wasn¡¯t figuring out what was going on, exactly. Sure, he understood the core concept. It was right in front of his face: A Giant Dragon with their brood was fighting an army of humans.
None of that mattered. They weren¡¯t fighting a giant Dragon with their brood. They were just standing around watching. Gulley was pretty sure he hadn¡¯t selected the Spectator Mode at the beginning.
He focused his attention further on the action. There was something strange about it. It took him an embarrassingly long amount of time, a full three minutes, to spot what was wrong.
Aside from the asional scale getting shorn off, spear stabbed into a crevasse, and sh-marks on the shields and armor, there was no damage being done to either side. It looked like a pantomime of a battle.
Gulley furrowed his brow as he got more and more confused. The auras and Mana were all real. His senses weren¡¯t lying to him, and he could tell that they weren¡¯t an illusion.
Just what is going on?!
Suddenly, everything seemed to freeze for just a moment. It was like there was a hup in reality. It was so quick that if Gulley didn¡¯t have over a thousand Intelligence, his mind wouldn¡¯t have been able to process it.
Gulley realized that the blip perfectly aligned with thest shadow-soldier reaching their destination on the battlefield. The nkers hadn¡¯t yet engaged inbat, and Gulley had been anticipating some sort of assaultmand any second now - I know I would have given themand ages ago - but the shift spoke of something different happening.
The Dragon let out another ferocious roar. It¡¯s wings spread out and reality-defying amounts of Mana swirled around the Dragon and helped propel it thousands of meters into the atmosphere in a matter of seconds.
It hung in the air for a brief moment, gathering even more Mana to itself. It gazed down at the battlefield, pure hatred in its reptilian eyes. Its maw opened and another breath attack was overcharged.
It suddenly flipped upside down, tucking its wings as close into its body as it could, as it made a nose-dive to the ground. The overcharging breath umted like an energy-ball in front of its mouth, and the Mana it gathered coalesced into intricate, high-Tier Magic Spells. It summoned over a dozen Spells on either side.
The Spells weren¡¯t just attack Magic, either. They were tied together in an intricate web of Mana Threads and Weaves. It further empowered not only the overcharging Breath Attack, but it somehow empowered itself and the body of the Dragon all at once.
The Breath Attack was the first assault to be released. Itshed out like a light-beam across the teau. It hadn¡¯t aimed at any of the soldiers, instead a long line of sma now stretched from one end of visibility to the other.
The shape of the line caused a foreboding within Gulley that he didn¡¯t understand right away.
There was no time to analyze it. The Dragon hadn¡¯t stopped its plummet. The Spells surrounding it exploded outward, giving more thrust and shock to the inherent power of the Dragon¡¯s Body.
Time once more seemed to freeze for a moment of eternity. This time, it wasn¡¯t an external source, but Gulley¡¯s mind putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.
The Hero was still chasing after the Dragon, but Gulley¡¯s mind seemed to pierce the golden halo of light surrounding him, and he glimpsed the grim expression of the Hero. It was an expression of grief, rage, sorrow, and determination, all rolled into one. Gulley had never seen such an expressive statement on someone¡¯s face before, and he had a hunch it was more System shenanigans for those who had the Perception and Intelligence to notice.
The Hero had been silently umting some sort of power that Gulley didn¡¯t recognize since even before the arrival of the Dragon, and the look on the man¡¯s face told him he wasn¡¯t going toplete the build-up before whatever the Dragon nned on doing was done.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere.
The characteristics of the Hero was only one thing his mind roped into the pattern. The line of sma created by the Dragon, the explosion of the Spells, the speed and trajectory of the Dragon, and the obvious intent of the Dragon allposed the clues necessary to figure it out.
Gulley remembered toote that the battle was taking ce on a teau peak that didn¡¯t exist in the modern world.
The Dragon crashed into the ground, and it shattered.
More than half of the teau disintegrated upon impact, and the melted ground acted as the fault-line. The ground beneath Gulleys feet was no more, and he felt himself falling. The entire army, including the dragonlings, were suddenly free-falling thousands of feet to the earth floor down below.
The Hero¡¯s Party wasn¡¯t spared, either. Gulley was worried about Teilon, so he snuck a nce in that direction. He saw despair on the faces of the Hero¡¯s Companions; however, it was coupled with determination and hope.
It was a strange thing. They were clearly aware that they were likely not going to survive the fall, yet they seemed to still be anticipating victory somehow.
The answer came another fraction of a second after the Dragon forever altered thendscape of the teau.
A bellow of defiance, empowered by the strange golden-halo surroundinging the Hero, shocked the people falling through the sky. He executed a Skill that resembled a Coss-sh, though there was so much more to it than any kind of Cross-sh Gulley had witnessed before.
The attack used the power the Hero had been umting, and theshing out with his greatsword created huge sword beams that chased after the Dragon. The Dragon had let its guard down for just a moment with the sess of its n. The greatsword beamsposed of the unfamiliar energy sliced right through the wings of the Dragon.
Even though Dragons are able to fly via Magical means, that Magic apparently resides within their wings. It might be a System imposed limitation. It would look very strange to see a Dragon lose its wings and still dark about in the Sky as if nothing had happened. If nothing else, the wings gave it improved maneuverability in the sky.
The Dragon screamed in pain as the severed wings fell from its body. They disintegrated in mid-air as they fell, leaving nothing behind but a smattering of dust.
That was thest clear image Gulley had of the scene, as the dust that used to be the wings met a rising dust cloud from the ground. Gulley and the others were quickly enveloped in the cloud, and their visibility was reduced to almost nothing immediately.
Suddenly, their bodies jolted as they impacted the surface. The force of the impact was not nearly as heavy as Gulley had expected. He didn¡¯t take any damage from the fall, even though he had already fallen long and far enough that it should have taken a decent toll on his Health Pool.
He scrambled to his feet and looked around. He couldn¡¯t really see anything in the low-visibility, but the rising dust cloud quickly began to dissipate.
The first thing Gulley noticed as the dust cleared away was his entire squad equally unharmed. Their training had kicked in, too, and they had actively sought each other out in order to watch each others¡¯ backs.
There was no sign of any of the shadow-soldiers, though. They hadpletely disappeared. Gulley wasn¡¯t entirely surprised, though. The System had already shown that it was unusually invested in this Dungeon with a lot of strange urrences already taking ce at every corner.
¡°Form up!¡± Gulleymanded the squad. ¡°We don¡¯t know what¡¯s going to emerge out of this dust.¡±
The squad quickly obeyed, assuming their individual positions. Gulley took his position at the head of the squad and examined the lingering dust in all directions. He used all of his sense and his Skills and Mana to investigate.
A trio of shadows slowly emerged from the dust cloud. They moved at a slow pace, but they were undeniably getting closer to their position. The height and width of the shadows gave away that they were anything but human.
The image of the three dragonlings slowly revealed itself. Gulley weighed his options, but he opted to wait for the enemy toe to them. He doubted they would be able to surprise the enemy, and he had other doubts in his mind to support the hypothesis. He would find outter if he was right or not, but he believed his decision was the right one.
¡°Launch Spears!¡± Gulleymanded. They didn¡¯t have any backup squads to support them, so they would need to immediately form a shield wall. They could do it while wielding the spears, but it was considerably more awkward than with a sword in hand. It wouldn¡¯t have given them an advantage, either, because of the way Gulley had seen the dragonlings fight. They didn¡¯t use their superior reach, opting instead to wade into as close quartersbat as they could.
High pitched screeches inundated Gulley¡¯s ears in response to his spokenmand, and the three dragonlings finally stopped waddling and broke into a charge towards their squad.
Gulley empowered himself with his Mana andunched his spear as hard as he could. The dragonlings either had contempt for the puny spears, or they were overconfident in their own natural scale armor. Either way, it was a fatal first mistake.
Gulley¡¯s spear flew true and pierced into the right-side dragonling¡¯s hip. It was right at the intersection where the creature¡¯s leg met it¡¯s torso, but it was far enough on the outside not to be considered the groin.
His position in the squad ced him on the extreme right, so there was no reason for him to target either of the other dragonlings. The other squad members had it covered.
Only a single spear, including Gulley¡¯s, pierced each individual dragonling. The other two spears weren¡¯t in as favorable a position, though. One was in the left shoulder, and the other was in the upper chest. Gulley¡¯s spear would at least affect the speed and maneuverability of one of the dragonlings, but that would be enough to give them a significant advantage.
They would hopefully be able to overpower one of them much quicker than the others, and that would free up more squad members to engage the other two.
Without instruction from Gulley, the squad naturally split up into four mercenaries fighting against a single dragonling each. Every squad had twelve members, but the squad leader made for a thirteenth.
Gulley joined the group of four handling the right-most dragonling.
The creatures finally reached striking distance, and they were much more intimidating up close. Gulley was unable to focus on the fights of the other eight squad members as the dragonling he had injured was still capable enough to put pressure on all five of the mercenaries.
It charged forward, attempting to ignore the pain and obstacle of the spear sticking out of its hip, and shed across the front of the five mercenaries with its huge arms. The being towered over the humans, and Gulley could see powerful muscles expanding and contracting beneath the . heavy dragon scales protecting it.
Just like he had seen with the shadow-army above, the dragonling¡¯s attacks managed to knock shields aside and rend the metal itself. Their shields were good enough quality that they wouldn¡¯t be destroyed right away, though. They would be able to use them to defend themselves for several minutes.
But that was all. A protracted engagement was not a viable option.
Gulley suspected the dragonlings could use powerful Magic, but it seemed all of their Mana was contained within their bodies.
It¡¯s some sort of extreme physical-enhancement Magic, probably, Gulley idly thought. It won¡¯t be enough to protect you!
Gulley actively engaged with the monster, but he held back just a bit to let the other four mercenaries take the lead. They were doing an outstanding job of working together to keep the attention of the beast and slow whittle it down.
Gulley bided his time until an opportunity finally was exposed.
The dragonling, a creature that was obviously obsessed with close-quarters-fighting, over-extended itself. Several targets of opportunity presented themselves to Gulley, and he decisively struck with his sword at the most fatal one.
The de of his sword bit deep into the neck of the dragonling, shing straight through the tiny gap between scales The feat of precision spoke of an extremely high Swords Skill.
Gulley put his entire body into the blow, and when he sensed resistance, he pumped his de full of Mana. He wasn¡¯t an expert in infusing his weapons with Mana, so he just did it in the crudest way possible: brute force.
The resistance gave way before his de, and the draonling¡¯s spine was severed. The body copsed like a ragdoll, all four limbs incapable of movement. It continued to screech at them with hatred, but the other four mercenaries quickly leapt forward and drove their swords into vital points of the dragonling, killing it.
Finishing off the other two happened quickly after they were able topletely surround them. The dragonlings never faltered or changed tactics to the new threat, which made it much easier to deal with them. They seemed to be under some sort ofpulsion that only allowed them to advance and strike at what was directly in front of them in a frenzy.
Their unprotected nks and sides spelled their doom.
After the fight was over and the squad members heaved for breath, Gulley finally looked around to more closely inspect their surroundings.
They were near the top of a pile of rubble. The shape of the rubble closely matched what Gulley knew of theyout of the ind the capital city of Wispan was located on. In the distance, the sword beams had dug deep channels into earth, reminiscent of where the modern-day rivers flowed.
Gulley could imagine the sword beams had been so powerful that they had created grooves long enough to connect to some sort of water source far into the distance.
He looked around more and noticed a grizzly sight. Among the rubble, broken bodies of shadow-soldiers and dragonlings covered a huge swathe of thend. It seemed that Gulley and his squad were the only survivors.
Off in the distance, he spied the corpse of the giant Dragon. He had mistaken it for arge hill at first, but upon closer inspection, the features of the Dragon became obvious. Not only that, but there was subtle movement that drew his eye.
The Hero, no longer d in a golden halo, stood next to his greatsword that was pierced into the eye of the beast. Although the difference in size between the greatsword and the Dragon was akin to a tiny splinter, the Hero¡¯s abilities would have allowed for the killing blow to cause far more damage than appeared on the surface.
The Hero stood with his hands on the pommel, his head bowed. The movement had been cloth pieces of his attire and his long hair pping in the wind.
The corpses of the Hero¡¯spanions were among those strewn about the battlefield nearby. Of his Party, only the Hero himself had survived.
A nagging feeling poked at Gulley¡¯s subconscious, and he quickly nced all around him. Finally, he spotted Teilon sitting on top of a small boulder in the distance, watching them. As soon as Gulley made eye contact with the other man, Teilon gave him a thumbs-up with a grin.
Gulley started to make his way over to Teilon, but after only a dozen steps, he ran into an invisible wall that indicated the edge of the Dungeon. He looked up at Teilon with a sharp, confused expression only to see the other man just shrug it away.
They were apparently in separate zones they couldn¡¯t ess from their side.
When no other threats made themselves apparent, Gulley turned to face his squad.
¡°I guess that¡¯s it?¡± He said. ¡°Apparently, the actual encounter of this Dungeon was just those three dragonlings¡
¡°Now we need to find a way out of here.¡±
There was no obvious exit. The portal to the surface was thousands of feet above them on top of the intact portion of the teau.
As Gulley continued to scan the environment for some way to get back to the portal, another System Message intruded into his vision.
3¡
2¡
1¡
Congrattions! You Survived!
Teleporting¡
The world faded away in a swirl of colors and Mana motes.
Chapter 264: Hazy Reflections
Chapter 264: Hazy Reflections
¡°Well, that was really something, else, wasn¡¯t it?¡± Teilon said.
Teilon found himself standing near the entrance where they had entered the portal earlier. They had been disced slightly so as not to interfere with any other Parties exiting the Dungeon. The System seemed almost sentient at times, keeping up with the little things.
¡°I¡ really don¡¯t know what to say,¡± Gulley admitted.
¡°You and me, both,¡± Teilon answered. ¡°Well, that¡¯s not entirely true. I do know that you guys passed with flying colors. I¡¯ll have to spend some time to write up the full report for Reivyn and the rest of the officerster, but I can say that I was impressed.¡±
¡°It really wasn¡¯t that difficult of a Dungeon when you break it down,¡± Gulley downyed their performance.
¡°That¡¯s only kind of true,¡± Teilon said. ¡°The aura from the¡¡± Teilon nced around before continuing in a whisper, ¡°from the Dragon was the real deal.¡± He continued in a normal tone of voice. ¡°You handled it as well as anyone could be expected to.¡±
¡°The entire squad was incapacitated,¡± Gulley rolled his eyes.
¡°Except for you, and you and your men¡¯s response to it is what matters. We can¡¯t always expect things to go perfectly on the battlefield, and getting knocked down by a Fear Aura is probably not too umon in the big leagues, considering all the Skills that exist out there.
¡°You, as the squad leader, maintained your sobriety and immediately got your squad back in fighting shape. You followed the instructions of your ¡®superiors,¡¯ and you integrated with an unfamiliar Skill.¡°Finally, you kept your head at the true ending, and your tactics were sound. Sure, they were conservative, but that was the correct choice. I imagine if you had tried to split your forces in some sort of Charge or surprise attack, those creatures would have been able to take out your troops one-by-one. You fought them as a military unit, exactly as you should have.¡±
¡°Ok, you¡¯re beginning to convince me,¡± Gulley chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s not that I felt our squad performed subpar or anything, it was just a really weird Dungeon.¡±
¡°Yeah, I agree. We¡¯ll have a debrief with Kayzor here once all the squads are finished.¡±
¡°Not with Major Reivyn?¡± Gulley quirked an eyebrow.
¡°Reivyn still hasn¡¯t actually gone in the Dungeon. He didn¡¯t go this time because of the setup, so he¡¯s going to wait another week and form a Party with several of the officers who acted as inspectors. He¡¯s not going to spoil himself and go through the same tradition as everyone else, so he¡¯s not here.¡±
¡°That makes sense,¡± Gulley nodded. ¡°From what I¡¯ve heard, he¡¯s a pretty by-the-book kind of guy.¡±
¡°You¡¯d be surprised,¡± Teilon smirked. ¡°But yeah, when ites to his job, he¡¯s going to do it right, every time.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Gulley had a skeptical look on his face.
¡°Of course! He wouldn¡¯t skimp on proper order with his own Mercenary Company. If he cheated while everyone else couldn¡¯t, everyone would look down on him.¡±
¡°No, no, that¡¯s not what I¡¯m skeptical about,¡± Gulley shook his head. ¡°You said, ¡®you¡¯d be surprised.¡¯ What did you mean by that?¡±
¡°Oh, Reivyn can get up to mischief just like anyone else¡ Well, more often than not he¡¯s dragged into it by me, but that¡¯s beside the point.¡±
¡°Huh, learn something new everyday.¡±
Teilon stood back and let Gulley take charge of his squad. The man wasn¡¯t just steady on the battlefield, he also understood to take care of his troops'' morale afterward. Teilon nodded his head at the methods he used, too.
The squad might seem like the smallest unit in the mercenary battalion, but it actually wasn¡¯t. It was further broken down into fireteams. Gulley instructed the squad on what he wanted them to do, and he let the fireteam leaders supervise the mercenaries under them.
He had them do a health and wellness check first. Everyone checked their Health and status to make sure there weren¡¯t any lingering ailments, like bleeding. Sometimes with the rush of adrenaline in a fight, one wouldn¡¯t know they had been hit until it became a problem. Bleeding effects were notorious in that they could do percentage damage.
After everyone was checked out, next on the list was the gear check. Everyone took their armor off andid it out in a methodical manner. They didn¡¯t just spot check it on each other. They went over it as close as they could, inside and out. It was a good thing, too, because some rents and tears that weren¡¯t visible while worn were discovered on a couple of the pieces. It could prove incredibly frustrating, if not lethal, to have a piece of armor fall off in the middle ofbat because of a faulty strap.
Once they were done, they geared back up and stood in a rxed manner. They didn¡¯t fall-in or anything, and simply chatted to pass the time. Teilon looked around and noticed that most squads performed the more detailed check, but not all of them. He would speak to Reivyn about making sure they got points deducted whether their instructors made note of it or not. He pretended to write about his own squad¡¯s report to make notes about it.
They didn¡¯t have to wait much longer for thest squad toe out of the Dungeon. As far as Teilon could tell, there were no casualties. That didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t obvious squads that didn¡¯t do as well as others. Some mercenaries came out bloody and limping.
¡°Alright!¡± Kayzor appeared on scene, grabbing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°We¡¯ll give thest several groups some time with the Healers and a chance to rest and go over their inspections.¡±
Thest groups took care of their business. None of them scrimped on doing a thorough inspection as it seemed like all eyes were on them, judging them. Even doing a full gear check, though, they still finished quickly as they knew everyone was waiting on them.
¡°Now, this is a debrief that every soldier in the Imperial Army gets afterpleting the Dungeon: Wee to the club!¡± Kayzor eximed with a huge grin.
All the mercenaries looked around, a little apprehensive about the little speech. They weren¡¯t ¡°in the know¡± like they would have been if they had been regrs.
¡°It¡¯s not necessarily a small club, when you think about it, but it¡¯s definitely exclusive. You have bragging rights, and the other soldiers will see you as one of them, now - if you hadn¡¯t ever served inbat with them, that is. That kind of trumpspleting a Dungeon.
¡°Anyway, there¡¯s a couple of reasons why we do things this way. Does anyone care to guess what they are?¡± Kayzor nced around the silent room for a moment. ¡°Nobody?¡± He gave a small sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t know why I think it will be any different each time.
¡°So, one might think this is a strategic resource of utmost historical and tactical importance, but it¡¯s that¡¯s not it. We can participate with the Group Shield Skill while in the Dungeon and attached to the shadow units, but you¡¯ll notice if you try and do it now, there¡¯s something missing. We don¡¯t know for sure what it is, but we guess there¡¯s probably an individual leading the shield with a minimum Skill Level.
Stolen novel; please report.
¡°So, is it the historical information contained in the scenario? The Dragon verse the Hero? Not really. The events in the Dungeon are so old it really doesn¡¯t matter, and there are historical records of other Dragons and others known as Heroes throughout time.
¡°Is it the fact that the Dungeon seemingly doesn¡¯t belong in a Tier 4 Region?¡± Kayzor paused and looked all around at the expectant faces. ¡°Again, no. We¡¯ve done extensive testing over the years, and the simple fact of the matter is that the System is using smoke and mirrors to fool us.
¡°If anyone had decided to leave their position in the formation and seek out the man who addressed you in the beginning, you¡¯ll find that his ego doesn¡¯tst beyond selecting the difficulty. Yes, he will respond to you as a real, thinking being before you select a difficulty, but it onlysts for a couple of minutes. If you don¡¯t select a difficulty and try to converse with him further, the System automatically selects the default, normal difficulty.
¡°What then, is the reason?¡± Kayzor once more nced over everyone before continuing. ¡°It¡¯s quite simple: Grit. It¡¯s a test of determination. If you know that you¡¯re about to witness what amounts to a light show with a bit of Fear Aura, that first experience won¡¯t be nearly as impactful. Going in blind, we can identify those who will break in the face of the enemy.
¡°We train extensively beforehand so this doesn¡¯t happen, but every now and then, some slip through who really shouldn¡¯t be here. They get identified and tossed out. Luckily that didn¡¯t happen with any of the trainees this time around.¡±
A hand went up among the crowd. Gulley saw it out of the corner of his eye and searched to see who it was. He identified one of the other squad leaders. Kayzor paused in his little speech and indicated for the man to ask his question.
¡°Sir, you said it¡¯s a light show and smoke and mirrors,¡± the man asked, ¡°so does that mean choosing Hard Mode is an option?¡±
¡°Oh, no,¡± Kayzor immediately denied. ¡°That¡¯s all real. Everyone who¡¯s ever chosen Hard Mode in the past has not made it out, and, understandably, after so many failed attempts, nobody wants to try anymore.¡±
¡°Then why weren¡¯t we warned ahead of time?¡± The man continued. ¡°I¡¯m sure there have been instances where people have overestimated their abilities and chosen the Hard Mode on their first attempt.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not necessary,¡± Kayzor shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you didn¡¯t try to select Hard Mode.¡± Kayzor paused and the man shook his head. ¡°Yeah, it wouldn¡¯t have mattered. You can¡¯t select Hard Mode on the first attempt. The System doesn¡¯t let you.
¡°Which means that everyone in the past who¡¯s attempted it knew exactly what they were getting into. Many of them thought that since the rest of the experience was scripted, the burning of the vanguard might be as well. It¡¯s not. That¡¯s all real. Don¡¯t select Hard Mode the next time you go in.¡±
Gulley nodded his head. Every other Dungeon he had been in, certain actions were required to trigger the Hard Mode. For the most part, it was highly unlikely one would know what actions were required to do so on their first attempt, so that kept those who weren¡¯t ready from challenging something they couldn¡¯t beat. For those that were good enough to figure it out on their first trip, they were usually good enough to win.
Guides sold by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild negated some of the guesswork, but for the most part, Adventurers weren¡¯t foolhardy. They did it for a living, and they weren¡¯t interested in throwing their lives away. There were warnings in the guides that told how to activate Hard Mode, and even then, mostpetent Adventurers, even those overpowered for a particr Dungeon, wanted to experience the normal Dungeon on their first delve.
That didn¡¯t always apply, of course. There were plenty of memorials for those who thought too highly of themselves or too little of the danger of a Hard Mode.
It made sense to Gulley that a Dungeon that just asked what difficulty one wanted would require apletion on Normal Mode.
There was a short lull in the speech, and Gulley found himself raising his hand. Kayzor motioned for him to speak.
¡°What was the Epic Difficulty? I¡¯ve never seen or heard of that before,¡± he said.
Kayzor simply shrugged.
¡°It¡¯s gated just like Hard Mode,¡± Kayzor answered. ¡°You would have toplete the Dungeon on Hard Mode to be able to select it. There are hypotheses of what it entails, and we¡¯re about 99% sure it¡¯s urate, but we¡¯ve pretty much given up on ever finding out. Nobody has ever survived the Dragon¡¯s Breath at the beginning of the Dungeon.
¡°I¡¯ll let all of you specte on what it would be. I¡¯m sure you¡¯lle to the same conclusion with just a little thought. It¡¯s not really an important question at this point other than the existence of Epic Difficulty being a thing, considering we¡¯d probably need to invite a high Tier 6 or even a Tier 7 to try it out. People old enough to be that strong aren¡¯t really interested in attempting ¡®certain death¡¯ scenarios, though.¡±
Thatstment elicited a chuckle from the crowd.
I¡¯m sure I already have an idea, but like he said, only an old ancestor would likely ever have the chance of finding out, Gulley mused. I can think of a couple who might be interested, but there are otherplications associated with that.
Gulley put it out of his mind. Maybe one day someone would brave the dangers of the Dragon¡¯s Fire again, but he wasn¡¯t going to get hung up on the idea.
¡°The fight at the end against the Dragonlings is the only realbat challenge in this Dungeon,¡± Kayzor continued. ¡°The number you face is also dependent on the size of the Party, though never less than two. This Dungeon is unique in onest way in that the normal rules of Party size don¡¯t apply. We¡¯ve sent an entirepany in before, and they simply form up with a shadow-officer and then fight arger force of Dragonlings at the bottom of the cliff.
¡°So that¡¯s the gist of it. Quite simple, really. It¡¯s not some big state secret, so there won¡¯t be anyoneing after you if you leak the details. You¡¯ll just bepromising a personal test for those thate after you.
¡°There are already leaks out there, too, for those that want to find it. Mostly, those that enter the military don¡¯t seek them out, though. It¡¯s a point of pride. I understand you all are mercenaries, but you¡¯ve still joined our brotherhood with this small test, and I know that Major Reivyn isn¡¯t going to run you any different than if you were Imperial Regrs.
¡°Are there any more questions for me before I turn you over to your toon Commanders?¡±
Kayzor scanned the crowd for a final time. There were no more hands going up. The exnation for the Dungeon cleared most of the relevant mysteries, and this wouldn¡¯t be thest time they would delve into this Dungeon.
¡°Dismissed,¡± Kayzor gave the simplemand.
Gulley turned to his squad members and jerked his head toward where his toon Commander was waiting. The other squads in his toon began migrating toward theirmander as well. Their lieutenant waited with a stoic, yet confident expression on his face.
All of the officers were veterans of either the campaign in Drallo or Vairo, and Gulley could see the satisfaction on the man¡¯s face. As far as Gulley knew, all of the officers except for Reivyn and his friend Teilon had already been through the Dungeon prior to their test, so they knew exactly what they had been through.
¡°I¡¯m d to see that all of you performed adequately,¡± The lieutenant said. ¡°I¡¯ve already seen some of the reports of the other inspectors. Obviously, none of us monitored any of our own troops, but I¡¯ve only seen and heard good things so far. The Staff Sergeant and I will go through aprehensive breakdown of the performance over the next couple of days, and then we¡¯lle up with a training n based on the results.
¡°Until then, you have liberty within the city. You still have to be present for roll-call in the mornings and the evenings, though. After you¡¯ve been on a deployment, you¡¯ll get the opportunity for an extended leave.
¡°Any questions?¡±
No hands went up. Gulley took a moment to look around and noticed the other toons were having simr meetings. Everyone was already mustered, so there was no reason they couldn¡¯t do it here and now. The little snippet of efficiency and no-nonsense filled Gulley with a bit of pride.
If the officers were purely picked due to being nobles, he would have expected additional meetings and formations just to sate the pride of the ones in charge. Gulley himself had once acted that way, so he fully understood the colossal waste of time this could have been.
¡°Very well. Dismissed.¡±
Once again, the troops were given the order to dismiss. To their credit, Gulley¡¯s squad members looked to him for guidance. The chain ofmand was an important thing, and it went in both directions. He didn¡¯t have anything additional to say to his men at the time, though, so he simply nodded in the direction of the slopes leading to the bottom of the cliff.
¡°I¡¯ll see you all this evening for roll-call. Don¡¯t bete.¡±
That was all that needed to be said. Gulley was fairly strict with his discipline, and his squad members knew there would be hell to pay if they yed around. Punctuality and ountability were huge aspects of their new routine that had been drilled into their heads repeatedly over the course of their training.
Gulley sauntered away on his own. He didn¡¯t wait for his assistant squad leader or for his follower.
I wonder who Major Reivyn is going to run the Dungeon with and what he¡¯ll think about it?
Chapter 265: Dread
Chapter 265: Dread
¡°So are you excited?¡± Kefira asked, perring up at Reivyn.
They were standing in front of the portal leading to the Dungeon. Reivyn had spent the past week going over the status reports with the other officers. They had been redacted to keep Reivyn from spoiling any information about the actual Dungeon. He wanted the full experience like everyone else.
All the reports only contained the performance information on the mercenaries as well as rmended training. Each of the officers added their own thoughts to each group as they were passed around, and Reivyn reviewed the information before holding a meeting. For the most part, he allowed the officers to set the agenda for their own men, and he only made suggestions for a couple of them.
He was a big believer in decentralizing the power while still maintaining the option of total authority. Allowing the officers to figure things out on their own would also develop them as leaders better than if he held their hands.
Reivyn nced at Kefira after looking at the portal for a moment. He nodded his head with a smile.
¡°I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t excited,¡± Reivyn answered. ¡°But it¡¯s kind of strange. It¡¯s the same kind feeling I get at other Dungeons. I guess the feeling of stepping into somethingpletely unknown adds its own little vor.¡±
¡°Yeah, I know what you mean,¡± Kefira said. ¡°That¡¯s one of the biggest appeals for going on adventures for me. Sure, I know I¡¯m doing it to improve myself and expand my avable sses for the future, but the adventure into the unknown is its own thing. It led us together.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t argue with that,¡± Reivyn chuckled. ¡°C¡¯mon.¡±
Reivyn jerked his head toward the portal as he nced at his Party members. Even though the information of the actual Dungeon had been kept from him, there were certain things that could be divulged without spoiling it. He had been informed that he could get the full experience with a small Party of only four people, so it was only him, Kefira, Seri, Teilon, and Kimberly.He didn¡¯t bring any of the other officers along for his inaugural delve. Going in with just his core group felt like the right thing to do. This was a personal experience, and he could team up with the other officers to check them out some other time. Today, it was for him.
The others simply nodded their heads, hefted their weapons, and followed him into the Dungeon.
Entering the Dungeon wasn¡¯t the same as the ones he had been in previously. All the other Dungeons were seamless transitions, most not even giving any indication that one had entered a closed space. Entering this Dungeon, though, left no room for doubt.
It might have been his increased sensitivity to Mana since thest time he had really paid attention to entering a Dungeon, but he felt it was more than that. It yed a role, as it always would when he grew more powerful, but he could tell that even if he hadn¡¯t deepened his Skills and Affinities, it would have been an obvious transition.
The air just felt different. There seemed to be a vibration in the atmosphere that he couldn¡¯t quite ce but knew was there.
He turned around to face his Party members and his eyes were immediately drawn to the huge army arrayed before him. They were far enough away that they were outside of his Divine Sense range, so their appearance came as a genuine surprise.
¡°Hah! It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen that look on your face!¡± Teilonughed.
Reivyn nced at his friend with a deadpan expression.
¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean,¡± he replied.
¡°Sure, sure. y it cool.¡±
Reivyn ignored his friend¡¯s banter and focused on the approach of a heavily armed and armored man. He was obviously a grizzled veteran, and he had a no-nonsense characteristic about how he walked toward the Party.
¡°What are you doing out of formation?!¡± He eximed with clear exasperation in his voice and face. ¡°Hurry, the battle could start any moment!¡±
The man didn¡¯t wait for a response and turned to hurry off. Reivyn shared a look with Kefira who only gave a small smile and nodded her head.
Turning back to look where the man had run off to, a System Message suddenly popped up in front of his face. He quickly scanned the contents.
Spectator Mode: Fall into formation with the ¡°Hero¡¯s¡± Companions.
There are no rewards.
Easy Mode: Fall into formation among the General¡¯s Entourage.
Rewards are reduced to 25% of Standard.
Standard Mode: Fall into formation in the center of the army.
100% Rewards.
Hard Mode: Fall into formation in the Vanguard.
400% Rewards plus additional guaranteed Tier 5 Magical Items.
Epic Mode: ????
???? Rewards.
Aha, so this is why Kayzor was so adamant that it would be the perfect ce for an observer to witness the squads in action, Reivyn realized. Spectator Mode is the perfect option for something like that. It won¡¯t interfere with the Party¡¯s Experience or count detrimentally toward the Party size.
Reivyn continued looking down and shrugged. He always liked challenging himself with the Hard Modes of Dungeons, but the fact that this one was gated was alreadymunicated to him because those in the know understood he would most likely immediately select Hard Mode.
He selected Standard Mode and started to look around for any changes.
The Window didn¡¯t disappear.
Reivyn frowned and looked back at the System Message. After a moment, another line appeared at the bottom of the screen.
Error.
The Hero cannot participate in Standard Mode.
Automatic Selection initiated¡
Error.
Prior Difficulty has not bepleted, unable to select Difficulty.
Searching for Solution¡
Complete!
System override initiated.
Epic Mode Selected.
The System Message disappeared and an ethereal arrow that Reivyn recognized as made up of Veridical Mana appeared on the ground directing him toward where the grizzled veteran had walked off to.
Reivyn hesitated and turned to his Party.
¡°There seems to be an issue¡¡± Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head.
Kefira quirked an eyebrow. Teilon bounced back and forth on the balls of his feet while Kimberly stood quietly next to him. Seri had her usual stoic expression on her face.
¡°Well, what¡¯s the issue?¡± Kefira asked.
¡°It seems there¡¯s some interference with my ss,¡± Reivyn exined. ¡°It won¡¯t let me select Standard Mode. The System did an override and forced me into Epic Mode.¡±
Everyone¡¯s eyes widened at the revtion. Reivyn could see that it wasn¡¯t just surprise, either. He felt genuine fear from hispanions.
¡°We have to leave right now!¡± Kefira eximed.
She grabbed Reivyn¡¯s hand and turned to drag him to the entrance of the Dungeon. They only walked a few steps though, but Kefira seemed to m into an invisible wall just out of reach of the Portal.
Stolen story; please report.
A System Message popped up on the invisible wall for everyone to see.
Early exit from the Dungeon is disabled while Epic Mode is active.
Pleaseplete the Dungeon to exit.
Kefira stood and stared in disbelief. Reivyn was also dumbfounded. He had never heard of a Dungeon that cutoff the exit for those inside. There were times when individual rooms were locked during encounters, but never an entire Dungeon.
Kefira just stood there and stared at the portal for several moments, even after the System Message disappeared. Reivyn coughed to get her attention.
¡°What¡¯s the deal?¡± He asked. ¡°We handle Hard Modes all the time. Epic Mode will just be a bit more challenging.¡±
Kefira shook her head. Reivyn could see tears well up in her eyes and begin to fall down her cheeks with his Divine Sense. She finally turned to face him with a sniffle.
¡°No, this Dungeon is different,¡± she said. ¡°Hard Mode is already suicide. Nobody has everpleted it before. I don¡¯t dare to imagine how impossible Epic Mode is supposed to be. It¡¯s¡its¡¯...¡± she couldn¡¯t finish her words, gazing up at Reivyn with near panic in her eyes.
Reivyn grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.
¡°Shhh, shhhh. It¡¯s going to be alright,¡± he soothed her. ¡°I¡¯ve been in more dangerous situations than this before. You know that. This is just a Tier 4 Dungeon with an unusual setup and difficulty. We¡¯ll clear this out in no time.¡±
Kefira pulled away and gazed into his eyes.
¡°I want to believe that,¡± she said, wiping her eyes. ¡°And I believe in your abilities. But I¡¯ve seen what Hard Mode is like. Everyone who¡¯s been in the Dungeon knows exactly what it entails, but you¡¯re supposedly going to have to skip right past that to an even harder difficulty¡¡±
¡°I think, in light of the circumstances, we should go ahead and tell him what the Dungeon is,¡± Seri spoke up. Reivyn nced at her in surprise. He wasn¡¯t expecting Seri to be the one to speak up at this point. Kefira looked at her friend and nodded her head.
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s too irresponsible not to,¡± she said. ¡°So this Dungeon is usually a lot of smoke and mirrors. That being said, the smoke is quite real. The main antagonist is a giant ck Dragon. On Standard Mode, we only have to fight off his reinforcements while somebody else defends us from the Dragon.
¡°Hard Mode is to participate in the vanguard, but the vanguard gets wiped out by Dragon Fire immediately. Nobody who¡¯s ever attempted it has been able to survive the mes.
¡°We say it¡¯s smoke and mirrors because each portion of the battlefield ispartmentalized. Those in Spectator Mode hang out with the Hero Party. Easy Mode are in the back and don¡¯t have to do much at all. Standard Mode has us confront the reinforcements up here as well as down below after the teau is destroyed by the Dragon.
¡°And none of the different difficulty groups can interact with each other. That also means you¡¯re the only one who will be participating in Epic Mode, and we¡¯ll all have to continue with Standard Mode.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Reivyn replied after a moment. ¡°I heard you say something about a ¡®Hero Party?¡¯¡±
¡°Right. The person who defends us from the Dragon is referred to by the shadow-soldiers as the Hero. Everyone¡¯s spection has been that Epic Mode would see you take on the role of the Hero and fight the Dragon directly.
¡°Which is insane because we also specte that the Hero and the Dragon are both high-Tier 7! You wouldn¡¯t stand a chance!¡±
¡°There must be more to it than that,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°This is, after all, only a Tier 4 Dungeon. I highly doubt there¡¯s enough Mana powering the Dungeon to even create a Tier 7 Dragon. Is there anything else you can think of?¡±
¡°All we know is that the Hero is empowered by some golden light and fights the Dragon to a draw while the soldiers below fight off the dragonlings it brings along.¡±
¡°Well there you go,¡± Reivyn said with a reassuring smile. ¡°That golden light has to be something. Even if it¡¯s a Skill of the Hero, the System will probably do something to make it happen even if I don¡¯t have that Skill. If it¡¯s a Skill from other buffing the Hero, then I won¡¯t have anything to worry about, either.
¡°Besides, it seems we¡¯re stuck here unless you can use your Space Affinity to make a connection with the outside.¡±
Kerira¡¯s eyes opened wide at that statement.
¡°I hadn¡¯t even thought about that!¡± She nearly shouted. ¡°I had been so panicked by what was going on that I wasn¡¯t thinking straight. Here, give me a moment.¡±
She stepped away from Reivyn and ced her hand on the invisible barrier. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Reivyn could see the Space Mana flowing through her as she scanned the Space leading to the outside world.
She suddenly recoiled from the barrier and the Space Mana inside her seemed to suddenly freeze. Another public System Message popped up on the barrier.
System Override.
Space Mana is temporarily restricted.
Pleaseplete the Dungeon to exit.
¡°Well¡¡± Reivyn peered at the message. ¡°That¡¯s a little ominous.¡±
¡°So it looks like the System is forcing your hand,¡± Teilon said, walking up and cing a hand on Reivyn¡¯s shoulder. ¡°If there¡¯s anyone who can get through this, it¡¯s you.¡±
¡°Thanks,¡± Reivyn nodded his head.
¡°What is up with the System!¡± Kefira shouted in frustration, mming her foot on the ground. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen it do something like this before. It¡¯s usually so¡ passive, but now it seems to be actively working against us!¡±
¡°There¡¯s been many times where I¡¯ve felt the System is sentient,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°This is just more evidence. It¡¯s herding us toward what it wants, and it seems it wants the Epic Mode of this Dungeon cleared.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not fair!¡± Kefira said. ¡°Why would it act out now?! I¡¯ll have to tell my father that it¡¯s not safe to keep sending people into this Dungeon.¡±
¡°Eh, how many people do you know with the Hero ss?¡± Reivyn ced his hands on Kefira¡¯s shoulders. She leaned back into his chest and let herself rx in his embrace. ¡°It¡¯s not dangerous to everyone¡ Just me, it seems¡± Reivyn chuckled.
Kefira nced up sharply with an indignant look.
¡°This isn¡¯t funny, Reivyn!¡± She shouted.
¡°I know, I know,¡± he cated. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to lighten the mood a bit.¡±
¡°Well, you can do that after we¡¯ve figured out how to escape this death trap.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s going to work,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°Maybe if my Veridical Affinity was much higher, I could tamper with the System and unblock the Space, but it¡¯s still only at 2.¡±
¡°Wait, that¡¯s what the Veridical Affinity does?¡± Teilon asked from the side. Reivyn nced over to see a shocked expression on Teilon¡¯s face. It was mirrored on Kimberly¡¯s and even Seri was taken aback.
¡°Something like that,¡± Reivyn confirmed. ¡°Like I said, it¡¯s only at 2, but it lets me manipte System Messages and other System-rted Mana. I figured with a high enough Affinity, I would be able to make changes to what the System was doing, like locking down the Space or forcing me to pick a difficulty.¡±
¡°Wow, that¡¯s¡ weird,¡± Teilon said. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of implications behind that.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head.
¡°It¡¯s one reason I¡¯ve nned on researching the System itself more in-depth at some point,¡± he said. ¡°There really hasn¡¯t been the time for that, though.¡±
¡°Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,¡± Teilon said. ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time you¡¯ve been steered by the System with a heavy-hand, though it is one of the more overt examples.¡±
¡°Ok, well, time is running out,¡± Reivyn said, stepping away from Kefira. She turned and faced him with a determined look. ¡°We all need to get in position. I¡¯m assuming you all have little System arrows telling you where to go, to.¡± He looked at each of them in turn and they nodded their heads. ¡°Then let¡¯s get this over with.¡±
He faced Kefira onest time.
¡°I¡¯ll figure this out, and then we¡¯ll see each other on the other side once the Dungeon ispleted.¡±
Reivyn bent down and gave Kefira a kiss before decisively turning and following his arrow toward what he assumed was themanders of the shadow-military. He didn¡¯t look back. He knew the others would be distracted with this turn of events, but they would still do their best in their portion of the Dungeon.
Reivyn followed the arrow. A little further he spied what he assumed was the Hero Party. A group of people dressed differently than the rest of the military stood near the rear. He could tell at a nce that they were wearing some significantly powerful gear, and they lookedpletely out of cepared to the rest of the military setup.
His own arrow stopped a bit before leading all the way to them. The grizzled veteran was standing with a nk expression next to where the arrow led him, and there were several other older soldiers seemingly just waiting for him to arrive.
Reivyn didn¡¯t know anything about the rank structure of this military unit, but he could guess from the insignias that they were sporting different ranks. The oldest, most distinguished man in armor had a familiar-looking sunburst on either shoulder with two stars hovering above it on either side. None of the others had sunbursts or stars, so Reivyn assumed this man was most likely themanding general.
Reivyn walked up to his spot and stood where the arrows had led him. His palms were sweaty and his heart raced. He had put on a strong front for Kefira and the others¡¯ sake, but he was nervous. He was more nervous than he could remember ever being.
It had been a long time since he had felt genuine fear. He knew Kefira wouldn¡¯t act the way she had for nothing. She had been truly worried that Reivyn wouldn¡¯t be able to survive this ordeal.
It wasn¡¯t just the looming threat of the Epic Mode difficulty, either. The System had always been a bit suspect to Reivyn, but this situation was above and beyond anything he had expected. If he didn¡¯t know any better, he would assume someone was manipting the System itself.
Thoughts for another time, he told himself. I need to focus on the task at hand.
He watched his Party members make their way to a position in the middle of the formation and take up a position in one of the squads.
As soon as they came to a halt, a final System Message appeared before him. Objective:
Defeat the Dragon
Chapter 266: Divine Intervention
Chapter 266: Divine Intervention
¡°Hero! Yourpanions¡¯ ritual to bypass your ss Skill cooldown is almostplete, but that Dragon could appear at any time. Just stay here where you¡¯ll be protected until the ritual is activated.¡±
Reivyn stood in ce as the battlefield seemed toe to life. As soon as everyone was in their proper position, the scenario kicked off as if they hadn¡¯t just been standing around like statues. The man Reivyn pegged as themander was the one to address him.
Reivyn didn¡¯t know if he was expected to actually interact with these shadow-people or not, so he just nodded his head and stayed silent. The shadow-people didn¡¯t try to talk to him any further, though, so he just waited and watched.
The mention of a ritual to bypass a ss Skill cooldown intrigued Reivyn. What kind of a ss Skill would have such a long cooldown to require such a ritual, and what kind of ritual would affect someone else¡¯s cooldown. There was some circr reasoning afoot, but it apparently was a thing.
He looked over to where he had seen the supposed Hero¡¯s Companions. They were standing close together, and they all appeared to be concentrating on something. They were outside of Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense range, so he had to use his mundane Perception to observe them. He activated his Eagle Eye to zoom his focus in on them.
Are they¡ praying? He thought
The Companions were huddled up together, and they were standing with their hands sped and heads bowed. There was a particr sort of energy glowing about them that was hard to see. It was like trying to catch something out of the corner of his eye. If he focused on it directly, it disappeared.
It wasn¡¯t Mana. Or if it was, it wasn¡¯t any kind he had seen before. It wasn¡¯t made up of motes or even woven together in weaves. It was an ethereal, golden glow that he could barely perceive when he watched out of the corner of his eye.
What is that? It¡¯s not Mana, Stamina, or Qi¡It was a bit familiar to him, but he couldn¡¯t ce how or why. He shook his head and dispelled the thoughts. Now wasn¡¯t the time to delve into the mystery. He just saved the information for dissectionter. Maybe his parents and Kefira could help him figure it out once they got out of here.
Reivyn returned his attention to his friends and the rest of the army milling about. The shadow-army appeared to be made up of highly professional soldiers. They were well armed and disciplined, and they reminded him of his own ideal military.
The units wererger than he would have preferred, personally, but he was also a proponent of small-unit-tactics. Everything should be able to be broken down into smaller and smaller groups. He wasn¡¯t sure how effective that would be with a base unit being sorge, but it should be doable. There would just be more responsibility on the toon-size leadership.
After making his observations, nothing seemed to happen for a little while. Eventually, though, there was a disturbance in the ambient Mana. It was like they were a struck tuning fork. The motes in the air started to vibrate, and the intensity increased with every passing second.
A sense of dread washed over him, and he could see that he wasn¡¯t the only one. His Party members started to fidget, and he could tell that even the shadow-soldiers were affected by the phenomenon.
Something¡¯sing, he realized. And with context clues, I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s that Dragon everyone¡¯s been talking about.
It wasn¡¯t much longer before Reivyn spotted the dot in the distance. At first it was just a little ck speck on the horizon, but it slowly grew in size as he watched it. It gotrger andrger at a slow pace until some sort of threshold was reached, and then it gotrger fast.
One moment, it was just a distant object in the sky, then suddenly it was a giant flying lizard. The size and scale of the Dragon was¡ intimidating, to say the least. Even without anything to reference it¡¯s size next to, Reivyn could tell that the Dragon was immense.
The vibration in the air continued to agitate at an increased pace. Another, more subtle, vibration joined in, though. It was opposite to the phenomenon caused by the Dragon. Not just in that it wasing from a different direction, but it seemed to simultaneously soothe the ambient Mana while causing its own agitation.
He traced the origin of the new vibrations and his gazended on the Hero Companions. The subtle glow surrounding them had intensified to almost blinding proportions. He still couldn¡¯t see it when looking directly at it, but everything in his side-view was like looking straight at the sun. He couldn¡¯t even see the Companions that he wasn¡¯t focused directly on.
The Dragon was suddenly almost directly over top the shadow-army, and it unleashed the fiery death he had been warned about. The shadow-people caught in the congration burst into mes before the actual fire even reached them, and they and their equipment melted into molten puddles.
Ok¡ I can see why Kefira said nobody¡¯s survived that before, Reivyn thought, his eyes wide.
¡°Protect the Hero!¡± A shout emerged from the ranks. It was echoed by the defiant roars of the rest of the soldiers.
Group Shield Skills sprung up all around. Reivyn could tell at a nce that they were much more intricate and more powerful than any of the Group Shield Skills he had seen anyone use out in the real world. Even the soldiers from the Tier 5 invaders was nothingpared to these shields.
It still wasn¡¯t enough to save the soldiers from the Dragon, but he could tell even from so far away that it reduced the burden on the closest soldiers to the fiery inferno that was still zing from where the Dragon had Breathed.
A chime echoed inside Reivyn¡¯s mind. It was quiet and pleasant, but at the same time, it drowned out all other sound like a gong had been struck right next to his ear. It was familiar, yet unfamiliar, and he shook his head to try and rid himself of the echoes. He didn¡¯t want to be distracted from the battle.
Reivyn¡¯s vision turned white. Everything was gone, and he couldn¡¯t see anything. Not just his vision, but his Divine Sense as well. It was like he had been thrust into the void, but opposite. The void was mostly ck because it was empty. This whiteout gave him the same emptiness feeling, but only because he could literally perceive nothing, not even his own self.
It had been a long time since he had been so blind. Not even sleeping or being unconscious prevented his brain from seeing the world around him.
Before he could panic or think about what was happening, a tidal wave of power consumed him. His body was on fire. His blood was boiling. His thoughts scattered and he was unable to think at all, much less clearly.
The power coursing through his body was more than anything he had ever encountered before. If he wasn¡¯t experiencing it personally, he wouldn¡¯t believe it was possible for a human body to contain such power, but he could tell in the deepest recesses of his mind that his body was containing the power.
His vision returned, but everything was oveid with a golden sheen. He could see the waves of golden power emanating off of his body like steam. It distorted his view.
His Divine Sense returned as well, but this time, it was different.
The sudden inflow of information from his Divine Sense put his initial iling at learning to adapt when he first gained the Skill to shame. That was baby stepspared to now. His Divine Sense covered the entire teau.
And not just the teau. It stretched out for miles below. It expanded to the very edge of what was contained within the sealed space of the Dungeon. His Divine Sense also wasn¡¯t a two-dimensional ne. It delved deep into the ground.
It wasn¡¯t just the sudden increase in distance that flooded his brain, either. The detail of his Divine Sense expanded to the microscopic scale, as well. The information he perceived was detailed to a level he hadn¡¯t thought possible. He could sense every grain of dirt around him. He could see the ants in the ground and all the other little insects and life-forms permeating the area.
He still couldn¡¯t see down to the cellr level, but he could perceive a sort of glow representing the bacteria and other life-forms too small to see with the naked eye. Across the entirety of his Divine Sense.
And that still wasn¡¯t the end of it.
His Divine Sense butted up against the edge of reality of the sealed space, and then it pierced through it. He could see the closest edge of the Void, and his Divine Sense found and wormed its way through the portal connecting their space to the real world.
The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The people standing outside the Dungeon came into focus. He could even see the edge of the city below the cliff, as well as all the people walking about.
And that still wasn¡¯t the end of it.
His Divine Sense continued to worm its way through the Void and the portals. All of the Dungeon instances currently being run by people opened up to him. Dozens of teaus, in various states ofbat with the Dragon and the Dragonlings, ovepped with his vision.
And the level of detail down to the granules of dirt and small life forms was consistent throughout the entirety of his perception.
All of that information flooded his brain instantaneously. Less than a fraction of a second had passed.
Pain like nothing he couldprehend became his existence. The soul-wracking pain of the little ¡°gift¡± the Masked Man had once left him was nothing. It was a pinprick beside the ocean of agony consuming him.
His body contorted as his muscles spasmed. His flesh began to melt and slough off of his body. His bones snapped and ked away. Blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, and mouth. His hair fell out. Without even willing himself to do so, his head was thrown back and he screamed.
Then darkness¡
¡ª
Kefira couldn¡¯t stop fidgeting. Her weight shifted from foot to foot over and over again. She had a pit in her stomach that wouldn¡¯t go away. She just knew that something terrible was going to happen.
She hadplete faith in her fiance. A brief sh of delight flooded her being at that thought, but it was immediately squashed by the impending doom she felt.
Everyone knew that Hard Mode was suicide.
And Reivyn had been forced into an even more difficult level.
There was nothing that could be said to assuage her feelings, and the others were feeling the same way. Nobody spoke a word offort, and they all just grit their teeth and waited for the beginning of the scenario.
It started like any other time. The air began to vibrate. The ambient Mana was agitated. The speck in the distance appeared, and not long after a giant Dragon came into view. It Breathed death upon the vanguard of the army.
All of that was the same. All of that Kefira had prepared for.
Things took a sudden shift in the unexpected though.
¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh¡¡±
A blood curdling scream the likes she had never heard pierced through existence itself. Kefira could almost feel the agony imbued within the sound.
The Dragon had begun to roar, but even its devastating acoustic attack was unable to even manifest in the face of that scream. It came out as a silent puff of air.
There was no other sound other than the scream. Even after it suddenly cut off, there wasplete silence on the field.
Fear gripped her and she turned her head, knowing instinctively the source of the sound.
Where Reivyn had been standing, a pir of golden light drowned all other sight away. The shadowmanders stood frozen in ce next to the pir. The world seemed to havee to aplete standstill for just a moment, but a breeze once more picked up after a half second.
The shadowmanders¡¯ bodies disintegrated and drifted away on the breeze. The pir of light next to them had destroyed thempletely.
And Reivyn was standing in the center of the pir.
Kefira couldn¡¯t see him through the blinding light, but she knew exactly where he was. There hadn¡¯t been a second where she hadn¡¯t been perfectly aware of where he was at all times since they had entered the Dungeon.
The pir of golden light contracted in on itself. The blinding light disappeared as it entered Reivyn¡¯s body. He stood with his body contorted in agony, bald head thrown back, mouth wide-open.
Kefira watched in wide-eyed terror as his skin melted off his body. His muscles and bones came into view. His muscles also melted away, and she could see thousands of cracks throughout his bones as they began to ke away.
His body hadn¡¯t been able to contain whatever energy had been infused into him, and was now destroyed. She could sense his life, though, and could tell he wasn¡¯t dead.
His body straightened up even as it was being destroyed. His head snapped back down, and Kefira could tell, even though his eyes were gone, that he was looking at the threat in the Dungeon: The Dragon.
Reivyn disappeared.
A tremendous force shoved Kefira and everyone else, including the entire shadow-army, onto the ground. They were pinned in ce. A sonic boom echoed over the battlefield immediately followed by another loud explosion.
Kefira struggled to turn her head so she could look toward the source of the sound.
Kefira didn¡¯t witness the impact, but Reivyn was floating in the air where the Dragon had just been. Kefira¡¯s eyes continued to pan until she found the enemy.
The dragon was syed, wings and arms spread, across the invisible barrier of the Dungeon that had sprung up a distance away in the direction the Dragon had appeared. She could tell that it was being driven into the wall.
Cracks appeared on the invisible barrier, and snippets of the Void could be seen on the other side. A vacuum began to suck things towards the cracks in reality, but the force holding everyone down was more powerful. Some of the trees and parts of the teau closest to the barrier, though, weren¡¯t being held down, and they were uprooted and began flying through the air toward the Dragon and the damage in the barrier.
The cracks quickly healed, though, and the dirt, trees, and wildlife suspended in midair before falling back to the ground.
The Dragon shook its head as it huffed. It came away from the barrier as it looked upon Reivyn with a murderous gaze.
Kefira shifted her sight once more to her fiance. His body waspletely gone, now. A being of golden light floated in the air where a human had once stood. The being of light watched the Dragon impassively.
The Dragon attempted to roar in defiance, but it was still unable to muster its powerful lungs. Kefira could feel the agitation and fury rolling off of the humongous creature.
The Dragon tucked its wings around its body and rocketed toward Reivyn. It sliced through the air with zero resistance and was instantly upon Reivyn.
Reivyn simply lifted his hand of light, and the Dragon mmed into another invisible barrier. Its momentum was immediately halted, and Kefira could see its wings and bones shatter at the force with which it had struck.
Reivyn was perfectly still.
The Dragon¡¯s body was like a spring. It hadpressed against the wall it had mmed into, and then it suddenly bounced away, its body once more elongating into its proper shape. Hundreds of broken Dragonlings fell away from its shattered scales tond as heaps of meat on the ground.
Reivyn lifted his palm further above his head. Energy began to coalesce above his palm. Kefira expected to see a gradual increase like she had seen him do multiple times with his orb of fire and sma.
That wasn¡¯t the case.
A speck of energy appeared above Reivyn¡¯s hand, and in less than a second, it expanded to a size more than double that of the Dragon. A miniature sun was born above Reivyn¡¯s hand.
He lowered his hand and pointed at the Dragon. Nothing happened for a split second. Then, the energy contained in the mini sunpressed into the size of a marble before expelling all thepressed energy as a beam into the Dragon.
The beam sliced through the Dragon before exploding in a congration that put its Dragon Breath to shame. It was likeparing a candle to a bonfire.
The fire continued for several moments. The light was blinding, and nothing could be seen aside from the powerful attack.
Slowly, vision returned to Kefira.
The Dragon was no more. It had beenpletely, utterly annihted. A hole in reality once more opened up on the barrier of the Dungeon¡¯s edge. Another vacuum began sucking bits and pieces of the Dungeon out into the Void, but it quickly healed itself once more.
The battlefield waspletely still and silent. Everyone¡¯s gaze was upon the creature of light that was Reivyn.
Kefira didn¡¯t know what to do. She didn¡¯t know what to expect. All thoughts had left her mind at the start of the encounter, and she was still unable to pull herself together. She wasn¡¯t able toprehend what she was seeing, and her mind had simply shut down as it took everything in.
The outline of Reivyn¡¯s body began topress. The light gathered into his core until there was just a floating ball of golden light. Lines began to expand out of the ball and began formingplicated patterns.
The lines of light were rtively small, but there were thousands of them. They triggered something in Kefira¡¯s brain, but she still wasn¡¯t fully cognizant after the harrowing experience. The lines looked alien, yet familiar.
After several heartbeats, it finally became clear what the lines were.
They look like veins, was the first thought that popped into Kefira¡¯s head. It was the first thought she had since the pir of light had appeared.
No, not veins, she corrected herself. Meridians.
The world around her began to tremble. Shadow-soldiers were lifted off the ground and began floating toward the light meridians. The ground, flora, and fauna were all caught up just like they had been with the vacuum from the void, though at a much slower pace.
None of the shadow-soldiers resisted. It was almost like they weren¡¯t even aware of what was happening.
Kefira watched as the bits of realityposing the Dungeon disintegrated into pure energy. The matter of the Dungeon floated up toward the lights, then it broke down into nothing and was reced by pure energy.
Kefira termed it as energy because it wasn¡¯t exactly Mana. It had Mana in it. Arge amount, actually. But that paled inparison to what the energy actually was. The energy itself was the matter. It was an amalgamation of matter, Mana, energy, and something else she couldn¡¯t recognize.
Eventually, no more bits of the Dungeon were pulled up to the floating light, but what had been pulled up continued its journey. It moved toward the light as it was broken down and turned into energy, and the energy continued to move toward the light.
All the energy eventually converged and turned into a sort of cocoon. The light meridians were shielded from view, and the cocoon floated in space for several moments. It pulsed and writhed before contracting.
It got smaller and smaller, contorting into a different shape as it did so. Neither Kefira nor any of the other Party members were able to say anything as they witnessed the spectacle.
Eventually, the shape of the contorting cocoon came into view. It was very clearly human-shaped, and after several more long moments, Reivyn appeared once more.
A very naked Reivyn.
Kefira felt a blush creep across her face as she subconsciously reached a hand out to cover Seri¡¯s eyes. Seri didn¡¯t react and let her vision be obstructed.
His body had beenpletely remolded. Born from the very essence and energy of reality itself. It slowly descended from where it had been floating in the air, and it appeared as if he was gently ced on the ground.
His bodyid syed out, his features and hair all restored. There wasn¡¯t a single blemish remaining on his skin. Kefira did a thorough check to make sure.
Heat filled her face as Teilon appeared and covered Reivyn¡¯s body with a cloak. She ced both of her hands on her cheeks in embarrassment.
What was I doing?! She thought. She had beenpletely entranced by the sight. Teilon shot her a nce, but instead of the reproving look she was expecting, he just winked at her with a sly grin. Oh no! Reivyn¡¯s best friend thinks I¡¯m a pervert!
She wanted to bury her head in the pockmarked ground.
Suddenly a System Notification interrupted her thoughts.
Congrattions!
Epic Mode has been Cleared
Teleporting in
3¡
2¡
1¡
Chapter 267: Visions of Elsewhere
Chapter 267: Visions of Elsewhere
He floated in darkness. There was no sensation. No perception. He only vaguely realized he was a person floating about in the nothingness.
There was no thought or contemtion on his predicament. He was simply a disembodied consciousness within a sea of nothing.
Slowly, awareness returned to him.
Grghh¡ was his first articte thought. It mustered every bit of his incredible Mental Stats to flit that concept across his empty mind.
Grghh was soon followed by Aeiuh?
A deep, philosophical question.The lilting at the end of the word was a dead giveaway that it was, in fact, a question. Minds that were barely aware that they were a mind were capable of formting the real questions.
He mentally shook the cobwebs from his mind. There was no physical act, but it was the intent that mattered.
Awareness continued to expand at an exponential rate until¡
Where am I? Reivyn attempted to look left and right. Even though there was no actual physical movement, he could tell that he had actually turned his mental self to nce about his surroundings.True to his suspicions, there was nothing. It waspletely ck.
Well¡ this isn¡¯t good.
Rievyn had been unconscious more often than he would have preferred, but this was the first time he had ever awoken while still in an unconscious state. That was the only conclusion he coulde to.
There was nothing for him to do but contemte. Although he could seemingly turn his head about to look around himself, there was nothing in any direction. He couldn¡¯t feel his body, and there was no sensation of movement if he tried to will himself forward.
How did I get here?
Thest thing he remembered was standing outside the Dungeon portal. He couldn¡¯t remember entering the Dungeon or anything, but he obviously had to have done so, right?
This can¡¯t be the Dungeon¡
Try as hard as he could, he couldn¡¯t remember beyond thest act of intending to enter the Dungeon portal.
An indeterminate amount of time passed before something finally changed. A pinprick of light appeared in the distance and slowly expanded, revealing the world on the other side¡
¡ª
Edric stretchedzily as he yawned in the morning light. The ceiling fan pushed the cool air down on him, causing him to be reluctant to lift the covers off as he awoke from his slumber.
What the¡
¡°Oh, right! Today¡¯s the day!¡± Edric ignored the cold and sprung up from his bed in excitement.
He dashed to the door where the switch was and turned his ceiling fan off before heading to his attached bathroom to get ready for the day. The water from the sink was lukewarm as his teeth were sensitive to the cold. After brushing his teeth, a quick shave ensured his facial skin was smooth and within eptable standards.
¡°I don¡¯t know why we have to have a clean-shaven face, but whatever.¡±
It was one of those holdovers from long ago that stuck even when nobody remembered the reason behind it.
A clean-shaven face is to make sure a gas mask can be properly secured¡ Wait! What? What¡¯s a gas mask? Why do I know that?
The face that peered back at Edric from the mirror was one of a youth not yet fully grown into manhood. He didn¡¯t even technically need to shave every single day to have a clean face, but he was required to anyway.
That¡¯s not me, obviously¡ I seem to be inhabiting the body of some kid named Edric. I share the sensations of his body and some of his surface level thoughts, but he doesn¡¯t seem to be able to hear me. Or if he can, he¡¯s at least not reacting.
Edric dried his face and practically skipped back to his wardrobe. The room that he upied was pretty small, but it wasrge enough to contain everything he needed and still be able to move around a bit. All of the rooms by necessity were small. They had to pack a bunch of people into only a couple of buildings.
Edric retrieved a simple school uniform from his wardrobe and quickly wore it. He checked himself in the mirror to make sure everything was in its proper ce. The uniform consisted of dark gray cks, a light gray button-up, cored shirt, a simple brass belt, and fancier than necessary dress shoes. It was imperative that the brass buckled aligned perfectly with the buttons on his shirt.
Something is off here¡
Edric briefly nced at his shoulders with a bit of pride. Attached to his shirt on either side were ck bands with three gold stripes at the end denoting his position as a leader among the other students. He understood any leadership role he held among the students wouldn¡¯t trante to future leadership positions or ranks, but it would look good on his record.
He exited his dorm room into the hall, fixing his features to appear more stoic than he actually felt, as others dressed just like him were doing the same. His room was at the very front of his floor. He was the one responsible for the floor, and his second¡¯s room was directly across the hall from his.
Each of the other students exiting their rooms had an array of rank designations on their shoulders, most of them just a nk ck band, but there were several with a single golden stripe and a couple with two. There were no other students on his floor with three stripes.
That¡¯s what it is! I couldn¡¯t sense any of them with my Divine Sense before seeing them through Edric¡¯s eyes. My Divine Sense Skill isn¡¯t working. What about the other Skills?
The other students nodded to him as they passed him to head to the stairwell. Edric nodded back with a stoic face hiding his own excitement. He could tell the others were just as excited as he was, but they hid it when they noticed him looking. He didn¡¯t particrly care whether they expressed their emotions or not, personally, but bearing and outward appearances must be kept.
It doesn¡¯t seem like any of my other Skills are working, which makes sense now that I think about it. I¡¯m not in my body right now. Divine Sense seems like it should be attached to my soul or something, but maybe it needs my meridians to act as a conduit to power it.
And speaking of power, I don¡¯t sense any Mana. It doesn¡¯t actually require my Skill to do so, either. I gained the Skill by sensing the Mana first, but I don¡¯t sense even a speck of it. I also haven¡¯t seen anyone using any kind of Skills themselves¡
He joined the others entering the stairwell to join an evenrger stream of students making their way to the first floor. He engaged in small talk with some of his friends and acquaintances, but the conversations were muted and brief.
Everyone filed out of the building and got into formation, Edric finding his spot at the front of one of the lines¡
¡ª
¡°... don¡¯t try to push yourselves,¡± a serious looking man in a neat uniform intoned.
Gah, that was jarring.
One second Reivyn was riding along with Edric on his way to get in formation, the next they were already at their destination. The students were lined up in two rows facing each other as the older man in a distinctly different uniform walked up and down the aisle in the center as he addressed them. Reivyn could see beyond the students across from him and noted there were little booths for each person with a little stool ced in front of what looked like some sort of closed vent. He assumed there was an identical booth behind Edric.
¡°You could suffer serious burns or internal injuries if you don¡¯t pay attention,¡± the older man continued. ¡°This is only your first exposure, and things will get easier over time as you limate to the environment. Holding on longer now than others also isn¡¯t an indicator of talent orpetency, either. There¡¯s been no evidence that anyonesting longer than others in their first exposure has resulted in any increased benefitster on.¡±
¡°We already know all of this¡¡± a boy whispered next to Edric. They were quite far from the older man, and Edric barely heard him, but it was like the man had radar as his head immediately snapped to the student that had whispered.
¡°Of course you all already know all of this, butcency is the number one killer,¡± the man said, staring straight into the eyes of the offending student.
The boy¡¯s body began to tremble under the scrutiny of the older man¡¯s gaze, but their instructor was merciless. He stalked closer as he spoke, driving each word home with his deliberate steps.
¡°Arrogance and impatience have no ce here. If you can¡¯t stand still for five minutes as we reiterate the dangers and give reasons for not taking chances, then maybe you don¡¯t have what it takes to stand here at all. Is that the case?¡±
The older man was standing right in front of the other boy as he finished, towering over the boy. They were all fully grown in height if not in maturity, but this particr instructor always made Edric feel like he was a child again. He was head and shoulders above the tallest student of the group, and that student was head and shoulders taller than Edric.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
¡°Do you mind if I continue?¡± The man asked.
The younger student nched at the question, but he still dutifully replied.
¡°Yes, sir!¡±
¡°Thank you very much. Your little impatient outburst has caused all of us to waste our time.¡± He turned back to walking the aisle. ¡°You¡¯ve all heard me say ¡®slow is smooth, smooth is fast.¡¯ I¡¯ll just have to add that a little patience can also be smooth. Impatience will interfere with your mission.
¡°Impatience will convince you to take risks. Don¡¯t take risks. Not now. Sit in your little seat, ept the baptism for what it is, and move on. This is only the beginning. There is plenty of time to advance to the next stage.
¡°We¡¯re all still pretty new at this, but after several years of experimentation and observation, this is the safest, most consistent approach.¡±
Edric and the others obviously understood what was going on, but Reivyn had no clue. I guess I¡¯m about to find out.
The safety brief was quickly over, and the students turned about to face their booths. Everyone stepped forward and took a seat. The sounds of the room fell away and were muted by the enclosed space. Edric sat on the stool and had to force himself not to bounce in ce. Reivyn just nced around his peripheries to see if he could pick up anything else.
Eventually, loud nking noises came from the closed vent in front of Edric. Slowly, painfully, the vents cracked open, and a burst of air came through. Edric grinned like a maniac as Reivyn observed the gust of air with interest. He could tell that there were bits of Mana floating about within the air.
The vents continued to expand. The Mana suffusing the airing from the other side steadily climbed in density. The air made contact with Edric¡¯s skin, and Reivyn could feel a prickly sensation through the other boy¡¯s senses.
It felt like his skin was being pummeled with microscopic shards of ice. The sensation was quite ufortable, but there was no visible damage to the skin. The sensation began to permeate throughout Edric¡¯s body as he absorbed the Mana through his skin and breathed it in.
The vents were still only open a fraction once the irritating sensations began, and they continued to open wider and wider at a quicker pace. Once the vent was fully open, Reivyn was dumbstruck. The density of Mana awash in the air filtering through was beyond his wildest imaginings. It was thicker and more pure than even what he had observed of the Tier 8 Region surrounding the ind they had been on. Sure, he had never directly experienced the Mana density himself, but he wasn¡¯t blind.
Is this even in the Veridical Realm? Wherever this is, it¡¯s way beyond Tier 8.
¡°Good, everyone seems to be holding on well,¡± the instructor¡¯s voice reached Edric through a small speaker located above his head. ¡°The sensation should be a cold sharp irritant, like having frozen sand blown across your skin.
¡°Eventually, it will heat up and start to burn you. That¡¯s not just a sensation. This is very simr to radiation, and it will literally burn you if you stay in it too long. That¡¯s why we say not to push yourselves.
¡°limating a little bit at a time will remold the very cells in your body without causing anysting harm, but the burns are very real, and very permanent. Once the sensation changes from cold to lukewarm, simply stand up to close the vent and make your way down the hall without stopping. You¡¯ll continue to absorb a bit more ambient energy as you make your way out, but as long as you don¡¯t wait until the sensation heats up, it won¡¯t matter.¡±
So they¡¯re limating to Mana? Does that mean none of these people have any Mana in their bodies? That would also mean they muste from a ce that doesn¡¯t have any Mana. Even the so-called wastnds outside of Tier 1 Regions have remnant Mana, so where are they from?
Reivyn contemted the significance of what he was seeing as the instructor continued to speak to the students through the speakers. He heard the words, but he didn¡¯t pay them any attention as he tried to figure out what was going on.
Suddenly, a simple sentence brought Reivyn¡¯s mind back to the forefront.
¡°... these vents are designed to allow you to experience 5% of the environment on the outside¡¡±
Reivyn¡¯s mind went nk as he gasped.
Everything went wrong as soon as he did.
Somehow, with the momentary loss of concentration, Reivyn¡¯s mind connected more fully with Edric¡¯s, and his gasp echoed through Edric¡¯s body. It didn¡¯t cause Edric to gasp out loud, but it did cause a storm with the Mana-infused air.
A powerful suction force dragged in a huge amount of Mana all at once. Up until this point, the Mana had been scouring Edric¡¯s body and assisting in rebuilding his cells on a microscopic level. Most of the Mana was expelled, though. The sudden increase in Mana-intake plus the deeper connection between Reivyn¡¯s mind and Edric acted like an electrical circuit.
All of Reivyn¡¯s Skills activated. He got a brief nce of the entire surrounding environment with his Divine Sense before everything went ck and pain exploded through his mind. It wasn¡¯t the most painful thing he had ever experienced, though, and he was able to keep his wits about him.
I¡¯m not the one in pain, Reivyn realized. Edric is the one in pain. My Skills activated using his body as a conduit, and this is his first introduction to Mana¡
The realization allowed Reivyn to lessen the connection between himself and Edric once more, and the pain mostly stopped. The darkness didn¡¯t go away, though, and there was still lingering pain all throughout Edric¡¯s body.
He felt hands grab him and the motion of being dragged. He also finally noticed the screaminging from Edric. Edric¡¯s body twitched like he had an electric current running through him, and the screams died down to allow Reivyn to pick up other sounds.
¡°...went wrong? He was perfectly fine just a second ago.¡±
¡°No idea. One moment everything was normal, then I saw him copse and start screaming.¡±
¡°Careful with your grip. His skin is sloughing off.¡±
¡°Ughh, there¡¯s blood everywhere.¡±
¡°Get him up on the gurney and get him strapped in.¡±
Edric¡¯s body was lifted and dropped as those trying to help him lost their grip. Blood was pouring out of his orifices and his skin, and his skin was peeling away. Reivyn couldn¡¯t see it as his Skills had almost immediately shut off, and he could only perceive through Edric¡¯s senses again, but he could feel it.
Disturbing¡
He isted the sensation of pain, but he could still feel the other things happening to Edric¡¯s body. It was strange to say the least.
Edric¡¯s body was eventually lifted, shifted over, and gently ced on what Reivyn assumed was the gurney¡
¡ª
Light practically blinded Reivyn as full sight came back suddenly. Edric was staring at the fluorescent lights above him whileying in an infirmary cot. He was alone in a partitioned off room, but he could hear clear as day a conversation taking ce on the other side of the wall.
¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with him,¡± a new voice to Reivyn said. ¡°In fact, his body has already fully limated to the radiation.¡±
¡°Mysterious Energy,¡± another, deeper voice with an undertone ofmandced through his words corrected. ¡°It¡¯s not radiation.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to get into a semantic argument with me,¡± the first voice said. ¡°We both know what I meant. The word radiation fits, so I¡¯m going to use it.¡±
The other voice just grunted.
¡°Fully limated?¡± Edric whispered to himself. ¡°I barely spent a minute in the 5% chamber.¡±
¡°What about his grievous wounds? My men told me his body was practically a puddle by the time they got him strapped to the gurney.¡±
Oof, the mental image¡
¡°He¡¯s fully recovered. Whatever it was that incited the incident also triggered elerated regeneration. His body was mostly healed by the time he was wheeled into the infirmary.¡±
Sounds like my Regeneration Skill was still active. It kind of makes sense. Divine Sense inherently takes more energy to fuel. It¡¯s technically a Divine Skill. Regeneration is a high-Tier Skill, but it¡¯s not a Divine Skill. It could also have absorbed the Mana fueling any lesser Skills lingering in Edric¡¯s body, too.
¡°That doesn¡¯t make any sense, doc.¡±
It makes perfect sense.
¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you. He was fully healed before you got here, and he¡¯s probably awake by now.¡±
Edric cleared his throat.
¡°I¡¯m awake!¡± He called out loudly.
There was a pregnant pause.
¡°And apparently able to hear our conversation.¡±
The door opened followed by a man in a whiteb coat walking through. He was trailed by arge, muscr man in uniform with all the bells and whistles. Edric¡¯s eyes widened at the sight. Not just because of the gleam reflecting off all the outrements on the man¡¯s uniform. His eyes widened in recognition.
It was the basemander. The general in charge.
¡°How are you feeling, cadet?¡± The doctor asked with a warm smile.
Edric broke his gaze away from themanding officer, barely noticing other high-ranked officers following on his heels, and focused on the doctor.
¡°I feel great!¡± Edric answered. ¡°Better than I ever have before, in fact. I feel like I could run a marathon and not break a sweat.¡±
¡°That¡¯s amon feeling among those who¡¯vepleted their limation,¡± the doctor nodded his head. ¡°It¡¯s not true. Not yet, anyway. You still have a long way to go before you¡¯re that strong, but now that your body has changed on a fundamental level, it¡¯s only a matter of time if you work hard to achieve that level of fitness.¡±
The doctor took readings from the instruments while also taking Edric¡¯s pulse manually as he spoke. He made some annotations before looking up at Edric and the officers now crowding the room.
¡°He¡¯s in perfect health and can be released at any time.¡±
The doctor nodded to Edric and the officers before exiting the room. Themanding general waved the others to the door.
¡°All of you wait outside for a moment.¡±
He waited patiently for the others to acknowledge and follow the orders. Once they were alone, the muscr man turned back to Edric and gave him a bright smile.
¡°You gave me quite the scare there, son,¡± he said.
¡°Sorry, dad,¡± Edric said.
¡°Heh, nothing to apologize for. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. I¡¯m just d you¡¯re safe.
¡°We¡¯ll put you on ¡®bed rest¡¯ for a couple days. It¡¯ll give you a short vacation and me time to confer with the other officers. You did just suffer a traumatic experience. With youing out fully limated, too, you¡¯re now technically eligible for graduation.¡±
¡°I see. That¡¯s why you need to confer with the other officers.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll all agree. We¡¯ll see about getting you assigned to an actual squad for duty¡¡±
¡ª
¡°Reload!¡± A frantic call came from the front, barely cutting through the cacophony of loud explosions ringing out all around.
The stato sounds were familiar to Reivyn, and he immediately recognized them from his Dreams. Machine gun fire was clearly recognizable to him, and he also asionally heard the sounds of artillery and mortars.
From Reivyn¡¯s Dreams, he remembered that protective ear equipment was necessary to prevent permanent damage, but the restructuring of these people¡¯s bodies with Mana allowed them to bare the decibels without fear of damaging their hearing.
Edric ceased instilling Mana into the rounds of ammunition and grabbed an ammo can filled with Mana-infused rounds. He ran to the gunner that had called out and handed the can to the man¡¯s partner.
Edric was in a covered trench behind a row of men using machine guns. Others were using regr rifles, but almost everyone was firing a weapon down range. There were others like Edric who were sitting behind the firing line infusing Mana into their ammunition. When a gunner called out for a reload, they would temporarily cease infusing Mana to run an ammo can to the gunners.
Each station was manned by two men as one rained fire down range as the other supported him. Reivyn sensed the presence of Mana in Edric and the individuals manning the firing line as well as the ambient Mana.
He was no longer sitting in front of a vent letting 5% trickle through. The ambient Mana made Reivyn feel like they were swimming through Mana, though it didn¡¯t actually physically impede them at all.
Edric briefly nced across the firing line to what they were all shooting at. A sea of monsters that he had only seen recordings of were rushing toward their position. While it was the first time Edric was seeing them in person, they were familiar to Reivyn.
Goblins, Orcs, Lizard Men, Ogres, Kobolds, and a myriad of other monster races were mingled together as they ran through the open fields. The quick nce revealed an endless tide. There had to be tens of thousands of monsters out there.
Edric received the belt of ammunition from the gunner before returning to his station. He hadn¡¯t been out of ammo, but the Mana had run dry. Regr ammo without a Mana infusion could still injure and hurt the monsters, but Mana-infused ammo killed.
When there were more than ten thousand enemies rushing your position, you had to make sure each round killed.
Edric and the others like him infusing the rounds with Ammo weren¡¯t skilled enough yet with their Mana maniption to fully utilize the capabilities of Mana-infused ammo and weapons, but force feeding Mana was a quick way to build up experience.
The gunners and their support weren¡¯t just sending the rounds filled with Mana down range. They were using their abilities with the Mana rounds to reap maximum efficiency.
This wasn¡¯t the first battle Edric had participated in, and it was far from thest. This world was crawling with monsters, and they did not appreciate the intrusion. A mass of monsters hurtling themselves at their base was a weekly urrence for as long as Edric had been there, and it never seemed to dwindle their numbers.
Edric returned to infusing Mana into the ammo belts confident in his fellow soldiers to beat the monster tide back.
All of a sudden, Reivyn felt a pulling force drag him from Edric¡¯s mind, and the sights and sounds blurred together in a kaleidoscope as he was forcefully dragged away.
Everything went ck once again¡
Chapter 268: Dragon Slayer
Chapter 268: Dragon yer
Kefira watched the rise and fall of Reivyn¡¯s chest as she sat next to him, holding his hand. He had been unconscious for several days after their Party had been forcibly expelled from the Dungeon after he had killed the Dragon.
None of them understood why they had been automatically teleported out of the Dungeon at first. They had all witnessed the domination of Reivyn over the Dragon. It had been apletely different experience than was typically seen when the Hero of the scenario wasn¡¯t a person. Everyone had expected Reivyn to struggle against the Dragon, notpletely decimate it.
There had been no indication from their end that there was anything wrong.
As soon as they were all teleported out of the Dungeon, though, it was immediately apparent that something was terribly wrong. Reivyn was teleported with the rest of them, but he was unresponsive, lying on the ground.
Kefira and the rest of the Party were preupied attempting to wake Reivyn and figure out what was wrong, so they weren¡¯t aware of the mayhem that had epassed the rest of the military surrounding the Dungeon. It wasn¡¯t until they decided to transport Reivyn away from the Dungeon that they looked up and realized their experience wasn¡¯t the only anomaly.
Every single other Party that had been inside the Dungeon when they had defeated the Dragon had simultaneously been expelled. The Dungeon portal had shifted from a weing bluish glow to an angry red, and nobody could enter. Everyone who approached the Dungeon simply walked through the portal as if it wasn¡¯t there.
They had rushed Reivyn to the Imperial Pce and summoned the Imperial Physician. The wisened man had conducted all sorts of diagnostic procedures to try and figure out what the issue was, including ss Skills that defied mundane procedures that non-ssers were relegated to. No matter what procedure the physician performed, though, everything came back that Reivyn was perfectly fine.
They couldn¡¯t figure out what was wrong with him, and they couldn¡¯t wake him. They had moved him to his parents¡¯ house on the grounds and put him in his bed forfort. There was nothing they could do but wait, and that¡¯s what they did.
Kefira hardly left his side while he was bedridden, which obviously meant Seri was nearby as well. Ameliyn was distraught, understandably, but she wasn¡¯t one to panic. She also had the prior experience of losing her son for years, and the fact that he was right there in her house did a lot to assuage her fears. Refix was a frequent visitor, but he made a point to continue training each morning and dragged Kefira and Seri along with him. The twins had decorated Reivyn¡¯s bed with their unique style of art that supplied enhanced rest and healing for anyone sleeping in the bed, but there were no obvious improvements.A slight pressure in Kefira¡¯s hand brought her out of her musings and she immediately perked up and looked to Reivyn. Seri noticed the movement from her spot sitting in the corner and approached to stand behind her.
¡°Reivyn?¡± Kefira asked, squeezing her own hand.
Reivyn¡¯s hand squeezed a bit harder in response. Kefira¡¯s heartbeat increased as hope filled her. She shared a nce with Seri, her eyes wide with expectation. Seri nodded and left the room to get Ameliyn and the other members of Reivyn¡¯s family.
Reivyn shifted and sighed. His eyes fluttered before slowly opening. He stared at the ceiling for a moment before frowning.
¡°Huh. That¡¯s weird,¡± he said.
¡°What¡¯s weird?¡± Kefira asked. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?!¡±
¡°Oh, there it is,¡± Reivyn replied.
¡°What?! Where¡¯s what?!¡± Kefira was on the verge of panicking. What was wrong with Reivyn?
He looked over and saw the worry on Kefira¡¯s face. He smiled before answering.
¡°Oh, sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to worry you,¡± he said. ¡°It was just that my Divine Sense was missing when I woke up, but after concentrating on the Skill it came back. It appears I¡¯m now able to turn it on and off at will, something that would have been useful when I first acquired the Skill.¡±
¡°Whew, that¡¯s all?¡± Kefira deted as her body rxed. She hadn¡¯t even realized how tense she had been. ¡°Nothing else? How are you feeling?¡±
¡°I feel great,¡± Reivyn answered. He looked around with a bit of confusion. ¡°But, ugh, I¡¯m guessing something¡¯s up? How did we get here?¡±
¡°You¡¯ve been unconscious for five days, ever since you killed the Dragon and we got kicked out of the Dungeon.¡±
¡°Woah! Back up. Dragon?! You said I killed a Dragon?!¡±
¡°You don¡¯t remember?¡±
¡°Last thing I remember is looking at the portal to the Dungeon with the intention of stepping through. Then I had some crazy vision. Now I¡¯m here.¡±
At that moment, the door burst open and Ameliyn rushed inside. She didn¡¯t hesitate and immediately ran over and grasped Reivyn in a hug. Kefira wisely leaned away to let Reivyn¡¯s mother have ess to her baby boy.
Refix and the twins followed behind. Refix hung back for a moment as Kailey and Riley maneuvered around him tounch their own hug-dive from the other side of the bed.
¡°You have no idea how worried we were,¡± Ameliyn said, backing up from her tight hug.
¡°I¡¯m sure I don¡¯t,¡± Reivyn chuckled. ¡°I didn¡¯t even realize there was an issue until just now.¡±
Reivyn stretched and tossed the covers to the side. He was fully dressed in his normal clothing, the armor he wore to the Dungeon safely stored away with his other gear in his room. He nced down at his clean clothes and back up at Kefira.
¡°By the way, who changed and bathed me? I noticed I¡¯m not exactly dressed for Dungeon Delving, here.¡±
Kefira looked away. She could feel her face turning red.
¡°Get your mind out of the gutter, boy,¡± Refix cut in. ¡°I took care of that.¡±
He doesn¡¯t need to know I¡¯m the one who first brought it up and that his father needed to step in before I put my foot in my mouth in front of his mother, Kefira thought. Reivyn seemed to read her mind, or at least pick up on her mood, as he gave her a knowing look with a slight smirk. She could feel the heat in her face deepen. She was sure her face was turning scarlet.
¡°Anyway,¡± Reivyn said, swinging his feet over the side to stand up, ¡°I believe Kefira said something about a Dragon? Care to fill me in on what I¡¯ve missed?¡±
¡ª
It was a fascinating story. Reivyn had absolutely no recollection of any of the events told to him by Kefira and Refix, but he had a vivid imagination. After waking up, Reivyn had been famished. The whole family had decided to simply have an early dinner as they exined things to Reivyn.
He had spent time just talking with his family and Kefira after the meal. He could tell they were still a bit worried about him, but even he couldn¡¯t find anything wrong with his condition. Eventually, the night came and he excused himself. He promised Kefira he would see her first thing in the morning for their daily training session with Refix.
Now I can finally check out these incessant System Notifications, he thought. That blinking light has been calling to me ever since I woke up, but there hasn¡¯t been an appropriate time to check until now. It¡¯s not like I could have said, ¡°I know you¡¯re all worried for me, but I really just have to chase you away for now so I can read some Notifications.¡± I¡¯m sure that would have gone over well with mother.
Reivyn willed the Notifications to his focus. Divine Mana detected.
Compatible ss detected.
Divine Spark detected.
Divine Skills detected.
Divine Mana redirected.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.Divine Sense fully activated.
Perfect Domain fully activated. WARNING! WARNING!
System has detected Mortal Body channeling Divine Mana without a proper ss buffer.
WARNING! WARNING!
System has detected a Mortal Mind channeling Divine Mana without a proper ss buffer. WARNING! WARNING!
Information overload has destroyed the Mortal Mind.
Calcting¡
Responsibility deemed to be held by the System.
Searching for a solution.
Protocols are in ce.
Soul strength is eptable.
Mind has been protected and retained up until entry of current Subspace.
All other information has been wiped clean and repaired. WARNING! WARNING!
Mortal Body is breaking down on a fundamental level.
Meridians have been totally destroyed.
Leftover Divine Mana will destroy the Mortal Body totally within seven seconds.
Calcting¡
Responsibility deemed to be held by the System.
Searching for a solution.
Protocols are in ce.
The Divine Spark is used as an anchor.
Soul strength is eptable.
The Mortal Body shall be reformed with the aid of the Divine Mana and Divine Spark.
Divine Meridians have been regrown.
Insufficient Divine Mana to reform a Divine Body.
Searching for a solution.
Protocols are in ce.
Mortal Body will be reformed with minor reinforcement.
Leftover Divine Mana absorbed into Divine Spark.
Helpful Hint: Minor reinforcement with Divine Mana only protects the Mortal Body from being destroyed by uncontrolled internal Divine Mana. It does note with any Stat bonuses. Achievement!
Divine Spark has been upgraded to Divine Kernel.
Helpful Hint: Divine Kernel grants +3 Free Stat Points per Level. It is retroactive. Achievement!
Divine Meridians have been formed.
Can now safely channel Divine Mana. Divine Skill Divine Sense has been fully activated for the first time.
Minor Mastery has been achieved.
Minor Ability has been granted.
Can now turn on/off Skill at will. Divine Skill Perfect Domain has been fully activated for the first time.
Minor Mastery has been achieved.
Minor Ability has been granted.
Active actions now possible while incapacitated in addition to minor automatic reflexes. Achievement!
World Boss Defeated!
Title Granted: Dragon yer
Error.
Dungeon Entities do not count.
Title Revoked: Dragon yer
Error.
Spark of Providence detected.
Searching for a solution.
Protocols are in ce.
Title Granted: Dragon Fighter Achievement!
Attained a System recognized Title!
All Stats +50 Epic Feat!
Attained a System recognized Title before reaching Tier 6!
All Stats +50
Title: Dragon Fighter!
Sense the presence of any True Dragons within range.
Inherently understand the fighting style and weakness of any True Dragon engaged inbat. System Alert!
Divine Mana and Spark of Providence from the Subspace have been absorbed.
Dungeon is shutting down to recover.
Recovery period: 765:23:59:59.00
Source of Divine Mana not detected.
Scenario will be adjusted topensate.
All entities within this Subspace and all of its instances shall be expelled. System Alert!
Spark of Providence has initiated a vision. Divine Feat!
You have directly stretched across Time and affected the Distant Past.
Source of Divine Mana not detected.
Divine Reward temporarily withheld.
Helpful Hint: You might think this is a paradox, but the events of the past always had your interference. You just hadn¡¯t done it, yet. New Affinity Unlocked!
Tier 4
Ancient (1)
Reivyn sat stunned for a long while after reading through the Notifications.
That¡ is a lot of Notifications, he thought. That would exin why I can¡¯t remember anything about the Dungeon. Apparently activating a Divine Skill without a Divine Body or Mind is not a good idea. I¡¯m guessing the proper ss buffer would be a Divine ss granted by a Divine Being.
Reivyn didn¡¯t fully understand what the System meant about not detecting a source of Divine Mana. It made sense that the Mortal Realms wouldn¡¯t have Divine Mana like the Divine Realm, but the wording of the System hinted that there should be a source of Divine Mana even in the Mortal Realm.
A memory of the Realm seen from outside with a broken golden cord shed through Reivyn¡¯s mind.
Maybe I¡¯ll figure it out one day, but that¡¯s for the future. It¡¯s not that big of a deal to try and solve the mystery right now. I¡¯m nowhere strong enough for it to be a priority any time soon.
I can let Kefira and the others know about the reason for the Dungeon shutting down, too, and the timer of 765 days. It¡¯s going to take nearly a year and a half for the Dungeon to recover from whatever it is that actually happened in there with me. Whoops. At least I didn¡¯t disable the Dungeon permanently.
Reivynid down to rest for the evening after getting over his shock. He switched his Divine Sense Skill off. The world around him went metaphorically silent.
Ahh, peace, he thought. This will make falling asleep so much easier now.
He closed his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep. Despite having been unconscious for most of a week, his mind was still tired, and sleep came easily.
¡ª
The Masked Man strode through the doors into the inner sanctum. The man he was searching for was calmly seated as he channeled the energy of a crystal. A pile of unused gems sat next to him on one side and the dust of shattered crystals was swept into another pile on his other side.
The Masked Man made it a habit of routinely observing the borate Tapestry of Fate that was being woven with the Threads he manipted. For some time now, the most important Thread to his grand scheme had been shifting about erratically. ns had to be altered, and thus he had to seek out an old acquaintance.
I still can¡¯t figure out what that kid is up to, he thought. There was an introduction to several unexpected, unounted for Threads that have fundamentally altered his trajectory. For the most part, nothing has changed in the grand scheme of things, but there are certain eventualities that must be prevented at all cost.
The Masked Man¡¯s entrance to the inner sanctum didn¡¯t go unnoticed. The seated man¡¯s eyes opened, and a look of annoyance shed across his features before he recognized the Masked Man.
¡°Benefactor!¡± Tenrik eximed. His look of annoyance was quickly reced with happiness.
¡°No need to get up,¡± The Masked Man waved his hand as Tenrik made to stand up upon his entrance. ¡°I see that you¡¯re making good progress on expelling the foreign Mana.¡±
¡°Yes, Benefactor,¡± Tenrik slightly bowed his head. ¡°The Abyssal Mana you granted me helped me achieve my ambitions in my early years, but it is now nothing more than an anchor around my neck. If I ever hope to Ascend, I need to remove the Mana without harming my foundation. I owe you once more for imparting the technique to me.¡±
¡°Think nothing of it,¡± The Masked Man once again waved his hand in dismissal. ¡°Though, speaking of expelling the Abyssal Mana from your system, I have news. It¡¯s not necessarily bad, but you will have to put a hold on your efforts temporarily.¡±
¡°Oh? Do you require something of me?¡±
¡°Just so,¡± The Masked Man nodded. ¡°One of my¡ proteges, has gone above and beyond what I had nned for him. He has managed to ess certain Powers ahead of schedule, and that has prevented me from shielding his presence from creatures that would devour him and take all that he has umted for themselves.
¡°Even as we speak, one of these creatures is making its way from the center of the continent toward him. I need you to contact some of the Sects you¡¯re on friendly terms with and intercept this creature. You don¡¯t have to kill it, but you do have to at least dy it or drive it back to its nest.¡±
Tenrik frowned at the information.
¡°You say I need to team up with more than one Cultivator, and even with their assistance, we don¡¯t need to kill it? Give it to me straight. How strong is this creature?¡±
The Masked Man stood silent for several seconds.
¡°Tier 8,¡± he answered.
Tenrik inhaled sharply. He was powerful, powerful enough to be on par with the old monsters of the local Sects, but even he wouldn¡¯t casually interfere with a Tier 8 monster.
¡°Like I said, you only have to dy it or drive it back,¡± The Masked Man said. ¡°ording to my calctions, as long as you don¡¯t put the creature into mortal fear of its life, this endeavor should be perfectly safe. You might not gain anything out of it, directly, but it is necessary.¡±
¡°Consider it done,¡± Tenrik easily replied. ¡°By the way, in all the years I¡¯ve known you and all the times we¡¯ve interacted, this is the first time you¡¯ve ever mentioned another one of your beneficiaries to me. Who is this person, and what¡¯s so special about them?¡±
The Masked Man smirked behind his mask. Tenrik couldn¡¯t see it, but he could hear the amusement in the other man¡¯s voice.
¡°If you really want to know, just ask your daughter,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s with him, in a manner of speaking, right now.¡±
Chapter 269: A Leisurely Day
Chapter 269: A Leisurely Day
Reivyn got a good night¡¯s sleep. Even though he had apparently been in aa for nearly a week, his body was still hale and hearty. His mind was taxed from the vision and stress it had been through, though he had no recollection of the events that caused his mind to break, necessitating the System to step in and fix it directly.
He had never seen a situation where the System took direct action other than the very few times it had run into apparently novel situations. Like the time he had been separated from the Veridical Realm¡¯s System, implying each Realm had their own governing System, but thenguage of the Notifications indicated there were protocols in ce this time around.
More and more evidence showed that the System wasn¡¯t some passive thing. It appeared to actively monitor situations and had directives it followed. It could manipte the Veridical Affinity, and possibly other Affinities as well. The Veridical Affinity seemed to be the bedrock upon which all other types of Mana sat, at least within the Veridical Realm.
Reivyn woke up refreshed and ready to go. He turned his Divine Sense Skill on as soon as he got up. I¡¯ll have to get used to taking a more active role in its utilization. Until now it¡¯s beenpletely passive.
He ¡°saw¡± his father already awake and preparing a simple breakfast. His mother and sisters were still asleep as the sun had not fully crested the horizon. There was no reason to wake them. They weren¡¯t part of the physical training he and Refix partook in everyday.
He made his way downstairs where Refix silently slid a te of breakfast toward him, nodding for him to eat.
¡°It¡¯s good to see you ready to get back into the swing of things,¡± Refix said.
¡°What else would I do?¡± Reivyn asked back. ¡°Sleep? Hah! To me it hasn¡¯t been several days without training, so it¡¯s just a normal morning to me, anyway.¡±
¡°Makes sense,¡± Refix nodded his head as he ate.They quickly finished their breakfast and exited the house. Just like every other morning, they made their way to Kefira¡¯s courtyard. Kefira, Seri, and her staff were already waiting outside for their arrival.
Reivyn prepared to start immediately, briefly inspecting everyone passively with his Skill. He paused, though, and frowned to himself as he took in Kefira¡¯s appearance.
She must be more tired and out of it than I suspected, he thought. I¡¯ve never seen her with bags under eyes before. I¡¯ll make sure things are settled with the mercenaries for a while and spend some more quality time with her for a while.
Kefira acted the same as she always did, but there were little hints of exhaustion hidden in in sight. Reivyn didn¡¯t think anyone else noticed the bags under her eyes, but his Divine Sense Skill was powerful enough to pick up any discrepancy, no matter how small. She seemed to have a shadow over her face to Reivyn¡¯s senses, but nobody else mentioned anything, not even Refix.
The morning training went the same as any other that Reivyn could remember, and none of the others participating said anything about his recent absences. It was true that he didn¡¯t particrly interact with Kefira¡¯s staff, but they didn¡¯t even gossip about him amongst themselves. That didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t at all, but he would have expected something at his appearance. Maybe they had already got all the gossip they had in them out already, Reivyn snorted.
After working up a sweat and exhausting their bodies thoroughly, everyone cleaned up the practice yard. They never left the task to the staff whose job it technically was, but they made sure to care for their own things as much as possible. It was just good sense as well as polite. The others were just as tired, if not moreso, considering Reivyn and Refix had been doing this to their bodies for years.
¡°Do you want to go with me to the mercenarypound today?¡± Reivyn asked Kefira as he carried some training weapons back to the rack.
Kefira gave him a mildly surprised look.
¡°Sure, that¡¯s fine,¡± she replied.
¡°Why so surprised?¡± Reivyn queried.
¡°You¡¯ve just never asked me to go before,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I assume because it¡¯ll be immensely boring for me without having something in particr to do.¡±
¡°Yeah, basically. I just figured you would want to spend some time with me, while I¡¯m awake, that is. I get the impression that the past several days have been hard on you.¡±
¡°Not particrly,¡± Kefira said. ¡° At least after knowing you were fine and just needed some time to recover. I won¡¯t deny that spending time with you while you¡¯re awake is much better than sitting next to a silent bedside, though.¡±
Reivyn frowned at the answer. He didn¡¯t get the sense that she was trying to spare his feelings. She really felt that way.
Strange. Then is her condition from some other reason?
¡°Do you have something on your mind?¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°How are the preparations for the weddinging along? Not too stressful, I hope.¡±
¡°Hah, as if I have anything to say about that!¡± Kefira chuckled. ¡°Everything is being handled by our mothers, which is just fine with me, actually. I was never too into the whole nning and anticipating balls and other state affairs. Not like my mother or older sisters, anyway.¡±
¡°Hmm, what about your experiments with Space Mana? Are you hitting any roadblocks or other troubles?¡±
¡°Not really, no,¡± Kefira shook her head. She turned and fixed Reivyn with a level look. ¡°What¡¯s all this about? You seem to think there¡¯s something wrong somewhere.¡±
¡°You seem¡ tired,¡± Reivyn relented. ¡°You have bags under your eyes, and I¡¯ve never seen you like that before.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Kefira was genuinely surprised. ¡°I hadn¡¯t noticed. Then again if anyone did notice, it would be you. I can¡¯t think of anything out of the ordinary off the top of my head. I feel fine. It must just be the umtion of stress I felt earlier, and now I¡¯m finally able to rx.¡±
¡°Probably. That makes as much sense as anything else. Either way, I still wanted to spend more time with you. Ever since we got back from Vairo, things have been going so quickly. One thing after another has prevented us from spending as much time together as we would have liked.¡±
¡°True, but running the Dungeon together would have been a good first step in getting back to how things used to be. Maybe we can go on a short ¡®adventure¡¯ within the Region. We could tour some of the other cities and Dungeons. There are other ces we could sightsee like the Dagger Mountain, too.¡±
¡°Sounds good to me. We can keep in easy contact with everyone here, and if a messagees through the teleport portal requesting aid, we shouldn¡¯t be too far away that we couldn¡¯t get here in time to answer the call. I was thinking of sending Jekle or one of the other Captains by themselves for the next deployment, anyway.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t want to go yourself?¡± Kefira quirked an eyebrow at him.
¡°We¡¯ve expanded the ranks of the mercenarypany for this very reason,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°One has to trust their officers, and Jekle¡¯s been with me the longest. If any of the Captains can lead the soldiers sessfully, it¡¯ll be him. I¡¯ve taught him everything I know, and he¡¯s a natural leader.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition.
¡°My vision for the mercenarypany is to have multiple deployments at once with reserve units avable to reinforce or rece, just like the regr army. I don¡¯t see why we couldn¡¯t make it work, even with a higher rotation rate of active members than the imperial army.¡±
¡°Ambitious of you. Howrge do you want to expand the mercenarypany?¡±
¡°We probably don¡¯t need to expand much beyond what we already have. Honestly, most of those that join will only stick around for one or two deployments. They¡¯re not joining to make a career of it, but to expand their ss choices going forward. There are still a lot of people willing and wanting to join. It wouldn¡¯t be realistic to take them all in as quickly as possible, and even if we could, it would only stifle us in the long run. It makes much more sense to keep thepany around the size it is now with the ability to quickly let people in and out.¡±
The cleaning of the practice yard ended. Kefira gave Reivyn a quick side-hug before shooing him away.
¡°I love you, but we¡¯re all sweaty and gross,¡± Kefira said, wrinkling her nose. ¡°Go get cleaned up and I¡¯ll meet you at the front of the pce in a few to head over to the mercenary barracks.¡±
Reivyn snatched his other hand around Kefira and brought her in for a full-body hug before she could get away. She gave a little shriek of indignation.
¡°Are you sure? I¡¯m perfectly fine with the way we are right now,¡± Reivyn said, grinning.
¡°Aah! Let me go, you big lunk!¡± Kefira yfully swatted at his shoulders with her fists.
Reivynughed before lettering her go. She stepped back, blowing hair out of her face where Reivyn had messed it up. She gave him an irritated re before looking down at her now much sweatier clothes.
¡°Eww,¡± is all she said before turning about and stalking off toward her house.
Reivyn justughed again as he joined his father waiting near the entrance to the courtyard.
¡°Careful, son,¡± Refix smirked, a twinkle in his eye. ¡°Girls like to be all clean and proper. Kefira strikes me as one who¡¯ll get back at you for your little stunt. Keep an eye out.¡±
¡°Sure, sure. Even if she does, it¡¯ll be in good fun,¡± Reivyn shrugged.
¡ª
¡°I know you have some actual work to do, so don¡¯t mind me,¡± Kefira said, dragging one of the chairs in Reivyn¡¯s office to the corner before plopping down in it. She gestured for Seri to grab the other chair, and her friend smirked and quickly followed suit.
Reivyn looked back and forth between the two girls and the now empty area in front of his desk. He shook his head with a smile before raising his voice.
¡°Sergeant, grab an extra chair and bring it to my office,¡± he called out.
There was a sergeant manning a desk out front near the stairs. Their main duty was to filter out people who didn¡¯t really need to take up Reivyn¡¯s time. It could have been done by someone of a lesser rank, but sometimes sensitive information passed through the desk, so they wanted at least someone with some experience and trust with the officers, hence, a sergeant.
¡°Right away, sir,¡± the call came back.
Kefira simply giggled before leaning forward to whisper with Seri. Reivyn turned his Divine Sense Skill off. He could still hear them with his high Stats, but it wasn¡¯t as dominant in his mind with the Skill turned off. He had gotten a lot better at filtering what took up his attention with his Divine Sense, but there was still a modicum of peace from turning it off.
I should turn it on and off asionally when I¡¯m not using it, just in case, Reivyn thought. I highly doubt anything unusual will catch my attention in my own office, but it¡¯s good to get into the habit of it. If I don¡¯t make a habit of it and find myself in a temporary office in a base on the frontlines, I might getcent and miss something crucial.
He made a mental note to flicker his Skill asionally. With that determination made, he picked up the stack of paperwork needing his attention.
There wasn¡¯t nearly as much work built up as he had assumed. It seemed like his captains were doing a good job of only holding onto the really important decisions, or ones they simply had no idea what his ns were for, and taking care of the rest.
That just further bolsters my idea to send the captains out on their own next time, Reivyn nodded to himself. Speaking of¡
The sergeant knocked on the open door before entering with the extra chair he had snagged from somewhere else in the building. Reivyn waited for him to set it down in front of his desk before addressing the NCO.
¡°Sergeant, send word to the captains to meet me in my office as soon as possible,¡± he ordered.
¡°Yes, sir,¡± the sergeant replied. He performed a brisk about-face and left to attend to the new duty.
The other captains all had offices in the same building, so it didn¡¯t take long for them to arrive. There weren¡¯t enough seats for all the captains, but there wouldn¡¯t have been even if Kefira and Seri hadn¡¯t imed two of their own prompting Reivyn to acquire a third. The other captains deferred to Jekle for him to take the lone seat avable, but he shook his head and stood with the other captains, leaving the lone chair empty.
¡°I won¡¯t take up much of your time,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking, and from what I¡¯ve seen here,¡± he gestured to the small stack of papers, ¡°and the performance of the men and yourselves, I¡¯ve decided to give each of you a chance atmand for the next deployments.¡±
Reivyn looked each of his officers in the eyes and noticed a spark of interest. Good, they¡¯re eager. If one or more of them had been hesitant over that promation, I would probably see about recing them soon.
Reivyn nodded his head before continuing.
¡°That is, of course, if the next terms don¡¯t require our entire contingent. As long as the next time someone seeks assistance from us it¡¯s under the same terms of sending apany, it¡¯ll be one of you.
¡°Now you all know I¡¯ve been with Jekle as my right-hand man from the beginning. Heck, if you want to count the forming of this mercenarypany as the beginning, then he¡¯s been my right-hand since before the beginning. I have every trust and confidence in his abilities.¡±
He gave Jekle a stern look before continuing.
¡°That being said, I won¡¯t y favorites. Each of you now has the task of formting a training schedule for yourpanies. On top of that, I want you each to prepare multiple strategies for different terrains and environments. This will be a good exercise for your lieutenants, as well, so get them on board, too.
¡°The selection of the captain receiving the firstmand will be based on the performance of your men in a mock campaign as well as how prepared you all each are individually asmanders to assumemand.
¡°I haven¡¯t determined the specifics of the mock campaigns, but assume it¡¯ll be at least a week in the field. First ce will obviously getmand. Second ce will be thepany in reserve in case of needing reinforcements. The reservepany will also be in-line for deployment if a new assignmentes while the firstpany is still deployed. If that happens, third ce will move up to the reserve positions, so on and so forth.
¡°Any questions?¡±
The other captains maintained their bearing in front of Reivyn and didn¡¯t look around at each other.
¡°No, sir,¡± they each responded.
¡°Good. I¡¯ll work on setting up the specifics for the mock campaign. I¡¯ll give you the general information, but expect some surprises. You can¡¯t always expect to have all the information up front when heading into conflict, so that¡¯ll be part of the evaluation.
¡°Dismissed.¡±
¡°Yes, sir,¡± the captains each performed an about-face and marched out of the office.
Reivyn quickly went through the rest of the paperwork on his desk. Most of it had to do with finalizing things on the battalion level that his captains simply weren¡¯t authorized to sign-off on. Reivyn wouldn¡¯t have minded one of them stepping up, but now that the officers were members of the regr imperial army, they had to follow their rules for certain things.
Now that I think about it, I¡¯ll simply file the paperwork through Kayzor to appoint Jekle as the XO and have him act inmand if I¡¯m ever incapacitated again. I had simply never even considered the possibility of losing consciousness for an extended period of time and hadn¡¯t made ample preparation for such an eventuality. Bad on my part.
Reivyn finished signing the paperwork and neatly stacked it on his desk where it could be picked up and delivered to the relevant recipients. He turned to Kefira and Seri who were still whispering together in the corner.
¡°Well, that was pretty painless,¡± Reivyn said to them. ¡°Much faster than I thought it would take, honestly.¡± I didn¡¯t even have time to flicker my Divine Sense Skill.
He went ahead and activated it once more.
¡°Done already?¡± Kefira asked, sitting up straight to look at him.
¡°Yup, and the captains now have something to keep themselves busy for the next week or so. I¡¯ll have to do my part, but I think I can knock it out pretty quick.
¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±
Kefira smiled as she stood up. Seri followed taking her ce just behind Kefira as the trio made their way out of the office. The sergeant at the front desk made to stand, but Reivyn waved him back into his seat.
¡°That¡¯ll be all for today, sergeant,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°Excellent work for everyone the past couple of days while I¡¯ve been absent. Unless something is urgent, just ce it on my desk like you¡¯ve been doing. If it is urgent, contact General Kayzor and have him make a judgment or send a runner to the Imperial Pce if he¡¯s out of pocket.¡±
¡°Yes, sir,¡± the sergeant affirmed.
With that taken care of, Reivyn reached out and took Kefira¡¯s hand. The trio left the barracks and walked back to the city to take a leisurely stroll for the rest of the morning. Reivyn was determined to spend the whole day with Kefira, and so they did just that. It was a rxing time, and Reivyn hoped it would alleviate some of the stress that had built up in Kefira over the past several days.
Chapter 270: Sudden Shift
Chapter 270: Sudden Shift
Reivyn was particrly pleased with himself. He knew that he hade up with something special and was in a good mood over it all week. Kefira knew all about his ns and she couldn¡¯t help but giggle to herself whenever she thought about it as well, and Kayzor was happy with the entire arrangement as well. The mercenary captains noticed the lift in Reivyn¡¯s mood, and know what wasing, they were actually sweating and bearing down double on their assignments. They had all witnessed the crazy lengths he and Refix routinely went to train, and they could only imagine what he had in store for them.
He had promised to give his captains a bit of a surprise during their evaluations, and he had done so in spades.
The real issue here was that Reivyn wasn¡¯ting up with a training n for them. He had left that to his officers. He noted that his own buoyed mood had an effect on the officers, though, and he made a mental note to make use of it in the future. The training ns devised by the captains hadn¡¯t even been submitted, yet, and he could already see a marked improvement in the way thepanies conducted their exercises.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t giddy with a training n that he hade up with, and it wasn¡¯t even the surprises in the field he hade up with that put him in a good mood. That was a part of it, for sure, but he was really pleased with something else.
Reivyn had teamed up with Kayzor and used Kefira¡¯s connections in the Magic Academy to create the scenario. Reivyn and Kayzor had gone over the maps of the Wispan Region and selected a location with varied terrain over a week¡¯s March away from the capital.
The Magic Academy students, and some of the instructors, would arrive at the location ahead of time and use their magic to slightly alter some of the terrain and environments to simte different biomes. The captains were going to have to deal with scorching deserts, lush jungles, steep cliffs, and freezing tundras all in the same week.
That wasn¡¯t even the end of it. That was just the basics of the assignment he had given the captains.
Another surprise he had in store for his captains was that they weren¡¯t going to be the only military units out there. Kayzor had selected fourpanies from the regr Imperial Army to participate as well, and they were going to March into thebat zone from different directions and times.
Reivyn¡¯s mercenary captains were going to be surprised to find considerably more hostile troops stomping around thebat zone than they expected.None of the captains among the mercenaries or Imperial Armypanies were aligned with each other. It was going to be one massive free-for-all, but that didn¡¯t exclude diplomatic means. Reivyn wasn¡¯t going to mention it, but he was interested to see if anyone extended any kind of overtures for temporary alliances or cease fires in order to tackle certain threats or aplish certain goals.
And again that wasn¡¯t even the end of it. There was one final piece of the puzzle that put everything together to make Reivyn really happy with the entire situation.
Reivyn and Kayzor, despite being in charge of the entire thing, weren¡¯t going to do any of the evaluations. They weren¡¯t going to oversee the mock campaign in any way.
The captains themselves were going to grade each other.
Other thaning up with the overall n, Reivyn had created a system that was almostpletely autonomous from the overallmanders. Having such a system in ce would also allow for the mercenaries to conduct their training exercises when he and other higher-ranked officers weren¡¯t present. It was replicable on all levels.
Reivyn had quicklye up with the scenario for his captains to deal with. It hadn¡¯t taken nearly the entire week to devise it. He had spent much of his timeing up with additional scenarios for the future, another way to make the exercise more autonomous. If they already had dozens of scenarios ready for the captains to tackle, there would be no need for micromanagement from Reivyn or other higher-ranked officers. He also intended for his captains to adapt the exercise for their lieutenants and the lieutenants to do the same for the squad leaders.
Maybe I¡¯ll even suggest a simr exercise to themanding general of the entire Imperial Army that the other battalionmanders and I could participate in, Reivyn thought. That would be a sight to see. We would definitely need to hire additional Mages to assist with the Magic Academy students for such arge mobilization.
Other thaning up with the system for training for the mercenaries, Reivyn continued his own individual training every day. His Skills¡¯ improvement had slowed down considerably from static training, but one couldn¡¯t expect to always be in life or death situations to spur the growth of Skills.
Reivyn understood that his Skill growth from regr training itself had been an anomaly. He hadn¡¯t heard of anyone else being able to increase their Skills to the same Levels he had been able to in the same amount of time. He tried not to let the slower Level gains get to him, but it was difficult. He was used to his gainsing rtively quickly and routinely. Just because it was normal for everyone else to spend decades to get to where he was with many of his Skills didn¡¯t mean it was easy to ept the slower pace after spending his entire life with fast gains.
It wasn¡¯t a problem he would be able to solve. It was a reality of life that existed for everyone, but he had been lucky to have a much higher ceiling for his Skills before seeing a noticeable dip in improvement rate. Reivyn understood that he would need to use his Skills in real-life situations to see rapid advancement again, but that was no reason to ck off. The routine of physical exercise and training also kept him grounded and rxed overall.
It might seem counterintuitive that harsh physical exercise was rxing, but the physical exhaustion helped in more ways than one. The most significant help Reivyn realized over time came with alleviating the symptoms from infusing his body with the various Affinities. After an evening session, Reivyn¡¯s body always felt drained and full at the same time. It was like his cells were devoid of energy, yet they were simultaneously about to burst.
They physical exercise eliminated the phantom tiredness in his cells. He wasn¡¯t actually physically tired, but his body felt that way, anyway. It was a chore to get going in the morning, but he was used to training while already tired, so it just took a slight mental effort. Once he got his body going, though, the sensation quickly disappeared.
The next aspect, feeling ready to burst, slowly faded away during the physical exercises. It was like his body was taking the fullness and using it as fuel, though he knew that wasn¡¯t an urate description of what was actually happening. It was all in his mind, but the sensations were very real regardless.
At the end of his training sessions, it meant his body was actually exhausted and the feelings of fullness umted the previous evening were gone. His body was able to rest and recover to peak condition, and all of his difort was just a memory.
The repeated cycle of straining and refreshing his body while continuing to participate in a routine exercise helped keep his mind calm and clear.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
There was just one thing that continued to be a source of strain on his mind, though. Kefira¡¯s symptoms weren¡¯t going away. She looked tired all the time on the outside despite protests of feelingpletely fine.
¡°How about you take the decorations Kailey and Riley made for my bed?¡± Reivyn asked after cleaning up one morning. ¡°They¡¯re specifically designed to facilitate more rest, and I don¡¯t need it.¡±
¡°If it¡¯ll make you happy,¡± Kefira shrugged.
¡°Really? That easy?¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
¡°Sure. Even though I feel fine, I can tell this has been bothering you. Why would I dismiss your concerns and suggestions out of hand? Plus, there¡¯s no downside to it, and I don¡¯t have to even take any time out of my day to make it happen. I¡¯ll just order some of the staff to retrieve it and install it in my room.¡±
¡°Well, thank you for indulging me. I was all ready to convince you, but now I don¡¯t know what to do, haha.¡±
¡°Anything to help,¡± Kefira said. She suddenly yawned and covered her mouth. Reivyn gave her a sideways nce and she rolled her eyes. ¡°That was just a coincidence! It¡¯s still early morning. The sun¡¯s only been up for half an hour!¡±
¡°Sure, sure. Keep telling yourself that,¡± Reivyn chuckled.
The symptoms worried Reivyn a bit, but so far it hadn¡¯t been anything serious that he could tell. They weren¡¯t getting worse, they were just noticeable to him. Nobody else seemed to notice, and Kefira kept insisting she felt fine, so Reivyn was content to simply keep an eye on the situation for now.
Reivyn bid farewell to Kefira and made his way back to his parents¡¯ house to clean up.
¡ª
Reivyn stood at the podium surveying the battalion lined up before him. He used his eyes and Divine Sense to take them all in, giving a satisfied nod. He waved his hand above his head.
¡°Captains,e up here,¡± He called out.
The captains left their positions in front of theirpanies and made their way to Reivyn. He had a stack of papers sitting on the podium, and he picked them up and started handing them to the captains after they arrived.
¡°You all already have the mission information,¡± Reivyn said as he handed out the papers. ¡°These are evaluation papers for your fellow officers. I won¡¯t be grading you on this mock campaign. Instead, you¡¯ll all grade each other.
¡°Any questions?¡±
Jekle raised his head after ncing through the paperwork.
¡°There seems to be too many sheets, sir,¡± he said.
Reivyn just smiled at the implication.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, you have enough,¡± he simply replied. ¡°I¡¯ll be taking the aggregate of the scores you give to each other, but I¡¯ll also evaluate how you score each other. Skimping or being dishonest on your evaluation of your fellow officers will be a demerit to your own evaluation, so do it properly.¡±
¡°Yes, sir,¡± they all answered in unison.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t worried that they would do something like that to each other. Not only were they all honorable men who could be trusted, but they were all friends with each other as well. They wouldn¡¯t sabotage each other over something so small. It was a big deal to get an independentmand, but it wasn¡¯t the end all be all. There would be other opportunities, and in the grand scheme of things, their stint serving with the mercenaries was only a footnote in their lives. Being able to urately evaluate and report situations was an important task for an officer, though, so it would be remiss for Reivyn not to mention it.
¡°I look forward to seeing and hearing the reports of the exercise,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°The entire point of this is to select who will be going on an independent deployment, so this is a big first step in that direction.
¡°You have your orders, gentlemen. See to it.¡±
The captains rendered their salutes which Reivyn returned. They returned to their positions in the formation, and with a nod from Reivyn, the captains took charge in moving their men out. Reivyn stood at the podium and watched the entire procession until all of the mercenaries were no longer inside the parade grounds.
¡ª
Reivyn tidied up his office andpleted the fewst tasks requiring his attention before returning to the Imperial Pce. He spent the afternoon with his parents in their house. Kailey and Riley were out practicing their crafts. They were getting an expensive education in various crafting sses in tandem with their art with the sponsorship of Kefira.
After several hours together once the twins returned, the family got dressed in more presentable clothes and made their way to the main Imperial Pce. They were met with Kefira and Seri outside. Reivyn smiled and offered his elbow for Kefira to hook her arm through.
The family made their way to the dining room of the Imperial Family and joined Kefira¡¯s family for dinner. They held dinner between the two families at least twice a week with Reivyn attending alongside Kefira an additional night. Kefira, likewise, joined Reivyn with his family one of the evenings of the week. The other days were a mixture of the two spending alone time with their families and each other.
The family dinner was filled with conversation andughter. Kailey and Riley were very popr with Kefira¡¯s siblings, and they weren¡¯t shy to take the spotlight.
¡°All the preparations have been made, and the invitations have been sent,¡± Silfa addressed Reivyn and Kefira eventually. ¡°Ameliyn and I have sent many invitations out, some of which will take months just to arrive at their destination. We expect the final replies to arrive in half a year at the earliest. ounting for three to four months for the guests to properly prepare for their departure and then their subsequent journeys, we¡¯ve determined to hold the wedding in a year and half from now.¡±
Reivyn and Kefira paused in their eating to nce at each other with smiles.
¡°Finally,¡± Kefira said. Reivyn snorted in amusement.
¡°Hush, you,¡± Silfa yfully reprimanded. ¡°We know you¡¯re anxious to finally be wed to your love, but this isn¡¯t just about the two of you. If you had been anyone else in the world, you could have ignored everything else for your own schedule, but seeing as how you¡¯re both scions of Imperial Families, even one that¡¯s no longer the current rulers of their empire, there are just too many other considerations.¡±
Yes, mother,¡± Kefira rolled her eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve told us this many times before.¡±
¡°Well, far be it for me to seek a little appreciation,¡± Silfa said with her own eye roll.
¡°You know I love you, mother,¡± Kefira beamed. ¡°And we do appreciate all the work you and Ameliyn put into this for us. Don¡¯t ever think we¡¯re ungrateful.¡±
¡°I know, child. It¡¯s just nice to hear every now and then.¡±
Kefira got up from her seat and walked around the dining table to stand behind her mother. She bent forward and wrapped her mother in a hug. Silfa leaned her head back into her daughter¡¯s embrace and lifted one hand to hold against Kefira¡¯s arm.
¡°I¡¯ll be sure to tell you more often in the future.¡± She gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek before straightening.
She stifled a yawn as she turned and made her way back around the table. Reivyn was already leaping to his feet before he even consciously realized anything was wrong. Kefira tripped and stumbled, bumping into the table, surprising everyone sitting at the table. She ced a hand on the table to steady herself, shaking her head to clear it.
A loud crack sounded out, and a pressure bore down on everyone in the room. Kefira¡¯s body went limp and she copsed to the ground, bringing the tablecloth with her where she had been pressing down on it. All the tes and cutlery followed in a cacophonous crash.
Reivyn had already traversed the distance while his body reacted before conscious thought caught up with his body. He managed to catch her unconscious body and prevented her from mming into the floor or getting covered by the remnants of the dinner.
Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense quickly scanned her body. He still noticed the signs of fatigue, but there was a new addition to the worrying elements. He fished out her ne, the one she had shown him was a block on her soul strength.
It had shattered.
The others around the table quickly noticed the object he held in his hand.
¡°Call the Grand Magus!¡± Ge called, a hint of panic in his voice.
One of the Imperial Guards quickly rushed out of the room, but Reivyn was barely paying attention. He stood with Kefira¡¯s limp form held in his arms.
¡°Here,¡± Silfa motioned to Reivyn, pointing toward a side door leading to a sitting area. ¡°ce her on the couch in there.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head as he followed the orders. The other members of their families trailed behind him as he did so.
¡°This isn¡¯t the first time something like this has happened,¡± Ge said after they had all moved to the sitting room. He had mastered himself and hadn¡¯t let the panic that had attempted to creep in have any hold over himself. ¡°There should be nothing to worry about. We¡¯ll get the Grand Magus in here and he¡¯ll prepare a recement seal for her.¡±
The others calmed down at the measured tone of the Willowy Patriarch. Reivyn sat on the couch with Kefira¡¯s head resting in hisp. The others found their own seats. Even though panic had been staved off, the tone was still somber. Refix stood behind his son and ced a steadying hand on his shoulder.
Reivyn appreciated the support as he sat and stroked Kefira¡¯s hair.
I knew there was something going on, he thought. But why did the seal shatter? We¡¯ll just have to wait for the Grand Magus to arrive.
Chapter 271: Soulful Insight
Chapter 271: Soulful Insight
The Grand Magus sat in silent contemtion after examining Kefira. He tapped his lips with his finger as he was lost in thought. Ge couldn¡¯t wait any longer after only a few moments and spoke up.
¡°So?¡± He asked. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±
The Grand Magus seemed surprised that anyone else was in the room after being addressed. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders nonchntly.
¡°Everything is as expected, for the most part,¡± he answered. ¡°We just miscalcted on the timing.¡±
¡°What does that mean?¡± Reivyn asked.
Ge, Silfa, and the other members of Kefira¡¯s family seemed to understand what the Grand Magus was talking about. The Grand Magus turned his attention toward Reivyn.
¡°We always knew that the seal wasn¡¯t a permanent solution,¡± he exined. ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time we¡¯ve had to change the seals out. As you know, Kefira¡¯s soul is too strong for her body, putting increased stress on her physical being. We need to seal a portion of her soul to alleviate the problem.
¡°If we make the seal too strong, she won¡¯t have ess to her abilities and Skill and might not even be able to Level her Skills at all. If it¡¯s too weak, like it apparently has been, the power will leak through and exhaust her body.
¡°What I mean by our timing was off is that her Skills have advanced at a much more rapid rate than anticipated. The soul has capacity, power, and intensity. The capacity of the soul generally refers to thebination of number of Skills and their Level. Higher Level Skills fill the capacity quicker than additional lower Level Skills.¡°One¡¯s soul capacity naturally increases over time with age and ss Level. It¡¯s a gradual thing, though. It¡¯s so gradual that normally one would never even realize it if they didn¡¯t have a benchmark from much earlier in life topare to.
¡°Power refers to how well one is able to martial one¡¯s Skill Level. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed that no two people are alike even with simr Skill Levels. That¡¯s not just based on a difference of understanding in one¡¯s Skill. It¡¯s also a reflection of one¡¯s soul power.
¡°There are many theories exining the nuances of soul power, but a popr one is that it directly affects one¡¯s ability to interact with the System. Someone with more soul power will receive more System assistance in a Skill at a simr Level than someone with a lower soul power. That is an objective fact, but the underlying reason is the theory.
¡°Finally there¡¯s intensity. The best way to conceptualize soul intensity is the passive aura it exudes on the world around it. One¡¯s body usually contains the aura as most people¡¯s souls are nowhere near strong enough to reach the natural limit of a mortal body. Those with Bloodlines are naturally able to house even more powerful souls.
¡°Kefira is lucky and unlucky at the same time. She¡¯s lucky that she has such a powerful natural soul and was born in a family with a decent Bloodline, but she¡¯s unlucky that her soul is just powerful enough to overwhelm her body¡¯s ability to contain the aura.
¡°As the aura leeks out of her body, it acts like wind or water on thend. It slowly erodes it. If nothing is done, eventually, her body would waste awaypletely.¡±
Reivyn¡¯s eyes widened in rm at the statement. The Grand Magus saw his look and chuckled.
¡°No need for concern, just yet,¡± he said. ¡°It would take decades in Kefira¡¯s current state for the issue to be fatal. As it is, even without another seal fashioned to curtail her soul strength, she would be able to function to a lesser extent with frequent, proper rest.¡±
¡°She¡¯s been getting plenty of rest, though,¡± Reivyn frowned.
¡°No, no. She would need proper rest. She¡¯s resting her body, but her body¡¯s not the underlying issue. Her soul is. She would need to go for an extended period of time without using any Skills or Magic to rest her soul. Her body falling into aa is simply her soul forcing the issue. If she¡¯s unconscious, she won¡¯t be able to use any Skills or Magic.¡±
¡°It¡¯s as simple as that?¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
The Grand Magus snorted.
¡°I doubt I would ever describe the interactions of the soul between the host body as simple, but rtively, yes I would say so.¡±
¡°This leads me to a question I¡¯ve had for a long time, now,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯m almost 100% certain that my soul strength is more powerful than Kefira¡¯s but I¡¯ve never had any problems. Not even before I awakened my Bloodline.¡±
¡°Truly?¡± The Grand Magus was surprised and looked around the room at the other upants for confirmation. The others nodded their heads. He turned back to Reivyn. ¡°Do you mind if I take a look?¡±
¡°Sure,¡± Reivyn shrugged.
He extended his hand and the Grand Magus ced two fingers on his wrist. It seemed like he was simply taking his pulse, but Reivyn could feel a Skill activate in the older man and felt a presence from his gaze.
Reivyn had tried to follow along while the Grand Magus inspected Kefira with his Divine Sense, but he was missing some sort of insight or ability associated with the Skill to do so. He had long contemted that Divine Sense incorporated all lesser perception Skills under its umbre, but that didn¡¯t mean he had ess to all of those abilities.
The Grand Magus¡¯ Skill somehow prated deeper into the metaphysical whereas Reivyn¡¯s own perception still only glimpsed the surface, so to say.
¡°I see,¡± the Grand Magus nodded to himself, releasing his hold on Reivyn¡¯s wrist. ¡°You¡¯re natural body is simply far more powerful. It¡¯s the most powerful soul container I¡¯ve ever seen. It edges close to what¡¯s theoretically possible, in fact.
¡°Tell me, how many thresholds did you have to break to reach Level 1 of your Bloodline?¡±
¡°One hundred,¡± Reivyn answered.
The Grand Magus¡¯ eyes bugged out at the response.
¡°Even knowing it was going to be high, the actual answer still managed to surprise me.¡± He shook his head before looking at Reivyn once more. ¡°I¡¯ll give you an example to illustrate how it works:
¡°Let¡¯s say that your body is a waterwheel, and your soul intensity is a river. The stronger the body, the more sturdy the waterwheel, and the stronger the soul, the more powerful the current.
¡°When one¡¯s body is mundane or has an unawakened Bloodline, we can imagine that the paddles are made of wood and cloth. A too powerful current could tear right through the cloth.
¡°Awakening the Bloodline is akin to reinforcing the paddles. The natural treasures one consumes to awaken are the raw materials to convert the cloth paddles to solid wood. The paddles themselves, however, are not the only point of impact.
¡°In Kefira¡¯s case, she has solid-wood paddles, but the current is still too powerful. It¡¯s causing the wheel to turn faster than it can handle. In this analogy, the next point is to reinforce the gears and joints.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°These materials are more rare, though. The natural treasures to awaken a Bloodline and attain Level 1 can be found in Tier 4 and below Regions. The natural treasures to advance to Level 2 and 3, though, can only be found in the upper Regions: Tiers 5 through 8. Well, not all of them, but the most important ones.
¡°To add difficulty, the efficacy of these treasures cannot be preserved beyond a few mere moments after harvesting, so anyone who wishes to upgrade their Bloodline to Level 2 and beyond has to personally travel to the upper Regions.
¡°Advancing to Level 2 in her Bloodline would be equivalent to reinforcing the gears, like I said, and Level 3 would be further reinforcing the paddles and/or gears to amodate an even more powerful river current.
¡°Now, back on to the main point, you,¡± he jabbed Reivyn in the chest with his index finger, ¡°appear to have this state of your waterwheel as the baseline. Your body in its unawakened state, in regards to its ability to contain your soul, is equivalent to Kefira¡¯s Level 3 Bloodline-enforced body, and you¡¯re already at Level 1 for your Bloodline.
¡°You would be better served finding natural treasures that clear blockages in your soul¡¯s flow. You can imagine them as dams upriver from your waterwheel.¡±
Reivyn nodded along to the lengthy exnation. It made perfect sense to him the way it was exined. At the mention of dams blocking his soul¡¯s flow, though, he raised a question.
¡°Wait, if one¡¯s body interacting with their soul is like a waterwheel, and there are dams blocking the flow of the river, couldn¡¯t one harness the pressure from piercing holes in the dams instead of clearing them away?¡±
The Grand Magus stared at Reivyn for a couple of seconds before bursting out intoughter.
¡°No, no. This is just a way to conceptualize it. Your body isn¡¯t actually a waterwheel, and there aren¡¯t actual dams blocking the flow of the river. Don¡¯t get too caught up in the analogy to lose sight of what it¡¯s trying to tell you.
¡°That being said, it appears you¡¯ve already consumed a soul treasure that put your soul in harmony. Those are extremely rare, and I¡¯ve only ever heard of one being found hundreds of years ago by an Elder exploring a Tier 6 Region.¡±
Reivyn frowned in confusion at the statement. I don¡¯t recall ever taking any soul treasures¡ A sh of a Masked Man on a bridge between Realms shed through his mind. Unless that¡¯s what that Masked Man did to me at that time. But why would he¡?
¡°Well, everything seems to be in order here,¡± the Grand Magus said, standing up and dusting his robes off. Reivyn was brought out of his musings before he could really think about it at the man¡¯s words. ¡°We just have to adjust our timeline, is all. I¡¯ll go and fashion a stronger seal for Kefira. It¡¯ll be done in a couple hours.¡±
Reivyn sensed his two sisters bing agitated at the mention of crafting the soul seal. He nced at them, and if he didn¡¯t have his Divine Sense, he would have never been able to tell that they were about ready to burst with anxiousness.
¡°Ah, Sir Grand Magus, a moment,¡± Reivyn called out to the older man. He looked back at Reivyn with expectation. ¡°Would it be alright for my sisters to apany you and observed the process?¡±
The Grand Magus quirked an eyebrow and nced at the twin girls with a surprised look. He looked to Ge and Silfa for their opinion.
¡°Oh, yes,¡± Ge nodded his head. ¡°That¡¯s their area of study. Well, not soul treasures or the soul at all, for that matter, but crafting unique things. Kefira is sponsoring their tutoring among many different masters.¡±
¡°We could treat it like a lesson and pay you for your time,¡± Silfa added.
The Grand Magus stroked his beard as he examined the two girls. His face split into a wide grin.
¡°That sounds like an excellent idea,¡± he said. The two girls¡¯ exhaled the breath they had been holding and jumped up and down in excitement. ¡°Teaching is one of my favorite things, and I¡¯ll never say no to some extra spending money.¡± He chuckled.
¡°What do you way, girls?¡± Reivyn gave his two sisters a stern look.
They both stopped jumping up and down and gave a bow to the older gentleman.
¡°Thank you, sir,¡± they said in unison.
¡°Right, right. Come this way,¡± the Grand Magus turned and strode out of the room with the two girls trailing after.
The room descended into silence for a few moments before Ge cleared his throat.
¡°Well, quite the ending to the evening, I would say,¡± he chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s good to hear that the issue isn¡¯t something new, just a miscalction in timing.¡±
¡°I¡¯m pretty sure we¡¯re responsible for that,¡± Refix coughed into his hand and spoke up. ¡°Reivyn and I can be a bit¡ zealous, when ites to training. We¡¯ve been pushing her pretty hard and in new directions, too.¡±
¡°Bah, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Ge waved his hand away. ¡°Like the Grand Magus said, it¡¯s not an immediate problem, and raising one¡¯s Skills faster than anticipated is actually something to be celebrated.¡±
¡°There¡¯s really only one solution to this,¡± Reivyn spoke up once more. Everyone focused their attention on him, waiting for his answer. ¡°We have to go to the upper Regions. It seems obvious to me. It was the n from the beginning, right?¡± Ge slowly nodded his head. ¡°The Grand Magus just said the timing was off, so that expedition needs toe forward as well.¡±
¡°I¡¯m just worried this could cripple Kefira¡¯s potential, though,¡± Ge voiced his concern.
¡°I¡¯m not,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°She¡¯s already further ahead than she expected to be, for one. Two, her Life Experience and Skill Levels are definitely ahead of schedule as well, or this wouldn¡¯t be an issue. Finally, there¡¯s nothing saying we can¡¯t explore Dungeons and experience new things in the upper Region. Just going there to explore ahead of time should give her a boost in her ss options.
¡°Her potential isn¡¯t the issue here. It¡¯s safety. We can all punch above our weight ss, and considerably at that. I would suggest sending word to the Elders to have them provide us a mentor for exploring the Regions, and we can study up on the knowledge we¡¯ll need to be safe.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll be going with them, too,¡± Refix pointed out. ¡°With me and at least one mentor from the Region, there shouldn¡¯t be too much in a Tier 5 Region that can catch us off guard if we don¡¯t getcent.¡±
¡°You¡¯re going to have to live your own life again one of these days, dad,¡± Reivyn said to his father with a slight smile on his lips. ¡°You¡¯ve sunk so much of your time into us already.¡±
¡°I¡¯m your father. It¡¯s what I¡¯m supposed to do. Besides, if not you, then I would be doing something simr with some other kid. It¡¯s what I do. It¡¯s what I like to do.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure mom¡¯s super happy about it,¡± Reivyn needled his father.
¡°I¡¯m going, too, this time,¡± Ameliyn spoke up. Everyone turned their attention to her. ¡°The girls are independent enough now, and they have their own schedules to keep them busy. Plus, I used to be an Adventurer, too. I¡¯ve been catching up with Delves alongside Refix for a while, now. We might as well make it a whole thing, and we can all seek to improve our Bloodlines and possibly soul power while we¡¯re there.¡±
Reivyn was only mildly surprised at the exmation from his mother. After thinking about it, though, it made a lot of sense. He still remembered the awe-inspiring pose of her actions from when she had seemingly unleashed the Heavens themselves against the Dungeon Break army and its instigators all those years ago.
¡°I¡¯ll look after your two girls and make sure they¡¯re not spending all of their time on mischief,¡± Silfa patted Ameliyn¡¯s hand.
¡°I¡¯ll have copies of the documents on what we know about the Tier 5 Regions and Wilderness sent to your house,¡± Ge said.
¡°Thank you,¡± Reivyn expressed his gratitude to Kefira¡¯s parents.
¡°Of course,¡± Ge chuckled. ¡°The more I help you all prepare, the more safe my baby girl will be in your care.¡±
Ge motioned to one of the staff standing unobtrusively along the wall. They all had ears, so the staff member understood what was required of her and she immediately rushed off.
Kefira¡¯s older siblings excused themselves for the evening. Reivyn had no desire to leave Kefira¡¯s side, so he stayed seated on the couch. His parents remained to keep himpany, and Ge and Silfa sat down as well.
They made small-talk amongst themselves much like they would have done if the dinner had continued in the normal way. It wasn¡¯t long before the Grand Magus returned with the two girls in tow. He stepped forward and presented another, identical ne to Reivyn. Reivyn wasted no time in securing it around Kefira¡¯s neck.
He could feel a subtle shift in the ambient pressure being exuded from Kefira. He tried to observe it with his Divine Sense Skill in order to further his ability to peer deeper into the metaphysical, but he would need more opportunities before he could fully grasp such an ability with his Skill. It quickly abated and he simply waited for Kefira toe to.
After waiting for several minutes, Kefira finally stirred and slowly sat up. Her hair hung down in front of her face, and she blew it away with a quick puff of air before swiping it away with her hand. She looked up in surprise to see everyone looking at her.
¡°What happened?¡± She asked, ncing around at the sitting room. ¡°How did we get here?¡±
Kefira¡¯s parents smiled at their daughter regaining consciousness. Reivyn hugged her to his side with one arm.
¡°You copsed at dinner,¡± Reivyn exined. ¡°I told you there was something going on.¡± He smirked and bopped her on the nose with his finger.
Kefira rolled her eyes.
¡°I¡¯m sure, but do you care to exin what it was? I¡¯ve got no idea what¡¯s going on right now.¡±
Reivyn smiled and hugged her tighter again. The two groups of parents looked at each other and with unspoken agreement got up to leave the sitting room. Reivyn was left alone with Kefira with the ever-present Seri standing behind the couch.
¡°Sure,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°It seems that your elerated rate of Skill advancement didn¡¯te without its disadvantages¡¡±
Chapter 272: Diary
Chapter 272: Diary
Several maids and manservants carried armfuls of scrolls and books into the residence. One after the other found an open space on the tables and counters to deposit their loads. Reivyn watched as the mountain of material continued to grow.
The number of documents quickly surpassed anything reasonable and just continued to grow. Kefira hid a small chuckle behind her hand at his expression. Nobody else in the room, including his parents, seemed particrly surprised or dismayed at the reading material transported to their house.
After thest manservant dropped severalrge tomes by the door, Reivyn turned to Kefira and raised an eyebrow.
¡°Oh? Is that all?¡± He kind of shrugged his shoulders like he was expecting more. Kefira snorted.
¡°For now,¡± she smirked. ¡°That¡¯s everything regarding the Wilderness and the Tier 5 Region. There¡¯s still an entire other floor that contains what little information we have on the Tier 6 Regions and some of the further afield Tier 5 Regions and their Dungeons.¡±
¡°I think this is plenty,¡± Reivyn gulped.
¡°Can¡¯t you just scan it all with your Divine Sense and, I don¡¯t know, just know everything that¡¯s written here?¡±
Reivyn shook his head.
¡°That¡¯s not how it works. Sure, I won¡¯t have to crack any of these books open to read them, but I still have to actually read them. Even if it¡¯s just in my head, I have to mentally process all the information. It¡¯s the same as you. Can you just flip through each page, look at the words without taking the time to read it, and know what¡¯s written there?¡±¡°Ahh, that makes perfect sense, actually,¡± Kefira said.
¡°Yeah. Granted my Skill and Stats have made my mental faculties extremely quick. Much faster than they used to be. I imagine I can process this information three or four times faster than someone else with equivalent Stats because of the mental strain I¡¯ve suffered, and my Stats are considerably higher than someone else my Level.
¡°That being said, it¡¯s still a lot of information to go over.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not going to be so bad,¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°You¡¯ll get probably about 80% of the information you need from one source as long as you choose a thorough one to read. Everything else is just there to fill in gaps or potentially ask questions you might have not addressed in the one document. Trust me we had a simr library in Vynndin. I¡¯m assuming this has been part of your curriculum already, Kefira?¡±
Kefira nodded her head with a smile.
¡°I¡¯ve probably read a quarter of the volumes here over the past couple of years,¡± she confirmed. ¡°All of our family members are expected to contribute to our efforts in the higher Regions in the future, so we make sure we have a firm grasp of the theoretical knowledge during our schooling years.¡±
¡°Oh, then you¡¯ll be a great source to answer questions,¡± Reivyn brightened up. ¡°That way I won¡¯t have to pour over several tomes looking for obscure information if I need it.¡±
¡°You would think so, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Kefira gave another yful smirk before grimacing. ¡°I¡¯ll help as I can, but unfortunately, my mother has deemed this the perfect time for me to continue my own lessons on the subject. I have to read three new volumes and prepare academic-style reports on them for her.¡±
Ameliyn¡¯s expression brightened as her eyes widened.
¡°That¡¯s an excellent idea!¡± She eximed. Reivyn closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. ¡°In fact, Reivyn, you should do the same thing. You said you can read three or four times faster than someone else with simr Stats, so let¡¯s say¡ ten book reports. It¡¯ll be an excellent exercise in critical thinking and Penmanship, which I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve let fall to the wayside long ago.¡±
¡°Yes, mother,¡± Reivyn sighed. Kefira mouthed ¡°sorry¡± to him. He simply shrugged.
¡°Your father and I have already learned about the fundamentals regarding the Wilderness and TIer 5 Regions, so we¡¯ll just touch up on the specific Regions essible from here. You and Kefira won¡¯t be the only ones going over these documents, so don¡¯t feel so left out.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, that was the issue,¡± Reivyn replied sarcastically. ¡°Feeling ¡®left out.¡¯¡±
Ameliyn justughed at him as she perused the titles of the volumes, searching for a tome or scroll regarding the more local Tier 5 Regions.
¡°Get to it.¡±
¡ª
Reivyn sat in the seat in a rxed manner with his leg up over the side of the armrest. He leaned back as he read through the old journal of one of Kefira¡¯s ancestors. He didn¡¯t need to hold the physical copy to read through the contents, but he always felt more focused when he did.
The journal was a travel memoir of the man¡¯s first time through the Wilderness into the Tier 5 Region. It was structured like a personal journal and didn¡¯t have a table of contents or index. There was, however, a couple of pages that were clearly from another source ced in front of the journal before the actual events were recorded.
Reivyn read through it with interest.
I¡¯m going to include this little bit of summary in the front here, the first page read. It¡¯s my experience that some people might miss crucial information if they don¡¯t specifically think about it, and the contents of my journal were more a stream of consciousness than any kind of detailed record-keeping.
Some of these things might be obvious, but if one doesn¡¯t think about it, it might not ever ur to them. If that makes any sense. It does to me, and I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll understand after further reading.
First and foremost the most important thing that most people don¡¯t think about until it¡¯s potentially a fatal problem: pockets of zero Mana density exist in the Wilderness, and those ces are death traps.
They could be as small as a pin prick or asrge as the capital city of Willowan. They¡¯re not stationary, and all Mana density zones shift and change over time in the Wilderness. One cannot urately predict when one will encounter such a zone.
The reason these are death traps: First, anything beyond the most basic of Spells will require one to crush a Mana Stone to flood the area with some ambient Mana to be able to meaningfully Cast the Spell. Theck of Mana density acts like a vacuum on the Spell and will quickly drain any power away from it.
Second, such methods are fleeting and quickly disperse as the Mana vacuum absorbs and disperses the additional ambient Mana.
Third, and most importantly, it is impossible to restore one¡¯s Mana Points inside a null zone. In fact if one does not keep a tight reign on their Mana Channels, the vacuum will act on one¡¯s Mana reserves and drain the resource directly from your body.
If someone is already low on Mana, whether that¡¯s ack of arge resource pool or from expenditure, and that person fall unconscious, there is a real possibility of the null zone literally draining the life out of the person while they¡¯re unconscious. Once Mana reaches zero, Health will rece Mana, and the differential in properties means the amount of Health lost is significantly more than the Mana drain.
I have personal experience with this tragedy. Our Party was ambushed by a higher-Tier monster lurking in a Mana dense zone in the Wilderness. My friend lost consciousness before we escaped into a null zone, and by the time we got to safety, he was dead.
An unconscious person can¡¯t warn you. An unconscious person can¡¯t react or mp down on their Mana Channels. An unconscious person in the Wilderness is a dead person in the Wilderness.
If there¡¯s anything you take away from this journal, it¡¯s: Get away from null zones as fast as possible, and do not let anyone lose consciousness.
Another aspect many people will realize is obvious once confronted with it but don¡¯t think about ahead of time: the same type of monsters in a Tier 5 Region are not the same Tier as those found in the lower Tier Regions. A goblin in a Tier 5 Region is a Tier 5 monster. Yes, it is almost universal that they will be Level 1 Tier 5, but those are still Tier 5 monsters.
Goblins are not solitary creatures. You will run into goblins in Tier 5 Regions, and there will be twenty or more of them in the same ce. Every. Single. Time. If you see a goblin, it¡¯s not alone. They also look identical to their Tier 1 counterparts.
Don¡¯t make the mistake of thinking, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just a small pack of goblins. What can they do?¡± They can kill you. The Upper Regions are almost a different world from what you¡¯re used to. Forget everything you know about the monsters you know from the Lower Regions and just assume everything is dangerous, because they are.
Tier 5 monsters are harder to hurt. They can take more damage when you do hurt them. They can all use Mana in some for or another. They¡¯re smarter than Lower Region monsters. Tier 5 goblins have Tier 5 Stats. They¡¯re probably smarter than some of your friends back home. They¡¯re still ves to their instincts, but that doesn¡¯t make them much safer to encounter.
Another thing people don¡¯t realize right away: there are no Dungeons in the Wilderness. It¡¯s not stable enough.
If you find a portal in the Wilderness, STAY AWAY! Those are 100%irs of powerful Tier 6 or higher monsters that have ess to the Space Affinity. It is rare to see a Tier 6 monster or higher in the Wilderness, but it¡¯s not unheard of. There are records among our library, if you dig deep enough, of people encountering Tier 8 monsters in the Wilderness.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Thest obvious thing that most people don¡¯t think about: A lot of people live in the Upper Regions. Like, a lot. There are millions of people scattered throughout the various Upper Regions. Tens of millions, possibly hundreds of millions.
There are just no governments (for the most part, that¡¯s not entirely true). That also means there are nows other than the Law of the Jungle.
You will run into other people and Parties in the Tier 5 and higher Regions. If youe across a single person wandering about on their own, even if they appear to be a youth, be respectful. That person is probably Tier 6 or higher.
It is not safe for even Tier 5 ssers to wander about on their own in the Upper Regions. Arger Party more than likely is safer to you than a small Party. The less people in a group, the more powerful individually they have to be in order to be able to walk around.
Like I mentioned just above, there are small governments scattered about the Upper Regions. They are exclusively city states, though. There are cities where Adventurers over the years have built a safe space. Thews are enforced by the Adventurers Guild, but only within the city walls.
People can live in these Adventurer cities for years, decades even, but nobody is ever considered a permanent resident of one of these cities. The City Lords are the local Adventurers Guild branch managers, and even they are assigned temporarily.
Every Adventurer City has the same fundamental rules of no killing or stealing (not that I very specifically did not say ¡°no fighting¡±), but other than that, each one has their own individual set of additional rules. They will be posted where it is easy to see as soon as one enters the city, so don¡¯t fear you won¡¯t know the local rules within one of these cities.
These cities exist near important resources like Dungeons or mines. If you find a city, there will be something worthwhile nearby.
I feel like I¡¯ve done an adequate job of pointing out some of the obvious things people won¡¯t typically realize until they¡¯re in the situation described. I mean, of course one can¡¯t replenish their Mana Points in a null zone, but did you ever stop to actually think that in your mind? I¡¯m guessing you probably didn¡¯t.
There might be other obvious situations I¡¯m missing here, but I believe these ones are the real traps to avoid. This journal is not an academic work. It is my own personal experiences of my first journey through the Wilderness and into my first Tier 5 Region. I made a copy and provided it to the family library as I felt it was a good source of practical information, but if you want to learn the theoretical information underlying the fabric of reality in regards to the Wilderness or how flora and fauna work in Tier 5 Regions, this isn¡¯t the book for you.
I just hope future generations pay attention to my warnings and can glean some helpful information from my own blunders that will save their lives one day.
Regards,
Relthinor Willowy, III
Reivyn ced the journal down and lifted his head. He close his eyes as he was lost in thought.
That¡¯s a really good point, he realized. Seeing those thingsid out like that, they are obvious, but I¡¯ve never thought about them. I knew there were shifting levels of ambient Mana in the Wilderness. I mean that¡¯s what the Wilderness is. I never stopped to consider ces with zero Mana density, though.
Thinking about it, of course there would be ces devoid of Mana in a ce that has chaotic shifting densities, and of course we can¡¯t replenish spent Mana in such an environment. I wouldn¡¯t have guessed that it would literally suck the Mana out of my body, though.
I wonder if my Perfect Domain Skill would handle that for me? Best not to test it.
Reivyn opened his eyes and brought the journal back up to his face.
Day 1
No need to talk about the preparation and excitement leading up to the excursion. This is a document of my time in the Wilderness and the Upper Regions, so this Day 1 is the first day after entering the Wilderness.
¡Frankly, I¡¯m a bit disappointed.
I¡¯ve spent many years hearing of the different adventures my uncles have had on their forays to the Upper Regions. I was expecting rousing conflicts with strange and mysterious creatures,plicated logistical problems to solve, imaginative solutions to novel hurdles thrown in our way.
There¡¯s been NONEof that! We¡¯ve just been walking on the road. The well-paved, well-traveled, road!
First off, there¡¯s a road?! A road through the Wilderness?! I thought we would be traveling through, I don¡¯t know, wilderness!
We¡¯ve just been walking on the road. Nothing has happened. I don¡¯t know. Was I expecting too much?
At least everyone is in high spirits.
Don¡¯t get me wrong. I¡¯m very happy to be safe and sound. I much prefer boring to exciting. I¡¯ve been on adventures. I know that exciting usually means hungry and/or cold while dodging fatal threats.
I¡¯m just¡ A road through the Wilderness? I didn¡¯t even know this was here!
I guess we¡¯ll see. I don¡¯t expect I¡¯ll be writing nearly as routinely as I thought if we¡¯re just going to be walking on a road.
Reivyn chuckled to himself. That was definitely also not what he was expecting to read as the first entry in the journal. Especially not after such a heartfelt introduction. Wasn¡¯t there something about one of his friends dying? Reivyn continued to read.
Day 4
Ok, so the road is gone. It onlysted the first couple of days. The reason is quite obvious after experiencing it for myself. The edges of the Wilderness are more stable than further in. It¡¯s quite rare for the Mana density to fluctuate that much, and it¡¯s definitely not as rapid as the less stable zones.
After midday the second day, the road ended. I¡¯ve already experienced varying Mana densities in the past two days. The Wilderness typically takes about a month to cross if one doesn¡¯t run into any trouble, so the fact that the stable portion is only about two-days¡¯ worth of travel deep is quite telling.
I haven¡¯t experienced any actively fluctuating zones, yet, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯sing. I wonder what it¡¯ll feel like to have different Mana densities simultaneously ost my body?
We still haven¡¯t run into any monsters or beasts. The way my uncles talked about the Wilderness it seemed like they would be behind every stone and tree. Granted they never mentioned the road, so they might not even consider this as actually part of the Wilderness, yet.
Day 7
I feel like we¡¯re being watched. It¡¯s the most uncanny sensation. There¡¯s obviously nothing there, but I expect to see glowing eyes in the dark every time I peer into a shadow or gaze out at the darkness at night. There¡¯s nothing there, though.
It might just be my nerves from entering such a dangerous ce for the first time. I¡¯ve been to dangerous ces before, but that¡¯s only rtive to Lower Regions. It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve truly had to be fearful for my safety.
This sounds paradoxical to my own thoughts. We¡¯ve only encountered a smattering of Lower Region monsters moving about in the Wilderness so far. Hardly anything to write home about, and thus I obviously didn¡¯t feel the need to include a specific journal entry for the encounters.
Things have been smooth sailing for the most part.
We came across our first null zone earlier today. It was nothing like I¡¯ve experienced before. I¡¯m known to be quite talented in my Magic and Mana Skills. I¡¯m an Expert in Mana Maniption, and yet even I felt the Mana being ripped uncontrobly from my body. I had to bear down with everything I had to slow the drain to only a point or two every couple of seconds.
The null zone had only been about the size of a city block, and I lost nearly a quarter of my Mana Points. It got easier to keep hold of my Mana the more practice I had, but it doesn¡¯t seem like something I would particrly like to practice.
The sensation was not pleasant.
Day 12
Lari is dead.
We all thought we had stumbled across a golden opportunity. We¡¯ve never heard of Dungeon or Mystic Realm opening in the Wilderness before, but we¡¯ve never heard it wasn¡¯t a thing, either.
We thought we were going to find something exciting.
Well, like I said before, exciting is code for hungry, cold, and dangerous. We definitely found thest one.
We found a portal just floating in a meadow. We scouted the surroundings and didn¡¯t find any monsters or beasts in the surroundings. It didn¡¯t seem suspicious in the least. We also weren¡¯t really thinking clearly. Why would we? We had just found the pinnacle opportunity of our excursion, and right at the beginning to boot.
What could go wrong?
A lot. A lot could go wrong.
We approached the portal in high spirits. As a prince, I was obviously not allowed to be the first in, so I was a bit to the back as several of the hired Adventurers approached the portal. None of them knew any better either. It was considered a rite of passage to not go with anyone experienced on the first trip. A sort of test and bragging rights.
That¡¯s a stupid rule. I¡¯ll be sure to change it if I make it back.
The¡ thing, I don¡¯t know how else to describe it, exploded out of the portal. It was a shower of dirt, blood, and body parts. The Adventurers just¡ ceased¡ to be. They were gone, and in their ce was this creature of darkness.
It was grotesque to say the least. I¡¯ve been to oceanic Regions and Dungeons before. I¡¯ve seen creatures of the deep. This thing could put any sea monster to shame with the mass of tentacles, suckers, and barbs covering its body. A weird miasma surrounded and shrouded its inky ck body, and strands of caustic mucus dripped from various pores across its colossal form, melting the earth and stone around the portal.
It moved too fast to see, but we could all hear the chewing.
Oh god, the chewing!
We took off. We scattered in every direction. Lari, Sacru, and Loselia came with me.
Oh god, what am I going to tell Lari¡¯s family?
We thought we had gotten away. It didn¡¯t seem to be chasing us.
It was toote. I don¡¯t think Lari even noticed. After running for ten minutes, he copsed. We checked and found that the thing had shot some of the barbs as projectiles. One had pierced Lari¡¯s lower back, and he had lost consciousness from blood loss.
We didn¡¯t feel safe where we were.
We should have tended to his wounds right there.
We shouldn¡¯t have approached that portal.
Shoulda woulda coulda¡
We didn¡¯t stop. We were too scared. We weren¡¯t thinking right. We had never seen anything like that before. I can feel the bile and panic rising just writing about it.
I picked Lari up and carried him with me. He was still breathing. Sacru pulled the barb out and Loselia Cast a quick Mend Flesh Spell on his wound. There wasn¡¯t time to think and do anything else.
At least that¡¯s what we told ourselves.
He was stabilized. As far as we could tell there was no miasmic or caustic contamination. He didn¡¯t have any weird Statuses in his Party profile other than ¡°unconscious.¡±
What could go wrong? We just needed to get further away. We had all seen how fast that thing moved. We didn¡¯t trust for a second it couldn¡¯t suddenly appear in pursuit right behind us.
We ran until we reached a null zone. We thought it was perfect. Everyone knows higher-Tier Monsters, ssers too, have a much harder time in lower ambient Mana Regions. A null zone seemed like the perfect ce to lose it.
It wasrge. We ran and ran and ran.
I had much better control over my Mana in these zones than the first time. The others as well. We didn¡¯t even lose any of our Mana to the drain at this point.
We came out the other side and finally felt safe enough to stop and catch our breath.
That¡¯s when we realized. Lari was dead.
He couldn¡¯t fight against the drain. We had carried him to his death.
We killed him¡
Reivyn once more ced the journal down. He had only read a few entries in the journal, and they had already encountered disaster. The warning in the introduction had not done justice to the terror of the situation that had led to his friend''s death.
Reivyn could ce himself in Relthinor¡¯s shoes. He could practically feel the emotions evoked on the pages. He had experienced fear and terror before. He had seen the terrors of the deep, so he could perfectly envision the nightmare creature they had stumbled upon from the portal.
He wiped sweat from his brow as he considered what he had read.
I thought this was going to be a dry exercise, learning about the Wilderness and the Tier 5 Region, he thought. If everything is like this¡
Reivyn made the determination not to skimp on his research. If a nightmare creature could be one of the first serious encounters in the Wilderness, he needed to be prepared.
Comcency¡ Reivyn shook his head as he brought the journal back up to continue reading. Even in ages past, it was apparently one of the number one killers.
Chapter 273: Ancestral Wisdom
Chapter 273: Ancestral Wisdom
Reivyn was absorbed by the contents of the journal. Not every entry was exciting or terrifying, though the author, Relthinor, did a fairly good job of leaving out mundane topics. Sure, those were in there, but it was usually to add a bit of context more than to just document everything the man did.
There was very little personal information provided in the journal. Reivyn guessed Relthinor assumed anyone who read it would either know who he was or have the ability to find out. There might be records of additional memoirs of the man that provided that information, but it wasn¡¯t important to Reivyn.
He had no idea what the man¡¯s ss, Level, or Tiers were. He didn¡¯t even mention the Affinities or Spells he used. When he recorded an entry involvingbat or some other form of Spell Casting, he would keep it simple like ¡°I sted the monster with Magic until it died,¡± or ¡°we stabbed it until it stopped moving,¡± or even such exciting retellings as ¡°we defeated the monsters.¡±
Reivyn didn¡¯t really need the breakdowns of thebat. He doubted he would glean any useful information for his own style ofbat. What he was picking up from the diary was the overall journey and the types of incidents one could expect.
Relthinor¡¯s journey definitely started off dull, quickly escted to untold heights, but then became pretty routine. Their Party reformed the very next day after scattering from the nightmare creature. They weren¡¯t socent that they didn¡¯t have the very basic protocols in ce in case of certain situations. From the way he wrote about it, they were probably taking it as a matter of course that they would be separated at least once sometime in their excursion.
Day 13
We circled around the area of influence we thought the creature controlled, using ourmunication magic to coordinate with the other groups, and we quickly regrouped. Nobody else had died other than the initial group of Adventurers that had walked right up to the portal.
It didn¡¯t seem like the monster was going to leave itsir. At least a little bit of good news after that fiasco.
Some of the others had been struck with the barbs, but they didn¡¯t encounter any null zones on their side. Like I had suspected, there was no poison or corrosion associated with the barbs, so that¡¯s good.We continued our journey for the whole day, but we¡¯re going to take a rest day tomorrow. Everyone needs a bit of a break to process what happened, and now that we feel a bit safer being further away and knowing its not out there stalking us, we can catch a breather.
Day 17
Things have been going well. We¡¯ve all adjusted, and though we¡¯re still grieving for our friends, things have returned to a normal routine.
We¡¯ve encountered only a small scattering of various monsters and beasts even this deep in the Wilderness. As far as I know, it¡¯spletely random what kind of creatures we¡¯ll encounter. There¡¯s no rhyme or reason behind it.
It¡¯s not that we¡¯ll find more at the half-way point or even closer to the border of the Tier 5 Region. The shifting of the Mana density zones don¡¯t allow for such structure. The only thing one can count on is that the chaos is more pronounced in the center of the Wilderness between the Upper and Lower Regions.
It¡¯s almost like organized chaos if you think about it. It can be conceptualized that there¡¯s a hairline fracture between the two different Regions and it radiates chaos toward the two regions. The closer one is to the Upper or Lower Region, the less influence the fracture has on the space.
Despite taking a bit of a detour and a day of rest, we¡¯re making good progress. We¡¯vee up to the metaphorical fracture, and we¡¯ll be crossing it sometime tomorrow in the early afternoon.
Day 18
I don¡¯t know what I expected, but at this point, I should expect to not find what I expect. Does that make sense?
We couldn¡¯t even tell the difference when we finally crossed the invisible border of the half-way point. There are nondmarks or features to indicate the line, and the change in the level of chaos is so subtle we can¡¯t notice it from one moment to the next. It takes days of traveling to consciously notice a difference in the surroundings.
I did finally feel what it¡¯s like to experience two different Mana densities at the exact same time.
It was weird. That¡¯s all I can really say about it. That¡¯s all my uncles would tell me about it, and now I know why.
It was like standing in a breeze that wasn¡¯t there? A breeze you could feel on the inside but not on your skin? Yeah, weird.
And no, that wasn¡¯t the line. That happened almost first thing in the morning, hours ahead of the projected time of reaching the midway point.
Typically, the change in Mana density is gradual. Rtive to the difference between different Tier Regions it¡¯s quite abrupt, but that¡¯s only rtive. Sometimes, though, there¡¯s a hard break. It happens when there¡¯s a significant difference between two different zones. We crossed from a Tier 5 equivalent density to a Tier 1 in an instant. It was definitely noticeable.
Reivyn ced the journal down for a second.
Huh, I hadn¡¯t thought about that, either, he realized. I guess I was thinking there were little pockets of Mana density and it was a hard-line between each pocket. That¡¯s not what he¡¯s describing here. It seems like it¡¯s rolling waves with peaks and valleys that shift about with rare cliffs.
Reivyn brought the book back up to his face.
Day 24
So, maybe that creature is stalking us. We don¡¯t know.
We¡¯ve seen several portals since that day, but we¡¯re not foolish enough to approach any of them. Are they the same portal just moving about, or are there many of these creatures?
At least the portals can always be found near a peak Mana density zone, so I doubt we have to worry about an invasion of these things into the Lower Regions. In fact I doubt they would befortable even in the Tier 5 Regions of the Upper Regions.
Some have spected that the creature is some sort of trap hunter that can move its portal about. It¡¯smon knowledge that Space is ¡°thinner¡± in the Wilderness - ¡°Is itmon knowledge, though?¡± Reivyn whispered to himself - so it would kind of make sense for the portal to be easily moved if it is in fact a creation of that monster.
That begs another question: If it is that creature, is it actively hunting us, or is it random?
If it¡¯s hunting us, it¡¯s not doing a very good job, honestly. If we¡¯re too afraid to get close enough to it for it to notice us and it''s not willing toe out, what good does it do? Is it just messing with us?
Personally, I think it is that monster, but it¡¯s just moving about randomly and we just happen to be inside its hunting ground. asionally we can see bloodstains on the ground outside the portal if we look close enough. There are never any bones, though.
Yeah, no way we¡¯re walking up to that death trap again.
Day 33
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the vition.
We finally made it out of the Wilderness.
The variability in the shifting of the Mana has been rtively stable for the past several days, and there haven''t been any surprises. The portals didn¡¯t follow us past a certain point, and we haven¡¯t seen them for nearly a week.
The change from being in the Wilderness to being in the Tier 5 Region, the lowest Tier Region in the Upper Regions, wasn¡¯t necessarily obvious, but kind of intuitive. There have been no changes in the ambient Mana density for a day, but before we actually crossed over there was a sort of potential.
That¡¯s the only way I can describe it. It wasn¡¯t there, but we could tell that it could be, if that makes sense.
Anyway, tomorrow marks the first day of actually being in the Upper Region. We have a loose itinerary, but we¡¯re mostly just going to be exploring to explore and gain Life Experience. Dedicated harvesting and Dungeon delving willeter.
Day 35
These little buggers are everywhere!
We all understood on an unconscious level that we were in a Tier 5 Region, but it didn¡¯t really hit us until after we had casually attacked a couple of goblins we found just roaming about.
Those things were little monsters, and I mean that in more way than one. We thought we could just casually dispatch the little creatures like any we found in Tier 1 Regions, but we were shocked when they easily dodged our strikes.
Not only were they quick as all get out, but when we finally did sh one across the chest, the Adventurer said it felt like dragging a dull butter knife across a piece of hard leather. There was barely even a scratch.
Luckily we¡¯re not amateurs. Even though we were surprised at their fighting prowess, we quickly adapted and began to gain the advantage over the little buggers.
That¡¯s when the rest of them showed up.
A horde of thirty or more goblins surged out of the surrounding woonds and threatened to overwhelm us. We had to form up in a military-style formation to maintain order and fight them off.
We only killed one of them in that first encounter.
After several intense minutes of fighting, when things didn¡¯t go their way, they had the rity to retreat.
I¡¯ve never seen goblins retreat before.
The first few minutes ofbat, we could all tell that they were basically the same as their Tier 1 counterparts in that they ignored everything to attack and kill us. Oftentimes they would resort to their ws and fangs even though they had weapons.
It seems like their instinctual bloodlust has a time limit, though. When things started going south for them, one was dead and several others were on the verge of death, there was like a light of understanding that bloomed in their eyes. They stopped their aggression, grabbed their wounded, and fled into the trees.
We thought about chasing after them, but we¡¯re not used to moving so quickly in a military formation, and we were worried that we would just y into their tactics fracturing our teamwork like that, so we let them go.
I don¡¯t know if that was a mistake, but it definitely had consequences.
They keep showing up every couple hours to harass us. They¡¯ll pop up out of nowhere, shriek and scream while biting and thrashing for a couple minutes, we¡¯ll kill one or two, and then they¡¯ll disappear.
We thought we could whittle them down slowly over time if they continued such hit and run tactics, but they¡¯re replenishing their numbers somehow. We¡¯re guessing their actualmunity is muchrger with little groups scattered about doing whatever and they¡¯ll join in the ambushes when they return to the main group.
It¡¯s been a slog trying to get anywhere. I think we¡¯ll build a little fortification and defend it until they actually go away or we kill them all.
Day 38
Building a little makeshift fort was the right call.
Some of the others wanted to press on a bit further, but the number of goblins ambushing us didn¡¯t just stop depleting as we killed them, it started to grow.
The others were finally convinced when some of the Casters actually effectively ran out of Mana and some of the Adventurers got seriously hurt.
It was surprisingly difficult to clear a space in the woods and build a little palisade. The flora of the Tier 5 Region has been inundated with higher concentrations of Mana than anything we¡¯ve ever seen in the Lower Regions.
There seemed to be some sort of qualitative change once reaching a certain threshold. It¡¯s more than one would think if they just look at the scale between different Tiers in the Lower Regions.
After some little effort, we got our fortification built. We had a small palisade, a ditch, and some spikes lining the ditch and bottom of the wall. Even the dirt itself was more difficult to dig through.
Like clockwork the goblin horde showed up and attacked us. They weren¡¯t able to get through the barriers in their frenzy. They had the tools, numbers, and strength necessary to breach the walls of our little palisade, but like I said, it seemed like they were taken by bloodlust and not able to utilize their true potential.
I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re like that. A lot of humanoid monsters are, but goblins have always been the worst.
I wonder if Tier 1 goblins would eventually give up and run away when their bloodlust is exhausted? We¡¯ll probably never know because they¡¯re so weak they get killed too fast to find out. It¡¯s something to consider, though, for anyone researching monsters and how they work. It should be pretty easy to set up a situation where someone baits some goblins and just waits for them to tire themselves out without killing them.
Anyway, this isn¡¯t a research tome. The goblins continued their hit and run tactics. The next couple of fights had a few more goblins in the little horde each time reaching up to a grand total of 45 or so, but then they stopped increasing.
I don¡¯t know if that was their entire group or if there are little pockets of goblins all over the ce and now that we¡¯re stationary there were none to join them or what, but they finally reached a point where they were no longer getting reinforcements.
They also didn¡¯t wait to fully heal and replenish their Health, Stamina, and Mana. It was like just knowing we were there would cause them to sumb to their frenzied state and attack us against their better judgment.
They couldn¡¯t sustain such a strategy, and after another couple of fights finishing deep in the night, we killed thest few that tried to storm the palisade in a pathetic state.
Unless we want to March about in a military formation and frequently build little forts all across the Tier 5 Region, we¡¯re going to need to work on our tactics a bit. Now that we can rest without worrying about getting attacked every couple of hours, we might be able to take the time to do so with the new information and experience we have fighting them now.
Day 45
We reworked our teamwork and broke ourselves into more cohesive, smaller units. Instead of having a full Party spread about in the usual manner one would tackle a random nest or Dungeon - you know, vanguards up front, damage dealers mid-front and rear with any healers in the center - we¡¯ve pulled the formation in tight where everyone can support each other.
Thergest problem we had was positioning and nking. It wasn¡¯t difficult to solve the problem, but it was harder to do with such arge number of people. Our expedition has four full Parties after the Adventurers died to the nightmare beast. Now we have ten groups of three with the two groups with the healers having four.
We could have done any number of configurations, four being the next best solution, but a small triangle allows us to be back-to-back while being easy to cover each other, and each of us, even the Casters, have extensive practice with meleebat.
Our Weapon Skills are a littlecking, so that¡¯s definitely something we¡¯ll have to focus on, but being able to cover each other from each direction makes up for it.
This isn¡¯t a treatise on the strategy one needs to use to survive in the Tier 5 Region. I¡¯m getting a bit lost in the weeds here. I just want to paint an urate picture of what we¡¯ve been doing.
Splitting up and being able to cover each other individually means we could also make use of our little groups to cover the other groups. It worked out wonderfully.
With our new setup, we increased our pace by leaps and bounds. The little annoyances were still popping up all over the ce to no end, but now with the understanding that there¡¯s probably a bigger group around any smaller groups we find, we¡¯ve been baiting them into traps and finishing them off in one encounter instead of a multi-day prolonged battle. Battles? Battle.
It¡¯s still just one fight, just with breaks and stuff.
Anyway, we moved through the territory much faster after that. I¡¯ve also seen tremendous growth in my Weapons Skills. The Experience gain has been pretty reasonable, too. We¡¯re not going to run into the problem of out-Leveling our Life Experience any time soon, so that¡¯s good.
The terrain has been pretty simr to Wispan. I realized I hadn¡¯t said a lot about the environment at this point. There¡¯s been no noticeable difference that it didn¡¯t even cross my mind. Without the different ambient Mana density, I wouldn¡¯t really even be able to tell a difference.
The stranger environments - the floating inds, the gravity-wells, the mutli-seasonndscapes - are all in the Tier 6 and above Regions ording to my uncles.
We¡¯re definitely not ready for that yet. Not even considering the challenges with facing brand new environments. There¡¯s no way we¡¯d be able to handle a roaming horde of Tier 6 goblins.
Could you imagine?! I can¡¯t. Not right now. I thought I understood what I was getting into beforehand, but without seeing it firsthand, even kind of understanding the truth on an unconscious level, without experiencing it first hand, imagination just doesn¡¯t do it justice.
One day. One day I¡¯ll be hopping back and forth between different floating inds while fighting a horde of monsters, but that day is not today. Or tomorrow.
Reivyn once more snapped the journal closed as he contemted the information he had just read.
It seems like my emphasis on small-unit tactics with the mercenarypany wille in handy with our own preparations for the journey, he thought. Let¡¯s see what else there is to glean from the wisdom of our ancestors.
Chapter 274: Stepping Into the Unknown
Chapter 274: Stepping Into the Unknown
Reivyn tightened the straps to his pack, folding the loose ends over and over before tying them in ce. Everywhere on his body that there could be a loose strap of any kind had been shortened and secured to reduce bouncing and noise.
There was no need to have metal sps jangling all over the ce while walking. That would just ensure he was making more noise for things to notice his passing. His Divine Sense was to a sufficient Level now where its range was much greater than any tinkling noise he could make, so he would notice any low to mid-Level monsters close enough to hear.
That was the point, though. They weren¡¯t heading to a low to mid-Level range area. It was incredibly unlikely they would encounter anything above Tier 6, but there was a precedent. A monster of that caliber would hear any little noise well outside his own Divine Sense range.
He looked around the barracks courtyard at the others that were to apany them. Only Teilon was of the sneaky sort. The others would be making quite a bit of noise each while traversing the Wilderness, and all of them together were bound to make a veritable cacophony. Even so there was no reason to add to it unnecessarily, and there could possibly be times where Reivyn had to move on his own, too.
He had instructed everyone to tie up their loose straps, and everyone was making final adjustments to their gear while giving a helpful once-over to their neighbors to make sure nothing was misced.
The expedition had grown to a muchrger size than Reivyn had initially anticipated, but after reading the ounts of various elders who had personal experience in the Wilderness and the Tier 5 Regions, he understood it was a bncing act.
They needed enough people to cover each other. They needed enough people to set up watch in the evenings while allowing everyone to get a decent rest. They needed enough people with a variety of Skills to cover any unexpected situation that might arise.
However, they also needed to keep the numbers small. They couldn¡¯t take an entire army and March through the Wilderness. Such things had been attempted in the past, and it inevitably led to drawing unwanted attention from monsters and beasts that were too much to handle without casualties.
The core of the Party was Reivyn, Kefira, Seri, Refix, Ameliyn, Teilon, and Kimberly. In any situation, such a group was well-rounded to tackle almost anything that could be thrown at them. Multiple people in the Party could act as vanguard, close-quartersbatant, rangedbatant, and Caster.The only thing they were missing was a dedicated Healer ss, but each of them had a basic First Aid type Skill or Affinity they could use to patch up wounds. Such Skills would stop bleeding and Health Point loss and increase natural regeneration, but it wouldn¡¯t heal lost Health Points directly. That was the main difference between General Healing-type Skills and a Healing ss. Healers would get ss Skills and Spells that could directly restore lost Health Points and do so without using one¡¯s body¡¯s own resources.
Reivyn had a literal Regeneration Skill, and after many months of observing how it worked, he had determined that it fell into the supernatural category of a Healer ss Skill. It didn¡¯t increase his natural regeneration by increasing his metabolism or something simr. It used ambient Mana to slowly restore any wounds and lost Health Pointspletely independently. It made sense that it was a Tier 6 Skill, the highest below Divine and Half-Step Divine.
If only it was easier to unlock the Skill, Reivyn though with a wry smile. Near death experiences aren¡¯t exactly simple to replicate in a controlled environment. I suspect my soul strength had something to do with unlocking the Skill, too. Others with less ¡°talent¡± might have to suffer multiple near death events. I¡¯m almost certain of it.
Reivyn had never really thought too deeply about the number of Skills and how high he had trained them rtive to others. He had always chocked it up to diligence plus talent without really giving much thought to the talent part. The more people he got to know and understand their Skill levels - something all of his mercenaries were required to disclose, at least their relevantbat ones - the more he realized what an anomaly he was.
His Skill sheet reflected a middle-aged Tier 6 sser, not a Tier 3 young adult. Only his parents had anything simr to his own Skill sheet, and he was beginning to overtake them. That wasn¡¯t exactly a reflection on the average person, either though, because his parents had Epic and Legendary sses themselves. The vast majority of people had Common Grade Tier 4 sses, which didn¡¯t meet the prerequisites to advancing to Tier 5, and 90% of people who reached Tier 5 had a Rare ss.
It was a cycle that was hard to dig out of for most people. One needed the necessary Skills and Life Experience to unlock the better sses, but one also needed the better sses to survive the more difficult Life Experiences necessary for better sses. It was a paradox that many couldn¡¯t get out of.
Manymonersmented that nobles had an unfair advantage with their higher-Rarity Tier 1 sses and the Stat boosts that came with it, but Reivyn had a different outlook. He had found that oveing adversity, struggle, and suffering had a much higher impact on one¡¯s chances of unlocking better sses. Nobles were shielded from Conscription and many other forms of adversity their entire life until adulthood. The benefits of a Tier 2 ss in Tier 1 far outweighed a Noble Tier 1 ss.
He, Teilon, and Kimberly were indisputably more powerful than other noble kids their age. Kefira, too, was an anomaly with her soul strength, and Reivyn suspected Seri benefited second-hand with her Life Experience encounters because she was always with Kefira.
Creating artificial near death experiences is nearly impossible, but maybe we should consider setting up Conscription for all Tier 1 minors. There has to be a legitimate reason recognized by the System, but a simple territorial dispute between Counts was enough. Setting up monster subjugations should count, as long as the Conscripts are taken to participate. They don¡¯t even have to be the main force. Just enough for the System to recognize.
I know I¡¯m not the first person to think of such a thing, and I¡¯m pretty sure I know why it hasn¡¯t been implemented wide-spread: most people just want to live a normal life, and they don¡¯t want their children put in unnecessary danger. Conscription, in a way the System will award the Tier 2 ss early, only works if it¡¯s used indiscriminately. That means no volunteering or opting out. One of the reasons the System rewards the Tier 2 ss in the first ce is to make up for the involuntary nature.
The main obstacle would be fostering a society where it¡¯s not only epted, but encouraged, even for families that have no interest inbat sses.
Reivyn brought himself out of his daydreams and returned his focus to the expedition. In addition to the core Party, there was a couple of squads both from the mercenarypany and from the Imperial Army. The former were an ¡°honor guard¡± Reivyn¡¯s officers insisted he take with him, and thetter were the honor guard for Kefira.
It didn¡¯t take much convincing for Reivyn to ept the mercenary squads. He understood it was a good opportunity for those chosen, though he didn¡¯t know any of them. In order for their Life Experience on the expedition to count as much towards being militarized mercenaries, though, they were left mostly independent of Reivyn¡¯s orders and directions.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the vition.
They were obviously following Reivyn and would go and do the things necessary for being an honor guard, but they weren¡¯t being by Reivyn. One of the squad leaders took on the role of overallmand for both squads, and it was his job to lead the mercenaries properly. It was also a good way to test the squad leader¡¯s Leadership Skills for future promotions.
The Imperial Army honor guards were much more used to their roles. They were led by one of the senior Pce Guards, a mid-Tier 5 sser, and they were much more ceremonial in their look and behavior. They were still legitimate guards, but there was a bit more pomp to the way they presented and conducted themselves.
Including the mercenaries, none of those chosen to go were below high-Tier 4. That was the only bit of convincing Reivyn had needed on their selection, but he understood it wouldn¡¯t be safe for lower Leveled mercenaries to apany them on the journey. He was just worried that a significant bit of strength was leached from thepany to form his honor guard.
Reivyn didn¡¯t hold it against the mercenary squads that they weren¡¯t like the Imperial Army honor guards. If they had wanted to look shy, they would have joined the Imperial Army instead of choosing a life of an Adventurer and mercenary. It wasn¡¯t Reivyn¡¯s intention to turn Adventurers into ¡°real¡± soldiers. He was entirely focused onbat effectiveness. Sometimes those things went hand-in-hand, but they didn¡¯t have to.
Noticing that everyone appeared to be done with their final preparations, Reivyn cleared his throat.
¡°Everyone ready to go?¡± He raised his voice. Everyone looked around at each other before nodding their heads with a smattering of verbal responses. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this show on the road.¡±
Reivyn received several strange looks before everyone turned and began making their way out of the courtyard. They had staged their final checks at one of the barracks near the outer wall of the city. He turned and quirked an eyebrow at Kefira who just shook her head at him.
¡°Another one of your weird sayings,¡± she said. ¡°This isn¡¯t a show. What kind of a show gets on the road?¡±
Reivyn seriously thought about the question for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he replied. ¡°It just means let¡¯s go.¡±
¡°No, no. We all figured it out. It¡¯s just not something anyone would normally say.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t seem all that strange to me,¡± Reivyn muttered, absentmindedly scratching his cheek.
It only took a couple of minutes for the group to make it outside the city. Kefira and Seri had already said their goodbyes to their family members earlier in the morning, but there were a couple of family and friends from the mercenary and Imperial Army members lining the streets to wave goodbye.
One of the Imperial Army squads took the lead in their formation, followed by one of the mercenary squads. Reivyn¡¯s Party was located in the center, and the other two squads followed in the rear with a simr formation.
The road to the Wilderness didn¡¯t lead there directly from the Imperial City. The Imperial Capital was located fairly close to the center of the Region. It had taken over a week to March from the Drallo border to the capital, so they had approximately the same time-frame to reach the Wilderness.
They could have taken horses. There was even a military outpost near the Wilderness border where they could have left them, but it was considered a rite of passage to walk to the Wilderness on their first trip. Sometimes things were done in a silly way that Reivyn could only shake his head at, but he didn¡¯t particrly have anything against walking.
For one they all had the March Skill. They moved at a brisk speed that ate up the miles. Their training and Stats allowed them to move swiftly over great distances with little breaks. The mercenaries and Reivyn¡¯s Party could actually go for longer periods of time without having to stop than the Imperial Army due to Reivyn¡¯s and Refix¡¯s demand to always train while tired. Their Stamina efficiency was higher, and they could go longer with lower Stamina Points.
Kayzor had actually started implementing the same style of training with his men in the Imperial Army, but it hadn¡¯t be wide-spread through the entire organization, yet. Reivyn imagined it would be moremonce after their return and subsequent reports about how ¡°unprofessional¡± soldiers did better than the Imperial Army regrs.
The second reason Reivyn didn¡¯t care to walk was Kefira. The rite of passage was mainly for the Imperial Family. It was symbolic for them to take their time and walk across their Empire for their st¡± trip. Even though Kefira wasn¡¯t entering her stage of life where she permanently moved on to the Upper Regions, they were treating it the same.
They didn¡¯t stop to meet with the citizens or even the mayors, barons, and counts of the regions they passed through, but Kefira did take the time to observe the people of her Empire on their journey. It was seen as a pilgrimage, and Kefira took it seriously.
Themon folk of the Wispan Empire were quite prosperous, much more so than the vigers from Reivyn¡¯s hometown. There were no starving peasants or orphans. Everyone they could see seemed to be content with their lot in life.
Kefira mostly had a smile on her face, but asionally Reivyn could see a small frown adorn her face.
¡°What is it?¡± He whispered with concern one such time.
¡°I¡¯m just imagining Vairo andparing the two,¡± Kefira said. ¡°I¡¯m happy to see everyone doing so well. It¡¯s such a stark contrast to the gloom that overshadowed everyone in Vairo, and I would hate to see something simr happen here.¡±
Reivyn looked out over the fields being toiled by expert Farmers with their young ones helping. He oveid his vision with his memories of the faces of people he saw in Vairo and couldn¡¯t help but frown himself.
¡°Hmmm, yeah, but I wouldn¡¯t worry too much,¡± he said. ¡°Even with the reports of the invasions being widespread, the actual number of ces invaded is still a fraction of a fraction of Tier 4 Regions in the Local Group. The chances of Wispan being hit are miniscule, and so far, a second round of invasions hasn¡¯t urred.
¡°That doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not going to happen, or that Wispan won¡¯t be one of them, but you can only put your trust into fate at this point. Worrying about what you can¡¯t control will just give you stress.¡±
¡°I know, but that¡¯s not something easily controlled,¡± Kefira replied. ¡°Logic and emotions don¡¯t always work hand-in-hand. Until whoever is responsible for the invasions is either stopped or controlled, I¡¯ll always have that bit of worry in the back of my mind.¡±
¡°I hear you,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°The only thing to do is move forward. Once we get to the Wilderness, or at least deep into the Wilderness, we¡¯ll be too busy to think about anything else. Keeping busy is one of the best ways to keep your mind off of things.
¡°Why do you think the military, the mercenaries included, spend so much time cleaning until there¡¯s not a speck of dust left to be found and are so meticulous with their uniforms and gear? It¡¯s not just about hygiene and discipline.
¡°If there¡¯s a hard-fought battle with a lot of casualties, thest thing we want is for everyone to have nothing to do but ruminate. We create a routine they can fall back on where they stay upied until they have time toe to terms with the tragedy. It¡¯s not perfect, but it works.¡±
¡°Huh, I¡¯d never thought about it like that before,¡± Kefira said, a contemtive look on her face. ¡°Is that why you train so hard all the time? Setting up a routine to fall back on when you have too much to think about?¡±
¡°Well, no,¡± Reivyn chuckled sheepishly. ¡°My father and I just genuinely like training that hard. I¡¯m sure it wille in handy if such a scenario ever arises, but let¡¯s hope it doesn¡¯t. That being said, it seems like it worked for you up until now. You haven¡¯t really been thinking about what could happen to the people of Wispan until we started this journey.¡±
¡°Yeah, but I don¡¯t think being reminded of the possibility is a bad thing,¡± Kefira said. ¡°It¡¯s good to be grounded in reality.¡±
¡°I suppose so.¡±
The March to the Wilderness was uneventful. There were other patrols from Imperial Army units on the main highways, so there were no monsters or beasts to asionally jump out and harass them. Such patrols were less frequent on the outskirts of less-traveled roads, but there were only so many soldiers to spare for the job. It seemed the road leading to the Wilderness was considered a major thoroughfare, and after a moment of thought, it made perfect sense to Reivyn.
It was the ess point to which the empire sourced their highest-Tier resources. Of course they would need to have easy, safe transportation.
Thest sight of civilization was that final military outpost alongside the road. It wasn¡¯t anything fancy, but it wasn¡¯t a temporary wooden fortification, either. It was a stone fort with a small hamlet inside the walls for the family members of the soldiers stationed there.
The group didn¡¯t stop as they passed the fort in the morning.
Reivyn kept his eyes and other senses peeled to try and spot the border to the Wilderness, but like he had read in the journals, there was no clear demarcation. He just had to trust the little sign set up on the side of the road that read: ¡°The Wilderness.¡±
Kind of anticlimactic, Reivyn chuckled to himself. Then again I was expecting it.
Reivyn watched the sign as they Marched past. As he took the first step on the other side, he thought. The first step on the next journey through life.
He didn¡¯t know what to expect moving forward. The whole point of the Wilderness was that it waspletely unpredictable. That being said, he was eager to find out.
Chapter 275: Lines in the Stone
Chapter 275: Lines in the Stone
Reivyn expected the road to end abruptly. The way the personal ounts described their journeys only mentioned the road ending a short distance within the Wilderness. He didn¡¯t know exactly what to expect, but he thought it would just end at some point.
That¡¯s not exactly what happened. He noticed the first signs with his Divine Sense, but as they continued deeper into the Wilderness it even became observable with the naked eyes. Reivyn knew to keep an eye out for it already, so he was the first to notice and point it out.
¡°Doesn¡¯t it seem like the erosion of the road¡¯s stones is too much?¡± He turned to Kefira and asked.
¡°It has to do with the fluctuations of the Mana density,¡± she easily replied. ¡°It¡¯s a known phenomenon, which is the real reason the road doesn¡¯t go all the way through. While it might be difficult to form arge team to build a road, a small team would have no problems, and in fact, it¡¯s been tried before in the past.
¡°The roads don¡¯tst, though, and the Wilderness quickly takes over once again. We repair the road a bit deeper every decade, but there¡¯s still a few years left until the next scheduled maintenance.¡±
¡°So the Mana density erodes the stones? How does that work?¡± Reivyn continued to ask.
¡°Mana is energy, and the stones used have their own energy resistance and upkeep thresholds,¡± Kefira answered. ¡°We use materials from our Tier 4 Region. Theyst the longest. The building materials get hit with double duty fromck of Mana density to upkeep the stones as well as increased burden from too much Mana.
¡°We¡¯ve experimented with other materials, but just using our own Tier 4 materials was found to be the best solution. Anything lower will have less strain when the Mana density falls, but it will take more damage from higher density levels, and higher Tier materials just aren¡¯t cost effective. They eventually erode just the same as Tier 4 materials, but they¡¯re much harder to source.
¡°In fact we don¡¯t even have ess to a ready supply of Tier 6 materials at all. We have some of the older, more powerful members of our empire in the Tier 6 Regions, but there are very few of them, and it doesn¡¯t make sense to have them ferry stones for a road, much less spend the time necessary to quarry them.¡±¡°Ahh, that makes sense,¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°It¡¯s all about opportunity cost. They could spend their time mining stones for a road, but then all that time wouldn¡¯t be spent acquiring metals and natural treasures, and they would have to brave the dangers of the Tier 6 region just for a bit of road crossing the Wilderness.
¡°It makes more sense for those entering the Upper Regions to properly prepare themselves instead.¡±
¡°Exactly. We sometimes do get shipments of stones included in what they send back to the empire, but we¡¯re not going to use them on a road. That would be the equivalent of paving the whole thing out of gold. It¡¯s an improper use of the resource.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head again. The fluctuations of the Mana density in the Wilderness were the cause of elerated erosion, so even if they acquired Tier 8 materials to build a road through it, the drop in Mana density would still lead to eventual failure. It just didn¡¯t make any sense at all.
¡°I question the need for any kind of road, to be honest,¡± Reivyn admitted.
¡°Eh, it¡¯s convenient,¡± Kefira said. ¡°It¡¯s actually more for those returning than for those going in. It¡¯s andmark to find the quickest path back to the capital, and those returning are often weary. Even if they¡¯re physically fine, they¡¯re mentally tired. The luxury of the road, even a few days early, is a balm. It buoys the spirits of those returning.¡±
¡°I see.¡±
Reivyn agreed with the sentiment, and he dropped the subject. There really wasn¡¯t much else to say on the topic. He let his mind wander a bit as he passively inspected the road condition.
There seemed to be a pattern in the erosion.
Hmm, I¡¯m no expert, but it looks like a¡ wave?
There were long, wavy striations that were below the visible spectrum. If he didn¡¯t have his Divine Sense, he would need to use a specialized tool to be able to see the patterns. His Divine Sense wasn¡¯t so great that he could actually see the lines. It was more that he could detect the flow of energy along them.
But it¡¯s not just the waves, either, Reivyn realized as his sample size increased. There are dents and nicks scattered among the waves, as well. Some are grouped closely together, there are some ces where there aren¡¯t any for arge area, and there are some areas where it looks totally random.
He didn¡¯t really know what to make of it. He felt a bit of a tug from his subconscious, but he couldn¡¯t wrestle it to the forefront.
Hmm, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s necessarily important to get to the bottom of this, but it is something to think about. I feel like there¡¯s some sort of fundamental concept at work here.
He wasn¡¯t much of a theory person, so he mentally filed the information away.
I think I¡¯ll do like the other predecessors and start a travelog, Reivynd decided, I can include my observations and thoughts there.
It wasn¡¯t the most appropriate time to bring it up to Kefira or the others. They needed to remain vignt as they traversed deeper into the Wilderness, but when they had some time to themselves when he documented the day, he would mention it.
Thinking of remaining vignt, Reivyn returned his mental focus to his surroundings. The road was an intriguing situation, but not one that warranted any kind of immediate action or even deeper thought.
Eventually the road just sort of petered out. There was still a noticeable trail where the Wilderness hadn''t fully reimed the environment. It started out as a rocky dirt path, but it quickly became an overgrown swath cut into thendscape. It was more noticeable through wooded areas, but one could kind of still see it if they paid attention in the open areas.
His Divine Sense was ever expanding as his Skill Level rose, but his Perception Stat was still considerably more powerful when it came to what he could see with detail at greater distances. He constantly scanned the surroundings with his eyes while keeping his Divine Sense active.
The geography of the Wilderness, at least where it bordered Wispan, was identical to the Tier 4 Region. If there wasn¡¯t the sign by the road and the asional pocket of different Mana density he sensed, he would have never been able to tell the difference.
There wasn¡¯t always a stark contrast between biomes of Regions like between Drallo and Wispan, but it was usually at least more noticeable than this. If Reivyn had to guess, it wasn¡¯t that Wispan actually ended where the sign said the Wilderness began, but that there was something else at y between the Upper and Lower Regions.
The striations of erosion on the stone road were an indication, though Reivyn didn¡¯t know the significance off the top of his head.
Wispan was a pretty idyllic environment. It was temperate with forests, ins, hills, and mountains. The Wilderness was identical, though there was the asional strange flora and fauna that he could see or sense.
They weren¡¯tpletely aberrant in their appearance. It seemed like evolution had taken a fast track with some of the nts and animals for the most part, though there were somepletely different species interspersed in weird ways. Reivyn had seen more than one palm tree in the middle of a pine grove, and there were some things that were undeniably more suited for a tundra environment.
Despite the differences, though, they all mostly thrived in the Wilderness. Reivyn didn¡¯t see any rot or decay, nor were there any nts with stunted growth that he could tell.
They were still many days away from the deepest parts of the Wilderness, and they hadn¡¯t run into any significant monster poptions so far. There weren¡¯t even many ferocious beasts about. Most of the wildlife were simple creatures, though they were predominantly the ones found in Tier 4 Regions on this side of the center of the Wilderness.
This tale has been uwfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
No significant poptions of monsters didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t run into individuals or small groups. Reivyn and his Party hadn¡¯t been required to step up to assist with any of them, though. The honor guards had taken turns keeping them at bay.
Even though those chosen to apany their Party were elites, they were much less powerful than Reivyn¡¯s Party. Not only individually, but also as a team. If they ran into any real dangers, Reivyn wouldn¡¯t hesitate to step forward to take charge. As it was, he was perfectly happy with letting them get the full experience of trudging through the Wilderness.
The honor guard weren¡¯t going to be with them for the entire trip, either. Kefira had a map leading to a settlement run by her family, and they would part ways with theirpanions there. Whether or not they sought out others to fill the numbers at that point was something they would decide after evaluating the risks and their Party¡¯s ability to handle them during the trip.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t for or against supplementing their Party further. They weren¡¯t out here specifically to gain Experience, though it woulde naturally. There were always pros and cons to either option, and if they didn¡¯t struggle like some of the predecessors did in the journals he had read, there might not be too many pros to adding more people to their group.
The new seal Kefira wore around her neck was a temporary solution, and Reivyn, now that he knew what to look for, could tell that it was already deteriorating quicker than anticipated. Being able to move about the Tier 5 Region quickly and efficiently, while also knowing where to search for the natural treasures they needed was the priority.
Getting the information on where the best spots to find what they were looking for could be provided in a written guide, though a personal one might be better.
We¡¯ll just have to see how things y out from here to there, Reivyn thought as he continued to scan the distance.
The trick to properly keeping one¡¯s eyes out was to not focus on anything in particr. It was natural for one to focus on a treeline in the distance, but one had to train themselves to always look at the furthest horizon they could see.
One also needed to be mindful of the lines. The vast majority of nts grew vertically, and any creature would most likely be horizontal. There were always exceptions to the rule, but the rule set the exceptions.
Reivyn kept his focus on the furthest point he could, zooming his focus beyond everything that could be seen in the foreground. He didn¡¯t expect to run upon anything dangerous, but his motto had always been cency kills,¡± so he always made a point to keep that in mind.
The one time a scary Tier 6 creature that shouldn¡¯t be there descended upon them, it would be the one time nobody was paying proper attention, and from all the records he had seen, Tier 6 creatures in the Wilderness weren¡¯t necessarily umon. It was very unlikely they would run into any before reaching the center line, but unlikely didn¡¯t mean impossible.
The rest of the day, and the following ones, continued in a simr vein. Reivyn would asionally allow his mind to wander about certain things he saw, but he always kept it brief and maintained his vignce. His father, mother, and otherpanions seemed to have the exact same mindset.
There was a reason they were all so much more powerful than their contemporaries.
Reivyn started his own journal and discussed the findings he had made of the striations and dents that were felt more than seen in the road. He didn¡¯t notice it so much in the natural growth of the Wilderness, but if he dug deep enough, there was evidence it was still there, permeating everything in the area.
¡°The reason the nts thrive in this environment is because they adapted here,¡± Kefira exined one evening. ¡°The stones of the road had been transported here from outside the Wilderness. I would bet that if we unearthed simr stone from within the Wilderness itself, it would be far more durable in the environment.
¡°It¡¯s not like we couldn¡¯t do it, but the risks and opportunity costs outweigh the reward, so we don¡¯t.¡±
Neither Kefira nor Reivyn¡¯s parents understood the implications of the wavy patterns found across the environment of the Wilderness anymore than Reivyn did, but they would be sure to pass the information along to the proper schrly channels. If he remembered, he would bring it up to someone in the settlement they were headed to, as well. Someone else might have noticed the pattern and discerned the meaning behind it.
The striations and dents grew in intensity as they neared the center line. The others with decent Mana Sensing Skills were able to see exactly what Reivyn was talking about if they focused enough. When they finally arrived at the center line, though, Reivyn noticed something new.
¡°Huh,¡± he said as they crossed the center. ¡°I could actually feel the energy in the wind as we stepped over the center.¡± Kefira looked at him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Well, it¡¯s hard to exin. I could feel it through my Divine Sense, but it was still very faint. If I wasn¡¯t paying attention, I would have never noticed.¡±
¡°So the same pattern exists in the wind?¡± Kefira asked.
¡°Not exactly?¡± It was more a question than a statement. ¡°It¡¯s more that the energy permeates everything in a three-dimensional area, but I could only sense it directly over the center. I already can¡¯t feel it anymore.
¡°It was like a constant wind with particles flitting about being carried along with it, but there was no actual wind. Does that make any sense?¡±
¡°Kind of?¡± Kefira gave him a questioning look. ¡°I mean I can sort of visualize what you¡¯re describing, but there¡¯s nothing there to actually visualize. To be clear, you¡¯re not saying it¡¯s the motes of Mana, correct?¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Those arepletely normal to my Perception and Skills. There seems to be some sort of other energy in the environment. If I had to guess, whatever the movement is, it¡¯s what causes the differing Mana densities without being Mana itself.¡±
¡°Well, add the observation to your notes,¡± Kefira said. ¡°It will probably help anyone interested in trying to solve the riddle you¡¯ve found.¡±
¡°So you¡¯re certain we¡¯ve officially crossed the center of the Wilderness?¡± Refix asked, walking closer to the pair.
Reivyn nodded his head.
¡°I¡¯m certain,¡± he answered. ¡°We knew we wereing up on it soon, and it makes sense. Even if we¡¯re still not exactly over it for whatever reason, I would say it¡¯s close enough to be the same thing.¡±
¡°Alright.¡±
Refix let out a short, sharp whistle to get the escorting soldiers¡¯ attention. He waved the leaders toward him once he knew he had their attention. The other soldiers took that as a signal for a short break, and everyone made preparations for it. Scouts were sent a short ways off in each direction while others pulled out rations. They would switch ces to allow everyone to have a quick reprieve before they set out again.
Refix faced the squad leaders of the soldiers.
¡°Now that we¡¯re on the far side of the Wilderness, our Party will now be the primarybatants,¡± he said. ¡°You all will be auxiliary. You''ll provide support and scouting for us. That doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re going to handle every encounter going forward, but I no long want you to automatically engage based on your own judgment.
¡°If we run into anything, you tell me, and I¡¯ll make the call on how we proceed. Does everyone understand?¡±
Refix looked each of the four squad leaders in the eye. They all nodded their heads and voiced assent to the new marching orders. Everyone knew this wasing, so there was no bickering or questions. Refix was now taking full responsibility.
Reivyn and his parents had discussed this before embarking on the journey. While Reivyn had his memories from Dreams of the Past to assist him in leading soldiers, Refix had far more experience leading this type of expedition. He was also Reivyn¡¯s father. Refix was perfectly happy to let his son be in charge of the mercenaries without question, but he was in his element now. There was no doubt that Reivyn would be a sessful leader, but establishing a clear chain ofmand ahead of time was just a good idea.
To be perfectly honest, Reivyn was looking forward to being under his father¡¯s wing. He hadn¡¯t had too many opportunities other than training to be in such a situation. There was just something about a father and son¡¯s rtionship that Reivyn was looking forward to. Putting his trust and faith in his father would bring him closer to Refix, and finally being able to fully embody his role as Reivyn¡¯s father brought immense satisfaction to Refix.
The military environment of the mercenarypany had made it easier for Refix to take a backseat to his son, but now they were in a more informal setting. Refix was no stranger to a militarized organization, but they had been operating as Adventurers for almost two decades now, even with their loyal subordinates from Vynndin they had picked up over the years.
¡°Kimberly and I will be the main vanguards,¡± Refix continued to their Party after the squad leaders returned to their soldiers. ¡°Seri, you¡¯re more of a protector than a frontlinebatant, so your main role will be to protect the casters. That doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t engage on the frontline, of course, but that¡¯s not your primary duty.¡±
¡°I understand,¡± Seri said with a nod.
¡°Ameliyn and Kefira, obviously, are the main casters. Teilon is the nker, and Reivyn is the floater. Unless I call for something specific, feel free to engage how you see fit.¡±
¡°Yes, father,¡± Reivyn answered.
They had all gone over their roles before beginning the journey, but it never hurt to reiterate them. For the most part, Reivyn would stand back with Kefira and his mother to fling Spells at the enemies while being prepared to assist Seri in guarding them. Teilon would be positioned just behind the vanguard and would seek out opportunities to strike in unpredictable ways.
It was a solid formation. The only thing theycked was a non-magical ranged focused sser and a dedicated Healer, though those things could easily be made up. Reivyn himself could fill in the role of an archer if he needed to with his Weapons Master Skill. He was actually interested in seeing how effective his True Strike ability functioned with a bow and arrow.
I¡¯ll need to acquire a bow and arrows first, though, Reivyn snorted to himself. He had only brought his trusty sling along with him for the journey. If they determined it was appropriate for him to get a bow, they would pick one up in the settlement.
The Party hunkered down to enjoy a quick meal while the soldiers rotated out their watch. They didn¡¯t take an extended break, so conversation remained light. Even with the scouts from the soldiers deployed all around them, Reivyn and the others still kept an eye on their surroundings while they took their short break.
¡°Alright,¡± Refix dered, standing up. ¡°We still have another half a month before we reach the Tier 5 Region. Let¡¯s get going.¡±
Chapter 276: Unexpectedly Unexpected
Chapter 276: Unexpectedly Unexpected
Switching up the lineup for who was responsible forbat didn¡¯t immediately change anything. For the most part, there weren¡¯trge concentrations of monsters roaming around or even high level monsters that required cooperation to take them down just hanging out in the Wilderness. The Wilderness was huge. It was a ringpletely separating the Upper Regions from the Lower Regions. While there were objectively a lot of monsters and beasts in the Wilderness, there wasn¡¯t a dense poption.
Switching the responsibility around was more about assessing the situation when possible. Instead of letting the honor guards make the decision to engage and handle the monsters themselves, Refix had the final word. It was more about making judgment calls on encounters rather than handling all of thebat.
Most of the time, monster encounters happened too quickly for any necessary analysis. The honor guards were able to overpower monsters and beasts that popped up out of nowhere. The actual issue was that this dynamic could change rapidly on the far side of the Wilderness.
After assuming responsibility from the honor guard squad leaders, the expedition traveled another three days before Reivyn¡¯s Party needed to step in.
There was no warning the first time. The Party was walking along a peaceful forest, keeping their eyes and ears open for any threats. Reivyn didn¡¯t detect anything unusual within his sphere of Divine Sense, and his visual concentration was focused beyond what he could sense nearby.
A sharp whistle was all the warning anyone had. Reivyn hadn¡¯t been in any fights, other than the fight against the Dragon which he couldn¡¯t remember, since he had consolidated all of his Skills. His Prodigy Skills activated in an interesting way.
He could feel his Danger Sense activate at the same time the whistle sound rang out, but he wasn¡¯t the intended target of the surprise attack. His Danger Sense Skill, before being consolidated in a Prodigy Skill, had never warned him of impending Danger to those near him. It had exclusively been a personal Skill.
That wasn¡¯t the only interesting thing that happened, though. As far as Reivyn could recall, his Perfect Domain Skill only ever activated when he was unconscious. It tapped into his Divine Sense to detect the world around him and act ordingly. This time, though, Reivyn almost felt like a puppet with his strings pulled as his body moved all on its own.
That wasn¡¯t the best analogy either, though. It was like his body was moving on reflex but he never felt like he wasn¡¯t in full control. As his body darted toward the danger, he knew that he could alter the actions his body was making on reflex alone, but without actively intervening, he kept going.Reivyn¡¯s body shed forward before anyone else had time to make any reactions. Not even Refix had so much nced toward the whistling sound before Reivyn intercepted the shadow screaming toward them from the forest canopy.
Reivyn¡¯s sword whipped out of his scabbard, his wrist twisted, and he batted the shadow out of the air with the t of his de. Even the action of twisting the de so as not to bisect whatever attacked them had been controlled by abination of his Danger Sense and Perfect Domain Skills working together.
Everyone came to a halt and focused their attention on the ground where the shadow had been swatted away. A palm-sized birdy briefly stunned on the ground. It¡¯s beak was lodged in the dirt, it¡¯s two feetically sticking up in the air.
Reivyn stoodpletely still as presences previously hidden to his Divine Sense suddenly came perfectly into view in his mind¡¯s eye. He snapped his head to the side where one of the honor guard took a step toward the small bird.
¡°STOP!¡± He shouted. ¡°Everyone stay perfectly still.¡±
The guards froze in ce, acting on themand with practiced instant obedience to orders. The other Party members remained where they were and looked toward Reivyn with curiosity.
Reivyn slowly raised his head and looked to the canopy. All around,pletely surrounding them for dozens of yards in every direction, hundreds of simr-sized ck birds were hopping back and forth on their two feet, nudging each other, and gazing down at the humans trespassing on their territory.
High above a group of muchrger birds about the size of a human child were calmly watching Reivyn and the others. Above them, a humongous bird easily asrge as Reivyn himself locked eyes with Reivyn.
Reivyn could see the spark of intelligence in the beast¡¯s gaze. It looked away from Reivyn to inspect the little bird that had ambushed them. The palm sized bird kicked its feet and wriggled its wings until it was able to dislodge its beak from the dirt. It sat up, looked at Reivyn, and squawked.
Reivyn had to stifle a chuckle. The disy of fierce determination from the baby bird came out more of a squeak than anything intimidating.
Reivyn assessed the little beast. Its talons were razor sharp. The feathers were sturdy and equally sharp. Each one was like a little dagger. The beak had a wicked hook, and it was clear at a nce the bird was built for predation. Every part of its body was designed to rip and tear into prey.
Reivyn slowly reached into his storage bag, moving slowly and deliberately with the knowledge that the giant birds above had zeroed their focus upon him as soon as he moved. He grabbed a piece of raw meat and tossed it to the little predator.
The small bird squealed again, this time sounding more like triumph than indignation. It snagged the piece of meat in its beak and hopped several awkward steps before gaining wind with its wings to fly back up to one of the middle branches.
Reivyn once more nced up at the patriarch - or matriarch, Reivyn thought with a mental shrug - and nodded his head. The giant bird nodded back and turned its gaze away to watch the little ones again. The small birds looked at them with more curiosity than anything else, and none of them attempted a simr attack as the first one.
¡°Slowly, and calmly, let¡¯s continue our walk,¡± Reivyn said.
Everyone turned in the direction they had been moving and continued walking. Everyone kept an eye out on the branches above in addition to watching their surroundings. The flock of birds wasn¡¯t actually asrge as it seemed at first. They had just simply been in the dead center of the collection of beasts, or at least close enough to be basically the same thing.
Reivyn continued to monitor therger birds with his Divine Sense. After the group moved on, they lost interest in them and were perfectly happy with just watching the young ones¡¯ antics.
Long before reaching the edge of his Divine Sense, they suddenly winked out of Reivyn¡¯s perception. He could still see and hear them with his eyes and ears, but it was like they didn¡¯t exist to his Divine Sense. If he didn¡¯t look directly at the birds for several seconds, their forms grew fuzzy to his mundane perception, as well.
After several minutes, the group was clear of the flock of birds, and a collective sigh of relief escaped everyone. Even Reivyn rxed tension in his shoulders he hadn¡¯t noticed had been there.
¡°What was that?!¡± Teilon gasped. ¡°I felt like a mountain was pressing down on me every time I tried to move before you tossed that little brat a piece of meat.¡±
¡°I never read anything about a species of birds like that from any of the memoirs or journals,¡± Kefira said, ¡°and I haven¡¯t heard anyone talk about anything like them, either.¡±
¡°Why didn¡¯t you warn us there was a nest of dangerous, giant birds just hanging out over our heads?¡± Teilon turned to Reivyn.
¡°I had no idea they were there,¡± he admitted. Everyone turned and looked at him with surprise. ¡°I¡¯m no expert on beasts, so I don¡¯t know how Skills work for them, but that giant bird at the top, I¡¯m assuming, had some sort of powerful concealing Skill.
¡°I don¡¯t know if any of you noticed, but if you looked away long enough, they seemed to grow fuzzy and were hard to focus on again. That concealment Skill seemed more toward defending against Perception Skills rather than direct line of sight, but it still has some effect in that regard as well.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°Itpletely bypassed my Divine Sense Skill. There was zero indication they were there. It was so thorough, it even wiped away any tangential evidence of their presence from being spied upon. Looking at the little birds hopping around, you can see that the branches bend and sway, but in my Divine Sense, it looks like the natural movements caused by the wind.¡±
¡°Wow,¡± Refix said with a thoughtful expression. ¡°That just tells me my intuition was right. That¡¯s not a creature we want to mess with.¡±
¡°I agree,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Luckily, my Danger Sense and other Skills understood that subconsciously. That¡¯s why I hit the small bird with the t of my de instead of cutting it in half.¡±
¡°What do you mean? You didn¡¯t make that decision?¡± Kefira raised a suspicious eyebrow.
¡°Nope. My body reacted all on its own, and I just went with it.¡±
¡°Yeah, we don¡¯t have to go looking for ferocious beasts to contend with. We have a monster right here in our midst,¡± Teilon smirked as he yfully shoved Reivyn in the shoulder. ¡°Though, I wonder why that bird didn¡¯t attack us after you pped the little one around?¡±
Ameliyn snorted.
¡°You¡¯ll learn one day,¡± she said with a sidelong nce at Kimberly. ¡°It was teaching the baby bird.¡±
¡°Teaching?¡± Teilon queried.
¡°With how everything went down, it taught the bird it couldn¡¯t rely on him to fight his fights for him, though he would be there to protect him if necessary. Itunched an ambush at us, and when it failed, it had to suffer the consequences of its own actions. Thus, he allowed it to be hit out of the air.
¡°Then it taught it that he¡¯s still the apex predator in that situation. It remained calm the whole time and basically extorted a reward for the kid.¡±
¡°Reward?¡± Teilon was confused. ¡°You just said it was letting the baby bird suffer the consequences for failing in its ambush.¡±
¡°Yeah, of course,¡± Ameliyn shrugged. ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯m an expert on bird culture, but those particr birds were obviously predators. The baby bird was rewarded for showing courage and initiative. None of the other birds attacked us, and none of the other birds got a hunk of meat.
¡°Thew of the jungle is much more brutal out in the wilderness than in the safety of a city. You¡¯ll have to take all of that with a grain of salt though, because that¡¯s just my interpretation of what happened. As a mother, I could understand it in those terms.¡±
Kimberly¡¯s face went bright red and she turned her head away. Reivyn shared a look with Kefira, winking at her. She chuckled as she swatted at his arm.
¡°Behave,¡± she whispered.
Teilon looked toward Kimberly and saw her blushing while refusing to look at him. He walked over and ced his arm around her shoulder.
¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± He asked. ¡°What happened?¡± He looked about for any indication of something bothering Kimberly.
Kimberly threw Teilon¡¯s arm off her shoulder and rolled her eyes. The blush receded from her skin as she stomped a few feet ahead. Teilon looked up at Reivyn and smirked.
Reivyn chuckled. So he wasn¡¯t oblivious to mom¡¯s not-so-veiled joke.
¡°Regardless, I¡¯m just happy they were rtively friendly,¡± Refix said. ¡°I¡¯m the highest Level person here in our group, and my intuition was telling me I stood no chance. The other adult birds not so much, so we could probably take a few of them, but there were a lot of them.¡±
¡°Well, leave it up to the Wilderness to subvert expectations so much it even subverts your anticipated subversion, haha,¡± Reivyn chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s interesting that we managed to stumble across a type of beast not mentioned anywhere else.
¡°Then again, now that I think about it, it¡¯s very likely the authors of all the journals we read dide across those birds. They just didn¡¯t know it.¡±
¡°I can believe it,¡± Teilon said. ¡°That¡¯s the first time I¡¯m hearing of anything getting past your Divine Sense.¡±
¡°That we know of,¡± Reivyn added. ¡°Now I¡¯m going to second-guess a lot of my interactions in the past. It¡¯s a good reminder that even with such a powerful Skill as Divine Sense, one-¡±
¡°-Shouldn¡¯t getcent,¡± everyone else chorused with him.
¡°Hey! It¡¯s a good lesson,¡± Reivyn sulked.
¡°We get it, man,¡± Teilon pped him on the shoulder, ¡°but you talk about it all the time. If anyone needs to worry about growingcent, it¡¯s none of us.¡± Teilon chuckled.
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at his friend.
¡°Really? That sounds like something someone¡cent¡ would say.¡± Reivyn wiggled his eyebrows at his friend. Teilon shoved him away with augh.
¡ª
The rest of the day didn¡¯t have any more surprises for the group. They continued on their intended path, only having lost a few minutes while interacting with the flock of birds. They continued walking through the forests and grasnds interspersed through the Wilderness.
A faint roaring sound could be heard a couple of hours before it was time to find a camping spot. Reivyn strained his hearing to see if he could figure out what it could be. It wasn¡¯t the roar of a wild animal. It was a constant sound reverberating throughout the background noise.
¡°I was wondering when you¡¯d pick it up,¡± Refix nced at Reivyn. Reivyn gave him a quizzical look. ¡°I still have much higher Perception than you do. I¡¯ve been hearing it for the past ten minutes.¡±
¡°Care to clue is in, hon?¡± Ameliyn asked.
¡°There¡¯s a faint noise in the background. I was justmenting on how it looked like Reivyn was finally picking it up, too.¡±
¡°He must have surpassed me with his Perception Stat, because I don¡¯t hear anything yet,¡± Ameliyn admitted.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t worry about it too much, dear. It was bound to happen sooner orter, what with the rapid growth of our boy, here.¡±
¡°Yeah, but it feels a bit strange to finally notice him catching up and surpassing me. I¡¯ve been someone he had to look up to his whole life until recently.¡±
¡°I still look up to you, mom,¡± Reivyn said, looking down at his mom. He reddened in slight embarrassment as he noticed his actions. ¡°Well, you know what I mean.¡±
Ameliyn gave him a quick side-hug.
¡°Aww, I do. Love you, son,¡± Ameliyn said with a happy smile. ¡°Anyway, you mentioned a roaring sound, honey?¡±
The other Party members nced at Refix. The closest Honor Guard soldiers perked up their ears to listen while they maintained their vignce toward outside threats.
¡°I just figured it out, myself,¡± Refix said. He kept walking, not borating any further.
Ameliyn waited patiently for a moment before rolling her eyes and swatting her husband on the arm.
¡°Well don¡¯t keep us in suspense, you big lug!¡±
Refix recoil his arm and rubbed it like the strike had actually hurt, but the cheeky grin on his face gave away his acting.
¡°It¡¯s a waterfall,¡± he answered. ¡°Based on my Perception stat and other factors, I would say two or three miles away we¡¯ll run into a river.¡±
¡°A waterfall?¡± Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head. He peered through the trees and foliage ahead. ¡°Can¡¯t really tell that there¡¯s a big enough hill or cliff ahead to warrant such a thing.¡±
¡°Yeah, these things can sneak up on you in the woods,¡± Refix nodded sagely. ¡°We still have half a mile to go, probably, and that¡¯s plenty of distance for us not to be able to see with the current visibility.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, I¡¯m not saying I don¡¯t believe you or anything. I was just making an observation.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t run across too many waterfalls all that often,¡± Kefira spoke up. ¡°We should go check it out. It might also give us a good ce where everyone can take a dip in the water and rx.¡±
¡°I like the sound of that,¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°I know we keep ourselves clean with regr hygiene and Magic, but a soak in actual water sounds heavenly right now.¡± Kimberly and Seri nodded their heads seriously off to the side.
¡°Sure, sounds like a n,¡± Refix said. ¡°We¡¯re heading in the right direction already, so no need for a course correction.¡±
Everyone¡¯s mood was visibly lifted at the prospect of getting to have some fun and rxation in the water. The presence of a waterfall eluded to water deep enough to swim in, at least a waterfall that was loud enough for Refix to hear several miles away. With how fast they were able to move with their Stats, they had covered well over two miles in the past ten minutes.
The group continued forward, the waterfall sounds growing louder and louder until everyone could clearly hear it and identify what it was. A cliff in the distance eventually became visible through the trees. If they had been in one of the open areas of the geography, there was no way they would have missed it.
As they got closer and the sound got louder, Kefira¡¯s steps started to slow. Reivyn noticed immediately and nced at her out of concern.
¡°Wait,¡± she said,ing to a stop. She looked up at everyone as they all came to a stop at her call ¡°On second thought, let¡¯s change course.¡±
Refix didn¡¯t hesitate. He simply nodded and motioned to the Honor Guards in the lead.
¡°Change of ns!¡± He called out. He pointed off to the left. ¡°Let¡¯s head in that direction for a bit and skirt around this area.¡±
The Honor Guards exchanged looks between themselves, but they didn¡¯t voice anyint or objection. They simply turned and started leading the Party away.
Reivyn was happy that his father trusted Kefira so much that he would alter their ns for a morale boosting activity with no questions asked. He would have done the same, but now that the decision had been made, he was curious.
¡°So what made you change your mind?¡± He asked.
¡°I can feel a disturbance in the Space Mana around here,¡± Kefira answered. ¡°There hasn¡¯t been anything remotely like it since we¡¯ve entered the Wilderness, and it faintly reminds me of a Dungeon.¡±
¡°You¡¯re saying there¡¯s a Dungeon up ahead?¡± Teilon asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that more reason to head over there instead of away?¡±
Reivyn shook his head.
¡°I don¡¯t suppose your reading material contained the same journals mine did,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s just say, there aren¡¯t any Dungeons in the Wilderness.¡±
¡°Then what?¡± Teilon was thoroughly confused.
¡°I said it reminded me of a Dungeon, not that it is a Dungeon,¡± Kefira said. ¡°One of the journals I researched talked about an expedition finding a portal they thought was a Dungeon. It wasn¡¯t. It was the nest of some Tier 7 or higher creature that lured others in to eat them.¡±
Teilon gave out a low whistle. He once again threw his arm over Kimberly¡¯s shoulder.
¡°Yeah, that doesn¡¯t sound like a good time,¡± he said with a serious expression.
Kimberly elbowed him in the gut before maneuvering out of his grasp once more. Teilon grunted and let her step away.
¡°Yeah, the journal put emphasis on the chewing,¡± Reivyn added.
Teilon nched.
¡°Chewing¡ Yeah, definitely not a good time.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll head up the cliff and make camp along the river away from whatever anomaly Kefira sensed,¡± Refix said. ¡°We might get lucky and still find a suitable ce to enjoy the water. After that maybe we¡¯ll backtrack and see if we can¡¯t spy exactly what it is from a safe distance.
¡°I read that ount, too, and the author mentioned the creature didn¡¯t seem to leave the vicinity of the portal. That being said, safety first. It¡¯s not worth it to risk our lives to sate our curiosity.¡±
Reivyn nodded. He nced at Kefira, and she nodded back.
¡°Alright. We can do that.¡±
Chapter 277: Portal Extreme-ity
Chapter 277: Portal Extreme-ity
Camping in the Wilderness wasn¡¯t exactly the ideal ce to exercise and train one¡¯s Skills. Even though Reivyn and the others trained their bodies to operate while being tired, there was a difference between fighting for your life until tired and fighting for your life already tired. That kind of intense exercise would have to wait until they were in a safer location.
That didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t do anything. They did some light sparring and Reivyn and Refix supervised Kefira, Teilon, and Kimberly in their weapon forms. They only did enough to build up a light sweat, and afterward, they took turns doing some short Mana Skill practice. Even with the Honor Guard providing support, they still maintained their own watch system. It was better to stay in practice than to get used to not having to do it. The Honor Guard weren¡¯t going to stick around with them for their entire expedition.
The Party had been true to their earlier expectation of finding a ce that allowed them to use the river uphill of where Kefira had sensed the Space Mana anomaly. The simple training they usually did in the evenings was cut short so everyone could have some fun and rxation in the water.
¡°YAAaaaah!¡± Teilon yelled as he sprinted toward the bank andunched himself into the air. He came crashing down into the water with his knees tucked up and his arms around his legs. They had already tested the depth of the water, so there was no risk of hitting a shallow spot in the river.
Reivyn followed suit but without the yelling. He kept an eye on Teilon¡¯s position, and right as his friend surfaced from the water with a ssh, Reivyn grabbed him and pulled him back down with a surprised yelp. Teilon¡¯s arms iled and his feet kicked up out of the water.
Reivyn relented and let go of his friend to allow him to break the surface once more. They had high enough stats that rough housing a bit wouldn¡¯t cause any harm, and he knew from their time in the underwater Dungeon that Teilon could hold his breath for a long time. He had memories of certain etiquette needing to be followed in the water from his Dreams, but those sorts of concerns weren¡¯t an issue beyond Tier 2 for the most part.
¡°Gah!¡± Teilon spluttered. He red at Reivyn with mock outrage. ¡°I cannot let this stand!¡± He lunged toward aughing Reivyn.
Reivyn kicked off in the opposite direction, intentionally sshing as much as he could in Teilon¡¯s face.
¡°Hahaha, take that!¡± Reivyn taunted. Teilon came to a stop and shielded his face.¡°Alright, alright!¡± He eximed. ¡°I yield. You¡¯re the big man in the water. Happy?¡±
¡°You know it,¡± Reivyn smirked.
Reivyn saw his father tip-toeing to the bank with his Divine Sense, but he didn¡¯t react. Teilon did a good job of not giving it away, either, by not ncing at his sneaking dad. Reivyn mentally smirked as Refix abruptlyunched himself in the air toward Reivyn. He calmly swiped his arms to dodge his falling father, but once Refix realized he wasn¡¯t going to get the drop on his so, he turned his maneuver into another bomb like Teilon and sent arge ssh into Reivyn¡¯s face.
¡°Hah! Can¡¯t dodge them all!¡± Teilon taunted.
¡°Uh, huh. You would know.¡±
Refix came up from beneath Reivyn and grabbed ahold of him. Reivyn and his dad started wrestling in the water, but neither one was being too serious about it. They were trying to get into position to dunk their opponent without resorting to full body grapples, showcasing more their Swimming Skill than Grappling. Reivyn had never specifically trained in Grappling, but with a mental switch viewing it as a weapon, he was immediately Skilled and understood exactly how to move.
He refrained from doing so, though. They were just having fun, though they each asionally sent sshes toward each other when one would break away from a move.
Reivyn felt a tingling in the back of his mind, but he couldn¡¯t quite ce it. He wasn¡¯t getting a ping from his Danger Sense, but there was something in the back of his mind calling to his attention. He stopped and held up a hand to Refix for a second.
¡°Wait, something¡¯s off¡¡± He looked around and tried to figure out what was bothering him. With a sh, it came to him. ¡°I can¡¯t sense Teilon anywhere!¡±
Reivyn began looking around for threats immediately, suspecting something had snuck up on them and abducted their friend while he was preupied with his father. He turned to Refix who was just floating there, looking at him with a strange expression on his face.
¡°What are you doing?¡± He asked. ¡°Help me - Gah!¡±
Teilon lunged up from beneath the water, suddenlying into focus in Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense, and wrapped his arms around Reivyn¡¯s neck from behind. He pulled his torso back, dragging Reivyn along with him into the water.
After fully submerging Reivyn, Teilon released his grip and surfaced. Reivyn came up, spluttering, and heard Teilon and Refix bothughing.
¡°Hah! Gotcha!¡± Teilon taunted.
¡°Yeah, you did,¡± Reivyn said, wiping the water from his face. ¡°How did you do that? You disappeared from my Divine Sense.¡±
¡°Well, I¡¯ve had my Sneaking Skill at the Level 75 bottleneck for quite some time now,¡± Teilon said, treading water. ¡°Our encounter with the bird gave me an epiphany. I realized that there was more than just sight and sound that I could hide from.
¡°I imagine the normal path for those upgrading their Sneaking Skill would be to mask their scent or something like that. I took a bit of a different direction with it, though. I¡¯m not exactly sure how to exin it, but I used inspiration from my ss Skills that allow me to merge through solid matter, and I sort of merged my presence into the surroundings.
¡°It¡¯s not really intuitive to exin, but that¡¯s the best I can do.¡±
¡°Hmm, I think I actually understand,¡± Reivyn said, nodding his head. ¡°That sounds like quite an advanced ability for the Skill.¡±
¡°Yeah. I have a feeling that it¡¯s more than it seems, too. I can¡¯t exin it, but I feel like I won¡¯t have much of a bottleneck at 100. It¡¯s sort of like an instinctual understanding. Wait a moment¡¡± Teilon¡¯s vision seemed to focus on something right in front of his face for a moment. ¡°Oh wow! I got an Achievement for that!¡±
¡°Really? What is it?¡± Reivyn asked curiously.
¡°It says I unlocked a Transcendent Ability before reaching Level 100 in a Skill,¡± Teilon looked up at Reivyn and Refix in excitement. ¡°The reward is that I have a permanent reduction in unlocking new Transcendent Abilities for that Skill! That¡¯s kind of broken.¡± He smirked at Reivyn. ¡°And hey, I finally managed to do something you haven¡¯t been able to do!¡±
¡°Congrattions!¡± Reivyn said. ¡°For real, that¡¯s impressive. I didn¡¯t even know that was possible.¡± He looked to Refix for confirmation.
¡°First I¡¯ve ever heard of it,¡± Refix shrugged.
¡°It probably has something to do with negating your Divine Sense Skill. You did tell me it¡¯s technically a Divine Skill, just not fueled with Divine Mana currently. Being able to bamboozle that Skill is probably an order of magnitude more difficult than oveing another type of Perception or Detection Skill.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do it, either, if I didn¡¯t have my very specific ss Skills, and I got the unlock for that ss from that time we fought the Spectres in the Undead Dungeon all those years ago.¡±
¡°Oh really? That¡¯s what it was?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Yeah. You know how ss descriptions are. It didn¡¯te right out and say it, but it heavily implied it, and that¡¯s basically the same thing.¡±
¡°Nice.¡±
The three men stopped fooling around trying to dunk each other and just rxed in the water for a bit longer. It was a nice break from the tension of always being on the alert while in the Wilderness. The Honor Guard had split up to monitor both sides of the river, and Reivyn and the others would swap out with them for their turn in the water, too.
All in all, it was a pleasant evening and everyone felt recharged when it was over.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
¡ª
Teilon led the way down the river the following morning. They woke up just before dawn and instructed the Honor Guard to move just a little ways ahead and to be on standby. They didn¡¯t know what they were going to find, but if there was danger, it was prudent to already have everyone in position to flee in the same, correct direction.
Teilon, with his new Stealth Skill Level finally above 75 and the ability to phase through solid objects, was the optimal choice to be the scout. Reivyn had his Divine Sense and other Prodigy Skills, including his ndestine Prodigy, but thebination of different sneaky Skills didn¡¯t make his actual Sneak better than Teilons.
Teilon¡¯s Perception Stat was lower than Reivyns by a little, but Divine Sense was still a rtively close range Skill and Teilon had higher Skill Levels for his Search and Detection Skills at a distance. He had been focusing his Skills around a Scout/Melee Damage Dealer hybrid after all. Not only were his abilities in this area slightly better than Reivyn¡¯s, it made more sense for him to gain the practical experience.
Teilon left behind no trace of his passing and made such little noise that Reivyn could barely detect it with his Divine Sense. The foliage was pretty dense along the riverbank, and as they were investigating a phenomenon at the base of a waterfall, there was no reason to leave the concealment.
They crept along the river for several minutes until Teilon parted some leaves and held up a hand. He turned his head to look at the other Party members and subtly jerked his head to signal for the others toe up.
Refix was first in line so he could be in position to take the brunt of anything that came their way. Kimberly and Seri followed close behind. Finally, Kefira, Ameliyn, and Reivyn, respectively, made their way to the edge of the cliff.
The sound of the waterfall was loud enough that it would most likely conceal any noise they were making, but there was no reason to take a chance. They continued to creep forward with as little noise as possible. They didn¡¯t know if they were going to find a mysterious beast nest in a separate Space or not. From the journals, the thing could be anything from Tier 6 to Tier 7. Who knew what a Tier 7 beast could detect?
Reivyn peered over Kefira¡¯s shoulder who was kneeling just in front of him. The sight before him was quite breathtaking. Even though the canopy blocked most of the morning light, it was still open above the smallke at the base of the cliff. There was no reflection of the sun in the water, but it was lit with beautiful rity regardless.
The water from the river turned slightly frothy at the top of the cliff due to the presence of somerge rocks, and it cascaded over the edge in a white torrent. Reivyn could picture the spray at the bottom where itnded in theke giving off incandescent rainbow light once the sun rose high enough for the light to strike it just right.
The shore of theke was gentle, unlike the sides of the river. It made ess to the water easy for any wildlife that wanted toe for a sip of water. The height of the cliff meant they could see just over the tops of the closest trees. The forest they were traveling through wasn¡¯t particrlyrge, but they couldn¡¯t see far enough into the distance to see where it ended at their angle.
The green and brown of the trees was in contrast to the serene blue of the clear waters of theke. Colorful birds could be seen flitting about asionally from tree to tree, and Reivyn could even see woond creatures like squirrels running about without a care in the world. Even in the Wilderness, the normal fauna that hadn¡¯t turned into ferocious beasts lived normal lives.
All of that was the natural beauty of the environment, and Reivyn took it in at a nce. That wasn¡¯t what arrested his attention, though. Just like Kefira had suspected, a portal resembling an entrance to a Dungeon floated silently over the center of theke. The soft glow of Mana sustaining the portal radiated away from the break in Space.
The Party satpletely still as they observed the situation. If they didn¡¯t know better, Reivyn would have absolutely assumed the portal was an undiscovered Dungeon located in a location it shouldn¡¯t have been. With forewarning, though, they knew not to approach such an obvious derivation.
A deer wandered out from the trees to the edge of theke, lowering its head to take a sip. Everything seemed normal and peaceful. The deerpped at the water and seemed about to finish up and turn around to leave.
Reivyn sensed it through his Mana Skills in conjunction with his Divine Sense before he saw anything. From the way Kefira¡¯s shoulders tensed, he guessed she knew something was up as well. They didn¡¯t even have time to react to the forewarning before it happened.
Suddenly, arge, ck tentacle zipped across from the portal toward the deer. It closed the distance in a fraction of a second. It was covered in wicked-looking barbs that seemed to ooze a dark substance that dripped down into theke. Where it dripped, it quickly dispersed into the clear waters, but shortly after, dead fish began to float to the surface. They bobbed lifelessly in a line matching where the tentacle stretched over the water.
The deer didn¡¯t react any differently than the Party members observing from the top of the cliff. The very tip of the tentacle opened up into a maw and enveloped the deer.
The creature obviously could have devoured the deer whole, but it deliberately didn¡¯t do so. Wicked fangspletely covered the interior of the sudden abyss from the tentacle and crunched down on the deer. The deer started screaming in pain as it writhed in agony. From Reivyn¡¯s perspective, he could see that the tentacle monster had deliberately avoided injuring any instantly fatal points on the deer¡¯s body. It was almost like it enjoyed the torture it inflicted on the innocent prey.
They were too far away and too close to the waterfall to hear, but they could see the tentacle chew. The muscles on the tentacle convulsed in a way that it was obvious. It took its time as it slowly consumed the deer alive. Eventually the animal did die, but it was anything but fast.
The tentacle stopped chewing and started swaying back and forth along the coast of theke. A bulge appeared at the base of the tentacle near the portal along the skin and quickly moved along the tendril to the end. Without being able to tell exactly how it happened, the bulge arrived where the maw had been, and now the break where the mouth had been was reced by the ball.
It seemed to rotate, and then a line opened alongside the outer curvature. An eye blinked as it seemingly came into being. The pupil darted about left and right as the tentacle swayed from side to side.
A soft choking sound came from Reivyn¡¯s left and he could see Kimberly attempting to repress a gag.
The tentacle suddenly jerked and whipped up vertically. Just as fast as it had traversed the radius of theke, it was suddenly at an equal height as the Party watching from the cliff. It twisted about like a periscope and the eyeball zeroed in on the Party members.
Everyone collectively froze and held their breath. The tentacle didn¡¯t immediately make any other moves. Reivyn didn¡¯t know if it was because there wasn¡¯t enough mass still within the portal for it to reach their position or if it was some other reason. He didn¡¯t care. All he knew was that they were in a stalemate staringpetition with a creature straight out of a nightmare.
Dozens of balls rushed up the tentacle from the portal. They randomly positioned themselves all along the tentacle beneath the first orb. The same rotation movement happened, and another couple of dozen eyeballs opened, staring directly at the Party members.
Reivyn could tell that the main focus of the first eye was straight at him. It wasn¡¯t just the first, main eye, either. He could see it and feel it that 90% of the monster¡¯s attention was focused solely on him.
His Divine Sense and Mana Skills warned him that something was brewing within the tentacle. He didn¡¯t care what it was. He knew they had to get out of there now.
Actingpletely on instinct, Reivyn dug deep within himself. He wrestled control of his Qi and once more flooded his body with the mysterious energy. He reached out with Mana tendril and wrapped all of his friends and family, binding them to him, and simultaneouslyunched himself into the air as powerfully as he could.
He and the rest of his Party rocketed into the sky. A bellow of rage with a visible soundwave erupted from a new maw formed on the side of the tentacle. Just like had happened when faced with the robed archer while on deployment in Vairo, Reivyn¡¯s movements while flooded with Qi were exceptional. His perception of time slowed, and he could tell that he was moving at least as fast as the tentacle had before.
He had jumped straight up into the air, and with a brief nce of the expansive Wilderness around him, he quickly created a solid barrier at his feet with his Mana. The air solidified to as hard as stone, and he once moreunched himself off of it, but this time he jumped in the direction the Honor Guard was waiting for them.
Thendscape blurred below them, and he noticed that they quickly flew past where the Honor Guard were waiting. He hadn¡¯t had time to gauge his own strength, and he ended up moving considerably farther than he had intended. Luckily the Honor Guard were paying attention, and even with the slowing of his perception of time, he could see that they noticed their passing.
Very quickly Reivyn¡¯s horizontal momentum stalled and the Party descended toward the ground. He once again used his Mana to manipte the Gravity around them to soften the blow of their fall. The time dtion resumed a normal speed once more.
¡°Urk!¡±
Teilon, Kimberly, and Kefira all three bent over and retched. Seri looked pale, but Reivyn could see that she was mustering all of her willpower to resist the urge to vomit. Ameliyn looked a bit dizzy, but Refix seemedpletely fine.
Reivyn sat down and panted. He checked his Status and saw that he had expended 60% of his Qi in those two actions. He knew one could suffer a bacsh from using too much Mana at once, so it made sense to him that one would with Qi as well. He guessed they shared symptoms, though, because he could feel that he had a tolerance built up to it. If he had never experienced a Mana bacsh before, he would probably be much worse off.
¡°What happened?!¡± Teilon asked, wiping his mouth and sitting up straight. ¡°Wha- Wher- How?¡±
¡°I got us out of there,¡± Reivyn exined.
¡°Ugh, I hope to never experience something like that again.¡±
¡°It wasn¡¯t that bad,¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at his friend. Teilon just tared mutely at him for several seconds.
¡°Wasn¡¯t that bad?!¡± He finally yelled. ¡°You moved us like three quarters of a mile in a second! I didn¡¯t know you could move that fast. How much Mana did you have to use to reinforce your body to do that?¡±
¡°That was Qi,¡± Reivyn shook his head. ¡°I only used Mana to bring you with me and make a tform to jump off.¡±
¡°Jeeze,¡± Teilon eximed, scratching the back of his head. ¡°If I knew Qi could do something like that, I would have joined you in making some. Well, no I wouldn¡¯t have. It was already toote for me. But, dang.¡±
¡°Anyway, the Honor Guard is catching up, so get up and get ready to move out,¡± Refix cut in. ¡°The journals mentioned the thing didn¡¯t seem to leave itsir, but that tentacle was also way bigger and scarier than I was anticipating.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice,¡± Teilon muttered.
Teilon, Kimberly, and Kefira visibly mustered the strength to stand. Teilon and Kimberly helped each other, and Reivyn lent an arm for Kefira to steady herself. The Honor Guard came running through the woods, and after one look at Refix, they immediately setup their normal formation.
¡°Let¡¯s go, go, go!¡± Refixmanded.
Chapter 278: First Contact
Chapter 278: First Contact
Reivyn felt the dense Mana all around him as he trudged along through the open field. The grass was weighed down by its own weight so it only reached up to his hips. The wind was clearly visible in snaking lines among the greenery. Walking through the thick grass and thick Mana gave the impression that it was more difficult to move than it actually was. It was like having the expectation of wading through shallow water only to find that one¡¯s feet moved effortlessly forward.
Moving fully into the Tier 5 Region brought equal parts relief and trepidation. There had been no more encounters with rogue trap portals or mysterious beasts that could camouge themselves from his Divine Sense - that he knew of. They were also lucky to avoid any encounters with higher Tier monsters or beasts on the backend of their journey through the Wilderness.
The Wilderness was a wildcard. It was more likely that they would run into generic Tier 4 and 5 creatures, but there was always the possibility of something much more terrifying randomly appearing. The Tier 5 Region was popted almost exclusively by Tier 5 creatures, though the asional Tier 6 could be found in the deeper areas as well as along the border to the Tier 6 Regions.
Coming out of the Wilderness was a relief that they wouldn¡¯t run into any more tentacle monsters or have a bad random encounter, but now they had to worry about the hordes of Tier 5 goblins spoken about universally in the journals they had read about the Upper Region. The goblins were nomadic for the most part, and for some unknown reason they liked to separate into small bands that broke up into groups of twos and threes to wander around the countryside.
There were mentions of goblin settlements in the deeper areas led by the hobgoblin variants, but thoserge groups with the Tier 6 leaders were never found near the border to the Wilderness. There was no exnation given, but Reivyn didn¡¯t really care why it worked that way. He was just happy that it did.
He wasn¡¯t worried about running into a singr Tier 6 monster. Their Party could handle such an encounter, especially with the Honor Guard still following along. The problem with Tier 6 hobgoblins, though, was that they were always surrounded by hundreds of Tier 5 goblins.
The goblins in the tribes headed by hobgoblins were semi-sapient. They seemed to have their own culture and politics from what was read in the records, but they became uncontrobly bloodthirsty in the presence of humans. Some of the reading material mentioned witnessing warring factions of goblins, but if the humans watching were ever discovered by even one goblin, both sides would halt their hostilities to chase down the intruding humans until the bloodlust wore off.
Reivyn was much more confident in fending off small bands of twenty or so goblins as opposed to several hundred. He would reserve judgment until after first contact, but he was pretty sure, especially with his parents along for the expedition, that they wouldn¡¯t need to resort to building a temporary fort to sessfully fight off a roving band.
Reivyn kept his eyes on the horizon as they walked through the open field. Keeping his focus on the distance allowed him to view everything that happened between him and his focal point. The trick was to not focus on something closer than the absolute distance, because it was much harder to catch something beyond focus than something out of focus inside the range of his vision.The open ins stretched before him for miles. It was deceptively empty, but goblins were short. If he had to guess, Reivyn would assume there were hundreds of goblins in his vast field of view if the grass was just shorter. It almost looked like waves in the ocean as the wind blew the grass.
Off in the distance, Reivyn could see rolling hills, and even further, the tips of mountains far, far away were visible above the hills. There was no telling how far away those mountains were, so he couldn¡¯t judge how tall they were. From the context of how they seemed misty from the atmosphere, Reivyn guessed they were still incredibly far away.
The ins weren¡¯tpletely open. There were still little copses of trees, though nothing he would consider a forest, or even just the woods. Off to the side, way in the distance, there was a long line of trees that hinted at a forest muchrger than anything they had found in the Wilderness. The distant mountain range continued beyond the forest until it disappeared behind the line of trees.
It wasn¡¯t just grass that swayed in the wind. Splotches of color decorated thendscape. Reivyn wasn¡¯t much of a botanist, so he couldn¡¯t tell whether any of the colorful flowers were on any kind of useful nt or not, but he would probably secure some as presents for his sisters to experiment with. They wouldn¡¯t get much of a bonus for working with Tier 5 materials for simple crafts that didn¡¯t refine the materials in any meaningful way, but it was an opportunity for them to y around with new things.
I¡¯m sure the Adventurer¡¯s Guild will have a primer on useful resources to look out for in the outpost we¡¯re headed to, Reivyn thought as he scanned the area. We¡¯ll have to remember to stop by and pick one up. Getting natural treasures for Kefira¡¯s Bloodline is the main purpose of the excursion. It wouldn¡¯t make any sense to just wander around blindly.
They knew the main treasures they were looking for to activate the next Level of Kefira¡¯s Bloodline. Other than Reivyn, others required a buildup of a specific type of energy with a catalyst to transform the energy through their blood. Reivyn was unique in that he could just convert different types of energy into Experience to dump into his Bloodline.
They could stock up on a multitude of lesser treasures from the Lower Regions and then top it off with the right catalysts, but that wasn¡¯t ideal. The quantity required to achieve the necessary power levels and purity would take considerably longer than if they used higher-grade materials from the start. Other than looking for the catalyst, a Tier 5 material, they were hoping to fill as much of the necessary deficit with other Tier 5 treasures as much as possible.
The energy would start off purer, would be more potent, and would take less time to metabolize. It was a win-win. If they didn¡¯t gather enough treasures, though, it wasn¡¯t a big deal. That wasn¡¯t something they were worried about, though. As Ameliyn had mentioned, they were fully expecting to get more than necessary for everyone else in the expedition to use as well.
The leader of the Imperial Army squad fell back to the Party. He pointed to the mountains in the distance.
¡°Our destination is at the foot of those mountains,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s far enough away from any concentration of monsters or beasts while still being rtively close to resource-rich locations such as the mountains, the forest, and a river that runs through a sort of valley between the rolling hills and the mountains.
¡°It¡¯ll take another week or so to get there at our current pace, but will probably be at least double that once we start running into monster encounters.¡±
¡°Thanks,¡± Refix nodded his head. The squad leader nodded back and made his way back to his squad.
Just as Reivyn turned to speak to his father, a piercing shriek sounded out from the grass nearby. It was just out of his Divine Sense Range, so he quickly looked toward the disturbance. He wasn¡¯t surprised in the slightest by what he saw.
A pair of goblins hopped up above the swaying grass and snarled at the approaching group. Despite their group consisting of nearly 50 people with their Party and the Honor Guard soldiers, the two goblins fearlessly charged at the group.
Another couple of shrieks sounded out from different directions nearby. Again, Reivyn turned his head toward where the sounds came from, this time to the left and right of where the first pair of goblins popped up from. Another two groups of goblins hopped up into his sight, another duo and a trio.
More and more shrieks cascaded out from the epicenter of the first two goblins that screamed at them. More and more goblins popped up in a semicircle radiating out from in front of the group.
In less than ten seconds, many small groups of goblins popped up, totalling over thirty little monsters. Most of them were responding to the various calls, but they all immediately focused on the group of humans and charged at them with zero forethought.
¡°Honor Guards, cover the nks!¡± Refix called out. The two groups of Honor Guards in front and behind moved to the sides. Refix motioned to the Party members to take their positions, and the Honor Guard soldierspressed their lines to cover the nks.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences.
The goblins didn¡¯t wait to meet up with each other in order to make use of their numbers. They were fast, but they weren¡¯t coordinated. They came at the group of humans piecemeal.
Kimberly and Refix stood in the front next to each other, weapons at the ready. Teilon hovered just behind the two, peering over Kimberly¡¯s head at the oing goblins. I stood next to Seri with my sling loaded with a stone I had acquired during the journey. Any time I saw a smooth, round stone, I would pocket it as ammunition. Seri had her sword out at the ready. Finally, Ameliyn and Kefira stood next to each other behind us.
The first two goblins reached the front of our formation and leapt at Refix and Kimberly. Refix swung his sword overhead and smashed it into the goblin¡¯s head. Kimberly twirled away with herbat dance while stabbing the goblin in the gut. Teilon was there to sh it across the throat with his dagger as it stumbled to a halt.
Well that was anticli¡ Reivyn began to think. His thoughts stopped short, though, as the two goblins didn¡¯t go down.
Refix¡¯s sword only pierced the topyer of skin on the goblin¡¯s head, but it didn¡¯t cleave through the bone like Reivyn expected. The goblin shrieked once more and lunged at Refix with its ws. It swung viciously back and forth, but Refix deftly evaded the strikes. His sword was still connected to the goblin¡¯s head, stuck in the hard bone of the goblin¡¯s skull.
Refix simply kicked it in the gut while adding downward pressure on the sword. The wind was knocked out of the goblin while the sword dislodged from the skull and drew a line down its face, chopping its long, pointy nose right off.
The goblins ravaged by Kimberly and Teilon stumbled a bit from being off bnce, but Reivyn noted there was hardly any blooding from the wound on its neck. The sh from Teilon wasn¡¯t enough to pierce deep enough into the flesh to cause anysting harm. Kimberly retracted her spear, and there was a simple cut in its gut where the spear would normally have piercedpletely through.
Kimberly frowned but didn¡¯t stop to look at her spear or the wound. She simply twirled away to get a bit of space andunched another stab in the exact same spot. Teilon had positioned himself to the side away from Teilon so they boxed the goblin in, but the goblin didn¡¯t care. It simply lunged at Teilon, turning away in time to prevent Kimberly from piercing deeper into the original wound.
The goblin swiped at Teilon, but Teilon just phased through the goblin and stabbed it in the back where its kidneys would be. Again, instead of piercing into the goblin¡¯s body, the dagger was stopped at the flesh, only causing a little cut where the tip managed to slightly cut the flesh.
Reivynunched the stone from his sling, empowering it with his Mana, and it smashed into the side of the goblin¡¯s temple. The goblin crumpled to the ground, but Reivyn could tell it was only stunned.
Kimberly and Teilon were in sync with each other and quite experienced with this kind ofbat, so they didn¡¯t take their focus off of the downed goblin. They immediately noticed it was still alive, too, and they descended on the monster.
Kimberly stood over the goblin and stabbed down into the wound in its stomach over and over until if finally pierced into its body. Teilon held his dagger back-handed and did the same thing on its throat. He finally pierced the green flesh, and from the position of the steel embedded in the monster¡¯s throat, he finally shed across the windpipe. The outer skin of the goblin was tough, but the inner part of its flesh was susceptible to the attack.
The goblin¡¯s ws came up to its throat as blood spilled out as it gurgled trying to catch a breath. More blood poured out of the gut wound inflicted by Kimberly, and the goblin slowly died, finally stilling as it bled out.
Refix meanwhile had exchanged several blows with his own little goblin, but he had the advantage in Stats and Skills that Teilon and Kimberly didn¡¯t. He quickly adapted to the increased resilience of the little monster, and he slowly added wound after wound to the body of the green menace, slowly growing more skilled in inflicting more lethal wounds.
It was only a couple of seconds after Teilon and Kimberly downed their goblin that Refix defeated his own. There was no time to pause and consider things, though, as the next pair of goblins quickly approached.
Several other groups of goblins reached the nking Honor Guard soldiers. They had more meleebatants among them, and they maintained their formation as they allowed the goblins to be surrounded. Reivyn could perceive their fights with his Divine Sense, and he witnessed how they fought. They had two of the soldiers fight them head-on while four others attacked it relentlessly from each side and the rear. They just kept stabbing and shing at the unprotected hide fo the goblins, slowly wearing its natural defense down until they pummeled them to death.
Reivyn didn¡¯t sit still while all of this was going on, either. He pulled out stone after stone from his storage pouch, infused it with Mana, andunched it at the various goblins rushing toward them. Most of them took a hit straight to the head and seemed to shake it off, but several were stunned like the first and copsed to the ground for several seconds. This allowed more goblins to string along one at a time as they reached the Party, but it also meant there were more goblins grouped up together just a little ways away from them.
That was when Ameliyn struck.
Lightning from the clear sky began to rain down upon the goblins outside of melee range. Reivyn could see that the bolts of lightning weren¡¯tposed of the Lightning Affinity, but they were instead created with the Celestial Affinity that his mother specialized in. They were white-hot and caused sizzling burns as well as shocking the bodies of the goblins so they were paralyzed in ce.
Bolt after bolt shed out of the sky like rain. A mini-tornado sprung up among the goblins, picking them up and swirling them around. The lightning stopped falling from the sky, but suddenly a web of Celestial Lightning formed within the tornado and continued to electrocute and burn the goblins.
Not all of the goblins were caught up in the small tornado, and Kefira threw up a Space barrier on the other side of the closest goblins already reaching Refix and Kimberly again. The goblins that escaped the tornado suddenly looked like they were sprinting in ce, barely moving forward. They didn¡¯t seem to notice at all, though, as they continued to snarl and sprint at full speed toward the humans. The Space barrier extended in front of the entire group, giving the Honor Guard soldiers on either side much needed relief, too.
Refix, Kimberly, and Teilon repeated their earlier performance, this time with the expectation that their weapons wouldn¡¯t immediately cause fatal damage to their adversaries. Thebat went much smoother the second time around.
Seri remained at the ready. Without express orders from Refix for her to engage, despite what she might personally think, she wouldn¡¯t leave her position of guarding Ameliyn and Kefira. Reivyn could tell that she was a bit frustrated at not being able to participate. He knew that she could use Mana with her sword, but he had never seen her Cast any Spells.
We¡¯ll have to add some sort of Rangedponent to her repertoire when we can, Reivyn mused as heunched some more stones.
Reivyn continued to pull stones out of his storage pouch andunch them at goblin heads, but he also concentrated and used his ability to Multi-Cast to form a sma Orb. It flew into the sky above the goblins and began raining sma spears to apany his mother¡¯s lightning.
He noticed right away that his sma spears didn¡¯t immediately kill the goblins like it did against the weaker humans he had fought against inbat. Instead the spears simply created cauterized cuts and burns on the goblins¡¯ flesh.
He and his mother continued to attack the goblins still trying to reach them, and they eventually began to sumb to their wounds. Kefira paid attention to the meleebat and let the closer goblins out of her Space trap to approach the groups in a controlled manner.
After twenty minutes ofbat, the final goblin finally fell to the repeated strikes of the Honor Guard soldiers. Reivyn¡¯s Party were able to dispatch the goblins much quicker than the soldiers on either side, but they also had the advantage of powerful Magic. The Honor Guards were mainly melee and physical ranged type ssers.
Nobody was panting or exhausted after thebat, but everyone did take a moment to look around at each other once all the action was over.
¡°Well¡¡± Reivyn trailed off, scratching the back of his hand. ¡°I might have been a bit arrogant whenparing ourselves to the authors of those journals,¡± he finally said.
¡°Yeah, that was a bit of a wakeup call,¡± Refix nodded. ¡°If we didn¡¯t have your mother and Kefira to control the goblins and inflict damage on them through their particr brand of magic, I can see how it could quickly get out of hand.¡±
Ameliyn and Kefira looked at each other with self-satisfied smiles and struck a pose.
¡°Never fear. The girls will carry us through this ordeal,¡± Ameliyn said, throwing an arm over Kefira¡¯s shoulder and pulling her in for a side-hug.
¡°Oh good,¡± Reivyn said, wiping invisible sweat from his brow. ¡°I¡¯m relieved. I¡¯ll leave it to the two of you from now on.¡±
Ameliyn gave him an unamused look.
¡°You¡¯ll be cooking your own dinner, too,¡± she replied.
A look of horror came over Reivyn¡¯s face.
¡°No, no! I was joking! I was joking!¡± He frantically waved his hands in front of him.
¡°Your girl and I will simply be too tired to care about such trivialities as a nice meal,¡± Ameliyn continued.
¡°Noooooo!¡± Reivyn put his face in his hands.
Ameliyn smirked at her son¡¯s antics.
¡°Alright, alright,¡± she relented. ¡°I know you can¡¯t get enough of your mother¡¯s cooking. How could I call myself your mother if I deprived you of that?¡±
Reivyn stopped his fake tantrum and beamed a smile at his mother before hugging her.
¡°I know you love me.¡±
¡°Uh huh, and I know you¡¯ll continue to try and keep up with me inbat. You¡¯ll fail, but I know you¡¯ll try.¡±
¡°Of course, mom,¡± Reivyn shared a look with Kefira and rolled his eyes behind Ameliyn¡¯s back as he hugged her.
¡°And stop rolling your eyes at me!¡± Ameliyn admonished.
Kefira put a hand in front of her mouth as she giggled at Reivyn.
¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean,¡± Reivyn said, letting go of his mother and stepping back.
¡°Sure, sure. Get back in formation.¡±
¡°Yes, mother.¡±
The others watched the interaction with a smile. Refix looked back and forth between his wife and son.
¡°We good?¡± Everyone nodded. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get going. Only a couple of weeks to go to reach the outpost.¡±
Chapter 279: Rolling Along
Chapter 279: Rolling Along
¡°Why. Are. These. Guys. So. Tough?!¡± Teilon panted as he shed the throat of another goblin. The strike to the throat wasn¡¯t itself enough to kill it, but it had suffered enough damage already that it became a fatal strike regardless.
The goblin copsed to the ground with numerous wounds across its body. Teilon and Kimberly both stood over it, catching their breath. All around the Party, dead goblins in various statesy. Despite all of them being covered in wounds, there wasn¡¯t that much blood pooled on the ground.
¡°These are naturally evolved creatures,¡± Refix answered. He stood next to the pair, keeping an eye out for any more goblinsing there way.
Every encounter they from the first fight in the ins, goblins would spring up all around them ande at them in waves. Only Kefira and Ameliyn working together with their magic prevented them from getting overrun each time.
¡°As opposed to what?¡± Teilon asked, looking at Refix askance.
¡°As opposed to Dungeon monsters,¡± Refix said. ¡°You and I gained our Levels and experience fighting Dungeon monsters. Those guys are created by the Dungeons, so they¡¯re not naturally evolved.¡±
¡°Ok, I get that, but what does it mean?¡±
¡°Dungeon monsters will have fairly even Stats. Not only that, but their bodies aren¡¯t tempered by living their entire lives in a Tier 5 Mana-rich Region.
¡°These creatures,¡± Refix gestured to the dead goblins with his sword, ¡°have the same overall number of Stats as Dungeon monsters, but they¡¯re not going to be evenly distributed. Their Physical Stats far outweigh their Mental Stats.¡°Their Health and Stamina Points are much higher than their counterparts in a Dungeon, and their natural defense is bolstered by their higher Stats and the environment. It¡¯s the same principle as trees and other nts found in the different Regions. A non-magical nt found in a Tier 4 Region is much more Mana-dense than the same kind found in a Tier 3 Region.
¡°Up until this point, the difference between Dungeon and natural creatures hasn¡¯t been such that it¡¯s noticeable. Tier 5 is a watershed, not only because of the Mana density, but the sheer number of Levels¡¯ worth of Stats aspared to a Tier 4 creature. 150 Levels of Stats heavily in favor of Physical Stats, and Stats that are growing at a faster pace than previous Tiers, will make a difference.¡±
¡°That¡ makes sense,¡± Teilon conceded.
¡°Of course it does,¡± Refix nodded sagely. ¡°It¡¯s not all bad news, though. Have you noticed that none of the goblins have used any Mana Skills or Abilities? Creatures in a Dungeon will use Mana Skills, Abilities, and Spells, because they¡¯re artificial. Even though Mana is unlocked for all lifeforms at Tier 4, these goblins are monsters. They¡¯re not going to practice these new abilities except for the rare variants that were born with Mana.¡±
¡°Like that shaman goblin we saw in the beast tide during our conscription,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°Come to think of, that¡¯s the only magic-wielding goblin I¡¯ve ever seen.¡±
¡°I would say it¡¯s probably one in a thousand goblins are born with Mana,¡± Ameliyn chimed in. ¡°Different species of monsters will have different rates, but goblins are among the poorest. On top of that, any Caster Goblins that survive are going to be protected in one of their tribes. We won¡¯t run into one out in the wild like this.
¡°It might be possible for the leadership caste to have Mana Skills and abilities, though they won¡¯t be Casters unless they were also born with Mana - a probability so low as to be non-existent.¡±
¡°So basically what you¡¯re saying is, we¡¯re safer fighting these guys because they¡¯re not good atbat, but we¡¯re going to have to exhaust ourselves and make sure we don¡¯t get overrun every time.¡±
¡°That¡¯s the gist of it,¡± Refix nodded.
¡°I have a question,¡± Reivyn called out. Refix turned and nodded for him to go ahead. ¡°Is everyone getting Experience from killing these guys?¡±
Everyone shared a look between each other. They all nodded and turned back to Reivyn with a puzzled expression.
¡°Yeah, everything¡¯s normal,¡± Refix said.
¡°Huh.¡±
There was a slight moment of silence before Refix followed up.
¡°Why? What¡¯s going on with you?¡± Refix asked.
¡°I¡¯m not getting any Experience,¡± Reivyn revealed. ¡°In fact I haven¡¯t gotten any Experience since I woke up in bed after the Dungeon delve.¡±
¡°Wait, what?¡± Refix asked, concern in his voice and expression. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you mentioned anything up until now?¡±
¡°You know my unique situation,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯ve kind of gotten out of the habit of paying attention to it. It just came to mind for me to check it, and I recently found out about it.¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on, but it¡¯s apparently me and not the monsters.¡±
¡°Do you have some sort of System Notification?¡± Ameliyn asked.
¡°I¡¯ve checked everything, and I¡¯ve gone back through the most recent Notifications over and over, and there¡¯s nothing in there about Experience. There¡¯s one thing that stands out, but I don¡¯t want to jump the gun until I can figure out more evidence.¡±
¡°Hmm, it¡¯ll make things a bit more annoying in the short term as long as your Experience gainse back, but unless it doesn¡¯te back any time soon, it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem. We were going to use the expedition to get you to max Level over time, and we were counting on your improved Stats and Skills to gradually make things faster and easier while we¡¯re here.¡±
¡°Yeah, well, it really shouldn¡¯t be too much of a hindrance on that front,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯m only one person in the Party, and I¡¯m not even acting to my full capacity. Skill gains are still there, so it¡¯s not like I¡¯m not getting any improvement. I¡¯m just not Leveling right now.¡±
¡°Keep us posted. There¡¯s not much we can do other than what we were already nning on doing without heading to civilization. If you¡¯re still not getting Experience by the time we get back to Wispan, we¡¯ll have to make that the number one priority. Until then just keep an eye on it and let us know when ites back, or if you figure something out as to the cause, let us know so we can help you.¡±
¡°Will do,¡± Reivyn nodded.
Like he had said, he had long gotten out of the habit of constantly checking his Experience gains and Status Page. Some of it was maturity, but some of it was also getting out of the practice while he had his siphon ability turned on. His Bloodline was an endless well for Experience to disappear down.
He poked and prodded at his Status Page and Notifications. He got the asional Helpful Hint about a Stat, Skill, or Notification, but there was no ¡°Help¡± or ¡°Search¡± function built into the System., What it gave is what one got.
The System has been very good about detailing exactly what it¡¯s doing up to this point, Reivyn thought. Every time something unexpected happened, the System was very clear in how it handled finding the solution. Either it doesn¡¯t think anything¡¯s wrong, or it¡¯s given me all of the information I need already.
With that thought, Reivyn¡¯s mind wandered to the Notification he thought might have something to do with his situation. System Alert!
Divine Mana and Spark of Providence from the Subspace have been absorbed.
Dungeon is shutting down to recover.
Recovery period: 765:23:59:59.00
Reivyn was fairly certain that particr Notification held the clue. It was really the only unique Notification he had received before. Everything that came after was a derivative of this message, and all the things prior were the same or simr to Notification he had received in the past that didn¡¯t alter his Experience gain.
Either the Divine Mana or Spark of Providence needs to absorb a certain amount of energy, or it¡¯s somehow tied to the timer for the Dungeon recovery, Reivyn mused. Let¡¯s hope it¡¯s the former and not thetter. If I just need to umte energy, I have direct control over that. Simply waiting a year and a half is quite passive.
Reivyn snorted to himself.
I say that now, but what if the amount of energy I need to absorb takes longer than a year and a half? If that¡¯s the problem, I have no idea how much I need to absorb. At least if it¡¯s a waiting game, I have a definite answer.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences.
One way or another, two things that will definitely confirm my guess: If I regain my Experience acquisition after killing a bunch of monsters or if I regain it at the same time the Dungeon reopens. If I go past the timer for the Dungeon, that will really only confirm it¡¯s not a waiting game, not necessarily that I haven¡¯t acquired enough energy yet.
¡°I think we should go out of our way to kill more monsters,¡± Reivyn said.
Teilon gave him a sharp look.
¡°Are you out of your mind?!¡± He hissed. ¡°Do you not see the state Kimberly and I are in? And I would bet your mom and girlfriend are getting low on Mana, too. We have enough on our tes dealing with the minimum as it is.¡±
Reivyn chuckled and pped his friend on the shoulder.
¡°Yes, but Seri and I would take turns switching out with you and Kimberly,¡± Reivyn exined. ¡°You¡¯ll both still be in the Party and participating in the battle, so you¡¯ll get full Experience, though you might end up working on auxiliary Skills. As it is right now, we¡¯re basically just standing around.
¡°Sure I¡¯m pelting them with stones from my sling, and I n on getting a good bow in the Adventurer Outpost to further augment my ranged capabilities, and I hit them with my Spells, but stepping up as a frontline fighter is the perfect solution.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to find time to work on my Javelin Skill,¡± Kimberly spoke up. ¡°I know I¡¯m 90% a melee fighter, but throwing a spear or javelin is part of my repertoire.¡± She nced at Teilon. ¡°So is throwing daggers part of yours.¡±
Teilon stroked his chin in thought.
¡°You know, on second thought, that¡¯s an excellent idea,¡± Teilon grinned. ¡°I¡¯m d I thought of it.¡±
¡°Mhmm, me too,¡± Reivyn nodded along. Teilon just gave a charming smile as he winked at his friend.
¡°I notice there was no mention of rotating out with me,¡± Refix quipped.
¡°You¡¯re barely breaking a sweat,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes.
¡°Barely means I am sweating,¡± Refix pointed out, cocking an eyebrow at his son.
¡°You love it, don¡¯t lie.¡±
Refix stared at his son for a second before shrugging and smiling.
¡°True. I wouldn¡¯t want to take a step back, but I can always engage with my Ethereal Arsenal if need be.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, I almost forgot you have that Skill,¡± Teilon said. ¡°Why don¡¯t you use it more often?¡±
¡°My ability to wield the weapons is directly corrted to my Weapons Skills. Gaining Levels in Ethereal Arsenal doesn¡¯t make me a better fighter with them, it just let¡¯s me concentrate more and summon more of them.
¡°If I want to improve my actual ability to fight with them, I need to get up close and personal. For whatever reason, I¡¯ve found that gaining Skill Levels in my Weapons is about ten times slower through the use of the Skill.
¡°But believe me, if I need to step back to take a breather, I will.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the lowest your Stamina¡¯s gotten so far?¡± Reivyn asked, curious.
¡°Eleven percent,¡± Refix gave an immediate answer.
Teilon¡¯s eyes nearly bugged out.
¡°And that¡¯s you barely breaking a sweat?¡±
¡°What can I say? You know how I train, and I¡¯ve been training like that since before I unlocked my Tier 1 ss.¡±
Reivyn had fond recollections of his time training with his father before he was conscripted.
¡°Come to think of it,¡± Reivyn said with a slight frown, ¡°You always did run me into the dirt before practice drills even after I had exhausted my potential and reached the maximum of my diminishing returns. I never really thought about it then, and I had just grown so used to it recently that I never put it together that you¡¯ve always trained me like that from day one.¡±
¡°Yep, work hard y hard,¡± Refix said.
¡°Except your idea of ¡®y¡¯ is just more work,¡± Teilon grumbled.
¡°What was that?¡± Refix tilted his head like he had a hard time hearing Teilon¡¯sint. ¡°Did you say we haven¡¯t been working hard enough to justify y?¡±
¡°No no no no no,¡± Teilon shook his head vehemently.
¡°I can fix that.¡±
¡°NOOOoooooo,¡± Teilon let out a dramatic wail. He didn¡¯t raise his voice too loud, though. He was still cognizant of the fact they were in dangerous territory in the Wilderness.
Reivyn could perceive the closer Honor Guard soldiers smiling at Teilon¡¯s antics, but they kept their vision pointed outward. The group continued walking through the open fields, now into the rolling hills they had spied in the distance earlier.
Despite traveling a considerable ways to reach the hills and then even further into them, the mountains still seemed no closer on the horizon. Reivyn didn¡¯t know how far away they were, but from the context he had gleaned, they must have been massive.
That mountain range puts the one we discovered the Revenant Dungeon on to shame, and that mountain range was huge.
The group only encountered two more roving bands of goblins walking about the hills. Reivyn was true to his word as he and Seri stepped up half way through each encounter to let Teilon and Kimberly get a break. It made more sense to rotate during the fights instead of off and on per fight as Teilon and Kimberly would exhaust themselves in each fight, not just the aggregate.
After the second encounter, they didn¡¯t run into any more goblins. They still kept a lookout, but there was just no monsters in the vicinity. Eventually they discovered why.
A couple of hours before dusk, Refix pointed into the distance to one of the hills. The first ce Reivyn looked was the skyline, but he didn¡¯t see anything against the backdrop of the horizon. He activated his Eagle Eye Skill and scanned the hill below the ridge. He immediately spotted movement with his sharper vision.
Ten people d in armor were walking along the hillside just below the top where they could be easily spotted from all around. A sound tactic, Reivyn nodded his head in approval. He recognized they were quite experienced from that one little detail.
¡°Patrollers in the distance,¡± Refix said. ¡°Let¡¯s alter our course to run into them.¡±
The Honor Guard didn¡¯t say anything in response. They just altered their trajectory slightly so the group would intercept the ten people walking in the distance.
At about the same time Refix pointed out the ten individuals in the distance, Reivyn noticed one of them lift their hand and point in their direction. He raised his hand to wave to them and indicate they weren¡¯t a roving band of monsters. He wasn¡¯t worried they would be hostile, not this close to the Adventurer Outpost.
There were manypeting influences within the Upper Regions headed by various groups and empires, but one thing that was made clear in all the journals he had read was that the closest outpost was friendly to all humans regardless of which territory it was closest to or sponsored by.
It was guaranteed that Wispan would have the biggest influence amongst the Adventurers in this particr outpost, and most of them would be loyal to the Wispan Empire and not the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. The Adventurer¡¯s Guild maintained all the outposts found in the Upper Region, but that didn¡¯t mean they were the biggest fist in each outpost.
By unspoken agreement in the entire Local Cluster, the border outposts were considered safe havens for both travelers to and from the Wilderness. Those entering the Upper Regions through the Wilderness would have been traveling for over a month and would be road weary, and those traveling from deeper within the Region would be physically and mentally taxed from the challenges found there.
Just because the goblins appeared in hordes every time the group stumbled upon any of them did not mean they were considered one of the challenges of the Tier 5 Region. They were the ¡°nuisance¡± monsters. They almost didn¡¯t even count.
Further inside there were ferocious beasts that would eat a goblin horde for breakfast, orc tribes that enved the goblins just like was found in the Tier 1 Regions, goblin tribes lead by evolved or ¡°higher-order¡± hobgoblins and goblin shamans, and all sorts of dangerous environments born out of the Mana density itself: Miasma, poison swamps, gravity wells, just to name a few.
The ten people in the distance likewise altered their course and made to meet with Reivyn¡¯s group. With the Stats of everyone involved on both sides, it only took a couple of minutes before they converged with each other atop a small hill.
¡°Greetings, travelers,¡± the man in the lead of the ten man squad said, lowering his helmet.
Each of the ten were wearing impressive armor. It wasn¡¯t uniform like they were a military unit like the Honor Guard soldiers and mercenaries, It was just very high quality. It was clear they were a groupposed of Adventurers to Reivyn. They didn¡¯t have a military bearing about themselves, and he would expect to find the areas near the outpost patrolled by Adventurers anyway.
¡°Greetings,¡± Refix replied back, also removing his helmet.
The man gave a small smile.
¡°If you see a group of ten people like us wandering about in these foothills, you can simply call us ¡®Adventurers,¡¯¡± the man exined. He saw that Refix wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to properly address him, so he gave the answer unprompted. ¡°That being said, my name is Lukeas.¡±
¡°Well met, Lukeas. My name is Refix. Do you happen to know how long to reach the outpost from here? It¡¯ll be dusk in a couple of hours, and it would be nice to know if we need to make camp or if we can make it to the outpost in time.¡±
¡°Certainly,¡± Lukeas bobbed his head. ¡°It¡¯s only about an hour away. That¡¯s standard distance for us out on patrol, so if you run into any of us, you can bet you¡¯re only an hour away.¡±
¡°Excellent. Thank you.¡±
¡°No problem. I¡¯m guessing you folk are traveling from the Wilderness? You have that look about you.¡±
¡°Is it that obvious?¡±
Lukeas chuckled.
¡°To seasoned vets such as us, yes, but not so obvious as to anyone being able to tell.¡± He shrugged. ¡°It really shouldn¡¯t pose any problems either way at this outpost, but some of the interior outposts have people that prey on those that look new.¡±
¡°That¡¯s good to know. Thanks for the warning.¡±
¡°Your wee. You guys don¡¯t look inexperienced or weak or anything. That¡¯s not what I was saying. Just putting things together it seems like this is your first trip into the Upper Regions through the Wilderness.¡±
¡°Guilty,¡± Refix said with a half-smile.
¡°Then let me be the first to wee and congratte you. In the future, you can just use the gates.¡±
Reivyn and the others in his group all shared a confused look with each other. Lukeasughed out loud at the response and the other nine adventurers chuckled.
¡°It¡¯s the same expression every time,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s a rite of passage to travel to the closest outpost through the Wilderness the first time, but we still have Space Magic.
¡°The Wilderness does something funky with Space Magic traveling to and through it from outside, but as long as the portals are both within the Wilderness, it works just fine.
¡°As you know, teleport circles are quite costly and rare. Only Tier 4 empire capital cities have them, but each Tier 4 empire leading to the Upper Regions also has a corresponding gate through the Wilderness. They don¡¯t lead anywhere else but straight through, and there¡¯s no teleport to the outposts, but those gates cut a month of dangerous travel time off for anyone entering or leaving who¡¯s already been here.
¡°It¡¯s an unspoken rule that nobody mentions them in the Lower Regions. Part of the whole rite of passage thing, actually. When you get to the outpost, you can take an Adventurer Guild Badge to the local branch and have them put a special stamp on it. It will turn your badge into apass and key for the gate closest to that outpost.¡±
Lukeas nced at the Honor Guard and noted their military appearance.¡°
If you don¡¯t have an Adventurer Guild Badge, you can substitute it for any kind of token you want.¡±
¡°That¡¯s great news,¡± Refix said. ¡°Again, thanks.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡± Lukeas extended his hand and Refix grasped it in his own. ¡°Wee to the Upper Regions.¡±
Chapter 280: Just Like Anywhere Else
Chapter 280: Just Like Anywhere Else
The sun was still up in the sky by the time Reivyn and his group spotted the outpost in the distance. It was ced on the highest hills around, giving it the best view of the surrounding area. There was evidence the distant forest once extended closer to the outpost, but it had been deforested for quite a distance away. Reivyn understood the strategy of keeping clear lines of sight, and he could only guess the rather extreme distance was a necessity for the level of threats one could expect in a Tier 5 Region. It was much further out than anything he had ever even considered. The experts in the Region would know best, though, so he would defer to their wisdom.
They quickly closed the distance to the outpost. Reivyn noted that they were obviously spotted much sooner than they had seen the walls based on how the guards stationed at the gate and towers reacted to their approach: namely, they didn¡¯t kick up a fuss. He didn¡¯t know if there was a way for the patrols tomunicate directly to the outpost, but considering everyone that could be found here was significantly higher Level and working with higher Tier materials, he wouldn¡¯t be surprised. He had seen suchmunication tools in the Lower Regions, after all, so it made perfect sense that a basic degree of sophistication would bemon in the Upper Regions.
They made their approach to the outpost. Based on the name, ¡°Outpost,¡± Reivyn had expected a familiar wooden palisade. It wasn¡¯t too much of a stretch to think that. Any wood they used for the fortification would be Tier 5 materials, after all.
That wasn¡¯t the case. Even though it was called an outpost, it was a permanent settlement. The walls weren¡¯t even as tall as the city walls of Magron, but they were definitely stones from a quarry somewhere. They shined in the setting sun with a golden glow that made them shimmer unlike any stone he had seen before. He got a sense of stability and strength when looking at the structure.
There were two guards stationed at the gate, two guards in each of the six towers on this one side of the wall, and there were multiple duos of guards walking along the battlements. It seemed they didn¡¯t take things for granted out here even with patrols that extended quite a distance away. He could only assume there was more than one patrol, but he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there were many more. The level of protection was more than he saw in most of the cities in the Lower Regions.
The size of the outpost was another thing that was different from his imagination. He had expected something in line with the outpost they had constructed during his conscription. The size of the outpost, based on the length of the wall in front of them, indicated a medium sized city. Reivyn could even see people walking along the paved roads through the open gate.
As they approached, the guards at the gate gave a simple wave to acknowledge their presence. They didn¡¯t stop them or ask any questions as they approached the gate. As they got closer, the guards simply waved them through with a nod.
¡°Wee to the outpost,¡± one of them called out a friendly greeting.
Refix waved back.¡°Thanks,¡± he replied.
And with that, the group passed the outer walls into the outpost proper. Like Reivyn had spied from outside, there were many people walking about. Many, many people. At a quick nce, extrapting for other parts of the outpost that were obstructed from his vision, Reivyn estimated there had to be over ten thousand people within the walls.
Reivyn was a little surprised at this revtion. He had known there were a lot of people who made their way to the Upper Regions, but this outpost was basically a border station. They hadn¡¯t seen any evidence of people Adventuring outside the walls except for the patrol, either. With so many people, he would have expected to see more random Parties out and about.
Everyone walked with their heads on a swivel. Reivyn felt like he was entering a capital city for the first time, and all of them were country bumpkins from the countryside. Even those that had spent their entire lives within Wispan¡¯s capital city acted like they had never seen civilization before.
He couldn¡¯t fault them. He felt the same way they did. Their entire expectations had consistently been broken during their trek through the Wilderness and then through the Tier 5 Region to the outpost. Finding such a poption and lived-in city where they had assumed was a mostly empty Region was startling.
They had learned their entire lives that building a working civilization in the Upper Regions was untenable. Reivyn had to think for a second before the answer came to him, though.
There are no children, he realized. That makes perfect sense. People don¡¯t build empires in the Upper Regions, but that doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not full of people. I had always wondered at theck of true powerhouses in the Tier 4 empires, thinking it was because people just didn¡¯t have the opportunities to advance. That doesn¡¯t make any sense when one takes into ount the scale of the Tier 4 empires, though.
Of course there are thousands upon thousands of people who reach past Tier 5. They just don¡¯t stay in the Lower Regions. Sure, there are people who want to have families, but I would bet they have their children early then take off after they¡¯ve grown enough to be independent, just like the elders of the Imperial Family.
Why would I think only the imperials would have enough talent to send their higher-Level people to the Wilderness? There¡¯s just too many people for that to be true.
It put the cultivator sects he had learned about into perspective, too. Xudrid had informed him they lived in pocket dimensions like man-made Dungeons built by high-Level Mages with their Space Affinity. Reivyn hadn¡¯t really thought about it before, but obviously there had to be a pool of peoplerge enough for others to advance that far.
There were at least hundreds of billions of people throughout the Local Group just in the Lower Regions. There was no telling how many people were actually living on their massive continent. There had to be millions upon millions of people in the various Tier 5 Regions, not to mention the cultivator sects hidden from view.
For the first time, Reivyn truly felt like a frog at the bottom of a well. He had thought he had seen the sky and had a grasp of the situation, but he had still only been looking at the little circle avable to him from his vantage point.
The group marched along the main thoroughfare. They stood out like a sore thumb, but the people in the outpost only gave them cursory nces. They must have been used to seeing new people trickle into the outpost over the years. Reivyn could see that there were no other people around who looked as young as he and even his parents looked.
Everyone had a bit of a mature look to them. They weren¡¯t old by any means, but there was nobody with a youthful exuberance about them.
At least that detail is within expectations, Reivyn snorted. Everyone here is a seasoned veteran Adventurer. Only those sessful in the Lower Regions make it here.
They eventually made their way to an open square that was ringed byrger buildings that were obviously inns and taverns. They came to a stop in the square and stepped off to the side. The Honor Guard soldiers converged on Reivyn¡¯s Party.
¡°This is where we¡¯ll leave you,¡± the imperial soldier who had assumed overallmand reported to Refix. ¡°It was a pleasure to escort you.¡±
Each of the soldiers performed a smart salute to the Party. The imperial soldiers turned to Kefira and gave a bow. The mercenary soldiers turned to Reivyn and stood at parade rest.
Reivyn tilted his head toward his father, indicating for them to speak to Refix. Even though they were his mercenaries, his father was still leading them, and he himself was an officer in their mercenarypany.
¡°Thank you for escorting us,¡± Kefira pulled the imperial soldiers aside to speak to them for a moment.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition.
¡°Yes, to all of you as well,¡± Refix addressed the mercenaries. ¡°We¡¯ll write up a report for you all to send back to Wispan. Glowing reviews for everyone present.¡± Refix grinned and pped the lead squad leader on the shoulder.
¡°Very good, sir,¡± the squad leader replied sheepishly as he regained his bnce. ¡°We¡¯ll be resting with the imperial soldiers for a week before heading back. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll all take advantage of these gates the patrolman mentioned, too.¡±
¡°See that you do,¡± Refix nodded. ¡°No reason to go through all that again if you don¡¯t have to, now that you¡¯re ¡®in the know.¡¯¡± He winked at the mercenaries.
Kefira kept her words short for the imperial soldiers. Reivyn hadn¡¯t been trying to eavesdrop, but with his Divine Sense, he heard every word. Kefira and their squad leader had mentioned basically the exact same thing.
The imperial soldier in charge turned to face the group as a whole again.
¡°There is a barracks of sorts for imperials and their entourage,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ll seek out room and board there for our rest. It should be easy to find if you ask around. I would tell you exactly where it is, but we¡¯re going to have to find it ourselves.¡± He chuckled.
¡°Good,¡± Refix said. ¡°We¡¯re just an Adventurer Party as of now, so we¡¯ll be seeking amodation in an inn like one. You don¡¯t have to worry about the princess while she¡¯s in our care. She¡¯ll be our daughter-inw one day, and she still has Seri.¡±
¡°I never questioned it, sir,¡± the imperial squad leader said with a smile.
¡°Well, godspeed, and thank you once again,¡± Refix sped hands with the man.
The Honor Guard soldiers performed another salute and turned to head off to seek out their barracks, the mercenaries in tow.
They had gathered a little bit of an audience, but nothing like an actual crowd. People had just slowed their steps to witness the sending off. Sure they had gotten used to new people arriving at the outpost for the first time, but it wasn¡¯t everyday an imperial princess with an Honor Guard was among the number.
¡°Ok, first things first, amodation,¡± Refix said, rubbing his hands together. ¡°We can go to the branch headquarters in the morning, but for now, I¡¯m sure everyone wants to rx in a nice bed for the first time in over a month.¡±
¡°Hear, hear!¡± Teilon eximed. ¡°I can¡¯t wait.¡±
Kimberly rolled her eyes but still shared a conspiratorial look with the other females of the Party. It looked like they were just as enthusiastic as Teilon to sleep in a nice bed.
¡°Take a bath, first,¡± Reivyn admonished with a smirk.
¡°Hey now! I¡¯ll have you know I¡¯m just as clean as everyone else,¡± Teilon said, affronted.
¡°Uh huh,¡± Reivyn said with a chuckle. ¡°There¡¯s a difference between being clean and being clean. I for one can¡¯t wait to get a good soak.¡±
¡°Well, none of us will be doing that out here,¡± Refix dered. ¡°Let¡¯s go find us a room.¡±
They had no idea of any differences between any of the avable options, so they just picked the closest inn and headed toward it. The building looked exactly like any other they would find in Wispan. The quality might have been a bit better, what with the higher quality building materials avable, but it was still just a regr inn.
They walked through the doors into the open tavern area. There were many Adventurers sitting among the tables and the bar enjoying a drink and/or a meal. There must have been some sort of barrier blocking the sound out, because it hit Reivyn as soon as they stepped through the doors. Not even his Divine Sense had warned him in advance.
Reivyn found it mildly interesting that such an effect existed. He hadn¡¯t run into anything simr in the Lower Regions, but he figured it made sense to find things he wasn¡¯t used to seeing in a Tier 5 Region outpost.
Refix marched up to the front desk. It was situated between the tavern area and the stairs. Interestingly, there were stairs leading up and down, another thing that hadn¡¯t beenmon in the Lower Regions. The stairs leading down were obviously to more rooms and not the storage basement.
¡°Good day, ma¡¯am,¡± Refix addressed thedy behind the desk. She wasn¡¯t some inexperienced youngdy like one would find employed at a simr establishment in the Lower Regions. She had the same look about her as all the other Adventurers Reivyn had seen in the outpost.
Makes sense, he thought. These ces obviously have to have staff of some sort. I would guess that there¡¯s some sort of rotation for the Adventurers here. They spend time with their Parties out in the wilds, and when they get tired and need an extended break, they¡¯ll seek other ways to spend their time.
¡°What can I do for you?¡± Thedy was still professional and greeted them with a smile.
¡°I would like to inquire if you have three rooms avable,¡± Refix said. He slightly leaned forward with his hands on the counter. Ameliyn slid up next to him and leaned against his shoulder.
¡°We certainly do,¡± the receptionistdy - adventurer? - nodded. ¡°How many nights will you be staying?¡±
Refix quickly nced around the others before turning back to the receptionistdy.
¡°Let¡¯s start with a week,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m sure mypanions want some downtime before we get back to it.¡±
¡°Just came in from the Wilderness?¡± Thedy smiled as she asked.
¡°Yeah, how¡¯d you figure?¡±
¡°It¡¯s pretty standard, actually. Most neers first time in almost always take a week to rx aftering here for the first time. More established Adventurers will rent a house a season at a time unless they¡¯re just stopping through. Then it¡¯s usually one to three days.¡± Thedy shrugged with a smile.
¡°Makes sense,¡± Refix agreed with a nod.
The receptionist bent down under the counter and popped back up with six keys. She ced them paired-up on the counter top.
¡°It¡¯s one gold deposit per key, plus ten silver a night per room,¡± she said with a smile. Reivyn¡¯s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. ¡°So, 6 gold plus 2 gold and ten silver for 8.1 gold. The price includes breakfast and use of the bath house.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a bit hefty,¡± Refixmented as he dug the currency out of his pouch.
¡°It might seem like it, but these rooms are warded,¡± the receptionist replied, never losing her smile as she scooped the coins up. ¡°Each of these keys is attuned to the individual room, so they¡¯re not cheap. If you return the keys, you¡¯ll get half your deposit back, but if you lose the keys, the deposit is forfeit.¡±
¡°Good to know,¡± Refix nodded his head.
After hearing that the rooms were warded and the keys attuned to the rooms, it made more sense to Reivyn. An item the size of a key would have to be a high quality material to hold such an attunement for a ward that could be effective against the likely level of threat found in a Tier 5 Region. They were likely metals sourced from a Tier 6 Region, and they would require a Tier 6 sser to work them effectively.
Reivyn grabbed two of the keys and handed one to Teilon. He and his buddy would share a room. Kefira, Seri, and Kimberly would be in one, and Refix and Ameliyn would obviously share a room.
Reivyn held up his key as he spoke.
¡°I¡¯m going to head straight to the baths,¡± he dered. ¡°We can meet up in an hour for dinner, if everyone thinks that¡¯s eptable.¡±
Kefira smiled at Reivyn.
¡°That sounds like a n,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m guessing the baths are separated between the genders?¡± She shot a questioning look at the receptionist.
¡°Of course,¡± she replied. ¡°A lot of the more seasoned Adventurers grow out of such things, but not all. In fact not even most. We would be poor host not to cater to their requirements.¡±
Kefira nodded her head.
¡°That settles it, then,¡± she turned back to Reivyn. ¡°We¡¯ll go for a soak and meet you back here for dinner in an hour.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll just eat here for tonight,¡± Refix said, scanning the tavern portion of the floor. Reivyn checked with his Divine Sense. The fare looked pretty good, considering it looked mostly to be a drinking establishment. ¡°We can go exploring tomorrow after taking care of business in the morning.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head and turned to Teilon.
¡°Coming?¡± He asked with a raised eyebrow.
¡°Of course,¡± Teilon smacked Reivyn on the shoulder. Reivyn just chuckled.
The bathhouse was standard just like any other inn Reivyn had been to. If a design worked, why tweak it? The water was nice and steamy, and he and Teilon quickly entered with a sigh. Refix followed them shortly and the three of them enjoyed a bit of rxation before soaping up and getting thoroughly clean.
They kept a minimum standard of cleanliness on the road, but there was something different about scrubbing in an actual bathhouse. Even a dip in a river couldn¡¯tpare.
The three men timed their soak to the hour. They were too busy enjoying the soothing hot water to get up to any shenanigans like they had in the river in the Wilderness. They chatted about small things before getting dry and dressed from their storage pouches once again. There had been little cubbies and baskets avable to put their stuff, but they were all empty. They weren¡¯t the only three people in the baths, but it seemed like everyone had their own storage pouches. It was another thing that wasn¡¯tmon to see in the Lower Regions, but something that made sense here.
The three made their way back to the tavern and only had to wait a few minutes for the girls to arrive.
¡°Sure took your time,¡± Reivyn teased Kefira as they walked up to them.
¡°We were ready a long time ago,¡± she smiled in reply. ¡°But it wouldn¡¯t do for us to wait for you.¡± She smirked.
¡°Uh huh,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes. He pointed to an empty table near the center of the room. ¡°There¡¯s an open table right there.¡±
The Party made their way to the table. The waitress that appeared to take their order was exactly the same as the receptionist. She wasn¡¯t a youngdy, but another Adventurer. There were no wandering hands hovering around her from the patrons. That would have been a quick way to lose some fingers.
The Party ordered their meals along with some beverages. They spent a rxing evening just enjoying the sounds of merriment around them. It was amazing the things that one could miss while spending an extended period of time away from civilization. None of them particrly frequented such establishments in Wispan, but it made them feel at home to hear theughter and cheer in the room.
Eventually, they finished their dinner and headed to their rooms. The soft mattress was calling a siren song to each of them. Reivyn had barely ced his head on the pillow before he was out. He didn¡¯t even have to turn his Divine Sense off to quickly fall asleep. The wards in the room had a simr soundproofing enchantment as the building as a whole.
They would worry about finding out the particrs for their expedition in the morning. For now sleep was what called to him.
Chapter 281: The Local Economy
Chapter 281: The Local Economy
Being able to turn off Divine Sense and not have to worry about anything plus a veryfortable bed led to the best sleep Reivyn had experienced in as long as he could remember. Even the bed in the house he shared with his parents in the Imperial Pce didn¡¯t lead to such restful slumber. He awoke fully refreshed and ready to go.
After stretching and taking care of his ablutions, Reivyn met with the other members of his Party for a quick breakfast in themon room of the inn. Reivyn left his Divine Sense off to continue rxing with his friends and parents until after the meal was over. He turned it back on once they stepped out onto the street.
¡°Alright, so we know what natural treasures we¡¯re looking for, and we know the general environments we can find them in, but I¡¯m sure the Adventurer¡¯s Guild branch here has some guides we can purchase to find the exact locations we can find them,¡± Refix said.
¡°Why don¡¯t we just check the stalls to see if they¡¯re selling the treasures directly?¡± Teilon asked.
¡°Sure, we could,¡± Refix shrugged, ¡°but that would negate any Life Experience we would gain from the act of going out and acquiring them ourselves. Then again it¡¯s pretty high on our priority list to get these treasures as soon as possible for Kefira.¡±
¡°Yeah, it would make sense to secure the necessary items for Kefira right away to solve her issue, then we can go out and find some more for everyone else,¡± Ameliyn said.
Reivyn nced at his best friend.
¡°Do you even need these treasures?¡± He asked. ¡°You and Kimberly don¡¯t have a Bloodline¡¡±
¡°It works differently for those reaching Tier 4 without a Bloodline,¡± Refix answered. ¡°Sure, they didn¡¯t get a boost from a Bloodline, but reaching Tier 4 creates a Bloodline. Their bonuses work a bit differently as their Bloodline isn¡¯t set. Advancing more Tiers and consuming natural treasures will both increase the potency of their Bloodlines.¡±¡°Yeah, just reaching Tier 4 has activated a Bloodline in our status,¡± Teilon said. ¡°It¡¯s the barest it could possibly be with only adding half a point per Level into one Stat based on our sses. Kimberly and I - and by that I mean mostly Kimberly - took some time to do some research on original Bloodlines. Consuming the same treasures to advance to Level 1, which we already did, changed the bonus to a full point per Level.
¡°Consuming the next Tier of treasures for Level 2 will add another full point plus an additional point in another Stat. Advancing additional Tiers will give exponential gains as we advance in Tiers. Tier 5 will add another full point and an additional Stat. Tier 6 will unlock Charisma plus some additional points. Tier 7 unlocks Luck plus additional Stats, and Tier 8 will double everything we¡¯ve acquired up to that point.¡±
¡°Hmm, so being born without a Bloodline is a double-edged sword,¡± Reivyn said, rubbing his chin. ¡°You won¡¯t receive a boost in the beginning or a guaranteed bonus, but you won¡¯t be stuck with a weak Bloodline and have the potential to reach the highest grade possible.¡±
¡°Yeah, and there¡¯s also the issue with descendents,¡± Teilon added. ¡°Obviously it¡¯s not retroactive to any children we have, so if I had a child right now, they would be stuck with the lowest grade Bloodline regardless of how much I improve in the future, and then it degrades with each generation that doesn¡¯t reach the same Tier before having kids. If I wait until maxing out my Bloodline to have kids and those kids also don¡¯t reach the same Tier and Bloodline Level before having their own children, it will degrade.¡±
¡°That makes a lot of sense with what I¡¯ve seen,¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°Even in Tier 1 Regions Bloodlines weren¡¯t so rare as to be unheard of, but they were all rtively weak.¡±
¡°Most people don¡¯t consider maximum gains and losses in their childrens¡¯ Bloodlines when thinking about starting a family,¡± Refix said. ¡°You got extremely lucky with your mother and I both being atavisms of our respective Bloodlines, and as you know, the ancestor on your mother¡¯s side Ascended which means they reached Tier 8.
¡°Ancient history is obscured, but we do know for a fact that your mother¡¯s side is descended from children the Vynn patriarch had after achieving Tier 8. There¡¯s some spection on his wife¡¯s part, but as far as we know, she was Tier 6 or 7. We don¡¯t know for sure. It was a long time ago.¡±
¡°How long ago?¡± Reivyn asked. He had never really dug into the ancient history of his family¡¯s lineage.
¡°The Vynn line goes back a million years, though the Vynndinn Empire was founded about a hundred thousand years ago.¡±
¡°Wait, considering what we know about elders traveling to the Upper Regions from Tier 4 empires, wouldn¡¯t there be powerful family members in the Tier 5 and 6 Regions near where the Vyndinn Region is?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Oh, certainly,¡± Refix nodded his head. ¡°At the time, though, we were too weak and vulnerable to travel to the Wilderness, and we had enemies seeking to exploit Ameliyn in the local Regions right after. After fleeing and building up our strength, we¡¯ve just been too busy living our own lives to head back.
¡°It¡¯s always been the n to go back eventually, but we¡¯ve been raising you and the girls¡¯ in peace. Once you¡¯re all grown and out on your own, your mother and I will travel back to Vyndinn to reim her birthright.¡±
Reivyn shared a look with Kefira. She nodded back to him.
¡°Well, we¡¯re going with you when you do,¡± Reivyn dered.
Refix and Ameliyn smiled at him.
¡°Of course,¡± Ameliyn said, resting her hand on his shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s not something we would force you to do, but we also hoped you would.¡±
¡°How could I not?¡± Reivyn asked.
Ameliyn nced at Kefira. She noticed and smiled back at her future mother-inw.
¡°I¡¯ll be part of the family soon, so of course it¡¯s my duty to go with you,¡± Kefira said. ¡°I couldn¡¯t in good conscience ignore your plight. I¡¯ll always be a member of the Wispan Imperial Family, but I¡¯m going to be Reivyn¡¯s wife.¡±
¡°Good girl,¡± Ameliyn beamed brighter than when Reivyn said he would go. She pulled Kefira into a quick side hug. ¡°I knew I had a good feeling about you from the moment I first saw you.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Kefira cocked an eyebrow with a suspicious expression. ¡°I seem to recall two certain mothers shouting about who¡¯s child wasn¡¯t worthy of the other.¡±
¡°Nonsense! That was all for show. I had to stand up for my little boy. Your mother wouldn¡¯t have respected me if I hadn¡¯t, just like I wouldn¡¯t have respected her.¡±
¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve noticed that the two of you have be quite close recently.¡±
¡°Joining our two families together is quite a task, haha.¡±
¡°Ok, ok, let¡¯s get back on topic then, shall we?¡± Refix rolled his eyes. ¡°We need six thorns from a Blood Rose, the root of a Burning Echinacea, and a Star-Body Ginseng. From what I can see, there¡¯s an open market just a ways further down the road, and I¡¯m sure there are some pharmacies or general stores we can peruse.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know the market prices of these treasures, so if they¡¯re avable, we should find more than one source topare prices,¡± Ameliyn added. ¡°I would say we should split up to take advantage of our numbers, but with Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense, it makes more sense to just follow him.¡±
Reivyn shrugged.
¡°I got no problem with that,¡± he said.
¡°Lead the way, then,¡± Kefira said, smiling as she held his arm.
¡°I¡¯ll go to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and secure the guides,¡± Refix volunteered. ¡°I¡¯lle find you in the market, and if we don¡¯t run into each other, meet back up at the inn for lunch?¡±
¡°Sounds good,¡± Reivyn nodded his head. ¡°Though I thought we weren¡¯t going to eat all of our meals at the inn.¡±
¡°It¡¯s just a staging ground,¡± Refix replied, nudging his son in the shoulder. Reivyn just chuckled at his dad.
Reivyn turned towards where he could see the biggest crowd walking among open tents a little ways off in the distance. Kefira stuck to his side, hanging on his arm, as he led the way. The streets weren¡¯t as crowded as typical cities in the Lower Regions, but they weren¡¯t empty by any means. It also got more congested and busy the closer they got to the open market.
Reivyn could hear it perfectly with his Divine Sense, but he still felt like he ran into a wall of sound as he walked into the open space where all the tents in the makeshift open market were located. Dozens of stalls, tents, and just people with their wares on a rug met his sight. With a casual nce, he could see a huge array of different items being bartered in the open. Every single person had the look of a seasoned veteran about them, regardless of which side of the transaction they were on.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
It was apparent that some of the ssers had invested time and effort into mercantile Skills more than others. Reivyn actually wasn¡¯t sure if his own Social Skills would trante in merchant exchanges or not. If he had to guess, it would help, but it would only work towards building a positive rapport with whoever he transacted with.
People called out wares and prices in an attempt to attract passersby to their stalls. Others sat silently and waited for anyone to show interest. Haggling was present in every direction Reivyn scanned.
Reivyn led his Party along the stalls, letting his Divine Sense expand around him. The open market wasrge enough that there wasn¡¯t a convenient location he could stand that would center him and allow him to scan everything at once. He let his mind focus on the wares all around him as he slowly walked along the path.
For the most part, the things being sold were weapons, armor, and enchanted trinkets. Most of the natural treasures on disy were metals and monster parts used in manufacturing gear. The Mana density of array of different Affinities contained within the various treasures intrigued him, but he kept his mind focused on the task at hand. Most of the Affinities he saw were pretty basic, anyway.
A small percentage of the wares on disy were medicinal natural treasures. He knew the properties of the three things he was looking for, but he didn¡¯t see any right away. The open market was quiterge, though, so he wasn¡¯t undeterred. He would need to walk the full length multiple times on different paths to be able to see everything.
He got a hit rtively quickly after only traversing about half-way down the first path. The main path they were on was just the main road through the open area. The other paths were temporary paths created by the presence of the various sellers themselves.
On one of these man-made paths, off to the right, Reivyn saw a couple sitting behind a stall with an assortment of herbs and flowers disyed on a short table. None of the natural treasures on disy were what he was looking for, but the couple had many other wares sitting in containers underneath their table out of view of the general public.
Reivyn sidled through an opening leading to the separate path and walked right up to the couple. There were no other people inspecting their treasures at the moment. Most of the people looking for things were inspecting the various Adventuring gear or treasures, so it made sense to Reivyn that most of the wares catered to that need.
The couple smiled at Reivyn and his group as they walked up.
¡°Ahh, fresh faces,¡± the woman dered with a bright smile. She held up a finger with a knowing look. ¡°I know just what you¡¯re looking for.¡±
She reached under the table and grabbed a clear container containing exactly the portions of the three treasures Reivyn was in search of. She ced it on the table for the others to see.
¡°Primary ingredients for the Second Level Bloodline advancement,¡± she said with a flourish.
Reivyn was momentarily stunned. He could see from his Divine Sense the others were as well - except Seri, who maintained a stoic expression no matter the circumstances.
¡°That¡¯s exactly what we¡¯re looking for,¡± Reivyn nodded, looking down at the container. ¡°How did you know?¡±
The man guffawed.
¡°Look around, son,¡± he swept his arm around the open market. ¡°While everyone who advances in their Tiers extends their lifespan and maintains a youthful look, none of the others are actual youths. One nce at you and yourpanions, and anyone can see in as day that you¡¯re young.
¡°That means two things: You just got here, and you probably haven¡¯t had time to seek out the Bloodline advancement treasures. Coupled with you making a beeline to one of the only stalls dabbling in medicinal treasures, it¡¯s not hard to put two and two together.¡±
Kefira hid a smile behind her hand as Reivyn scratched his head.
¡°Huh, I¡¯d never thought about it like that,¡± he admitted. ¡°I guess we do kind of look soft, huh?¡±
The couple shared a look before snorting. The man shook his head.
¡°It¡¯s the opposite, actually,¡± he replied. ¡°It¡¯s kind of scary when you think about it. Your entire group is made up of people who look like they¡¯re between twenty and thirty years old.¡± Reivyn gave him a skeptical look. ¡°When you¡¯re around old ssers for as long as we are, there are ways to see whether someone is young or just looks young. There are always signs.
¡°Anyway, none of you have those signs, which means you¡¯re all probably actually the age you look. You¡¯re in a Tier 5 Region, on the other side of the Wilderness. The only way to get here is under your own power unless some people are grossly viting the unspoken rules, but that doesn¡¯t seem to be the case. That means each of you has a scary-strong ss.
¡°The vast majority of people, something like 95%, have the bare minimum Rarity necessary in order to advance to the next Tier. I¡¯m guessing none of you have an Umon Tier 3 and Rare Tier 4 ss?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t even have a Tier 4 ss,¡± Reivyn snorted.
The couple froze and stared at Reivyn for several seconds. The man finally coughed into his hand.
¡°Don¡¯t ever say those words aloud again while in the Upper Regions,¡± he said with a dead-serious expression. ¡°That¡¯ll put a target on your back.¡±
¡°Why would that put a target on my back?¡± Reivyn asked, confusion evident on his face.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter here on the outskirts of the Tier 5 Regions, butpetition is fierce the deeper one goes. You¡¯ve basically just said that in a few years you¡¯re going to be at the top of thatpetitiondder. Now would be an ideal time for your trajectory to halt.¡±
¡°Hmm, I see. I¡¯ve never been in the habit of hiding things before. Haven¡¯t really had the need, honestly. I guess I need to get in the habit.¡±
¡°Definitely,¡± the couple nodded seriously.
¡°Thanks for the warning. Anyway¡¡±
¡°Right! Back to business,¡± the woman said, a smile returning to her face. ¡°These materials aren¡¯t exactly rare in the Tier 5 Regions, but we offer convenience. It¡¯ll save you weeks of travelling time, there and back, to just purchase them from a stall.
¡°I¡¯ll sell you each portion at the minimum price: One Skill Shard each, so three Skill Shards.¡±
Reivyn stopped with his hand half-way to his pouch. He looked up at the two smiling people and quirked an eyebrow.
¡°What¡¯s a Skill Shard?¡± He asked.
The woman¡¯s smile froze on her face and the man smacked his palm on his forehead.
¡°Wow, you are fresh,¡± he said. He lowered his hand and returned to a business-like demeanor. ¡°Listen, most things out here of a mundane nature can be paid for with mundane currency: A room at an inn, meals, use of various facilities; however, anything involving natural treasures of any kind, be it the raw natural treasures themselves or the gear made from them, mundane currency doesn¡¯t cut it.
¡°Skill Shards are mandatory.¡±
¡°Ok~ay, but that doesn¡¯t exin what a Skill Shard is, or how we acquire them,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°I¡¯m getting to it,¡± the man chuckled. ¡°Skill Shards are just what we call them, but they¡¯re technically Pure Energy Shards. Crystals containing pure energy. They can be found in the wild alongside other natural treasures. They can be found next to metals in mines and caves as well as among the roots ofrge nts orrge fields of smaller nts.¡±
¡°So, theoretically, we could go to that forest infested with goblins and search among the roots of the trees to find some of these Skill Shards.¡±
¡°Unlikely,¡± the woman answered. ¡°This outpost has been here for many, many years, and that forest is right there. The easy pickings have most likely been plucked already. These shards are a renewable resource, though, so you might get lucky and find a newly formed shard before it gets snagged. I wouldn¡¯t put much hope in that, though. You¡¯d be better off going further afield and look for them during your regr excursions.¡±
¡°I see. That¡¯s unfortunate, then,¡± Reivyn said, putting his hand back down by his side. Kefira frowned next to him. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll have to forego that convenience.¡±
¡°Now hold on a moment,¡± the man chuckled. ¡°This is amon problem, and it was solved a long time ago. Just go to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. They¡¯ll let you pawn something of value for a ¡®starter pack¡¯ of Skill Shards. Ten to be exact. It only takes eleven Skill Shards to retrieve your pawned items. It¡¯s a good deal with nopound interest.¡±
Reivyn shared a look with hispanions. They each nodded their heads in turn. He turned back to the couple.
¡°That does sound like a good deal,¡± he said. ¡°My friends and I will make our way to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild like you said ande back at ater time.¡±
¡°Excellent,¡± the woman said. She grabbed the case and stored it back under the table. ¡°You know where to find us.¡±
¡°Onest thing, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Reivyn called out to the couple, halting their movement of sitting back down. They stood back up and looked at him expectantly. ¡°You never exined why they¡¯re called Skill Shards and what their use is¡¡±
¡°Oh, right,¡± the man nodded his head. ¡°People don¡¯t really think about it in the Lower Regions, especially considering Skill Shards don¡¯t naturally form below Tier 5 Regions, but everything involving one¡¯s advancement takes energy.
¡°You gain Levels through Experience. That¡¯s a form of energy. You improve your affinities through manipting your Mana, a form of energy. You practice Martial Skills and abilities using Stamina, another form of energy. Your Bloodlines advance through usage of very specific energies found in natural treasures.
¡°What most people don¡¯t realize, though, is that Skills gain ¡®experience,¡¯ too. When you use them, you umte Skill Experience until it reaches a threshold, and then you gain a Skill Level.
¡°Skill Shards are called Skill Shards instead of Pure Energy Shards because we can harness the energy inside them to boost our Skill Experience. As I¡¯ve just told you, most of us are the bare minimum Rarity to advance to the next Tier. Boosting our Skills is the best way to ensure a higher Rarity ss on our next Tier-Up.
¡°Now I see that look in your eye, so let me clear some things up for you right now. We can¡¯t just absorb the energy straight to any Skill we want and Level it to the moon. It doesn¡¯t work that way. The only way to direct the energy to our Skills is while training said Skill, so it¡¯s a multiplier, not just an experience dump. You can¡¯t just umte a thousand Skill Shards and Level a Skill to Transcendence. You still have to put the work in, but it cuts the time down significantly if you have a steady supply of Skill Shards.¡±
¡°Fascinating,¡± Kefira whispered. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t anyone transported these Skill Shards to the Lower Realms to trade? There are plenty of other Tier 5 materials that make their way down.¡±
The coupleughed at the prospect.
¡°Who would want to?¡± The woman asked back. ¡°Skill Shards are a Tier 5 treasure. Who would trade a Skill Shard for gold? Or Tier 4 treasures?
¡°Plus they¡¯re not just a currency, they¡¯re the number onemodity that everyone is seeking. Everyone. Skill Shards can be used forever, no matter how high your Skill Level is. Every natural treasure that a person picks up after they¡¯ve advanced their Bloodline and forged their gear is just a ceholder for Skill Shards they can trade for.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Kefira nodded. ¡°That makes sense. Thank you for the information. We¡¯ll be sure to return for the Bloodline treasures, probably in the afternoon.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll be here,¡± the couple waved as Reivyn and the others made their way back to the main path.
¡°Well¡¡± Reivyn said, looking at each of hispanions. ¡°I guess we have another goal.¡±
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s time to get rich!¡± Teilon threw his fists in the air as he eximed.
Kimberly poked him in the side, causing Teilon to quickly lower his arms.
¡°In Skill Levels,¡± she said, rolling her eyes.
¡°Of course,¡± Teilon said, rubbing his side. ¡°Rich in Skill Levels.¡±
Reivyn chuckled as he turned to the other side.
¡°We might as well check out some of these other stalls while we wait for dad,¡± he said.
Chapter 282: Bloodline Expansion
Chapter 282: Bloodline Expansion
¡°Well that was a lot easier than expected,¡¯ Reivyn said. ¡°A bit anticlimactic, to be honest.¡±
¡°We don¡¯t always have to go through life or death to get what we need,¡± Refix answered. ¡°If the resources are avable, we might as well get them where and when we can. It¡¯s a higher priority to handle Kefira¡¯s situation as soon as possible than to go adventuring for the treasures ourselves.¡±
¡°That¡¯s true, and with that taken care of, we can search for the materials for everyone else to use, as well as pay back the loan, without having to worry too much.¡±
¡°That¡¯s the idea,¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°It¡¯s honestly a good deal they have going for neers. It¡¯s only a simple 10% interest on the loan.¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like that great of a deal for the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, though.¡±
¡°Eh, it¡¯s an investment,¡± Ameliyn shrugged. ¡°They make their money in other ways, and giving a bit of a boost to neers builds goodwill and improves their chances ofing back with treasures.¡±
Reivyn could only concede the point. It wasn¡¯t like the Adventurer¡¯s Guild was handing out thousands of these short-term loans. From what he could see, there would be only one or two active loans out at a time, and there were far more people already fully integrated into the economy.
And it really did make me view them in a more favorable light, Reivyn nodded to himself.
He put the thoughts of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and the local economy on hold. They had more pressing matters to attend to. They had secured the necessary items for Kefira¡¯s Bloodline advancement, and there was no reason to dy any further.They arrived back at the inn they had booked quickly and everyone started to follow Kefira down the hall to her room. Ameliyn stepped behind Kefira and Seri to turn to the rest of the group.
¡°What are you all doing?¡± She asked with a raised brow. Kimberly stepped forward to join the other girls and the three men shared a look between each other.
¡°Ahh, I didn¡¯t realize it was going to be like that,¡± Reivyn answered sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. ¡°We¡¯ll wait out here.¡±
¡°No you won¡¯t,¡± Ameliyn shook her head. ¡°We all know you can see everything happening inside this building no matter where you¡¯re standing. Out you go.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll turn it off,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes.
¡°I¡¯m sure you will, honey,¡± Ameliyn lightly tapped Reivyn on the side of the face, ¡°and I trust you, but if you¡¯re not here, I don¡¯t have to. I¡¯m aware that Kefira probably doesn¡¯t actually mind,¡± she stole a nce at the younger woman to which Kefira simply shrugged unabashedly, ¡°but I do. So off you go.¡±
Reivyn shrugged and gave onest look to Kefira. She reached out and squeezed his hand.
¡°I¡¯ll see you in a couple of hours,¡± she said.
¡°Really? That long?¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
Kefira chuckled.
¡°We¡¯re not like you. We have to do things the regr way. It will take a couple of hours toplete.¡±
Kefira had already spent months umting vital energy through the various treasures they could find in the Lower Regions. She just needed the final missing pieces toplete the circuit and activate the energies within her body. It was roughly simr to how Reivyn could umte enough Bloodline Experience over time but needed thatst final push before it took hold and Leveled Up. It just required specific treasures used in specific ways.
¡°Alright, then. See you in a couple of hours.¡± After onest squeeze of their fingers, the two let go. Reivyn turned with Refix and Teilon and headed to the exit.
As they stepped outside, Teilon pped his hands together and rubbed them conspiratorily.
¡°Times like these are the perfect opportunity to visit-¡±
¡°A sparring ring!¡± Refix cut in, finger lifted dramatically to the sky.
Before Teilon could even process what happened, Refix grabbed both the boys by the shirt and dragged them toward the wall in the distance. Reivyn could see what appeared to bepounds set up for training near the wall. The outpost didn¡¯t have its own military, but they did employ Adventurers like the patrollers and it was obvious they would have facilities for them to use.
¡°Whhhyyyy~?!¡± Teilon wailed as he was dragged along by Refix.
¡°Ohe on,¡± Refix replied without a shred of remorse. ¡°It¡¯s good for you. We¡¯ll just do some light calisthenic - no time for more - and then find one of the locals to have a friendly match with. There¡¯s a lot you could learn from fighting some of the veterans out here.¡±
¡°But it¡¯s our duty to get drunk during times like these!¡± Teilon said, scrabbling at Refix¡¯s hold on his shirt. He was unable to peel the older man¡¯s fingers from their grip, though, and thus continued to be dragged along.
¡°Who told you that?¡± Refix nced back with an inquisitive look.
¡°That¡¯s what all of your subordinates say,¡± Teilon desperately searched for any argument out of his predicament.
¡°Uh huh. And, pray tell, which of my subordinates that you¡¯ve talked to have a wife and children of their own?¡±
¡°Umm, none of them?¡±
¡°Exactly,¡± Refix nodded his head. ¡°Let me give you a piece of advice. Thatst thing you want to do while your woman is going through suffering is to be having fun.¡±
¡°Which is why we¡¯re going to do your favorite thing?¡± Teilo didn¡¯t look convinced.
¡°That¡¯s different. That¡¯s self improvement. Fun doesn¡¯t factor in such situations.¡±
Reivyn could practically see the wheels spinning in Teilon¡¯s head as he searched for a counterargument. His eyes lit up and he spoke as quickly as the thought came to him.
¡°Poison Resistance! I need to work on my Poison Resistance.¡±
Refix came to a halt. He stood there in the middle of the road, both arms extended behind him grasping the two younger men¡¯s shirts. Several of the passersby gave them curious nces, but other than that, they were ignored on the busy street.
¡°Huh,¡± Refix finally said after a moment of contemtion. ¡°That¡¯s actually a really good point.¡±
Teilon could feel that something was wrong as Refix agreed with him much too quickly.
¡°On second thought-¡± He began.
¡°Alright, it¡¯s decided. We¡¯ll find you a sparring partner that uses poison.¡± Refix nced back and grinned at Teilon, a glint of humor in his eyes.
¡°Nooooo~.¡±
¡ª
¡°You didn¡¯t tell him?¡± Ameliyn asked after the three men left the inn.
¡°There¡¯s no reason to cause him worry,¡± Kefira shook her head. ¡°Besides, if he doesn¡¯t know, that means you didn¡¯t tell him, either.¡±
Ameliyn shrugged.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition.
¡°Eh, it¡¯s not my ce when it involves you, and even if we don¡¯t tell him, he¡¯s bound to find out when Refix and Teilon go through the same procedure.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a then problem, and I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll understand. This isn¡¯t really the kind of secret to get upset over. He might be a little irritated that there was nothing he could do for me, but it¡¯ll most likely be directed inward.¡±
¡°Yeah, most likely. I¡¯m d to see you understand my son so thoroughly.¡± Ameliyn gave Kefira a warm smile. ¡°Alright, no reason to tarry any further. If you¡¯re ready, let¡¯s get to it.¡±
Kefira took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
¡°I¡¯m ready.¡±
The four women entered Kefira¡¯s room where a tub was already waiting for them. The baths were public per gender, but guests could request a tub for private use if they wanted. They were going to need it for their purposes.
Kefira disrobed and stood in the empty tub. It wasn¡¯t there for a private bath, though it would be used to wash Kefira off when they were done. It was more to prevent any big messes from spreading all over the room.
Kefira pulled the case containing the final ingredients out of her storage and handed it to Seri. Seri opened it and removed the three natural treasures, separating them.
The six thorns from a Blood Rose each looked like they had a red, blood-like liquid poised to drip from the tip at any time. It was just an illusion, though. There was no actual liquid even there. Sliding it across an object wouldn¡¯t smear it, and passing a finger over the drop wouldn¡¯t disturb it. One was more likely to identally stab themselves with the unnaturally sharp point.
The root of a Burning Echinacea didn¡¯t have quite the visual spectacle associated with it. While the petals of the flower itself had a magical corona that gave off the appearance of burning, the root was simply hot to the touch.
The Star Body Ginseng got its name from the pattern of dots and lines across the ginseng root that was already in a humanoid shape. There were six dots, and lines connected them together to give it the appearance of a star constetion. The lines and dots had a subtle glow to add to the effect.
Seri took out a mortar and pestle. She ced the root of the Burning Echinacea and ground it into fine dust. The root was brown before processing, but after being turned into powder, it looked like burning embers given solid form.
Once that was done, Seri picked up the six thorns and dipped the tip into the root powder. This was the only time the ephemeral liquid drop would ever interact with anything. The powder was absorbed into the liquid. It turned the deep crimson color a brighter shade until it was half-way to being orange. Heat began to radiate off of the thorn as it absorbed the properties of the root.
All six thorns together absorbed all of the root powder. As soon as all of the powder was absorbed, the liquid drop retreated into the thorn itself, staining the dark green thorn the same shade as the liquid.
¡°We¡¯re ready,¡± Seri looked at Kefira. She held out the Star Body Ginseng to her friend.
Kefria smiled as she epted the ginseng root. She nodded her head once and put the whole thing in her mouth.
The Star Body Ginseng was much toorge to chew and swallow whole, but that¡¯s not what happened. It wasn¡¯t a natural treasure for no reason. After closing her mouth, the Star Body Ginseng dissolved into a liquid that tasted like honey but felt as thin and clear as air. It effortlessly flowed down her throat where she felt the energy spread out and permeate her body.
The dots and lines found on the Star Body Ginseng manifested themselves on Kefira¡¯s body. Six glowing dots appeared with lines connecting them together. She looked as if she had be the Star Body Ginseng.
Two dots appeared on the tips of her middle fingers, two dots appeared on the soles of her feet, one dot appeared on her forehead, and thest dot appeared on her dantian.
¡°Deep breath,¡± Ameliyn whispered. Kefira nodded her head.
Ameliyn and Seri each took up a thorn. Without further hesitation, they drove them into the first dots on Kefira¡¯s fingertips. The thorns easily pierced the flesh and bone and embedded themselves all the way until flush with her skin.
Kefira had unlocked the Pain Resistance Skill with all of the physical training she had done with Reivyn and Refix, but it still was one of her lowest Skills. It did nothing to blunt the extreme difort of having a sharp object pierce into the tips of her finger bones. She grunted with pain, but it wasn¡¯t anything she couldn¡¯t endure.
The twodies helping her grabbed her by the arms and helped her sit down in the tub. The next step was said to be the most ufortable part of the procedure. Once sat in an upright position, Kefira¡¯s soles were exposed. The two women grabbed another thorn, each, and drove them into the dots exposed on the bottoms of Kefira¡¯s feet.
This time she did scream. There was no holding it back. It wasn¡¯t necessarily the most painful thing Kefira had ever experienced, but the nature of the sensation was entirely unique. The pain didn¡¯t abate over time, either, and she knew it wouldn¡¯t go away until the thorns were extracted. Sheposed herself and grit her teeth against the pain.
¡°Two more, sweety,¡± Ameliyn whispered.
The two women once more took up thest of the thorns. Ameliyn brought her thorn up to Kefira¡¯s head and held it steady against the dot on her forehead. She waited until Seri held hers against the dot on Kefira¡¯s abdomen. The two nodded their heads at each other and thrust the thorns into flesh once more.
Kefira¡¯s mind went nk with the sensation. Because of the magical nature of the procedure, there was never any danger to her brain, even though a thorn was pierced directly into her skull. It wasn¡¯t the feeling of having her brain nearly pierced that caused her mind to go nk. It was the amalgamation of sensations.
Now that all six thorns were pierced into her body, they sent out pulses of power into and through her being. The pulses carried the same feeling with them, so the same unique feeling of having the thorns pierced into the bottoms of her feet seemed to crawl up her legs where it met the sensations of the other piercings also pulsing through her body.
Each pulse traveled throughout her entire body, but when they crossed each other, they caused vibrations. The pulses came in rapid session, and she felt like a storm of waves was crashing through her interior. The vibrations intensified every time, and her organs seemed to lock up with each one.
If she was cognizant enough to articte the sensation, she would have described it as the same as if an audio wave shattered ss.
Her body was being shattered on a microscopic scale. The vital energies stored within her then rushed into her cells. Her cells were already full, though, and they didn¡¯t have room to amodate the new energies. Something had to be removed to make way for the new energy.
ck sludge began to squeeze out of her pores all over her body. It started off slow, but it umted over time. It was thick and sticky like tar, and it gave off a disgusting, pungent aroma. It stuck to her skin until no skin could even be seen. The only thing under the impurities that was still visible was the glowing constetion from the Star Body Ginseng.
Kefira didn¡¯t even have a mind to scream at the pain and other weird sensations wracking her body. She just shivered uncontrobly while trying to stay awake during the process. If she fell unconscious, her internal organs would react in different ways and a lot of efficiency would be lost.
The three other women looking after her watched the process y out. The glowing lines of the constetion started off as a pure white glow, but as the process continued, the deep crimson of the blood drop from the thorns started to creep along the line. The fiery, burning orange from the root of the Burning Echinacea swirled around the creeping red lines and seemed to add to the purification of Kefira¡¯s body near the lines.
The procedure would beplete when the glowing constetion was 100% inundated with the deep crimson color slowly creeping along the lines. The thorns would be expelled automatically, and they would be able to clean the gunk off of Kefira.
Based on the speed of the crimson filling the lines, it was going to be several hours before the ordeal was over. The three women simply sat and waited with Kefira through her agony, giving her their silent support and willpower.
¡ª
Sweat dripped down Reivyn¡¯s face as he watched his opponent over his wooden practice shield. The twobatants maneuvered around each other as they kept a sharp eye out for any indication of sudden movement. Slow, steady steps saw each of them moving parallel to each other as they maintained a tight circle within the yard.
Nobody in the practice field was equipped with their actual gear. The practice yard provided uniform weapons, shields, and rudimentary protective armor to everyone who paid the small usage fee. The practice gear was made from locally sourced Tier 5 wood. It wasn¡¯t magical, but the sheer Mana density of the equipment ensured its durability.
Reivyn braced himself against his shield as his opponent dashed forward to deliver a powerful overhead blow with a wooden mace. Reivyn easily caught the swing with his shield, but blocking the attack itself wasn¡¯t the point of this particr sparring session.
A deep vibration worked itself from the epicenter of the blow and traveled through his arm into his body. It contained within it a sharp pain everywhere that vibrated, and he could feel his Health Points tick down as he withstood the blow. The power of his opponents swing waspletely contained within the vibrations and directed zero momentum beyond the point of impact. It was one of the strangestbat styles Reivyn hade across.
It was unsurprising to discover that almost every single person in the Outpost had reached Transcendence in at least onebat Skill. Reivyn¡¯s current opponent¡¯s ability was to transform all the energy of a vector from his mace attack into a localized vibration.
It created quite a distinct fighting style. It wasn¡¯t an automatic transformation. His opponent could freely use the ability. Reivyn began the spar alternating between bracing himself against powerful attacks that could push him back and attacks that seemed to carry zero momentum at all. The speeds they moved meant Reivyn had a tiny fraction of a second to determine which defense he needed to employ.
Reivyn was a quick study, though, and he quickly fell into a rhythm with his sparring partner. He didn¡¯t guess correctly every time, but he had so many other Skills to adjust his bnce and footing that he was able to ignore a lot of the issues caused from guessing incorrectly. The other man¡¯s fighting style was one of keeping his enemies off bnce while inflicting incremental damage over time. Reivyn¡¯s trained ability to go harder, longer with less Stamina also kept him in the fight through the pain, and his Regeneration Skill got a good workout, as well. The man across from Reivyn wasn¡¯t seriously trying to hurt him, so the damage from the vibrations was rtively negligible.
After discovering that he couldn¡¯t put Reivyn off bnce, the two had switched to a different style of training. Instead of focusing on whether or not an attack would contain vibrations or not, all of them did and Reivyn practiced resisting those vibrations. In return Reivynunched counterattacks with his True Strike ability in creative ways for his opponent to further hone the openings he presented while attacking. Even in situations where the man was 100% confident he left no openings for Reivyn to exploit, Reivyn¡¯s True Strike ability would find a way.
Reivyn equipped himself with the same weaponry as those he fought against, so he was currently also using a mace. His opponent struck hard and fast, and he kept his own shield close to his body with a stance that was nowhere close to overextended. Reivyn could see the look in the other man¡¯s eye that said, ¡°How are you going to get through my defense this time?¡±
Well, everything¡¯s a weapon, Reivyn thought.
Using his Skill and understanding, Reivyn¡¯s body directed his opponent¡¯s own vibration attack through his body, up his arm, and into his own mace. It concentrated in the thick, wooden head just as it crashed against the other man¡¯s shield. It was the first time Reivyn had reflected the man¡¯s own ability against him, so he waspletely unprepared for his own tactic to be used against him.
Not only did he grunt from the vibrations traveling through his shield into his arm, his body jerked when the expected power of the strike didn¡¯t hit him the way he expected. That slight hup in the man¡¯s stance was all Reivyn needed.
Reivyn sliced his shield forward diagonally and knocked the man¡¯s own shield away from his body. He contained all of the movements from strike, shield slice, to strike all in one fluid motion as he followed through by jabbing his mace straight into the man¡¯s gut. From the moment the man struck Reivyn¡¯s shield to Reivyn ramming his own weapon into his gut, less than one second passed.
The man stumbled back out of their tight confines, holding up his hand which held the mace. He opened his fingers as much as he could without dropping his weapon and shook his hand. He had a smile on his face as he disengaged from the spar.
¡°You know,¡± he said once he and Reivyn were standing at ease, ¡°I think that was the first time I¡¯ve been on the receiving end of an attack like that. So that¡¯s what that feels like.¡±
¡°What exactly-¡±
The man suddenly cut off what he was saying as his head snapped in the direction of the center of the Outpost. Everywhere that Reivyn could see, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in the same direction. He felt it, too, but it was apparently much fainter to him.
There was a sort of buzzing sensation in the atmosphere. Almost a slight rumble. Reivyn, along with Refix and Teilon nearby, turned to look in the same direction, curious as to what it could be.
A ripple of power exploded from within the center of the Outpost. It wasn¡¯t destructive. There was no physical manifestation. It was powerful, nheless. People didn¡¯t try to avoid the ripple or panic, but strange phenomenon happened to everyone as it passed through them.
Reivyn didn¡¯t know exactly how to describe it. The power passed through him, but he didn¡¯t feel any different. He tried to turn his head toward Refix to speak to him, but his movement was involuntarily jerky. He turned his head, but it moved too far. Then, he was suddenly looking straight ahead again.
His Divine Sense prevented his perspective from shifting too suddenly for him, but that same Divine Sense allowed him to witness the effects on everyone else. It was more pronounced on people who physically moved rather than just adjusted their stance.
People everywhere in his perception that moved had their bodies stretch in weird ways. One person took a step, but his foot reached several yards beyond what should have been possible. Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense simultaneously perceived him as existing in a state of being stretched beyond limits and stepping perfectly normally.
Then, the man¡¯s body stuttered and shifted back to his original position. Reivyn shook his head to clear it, but half-way through the involuntary movement, he shifted back toplete stillness.
¡°What is happening?!¡± Reivyn heard his sparring partner shout in confusion. His voice echoed off the nearby walls, but even those echoes suddenly stuttered and disappeared.
The very fabric of Space and Time seemed to be splintered in the local area.
I think I know what caused this, Reivyn chuckled to himself. Once whatever this is passes, we¡¯ll need to go congratte Kefira.
Chapter 283: Eve of Adventure
Chapter 283: Eve of Adventure
The weird space-time anomaly didn¡¯tst longer than a few moments. The nature of the anomaly made it seem like it went on for much longer than it actually did, but once things returned to normal, everyone realized it had only been a few heartbeats. Reivyn turned to his sparring partner and gave a quick, shallow bow to the man.
¡°Thank you for the spar, but it¡¯s time for us to head out,¡± Reivyn said.
¡°Sure, no problem,¡± the man replied. ¡°If you want to continue in the future, you can find me here most early afternoons after lunch.¡±
¡°Thanks.¡±
Reivyn signaled to his father and Teilon. The other two nodded and the three of them reced their borrowed practice gear.
¡°It will take a little time for them to get cleaned up,¡± Refix said. ¡°Let¡¯s take our time on the way back.¡±
¡°So would now be a good time to grab a quick drink?¡± Teilon piped up. ¡°After what I just went through, I could really use one.¡±
Reivyn observed his friend. Teilon was pale and sweaty, much sweatier than the physical exercise he had gone through ounted for. True to his word, Refix had found him a sparring partner that used a variety of poisons.
Teilon didn¡¯t have a very high Poison Resistance Skill, though, so his opponent only used some mildly ufortable concoctions during their match. Reivyn didn¡¯t know exactly what the poisons did, but he could tell his friend was mostly just feeling terrible and not hurt or missing a lot of Health Points.¡°Briefly rewarding yourself after self-improvement, in these situations, doesn¡¯t count as ¡®having fun,¡¯¡± Refix nodded his head. ¡°It¡¯s alright to indulge yourself a little bit as long as you don¡¯t go overboard and let yourself get carried away.¡±
¡°Sounds good to me!¡± Teilon immediately perked up. He still looked terrible, but at least his expression had brightened up.
The trio were still aware of Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense and the stiption that he stay away until an appropriate time, so they headed to a different establishment to grab a quick drink. They just ducked into the closest tavern to the practice grounds they had used.
The nature of Adventurers, especially the older, more seasoned ones, meant there were always some people present in any drinking establishment open for business. The tavern wasn¡¯t full by any means, but there were still a decent amount of people present drinking, eating, and socializing with each other despite the rtively early hour of the day.
The three weren¡¯t going to spend an extended period of time or grab anything to eat, so they just sat at the bar directly.
¡°What¡¯ll it be?¡± The barkeeper sidled over and asked Refix, the most mature looking one of the group.
¡°These two are lower-Tier, but they have high Stats,¡± Refix opened. ¡°Do you have anything you¡¯d rmend for, let¡¯s say¡ low Tier 5, high Tier 4?¡±
¡°Of course!¡± The barkeeper eximed with a smile. ¡°Even though most people thate through here are at least mid Tier 5, we keep stocked for the teetotallers. That should work just fine for the pair of young gentlemen.¡±
¡°Sounds good to me,¡± Reivyn nodded. ¡°We¡¯re not here to get drunk, after all.¡±
¡°Speak for yourself,¡± Teilon quipped with a smirk. Refix smacked him in the back of the head without looking. ¡°Hey!¡± Teilon rubbed the back of his head as he shot a look of mock-hurt at Refix. Refix just quirked an eyebrow at his son¡¯s friend. ¡°I mean, yeah, not here to get drunk¡ right now.¡±
Refix rolled his eyes, but he couldn¡¯t hide the quick tug at the corner of his lips from Reivyn¡¯s perception.
¡°Make it three,¡± Refix said, putting some silver on the countertop. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had anything strong, myself.¡±
¡°Coming right up!¡±
The barkeeper snagged three mugs from the shelf behind him and made his way to one of the smaller kegs. They were ced under the bar to be out of the way, but Reivyn could see them just fine. Each one was made from an aged wood that Reivyn didn¡¯t recognize, but by the concentration of mana still lingering in the wood, he could ce them as locally sourced Tier 5 materials. They didn¡¯t look like the mundane wood all around the Outpost, though, so he suspected they were actually some type of wood natural treasure.
Not only were the kegs made from powerfully mana-infused wood, he could see symbols etched into the side with some sort of silvery-ink Reivyn assumed were enchantments. He could sense Mana flowing from the symbols into the wood of the mini barrels, and they red briefly as the barkeeper used the taps to fill the three mugs.
A light golden liquid flowed into the mugs and settled with the perfect head sitting on the top. The barkeeper ced the three mugs in front of the three customers and swiped the silver coins. He pocketed the coins and copper change appeared in his hand. Refix waved him away as he made to ce the coins in front of him. The barkeeper simply nodded with a smile and the coins disappeared into whatever storage device the man used for his currency.
The three men grabbed their mugs and clinked them together before taking a drink. Reivyn and Refix initially only took a sip to gauge the vor, but Teilon went straight for a decent gulp. Reivyn had never known his friend to be much of a big drinker, but they had been apart for several years at this point. He didn¡¯t act like someone who needed a drink, but he was definitely more experienced in the art of drinking than Reivyn.
¡°Ahhhhh, that hits the spot,¡± Teilon said with a dramatic sigh. He wiped the bit of foam clinging to his upper lip as he set the mug back on the countertop.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the vition.
¡°You know, I have to agree,¡± Reivyn said, appraising the golden drink.
Despite the color, it wasn¡¯t light on the vor. He didn¡¯t know much about alcoholic beverages, but he did know this one was delicious. There was only a hint of alcohol in the vor profile, but he knew not to underestimate it after the prank his parents had pulled on him and his academy friends all those years ago. It wasn¡¯t the alcohol density that would be the problem, but the enhancement to the alcohol added by the mana density. It was like an additional type of purity.
There¡¯s probably aponent of type as well, Reivyn briefly contemted. Different affinities and/or natural treasures will have different effects on the potency.
It was an interesting question, and Reivyn could see how there was actually a lot to learn on the subject, but he wasn¡¯t much of a drinker, so it didn¡¯t interest him beyond simply acknowledging it existed. Reivyn nced at Teilon¡¯s contented expression as he took another drink. Maybe it¡¯s a field of study Teilon would be interested in. It might be an inroad into getting him to ¡°identally¡± work on his different affinities. The thought of tricking Teilon into additional training made Reivyn chuckle.
Reivyn and Refix sipped on their drinks while Teilon downed his quickly. Even though they weren¡¯t drinking nearly as quickly as Teilon, it didn¡¯t take them that long to finish their beverages. They were only spending enough time to allow Kefira and the girls to get cleaned up and presentable, anyway.
The three stood from the bar and made their way to the exit. Teilon slightly swayed on his first step, but he centered himself and regained his bnce. He shot a look at Reivyn who was walking perfectly normally.
¡°I¡¯m a full Tier higher than you, have obviously more experience drinking, and yet I¡¯m the one who stumbles while you¡¯re still perfectly fine,¡± Teilon shook his head.
Reivyn shrugged.
¡°I didn¡¯t chug my drink,¡± he said. ¡°Plus I¡¯m pretty sure I higher Stats and Poison Resistance than you.¡±
¡°Not everything¡¯s apetition,¡± Teilon said with a smile, slinging an arm over Reivyn¡¯s shoulder.
Reivyn rolled his eyes.
¡°You¡¯re right, I shouldn¡¯t have brought it up.¡±
¡°Just so you know,¡± Teilon nodded his head.
Refix just chuckled.
The three took their time and slowly made their way back to the inn. Reivyn was confident they had wasted enough time for the girls to finish everything up. As his Divine Sense came into range where he could see into the inn rooms, he slowed down further so he wouldn¡¯t identally see something he wasn¡¯t supposed to, and he could react quick enough to shut the Skill down.
It actually wouldn¡¯t be the first time he saw more than he should have, and he definitely had private scenes of strangers enter the range of his Skill on a regr basis, but he had gotten good enough at partitioning the information from his Skill that he didn¡¯t actually consciously notice such things. It was like catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, and then it was quickly banished from his mind.
When he got close enough, he saw that the girls were already sitting at a table in themon room. They had a spread of food out in front of them, enough for everyone once the three men rejoined them, though Kefira seemed to be devouring arger than normal portion.
¡°They¡¯re done and have already grabbed a table and food in themon room,¡± Reivyn said.
Refix and Teilon just nodded as the three resumed a normal pace now that they had confirmation it was an appropriate time to return. The three entered the inn and made a beeline to the girls¡¯ table under Reivyn¡¯s direction. The girls looked up and waved to them as they saw them.
Reivyn sat down next to Kefira and noticed her bedraggled state. She had clearly taken a bath and made herself presentable, but Reivyn could see the exhaustion in her face and movements. He frowned slightly at the sight.
¡°You look¡ wrung out,¡± Reivyn said. He almost said ¡°terrible,¡± but he caught himself before he could make such a faux pas.
¡°You have no idea,¡± Kefira replied with a tired smile. ¡°Though I actually feel fantastic, now.¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s good at least. Was it such an ordeal?¡±
¡°Oh yeah,¡± Ameliyn answered, allowing Kefira to continue to eat. She needed to replenish her energy. ¡°Specific instructions have to be followed when doing things the normal way. Just absorbing the energy directly doesn¡¯t do anything for everyone else. It will just fill us up with vital energy that will slowly bleed away without anysting benefits. Technically that¡¯s what all the other natural treasures Kefira took previously did, but the final process directed those vital energies to the correct purpose.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I mean, I guess I always knew that, but what exactly did that entail?¡±
¡°Oh, not much,¡± Ameliyn replied nonchntly. ¡°She just needed to stab herself with those thorns, let the fiery energies of the natural treasures burn away her impurities, and let the vital energies repair and enhance the damage.¡±
Reivyn sat in silence for a moment before he suddenlyprehended the words his mother spoke. His head fiercely gurned to his mother, shock on his face.
¡°Wait, what?¡±
Ameliynughed at his reaction before exining the full process to him. Reivyn sat in silence for several more moments, contemting the activation method.
¡°Why would anyone ever do that?¡± He finally asked, puzzled.
¡°Well¡ it¡¯s the way to do it?¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what to tell you. It¡¯s the necessary steps.¡±
¡°No, I mean the first person to do it. Why would the first person who did it do it? What could possibly have been going through their mind to think, ¡®this will work.¡¯¡±
¡°Oh! That¡¯s simple. They were told to.¡±
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at his mother.
¡°The first person to do it was told to do it? How does that work?¡±
¡°Not everything is guess-work,¡± Ameliyn said. ¡°You know that high Level priests canmunicate with the Ascended beings they worship, and you know about the Akashic Record. Knowledge exists outside of the normal channels.
¡°We don¡¯t know if it was a divine revtion from an Ascended being or if it was just a fundamental truth of the world, but the first people to do it asked the question and received the answer. It¡¯s as simple as that.¡±
¡°Yeah, sounds simple,¡± Reivyn rolled his eyes. ¡°What do you mean ¡®fundamental truth?¡¯¡±
¡°The Akashic Record is a perfect example,¡± Refix interjected. ¡°It contains information about the world, objects, creatures, even the System itself, and you can ess it with your Skill. That information exists even if it isn¡¯t written down anywhere.
¡°Powerful beings can look at it directly. Ascended beings are the prime example. We know that Akashic Records of different lineages contain different types and amounts of information, so we can specte that it depends on the specialty of the person. Basically they understand a subject so much they master the very fabric of truth of that subject.
¡°That¡¯s just for inherently understanding a fundamental truth. There are other ways, too. Some high-Tier sses have divination abilities. They can seek out partial answers to specific questions. Like they might be able to get the process of advancing Bloodlines without understanding the underlying principles involved.
¡°There might be other sses that arrive at the same answer through different means, too. Maybe there¡¯s a ss somewhere out there that focuses on enhancing people¡¯s bodies or something and they got a ss Skill that showed them the way.¡± Refix shrugged. ¡°We don¡¯t know the details, just that it¡¯s the way most weird orplicated things were figured out.¡±
¡°Really? Most things?¡± Reivyn was skeptical. ¡°Then why is there so much research being conducted and why aren¡¯t they using divination or petitioning the churches for the answers?¡±
Refix shrugged.
¡°Don¡¯t know. It hasn¡¯t been used in a long time. About the same amount of time that it¡¯s been difficult for people to Ascend. Whatever caused the change in Ascension has also interfered with talking to Ascended beings and using divination outside of the Akashic Record.¡±
¡°Well¡ alright, then,¡± Reivyn said after a moment. ¡°I¡¯m getting hungry with all this food in front of me, so I guess I¡¯ll go ahead and eat.¡±
Kefira had never stopped eating during the entire conversation. She wasn¡¯t eating fast or without manners, but she was eating at a consistent pace. Teilon and Kimberly had prepared their own tes and were talking to each other in whispers. Seri sat in silence with a finished te on the table in front of her. Ameliyn likewise had remnants of a finished meal in front of her.
Reivyn and Refix apportioned themselves servings of the various dishes on the table and started eating as well.
¡°It¡¯s a bit toote in the day to start our expedition, so we¡¯ll go first thing in the morning,¡± Refix said between bites. ¡°We¡¯ve all already done some form of training or other today, too, so I suggest we have a break for the rest of the day. Just be sure to be in bed at a decent time to get well-rested. We¡¯re going to leave the Outpost at dawn.¡±
¡°Sounds good, boss,¡± Teilon said, quickly looking up from his conversation with Kimberly. The others around the table nodded in agreement.
Reivyn and Refix quickly finished their meal, but Kefira was still steadily filling her stomach. Reivyn continued to sit with her and Seri at the table. Refix and Ameliyn got up when Refix finished to go do their own thing, and they were quickly followed by Teilon and Kimberly.
The Party disbanded into three separate groups for the rest of the day. Kefira eventually finished replenishing her energy, and Reivyn and Seri stayed with her. They spent the rest of the day justzily rxing. Kefira wasn¡¯t really in the mood for doing anything other than lounging with Reivyn by her side, and Reivyn was perfectly happy to apany her. Seri, obviously, would stick to Kefira.
Everyone made it back to their rooms in a timely manner and spent another night in afy bed for thest time in a while. The next day would see them out on another adventure, sourcing materials for their own Bloodline, racking up Life Experience, and Skill and ss Levels.
Chapter 284: Bloody Thorns
Chapter 284: Bloody Thorns
The rolling hills near the outpost continued into the distance all the way to the foot of the mountain. Each wave seemed to be a bit taller than thest until it finally turned into the huge range in the distance. It was reminiscent of a water drop rippling outward. Even though the mountain range loomed over thendscape, it was still many days¡¯ journey away.
The distant mountain range wasn¡¯t their initial destination. They would continue their journey some ways up the first ridge eventually, but the natural treasures they were searching for were more likely to be found in open, grassy areas than rocky, mountainous regions.
That wasn¡¯t to say they couldn¡¯t stumble across any on the mountain. It wasn¡¯t like the whole thing was a block of stone jutting out of the ground. There was plenty of vegetation greenery quite a ways up the mountainside. The edge of the treeline was the border they had decided upon for their first foray into the true Tier 5 Region.
So far everything up to the Outpost could only be considered the outskirts of the Region. Even though it had taken many days¡¯ travel from the Wilderness to the Outpost, it was still only the fringe of the Region. The constant fighting goblins for hours and hours everyday made it seem like the distance was further than it actually was. If they hadn¡¯t suffered such dys, Reivyn estimated that the time of travel would have taken a quarter as long or less.
The constant goblin encounters didn¡¯t resume as Reivyn and his Party traveled further into the Region. It wasn¡¯t just that the area around the Outpost was kept clear by the patrolling volunteer Adventurers. There was a fundamental difference.
The random pockets of goblins simply didn¡¯t exist. Reivyn didn¡¯t know if it was because of the traffic of other Adventurers or if the Outpost had been strategically located on the edge of the swarm of wild goblins. It didn¡¯t change the oue at all, so Reivyn didn¡¯t dwell on it.
The absence of constant little groups of goblins didn¡¯t mean it waspletely safe, though. There were other creatures stalking the rolling hills after traveling half a day away from the Outpost. This time it was pretty obvious it was the work of the patrollers that kept them at bay.
Ferocious beasts were regr animals that absorbed the ambient mana of a Region and evolved from therge density of mana. Their features weren¡¯t any different. There weren¡¯t two-headed monstrosities roaming the wilds. They were just tougher and more aggressive than their weaker counterparts found in the lower density Regions.
The rolling hills were home to small beasts that weren¡¯t necessarily aggressive. The difference between these variations of ferocious beasts and their more normal cousins was their propensity to defend their territory from intrusion. Most of the time, pretty much everyone in their Party could spot the animals before they entered the range of their territory, and for those that were a bit sneakier, Reivyn could sense them with his Divine Sense.It would take forever if they detoured for every pack of groundhogs or other small animals, so they simply walked their path and dispatched any that attacked them. Most of the time, the creatures didn¡¯t defend an entire area they considered their territory and only grew aggressive if they Party walked straight toward them.
That was only for the smaller creatures, though. Therger animals - bison, antelope, and the asionalrge cat - were much less forgiving. More than once Reivyn and the other spellcasters of the Party had to throw up a wall of Earth spikes and other obstacles to halt a charging beast. The bisons were particrly difficult to stop, but they were at least easily dodged.
The amount of fighting holding up the Party from reaching their destination was a drop in the bucketpared to their journey through the goblin packs, though. After a couple of days walking in the general direction of the mountain range, the Party finally emerged upon a hill top that was among what they were looking for.
¡°Well, that wasn¡¯t too hard,¡± Teilon said, hands on his hips as he surveyed the hilltop. Rose bushes with their wicked thorns sporting the ethereal blood-red dew drops dotted the top of the hill. The Blood Roses were the mostmon natural treasure among the list to find in the local area of the Region.
¡°You say that, but there was a bit of luck involved, too,¡± Reivyn pointed out. ¡°How many little hilltops have we crossed, and how many more can we see from here? This is one of of all of those that have these roses.¡±
¡°While that¡¯s true, there¡¯s still the reality of the situation,¡± Teilon argued. ¡°The reality is that it was easy for us to arrive here. Now all we have to do is harvest the thorns, and we¡¯re good to go.¡±
Kimberly poked Teilon in the ribs with a skeptical look on her face.
¡°Did you even read the dossier on how to harvest the thorns?¡± She asked.
¡°I skimmed it¡¡± Teilon said, looking at Kimberly askance.
¡°Uh huh, so I guess you won¡¯t mind being the one to harvest them, then?¡± She had a teasing smile on her face.
¡°Sure. No problem,¡± Teilon thumped his chest with confidence.
Teilon swaggered up to the rose bush. Suddenly the closest rose bush¡¯s flowers tilted toward Teilon as if they were able to sense his presence. Teilon froze for a moment. He and the rose bush stood in a standoff for a moment.
Nothing happened, so Teilon just shook his head and took another step toward the rose bush. The rose bush jumped up out of the ground and bnced itself on a bundle of roots that looked like little legs. Vines covered in thorns swung up into the air like arms, and the rose bush ran away, swinging the vines over its head in aical disy.
¡°What is that?!¡± Teilon asked, bewildered. He couldn¡¯t hold it in after the brief moment of confusion and beganughing at the disy.
The rose bush wasn¡¯t able to move that fast, and Teilon started chasing after it. He quickly closed the distance, and the rose bush seemed to realize it wasn¡¯t going to get away. It came to an abrupt halt, and the two vines swinging over its headunched toward Teilon with blistering speed, much faster than it was able to trundle about on its roots.
Teilon was caught off guard, but he had enough reaction speed to lift his daggers in front of himself to ward off the strikes. The vines wrapped around des. The thorns vibrated for a split second, then began rotating along the edge of the vines at incredible speed.If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Before Teilon could react, thebination of the thorns and their fast movements sawed right through the metal of the daggers. Metal shards and sparks flew about, and in just over a second, the vine cutpletely through the two daggers. The des fell to the ground as Teilon stared at the empty hilts in his hands.
The vines retracted and whipped around to attack Teilon once again. He had enough presence of mind to leap away, but he wasn¡¯t fast enough. He had to resort to his phasing Skill to let the vines pass through his ephemeral form as he continued to back away. The rose bush, sensing that it had sessfully warded off its attacker, resumed its wobbling trundle away from the Party.
¡°Uh huh,¡± Kimberly said, tapping her foot. ¡°You sure looked like you knew what you were doing, there. Maybe you should have read the whole thing?¡±
Teilon nced back and forth between Kimberly and the retreating rose bush.
¡°I did read it!¡± He defended. ¡°I was joking when I said I skimmed it. I actually do take these things seriously, you know. How was I supposed to know what it meant when the missive said they were ¡®evasive?¡¯ I thought it meant they would wobble about and be hard to grasp!¡±
¡°Did you read the addendum?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°Addendum? Teilon had a look of confusion.
¡°The main missive only contained the overall information about the monsters and treasures that could be found in the Region,¡± Reivyn slowly exined. ¡°It only contained the basic information. There was also the addendum for each individual treasure and monster that exined the specifics for each of them. You didn¡¯t see the addendum?¡±
¡°Can¡¯t say I did,¡± Teilon said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. ¡°To be fair, I read everything that was in the normal packet. I didn¡¯t know the addendum even existed. If I had, obviously I would have read it.¡±
¡°We have to take some of the me for that, too,¡± Refix spoke up. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t just assume everyone knows about all the paperwork they need to read. If we had mentioned the addendum to him in town, we wouldn¡¯t be in this situation.
¡°Here,¡± Refix pulled a rolled up pamphlet from his storage pouch and tossed it to Teilon. ¡°Go ahead and read up on the Blood Rose while we get started. There¡¯s a very specific way to acquire the thorns. Without destroying the bushes, by the way. ¡°Bushes? Monsters?¡± Refix quietly spoke to himself. ¡°Either way without destroying the things.¡±
¡°You could just tell me,¡± Teilon said, rolling his eyes. Despite his words, he quickly sat in a lotus position and unfurled the pamphlet to begin reading.
¡°We might as well multitask,¡± Refix shrugged his shoulders. ¡°You read the information, we deal with the first nt, you watch how it¡¯s done to corroborate what you read. No time¡¯s lost, either way, because we¡¯re only going to deal with one nt at a time, anyway.
¡°I¡¯ll deal with this first one. As the leader of the Party, knowing what¡¯sing, it¡¯s my responsibility to gauge just how feasible this venture is.¡±
None of the others argued with Refix. He summoned his ethereal arsenal as he ran over to the first Rose bush that was still waddling away. The distance between each Rose bush was enough that there wasn¡¯t any immediate danger that they would get close enough to each other to simultaneously pose a threat to the Party. Even if that happened, though, one of the others would just step forward.
Refix¡¯s summoned arsenal only included weapons. He couldn¡¯t summon shields, bucklers, or pieces of armor, but that didn¡¯t matter. He summoned a series of polearms - spears, halberds, bill hooks - and had them strategically positioned around himself.
Once he closed the distance, the Rose bush performed the same tactic as before. The two vinesunched themselves, whip-crack, at Refix. He intercepted the attacks with two of his ethereal weapons. The Rose bush ceased its fleeing as soon as it attacked Refix. It just stood there and manipted its vines.
The thorns on the vines performed the same action that destroyed Teilon¡¯s daggers. They began moving along the edge of the vines at a blurring speed, attempting to saw through the ethereal weapons. While there was some damage done to the weapons, they were creations of Refix¡¯s Will. They weren¡¯t as easily destroyed as the mundane metal of Teilon¡¯s daggers. There was still some give in the ethereal weapons¡¯ hafts, but it was slow and Refix was able to exert his Will to repair them as quickly as they were damaged.
The Blood Rose wasn¡¯t an intelligent being. It acted purely on instinct. It never ceased its attempts to shear through Refix¡¯s floating weapons, and it never tried any other tactics. As long as one understood the mechanics of these nts that mimicked monstrous beasts, they were easy to manipte.
Refix sauntered up to the ¡°main body¡± of the Rose bush: just a tangle of thinner vines with the actual roses attached to them with the roots at the base. The thorns along the vines didn¡¯t have the blood-red dew drops on their points. There were only three or four per Rose bush located on a prominent, short vine in the center of the mass.
Refix arrived in front of the Rose bush. He pushed up his sleeve and extended his bare arm. On instinct, the prominent vine with the blood-red dew drops snapped forward. It was even faster than the two vines whipping about for medium-range protection.
Three thorns with the blood-red dew drops impaled into Refix¡¯s arm. His body locked up, temporarily unable to move. Reivyn could see veins all over his body protrude under his skin as all of his muscles seemed to contract at once. A sheen of sweat - unheard of on Refix - formed on his brow as he grit his teeth.
He stifled a groan as the Rose bush retracted its vine. The other two whips also retracted to the side of the bush, and it continued to flee away from the ¡°disabled¡± predator. Reivyn and the others watched it wobble away.
There were no more treasure thorns on the bush, so there was no value in running it down. They would just destroy the bush, and because it was literally a nt and not a monster, it wouldn¡¯t even give any Experience. There was absolutely no reason to destroy the thing other than spite.
Or ignorance, Reivyn mentally conceded.
He watched his father as his muscles slowly rxed. His veins once more became smooth along his skin as they no longer protruded, and he lifted a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
Refix looked down at his exposed arm and inspected the three wicked-looking barbs inserted into his forearm. After a brief examination, he plucked them from his arm. Reivyn could see the glow of the blood-red dew drops had not diminished in any way. It looked like it had actually deepened in color, but it was just the blood from the wound on Refix¡¯s forearm coating the thorn.
There were three sizable puncture wounds on Refix¡¯s arm. Reivyn could see them closing up at a visible rate with his Divine Sense, but it was slow enough that none of the others would be able to tell a difference. Each wound slowly leaked more blood down Refix¡¯s arm, dripping on the ground beneath them.
Some people think sprinkling the ground with blood is a necessary method of allowing these nts to grow and flourish, Reivyn considered as he watched the blood drip. Almost like a cycle. The Blood Roses sprung up from battlefields then evolved to shed more blood for nourishment. That¡¯s all actually just a myth, though. ording to the addendum, there¡¯s never actually been any evidence discovered to back up such ims, and all experiments conducted on them doesn¡¯t show anything, either.
¡°Ok,¡± Teilon said, standing up. ¡°I haven¡¯t quite gotten to the end here - it happened so fast - but what in the world was that about?!¡±
Refix looked at everyone in the Party before putting his focus on Teilon.
¡°That,¡± he said, ¡°is the only way to extract the treasure thorns without destroying their value.
¡°For some reason, they are supernaturally attached to the very core of the Blood Rose bush. They are incredibly difficult to cut away from the vine and nigh-on impossible to pull off. If one does violently remove the thorns, not only does it damage the vitality of the Blood Rose bush, but for some reason, all efficacy of the thorns is lost.
¡°Stabbing would-be predators with them is itsst resort defense.¡±
¡°Yeah, I saw that it was fairly effective,¡± Teilon nodded his head. ¡°Does it have some sort of poison or something. Was my training with Poison Resistance actually a stroke of idental genius?¡±
Refix tried to chuckle, but it just came out as a wheeze. He recovered his breath before he continued.
¡°No. No poison,¡± he shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s pure pain.¡± He once again looked at everyone present. ¡°I¡¯m not going to lie. That sucked. It was some of the worst pain I¡¯d ever experienced. The addendum mentions the pain inflicted in this manner is three to four times as much as when you use them to ascend your Bloodline.¡±
Kefira winced.
¡°Seeing your expression - and your entire body locking up and unable to move - I believe it,¡± Kefira said, swallowing.
¡°You don¡¯t have to do it,¡± Reivyn reassured her. ¡°There aren¡¯t enough Rose bushes here for each of us to take a turn, anyway.¡±
¡°Are you taking a turn?¡± She asked back, staring Reivyn in the eyes.
¡°Of course,¡± he affirmed.
¡°Then I¡¯m going to as well,¡± she said firmly. ¡°Don¡¯t try to talk me out of it. I won¡¯t ask my man to do something I¡¯m not willing to do.¡±
Reivyn simply smiled at her. He didn¡¯t press the issue, and he could see - despite the lingering trepidation - relief in her eyes at his show of support and trust.
With an unspoken word, Reivyn, Teilon, and Refix nced at Ameliyn. She snorted.
¡°Don¡¯t look at me,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m older and wiser, and I have nothing to prove. You youngins do your thing and thump your chests. I¡¯m perfectly fine sitting this out.¡±
The other Party members chuckled at her frankness.
Reivyn surveyed the hilltop they were standing on. There were four more Rose bushes littered around the area. Me, Kefira, Teilon, and Seri, Reivyn thought. I¡¯m sure Kimberly wouldn¡¯t have anypunction participating, but there¡¯s no way Seri¡¯s going to let Kefira do something she won¡¯t. Same deal with Teilon. He acts the rogue all the time, but when ites down to it, he takes responsibility and does his duty.
Reivyn nodded his head, psyching himself up, as he took a step forward.
¡°I¡¯ll take the next one,¡± he said.
Chapter 285: Twists and Turns
Reivyn leaned back on his arms, his legs out in front as he controlled his breathing. The others were sprawled out in various positions around him. Teilon groaned with his arm thrown over his eyes, blocking out the light of the sun.
¡°That sucked!¡± He said. ¡°Now I know for sure why people would simply buy these treasures and why only a couple people were selling them. At a certain point, Life Experience just isn¡¯t worth it, hah.¡±
Kimberly kneeled next to him holding his hand. She squeezed his hand in the meaty part between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing little circles. They had found that the little action somehow helped relieve headaches. This wasn¡¯t the same situation, but it was all she could do. Kimberly and Ameliyn were the only ones in the Party who hadn¡¯t participated in harvesting any of the thorns.
Seri had insisted she harvest thorns before she would agree to letting Kefira do it. Kefira could have insisted, but she let her friend take care of her in her own way. The two girls were currently sitting back to back, leaning against each other. Seri tried to maintain her stoic expression, but there were still remnants on her face where tears had streaked down her face.
Kefira didn¡¯t even try to hide it as she quietly sobbed. Reivyn¡¯s hand rested atop hers as they all sat around recovering from the ordeal.
Reivyn looked at his father who was standing guard over the group, acting as if he had barely been affected. Reivyn always respected his father, but his estimation of the older man grew by leaps and bounds once more. Reivyn knew that Refix¡¯s Pain Resistance Skill was slightly higher than his own, but notably, his father had not unlocked the Tier 4 Iron Will Skill.
Despite that, Refix stood like a silent guardian over the group. Aside from the initial tightening of his muscles, Refix had simply powered through the difort.
While an impressive feat, it had led to a different, embarrassing situation. Reivyn had screamed in agony for the first time in years upon being pierced by the bloody thorns. Nothing wasparable to the time his body had been subjected to whatever it was the Masked Man had done to him in the void between Realms, but other than that, nothing hade close to the searing pain from harvesting these simple treasures.
¡°Look on the bright side,¡± Refix spoke up getting everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Even my Pain Resistance Skill advanced a level. This is good training-¡±¡°Don¡¯t you even think about it!¡± Teilon pointed a finger at Refix from his prone position. ¡°There¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to incorporate that into some insane training regimen you have cooking up in your brain right now.¡±
Refix gave Teilon an exasperated look.
¡°Even I¡¯m not that sadistic,¡± he said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to suggest we train with these things. For one it¡¯s wholly impractical to travel all the way out here for simple training. Two, the thorns once harvested no longer cause the same type of pain, so they can¡¯t be reused.
¡°I was just trying to point out an additional positive to the experience. Skill leveling is something I¡¯m always thinking about, so obviously that¡¯s where my mind went.¡±
¡°Additional positive?¡± Teilon questioned. ¡°What¡¯s the other positive?¡±
Refix quirked an eyebrow at the question.
¡°Acquiring the thorns¡¡± he said.
¡°Oh. Right. Of course,¡± Teilon replied sheepishly.
The banter between the two had helped to alleviate some of the tense atmosphere around the sufferers. Kefira¡¯s sobs stopped, and she managed to wipe her face dry with the back of her hand. She and Seri helped each other to stand up. Reivyn and Teilon followed suit. Kimberly didn¡¯t let go of Teilon¡¯s hand and watched him closely. He simply smiled at her.
¡°It¡¯s about time we collected ourselves and moved on,¡± Kefira said. ¡°How many thorns did we end up harvesting?¡±
¡°Seventeen,¡± Ameliyn replied immediately. She was the one who helped pluck the thorns and apply a simple salve to the wounds.
¡°Seventeen¡ And we need five per person¡ Well, not Reivyn.¡± Kefira stated tly. ¡°So we need eight more thorns. If we¡¯re lucky, that¡¯s only two more rose bushes, but no more than three.¡±
¡°Well, actually, we don¡¯t know if going through the normal method will have an affect on Reivyn or not,¡± Refix said. ¡°If I had to guess, I would say it would. He¡¯s able to incorporate the energy of treasures directly, but the ritual ofbining these treasures isn¡¯t as simple as one plus one equals two. It definitely wouldn¡¯t hurt.¡±
¡°I¡¯m willing to do it,¡± Reivyn shrugged. ¡°No reason not to, really. I¡¯m interested in how it will manifest for me, too.¡±
Reivyn checked his Status Screen real quick to double check the Experience requirement for the next level of his Bloodline. Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000
Ten billion¡ And I haven¡¯t siphoned much Experience into it for quite some time, Reivyn thought. I¡¯ll have to wait and see what¡¯s going on with my Experience gains first, though. Right now I¡¯m not gaining any Experience to siphon. I also want to wait until I reach the max Level of my Tier before I dedicate siphoning Experience away for a while. ??
¡°So we need an additional five thorns,¡± Kefira said. ¡°So thirteen more instead of eight. That¡¯s four or five more rose bushes. If the next spot we find has the same number of rose bushes as this hill top, we should be fine with that.¡±
¡°Sounds like a n,¡± Teilon said. ¡°Let¡¯s hope it¡¯s only four. I¡¯m not too keen on experiencing that again any time soon.¡± The others all gave him a t stare. He held up his hands in front of himself. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong. I¡¯ll do it if I need to, but mphllnln.¡± He shook his head quickly while letting out gibberish.
Reivyn smirked at his friend.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. Dad and I got two next time. I agree with him: it¡¯s excellent training.¡±
He nced at his Notification. Skill Level Up!
Pain Resistance (67 -> 69)
Pain Resistance was one of those Skills that had synergized with his Protection Prodigy Skill. He didn¡¯t know exactly what that meant, but the Skill itself was still independent.
Teilon shook his head in mock disbelief.
¡°You and your dad, I swear¡¡± He chuckled to himself. ¡°To each their own. If ites down to it, I¡¯ll do it again, but I really hope not.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll take your turn next time,¡± Kimberly said, patting Teilon on the shoulder. Teilon stared at her for a few seconds but didn¡¯t say anything.
¡°Okay! Time to move on,¡± Kefira pped her hands. ¡°There¡¯s still one more treasure to hunt around here, and then we should make our way toward the mountain range while looking for more clusters of these rose bushes.¡±
¡°Sounds like a n,¡± Refix nodded his head. He turned to Reivyn. ¡°Do you see the next treasure?¡±
¡°It should be the ginseng root, right?¡± Reivyn sought confirmation.
¡°Yeah, those little things grow among other treasures. They¡¯re not always present, but they don¡¯t grow independently, so we¡¯ll only find them near other treasures.¡±
¡°Right. I¡¯ll check.¡±
Reivyn focused on his Divine Sense. It wasn¡¯t enough to cover the entire hill top, but it was close. It seemed to expand in diameter by an inch every couple of days without him straining to work on the Skill. Just the passive nature of the Skill ensured it was always being worked even just a little bit.
That progress was nothing to scoff at, either. Reivyn expected to live a long time with his ever increasing Stats. Three days for an inch was a lot in the grand scheme of things, and that was without actively trying to increase the Skill. The Skill Level had crept up to 22 over time, and the radius was up to 60 yards.
It¡¯s a bit imprecise, but the rate of expansion is slightly more with each Level Up, too, Reivyn thought. I can only imagine how far the distance will be by the time I reach Transcendence with the Skill. Multiple miles at least. Hopefully my Mind Stats will keep up with the information my brain will have to process every second. There might be a hard cap on it, though, considering it¡¯s supposed to be fueled by Divine Mana. A problem much too soon to contemte.
Reivyn meandered around the hilltop letting his Divine Sense cover every square inch. It was unlikely any ginseng growing in the area would do so below the hilltop so far away from the rose bushes. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The hilltop was quite picturesque. The rose bushes, now huddled together a ways away from the Party with their tendrils stillzily waving back and forth in the air, weren¡¯t the only spot of color among the grass. There were various mundane flowers of all kinds in a kaleidoscope of color. They swayed with the breeze along with the grass. There was a serene charm to the view.
¡°I¡¯m not sensing anything,¡± Reivyn replied after covering the entire hilltop. ¡°No Mana spikes or nts that look like a ginseng root. Other than the natural Mana saturation of the flora, there aren¡¯t any other natural treasures around.¡±
¡°Hmm, too bad,¡± Refix said. ¡°We¡¯ll just keep checking each time wee across anything noteworthy. We don¡¯t have to harvest all of the rose bushes wee across to snag the ginsengs.¡±
¡°Are my ears deceiving me, or is Refix talking sense for once?¡± Teilon turned and asked Kimberly.
A phantom gauntlet materialized behind him and gently smacked him in the back of the head.
¡°I always talk sense, boy,¡± Refix smirked.
Teilon grumbled while rubbing the back of his head.
¡°Alright, let¡¯s get moving,¡± Kefira said. ¡°Daylight¡¯s wasting.¡±
¡ª
The Party continued their trek across the rolling hills. Up and down, up and down they traveled. The constant elevation changes weren¡¯t anything to their group who had high Physical Stats, but Reivyn noted it would have been quite the struggle at a lesser Tier. Most of the hills were quite gentle in their slopes, but they still gotrger andrger as they got closer to the mountain range.
The prevalence of the rose bushes was still low, but it was much higher than closer to the Outpost. Even though the Adventurers knew better than to destroy the rose bushes in their harvesting of the thorns, there was still something that kept the nts from growing too close to the settlement.
It didn¡¯t take long for the Party to find another hilltop with the rose bushes present. For some reason they never spotted any growing in the valleys or sides of the hills. They were all on the hilltops, and this was a known phenomenon mentioned in the information packet.
¡°Does this seem a little strange to you?¡± Refix asked the Party as they observed the rose bushes.
The bushes were clumped up on the very edge of the hilltop. They were as close to the edge as they could get while still being considered on top of the hill and not on the side. There had been no mention of such behavior in the information they received from the guild.
¡°It¡¯s like they¡¯re trying to stay away from something while being unwilling to move any further away,¡± Reivyn said. ¡°I¡¯ll move forward and see what I can sense.¡±
¡°Be careful,¡± Refix said. ¡°We¡¯ll be ready in case something happens.¡±
Refix nodded to the others as they readied their weapons and assumed their formation. They remained mostly rxed, but they were ready to spring into action at a moment¡¯s notice. Reivyn waited for them to get ready before stepping forward.
He picked a spot away from the rose bushes to prevent them from uprooting and running away. There was no reason to provoke them into whipping their thorny vines at him while he was concentrating on figuring out the cause of the anomaly, either.
The hilltop they found themselves on was at least three times the size as thest one they had encountered the rose bushes on. From what Reivyn could see, it was at least 200 yards in diameter with a gentle slope giving it a slightly domed appearance. It took several dozen steps for Reivyn¡¯s Divine Sense to finally get close to the center of the hilltop.
What¡¯s that? Reivyn frowned as he sensed something just below the surface near the center. There was a spike in Mana density in a circle around the center. It looks like a thick root or something. Is there some sort of other nt growing in the center keeping the other natural treasures at bay?
Even with his Divine Sense, it was hard to pick the root - or whatever it was - out from the surroundings. If there wasn¡¯t a spike in the Mana density that he could perceive through his Divine Sense, he didn¡¯t know if he would have paid enough attention to spot it at all. It had some sort of camouge Skill or Ability that let it hide from more mundane senses.
As he took another couple of steps closer, the root-thing started to move. It looked like it was spinning in ce. Reivyn stopped and took a couple steps back. The movement stopped. He stood in ce and observed the thing for a few moments.
¡°Anything?¡± Refix called out to him from behind.
¡°There¡¯s something,¡± Reivyn called over his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what it is, yet, but it appears to be some sort of massive root. That¡¯s all thates to mind right now.¡±
He stepped forward again, and the thing started moving again. It was definitely aware of his presence. Reivyn hadn¡¯t activated any of his ndestine Prodigy Skills, so it made sense he was easily spotted.
I¡¯m not really used to using those Skills all the time, he admonished himself. I should change that and start actively trying to have a smaller footprint on the world for situations exactly like this.
He got closer and the thing started moving faster. It wasn¡¯t getting closer to him, though. It seemed to be shrinking in on itself. Reivyn stopped once more and took another couple steps back, but this time the movement didn¡¯t cease.
¡°You say it looks like a root. Can you describe it?¡± Ameliyn called out.
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s like a long, thick tube,¡± Reivyn responded. ¡°It¡¯s got a camouge ability, so it¡¯s hard to pick out details other than therge Mana density.¡±
¡°What¡¯s it doing?¡± Ameliyn called again.
¡°It¡¯s rotating or something. It¡¯s slowly contracting, getting closer and closer to the center of the hilltop. Almost like it¡¯s-¡±
Reivyn¡¯s Danger Sense red in his mind. It rang like a bell, warning him of imminent bodily harm if he didn¡¯t do something.
He acted on instinct. His body was empowered with his Mana as he leapt to the side with all of his might. A whip-crack sounded out as something clipped Reivyn¡¯s side. It moved too fast for him to see what it was in the moment, even with Divine Sense.
His body tumbled end over end as he cartwheeled uncontrobly away. A searing pain in his left shoulder and arm assaulted him, but luckily it was nothingpared to extracting the thorns. With his Pain Resistance, Iron Will, and recent memory of the pain from the thorns, he wrestled the pain down and focused on what had attacked him.
¡°-coiling,¡± Reivyn finished his sentence in a whisper.
Reivyn came to a halt and crouched low as he looked back at the massive snake that had lunged at him. It was easily longer than 60 yards as its tail end was still out of range of his Divine Sense.
It was thicker than a tree. It had tworge eyes that focused intently on Reivyn. Its head was framed by an open hood, and it¡¯s humongous fangs dripped venom as it opened its maw wide. Another ring of Danger Sense caused Reivyn to leap away once more as the snake spit venom where he had been crouched.
Reivyn could hear the ground sizzle as the venom melted the earth and nts away at an rming speed. Any nt that was even close toing in contact with the venom withered and decayed at a visible rate while those directly in contact with it simply melted away.
A phantomnce streaked across the sky and attempted to stab the giant snake in the eye. The snake recoiled with dextrous speed to avoid the attack. It turned its head and hissed at the approaching Party as they yelled a battle cry to distract it from Reivyn.
More and more phantom weapons shot out from Refix as he charged across the hilltop. Spells materialized and pelted the beast. The spells and phantom weapons nged mostly uselessly against the scales of the creature. It was only mostly uselessly as Reivyn could see some damage done to the scales themselves.
The snake reared back, growing taller and taller in the sky, as the Party got closer and closer. Teilon fanned out to the side away from Reivyn as Refix, Kimberly, and Seri charged ahead in a three-pronged front. Ameliyn and Kefira stayed back to continueunching spells at it.
The snake wiggled its body around with tremendous coordination as it dodged a majority of the phantom weapons and spells, while easily fending off the few that struck it. Reivyn was slightly mesmerized by just how flexible the huge beast was. It was almost unbelievable something sorge could maneuver the way the snake did.
As the Party got closer, the snake suddenly lunged forward to snap at Refix. It didn¡¯t move nearly as fast as the lunge that toppled Reivyn, but it was still much faster than any of them could move. It struck and moved back to a ready position, seeming to kind of float in the sky, in an instant.
Refix was no slouch, though. He angled his body as he sidestepped and parried with his actual weapon at the same time. He was only knocked slightly off bnce and quickly recovered to continue charging forward.
Reivyn wasn¡¯t sitting still, either. As the rest of his Party closed in on the threat, Reivyn stood and charged forward while summoning his own Mana.
A peak Tier 5 Monstrous Beast Cobra, Reivyn quickly identified the creature from the long list provided by the guild. Known weaknesses: Cold and piercing. Strengths: incredible defense - both physical and magical - speed, and toxicity.
With the creature identified and knowing its strengths and weaknesses, Reivyn adjusted his Mana weaves. He idly noticed that his mother¡¯s weaves also subtly shifted while still being mostly Celestial.
Reivyn thrust his hands out and sent an orb of supercooled Mana up into the sky. It was a variation of his smances. Any spell he could easily conjure, he could adjust the Affinity he infused into it. He used a base of Ice Affinity with a touch of Eternal. With his enhanced ability in Magic after achieving the Magic Prodigy Skill, he was able to create a weave that would add Piercing to the tips of thences as they formed to rain down upon the snake.
The orbunched up into the air where it radiated a deep, bitter cold. It shone as a blue ice ball in the sky, mist clouds forming around it and radiating out. This particr Spell was one of Reivyn¡¯s favorites because he could just toss it up there and it would maintain itself as it shot projectiles at his enemies while he could focus on other things. He didn¡¯t need to maintain the Spell after it was in ce.
As the ice orb began to condense thences, Reivyn noticed his mother¡¯s new spells. Her main affinity was Celestial, and he usually saw her perform it with the burning of a star. Now, however, there seemed to be little stars that also radiated the cold of space. It wasn¡¯t that they were necessarily cold, like his ice orb, but they had aplete absence of warmth to them.
The little meteors, for want of a better descriptor, fell from the sky as the firstnces formed to join them and m down onto the snake. Where his mother¡¯s spells struck, the scales seemed to lose their resilience. When follow up strikes from Kimberly¡¯s spear, Refix¡¯s phantom arsenal, or Seri¡¯s sword hit the affected scales, the previous defense that caused the weapons to bounce off was absent. Many attacks passed through the scales to leave bloody streaks on the snake.
The weapons were striking the body of the snake, though, and nowhere near where a fatal blow could bended. The snake would need to lower its head for them to reach such a spot on the creature. They were still able to increase the amount of damage and Health loss to the beast, though, and they could eventually y the creature if they could whittle its Health Pool low enough.
Reivyn¡¯s icences pierced straight through the scales whether they were debuffed or not. The Icy Affinity added to the damage and as it spread through the internals of the snake. Thences didn¡¯t dissipate like the sma versions, either. Soon the snake looked like a pincushion with dozens of misting, bluences peppering the top of its body and head.
Refix took advantage of both Spells and directed his phantom arsenal to strike wherever a weakness was exposed.
The only person not participating so far was Teilon. Reivyn didn¡¯t me him. He wasn¡¯t exactly equipped to engage in a fight with a monster this size and speed until an appropriate opening formed.
Despite the sessful tactics, the snake seemed to shrug the offense off. It continued to wiggle its body while snapping out a lightning speed toward those harassing it. In between lunges, it would spit venom at random. Everyone, including Kefira and Ameliyn in the back, had to pay attention and dodge aside to avoid the toxic venom. Based on what it did to the Tier 5 nts and earth, nobody wanted to find out what it did to human flesh.
The snake abruptly lowered its body and dashed away back to the center of the hilltop. Its movement speed was many times faster than any of them could move. It wasn¡¯t just its sudden lunge that was tremendously fast. Just its slithering across the ground was fast enough it could easily flee at any moment. If it chose to run away, there was no chance they would be able to catch it.
It wasn¡¯t fleeing, though. It spun around at the center and once more coiled around itself. The Party had charged forward to chase after it, but seeing it once more coil into a tight spring, they all stopped their advance and spread out. They had all witnessed the first strike that had sent Reivyn tumbling away even after a mostly sessful dodge.
The snake didn¡¯t give them time to prepare and struck out with its massive lunge as soon as it was ready. Another whip crack sounded out over the hilltop. Refix was the target this time, and he managed to leap out of the way. His phantom arsenal had been hovering just behind him, though, lying in wait.
As soon as the snake was fully extended, the phantom arsenal struck. The snake was unable to dodge this time, and several polearms speared straight into its eyes, blinding it.
The snake screeched as its body began flopping around all around. Its lower body was exposed for the first time where the scales were absent and a soft underbelly was exposed. Ameliyn¡¯s ice meteors continued to pelt the creature, lowering its defensive abilities even further.
Teilon finally found the right timing. He was left with only one dagger, but that was more than enough. He joined the fray as he jumped onto the writhing beast near its neck - if it had a neck - and began stabbing over and over.
The others also swarmed over the beast, careful to pay attention to if it got control of its body lest it roll over and crush them. Kefira¡¯s spells found better purchase against the soft underbelly. Despite using Space affinity to form impossibly sharp edges in her attacks, the scales¡¯ natural magic resistance prevented them from finding purchase except against the debuffed scales hit by Ameliyn¡¯s or Reivyn¡¯s Spells.
With arge portion of its body exposed to her Space attacks, a maelstrom of blood and devastation wracked the snake¡¯s body as the Spells finally turned the tide with itsrge-scale destruction.
The snake wasn¡¯t able to recover from the sudden turn of events. Kefira and the other spellcasters focused their assault closer to the snake¡¯s head where Teilon had created perforations with his dagger before jumping off the snake, and Refix sent his arsenal to assist the Spells.
Quickly, the head of the snake was severed from the rest of its body. A fountain of blood exploded out of the stump, but the body continued to writhe even after it was in. The only difference was now the body was curling up on itself.
The Party dashed away from the body of the snake so they didn¡¯t get identally pulverized. They stood and waited for the beast to finally die for good. Assimtion Complete!
Providence has been fully assimted. Regr Experience gain restored.
Enemy Defeated
Exp +166
Nice! Reivyn pumped his fist. So that confirms the issue was the assimtion of the Providence I had absorbed. I only got 166 Experience for the fight because of the 35% Party modifier for having seven members in our Party, and it seems the assimtion needed 632 points toplete.
If I could solo one of these monstrous beasts, that would be 2,280 experience for the one creature. I don¡¯t think I would be able to solo such a beast at this time. Ferocious beasts are much stronger than their equivalent human counterparts, and monsters are even more so. At least the non-humanoid ones are. And that disparity only grows more and more as one advances in Tiers.
It¡¯s no wonder it takes so long to advance Levels at the higher Tiers aspared to the earlier ones.
¡°I see that you¡¯re quite happy,¡± Refixmented as the snake¡¯s body continued to convulse.
¡°Yeah, my Experience is back,¡± Reivyn confirmed. ¡°And it seems the issue was what I thought it was. Assimting Providencees with an additional burden, it seems.¡±
¡°That¡¯s good. One less thing we have to worry about.¡±
Reivyn nodded his head. Things were looking good for their expedition.
Chapter 286: Expedite the Expedition
Reivyn sheathed his weapon and walked with his father toward the dead snake. Is it a snake or a serpent? Does a giant snake have to be in the water to be considered a serpent, or just a giant snake? Are there even rules?I could have Identified it, but I was too reactive once it attacked. I wonder if Identify works on dead monsters?
He used his Skill on the in beast. Snake (dead)
Helpful hint: Or is it a serpent?
Reivyn just stared at the cheeky Notification for a moment before shaking his head. Is that the System or the Akashic Record messing with me? More questions with no answers. Another question without an answer, currently: is my Skill too low to give me additional information, or is that what scanning dead things always brings back? Maybe I should scan more things¡
Refix was already busy experimenting with the scales of the dead snake - I¡¯m just going to call it a snake - by stabbing it with his sword. After a couple stabs, the de went through the scale much easier than when the creature was alive. It still took Refix several stabs in the same spot to pierce it, showing that it still had some defensive properties, but it was nothing like when it was alive.
¡°Must be the absence of Mana or Stamina or whatever flowing through the body,¡± Refix said, stroking his chin in thought. ¡°That beggars the question: If this is crafted into armor, can we do the same thing with our Mana with simr results?¡±
¡°I¡¯d bet money it¡¯s based on whichever Armor Skill said armor is based on,¡± Teilon spoke up.
¡°Yeah, I wouldn¡¯t take that bet,¡± Refix grinned. ¡°Pretty sure you¡¯re right on the money.¡±
Teilon turned to Kimberly with a smug look.¡°See, honey, I make smart bets! We should live a little¡¡± He was obviously alluding to some previous conversation they¡¯d had on gambling, Reivyn surmised.
Kimberly just rolled her eyes.
¡°Nobody¡¯s going to make bets on that sort of thing,¡± she said with exasperation.
Teilon¡¯s shoulders slumped and he nced away, kicking at an imaginary rock.
¡°It¡¯s the principle of the thing,¡± he muttered.
Reivyn just chuckled.
Rexif managed to slide his sword between some of the scales, and one popped off pretty easily. Reivyn stepped up and re-drew his sword to try his hand at the same thing. He had a hard time wiggling the de between the scales, and once he finally managed, he only bent the scale he was trying to pry off. It didn¡¯t even look slightly looser to the skin underneath when he was done.
He looked back and forth between his attempt and his father already peeling his seventh scale away.
¡°How are you doing that?¡± He asked.
Refix looked up and noticed Reivyn¡¯s botched attempt. He smirked at his son.
¡°Skinning Skill,¡± he replied. ¡°A staple of any good Adventurer. You should invest in it some time.¡±
¡°More Skills to work on?¡± Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
¡°What are you talking about?!¡± Teilon threw him a disgusted look. ¡°You love training new Skills, and this one¡¯s pretty adjacent to a lot of your other ones.¡±
¡°I mean, yeah, but I already have so much on my te¡¡± Reivyn trailed off.
Teilon scoffed and rolled his eyes. He retrieved his own dagger and stepped forward. He expertly stuck his dagger in a seam and wiggled it around before one of the scales popped off. It wasn¡¯t as clean as Refix¡¯s, but it was actually a sess.
Teilon nced up at Reivyn with a sparkle in his eye.
¡°Hah! Finally found something you¡¯re not good at.¡± Teilon sounded far too pleased with himself in Reivyn¡¯s opinion.
¡°For now,¡± Reivyn said, pushing up his sleeves and readying his sword again. Refix stepped in front of him.
¡°No way,¡± he said, grabbing Reivyn¡¯s sword, preventing it from getting closer to the snake. ¡°You don¡¯t even have the Skill unlocked, yet, and you won¡¯t get it unlocked with your butchering job. You¡¯ll have to wait until we get back to the Lower Regions and practice from the beginning, just like everyone else. We¡¯re not going to have you ruin these perfectly good scales.¡±
Reivyn stared at his father in the eyes for several seconds before sighing. Refix let go of his sword, and Reivyn sheathed it once more.
¡°You¡¯re right, of course,¡± he said. Teilon snickered. Reivyn nced at the other boy popping off more scales. ¡°What are you so happy about? That just means more work for you.¡± It was Reivyn¡¯s turn to smirk.
Teilon¡¯s smile slid off his face. He turned and looked at the scale he was working on, then he turned and looked at the rest of the monstrously-sized snakeid out in front of them.
¡°Dang it¡¡± he whispered.
Reivyn justughed out loud and shook his head.
¡°Come on,¡± Kimberly said, grabbing Teilon¡¯s other dagger out of his sheath, ¡°I¡¯ll help, too.¡±
¡°Thanks, babe.¡±
Kimberly leaned over and nted a quick kiss on Teilon¡¯s cheek before getting to work next to him. Reivyn shared a look with Kefira before turning toward the center of the little hill they were on.
¡°Let¡¯s find out why there was a big snake hanging out on this hill,¡± he said, sauntering toward where he first sensed the snake curled up.
As he walked forward, his Divine Sense picked up energy radiating from just below the surface. The energy ¡°blinded¡± his ability to see exactly what it was, overwhelming his mundane vision with the Mana contained in whatever was located there. He simply relegated the sensation to the back of his mind and marched up to the object.
He looked down with his normal vision and finally spotted the anomaly.This story has been uwfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
¡°It seems to be some sort of variation of a Star Body Ginseng,¡± Reivyn called out as he reached down to pluck it from the dirt.
He lifted it up and inspected the ginseng in question. Normal Star Body Ginsengs had what looked like a constetion on their surface. This one still had the same markings, but the central ¡°star¡± was muchrger and had markings that made one think of illumination.
The others who weren¡¯t working on removing the scales from the snake had followed behind Reivyn, and Kefira walked up next to him to look down at it.
¡°I believe that¡¯s what is called a Sun Body Ginseng,¡± Kefira said. ¡°It contains considerably more energy inside it, but it¡¯s not usable for the ritual to advance one¡¯s Bloodline. The imbnce of power throws it off and causes all sorts of problems. If one is particrly unlucky, it could even cause death.¡±
¡°Do you know what it¡¯s used for?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°I¡¯m sure there¡¯s some variation of the ritual that exists to curb these problems, probably with other rare variations of the other materials, but if it exists, it¡¯s not public knowledge,¡± Kefira shrugged. ¡°Other than that, it¡¯s an alchemy material. The energy is the same kind as a Star Body Ginseng, so any recipe calling for that could substitute this and create a more powerful effect. An inanimate potion isn¡¯t going to have the same issues as a living body when ites to imbnce of power.
¡°That doesn¡¯t mean an alchemist without the proper Skill Levels could handle it, of course, just like with any other higher-Tier materials. Star Body Ginsengs are Tier 5, this variation is probably considered five and a half for Skill Level purposes.¡±
¡°I see,¡± Reivyn contemted for a moment. ¡°So we can either sell it in the outpost, or I can absorb the energy for my own Bloodline advancement and gain a bunch of equivalent Experience towards its advancement.
¡°I¡¯m still really far away from advancing my Bloodline, energy-wise, and I don¡¯t have any pressing concerns for advancing it quickly like you did, so I say we just sell it. We have to repay the loan to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, after all.¡±
¡°If that¡¯s what you want,¡± Kefira said with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m fine either way.¡±
¡°That sounds like a good idea,¡± Ameliyn spoke up. ¡°Who knows, we might find another one in the future when you decide to work on your Bloodline. Our Luck brought us to this one, so who¡¯s to say it won¡¯t lead us to another.¡±
¡°Ok, well for now, we¡¯ll just pocket the thing,¡± Reivyn finished as he scooped the ginseng out of the ground.
As a simple root, there wasn¡¯t any special method to gather the material. One could just dig it out and it would be fine. Another misconception many had was that every material needed to be stored in some sort of special container to prevent efficacy decay. While that was true for many things like flowers, grasses, and the thorns they were gathering, it wasn¡¯t universal. Ginseng roots were one of the things they could simply ce in a storage bag and not worry about losing any efficacy.
¡°Now to gather the remainder of the Blood Rose thorns.¡±
¡ª
The Party spent a couple hours gathering the materials from the hilltop. Refix, Teilon, and Kimberly busied themselves with the giant snake - scales, fangs, poison sac, galldder - while Reivyn finished off collecting thest of the thorns they needed.
¡°Ugh¡¡± Reivyny on the ground with his hand over his eyes. ¡°It never gets any easier.¡±
¡°Well, we all thank you, sweetie, for taking care of thatst one,¡± Ameliyn said.
Refix finished packing up the materials they gathered as everyone waited for Reivyn to recover. Reivyn finally sat up and nced at the mostly still intact remains of the giant snake.
¡°What about the rest of it?¡± Reivyn asked.
¡°We don¡¯t have anyone with a Butcher Skill,¡± Refix shrugged. ¡°Sure, we could cut it up and take the meat with us, but we don¡¯t really need to, and the cuts won¡¯t be good. It¡¯ll affect the taste and texture when we eat it. If we were going to be out long enough that our supplies wouldn¡¯tst us, I would say let¡¯s do it anyway, but that¡¯s not the case, and I don¡¯t really feel like eating gamey meat.¡±
¡°Does a Butcher Skill make that much of a difference? After removing the scales, we can slice through the meat and bone quite easily, no?¡±
¡°Yes and no. We can cut it up easily enough, but the Butcher Skill will let us find the perfect ces to cut for the best meat. It¡¯ll guide us in removing the gamey vor. True, a high enough Cooking Skill can do the same thing, but the best foods incorporate both.
¡°My own Cooking Skill is also pretty low Level and won¡¯t be enough to affect cooking such a mana-dense creature. Your mother could probably do a good job of it, but not enough to get past not having a decent butcher to begin with.
¡°The main point is that we don¡¯t have the necessary tools to take advantage of eating such high-quality meat out in the wilderness, whereas if we leave it, other wildlife that doesn¡¯t need such things will benefit from it, and what¡¯s left to decay will benefit the vegetation, now that we¡¯ve removed the venom.¡±
Too validate Refix¡¯s reasoning, Reivyn spotted the Blood Rose bushes ambling toward the far end of the snake where they set down roots directly in the blood run-off.
¡°Well okay then.¡±
The Party did a final check of their gear and set out once more toward the mountains in the distance. They had already collected all of the Blood Rose Thorns they would need for the rest of the Party, and they had picked up a few Star Body Ginseng along the way. The final piece of the puzzle were the roots of Burning Echinacea. The particr flower could be found in areas with increased levels of Fire Mana present in the ambient Mana, and there was an ancient cave/mine system a little ways up the mountainside that had just such an environment.
Reivyn didn¡¯t know if the increased Fire Mana was due to volcanic activity closer to the surface, which was entirely usible, or if it had something to do with the nature of mining and was built up over many years.
The actual mine where metals were pulled from was actually a resource Dungeon located at the entrance of the cave system. It was possible that Mana leaking from the Dungeon was the cause. Either way the ambient Mana contained higher levels of Fire Mana than other regions nearby, and that¡¯s where they would find thest ingredient.
The Party continued their trek through the countryside continuing their policy of fighting only the things that attacked them first. There was a noticeable drop in goblin activity as they got closer to the mountains. It seemed the horde of goblins was mostly relegated to the forests and ins for whatever reason. Reivyn didn¡¯t know, and he hadn¡¯t looked into it.
Reivyn perused his notifications after fighting a small group of animals that had attacked them after they intruded on their territory. Combat Initiated
Enemies Defeated
Exp +1
Exp +1
Exp +1
Combat Resolved
¡°Why is the Experience so low for these things?¡± Reivyn asked. ¡°Aren¡¯t they Tier 5? They still put up a little bit of a fight.¡±
¡°They¡¯re not true beasts,¡± Refix answered. ¡°Sure, they¡¯re Tier 5, but they¡¯re Tier 5 nothings if you think about it. The giant snake was a true beast, so it was fully a Tier 5 with all the Experience and Skill gains ounted for. These animals are just regr animals with higher levels of mana density.
¡°If one of these animals somehow made their way to a Tier 1 Region and a Tier 2 or 3 hunter found them, they would actually award bonus Experience instead of less Experience because of how difficult it would be for them to kill such an animal. Even though you¡¯re only Tier 3, you¡¯re in a Party with Tier 4¡¯s and 5¡¯s. The System isn¡¯t static, as you know.
¡°You¡¯re actually lucky that your absurd Stats don¡¯t hinder you more with how easy you could bowl through everything else within your own Tier, and Dungeons are an exception, because you get the bonus for clearing the Dungeon, and nothing isn¡¯t considered a beast or monster inside except for things like insects and such.¡±
¡°I see.¡±
¡°The goblins are simr,¡± Refix continued. ¡°You didn¡¯t notice because you weren¡¯t getting Experience at the time, but because the goblins are nuisance monsters, they have reduced Experience gain, too. Equal tiers get a quarter the Experience for fighting nuisance monsters above Tier 4. That¡¯s one of the main reasons the first outpost is situated beyond the main areas the local goblins can be found in.¡±
¡°That makes sense. The people out here want to gather resources and gain Experience. Why set up somewhere where you¡¯re going to get bogged down by hordes of monsters with much less return for your effort.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not all bad, though. The System grants a bonus if it turns into enough of a siege that it¡¯s recognized as an actual battle and not justbat. It¡¯s not much, but it makes up for the difference in difficulty.¡±
¡°Good to know.¡±
Once everything was rified, Reivyn once more closed his Notifications. It also answered his question as to why his Skills didn¡¯t see much growth from all the fighting they were doing against the local wildlife. They fought enough that he assumed he would have seen at least one Skill gain a Level, but if there were reduced Skill Experience gains as well, it made sense.
Another reason why Skill Shards are so important. People are only getting Skill gains from like 10% of the actual amount ofbat they see out here. Another minor mystery resolved.
Eventually, after hiking another couple of days, they made it to the base of the mountain. From below it looked much like ascending another small hilltop, but the elevation just kept going up and up and up instead of rolling hills and valleys. Refix pointed to a prominent cliff in the distance.
¡°That¡¯s where the resource Dungeon is located. There¡¯s a small camp around the Dungeon entrance. It¡¯s not technically permanent, but there¡¯s always people delving the Dungeon, so there¡¯s never not at least some tents pitched. There are no goblins roaming this far away from the forest, and there¡¯s enough Adventurer activity that the beasts are kept culled, so there¡¯s no palisade or anything, though.¡±
The rest of the Party members nodded their heads and continued hiking in that direction. They noticed the change in the ambient Mana as they got closer and closer to their destination. The temperature increased marginally, but noticeably, and they were able to snag a couple of roots from the Burning Echinacea already. They would need to spend some time moving about the area to fulfill their quota, but with how quickly they found two on their way in, Reivyn wasn¡¯t worried about wasting too much time with the task.
True to Refix¡¯s words, once they got close enough to the cliff, Reivyn spotted a couple dozen tents pitched in a chaotic circle around the Dungeon portal. Most Dungeons Reivyn had seen were simple tunnels through space that had no portals associated with them, but that was apparently only true for the lower Tier Regions. Many Tier 4 and all Tier 5 and up Dungeons were essed through portals. Reivyn didn¡¯t understand the reasons behind it, but he was sure he could find something in one of the libraries if he decided to check in the future.
The tents were clearly separated by Party. There were clumps of them together with wider spaces between the groupings to indicate the separation, but as a whole, they were set up in a rough circle around the portal.
Reivyn could see Adventurers puttering around here and there doing their own thing. Some were just resting. Others were talking with other Parties or bartering. There seemed to be several different cookfires set up for anyone to use without having to make their own. I bet some of them with high Cooking Skills sell their services to other Parties, Reivyn mused as he took in the scene.
Behind the portal, the cliff extended hundreds of feet straight up into the air. It wasn¡¯t a barrier preventing people from traveling further up the mountain, though. Off to either side, Reivyn could see in the distance where it leveled out and paths were in ce for people to continue their journey further up if they wanted.
¡°Alright, we¡¯ll set up camp here and rest for the remainder of the day,¡± Refix said, dropping his pack on the outskirts of the circle of tents. ¡°We¡¯ll delve the Dungeon tomorrow, see what it has to offer, and then we¡¯ll spend a couple hours scouring the outside for the rest of the roots before heading back to the outpost.
¡°Sound like a n?¡±
¡°Sure thing,¡± Reivyn nodded.
The others nodded their heads in agreement and got to work setting up their campsite. Reivyn pped his hands and rubbed them together enthusiastically.
Alright. Our first little expedition is about half-way over. I¡¯ll need to go over the dossier for the Dungeon onest time tonight, but this is a resource Dungeon. Shouldn¡¯t be anything too tough to tackle inside.
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and
continue reading tomorrow, everyone!